Prof

[Rajani Aishwara]

Rajani Aishwara softly closed the door behind him and started down a corridor of the Peregrine, but suddenly stopped as the ship began to rock. Never had he possessed a sea sickness like this before, and strangely the ship was stationary at the docks just outside Radasanth. A strange case of vertigo was the least of his worries. It seemed as though everything in his life was no longer moving in the direction he intended to take. First came Corone's civil war, which effectively halted his plans of building a resort in Radasanth, then the advent of the Illicit Entrepreneurs which forced him to prematurely found the firm named after this ship. The Entrepreneurs were short lived thanks to his tongue and a few dedicated individuals, but so was the Peregrine Group. Its active membership sank to two members, him and Lillian Sesthal. But then came Seti Dylan and the House of Sora, who pulled them out of oblivion by annexing the Peregrine Group. It was a move that injected Rajani's heart with a substance completely alien to him. Humility.

Now the entrepreneur found a unique opportunity in the House of Sora's current situation. If they were to lead the world with progress they needed a force to fight against those who worked against them. The House of Sora desperately needed to train a fighting force to work its will if need be, and although Rajani was not a man of war and tactics he had an invaluable asset for the House. Just beyond that mahogany door sat a mute Ai'Bron monk of the Citadel complete with powers of resurrection, illusion, and years of experience as a spectator in the Citadel. He had been in their custody for weeks as the Illicit Entrepreneurs continued to threaten Radasanth and as all of Rajani's plans came tumbling down around him. He intended on presenting the monk as a consultant to Christina Bredith, the Matriarch of the new Lodge Bladestorm. She would be heading up the House's tactical development, and he was sure his presence would make a great asset to any tactical endeavor. The problem lay in the monk's absolute refusal to cooperate with Rajani. His resolve was impressive, but his commitment was admirable, but Rajani needed him. The House of Sora needed him, but for the first time Rajani's charisma failed to win one's loyalty.

Every day for the past twenty one days the captain would enter the chambers where the monk meditated and would speak to the monk about his cause. He soon came to realize that the monk refused to communicate to him as he did with the other crew members. Although he was mute, he used something similar to telepathy to communicate, but Rajani never heard a voice in his head like the Helmswoman, or the First Mate, or even the ever irritable Head Chef did. He simply sat on his knees on the floor with his eyes closed ignoring the Captain of the Peregrine.

His heart jumped at the realization that he had failed yet again. His hand slammed against the wall not in anger, but in desperation. He was loosing balance. Just then he heard the slow footsteps of the First Mate, Aton Mira. The middle aged crew mate stepped with vigor. “Good Afternoon to you, Captain. Is the monk available for consultation at the moment?”

Rajani raised his head and attempted to speak, but not even a squeal managed to exit his mouth. He sufficed with a simple nod and returned his eyes to the ground.

“Hey... Kid.” Aton stepped forward and bent over to try to get a look at Rajani's face. “Are you alright?”

From what the First Mate saw it looked something like sea sickness, but if it was that the captain would have gotten it the first day they were out to sea. This day marked the middle of the second month. His sixth sense told him that something was rotten in the Captain's heart. Aton laid a hand on his shoulder. “Go talk to the monk. I know he won't talk back, but that may just be exactly what you need.”

And so there Rajani stood in front of the monk, just as he had moments before attempting to convince him to help them. And there sat the monk contently on the floor of the cabin at the foot of a perfectly made bed.

“The road to oblivion is paved with good intentions. I give you my sincerest apology for forcing you into my custody. We managed to prevent the Illicit Entrepreneurs from taking the Citadel or the Bazaar. In fact it is likely that the group no longer exists so you may walk out of the door whenever you please. That is my sole success on Althanas so far. I have failed to establish a resort, I have failed to win a battle, I have failed to maintain a legitimate business. None of this should come as an astonishment to me because I left my home because of a failure. I failed to win someone's heart, therefore I ran away.”

”Welcome to Althanas. A land where failure is a fact of life.” The monk's voice rang through Rajani's ears from inside his mind. ”Failure plagues all people's minds, even the mind of a monk. There are no tricks to getting around failure, only to getting past it. When you fail you must absolve your mind of thoughts of limitation, and never compromise the objective of your next endeavor.”

“That seems almost elementary.” Rajani said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I assumed your advice would be more...”

”You sought the formula for success with every nominal, variable and constant value handed to you on a silver plater. But there is no uniform formula because we are all the formulas to our own success. The only two variable usually missing are perseverance and desire. How many times are you willing to fail before you give up, and will you be truly happy if you are successful. Judging from your past you're much more than just a fancy merchant and a captain. Are you certain that what you have been pursuing is what you truly want?”

“Yes.”

”Then I will come to the Citadel with you and accompany you in your friendly bout with Christina Bredith. Your heart is right, but she must prove that her heart is, and if the both of you prove your leadership then I will assist in training your force."

[Christina Bredith]

It’s strange to think of the “kid in a candy store” cliché when applied to a young, buxom blonde setting up a pretend army under the guidance of powerful illusionist monks, but for Christina Bredith, this was a dream come true. Her clan-mate and head of one of the fellow lodges of the House of Sora, Rajani Aishwara of Lodge Peregrine, had challenged her to a friendly bout in the Citadel – using the illusionary skills of the monks to create their own armies!

When Christina was a girl, she had often played with her army commander father’s battle maps and soldier figurines – secretly, of course, but since she could never quite get everything back the way it was, she often got in trouble for it. Her parents did everything they could to stifle her dreams of joining the army in any capacity, and while she always saw it as purely unfair, in her adulthood she realized – she had seen – the horrors they were trying to protect her from.

Alas, it was exactly that which made Christina’s heart beat now. It was, after all, in her blood: both her parents had been officers in the Corone army. Her love for battle was not to be mistaken for something trivial or simplistic, though – it wasn’t the violence or the bloodshed she admired, not by far. Actually, she took no enjoyment in the knowledge of war’s repercussions. Instead, it was the feeling of contributing, in a tangible way, to the well-being of her nation.

Well… truly enough, Christina was perhaps having a little too much fun with this one. Imagine, the chance to concoct her fantasy army and test it against a friendly opponent with nothing real at stake! It wasn’t a real battle, after all, and it could at least be considered good practice for her new role as matriarch of Lodge Bladestorm. She couldn’t lose here, not even to a fellow clansman! It was with that zeal that Christina unhinged her imagination, and through the monks’ magic, her dream army, composed of friends from her past and those she would dearly wish to command in a real fight, was born.

When the invitation had been extended, Christina was informed that she had been given the privilege of selecting the terrain for the battle. Seeing this battle as an opportunity for practice as well as a fun diversion, the blonde commander could think of no other battlefield than northern Corone, a landscape she would need to know better than her own mother's face in the ongoing fight with the Corone Empire. She was standing in the south of the illusion-born country, surrounded by the vast Concordia Forest on all sides. To the north, though she could not see it through Concordia’s dense foliage, she knew she would find a narrow pass through the Comb Mountains, and a road which would veer west toward the capital at Radasanth. Rajani would be somewhere out there. She just needed to wait for word that he, too, was ready.

The blonde gazed out at her thousand-man army assembled in a large clearing in the forest. Three figures stood at its head, facing their commander: a bow-slinging elf, a slender Akashiman woman, and a tender young girl dressed in wizardly robes. Behind her was Christina’s own personal regiment, including the ten bodyguards she had personally hand-picked.

“We may be a small force,” she announced in the breezy, light voice that could only belong to her, “but our future is bright. This will be the first step on our march into glory!”

[Taskmienster]

This thread has been waiting for over a year. If you would like to complete it, or work on it further, you can PM myself or another staff member and ask for it to be moved. However, till that time, it will be resting in the Citadel Archive forum.

Thanks,
~Task