Family of Idiots: chapter 14
Dark dream dark wings part 3
Sing for your supper was an old Daathian snub. Scorers were people capable of harnessing the seventh fonon were made to sing. Day in and day out, at whim of the people if need be, thus had decreed Yulia Jo. With the founding of her order would be the founding of humility. Another boon of the policy would be that the rich and the poor would be serviced to have Lorelie's light illuminate there world. So it was such that outside of the stronghold of Daath a Scorer, if he wanted to eat, would offer his art to one and all. Thus the mighty were kept humble and the Score available to all.
Still, the taste of humility was bitter, and through the common lay was that a Scorer must sing for there supper that didn't mean the Scorers had to like it.
There lay the heart of the snub.
When Noir's green eyes had lit up and she dragged him to one of the few still places on the Cheesidonian streets the Cardinal's blood had gone cold. They weren't going to be any singing, he knew that instinctively. Noir wasn't a Scorer, she was a thief, and thieves and villains thrived on melodrama. Bounding up the thick wooden steps, each step jarring a cloud of dust, she ascended the one patch of shade and stillness that ran alongside the trading town's border like she owned it. Leaning against the outermost pillar of the porch was a pair of glowering soldiers, the more distant one was clad in Kimlascan red, the closer swathed in Malkuthite blue. It was the blue clad soldier who casually craned his head back to better look at the person who approached him with such a light step. The gesture; with all of its sedate motions, were all a deliberate insult to the Kimlascan who took grim watch on the porch's far side. At least that was the motions initial intent, when the man saw who approached a smiled graced his lips and he actually looked… pleased to see the woman. While the one they called Cardinal struggled with that outré revelation the young woman's game went into play.
"Mistress Noir!"
The soldier opened his move with a smile and show of pleasure, to that Noir beamed.
"Weapons Master Erick," she breathed each syllable as if it were precious, lingering on the salutation. Her eyes were wide, vapid, and utterly adoring. "I'm so sorry we were late."
The soldier chuckled at that, the perfect image of the magnanimous spirit made flesh. Even as the Malkuthite man turned friendly his red clad counter part looked grim and began to finger his short sword.
To that Cardinal groaned, would have buried his face in his hands save Urushi had poked the Cardinal in the small of the back with a walking stick.
With a bow the man Noir had dubbed Erick lead the red clad woman to the one point of neutrality in all of Auldrant. It was an imaginary plane, there, but not there, and deathly important to the soldier's of both nations. Blood had been spilled over it's length and width, wars wagged to push it forward or back drag it back a few feet. It was the boarder line of divided nations, the precious span was marked by a thick wooden pillar baring twin signs, one was painted a bloody red the other a mockery of water's blue. Besides that pillar had been placed a barrel, Noir squealed in delight at the sight of the battered dusty thing, giving Erick an impromptu hug before taking her stand on the wooden container with ease of an acrobat.
Thus, the singing had begun, not the song of Scores, of history's never-ending dirge, but a melody sung by a bird of a different feather.
Virtues were exposed, tales alluded too but not told, swaying slightly with the rhythm of her chant Noir offered a faux Score of sorts. Where Scorers were still creature's cast from the stone of immutable destiny the thief fell into a rhyme and cadence of her own. While not so exuberant that she… bounced; she did a slow dance of sorts as she talked.
Enthusiasm, genuine, unfeigned, made the woman's face alive. Her sharp green eyes became alluring under influence of a warmer emotion rather than the repellant sulk that her soul normally harbored held. In response to Noir's "singing" there came a crowd, drawn to the tall red haired woman and her… charisma.
"Charisma" was the only word that fit. While comely Noir was hardly a breath taking stripe of her kind. Her voice was far from melodious, and her words weren't laced with silk as were the practiced tongues of the noble class.
Still the crowd built, slowing those who wanted to cross the boarder afoot. To that obvious violation of order and the potential international incident –red clad merchants were glaring at there blue clad counterparts and everyone sane in Auldrant always walked armed- the Kimlascan guard snarled to the singer on the barrel.
"Get away from there, woman!" Short sword drawn the red clad man approached the crowd. "Disperse you scum. You're slowing traffic…"
With a bow to graceful her detractor Noir hopped from barrel to porch. And the woman's footing once infallible faltered, she swayed, arsm snapping out in an instinctive pinwheel motion. Violating the boarder laws of both nations the Malkuth leapt forward, reached out, and caught the red clad lady before she fell.
"You alright, miss?"
Urushi snickered, and the Cardinal's green eyes widened at Noir's daring. In front of a crowd well within the double digits the thief had idly picked the man's pocket. If any saw though, they didn't comment.
Voice a little breathy, face baring a forced flush, Noir smiled weakly. "I'm fine now, officer."
The last was a line plagiarized word for word, even adopting the cadence from the old clichéd play that the one they called Cardinal knew and hated... It was a very bad line from a trite romance that boy's mother had loved and –literally- had read to pieces. Hearing it now, he responded as he had the first time he'd heard it, the boy they called Cardinal rolled his eyes and sighed.
Taking the red haired boy's sigh as a criticism Urushi lashed out and the Cardinal bore the brunt of another smack.
"She's damn good, brat." The squat man huffed.
As if he was arguing that.