A/N: Chapter 3 of 3 posted today! First one is "Audacity".
It was a good thing Solaris had been present for the interview, Kir thought wryly, catching the only just ordained Henrick staring at them again. After Anur's reaction to even Sunbeam Brook's name, he certainly wasn't going to have his brother meet one of those that had hurt him without significant back up. As it was, Anur had managed to hold together visibly, it was only in his mind that the spike of flame-scented panic was noticeable and between he and Aelius they'd managed to get even that to subside rather quickly.
Henri, as he preferred to be called, had no such buffer and on recognizing Anur had first given a double-take, then been disbelieving, and then apparently come to a conclusion close to the story Anur had implied to Fabron and Jaina. Tearing that bit of self-deception away had actually been rather entertaining; Kir had ended up pressing a flask on the man, as he had plenty more shocks to come, not the least of which the fact that the entire Sunsguard unit he was being assigned was in on it.
Even with the full week it took them to get back north – he was never taking Riva's speed for granted again, this pace was agonizing – Henri managed to stumble onto one newly shocking fact a day. Kir had honestly forgotten how much of the 62nd's normal was utterly foreign to Karse, and in particular civilian Karse. Henri had double the adjustment to make, going from pastoral village priest to still-technically-treasonous chaplain.
:I'm rather impressed with him,: Anur commented, his thoughts evidently running along a similar line, :He truly was relieved Asher had escaped and could care less who exactly it was done by. Probably would have ended up running himself if things hadn't changed.:
:Or at the very least smuggling the children of his village out,: Kir agreed, :No, Henri is going to be fine. He's just going to feel very overwhelmed for a while.:
:We should shove him in with new arrivals, he'll help them cope much better now that he'll have gone through the adjustment process too,: Aelius suggested, :Give them someone to talk to that they know experienced a similar adjustment, rather than instigating the whole thing.:
Kir winced slightly, knowing Aelius had more than a small point. He felt confident that those who had accepted the 62nd's oddities or even prompted some of them would come to him easily, but for those who arrived and were abruptly thrown into the 62nd's madness he was probably not the most approachable figure. His involvement in the whole matter had started being spelled out from the very beginning, after Nichter.
:Don't tell me you're feeling guilty about that,: Anur said sardonically, :Really Kir, you can't have everything.:
:Oh I know,: Kir was careful to keep his sigh purely mental, but then let out a physical one as the walls of the 62nd came in sight. :Thank the Sunlord. This took forever.:
:Riva and Aelius spoil us.:
:So we deserve spoiling in return, yes?:
:Fine, fine, greedy witch-horse.:
:I'll toss you in the muck one of these days Chosen, see if I don't.:
Kir hid a grin behind his canteen and looked over at Henri, the younger man staring back at him and clearly nervous but trying to hide it. "Calm down," Kir reassured him, "You'll be fine."
"Easy for you to say," the priest grumbled under his breath as they rode on, Kir doubting he was supposed to be able to hear it as he continued mumbling, "Oh yes and we forgot to mention there's a whole patrol of Demon Riders in town this week, its part of our yearly snow festival. Do try to avoid letting on you nearly set one of their brethren on fire, would you?"
:A snow festival sounds like a fantastic idea!:
:Oh don't even start.:
"Father Kir! Lieutenant-Enforcer, good to see you've returned! Gates!"
The bellowed command from the lookout was hardly needed, their names enough to get the gates moving. By the time they made it to the stables, Greich was there to meet them along with the official second in command, Senior Lieutenant Nakel.
"Father Kir," the Sergeant greeted, "Good to see you've returned safely. Impeccable timing too, we just finished modifying the chapel to provide quarters for your second yesterday."
:Building modifications in this muck? We owe them a hefty amount of liquor.:
:And spice-cake.:
:Because they'll just give you all the leftovers - :
:As if they won't pass on any prodka to you, please!:
"Speaking of, this is Father Henri," Kir introduced, the younger man inclining his head, "Sergeant Greich and Senior Lieutenant Nakel. He's already been briefed on the majority of it."
"The men will be devastated," Nakel said dryly, "They were so looking forward to shocking him."
"Oh I don't doubt they'll still manage," Henri grumbled, Anur laughing and clapping him on the shoulder cheerfully as he said, "Not to worry! I can describe his facial expression rather well, and that's what they didn't want to miss!"
"Fantastic," the man sighed, making good on an escape and following a hostler to his horse's new stall. Kir managed to hold back a grin, Greich shaking his head and signaling a hostler, the man darting off on his errand.
"Just as well you got the basics out of the way," the sergeant said, "Captain Mecal came in two days ago with some very pointed questions. We were able to dodge things with your absence, but that didn't make her any less curious."
"Thought I recognized her mare," Anur grimaced, balancing Aelius' tack on the stall door for the moment. "It may be time to read her in, Kir."
"Depends entirely on how much she'll feel obligated to send north as official," Kir replied, already half-done with brushing Riva, the gelding leaning into the strokes happily, "It's not as critical to keep things under wraps, but I'd prefer everything not be spread about."
"She's on leave at the moment," Nakel offered, "So officially, no one knows where she is, though I'm sure Leiutenant Corinth knows. Sergeant Greich can take you to her and the Captain, I'll stay well out of it and show Father Henri around, get a summary later."
Nakel had taken a hands-off policy with regards to the Valdemar problem years ago, and had stuck with it, finding a kindred spirit in the seldom-seen Lieutenant Corinth serving under Captain Naomi. They both had an equal desire to just stick with killing bandits, and forgetting all this national conspiracy mess, though adding to their pool of letter-commiseration buddies was always nice. There were a number of those sorts of correspondences going on, and Kir wouldn't doubt men were scrambling to finish their question-dodging replies so Captain Mecal could take them with her when she left. He just hoped that when she left she agreed to keep details behind her teeth.
Things being spread about would mean his brother would have to go to Valdemar and deal with it, would have to worry about what his countrymen thought about him more immediately, and Kir wouldn't be able to go with him. Not at present, not with permission. Jaina would murder him in his sleep if he abandoned her to head the Order at this juncture and she would be fully justified – if he were in her position, he'd have the same reaction.
But he needn't have worried; Mecal was waiting in the Captain's office, boots off and a drink in her hand, very clearly on leave. She took one look at the two of them walking in the door, Greich on their heels, and snorted, holding her glass out to Ulrich and saying, "Top me off, will you? I'm going to need every drop for this."
"It's like you know them," the man replied dryly, obediently pouring her more prodka.
There were two more glasses by the time they were done, all four of them sitting around the small fireplace the Captain was afforded with glasses in their hands, Mecal, ironically, the most relaxed of them even as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Long term is right," she finally snorted, eyeing Anur, "Stars and moons, Herald you have a talent for understatement. Holy revolution in Karse and a woman in charge – this is huge! And you lot want me to keep it between my teeth!"
Kir tensed and readied another explanation of why but was cut off by a wave of her hand, "Don't bother, Dinesh, I know very well why and I even agree. I just don't look forward to being the one to tell the Marshal I knew about this months before him, at the least."
"You won't," Anur said quietly, "I'm going to be the one reporting that, when the time comes. I instigated the whole thing, it's only fair."
And Anur was terrified of it, Kir knew, cutting a concerned glance his brother's way and not knowing what he could say to help. He would be there, of course he would, but it didn't mean the authorities of Valdemar would feel any more kindly about it, would be any less inclined to paint Anur as derelict, as untrustworthy, as treacherous. He hated the fact that Anur was in this position, even as he was so unspeakably grateful that Anur was here because Sunlord knew if he was facing this alone he'd either be halfway through Jkatha and still running or salt-sown ash.
Mecal rubbed her face tiredly, voice equally weary as she said, "That's going to be one ugly session. Technically speaking – morally speaking, you've done nothing wrong. No orders for you have come in since you were assigned to us in the first place, hells, if they really needed you they'd be calling you in. No one's asked after you, haven't gotten anything aside from a stipend and generic 'well-done' to show they even know you're alive. So what you're doing is entirely unsanctioned, who cares? That's the whole point of Heralds, that they can be trusted to do things for the good of Valdemar without being overseen every step of the way."
"Technically and morally right doesn't mean they'll see it that way," Anur said sourly and Kir wasn't the only one who grimaced at that tone.
"Of course they won't," Naomi snorted, "Think they should know everything, the moment it happens. Entitled to it, they think. Their right, not their privilege."
She stared at the fire for a few seconds before sighing again, meeting Kir's eyes and saying quietly, "So, what can they know?"
"Anur has a report on the vrondi he wrote up a while ago, the official excuse for him being in Karse," Kir started, a weight lifting from his shoulders and he could tell Ulrich and Greich felt the same way, the Captain in particular looking much happier now that Mecal had been read in without anything tragic happening to their partnership.
"After that," he let his lips twitch, "The stories and rumors have been getting rather out of hand here, it would be a shame for them to stop in Karse. My favorite one has Solaris wearing a false beard while she proclaims herself the true Son of the Sun."
"They didn't!"
It was a couple of marks before sunset when they finished, Kir would have to go conduct the evening rites soon. By then they'd all shared a few of the stories they'd been hearing and spreading during these years and while more than a few bordered on the absurd, there were grains of truth in every single one. Mecal had cackled her way through most of them, apparently delighting in the chance to send some of these absurd things back north, but it was only when Anur excused himself to fetch the letters and reports he'd written that Kir had any real understanding of why she was doing this.
The moment the door shut behind Anur, Kir at ease with Anur out of his sight like he never could or would be outside the 62nds walls, Mecal's humor faded and she said to Kir, "The Heralds messed up with him."
"They did," Kir confirmed cautiously, wondering how bad it had been, for her to treat Anur's distance from his brethren so factually.
"He's ours," she said flatly, "Expect you two understand it," nodding at Greich and Ulrich. "But when someone like that comes along, you don't let them go because damn it, the unit needs them and they need the unit, and when that sort of connection gets dragged in – it wasn't a challenge to get our crew to agree to cover for him. We love Heralds."
Her tone turned fierce as she said, "We love Heralds. And maybe we're idiots for it, maybe it makes us fools, but that Herald is ours and we'll spit in the face of anyone who hurts him. So trust me when I say nothing of this will make its way north through me and mine, and when inevitably, I come calling saying we need him to stay in Valdemar for a while, that we'll take care of him just as well as we did before he ever ditched us for Karse."
Ulrich gave a quiet laugh and said, "Oh we understand perfectly."
Kir smiled faintly, feeling a surge of warmth at that acknowledgement of his place, of his brother's place, being truly valued, and simply inclined his head. He and the Valdemaran captain understood each other in some things, at least, and protecting Anur as best they were able was an excellent common ground to have.
A/N: Hey! I am SO SORRY about this - I apparently just kept forgetting to update on ? I'll be more careful in the future, but it's going to be slow, I'm swamped at work.
