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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3370027" data-attributes="member: 143">Thanks for the posts, Ghostknight. Hope you enjoy the other tales. * * * * * Chapter 112MORE UNFINISHED BUSINESSDar returned to the end of the bed.  He drew aside the coverlet, revealing his weapons, each laid out carefully.  In addition to his trusty metal-shod club, there was his magical punching dagger, an extra mundane dagger, a new masterwork longbow, and his magical quiver, stuffed with hundreds of arrows.  Each had been thoroughly cleaned and repaired as needed, ready to be used to deal out destruction.  He’d lost Valus’s heavy shield in their final escape from the dungeon, but the cleric’s plate armor was in the second pack, carefully disassembled for travel.  He’d learned that the value of his magical gear made him a rich man, exclusive of the hard coin and other valuables he’d kept from their latest excursion to Rappan Athuk.  There were many other places he could go, places where a man like him could be what he was.  Places where he’d fit in perfectly, where things would make sense. Distracted, it took him a moment to realize that he was not alone.  Putting his punching dagger back down on the bed, his hand drifted to the hilt of Valor.  “You don’t need that against me, Dar.”Dar turned to see Velan Tiros standing in the doorway.  “Come to get your sword back, marshal?”Tiros came into the room, and shook his head.  “No.  It is yours now, clearly.  It... suits you.  I make no claim upon the weapon.”“Good.”“I saw Allera on my way in.  She looked upset.”“She’ll get over it,” Dar said, as he started sliding weapons into the loops on the outside of his packs.  “What do you want, marshal?”“Just to talk to you.” “Well, make it quick.  I’d like to be on a ship before nightfall.”“Finally going to Drusia, as you’d said before?”“I don’t know yet.  Maybe.”“Camar could still use your help.”Dar snorted.  “Camar has been anything but kind to me, marshal.  Or should I say, ‘duke’?” “I have never sought noble titles,” Tiros said.  “The new High Council is still working out the details of official ranks and such, but I was thinking along the lines of ‘tribune,’ or something similar.”“Power to the people, is that it?”“Perhaps.  It’s not perfect, but it’s better than what things were like under the Duke.”“From what I hear, you’ve got a whole host of problems to deal with.”Tiros nodded.  “Dalemar to the north is under revolt.  The Third Legion has gone over to the rebels.”Dar looked surprised.  “I hadn’t heard that.  I mean, everyone’s heard about trouble to the north, but a full legion going over?”“Don’t spread it around,” Tiros said.  “The mood in the street is tenuous enough as it is.”The fighter nodded.  “So it’s civil war, then?”“I hope it doesn’t come to that.  We’re trying to set up negotiations with the rebels, but we’re also mobilizing the Second and Fourth Legions, if it comes to that.  Camar can’t survive as a distinct state with an independent Dalemar on its northern border, and I think that the rebels know that.”“Who’s in charge up there?”“Kyros Livius.”“Ah.  He was commander of the Third when I was with the Fourth.  He’s a prick, but I don’t think he is... well, he’s not the Duke, anyway.  Might be he’d be willing to talk.”“I hope so.  We cannot afford another war right now.”“What about the First?”  “Keeping them at Greathold, for now.  Too many of its leaders were close with the Duke.  Gaius Annochus does not believe that there are any more devils left in Camar, but they loyalties of the senior commanders have been made uncertain by what has happened.  We may need to rebuild it from the ground up.  Thankfully, the western border has been quiet.”“I wouldn’t let your guard down, not with the elves.  They’ve kept to the treaty, but they haven’t forgotten the past.”“I understand that, believe me.”There was a long silence between them.  “What about Talen’s report?”“I’ve spoken to him, and Varo.  Talen’s presenting to the Council tomorrow, but Varo’s vanished again.  That’s probably for the best.”“Yeah, I don’t think that the Patriarch would be pleased to see him in the council chambers.”“Varo knows that his presence is a liability to us, which is probably why he’s dropped out of sight.”“If you think he isn’t planning something, you’re a fool.”“I am not underestimating him,” Tiros said.  “Talen told me what happened.  In Rappan Athuk.”“I suppose the question is, what are you going to do about it, marshal.”“I don’t know what we can do, not until we’ve solidified things here in Camar.”  The marshal paced around the far side of the bed.  “We’ve hit the cult hard for what they did to Allera, but I’m not fool enough to think that we’re done with them, not by a long shot.  We were thinking about pulling down the Border Legion from the Galerr Mountains, and repositioning them more to the east.  The orcs haven’t ventured into the mountain passes in two generations, and...”“Look, marshal, this isn’t my war.  I never wanted any of it from the start.”“We don’t always get to choose what battles we fight, warrior.” “Yeah, but sometimes you get to choose which ones you get to walk away from, and you’re a fool if you don’t take that chance when it’s offered.”“You know, probably better than anyone, what we’re up against.  We’re stretched thin, Dar, no question about it.  Which is why I could use you now, more than ever.”Dar snorted.  “One more sword isn’t going to make much of a difference.”“I’m not asking for your sword.”“If you’re asking what I think you’re asking, then you’re a bigger fool than I thought.  I’ve told you before, I’m no leader.”Tiros met Dar’s gaze, and held it.  “I know you’ve had bad experiences with authority in the past, and your experiences with the legions was far from ideal.  But we are entering a desperate time, Dar.  Things do not have to be as they were in the past.  You are your own man; I know that is important to you, is who you are.  But consider also the value of being part of something larger than yourself.  We are men, Dar, you and I.  Our identity is created by what lies within us.  But no man can stand alone.  You served in combat, you know that this is true.  When in the forging fires of battle, the man who is apart from his companion is quickly cut down in the surging tide, overwhelmed.  So to it will be with Camar, I think.”“You have mocked me in the past, warrior, and perhaps I deserved some of your calumny.  There are things about you that I dislike greatly.  But I have witnessed your mettle in the foulest pit known to man, in the desperate struggle for life and death, and I would stand by your side against any foe.”“You can go to Drusia, or to the end of the world.  But I don’t think you’ll find what you are looking for out there.  It’s here, Dar... in the struggle to create something better than what came before.  It’s in this that we find meaning for why we are here.”Dar looked intently at Tiros for a long moment.  Then he grinned broadly.  “Damn, marshal, sometimes I forget how good you are at laying on the bull.”“I meant what I said, every word.”“I know.  That’s what makes it so funny.”  Tiros’s face twisted into a wry smile.  “Perhaps.”  He walked past the bed toward the door, but he paused as he reached Dar.  He put his hand on the warrior’s shoulder.  “At least... think about what I have said.”“If I do, I’ll know that I need a healer to have a look at my head,” Dar replied.  “Well then.  I wish you well, warrior.”  Tiros extended a hand.  After a moment, Dar took it, gripping the marshal’s hand firmly. “Good luck,” Dar said.  “Sounds like you’ll need it.”“I think we all will.”With a final nod, Tiros released Dar’s hand and left, closing the door behind him.Dar turned back and checked his gear a final time.  Everything was in its place, but he hesitated.  For some reason, he looked down at his sword.  Valor sat dormant in its scabbard.  It was just a sword... but when he’d fought with it in Rappan Athuk, at times it had seemed that... what?  This was crazy.  But as he gathered up his gear, he paused again.  No, there was definitely something more to the blade than blue-forged steel.  Both on the first trip to Rappan Athuk, when the sword had seemed to fight him every time he’d touched it, and on the second, when it fit into his hand like an extension of his arm, he’d felt a power deep within the weapon.  When they had fought the servants of Orcus, in particular, the sword had seemed almost... alive. Dar snorted and adjusted the straps of the heavy packs as they pressed down on his back.  He was going to end up more nuts than the elf, at this rate. He was about to leave, but as he started toward the door, he paused.  There, on the bureau, was a small object. He walked over to the dresser and picked up the object.  It was a tiny silver amulet, threaded on a delicate chain of silver links.  Holding it up to the light, he could see that the amulet held several small green shards.  It took him a moment to figure out what they were. Fragments of the stone he’d given Allera.  Shay had probably brought them back.  There were only a few of them, and none were larger than a sliver. With an angry growl, he threw it across the room, and started toward the door. His hand was on the handle when he stopped.  Turning around, he walked over to the corner.  He bent down, and picked up the amulet.  He held it in his hand for several minutes, staring at it in silence.  Finally, he lowered the chain around his neck, and tucked the amulet under his tunic. “Damn it, damn it, damn it,” he said.  Then he left.</blockquote>

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