Operation Moonrise

[Tobias Stalt]

Closed to Alyssa Snow.

Anebrilith was dead. Long since the Corpse War twisted her streets and ruined her memory, Beinost had whispered the name balefully in a morose song only a few still knew. Beinost, the beautiful city. She was so named ironically, a product of the magic that Raiaerans had come to fear and loathe, yet her majesty stretched out miles into the sea and she eclipsed the city she had once been.

The elves still wept for Anebrilith.

As the lone Salvic vessel made its berth in the quiet port, twilight peeked across the mountains. Toboas stood quietly at the helm, swathed in black robes tattered and frayed by the elements. His face was stony and cold, not unlike the wintery wasteland he returned from. "Raiaera," he whispered, bewildered. A lifetime ago, this had been home.

Perhaps one day, it would feel like home again. As the gentle breeze caressed his face, Stalt brushed the messy locks of hair from his eyes. On the shore, an emissary sent by Leona Stevvains would meet him, predictably.

Ages had lapsed without a single word. The solitary letter he wrote had predated his journey back by only days; still, with the disciple of Jomil, he knew that she would be prepared to receive him. It was one piece of his former life he could know would go unchanged.

The galleon crept to a halt and crewmen hopped out to tie her down. A board slipped over the larboard rail, and before it had even touched down, Tobias was hurriedly on his way. Fast footsteps took him down to the dock. "Stalt," a firm, gruff voice called from above. He glanced back. "You're free of it, now."

Tobias did not smile. The empty gaze he held the man in spoke every word his lips did not. A slow nod came as reply, and the Mage Killer rounded on Raiaera. The world stretched out ahead of him for miles, but it felt small now. A man so seeped in the secrets of Salvar saw the rest of the world through a skewed lens.

Each step felt more laborious when he saw her; his heart dipped into the pit of his stomach, and the confident words he had conjured shattered. "Thayne preserve me," he muttered softly, "of course she would send her."

His face betrayed no emotion as he stepped onto shore at last. Dying sunlight glistened in his golden eyes as he turned dutifully to face the girl for the first time in over a year. "Alyssa," he addressed her formally. "I hope you've been well."

[Alyssa Snow]

So much can happen in a year; so much that the man she waited for did not know. A trip to Alerar to explore the charred remains where Alyssa spent most of her childhood, a horrible truth that the girl was not human and indeed a monster, a journey to the frozen wastes to save an old friend and remember and old enemy, and though all this, Alyssa had hardened. Not all of it had been made of nightmares, for the young girl had met new friends in a centenarian woman and safely reunited with her old friend, Daire Chance. Were it not for those beacons of light, the Alyssa which stood upon the docks would not exist.

So much had happened in a year...

"Stalt," came her cold reply.

She looked upon him with a dull gaze and an unchanging expression. He half winced in anticipation of a verbal thrashing, but a bewilderment settled into him. It swiftly worked to concern.

"Leona would like to see you as soon as possible," the words came out as though rehearsed, empty even. "Grab your effects and follow me."

The blonde, usually clothed in vibrant Akashiman colors, turned away from the man wearing grays and dull earth tones. With her hands locked firmly behind her back, the young mage gunner strode fluidly down Beinost's cobblestone streets. Even an amazing beauty surrounded them, she took not a single moment off her forward stare. It almost were as though she had become as ordinary as the stones at her feet.

[Tobias Stalt]

"Ah," he remarked gently as she turned from him without so much as a smile. No kind words, just dutiful relay of information and adherence to the task. He had to admire the rigidity of her silent statement. Their last conversation had painted him as a pawn, but Alyssa seemed to have taken his wordless response to heart. "So, that's how it is."

He glanced back without a smile and offered a stiff wave to men who he would never see again. The journey south had been blissfully worry free, unlike the year that preceded it. Tobias was thankful for the quiet, though his mind reeled at the prospect of seeing Alyssa so soon. He let out a quiet sigh and fell into step behind her; the only goods he carried were weapons and the clothes on his back. He had left many things behind in Raiaera. They would be waiting for him.

"It's nice to see you too, Tobias," he drawled in a deadpan, "it's only been a year." He could feel the tension that threatened to build, but his gaze fixated on the horizon. "How was Salvar?"

"Salvar was..." for the first time in far too long, his own question- intended sarcastically- gave him pause. The word was like winter, and the memories chilled him to his bones. The empty gold of his eyes hid behind lids shut tight. "...Salvar was awful." He refused to say more. A slow shake of his head bid the dark thoughts to subside.

They never complied. "You were right," he whispered in solemn tones, "you were always right, Alyssa. I should never have left." Loose, fractured bits of stone crunched under his steps as Tobias strode several steps behind the gunslinger. When his eyes opened, they were heavy and trained on the ground. "It had to be done," he said, the horror in his voice masked tenuously by his weakly forged defiance. As he spoke, it became increasingly apparent that he was no longer addressing Alyssa.

Tobias shivered. "I had to." The color in his face had bled into a corpse-like pallor. "I had to..."

He snapped back after a moment of near babbling. One heavy breath abolished the bout. His grim visage was a bland mask once more. His pace quickened, and Tobias folded his arms behind his back. Soon, he walked nearly alongside the woman.

In silence they strode, since Tobias knew not what to say. He could feel her gaze probe him with hidden sentiments, though their nature was beyond him to discern. Stalt refused to match her gaze. "It has been," he said at last, "a year."

With a sidelong glance, Tobias finally took the bait. He saw her, and he spoke.

He spoke to her. "I really do hope you were well."

[Alyssa Snow]

She tried not to acknowledge him. His sentiments about her being right and him never having left, they tugged at invisible strings pulled taught by the twelve months of strife. Though she tried to dull her mind from remembering the conversation, it played at the back of her thoughts like a badly choreographed play. She should have begged him to stay, she should have asked to go with him, so many things went without words that needed them. Now, she begged him with silence to stop. She didn't want to know how horrible this path was. She didn't want to know what she could have prevented.

She just wanted to get him back to the House of Cards.

"I really do hope you were well."

Her footing staggered, slowed, and she stopped. Tobias turned to see why. Alyssa hung her head low, and the shadow of her brow darkened her face. She gave him silence, and while he grew more curious, the chaotic torrent of the unfortunate year bubbled into a frenzy inside her. Alyssa felt her stomach turn.

"What? What'd I say?" Tobias probed as they stood in the middle of the street.

"No..." Her voice was quiet, almost inaudible.

Tobias stepped closer, "What?"

"I'm not okay. I'm not well." This time, he heard her but didn't know the words to respond. Alyssa took in a deep breath and clenched her teeth. The cursed relic which dwell inside of her and marred her back clawed at her senses. It radiated a fierce, dull pain throughout her body. She wanted to reach for it like a burn from a stove, but she knew it wouldn't help. Nothing would help.

Some little shred of humanity reached out and screamed for her to tell him everything - to tell him her pain so that he would comfort her somehow. That wasn't Tobias; he wouldn't care. Alyssa swallowed it down, suppressed it, and in doing so the pain only grew. Origin's Key hungered for her life. The weak framework that sustained her, and the bond to the Tarot of Justice strained against its might.

"Forget it," she mumbled like the young teen she was. "It's not important to you. We both have our own paths, right?"

She fought against the nausea and the desire to crumple upon herself. Alyssa raised her head, avoided eye contact, and urged herself forward toward the edge of town. She told herself she wouldn't bother him with her silly feelings anymore. He chose his path, and it had nothing to do with her. The year without a single word was proof of that.

"Leona is waiting. We don't want to be late," she stated with a false strength and tears cresting at the corners of her eyes.

[Tobias Stalt]

Tobias was traditionally a man of many quick words; Alyssa had spent enough time in Fallien with the mercenary to know his general response was to mouth off or bite back quickly. Stalt had grown in the last year. When she hissed and spat at him to stop, his face grew thoughtful.

He saw her pain; if nothing else, Tobias Stalt understood pain. He could not know the source, nor the depth, but the intensity rattled her entire being. Flames pricked at the nerves beneath his skin still, a lifelong reminder of the hell his body had endured only to stand once more. As she dismissed the moment, Tobias placed both hands gently on her arms. "She can wait," the darkly clothed man assured the girl, "she anticipated this anyway."

It had ceased to amaze him. The sight was less of a miracle and more a promise of lifelong letdown. He actually pitied Leona for it, to never enjoy the small things in life. None of the greatest surprises would be hidden from her, the joys found in small moments were beyond her reach. This moment, where a very broken Alyssa stood before an unbreakable Tobias, was merely a mark on some calendar.

Tobias cared nothing for that.

"I erred back then," he told her. "I should never have let you believe I didn't care. You believed it. You lived in that lie. I lived knowing it." He reached out calmly. A calloused hand took hers. When she jerked back, Tobias pulled it to his chest. The strength surprised her, but the gentility of his embrace did more so. "I never once thought you were weak. No, Alyssa, you are strong in ways I will never be. I should have said that then."

A long breath left him. "So many things left unsaid," he mumbled. "None of us are without scars. You can share them with me."

Interwoven, the two stared quietly into opposing eyes in silence. His unwavering golden gaze held a softness it had not before. Though he was brimming with hate for so many things, he had bounteous compassion. Alyssa still held the softest place in his heart. "She's waiting," Alyssa rasped breathlessly, "come on. We have to go-"

For a moment, Stalt thought he saw something so brilliant set ablaze within her, and that was enough. The promise of warmth within those once cold eyes was enough. As he released her, Tobias bowed his head. "Lead on, Miss Snow."

The Raiaeran countryside beyond Beinost was a pale glory in contrast to the city itself, but whispers of the nation's glory were louder now than any time in the past. A gentle breeze ruffled his dark Salvic attire. "Care to explain your questionable fashion sense?"

He quirked a brow and shot a skeptical glance at Alyssa. "No one told you?" he asked, "ma'am, you are addressing Brother Tobias Stalt, of the Order of the All-Seeing Eye." She turned and stared blankly at him.

"Witch Hunter," he added, for all the unnecessary effect and confirmation.

[Alyssa Snow]

For once, Tobias said the right words - the words she needed to hear. It knocked the wind out of her, not in the punch to the core sense, but more like the strong embrace of a concerned other. Thus, her crumbling foundation froze and found a purpose to cling to for just a few moments longer. She wished to express a smile, but checked herself. Monsters born of evil intent have no business being happy.

Again, her spine ached in conflict, but she steeled herself.

Until, that is, his lips whispered the term, "Witch Hunter". A rock fell into the pit of her stomach and sent ripples to feed her nausea. What if he knew? What if he knew that she was an alchemical clone of the Forgotten One, Pode? Pode, a witch by definition so vile and obsessed with magic that she turned the world's greatest forest into a death trap. The same forest Alyssa now lived in and called home as though "mother" had intended.

A swell of bile rolled up the back of her throat. She paused her step abruptly and bent over. With much effort, she avoided a public display and held back the torrent with a gulp, shutter, and deep breath.

"Alyssa?" his somewhat concerned voice called out.

Should she tell him?

"Sorry..."

Not today.

"I'm a little under the weather," she lied as she stood with a rehearsed smile. "I'll be fine."

The young blonde urged herself on.

"Witch Hunter? I've heard of them," she continued with a suppressed waver in her tone.

She feared them. At any given moment, a swath of agents could still her in her sleep, or so the stories told.

“Was that why she sent you North?” Alyssa asked. A feeling of unease added to the mix of her vile internal chaos. Curiosity bested her fear at his reply.

[Tobias Stalt]

"Leona offered me a sum of money to reject the offer," Tobias revealed. Not everything he did was in service to a group obsessed with the world's magic, and what he did do for them ultimately served a purpose of it's own. "That contract came from someone in Salvar."

He would not disclose information on Madison Freebird or the Crimson Hand, especially since Alyssa knew his former life had been riddled with attempts to be rid of them. The mission had come up as a means of breaking even for her acts of kindness toward Stalt. Ultimately, the results had been more lasting than anticipated.

"It was an unexpected turn of events," he omitted the actual scope of his involvement in current strife in Salvar. "But, my duties took me close to the inner workings of the Church." He turned his deep, dark gaze toward her and managed a half smile. "I like to believe some good came of my choice."

Tobias turned slowly away from Alyssa. "I want to know," he said, "about your year."

[Alyssa Snow]

Choice…

Hearing that Leona offered a bride to pull Tobias from this mission further teased the back of her mind. That night at the hot springs, Alyssa was certain it had been her design. Even the seer herself made it seem that Tobias was taking a predestined path. Then again, Leona always seemed like everything was of her design or within ability to control.

It wasn’t this that disturbed Alyssa as much as the mention of a benefactor in Salvar. While Tobias had mingled himself with the church, she spent her time in Knife’s Edge and further north in the Great White Expanse. Memories began to surface. She recalled the look on her victims faces moment before she painted their thoughts in the snow. She remembered the death of Anvil’s son at the hands of a pale serpent, The Serpent of Salvar. Her body remembered the wounds he gave her, and her hand instinctively reached for the mark this assassin left on her side. It looked as though a tattoo but in reality, this three pronged star was a curse of the Four Horsemen.

“My year…” Alyssa began. She didn’t know how to start.

“I’m sorry, can take a moment?” The young blonde looked to her foreign soldier. Her expression remained calm, but her eyes spoke volumes. “I need to sit.”

Tobias nodded, and the two veered off the worn path toward a small shop. Outside, a sign hung from an ornate pillar labelled plainly, “antiques”. Strangely enough, the girl had a history with this shop. Sometime shortly after Tobias left for Salvar, she came here on a lead. This lead turned out to be an old elven artificer claimed by locals to be the best of his craft in all of Raieara. Here, Alyssa began a terrible journey to learn the truth.

Outside the shop, she found a raised planter holding all manners of beautiful and one thought to be extinct flora. She sat upon the ledge and Tobias joined her.

“My year hasn’t been good.” She took a deep breath. The sweet aroma of flowers and bitter twinge of the sea wafted to her senses. It helped to calm her nerves.

“After you left, I came here. This shop, too. I spoke to a gentleman named Atir to help me see if I could find out where these came from and what they’re made of.” Alyssa reached into a leather pouch at her hip and produced one of the crystals used in her firearms. “He didn’t know the make or the method of the cut, but he did give me another lead. It was a book.”

The girl fiddled with the crystal between her fingers. She stared at its edges as it twirled, recalling the past in vivid detail.

“Aleran notes and studies about project from before Fallien became a desert. I couldn’t understand any of it, but one of the diagrams looked just like this. Things got strange after that. I met a man named Lucius. He spoke of some time nonsense and that I was…”

A weapon that could end all of Althanas as we know it?

“…important. I believed him. I don’t know why. Still, he knew more about the book than I did, and it pointed us to Alerar. There, I learned where I came from; why I don’t remember my father or my mother…”

Alyssa paused for breath and as she drew in, the air felt heavy. The weight of it crept to her shoulders and bared down on her as she omitted details he didn’t need to know.

“I met Celeste along the way, and she’s has been a great help. Lucius has stayed in contact as well to help me with learning more about myself.”

There was so much he didn’t need to know, but she kept on like a dam that could not stop leaking.

“Months later I received a letter. From an old friend.” Her tone deepened, and grew flat. “It said she was being followed and there was blood along the edges. She mentioned people that you know.”

Alyssa looked to Tobias with apology on her face. It was an expression that said, you were right not to write me for those six months.

“The Order of the Crimson Hands.”

[Tobias Stalt]

He watched her with an unreadable expression until she spoke the last few words. At the utterance of "Crimson Hand," his gaze hardened and he let out a long sigh. "I see," he managed to say, albeit softer than he would have liked. Her entire body seemed apologetic as she stared back at him. "I am so sorry to hear that."

His hand wavered over her arm for a moment and he stared at it, uncertain of himself. "I have no words to console you for that," he stated honestly. Tobias let his hand touch her, and he closed his eyes slowly. Her skin was fire. Heat shot up his palm and raced toward his heart. The ice in his chest seemed to melt for a fleeting instant. Tobias looked away from her. "I've never been very good at letting down my guard."

"That's such an understatement," she muttered. Their gazes met at last. Alyssa pushed his hand away gently. "Why do you want to do this now?" she asked softly.

Tobias tried to pull his eyes away, but she reached up and held his face level. "Seriously," she nearly commanded. "Stop doing that. You're a man. Tell me why you ran away not once, but twice. Tell me why."

"I..." he started, jaw set. "I don't know what to tell you," he admitted.

"Then what makes you think I want to let you leave me again?" Her words came like a knife in the back. Tobias winced. "I can't trust anything you say, Stalt," she told him, "and it's sad, because you don't trust anyone. Not even me."

He nodded, sobered now. There was nothing more to say; Alyssa had laid it bare, and now he understood. He knew just how much he had hurt her.

His heart sank.

"Fine," he sighed. He started toward the edge of the city, but a loud crack stopped him in his tracks. Tobias slowly turned to see her rifle, still smoky, aimed at his chest.

"Not this time," she spat venomously. "You need to stop walking away, Tobias. You need to tell me everything." She watched his hand release the gun she had not seen before, and Alyssa looked up into his eyes. "Tell me now."

His first step toward her was slow. The man she knew as "Untapped" moved with a despair that chilled her to the bone. "You want to know," he asked quietly, "you want to hear the truth?"

"It would be such a relief," she answered, "to finally get something real from you."

In the cool breeze, black vlince fell away from his torso. Horrific scars and still bloody wounds marred his toned physique. Hideous lashes on the small of his back belied an ache that remained with him long after the scourging. Burn marks on his back and chest revealed a legacy of torment. "You could not go where I went," he told her. The terror in Alyssa's eyes broke his heart. Tobias continued despite himself. "I would not be able to live with myself."

"Why?" The whisper was so weak, Tobias only heard it because their faces were deathly close together. "Why would you bear that torture?"

"This," he replied, hands on her shoulders, "was for a greater good than myself." Alyssa looked at the scratches and gashes that adorned his arms. She sobbed."This was for Mathes, and Togan, and Erica, and everyone else who they hurt," he pulled her to his chest, arms around her tight. "The Sway had to be stopped," Tobias told her. "But it had to happen from within."

Realization struck her. "You were paid to infiltrate the Church," she gasped. Alyssa tore away from him. "You were working for them!?

Tobias nodded grimly.

[Alyssa Snow]

Tobias... no.

Those damned band of assassins and thugs reached across the continent, but never did she imagine Tobias would fall to them. In him, she saw a monument which stood defiant to time, war, and change. How he could operate under such harbingers of darkness eluded her rational thought. Tobias saw her suffer in this silence, but his point stood as strong as he.

You could not go where I went.

Those words buried into her mind and festered. Those scars adorning his flesh nearly brought tears to her eyes. She knew that pain. Alyss had already been where he said she could not go.

However...

She didn't have a choice. She was born of that world, whereas he chose to walk into it. In the end, he was right; Alyssa would never return to that place.

"Tobias," Alyssa placed her hand upon her forearm which once saw countless surgeries, "this path will only end in tears and loss. It is destruction. Don't bear it alone."

He looked upon her with unforgiving eyes from which she adverted her own.

"At least..." Alyssa started as he stepped closer, "let me be your eyes, your support. I know war, I know combat. I'm not as frail as you see me."

She felt his hands leave her, but his warmth remained. She looked to him for an answer, anything.

[Philomel]

Name of Judgement: Operation Moonrise (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?28826)
Judgement Type: No judgement

Rewards:
Tobias Stalt (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17202-Tobias-Stalt) receives:
660 EXP
60 GP

Alyssa Snow (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17460-Alyssa-Snow) receives:
515 EXP
60 GP

[Rayleigh]

All GP and EXP have been added.