The events of this thread follow on from the FQ thread The Great Siege of Radasanth and its follow up, Old Dogs, New Tricks.
Bastard!

Get out of here! We don’t want you!

We don’t want the Brotherhood here!

“Only you can lose a one horse local popularity contest, Shinsou.”

Her voice cut through the muffled heckling that leaked in from the nearby window and jerked Shinsou Vaan Osiris back to reality. Outside, the sound of feet scuffing upon the streets of Tylmerande, the only ones that hadn’t been pounded into oblivion by the calamity, rang in his ears. The protests had come again, albeit more measured and languid than their predecessors in the days before.

“They’re starting to get lazy. They were here earlier on Monday,” Shinsou joked, squinting through the dark at the woman who stood in the corner of the small room, her arms folded over the tips of her flowing red hair. “Could you tell them to fuck off and come back tomorrow about eleven-ish, Raine? I’ll be able to get a good sleep, then.”

“I wouldn’t start making plans for a lie-in; Philomel is visiting tomorrow with the rest of the Quint.” The woman called Raine took a long look at the bandages around the Telgradian’s chest as he sat up, wincing as the bullet wound he suffered from his attempted assassination throbbed with an all-too familiar pain. “Storm gave permission, albeit begrudgingly. He’s finding it hard to trust people after what Arius did. I still think it’s too early to move you, but they both want to get you out of here to somewhere a bit more secure.”

“Where to? Terrinore? Berevar? Hell?” Shinsou shrugged, “Right now, I’d take any of those over being stuck in this fucking room, being heckled by fishermen.”

“I can’t say, but I’ll come with you, if Philomel and Storm allow it,” Rain paused, rubbing her neck with the back of her hand.

Shinsou simply shrugged again. “If you want. Is Storm not coming?”

“No,” the former Gilded Quint woman replied, “He’s out for blood, Shinsou. Arius made a fool of him, and you. Storm’s trying to find him now.”

“When he does, you tell Veritas he doesn’t lay a finger on Arius without me,” Shinsou’s tone sharpened as Raine settled into a squat alongside his bed. Even just hearing his former right hand man's name spoken was enough to provoke a complete chill in the atmosphere. “I want that treacherous little bastard all to myself.”

“I don't blame you. Although, Arius was right about one thing,” the Guilded Quint member replied diffidently, a small smile playing about her lips as she examined Shinsou's frown. “You were soft at Radasanth. All that power and you couldn’t bring yourself to kill me, or Philomel. Makes me wonder if you were as commited as you say.”

“We were out to change the world, make no mistake, but killing for the sake of it is worthless and achieves nothing. If I had needed to, you’d both be dead.” Shinsou remarked, a curt smile on his lips. “Besides, keeping you alive worked out. Sort of, anyway; the tea’s still a bit subpar. But we can work on that.”

The Telgradian grinned, his boyish features showing mirth for the first time in months. It was so contagious that Raine found it difficult not to smile back. At first she had found him cold and heartless, but being assigned to him by Philomel made it easy to see what she saw in him. He was a handsome man, built slim but and solid, and was starting to emit a warmth about him. Despite the furore surrounding him, Shinsou deviated from the stereotype he had built around himself in a rather nonchalant manner.

“I hear you are directing the Brotherhood to help the Assembly now?” She asked. Shinsou seemed lost in thought once more, a gaze lingering upon the farthest wall.

“The calamity changed a lot of things,” The Telgradian murmured in reply, “and per the armistice, this is how we avoid dissolution and a trip to Terrinore.”

“So you’re just helping to avoid imprisonment?”

“… No,” Shinsou corrected, “but we can’t rebuild or help fund anything if we don’t exist.”

“What about Tylmerande?”

“We haven’t even begun to think about that. At the moment its Brotherhood territory, and without it we can’t afford to make reparations.” His bandages had slipped down his torso, revealing some of the wound, but still he kept his eyes focused as if searching for an answer he could not find elsewhere. “What about you, Raine?”

“What about me?” She said with an exaggerated stretch, “My duty is to the Lily and to Philomel, so don’t get any ideas about offering me a job…”

“Nah. You’d be under qualified, anyway,” Again Shinsou smiled that curious small smile. “You don’t want to kill me.”

A knowing smile exchanged, Shinsou lay back down as Raine attended to his bandages. As the blood-soaked rags were swapped for fresh dressings, the Telgradian wondered where the Brotherhood’s place really would be in the new world, and whether he and Storm could weather the hurricane of change in the end.