Legend of Renalta: Grey Lines (Seba & Brovo)

[Brovo]

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess, who rose up in arms and fought against the Gods themselves to restore her lands to glory. Her struggles marked the end of one era, and the beginning of another, as her determination saw her through many mistakes and plentiful death. Such stories make for riveting telling for children everywhere...

However, this is not the princess' story. No, this storyteller has another, lesser known, but equally important tale to tell. A tale of espionage. A tale of two people who are unlikely to ever make it into the history books, assuming they do their job right. Perhaps even falling in love?... Ah, but I get ahead of myself. Let us start from the beginning...

Once upon a time, there was an angel named Roth Vellyian. He had been assigned a complicated task by his god: Help Princess Kouri by interfering with the plans of other gods, and by disrupting local threats to the princess, without ever being known by the princess. If he was ever caught, there would be no help coming for him.

In the midst of his first mission, he managed to complete the first half of his objectives; disrupt the plan of the gods. Unfortunately, in doing so, he had to engage in a battle to escape with some local bandits, one of whom scored a lucky shot to his back, knocking him out of the sky. Though the angel won the fight, he found it too difficult to continue the quest. As his vision started to fail him, and he could barely see a figure approaching. Before he could figure out who, darkness envelops his vision, and he falls unconscious.

...

Roth awoke, slowly but surely, in a dark room. Blinking his eyes a few times, he realizes he is in a cabin. He winces and grasps his side, as he was still in pain from the wounds on his back and side, though they appeared bandaged. Confusion and gratitude surges through him, as he speaks quietly. "Is anyone here?"

 

[Seba]

One more buck and she'd be set for the winter. Just one more and she could preserve it and she would be set for whatever the mountain would throw at her. When she heard something crashing through the forest so close, Rowena thought perhaps the mountain had given her a gift to repay her for the damage it had done the year before. Instead... When she reached the source of the disruption she couldn't help but feel disappointed. She assumed, at first, it was simply a climber that had been blown off the side of the mountain. It happened and it was sad, but there was nothing she could do.

Closer, she saw it wasn't a man at all. It was something that she had only heard in tales. She had thought that maybe she had seen them flying above the forest and the cliffs, but the mountain played tricks on her. Here, Rowena could see the truth. She moved her thumb down the bridge of her nose then across her cheekbones. She then dropped to her knees and began to put her hand in front of his nose and mouth, assuming this creature was as human like as the legends said, then laid her head to his chest to hear a thready tha-thump.

Once she was sure that he was alive, and that by moving him he wouldn't bleed out like a stuck pig, Rowena put him on her back and brought him home. Her mama had always said that she should bring a male home, but Rowena assumed she hadn't wanted something like this. She got him into the cabin with a little bit of stumbling and bumping, and soon he was on the down mattress she had made herself before she left home. Her little cabin wasn't much, but it was enough to keep the cold out and the comfort in.

There was nothing on the man to give her his name, and she was nervous to do anything with his form. Wasn't he from the heavens? Was his clothing divine? He had weapons that she had never seen quite like this. Yet if she didn't act soon she would have to remake an entire mattress with winter sooner than she wished to think about. Soon he was patched and salved as much as she could spare, and she was sitting in the corner of her cabin near the fireplace. The angel's weapons were laid on the table closest to her, so that if he was to abolish her like they had the Princess of Old, she at least wanted an edge.

When he woke up, she expected him to explode and rage until there was nothing but a cavern where her cabin had been. Instead he was quiet and soft. She tilted her head to the side, her silvery, ashen hair catching the light of the fire as it slid across her back and over her shoulder. "I am here. Who are you? What are you?" Her voice was equally soft in an attempt to not upset the creature in front of her.

 

[Brovo]

Hearing the gentle voice reply made Roth hesitate before seeming to relax. He wasn't in harm's way here. "Ah. I am..." He pauses again, as his eyes fall upon her. She seemed so frail, and yet, she must have been the one to drag him here and patch his wounds. He chose his next words with an intentional secretiveness, trying to ensure he wouldn't scare her. "I am Roth, and dear woman, I am an angel. A guardian, one who keeps people like you safe from more dangerous things." His golden eyes reflected his nature clearly, as he tried to convey that he meant no harm. Slowly, he swung his feet out over the side of the bed he was laying in, and winced a little. "How long have I slumbered here? I am late to accomplishing my task..."

 

[Seba]

"You say these words as if i should understand what you mean. Should I know what a guardian is? Should I know that you tell the truth? If you are meant to protect people like me, where have you been these last thousand years?" She was quiet after a moment, seeing Roth's face but feeling no trust toward him. Not yet. "I am Rowena and you have been in my house for maybe five hours. I do not know. I haven't gone outside since I brought you in here. What task? What are you doing here?" Her anxiety was clear in her shaking voice, but her fists clenched at her sides said something else.

 

[Brovo]

Here it was: The fear... The fear that seemed to permeate every mortal that had seen him for many years, save those too foolish to know how dangerous he was capable of being. Yet, a soft look remained in his eyes, perhaps with a hint of disappointment. "When we do our jobs properly, you are never supposed to know. I have fought demons for centuries." He stretches quietly, though flinches in pain. He was able to move, but it seemed painful for him. "But my objective has changed. My god has sent me to aid an important person here. One of your kind... You would never believe who, I think."

He manages to slip out of bed, though grips his side in pain. Nonetheless, he seemed determined. "I thank you, Rowena, for your aid. Now all I need is my weapon, and I will depart." He glances at her fists, and frowns. "You will not have to fear me any longer when I am gone."

 

[Seba]

The more he spoke the more vague he seemed. Rowena felt as if she was being played the fool as he said she would not believe the truth. She was no noble lady surrounded by books and music, but that didn't mean she was unintelligent. Then he started moving and asking for weapons. She moved straight back to where she had been and grasped his weapons, slowly shaking her head. "You have told me so little and then you ask for means to ease the efforts of violence? I don't think so. You seem to be entirely too hurt by far, and I can't bring myself to trust you. Not yet. You say I fear you, and you could not be more correct. I am stuck attempting to find a reason to trust you when you all give me are fuzzy explanations and nothing I can believe with my eyes or my mind. Why should I let you go?"

 

[Brovo]

A sigh leaves his lips, though Roth simply glances around at the cabin. He seemed to be looking for signs of who else may have lived here. "Because if you do not, I will fail in my task, and the last of a royal line may pay the price. A royal line who may be able to rectify a thousand years of failure on the part of the heavens." He turns and looks at her, abandoning his previous attempts to disguise his intent. It was clear she would not let him go without an answer. "I was sent here to protect a noble woman from feelings of misplaced anger by some of the Gods. It is a long story, and I may be able to tell you more, if I may simply have my weapon returned to me first." He reaches out with one hand, though makes no effort to snatch the weapon away preemptively: He was waiting for her to hand it to him. He seemed to have quite a soothing aura to him. A rare sort of assured sincerity that most people did not possess. "Please. If you meant me harm, you would have acted upon my slumbering form, and if I held malice toward you, we would be fighting one another right now... Trust me, I mean you no harm."

 

[Seba]

As tempting as it was to keep Roth's weapons held captive for a little longer, Rowena was beginning to feel as if perhaps he could be trusted. There was so much about him that she found herself unable to explain, and he was right that he had not tried to hurt her yet, nor she him. So she handed him his weapons back, but took a half step back herself. "You have your weapons now. I want to hear this story. If your mission is so urgent..." Which she now suspected it must be. She had heard rumors in her little mountain home, but these sorts of rumors occurred at least every other year in this part of the world, "I will accompany you. I doubt you can bandage yourself as well as I could, so if nothing else I should keep an eye on your injuries until you finish your story or I am bored of you."

 

[Brovo]

"Perhaps it would be preferable for you to be bored, it would be safer for you, but I doubt that boredom will set... Unfortunately." He motions for her to follow him, as he flicks his wrist and dismisses his weapon from existence. It is quite possible he could have simply summoned it straight to his hand to begin with. "I am here to protect Princess Kouri of Renalta, without directly interfering in her journey. The Gods are split between those that wish to atone for what they have done and those who wish to finish what they started a thousand years ago. I am part of the smaller faction that wishes to atone." He glances around the cabin, then moves to the front door. He opens it, and smiles as he feels fresh mountain air greet him. "If you sincerely wish to aid me, then be aware my task is fraught with danger, and will take me to many places, beyond these mountains."

"Do you still wish to aid me?"

 

[Seba]

Now this was something she had been waiting for her whole life. She had been dying to go somewhere, anywhere, aside from this cabin for months. The mountains only grew more perilous as there were fewer travelers because the orc tribes were growing. The game was growing thin and that which she could gather had run out at the height of summer. Now she didn't need to fear surviving the winter. She would find other ways to survive while on the road, and she had a companion. Something that had never come into the equation before. Not only a companion... but a divine companion. While he had one foot out the door already, she hurried to grab her "go-pack," a bag she always had ready in case of an unexpected, extended hunting trip. She fumbled with getting her buckskin jacket over her arms and putting her go-pack on at the same time.

Once she was finished struggling she grabbed her bow case and quiver, then her knives, wrapped in a buckskin as well. This left the cabin essentially empty, and all she had left to do was throw water on the fire. Then Rowena was bounding out the door with Roth despite her best efforts to conceal her enthusiasm. "So we're saving the world? How could anyone say no?"

 

[Brovo]

Roth smiles widely and bows his head in thanks for her excitable aid. "Most would not share your enthusiasm so quickly." He watches her speed out the door after him, and stops as he looks around the area. "You realize that you will be putting your life in extraordinary danger? Before we can continue, I need to know, if you realize this." His tone was soft, as he looked at her once more.

 

[Seba]

"Roth, I endanger my life every time I step out of my front door. The mountain cares not for who dies by its cliffs, and I highly doubt the enemy we oppose will feel any differently. If anything, I may be able to understand that which tries to kill me now. Plus... now I don't have to sit around in a cabin all day, by myself. This is far preferable." She fell silent for a second then smiled and shrugged, shifting her pack on her shoulder and taking a few more steps. It was clear that she didn't know which way they needed to head, but she was eager to be led.

 

[Brovo]

Roth briefly smiles back to her, though there was something odd in the way his lips curved. A slight faltering, a hint of uncertainty, as he motioned for her to follow him down the side of the mountain. There was no sense in trying to pick her up and simply fly down the mountain side either: He was unable to fly, due to persisting injuries, but he was capable of doing everything else well enough.

------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Thankfully, from Rowena's cabin on the mountain side, it would only take about an afternoon's worth of travel to reach the territory of one of the two major orc clans in the area. Roth attempted to explain, to the best of his ability, what was going on to the woman he had only just recently met, and still didn't totally trust: The princess' group was likely to travel through these two clan's territories, and so, if Rowena and Roth could spark a conflict between the two factions, it would make it easier for Kouri's group to navigate through, one way or another. At the very least, the two groups would focus their attention on each other, and thus likely overlook a much smaller and far more insignificant group of mere travelers.

The issue being, that these two orc clans had come to a non-aggression over the past few months, that was slowly leading its way to a potential alliance. A power bloc which would frighten Rheinfeld, and make Kouri's travel through it all that much harder. So Roth's plan was simple: He was going to try and implicate one group of orcs for stealing the other group's valuable possessions. Whether those were slaves or powerful artifacts, he would have to discover by infiltrating among them.

The two arrive on a cliff overlooking the main entrance of one of the orcish camps. "The Wolftooth Clan. Named as such for their breeding and care over wolves, which they use as guards, and as part of their raiding parties." He glances down between the guards at the entrance, and then motions toward further watchmen, hiding among various rocky outcroppings. "I doubt we can win through sheer violence alone. We will need to use diplomacy... Still, we have some time to plan. They do not know we are here." He speaks with a hushed tone, as he quietly summons a small flask of water into his hand. "I am stronger than nearly any of them individually... Any ideas, Rowena?" He glances to her, and frowns as he looks her over. "You can still turn back you know. The orcs are not exactly... Enlightened, about women."

 

[Seba]

Their travels were fairly quiet, and the silence only became louder when she realized where she was, and what she was looking at. The orcs were not something to be trifled with, and she had praised the powers that be when their raiding parties became less frequent against each other. War required resources, while when they were at peace she was able to take more to her home to prepare. Now Roth was proposing undoing all the good work that had happened. Rowena pressed her lips together and looked over at Roth to see the angel holding a flask of water she hadn't seen on him before. She crossed herself before she could see the irony in it.

"Is there nothing else that can be done? Can't we avoid upsetting them? I do not worry about what they could do to me, I can fight and I doubt an angel of the heavens would allow them to harm me in ways which you allude to. If nothing else, do you think we could persuade them to simply put on a show of fighting? Make loud noises and splatter animal blood around cliffs and trees." Her voice was just as soft as Roth's, but her voice trembled slightly. She wasn't embarrassed by her fear, and instead thought it was quite clever to be scared of two large tribes of orcs. Additionally Rowena found herself trying to reach for the flask, just to see if was as real as it looked to be.

 

[Brovo]

Noticing her curiosity, his gold eyes look down to the flask. He hands it to her gently, and nods. "Water. Clean." He then glances out toward the orc base's cavern entrance, and grimaces as he sees them pulling out a few dead bodies and tossing them into a pile, likely for later use. Most of them were orcs. A few were human. Most were male. "They're a barbaric and violent people. They will do nothing more than raid and attack others... War is their life. Diplomacy is our best course, but we need a good offer to get inside. Something they might want..."

 

[Seba]

Rowena understood Roth's point, but it didn't sit well with her. The pile of dead bodies made her wrinkle her nose, but it didn't turn her stomach. She took the flask and took a drink of water, trying to figure something out. What would they want? What could they give them to encourage them to do what they wanted? She paused for a second then slowly turned to face the man beside her.

"Well... You said they weren't enlightened about women. What if you brought them one? Would that get us in?" She paused for a second, letting the option sink in before shrugging and rubbing the back of her neck. "Or if it's feasible, we could find another wolf for them. You said they train them? Could you get a very big, very strong wolf?"

 

[Brovo]

Her proposition took him a little off guard, irritation reflected in his eyes as he looked at her. "I will not hand them yet another slave." Yet, her second suggestion seemed to hold some merit. They could sell them a wolf... Or, at least, leave them with the promise of a wolf to sell. "I cannot summon life, though... We could promise them a blessed wolf. I am an angel, I have the power to ask for one. We can use that as the bartering chip to get inside, though, once we are, we need to reach their artifacts chamber and steal something of value to them."

He glances back to her, and then motions to the entrance or the cavern. "Shall we get to it, then?"

 

[Seba]

At least he had taken one of her ideas, and it was the one she honestly preferred. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, per say, but rather that she had already seen that he could be shot out of the sky. Rowena did not want to fall that high with or without his help. She brushed off her pants as she rose to slowly approach the cavern. Roth would have to walk in front of her. Her survival instincts wouldn't allow her to walk into a camp of orcs completely on her own. It was highly doubtful she would ever become that adventurous... Or stupid.