A Winter Long Ago...

[Bloodrose]

Radasanth, present day...Solo…almost...

The bed linens, cold and damp with sweat, clung to his arms and chest as Teric sat bolt upright in bed. His breathing was labored and shallow, wheezing from his lungs as his heart pounded a furious rhythm in his temples. Just a dream. The veteran told himself silently, forcing his next breath through his nose rather than an open mouth. Slowing his harsh breaths burned his lungs and made his body quiver for oxygen, but it had the desired effect of slowing his racing heart and dulling the throbbing in his head. The darkness of the night surrounding him was a welcome embrace after such a vivid and heartrending dream...

"What's wrong?" A caring, worried voice whispered from behind Teric. A gentle hand, warm against his sweat-chilled skin, touched his arm tenderly. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," Teric turned to gaze reassuringly at his companion for the night, "it was just a bad dream."

She was nineteen and beautiful, the kind of woman any man lusts over. Her raven-black hair framed those thoughtful, questioning emerald eyes perfectly, and her dark complexion gave her a truly exotic quality. Slender and soft to the touch, curved wonderfully in all the right places with legs that went on for days...She was the type of woman he could have wooed off her feet in his glory days. These days such company cost him a fair purse, but Teric was never a man to worry about money...

"Anything interesting?" She asked coyly, pulling him down onto his back. The contrast of her warmth nuzzling against his shoulder and the cold of the damp sheet beneath him awakened Teric fully, and any thought of drifting back off to sleep soon was banished.

"Bad memories." He replied softly, fearful that speaking to loudly might shatter the tranquility of the inn room at this moment. The dark, dimly lit by what little moonlight filtered through the drawn curtains, and the soothing pleasantness of his company. "Nothing that would interest you."

"Aww." Her disappointment surprised Teric with its sincerity. "You're no fun."

His playfully menacing gaze matched her curious stare, and for a moment Teric found himself lost in those eyes, despite the darkness of the room. "Of what interest to you are my problems?"

"I can't take an interest in you?" She moved to prop herself up on her elbows, gaining the height advantage. It was an exercise in will that kept Teric's eyes focused on hers, rather than allowing them to drop and marvel at the generous assets her current position offered up for viewing. "Maybe you've aroused my curiosity?"

If only I could arouse everything else. The veteran couldn't help but imagine. Gold could buy you a wonderful time, true, but there was no amount of money in the world that could incite the same feelings and the same intensity that came with natural attraction. She was special in the sense that she had been more willing and believable than most, but Teric had to wonder if she was special enough to share this kind of personal story with...

"Tell me about your dream, please?" Eyes like those of a wounded puppy melted away Teric's inhibitions immediately, and he nodded in agreement. She smiled with delight and nuzzled closer to his shoulder than before, resting her head in the shallow between his neck and shoulder while draping one arm and leg over his body. There was a warmth down there, close to his hip, that almost made him forget the story entirely, but shook off the euphoria of the moment and settled into revealing details not known to many people still wandering the face of Althanas...

[Bloodrose]

Twenty years ago, Knife's Edge...

"The courtyard is quite beautiful in the winter time." A hushed voice said softly, breath misting like a thin veil of fog in the bitter cold. Two figures, accompanied by a smaller third figure, braved the Salvic winter in Knife's Edge to stroll slowly around the grounds that were emblazoned white with a fresh blanket of snow.

"Yes, it is." A feminine voice replied to the male as the woman bundled a fur cloak tighter to her body. Even in the comparatively temperate Testhan Valley, the cold winter winds pouring off the Ahyark Mountains could be brutally cold. A few quiet moments passed as they strolled, before finally the feminine voice broke the silence again. "It's nice to see you again, brother."

"It's nice to see you again as well, sister." Teric replied, his eyes scanning the narrow windows overlooking the square. The courtyard was enclosed on all sides by the manor, with two sets of doors leading from the north and south wings into the normally green and flowery haven. "And please, Victoria, you needn't be so formal with me."

"I'm sorry Teric, I do apologize. I get so used to being around my husband's acquaintances that I sometimes forget I can be less of a lady around you." Teric's sister was both the younger and the shorter of the two, and possessed their mother's dark, auburn air. In most circles she would have been considered a very beautiful woman, and so it was by no far stretch of the imagination that she had been married by eighteen. "Come along, Trent Jr." Victoria added, stopping momentarily to take the hand of her first child; a young boy, only a couple years old, who had been falling behind the two as he played in the snow.

"He's gotten bigger since I last saw him." Teric smiled, winking at the small toddler as he took his mother's hand and half-stood, half-hid behind Victoria's wide skirt. "Much bigger."

"He isn't the only one." Victoria smiled back, rubbing her free hand on the front of her cloak, over her belly, expectantly. Even beneath the furs and cloaks it was easy to distinguish that she was heavily pregnant with her second child.

"Yes, I can see that." Was Teric's response as they resumed their walk around the courtyard. When he had last left his sister's side, four months ago when he departed Knife's Edge to visit their ailing parents, Trent Jr.'s future sibling had been little more than a bump in his mother's abdomen. Now he was fighting to get out, and due to be born any day.

"How is Mother?" Victoria inquired. There was a twinge of worry in her voice that could most likely be attributed to the fact that she had not seen their parents in almost a year.

"She's doing well, all things considered." Teric's reply was slow, deliberate, and carefully thought out. He held back the fact that their mother was wearing herself down caring for their father, who was sick again; the fifth winter season in a row. Each year was a little worse than the last, and this year was no exception. Victoria deserved to know certain things, however, despite warnings not to cause any stress for the expecting mother. "Father is ill again. The cold is in his lungs this time." The tone in his voice almost made it seem like it was old news, which in some respects it was by this point…

Victoria seemed to absorb the news slowly, dipping her chin to her chest and gnawing at her lower lip gently as Jr. waddled along at her side. The boy's furry attire gave him the appearance of a teddy bear stumbling along, his legs stiff in the heavy winter gear.

"You should go and see them." Teric pressed a little further. "Mother would very much like to see you and Trent. You can surprise her even; she doesn't know yet that you are with child again."

The dismayed expression on Victoria's drawn, flushed face was almost too much to bear. "You know I can't leave the manor." She whispered, almost as if she was suddenly afraid of others overhearing their conversation. "My husband is very insistent. Maybe after the baby is born..."

"You haven't left the grounds of this manor in three years!" Teric interrupted suddenly. The mere mention of Victoria's husband struck a nerve deep in the warrior's heart, and his voice dropped into a snarl. "Your own parents are too ill to make the journey to Knife's Edge, and that bastard won't let you out of his sight even long enough to let them see their grandchildren?"

The sniffling of a small child cut through the growing tension like a knife as little Trent, finely attuned to the mood of his mother, cringed up his face. Tears began to threaten the corner of the boy's eyes, and his ruddy little cheeks began to flush.

"I apologize." Teric collected himself quickly, adjusting his coat busily as Victoria slowly kneeled to tend to her child. Her soothing coos had an almost magical effect on the boy, who was soon smiling and giggling along with his mother happily.

"Don't apologize, brother." Victoria sighed as Teric helped her back to standing upright. They completed the last of their little journey around the courtyard and climbed the steps onto the small patio to the doors in the manor's south wing. "We both know full well that my situation is not ideal."

"But," she added hesitantly, "I don't know if there is anything that can be done to change it..."

[Bloodrose]

"You have to stand up to him." Teric muttered as they stepped through the double doors in the south wing and into a small foyer. The carpet was already damp from others stopping here to wipe the snow off their boots, and Teric leaned on a nearby cupboard of mittens, hats, and scarves to brush the white powder from his lower legs. "You are not a piece of furniture to decorate his home with."

"No, but I am his wife." Victoria sighed as she hung her cloak on a peg in the wall. She pulled her hair out of the large bun she wore it in at the back of her head and let the long red-brown locks fall past her shoulders. She made as if to help Trent Jr. out of his snow gear, but the young boy was two steps ahead of her. Sitting in the floor, his legs splayed out in front of him, Teric's nephew was busy pulling his fur coat up over his head and wriggling out of his heavy pants. "And as his wife I have certain duties to him, and must heed his words..."

She's changed so much. Teric though glumly as he watched his sister aid Trent, who had gotten himself entangled and stuck with his coat over his head. What happened to the firebrand I watched over growing up? Where is the fierce, independent spirit in her that captivated so many admirers?

"Ah, there you all are." A voice interrupted the warrior's thoughts from the opening of the foyer into the cream and yellow paneled hallway.

He is what happened. Was Teric's reactive thought as he glanced up from his boots to rest his gaze on Trent Loryn Sr.; little Trent's namesake. Victoria's husband was a General in the King's Army of Salvar, and the man's years of dedicated service to his craft showed. Where Teric was lithe and strong to handle the varying situations of his career, Trent was built more like a gladiator. He was a dyed-in-the-wool soldier - a plain clothed, military cropped bull of muscle. Or at least he used to be.

A closer look gave Teric the distinct impression that commanding his forces from behind a desk - rather than being in the field - was taking a toll on the man's normally powerful physique. The skin around his square jaw and squat neck was beginning to sag as the iron muscles that bolstered them began to wither. It gave Trent an appearance not entirely unlike that of a melting candle, and Teric found himself wondering what would happen if he lit the man before him on fire...

"I was wondering where you had disappeared to, my dear." Trent addressed his wife, looking past Teric as though he didn't even exist. "You really shouldn't be outside in this weather, not with the baby due so soon."

"I apologize." Victoria dipped her head respectfully, casting her eyes to the floor. "I thought the fresh air would do me some good, and I had my brother..."

"Of course." Trent interrupted, folding his hands behind his back and turning to regard Teric with an even gaze. The two men stared each other down silently for a second, chilling the air between them to match the Salvic winter blowing outside the door. "How nice of you to join us, again."

"You know I can't stand to be away from your hospitality." Teric managed to crack a half-smile as he withheld as much dripping sarcasm as possible. "Besides, you know I have been asked to watch after my sister."

"Yes, Victoria told me." Trent replied dryly. He seemed to let the first comment slide by, an unusual pass. "I still don't understand why your parents feel that Victoria is in need of protection. I can assure you, she is quite safe here."

"That's..." exactly what they are afraid of. Teric was going to say, but Victoria interrupted him.

"I'm going to go tuck Trent Jr. in for his nap." She quipped in an attempt to diffuse the tension between the two.

"Very well." Trent hugged his wide gently and gave her a peck on the cheek before shooing her away with his son. Victoria disappeared down the hall towards the manor's east wing, leaving the two men alone.

For a moment neither of them spoke. Mercenary and soldier stood little more than arm's reach apart in the foyer, sizing each other up. It was a common dance between the two of them, as each saw the other as more of an enemy than a familial relation.

"How old are you Teric?" Trent asked finally, folding his hands behind his back once more.

"You know full well how old I am." Teric replied, going back to brushing the last of the snow off his boots. He let his gaze drop to avoid setting off another tense staring match, allowing Trent to utilize the opportunity to take a couple steps away.

"Thirty-two, if my memory serves me correctly."

"It does." Having finished with his boots, Teric stood up and squared himself with Trent. While the General was a bigger man, he was only a couple years Teric's senior. The one advantage the warrior did have over the soldier was height, rising a couple of inches taller. "But what does my age matter to you?"

"I was just curious." Trent feigned disinterest, as though he had no motive for asking. Teric sincerely hoped Trent was a better soldier than he was an actor. "I'm just left to wonder why a man your age hasn't decided to settle down with a family of his own yet. I'm sure there are plenty of women willing to look past the shadier aspects of your profession once they learn of your family ties, and of the small fortune you've amassed for yourself."

"My personal life is no business of yours." Teric shot back icily.

"It becomes my business when you set foot in my house." Trent came back. "I'm more than aware of your exploits, Teric, and the only reason I let you set foot within a hundred paces of my family is for Victoria's sake. You may think you are here to protect her, the Sway only knows what from, but I think you are more of a danger to her than anything else."

You don't know anything about me. Teric thought, but there was no amusement in the thought of Trent trying to delve into the shadowy underbelly of the city he was sworn to protect. There was no snappy comeback to fire back with, only a strange turmoil in his gut that he couldn't explain.

"Will you be staying for dinner?" Trent asked, dismissing their current conversation with a turn of his heel as he strode back into the hall.

"No," Teric responded slowly, "I have some business I need to attend to. Give Victoria my apologies, and let her know that I will return later."

"Take your time." Trent flashed a cold smile, striding off and leaving Teric alone in the foyer. The warrior didn't move for several moments, instead leaning back against the cupboard as he pondered the queasiness in his stomach and the predicament that lay ahead of him.

Why couldn't Victoria just marry a decent man, instead of him? He wondered. Someone I didn't have to watch like a hawk. Someone who didn't treat her like a dog instead of a person...

[Bloodrose]

Loryn Manor, like a lot of the finer homes in Knife's Edge, was clumped together amongst several others in a narrow cul-de-sac off the main road. The front door emptied out into a small lawn - now covered in snow - and onto a path that wound its way under a centuries old stone arch in the privacy wall. Here the path met with the street, and from under the streetlight one could make out several similar arches placed neatly in a horseshoe pattern around the dead-end boulevard.

A gated community for the city's elite. Teric mused as he squinted his eyes against the cold. He hugged his coat tighter and shoved his hands in his pockets to keep them warm. He set off for the little guardhouse at the end of the street, placing each step carefully to avoid slipping on the icy cobblestones. I remember the first time I set eyes on this place. He thought, recollecting the first time Victoria had invited Mother, Father, and himself to dine at the house. My parents were so happy, Victoria was engaged to be wed, and we all envied her. By the Goddess, how I had wished to live in a place like this...

Time and circumstance had done a lot to spoil those happy memories. Victoria hadn't left the manor since her wedding night - trapped inside by her husband's belief that a wife's place was in the home. She was nothing more than a decoration to Trent, a bedside table capable of providing him his progeny. That reality alone had done much to warp Teric's perception of the cul-de-sac over the years. In his eyes it was no longer a beautiful gated community, free of the worries and turmoil of the city's problems. These days the proud stone manor houses presented themselves more like the bunk houses of a prison, the 'privacy wall' a massive stone fortification to keep the occupants in, and an armed guard at the gate to keep order...

That same guard saw Teric coming down the gentle but slippery incline towards the little guardhouse. Outsiders were not permitted to carry weapons inside the community, so Teric had been forced to give up his upon arriving. As he approached, the uniformed guard disappeared into the little stone building behind him - built to almost be a miniature version of the manor's on the hill it protected - and returned shortly holding a belt and a knife. From the belt dangled the black and silver sheath of Teric's steel longsword, and the knife in the guard's hand glinted of steel as well.

"A bit late to be going out, don't you think?" The guard asked Teric in passing as the warrior collected his things. The winter sun was setting quickly behind the great spire over St. Denebriel's Cathedral, which stood proudly over the rooftops of the rest of the city, and the temperature was dropping fast.

"I have business to attend to." Teric replied as he buckled on the belt and stuck the knife in the top of his boot. His voice sounded funny, probably because the cold had stuffed up his nose. He felt like he had to sneeze, but there was no way anything short of a warm fire was going to clear his sinuses.

The guard shrugged, as if to say 'I don't care.'. There was a thin filament of frost on the man's chainmail shirt and coif that flaked and fell off as he did so, and since Teric didn't seem up to standing around and talking, the man went back to the meager warmth of his guardhouse.

Past the guardhouse and under another stone arch, the cobblestone street Teric had been navigating melded into the gravel and dirt street that was typical for the rest of Knife's Edge. The city had supposedly been working on a public works project for years to re-cobble all the streets, but so far only a few areas of the city - mostly the wealthiest and most travelled - had been done. It's just as well, though. Teric happened to concluded as he set off at a brisker pace towards the looming tower of the Cathedral. The winter ground was so cold that even the gravel was frozen to the earth, and the rough, rocky texture was much less slippery that the cobblestones had been.

After several minutes of walking, ducking his head as far into the collar of his jacket as possible to keep it out of the cold, Teric made his first stop. On the outside it was just a plain, typical looking dwelling; one of hundreds along this same street. The warrior knocked three times, paused, and then kicked the bottom of the door twice. Almost instantly a little old woman opened the door from the inside and beamed a smile up at him.

"Come to cleanse your spirit?" She asked in a feeble voice.

"Come for a lot of things." Teric replied softly, bowing slightly in respect.

The old woman nodded in a knowing fashion, her little black eyes shining from within nearly a hundred years of wrinkles and age. "I'll leave you to it then." She replied, pulling the door all the way open and shuffling out of the way to let Teric enter. He bent down and removed his boots as the woman closed the door behind him, and after setting them to the side she took his coat and wandered off with it.

Teric was alone in what would have been the small living area of the home - had people actually used it as a home. Instead the living room had been converted into a shrine of sorts, cleared of all furniture but for a small, wide table set against the back wall. Piled on and around the table were hundreds of cut summer flowers, kept alive and blooming by some invisible force. In the center of the table was a stone figure, standing about two feet tall, in the silhouette of a young, voluptuous woman. This was the Goddess, the deity Teric had grown up recognizing.

Since the Church of Ethereal Sway was the only church legally allowed to operate within the borders of Salvar, this home was what the followers of other beliefs were left to. They could not practice openly without fear of being condemned as witches or heretics, and although the followers of the Goddess considered themselves less a church and more a guide, they were not exempt from this rule.

"The Goddess is nature." His mother's words from so long ago drifted through his head as he kneeled before the table and bowed his head. "She is in the earth, the forests, the animals, and the wind. She gives life to all new things and protects those that serve her..."

Long moments passed in silence as Teric knelt before the stone figure and thought about what it was he wanted to say...

"I don't know if you're listening," he whispered, "but I hope you won't hold my misguided steps - and maybe the fact that I often take your name in vain - against me. Regardless of how you feel about me, though, I'm not here for myself. I've come because my sister is heavy with child, and she is due to give birth any day now." Teric paused, kind of tilting his head to one side as he thought. "I ask that you watch over her, and help her to bring a second healthy child into this world. Victoria would come and ask for this herself, I'm sure, but her husband does not allow her out of his sight. So please, watch over my sister and keep her safe..."

Teric pressed his fingertips to where the lips would have been on a more detailed statue, and then brought those fingertips to his forehead. From his pocket he produced a silver coin, and pressed it flat onto the table amongst the flowers. Dipping his head respectfully once more, he turned and stood up, stopping at the door to put his boots back on. As if summoned by magic, the little old woman carrying his coat came back just as he was pulling on the second boot.

"I'm sure she heard your request." The little old woman said with a knowing smile. "Your offering will help to keep the Goddess her in Salvar, where she can watch over those who don't live under the Sway."

"Thank you." Teric nodded as he accepted his coat back and pulled it on. The woman pulled open the door and seemingly produced a cookie from thin air to offer it.

"Oatmeal Raisin." She winked. "Your favorite, right?"

Teric shook his head in amazement, and couldn’t help but chuckle. He had visited this particular shrine perhaps three or four times in the many years since he had been a small boy, and yet the old woman never seemed to forget the young Teric - four years old - who had come with his mother one evening for cookies and tea...

"No need to thank me." She said with a smile. "Take it, enjoy it. You have other business I'm sure, so get moving before this cool winter air takes all the heat from my home."

Teric smiled back and accepted with cookie with a nod of thanks. His bare fingers tingled in the freezing air as he stepped back out into the street and the door was shut behind him. He bit into the cookie expectantly, already imagining the taste of it on his tongue. Instead of the normally sublime flavor he had come to expect from the old woman's cookies, however, the taste was bitter and dry. The cookie crumbled like ash in his mouth, and the raisins were hard and sour.

Shit. He thought as he spat out the cookie and tossed the rest of it away angrily. A sharp, child-like pang of disappointment lanced through him, and he almost wanted to cry, so badly had he suddenly wanted that cookie. Bad omen... His thoughts added, as he grumpily set off further into the city...

[Bloodrose]

"Hey!" A female voice called gleefully from the bar as the solid oak and iron door to the Shadow's Den slammed shut and was bolted behind Teric. The raven-haired owner of said voice stalked around a table standing in her way and gave the snow-blown warrior a friendly embrace. "Is my favorite blade back in town for good this time?" She purred...

"For a while." Teric replied simply, disentangling himself long enough remove his coat. It was warm and stuffy inside the den, a side effect of being beneath ground. Long ago someone had decided to build a social club of sorts beneath one of the many boarding houses just outside Rathaxea Square. That social club, over the course of numerous years and changes in management, slowly developed into the shadowy haven of all things underhanded that the Den was today.

"Only for a while?" The woman pouted pitifully, and wagged her finger in Teric's direction chidingly. "Would you really deprive Victoria of her best enforcer, yet again?" The woman added, referring to herself in the third person.

The name Victoria rolling off the raven-haired beauty's tongue sent a shiver down the warrior's spine, and he was immediately reminded of his sister and her despicable husband. It happened any time the Den's Matron introduced herself by her actual name, and Teric was always forced to remind himself that this woman was so incredibly different from his sister...

"Oh, I apologize my sweet." Victoria cooed when she saw the disturbed look in Teric's eyes. "I forgot. It'll be Tetsu-ko from here on out." She added, using her Akashima nickname. Translated loosely it meant Lady of Steel, and a more fitting name for the dangerous slip of a woman pulling Teric's arm towards the bar there was none...

As the Matron of the Shadow's Den, Tetsu could easily be considered one of the key power players in the world of Salvar's lucrative mercenary trade. Money for armed protection, assassinations, and intimidation changed hands beneath the streets of Knife's Edge every day - and a lot of that money came from some of the more upstanding pillars of justice in the city. If only Trent knew, Teric thought, that the same people who pay his salary have paid this woman on more than one occasion to make the skeletons in their closets go away...

"You want anything to drink?" Tetsu asked Teric as the two of them grabbed seats at the bar. The broad, dark skinned man behind the counter poured the Lady of Steel a glass of red wine without even asking. A short nod had the bartender filling a second, smaller glass with red-brown liquor.

Teric accepted the glass and sipped at it sullenly, staring into the fiery drink as it swirled around the depths of the glass. Were he not thoroughly absorbed in his thoughts, contemplating all the little things that had happened in the last couple of hours, he might have noticed the cross expression that manifested itself in her features.

"You're gone for months, and now you ignore me?" Tetsu prodded, her tone annoyed.

"Sorry." Teric snapped out of his reverie and shook his head as if to clear his thoughts to the edges of his mind. He turned on his stool to face Tetsu, allowing himself a brief second to sweep his eyes over her black-clothed body. It was a body he had known before, if only briefly in his youth, but Tetsu didn't hold those same charms for him anymore. Their's had developed into a strictly business relationship - and business was everything to Tetsu. "I've got a lot on my mind lately."

"I can see that." Tetsu replied coolly, taking a sip of her wine. "You look about as personable as a moody teenager. Not very becoming for a full grown man." She tsked. "I hope your recent funk hasn't affected your ability to handle a sword. I've been keeping a couple of juicy contracts sitting on the back burner waiting for your...exceptional...expertise..."

"I didn't really come here looking for work." Teric said. "I'm actually thinking about retiring for a while."

The sudden, vicious fire in Tetsu's eyes was almost physical, and Teric did his best not to wither under the heat. Her knuckles turned so white as they snaked around the neck of her wine glass that the warrior was afraid the frail cup might shatter, but the Lady regained her composure almost as quickly as she lost it. With a sigh and a chuckle she swept a stray hair over the back of her ear and regarded Teric intently.

"You're not serious. You're just trying to get a rise out of me..."

"Actually, I'm quite serious." Teric shot back without any formality. Tetsu had a difficult time dealing with decisions that didn't benefit her in some way, so it was to be expected that she would take serious issue with the warrior's retirement.

"Do you have any idea what you're giving up?" Tetsu hissed vehemently. Teric had opened the door by being blunt, and now all bets were off. Losing one of her prime contract winners was a serious wrench in the cogs that kept Tetsu's underground machinations turning, and it was obvious that she wasn't happy about it. Take serious issue was what Teric had expected her to do, but she was quickly rushing headlong into threaten your life... "I've had two - not one - but two very important men standing in the wings twiddling their thumbs waiting for you to come back. I promised them you, the best, and they're threatening to walk if I don't serve you up to handle their problems soon. Do...you...know...how...much...money...I'll...lose !?" She quite literally spat the last sentence out at him in barely intelligible gasps.

Coming here was a mistake. Teric's mind intoned helpfully as the sound of Tetsu's wine glass shattered on the far wall interrupted the low hum of conversation in the Den. So much for thinking that Tetsu would be at least a little understanding...

"I have more important things than your wallet to deal with in my life right now." Teric replied icily. For a half second he contemplated explaining to his former lover, his former comrade, and his now former boss that his parents were ill and not long for this world. He wanted to take her by the arms and explain to her that he needed to be by his pregnant sister's side. But she won't care, he knew, I'm just a paycheck to her these days...

Dropping a coin on the bar, Teric stood up from his stool and made for the door. Time seemed to slow down as every eye lurking in the dark corners of the Shadow's Den flicked their gaze from departing mercenary, to livid contractor, and back again. The silence that hung in the stuffy air was complete and overwhelming, and Teric half-feared, half-expected a dagger in the back to break the quiet...

A burly man at the door stood up from a small chair and unbolted the heavy iron-bound door as Teric pulled his coat back on. Slowly at first, and then more steadily, patrons of the Den began to resume their conversations as the warrior ducked through the narrow opening back into the Salvic winter chill...

[Bloodrose]

With no guests this evening and little Trent Loryn Jr. asleep after his afternoon walk in the courtyard, there really was no need for dinner to be taken in the main dining hall. The great table, with its seating for nearly a score of people, would have been most lonely and empty indeed had Lord and Lady alone dined there. Instead they took their meal in the little breakfast nook off the kitchen, sitting more intimately together as husband and wife should at the small, polished maple table. Trenchers of grilled venison, freshly hunted and brought into the city earlier this very day, filled the small recessed room with the gamey aroma of flesh of melted butter. A steamy bowl of mixed vegetables sat between husband and wife in the middle of the table, alongside a fresh loaf of bread and a pitcher of blackberry cordial.

"You've barely touched your plate." Trent Loryn Sr. commented to his wife as he speared another chunk of venison on his silver fork. He popped the tasty morsel in his mouth and chewed vigorously, eyeing Victoria studiously from beneath bushy black eyebrows.

"I'm not that hungry." Victoria replied softly, both hands clasped delicately over her swollen belly. "My stomach doesn't feel right."

"Should I call the midwife?" Was Trent's response, and the man was already rising from the table before Victoria backed him down with a wave of her hand.

"No." Victoria said, slightly exasperated. "The baby isn't coming yet; I just don't feel good."

Trent sat down with a poor attempt at a caring smile. Sheepishly he went back to clearing his plate, momentarily leaving Victoria alone with her thoughts. They were troubled thoughts, for in that single moment Trent had shown at least a little caring for her well-being. Ultimately, though, Victoria knew that whatever glimmer of the caring man she thought she had married still remained beneath Trent's rough exterior was more worried about the child than her. They had danced the same dance before Trent Jr. was born, and Victoria had felt firsthand what it felt like to be adored for nine months, and then promptly forgotten as soon as her son was born.

And that's how I ended up with child a second time. Was the most depressing thought to go through Victoria's mind. Just so I could feel loved again, if only for a short time...

"Teric didn't say where he was going?" Victoria asked. She was almost instantly rewarded with a dissatisfied glare from her husband, and a roll of his eyes that indicated that she shouldn't have spoken of her brother at all.

"No, he just said that he would return later." Trent stuck another piece of meat with his fork and brought it halfway to his mouth before dropping it back to his plate with a sigh. "Is there something I should know?" He followed up. "Is there any particular reason why you or your brother feels the need for him to be skulking around my home for months at a time?"

"Teric doesn't 'skulk'." Victoria retorted, careful to keep her voice soft. She had seen what Trent's mood could be like when she openly defied or contradicted him. "You make him out like he's some sort of criminal."

"You don't know your brother as well as I do, Victoria." Trent shot back with an accusatory finger. "You don't know what he does. If the right people knew that I let a man like Teric frequent my home, the future of my career would be called into serious question."

Victoria's eyes closed, her mouth clenched and her hands holding her belly protectively. Her breath came in short, sharp burst through her nose as she tried to calm down enough to not openly snap at her husband. Bickering with him over his misconstrued image of her brother wouldn't get anywhere, and would only cause her strain at a time when she could ill afford such stress. "My brother is a good man." She replied simply, after a moment of careful breathing.

"Yes, well, even so - you still haven't answered my original question." Trent tore off a chunk of bread and used it to soak up some of the juices leftover from the venison on his plate. "Why won't your brother stay gone? Why doesn't he go start a family of his own instead of bothering mine?"

Because I need a friend. Victoria wanted to cry. Because he is my only contact with the world outside these walls.

"I don't know." She answered, her voice barely above a whisper. In fact, she knew full well, but to give Trent an answer like that was to invite her husband's often violent, often unwarranted wrath.

[Bloodrose]

It was late, perhaps 10:00 or 11:00 in the evening by the time Teric made his way back to the secluded cul de sac when many of Knife's Edge's elite made their homes. The guard at the gatehouse by the main road again confiscated the warrior's weapons as he passed beneath the stone arch onto the cobbled lane, as per usual. With the dark of night had come a light snow; thick, downy flakes falling gently on a crisp breeze. The street was still slick, and even more difficult to navigate when traveling uphill rather than down, but Teric made good time to the front door of Loryn Manor.

Many of the lights that normally illuminated the narrow, gothic-style windows had been doused; leaving only a few glowing lights to indicate someone was still awake. The wrought iron knocker on the door was brutally cold to the touch as Teric struck the metal hammer against its faceplate to send a dull thumping noise reverberating through the heavy door. There was a short pause, and then the door was opened from the inside by a wizened old man, Porter, who served as the manor's steward.

"Ah, Master Teric." Porter smiled, revealing a surprisingly intact and healthy smile for a man of his age. "Come in, come in; get yourself out of the cold."

Porter, unlike the man he served, was far more appreciative of Lady Loryn's situation - and thus far more welcoming of Teric's presence that Trent had ever been. Teric knew for a fact that the kindly old steward had been warned at least a couple of times now - under penalty of being removed from his post - to turn the brother away at the door. Warnings never seemed to bother Porter, though, although it was the last thing Teric wanted to do was get the man in trouble.

"I'm not costing you your livelihood am I?" Teric always asked before stepping through the door.

Porter smiled again. "Master Trent has already retired to his chambers for the evening." He replied simply, beckoning Teric inside. "He has to rise early in the morning for a council meeting in Rathaxea Square."

Fair enough. Teric thought as he stepped quietly through the door and allowed Porter to take his coat. "And my sister?"

"Retired as well, I'm afraid." Porter didn't miss a beat as he hung Teric's coat on a peg and started wandering towards the kitchen. "Of course, she's expecting soon so it's probably for the best that she get all the sleep she can. Care for a glass of brandy?"

Porter slipped the question in at the end fluidly, drawing Teric's attention away from other matters. Teric accepted with a nod and followed the surprisingly nimble old steward through to the back of the house and the well equipped kitchen in the southeast corner. There is was much warmer than the rest of the manor, as the help kept the wood fires in the bellies of the stoves burning all night to keep from having to restore the flames in the morning. Dry rushes scattered across the floor to help clean spills and prevent people from slipping on the slick stone floor beneath gave the room a hardy, dusty aroma not unlike that of a barn loft.

"Here we are." Porter mumbled to himself as he pulled down a leather wineskin that had been warming over one of the stoves. Swishing the contents of the skin around a bit the old man almost magically produced two glasses out of the dimly lit atmosphere and poured generous portions of the strong drink for each.

"Thank you kindly." Teric nodded as Porter handed him the glass, and both men took a moment in silence to sip appreciatively at the warm, intoxicating spirit.

"How are your parents?" Porter asked, interestedly. The old steward had become quite personable with the elder's of Teric's family on their many visits to the Manor, so it wasn't entirely surprising that the man should inquire about them - small talk or not.

"Not well." Teric replied frankly. "Father is ill again, like every winter, and I'm afraid my poor mother will run herself into the grave taking care of him."

Porter nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry to hear that." He replied, taking another sip of his drink. "They are quite elderly by now, thought, aren't they?" He asked.

"Father is just sixty, and Mother is fifty-eight." Teric answered. They've lived full lives each, and it wouldn't be abnormal for them to pass away soon. Still," Teric chuckled - half jokingly, half serious - "it's hard to imagine life once they are gone."

Porter was nodding again, taking in every word Teric said with a sip at this glass. "I'm a little older than your Father, but the fates have granted me good fortune and good health through all my years. I imagine your parent's passing will go harder on your sister than it will on you?" Porter asked. "Not to say that it won't be difficult for both of you." He was quick to add.

Teric thought about the steward's last question for a moment or two, turning over the idea of his parents passing away in his mind. It was a difficult thing to ponder, not only because they were his parents, but also because how one reacts to a loved one’s death is a difficult thing to gauge before the fact. Such an event is always painful, but just how traumatic or lasting that pain can be is hard to contemplate. There are always mitigating factors, such as a long illness that might allow a person to prepare for the worst, or how sudden the death might be, that play into just how awful such a death can be...

"I suppose..." Teric was interrupted by a sudden flurry of footsteps outside the kitchen, and then two chamber maids came bursting through the door like banshees.

"What the hell is going on?" Porter blinked, so surprised that a mouthful of brandy had ended up on the front of his shirt.

"It's Lady Victoria!" One of the maids was giddy with delight as the other began loading iron kettles of water onto a hot stove. "She's gone into labor!"

[Bloodrose]

Teric and Porter were quick to the stairs, but the midwife - who had been staying in a guestroom downstairs in expectation of just such an event - was quicker. The little old woman, barely larger than a child, literally flew up the stairs with a speed and grace reserved for those less than a quarter of her age. Around the corner at the top of the stairs and down the hall towards the Master Suite followed brother and steward as closely as they could keep up with the midwife, dashing headlong towards the muffled cries of pain echoing down the paneled corridor.

"Victoria!" Teric almost shouted as the midwife burst through the bedroom doors with the warrior and Porter quick on her heels. Trent was standing beside the bed, ashen and drained, while Victoria lay curled up in the center of the bed moaning and crying in pain. More maids were already stripping the heavy blankets and comforters off the top of the bed, baring it to the white top sheet, and stacking them haphazardly in the corner of the room.

"Water?" The midwife bellowed, surprisingly loud and commanding for a woman of her size.

"Missy's already down to fetch it!" One of the maids shouted back over the ambience of childbirth.

"You men get out of this room, this instant!" The midwife ordered as she rolled up her sleeves and circled around to the side of the bed closest to Victoria. She began talking in hushed, soothing tones to the expecting mother and Porter ushered Teric and Trent from the room, pulling the doors closed behind them as they exited into the hall. Brother and Husband took up suspenseful posts near the door, biting lips, fumbling with pockets, and tapping their feet nervously.

The wait, to be indeterminately long, was already horrendous to bear - and this was just the beginning...

Minutes passed like hours as maids carrying steaming kettles of clean, warm water and fresh white sheets came up the stairs and slipped through the bedroom door. Intermittently those same maids would come rushing back out carrying empty kettles, and sometimes sheets wrapped into balls. Teric had no idea how much time passed, whether it be minutes or hours, but slowly he began to notice that the sheets many of the maids carried out of the bedroom were red with blood. To go along with that, the happy smiles that many women get when a newborn is on the way slowly began to fade into a grim masks of determination. The atmosphere in the hall every time the bedroom door opened went very noticeably from expectant birth to a feeling like a war was being fought in the bedroom.

And through it all, hanging over everything, was the painful cries and screams of a mother in labor...

What the hell is going on in there? Teric wanted to grab the nearest passing maid by the shoulders and shake her until he got an answer. Is Victoria doing alright? Is the baby coming along? What's taking so long? Why is there so much blood? Why is everyone so somber? Is there anything I can do to help?

Nerves, fear, and anticipation kept Teric firmly rooted to the floor outside the bedroom door. Whatever was happening on the other side of that door was completely foreign and unknown to him. Fighting, warfare, and death were concepts that Teric had studied and practiced at great length for years - but the other side of the spectrum, birth and the bringing of life into the world - were alien and unknown. One look at Trent would have told the warrior that the expectant father was in virtually the same boat...

"I'm going to need a surgeon." The midwife poked her head out the door and fired off the request like a seasoned commander before disappearing back into the bedroom to leave Teric and Trent in awful suspense. Brother and Husband didn't move and inch as Porter dashed off down the stairs, shouting for a page, a messenger, or anyone who could carry word to the local surgeon that he was needed...

Seconds began to pass like minutes, and still they waited. It seemed to take a month, but the surgeon arrived much quicker than most would have expected. Still dressed in his nightclothes, dripping snow and sleet from his nose and bushy brown beard, the man carrying a leather bag of medical instruments bounded up the stairs three at a time. So fast was he whisked into the bedroom, that he seemed more to pass through the door than actually through an opening in the door.

More waiting...

Something is wrong in there. Was the single thought Teric had dreaded confronting. Very suddenly, and without knowing why, Teric's mouth was dry and there was the residual taste of burnt, putrid oatmeal and raisins on his tongue.

As if in a dream, Victoria's anguished cries slowed, and then stopped altogether...

[Bloodrose]

Thump...ba-thump...ba-thump... A man could literally hear and feel his heartbeat resounding in his ears, so great was the silence in the hallway. No one breathed, no one moved, and no one dared ask aloud the question that all of them were thinking...

Why is it so quiet?

Any normal person would have expected to hear the wails of a newborn babe as it gulped down the first breaths of air to grace its lungs. There should have been the exultant, relieved, and exhausted crying of a mother after her arduous ordeal. At the very least there should have been some noise at all, be it only the rustling of sheets, the whispers of chamber maids, or a midwife's congratulations. In Teric's mind, he wanted more than anything for there to be some noise in the hall. He wanted one thing most of all, but already the darker voices inside his head were whispering ill omens; even before the surgeon solemnly stepped out of the bedroom and turned to face Trent Loryn, General of the Kings Armies of Salvar...

"I'm afraid there were some complications." The bearded man bowed his head respectfully and placed a comforting hand on Trent's shoulder. "The child was descending feet first and the mother developed some heavy bleeding..."

Teric, standing just behind the doctor on the other side of the doorway from Trent, overheard it all as if through a haze. This isn't happening. He was telling himself, refusing what his ears were trying to tell his brain. The Goddess was supposed to watch over her. She was supposed to be safe. I did everything I could...

The taste of burnt oatmeal and bad raisins was almost unbearable, and then the surgeon uttered those dark and heavy words that brought the entire world crashing down around Teric's head...

"I'm afraid both mother and child did not make it through the birth."

"Ug-huh." The retching, heaving sound Teric made as the floor was pulled out from underneath him was audible. Porter, eyes downcast and hands folded behind his back, didn't even attempt to wipe away the tears rolling down his cheeks. In that moment the whimpering sobs of one of the chamber maids could be heard as well; a somber backdrop for the suffering taking place just outside the bedroom door. Trent, the surgeon's hand still on his shoulder, seemed to take the news best of all, remaining upright, arms at his sides, his face blank.

You bitch! Was the only thought Teric could muster as his knees hit the floor. He was trembling so badly that his legs could no longer support his weight, and whole body felt as if it had been struck by lightning. You bitch, you bitch, you horrible bitch... He kept thinking, cursing the very image of his Goddess swirling around in his mind as he aimlessly clenched and unclenched his fists.

It was at that moment, in the midst of everyone's sudden and terrible grieving, that Trent decided to utter aloud the single most awful thing a man in his position could have said.

"Maybe now Teric will quit lingering around my home." The General said despondently. Had his tone been any different, the man's words might have been interpreted as a cruel, black joke - but it was clear from his detached inflection that the words were more a coping mechanism than a knife in Teric's gut. Clear to everyone, that is, except for Teric. Trent's words cut through the grieving brother's pain like a hot blade through snow, unleashing something far angrier - and far more vicious - underneath.

"You maggot!" Teric screamed, barely coherently as he was on the General in a flash. Surgeon and Steward alike pounced to drag to the two men apart as Teric smashed his fist into his now former brother-in-laws jaw. Victoria, the one thing that had always prevented him from striking Trent a million times before was now gone, and her sudden and unexpected exit from the world only fueled the terrifying violence of Teric's reaction.

One, two, three blows Teric landed to the Trent's face before the soldier finally managed to come around and begin defending himself. There in the middle of the hallway the two men clutched and swung at each other, blind rage and a mutual dislike of each other powering their tremendous blows. Porter, with the common sense that accompanies his age, wisely backed away from trying to pull the two apart as they fought. The surgeon too, seemed unwilling to continue the peacekeeping.

"I'll kill you!"

"Fuck you!"

The angry words flew thick and fast, barely intelligible and impossible to know from who as the fight continued for several more seconds. After that brief period Teric managed to counter a blow to his own ribs with a bone-jarring uppercut that sent Trent sprawling onto his backside. Still ready and eager to kill the man, Teric was about to pounce on his opportunity when he noticed little Trent Loryn Jr., dressed in his pajamas and clutching a small stuffed bear, standing in the hallway behind his fallen father.

"Mommy?" The little boy said with a whimper, fear of the unknown crowding behind eyes threatening tears.

That tiny voice, alone and a scared in hall, nearly stopped the hearts of everyone present...

[Bloodrose]

Present day...

"What happened after that?" She asked softly, even as she absently ran her fingers up and down his chest.

"I was run out of town." Teric replied solemnly, starting up the ceiling. "Striking a member of the King's Guard, no matter what the reason, is a serious offense. Trent knew it to, but rather than just have me arrested and thrown in jail, he used the leverage to get rid of me."

"What about your nephew?"

"I left him with his father. Not ideal, but I had no claim on the boy." Teric replied.

"Have you ever been back?" Her questions were starting to drift away from the story a bit, and her tone gave the impression that she was more interested in the now, rather than the then.

"No." The veteran shifted slightly, trying to ease a growing knot in his shoulder where his companion was resting her head. She seemed to take the hint and shifted as well, resting her head in a new spot. "I haven't Trent, my nephew, or Knife's Edge in almost twenty years. I stay away from Salvar in general, really, as much as I can."

She made a slight noise of agreement and was content to lay there in silence with him for several minutes. Outside, in the street below, the ambient sounds of shopkeepers and laborers going to work told Teric that morning was soon at hand. Once the sun rose his night of pleasant company was over, and the warrior at that very moment wished for the ability to stop the sun from running its endless course. He didn't want her to leave, but had to accept it as inevitability.

"Have you had these dreams ever since?" She asked, oddly. She rose up on one elbow and used her free hand to sweep her cascading falls of dark hair over the top of her head and behind one ear. This time Teric could help but look, but she didn't seem to mind or notice his longing.

"Not really," He replied, pulling his gaze back up to match her's, "it's only recently that they've been keeping me up at night."

"Hmm," she carelessly chewed on her bottom lip for a moment as if thinking, "maybe you're mind is telling you to go back and tie up loose ends?"

Teric's brow rose up, questioningly. It seemed such an odd thing for her to say, that, and it felt out of place. The fact that she was already interested in hearing his stories and his problems separated her from any other escort he'd had the pleasure of meeting, but to hear her give out advice was almost surreal. "Maybe you're in the wrong profession?" He teased. "Maybe you should be a seer, or a counselor?"

"Hey!" She punched him in the arm playfully, eyeing him sternly. "I'm serious. A wise man once said, 'Nightmares feed on our fears, and will never tire until we confront them without anxiety in our hearts.'"

Teric couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of that moment. Of all the things that he had expected the naked beauty laying next to him to be, educated and thoughtful were not on the list. She was gazing at him seriously though, but there was a smile on her face that told him she wasn't upset at his amusement.

"You certainly are something special." Teric told her, taking her into a warm embrace and settling in to enjoy what little time was left before the sun rose above the horizon.

"You have no idea," she purred softly, "you have no idea..."

((Spoils - None. Just a foreshadowing thread to give a little background to Rise of the Underground))