1. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    The ground was atremor. For two thundering heartbeats, Rolf stared at death in the face, the sight of the creature come to reap almost making him drop his sword. He hadn’t thought this through. He couldn’t feel his feet, of a sudden. A hand yanked at his shoulder and he almost fell back at the...
  2. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Had it not worked? For all that shrieking, the thing was still moving. It swiped and Zahra kept her scream muffled behind pressed lips, scampering off the way on all fours. From its red and blue leather sheath at her belt, she pulled her knife and kept it underarm, ready to return cut for cut...
  3. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Zahra said nothing to the apology, but she’d remember it. Etch it on bone by the parts that flared red with easy anger and vindictive retaliation. She almost felt silly then, for the insults she’d conjured at a speed to make her bogwitch of a mother proud. Would she be proud, seeing all this...
  4. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    It all happened rather fast. Zahra froze in place, watching the thing rush out at her, snapping at air where she would have been had she dared take one more step. It seemed an ordeal to get it under control, as though words could halt it, physical pressure was required to push it back from...
  5. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    The right one. Zahra bit back the instinct to ask for extended clarity, for a strong enough hunch battered into her at the same beat. Yes, of course, who else — She merely nodded and turned on heel, swift and quiet as she could, bumping her shoulder against Rolf’s as if on accident on the way...
  6. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    “ Yeah, I don’t like that. “ Rolf blurted out, having barely finished the sentence when Zahra elbowed him into the side of his brigandine. Bonk. Jaakko paid them no mind, keeping his receptive disposition. It may have even appeared blasé. See he would, then. Were that he made himself a fool in...
  7. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Neither matches. Small reliefs, then, if with the curio that if not the scouts not in their midst, then who? What did it mean to be dressed like ‘his people’? His look regarded his own colours, then those upon Zahra and Rolf, both of whom strained at the effort of lunching as if they weren’t...
  8. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    He listened, expression unflickering. Eleventh — well, fuck. Once the young man finished, he merely gave a nod and a hum, rotating the tad to glance at the First Scout. She was already at attention, meeting the look and stepping closer. Scout’s instincts. “ Fetch the rest. We’ve a situation —...
  9. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Zahra stared at the man come to the door, taking another bite of the winter apple. They weren’t perfectly ripe yet, requiring time in the cellars to properly manifest their acidic sweetness. Right now, they were rather sour, which was clear on her face as she swallowed. “ No, everyone is out. “...
  10. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    “ No page. There used to be a squire, but he is gone now. “ What happened to that young man, she didn’t know. What usually befell lads too enthusiastic about swords? She’d weaseled her way into the retinue just in time to glimpse the very last sight of him. The baron’s answer to her daring...
  11. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Something flickered in Zahra’s eyes at the mention of study, those she hid by bowing her head and rotating lightly on heel, idly. “ A wizard never stops studying. “ She responded, offering respects in a nod. An almost laugh twisted her lips when the baron remarked on her Lord in turn, a...
  12. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Wasn’t him? Zahra shifted the tad to glance Lord Thornley in the eye. The man moved fast then, striking out, revealing exactly what he meant. Her face transmuted from forlorn to blank and then to something much more curious, even tentatively awestricken. “ A shame. What makes you say so? “ She...
  13. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Jaakko bobbed his head in agreement, first at the wizard, then to the mention of field expertise. The First Scout didn’t argue, just hummed, flicking a salute off the temple to the lot once they finally departed. The door closed again, falling under firmer guard than any night prior. They kept...
  14. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Come knocking they did, for the darkest hour. The First Scout opened the door, having sat snoozing by it in the vestibule where she’d been posted to listen for the Lord’s arrival. Just in case. No way to miss the scheduled late night circus. Her tired black eyes regarded first the Lord, then...
  15. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Jaakko sat entirely still, small fry caught in a trammel betwixt the two; a magician and one who claimed to be no such thing, ‘unable to shape the Shroud in ways it doesn’t bend’. He didn’t know if he believed that, with how the light had played tricks in the man’s eyes when he’d seemed to...
  16. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    It seemed to go over well enough. He responded the politeness with his own, a nod and a smile, that good old ease bleeding back to his shape. It lasted but the bit that it took for the man to finish their settlement, until pivoting rather harshly. Away from him and to— He rotated quickly on his...
  17. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Witching hour at the gates did sound terribly titillating, plain upon his face when the idea was floated so wantonly. He’d not seize the offer outright in the midst, what with how pleasant it was to just chat indoors for now, but bobbed his head all the same. Deal, memorized, committed. As for...
  18. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    Little to complain about? it strummed a strange tune, rattling the bars — things to not be examined or pressed on, not now, when it was so late and yet so early. So politely he would accept the words, from beginning to end, just smiling and tilting his head like a dog trying to make sense of...
  19. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    They’d settled in smoothly enough — even found all the men that’d gone astray upon entry to Arpa. The First Scout, with help from the wizard that’d seemed to perk up a little after a spell of warming up at the alehouse, had shepherded them by the third hour into what would be shared quarters...
  20. J

    Private Relations, Yours & Mine

    He was caught betwixt standing up and sitting down, when someone he didn’t know deigned to address him at long last. Lordships and all. The First Scout, too familiar to ever bother with formalities, snickered into the stem of her pipe at the sound of it. Jaakko remained standing to listen, a tad...
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