Way Back Home

[Cirice Vaisha]

Ajteire/The Preamble
Evening/Clear Skies


The Preamble was always Cirice's favourite place in Ajteire. It was where she would relax with her comrades after patrols, it was where she and her family would go to once a week after lunch for tea. The quaint glorified camping site of an inn held many memories for the Kerasoka Pirate, many of them good. No matter how much she disassociated herself from her kin, she couldn't deny that she was still a Kerasoka of the Arbor. And while it didn't serve any hard liquor and only had hammocks to rent, it was as much an inn as any other for the denizens of Ajteire.

However her reason for this visit, the first in more than a century, was a dark one. She was there for work that would apparently make her and her crew very rich. But upon arrival, she had learned of a funeral that she had missed. The funeral of Uriel Vaisha. An ancient elf that was also unfortunately her father. She had visited the grave and had the misfortune of running into her siblings. She had changed a lot. The tone of her skin, her hair, the tattoo on her cheek, her size... but at the end of the day there was nothing that could masquerade her from her family.

And now she was in the Preamble. It was quiet and a mug of tea was gripped tightly between her hands as she sat on a bench far away from the other patrons. Her eyes were closed as she listened to the buzz of the fireflies around her. She knew Kerasoka were incapable of magic... but the fireflies always seemed to calm her down. She needed their aura more than ever... and a constant flow of Preamble tea. She knew the fairies spiced it up with some rejuvenation magic and she was going to take full advantage of it on this particular evening.

Among her own kin she looked very out of place with her weapons and outfit. But people left her alone, luckily. She was upset and angry. At her mother for not letting her know, at herself for even feeling a damn about the old fool, at her siblings for chasing her away and almost acting like his death was her fault. But what really got to her was just how lonely she felt. She felt pathetic for feeling so soft. She was a pirate, among the most dangerous to ever sail the seas... but she sat there and pondered on why she was sad about her estranged father's death and her family's cold reception.

Her eyes snapped open as she felt the hot tea spill over her hands. With a hiss she adjusted her grip and tossed the mug down in frustration. She wiped her hands against her pants and ran them over her face with a heavy sigh. "Fucking pathetic." she grumbled as she massaged her eyes and pushed her hair back. "Next time someone tells me I should come here for work, I'll slit their throat." she growled as she rose and took her mug to the bar counter for a refill. She was starting to think that whiskey would work a lot better for her predicament.

Darius Goldmane

[Darius Goldmane]

It had been maybe three hours since Darius had first claimed his table, and he hadn't yet gotten tired of watching. The clientele of this strange place was constantly shifting, people of all kinds entering and exiting as time went by. He was pretty sure that he'd seen more people in the last three hours than he'd ever seen at home, and the variety simply intrigued him. Some of them he'd truly never seen anything like before. Only a few minutes ago a large entity with skin like a tree had left their table and walked towards the heart of the city, and Darius had had to work very hard not to openly stare at them.

But it wasn't just the people that he saw. It was also the landscape. The vegetation here seemed practically to glow with life, and though they were staying a reasonable distance away the animals seemed perfectly comfortable with their proximity to the people. And then there were the fireflies. He'd seen fireflies before of course, but never anything like these. He could feel the magic emanating from them, partially druidic in nature, and partially something else. It was warm and comforting, and somehow reminded him of the rare bits of draconic magic he'd seen at home.

A loud thunk broke into his musings, and he looked up. Another patron had dropped their mug onto the table. Darius frowned, studying the person more closely. He remembered seeing her enter the space a while ago, but she hadn't stood out much against the other patrons. Only now did he realize that she seemed to be sitting deliberately far away from everyone else, and alone of almost everyone else he had observed she seemed to be in deeply low spirits. He studied her posture as she got up to go retrieve another drink. There was anger there, certainly, but there also seemed to be a sadness. A sadness that compared to the vibrant life he had been observing up to now made her stand out almost more than the tree-like being.

@Circe Vaisha

[Cirice Vaisha]

It was only after she got another drink and returned to her lonesome seat far away from anyone else that she felt like she was being watched. The feeling was there ever since she arrived in Ajteire but it disappeared when she got to the Preamble. But now it was back and her paranoia set in. She took a sip of the delicious tea and casually glanced around, not wanting to alert whoever it was that was watching her. Her mind immediately went to dark places. Her family watching her, the city guards recognizing her... something dangerous.

But what she found was nothing like that at all. It was a half-breed of some sort. Like a human had too much fun with a dragon one evening. Her golden gaze hardened as she glared at the man. She didn't recognize him and he didn't look like a guard, but she still didn't like the staring. After another sip she poured the drink out on the grass and rose from her seat. She left the mug on the bench and made her way over to him with her left hand resting on her tomahawk, ready for action if the man proved to be a threat to her. Once she reached him she leaned in to bring her face close to his. "I'm neither a whore nor a stone carving, so you better quit staring or else you won't have eyes for much longer, half-breed" she muttered.

She was ready for a brawl. Deep down she hoped that he raised his hands at her. She wanted an excuse to beat someone into a pulp. But he didn't look like the type who itched for a chance to get into a fight. She hoped she was wrong.

Common sense left her as she let go of her tomahawk and gave the man a shove against his shoulder. "What's the matter, scaly? Too ashamed that mommy bedded a dragon?" she spoke with a venomous grin. Her fists were shaking with anger and anticipation. "Come on, lift a hand. I implore you. Try and drop me. It'll be just the fun I need after today." she egged him on with her eyes locked onto his. Little did she know that a few guards were watching a few meters away. Her focus was entirely on her new victim and relieving her frustrations on him...

@Darius Goldmane

[Darius Goldmane]

He'd tried to play it off. He really had. The moment she turned to look at him he'd shifted his gaze immediately. It hadn't worked. Apparently he was just as bad at being subtle as everyone always said. Stick to what you're good at Darius, his mother's voice rang in his head, Duplicity isn't in your nature. Still, even considering that, he wasn't expecting her to immediately stalk her way over to him with that look of seething anger in her eyes. He glanced at the axe on her belt, and shifted a few inches closer to the glaive leaning against the wall beside him. Sitting as he was he couldn't get his sword out of its frog quickly enough if she attacked him, but they were surrounded by tables, and the glaive was not as suited to close quarters combat. Any spells he could cast would probably be pretty powerful here, considering her proximity to him it would be a race to see if he could finish casting before the axe was swinging at him. Tactically it wasn't a great position to be in if he was attacked.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't mean any offense." Then the shove came. And the hate-filled words. He was starting to get nervous. He didn't know what the local laws were, and didn't want to get involved in any sort of fight in this public a space. At the same time, it seemed to him that her anger seemed to be coming from somewhere else. Some well of deep and private pain. Maybe there was a chance to diffuse the situation.

"I don't think there's any need for insults," he said, keeping his voice even and his movements slow, the same as if he had stumbled on a cornered animal, "and I don't find violence to be fun. Again, if I was rude I apologize. I am very new to this place, and only wanted to observe the different kinds of people here."

@Cirice Vaisha

[Cirice Vaisha]

Cirice was itching for an excuse to start swinging. She knew that if she swung first, she would be in trouble. Something she was trying to avoid even in her fuming state. But the half-breed didn't give her any room to take her shot. He apologized and tried to talk his way out of the confrontation in the most civil way she had heard in a very long time. She had a plethora of insults at the ready for the gentleman, but she didn't get a chance to use it as the crunching footsteps behind her drew her attention.

She rose to her full height and turned to face the new arrivals... only to freeze up in wide-eyed shock. "Is everything alright?" the guard asked. He was clad in armour, cautiously ready to intervene if things got out of hand. But what startled Cirice more was his face. The pirate recognized him immediately. He was her old commanding officer, easily having around two centuries of combat experience over her. He was also one of the only people she honestly called a friend back in the day... and it seemed he didn't recognize her at all. "Yeah... everything is fine." she muttered after an awkwardly long silence as she looked back to the half-breed with a whirlwind of emotions splayed across her face. She bit her lip and swallowed hard with eyes growing foggy as she turned and left for the city gate, heading straight for the wilderness outside. Where nobody hopefully would follow.

Once she was outside of the city limits, she stopped by a tree and looked back to the gates with fireflies buzzing around it. She let out a shaky sigh and kept moving into the woods until she was sure nobody would see or hear her. Then she let loose.

With a violent scream she yanked out her tomahawk and hacked away at an enormous tree as faint trails of tears found their way down her cheeks. One violent, screaming swing after the other, she kept hacking away until the head snapped off and fell to the ground. Slumping against the barely chipped trunk, she sat down and covered her face with her hands. Perhaps the most humiliating part of it all was that damn half-breed. She looked weak in front of him. Not only that, she found herself naively thinking that he could perhaps be some sort of solution to her problem. Quiet sniffs joined in with the sounds of the jungle as she took a moment to let out what was likely years of pent up emotion.

"Pathetic." she grumbled as she wiped at her eyes and pushed some hair out of her face.

@Darius Goldmane

[Darius Goldmane]

Darius watched as she turned and stormed away, feeling a sympathetic ache of his own. He'd thought she was holding back some sort of private pain. He'd been wrong. The expression on her face as she'd looked at him before leaving had been one of sheer agony. Something was very wrong, of that he was sure.

"Sir?" He blinked at turned, only at this point realizing the man in the uniform was addressing him. "I'm sorry," he said, "can you repeat that please?" "I asked you if she was causing you any trouble." The man repeated, inclining his head in the direction of the woman. "If so, I can have her stopped." "Oh, no there's no need." Darius hastened to assure him. "She wasn't causing enough trouble to warrant any response." The guard looked skeptical, but inclined his head. "If you're sure. Enjoy the rest of your evening then." Turning, he made his way back to where he had been standing, keeping watch over the Preamble. Darius turned, looking back in the direction of the departing stranger. It wasn't his business, he knew, to go chasing after a random stranger to try and help her with her problems. Such an action could easily be taken any of a thousand wrong ways, and he had no desire to start a fight after having just avoided one. By all rights he should just stay here and not get involved.

"Some things never change." he muttered with a sigh as he stood. Fishing out a copper from his pouch he dropped it on the table, grabbed his glaive, strapped it to his back, and followed. She had a decent lead on him, but from the direction it wasn't hard to guess that she was heading towards Ajteire's main gate. He picked his way through the city on foot, until he'd arrived at the gate. Then he stopped and looked around. There was no sign of her and no clear tracks to follow. He stopped for a moment, thinking. From here she could have gone any direction, but he'd seen the agony she was in. In his experience, anyone in that much mental pain would most likely not be concerned with the direction they were going. He looked straight ahead. "One way to find out." he said to himself, and unfurled his wings. With a few quick flaps he was airborne, and flying a slight zig-zag pattern as he searched.

He'd been at it for maybe 2 minutes when he heard the scream. Not a scream of terror or physical pain, but a scream of emotional agony and rage. It could only have come from one person. He altered course, and barely a minute later he could see the forlorn shape huddled against the trunk of an enormous tree. Darius alit on a mossy stone a few meters away and folded his wings. Now that he was closer he could see the broken axe on the ground next to her, and the large gash in the tree. He winced, but at least that was damage he could fix. Unstrapping the glaive from his back, he laid it on the ground, and sat crosslegged on the stone. "Feel better?" He cautiously asked.

@Cirice Vaisha

[Cirice Vaisha]

Cirice heard the flutter of wings and then the half-breed's voice close to her. She didn't move aside from a slight tilt of her head. "You are either very brave or very stupid, half-breed. To follow me this far into the woods alone." she muttered as she finally removed her hands from her face to look at him. "And no, I'm not feeling better. I doubt I will." she continued as she picked up her broken tomahawk and tossed it into the brush. "For more than a century that tomahawk has served me well. Oh well. I'll get a new one." she grumbled as she ran a hand through her hair and rested her head back against the tree.

She was quiet for a few long moments. Her eyes stared up into the stars as she contemplated her situation. She was hoping like some lovestruck schoolgirl for him to arrive and now she wanted to chase him off again. Finally she let out a long sigh and looked back to him. "Where are you from? I've heard of dragons still roaming the lands. My colleague won't shut up about the time he and his crew encountered a dragon. But your kind is unfamiliar to me. I've seen others like you, but very rarely." she asked him calmly as she stretched her legs out.

"... Do you have family, half-breed? Parents, siblings, friends to return to who will welcome you back with loving arms no matter what you do or how long you are gone?" she asked him as venom filled her voice. Rising to her feat, she paced around a bit as her golden eyes were locked onto him. "What is your name?" she asked as she came to a halt in front of him.

@Darius Goldmane

[Darius Goldmane]

"I'm not surprised you haven't seen many like me." Darius replied, leaning back on his hands, a posture taken as much to show no aggressive intent on his part as for comfort. The fact that she hadn't immediately attacked him was a good sign, but there was still pain there, and any creature in pain would be likely to lash out if they felt threatened. "From what I know there aren't that many of us, and I'm only half Ue'drahc. My mother was full blooded, but my father was human. Which I suppose answers another of your questions. Yes I have a family, and yes I left on good terms with them. Where I'm from," he shrugged, "is somewhat of a secret, though I suppose I can say it's many miles from here. As a point of fact, you're the first Kerasoka I've ever actually spoken to, though I've heard of your people and seen a few at a distance. As to your last question, my name is Darius Goldmane. He raised his chin, baring his throat in a gesture of respect unique to Ue'drahc and Dragons. In a race of beings with horns, lowering ones head could be construed as a sign of aggression. "What is your name?"

@Cirice Vaisha

[Cirice Vaisha]

Cirice listened to what the half-breed had to say, not interrupting or moving an inch as he spoke. Only when he introduced himself did she turn to lean against the carved tree. "Cirice Vaisha, captain of the Harpy. I would be slightly offended by you not knowing my name but it seems you don't know much about anything outside of your homeland." she introduced herself as she glanced at him. "I hope you pray and thank whatever god you believe in for a loving family and a home to return to, Darius Goldmane." she continued. "And I hope that you maintain that relationship for however long you live." She walked towards him and leaned down to bring her face mere inches from his.

"Because you can take it from an elf that's spent more than her fair share of lifetimes on this rock. The moment that you do not have them anymore is the day you know what loneliness is. And no amount of drinking, killing and company in bed will change that." she hissed. Leaning over, she picked up his glaive and gave it a twirl. "Have you ever sailed across the seas, Darius?" she asked as she played with his weapon and embedded the blade into the soft earth beneath her. "I've been sailing for over two centuries. Storms, broadsides, a mutiny, boardings, sea monsters, anything out on the waves that could have claimed me over and over. Yet here I stand. Scarred, hardened and a shadow of my former self. Not once have I shed any tears... except for today. Do you know why?" she asked calmly as she pulled the glaive from the ground.

With a violent swing she hurled it past his head and into a tree behind him. "Because after more than two centuries, my family still hates me and act like it's my fault that my father is now six feet under!" she snapped at him. "I was here for work, yes. But what really brought me back was the blubbering thought that I could make things right with them and fix the damage I wrought!" she continued, pacing around in front of him. "They chase me away from his grave, ban me from coming near his grave or any of them ever again. Then on top of it all, my old commander doesn't even recognize me even when he's staring directly at me." She walked over to the stone and sat down next to him. "And now here I am, the proud and notorious Wildling Pirate, opening my heart to a random half-breed out in the wilderness." she finished, glancing at him.

"If you try to slide a blade between my ribs, you better not miss. Because I will not leave anything of you for the crows to feast on if you waste your shot." she threatened him with a hushed voice as she turned to face him with a scowl. Clearly a little anxious about being in the woods with another person in this vulnerable state.

@Darius Goldmane

[Darius Goldmane]

"I take it trust doesn't come easily to someone in your....line of work I suppose I could call it." Darius replied calmly. Aside from a slight jerk of the head as the glaive went wizzing past him, he didn't seem all that phased by it. "Not that I should be all that surprised. I don't know how accurate the stories of pirates I've heard are, and today is my third day away from my home, but I've heard it said that no one is more suspicious than a suspicious person." He shrugged. "Course it doesn't exactly sound like you've had much choice in the matter. Or maybe that's not the right way of putting it. Maybe you've had choices, but this was the one that got you the furthest away, and buried you under so much that you could ignore the pain."

He rose to his feet, and stepped towards the tree where his glaive had imbedded itself. "I'm pretty young by Ue'drahc standards, let alone by elves if I remember my lessons correctly." He bent down and took hold of the glaive. "And even before I left home I spent probably more time with animals than with people. But you can learn a lot about living beings from watching animals." With a tug, the glaive came free of the trunk. "For example, a lot of people think that all animals are dangerous, and that carnivores especially will attack and kill anything they see with no provocation. They're wrong though." He placed his hand over the gash in the tree, and closed his eyes. "In my experience, most hunters only attack for two reasons. First, they're hungry and need the food. Second, and much more often, they feel threatened in some way." A warm emerald light began to surround his arm, flowing down to his hand and into the tree. Slowly the gash in the tree began to close up, until the damage had been reduced to chunk of missing bark and a slight indentation in the wood. Darius leaned against the glaive for a few seconds as the fatigue of the spell washed over him, then opened his eyes. His right eye, the more reptilian eye, glowed faintly emerald. "And no creature will feel more threatened than when it's already been seriously wounded."

The glow faded, and he made his way back to the rock he had been seated on. "I'm not here to take advantage of those wounds. I'm here because I don't like seeing beings in pain. It's that simple." He lowered himself to the ground again. Whatever magic he used to repair the tree, it clearly took a decent amount of energy for him to cast.

@Cirice Vaisha