In Love's Wake - 2nd Chapter : Minos
By: Shirszae Posted on: March 31, 2016
Listen to my song of longing; the skies themselves shall weep.
***
High atop the parapet of the so-called Needle, Aleska watched impassive the string of ships blockading the island of Minos while a seemingly inexhaustible drizzle fell upon her.
This blockade was by no means a difficult endeavour, what with Minos being surrounded on almost all sides by steep cliffs and perilous shoals, but she could not help but feel a certain admiration for the foolish stubbornness of those holed up in their vessels despite the cold, merciless winds that blew in from the Bay of Dardanos. The sea was a restless beast in these parts, sometimes all too literally so, all too eager to take those pretty ships and smash them to smithereens against the coast or sink them beneath the waves.
Not that the island itself was much better. The weather was so variable it put even distant Cyrene to shame, and the disrepair Milena had been steadily falling into as more and more of the young vanished into rebellion only made it all the worse. Shaking her head, she turned briskly and headed inside.
She knew the ships did not belong all to a single force. She doubted the great City-states of Sapience had much care for who sat the throne of Minos. No, these were all fortune hunters, adventurers very much like her who now eyed each other carefully as they considered the land in front of them, no doubt trying to gauge who could pay them the most and risk them the least. Their indecision had already bought off a few days of calm in the troubled island, but it would certainly not last.
It was time to put an end to things.
So invested was she in her meandering thoughts she scarcely noticed stopping before the double doors leading to the chambers of the Mad Mage. Located at the topmost level of the Needle, the circular chambers did not share the general worn down look with the rest of the tower, or indeed, with the rest of the village. Well-appointed in the extreme, they boasted a wealth of books, statues, painting and and other curios that would have been fitting in some Ashtani collectionist's manor instead of in this far-flung island.
It was not a place she particularly liked. Despite its overwhelming appeal, her stomach invariably knotted down upon entering. But such discomforts she could easily ignore, and so she swallowed her distaste and pushed into the gloom of the vast, luxurious sanctum, without so much as a nod of acknowledgement to the mercenaries posted outside to guard it.
"My lord," she said, offering a careless curtsy to the pale, attractive man lounging on a high-backed armchair upholstered with crushed velvet. For one known as the 'Mad Mage' he had a rather easy air about him, his legs crossed casually while his attention rested on the large, old-looking but well-cared tome on his lap. He did not bother looking up until she had spoken, layers of long black hair only then parting to reveal the calculating green eyes so at odd with his demeanour.
"Aleska," he nodded, allowing a fraction of surprise to show on his face, "I was not expecting you." A curt dismissal, his attention returning promptly to his book. She feigned ignorance, continuing forward and sitting on a much less comfortable chair nearby. "That might be so, but it is time we talked about some essentials, Arsentar."
If it bothered him to be so casually addressed by a mercenary, he did not make a particular show of it. His voice, when he spoke, was clipped, however. "And what could those essentials possibly be?"
"Your plans for Princess Aristia, for one," Aleska offered with a dispassionate shrug.
The change upon the man was stark and immediate. Gone was his carefree demeanour. He snapped the book closed as if suddenly weary of it, barely stopping himself a moment away from hurling it to a nearby table. Instead, he pushed himself to his feet, briskly placing it in one of the many recessed bookcases against the walls. Only then did he allow his gaze to find her own, a wary annoyance writ subtly beneath the mask of forbearing patience he belatedly adopted.
It was a performance worthy of theatre, but the icy glitter in those green Minoan eyes would have never allowed for dissembling. Things were as she had feared."I can't believe you actually fancy her," she heard herself mumble, heard the thick disappointment woven with stubborn disbelief in her own voice. "All this struggle, all this... Waiting with bated breath for those ships circling the island, watching as slowly but surely the very people you wish to rule over wither and dies... All this could be avoided if you shortened that lass by a head."
Outside, the drizzle had turned into a heavy rain, but the chill that crept into the chambers in the wake of her words had little to do with the outside weather.
"You have listened to dangerous rumours, Captain," Arsentar said at last, his voice soft as a whisper as he reached for the sinuous staff propped against the wall nearby, fingers closing tight over its frame before he returned to his velvety chair. "You are not the first one, of course, to imply or suggest such a course of action. But to the very last, none ever account for the possibility that that freak storm was not of my making."
He had barely finished speaking when the faint ringing registered on Aleska's hearing, the gloom alleviated by the sudden shimmer of a thousand vibrating crystals as they revealed themselves, row upon row, all spinning about him.
A shiver rippled down Aleska's spine at the implied threat of such a sight, but she mustered all of her self-control to remain still. "What are you doing, pray tell?" She managed with a mirthless chuckle, "A show of force against the captain of your mercenaries?" She asked with pretended nonchalance while simultaneously raising her hands in what she calculated would pass for an appropriately placating gesture, using one to brush away some wet strands of her peppered hair away from her face.
"This is not a show of force. Not yet," said Arsentar, who had watched the whole display with an equally mild expression, "Whether it becomes one or not depends fully on yourself, Captain. If you agree to remain in the Needle until the matter of these approaching vultures is settled, then nothing more needs happen."
"Settled?" Aleska retorted with unfeigned disbelief, "So long as your princess remains alive, the only way things will ever become settled is when your head's on a pike, my lord. You do not understand the extent of their meddlesomeness. They will give anything to have it said they were the ones to end the "Mad Mage's tyranny"! We should just-"
"Enough!!" The man roared, his voice so full of sudden hostility as to make Aleska's hand instinctively grip the hilt of her runeblade. She braced herself, but Arsentar remained in his seat, thought his staff pointed now directly at Aleska's heart. "I cannot adequately put into words just how useful you have been in securing my position here," the Magus said with a touch of regret in his voice, his words accompanied with a vague wave of his hand. At once something tightened on her chest, following by a sharp, puncturing pain on her heart that almost doubled her over.
"And this is the thanks I get," She growled bittery, glaring at him even as relief flooded into her veins and the pain lessened. But When she touched her hand to her lips there was blood.
Arsentar shrugged at her query, lounging still on his armchair as he fingered the long, gleaming staff on his hand. "I would have preferred to thank you in some other way, if you must know. You will stay here, willing or not, until this storm has passed. Then you shall be released from my service. But Aleska, if you resist me, I -will- kill you here."
For a fraction of a second, the Magus' attention turned then to the double doors. Aleska, pretending to collapse onto the floor, immediately scrawled down the Gular rune with her bloodied fingers. Even as it flared into power, floor and tower whole trembling as a sheer wall of stone was conjured by the rune's power to block passage in and out, her hand reached for the hilt of her silvered runeblade, and she launched herself at the man she had so faithfully served.
But the Magus merely tapped the butt of the staff against the floor and pain blossomed anew. Thrown off-balance, Aleska managed to stay upright even as wave upon wave of dizziness and nausea assaulted her. Blinking blearily, she realised Arsentar had effortlessly blocked her swing with his staff, the empowered blade that would have cut through armour as easily as through flesh repelled by the protection of the arcane script upon the staff. Without wasting a moment, he pushed her away, his lips moving soundlessly as he took advantage of her surprise, brought the staff to bear swiftly against her side with a merciless strike.
Doubled over and bleeding, the mercenary nonetheless smirked as she spat more blood. She was certain her ribs had cracked, felt that excruciating stab of pain joining all the others, and yet the Berkana rune kept her tethered to consciousness, even as it kept her tethered to pain as well. Swallowing a gulp of air then, she struggled to remember one other ancient rune she had been taught so long ago, in the practice matches of her youth against the Crystalline Circle. Eihwaz. With a numb arm and an increasingly delirious head, she struggled to properly draw the vague, stylised yew on the stone floor, willing the magic of the earth upon it.
At once, the spinning crystals began to falter, along with the palpitations on her chest.
Struggling to get onto her feet, Aleska wiped even more blood from her mouth before reaching for the runeblade that had clattered away from her grasp. Cursing under her breath as she took impulse and launched her mauled form against him.
This time Arsentar stood still, his staff held defensively in front of him. Just as she was about to reach, her hand shoot for the staff, holding it down while she smashed the hilt against his temple. Forgetting sword and all then, her hand closed into a fist as she aimed and connected a jab-Only for the nauseating crack of bone to follow as his whole self momentarily sheathed itself in stone. For a moment, Aleska swayed on her feet, then simply crumpled onto the ground.
To his credit, Arsentar did not seem to take any join in the beating, his face composed and pensive as he stepped around her prone form to sit again on his armchair, with his staff well in hand. He watched her writhe in the floor for a span, before tapping the butt of his staff against the stone, "Come on, Aleska. We both know you are stronger than that. Stand up, or I will give you cause to lie down forever."
She exhaled noisily, crawling on all fours before pushing herself up once more in an unsteady fashion. She stood with haggard dignity, then, watching for a moment before closing her eyes and holding her maimed hand up.
Then, hunching up, she launched herself screaming one last time against Arsentar, barging him against the wall, driving her head against his chest in an effort to force the air of out his lungs before smashing him against the wall, grabbing a fistful of his pretty hair with one hand and cracking it hard against the wall while with the she drew the sleep-binding rune of Fehu with his own blood before releasing him.
"Fear not, I will uphold our contract to the letter," she whispered to the man's prone figure, a hint of maliciousness sliding for the first ime into her voice. Stumbling backwards, another dizzy spell hit her, threatened to overtake her.
"Ride home," she muttered almost by instinct, body and consciousness vanishing from the chamber amidst the neigh of distant horses.