Settling In

[achelord]

-1: The Vault, The Port-

If you enter the Vault, the only real way to do it is via submarine. So whenever a new sub pops into the Port, there's usually a fair amount of interest. Maybe there's some new books for the library! Maybe there's a supply of luxury goods from Elysium! Maybe there's a batch of new recruits.

It's the last one, this time. After some informal cooperation the TDM, they finally had brought Ziel back to the Vault, as they had promised. If anyone in the Corsairs could help him, it would probably be someone here, so he had reluctantly decided to hang around, at least for a little while. It probably wouldn't go anywhere interesting.

Somehow, word had gotten ahead, and there was a small crowd waiting to see if it was true who was on this submarine. Surely not THE Ziel? The youngest leader of the infamous monster hunter school known as the Dawnwings? Who spent his life protecting the people of the Empire from monsters, and who had killed a behemoth when he was 15. He was practically a living legend!

The main who emerged from the submarine somehow didn't live up to the hype. He still looked young, but moved like an elderly man. His clothes were filthy and in tatters. He trudged like he had the weight of the world on his back, dragging his massive warhammer behind him like he didn't have the strength to hold it properly.

After a moment, he realized there were people staring at him and slowly raised his gaze to actually see what all the fuss was. He saw a dozen pairs of hopeful eyes, but they were tinged with doubt. Well, that was only fair. He knew he hardly cut an impressive figure anymore.

Ziel looked back down at the ground and kept on trudging along the dock, amid a cloud of whispers. Surely THIS can't be the hero of the Dawnwings, can it?

-2: The Vault, upper reaches-

The Empire likes to consume ether crystals en masse for its power sources. It's a very profitable way of gaining ether, but it's hardly the only way. There are older methods that have fallen out of favor because they're much slower. Most mages find they have an affinity towards certain fundamental elements, and a VERY old method of cultivating power was to meditate near a source of that element.

Ziel's magic was attuned with Force and Motion, and, well, there was a near continual source of force and motion just about anywhere in Bavrecht, if you were willing to take the risk.

In the upper most chambers of the Vault, the distant rumbling of the Empire's near constant weapons testing was louder than ever. Ziel sat with his legs crossed and eyes closed, ignoring the sound. The constant barrage was close enough here that he could just barely sip at the endless force above and gradually absorb it into his core ether reserves. It wasn't much, but it was about all his system could handle right now.

That he was sitting in a random hallway wasn't a big deal. Not many people came up this high, anyway. What were the odds that someone would actually come up here and trip over him?

Comments

[redprayer]

"One could consider them a necessity, in fact," Rezo remarks with a certain bitter humour, "Although the Empire apparently doesn't agree."

He'd worked as a magic physician for several years under the Empire, and it had been rather depressing how many of the maladies he'd treated were clearly the cause of inadequate rest and nutrition.

[achelord]

"The Empire doesn't think anything is a necessity other than that you not be a threat to their power."

The tint of bitter anger in his voice was the first variation Rezo had heard from Ziel's normally flat tone of voice. Apparently he DOES feel things other than fatigue, occasionally.

[redprayer]

Rezo's brows raise a notch. He's interacted with Ziel just enough for that anger to be a slight surprise, but perhaps it's a pleasant one. Anger isn't an emotion the followers of Cepheid approve of, but there are times when it's better than apathy.

"Indeed? That may be their own downfall someday."

[achelord]

"Probably not, but it's nice to imagine."

Ziel didn't have a lot of faith in the Crimson Corsairs, despite working for them. But a deal was a deal.

"...You're one of the outworlders the Corsairs freed, aren't you?"

[redprayer]

Rezo has confidence that the Empire cannot last forever, but it's more to do with the confidence that a cancer cannot last forever: either it gets removed via a painstaking process, or it will die along with the rest of the body when it consumes too much.

It's probably for the best that Ziel asks a question before Rezo can pontificate on this. Rezo inclines his head and simply answers "That I am."

like a million year later

[achelord]

Ziel leaned against the wall, so Rezo could continue to wherever he was going before he bumped into him, if he was so inclined.

"Do you want to go back?"

[redprayer]

The question takes a moment to register properly; then, Rezo visibly startles. He hasn't been asked the question before, and hasn't thought about it either. Yet, what truly startles him is how immediate the answer that comes to mind is.

No.

Rezo shakes his head, composing himself, and carefully says "I haven't considered the possibility."

[achelord]

"Heh." A single humorless laugh. "You're smarter than me, then."

Leaving that cryptic and self-disparaging comment unexplained, Ziel turned to make his way back to the lower levels of the Vault.

"I've been sitting up here in the dark for too long. I'm going to get something to eat."

[redprayer]

Rezo immediately is confused, and wonders if Ziel is perhaps another Outlander, but before he can ask Ziel is already moving onto the subject of lunch. And it being dark in here, which Rezo wasn't aware of for obvious reasons.

He opens his eyes and confirms that indeed, it's not particularly bright up here. It's the one thing his eyes are useful now, a halfhearted gift from Esthere.

"A reasonable plan. And if it's dark then we're probably not supposed to be up here," Rezo remarks, not particularly concerned about the possibility.

[achelord]

"It is dark," he confirmed, watching Rezo actually crack his eyes open a bit. It was too dark to see clearly what they looked like.

"Well, good chat." he said, intending to end the conversation there, but something else occurred to him. "...Do you need help getting out of here, since..."

Since the whole blind thing?

[redprayer]

Rezo hesitates again, biting back on the initial impulse to decline. On the one hand, Rezo is a very competent man who is used to taking care of himself. And Ziel is not a well man, and does not need to be burdened.

On the other hand, he is a bit curious about Ziel, and Ziel's condition, and he suspects the other man could do with feeling useful. Sometimes, he reminds himself, it is kinder to let yourself be helped.

"Thank you," he agrees, holding out a hand for Ziel to slip an elbow into. "I think it will be easier with your escort."

He smiles. It's very warm and benevolent and he looks like he ought to be surrounded by gentle forest creatures and cooing doves of peace.