2
Avad yawned as twilight slowly progressed into the true dark of night. It had been a trying past few weeks, and the situation wasn't even close to being resolved. The seeds of lasting peace had been planted seemingly with success amongst the Nora. All had been well, according to Erend, and he and the rest of the delegation had gotten to spend the rest of their vacation-ahem, important diplomatic task gorging themselves on home cooked meals and dancing with pretty outlanders.
In short; they had spent most of their time enjoying the Proving festivities. Which far from being rude, had been his hope; there was a reason he'd sent Erend, and those who were easily able to enjoy themselves, along on the mission. If the delegation showed appreciation for Nora traditions- i.e., enjoy their parties- it was sure to ease tensions... and hopefully show that the Carja(and the Sundom Osaram, by extension) weren't as 'stuffy and cheerless' as the other tribes seemed to think.
Things had gone well until the Proving itself.
Erend had described a horror show where most of the young Nora didn't make it down alive, and those that did gave descriptions of the enemy that sounded vaguely familiar.
"There was this one woman I talked to, the night before it happened." The Osaram had told him, Joruf, and Ersa with a tankard of ale in one hand- even though he seemed to be unable to get drunk, no matter how much he tried. "Redhead. Real sharp. They said she and two of the others held 'em back. Made a hole the rest could escape through. The tribe showed us off before I could hear anything concrete, but I think I heard someone say her body was found at the bottom of the avalanche."
"What was her name?" Ersa had asked.
"Aloy, I think." He swirled the tankard around a bit aimlessly. Avad had raised his wine in response.
"Well, then; to Aloy, may she rest peacefully." Erend joined in halfheartedly, though when he left to check on Joruf( who had journeyed with the same caravan only to throw his knee out on some stairs in his apartment) and turn in for the night, he clearly still bothered by the events that had transpired in the east.
I hope he finds his peace soon. Avad thought as he sorted through several petitions that needed his attention. The civil war had been on for almost two years now, and though they had negotiated a ceasefire a week ago, he couldn't help but feel it had come too easily. Like there was some unseen arrow being drawn, which wouldn't be surprising; half the point of a ceasefire was to regroup, both sides were entrenched in highly defensible positions, and they'd been kicking the daylight out of each other. But something about this felt... different, and he didn't like it.
A knock at the door snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Permission to enter, your Radiance?" He rolled his eyes when he recognized the voice on the other side.
"Granted, Captain." He responds, and Ersa strolls into his study, all proper and stoic. He turned in his wooden chain to face her and leaned on the edge of his desk with one elbow. "What is it you would like to discuss?"
"The new guy's an ass." She stated, eyes forward.
"And?" Avad prompted patiently.
"I think that mystery group from the east might have Shadow Carja connections." She told him. "You know how Erend said they saw some of 'em from a distance a couple of times? From their descriptions, I remembered reading about another report."
She stepped forwards and presented two rolled up lengths of parchment. "One of those is Erend's report, the other is from a month ago. A hunter from the Lodge got called in to ward off some strange-looking machines, once he was done he retraced it's steps as far as he could into Shadow Carja territory, found Shadies camping in some kind of quarry. Saw a guy with a mask matching the ones Erend and the others saw on the Proving killers."
"If they're connected, what would Helis gain by sending men to attack the Nora, of all tribes?" He unrolled both reports and laid them out on his desk, unease settling in his core as the possibilities and implications started racing through his mind. "And if they came from Shadowed territory, how did they cross our lands without notice?"
"That's not even the scariest part." His Captain tells him grimly. "Read through those both, see what that hunter says about the machine he fought- says it was 'corrupted' by some red shit that burned him on contact, even made him sick for a bit after. Left burns wherever the thing walked, that's how he tracked it's origin, and Joruf swears by the World Machine that he saw a glowing red scrapper out east."
"Near the Proving killers?" He takes a thin slip of paper off the stack he keeps on the corner of his desk and takes up his ink pen. He starts writing a list of things that correspond between the two reports.
"Weirder; with them." He can't help but give her a 'look', and she rolls her eyes, stoic demeanor breaking. "He also swears by the World Machine that he was sober. Says it 'walked right in front of them'."
"'Like a scouting pattern'." Avad read off the report as he found the part that mentioned the sighting. "That's..."
"Impossible? Potentially game-changing?" Ersa guessed. "A big fucking problem? Because if Shadies have access to people who have figured out how to tame machines, that's exactly what that is."
"Yeah." He wraps up his notes, tucks the slip of paper into a leather sleeve sitting at the end of his desk, and holds it out for her. "Deliver this to Marad as you head out, tell him I want everything he can scrounge up that even remotely corresponds with these notes by tomorrow's twilight."
"Will do." She nodded grimly, taking the sleeve. "Want me to pass him those as well?"
"I'll do so once I've finished with them." The Sun-King shook his head. "Just tell him what you told me, should be enough until morning."
"Doesn't Carja nobility stop working after the sun sets?" She comments, referring to the tradition of only settling matters of government when the sun's scrutiny could ensure that all parties were honest.
"Marad is a spymaster, the moon is a greater friend to him than the sun." Avad defers to his advisor's profession, and his Captain places a hand on his arm.
"I was talking about you, lughead." She says. "You look like you haven't slept in a week."
"I assure you that I have." He reassures her, offering a wan smile. "Whatever you seen is likely the business off war rubbing off on me."
"And I take it you ate, too?" His Captain needled, daring to poke him in the stomach in a manner that would have mortified any other Carja in their presence were they around to see it; so far as his tribe was concerned, one did not simply 'poke' the Sun-King.
"Of course." He takes the offending hand and gently pushes it away from his midriff... just as his body betrayed him, and his stomach let out a very audible growl. Ersa raised one brow and crossed her arms, scrutinizing him.
"Right." She said. "And I'm half Banuk."
"It would explain your fondness for blue." Avad teases. The Osaram rolls her eyes.
"I'm going to deliver this." She backed towards the door, brandishing his notes for Marad. "And then I'm coming back with food, and I'm going to remind you, once again, how to function properly as a human being."
"Is that so?" Avad grinned, standing up. "And what will that involve?"
"Mostly making you consume that awful maizemeat you absolutely despise, and making you sleep like a normal human is supposed to." She teased, turning and pausing before opening the door to glance over her shoulder flirtatiously. "But maybe I'll make you read to me first."
"I will happily regale you with the agricultural report from Rising Light." He gestures to the many reports and petitions stacked upon his desk. "It's truly a page-turner."
"Just as long as there's big words." She lowers her voice to be extra sure the guards outside don't hear her, cupping one hand about her mouth as she added in a secretive whisper, "You know I love it when you talk 'dirty'."
"Ersa." He chides, trying to stifle his laughter at her bad joke. She has the gall to wink at him before she leaves.
If Ersa was being perfectly honest with herself, she didn't want to get up. But she needs to leave, soon, or she'll be later than she already was. As it stood, she remained where she was for a few moments longer, trying to drink it all in, because even though she's positive they can hand it to Dervahl, a tight dread had been sinking it's claws into her all day. It was one of those times where she just needed to sit down, curl up next to Avad, and just... be. If only for a little while.
He had nodded off while ago. She was still pressed against him, trapped between a terrible need to leave and one very compelling reason to stay. She had never put any stock in all that sickening, gooey, fluffy slag that seemed to permeate every romantic relationship she had witnessed. Mostly because she had an image to maintain; after all, would the gang still respect her if they saw her going all soft for a man? But over the last couple years, she's starting to see the point in all that aforementioned slag.
With Avad, she doesn't have to present herself steel-first. He had seen her at her lowest already; you couldn't get much lower than a slave, and he still treated her as an equal. He... treasured her, in a way she had never imagined being treasured, because she had always been so busy. If it wasn't Erend, it was the war. If it wasn't the war, it was survival. It was safe for her to let go around Avad, she didn't have to be anything in particular when it was just the two of them.
The only downside was the seemingly insurmountable political obstacles that kept them from being together honorably by Carja standards. It meant they couldn't be... intimate with one another in the way she would like; neither of them were foolish enough to risk her carrying his bastard, and even if the child bor no resemblance to him, people would start to see her as some whore, and Avad would be stuck watching his own child grow up without being able to partake in raising them.
But things had been looking up, recently.
"You know, you're quite the hero of the people these days." her King had said just earlier. "Maybe soon... we could get away with this. With us."
She wouldn't mind that at all. Sure, it would mean having to play by more Carja rules than usual, the Ealdormen would kick up a fuss, and there would be a whole mountain of other things that being with him might complicate, but she was sick of stealing moments in the shadows. Like they were still prisoners her and not the ruling house, like she still had slave's chains on and Jiran's Kestrels still stalked the halls and watched even the royals for the slightest excuse to throw them in the Sun Ring. Whatever hardships actually being a Queen brought, anything was better than feeling like a thief in the night.
Avad shifts slightly in his sleep. With her ear to his chest, Ersa could hear his heart rate kick up, the slight hitch in his breath as he enters some dream, and she wonders what he's seeing. Them? That magic armor from when he was sixteen? Reliving the Liberation again? A puff of breath tickles her hair, and she shuts her eyes, taking one last moment to fully appreciate this thing that she somehow had gained without really even trying. The rise and fall as he breathed, the steady thump of his heart, that flowery smell that came from whatever it was he stored his clothes with to make them smell that way. The warmth of his hand in hers, seemingly smooth from a soft life but covered with little scars that she of all people knows how to find, the smell of old parchment and maizemeat.
Then she puts the steel back in her spine, and carefully extracts herself from the situation. She's tempted to lay him down so he doesn't punish his neck, but he was a light sleeper at the best of times and she's already pushed her luck. Besides, sometimes he punched people if they woke him from the wrong dream. It was a literal pain, but she would always applaud good fight or flight reflexes, especially if that someone could wake to an assassin at his bedside at any time(just another reason she was eager to be with him properly, two reflexive punchers made a harder target than one).
She settled for pulling a blanket over him as far as she dared to, lingering a bit longer with the temptation to kiss him even though that might pushing her luck too far, and finally she turns to the servants entrance she had come in from. If guards saw her coming and going from Avad's quarters at this hour, there would surely be lurid rumors abound. She can't help but take one last look at him as she closes the door. She takes in every detail, that strange dread holding her in a vice-like grip.
And then she shuts that door. The world becomes ominously dark, and Ersa tries to shake the feeling that some ill omen is about. Everything would go as planned. She would be back before dinner tomorrow.
Why aren't you taking Erend, if you're so sure? Her own mind needles.
His head isn't in the forge. She answers stubbornly. His head was still back east, with those dead Nora initiates.
That was what Ersa Vanguardswoman told herself repeatedly as she stole away into the night with her closest compatriots. That was what she told herself even as she watched them die.
Even as she realized with perfect clarity that she had made a horrible miscalculation. Even as she realized she would never see Erend or Avad again.
She should have stayed on that couch.
About Ersa: Yes I'm probably still killing her, but I'm actually exploring the relationship between her and Avad a little. In the game she exists to die so Guerrilla can give Avad a crush on Aloy just like every other character. It isn't even actually fridging on the Avad side of things, because her death doesn't motivate him to do anything. There's the whole locking Dervahl up thing, but aside from that? I get that video games are limited narratively, but there could have been something.
About Eclipse: I refuse to believe that Avad and co. just sat around and waited for a red-headed miracle while such strange and worrying events plagued the land. How tf DID Helis respond so fast to that APB? How did he get through Sun Carja territory? There's no way Erend's group didn't see anything suss while they were being shooed out of the Sacred Land.
Warframesucks: Because I saw this handsome baby boy still in my image manager, was feeling SIVA nostalgic at the time, and thought 'why not? Better than yet another generic Avengers logo on the thumbnail'. Nobody is going to forget the HZD Avengers fic with the Destiny thumbnail.
Fare Thee Well!
