1. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    "Right." Walter finally caught his breath, and hindsight hit him. "Bad time." He lifted a hand to his eyes and rubbed them, head ringing and skin clammy under the clothes. It didn't take a toll, this time, but it left a frigid mark along every vertebra. The faint residual traces of Shroud...
  2. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    "Walter..." He could hear the footsteps before they entered the home, the same as he could hear Reginald's, the gate familiar and two more unknown. Agatha has arrived. For all his intent to be free of victims should Aelius attempt to burn him before he took that strength at inception point...
  3. Walter Thornley

    Private Tindercreek and Tillvale

    The afternoon shivered in collective dreary. Drizzle fell from the sky. A thick fog crept into the folds of the clothes, weighed them down with a chill. Today of all days in particular, the smell of old fires was wafting over from the end street east of the gate. Almost a month has passed since...
  4. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    "Didn't you say a few days prior that other weavers were only borrowing Ko's power, while it was bestowed on you? How do you tell the difference?" Walter shrugged. He was a godless heathen already, nothing much to lose in terms of respectability. There was a sigh full of patience, slow...
  5. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    Walter's lips pressed together tightly. Oh, they were all interesting. Uniquely so. And he loved them, he was certain. It may have not been an ideal depiction of love, it may have verged on desperation, it may have been - 'I don't want to be alone' - but he loved them deeply, all the same, and...
  6. Walter Thornley

    Open Surely we'll sing of no little thing

    Why poison it with unnecessary trouble, indeed. The baron chuckled under his breath - the tallest man in the room clearly had people handling the everyday trouble. He would prefer trouble. Trouble was an old, familiar friend, they spent so much more time together than the room more than...
  7. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    "Don't get too wild - I can curb the excessive zeal, but, well, I don't see any harm in you doing any work you feel like doing. You can cite my say-so if the commonfolk object, they'll let you." And, of course, Percy would keep an eye on the Huntsmen inside Arpa and they'd keep an eye on the...
  8. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    The eyes that would have been travelling along the line of collar, up the neck and along the jawline - would find a few paler marks. Scars, who knows how old. A blemish across the throat, large enough to not be immediately obvious by contrast. A much smaller, coma-shaped puncture wound closer to...
  9. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    ♬ Martia's Muses And with that, it was a poignant relief to finally be left alone as Reggie would have to trek all the way around the hill towards the storage houses and the closing stalls. No more ears behind walls, at least for now. To vocally give the man leave would be to announce intent -...
  10. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    "Ko's Temple is not here, save for you," Walter's words fell softly like bones onto a moss bed. He hooked fingers into the vest's collar, making sure it sat just so. "Your power is recognized, and taken into account," not bowed to, "...but your authority is that of a nobleblorn knight, Aelius. I...
  11. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    ♬ Martia's Muses He knew that part of it was an act. Of course it was, a considerate, soft lie. The boy that broke down in his arms was trying to reinstate himself as a prominent figure. But a tender spot needed to only be revealed once for that ruse to not be as effective. Walter appreciated...
  12. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    ♬ Martia's Muses One of the Huntsmen waved to Aelius exiting, offering a callout. "See you, lord paladin!" Most people who did not see exactly what had happened - have not heard the stories, yet. Most of them looked to Aelius with that every-present curiosity. Some smiled. Some took a moment...
  13. Walter Thornley

    Open Surely we'll sing of no little thing

    Oh, Walter's awareness missed nothing, not a single unique gait that shook the dance floor, not the cacophony of voices that his mind was splitting and separating by origin, not the way light glinted on cutlery and accessories and buttons and clasps and buckles, and not the way shadows moved...
  14. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    Up until Walter had almost fallen to his knees to salivate and spit over the porch - the stomach has been hollowed since the last three times, there was nothing else to throw up - the lord hung on by will alone. Past that point... He had already forced himself to perform at no capacity. Mercy...
  15. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    He did not need a healer to bind his flesh back together. There were other things. The man across broke the distance. No. But he was so tired. And he owed this young man at least that much, after all the disturbed air just now. Walter felt the arms wrap him in warmth. Something cracked inside...
  16. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    Wasn't because he went too far with an attempted joke, Walter knew. His mind swam, but his heart broke quietly. No. He knew it was inevitable, all sacred omens in the living men were bound to be pulled apart by greedy hands demanding that they give, but... "Aelius," he offered quietly...
  17. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    When he woke up in the soot, everything hit the at once - pain, stench, every sense screaming. So, about an hour ago, the first thing that happened upon victorious reemergence is throwing up on his knees and hand, violently, into the charred remains of some floor or other, and stumbling out of...
  18. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    "Shit, shit, shit," A willowy woman caught the glimpse of golden glow from Aelius' hands and gasped. "Hey, your paladinship - what's the proper way? Whatever, do you need some help getting up?" She vaulted over a half-burnt window frame, landed with a precarious thud, and moved along the edge of...
  19. Walter Thornley

    Open Surely we'll sing of no little thing

    With a soft sigh, Walter bit the tip of his tongue and avoided voicing the opinion that someone had dancing huntresses occupying most of the thinking space between the ears right now. With spare room for what Captain Agatha was drinking, of course. He chuckled to himself. Well, truly, cheers to...
  20. Walter Thornley

    Private Stillwater

    The touch was electric. It pulled into itself, burned the nerves with cold as it radiated Shroud for a beat longer. Perhaps, there was another realization to come. The lights came back after the skeletal being's passage, sometimes burned brighter. The sounds returned, resumed with no effort...
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