Fantasy Realms of Aldaan ~Justicar Knightdom~

[A.I.S.H.A.]

Where are you, my dear?
Where did you go?
Don't you know it's time to come

Home?​

...Home... Sweet...

"Home," Raisha opened her eyes. Her hands gripped her sword over her chest and the hilt glimmered with the yawning sun.
"Ugh," she rolled onto her side and rubbed the back of her neck. The bed wasn't as comfortable as she thought it'd be. Maybe she needed some more liquor in her system before calling it a night, especially if it brought her dreams back again. Her palms were sweaty and when she let go of her blade, she held them out as steady as she could. Raisha watched them for one minute... two... three... they were shaky. She was going to wait as long as she needed to make them steady again. Her ability to fight depended on it. Four minutes. She exhaled.

The birds were chirping. The smell of a warm breakfast filled her room from the kitchen below. Despite that, Raisha glared at the wall hoping perhaps she could burn a hole through it. She didn't even have a hangover but a hangover was better than sleeping sober.

It's alright, sweet heart...

Raisha continued to glare at the wall. Her hand moved towards her belt and from it, she pulled out her flask. She stared at it for a moment and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to drink. Not now. Not before getting back out to the road… but something deep inside her mind was begging her to. Pleading.

It's alright...

Raisha stood up and inhaled sharply. She snapped her flask back onto her belt and grabbed her things. She approached the door and swung it open only to come face to face with a particular nebosi. In that moment, Raisha froze. She stared at her with an indignance like the nebosi had offended her by being right where she was.

"I-," she started to say as the door closed behind her. Raisha sighed. "Morning," she growled and pushed past her.

“Jerky! I want some jerky for the road, innkeeper!” she barked and stomped her way down the stairs.

Fred Colon

 

[Saturn_moon]

Iseult Nihar​

One by one, the group retired for the evening until it was just Iseult left at the table. She trades her ale for coffee, much to the barkeep's confusion but he obliges anyway. Iseult slowly sips the rich, dark liquid, watching the other patrons as they as they while their night away, taking in the sounds and conversations. No one else approaches her table, although several turn a curious glance her way only to quickly look away when she meets their eyes.

Time ticks by and eventually, as the last of the customers make their way out of the bar, their dazed looks and stumbling gait a telltale sign of how much alcohol they had consumed, did the young woman finally retreat to her given room. Through the window, she could just make out the subtle shift in the color of the sky from inky black to navy blue, indicating that dawn was but several hours away. Still, it was several hours that she would need to pass. Since her experience in the eclipse, sleep had become an almost impossible endeavor for her. It was frequently plagued by nightmares of monsters both real and fictitious that left her feeling more exhausted when she awoke. So, she had decided it was perhaps easier to simply not sleep.

Tossing her cloak on to the large bed, she curled up in the armchair and stared out at the horizon, waiting to catch a glimpse of sunlight. At some point, her eyelids grow heavy and her consciousness slips away from her grasp, entering the barren state that is neither sleep nor full wakefulness. When she opens her eyes once more, she is greeted by streams of bright, warm, sunlight. Iseult leaps up from the chair in a panic, wondering if she'd overslept and the party had already left without her, but not a minute passes before she hears the recognizable voice of Raisha through the door, shouting for jerky. Who even eats jerky for breakfast?

With her sigh of relief, she puts back on her cloak, grabs the few items she has, and begins to make her way down to reconvene with the rest.

SentinelSevn A.I.S.H.A. Fred Colon

 

[Pai Chan]

Ayesha was already up and doing her morning stretches before the sun even broke the horizon. She didn’t know if it was excitement or nervousness of the journey ahead that quickened her heartbeat every time she thought about what was in store.

After a few sit ups and crunches she was out and doing her morning jog. It was an excuse to see the city and take her time while doing it, this time. There were quite a fair amount of people out and about as well. City guards of course as well as people preparing to open their stores and stalls. But still, nothing compared to how crowded and busy it was when she first arrived the day before. Without so many people in the streets it allowed Ayesha to take in how magnificent the city was and the detailing of its buildings and streets.

After the morning exercise, Ayesha returned to the inn for a quick wash and put on her adventuring outfit. After a brief prayer to Soli, the goddess of Light, Ayesha grabbed her weapons and sack and headed down to the dining area of the inn.

There was a man there already setting up for the morning patreons’ breakfast. Upon eying the girl making her way down the stairs he greeted her.

“Good mornin’, lass. You look ready and raring to go.” Ayesha beamed a big smile as she took her place at the bar, in front of the barkeep.

“Am I, ever! I’m starting my life as an official adventurer today.” The man smirked having, mentally, tallied how many times he’s heard a similar line.

“Well, just don’t be gettin’ yourself killed out there.” This time Ayesha smirked.

“Monsters and bad guys don’t stand a chance against me. I’ll give them a beating so hard they’ll spread word about me and soon all the baddies will cower at the mere mention of my name.”

“Will they, now? What makes you think that?” The man asked.

“For one, I don’t fight like no other. That alone will make them remember me. Two; I will be under the guidance of the goddess Soli. I will be the first one to hear her speak to me in, who knows, how long. I will prove myself worthy to her while proving myself worthy of being a Justicar, as well.” The bartender’s eyebrow arched. That was something new.

“A Nebosi Justicar? Are you sure that’s what ya want?” Ayesha confidently nodded her head.

“Definitely. And whoever doesn’t like it can get acquainted with a couple of my friends.”
“And they are?” The man asked and Ayesha put up her first.

“‘Persuasive’ and ‘Potential.’” The barkeeper chuckled.

“Well, then what can I get the three of you?”

“A hearty adventurer’s breakfast.”

“We got beef, bacon, and eggs with milk. Potatoes on the side.”

“I like the sound of that.” Ayesha said with her usual wide smile.


Some time had passed while Ayesha ate her meal and conversed with the bartender. Mostly, with Ayesha doing the talking. She apparently had everything planned out from this day until about a decade in the future. And she was making sure the barkeep heard the full proposal while getting his knowledge on Justicars to make small adjustments here and there.

Sure, the man had heard more than his fair share of innocent adventurers being enthusiastic about their first quest. But this girl held the type of energy that wasn’t seen as often. Ayesha was fully invested with her plans for the future and it wasn’t just short term. And it was somewhat realistic. She wasn’t just in it for fame and fortune. It seemed the girl wanted to make a positive impact on people and places around her. He was rooting for her. Not to say he didn’t root for the others as well. But this one was out to achieve things that could possibly change some things, if she was successful.

Just then a yell could be heard that took his attention away from Ayesha. Someone wanted some Jerky for the road.

 

[Fred Colon]

Polly knew she'd done something wrong. The others all left or moved away from her at a certain point in the night, stopped talking to her. She just couldn't put her finger on what. She'd gone to her room soon after Ayesha and Raisha, Iseult's coldness apparent even to her. She had to go over her days notes. Check to see where she went wrong. She was upset, of course, but also excited. This was good! Mistakes were good! Isolating the incidents that ostracized her and learning from them was far better than blindly bumbling about and not stepping on anyone's toes out of sheer luck.

But despite staying up for much of the night scribbling everything she remembered, and poring over the resulting sprawl, she couldn't figure it out. Maybe they were just tired. Maybe Iseult just really had an interest in speaking to their new Justicarian companion. Perhaps it was Jeremiah that had caused offence. Genesis knew that despite knowing more about politeness and custom, he cared less about making a spectacle of himself. With that in mind, she began to edit and adjust her notes to account for Jeremiah's indiscretions.

But by the time the sun peeked through her window, she still hadn't come up with anything.

Polly sighed, massaging the skin under her eyes. Speaking of Jeremiah, where had he gone? She removed several vials from her potions kit, and then dipped into her stock of dried Cofeh Bugs. She crushed them and placed them in a strainer above one of her vials, before pouring a cup of water into them, allowing the murky brown water to drip into the vial. She preferred her Cofeh bug concoction to be hot, but she didn't see anything she could use for the purpose in her room, so she drank it cold.

Soon she was striding down the hallway in search of Jeremiah, Cofeh bug concotion in her hand, her brain beginning to spark, her body animating like it usually did after she drank the stuff. It didn't replace sleep, but it helped.

But as she strode down the hall, a door swung open and almost slammed into her chin (The door not quite tall enough to slam any higher than that on a Nebosi). Raisha stepped out of the room, gave Polly an angry glare and said, incongruously, 'Morning'. Before shouting about Jerky.

"Good morning!" Polly replied at the retreating Raisha, grinning.

Polly didn't mind Jerky, but for travel food she preferred her insects, as they bred so quickly so long as she didn't eat too fast, they would replace themselves.

As Polly stared after Raisha, Iseult opened her door, heading downstairs as well.

"Good Morning!" Polly said again, and then, remembering Iseults reaction to her last night,

"I'm sorry! And so is Jeremiah!" Even though she didn't know what she was sorry for. It seemed the safe thing to do.

She followed Iseult down, to join Ayesha and Raisha. She found Jeremiah passed out, huddled inside an empty mug. She scooped the mug up, holding it in the hand that wasn't holding the test tube of brownish Cofeh Bug Concoction. She took a sip from her vial, and joined the others.

 

[SentinelSevn]

With the morning star just barely beginning its ascent up the rungs of the dark blue sky, the sound of a bugle’s screech in the air signaled the squires of knights and the footsoldiers of the city alike that it was time to rise with the sun. Slumbering souls throughout the entirety of the city began to rustle and rise from the warmth of their covers, with a reinvigorated energy to push throughout their exhaustive work day. And the adventurers appeared to be no different, with the High Olive bursting with a newfound passion unlike any other morning.

The hollering of one such adventurer for food, Raisha, seemed to be enough to brush out whatever dregs of sleep was left in the eyes of the others. A calling for food like the mewling of a young child after they had just awoken, in search of their mothers and their bosoms. The barkeep behind the counter chuckled beneath his breath, and looked towards the young girl that was seated opposing him. Her breakfast platter was nearly empty at this point with the yellow smears of the runny egg yolks intermingling with the grease of the bacon grease. He rose a finger in her direction to, for once, have Ayesha take a moment of silence from her chatter.

“Give me a moment,” he began to say, before heading to the other end of the counter and around the corner into the inn’s storeroom. He wasn’t long, revealing himself not more than two minutes later empty-handed. Just in time to see the weary face of Raisha descend from the steps. “We ain’t got no jerky here, at least not enough to send you off on.” He explained to the girls. “My next batch is set to finish drying out in the next couple of days, still soft to the touch” he further explained with the poking motion of his fingers.

The clopping sound of a horse’s hooves could be heard from outside of the inn. As the group of adventurers made their way out the doors to investigate, two figures could be made out. Sir Wallace could be made out atop the horse, with Eldin walking alongside it. He sported a leather cuirass lined with copper studs and steel scales layering over the front and back, the justicar crest embossed over his left breast. A layer of chain mail peered out from beneath the bends of his joints, hidden in all but spirit. At his waist was a jagermace, roughly a foot and a half in length. On his left arm was a kite shield with its broad head starting at the bend of his elbow, and extending about half a foot off the end of his curled fist. The stock of a crossbow could be seen over his left shoulder, strapped to his back.

As the duo approached ever closer to the inn, Eldin raised a hand out over his head in a wave, greeting the group with a closed smile that was barely visible from the distance. When they finally got within audible distance, he called, “Good morning, seems you all slept reasonably well.” He gazed across each member of the group momentarily, counting four. “No sign of squire Fritz here either?” He asked

Sir Wallace chimed in after, “We assumed he would have returned to the barracks last night to prepare, but he wasn’t to be found this morning.” The two justicars looked between each other, thinking that having no notice or sighting meant that they chanced already being down one man.

But Eldin was quick to change the subject, not letting the absence of one man being what disheartened the group. He approached the horse that Wallace was atop of, and unstrung one of the many sacks dangling from the saddle. “I promised gear and essentials to you all, did I not?” He tossed the first to Polly. “Mostly breads and cheeses for sustenance, there wasn’t much else we could bring that would survive the conditions we’ll be going through without going bad. But I believe one of them has a couple ounces of venison jerky wrapped in a cloth. The same bag has some dried herring,” He looked back at Polly and the bag that he had just handed her with a furrowed nose, a whiff of the stench getting to him, “Actually, it might be yours.” Eldin continued to unstrap another bag from the horse, without taking a breath to cease explaining the contents of the bag.

“Each of the bags have a small pouch for firestarting. Just a handful of flints and tinder. Probably useless considering we’ll be going into the caves where they’re plentiful, but there are some dry areas of the mine where limestone isn’t very abundant. This one also has a sack of medicinal supplies. Not much. Herbs for disinfection, a couple bars of scrap steel I figure would make good splints if someone decides to take a tumble in the cave.” He handed the next pack to Ayesha, before grabbing another for Iseult.

“I didn’t bother with packing each of us a tent or a sleeping bag; it took up too much room when we’re signed up for an adventure, not a couple nights more in an inn.” As he put the bag in Iseult’s hands, this one was notably heavier than the one he had handed the other two. He undid the button on the top of the sack before revealing the contents of the bag. It looked to be some rolled fabrics and tanned hide. “But this is the best I could do. For the cold in the Cryikk Wastes we’ll want to bundle up to the point it would give the normal man heatstroke, and there aren’t many creatures we’ll find in Skirk to give us some of the thicker quality hide we can get from home. Hope you don’t mind handling it, miss.” He said to Iseult with a curt curl of the lips.
He undid another bag strapped to the horse and made his approach towards Raisha, each step the contents of the bag clinked together as if it were a bag of steel. “This one has a lot of what we’ll need to get through the Skirk’s caves. Climbing picks, ropes, a couple harnesses. A lot of what the goblins in Skirk have is.. Well, sized for goblins. And some of us might not fit in their sizes no matter how hard we try.” He tried to avoid the sideeye towards Polly, but it was unavoidable. “So without some of this we’ll be scaling a total of about maybe fifty stories barehanded throughout our path in the caves. So keep it safe, will ya?” Eldin finished explaining to Raisha.”

Eldin then picked up the final two bags, the ones originally meant to be split between himself and Fritz, and swung both of them over his left shoulder. They were draped over the crossbow blocking his immediate access to it, but he hoped that it wouldn’t be in spite of him later. “I hope you all being here means that we’re just about ready to leave. Any more stops before we leave the city?”

The Justicar Quest

Current Character Participants:
- Iseult Nihar Saturn_moon
- Ayesha Laghmani Pai Chan
- Jeanne Beaune Jacque "Bonesy" sheesh
- Pollyanna Ziegler "Polly" Fred Colon
- Raisha de Belle A.I.S.H.A.


Current NPCs in play:

- Eldin Weistann - Justicar Squire

- Sir Wallace - Justicar Knight

Spoiler

Current Characters Killed:
NA... for now

 

[A.I.S.H.A.]

Raisha gave the innkeeper a deadpan stare upon receiving his disappointing news. She scoffed.
"You know what? I'm not going to be able to talk it into existence so I won't bother," she waved a hand at him and meandered out of the building and into the street. The air filled her lungs with fresh frost and smelled like old leather. The city certainly knew how to start the day. Raisha sat on the muddied floor, slick with wet dirt and snow, and took some time to inspect her axes. She tightened the straps on their grips and did a terrible job of wiping off some of yesterday's blood from them. Now there were smears on her clothes and her axes. Still it was enough to find a mildly obscured reflection in the soft pink light of dawn. Raisha pursed her lips in a crack of frustration and exhaled deeply. Why did her eyes need to be blue?

You used to smile when people told you that you looked li-

"Shut up," she muttered a curse under her breath and put the axes away at the sound of hooves approaching her. Alcohol felt like warmth promised at the end of long and cold day. Raisha looked up and realized that the rest of their group had been gathering at the front of the High Olive. She got up and started stalking towards them. The first thing she noticed was Ethan's inventory. A pang of jealousy found its way to a clenched jaw at the sight of such luxury. He had it all and his stuck-up mentor even rode a horse. Imagine not needing it for meat. The squire was a toddler with a bunch of shiny toys to play with while the rest of them escorted him across the region. But Raisha bit her tongue and clenched her coin purse. It was laughably light despite last night's winnings. Survival is what kept her here. That, and the promise of venturing into the Cryikk Wastes but she quickly pushed the thought away. That was the last thing she wanted to have on her mind.

We miss you, Rai...

"I said shut-" Raisha bit her tongue after realizing she said that out loud, "ACK!" Now she's done it. Her eyes narrowed, daring anyone to glance in her direction. The taste of iron began to fill her mouth. She took a step back and grabbed her flask. One swig couldn't hurt. She wiped her mouth and capped her flask again as Ernest approached. What was going on? Did he notice her stint? Raisha stared daggers into him like a cornered dog before he took a bag and held it out to her. Wait, what was he talking about? Raisha quickly realized she had missed the entire conversation until now.

"This one has a lot of what we’ll need to get through the Skirk’s caves. Climbing picks, ropes, a couple harnesses. A lot of what the goblins in Skirk have is.. Well, sized for goblins. And some of us might not fit in their sizes no matter how hard we try. So without some of this we’ll be scaling a total of about maybe fifty stories barehanded throughout our path in the caves. So keep it safe, will ya?" he said.

Raisha stared at him for a moment. "Right. Sure," the words fell from her bloodied tongue without even thinking about them. She looked at the contents of the bag over. Climbing gear. Ohhhh, that's what he meant. Right. Of course. That was what he just said it was. Well, if the mission went horribly wrong, this was one expense covered on her way out. Raisha quickly gathered herself and slung the bag over her shoulder. The sooner they left town, the better. Raisha had seen enough of it. She liked the wild better.

 

[Coyote Hart]

---

ft. sheesh (Jeanne)

It was the dead of night, the best time to sneak out of Ironheart with a lower chance of being caught by the Justicar knights and get pummeled to death. That, and if Tiernan had to flee, he would have a greater chance of losing his pursuers, as long as he didn’t trip over his feet.

Tiernan had received several pieces of intel. He twirled the river stones that he used to remember them as he recalled each of them. One, his long lost friend was on a trip to the Eclipse Kingdom. Two, a group of people were going to join them, but the identity of the group was disputed by the people who provided him the intel. Three, the group definitely came from outside of Ironheart, and had left one of their companions out there. So Tiernan put the dots together and decided that perhaps the companion would be able to recognize which group was actually joining his friend.

How ironic. Tiernan had found himself mentally unable to leave Ironheart, but now that he resolved that he was simply going to visit someone on the outskirts, he had no trouble sneaking out. What was giving Tiernan the hesitation for him to escape a city that was out to hunt him down?

Out in the distance, Tiernan recognized a scrawny figure sitting on a comfortably shaped rock. Even though his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, he still couldn’t make out the details of what the person looked like. He’d have no choice but to get closer.

Tiernan hoped that his presence didn’t freak the person out considering he was sneaking through the grass during the middle of the night, the pouch full of rocks clinking softly in the quiet air.

When he got close enough to the figure, he froze. That was not who he expected at all.

“A deimforged in Justicar territory?” Tiernan called out incredulously, “What gives… you do know that it is dangerous here, right?” The deimforged flinched at the sound of his voice, but didn’t turn to look, but rather obviously positioned himself to take off running if need be.

Realizing that the deimforged might be wary of a person who recognized his race in the middle of the most anti-deimforged nation, Tiernan quickly raised his hands, “Oh, and I’m not here to hurt you. Just want to chat.”

The skeleton relaxed after a brief pause, and for a few more beats he did not respond. Finally he spoke. “Back in my day, most would say danger was a good friend of mine. We’re a bit estranged now, but we don’t act as strangers; we keep in touch.” He scanned Tiernan with hollow eyes while idly dragging a digit around in the dirt.

The skeleton chuckled, bones rattling quietly. “You skulked through the night in rags until you came across me. This seems like the beginning of a novice bard’s joke or song; what could a skeleton and a uh…” His voice trailed off, “beggar? Thief?” Still drawing in the dirt with one hand, he brought the other to his chin and stroked a nonexistent beard.

“Yes, what could a skeleton and a sneak have to chat about?”

“Estranged, huh,” Tiernan said ruefully, reminded about his situation. The skeleton seemed like an interesting and witty person.

“I think fugitive works best,” Tiernan said, and added with a dumb smirk, “I shouldn’t have told you that information though. Oh well, what are you going to do, turn me in?”

“I’d just like to see if you had some time to talk about how our dear god of the forges is a useless sack of shit that should be evicted from the heavens,” Tiernan said seriously. Moments later though, his countenance broke, and he burst into a chuckle fit, “Okay, no, that’s not what I wanted to ask."

Tiernan kicked another rock so that he could sit facing the skeleton. He was pretty used to dealing with deimforged despite being a Justicar denizen. But this witty skeleton was certainly someone new. “I just have a few questions is all.”

“Did you come over here with a group of people to accept a quest about assisting a Justicar page?” Tiernan asked, twirling a piece of cobblestone from his rock pouch. The skeleton shook his head. “I came by myself. I know little of this quest you speak of~.” He dragged out the last syllable of his sentence for a bit. “Maybe heavier pockets would work as a counterweight to lift the fog on my mind.”

Tiernan gave the skeleton a withering look.

“...Is what I’d say if you looked like you had something to give me. Yes, I know of the quest you speak of, however the method I accepted the quest with was largely impersonal, and my involvement isn’t entirely assured.” He crossed his arms and leaned back into his stone seat. “A skeleton and a fugitive meet in a field…” He said, as if rehearsing. After a beat, he rolled one of his wrists, signaling he was prepared for the next question.

“I’d bet, I wonder if he would be willing to work with a deimforged,” Tiernan mused. His heart told him no, but it had been seven years, things could have changed quite a bit. Tiernan was surprised that the skeleton was so open about answering his questions. “Do you by chance know where the group went?” The skeleton scoffed in response.

“Absolutely not. Maybe I’ll do you a favor and walk on in and look for them for you?” He cradled his face in his palm and sighed. “I know not where they are now. It’s dark out; they’re sleeping somewhere, but who knows how many inns are in that city? What I do know is where they will be.” The skeleton looked to the sky. “Mind me, but I’m a little weary of your motives, and I happen to be looking out for someone. What are you after, sneak?”

“What if I don’t want to tell you?” Tiernan asked. He then quickly backtracked, “No, wait, you told me quite a bit. I guess you deserve to know.”

Tiernan returned the piece of cobblestone into his pouch bag and took out a smooth piece of topaz, twirling it around on his finger, “The person who posted the quest is my old friend. I want to give him a hand, but I have no idea where he is. I only have bits of pieces of information, and I of course can’t go asking around. I was hoping you could help fill the rest in.”

Tiernan grimaced with frustration and decided to go for a different tactic, “Well if you don’t know where they are now, do you recognize any of these descriptions? A chubby retired knight with an oversized unibrow? A rambunctious barista with foreign swordplay? A small lady with a giant frog slung over her shoulder? A bookworm with a giant tome of spells? A mute woman with scars marring her fac-”

“I may know a few of those. Or rather just one of them in particular. Did you doubt that we were talking about the same quest; where does this question get you?”

“Well, if you told me you knew the chubby knight, I would search in one particular tavern,” Tiernan replied, “But if you told me that you knew the bookworm, I would search a tavern half across the city.”

“So which is it?” Tiernan leaned forward excitedly, his legs jittering with impatience, “Who do you know?”

Tiernan was so close to tracking down his friend, he could almost taste it. The skeleton on the other hand was as still as he was when the conversation began. “Kids are...always so excitable.” He murmured. “I know not of either, and I’m afraid the one I know will not help you.” He leaned forward. “I understand you may not entirely trust me. Come now, sneak. What's your name? What are you looking for?”

Tiernan’s leg jitter turned into an impatient foot tap. He just wished that the skeleton would answer his question. Then he could figure out where he should go for the morning. In his excitement, the former Justicar page didn’t consider that he could simply relax with the bone man and wait until Eldin rendezvoused with him.

Tiernan’s foot tap became super quick and aggressive before all at once it subsided. Although Tiernan wanted to insist that the skeleton told him who it was, Tiernan had a feeling he wouldn’t divulge the information without some reciprocation. As it should be.

“Name’s Tiernan, Tiernan Lazarus. People on the streets call me Tofu,” Tiernan said. He provided both his real name and his street name as he had a feeling that the skeleton wouldn’t be able to reveal that information to the Justicar knights even if he wanted to, “And I’ve told you what I wanted to do. If you know any one of the people I mentioned, I have the intel of their location. I can then figure out where my friend is and catch him before he departs so I can help him. Maybe we might even become adventuring mates.”

“So tell me what you know,” Tiernan said, “Anything’s useful. Also, tell me your name, or I might call you something strange like Bonsey.” The skeleton shrugged. “Jeanne. A pleasure.” He stretched his legs and placed one over the other as well as laced his fingers together. “I apologize for giving you a hard time. A friend, was it? It wouldn’t be right of me to keep you from them.”

“I only know the woman with the scars, and I still don’t know where they are. I had her deliver a letter to an...Eldin, I believe? Perhaps it was another man, I cannot recall. I haven’t actually been inside the city for a while now for obvious reasons. I only know where they’ll be meeting after tonight. If I knew where they were at this hour, I’d tell you; I’d probably be in the city myself right now. If you need to find them tonight, I won’t be much help. There’s only so much a er...mortally challenged individual can do in this country.”

Tiernan breathed a sigh of relief. He could use this knowledge. It was strange that he felt so relieved that he was going to have the means to put his life in its greatest peril yet.

“Thank you for the help Jeanne,” Tiernan said gratefully, “A few people I know sighted the woman you mentioned at…” Tiernan shuffled through his rock bag before he took one and squinted at it, “The High Olive.”

Tiernan returned the rock back into its pouch before saying, “I wouldn’t recommend you go searching for them though. If the knights spot you, well… they’re freakishly fast, and they’re great at tracking magic. I’m not sure how I’ve even survived as a fugitive of the law.”

“We could play some cards to pass the time though?” Tiernan offered, taking out a deck of cards that were faded and frayed with wear and tear, “Then in the morning I can go there and tell them that you’re waiting out here.”

The skeleton waved. “Oh, they’re aware that I’ll be joining them in the morning. As far as they’re concerned, I’m busy doing something else tonight; like exchanging information with a fugitive.”

He scratched his head. “That reminds me...I’m not quite sure what I’ll tell them I was busy with if anyone asks. Fortunately I have all night to think about it! You, on the other hand — are you sure you want to spend your time playing cards with me? I’ll warn you, it’s a bit hard to read my face nowadays; who’ll know if I’m cheating?” He snorted and began tracing lines into the cracked dirt below him.

“I’m a fugitive that sleeps by day and works by night, and I don’t have anything to do before dawn,” Tiernan grinned, “And don’t think you’re going to play an easy game against me. You don’t have sleeves to hide your cards, and I’m second to none when reading people’s faces!”

Ignoring how Tiernan didn’t realize that Jeanne lacked facial muscles, it was an exaggeration. Tiernan wasn’t that good at reading faces.

“Besides, it’s a good alibi for what you were busy with,” Tiernan suggested. “This is true. It is also true that I can’t hide anything in my sleeves, but with the right kind of finesse, I can hide a few cards in plain sight I tell you.” He chuckled. Again, he rehearsed the setup to an unfinished joke. “A fugitive and a skeleton are playing cards in a field…”

“What do you have in mind?” Jeanne asked, continuing to draw shapes in the dirt.

“You up for a round of Bullshit?” Kiernan offered. He snickered and mimicked Jeanne, “A fugitive and a skeleton are playing Bullshit in a field… I wonder what’s the punchline.” Jeanne brushed some of the dirt off his hand on his tunic. “I know you can’t tell, but I’m smiling. You want to play Bullshit? With me? By Deim…deal the cards then.”

“Sure thing,” Tiernan said. He shuffled the deck with practiced but undexterous hands, splitting it into two before alternating between giving Jeanne and himself a card. As he dealt the cards, he awkwardly commented, “Sooo… how old are you? Uhh... Is it rude to ask a deimforged their age like it is with a lady? It’s just that you act like my mother… as in like I’m a tiny kid, not anything weird. I’m wondering how many years of excitable mischief you must have to make me seem like a child.”

With the cards dealt, Tiernan pulled his luxurious rags closer towards himself to block out the night wind, “Since I did the cards, why don’t you start us off?” Jeanne studied his cards. “Ironically, I don’t typically interact with other Deimforged enough to know if that’s a rude question.” He placed 3 cards down. “I’m almost at the point where I stop counting the years...On second thought, I am at the point where I stopped counting the years. I’m nearly on my second century, I wager. When you live this long, even men with nothing but gray in their beards seem like they’ve got so much life ahead of them.”

Jeanne sighed. “So much life…Three aces, by the way.” He gathered his cards together, no longer spreading them out in his hand, but rather holding them like a small deck. “Excuse me if I forget to treat you like an adult sometimes. It gets hard to treat people their age. As for excitable mischief,” he made a clicking noise, “I’ve seen so much that it’s hard to find something to do these days. Nothing short of sneaking in and out of a Justicar city for a month will really do it for me, but I fear I may be getting too old for mischief. I’ve plenty of stories, if you’ll let an old man ramble for a bit longer.”

“Two twos,” Tiernan said while slapping down two cards. He fanned out his deck of cards and lightly rested his chin on them, “You must’ve had a lot of excitement in your life if something as suicidal as sneaking into a country that swears to hunt people like you down is the only thing that will get you going. I’ll lend an ear, it sounds you got some wild stories.”

“A fist full of good ones. Two twos as well.” Jeanne nodded, spreading his hand and placing down two cards of his own, forgoing calling a bluff. “Oh, where to begin?” Jeanne held his cards close to his face, covering his mouth while he poked through cards with his thumb. “I suppose I should start with my days when I still had flesh and blood — tch,” he put a card down, “one three.”

“I can’t remember much, but I can tell you that I’ve always been someone who chases excitement. At least, that’s what I called myself. Others called me an idiot, suicidal, a fiend, menace, and er...anything that falls into that general category. When I was a boy, a common prank I would play back in...what’s it called? Jormun? Bah, anyway. I frequently dropped live bee hives, wasps or hornets nests — things of that nature — into the guards’ barracks.”

“I think my greatest version of this came from a time I lit our tavern on fire in an elaborate stunt to gather many of the guard’s attention. Many left the barracks to give aid. While they were away, I let myself into the cellar underground and left a few things for them in their ale kegs. No doubt when they came back from culling a fire they would be tired, hot, and thirsty. As for how I wasn’t stung a million times...eh, the details are a little fuzzy now. I had a method.”

“As I’d planned, the guards came back in mostly the numbers they’d left in presumably. No doubt some had stayed behind at the tavern, and those few were the lucky ones. Obviously I couldn’t hide inside the barracks to see their reactions first hand, however, I did at least hear their reactions. It didn’t take long for the shouting to begin, but it felt like ages; you had to be there to understand the intensity of the suspense of the moment.” He chuckled.

“Back then, being a guard was more of a volunteer position. Taxes didn’t go towards equipping them, so the equipment they patrolled in was something they already had before they enlisted. Those who were skilled enough to forge or wealthy enough to buy fashioned themselves with pieces of plate. I remember old Ormund had recently bought a helmet that completely encapsulated his head. I bet he regretted buying it when the wasps flew into it! His face resembled a lumpy beet by the time the rage had settled.”

"That's kinda messed up," Tiernan wasn't smiling, "The guards were just volunteers, doing their best to guard a city they loved."

It did sound pretty fun though, and Tiernan's lips couldn't help twitching in spite of his morals.

"If not for the tracking magic that the Justicar knights employ, I think that would be a good prank to pull on them," Tiernan couldn't help but let the wicked little smile break through on his face, "Those evildoers would deserve it anyway."

"Oh, by the way, bullshit, that wasn't two twos," Tiernan said. He severely doubted that all four twos had somehow gotten into play when they were only using half of the deck. Jeanne rolled his shoulder, and it popped. “I can’t help but feel disrespected.” He joked. “Didn’t anyone tell you it’s rude to accuse people of lying?” He dragged his two cards across the ground until he could get his fingers under them, revealing that they were in fact both twos. Tiernan's eyes almost popped out of his head.

“Consider me smiling, by the way. Fun at the expense of others is mostly a gray area, morally. I say so long as no one dies, no harm is done. But I can see how it may be easy to disagree.” Again, he began drawing in the dirt in a vaguely idle fashion with his finger. “At least you can understand the fun in what I’ve done, but if that bothers you in the slightest, you may grow to dislike me by the end of my ramblings.”

He doodled in the dirt for a while longer before suddenly seeming to remember he was playing a game. Not waiting for Tiernan to pick up the discard pile, he played. “One three.”

Tiernan hastily gathered up the cards, not including the three that had been played. He didn’t get how Jeanne was telling the truth, the odds were completely against him. Was this what Jeanne meant when he said that he could hide cards in plain sight?

He grimaced at his deck of cards. Why did he have no fives, sixes, or sevens? Tiernan slapped down three cards, “Three fours.”

“Don’t worry about seeming unpleasant,” Tiernan assured Jeanne, “The rare seedy parts of Justicar, while sparse, are filled with intense lowlifes. I doubt a friendly skeleton like you could be worse than them. Besides, I might have to work with you later in assisting Eldin. So I can’t really have a negative opinion of you.” Jeanne shook his head. “It’s not impossible to dislike someone you work with. How well you work with them is simply a matter of professionalism.” Jeanne paused before putting down two cards himself. “I don’t believe all of these are fours, considering I have two fours myself.” He tapped one of the cards Tiernan placed down a few times.

“Flip them.”

Tiernan gave Jeanne a hard look before slowly flipping the cards on the table, revealing a Jack of Hearts, Queen of Hearts, and a Joker card. He had forgotten to take the Joker card out of the deck before he shuffled the deck, and now it came back to screw him over. His lack of fours also screwed him over.

“Damn, you’re good,” Tiernan sighed before collecting the cards, rearranging them so that he understood what he was looking at. He felt a kindling of competitive frustration light up within him, and he readjusted himself so that he could perform better.

“Whether or not you can be nice to people you don’t like, I still don’t think I’d dislike you,” Tiernan commented, “I’ve been nice to really messed up people before, who’ve killed innocent people to avoid getting captured. If all you do is pranks, then I think it’s actually a refreshing change.”

“Besides, Justicar is the only thing I have room in my heart to hate,” Tiernan said, putting his hand on his chest, “It’s a city of villains who would like nothing more than to impose their biased and misled set of rules to oppress others. And through this oppression, they justify the senseless massacre of ordinary denizens.”

Tiernan realized his fist was clenched, and he forced himself to unclench it. The thought of Justicar’s knights never failed to rile him up.

“I also think that helping Eldin won’t be the last time we work together. Your pranks would be useful for messing up Justicar. And I have trouble hating people who I work with,” Tiernan grinned, “So tell me, what other pranks have you had up your nonexistent sleeves?” Jeanne rolled a piece of dirt between his thumb and index finger. “I happen to be working on a rather harmless one at the moment, but I’ll have to tell you another time.”

“In my prime I was somewhat of a sneak myself, but it wasn’t my main profession — I’ll get into that in a bit — I liked to call myself an adventurer. It wouldn’t feel right to call them my group per se, since we were really inconsistent, but there was a group of people that I just happened to take the same jobs as. The last job I took with them was a bit of a stressful one, one you could tell a million times at the same tavern and no one would ever believe you.”

“Our client was a jeweler, or at least looking to become one. He was an apprentice shortly before he posted the job, but his master passed away. He took that as an opportunity to become the master himself. A jeweler can’t do anything without gems, however, and that was where we came in. He and a mining team he hired needed protection while they dug. The job seemed simple enough, and the pay was high; I was certain he was some lordling with too much money to spend. I was a little too naive to understand there had to be a catch.”

“Ah, so my party: there were four of us, counting me. Arduil typically took the lead on our endeavors — very big elf, he was. Kept a mace handy. Baranor was somewhat his second. I say somewhat because it feels a little unfair to call him our jester; he could make anyone laugh even if he didn’t try. Merlin and I were the only people who could use magic in the group...and the only two who could read.” He chuckled and put a card down. “One five.”

“Two who preferred magic, two who preferred to be up close. It was a pretty good composition. But anyway. If you want to find gems, it makes sense that you need to go deep underground, and so that was where we went. Personally, I don’t prefer caves since they’re a little too dark and yes, I’m painfully aware of the irony of a sneak who doesn’t like the dark. I can’t help it.”

“While we were walking, the cave seemed extremely bare. We were starting to wonder if we were going to give up and head top-side to go home for the night. When I tell you we walked down an incline for hours non stop I mean it. Just when things started getting stale, however, we came across a tight spot. Me and Merlin carried the least equipment out of everyone, so we were the only ones who could squeeze through.”

“Neither Merlin nor I wanted to scout ahead, but if you knew Merlin, you’d understand why I lost that argument. It wasn’t that she was stubborn...well it was, but she wasn’t the kind of stubborn that just refuses against all reason. She actually made good points as to why I should be the one who goes. So I squeezed through, and what do you know? Gems, precious stones, even glowing flora. Everywhere. It was like I’d just walked back to the surface, the room was so bright.”

“Of course, before I went back to the other side I took what I could with what I had. Trying to break off crystals with nothing but your boots is a challenge, but I managed to fill my pockets with something before I came back through. When I came back, I tried my best to explain what was on the other side in full, but I told them they would just have to see it; no words of mine could do it justice.” He paused while he rifled through his cards. “Fifteen to go.” Tiernan quickly counted his cards with a worried look. He definitely had quite more than fifteen cards.

“I mean, you should’ve just invested in better boots,” Tiernan grinned as he gestured to his boots, the only thing that didn’t look like it was made of faux material bought from a rundown flea market. As if to demonstrate, Tiernan lifted his boot and slammed his heel down at a nearby rock, smashing it into two.

“We were fortunate to have Merlin with us. If we had the workers try to break and create their own entrance through the stone they’d be too tired to work by the time they reached the other side. Merlin kept some rather destructive spells handy, and after she drew an array of runes and cleared the blast zone, all it took was for us to move the debris out of the way and we were in.”

“They got to work, and Merlin, Baranor, Arduil and I finally got to rest our feet for a while. Arduil had the best sense out of all of us, and so while we were relaxing, he was still on the lookout for something; between the good pay and the lax work conditions, he was sure there was something our client was withholding from us. As it was, we could hardly call ourselves remedial. It got to a point where Arduil’s vigilance started to stress us out to the extent that Baranor stopped joking around and began to fidget nervously the more restless we began to feel.”

“By the ninth hour of the job, everyone was tired and the miners’ bones groaned in tandem with their voices. Merlin suggested that we would set up camp inside the cave along the incline and in the area they mined, as no one had the energy to take the few hour trek back up to the surface.” He paused to pick out a few of his cards and change their position. “Sorry that I keep referencing ‘our client’ without a name, I hardly remember what he called himself.”

“Our client didn’t like that idea in the slightest. He insisted that everyone should take everything they could carry back to the surface. The more Merlin pushed against him, the more irate he became until Arduil decided to back Merlin and the client relented. By the tenth hour we had tents and bedrolls set up and laid out, and since Merlin’s blast from earlier didn’t ignite any gas, we lit a few fires in the level areas as well — it’s cold underground, you know?”

“Arduil and Baranor took the first watch so me and Merlin could shut our eyes for a while. We were awake by the sixteenth hour and we switched watches. We expected to just stand around until morning. Like I said, we were convinced the only thing that would’ve changed had we not been hired is the fact that the miners would’ve had to walk back up to the surface before they could sleep. I’m sure they were grateful for our presence.”

“By nearly the eighteenth, everything began to shake. Violently. It startled everyone out of their sleep. Things were tense. We had nowhere to go. The only thing we could do was pray that nothing caved in on top of us and ended the excavation early. The shaking settled, but after that, no one was really in the right mind to go back to sleep, so everyone just sat and spoke quietly until our client decided that it was time to work again, which would come soon. Our client woke up and announced that my party would ration out the food, and after everyone had eaten, it would be time to work.

Not in our job description, no, but what else were we doing?”

“We eat, we get back to work. We started gradually moving deeper and deeper into the cave in search of more gems as we cleared more and more of the cave. Baranor, Merlin and I decided to scout ahead just to see what we could see. Things started to get interesting when the cave opened up massively. I’d thought the cave was already bright enough, but apparently there was room for more light still.”

“Everything was blue. The crystals, the mushrooms. There was glowing algae or...something blue in the little bits of water that were on the edges of the room. Water dripped from the stalactites every so often. That was the strangest part about it though. In the center of the room, there was a pile of shiny stones gathered. The peak of the mound was many times taller than any of us. At some point, Arduin caught up with us since we’d been gone for quite a while, and the moment he called out, Baranor began joking. He dived on to the pile and began to act as if he was swimming through the rocks.”

Jeanne put a palm on his face. “Things took a turn for the worst. The whole pile began to move and roll off of something rising from underneath it. This is where things get a little hard to believe, and I may date myself by saying this, but I saw massive wings spread out, dark red scales and yellow eyes. The beast was bigger than the pile itself, and it held its head high, not bending its neck even a little to really accentuate the fact it was looking down on us. I swear it to you and every god you can name, we’d come across a dragon’s den deep underground.”

Tiernan shuffled his cards before he took one that he needed to discard and put it face down with Jeanne’s card. “One six,” he lied.

“So you know magic, you’ve been in an adventuring group, and you’ve gone face to face with a dragon in a dragon’s lair,” Tiernan’s eyes shined, “You’re a bonafide ((BONE-a-fide)) adventurer. Man, what I’d do if I could leave this place…”

Tiernan’s mind filled with thoughts of exploring the skies. Even when he was younger, he wasn’t convinced that there wasn’t a floating island somewhere up there. How else would there be clouds large enough to blot out the sun?

“You better teach me the ways of the trade when we adventure with Eldin,” Tiernan said. He then impatiently bounced on the rock, “Now what happened after you saw the dragon? You’re here, right? How did you best it?” Jeanne drew in the dirt a while before he responded, staring off. His jaw slowly fell open while he drew. For about ten seconds he didn’t speak.

Suddenly his jaw snapped shut, and he tapped Tiernan’s card. “It’s a bit of a funny story, but first, there’s something I must address. This isn’t a six.” He flipped Tiernan’s card for him, revealing it to be a...seven of hearts?

“But… I… I thought I didn’t…” Tiernan stared at the cards, twirling the 7 of Hearts in his hands before he suddenly realized what this all meant. He took a few stones from his pouch to confirm his suspicion. Suddenly, he jumped to his feet and began to prance.

“Hark! Set against the settling twilight, light and shadow become one, and your foul tricks, Romulus, are thrown into the fire and flames!” Tiernan dramatically made a hand gesture as if he were pointing down his archnemesis, “Now, face me, as I…”

Tiernan covered his mouth with the 7 of Hearts and whispered the last word to his senseless speech, too low for Jeanne to hear. “... crystallize.” When he uncovered his mouth, there was a knowing smile on it as he waved the card around.

“That was from my favorite childhood book that mother used to read to me at night, although I’m sure I misremembered most of the words,” Tiernan said, “It also is…”

Tiernan crushed the card in his hand, and when he opened his palm, instead of there being a flattened card, there was dust from crushed rock, “... a spell. Hey, Jeanne, real quick question, what magic do you specialize in?” Jeanne looked at the dust that streamed from Tiernan’s hand and floated to the ground. “I specialize in the School of Moons, primarily, but as you just found out I know a few spells from the School of Veils as well.” He shrugged.

“But now that I've been found out, I guess I’m forced to play a straight game — if you’re still up for it.” Jeanne fanned his cards out and held them in front of his face, covering up to his nose.

Tiernan looked at the cards in his hand and shrugged, “Sure, we can send this overused deck of cards off with one final game.”

Tiernan knew he couldn’t use this deck of cards ever again after this game. He was missing his seven of hearts… or whatever it had been underneath that rocky mask. ‘As soon as one part of the set was destroyed, it was ruined in its entirety.’

Tiernan reached out his hand to take Jeanne’s cards, “I’m reshuffling our cards though. Who knows what tricks you pulled on me before I realized?” Jeanne pressed his cards back into a neat deck. “Well...reshuffling the deck won’t make too much of a difference, but if it makes you feel better, I’ll oblige.” He forked over his cards. “But don’t worry, you’ll see no more Veils spells from me for the night.”

“But if we’re going to show off spells…” Tiernan said as he took the cards and added it with his own and the unused half of the deck, “What does the bird say? Kakow! What does the weasel say? Chirp chirp! And what does the sick King of Ironcrown say? Nimble Hands!”

With a burst of magic, Tiernan quickly shuffled the deck of cards with much more grace than the previous time. After the slapping sound of the cards slipping between each other subsided, Tiernan cut the deck in half and quickly distributed the half-deck of cards between him and Jeanne.

“I myself am a bit of an Earth and Strength spellcaster,” Tiernan grinned, “So I think we’ll complement each other pretty well. Your move.”

Suddenly, Tiernan remembered what they were talking about moments ago. From the excitement of realizing that Jeanne was cheating, he had forgotten about the skeleton’s tales, “Oh, and what happened when you saw that dragon?” Jeanne studied his cards before he spoke, drawing in the dirt again with his free hand. “Ah, the dragon.”

“My party was nothing of the stuff legends are made from. We were totally outclassed. Even though dragons were a lot more common back when I was alive, they were still rare enough to the point where their power and very existence was only viable in stories. We knew very well we’d die before we ever dealt it even a minor wound. Fortunately, Baranor and I were on the same page.”

“You can go first, by the way.”

“Two aces,” Tiernan took Jeanne’s offer as he placed down two cards.

“Rather than try and fight the beast, Baranor and I immediately threw ourselves to the ground and began apologizing. Merlin followed suit shortly after, and Arduin came last. I’d love to ask him if I could, but I’m certain Arduin never quite understood what we were doing; he did a good job following our lead though. Baranor took the lead. Can I remember what he said word for word….?”

“No.”

“But, it was something about apologizing for trespassing, worshipping his greatness, offering him our equipment as gifts. We didn’t have much, and I was certain we wouldn’t leave with our lives if we just gave up our weapons and arms. After a spell of silence, the dragon only confirmed what I thought. What ensued next was our desperate attempts to not be roasted alive. Baranor wound up unstrapping his armor on the fly so he could run a bit faster.”

“Every jet of flame we avoided was wider than a horse drawn carriage, and oftentimes we found ourselves diving behind something to just barely avoid it; and even then, after we hit the ground we found ourselves having to get back up quickly before our cover melted away. While the fire was a large issue, trying to contest with the dragon’s size was another problem in itself. While one of us was trying to avoid death by fire, another was jumping or ducking under its tail or mighty...hands? Talons? I’m not sure what the proper term is.”

“I was not only the lightest in terms of equipment, but I was also the most fit for running; I’ve done it quite a bit. I admit, I only started thinking of a plan to escape once I felt myself a bit short of breath, but by that time I’m pretty sure everyone else was struggling to get a decent measure of air at all. I happened to remember we were supposed to be protecting some minors, and the dragon had just awoken from a nap covered in shiny rocks. Why not offer some?”

“The moment his attention wasn’t on me, I called out for it with a proposition. Gods know what propositioned the dragon to even listen, but I’m thankful for it. I might’ve been a charred skeleton today if it hadn’t.” He joked. “I promised to add a great deal of treasure to his horde if he allowed us to leave alive. I knew he had no inclination to believe me, so I left the dragon with some insurance — I would leave the rest of my party in the dragon’s company while I went to get the aforementioned treasure. If I did not return, they would die. If I did, we would all go free.”

“Of course, I made this plan without everyone’s permission, but their only options were to trust me so we could actually have a chance to survive, or go back to skittering around until we eventually died. So I left, and on the way back I was thinking of ways to convince our client to give up everything we’d earned on the expedition. I was sure it wouldn’t be easy at all, and he’d sooner tell everyone to pack up and prepare to leave once I mentioned the dragon before he ever gave up everything he’d worked for...or rather watched it be worked for.”

“I make it back to the camp, and immediately I’m being chewed out by the foreman. Our client had been incredibly upset with us taking a side venture instead of protecting his crew, and since he couldn’t yell at us, he fussed at the workers instead. I immediately asked the foreman where the lordling was so I could explain the situation, and once I found him I took a deep breath and tried the reasonable way of doing things.”

“I didn’t expect things to go my way with just words, but I thought I might try regardless. I explained to him that we’d gone to scout ahead, as he knew, to look for unforeseen wealth-and-or-dangers. We’d found no wealth, but we’d found plenty of danger! If I didn’t look like I’d been diving on the ground for fun before I spoke to him — which I had been, albeit not for fun — I’m sure he wouldn’t have believed me.”

“So what did he do? He immediately went to tell everyone to gather their equipment to leave, as I predicted. I hadn’t even explained the situation my party was in yet, and when I did, it seemed all that meant to him was that we’d bought him more time to leave. At the mention of a dragon, all the workers went into a panic. Stones were gathered, shovels and pickaxes were tossed around and camping equipment was cleaned up. Mostly.”

“I obviously couldn’t let them leave, but I’ve never been so adept at magic that I could stop all of them by myself. I wasn’t a slouch with a knife...but I also wasn’t good enough to stop everyone still. However, I was good enough to hold our client hostage. With my blade to his neck, I stood atop a pile of plain stone and shouted for everyone’s attention. I warned them if they didn’t listen to me, their boss would die and no one would be paid anything.”

“Threatening someone’s money is almost no different than threatening their lives; you can’t live without a few silvers in your pocket at all times. Not comfortably at least. They were obliged to listen. I instructed them: everything mined up had to be taken to the dragon immediately. All of it. I didn’t want to risk not giving enough to the dragon and dying because of it. It took them a moment to convince them that they needed to take it to the dragon understandably, but I couldn’t take it all by myself.”

“Everyone marches up to the dragon with me and my hostage at the head. Baranor, Arduin and Merlin are still there, thankfully, though they were all angry. It seemed they’d be forced to give up everything they had, and this meant, more importantly, the three of them were all naked. I asked the dragon to release my friends and everything we’d gathered would be his. The deal was no good. The beast wanted his treasure first, and I’d get my friends back after.”

“I wasn’t exactly in a position to argue, so we dumped off everything mined into a pile. Then the dragon dropped it on us; he intended on killing my party anyway, but he hadn’t expected me to come with so many workers. So he offered a trade: in addition to the treasure, he would also receive all of the workers and our client in exchange for giving up my party.”

“Obviously absolutely everyone protested, and for a moment I found myself being shouted at by a mob of tired, angry, and scared miners until the dragon silenced us all with a mighty bellow. He’d made the offer to me, and threatened that if anyone else but me spoke, he’d kill everyone and be done with it. Strong incentive for silence, eh?”

“I mentioned this was the last job I ever took with them, and it was because of this scenario in particular. The only way anyone would leave alive is if I gave up the work crew. Otherwise, I was sure the dragon would just kill everyone. I’m sure I made the right decision. Logically, four people leaving alive was better than no one leaving alive. The moment I voiced that I’d accept his offer, miners began flooding to the exit.”

“The dragon was a lot swifter than them, however, and immediately blocked them off. He allowed me and the party to leave, and we never saw any of them again. Afterwards, my party was absolutely disgusted with me. Aside from Arduin. While Arduin didn’t exactly approve of my actions, he didn’t have any better ideas to get us out of there and he had to admit that was probably the only way anyone left that cave alive. Baranor wouldn’t even look at me, and Merlin threatened to wound me if she ever saw me again.”

“And before you go on to tell me whether or not what I did was right — if you ever intended to — I’ll warn you now: I do not care.” He said, bluntly. “I did what I did, and nothing can change that, so there’s no point in debating morality or talking about what I could’ve done. If I was wrong, then I got what was coming to me by the whim of well, another dragon. Much later on, though.”

“If you feel like I might say that you did something wrong, then it sounds you have a bit of a guilty conscience,” Tiernan said, unsmiling. Of course, he disapproved of what Jeanne did. It went against everything his moral compass said, “But you should remember that it was the dragon that was the big bad guy.”

“Most people who say that ‘the past is the past’ are just saying that as an excuse to continue to do bad things,” Tiernan said, doing some card tricks as he waited for his spell to wear off, “So don’t give me that shit.”

Tiernan fumbled his cards on the ground, his spell wearing off for him . All of a sudden he was feeling quite a bit tired and not feeling up to playing bullshit. He wondered if he would be forced into a situation like Jeanne’s dragon adventure. While Jeanne had run away with his tail between his legs, Tiernan knew that he would die in that instance. His pride wouldn't let him run away.

“You’ll have to save your next dragon story for when we’re on the road,” Tiernan said as he gathered up his cards, “I think I might take a nap before tomorrow. Do you want to join me and sneak into Ironheart with me and see our client?”

“Now you hold on just a minute! You don’t even know…” Jeanne started off with a hostile tone and pointing an angry finger, but his voice trailed off, and the finger that pointed was brought to his chin. “Well, I can’t deny that I do bad things.” He said, in a calmer tone. “But no, no. I don’t have a guilty conscience. In fact, I already told you exactly how I feel: I don’t care. I’ll lie, I’ll steal, I’ll cheat, and I’ll gain stuff at the expense of others occasionally.”

“It’s all for a bit of fun,” he explained, “though that case with the dragon wasn’t exactly a situation I fully perpetrated or had control over. I never forgot who the bad guy was there either. But I don't feel bad at all. I only said save the ‘right or wrong’ debate because I’m almost 200 years old, my boy. I’ve told this story to plenty of kids...or men your age, and I’m personally a bit tired of hearing other people feed me their judgement — Respectfully, I never asked.”

Jeanne kept the cards in his hand. “I hope you don’t mind if I hang on to these then, since you don’t want this deck. I have a use for them.” Jeanne stashed the cards in a bag on the back of his belt. He waved dismissively. “But let’s not get into that, it gets a little hard for me not to get worked up. As for sneaking into Ironheart with you?”

“I'd rather wait out here; I’m meeting them near the front entrance in the morning. Trying to walk around inside that city is a waste of mana and not worth the risk. I’d rather risk being found out by one Justicar and some other less qualified people than being found out while I’m in the middle of a Justicar city; you’ve got better chances than I do if you get caught.”

Tiernan shrugged, "Fine, I'll tell your scarred friend that you said hi."

“I’ll try not to judge you too much then, as long as you don’t call my creed heresy,” Tiernan said as he pocketed his cards and tried his best to get comfortable, “I hear that enough from the denizens of Justicar.”

As Tiernan gathered up his thin clothes to gather some warmth, he gave Jeanne a judging look. It was carefully neutral, but in the back of his mind, Tiernan attributed Jeanne to the other criminals that he had met in his short life. He had no doubt that despite the differences in creed, the two of them would be able to work well together.

“Hey, if I fall asleep here, will you abandon me? Will you steal my stuff?” Tiernan asked. But before he heard Jeanne’s answer, he had already drifted off to sleep. It was a skill that any fugitive on the run should have. The ability to fall asleep on the spot. Jeanne’s jaw bone opened to respond, but upon seeing Tiernan had already drifted off it slowly shut. After a bit of silence, he responded. “You’ve nothing to worry about. I’ll watch over you until morning comes.”

-------------------------------​

A mysterious hooded figure made his way down the streets, furtively yet inconspicuously keeping a wide berth away from any knights. He knew that what he was doing was going to be a risk. A huge risk, one that could very well get himself killed. But after grabbing some intel from the deimforged on the outskirts of Ironheart, he finally could track down where Eldin had gone. If he was going to make the dangerous trip into becoming a Justicar knight, the mysterious man's inner principle could not feasibly let him do it all alone. So even if it would potentially cost him his life, he had no choice but to risk accompanying Eldin.

Tiernan tried his best to shove the bread he was eating underneath his jester mask, but it was a tight fit. The mystery meat and vegetables inside of the bread didn't suffer much, but the fluffy yet crispy dough certainly got squished. It didn't detract from the deliciousness of the food though, and it was still just as filling. As it should be, since if he wasn't welcomed back in, he would have to run. And if he was, he'd have a very busy day. Even despite this daunting reality though, Tiernan was still able to enjoy the breakfast. He would never get tired of Ironheart street food.

But when facing the reality, Tiernan's appetite quickly left him. With two quick bites, Tiernan swallowed the rest of the bread without really tasting it. They were there.

The handsome lad that sat on top of a horse was nearly unfamiliar after the past seven years, but Tiernan was still able to recognize him as Eldin. The guy had certainly gone far since the last time Tiernan had seen him. Eldin sat on his horse with grace and poise, his body language making it clear that he was quite a formidable opponent. And he had gained muscle.

Sitting aside from him was none other than Wallace. Tiernan grimaced. The knight's presence would make the interaction far more difficult. If Eldin didn't immediately kill him, Wallace might. There were also some unfamiliar faces on the ground. A woman with heavy scars that marred her face. A minute figure with a giant frog, the sight of which made Tiernan shiver in fear... the figure and the frog, not just the frog. Two tough-looking ladies.

Tiernan casually strolled up to the gaggle of people. From an outside perspective, it would have likely looked like Tiernan was just a passerby. But when he spoke, it quickly dissolved that possibility.

"Seven years... seven long years. You've made quite some progress. I bet I could learn quite a bit from you now, not that I couldn't when we were just kids," he said, his hood and jester mask concealing his identity. Tiernan drew back his hood and removed his mask, revealing a short mane of feral black and white hair. An unsteady grin was on his lips, and his pink eyes were filled with fear and uncertainty, as if he didn't know if he was going on the right course of action, "Long time no see, Eldin."

"Oh, and nice to meet you all," Tiernan spared a cursory look back at the group, ignoring Wallace altogether. He focused in on the heavily scarred woman "Jeanne says hi."

((Direct interactions: SentinelSevn (Eldin), Saturn_moon (Iseult)))

 

[Saturn_moon]

Iseult Nihar​

When Eldin dropped the bag in her arms, Iseult stumbled under the sudden weight. She'd never been particularly strong but lying in bed for the better part of the month definitely did nothing to help in that regard. Keeping her grip firm, she hoisted the pack back up as the squire opened the top to explain its contents. "Hope you don’t mind handling it, miss." Eldin said as he finished, earning a steely glare from the redhead. Something about his tone and condescending smile had irked her, almost as if he doubted she would be able to hold her own. In response, she swung her pack onto her back, strapped it on tight, and stubbornly stuck her chin out. The last thing she was going to be was dead weight and if anyone thought that, they could take that sentiment and shove it up their-

Her thoughts cut off as a masked hooded figure approached their group. When he got closer, he shed the veil of mystery revealing a young man with the strangest appearance. Fair skin, a mess of black and white hair almost like a moon partially in the shadows, and pink eyes. "Long time no see, Eldin." The man said and Iseult raised a questioning brow. A friend of Eldin's? Did that then make him a Justicar as well? Perhaps not, for he hadn't donned the standard armor she'd seen on Sir Wallace, Eldin, and even Fritz. Then the man turned his focus to her and the words that came out of his mouth next caused her heart to drop and panic to run through her veins. "Jeanne says hi."

She reached out and gripped the stranger tightly around his wrist. He'd met Jeanne? Was that good or bad news? Clearly, they'd spoken to some extent for him to know who she was but as far as she knew, no one from Justicar was particularly welcoming to the Deimforged. Was the stranger even from Justicar? She had a hundred questions but no way to convey any of them without seeming absolutely insane. In the end, she let go of her hold on the stranger and disappeared back into the shadows of her cloak. Looking at the rest of the party, she noticed the restlessness in Raisha's posture and couldn't help but feel the same. The faster they got going the faster she would get this over and done with.

SentinelSevn Coyote Hart A.I.S.H.A. sheesh Fred Colon Pai Chan

 

[Pai Chan]

Ayesha and the others were soon alerted to horse steps resonating outside on the stone walkways outside. Upon, checking she saw that it was the Justicars from the day, prior. And Eldin definitely looked the part of a person ready for an adventure. Ayesha quickly rushed inside to grab her belongings and just as she made her way back outside the group were being handed sacks full of supplies.

Ayesha looked at the bag she was handed. Ayesha wasn't fully used to being given much responsibility. At least, not directly. She was used to just following what others did and was often too inexperienced to really be relied on. She was just an extra around the barracks when she was training. She only copied and helped others. But now she was on a team with the expectations to carry her weight. It was a reminder that she moving up in the world.

Ayesha's instructor, back at home, taught her many things. One of them was that medical supplies were crucial to the team. Even more so if the team had a dedicated member to ensure the team's health. Unless someone else was some medicine man and could utilize natural remedies, medical supplies were the next best thing for a team to have.

A small outburst next to Ayesha cause her to quickly turn. It was Raisha. Ayesha gave a small look of concern as the battle scared woman took a step back to take a quick drink of something. Was this woman really okay? Ayesha knew of someone, back home, during training that did something similar quite often. Something that was a whole bunch of letters and started with "P". Her instructor said it was similar to having a vision, while awake, that would cause that person to experience unhappy memories, in an instant. Was that what was going on with Raisha? Or perhaps she was just nervous and the crowded thoughts from her mind overflowed to her tongue. Now that WAS something her instructor said Ayesha had happen all the time.

The words from an unfamiliar person interrupted Ayesha's thoughts. A mysterious individual walked up to the group but seemed to be familiar with Eldin. Perhaps a friend or fellow Justicar? Him and the mute woman made some type of exchange that was curious.

Will this man be joining us? or is he just passing by? The more the merrier. Especially, since one of the people from the prior day meetup didn't seem to be here this morning. And the person seemed theatrical according to their entrance. That could be fun.