Hello everyone, it's me! Your favorite inconsistent writer.
Anyways, I wanted to use this little segment to thank everyone who has (And hopefully will) followed, favorites and/or left a review, you people are what keeps me motivated to keep writing, so really, from the bottom of my malfunctioning heart, thanks.
PS: I'm not very good at describing characters, just thought I'd give you a warning.
As the group walked through the empty streets, the eventually arrived at a building just large enough to maybe house them all at once, the door was of course closed but proved little to no problem thanks to Torbjorn's axe. All of them walked inside and picked a place, sitting down, leaning on walls or just laying on the ground of the rather large (and empty) house.
Tranquility herself sat by the stairs that led to the second floor, sighing quietly as she placed her weapons aside. She was tired, though she didn't show it. She took a moment to scan the uninteresting house just to keep herself occupied, though got bored almost immediately after, so instead, she choose to listen.
"Finally, some rest!" Torbjorn took off his helmet and laid it on a low table, followed by the valkyrie next to him. The Viking man looked like he was in his 20s, though his long beard made him look much older, and had brown eyes so dark that one would need to look very close to realize that they in fact weren't pure black. The Valkyrie looked more or less the same age as him, her face looked almost like a work of art, perfect were it not for the scar that ran diagonally across one of her ocean blue eyes.
"I stopped counting after 20, how'd you do Torbjorn?" The valkyrie asked the exhausted man as she slumped down on a chair.
"Bíddu, veðmálið er ennþá í gangi?" ("Wait, the bet is still on?") "Damn it I wasn't even counting!"
The woman chuckled. "That just means I win this time, try to keep up Torbjorn."
One of the Viking warriors stood up and made his way to the kitchen while rubbing his hands. "Welp, I don't know about you people, but I could eat a horse right now!" right as he was about to bite into the apple he picked up, he was stopped by the Nobushi.
"Wait, we can't just take what we wish, we'd be no different than the bandits we just killed, not in the eyes of the people."
"But-" once again, he was interrupted, this time by one of his fellow vikings.
"Just drop the bloody apple Bran, resting now, food tomorrow ye? Besides, we already had quite the feast in the Shard!"
With that, the entire room fell into silence, the older Viking cursed after realizing what his words meant. Nobody dared to speak, nobody could bear looking into each other's eyes, the atmosphere was heavy, like they suddenly carried a weight on their shoulders they couldn't get rid of. When they woke up and saw the smoke, each warrior forced themselves to fall into their habits, fighting was even better, but now with no emergency and no fight, there was nothing stopping the existential dread that came with the burning question in each of the warrior's minds.
"How are we still alive?"
After what fell like an age of deafening silence, Aquila; the black prior, removed the bloodstained white helm and lowered his hood, letting his face be visible. Aquila was old, older than any other warrior in the room by far too much. His beard was white as it could be, his head was devoid of any hair, though he had two large scars on the side that formed into the shape of a cross and his light hazel eyes had a tired look. He took a moment to untie the piece of banner from his wrist and place it on top of a cupboard alongside his fallen brother's helm, only then he spoke in his rough, gravel like voice. "Yes, the Shard…" he took a deep breath. "After I died, I heard a voice…"
"I did too," the Valkyrie added with a strained voice, some of the Viking warriors looked away with frowns on their faces, they'd heard it, and were afraid of what it meant. Torbjorn looked at his friend with deep worry.
The nobushi removed her mask, looking at the two warriors with a dead serious look. "I remember hearing something, but it was only noise." A few of the warriors around her nodded in agreement.
The lawbringer stepped up with a frown, his helmet held at his side. "Who amongst all of you heard the voice?" Aquila, the valkyrie, the shaolin, the kensei, and a small number of officers, captains and soldiers of all factions raised their hands.
He looked around for a brief moment before asking his next question. "And who heard only noise?" The warden, the nobushi, the aramusha, Torbjorn, the tiandi, Tranquility and many others raised their hand. After a moment of looking around, the golden lawbringer raised his hand as well.
Right as he was about to ask his next question, Torbjorn beat him to it. "And what did you hear?"
The warriors looked at each other and shared a nod, they spoke in almost perfect unison. "Warriors, noblest of fighters, this is not your grave."
/-/
Tranquility couldn't bring herself to sleep no matter how hard she tried. She stood up from her spot on the floor with a quiet sigh and walked out of the house as stealthily as she could, not wanting to wake up the others.
She stood outside in complete silence before heading towards the forest. She'd spotted a small pond hours ago as she was making her way to the village, perhaps now was the best time to check if she was truly alright.
/-/
Qrow stepped out of the inn with a sigh, he tried to, but there was no way he was going to sleep after what happened.
He took a swig from his flask as he walked through the empty streets, and proceeded to take another one after passing through the place where the headless corpses were still in. No amount of drink would make him forget that pretty image any time soon, not that he wasn't trying to.
He came to an abrupt stop as he saw the door of the house right in front of him open, Qrow of course did the first thing that came to mind, and transformed into a bird. Internally sighing in relief he watched as the peacekeeper walked out and stood there for a few seconds before walking away, towards the forest.
Qrow was admittedly curious, so he did what came to mind and followed her, flying silently behind her.
/-/
Tranquility knelt next to the body of water, leaving her sword and dagger to the side and removing her hood and metal mask, followed by the rest of her armour until she was left in only her trousers and boots.
Tranquility began to check for any signs of wounds and found nothing but the same old scars. Idly, she let her hands trail on some of them for a few seconds. As a peacekeeper, she'd made many mistakes, a bite from a shaman, claws from a trained wolf, a cut from a Blackstone blade. Each scar was a permanent reminder of her failures, no matter how big or small.
She sighed and looked at her reflection in the water. Her lilac right eye contrasted with the light green one on her left, and she kept her copper hair as short as she could to avoid it getting in the way while fighting. She had less scars on her face than on her back and chest, but that didn't mean she didn't have any.
She had a tiny diagonal scar that ran from her lower lip into her chin, but that wasn't the one she couldn't stop looking at. On the left side of her head there was a large burn that had it's edges creep right above her eye and into her cheek, the burn however, kept going lower into her neck, her shoulder, part of her back, and her entire left arm, the uneven and ugly pinkish colour stood out compared to her pale white skin. She shook her head, tearing her vision away and proceeded to submerge her head in the water and, after a good ten seconds, reemerged, humming at the pleasant sensation of the cold wind on her face.
She sat there, simply thinking of what had happened just a few hours back. Why couldn't her blades pierce the bandit's skin? What was the power he wielded?
Why did she save the girl?
Her thoughts came to a halt at the sound of a crow cawing at her, she turned to look at the bird with a curious eye and a tilted head, the crow returned the look. Tranquility stared for a few moments before extending her burnt arm, the bird looked at her for a few moments before cawing and flying away.
Tranquility sighed and looked at her reflection one last time, as she did, she noticed something different. There was a mark around her neck with some jagged lines and was slightly diagonal. She raised her hand to feel the line and to her surprise, it felt no different than the skin around it. She didn't need to think to know what it was, she'd seen it in her last moments after all.
"Interesting," she said to herself as she traced her fingers along the line where she was decapitated. Was she the only one with such mark, or did the orders have similar ones too?
As she asked herself more and more questions, she felt the first rays of sun hit her face, she sighed and got back into her armour.
It was time to go back.
/-/
The Warden sighed as he looked around the table for the tenth time, finally setting his sight on the helmetless lawbringer. "Well, will you not tell us why we're here?"
"Not yet, no," he said calmly but firmly. "Once we're all here I'll speak, not a moment before."
"Why send the others away then? Why just the eleven of us?" asked Aquila while gesturing to the warriors who sat on the table.
"We are of higher rank, simple as that." he shrugged.
"But then why is she here?" The nobushi asked with a raised eyebrow, glancing at the girl who looked like she wanted to be anywhere else.
The lawbringer looked at the girl who immediately shrank under his gaze. "I don't trust her to be out of my sight, so she remains."
The warden hummed in understanding, she didn't have any loyalty towards them, not yet at least. Many of the conscripted criminals saw the opportunity for redemption and took it, he hoped she would be the same.
The room fell into silence once more, this time however, it was short lived as the peacekeeper opened the door and walked in, she tilted her head at them, the warden could sense the curiosity in her gaze.
"You're here, good, we can now begin," said the lawbringer. "Please have a seat."
The woman did as asked and took the last chair, sitting down next to himself. Before anyone could say anything, the lawbringer spoke up again.
"I said I would speak once we were all here, so I will," he said, resting his armored hands atop his helmet. "I don't know where in Heathmoor we are, but it's clear that we will have to remain together until then, and seeing that we're the only ones with any resemblance to command I thought it would be for the better if we at least knew each other's names for convenience sake, it's something I thought should be done better sooner than later."
The kensei nodded in agreement. "Yes, I'd hate to always refer to you by your order's name."
The lawbringer returned the gesture. "Which is why I'll begin: my name is Alistair Harroway." Whenever a lawbringer proposed to do something, they'd often be direct, doing what needed to be done, leaving no room for questions, this wasn't any different.
Alistair gestured to him, the warden shrugged and removed his helmet, showing his dark brown hair and grey eyes. "Thorne Wingbreaker, the last warden of the Guardian Legion."
The circle continued with the black prior. "Aquila Argentite, let's just leave it at that."
The next in line was the Aramusha, though he didn't seem to know what was actually going on. The Nobushi next to him sighed and raised a finger, telling them to wait for a moment. She leaned in and whispered, the aramusha sighed and facepalmed, looking at his companion and translator with embarrassment. "Namae o kōkan shite iru to iwanakatta no wa nazedesu ka?" ("Why didn't you tell me we were exchanging names?")
"Sore wa watashi ga anata ni kyōtsū shite oshieta saisho no koto no hitotsudattanode, oboete imasu ka? Watashi wa anata ga rikai suru to omoimashita" ("Because it was one of the very first things I taught you in common, remember? I thought you'd understand.") She shook her head at him with a disapproving look.
"Sonotoki ore wa yotte ita, gomen'nasai," ("I was drunk that time, sorry") he answered with a sheepish smile.
"Kono baka mono." ("You idiot") she shook her head at him, then sighed and leaned closer again, whispering into his ear again. "Konkai wa oboete mite kudasai." ("try to remember this time").
The aramusha nodded and cleared his throat Before speaking in his heavily accented voice. "My name is Murasaki Daisuke, a pleasure to work with you." Even though he still wore his hat, Thorne could see that he wasn't really that old, even if the unkempt beard would've suggested otherwise.
The nobushi nodded and spoke again. "And I'm Kobayashi Haruka." The warden found himself mesmerized by the woman, she was clearly older than the others but not by much, perhaps in her mid 30s but that didn't detract from her beauty, not in the slightest. Everything about her was elegant, from her long neck, to her silver eyes and hair as black as the night.
The kensei was next, and as the rest of them, he removed his mask, looking at them with his rich brown eyes. "Ishikawa Akihiko, commander of the samurai forces who served in the Shard."
"Welp, looks like we're next!"The raided said with a toothy grin. "Torbjorn Grimsson, and this is-"
"I can speak for myself, Torbjorn." The valkyrie interrupted him. "I'm Frea."
Thorne raised his eyebrow. "Just Frea?"
She nodded with a small smile. "Yes, my mother and father weren't-" she stopped herself mid sentence with a sigh. "I'm just Frea."
The room fell into silence for a brief moment, which was thankfully broken by the tiandi a few moments after. "I guess I'll have to speak for the both of us. My name is Xye Ling, and he is Bai… I think."
Torbjorn chuckled. "You think?"
She nodded. "Whenever I ask him he just points at something white, he never talks." The monk nodded in confirmation.
The lawbringer sighed. "At least he's not deaf." The man in gold looked to the conscript for a brief moment, then, with a grunt, he spoke. "You, give us your name, now," he said in a commanding voice.
The girl jumped off her seat with an 'eep!' She stood completely rigid and spoke quickly, a bit too quickly. "Virgilwhitebossmansir!"
"Speak clearly recruit!" his voice was firm.
"My name Is Virgil White!" she was shaking, probably not used to being yelled at, her situation didn't help much either.
Alistair nodded, "Better, now sit down." His voice, once again, left no room to be questioned and so Virgil immediately did as she was told.
Now there only remained one whose name was still unknown to them. The peacekeeper tilted her head at them, at the stares she received from everyone, then with a soft hum, spoke "Tranquility."
"That's an odd name," Thorne said with confusion.
"That's because it isn't." Alistair said simply.
Every warrior loo ked at the golden lawbringer with confusion, and it was Ling who voiced the question everyone had. "What do you mean?"
"Peacekeepers don't have names, not real ones anyway, they simply carry virtues as names; Compassion, Silence, Mercy," he listed, and after a moment's pause, gestured to the masked woman. "Tranquility."
Aquila frowned, looking at Tranquility with an indecipherable look. "The others removed their helmets, why don't you do the same?"
Even though his voice remained even, Thorne knew why he asked her to, for it was the same thing he wondered about. Stripped of your name, trained to kill, was there a human behind that mask?
After a moment of thought, Tranquility slowly removed her mask but kept her hood up. Her two heterochromatic eyes were barely visible, but from what he could see from the young woman, there was nothing in them, they were empty, unfeeling, uncaring, tranquil.
Frea spoke up "Don't you ever wonder what your real name is?"
Her answer was unexpectedly fast, without a trace of emotion.
"No."
So, you made it all the way down here, good!
Just in case you're wandering, i didn't bother describing the tiandi or the shaolin because we already see their faces in game.
PS: Google translate? Me? No i would never!
PPS: My browser history is now full of of baby name sites, I just want you to know that if I start getting ads related to parenting, it's all your fault.
