chimera. [toli & gracen]

[Gracen]

He hated Anatoli Armiger, but he didn't think the fallen knight could coax and cajole a living ladder to bring him up out of the abyss, and anyway, the guards would kill those who attempted an escape. But he wanted so much to go down there and wipe that smile off the dead man's face, that smirk, that holier-than-thou-e'en-from-hell, that insufferable arrogance. Perhaps he didn't understand that he was projecting. Twelve years of lies could build a tower with no windows, no doors. Toli spoke, but he did not know Gracen's life. He did not know what had transpired after his transportation to Hai. The scandal. The shame. The exile. As if he could just go home. As if it were that easy. 'Stay, Toli,' he wanted to say. 'Stay.' But he liked to think that his cruelty was less peurile than that. There wasn't going to be a redemption no matter how many traitors he killed. He realized that now, though he would deceive himself again as soon as he walked out into the Eyktolian desert once more, or by the time he reached Ahnatep. Eventually, he would believe the lie again. That he wasn't damned. It would be a relief then, one day, to fall into Toli's hateful arms, to slip a dagger between his ribs even as Toli's found his heart. Surely Dira would let a man sleep a while in sweet oblivion before forcing him back into life, kicking and screaming with all the wise distress of a newborn child. He merely nodded, not wanting to show how tired he was. And then, before turning to go, he reached into his pocket for a hunk of dry bred, dessicated by his travel on the waterless desert. He tossed it down to the gates of Hai for the sick pleasure of watching Anatoli Armiger scrabble in the dust for it. There would be some satisfaction in that. He would have his satisfaction, and then he would go. Glory be.

[Toli Armitage]

Satisfaction sank its teeth into the putrid flesh of Hai. The bread dropped and Toli sucked in his breath. Those faint wisps of daylight floated through his lungs and Tanroa dragged her feet, heavy with chains. They were still green, his eyes. That much was evident when they locked on Gracen in those thinning moments. They were green as sprouts, the bold, intentional hue not of young spring but the threshold of summer. They alone, perhaps, were unchanged; and when the bread hit the dust, they held shock. There was no farewell, all of his goodbyes long since left to rust in a land north of here. There was only Toli, whirling, fleet as candlelit memory with knives leaping to hand. How many times had that been witnessed in the practice yards and battlefields? Razor sharp blades sliced familiar forms out of the murk of the foyer while the metal shrieked and the Inner Gate crashed open with a soul shattering howl. No dignity in the crash of Toli's knees to the cold blood and dust, no pride in his half crawling lurch for that most precious thing: bread. Bread. His forearm slid, his boots scrabbled, starving and desperate while other limbs surged forward beyond the cast of light. He sprawled across the corpse of the creature he had stabbed earlier for no reason anyone out of Hai would ever have understood. A thick veined hand clamped down on his ankle, banshee brutes and scrambling wraiths, all manner of man laid low spilling over one another in an abrupt riot for what? What? The dried hunk of bread Toli's hand closed upon just as he was jerked back by his boots. Bellows and cackles clamored from the choir not even Toli, whoever he was, whoever he had become, could hold back. He twisted before he vanished from sight, surging up with knives flashing and murder swift to defend a handful of crumbs. It was the definition of pride in this dark place. I said to Life: "I would hear Death speak." Life raised her voice a little higher and said: "You hear him now." - Khalil Gibran -

[Colombina]

The XP Wand Is Waved! Stellar work, as per usual, from the pair of you. I said it before, I'll say it again, brilliant gesture to throw in the bit of bread. Enjoyed the music as well. Gracen's Loot 1 XP Wilderness Survival (for getting here) 2 XP Intimidation 1 XP Riding (There was a horse in there somewhere) 2 XP Composition Lore of Hai's Entrance Lore of How to safely reach Hai Toli's Loot 2 XP Long Dagger 1 XP Brawling 1 XP Persuasion 2 XP Composition Lore of Hai's layout Lore of Gracen's Mission Colombina is pleased.