Rajani Aishwara vs. Djakara

[Ther]

This match-up will last until 8 P.M. E.S.T. on 2/16/07. Remember, if you finish your battle early, I can score you early - and finishing early is a good, good thing.

Best of luck!

[Djakara]

With his legs crossed over each other and back against the dune, Djakara looked up at the sky with a sense of ennui. The air on the beach reeked of stale salt water. It was a generally turgid day, with waves lapping up against the sand almost as if they didn’t have anything better to do. As the sun set so far that there were little more than the day’s dying breaths, Djakara waited impatiently for a ship. He had never considered himself the violent type, but then, back when he had lived on his home-world he never would have considered the possibility that he would one day be an Alerian noble.

Now, as he waited out by the beach on a secluded port, the boy’s thoughts were particularly ponderous. There was something cathartic about solitude, something so ineffable that it often wasn’t appreciated by those who enjoyed it. Djakara was just learning to appreciate its value, for solitude had taken an entirely different meaning back in the Republic where he had been born. There, being alone meant that you were nothing but alone.

Still, Djakara couldn’t help but feel a bit eager. He was expecting a shipment of arms to be arriving any moment now, and as long as he was waiting out by a torch in twilight, he was bound to attract Alerar’s most unsavory. The boy didn’t forget the fact that he was still a stranger in the land of the night elves, and because of that, he knew even the lonely times could go sour quickly.

Thus, the boy looked out at the horizon expectantly, hoping that he would see the sign of a mast or anything else that would tell him that a ship was on its way. Djakara didn’t want to wait any longer than he had to. The air around him was not just pungent, but it was bringing in the cold winds of the sea. He shivered a bit, winters on Althanas were much colder because the planet had not emitted the same gasses that had saturated the air back in his homeland. Wishing that he had brought a jacket, Djakara picked himself and stared out to the sea.

Though he never would have engaged in that sort of a fantasy before, now his mind was starting to wander. He thought of the ships that must have come before, the secret rendez-vous in contraband that were likely so common place and all the distant locations from which ships had set sail. As Djakara looked out on the horizon, he imagined visiting some of those places. He had escaped his homeland to feel something other than numb, to think thoughts other than survival, and now that he had experienced the beginning of that, it was almost like a narcotic. Adrenaline would shoot through every fiber of the boy’s body at his first sight of a new land, and he would soak in the colors, smells and business opportunities before he went anywhere else. Perhaps that was why he had become so interested in selling weapons, just because they represented such a wonderful opportunity to learn.

However, it was for business interests and not a cruise that Djakara was scanning the horizons for a ship. A crate of enchanted swords from Raiaera was due an hour ago, and he was growing tired of waiting. The boy had preferred to make all his transactions in sunlight while the dark elves were still sleeping and his vision was at his finest, but it was difficult controlling the tides of the sea. He was going to have to wait, but the longer he waited, the more desperately he stared out at the horizon, wishing he was somewhere other than being stuck near a standing torch, in the middle of a secluded beach with no one else in sight.

[Rajani Aishwara]

Swords, sticks, knives, bows, shields in every direction I turn, and the sight has lost its novelty rather quickly. On the small island of Avalon it took effort to locate a weapon in plain sight, but the right to bear arms is taken to an unfathomable degree in the rest of Althanas. Everyone is armed and dangerous, a perfect conjuration for paranoia. Is it any wonder I have been so uptight lately? Is it any wonder that I tire quickly before the day ends? My eyes have been darting over my shoulder day in and day out, my heart paces like a cheetah’s sprint, and my head aches from visualizations of being stabbed, held up, or ravaged. My only acquisition of security is to contribute to the viscous cycle by learning to use a deadly weapon myself and keeping it by my side at all times.

– Bala Aishwara

A timid tap at the door of the captain’s quarters disrupted Rajani’s reading, and his eyes immediately went to his sheathed blade buried in the off white sheets of his bed. He had let his mother’s journal entry saturate his mood and fill him with a slight paranoia. It was unjustified. He was among friends on his ship, The Peregrine. For certain individuals, he would go as far to say that he was among family. He could even say such for the shrill, inhospitable, hidebound woman on the opposite side of the door, whose gentle knock was the very antithesis of who she was. Rajani slowly stood up readjusting to the rocking of the ship in motion, and took a few steps across his small but spacious room to open the door to the ship’s Head Cook, Mohana Colville. It was a rare sight to see her give him a genuine smile.

“Happy Althanaversary!” she said as her emerald eyes glimmered despite the bags hanging under them, and her dimples folded into her cheeks as her mouth curved. Her deep brown hair was set up in a shinny rounded bonnet. She had been diligently cooking, and her latest dish was in her hands. As always she didn’t wait for permission to enter. She merrily pranced across the room to Rajani’s desk, slid the Aishwara Records aside and gently set down the large silver plate.

“Althanaversary isn’t for a few days.” Rajani said as he habitually sat down at the table and picked up his fork and knife. The steam rose up from three golden rolls of pastry and carried with it a variety of familiar aromas. This was a weekly routine for the Cook and the Captain.

“I keep my eyes on the calendar; I am knowledgeable of the day and season.” She said with a harsh tone. That was what Rajani was used to hearing, but then she returned to her polite tone. “I merely want to grace you with a foretaste of that evening’s grand feast.”

“Madame Colville, you are loud, overbearing, short tempered, and slightly racist. Your one saving grace is that you’re a brilliant culinary artist. That is why my parents hired you for they obviously didn’t acquaint themselves with your persona well enough. Why is it my burden to sample your dishes and fuel your insecurities?”

Mohana rolled her baggy eyes. “Eat.” Normally she would have snapped back at her captain. She must have been very exhausted. “You are the captain of this graceful ship, and you will go down with it in more ways than one. Now what you have before you is the first course, the main entrée, and the desert, each neatly wrapped up in its own light pastry.”

She pointed to the one closest to Rajani, and he proceeded. His knife and fork stabbed into the puffed pastry epidermis of the little morsel, and intestines of cinnamon glazed apple slices poured out onto the plate. The main entrée was a basil seasoned pastry with entrails of lemon marinated chicken dices, and the last was a honey glazed pastry with a core of warm chocolate fudge. It was all very pleasing and very familiar to Rajani’s tongue. “This is all made in an Avalonian fashion. You’ve never done that before.”

A sign of a true culinary master was the ability to discard one’s native region of cooking style, which was something Mohana had done until now. “Althanaversary was a significant holiday back home.” She said in a soft and cheerless tone.

Rajani looked up at her with a reassuring smile. He had lied earlier about her sole saving grace as a good chef. Another saving grace was that she was the only Avalon native on the ship besides Rajani. Despite all their bickering they would always unite in that aspect. After what seemed to be an eternity of silence and mutual sympathy, Rajani spoke. “I love the food as usual. What of our drinks? Will we be drinking champagne for the occasion?”

“I was pondering along the likes of Alerarian fortified wine. We lay just off the coast of the nation. Perhaps we can dock and purchase a bulk supply at our convenience?”

“I shall inform the helm at once.” Rajani stood up and covered himself in his shawl. He knew the outside air was unpleasantly nippy this evening. He also picked up his blade, not out of paranoia, but out of pure habit although his mother’s accounts were still fresh in his mind.

“The kid is on the deck!” Helmswoman Tiberia Natalya shouted from the giant wheel of the ship. The title referred to Rajani Aishwara. It was a fitting name because the twenty two year old Avalonian was younger than most of his subordinates. That did nothing to undermine the authority of the captain for he quickly proved his valor after his parents gave him the ship and crew for his birthday. What started out as a simple gift became an extended family.

The sounds of a ship at sea filled Rajani’s ears as he emerged on deck. The ocean roared with tension as the swift clipper class vessel bounced up and down on its waves, the men and women of the crew barked sea jargon back and forth to each other as if they spoke their own language, and the whipping of the sails above them added a tenor line to this choir of life at sea.

“Our bearing, Madame Helmswoman?” Rajani said as he walked along the edge and grazed his hand along the smooth wooden rail. The color scheme of the ship resembled that of the bird of prey it was named after, pearl white and mahogany brown.

“We’re two hours from Etheria Port, Captain.” Tiberia said in a firm voice. She kept her sapphire eyes on the sea as her long platinum blond hair seemed to swim in the wind. Time had escaped Rajani. He had retired to his quarters mid afternoon, when the sun hung hot in the sky, but now it had retreated behind the horizon leaving a watercolor orange trace of itself on the sky. “Do your orders hold steady?”

“I presume so, but we should dock if we see a port before then. Night is falling on a new moon and I wouldn’t want you to strain your eyes.”

“Perhaps that port?” Mohana said as she directed their attention to torchlight off the horizon. It was just bright enough to shine on the dock and bring to vision a single figure standing in wait.

“I don’t know, Sir.” For the first time in his life Rajani saw a look of uncertainty on the Helmswoman’s face. “It looks like a private port to me.”

“And we are private citizens of the world, are we not?” Rajani said with a smile of certainty on his face. If this were their maiden voyage, Tiberia would have challenged his orders without second thought. Now the only one willing to do such a thing was Mohana. This was not out of fear, but out of respect for the captain’s unorthodox and creative strategic thinking. His ways were neither less nor more precarious than the average captain’s, but they were different, and it scared the crew sometimes.

The crew made the adjustments, and within the hour The Peregrine was anchored at the secluded port. They scrambled to extend the ramp to the dock. It was a symbolic red carpet for the Captain, who seemed to float down to the dock as his warm white and brown shawl drifted behind him in the cool sea air. Rajani held his sword at his side in a regal fashion and made his way to the torchlight held up by a young man. His boots dug into the grains of sand as he approached. The fellow was a little larger than Rajani, and likely to be several years his junior. The blank look on his pale face almost managed to depress the young captain. He was not a Dark Elf. That much was for certain for if he were his ears would have aimed out from his long hair. He saw it best to keep his distance and speak in the land’s native language.

“Salutations.” Rajani said as he stopped a good ten feet away from the fellow and bowed. Every time he spoke the language of the Dark Elves he thought of his godmother, Ixora Valhala. He couldn’t help but smile at the thought of her. A smile would do no harm. Hopefully it would benefit the situation. He continued. “I am Captain Rajani Aishwara, and this is my humble vessel The Peregrine. I pray you mind nothing of our docking here. The impending night will be a dark one and we dare not continue our trek.”

[Djakara]

There were times when two reasonably rational people could engage in a frank discussion and come up with a solution that benefited them both. However, for Djakara and new strangers that had docked, now was not one of those times. The boy eyed the group nervously, making a panicked calculation as to whether or not his martial prowess would be sufficient against the lot of them.

It didn’t take long for Djakara to figure out that he didn’t like his chances.

“Who knows what kind of magic these people have…” he rued. He needed some kind of a solution, but knew better than to try one where he would end up dead. His shipment of swords was due any minute now, and he couldn’t have these travelers interfering in his business.

Djakara bit his lip. “That is if they’re actually travelers,” he realized. His hands tightened their grip on the spear-scythe, despite he knew the futility of brute force against the crew of an entire ship. For a moment, he considered using his title, but then realized that might not be sufficient. Even though this Captain Aishwara seemed to be fairly law abiding, Djakara was too cynical to expect that his authority would be obeyed by a man of the sea.

However, knowing that he had precious few resources, Djakara knew he was going to have to use his title to somehow even the odds. If he couldn’t fight all of them, perhaps he could fight one of them. “I’ll lay down a challenge,” he mused. “Get that Captain Aishwara, he doesn’t look all that intimidating. He and I can spar or duel or whatever they call it to decide who gets this place.”

It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it was the best that Djakara could come up with on the fly. “My name is Freigraf Djakara Fraye, noble of Alerar. I strongly recommend that you leave this port, not only do you lack the proper clearance, but this place is not approved for trade. A very important vessel on Mazzra business will be arriving soon, and by that point you must be gone. My sympathies to your inability to travel at night, it is unfortunate that your crew is not better trained. Either way, you have to go… In Alerar you can not encroach on another’s territory and pray they mind nothing of your docking...”

Djakara smiled smugly as a few sparks hummed around his fingertips. He looked at the smarmy Captain Aishwara with anticipation, knowing that he would enjoy watching the sea captain’s face fall when he knew of the trouble.

[Rajani Aishwara]

Before responding, the Avalonian made the proper observations. This Djakara spoke the tongue of the common man. That was good, but that was where the fortune ended. The proclaimed Alerarian noble sternly rejected his case. Fraye’s tone was harsh and spasmodic despite his polite language. What was more disturbing was this young man’s stiff stature, which indicated to Rajani that he was in a status of alert, and his boldness indicated to Rajani that he was not intimidated by the numbers. The captain could only conclude that the noble was in no mood to negotiate. That was unfortunate… for the noble. Aishwara and The Peregrine would stay regardless of this young man’s claims. Even if they held true he had no proof of them, no patents of nobility, no documentation of ownership of the dock.

Now he would act on that knowledge and inference. Before speaking, Rajani glanced back to his ship. A multitude of crew members had already gathered at the edge and bowsprit of the ship hardly within hearing range. Tiberia stood above them all, arms crossed and keen eyes on her captain. The long direct eye contact between the two was sign enough. She disappeared within the ship. Rajani turned back to Djakara, and mirrored a polite smile as he gripped the pommel of his sheathed sword with his right hand.

Rajani thought it fitting to quote himself on a previous occasion. He recalled the pride and power he felt when he wrote a simple response to the proclaimed compromise of the Illicit Entrepreneurs.

“How cute.” He said with a simple chuckle and a coy smile. “The birds of prey will not yield.”

Rajani would never be the first to strike though he was not the green child of naiveté he was thought to be. Even though he had never taken a life before, he had no qualms with taking one in terms of self defense. His elementary teacher was a former Demon general, his godfather was a tactical Istien mage, and his godmother was an Alerarian engineer who made mechanisms of death. If need be he would be such a mechanism.

:::::::::::::

A frantically loud pound on the door roused the Chief Mate Aton Mira with a fatally rapid heartbeat. He sat up in his bed with wide eyes although they were useless in the pitch black darkness of his quarters. The knocking continued as he felt his way about his space until he found the slit of light creeping from under his door. He scampered for that light and the top of his bald head made foul contact with the door. It swung open to an obviously distressed Tiberia Natalya.

“It’s the kid. Come quickly!”

Aton followed without second thought. He and Tiberia were the funhouse mirror parallel of Rajani and Mohana. Their opposing philosophies on leading a crew often put them at odds just as some unspecified factor often put Rajani and Mohana at odds. And just as the young ones united in their common birthplace of Avalon, The Helmswoman and Chief Mate united in their common concern for the young captain.

[Djakara]

Djakara hated cryptic replies. However, this captain’s tone smacked of a dangerous amount of pretentiousness. “He’s a hero of a concept,” Djakara realized. Those were the kinds of people the boy loathed. They were unpredictable, motivated by emotions more than self interest. Even when they had good intentions, which is what they always claimed, those intentions rarely ever materialized into anything worthwhile.

If anything, Djakara prided himself on not being a hero. While the boy had not lived the most pious life himself, everything he had done had been rational. It was a simple matter of ledgers and balance, Rajani had to leave because this conflict was zero-sum. Either the Peregrine got a place to spend the night or Djakara’s shipment of weapons would arrive. He was no more a ‘bird of prey’ than this Captain Aishwara. The world simply was not big enough for both of them to prey at the same time.

Knowing a battle was eminent, Djakara decided he was going to offer his one on one challenge. “Perhaps if you wanted others to yield you would lower your demands,” Djakara said. “I assure you, even if you kill me, you will not be able to stay here. It would not be in whatever business interests you have here if your ship was docked near the body of a Freigraf. Seeing as the Mazzra are expected any minute now, I would expect you would be a bit more reasonable. You called me a bird of prey, and that may be true. However, it would seem that in the balance of things, my flock is bigger than yours…”

Djakara smiled with feigned arrogance and let electricity around his fingers dance a bit more visibly. Now, in the increasing darkness, it was certainly a forboding sight. Still, that was no consolation for the young weapons seller. There was too much at stake for the sweat on his forehead and neck not to feel icily cold against his skin. The situation that held his life in balance was too precarious for his face not to seem a bit whiter than it normally did.

Still, Djakara managed to find his voice, and as he spoke he sounded impressively calm. “Just concentrate on how this Captain Aishwara is taking this…” the boy thought. There really wasn’t enough reason for him to be afraid. After all, despite the fact that he’d exaggerated on his rank, he was truly a Freiherr of Alerar.

Impressed that his voice didn’t crack under the pressure, Djakara offered a challenge. “Lets be reasonable. There is no point in having an entrepreneur getting his ship sunk. You and I can settle this with a duel. The winner keeps the port for the night, will that be acceptable?”

Once he had laid down the conditions, the boy glanced over the peregrine to check for another ship on the horizon, worried that his weapons were waiting around the harbor to dock. Now, Djakara was beginning to fidget a bit, wondering how when he’d come to Alerar for freedom, he had found himself trapped in a fight.

[Rajani Aishwara]

Aton had risen too quickly out of his bed. Now his sleeping legs were gallingly tingling and his head was light as he made his way down the corridor. The middle aged man had to lay a hand on the wall as he struggled to keep up with Tiberia. They finally emerged on deck and the cool air unnervingly bit at his skin. He only had a simple shirt and short knickers to keep him worm, and they miserably failed to do so. The many backs of the deck crew faced the two officers as they crowded along the front of the ship. They were unified in a tense chorus of whispers.

Aton shoved a few people aside to get a better view of what would obviously turn out to be a duel. “Damn!” he grunted before turning to a random deck hand. “Fetch the medic. Wake him if you have to.”

“Wait! You’re not going out there to stop this?” Tiberia said with wide sapphire eyes of concern. “You’re the only one he’ll listen to. Convince him to board the ship and we’ll sail to Etheria Port. It’s not that far off. Do you doubt his trust in you?”

“No. There’s no doubt about it. I could convince him to return.” For the first time even their common care for their captain couldn’t keep them unified. “He’d never forgive himself if he allowed me to convince him to return to the ship, and in turn I’d never forgive myself.” He turned to the crew and raised his voice. “Get the torches, and provide some light! We only intervene on my command!”

::::::::::::

Rajani tilted his head back in laughter. Perhaps Djakara was not proficient in the common language, or perhaps it was Rajani’s swanky Avalonian use of words that resulted in the misconception. It was likely to be the latter. Miscommunications between him and others had occurred before due to his speech.

“I apologize for the misinterpretation. I was referring to myself and the Peregrine as the ‘birds of prey’ in the third person. Elaborate speech is common place in my native land.”

Now it was revealed to him exactly why the noble was standing so firm. Electric energy danced around his digits, which must have been what he was focusing on this entire time. Upon sight of this he immediately recalled his discipline in physics and the characteristics of electricity. What the noble may do with the electricity was beyond the captain, but he would soon find out.

“I accept your challenge.” Rajani said with a benevolent smile as a sphere of incandescent kinetic energy formed above his left palm. “Shall we begin?”

[Djakara]

Djakara took a second to shake his head in disbelief. This Captain Aishwara was so nauseatingly formal. Without wasting any more niceties, Djakara let the electricity around his fingers spread, creating a tall shield in front of him that would block him from harm. A defensive move might have not been the best way to start, especially since Djakara knew that his ship could be arriving at any minute, but the fact was that he really didn’t have a choice. He knew nothing about Captain Aishwara, and if he were to launch into an offensive quickly, he might never get the chance to figure anything out.

“Lets see what he does…” Djakara thought. He could see a glowing orb forming in the palm of his newfound nemesis of circumstance. The young noble looked at it anxiously, wishing that he was more familiar with Althanian magic so that he might be able to guess how powerful the spell was. As for now, blocking any kind of a projectile with his shield would be a risky proposition.

Almost immediately, Djakara began to regret his plan. He was gambling with his life without even really knowing the odds. It was foolish, and perhaps the profits from a weapons shipment weren’t worth the ultimate price. The noble wondered what it was that kept Captain Aishwara there, whether or not he wasn’t really a secret operative of the Mazzra or some related law agency.

Either way, there was nothing Djakara could do about it now. He had already identified himself, and if Captain Aishwara was involved with the police, the Freiherr knew that the High Graf Schynius could still offer him a shield. “There is no way out but through…” Djakara reminded himself.

For a brief fleeting second, Djakara reconsidered that notion. No blows had been exchanged, the whole thing could be smoothed over easily. Even though he knew that he should grab the advantage of a first strike, Djakara hesistated.

“This is your last chance to escape,” the young noble offered. His stony veneer had now cracked under the tensions of the moment. With one last attempt to regain it, the boy added a sarcastic editorial. “If you’re not careful, you might never see your land again with its fancy speech…”

With a watery grin that failed to belie his childlike nervousness, Djakara waited expectantly for the first strike. With one last glance out to sea, the boy indulged himself in a desperate hope that no one would have to die. Killing was something Djakara didn’t have the stomach for.

[Rajani Aishwara]

With his right hand on the hilt of his blade, and the left hand manipulating the sphere of pure kinetic energy levitating above it, Rajani watched as his new adversary manipulated his electric energy to form what looked to be a personal armament. But how could a concoction of chemical energy such as this properly ward from the solid forces of his Sitara. Nonetheless since his enchanted blade’s strength mimicked that of steel, he could only assume his blade mimicked the chemical composition of steel, and steel was a potent conductor of electricity. It wouldn’t be wise to make contact via Sitara unless Rajani wanted to learn first hand exactly how much voltage Djakara could produce.

Once again Rajani was at a tactical crossroad. The shield’s probable purpose was to protect against energy based attacks, but if he was wrong he would suffer greatly. The kinetic energy made the choice for him as it was now accumulating to the point that he had to make a decision about it. To hold it near him any longer would be detrimental, so he pressed his palm forward launching the kinetic sphere straight to the electric shield. In preparation of any kind of physical attack the entrepreneur began to draw Sitara. One way or another he would discover a way through or around the noble’s abilities.

[Djakara]

The apparent indecision from Captain Aishwara showed Djakara that his opponent wasn’t nearly as stupid as he was vain. That was a bit unfortunate, for now it left both foes studying each other’s abilities without wanting to reveal anything much about themselves. “We’re like a pair on a ledge, calling for the other one to jump,” Djakara realized. Normally, the boy would have waited his time. He was often patient, and certainly he was in no mood to kill. However, the same forces that had compelled him into this battle now compelled him to take action quickly. The ship carrying weapons was already late.

“Seems like you’re more a bird of carrion than a bird of prey,” Djakara shot out snidely, hoping that an insult might do something to change the captain’s temperament.

However, Djakara knew that wouldn’t be sufficient. If he was going to be successful, he was going to have to give off the impression that he was much weaker than he was. It would be an excellent way to feel out his opponent, and perhaps even reinvigorate Captain Aishwara’s arrogance to the point where the self proclaimed bird of prey was bound to make a mistake.

Thus, Djakara created a set of sparks in the air around Captain Aishwara. They were bright, visible far from out into the sea, but they were mostly harmless. Had the Djakara wanted to press the offensive, he might have been able to capitalize on any momentary blindness they might have created for his opponent, but he wanted to make it seem like he truly expected the captain to have fallen from the sparks alone.

Trying to feign surprise at their lack of effectiveness, Djakara took a few steps backwards, as if he was suddenly intimidated by Rajani. Letting his natural nervousness take over, the Freiherr spoke, offering a deal he didn’t expect his opponent to take. “Now that you’ve seen my power, do you still want to stay?” he asked, aware of the total incredulousness of his question. “If you leave now, I won’t hurt you…”

[Ther]

Rajani Aishwara

Story
Continuity - 5
Setting - 7
Pacing - 5
Writing Style
Mechanics - 6
Technique - 5
Clarity - 7
Character
Dialogue - 5
Action - 4
Persona - 4
Misc.
Wild Card - 1

Total – 49

Djakara

Story
Continuity - 5
Setting - 7
Pacing - 6
Writing Style
Mechanics - 5
Technique - 4
Clarity - 6
Character
Dialogue - 4
Action - 4
Persona - 4
Misc.
Wild Card - 3

Total – 48

Rajani advances to the second round, 49 to 48. Each participants will earn half EXP/GP of a normal battle.

[Ther]

Rajani gets 1000 EXP and 50 GP.
Djakara gets 300 EXP and 25 GP.