• Mature • Impasse

[Kasoria]

Kasoria was never much of a gambler. That surprised people, considering what he did, how he made his way in the world. What life could be more dependent on chance, on Fates's rolling dice, than that of a sellsword? Someone who lived in a world where victory was defined by often simple survival and defeat was... final. But Kasoria was ill-remembered for having cards or bones in his hands. Mayhap when he did, it was for coppers or trinkets, nothing of any real import.

He'd been the specter of consequence for too many gamblers who got too deep, too fast, for too long, to romanticize the pastime. Old Vorund had built a hefty chunk of his empire on desperate, degenerate wagerers. Kasoria had washed too much blood off his hands to be fooled into thinking it was a harmless vice. It was no less addicting that stim or smoke or puff or sniff. But there was more to it than that. He simply preferred to stack odds in his favor, and the house never liked that.

Which wasn't to say, he hadn't learned things. Not just the terms and the games and the rules, but the tools to win them.

How to spot a bluff, chief amongst them all. For what gambler's trick was more universal?

The old man kept his fact stony as Kura laid out her hypothesis, which was vibrant with delivery but woefully short on sticking points. Evidence, counterfactuals, rejoinders... Kasoria hadn't heard any of that. Just her personal disbelief that they could not do what she ad hers had not, and so quietly, so efficiently. Kasoria had to keep the smile from his face as the young lady laid out her beliefs, and had to actually squirm his lips for a moment to stop from barking a laugh.

Conduct operations? That's what's bounty-hunting's called now? That's fucking gratitude for you.

Methods and means to... assuage her concerns, started to form and flake and vanish in his mind. A whirlwind of possible counters to her verbal assault. By the time she'd finished, looking warm and open after a vomitous few bits of smug disbelief, Kasoria had a few in mind. They would be risky, but she was the one raising the stakes, here. And her belief depended on one deciding factor: she didn't believe. Kasoria actually did give a small smile at that.

Irony was, after all, a favorite passion of his.

Fagan Manclin was the shot caller here, though, so nothing moved in the room that belong to Etzos without his nod. Once Kura was finished and silence filled the air, Kasoria turned to him and quirked an eyebrow. The nobleman stroked his short beard, lips pursed as if contemplating a counter-offer. That was all the concern he showed on his face, to his credit. Kura clearly hoped to rattle one of them with her accusations, see sweat beads on brows or shifty eyes twitching and ah-ha, the proof! Mayhap the Manclin of two arcs ago might have broken. This one had seen Kasoria slaughter and wasteland beasts devour and bloodied his own hands in ways he never imagined back in the Citadel. There were things Manclin could do and say and think now he'd never considered before.

"do not damage anything"

So when he met Kasoria's eyes and spoke those careful words in broken Ith'ession, Kasoria was not shocked to see the calm on his face. The Raggedy Man of Etzos gave a curt nod back, then snapped his-

-fingers-

-and two walls of shimmering ether sprang into life around the animals in the room. Stretching wall to wall and floor to ceiling, then penned the black wolf in by the fireplace and the owl by the window. Kasoria's oldest and grouchiest Spark sprang into life within the space of a blink, air snapping as the ether barriers displaced air and prevented them from intervening-

Intervening? Interfering? Into what?

That was the tricky part. Kasoria had to give her a window to understand what had happened, and what that meant. But if he gave her too long, she could do... something. Frankly he didn't bloody know what that could be, for you never knew what the fucking Morty-borns could do. Llyr was a lifetime of lessons in that. But she still had to see, and Kasoria would have to gamble on her not being so egotistical that she was incapable of recognizing someone beyond her skills when she saw it.

Something black and amused chuckled in Kasoria's soul. Gambling. That never used to be his way. So much simpler when all he had to do was kill. But now...

Fucking politics.

A heartbeat after the Shields went up, Kasoria raised one finger on his other hand... and Kura would discover she could not move. Shackles of air hard and unyielding as iron chains were wrapped around her from sole to crown. Kasoria allowed himself a hidden fraction of a trill to relish in just how far his powers had come. He'd needed all that arm-waving, spell-shouting nonsense at the start. Focusing his infant ether through words and gestures, taking precious trills for even the simpler stuff. Then it got easier. Faster. Smoother. Didn't need to speak anymore. Then didn't have to gesture. Just had to be in his eyeline and then the time of casting would depend solely on how long it took his Sparks to flash his ether across the air. And here? In an office?

Heartbeats. But not just fast. Strong. Practiced. Honed and carved as muscles. Kura felt them now. Holding her tight so she could not even move her hands or get to her feet. Kasoria allowed her a trill to understand, and just before her outrage spilled out-

"You insult us."

His words were low and his accent subdued, as it usually was when he made the effort. Behind him, Miki and Raand shuffled uncomfortably, more at the potential for consequences and punishment than horror at what their master could unleash. This was, after all, fucking hostage-taking. But they were loyal to their Sarge, and had been since he'd brought them together under Etzos arcs ago. They went along with it, focusing their strength on Maxine between them.

"We bring youse this bitch, who killed yer people, by the fuckin' hundred, and you sneer at us? You scoff at us, for doing what you could not, and demand we tell a tale more to your liking?" Kasoria actually settled back into his seat, posture at ease, even as his will held the constructs of his Spark in complete control. "We didnae know how to ingratiate ourselves with you people. Which is what this is, just so youse don't think we're pretending we're all friends. But it still had to be done, so we searcher fer a way... and found out about her."

He pointed to Maxine, sullen and silent, and turned to face her. Swallowed hard once he was facing away from Kura and spat at her feet.

"A wretch. A junkie. A murderer. I didn't think she'd be so stupid as to still be here and yet, that's where she was. Right here, in Scalvoris. So I went hunting, and when I found her." Kasoria turned back to Kura and his obsidian eyes were white. Ether crackling down his arms like ground lightning. "This is all to make a point. You, and your people, could not subdue her. Because yer not me." Kasoria smiled thinly, with all the warmth of a shark. "It wasn't the easiest fight I've ever had, but restraining a junkie and a drunkard is hardly the challenge of a lifetime. Especially when..."

With a thought, he squeezed the Shackles around Kura. Made the Shields hemming in her familiars pulse with power.

"If yer not grateful, fine. That was a... heh... gamble. If yeh don't appreciate us returning this girl to yeh, and giving youse the chance to have justice, fine. I expect nothing from anyone, especially this far from home. But do not call us liars when you have no proof and please, your grace, do not assume that the limit of what is possible... is what you are capable of."

Kasoria snapped his fingers again, and the magical constructs vanished in less than a heartbeat. He was the final turn of the card, and they all knew it. Kasoria made no more to cast again, draw a weapon, or even stand. She could flood the room with guards or unleash her pets or... whatever other power her sire imbued her with. But that was the play he'd made, and now he had to see where it left them. Kasoria sat staring at Kura, with nether triumph nor sneering sadism in his eyes. Just a low, smoldering annoyance that she had questioned his abilities.

"But yer welcome, in either case."

[Pig Boy]

The Pack Leader

"GOOOD!" The baying of a barghest resounded in the halls of the Scalvoris Council, as the clumsy but good-natured barghest barreled through, tipping only a couple of vases and breaking at least one. A new record for conscientiousness for the hound's indoor adventures. He bounded from wall to wall, and then burst in through the closed doors of the meeting taking place. Kura would immediately feel the comforting and strong presence of her mother, Karem, before she ever saw her. But then, the wolf mother moved into the room, behind Good, and stopped beside Maxine, and behind Kasoria. Good settled by the side of Kura.

"Well if this isn't shooting fish in a barrel..." She stared with contempt at Kasoria, but then turned a sympathetic eye toward Maxine. Good whimpered at the Exalted of Chrien, but didn't approach, but stayed on the other side of Karem as it seemed to have a hard time looking at her.

"Now, I'd like to clear some things up for you all, and you most of all Kura." She sucked in a breath, and shook her head. "This sits very poorly with me. Not only because your use of magic without permission on a sitting member of a government that is ally to the Eternal Empire is crass, and unwelcome... But she's also my daughter. It cannot go unanswered."

"Think carefully how you act next, little 'hunter'." Karem muttered at Kasoria. Good growled at the assassin turned security chief, and began a fit of barking at him. "You'd best get used to the sound of dogs barking and growling at you, you won't get any peace from my kin if you choose to use magic on my daughter ever again." She grinned maliciously at the Etzori, "If it helps, don't think of it as cow-towing or sucking up to an Immortal. Think of it as heeding fair warning. You don't want that kind of trouble, I trust. Save it for matters that count"

"Now, the magic on my daughter was bad enough, but I couldn't help but notice that Maxine is submitting herself to the little, so-called bounty hunter here without any resistance." She frowned at Maxine, "Maxine is many things, many of them not good. But I've rarely observed her to be a quitter. And for quitting on yourself, and failing in loyalty to yourself, that one thing that Good latched onto, that one shred of self-love, the bond with Good is broken. But I suspect you have bigger problems than an errant Barghest."

Good whimpered again, and looked askance at Maxine, and then to Kura. "Your instincts were spot on daughter, although your evidence for such was lacking. A bit of due diligence would be best advised before making such accusations without material proof. However, I've been watching Maxine, dogging her footsteps since they left the Empire, with the help of my good friend here." She gave Good an adoring look.

"Maxine, you see..." She turned her attention to Kura, "She gave herself willingly to the delegation. I suspect for them to curry favor with you, although they can explain their reasons better. I don't know her own reasons for doing so, but it's not for me to explain or speculate. What does concern me, is the mockery of the hunt, a hunt that never happened. I take particular exception to that, as hunting is sort of my thing."

"So, whatever consequence you deliver to Maxine here, or to Etzos' delegation, or even Kasoria for his unwelcome demonstration, I leave to you, daughter. You're a grown woman, clearly, and able to fend for yourself against their ilk." She smirked, but then shook her head at the entire situation. "I only wanted to be here, to let Maxine know where I and Good stand now, and expose this farcical excuse of a hunt."

[Max]

The night before...




"That's about it," Maxine said evenly as she stared into the fire crackling in the inn room. "That's what you need to know." One of Manclin's assistant's was nearby at a small desk, oil burning low and quill moving furiously upon the page. His hand was starting to cramp, and with a final dip into his ink he found he could force it to last him only a few more strokes.

"I didn't realize how connected you were once upon a time," Manclin answered, the words from a politician saturating his phrasing in a way that any low-born would mistake for condescending. "This discussion has been most informative. We must plan for contingencies, however. Weaknesses?"

"No." The cursed Rusalka's response was sharper than the gladius on her hip.

"Very well," Manclin said diplomatically with his palms raised. He smiled a bit at her reaction and settled into his chair. "This discussion has been most informative and I haven't been given such a well-detailed briefing in some time. For that I thank you. I do notice, though, that he's angry with you, I think." He glanced toward Kasoria where he had been making a concerted effort at appearing focused wholly to task, grunting about shipping up the guard formation, and mentioning something about making sure the "lads" knew their roles without a hitch before he left the room. "I can't say I'd blame him if he is. While I appreciate the gesture, I don't understand it myself. Why this way? Why not just fade into anonymity, start over, or run like the little stubborn thing you are for as long as you can?"

"Tried all that," Maxine said with a sigh. "Didn't work." The assistant, out of ink from his diligent note-taking, left for a new pot with a murmur of apology. She watched him go and then rubbed her hands together. "Everywhere I went, it's all just the same. Over, and over, and over again. I start somewhere new. I get wrapped up in some hateful business I had a hand in starting. I use people like they don't matter. Then, some way or another, it all ends with me hurting a lot of people. Rinse. Repeat." Manclin turned his head to regard her. Even with her arms resting on the chair and her body language anything but concealing to his keen eye, she somehow looked smaller to him right then. She let her shoulders rise and fall heavy. "I'm just...exhausted of it all."

"Okay," the Etzori delegate processed her reply slowly, chewing on his own thoughts before voicing them some more. "Why this way though. You could march into any Element outpost."

"I'll save you the long back story, but this is the only way I think it could ever work. This is the only authority on this wretched island I've ever respected or recognized. She is just but fair, and it is her people I decimated if the stories Kasoria brought back are true. This is the only judgement I think I can probably accept here." She picked up the poker and jabbed it into the embers, watching them spit sparks upward in the chimney. "You've heard them talking in the tavern downstairs. The whispers? They say she can't keep them safe after all they've suffered lately."

"Ah!" His eyes lit up and he rotated fully in his chair toward her. "This isn't just for us, martyring yourself as a gesture of good will and loyalty to help us with our task and maybe earn up a little bounty reward. You're serving yourself up for a political win, for what better show to restore public trust in the island's security and leadership than apprehending the fugitive responsible for the murders of so many? All that's required is a show in the public eye. We certainly would permit them to take all the credit if our ends were met in the meeting." He pressed a finger to his lip thoughtfully. "Everybody wins."

"Yeah," Max nodded quietly. "Everybody wins..."

The assistant returned, murmuring more apologies and hastily seating himself back in his chair. He prepared his new ink pot and dipped his quill, listening expectantly over his shoulder. Manclin yawned and glanced over his shoulder.

"Away, boy," he released him for the night. The assistant smiled as he gathered his things, shaking his writing hand subtly as he left the room to find his own lodgings. Manclin looked to Maxine again and tilted his head, eyes tightening. "You're making him do it though. It's a cruel thing, to ask a father to throw his own daughter to the wolves."

"It's the last thing I'll ever ask of him," Max said quietly. "I need him for this."

"To what end? A final, furtive glance goodbye?"

"I am sure if I change my mind, he is the only one who can stop me before I hurt anyone." She swallowed and turned back toward the hearth. "Besides, his only child is in Etzos."



Earlier...



"What is it, wee monster?” Raand asked her with a pause, using that nickname The Band had given her before this journey began. Before they truly knew. "We have to maintain rear guard.” Mikiros and Raand had paused just behind Max at either side. Distance grew between them and the rest of the group as they walked through the doors. She was pale and eyes staring, distant. Mikiros signed to Kasoria’s second behind her back. Both of them seemed to shift their weight, bodies tense despite Raand’s coaxing, gentle disposition when he spoke to her.

"I'm afraid." Maxine’s voice murmured just loud enough for them to hear, dejected and detached.

Kasoria, Manclin, and the rest of the Delegation proceeded on. Miki looked over the frozen woman at Raand. Raand held his gaze, and quietly dipped his hand into the satchel that hung off his shoulder. His skin prickled when his fingertips touched the cold metal.

Shackles.

He closed his eyes hard and turned his head, teeth gritting in light of the rapid barrage of intrusive thoughts that were all self-inflicted. Miki was caught in the same moment. He adjusted himself slightly in front of Raand, who opened his eyes when he felt the great shadow over him. Miki's hands moved intensively as he tried to sign with a furrowed brow the same pit he felt inside.

"I know," Raand said to him with a frown. "I's fuckin' know." Miki threw his hands up and Raand ran his hand down his face. He took a breath before committing to keeping his voice low and gesturing for Miki to calm his animation with two opened palms while they discussed. "Youse t'ink I bloody wanna? Highmark gave orders. She asked fer alla it." Miki signed and mumbled with his brow furrowed. Raand folded his arms, eyes losing their tightness. "Youse wanna be the one t'ask if she's lost 'er nerve?"

The sound of violent wretching distracted them from their quiet argument. Both turned to find Maxine had meandered a short distance away, just far enough to turn a corner and spill her innards out of sight.

"Ah, girl," Raand lamented as the pair approached her. Maxine raised a hand, bidding them to keep their distance. One hand braced on the corner of the building, she slowly stood back up and wiped her face with the back of her hand. She didn't turn at first. Raand approached her gradually, peering at her face in search of her expression.

Maxine took a deep breath, spit, and then straightened back up. Her hand fished into one of her pockets and she pulled out a flask, a little bit of rum still left she'd knicked on their way out. She popped the top and the familiar vice hit her nostrils, bidding her to drink the elixir and clear her mind. Maxine indulged. She let the liquor fill her mouth and then, her eyes opened, and she promptly spat the beloved drink in the direction she'd ejected what could've only been bile from an empty stomach. She stared at the flask for a moment. Then she tipped it upside down, emptying it fully before dropping it back in her pocket.

"Y'dun have t'do it, Max," Raand said to her softly with a hand on her shoulder. "Manclin's a wit. He can find a dif'rent way."

"Yes, I do," Maxine said like some dead thing with no hearth in her eyes when she looked at him. "It has to end, Raand."

"Look at youse!" He waved away the puke pile and gestured to her, sober and better kept than she was an arc ago. "Why?"

"The man who murdered your daughter." Max turned to stare into his soul. Raand stared back with wide eyes, suddenly aware of the single earring he wore. Her gaze was unwavering. "Should he be alive? Free? Then what of me? Do you know how many sons, daughters, fathers, mothers I've killed? Not in a war, Raand. Not because they deserved it. Because I always pick me and because I can."

Mikiros gave Raand a sobering pat and stepped forward. He snapped his fingers before her eyes, willing her to snap out of whatever this moment was. Then he started gesturing again, to himself, to Raand, to the rest of the group inside, and finally to her. She frowned at that. Without a tongue, she knew the words he was trying to vocalize now were "stay" and "one of us."

"I was not supposed to come here with all of you," she admitted to the pair. "I wasn't going to get on that ship in Yaralon, but then the fight on the dock happened. Now that I'm here I realized all of that, kicking the drugs and trying to dedicate myself to something that wasn't selfish, all of that was just so I could do this. One big decision: and I didn't want to do it high." She looked into their somber faced and patted them both on the shoulders. "Redemption. Trying to do right. All that shit, right? Come on then, be good lads, yeah? Get the shackles out." The smile she offered didn't reach her eyes but her words were softer now. "I'm glad it's the two of you."




Now...



Maxine couldn't help it. Her eyes rolled because it was just so annoyingly like Kura to look a gift horse right in the mouth, and berate the generous gentleman with a follow-up series of accusations, observations, and poorly veiled threats. One of Scalvoris' most infamous, bloody criminals served up on a silver platter and she wanted to argue the semantics of just how it came to be.

Given the Rusalka's reputation, perhaps suspicion was warranted. After all, where was the angrily scrawled briefing tallying up the property damage? A final list of casualties collected before the gravedigger set to burying, burning, or whatever the deceased ordered before they met their untimely end? Widows and orphans weren't wailing. No Elements were throwing their helmets when they thought they were amongst same rank, asking how long she would continue unabated. Here was the fugitive, and at face-value, no one had to die for it.

The heavy sound of chains rattling with a shrug of the prisoner's shoulders rang out. She turned her head to Manclin and Kasoria with a brow quirked. She knew everyone in this room well enough to know what the Etzori's heard: disrespect, outrageous insinuation, and the worst crime of all...doubt. Kasoria's face didn't move. It didn't have to. She glanced over at him, felt the air leaving the room, and...

"Fuck..."

Magic was in the air, alive and wreaking all sorts of havoc that Maxine half debated making her move. Part of her thought he might use his arcane abilities on the menace he apprehended, but alas, Kasoria was as dramatic as the Old Owl and his demonstrations were always much more direct. There was no stopping this now. Then he was speaking, growling facts that hardened Maxine's expression again. His finger was like a blade and she felt it when he pointed it right at her. Her chin lowered and her eyes stared back at him, black. Then, as quickly as it started, his performance was over.

"GOOOD!"

Maxine whipped around at the sound so quickly that Miki and Raand were slow to react. They startled and tugged on her chains, but Miki in particular was looking for the Barghest he was particularly fond of. Maith, however, had been secured intently back at the inn. The cursed Rusalka frowned as she considered what this development meant until she arrived.

Oh, for fuck's sake.

Manclin blinked, the possibility he waved off in his planning now before him like some unwelcomed god rejected before the name was ever uttered. Raand and Miki looked at each other and turned, not sure if they should pull their weapons and gore the Immortal they'd all established Etzori loathed or remain steadfast. They chose the latter. Meanwhile, Maxine loosened her hands from fists and worked her hands through the shackles that were never tight enough to truly hold her. After all, as Karem so kindly pointed out, it was all a facade anyways. Her lack of weapon belt, however, never was. She let the metal confines strike the floor with eerie clanging while the Immortal addressed her short-comings and confiscation of Maith.

The battle with the Cultists. Becoming a drunk and a junkie. The Riots. The Prison. Rynmere. Killing Francis. Tearing out Rey'na's Spark. Fighting with Sephira. Retrieving the Portal Stone. Joining the battle against Ellasin. Making a deal with Ellasin. Famula's Collar. Faldrass. Famula's Curse. Audrae murdered.

Avenging what she thought was Kura's death by driving a blade through Chrien's chest, the only thing she had left in the world, leaving a fracture behind.

Loosening the curse. Turning on Sabrina. Murdering Quinnley. Getting the Mine Owner hanged. Choosing Sabrina over myself. Destroying the Dorricks. Finding Kasoria.

Karem kept talking. Maxine kept making her mental list while the Immortal undermined Kura's authority here, flying through each like reliving each flicker of a memory and quickly moving on to the next. Yet each left its lasting lash.

Kicking drugs. Killing Merry. Joining The Band. Getting kicked out of The Band for relapsing. Guiding the dead man see the sea before he passed. Rejoining The Band after choosing to nearly die to save The Band. Helping Kasoria with that girl for Zemos. Hating him. Fighting him. Leading The Band in his absence. Vielkrontier. Chrien. I knew what I was going to do in Yaralon. Going to leave The Band. Chooses to defend The Band and ends up here. Kicks drugs. Defends Harvardr.

Maxine didn't move. She stared straight ahead with those black eyes darkening, retreating into herself until her brow furrowed and expression tightened.

Chooses to gamble with the fucking gallows, to do the right thing and engineer a way to try on accountability for once.

Her body shook with the same tension earlier but it could not be quelled on this occasion. She felt it. She let it course through her every vein and artery and start to suffocate each mental pathway until it consumed her. Maxine never understood Chrien before. Right then she was back in that alleyway, collecting her inheritance from Faith, the Sea Scourge sneering in her face.

"Now you see, all of your hates and loyalties are just one bubble in the ocean."

"That fuckin' bitch was always right," Maxine said sharply, void of whatever it was that got her this far. "None of it fuckin' matters. None of it. Nothing. Ever. Changes."

Only then did she turn her head. Her hateful stare found one of the rivers that flowed in every direction in Scalvoris Town through the opened window.

Maxine willed that peaceful fucking waterway to become a Rising Flood, and topple, overwhelm, and drown every living and non-living thing in its path.

How foolish to pine for redemption. How shamed to long for better for herself, from herself. How meek to desire a breaking of the wheel rather than finally just taking the seat and driving it. Had she forgotten how the Immortals treated her like some plaything to reward and torment on a whim? What storybook had she read where she thought herself the anti-hero who might make it in the end? Why couldn't she see what she'd been painting on the wall in blood this entire time? Woe to the creature that denied what was in its nature. Maxine, No Other Name, was not ever going to be the righteous one. Kasoria had been right, too. There were no good guys...but there were villains.

Chrien had gotten what she wanted.

In that moment, all at once, Maxine abandoned all her "pathetic" ruminations, and ascended to her matron's viewpoint. She took on Chrien's hatreds, prejudices, and grudges. All else required abandoning.

Let those below feel a wrath not even Maxine had wholly succumbed to.

Wasn't this what they all wanted to see?

[Kura Wolfsdotter]

If Kasoria had been expecting panic or worry out of Kura or her animals when he used his Abrogration to bind them, he didn't get it. He didn't get anger either, or indeed much of any extreme emotional reaction from Kura. But then, Kasoria almost certainly didn't know much about what Kura could do, given she made a point of not advertising her abilities. That she could teleport herself to any other spot on the island at a moment of her choosing, make herself completely immune to physical harm for a short time, or have Phelan vanish from his bonds to re-appear elsewhere in the room or summon two more wolves were all things she expected he didn't know, much less anything granted by any of the magical items she wasn't wearing at the moment or her own inborn Mortalborn abilities. His display, though she recognized the intent behind it, was more annoying than anything else. She had engaged in these sort of threat displays herself before, and she knew it meant they hadn't quite picked up what she had been telling them. They had taken it as a threat or a negotiation tactic, it seemed, rather than attempt to let them save public face. The little squeeze at the end was a nice touch though, she had to admit. Still, she'd have to be more blunt was typically considered acceptable at these sorts of things, she decided, if there was going to be any chance at saving this meeting.

It was only when Kasoria ended his magic and sat back down that she opened his mouth to talk, only for the baying of a Barghest to start sounding through the building. She looked past Max towards her door with a look of open surprise and confusion. She started to speak again when the door burst open, admitting both Good and...her mother. Kura, if anything, got more surprised by the sudden appearance of the Immortal of the Hunt. Then Karem started talking and Kura just sort of flopped back into her seat with a look that could best be described as 'well, this is happening now'. To be fair, she knew claiming credit for a hunt that wasn't yours was incredibly offensive to hunters, but she wouldn't have thought that alone would have merited her mother putting in a personal appearance. Then Karem turned towards Maxine and made some revelations about her situation. Well, that actually did save the meeting, at least from Kura's end, since it settled the concern that had been what set Kura off to begin with. Phelan did groaningly rise to his feet and close the door behind Good and Karem, though.

At the end of Karem's speech, Kura gave her mother a sort of dry, flat look that was a bit hard to put into words, though 'you're being a bit silly' was probably the closest translation. Then she looked at Maxine again as she spoke and saw her expression change, saw the rage come back into her, as if all the progress Kura had seen in her when she had been dragged in had been wiped away in a moment by her mother's appearance and words. Kura saw that and was standing before the thought fully finished forming in her mind. Damned if she was going to let that happen without at least making a try for it. She didn't walk around her desk or the people sitting on the other side of it, though, that would take too long. She used the Gateway Bracelet, which let her move about her island with naught but a thought, and appeared in front of Maxine. She was slightly off balance as she hadn't fully finished standing up before she had teleported, not wanting to have wasted the half second it would have taken.

"Max, don't, you hear me?" she said, and if one were paying attention, they would note she deliberately phrased what she said as a question. She had once had the ability to force Max to obey her every command, and while she didn't know if she could still do that, she wasn't going to risk accidentally doing it now. Not when it was so important that she didn't, even by accident. "I saw it, how far you've come since I saw you last, farther than many with less tryin' to drag them down have made it, yeah?" she said, putting a hand on Max's shoulder as she made she made sure to make eye contact, though she didn't use any powers. "You remember, that night in the bar? I didn't give up on you then, did I? And despite everythin', even if I can't keep you out of trouble this time, I'm not givin' up on you now, okay? So, please, don't give up on yourself and everythin' you've accomplished either, all right? Not because of someone else's hasty, angry, words, yeah? Things do change, people can change, and you've only got to look at yourself in a mirror to see it, all right? You're clean, you're sober, no matter who helped, you had to make the choice to do that on your own, right? So please, don't throw it all away because of someone else's temper and choices, you hear me?" she said, her voice intent, though she still phrased everything she said as a question to avoid even accidentally triggering the leash. She didn't know if it would help, she could only hope Max still trusted her to at least some degree, but it was all she could do.

When that was done, she stepped back from Max and turned to her mother. "Mum, while I am always glad to see you, if you were worried I was in over my head, then I might have to take a bit of offense. However, as you've said, any consequences for what's happened here are mine to give, and I'm afraid you've been hasty today. First and foremost, as you yourself said, you don't know why Max decided to surrender herself into official custody, so declaring the bond between her and Good here broken is rather premature." she said, reaching down to scratch the Barghest behind the ears. "Nor do I believe that Kasoria was deliberately tryin' to be rude with a false claim to a hunt. Rather, I think they thought I wouldn't believe the truth." she said, before stepping back so that she was standing in front of the fireplace where she could address them all.

"Now, as to business, and my apologies mister Manclin for my delay in continuing our conversation, but there was some rather pressin' matters to address." she said, her tone genuinely apologetic. "Firstly, Kasoria, if you would permit a bit of advice, claiming a hunt that isn't yours is very offensive to hunters, which I am even independent of my mother. If you ever find yourself in a hunters lodge and do that, they may well shoot you." she said, wincing slightly as she apparently felt the need to explain why the Immortal of the Hunt had gatecrashed their meeting. "I would also avoid using threat displays as a response to someone tryin' to let you save face by avoidin' havin' your claims disproven by, and then by necessity subsequently recorded on, official documents." she said, finally properly explaining what her previous display had been about.

"However, as that's been short circuited, if you'll indulge me a moment as to this now twice repeated claim that I have no evidence to my claims. Mister Manclin, you and yours have never met me, so I can understand the claim coming from you, but you, mother, should really know better." she said, facing her mother at that last bit and giving her the exact same dry, flat look she had given her before. "Of course, another issue is that you probably expect I mean evidence I already have in hand, and while I do have some, mostly regardin' Max definitively not havin' been on the island for several arcs, not the least of which is that she's not a magically drained corpse in Slags Deep courtesy of an Audrae-born monster and her prior links to the Warden, that's not the evidence I meant." she said, her tone turning more educational than anything else at this point, as though she were a teacher. "No, the biggest evidence I have is that which you brought with you." she said, gesturing to Max.

"You would have me believe you subdued Max , moved her about, and detained her for an unknown amount of time, without leavin' any sign of it? I'm sorry, but it doesn't take an investigation to show the falsehoods in that. You see, I started my career workin' in the courts, I've dealt with more prisoners than can be conveniently counted. Chains and manacles chafe, they bruise, they can even cause open bleeding injury if someone's straining against them, which an unwillin' captive would. Methods of subduin' her mental state so that she didn't would also leave traces. Then, you say she's a junkie and an alcoholic. Certainly true when I last saw Max, but not now. No scent of ambrosia or alcohol, her eyes are clear that weird blue tint some drugs cause, no redness from lack of sleep or a drug-damaged body. In fact, until just a few seconds ago, her eyes were as clear and focused as I'd ever seen. All signs of an extended period of sobriety and, in general, Max looks far better than I'd ever seen her look before. It is far from common practice to play life aid for ones prisoners." she said, her tone clear and there was, if anything, a note of pride in Max that she had gotten herself cleaned up.

"Now, as for why I chose to pursue exactly how she had landed in your hands, there was one major oddity that required it. Max has a habit of fallin' into black moods when she feels she's been used or betrayed, the latter hittin' her particularly hard. It would quite easily account for the fact that, for a someone who could well believe she has reason to fear the hangman's noose, she wasn't fighting back. Max, who in my experience would chew her own arm off it meant escapin' a trap, wasn't fightin' back." she said, her voice sharpening on that bit of repetition, showing how much importance Kura had put on that point. "So, then she appears to be in the kind of mood that she gets into when she's been betrayed, and you've fed me a story I already had reason to, at least doubt. So I pressed the matter. You might ask why I felt that matter to be so important, but that's simple." she said, looking back at Max.

"For it to have been something Max would take as a personal betrayal, she would have had to have had good reason to trust you. That wouldn't have been the case if you'd been just casual travel companions, but Max is a skilled fighter and bodyguard work would easily be somethin' she could wind up in. It's even part of what she did for me." she said, her tone calm. "Nothin' quite forges trust and bonds like fightin' side-by-side on a long journey, so it tracked that she'd be your bodyguard." she said, her tone calm, but there was a sharpening edge to it as she spoke. "Which meant there was somethin' I had to make sure of. If I'm goin' to make treaties for Scalvoris, the people I'm negotiatin' with have to meet certain standards." she said, her voice picking a up a growl that, while not human, was natural and subconscious, as if she couldn't quite control it. Then Kura turned to face Manclin and Kasoria, her eyes bright gold again. "So, and I do hope you understand the sentiment, but believe me when I say this: under no circumstances will I ever make deals with those who'd betray their own for somethin' as small as a political advantage." she said, the growl in her voice picking up a slight echo as she spoke.

Then, the Albarech let out a breath and her eyes returned to their normal icy blue. "But that's not the case, so we don't have to worry about that particular pothole. Now, I am sorry for how long that explanation took, but I felt that this was not the time for any further ambiguity, if we're to continue on fair terms." she said, her tone calm. "Now, before we continue, I do want to address one final concern." she said, her tone somewhat apologetic. "One of my daughters is a ghost, one of my grandchildren was once kidnapped through time, and I myself have been directly privy to the foundational elements of Idalos twice, none of which is the weirdest thing to happen since I came to Scalvoris. Frankly, the most unbelievable thing I've come across is Max's stubborn refusal to admit that Barghests like Good here are, in fact, dogs." she said, smiling slightly at that. "So please, whatever the truth is, it is not as hard to believe as you thought it was." she said, sounding somewhat tired at that point.

"Now then, mister Manclin, what is Etzos's interest in Scalvoris? I'll confess that the idea of an alliance between our states is quite interestin' and I could see it offerin' a great deal to us both. Max, would you tell us why you chose to surrender yourself to my custody? Because I don't believe you did it purely for political reasons, I know how you feel about politics. And mum...have a seat, you need to hear at least Max's reasons at this point." she said, now addressing the whole room.

[Kasoria]

The night before

The hearth had burned and eaten itself down to embers, and he didn't feel in the mood to feed it anymore. He sat in front of it, silently measuring the lessening heat, the shrinking light, the fading visibility. It was a meditation, all by itself. Watching the flames, hearing the wood crackle, smelling the smoke... all of it focusing his body and thus separating him from it. Letting his mind drift away from the present.

He went back, in his own head. Memories and images faded and muddy until he hauled them up and dusted them off and made them stark again.

To an alley where a scrawny waif followed him, and gave her his first lesson.

To a blood-slick room and a dark basement, where they crossed paths again and in horror they were bound.

To trials and seasons after that. Training sessions and teachings and tests and many a night spent in brittle but oddly welcome silence.

To the chaos of the trial he lost her. Stampeding beasts and men and screaming and pursuit and a trail of bodies he left across the city to find her and never did. The closest he ever came to turning on the man who he was pledged to.

Arcs passed. He went from scratcher to myth to ghost and back again. In Westguard, she returned to him. The Fates tossed their bones and decided it would be a fine wheeze to throw them together again. And then across the ocean they went...

Bright. Burning. Clear. Now fading. Dying. Embers. Smoke. Darkness.

"Not too cheery, are you?"

Manclin winced as Kasoria's eyes snapped to him and gave him an answer. The diplomat cleared his throat and sat in one of the chairs by the heath, fastidiously dusting it off with his hand first. He'd done that on the ship out of Foster's Landing. Every room he entered, Kasoria had seen him do the same. From grog houses and brothels to palaces and manses of overlording authority. Like the space where he planted his arse deserved special attention. The nobleman sat and sipped at his brandy. Face more shadows than flesh by the fading light.

"I'm sorry. That was... indelicate."

No answer. None needed. Manclin knew when Kasoria was in that place where all he had, all he could give, was the bare minimum.

"I know that you will go through with the plan. She-" he gestured to the seat she'd occupied breaks ago "-seems to have a great deal of faith in you for that."

The Raggedy Man watched the fires. So low now they barely shone in his black eyes.

"I'm not trying to pry, Kas." He used his familiar, but didn't wince. They had grown... closer, over the arcs. Not friends. Not quite. But a balance had been reached. Enough for Manclin to lean forward slightly and lower his voice. "I know what she means to you. If I... were I, to have someone I cared for that much, and someone expected me to just let them go into the Black Cells..."

Still nothing. As if he wasn't even there. Talking to a statue or a ghost speaking to a man. Like they weren't in the same room, the same plane of existence. Kasoria's chest kept moving up and down and what he saw was not what Manclin could and the man sighed in defeat. He needed to know his deadliest weapon wouldn't refuse his hand come the morrow. Asking too much of a man was the easiest way to get them to turn on you. The easiest way to avoid, too, because as long as you knew what that limit was, you never had to go near it. But now they were hurtling over the line, and it was Maxine who was pressing for it.

Manclin sipping his drink and let the liquor warm him. There was always a way in. The right words, the right time... even for a man like Kasoria. But what would getting in, look like in his case? Would he be able to get back out? He licked his lips and tried anyway. Telling himself it was all for the sake of smooth sailing tomorrow.

"What she said? About your child? I know-"

"I'll do what she asks."

The words came out leaden. Mechanical. Ground out without the suggestion of human feeling. Eyes never wavering from the last vestiges of flame.

"Cuz it's her life. Her choice. An' she asked me."

When Manclin was young, he was out walking with his father, beyond the walls of Etzos. The sun was rising and as they turned to look into its rising glory, there was a black smudge on the horizon. It was a wolf. Shaggy and yellow-eyed and hungry and staring. Manclin remembered how he was sure, if they'd moved, if they'd even turned away, it would have torn them apart. So he just held his father's hand and stared. Prayed to gods he did not have until his father pulled him away. Never taking his eyes off the panting creature.

Manclin swallowed. No longer feeling like he was in the warm luxury of a Scalvoris inn. Feeling that sun and morning chill and creeping terror again.

"S'what we do fer..."

"... our children?"

Kasoria turned to face him, but Manclin could not see his eyes. The light was gone. The room was dark. A shadow stared at him, without feature or contour, for long moments. Then the little man got up and walked away.

Earlier

It was a mustering. That's what they called it in the army. A force rousing itself for war, like some great beast of many eyes and claws, rising from slumber. Those mornings were always a din of activity. Metal on metal, wood splitting, braying animals, shouting and cursing and laughing and jabbering humans. A plethora of sound and noise all geared towards one thing: the ending of lives, and the preserving of those who lived. On your side, anyway.

Kasoria thought many a noble knight would balk at the word being used to describe their little band of murderers, and that warmed his balls to no end. Good. Fuck 'em.

The Band was all together in an antechamber. Arrayed around a huge table used for meals and now unrecognizable and grossly unhygienic. Killing instruments of all kinds were laid out on it, arrayed before their owners, with a selection of spare blades and missiles in the middle. If a man wanted to stuff an extra down a boot or a sleeve, well... better to have than not need and all that. Stones ran along swords, Leather grips were worked and fastened. Minute imperfections only the owner would know were teased out. Then placed in scabbards and sheaths and positioned just so, perfect for a quick draw or an immediate parry.

All old hat to them. These men who know these lifeless hunks of wood and iron and steel better than their own blood. There was a meditative quality to it, and always had been. The way souls like theirs distanced themselves from their humanity. By delving into the arcana of the killing tool. Seeing it as a mechanism to be maintained to optimal capacity. Strapping them on and readying them and once all was checked off and good to go, they were naught by their carriers.

Anything that followed, was out of their hands. The Fates should have known better than to hurl meat at them.

But this was different. Kasoria could sense it, feel it, hear it in the strained words of his men. He showed not discomfort, just a tight, critical frown as he went over all the myriad of steel he had to load onto himself. This wasn't another trial, another job, another boring schedules of meetings and patrols and escorts. This was the last one. The one that mattered. The one they knew, definitively, would see them return with one less member.

And the rest of them didn't like it. The question was, which one of them would voice it. Kasoria had been wondering that for most of the night. His money was on Raand, or Miki. They were the closest to her, by far. Miki's lack of a tongue was hardly a barrier to communication, either, but-

"T'ain't right, y'know?"

Kasoria blinked, and looked at the man with half his face given to a ganger brand. He didn't demand repetition. He just stared.

Vaul stared back.

"I said, 't'aint right'. Her doin' this. Throwin' herself onna mercy of some highborn cunt, hopin' they dun' hang 'er. Fuck me, mebbe hopin' they do-"

"She knows whut she's askin'. She knows what's gunna happen. She chose this."

There, plainly put if delivered in a low growl, was the core of it. Maxine wasn't being forced. Some enemy or godling wasn't pulling her strings. That they could understand as something to be opposed, fought against, even ignoring her wishes to prevent. But this was a choice she had come to; a path she wanted to tread. Even if it lead to death or a lifetime in the dark, eating crusts and going slowly mad. What could The Band do against such a will? They couldn't cajole or contain; couldn't threaten or pay off. They didn't understand it, these hard and ruthless men, who knew only one god, and His name be Survival.

Kasoria seemed to be the exception, and for his enlightenment, he could feel their resentment.

"Den she's wrong," Vaul pressed, placing his weapons on the table as he turned to his Highmark. He wasn't stupid enough to square up to him with heavy hands. "An' I fink youse know it, Kas."

"I wouldnae do it, s'fer true. But I ain't her." He looked beyond and around Vaul. Meeting bitter eyes as he found them. "Youse fink I ain't had this talk wiv' 'er? A dozen, a score a' times by now? Tryna' make 'er see sense, see another way? A life where she dun' do this?" His voice grew think as he pointed to his own chest. Words bitten out like spat venom. "Well I fuckin' have. An' dis is what she finks she needs."

"Life inna hole?" Raand chipped in, adding to the assault. "Cuz that's what she'll get, Kas. Either that or the headsman."

"She. Fucking. Knows." Kasoria shook his head. "She ain't gonna feel whole 'til she does dis. 'Til she faces she she did. She ain't like us, lads. She'll ne'er get over the stink, the guilt, an' she ain't one fer jus' toppin' herself. She dun' want the Crossing. She wants judgement here, where it matters. Not in some fuckin' afterlife might not even be real."

That stilled their tongues. They were hardly men of gods or even faith, but like most Etzori, that weird, esoteric mysticism of "Signalism" had seeped into their lives since they begun. Etzoris were people of stone and wood and the real, proven world. They knew of magic and understood the existence of immortals, but gods? None they bowed to, or worth worship. An afterlife, though... that was something else. A door all souls had to walk through, for good or ill, and the speed of that Crossing was determined by those left behind. How they remembered you, your faults and your virtues.

They had all, in their own ways, made peace with having a... rough go of things, once they Crossed. Unless the afterlife was as mad as the before, and killers were vaunted over the penitent and noble.

"Youse dun' believe dat."

"She fuckin' does, an' dat's what matters."

"manclin cud tuk her ut uv ut." Even Miki chimed in, tongueless mouth working words numbly because his hands just weren't enough to express it. "ee cud say summin. long enuf to get her back-"

"He's tried n'all, it won't work-"

"So you're just letting her-"

"ENOUGH!"

His fist crashed to the table and wind blasted out from him like he was a storm given life. The men around him flinched from the crack of thunder in the air, the way their clothes whipped in the backlash, and their eyes stung from the breath of magic given life and force in their eyes. Energy, white and green and poisoned, crackled up Kasoria's arms and shone briefly from his eyes. Slowly, he raised his gaze and there was the pitilessness of an insect staring back at them. As if hauled up from his hind brain and forced to smother everything else.

"We ain't arguin' dis. Not anymore. Not 'ere, not now. Youse will do as yer leader commands or by the Founder's Blood I will see t'it youse never disobey again."

For a moment, the soulless will receded. The only left they could see was pain. Inescapable and scourged into a soul that had thought he was beyond harming. What more could be taken from him? What more could be done? A man who had lost kin and progeny and friends and everything that gave his life meaning? Now having to lose her. Raand swallowed as he saw that same pain he bore in black, mutated eyes.

"She wun' thank us fer stoppin' her. She'll find another way. We drag her off, she'll come back. We force her, she'll fight. We lie, she'll find out." The Raggedy Man shook his head and then breathed in deeply. Running his hands along his face and through his long hair until he tied it into a tail. Seeming to calm himself with the gesture. "Dis is happenin', cuz she wants it to happen. An' we are gunna be there for her, 'til the last fuckin' moment."

He gazed around the table again. Iron in his eyes. A force, a purpose, a dedication beyond despair motivating the old, wounded man.

"So she knows we didn't turn our back on 'er at the end. Cuz she was one of us. Cuz we... we gave a shit. An' we'll never stop."

Kasoria turned away from the table, throwing on his cloak and hiding the clanking metal dripping from him. He throw open the doors with a casual blast of Sovereign, not even bothering to look over his shoulder as he spoke.

"Five bits. Any dat ain't ready, ain't comin'."

Now...

It was all going to shite, and as usual it was some Morty cunt fucking it up. And her bastard.

Oh, aye. Nothing you did, eh?

Kasoria was silent as stone as the abomination swanned in and tore apart their little deception with ease. Every Etzori in the room stiffened, ingrained disgust and habitual hatred filling their veins as one of the Immortals "graced" their presence. His Sparks growled unbidden under his skin, surging like bow waves under an ocean, rippling to his fingertips and bidding to be unleashed. They were tied to him, after all. Rivers into his subconscious, and when deliberate thought left him, what did that leave?

Rage against the false gods. Hatred for all they were, all they did... and what they were doing now.

"Hold your ground."

Yet he did not make an offensive move. There was more at risk here than pride, and he forced himself to be calm. Cold and clinical and political, just like Manclin would advise. Kura was unimpressed and suspicious; her "mother" was insulted and condescending. But they had made no threats to them, only spoken of the insult done to them. Kasoria took a breath, and... tried... to think from their perspective. A troupe of foreigners had come before them with a gift that was not a gift, because they did not believe Maxine would so willingly sacrifice herself. So there was some unseen agenda, and would that not always smack of foul play? Especially among emissaries of governments. Those were frosty at the best of times, but from the heretical land of Etzos?

Outright fucking pushing it, old man.

Maxine was taking it worse than they. He could see her resolve fray. Built up over trials, ever since they'd arrived back here where her shame and guilt was strongest. She'd readied herself like a man before the hangman's dawn, girding herself for whatever punishment they had for her. Yet even that was being taken from her, Kura's words and Karem's inhuman perception throwing her off whatever balance she'd needed. Part of her, Kasoria knew, wanted to be acknowledged for what she was doing. That she, the eternal miscreant, was choosing to stay and face the music. Now that last vestige of pride was being torn away from her, and in its place was-

"That fuckin' bitch was always right. None of it fuckin' matters. None of it. Nothing. Ever. Changes."

He felt the magic swell in the room, the air tingle and spice with her Mark coming to life. Beyond the high window he could hear the waters flowing past them start to froth and surge. He stood sharply and could see the river bubbling as if heated from below by giants fires. Maxine was crumbling; he knew better than most when all pretensions of civility were gone, all that left you was vengeance. Raw and savage and utterly counterproductive, but oh so seductive. Always there, waiting for you to-

"No."

He spoke the word just as Kura appeared, flashing across the room to appeal to Maxine directly. As he listened, Kasoria's own face... changed. He had not expected this from the half-breed. Such understanding and empathy rom one that had cause for nothing but hatred. Even as Raand and Miki reflexively leaned closer to Maxine, as if their mortal flesh could guard her against the piercing stare of the Immortal across the room, Kura's words were those of... conciliation? Kasoria swallowed hard when he realized just how wrong he'd pegged her. She wasn't some faceless judge of Scalvoris. She knew Maxine. Had a history with her. She wanted-

Same thing as you.

"Lissen t'her, girl." His tone was the last thing most in the room expected. Not the cold, contemptuous voice he'd used before, a bounty hunter addressing another wretch in his power. It was a voice few save Maxine herself would have heard from he man reviled and feared across half the world. "Nothin's changed. Dis is still yer choice, an' none can take it from yeh." As Kura returned to her seat, Kasoria walked over and stood before Maxine. Waiting for her to meet his eyes. His voice lowered. "We're with you. An' we ain't goin' anywhere."

Maxine would feel Raand's hand on her shoulder, giving her a brotherly squeeze. If she looked to her other side, she would see Miki looking down at her, soft smile on a scarred boulder head. She was one of them. Even and especially when she was about to leave them.

Kasoria sighed and his shoulders slumped. He heard Kura speaking, voice returning gradually to the clipped tone of bureaucratic control. He heard, but was only half-listening. He knew that above all, she would want an explanation. No, not just that... the truth. Shorn of the bullshit they'd tried before, no more games or manipulations or mummery. He reached out and grasped one of her hands. Hoping that simple contact alone would add to Kura's unexpected words and becalm the conjuring Maxine was trying outside. That he could pull her back from yet another mistake that could claim lives.

The Old Man sighed as Kura finished her speech. Nothing left but the truth. Damned but if that didn't almost give him... peace.

"Dun' be too harsh wiv' yer mum," he said finally. "She was worried 'bout her kid. S'what parents do. Even when they're no' wanted." He looked up into Maxine's eyes. Sorrow and pride shining in black orbs. "My... daughter... their sister, asked us t'do this. Dat's the truth of it. She wanted to face what she'd done 'ere, 'stead a' runnin' from it. She thought mebbe if we made some farce a' "catching" her fer youse, it'd give us credit with ya. Win-win, y'ken? She gets the judgement she wants, we get a favor from youse."

The Raggedy Man snorted and turned back from Maxine. Letting her hand drop as he did. He walked back to his seat and all but slumped into it. Seeming drained by all this... emotion. Magic and blades and sweat and savagery came far easier to him.

"Fuckin' stupid, aye? We shoulda' been honest from the start. But we thought youse woulda' taken one look at us Etzori scrotes an' locked the doors, barred the windows, all dat." Drawing on what depths of self-control, of compromise he could allow, Kasoria looked into the eyes of an Immortal, and did not blink. He had spurned one in the past, and made her bleed. He had watched another die. There was no hiding the animosity in his eyes, but for Karem, in this moment... there was understanding. Which would haunt him for arcs to come. "I apologize fer that, Albarech. We shoulda' known better."

Fagan Manclin was fairly sure he'd need to change his breeches, but a lifeime of noble breeding was keeping the calm facade across his face. Once his chief bodyguard had finished speaking, he cleared his throat in the pregnant silence and got to his feet. Right. Well. This would take some finessing.

"I can add little more than what my companion has already said, and offer my own apologies. It is all true, and on behalf of Etzos, I take responsibility for it." Kasoria opened his mouth and, to the assassin's own mild surprise, Manclin silenced him with a quick jerk of his hand. "No, Kas. I am the leader. That is where the laurels land, and where the blame sticks to. Truth be told, Scalvoris is a great naval power, not merely itself, but its network of connections and alliances with merchants and fleets and pirates across the world. Etzos would benefit greatly from good relations with such a power. Everywhere I have gone, I have sought to build alliances for my homeland. To let in the world we have so often shut out, for these are dire days for Etzos and her people. I strove for this, but still I was... reticent to trust. That ends now."

He sat back down and gamely managed to control he quaking in his legs.

"And Kas? No more bloody demonstrations."

Kasoria almost looked sheepish. "Aye, right..."

[Pig Boy]

GOOOOOOooood

They all had much to say and think about as Karem made her appearance, and seemed to spoil the game for the Band and the Delegation. But all was not lost, as some might assume. Even then, the Merchants Guild was finalizing the prospect of trade wittih Etzos. And this meeting in itself was not a foregone conclusion.

Karem left soon after saying her peace, left the negotiating parties to their business. As it was, Kura was right about Karem overstepping her authority, but so was Kasoria, about a parent's concern. She merely shrugged and slipped out of there as surreptitiously as she had entered. Yet Good remained. He sniffed at the air, and growled at the retreat of Karem.

"Goooood." He muttered. Then he came forward, and licked Maxine's face, "Good, murrr Good!"

The Barghest didn't seem to agree with Karem's assessment, and there appeared to be a break in her own pack.

It seemed Karem had overstated her authority in more ways than one. Good turned around, to stand with the band, and opposite Kura.

"Good!" He leaned against Maxine's form, as he watched what Kura would say about the band's dealings here.

He planted his feet heavily against the ground, lowering his head as he looked into Kura's face with his best barghest puppy eyes.

!	Message from: Pig Boy
	Sorry for the lateness. Good is still belonging to Maxine at this time. And Karem is gone from the scene. Feel free to wrap up and conclude here as you wish and apologies for the rude interruption!!

[Max]

The list of horrors Maxine was culpable for was too long and tedious to accurately itemize. The especially heinous sins that came to mind had common threads. The riots were premeditated, but born of drink, drug, and an existential fear that made manipulation of that crowd until violence erupted an act of necessity. Francis and the outstanding cultists masquerading as Elements were going to kill her. She'd felt sure of it and vengeance needed to be sated like she needed water in a desert. Faldrass was even less deliberate. She'd been outnumbered by a literal menagerie, disadvantaged, and backed into a drug-addled corner that banished forethought with the impulsive desire to just survive a moment longer in the doomed fray.

This was different.

Rum was still glistening outside on the cobbles where she emptied her flask rather than consuming it. Her lungs were clear. Her skin was free of fresh tracks and her veins had come back from their decaying purple hue. Her mind was cursed only with that of the human condition and grappling with the reality of consequence. Nothing was numbed. Nothing was accelerated. Everything she thought and everything she felt was just...her.

Her eyes were distant and body tense. Physically she was here but all in the room could see she was horribly present yet impossibly vacant. Her blood was rushing in her temples and her muscles felt swollen with terrible intention. Maxine could feel her grip on the river outside. Never had she felt so powerfully connected to the water, the communication between her desire and its willingness to see it through so visceral. Her fingers balled tight. It felt as though she had stuck her fist into rapids, feeling the water's powerful swell rising, rushing, and ready to answer. One thought and the sinful, intoxicating, devastating release would be hers. This would be a destruction she'd wreak like none before it.

Kura was in front of her in an instant, just as quick as any portal. It should've surprised her but all she could hear was the roar of the beckoning water in her ears. She heard her name but there was only a flicker of recognition in her eyes. A sailor trapped in the torrential tempest at sea, the words were so quiet against the seductive storm quite literally at her fingertips. She leaned into the abyss staring back into her now.

But touch was a powerful thing.

She felt Kura's hand on her shoulder. She jumped at it, inhaling sharply. Kura had forced her presence into Maxine's attention, against the rain and the wind and the hateful roar of Chrien's storm that gripped her so unyieldingly, forcing their eyes into lock. Her words warred with the spite wholly consuming her. The Rusalka actively tried to hide away behind the wall of Chrien's intentions for her, the destiny of becoming, but she quietly answered Kura's questions with remembering. Kura relinquished her touch to address the audience at large, and it was almost relief she felt when her resolution toward destruction started to return in its absence. The sensation of dominion over impending deluge seduced her again.

Then Kasoria's words drove their own knife through the fabric of her mind, beating the wickedness back again. He was in front of her now, his little stature still brimming with command presence, while she felt Raand's hand rest upon her. Even Maith leaned against her now, his giant figure unable to be ignored. She was coming out of the spell but she didn't want to. Maybe she could've become unsullied of their wants from her again...if it weren't for so much talking. The truth of Kura's recollections, observations, and deductions were undeniable. Kasoria's steadfastness and reasoning was unarguable. Kura had spoken to her nature. Kasoria had spoken to her desire for agency and dared now to call her "daughter." She felt...seen...and the chokehold was broken.

Maxine slowly opened unwilling fingers at her side and closed her eyes tight, turning her head from the window and the call of desolation. She let out a long, shaky breath and felt the roar of the water recede from her mindscape. She focused to stay in this place they pulled her back to while they spoke amongst themselves and Karem vanished. She swallowed hard and opened her eyes.

A new sound for her ears alone rang out and it was as though an icy knife had been plunged into her diaphragm. Maxine didn't need to look to know its origin. Isra, the shackled raven familiar symbolizing Famula's eternal ownership over her, was perched at the window now. The bird could only be seen and heard by the cursed, and its chains rattled their grim reminder for her ears alone. She swallowed hard and shivered against the cold realization that replaced all that rage.

"Thank you, for everything," Maxine said quietly, grimly, looking to each Etzori, but settling on Kasoria. "You were the only father I ever had. You were always right. So long as they live, the Immortals, they will never let us go. Good, bad, it doesn't matter. We're all just pawns on their board. Cursed or marked, it makes no difference."

When she was a scourge on the world, Audrae and Chrien embraced her. When she sold budding morality for absolute loyalty in the form of promised salvation for a few, Famula cursed her for all time. When she believed she accidentally killed two of Karem's daughters at Faldrass no dogs snapped at her heels or hunted her in the Eternal Empire. Now, clean and submitting to the sword of judgement, Karem spat upon her. Redemption was not obtainable. Escape from this cycle was hopeless. All her impossible personal efforts that led her to this moment, to taste what others had led her to believe was ill-fated but righteous, were for naught.

I was wrong. All of this was a mistake.

Maxine stepped away from the Etzori, from Raand and Miki, nodding at each. It was time to be done with this now that the charade was shattered. It occurred to her there was still a moment to use. The door was closed but behind her where it could be run to. The window was available for her to dive out of, splat herself on the cobbles if she so willed it. She walked past her friends, her brothers who accepted her despite what she was, further into the room to solidify the end of the path that brought her here.

But not before she paused, looked to Kasoria over her shoulder, and whispered something she'd never dared to say to the man who demanded she not call him father when she was a little girl.

"I love you."

A few more steps now and she had surrendered herself before the Albarech to begrudgingly confirmed Karem’s suspicions.

"Isn’t it obvious? It’s as they say,” the cursed Rusalka began, flicking a hand lazily toward each party. "The Etzori, who famously hate everything Immortal but need this, get a gesture of good will to offer. You get to make a big, public show of justice, and shut up the growing crowd that believes you can’t keep the island safe before they think to turn on you.”

One look at the Mortalborn and Maxine knew she had only half answered. Kura wanted every stone unturned, light shined in every corner. She wanted the truth and the entire facade undone. With the hangman likely looming in the future, there was no time like the present if she could handle a moment of honesty while it could still be spoken.

"I’m…exhausted,” Max admitted. "There’s no where left for me to run from what I am. I killed many of your people. You have only ever tried to save me from myself, and I thought I killed you. I can’t promise that I wouldn’t have done anything different because I don’t know who I am without all that shit in my head. I had to do this, come here, clean. Thought this was…the right thing I was supposed to do.”

Maxine’s steadying breath was more of a resigning sigh.

"Other than the blade I put in Chrien’s chest for what she did, this is the closest thing to an apology I have for you.”

Now that she started talking, it was harder to stop. Her walls were fortifying again. She could feel it as she continued to process her revelations about Good, this journey she thought she’d been on, and presently how naive she felt.

"It was never lost on me, you know," Maxine said grimly, gaze falling to Kura this time. "All the times the 'good' Immortals marked the rest of you and cursed me...that the 'evil' ones were drawn to me and I never understood why. You'd give all to save your island and your people, but I'm ready to burn it all just to save what little is mine. We were always fated to be on opposite sides. I cannot be torn apart fighting fate anymore."

The coldness had grown heavy and a new anxiety riddled her now. Between the bird calling to her outside the window and the living storm raging as a brand on her flesh, she had reason to fear. She had reason to hate. For all they had done to pull her back from the brink of annihilation, Maxine was still changed by the unforeseen direction this meeting had gone. Affections tamed her nature and warded away the inevitable for the moment. For those that knew her, the truth was plain in the very essence that radiated from her being now after all this struggle and all this time.

Chrien had just won the firebrand.

"Finish this business but keep your mother's spy, Albarech. Go on, Not-a-Dog." she gestured for Good to leave her side. "I said, git." The Barghest, once a treasured gift seen as validation on the path of right and now a Trojan horse, woefully retreated from her with tail tucked and beady eyes filled with sorrow.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be what you thought I might, and I'd never come here to hurt you...but no one in this room except me knows how completely fucked I am by doing this." Isra's caw of looming damnation sounded again in confirmation. She was fighting the existential panic and black new reality that fell like a choking doom over her head. "Pass your judgement on me, Kura." Her voice was one of almost mourning and Maxine drew another breath to steel in place. Her body was rigid as though it took genuine and complete concentration just to stay where she was.

"I feel my mind changing and I don't think anyone is going to stop it again."