Owl of my Youth - Mercenaries Have Lives

[Stare]

Vitruvion nodded a little, elegantly. "Most likely. They spoke of foresters inhabiting that place ... No suggestion of how many?"

"No sir."

They still trotted, and he made no sign of slowing. Instead, he began to angle his horse towards the side of the wood, rather than the centre. There was looks but no comments as all followed his direction wordlessly.

To the edge they got and Vitruvion gestured to his employees before sliding off his own steed. The rest of the men followed, Stare only getting off when she was thrown a meaningful look. Holding their mount's reigns each being glanced to the other before the secret god breathed in and began to murmur quietly.

"Raevin, take point with Bolster and Hangfort. Narlan, keep behind them."

The men nodded and easily slid into position, drawing weapons. Stare watched their movements occurring with practised ease, fascinated in the way that they did. Calmly Vitruvion slid into a point between them all, hands grasping onto his cane.

"Stare?"

She looked over to him and saw him gesture just before him.

"We need your eyes."

Her main use. What she was called after. Quickly she nodded and slipped on her gauntlet as she walked over, testing the metal plate links sliding back and forth into one another. Easily, with her small form, she took up position between Raevin and Vitruvion, her range obscured by the height of the elf, but there would be enough room to see something.

She breathed in and straightened, shifting into heat vision. The five large bodies around her were red beacons on a field of black, hot and living and -

"Stare go ahead, actually. Those are going to get in your way. Raevin, protect her with ... Well you know."

Stare glanced back at the intense pink body of warmth behind her, but not before a hand fell onto her shoulder. Suddenly the heat that was Raevin appeared and pushed her forwards before him. She stumbled slightly, but was righted and steadied by the hand. It took her a moment to get her balance, but when she did she swung her head back forwards and was met with the forest of dull colours and tiny buzzing life.

[Stare]

Flies. Hundreds of them. Tiny points that she had not noticed before because of the intensity of the warm bodies.

"Be careful," Vitruvion said quietly. "There are many flies in that dark forest. Spiders may also lurk."

"Spiders," Narlan grimaced. And the rest agreed in his hateful notion with a mixture of murmurs.

"Stare?"

She grunted and started on, pressing her claws to the earth and beginning the trudge into the forest.

Behind her Raevin pressed close, his orders she was sure being to keep her alive at the cost of others. The captain of the guard knew how much she was worth to Vitruvion. His unwavering loyalty to the god who was not even his, and who he had had to swear numerous secret oaths to, was respectable but also creepy. Knowing what Vitruvion did in his darker moments should make any single being shiver, but Raevin instead helped him to create that world. And hire guards for it.

Into the depths of the wood they went, Stare switching to and fro out of her heat sight and general vision to see if there was anything to be missed. All she could see though, for some time, was the hundreds of buzzing lights of flies. She reconnoitered back with Vitruvion.

Press on, he kept saying.

Once, it was far too late.

The enemy came from the side, clicking it's jaws in a screaming clatter. There it was, a massive spider as the god had predicted. Stare sucked in her breath and grabbed her dagger at her belt. But she was suddenly shoved to the side as not only Raevin but two guards surged forwards. Flame-haired Bolster rushed forth, dragging out his sharp blade to stab the creature in the leg.

Screaming came, Stare aimed to get forwards but the others had gone. Desperate and shocked by the sudden mass of blades sticking in its direction the spider let out a shriek. Overall it was around six foot in height and length, six eyes staring whilst the other two seemed to be closed. It screamed and hissed as the men encircled it, waving weaponry in the air.

It soon became clear why Raevin had chosen these particular people. Their skill and ability shone above all others, and they weaved a death like no one deserved. One by one, with unspoken synchronisation they ducked in, then ducked out, changing the way the spider needed to move in order to fight each time. Stare glanced over to Vitruvion, and saw him simply leaning on his cane, blue eyes gleaming as he watched his men. She herself stood ready, but it seemed the warriors were determined not to let her get a way in, on their own thoughts or on orders. Quickly they made sweet bloody work of the spider, and it gave out a final cry with its clicking pincers raised to the sky. As it thumped to the ground Stare dragged in a breath, realising it had all taken just a matter of a few seconds.

[Stare]

Done. Dusted. Deceased.

"Well?"

Her eyes darted around to see Raevin standing behind her. He had a mad look in his eye and a smile strewn over his face. Else, he looked almost prestine, as if the fight had done nothing at all.

"Stare? We going on?"

Breath rushed out of her again and she nodded, twisting around.

I can fight as best as the rest of them, she grumbled.

Yes, but they are not as worth as much as you.

Her eyes turned over to him and she stared in a moment of disbelief at her. Raising his brows he looked back at her, then lifted a finger to point back to the wood.

We're going that way, Stare.

She grunted and turned, but could not forget what he had just said. She was truly worth that much? Even more than Raevin? Was the what he was saying now? She wondered if he had such restraints on him like she had? A hidden cuff? Maybe an earring, or a document proclaiming Raevin his property too?!

Raevin swore his fealty to me a long time ago. I don't need to threaten him as I do you. You still resist me, despite the last six months of knowing who I am.

Her eyes lowered but she pressed on into the trees, taking the point. Switching back into her sight of heat she left the slowly cooling carcass of the dead spider. Of course, there may be more. Though spiders were solitary hunters usually there was a chance at some breeding in one area. Personally she did not like larger-

It was easier said than done. Suddenly from the other side, opposite to where the first spider had come from suddenly four huge bodies were surging towards them. Stare yelled out, swinging in that direction as the red figures rushed at them.

The guards turned, confused as the dark forest hid the oncoming rush. But they prepared themselves none the less, and once more Stare was shoved to the back. She growled, feeling more that her gender was what was causing this now. They surged, all four of them now, as a single company, expertly falling into step beside each other.

[Stare]

As a single unit they ran at the spiders. Stare held her breath, glancing back to Vitruvion, who was doing the same as before and looking like he was idely watching. This time though he seemed to be more focused and she could swear she saw an absent finger or two being flicked. At the same time as one of these she noticed a spider slip up on one of its legs and she knew then it was him.

These spiders were short work. As a single unit the guards rushed together, the finest fighters that Raevin could train and had. Mercenaries, trained both for the Hollow as guards and for genuine hire. Ultimately, however, it was known that they owed their loyalty to Vitruvion. The man who paid them to be trained, gave them homes and shelter, offered them that chance to change their life, should they want it. Anytime they could leave his employ.

They charged and they felled. Stare kept watching Vitruvion, and saw more of the minor movements that signalled the throw of another spider leg, or the lesser warned blinding of an eye. At one point he tilted his head to her and slightly smiled, knowing what she was thinking, that he could finish the spiders off with a single click of his fingers if he wanted to. The smile told her that he could, but he wouldn't.

A single spider broke from the ranks and suddenly rushed them. Vitruvion frowned as if he had not been expecting it and actually paused in his thinking. Stare, however, was more eager than anyone and rushed forwards to savagely gain hold of one of the eight eyes of the beast. It was too easy, all too easy. Savagely she stunned it with a wave of hatred overtaking her body, then sent necrosis beginning to spread thickly over its face. Next, with it occupied, she rushed forwards and began to stab out with her knife and gauntlet, using her speed to launch onto its back. Quickly she took it for granted, hissing as she slid her mythril and titanium deeper and deeper into its body. Still it shrieked, trying to toss her off, and she had to hold onto the hilt of her dagger buried within.

Click. Suddenly the neck of the thing jerked around, hard. It made a heavy sound as it crashed to the ground, twitching. Dead. Legs were splayed, eyes still with necrosis burning through them, and it was beginning to roll.

Dragging her knife out she hissed but jumped off the corpse as it instinctively curled around, legs springing inwards and flipping onto its back. She landed in a fit of irritation, her claws gripping the dirt with expert reflexes before she glanced up at the one who she knew had mad the neck break.

Glaring, she muttered. "I could have finished it on my own."

"And as you have so rightly deduced I could finish every single one of them," he murmured quietly back. "But I won't. Because they deserve their display of strength."

[Stare]

"And I don't?"

"My dear, I still help them to some extent. I did nothing for yours until that moment." He shrugged one shoulder.

She glared at him for a longer moment, but then sighed and knew it was no more use. They watched the other group destroy the spiders, and she shifted back into her heat sight, watching the lights merge and play.

Slowly all were destroyed, and their corpses left. They trailed back to the kenku and the god, chests heaving, eyes latching onto the nearby corpse and expressing certain guilt. Vitruvion glanced at Raevin, who gave him a firm nod, and the god nodded back. He breathed in, then looked around, trying to determine a new direction before they continued on their way.

"Sir, there is a possibility this could get worse. The forest just gets deeper from here."

Vitruvion nodded, knowing it was likely. "Stare at the front again, but we go as a close group now."

There were murmurs, and shufflings. Stare grunted and moved ahead, this time though Bolster and Raevin were at her near sides. They huddled as a tight group, with Vitruvion taking up the rear. Still, though, they had to go on with a task in mind.

Stare stayed entirely in her heat vision this time, eyes wide and constantly scanning. The small lights of the flies flickered in and out of patches now, forming over certain areas, or avoiding others. Silently she kept treading, calling out when there was a river. She hopped over it, closely followed by the rest. Together they went on, dispatching another two onslaughts of spiders, two at a time around, until she began to see ...

"Oh."

She paused. A hundred or more close lights, burrowed together. Huddled in some form of rectangular fashion. A quick look into her normal vision and peering into the darkness told her that ... Well. That they were in the beginnings of a long building, the doorway caved in. And from its depths thousands of tiny eyes peered, larger ones groping over the tops.

She whistled. "Oh my ..."

They had found the Bounty Hunter's Guild.

[Stare]

Or what had been it. With some very brief investigation disgarded clothes were found. It took time to carefully avoid the smaller spiders, likely the newest born of whatever arachnid queen had taken over this void. But they did eventually manage to find an identifying marker. A pair of glasses that had unmistakably belonged to a guard called Godric. He was known for his shcolarly persuits and had even been to the mansion a few times to go through the library. Even Stare knew vaguely who he was and she gazed at it stunned, from the safe distance from the spiders.

"And the horses?"

"Found some corpses of them a little over," Narlan gestured to the east. "Carl spotted an odd shape ... Hooves mostly."

Vitruvion sighed and nodded, a brief look of annoyance fluttering over his face.

"Raevin, you will arrange the usual compensation for the families on return to Beinost," he said quietly.

The brown haired elf nodded, looking as dissatisfied. "Of course sir."

For a while longer the god looked at the sprawl of the spiders and the building.

"At least .. the Guild members are likely dead?"

"Yes," Vitruvion said quietly. "Indeed."

There was a collective breath, then the god turned around, his back to the death and destruction. Suddenly he began to stride away, purposeful and fast. The rest were left there, confused before they looked to one another and made the only decision they could. Desperately they ran, pushing muscle to go and catch up with the man who collectively paid them. Even Stare, lost in a whirlwind of bemusement, hastened after, soon though becoming the first ahead.

They gathered around Vitruvion, but he said nothing. By the tension on his face it was clear they should say nothing, and thus they all followed, following the light thuds of his feet and his cane. Onwards they went, into the breach and back out of the forest.

This time, as a spider shrieked and lunged for them from the darkness, Vitruvion simply lifted up his cane and swung it at it. The beast stopped dead, still and frozen in a rise as they hustled past - then it crumbled to dust as if it had never been anything. A second had its neck broken a second after it hissed at them. It too crumbled to nothing, and they went on. Stunned silence was all he received in thanks.

They got to the edge of the forest. Vitruvion stopped and looked out over the town. He breathed, jaw set and not saying anything as the party around him began to filter out. Small gestures between them and they passed the objects of value, such as Godric's glasses. Stare stood all the while, awkward and uncertain, little idea of what was going on.

"Sir?"

It was Raevin. The only one truly bold enough to stand up and ask him.

"Hmm?" Vitruvion blinked a little, then gave him a terse glance. "What?"

"What are we doing now?" he murmured.

There was an awkward silence. Nobody tried to look at Vitruvion and Raevin, apart from Stare who was frowning at the back of her god's head.

Vitruvion paused before nodding down the hill. "I need to speak with you alone, Raevin," he said quietly. And quickly he strode, heading for a small levelling plain. Raevin shot Stare a cautionary glance, and then twisted to run after. Leaving the rest of them there, confused and unsure.

"Eh ... Lady Stare?"

She looked back to see raised brows from the mercenary guards.

"Don't look at me for answers," she replied, twisting around. She looked left and right, along the edge of the forest, before she saw the bundle of horses, thankfully not touched by spiders. Sen was there, scratching at the earth and digging up some tuber or other. "I'm going there," she nodded and started over.

It did not take long for them to decide to follow, leaving Vitruvion and Raevin to have their quiet, private words.

[Stare]

She found it slightly interesting that she had been the next point of authority for the fighters. It seemed they truly had adapted to her being their superior after all, even when Vitruvion or Raevin was not there. No longer did they look at her as a thing to possibly be theirs one day, instead she was now entirely untouchable. It reminded her a little of when she and Raevin had first met. He had grinned nastily, told her of her position now and actually touched the between of her legs.

Now he treated her with absolute respect, as did these warriors. How times had changed.

Sen perked up as she came over, caw'ing happily and burying his feathered head into her arms. She crooned happily and soothed him with soft sounds of kenku, rattling off several cracks and clicks in a quiet tone. He responded well, bristling with knowledge or instinct that they were connected somehow.

He garbled back in his own simpler tongue, even whistling once as he snuggled into her. She rubbed his beak and moved around to grab a hunk of meat from her pack. Ripping it up she passed him a chunk, which he took delicately from her hand. She ate a bit herself then went back to crooning over him, going into a form of grooming that kenku were prone to do.

"Hello darling," she whispered.

"Stare," came a small voice from behind her.

She turned to see Raevin standing there, kindly smiling. The elf's eyes glanced up at Sen and nodded at the animal a moment before looking back at Stare. Sen cawk'ed before nibbling at Raevin's hair. Stare laughed lightly before the elf drew up and placed a hand on her arm.

"Stare?"

She looked at him straight. "Hmm?"

"We're all heading back."

She blinked and looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"We're going back," he gestured over his shoulder.

To where the guards were getting onto their horses with varying ability. One more competent held the reigns of Raevin's, whilst Vitruvion's bright eyed stallion stood on its own, nibbling grass. She frowned, looking over to where Vitruvion still stood on the brow of the hill.

"You're going back," she tried to affirm, her brow ridge creased.

"No, we are," he gestured between all of them. "Vitruvion is staying here, then going to Tular himself."

Her beak parted and her eyes showed astonishment. Confusion crossed over them, at least to those who knew her it was confusion. She had no real way of expressing it other that her brow.

[Stare]

Her beak parted and her eyes showed astonishment. Confusion crossed over them, at least to those who knew her it was confusion. She had no real way of expressing it other that her brow.

"He said that 'Stare and I' ..."

"He's changed his mind," the elf shrugged, turning to walk away. "Anyway, get up, we want to get back before the sun sets."

"Wait, Raevin!"

But he turned and shook his head to her. It was then she realised that he and Vitruvion had spoken about something privately and that it might have been about her. But what had she done? Why had he decided this? What was going on and-

Get on the chocobo, Stare, he said quietly, a voice whispers away from silence.

What is going on? she demanded, staring at his back.

He refused to turn. All she saw was his figure slowly becoming a silhouette, his cane held between his hands and behind him. A soft wind picked up and played with his hair.

Get on the bird and head home, he insisted, a little louder.

She shook her head, frowning. No.

He breathed in sharp. Stare, that is an order. Obey it now.

Or? she murmured.

Clap. The memory of him slapping her hard across the face sang in her mind. Flinching, she gulped with the reminder of the pain it had inflicted. Instantly she ducked her head, watching him still not move but knowing he was so close to coming over and admonishing her in front of the whole crowd.

Moving fast, she swung herself up onto Sen. Her hands wrapped into his feathers and she kept staring at the figure on the hill, even as Raevin raised a hand and gestured for them to be off.

Subconsciously she rattled the reins and Sen lifted his head to begin traipsing with the horses. Her stomach felt vile, and she felt sick, but she allowed herself to be carried off as confusion reigned. Her mind became a chaos of questions and emotions, ones that she could not control. Steadily her bird carried her further and further away from the white haired man, all in the world of uncertainty.

And the question of why.

[Stare]

"Stare?"

They had been riding for half an hour now. A gentle trot, as nobody wanted to rush back after so much energy exerted on the fighting. Each rose and fell like they were naturally accustomed in a world of cheap steeds and few steam locomotive. Not that she had ever been on one of those monsters from Alerar. Personally the whole thought of steam power shook her to her core.

"Raevin," she replied with a tension in her tone.

"You've been grumpy this whole time."

"Have I?" she replied dryly and sarcastically, "I didn't notice."

He rolled his eyes and paused before reaching over and grabbing her reigns. She yelled out before she saw what he was doing.

"Hey Rae-"

"Shhh," he grimaced, but pulled Sen back enough to have the two of them slow down and pull away from the guards. They received a few odd looks, but the fighters simply shrugged and trotted on ahead, regardless.

Stare glared at her colleague for a while, before he straightened himself and threw a glare back.

"Deal with the fact that he wants to go alone."

"I'm allowed to sulk about it for a while longer, Rae," she growled, "I have that right at least."

"For a few minutes yes," he hissed, "But not for a day. It's unprofessional."

"It's not been a day," she argued. "Barely thirty minutes, thank you Mr captain of the guard. Why don't you go and shove your professionalism up your ass."

Raevin rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I forget how immature you can be."

"Sometimes I forget how much of an asshole you can be. How did we meet again Rae? Ah yes, I remember."

And she did. Well. A certain smirk, a certain hole, a certain trussed up kenku and an elf's hand wandering.

"Well we didn't know what you were then, did we," Raevin remarked. "You were just another guest."

"And now I'm what? An anomaly? Woo hoo, I'm not a slave anymore ... Wait, I am," she whispered in the smallest voice she could.

"Fecking - you know why he originally did it, Stare. For your own safety, and he had done the fake one anyway. It didn't require much more money to make it official, and he's a man who likes his possessions, so what?" he looked at her as he muttered with a hard look. "I heard what you asked me about me, what you considered, and no way in hell would he do that, but I was - am - a completely different case to you. I swore myself to him. Do I regret it? Yeah, maybe, sometimes, but he's my liege lord, and I ... Well I am perfectly capable of coming back to him. I've never been tempted to run away. You have."

[Stare]

She rolled her eyes and looked away. "Still doesn't make it right that he did it."

"Maybe not," Raevin shrugged, "But it is what it is." He paused for a moment as he observed her still sour exoression. Even her mouth corners were curled down. "And, An's balls, he's done a hell of a lot for you. You have to realise that."

"Like ... Raping me, abusing me ..."

"No, trusting you more than anyone I know for a start."

Stare paused, then blinked. Suddenly she frowned and turned fully to gaze at him. "Trust ... Raevin he doesn't trust me at all."

Raevin blinked and then it was his turn to frown. "What do you mean? He allowed you to sleep in his bed from ... What, three or four months in?"

"He's told me plenty of times he doesn't trust me," she shook her head, concerned now. "Hence me wearing this," she raised her hand slightly, the one bearing the cuff.

The elf paused, and thought about it.

"That's more ... Habit surely?"

Stare shook his head. "He specifically told me once he doesn't quite trust me enough not to have it. When I got it in the first place, it was a form of control."

The brow was low on the elf, and he was silent for a long time.

"Wait - what did you mean about him sleeping in the same bed as me? He does that all the time!"

Raevin shook his head. "Not for anyone. None of his guests, not even Spice, bless her."

"But the first time was just after I - the first council meeting we-" she blinked, trying to definitely not think about that time, not at all. The first council meeting she had been at was a hard memory to face. It had been the first time she had submitted herself to his will, swapped better treatment in exchange for consent. Well. There had been a lot of threats. But then when she had given him what he wanted he had lain with her, and rested. She had awoken to find his slumbering body ...

"You made an impression on him," Raevin murmured.

"Apparently," she was astounded. "But ... He can't trust me, Raevin. He definitely has told me ..."

"I know for a fact he's always had trouble sleeping with anyone in the same room. Even his sister, though they have had to suffice ..." He ran a hand through his hair as his horse clopped nevertheless.

"Maybe he knew that he could overwhelm me wherever?" she muttered.

"If only it was that easy," he raised his brows. "But that's not it, Stare. I think ..." It took him a moment, then he nodded, "Maybe it's two types of trust."

"Two types?" she sounded very unconvinced.

"Yes, first a basic trust, of ... Well safety. Trust to not do anything stupid, not to try to kill him. And then a second trust. Of his own life. His soul, if gods have their own souls. That I think you're steadily getting. He's waiting for you to trust him."

She stared at him, her breath shallow and uncertain.

"Well?" he asked. "Would you ever try to kill him?"

She looked appalled. "Of course not. He's ... Well he is awful, and maybe I once thought he deserved it but I know he definitely does not now ..."

"I reckon some part of him knew what you were," he nodded his head, becoming firmer in his thinking. "Right from the start. That's where his trust lay. An innate trust, a truth that neither of you knew until later." He looked at her. "Did you think he was anything more than what he said he was at the start."

Stare shook her head, not sure about anything now. "I cannot say. I knew something was changing ... I guess. I definitely knew that I had a power within me that I had never known. When I first saw him," she huffed, remembering the boots, the end of the cane, the voice. "I don't know ..."

Raevin took a moment, then lifted the corner of his mouth into a smile. "My best guess is that neither of you have understood it. For him ... I guess that first night felt right. He had found his genesis with which to build his kingdom. Not the Hollow, not any of his businesses. His proper one, that he should be in charge of."

"A church," she sighed.

"A religion, of course," Raevin nodded. "All men crave meaning, gods do too, is how I've figured it out. What other purpose is there for a god than to have followers?"

She grunted, accepting. It was perfectly understandable, and an absolute truth.

"Well then. He might not trust you mentally, logically, but instinctively ... Yes. And I think you do too."

Stare began to make a face.

He laughed. "That will take some getting used to for you, but I think I'm right."