The Fight for Freedom

She saw his posture melt as he slouched farther. He seemed so broken, she wanted to help him but it didn't seem as if she could. Elise pulls her hand away and clasps them behind her back, looking down as he spoke, feeling as if she was in trouble. Soon, his words made her angry, she clenched her jaw and lifted her head to look at him. Her eyes narrowed just as his did. "A story still has meaning. I'm sorry you are tormented. I know that I don't know the burden you carry," she seemed to growl slightly as she spoke. "I never claimed it would be any different. I was trying to be helpful my motives are pure." Her voice faded as she walked towards the door, flinging it open as she spoke. "You didn't have to come," Elise snapped. "You are the one who trailed my steps. You could have denied the invitation." She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the open door, clenching and relaxing her jaw, starting to curse herself for welcoming someone and telling him things she had. That's what she gets for being a bit too trustworthy.
 
The man stood up again, and wrapped his dark cloak around him, hiding the armor, hiding the prayers, hiding the fetishes that hung on the hinges. Ronan stared straight through her with those golden eyes, as if trying to figure something out, something that lurked deep and dark within her. He didnt' care what magic she had, he didn't care that she had probably been hunted all her life. It felt like his empathy was bleeding away from him. Ronan rested one hand within his cloak on the hilt of his sword. He looked vulnerable, and hurt somehow.

"I cam here because there was some reason for me to come here, some reason that in twenty years you're the first person I've talked to, other than myself." His yellow eyes narrow, "I do not go places without a purpose. I am the Déiseach of Whitewall. I am the last part of a dead religion and a dead nation." He frowns at her, "And since you seem to be a mage yourself, perhaps you can direct me to another."
 
She looked away from the man as she waged an internal battle. This was the first person to acknowledge her in awhile, his words were of kindness and not hate. Part of her wanted to scream out don't leave me, but she suppressed the feeling. It almost felt as if her heart was aching and she didn't know why. Her anger began to dissipate, her frame relaxed, and she sighed, dropping her arms to her sides. Finally, Elise looked up at him. He was fully cloaked and that, for some reason, saddened her.

"I know a couple of mages," she said softly, shutting the door so no one outside would hear her. "I was supposed to present some important papers in front of a group that is known as the alliance." Walking over to her cloak, she pulled out a few sheets of paper. "I don't know what information is on them, but I do know, soon I will be arrested and placed in a prison near the capital. I did not appear in front of them tonight.." her voice faded and she glanced over at him "I did not appear in front of them tonight because of you. Besides the couple mages who are my leaders, I know no one else. They hide."

Feeling deflated, she sat back down and dropped her head into her hands. Why should she try to run from the inevitable? There are many stories of mages that fought the guards that came to arrest them, which led to their death not their imprisonment. She was going to go easily. No story of her defiance would make it through the town. That was the future she accepted when she joined the alliance. It was one rule she thought she could keep. Appear in front of them with needed material and stay out of jail. Not show up with what they needed, or not have the material they wanted, and be imprisoned.
 
Ronan smiles very slightly, and the smile is for the first time slightly sinister. The voices within him grow very silent. It's tense in the room, as Ronan considers his options. He needs a mage, preferably a cleric or a wizard, with a specialization in the school of magic that might have started this whole tyranny. The paladin reached out to look and the papers, and then blinked, frowning, "I can't read common-speech. I can speak the tongue well enough, but the tongue is not my own. I hear only the oldest of elves and fae creatures speak my language now. It was dying out even when I was a child." He looks at her with those golden eyes.

"My visit has troubled you," He says flatly, "I have been told that I am a troubling person." He shrugs his shoulders, and then returns to look at her with yellow eyes, hard, business-like, "I am in need of both a Diviner and a Necromancer. When I was young, Oracles used to travel between the countries, telling tales and truths to any who asked. I'm sure that there are some left in the world.' He frowns, "A necromancer will be harder. I know that I will lose a good deal of myself seeing one, and that there are many who will... find themselves displaced because of it. But a necromancer is what I need right now." He sighs, "And The Unspoken damn any who get in my way."

We don't damn, Deiseach. We don't damn. We lead, we guide, and this won't work. We know what you're thinking. This can't work. You'll be lost to us forever, Deiseach... We don't damn.
 
As Ronan spoke, Elise looked over at him just missing a slight smile. Getting up, she walked over to him and looked over the paper. It pointed out tunnels that got into the capital. "Its a map of words instead of pictures. Its showing tunnels to get into the capital." She put her finger on a word. "It looks like the tunnel that leads straight into the middle is outside of the wall." Elise furrows her eyebrows as she looks over the map. "I don't even know if the tunnels exist anymore." She murmured and tapped her lips with her pointer finger as she got lost in her thoughts.

Elise meets his eyes, ignoring his comment about troubling her. That was the first time she every paid much attention to his eyes and that was the moment she decided she liked them, even if they were hard looking. "I have always been taught a necromancer is a thing of the past. I can't get past the walls but maybe you can. I can't imagine that a necromancer would be in the town walls." She looked away from him, forcing the feeling of attraction down. Why are you thinking he might actually care? She thought as she took a step back from him. "I can do some looking for you, at least until I'm arrested."
 
"We can both get into the capital city. There's no need for this secrecy or the secret police or rebellion nonsense." He frowned sharply. Ronan was not the sneakiest of people, and hated doing things underhandedly. To be truthful, he couldn't even really lie. It had simply never been an option for him. He was damning himself in so many ways, but he can't bring himself to tell a lie. He has to hold on with what little control he has left. He thought he had gotten revenge when he destroyed that monster so many years ago, but... He was never satisfied with what he had. It hadn't been enough. He was going to bring Whitewall back, stone by stone, person by person. And then, maybe... then maybe he could finally bring back his greatest love and his greatest friend....

"Enough of this secrecy. We'll get into the capital city from the front gate, and if they try and stop us, I will kill them. Simple as that. I will say some small prayer for their souls, and that will be the end of it. I am a hero still." He shrugged, and said this casually, as if this was something he had done all the time, and that was part of the truth, "We'll find a necromancer in the capital city, or we'll find someone to lead me to one. I need to find an Oracle anyway." He narrows his amber eyes, "And you're going to help me." He smiles, "Why? Because I'm going to set you free."
 
"You may be able to get in but normal people you can't. You sir, are far from normal." Elise could not quite understand why he seemed against this rebellion. She remember when she first heard about the alliance. Her father had been killed because of snipers on that wall. He was adamant about being free and he led the first rebellion, but instead of hiding, he went straight for capital getting himself, along with others, killed instantly. Shaking her head, she let the memory go and forced herself to focus on Ronan.

"That is easy for you to say. They will surely stop us. You talk of killing like it isn't a big deal." The fact he talked of killing so nonchalantly frightened her, making her wonder if he did this regularly. Elise allowed him to continue talking, not really knowing what to say. She took in his words until he mentioned setting her free. "In a sense I am bound to you now. If I don't help you I'm not free. Only you can set me free." With a small sigh, she nodded and once again accepted her fate.
 
"And you're a mage. That's hardly normal." He frowned at the girl, and ran a hand through his blonde hair, shaking it out slightly, making it seem a little more tousled, , more like a common soldier in a common soldier's war. Ronan frowned at her and shrugged his shoulder, and drew his sword for a moment. It came out of the wooden sheathe easily, revealing a long golden blade, carved with symbols, words in that same old language. He frowned at it, and put it back in his sheathe. He hadn't used that sword in twenty years. Or more. Would it still work? Did he still have the talent for it? Ronan's sword went back into its sheathe with a clink, and he turned to look back at the girl.

"Killing no longer is a 'big deal'. People choose their own fate and in death are either rewarded or punished,' He narrowed his tawny eyes further, till they were almost slits, shielded by long golden eyelashes, "You are not bound to me, you are not my slave. You don't know my faith, my practices, or my habits, and thus, you are not mine." He pauses, "However, it would be wise to come with me. I know nothing of this... rebellion, but in order to find myself an oracle and a necromancer, I will need your help."