Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? - Chyril 24th - ET

[Raevyn D`Altamooriana]

Once again the assassin found herself searching for the correct words to use in which to give an appropriate response. Well maybe not appropriate, but suitable enough for her two hosts. They were talking of morals, to a girl who really didn't have any. Her only motivations, were self serving ones. Ones that got her either more money, or more power in her own eyes and perhaps even those of others.

This is where the irony of this conversations arises. If Raevyn had been in Pax herself, then perhaps she would be organizing the same sort of thing which Ulder and Elaine were speaking of now. The help which they were obviously willing to offer would be greatly appreciated. If she were on the inside. However, she wasn't. She never even heard of Pax Balthasar, let alone cared about what was going on to the people that lived there. So in that aspect, their plight was none of her concern.

Even the words of the blind half blind half breed had a hint of ironic twist in them. The fact was that Raevyn was an effective killer, and she was a heartless one at that. Perhaps it was the loss of Morgana so long ago that had helped make her this way, or it was the events of the desert that had transformed her into what she had now become.

"My heart has nothing to do with my effectiveness," Raevyn answered sternly. "My beliefs also have little bearing on whatever decision I make."

The assassin traced her fingertip around the edge of her wine glass now. She found an odd soothing quality about this, and continued to do while she went on.

"Oneist's deserve to die, and I have killed many of them myself," she started with. "That day in the desert, on the mountain top with Dominicus himself, I watched on helplessly as he slaughtered thousands, or maybe hundreds of my kind. Women, children, young, old, it did not matter to him as he cast down his bolts of lightning on them. There was nothing I could do to stop him."

She paused once more. Not because she was at a loss of what to say, but to compose herself in order to continue speaking to them in their language.

"The war, saw them fall and that was enough to satisfy me to a point," Raevyn then said as she looked back and forth between the couple. "You ask of my heart, and my belief. Well it is my belief that those that follow the One should all die, like those helpless pagans, as you say, in the deserts fof Amun Rah. It is in my heart to see it happen, to make it happen. It is my heart to see Dominicus himself, fall from the heavens."

Her expression went blank, and Raevyn could feel herself getting worked up slightly. Her fiery emotions starting to smolder. The bloodlust which Ulder himself had witnessed in days past was starting to awaken deep inside her. Her words now took on a harshness that she didn't want them to take.

"When the orcs, killed Morgana... when they killed her no matter how many I killed after that, it did not bring her back. I killed alot of them, I crushed their skulls beneath my boot and yet she did not return to me. Their dying screams could not soothe the pain. She was gone, and a part of me with her."

Was it a rare moment of weakness?

"It drove me. It pushed me. It was my motivation to fight. Much like your desires, I guess the word is, to free the people of this village. Then it is mine as well. Means to an end, means to an end."

Finally...

"If freeing these people is your motivation, if it is your heart to do so. Then it is in my heart to kill those that oppress them."

[Ulder]

Ulder found himself completely aghast and dismayed by the dark Adhiel's words. He had always known Raevyn to be a young woman of deep conviction. From what he had seen, she had a great core of inner strength and fortitude. He'd seen it, heard it, watched it in action when the situations had been tense and potentially lethal. She had remained calm and composed and handled herself well in the most dire circumstances.

But the words that were spewing forth from her now were nothing resembling inner strength and conviction. All that she spoke of now was of hatred, and pain, and killing all who stood opposed to her. Enacting vengeance on those that hurt her by slaying anyone in her path.

And it was precisely the opposite of what he had hoped to hear from her.

Her words and how she justified them were diametrically opposed to what the entire goal of what they were going to try and accomplish was all about. She hadn't grown or learned from the senseless slaughter. All she had done was add to it. The young woman had merely carved out vengeance in blood, and cared nothing for the widows and orphans she had created. He found it disappointing at best.

He was silent for a long time. Pondering over her words, thinking about what to say next. He sat his glass on the table and pushed it away from himself. He suddenly found that he was no so hungry anymore. Raevyn's words turned his appetite to ash, and the taste in his mouth soured. Both were evident in the look of extreme disillusionment on his face. When he finally spoke, his words and tone were soft, crestfallen and melancholy.

"I had hoped for a different answer from you my friend. I had wanted you to come and help us. I had wanted you to speak of how this persecution was unfair and something needed to be done about it. I had hoped that the pain of your past, had forged a new woman. But all you speak of more killing, more death. We're not going to tear anything down, we're going there to build something."

He sat back, looking at her intently. His tone intensified and strengthened, like his own resolve to get through to her.

"I hoped that Morgana had reached you. That her fierce yet gentle spirit would have touched something inside your heart. She spoke of love and tolerance and peace, and all you have done is besmirched her memory with senseless slaughter and mindless hatred. It's not worthy of you or her. If a part of you died with her, I feel for you and that is very sad, but its no excuse not to seek something better to honor her. Widows and orphans that have been sown by your hand is no way to honor her or to justify your pain and grief. You have given her an epitaph of horror, blood and death. Is that what you want? Is that the way you wish to honor her name and her life?"

He didn't wait for her to answer.

"I think perhaps you misunderstand me and our mission. Out trip is not to go kill all the followers of the One we can find. That makes us no better than them. Our purpose is to raise temples to other gods. For the people of this town, and the entire West if need be, to be free to worship whatever God or Gods they choose."

"If all you are seeking is death and slaughter, then perhaps you need to choose a different path. I'm not seeking to wage war. I'm seeking to bring freedom."

[Raevyn D`Altamooriana]

He was Ulder, therefore he was a friend. That was perhaps the only saving grace for the former Captain of the guard from finding a dagger planted firmly in his throat. Morgana was sacred, in name and spirit to Raevyn. For him to speak of her like he had was a sin of highest regard in the eyes of the assassin. It took all of her strength that she could muster to remain calm and collected in the presence of her hosts.

"Ulder," she said, her breathe slow and deliberate as her words would be. "You failed to hear what I was saying," she then went on to say. Raevyn was concentrating on not speaking in her own language now. She was upset and very close to going into an all out rage.

"Nothing replaced that emptiness, no matter how hard I tried. So I did the only thing I could do, and that was to put Morgana out of my memory, out of my heart."

This much was true. In order for Raevyn to finally get over the loss of her love she had to completely forget about her. She had purposely jaded her heart and emotions in order to protect herself from them. In the process however she had given up the fights with her own conscious. The killer within had won out, and from that day on, Raevyn was and perhaps forever would be a heartless killer. With Morgana dead, there was nothing to save the adhiel from what she had become.

"The war I killed because I had to. I killed them so that they couldn't kill me which they most certainly would have," Raevyn said speaking of her part in the war of the One. "They oppressed us in Taquar which had been my home. The Oneists came with their beliefs, and their way of life."

For a moment Raevyn had thought that perhaps not being honest with Ulder would work, but no, she was going to stick to her guns and hope that he saw that she was right.

"Ulder, you are a friend, one that I do cherish. If you think that the Oneists will not try to kill you on this mission of freedom to Pax then you are sadly mistaken. It is their way, it is the way of their god. I have lived it, I have seen it with my own eyes."

Raevyn stopped speaking suddenly and extended both of her hands forward to grasp his before continuing.

"They will try to kill you, and I have lost far to much to lose you too after not seeing you for so long. That I will not let happen, I will come to Pax Balthasar Ulder, even if it is just to protect you from the evil that you will be facing."

[Ulder]

For a moment, with his hands in hers, he pondered if she could hear the inherent irony in her words. She had moments ago spoken of killing and slaughter because that was her way, and now she sat here and proclaimed that she would come along to protect him, because killing was their way.

He gave her a very pointed and direct look before standing and walking over to the low fireplace and it's mantle. From that mantle he picked up something that rested there and brought it over to the table and sat again. In his hands was his trophy of the caravan that Raevyn and he had shared long ago. It was a battered and well used orcish blade. A battle trophy won in combat, when he killed the weapon's previous owner, and taken the blade to use as his own. He didn't even have a sword when they started, and he had used this blade over and over again in many of his own battles. He was certain she would recognize it. He unsheathed it from its crude scabbard and laid it bare on the table.

"From the caravan, I used it afterwards until I got myself properly outfitted. There used to be something strangely poetic to me about fighting them with one of their own weapons."

He sat back and allowed her to examine it if she wished.

"I'm not viewing this mission any differently. As I said, I know that what we're doing is going to be unpopular. Likely as you said to the point of trying to kill us. That makes this no different from the caravan. Danger will lurk all around, and there will be those who always prefer killing and death to something or someone that challenges their viewpoint or represents change. I hold no illusions that the One church will think of us as friendly to their cause. There is nothing in me that thinks the Church is above murder and killing. Two of my own brothers were killed in that war, two precious lives lost because of their persecution and unbending ways."

He swallowed. A brief moment of grief haunted his eyes before he buckled on his steely resolve once more.

"What you suffered in Taquar, they do to the people of Pax Balthasar. My family has lost as much as any other to their persecution. The grief of my family matches the grief of those forced from their homes, and imprisoned. The tears of my mother for her lost sons is equal to any tears that have been shed over a lost love."

He was certain she would know that he was speaking of Morgana again.

"But rage and outrage are two different emotions. You can hate the orcs until the end of time for killing Morgana and taking her away from you. You can make them feel your wrath and rage and slay them all in the empty pursuit of vengeance. Or you can be outraged by what they've done and try to do something to change it. Use that energy and emotion to bring out something better in the world. You said yourself, it didn't bring her back. Now how many will never come back to their loved ones because of what you did in the midst of discovering that? How many are there out there now trying to put someone they loved out of their memory and their hearts because you took them away?"

"Don't you see? Burying the memory of Morgana only makes her cease to exist? The dead live on in us, in out hearts, in our minds, in our memories. If we push that away, then their lives were in vain and were meaningless. I don't want the lives of my two brothers, my father's sons, to be futile and hollow. I want my children, and my children's children and my descendants for a thousand yahren to come to know what kind of men they were and how much they meant to me. If you forsake Morgana's memory, who will remember when you are gone?"

His voice grew softer.

"A heart that forgets and is empty is nothing more than muscle and blood and a muscle that isn't used is weak and eventually lost. Use your heart for what it was meant for. To love, to remember, not to hate and to destroy. Listen to your own words. You hate the One church because of how they persecuted those in your home, yet you use their same methods as a defense of your own actions from your own pain. See beyond what they see. Feel beyond what they feel. The pain you endured was born of hate and malice, and terrible things have been done against you. But that doesn't mean you have the right to act as they do. You can be better than that. Just because its a world full of pain and grief, doesn't mean we have to live like it is. We can be stronger than that. We can be better than that."

[Raevyn D`Altamooriana]

The conversation with Ulder Raevyn thought, could go on for burns it seemed without either of them coming to a common ground. As persuasive in her ways as she was, the assassin couldn't get him to fully see things her way. It was time to move this thing along, and finally get to eating.

"I see," Raevyn answered. "You make a great point." All this talking in his language was beginning to take its toll on her as well as she had think about each word she said before she spoke it. It was also times like these were conceding victory, of sorts, was the only way to get what you wanted.

"Then it is done you silly human," the assassin said with a grin. "For the honor of our fallen we shall go to this place called Pax whatever you said it was." Raevyn raised her glass to meet his and spoke more. "Maybe we can help to build shrines and temples in their honor."

This Pax place, it would probably make a great place should she decide to perhaps start a temple in Anasati's name there. The place was new and surely without people who have worshiped the same lame gods for countless generations on down.

"Besides, you will need me to watch your back my friend."

[Ulder]

It was then where Ulder discovered that there were some victories that would never be won with a sword. That this mission, this... idea was a weapon in and of itself. Even more than that, there was something intangible about an idea as a weapon. He had never taken much stock in propaganda, not even the riots that had started from only words. But this night he felt the power of an idea, and how hard it was to fight. It only encouraged him more that not only were they doing the right thing, but they had a very good chance of succeeding.

He raised his glass as well.

"For the honor of the fallen." He echoed and toasted with her.

Her comment about watching his back gave him pause to give her a pointed look. He narrowed his eyes for a flicker or two at her, gauging the implications of that remark, but then gave her a playful wink and clapped his hands.

"Well now. Let us see about what we are eating tonight."

He stood and went over to the waiting food. He began to dig through the various plates and containers the pages had brought over from the esteemed inn.

"It seems our friends at the Dragon have given us a good variety of things to choose from. Come along, we eat like soldiers around here. Every man, or woman, for themselves."

Then, to contradict himself, he fixed a plate for Elaine, with all of her favorites and poured her some wine. As was becoming a habit already for the newlyweds, he simply arranged everything on the table for her, and let her make her way to the table on her own. It was probably one of his only concessions to her disability. When everything was ready for her, he fixed himself a meal after allowing their guest to pick and choose first.

He sat at the table last and watched the dog go scampering by. He looked at the two ladies, suddenly all too content. In a way, it was somewhat sad that before long, they would be living in the saddle and under constant guard and threat.

"So, tell me Raevyn. In all your travels, have you learned to ride? The west is wide and open, and we're likely to spend a great deal of time on horseback. Do you ride?"

[Raevyn D`Altamooriana]

When it was time to eat Raevyn waited while Ulder fixed his wife a plate then went to fix her own. It was awkward for a mere flicker or two but he did say every man and woman for themselves.

The spread was rather impressive for just three people, and not even that pesky four legged creature seemed to be much of a nuisance to the assassin now. After perusing what was there for the taking Raevyn loaded her plate with an assortment of vegetables, fruits and cheeses. She shied away from the meats however as they weren't much to her liking. Once her plate was full, Raevyn carefully made her way back to her seat.

As to habit, Raevyn would wait for Ulder and Elaine to begin eating first. It wasn't out of her being polite or courteous. It was because if the food happened to be poisoned, the effects would probably show on them fist in one way or the other. Not that poisoned food was much of a concern for the young assassin nowadays. She had intentionally poisoned herself on many occasions recently in her initiation rites to Anasati. If the food was in fact poisoned, chances are she would notice it right away and probably know what it was and how to deal with it.

When Ulder asked if she knew how to ride a slight grin appeared on her face. It was probably a sight to see, her smiling because it didn't happen all too often.

"I can ride a camel," she said holding back a chuckle. "Funny creatures they are. I learned in Amun Rah." Granted the assassin knew how to not fall off of them was about as far as her expertise in riding camels went. Yet she did know that much and she wanted to boast about it, even though she knew that Ulder didn't mean camels.

"Horses I can ride too, better than smelly camels. And there is no hump to get in the way." There was still one thing though that Raevyn wasn't too fond of when riding either animal. Saddles. They were not very comfortable at all. It was much better than riding one with no saddle at all, and after awhile Raevyn did get used to the uncomfortable things.

"All I need is a soft saddle and I will be alright," she said before taking a small bite of her food. "Also if your memory will serve you, you will remember that I rode them on our caravan journey."

[Elaine]

Words.
They were all but words.
Yet Elaine was having a hard time filtering out the emotions all of a sudden. She frowned and let go of Ulder with a smile, tapping her way to the kitchen to catch her breath for a moment.

She remembered her shielding lessons all too well, yet when the sharp contrasts between two people clashed, she could not help but feel it. These two would not come to terms, but would pretend they had, much like her mother and she had upheld the pleasant fantasy of actually being happy in World's Mouth.

The young woman took a few deep breaths and composed herself, re-establishing her daily shields to be able to deal with people without getting immersed in their emotions. A soft hum escaped her lips, creating the roots that would keep her safe.

How safe?
Safe enough!

Only when she was sure the blind Achadhiel made her way back, finding the food had arrived. "Hmmm...now if only I could cook like that." Her nose wrinkled in an attempt to pick up everything that was on the table. The girl seated herself in her usual spot, convinced Ulder would have left the table as she was used to it.

Indeed he had and the tidbits on her plate made her sigh in content. "Mmm...Nice...oh! About horses...now what do we do about that, Ulder? Can we take all three? It would be so unfair to leave one behind. I would not be able to do that."

Smalltalk. Don't drive them into a corner. I think they passed that point. There is some kind of a deal here and I should not push that.

Elaine picked up her own glass. There was something unfinished about having missed the toast a moment before. Her sensitive hearing had picked up on it well enough. "A little addition to your earlier toast, if you do not mind..."

She waited a few flickers. If there were no objections: "The honor of the fallen...and those that remained behind. For they are the ones carrying the weight of responsibility...and the memories of those that will not stand with them again."

Too heavy, perhaps, but was there honor in death? After the last yahren Elaine dared doubt it. The real honor was with those that stayed alive to pick up the fight.

[Ulder]

Memories for a human are short lived, and Ulder had no memory of Raevyn riding any horses during their days in the caravan. He remembered very clearly her trying to chastise Penth and himself from the back of one of the wagons he drove, but he could not recall her ever riding herself. It was no matter, if she could ride, she could ride.

"Camels? I've heard and read of such beasts, but never seen one myself. I don't imagine their will be need for camel riding, but perhaps you'll need to teach me if there is."

With Raevyn's request of a soft saddle and Elaine's question of taking the horses with them, it seemed the conversation was taking a turn into something he could talk on and on about.

"We will be taking all three indeed. I've put a lot of work in to them getting socialized with one another, I'm not about to let that go by the wayside. Guider is well used to other horses from his time in the stables. Velvet seems to be likening herself to Guider, and those girls are just like a princess and one of her ladies in waiting. They are becoming inseparable. Boot, well Boot is just a hard headed bastard that does as he pleases. He'll love the open ranges and spaces. He's been itching to stretch and run a bit."

Over the last few days, Ulder had gained a special bond with the Horse he had named Boot. The Charger was tough and crusty as old leather, and just as stubborn, but Ulder had spent half his life in the saddle, and the young stallion and he had formed a friendship that Ulder hoped would last for yahren after yahren.

Elaine's addition to the toast brought the memory of his brothers. He and Elaine had indeed been left behind, and their memory was indeed something of a burden to carry. Once again she had hit the nail square and true, and he clutched her hand to thank her for doing so yet again. She never ceased to amaze him. He toasted again.

"To the honor of the fallen, and the will of those left behind." He said solemnly.

He took a drink, and tried to return the talk to the next greatest love in his life.

"Perhaps Raevyn here will need a mount... When we are through eating, I'll take you out back to meet Velvet. She is a treasure."

[Elaine]

Relief

Elaine smiled and returned the squeeze. Not only did Ulder understand the toast, he also neatly solved a very real problem! The blind Achadhiel was not willing to leave any of the horses behind, but her true trust lay with Guider. Velvet was a beauty, a strong one and most definitely worth a million to those willing to spend some time with her.
But she was not Guider.

And now there was a possible solution to the dilemma! If they'd been alone, she'd have hugged her husband silly.

"Oh we should!" She chimed in, taking another bite. The young woman enjoyed the tender meat on her plate. "Velvet would welcome the change of pace. I've been favouring Guider, I fear."

[Morg]

Skilled and archived.