Undeserved Revilement -[Rrah]-

[Amur]

Kaime had rarely seen things run so smoothly before. After the disaster that had been Taured’s and Varden’s visit the villagers had originally voiced many concerns about the decision to settle on this land, and although it had taken quite some time, eventually the assurances from Lord Morona calmed everyone down enough to eventually send them back to their daily lives. And then the progress to follow had been rapid, now, most of the villager housing was complete and there were discussions on potential trade routes and what else should be added to the village.

Kaime had to admit that after those dismal months at sea on the back of Ascalon’s shell he didn’t expect anyone to recover. But now, here they were, once more proving that the Nirvanians were a hardy lot... Well, in reality, Kaime had, had no reason to doubt that the people following Lord Morona would bounce back from their time at sea. Those may have been some rough months, but, they were no worse than anyone here had already endured...

Perhaps it was just the shock of things moving so smoothly, it was not something that Kaime was accustomed to. After spending his time in the main lands of Empire Nirvana on the run things had gradually become more and more testing for Kaime. After spending so long simply surviving it was... Nice... To finally have things go right.

Of course, for Kaime work was never quite so easy. His current task had seen him escorting a group of native traders to Lord Morona’s village in order to discuss potential trading deals, and what they could offer in order to procure various, and very much needed supplies. And with that task came the responsibility of trying to prepare these people for meeting with Lord Morona, he had spent the better part of the last several days telling them that Lord Morona was not human and was unlike anyone else they were likely to have encountered.

His attempts to educate these people were met with nods of understanding and assurances that they had dealt with customers whom were not human beforehand. Generally Kaime was able to accept their understanding... However, something felt very wrong... He had briefly considered stopping for several days, if only to make absolutely sure that they understood what talking to Lord Morona was like. They had refused his suggestion, however, stating that they couldn’t spend too much time on this task otherwise it would start costing them money.

And that had done nothing to alleviate Kaime’s worries... But he had no choice in the matter. They were right, after all. Kaime was here to escort them to Lord Morona, not to damage their livelihood... He still couldn’t quite shake off his unease, however.

Alexia even shared his concern, and that, Kaime knew from experience. Was never a good sign.
---

Human determination and force-of-will never ceased to amaze us, even without our aid our people had managed to move forward with their lives at an astonishing rate. Most of the housing was now complete, which had allowed our people some much deserved rest. Our tasks were just beginning; we still had trade routes, trading deals and other similar tasks to discuss with the natives. We could not complain, however, our people had chosen to follow us willingly, so we were determined to do all we could to allow them to thrive.

We sat now, simply waiting for the return of our Right Hand: Kaime. We had entrusted him with the task of escorting the traders we wished to speak with to our village. It was a task we would only entrust to our Right Hand; he was exceedingly loyal to us and would always make sure that any task we set for him was met with nothing less than his best efforts.

He was also one of the few people capable of explaining what we were to other singulars –the other being Baldur- so we were confident that our tasks would continue at a smooth pace. Kaime had never fallen below our expectations; we had absolutely no reason to believe he would do so now.
---

“Lord Morona.”
Kaime rose to his feet, the traders he had been escorting were waiting just outside while Kaime paid his due respects to Lord Morona and informed him of everything he felt Lord Morona needed to know. However, Kaime still couldn’t shake the niggling doubt in the back of his mind that despite his efforts to explain what Lord Morona was to those people that they still didn’t quite understand... It was probably nothing, but he still felt uneasy.

“I have tried to explain that you are not human and are unlike other non-humans to these people... They assure me that they understand, but, I can’t help but feel that they have just been saying that to get me to keep quiet... I did suggest that we stop for several days to allow me the time to better explain what you were to them. But they insisted blind that we didn’t waste time... I suggest caution; I can’t help but feel that I’m missing something important.”
Kaime explained flatly.

“Hmph, if they say they understand then who are we to say that they’re being dishonest? We doubt they would willingly turn away trade, which, as far as we see it is the worst that these singulars can do...”
Kaime nodded gently, these people were armed, clearly for defence against bandits and the like. However, it was unlikely that they would try their luck when there were armed soldiers in the room... Lord Morona made sense, these people leaving without trading anything was the worst possible outcome... So, why did he still feel uneasy about it?
---

To a degree we shared Kaime’s obvious unease. We disliked the prospect of trying to have a discussion any number of singulars that did not understand what we were. We were not a being to act in hostility by any means... However, we knew full well that the simplistic minds of singulars always had a tendency to misinterpret that which they did not understand. We had seen it happen many times before, so we knew that we would have to act with caution.

We maintained our silence as Kaime led our guests into our audience room, and almost immediately we were able to tell by their expressions that we intimidated them. Their gaze seemed focused on the size that we had over them, and then, they inevitably looked us in the eyes. They were intimidated, but they greeted us respectfully... No, these singulars had clearly not been prepared to meet with us, only a single glance toward Kaime told us that he felt very much the same way.

“We bid you welcome, respected traders. However, it occurs to us that you are uncomfortable in our presence. If you would prefer we could postpone our negotiations for several days to allow you some time to find your voices.”
We said to them, their reaction was first to recoil to our offer and then to draw their weapons... Had we said something wrong? We glanced back at Kaime, who looked about as bewildered as we felt. These singulars were afraid of us, we could see that, but why would they draw their weapons on us when we clearly meant them no harm?

“Have we offended you?”
We asked calmly.

“Shade!”
We blinked, casting another brief look at our Right Hand. Who, in turn looked back at us as if to ask us the question we wished to ask him... Clearly this was something that we had yet to encounter, we had never heard the term “Shade” before. And judging by the expression Kaime had given us, neither had he.

“You’ll have to forgive the ignorance, but what’s a-”
Kaime began only to be silenced by a sharp vocalisation that almost sounded like a growl from the first singular that had uttered the word.

“How can you not know!? You’re willingly following one!”
The singular demanded from Kaime. And then, without any further warning the singular sprang toward us only to be greeted by Kaime blocking his way. We heard the sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones as the singular fell limp with Kaime’s clawed gauntlet pushed right through his chest, at the sound of the sword hitting the floor we moved to act.

We would not allow further death today.

We immediately moved and mentally overpowered each singular before using a simple spell that would put them into a state of sleep until our spell was counter-acted.

“Take them back outside, put those sleeping with their carts. Send immediate notification to Taured, Kaime-”
We looked over at Kaime as the others rushed to follow our orders. And at once we were dismayed to see Kaime staring at the bloodied claws of his gauntlet, and despite his usual expression of stoicism we already knew that he was blaming himself... Not even we had anticipated this outcome, how could Kaime have possibly expected what we did not?
---

Taured,
We require your immediate assistance.
Morona.
---

Although he was no longer wearing his gauntlet Kaime continued to stare down at his bandaged fingers in disbelief. The man had refused to relent and Kaime had moved on instinct to protect his Lord, how had it come to this? How had Kaime let it come to this. He had known that these men hadn’t understood what he had been explaining to them, yet he still brought them to meet with Lord Morona.

He closed his eye gently and drew in a deep breath, lowering his hand. He was very aware of just how dangerous it was for him to be walking around without his gauntlet on, but, he wanted to make sure that no further harm came to the corpse he had created while his gauntlet was being cleaned. And Kaime would continue to dutifully stand guard over the corpse until it was delivered to its home, it was the least he could do.

After all, he had been the cause of this man’s death... He would never forget his face.

[Mali]

Taured currently sat on a rock, watching as Varden frolicked in the water in front of him. His elbows rested on his knees and his head in his hands. He was bored as Varden seemed to be having fun. It was a very hot day out and the pair had struggled to remain cool and refreshed during the day. It was during flight that Varden suggested a place to land. At first, Taured had no idea what his dragon companion was planning until they landed near a lake being known for its cold water. Taured, however, had decided not to go in. He was being stubborn that they didn’t have time to stop and cool off by playing in the water.

“C’mon Taur, the water feels amazing~,” Varden said in a sing-song voice. Taured rolled his eyes and sat up a bit straighter, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Varden, we don’t have a lot of time to be doing this right now. We have work to do. And this is the only break we have to kill the Siren. We won’t have time to do this in a few days,” It was true, they wouldn’t have time to complete their mission in a few days as they would receive another hawk from the rider’s council telling them what to search for next.

“Party pooper,” Varden continued to splash around the lake and dive under the water, sighing in Taured’s mind, trying to convince him of how good it would feel. It was then that Taured spotted a hawk above. Was it one of theirs? As it flew down, Taured raised his hawk gauntlet allowing the bird to land on his arm with ease. “See, we’ve already got orders—he said as he opened the message, stopping short for a few moments before reading it to Varden—Morona needs us. Something must be wrong for him to call us back so quickly.” Taured stood up, walking over to the saddle on the ground and pulling out a piece of paper and something to write with. Writing a quick message back, he sent the hawk off before turning back to face Varden, his hands on his hips.

“Varden, sad to say, but we should leave as soon as possible. We should arrive not long after the hawk does, if you catch my drift.” Varden sighed aloud and looked down to the water. “Do we have to?” Taured nodded his head and Varden slowly clambered out of the water, shaking his body like a wet dog, getting Taured wet in the process. Taured mumbled a mental ‘thanks’, wiping the water off as Varden replied with a happy, ‘you’re welcome’.

---

It wasn’t long for the pair to arrive at Morona’s encampment. The place looked much better than when they first saw it. Houses were complete, there was a barrier around the encampment and there were much more buildings and people walked around than before. The place almost seemed complete aside from any small items the people may have to deal with that couldn’t be seen by the naked eye.

Taured glanced down at the pouch holding the weapon that Solomon had handed to him. Surely Morona hadn’t messaged him about that, right? He had sent the message with Taured for Solomon to explain, now he was here to fulfil the mission. He doubted that the situation would have changed so quickly that Morona needed Taured to come back immediately. He didn’t even know that Taured would be the one fulfilling the mission he had sent to Solomon.

Taured and Varden landed outside the wall surrounding the encampment before he climbed down to knock on the gates. He wondered if he would be welcomed inside quickly or if he would have to wait.

Looking up, he noticed people guarding the gates to the camp and he waved. He was doing that a lot lately. “Hello, Lord Nemesis Morona sent for us, we would like to request his presence.” it was simple yet formal. He remembered to add the Nemesis to his name even though he didn’t know the meaning behind it. He knew that Morona’s people would and it was the polite thing to do.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Amur]

“This is hardly a cause for concern, Nemesis Morona. He attacked you; Kaime was simply doing his duty and defending the life of his Lord.”
We looked back down at Faceless-Hunter Delian Terminus, and nodded gently. We knew what he was saying, however, we knew that Kaime wouldn’t see this incident the same way. And then there was the question surrounding just how the natives of this land would look upon this incident... And just what a “shade” was; we had seen the creation of The Hunters begin similarly, if there was a misconception about our Union that would place our people in danger we needed to ensure that such a misconception did not become widespread.

“We are aware of this, Faceless-Hunter Delian Terminus. However, we have the natives to consider... and we still need to find out if this ‘Shade’ misconception could become potentially damaging to everyone following us.”
We replied; that got us a silent nod in response. We had received a response from Taured not too long ago telling us that he had received our message and was on his way. We were still occupied with trying to figure out what had just happened, however. We just couldn’t make sense of the situation; we had been in no way threatening. And during our first discussion with him Taured had not raised any concerns regarding situations even remotely similar to this... Had this been Empire Nirvana we would have understood the reactions of the masses towards us, but here? This was clearly a situation we needed our ignorance dispelled on.

“Actually, Nemesis Morona... There is another reason for my being here.”
Delian informed us. We paused, mid-thought, looking back down to our allied Hunter.

“I have been discussing this with my brethren at great length, and we’ve finally made a decision.”
---

We stood outside, now simply overlooking the general goings-on among our people. Kaime remained standing guard over the corpse he had created, and other than the guards we had assigned to our now sleeping guests nothing looked too far out of place. They may have misunderstood our Union; however, we could not allow ourselves to hold that against them, singulars were simplistic creatures after all.

However, we now had further “things” to consider. Our last meeting with Faceless-Hunter Delian Terminus had yielded a very unexpected result. He had assured us that he and his brethren had taken the appropriate length of time to discuss their decision and he had then taken the extra length of time to assure us that he would “deal” with Master Hunter Latro should worst-come-worst... But, we were still conflicted.

We trusted Delian Terminus without question. He was one of the small numbers of Hunters whom hadn’t become uncompromisingly bitter over the course of his life.

We understood their reasoning, of course. For we felt very much the same way about our false reputation, but the timing of their request had been bad. Especially after the incident we still needed to clean up. And then there was the question of if anyone would listen to what we were now being allowed to tell them, especially if they already knew of the ties that Master Hunter Latro had to these people.

We dismissed the thought, for the time being it would not be of much help for anyone if we were to agonise over questions that we were unable to answer.

Our thoughts were interrupted as one of our gate guards informed us of Taured’s arrival –though, we had absolutely no idea how we managed to miss his approach. Had we been in thought that deeply?- we gave them a small nod and at once ordered that the gates be opened, we had requested Taured’s immediate assistance, it would not do to keep him waiting.

We strode forward to meet him, inclining our head slightly in greeting. Unlike the first time our people were not openly hostile towards either Taured or Varden, but it only took us a fleeting glance at those of our people within immediate sight for us to know that our people were still very wary of these two. We knew it would take time for them to be able to walk among our people without having their every little action watched. But for now, there was no chance of a violent confrontation, so we would allow our people their still lingering distrust.

“Rider Taured, Dragon Varden.”
We greeted politely.

“We apologise if our request for assistance has interrupted you from anything important, and we wish that our request was not morbid in its initial nature. However, we have had an incident which has resulted in the death of a trader native to this land. We were able to intervene and neutralise the rest of the traders non-lethally in order to avert further death... But... There is something that we do not understand about their reasons for trying to attack us.”
We paused for a long moment, stepping to the side and inviting Taured to walk with us, we would need him to see the scale of the incident before we asked our questions... Already it seemed to us that the progress of our required tasks would be slowed if there were any further misconceptions circulating about our Union.

[Mali]

Taured was still thinking about the Siren and what would be required of him to perform the mission successfully while he waited outside the gate. He had believed that the mission required him to take the fall for killing the siren; to take all the blame Morona’s people may put on him. However, Solomon had said that there was much more to the pacts than just taking the fall for the monarchs. He was worried that this much more wouldn’t allow Taured and Varden to ever be accepted among Morona’s people. They already distrusted the rider pair; he hoped that this wouldn’t further add to their distrust.

He was brought out of his thinking as the gates started to open to him. Varden looked down at Taured as he looked up at his dragon, both hoping that the reaction from the people be less hostile than their first arrival. Looking toward the open gates, Taured and Varden were greeted by Morona with a slight nod of his head. As Morona addressed him with a proper title, he felt it proper to greet him with his full title, even if he didn’t know the meaning behind the name.

“Lord Nemesis Morona,” The next thing that the rider pair did was listen to what Morona had to say. Of course, what he had to say shocked the pair. They knew that Morona might have been met with as much hostility as his people had shown, but they hadn’t thought that they would have been met with violence.

“We have ulterior motives for coming as quickly as we have, another issue that must be settled. You message only quickened our time getting here,” he stared Morona down for a brief moment, hoping he would remember the message he had sent with Taured for Solomon. However, he was curious to find out what the problem they had encountered was to cause such violence.

As Morona motioned for Taured to walk with him, he glanced back at Varden asking him mentally if he would be all right staying here for a little while. With a mental sigh in return, he replied that it shouldn’t be a problem. Smiling and patting Varden’s side, Taured moved to follow Morona.

“We knew after our first meeting that you and your people may meet some problems establishing trade, we never anticipated that it would result to such violence however. What was their reason to attack, may I ask?”

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Amur]

We nodded gently, leading Taured in the direction of our incapacitated guests. With the pleasantries dispensed we would be able to speak of our reasons for calling Taured to us. We walked in silence as Taured informed us that he had another reason for responding to our request as quickly as he had done and then gave us a look that we understood. Yes, undoubtedly regarding our situation with Alma D’alene. However, it was not safe to discuss such matters out in the open, none of our people knew of the existence of The Medallion Pacts. We would have to retreat into our audience chambers for such a discussion to take place.

“Very well, we shall discuss that with you once we have acquired understanding of the situation at hand.”
We replied formally. Continuing the short walk toward towards the location of our guests, Taured confessed to us that he knew that we and our people would more than likely encounter difficulties trading; we could only nod to that. As we had also expected such difficulties, but he had not expected us to face violence over it, and once more we nodded, we had never known traders to become violent, not even in Empire Nirvana.

He then asked us what the reason of these singulars was for attacking us.

“We are unsure. We could tell when they first met us that they were uncomfortable talking to us, so, we offered them the opportunity to postpone negotiations until they felt comfortable enough to speak with us.”
We began, stopping as we reached the gathering of carts and horses which was currently under guard. We were saluted as the assigned guards stepped aside to allow us through. We began walking once again, ignoring the singulars we he put to sleep for the time being and leading Taured to the corpse.

“There was silence and then we found ourselves facing drawn weapons.”
We stopped as we reached the motionless body, currently covered by a white cloth to hide the gaping hole in its chest that had been the cause of his death. Kaime straightened as we approached, not daring to move his now unprotected arm in a salute just in case he struck something.

“Lord Morona.”
Kaime said stiffly. We nodded and continued speaking.

“Before this singular attempted to strike at us he called us... ‘Shade’... It is not a term we have ever heard used before, and his companions seemed to share his belief.”
We said. Pausing for a moment, we already knew that Kaime wouldn’t rest easy until he had been identified as the cause of this singular’s death. We admired his attitude, but his feeling of responsibility still concerned us... He had been doing his duty, what was all.

“He was silenced by Kaime before he could close the distance, at which point we intervened... We are still having trouble understanding what they attacked for... What is ‘Shade’, Taured?”
We asked curiously, the term still sounding strange to us. We had already dismissed this being down to Master Hunter Latro’s actions; these people had clearly not made the connection... They had been more interested in accusing us of being ‘Shade’.

“... If a misconception exists about our Union that will place our people in danger, then we need to ensure that it is quashed before it becomes widespread.”

[Mali]

As Morona assured Taured that, they would talk about the Siren issue later, he felt inclined to try to solve the problem that Morona was dealing with now. Taured just hoped that when they did talk about the Siren issue, that he wouldn’t leave the entire thing up to Taured to solve. Sure, Solomon had told him what to do and everything, but it would be nice to know what to do after he found out who the siren was. If he just killed the siren after finding out who they were, wouldn’t the people who weren’t hunters and didn’t know the code words, wouldn’t they continue to distrust him more for killing a random person?

Taured listened as Morona spoke. So they were uncomfortable with the plural form that Morona had taken. He still couldn’t see where the issue was. It wasn’t until he mentioned the word, ‘shade’ that Taured started to understand where the confusion and issues came from. Raising his hand to his mouth, he rubbed along his jaw, looking at Morona making an ‘uh’ noise why trying to think of how to word this. Taured and Varden had foreseen many possible problems that could have come up but they hadn’t thought about shades.

As they approached the body, Taured removed his hand and knelt down, lifting the sheet briefly to see the wound that had caused the fatal blow. Dropping the sheet after a quick glance, he stood back up and surveyed the area, still listening to what Morona had to say about what had happened. As soon as Morona asked him what a shade was, Taured had to pause, placing his hands on his hips, one hand running back through his hair as he blew out the breath that he’d been holding in.

“That’s not a particularly easy question to answer. There is much speculation as to where shades come from and how they are created. However, the bigger part to try to help you with is preventing this from happening again.” He looked Morona in the eye as he spoke, trying to make his point firm. He couldn’t think of anything that would prevent this from happening again. He shot the idea back to Varden to continue thinking of possible solutions while he spoke with Morona and Kaime.

“First of all, a shade is a creature formed from magic. They are spirits that are called forth. They can be placed in the body of another, living or dead, or can possess those that call them forth,” he paused, looking at the other people in the area. He wondered how much they knew about the subject personally. And why were they all asleep?

“Shades are frowned upon. They are considered a taboo creation. The reason so little is known about them is the fact that the spirit doesn’t require a body to exist. Most die after creation, although those that survive are capable of great magic and the ability to switch from body to body.” he slowly walked over to one individual that was asleep on his cart of goods. Prodding him gently, Taured deducted that they were under a sleeping spell and that nothing was wrong.

Turning back to face Morona, Taured crossed his arms over his chest. “I can see why they would believe that you are a shade. They thought that instead of the spirit consuming the caster completely, your soul and the spirit summoned still share consciousness.” These people probably have never come across a shade before, but they still knew what they were. Taured had only been fortunate enough to come across a shade once. He’d never known so much about them before his meeting one.

“The only thing I can’t figure out, is what to do about this. Even if we try to tell others of what you are and that you’re not a shade, there’s no way to enforce that people get this information out. There’s no way to prevent this from happening again. Not that I can think of at the moment...”

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Amur]

We listened to Taured as he supplied us with the explanation we had requested, and we did not like what we heard from him. To be confused with something that was so far removed from our Union was... Insulting... And our expression reflected that –albeit briefly- which was not something we usually allowed through.

We shook our head briefly.

“We dislike the comparison. And we find it strange that these singulars would think of us as something that they may have never seen before... Union is rare due to its low survival-rate. But to be mistaken for something so... Abominable, it leaves a bad taste in our mouth.”
We said slowly. Our Union had been fully agreed upon by both of our sides; our Union was something to be celebrated, for it was the birth of a species so rare that it always sat on the brink of extinction. Not something to be reviled simply because a large gathering of singulars had difficulty understanding us... We drew in a silent breath, what Taured had said, however, was correct. The issue surrounding what was rapidly becoming a dilemma was going to be finding a way in which to rid these singulars of their misconception.

“You are correct, however. The issue is going to be keeping this misconception under control... We will likely have to appoint a middle-man of some sort to prevent this from happening again in the future. The idea isn’t appealing to us, but we see no alternative.”
We lost ourselves to several seconds of thinking, trying to find a suitable candidate for such a task. Several came to mind immediately, but it would be something we would have to conclude at another time. The matter at hand was more important right now. We looked around at our sleeping guests; we would need to prevent these singulars from spreading their ignorant misconception throughout the land.

“Which leaves us with another issue, and that is trying to prevent the spread of the misinformation that these singulars hold.”
We said calmly, we couldn’t very well allow for such misinformation to be spread. Especially when we had the lives of those following us to consider alongside ours, and we couldn’t very well suggest anything the singulars might very well not recover from, which ruled out the possibility of using magic to alter their memories of the event. And allowing them to die was quite simply not acceptable, at all.

“Which seemingly leaves us at an impasse; we will not alter their memories, since many singulars never recover from the experience. And allowing them to die isn’t an option. Yet, we cannot allow this misconception to spread, not when we have so many people following us. It would be poor leadership on our part to knowingly place them in peril.”
We mused out loud. It was possible that we may have been able to deceive the traders with a fabricated story surrounding how they came to be unconscious and in our village, however, that would require having to appoint someone with the middle-man position a great deal faster in order to make the fabrication believable.

“We could attempt to deceive them with a fabricated tale surrounding their arrival here... But, we already know that Kaime would never forgive us for doing so. Not when it cost a singular his life.”

[Mali]

Taured watched as Morona listened, waiting to get his reaction to what these traders believed Morona to be. He looked disgusted by the thought, insulted was definitely how Morona felt. He shook his head and began to speak, Taured listening to everything that he had to say. “Not to insult you further but the only form of union in Alagaesia is that between dragons and riders. There was no dragon at your side, they couldn’t possibly have connected two and two together that you shared a similar bond.”

A middle man was a good idea, but it still might not solve the problems that they were having. There was also the issue of what to tell these traders when they were woken from the spell. Morona approached this issue slowly but was on the same page as Taured as to what they should do about the traders. They needed to stop the spreading of this information for Morona’s people to be able to live and thrive off this land. If word was spread that Morona was a shade, people wouldn’t be so friendly or open to the idea of trades. Shades were taboo and frowned upon heavily. There was also the fact that so many of them turned out to be cruel and evil.

Taured continued to listen to what Morona had to say, still trying to think of a solution to this problem. He waited until Morona had finished speaking before pacing about the small area, his hand under his chin, the other resting under his elbow. They could always . . . no, that wouldn’t work. Well, they could try . . . but what if the people didn’t respond to it? It was then that Taured realised something. It might work, depending on where the loyalties of these people lie and what their beliefs were, but it might work.

“I have an idea, and it might work, depending on the traders’ beliefs. I could try to explain to them what you are and why you are not a shade. They might listen to me since I am a dragon rider.” it was true, they might listen to him since he was a rider. But there was also the chance that they wouldn’t listen to him because he was a dragon rider.

“I’ve told you of the racial differences and problems with the elves and the humans. They might listen to me, they may choose to ignore me, but it’s a chance that’s worth taking.”

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Amur]

We had managed to surmise from Taured’s first talk with us that the closest thing to our Union that this land possessed was only to be found with The Riders and their Dragons. We did not know why he felt the need to explain it to us, but, we had also largely failed to take our guess into consideration when we had arranged this meeting. An unfortunate oversight, the idea of using a middle-man to handle future negotiations seemed to be the only way to resolve this. The mere thought of such a plan did not sit well with us.

“Yes, we had managed to surmise such an answer from our first talk with you, Taured. We were; however, unaware that there were other, more repugnant creatures that bared what was a twisted mockery of our Union in this land... We do not believe that you would intentionally with-hold such information from us, but we may need to ask if there are any further creatures that we can seemingly be compared to based on the native ignorance to our Union.”
We said calmly, this incident had taken us by surprise... Clearly it had done more than was necessary to put us on edge. We raised a hand and ran it over our hair whilst drawing in a shallow breath, our last comment there had been unnecessary.

“Our apologies... This is one part of a very large list of reasons that we -personally- made the decision to leave Empire Nirvana. We had, had enough of having to constantly watch over our shoulder.”
We felt the explanation necessary before we allowed ourselves to listen to what else Taured had to say... His ideas were definitely more substantial than ours were, but they still left a lot to chance. It was true that Taured had already explained the racial tension between the Elves and Humans of this land to us. Which is simply one part of the reason we had not simply asked Taured to speak to them in the first place, what if the ever-present racial tension only succeeded in worsening the situation? We wouldn’t be able to keep the singulars asleep indefinitely; eventually they would die if left as such.

“We had not thought of that, if only because we were unsure whether or not the racial tension that you explained to us would prove to aggravate the situation.”
We allowed ourselves a moment longer to consider our options, he was right, even if these singulars did choose to ignore what Taured had to say we could simply return them to the state they were in now until we could come up with a better solution.

“We have no better idea at the present. We will allow you to talk to them, but will remain present ourselves. Should these singulars become hostile once more we will be ready to return them to the state they are in now. At least until we have a better solution.”
We said calmly, walking so that we were stood roughly in the middle of our slumbering guests.

“We advise giving them several seconds to gather their wits. The experience can be disorienting for singulars incapable of magic.”
And with those last words we counter-acted our earlier used spell and roused the singulars from their magically induced sleep. Watching as they stirred slowly, we waited a short while and then looked back at Taured and gave him a small nod. Indicating to him that it would be safe for him to approach and try to reason with them.

[Mali]

Taured had to think if there were any other creatures from this land that Morona could be compared to. He didn’t believe that there were any others, but just to be safe, he should tell Morona about the other creatures of this land. Just to be safe. “I don’t believe that there should be any other creatures you would be compared to. Of the remaining species you do not know about, the chances that you would be compared to a werecat are slim since most people have never met one before because of their liking to watch more than interact. I don’t believe you would be compared to an urgal since they are so much different in appearance and you wouldn’t be compared to dwarves since they are much shorter than you are.” hopefully that would be a good enough explanation. He didn’t want to have to go into further depth about the three species since it was unneeded information, but you never knew. Morona may want to know more about those three species.

Taured nodded his head as Morona told him that this was partly his reasoning for leaving Empire Nirvana. He could understand why Morona left. It would suck if he always had to watch his back for people willing to attack out of ignorance. Many people did attack Taured because he was a dragon rider, but never to a full extent. It was just verbal attacks, hardly physical ones.

He nodded his head again, making a ‘hmm’ing sound. “I know that the racial tensions may cause the traders to ignore me, however, I don’t think it would make them angrier. They are vastly outnumbered and would not tempt fighting against a dragon.” at the last bit, Taured couldn’t help but chuckle quietly. Someone had once tried to go at it with Varden, it had been very funny to watch since he lost so badly.

Taured turned to face the traders as Morona lifted the spell, allowing them to slowly wake up. Tilting his head down and to the side, he waited for the traders to remember where they were and such forth. As they sat up, Morona gave Taured a small nod and he set about doing his business. How best to greet the traders? Since they had been hostile before, would they be hostile when he introduced himself? He hoped that the traders, although possibly stingy to the idea, would listen to him, even though he was a dragon rider.

As Taured allowed the traders to gather their wits, it wasn’t long before the traders searched around their location, eyes settling on Morona and Kaime before one had the nerve to shout, ‘The shade did this!’ Taured rolled his eyes. Of course Morona did this. The man pointed to the dead body, covered in the area while he shouted, but Taured didn’t pay much attention to him. Clearing his throat, the traders’ attentions turned to Taured. Immediately they knew that he was an elf and based on their beliefs, thought different things about his being there.

“Hello fellow Alagaesians. I am Dragon Rider Taured Doenning here on behalf of the rider’s council and Lord Morona. I am led to believe that there was a misunderstanding about Lord Morona’s stature that needs to be set right?” he said the statement like a question, making the traders feel like children being scolded by their parents.

It wasn’t long after he’d finished his first bit when one of the traders was brave enough to answer. “He’s a shade! I didn’t know dragon riders sided with shades now,” the other traders nodded their heads, a vocal agreement between them. Taured couldn’t help but sigh, wondering how this would work out.

“Ignorance. Lord Morona is not from this land. He comes from far off and is not a shade. He is union. He is two souls in one body, joined by a bond similar to the dragon riders.” he paused, allowing this thought to enter their minds. “Their thoughts, actions and bodies are joined together in their union, whereas ours are not. He is not a shade by any means but two people joined in what they call union. It is very rare and considered an honour where he is from.” Taured may be playing it up a bit with the honour bit, but it might just help him get his point across.

“Lord Morona is not a threat, as deemed by the rider’s council. If they see him as an ally, why can’t you?” he ended his rant with a simple question that would make them think. They may not like the rider’s council or the dragon riders, but they knew that if they considered him an ally, why couldn’t they? Did this mean that they might possibly consider it as, ‘if he’s an ally with the riders, and the riders are our enemies, then Morona is our enemy,’ that would be very bad indeed.

“But he killed one of our men,” Taured nodded his head. “ It was self-defence. Ignorance caused you to draw your weapons where he was unarmed. It was self-defence and ignorance that killed your man.” As Taured stared the man down, it was then that Varden had seemed to have made his way to their location. He popped his head into the area, staring at the traders, hoping to help make Taured’s point.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Amur]

We admittedly had not expected Taured to respond to our request –which was regrettably made in frustration- to list to us any further species dwelling in this land that we may have been compared to in ignorance. And much to his credit Taured did also set to rest any further concerns we may have held by also telling us various reasons as to why it was unlikely for our Union to be confused with anything other than these “Shade” creatures.

Unfortunate, but now that we knew such creatures existed we could take measures to ensure that this mistake was never made again... Perhaps our best plan would be to somehow get the point across that referring to us as a “Shade” was an insult that we would not tolerate... We dismissed the thought for the time being, as it sounded far too hostile, we would simply work through the specifics another time. For now, we had more important things to be doing.

We simply gave a small nod to acknowledge Taured’s comment on how unlikely it was for these traders to become hostile once more. And for the time being we refrained from telling him that the feeling of being backed into a corner did strange things to singulars... We had seen singulars –most human- perform feats usually outside of their limitations when pressed as such... In fact, Master Hunter Latro’s historical encounter against that wyvern was one such example. We kept that to ourselves, however, unwilling to even reveal the history of another person at “face-value”; it was not our history to disclose.

We watched in silence as Taured made his approach, giving the singulars the time to gather their wits. The silence did not last, however, as the first to speak was fast to voice his fear and outrage in our direction, in the direction of our Right Hand and in the direction of the corpse all at once. And once more, the word “Shade” was used to describe us. We did not allow our frustration, or our disgust at the insult to show, instead, we allowed Taured an to opportunity to speak. We had to remain diplomatic, for the sake of our people, it would be best if we were to allow this new situation unfold, we were already prepared for the worst.

We watched in continued silence as Taured spoke to the traders, phrasing his statement as a question. Almost making him sound as though he was attempting to scold a younger sibling, we hid our amusement at the thought. It would have been in poor taste to allow ourselves that moment of amusement when this incident had already caused one death.

And once more the misconception these singulars had about our Union was thrown around. Even going far enough to accuse Taured and his order of siding with us... We were now unsure of exactly how to react to that, these singulars were clearly not in their right mind, perhaps their ordeal for this day had thrown them through a loop. Nevertheless, we forced ourselves to remain silent as Taured continued speaking to the traders, explaining our Union to them.

The way he spoke of us, his explanation... He had understood what we were. There were singulars out there capable of simply understanding what we were... And if that was possible, then perhaps the reasoning behind the decision made by our allied Hunters wasn’t so far-fetched after all. It was for that reason that we made the decision to acquiesce the request that they had made of us, we knew what they wanted.

... Though, perhaps his explaining that our state of Union was an honour was a little bit over-the-top. We did briefly raise an eyebrow in his direction to question his use of such an explanation, but we soon dismissed the thought and brought our expression back to its usual impassiveness. Perhaps that was the only way he could think of to show these singulars the difference between our culture and theirs.

“But he killed one of our men.”
That single statement was enough to tell us that Taured had managed to get through to them, in the very least enough to make these singulars understand the error of their recent actions. Taured then took a moment to justify the action of our Right Hand to them, which caused them all to fall silent... The most interesting event of his situation had yet to happen, however. As if from nowhere, Varden seemed to have found his way into the clearing and simply stared silently at the traders –which alone seemed to unnerve them more than we did- as if to help Taured make his point.

We blinked, wondering briefly just how The Dragon had managed this. We looked over at Kaime, whom at this moment looked equally bewildered, his eye blinking slowly before he shrugged his shoulders gently in response to our gaze.

It was perplexing; surely the scale of the village would have made his position uncomfortable for him... As well as for whatever people may now be trying to walk around him... We would have to take this into consideration and most likely add an expansion that would allow us to meet with Taured and Varden –or indeed any other Rider of the order- without having to worry about our people complaining that damage had been caused to their homes.

“We will also remind you that our Right Hand: Kaime suggested that you stop for some time so he could fully explain us to you. But, at your insistence kept you moving because you claimed that you had understood everything he had told you of us.”
We interjected now, to further push the point to these people that the death of their companion was on their hands. The reminder made several of them flinch and made the rest of them visibly uncomfortable, allowing us to let the statement hang for a further several moments, we still had more to say, however, so we did not allow them the time to immediately respond.

“And we are suitably offended that even in ignorance you would confuse us with such an abominable creature and not even give us the chance to educate you otherwise. Similar circumstances have led to the creation of fear monsters.”
We finished off, now falling silent for the length of time these singulars would require to gather their thoughts.

The long silence stretched on.

“I may have... Jumped to conclusions...”
Was the first response we received which was soon followed by a chorus of agreements, which led us to the further question on whether or not these people had been listening to a word Kaime had said. We had given him instruction to explain to these people that we all came from a land foreign to this one, and we knew Kaime well enough to know that he would follow his instruction to the letter. Had they simply forgotten?

“Which begs to question, were you listening to a word Kaime was telling you on the way here? He had specific instructions to not only explain our Union to you, but to also explain that we originate from foreign lands. We already know that Kaime will follow our instructions to the letter, so weren’t you listening to him, or did you simply forget what he had told you while you were jumping to conclusions?”
We asked curiously. This got a visible recoil from each and every trader assembled, which was then followed by several of them all trying to sputter explanations at once. That more than answered our question, how did these people get anywhere when they clearly had not been listening to what Kaime had been telling them?

“Y-your one-eyed man there-”
And already that was the single biggest mistake this singular could have made.

“What!? ‘One-eyed man’!? He HAS a NAME you inconsiderate piece of-”
Alexia began; the fact that we were hearing her thoughts told us she was speaking to everyone assembled in the area.

“Alexia, calm down...”
We requested politely, not wishing to have to tell Kaime to leave the area when he still so clearly felt responsible for the death of the corpse he was still standing guard over. She stopped her rant short, but still made a point to complain about how such ignorance shouldn’t be protected. At this point the Traders had paled considerably and had fallen utterly silent.

“We very clearly made a mistake.”
One of them stuttered, which was followed by a profuse number of apologies, from the trader that had first spoken and from the rest of his companions. However, we had heard enough already. We saw no further reason to lecture or otherwise potentially patronise these people, they had even admitted their mistake. We raised a single hand into the air silencing the traders.

“We have heard enough, we do not think less of you, nor do we see a need to further burden you with blame when your ignorance has already resulted in the death of one of your compatriots. We don’t have much in the way of resources to offer you as of yet, however, if you wish to gather your wits here for the upcoming night we shall allow you to do so. We have some yet unoccupied housing you can temporarily use.”
We said formerly, calling one of our troops over to us we gave him instruction to take these people to our currently unoccupied housing if they should request it. He cast a distrusting gaze in the direction of the traders, but saluted and assured us that the order would be completed. We gave him a small nod and allowed him to return to his post before we turned back to face Taured and Varden.

“Well, thank-you. That seems to have calmed them down enough to actually listen to what we had to say... Though, is that not uncomfortable for you, Dragon Varden?”
We questioned curiously.

Turning our attention back to Taured we moved closer to him.

“It is not safe to discuss the ‘other matter’ with us out here. The safest place would either be away from the village, or within our audience house, since that has wards protecting it from eavesdroppers. We shall leave where we go to discuss our other matter to you, Taured... We cannot risk... Unwanted ears listening in on us...”
We said calmly to Taured in an undertone.

[Mali]

Taured hadn’t expected Varden to show up in the tent. He looked back to see his dragon trying to help make Taured’s point and couldn’t help the smile that came to his features. Varden was like his brother, he always had his back. He did wonder how his dragon had managed to get to the tent in the first place but shook it off. He probably tried his best not to crush items on his way and certainly tried not to crush people along the way.

As Morona spoke, Taured listened, nodding his head. He wasn’t sure why the people wouldn’t want to take longer, trying to understand what Morona was before meeting him but if he had to guess, it was because of time restraints. Taured wanted to add something in but Morona began speaking again, not allowing time for anyone t0o interrupt. The silence that followed after he had finished speaking led Taured to believe that the traders were thinking things over. The accusation that the riders sided with shades had thrown him for a bit, but it hadn’t mattered. It appeared that these traders had finally come to a decision and they had decided that they had jumped to conclusions. Which was the right decision in Taured’s mind. What would they have done if the traders had decided to remain ignorant and stubborn? Well, there wouldn’t have been much they could do if that had been their decision.

Morona continued to address the traders and Taured had the image of a parent scolding their children in his mind. The topic that Morona had decided to continue with made him imagine that he wasn’t just angry that the traders hadn’t listened, but was trying to teach them a lesson of sorts. As the traders answered the question without even using Kaime’s name, Taured couldn’t help but shake his head. The ignorance that these men lived in. How was it that they were able to live from day to day with such ignorance?

Apparently, the traders’ answer had infuriated some in the area as everyone received a mental berating from a woman who wasn’t present. Morona asked the woman to calm down and it seemed to have worked. There was a bit of silence before the traders spoke and admitted that they had made a mistake. Finally, they had gotten through to the traders. It was then that Taured turned and headed toward Varden, looking out of the tent to see how he was managing the position he was in. Even Morona Had wondered how Varden had maintained his position during the last bit of speech.

Varden moved his head out of the tent, allowing himself to stand fully before addressing Morona, not wanting to be rude. “Not as uncomfortable as it could be,”

[/b] He looked behind him, to see some angry villagers whose vegetables he had stepped on. He immediately picked himself off the ground, hovering over to them so he could apologise properly.

Morona moved over to Taured as he watched the brief interaction between his dragon and the villagers. As he mentioned the other matter, Taured wished that Varden hadn’t flown off so soon. He had to think about where they could discuss the other matter easily and thought that the audience house would be best since it was protected from unwanted ears hearing.

“The audience house sounds best for this conversation. I just need to grab something first,” he headed out of the tent at a quick pace over to Varden who was still speaking with the villagers, trying to apologise and be as polite to them as possible. Reaching into the saddle bags, Taured pulled out the weapon that Solomon had handed to him. Of course, it was wrapped up so no one would be able to tell what it was from just looking at it. He hadn’t quite decided whether he would send the siren after Solomon or finish her himself.

Walking back over to Morona, he nodded to lead the way.[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Amur]

Apparently Dragon Varden had wrought some damage to the small amount of farmland our village currently possessed. Not on a disastrous level, but, at this stage any loss our people sustained would be greater than it normally would have been. We would repair the damage done to the crops once we had concluded our business with Taured, it would be no more difficult for us, since we possessed knowledge of magic that a large number of other experienced mages lacked... And well, we had already done greater things with our abilities.

We gave a small nod as Taured suggested we take the discussion to our audience house, likely the more intelligent decision. We were the most magically capable among our people and had worked our wards to be difficult to understand in their nature. The chances of our conversation being listened in on was nil. Of that we were confident.

We allowed Taured the time he needed to retrieve whatever it was he told us he needed to before we led the way to our auidience house. It stood out among the rest of the housing of our village, since it was larger and situated closest to the mountain we had placed our village next to. Entering through the first set of double doors there was a short, relatively wide hallway leading to a second set of double doors, which the audience room was directly behind.

The room we had left sparse for a variety of reasons, the most prominant of which was that we had little to decorate it with. Besides a few plain banners lining the walls the only other noticable feature in this room was the large black-metal throne we had constructed. Behind that another set of double door led to our private quarters and to the right of the throne yet another set of double doors led to Kaime’s private quarters.

While the door to the left led to the vault containing the few valuables we possessed, and that was protected by more complex wards than the ones lining this room. A guard stood in each corner of this room, with an extra set of guards for the vault doors, they all saluted as we entered to which we inclined our head.

“You may all leave us, relieve the guards on the entrance of their duities for the time being and inform them that we will contact you all once more when we have concluded business here. Are we understood?”
Our guards saluted, and almost in unison.

“Yes, Lord Morona.”
And with that we were left alone with Taured. We waited several seconds and then closed and locked the doors into the audience room with magic. We turned our attention to Taured, and fell silent for a moment, we needed to word what we had to ask without making it sound like an order, Taured was not under a rule, and was therefore not under our command.

“We must admit that we are shocked you managed to find and talk with Master Hunter Latro so quickly, Hunters usually aren’t the co-operative type... Before we can continue, however, we will need a brief explanation of your latest meeting with Master Hunter Latro. We would also like to hear your thoughts on the situation.”

[Mali]

Taured was quick when it came to retrieving the weapon that Solomon had handed him. He still had a decision to make about whether he would have the nerve to finish the Siren himself or allow Solomon to do it for him. Did he have the courage to do it? The only people he’d ever killed were necessary deaths. It was during the war or they were dying already and he was just giving them peace. He’d never killed someone for no reason before. Well, this death would have a reason; they shouldn’t be here and would be a menace to society here if allowed to stay. But did that mean that it was right to end someone’s life for being a menace?

Following Morona to the audience house, Taured noted how it stood out from the rest of the buildings. The interior wasn’t as distinguishable as the exterior with bare minimum furnishings, a few banners lining the walls, a large black throne. The throne was probably Morona’s which explained why it was so massive. What Taured didn’t expect was the solid salute that Morona received while entering the building. He hadn’t thought that that was how Morona ran things in his village.

It was swift movement for the men leaving the room as Morona dismissed them. A clean-cut, ‘Yes Morona’ and the men were leaving. Taured had to think that he would be able to get used to that pretty quickly, should he ever have that power of authority. It would be nice occasionally. Maybe even if he had that authority over Varden, then he wouldn’t be stuck doing silly things with his dragon.

Taured took in a deep breath before he started his conversation with Morona. “It isn’t that hard to find him when he leaves a trail of bodies behind.” He chuckled at the thought of the trail Solomon seemed to leave. He wondered how easy it would be for Solomon to drop off the map. Surely there would be some murders on his part that would be found.

“It was a rather friendly chat, until I delivered your message. He informed me of your intentions, the hidden meaning in the message and about what needed to be done,” he left the statement hanging for Morona to get the full effect of what he was trying to say. Of course, he was trying to convey that he was confused, as well as shocked. He had no idea that delivering that message would mean a return trip, a decision to be made, and actions needed to be taken.

“If you’d allow, I’d like to know how you came to find this information. And why you would send it to Solomon. What could he possibly do?” it was a bit much to ask of Morona but Taured felt that he had a right to the information.

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Amur]

“Indeed, usually Hunters are careful about leaving trails of bodies in their wake... We think that Master Hunter Latro is actively trying to put people off of claiming whatever bounty he has on his head by showing them that he is out of their league... We are curious to see if such a tactic has worked, or if it is simply causing more singulars to throw their lives away on such an ill-advised endeavour.”
We mused out loud, for it was true. Life for a Hunter in Empire Nirvana was dangerous enough that all young Hunters were taught the value of discretion and knowing when to strike without leaving any evidence that would lead people to them or to their home-base. That Master Hunter Latro was seemingly being reckless enough to lead people to him told us more than enough to know that there was more to his situation than we were being told.

Though, we did find the idea of a “friendly chat” with a Hunter difficult to believe, such things did not happen; at least not as far as we had seen... Nevertheless, we kept our peace; we saw no need to make any kind of comment conveying our disbelief on the matter to Taured. This was a different land, for all we knew it was entirely possible that ignorance on the scale that had effectively created The Hunters did not exist here.

However, we did nod gently as Taured outlined his latest meeting with Master Hunter Latro. As we had hoped he had told Taured of our intention and even the reasoning behind it.

“Much as we hoped that he would. These matters need to be handled delicately; we may no longer be residing within Empire Nirvana. But our alliance with the few Hunters we do have is still tense, if our people were to discover the existence of this Siren it would set back months of careful negotiations with both out people and The Hunters in order to make the alliance as amicable as possible.”
We paused for a short moment.

“The same will undoubtedly happen should we not provide a convincing explanation concerning ‘Alma’s’ death... That however, is the side of this that we are concerned with, disposing of her needs to be handled with care. We are hoping to avoid having it take place within our village since that would... Complicate things.”
We continued, putting a fine point on the precarious nature of the situation that we were facing. If for whatever reason Master Hunter Latro had sent Taured to kill The Siren, then that would force us to think further on how to best find a way to work the situation to our advantage in such a way that would allow us to create an explanation with ease.

We remained standing as we thought through the situation further, if Master Hunter Latro were to accept the job; then we were certain he would be more than willing to claim the kill was all his doing and would have no need to think of an explanation, because he would be providing the cover-up on our account.

It was a dilemma, and never one that was easy.

We looked back down at Taured as he asked us how we had managed to find out about the truth surrounding the existence of The Siren hiding among our ranks. We would have to leave out very specific pieces of information, but for the most part, there was very little to hide. We gave him a small nod as we best considered where to begin.

“At first we had no idea, if we are to be completely honest. Even in Union we are not completely infallible. However, over time we began to notice things, the most glaringly obvious sign to us was that the rest of our allied Hunters distrusted this Alma. And, over the course of time and with increased interactions with her, we began to notice other signs that she was not on the same page as those who should have been her brethren.”
We began, pausing for a moment to now think on how to best explain the significance of what we had just said.

“Hunters distrusting one of their own is something that doesn’t happen. Life in Empire Nirvana is uncompromisingly dangerous for their kind, and as such their upbringing and tutelage reflects the importance of being close to their fellow Hunter and learning to rely on them without question during times of need.”
We continued, believing that to be sufficient.

“However, as per-our request that they deal with all Hunter related issues discreetly our allied Hunters refused to tell us anything... While we were grateful for their compliance on the matter, Hunters distrusting each other is a bad sign that cannot be ignored. So, we took the only option available to us and requested the help of Baldur.”
Now we paused and slowly clasped our hands behind our back. This would be the part where we would have to regulate what we told Taured, of course, details of his status as out Hidden Blade would have to be left out. However, we already had permission from Baldur to reveal parts of his history when it was absolutely necessary.

“Having walked and lived among The Hunters for some time, and having detailed copies of the history of each Clan we made the request that he find the reason for the distrust surrounding Alma discreetly. The Hunting Clans historically record anyone who earned titles of high regard and the series of events and accomplishments that led to the acquisition of their title... Upon his discovery that there had never been a ‘High-Huntress Alma’ from Hunting Clan D’alene, it was then Baldur that put forward the theory that she must be a Siren.”
We paused for a short while to draw in a small breath.

“Once we had that knowledge we spoke to one of our allied Hunters about it, and discovered that they all shared the same theory... As for what Master Hunter Latro can do, he was The Hunter responsible for the destruction of The Sirens, and he did it alone. Alma is aware of that, and upon learning that Master Hunter Latro is still alive here will undoubtedly wish to seek revenge for her fallen comrades... She will likely jump at the chance to try and take that revenge and run right into Master Hunter Latro’s waiting arms... She is still under the false belief that her true identity has not yet been discovered, after all.”

[Mali]

Taured nodded his head to Morona’s comments. “It doesn’t seem to have any difference in his pursuers’ minds. They are still trying to capture him despite all the people who’ve failed.” So many had tried to capture Solomon that he thought that they would have realised by now that he wouldn’t ever be caught. Maybe he should bring it up with the council to just remove the bounty on his head, or to pay it off. Surely, it would be for the benefit of everyone since there would be far less fatalities if people stopped hunting Solomon down.

He listened to everything that Morona had to say next. “It would make sense that your people wouldn’t understand should things be dealt with incorrectly,” should the Siren’s position be revealed, surely many of the people in Morona’s camp would be confused. Most of hunter culture was shrouded in secrecy. So much secrecy that they would be confused should a secret such as Sirens be revealed to them.

“The question is after finding out the siren’s identity, how do you get her to leave the camp knowing that she has been found out?” Taured doubted that she would come willingly once her identity was discovered. She had no idea that anyone knew she was there. To be picked out of a crowd by a total stranger, and one that wasn’t even native to Empire Nirvana, surely the siren wouldn’t respond peacefully.

It was a long and lengthy explanation that followed which Taured would rather not interrupt. Morona answered his question in great detail as to how he found out about the siren’s existence. It shed a great deal of light as to how Taured should handle this. Surely, a siren who sought revenge wouldn’t allow herself to be killed by an individual who had nothing to do with the problem. She would put up a huge fight that would be hard to hide from the rest of the camp.

“I have another problem I would like to share with you. If this siren seeks revenge, the likelihood of solving that problem with an outsider is practically impossible. I was given the choice to either tell the siren of Solomon’s whereabouts, should I choose not to finish her myself. However, I cannot allow that to happen, it would be shameful to pass it off because of cowardice. So how would we go about solving this problem if she will not accept me as her opponent?”

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Amur]

We were initially surprised when Taured told us of the effect that Master Hunter Latro’s trail of corpses had, had on the other bounty hunters attempting to capture or kill him. People had learned quickly in Empire Nirvana that The Hunters “game” should never be played against them. Here the people seemed to be much less inclined to learn such lessons. The reward being offered for the capture of Master Hunter Latro must have been quite substantial if people were still trying t throw themselves at him after seeing how many before them had failed.

“Interesting, there must be enough being offered for the capture of Master Hunter Latro for people to senselessly run after him.”
We mused out loud. We did not expect an answer in return, but the clear inability for the singulars here to learn from the failure of those whom had previously lost their lives to Master Hunter Latro was baffling. We had to wonder just what kind of singulars would so readily place the worth of material possession above the worth of their own lives.

“Part of the reason we sent you back in the direction of Master Hunter Latro, Taured was because we believed that he would have a plan to lead The Siren to him without ever having her discover that her ruse had been seen through.”
We said slowly in response to Taured’s next question, had we been incorrect on that front? Surely not, we were aware that when they had been a genuine threat, that The Hunters had developed subtle ways of picking Sirens out from a group of their brethren... Had Master Hunter Latro not told Taured of this?

However, Taured soon answered that question. Master Hunter Latro had at least told Taured something of their methods behind indentifying Sirens. That would make our task easier. We paused for a long while as Taured continued speaking... We were unsure of what to make of everything he had just said, had several of the implications behind sending him back to Master Hunter Latro not been clear?

“Cowardice? Since you say that Master Hunter Latro did in fact give you the option to dispose of The Siren yourself or send her to him we imagine that one of the reasons behind us sending you back to him was more apparent to him than it was to you. And for that, we apologise. You see, it is not that we believe you to be a coward, but because situations such as this tend to arise fairly often within Nirvanian culture, and we do not expect you to perform something on our account when it is not a part of your culture, Taured.”
We paused for a moment and then nodded gently to ourselves.

“Such situations have been commonplace within Nirvanian culture since our ‘betrayal’ at the conclusion of The Preclusion War. It created ‘Nemesis’ Morona; Enemy of The Empire. And it led the series of events that created ‘The Hunters’... Taured, our allied Hunters have given us permission to tell you of the history surrounding the creation of The Four Hunting Clans... We believe they do this out of a desire to finally be understood. If you would listen to what we have to tell you, then maybe it would make your decision easier.”

[Mali]

Taured nodded his head. There certainly was a large bounty placed on Solomon’s head. That was what caused their first encounter in the first place. Taured thought back to when he had first met Solomon and his reasoning for being there. The bounty on his head had become so large that the council wanted Taured and Varden to check out how dangerous he was.

“That was the main reason we had sought him out for that first encounter. The bounty has gotten so large that the council needed to know how dangerous a man he could be.” that should be enough information to tide Morona over. They had more pressing topics to discuss and resolve.

Solomon definitely had a plan to dispose of the siren all right. It was either Taured pass the job off to Solomon because of his cowardice or do it himself. He would never allow Solomon to know that he was a coward and that was why the siren had been sent to him. Taured cared about what people thought of him. He had a reputation among the dragon riders for being one of the most levelheaded riders in the order. He didn’t want that reputation to change because he was too afraid to kill someone treacherous that could cause more harm to Alagaesia than what it needed. How would that change his reputation if people found out that he didn’t have the guts to kill someone to protect his homeland?

However, his mention of cowardice caused Morona to explain why he had sent him back to Solomon in the first place. He understood to an extent why Morona had done so. It was because Solomon would tell Taured the required information to dispose of the siren and the other hunters with Morona wouldn’t say a word in fear that the siren find out.

“I say cowardice on my part for fear of a reputation Morona. I have a reputation as the ‘good’ dragon rider if that makes sense. I would hate to find out what my new reputation would be if I wasn’t able to kill to protect my homeland,” Taured couldn’t help the faint blush that flooded his cheeks. He would have rather not admitted that aloud and even Varden knew why. He had a thing about upholding his reputation that he never told people. It was the way he was.

Taured listened to what Morona had to say next. The hunters had given Morona permission to tell him of their history? Not even Solomon would have given him that information. For obvious reasons, there was no way that Taured could afford to ignore such information.

“I would gladly listen, since I have been given permission to hear.” He wondered what Solomon would say if he ever found out that Taured knew about his hunters history.

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[Amur]

We listened to what Taured had to say to us and nodded lightly. We understood what he told us was mostly a direct result of his pride; much was the same of most every singular we conversed with, however, pride often lead people to make foolish mistakes. Many of which we had the feeling that Taured would regret later, if he was to be the one to kill The Siren, we wanted to know that he wouldn’t do so just to get others to respect him.

“We understand your reasoning Taured; however, there is more to fighting to protect than just the literal meaning of the phrase. Is the spy hidden behind enemy lines, sending logistical information back to his people fighting any less than the soldier risking his life on the front line? Sometimes fighting to protect that which you may hold dearest is best when not interpreted so literally.”
We moved our hands and clasped them behind our back.

“If it would help, we would think no less of you for making the decision to send Alma in the direction of Master Hunter Latro.”
We stated calmly. We allowed Taured a moment to gather his thoughts, we were patient. We had no reason for him to rush.

We nodded our head lightly as Taured accepted our invitation to allow him a glimpse of the sequence of the events that had eventually resulted in the creation of The Hunters. We drew in a short breath.

“We trust you have time, this is a long history lesson, Taured. However, we once more have to forewarn you. This is part of our personal history, as well as part of the personal history of Nel and several others we are acquainted with. We are obligated to omit details they do not wish you to know; however, we will explain the rest of the history to you as completely as possible.”
We informed, with that out of the way we cast our mind back. Thinking on how to best begin our tale, we had been given permission to explain the full sequence of events. However, without context the information could very well be useless.

We nodded gently once more, we would begin from the very beginning. It was only right.

“What we have to tell you begins four-hundred-and-seventy years ago. The Nameless Emperor, despite still having plenty of land to renovate on the main-land has recently discovered a wealth of untapped resources on the largest isle off of The Empire’s coast. However, there is an issue. The isle is well known Wyvern territory, in order to get to the resources they seek The Nameless Emperor must first cull the Wyvern population. This, as you may imagine is a task that is easier said than done, for even with the added strength of their siege engines many sentient creatures lack the strength and abilities to kill Wyverns.”
We paused for a short moment, knowing that some of the terms we were about to use would likely mean very little –if anything at all- to Taured, however, for the moment he would have to hold any questions he had until the end of what we had to tell him.

“Knowing that very few would willingly wander into certain death The Nameless Emperor devised a plan. Over the past twenty years, the four corners of The Empire have been telling stories of four humans standing out above all others. Performing seemingly inhuman feats and gaining the respect and admiration of humans and non-humans alike, obviously, this is where The Nameless Emperor saw opportunity.”
We drew in a short breath, allowing ourselves the brief moment of time we needed to work our way through the longest part of our history lesson. Our allied Hunters desired to finally be understood by someone, they had given us the permission to tell whatever we wished about The Legendary Four. We had no reservations on telling the history, we had already received such permission from the humans in question anyway. We had only kept the history to ourselves thus far out of the sense of respect we felt towards our allied Hunters.

“The Humans had been publicly ‘awarded’ titles to go with their birth-names based on their accomplishments, and for another lesser reason.

The four humans were:
The Lone Wolf of The North: Warrior Monk Latro; whom had, on more than one occasion killed several potential False Gods with nothing more than his bare hands.

The Fatal Rose of The East: Mistress D’alene; whom had weaponised the highly toxic ‘Fatal Rose’ and lead a detachment of black knights. She had likewise killed several potential False Gods with nothing more than her weapons and her wits.

The Opportunistic Crow of The South: Corvus; The master thief whom; had on more than a single occasion stolen multiple items of value from The Warlords and escaped them with his life.

And finally

The Human Wyvern-Slayer of The West: Terminus; The Right Hand of The Nameless Emperor at the time, he was the first human to ever kill a Wyvern based on the merits of his own strength, while armed with nothing more than a spear.

The Nameless Emperor managed to contact and summons the remaining three humans –since Terminus was already their Right Hand- for a meet. There, the four humans were made promises and given volunteers for the simple act of culling the wyvern population. We are unsure of what The Four were offered, as well as what those whom volunteered to join them were offered, but by the time they departed for the isle The Legendary Four had a small army at their backs.”
We paused again; obviously, we didn’t need to give Taured every little detail surrounding the culling of the wyvern population. It would ultimately be obvious that The Legendary Four succeeded in their mission, however, perhaps the scale of time it took them to complete that mission would better serve to explain the significance of what we still had to explain.

“It took them twenty years, but, The Four and their volunteers managed to complete their task. This includes making sure that wyvern population was significantly culled and helping to defend the four kingdoms as they were being built. Regardless, once their task was done everyone was ready to return home, however, while they were on their way back, something happened that not even we could have predicted. The ruling families of the four new kingdoms, whom had been personally given their reign by The Nameless Emperor declared independence from the rest of The Empire, enraged by the betrayal, The Nameless Emperor cut the isle and everyone on it off from the rest of The Empire.”
We allowed ourselves another short pause, if only to give ourselves a chance to breathe.

“When The Legendary Four were denied entry to The Empire and forced to return to the newly named ‘Freedom Isle’ they immediately turned to each of the four kingdoms in turn for help. But, much the same as The Empire they were denied the help under the reasoning that they represented an Empire that had no place in their land. Understandably enraged by the betrayal from both sides, The Legendary Four and their followers retreated into the remaining wilderness. It was here that we, along with several other Non-Human mages of considerable power approached them, giving them the offer of a safe haven away from both the influence of The Empire and The Free Kingdoms.”
Again, we paused, this time as much to think on the information we would need to omit as well as to catch our breath. Mentioning the Æternal Eyes was disallowed, as we were still under oath not to discuss those. However, everything else was fair; we nodded lightly to ourselves before continuing with our lengthy history lesson.

“Using magic, we and the other Non-Human mages created habitable caverns, within and beneath the mountains around the very edge of the isle. Once these safe havens were complete The Legendary Four, lacking the militaristic strength of The Free Kingdoms pooled their knowledge and resources together and created their own unique brand of combat, the people that learned this new form of combat discarded their birth names and took new, self-given names to show that they had forsaken everything that they had once had. And, as a final act of respect, they took the names of The Legendary Four as their own, and The Insignia that The Four had inked into their flesh.”
Another pause, and then we continued.

“Those bearing The Insignia would be looked to for strength and protection by the many civilians living within these safe havens.”
Now, we came to the pivotal point in history that had lead to the creation of The Hunters.

“Five years passed, the people now known as The Forsaken never strayed far from their safe-havens. If any trespassed on their territory they would be killed by The Forsaken using the new combat techniques that had been taught by The Legendary Four. Any that fled were allowed to live, however, that of course, would set history on course.”
We paused, only this time; it was to allow Taured a moment to draw the conclusion himself.

“The survivors of such attacks invariably made it back to their Kingdoms and told stories of how they had been hunted by other people. The stories spread and became distorted by myth. In only a short span of time the truth of the fiercely protective groups was lost and replaced with fear, and from that fear bred revilement. It was here that these people were labelled as ‘Hunters’, and became seen as vile sentient creatures whom hunted their fellow man for sport.”
We drew in a shallow breath before continuing.

“The Legendary Four, having no desire to teach those whom clearly had no desire to learn adjusted their teaching methods slightly, and simply gave those using their fear as an excuse to hate The Forsaken what they wanted. Four groups of Hunters to fear, it is here that The Forsaken once more change their names and their image. Angry and bitter toward all those whom forced them into this position The Forsaken accepted their new title and image, and from that The Four Hunting Clans were created.

Hunting Clan Latro,
Hunting Clan D’alene,
Hunting Clan Corvus,
And
Hunting Clan Terminus,
There is of course further history leading to their reputation slowly becoming worse and worse, however, like we said. We had permission to give you the history surrounding the creation of The Four Hunting Clans. And that is what we have given.”
We then fell silent, allowing Taured to truly take-in everything he had just heard. We knew Taured to be the kind to form his own opinions on matters, as opposed to allowing others to make up his mind for him. He had already proven this much to us during our first meeting with him. It was clearly the desire of our allied hunters for someone to finally understand them, which, was why Faceless-One Delian Terminus had given us permission to speak of the creation of The Hunting Clans in the first place.

[Mali]

Taured listened to what Morona had to say and he agreed with it. There were different ways to fight one war. He knew that well from his days during the Blue Divide. He would never fight on the front lines in any war, he had made sure of that. However, this was different. As Morona said that he wouldn’t think any less of him for sending the Siren away, he could only shake his head. “No, this doesn’t just involve Nirvanians anymore. It has been brought to Alagaesian soil, I should deal with it myself,”

Taured nodded his head. He understood their value of history and how it was rude to share it with those that weren’t worthy or close enough to warrant the information. He figured that there would be parts withheld from him, he just hoped it wouldn’t detract from the rest of the history or confuse him.

It sounded like the four beings were conjured up by the nameless emperor as a means to collect people to join the hunting clans. But Taured was jumping to conclusions. Morona paused for a long moment, taking in a deep breath and letting it out before he continued.

Out of the four humans he heard about, he seemed to like the Crow of the South the best. It sounded like something he and Varden would do should they be on another side other than the Dragon riders. Should they be the bad guys, they would definitely become master thieves. It also sounded like the volunteers and the four were given a substantial amount of money and glory for embarking on such a journey.

This nameless emperor sounded like a prat. To break off all connections to the isle over something so simple. And after his four legendary heroes had finally finished what he had asked them to accomplish. And for the other kingdoms to deny the four help because they represented the emperor was stupid. If Taured and Varden had been there, even if they sided with the emperor or one of the kingdoms, they would have helped the four and gone against the wishes of their side. It was just the way the rider pair was.

Taured could relate with Solomon now that he knew why he was the way he was. Being hunted by the same species, being labeled hunters because of it, it was a parasitic environment for him to have grown up in. He nodded his head as Morona explained that there was more that gave them such a bad reputation but he understood that he wasn’t privy to that information. He knew how the clans were created and he had a larger understanding of the hunters now because of it.

Finally, when Morona paused and gave him time to think, he had to admit that he was honoured to have been allowed to hear this story. He knew that personal history was really important to all Nirvanians and yet they had allowed him to hear it. He was deeply honoured.

Clearing his throat, he nodded his head again. “I thank the hunters for allowing me to hear their history, I am honoured. It has helped me understand what I know of Solomon Latro and hunter culture in general.” he paused, taking a small moment to himself. Now that he knew the history, there was nothing left to do but deal with the siren.

“I think it is time to deal with that Siren,” he stood and motioned for the door. He waited for Morona to get up before he asked his question. “How will you get all the hunters gathered so I may find the siren?”

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