Forum Thread

Tirik made a gesture with his hands, aggressive, but indicating for her to follow him somewhere. "Royals, if you'd excuse us." At that he, turned and started to lead Regina down the hallways, twisting and turning one direction adn another at every turn. "You'll have to excuse the poor placement of the workshop."

Regina followed after him. All the emotions that she had bottled up for years, were threatening to explode. She couldn't take it anymore. "It's fine. Not everything can be convinced, after all." Like when you decide to let slip a secret you've kept ever since you became a knight.

---

After a moment, Tirik pushed open a large door that led to a room decorated with shelves of various pots and objects, and a few blankets across a small table. Kicking the small table over, Tirik cleared his throat. "There. Sit." He pointed to a small corner with a few pillows, and another thick blanket.

Regina walked over and sat down. "There." She took a deep breath. "What I'm about to tell you is something that no one has known, except the ones who aren't here to hear it." She paused, then continued. "I wasn't born into a high-ranking family. My father was just a common knight. Just another one in the ranks. I had a brother too...I loved him more than anything in the world. And that was his undoing. When I was 10 years old, I was climbing a tree. My father was standing under it, encouraging me. It was a dry tree...it fell. And the last thing I remember? The panic in his eyes. It went on like this. Next? My brother, killed by a wild animal because I forced him to come exploring with me in the woods. Then, my mother, saving me from a burning building, but couldn't save herself. My grandparents, drowned as they came home to celebrate my becoming a Knight. My best friends, killed in a landslide because I accidentally gave away our location while spying. And I do care..no matter what it may seem like, I do. But it's because I care that I hide my emotions, that I stay away. The universe decided that I have to be alone, for everyone's sake." She crossed her arms and looked up at him, and it was clear that she was crying. "There. I've said it."

---

Ava crossed their arms and stood against the door frame, watching everything happen now. Or barely watching- they were visibly lost in their own head at this point, furrowing their brows and staring at the floor with their eyes jumping from spot to spot every now and then. They didn't even notice the messenger appear the first time but on the second visit they caught what it said, shaking their head and finally looking up. They leaned closer to the messenger with a small smile "Ohh is he in trouuble?" Without waiting for an answer, they yanked the bottom of their makeshift coat and went inside the room to talk to Noah.
"Hey, daddy issues," they got closer and flicked his temple but not too hard as to not make it hurt "chop chop, you can forget those papers for a second you know. They're not going to run away" they crossed their arms again and stood next to the Prince.

Eʂɱҽɾҽʅԃα

Somehow, the Princess had managed to find herself lost in her own father's kingdom. The buildings around her were in no way familiar; the people studied her with suspicious glares. Thankfully, guards were still posted around the outskirts, though they were far less common. After a while, though, they stopped appearing. Her eyes widened, her chilled stroll turned into an agitated speed walk, her breaths sped up and- thump. She recoiled back, her eyes becoming so large that they shouldn't be able to fit onto her abnormally small face. She found herself face to face with some sort of lady dressed in black, with a gas mask covering the lower half of her face. Naturally, Esmerelda let out a whimpering noise, finding the person quite intimidating. And, it was at this moment that she became aware of an object inside her closed fist, which she was sure had not been there before, and felt oddly like a coin. She squeezed this object tighter, using it as her stress relief.

Noah continued blocking everything out and working on the papers. He was three quarters of the way done. He didn't think he was able to get these done so quickly! If anyone were to interrupt him now, when he was almost finished, he would surely feel defeated.

Noah's reaction left Ava confused, wondering exactly why he suddenly became so fixated on this random pile of work. They peaked over to see how far the prince has gotten with it, but really mostly because they're nosy and want to see what in this grabbed all of his attention.

"What do we have here~?" Dallas purrs as she stares down at Esmerelda with a look similar to one of a cat that had just cornered a mouse. She could recognize a member of the royal family when she saw one. Many emotions were flooding through her at this moment. Her pride was slightly damaged, she had a desire to appease Scarlet and an even darker desire to spill blood.
-This could be her chance. She could rid one member of the royal family right now!
A bubble of laughter rises from her throat as she slowly circles Esmerelda, carefully looking the girl up and down. But unless she was hiding them, she found no weapons. Of course, she was unaware of the coin. Finding no weapons would mean that Esmerelda was at her mercy, this made Dallas' confidence rise. "Are you lost?" Dallas asks barley at a whisper as she stops directly behind Esmerelda. "You are lucky that you found me~"

Eʂɱҽɾҽʅԃα

Another breath in, another breath out. Her heart might as well have burst out of her chest, her eyes shot out of their sockets. Somehow, she managed not to scream as Dallas circled her, though her terror was obvious from the trembling spreading through her body. She realised that she was unarmed, and completely hopeless should she need to fight. Breathe in, breathe out. Perhaps if she simply relaxed, the rather strangely dressed woman would take her home.
"Yes," she attempt to say, but it caught as she said it and sounded more like the sqeak of a cornered mouse. Clearing her throat, she tried again. "Yes, I am lost, and I'd very much like it if you could show me how to find my way home." Though there were slight trembles in her voice and she spoke unnaturally quickly, it mostly remained steady throughout her speech. Realising that if she tensed she might be seen as hostile, she let herself relax, turning the coin idly in her hand.

Dallas grin somehow seems to get larger as she circles around so she is within Esmerelda's view. "Of course, who would I be to not help the royal princess?" Dallas asks bitterly. She glances over to her left, down the street that would actually lead Esmeralda back towards the castle. "Lets hurry along, I wouldn't want to keep your family waiting. They'll worry." She begins walking down the street on her right, which is definitely not the right direction. Even better, it's far from the nearest guard post. Dallas knows that she should just keep quiet to avoid suspicion, but she can't help but let out an excited giggle.

Tirik had sat down in front of Regina, listening carefully. When the General had finished, he'd remained silent for a moment. Then he sighed, the look in his eyes something between sorrow and admiration. Pulling a silk square from a pocket, he reached out to wipe the tears from Regina's face. He said nothing, but his eyes openly betrayed his mind.

"That's why I don't smile at jokes or even get sad, or angry. I taught myself to push down everything I feel. I taught myself to hide behind a mask. So that they don't know how I'm feeling. That's why I turn away anyone who wants to be my friend or even have a conversation. I don't want them to get hurt either. I'm doing this for the world, okay? As a general, I have learned to make choices. It was either my happiness or their lives. And the choice is obvious. Without any ties to the world, I have learned to fight to the end. I have nobody that would pay a ransom if I was held hostage. I don't cloud my thoughts with memories of people and because of that, I can win any sword duel. It's a poisonous medicine, but one I have to swallow."

---

Another moment of silence before Tirik spoke. "Push people away? Not even a conversation?" He wiped another tear from her chin. "What suddenly made me an exception?"

Regina shrugged. "I guess...I didn't stop myself in time. I usually can tell myself to cut it short. But I really, really wanted to talk to someone, so I...I couldn't take it anymore! There's a point where you can become desperate to talk to someone, but I kept going past that point. Is it selfish? Wanting to have at least a friend, even though they will end up like your family and friends? Dead?"

---

Tirik hesitated, then reached his hand up to the top of his collar. Pulling the cloth down, he revealed a thin white line that ran across his throat. "I'm not sure whether or not this will bring you any reassurance, but I'm a little difficult to kill. Two years before I was relocated here, I was stationed at an offensive outpost, about sixty-two miles North-East of here. There was already a Mage stationed there, but he was... Weak willed, to say the least. His power consumed his mind, drive him to grow envious of me, as I had quickly gained the favor of the Knights there. Midway through a patrol by the Knights, he uh.." Tirik made the motion of dragging his finger across the scar. "He dragged a blade across my throat while I was performing a Summons. That made me stop in the middle of a word. The summoning went wrong, turned into a Blood Summon.. I summoned a Demigod, and it slaughtered the other Mage before I even felt the pain of the slice. The man's last words were 'I hope you bleed out.'" Tirik wiped a hand across his face, staring at the ground now. "The Demigod was what saved me, even if it was accidental. It threw a spell over me to hit the other Mage, because it senses the aggression. I don't know what the spell was, but it was something corrosive. I could only watch as the Mage melted in front of me, and I could only move once I made sense of everything. I could barely keep my eyes open, I had lost too much blood and could barely breathe. The acid from the Demigod had become less acidic when it hit the wood of the floor, and I figured out that I could cauterize the slice with it. I'm not sure what happened afterwards, I only know that a Knight found me. Said his name was David. The next time I saw him was when his body was being carried back by his brother. I never got to pay him back." Tirik fell silent, pulling his collar back up.

She sighed. "I suppose you are rather hard to kill, from the sound of that story. I'm sorry you had to-Regina looked up in shock. "Did you just say that the name of the Knight that found you was David? David was...David was my father's name."

---

Noah finished the last page. He was finally done. He didn't know if he had written it particularly well, but he had done what he had set out to do. He walked out the window and sat on the thin but surprisingly sturdy windowsill. He stared out at the sky and all the clouds. He wondered what was truly out there that he could explore.

The servant didn’t exactly know what to do. It was completely unacceptable for him to touch any of the royal family, but he also didn’t want the King to be mad. He stood next to Noah and watched him work before he finished. The Servant knocked on the windowsill that Noah sat next to, “Sir Noah, your father wishes to see you upstairs” he said with a bow. This time he spoke a tad louder, but didn’t dare raise his voice.

---

Tirik looked up. "David was the name of your father?" After a moment, he spoke again. "Do you think it was possible he survived the tree, but lost his memory?" A spark seemed to have started in his eyes, an idea forming. Then it went out. "Even if he did, I saw arrows that had slipped past his armor, struck his in the throat." Tirik's voice caught, his blood debt coming to mind.