Closed An Irrefusable Offer (Senghor)

[Kaie]

She saw the ambitious glimmer in his eyes while he listened to her, and the thoughtful way he pondered in his silence before he finally addressed her. Again, the conversation persisted with their habit of honesty and transparency. Somehow he had undressed her. The oftentimes hard, impenetrable front she maintained fell from her flesh and plopped down like a coat about her ankles. The vulnerability within her thoughts and the helplessness she felt in the face of the world was on the table. She was bare before him, sitting there in that old chair. And he did not deceive her with his words, but his proposal was enticing all the same. He could not offer her what she wanted, could not bring her home or light the way toward the path she was to take. He offered something she needed. Something of this world she understood well. Camaraderie.

For some time she merely gazed at him with an even, neutral expression. Her eyes were trained on his face, her lips twisted ponderously as she quested to stomach and process what he'd said. The chair creaked curiously as she leaned forward toward him. Bronze fingers once again toured the lines of the table's wooden grains. "Blood of my blood. Loyal faces to fight for me. It all sounds a bit...romantic doesn't it?" She tried with a tiny twitch of a polite smile, curling her nails into the wood and slowly pulling them back toward her body. It was a glacial-speed gesture. The pads of her fingers wandered the deadly spires of the table's looser splinters, feeling each tiny prick against her flesh too weak to draw blood. "Have you forgotten where we are? I've been here long enough to know loyalty is a rare enough trait to find, and one that most often gets you killed. You and I have sacrificed and killed with one another before. Petch, any other mercenary would've left you for the Yukmen or the bandits, and any Sunberthian with an ounce of common sense would've kept himself out of what you rescued me from tonight." Goddess, how she hated to use that phrase: rescued me. She was no damsel in distress. She wasn't a woman draped in silk and carted about in decorated litters through the streets. She was a savage boasting naught but loincloth and leather vest, more inclined to treasure a scar's nostalgic power than the shimmer of a priceless gem. She was a Myrian and shamelessly devoted to all that her people were. "It's just as easy to pledge fealty as it is to break it. I don't care for coin like I once had seasons ago, but I know that you and those you're bound to must. How can I simply agree to trust these people and their allegiance anymore than they can mine?"

An apologetic grin graced her lips for a moment but she merely shrugged her shoulders. Could he really blame her for being so doubtful? "Selling my sword has taught me a thing or two about the importance of insurance. I do my best to keep daggers out of my back. You understand."

[Senghor Vilhjalmr]

She was cautious. Beneath those cinderous eyes with their almond curve peered speculation, beneath that sun-baked skin that would have mimicked his own streamed inquiring blood. It was to be expected, yet Seng still found himself smirking, it was a smirk that held no ill intent in the earnest. "What can I say, I've always taken myself as the knight in shining armour that conclusively saves that damsel from the hungry Yukmen." he said, leaning back with something of a chuckle trailing from his lips as he turned his head toward the sounds of the city, "I believe you and I are victims of circumstance Kaie," "We chose a path that many would not dare, our profession has us demeaned and demonized by our employers all because they cannot wipe their own asses and get rid of their own shit," the mercenary said crudely, his voice laced with acrimony, "I've lived in this city my entire life, and once you step out those gates, once you get a taste of freedom it becomes so addictive that you want others to have it too," "I've lived in Sunberth long enough to know, to know what the rest of the world thinks of us. To them, we're a godless, merciless, depraved brood worse than the myrian," he said clenching his jaw and biting down atop his own teeth, "Loyalty - it's something that every piece of dirt in this city tears at their fingernails for and for some of us who have it, we use it to survive, in here and out there." "Loyalty is truth. An the truth is Kaie, no matter how many bodies you lay before your employers, they will never be loyal to you, to people like us." he nearly growled, the glimmer in his eyes now a cold destitute pool, "Anyone else, any maggot wanting to make an extra pouch of mizas would have left me there to die, but you didn't," "To me, it's not because of kindness, but because of loyalty, of truth that one day when our paths would cross again and that my blade, that I would be loyal enough to repay the debt," Seng said, turning his head back toward the young woman, his eyes soaking up her exotic features, "It is indeed easy to make and break fealty, but it's harder to fathom whether it's true." "I have proved my fealty more times than I count, and I will prove it more times to come. But if you worry, and believe that these others will not, than I will take their blame," Seng said, his eyes burning with a passion, "If fealty is broken, by either myself or another under our resolution, than by all means, take that blade of yours and quickly make me a corpse." Seng smiled, a genuine smile that was solemnly ever seen from him. If the myrian didn't believe anyone of the Shackles kept their trust and brethrenhood than he prove it, his life for each one of their own if such a trust was broken. "You want insurance, than it will be my life for any transgressions against fealty." he said, a dry chuckle from his lips.

[Kaie]

Risk, she thought stubbornly. A curious risk. Yet how was one supposed to tell when it was best to play the hard or walk away from the game? If only there was a way to peer down the road ahead, to see each twist and turn of the different paths that marked her future. Only then if such a way existed would a concrete decision be reached. This was not so. She was blind to the seconds ahead of her, discovering the present with each step through the thick fog that obscured what was coming. Never alone though, death stalked her through the airy mist, just missing her whenever she took a step forward. Dira was never blind nor was a Myrian ever known to cause her much trouble. More often than not they dug their own graves or willingly wandered into the ones the goddess already had waiting for them. Yet none truly wished for death. They merely understood its inevitability. So how should she play this game?

Kaie listened quietly to the man's soliloquy. Her brow creased as she pondered each clause and searched for the hidden lesson in his anecdotes. An accomplished speaker, this one is. I'll give him that. Still, she doubted even the highest born in Syliras would place any human, Sunberth-born or otherwise, below the savages of Falyndar.

"Loyalty can be...ambiguous. Could be for the wrong reasons, or worse, wavering ones. But you've taught me something tonight," She said slowly, leaning upon the table and drumming her fingers upon its surface. "Sunberth will swallow a lone wolf whole. If what you promise is true, you'll only lose your life proving your loyalty, not surrendering it to pay for the wrongs of those beside you...I'll agree to your offer, Senghor. I do hope not to find myself regretting this..."

[Anarkhos]

Pc Name: Kaie

Skills: Gladius-2
Unarmed Combat-4

Lore: Not expecting the expected
Senghor, a friend, an ally, a savior
Having a debt repaid
The pains of battle
Loyalty is a sacred thing.
Sunberth: Attacked on the streets
The feeling of being homesick.

Pc Name Senghor

Please pm me when ever you return so I may give you a grade.

"This was a very nice thread. A mix of combat and socialization. Good work guys, keep it coming. Please feel free to pm me if you have any questions about your grade. "