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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7613746" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p><strong>von Reckinghausen the second // To heal</strong></p><p></p><p>Once we arrive at the construction site, Margit informs us about what happened during our time in Citada de Cavallo: There had been a bandit attack and one of the workers got wounded by a gunshot. She healed him up afterward and the rest of the workers were glad to have healing hands in their team. Flying Spark did a good job with patrolling the camp and construction areas and so far everything went according to plan. Still, Liss is kind of working at the edge of bankruptcy and they all hope that the new shipments arrive without delay. </p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(We did play the first two days with Margit and Flying Spark to get used to the mechanics of the minigame. And we quickly realized that Liss couldn’t risk getting more than 1 materiel per day as any kind of disturbance would have been his ruin. But I'll talk more about the mechanics at the end of this or the next recap)</span></p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p>We take some time to get accustomed to the working processes and the location and then assign our security staff (the half-giant mercenaries) to the most vulnerable parts of the track and camp. </p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(Yeah, we just realized that we had basically hundreds of miles of potential targets in form of already constructed railway. And no way to protect all of it. So we placed them in the camp, the construction site, and the intermediate stops and switches) </span></p><p></p><p>While we're busy structuring our staff, we smell traces of smoke and rush to find its source. To our surprise, the culprit is a small fire elemental who's nibbling our planks. So we banish the elemental and look for people who could have summoned the creature. As we find none at first glance, we use a fly spell to increase our field of vision. We then spot two rugged looking people riding away from our camp on a horse. Turns out that they're bandits, too, who got paid to summon this elemental near camp. And as dealing with bandits is none of our business in Ber, we tie them up and get them delivered to the next Executora. </p><p></p><p>This evening, we receive a letter from Burton who successfully managed to infiltrate the enemy team. Team Griento, he says, is still busy with constructing mile 3 (we're at 4 already), but they got reinforcements today as Mr. Pemberton sold a lot of automatons to the Danorans. We curse the man for being such an unpatriotic capitalist, but understand that he's just a businessman in the end.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(This came pretty surprising as we've been pretty sure that Fordren would supply the Danorans with his mechanical creations. After Pemberton's kind of charitable help in Sawyer, we expected him to be less of an opportunist, but it turned out that we got him totally wrong.) </span></p><p></p><p>Burton also mentions that Lya and Ulrik returned to Griento's camp and that Lya brought a huge amount of money with her. So we send a message to Delft in which we tell him about Ulrik's current whereabouts and ask him for more money to maybe even the finances between us and Team Lya. </p><p></p><p>We then discuss how to repay the two sabotage events and agree that neither of us would like to see Ber burning or harm innocent bystanders/workers. After all, Team Lya used non-lethal methods so far which were not much more than mere nuisances. We include both Margit and Flying Spark in our tactical discussion as we'd like to take advantage of the superior risuri magic and knowledge of myth and legend. Carlyle then mentions that we might just ask a friend of ours to help with the construction: After all, we know one “railway hero” who's used to fighting bandits and who's not so easily scared off by flying bullets. So he excuses himself to return to Flint and ask Andrei whether he'd lend us his strength. </p><p></p><p>After he teleports back to his home, Carlyle heads to Andrei's apartment, but finds no white-haired inhabitant there. So he then checks up on Auryn's home, only to hear two people singing a strange duet on the inside. Turns out that Andrei is visiting Isobel on a regular basis. He also seems to have developed a weakness for crisillyiri fashion (Isobel loves his new clothes, he says) and Carlyle congratulates him on his new taste. </p><p></p><p>He then tells him about his new job prospect in Ber and adds that he'll make sure that he's payed well. He'd also talk to Andrei's current employees, a construction company owned by friends of Cippiano, as he'd be leaving Flint for a couple of weeks. Andrei sounds interested, but asks to spend some time with Isobel before leaving. Isobel, of course, is less enthusiastic about Andrei's trip, but doesn't wish to stand in his way. </p><p></p><p>So while Andrei uses his last hours in Flint to be with Isobel, Carlyle pays visit to Cippiano in his Cafe. He asks to lend Andrei for a while as his help might be pivotal in getting the upper hand against the conspirators. Don Cippiano thinks about the request for a while and then agrees, even if he needs to ask a friend's friend for a favor. He casually mentions that Andrei is a pretty skilled construction worker who'd surely make a good living of his work in time and Carlyle takes this as an opportunity to stress out that getting a variety of experiences would help him refine said skills.</p><p></p><p>They then switch the subject to cakes and sweets as Mr. Cippiano offers Carlyle a late-night treat. He, again, sees an opportunity and asks Cippiano whether he could get more of the sweets as he'd like to buy a gift for his railway construction crew in Ber. He'd pay for that favor, of course. Cippiano laughs at this request and adds that he'd surely win any man's heart with some good cake and pastry. He orders some of his men to get him cake and then, again, quite casually tells Carlyle that this strange talking golem that started working at the RHC recently left Flint quite a while ago. But he's sure that Carlyle's already knew that. Hint, hint. Which leaves Carlyle pretty embarrassed, but he manages to hide said feeling. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(Yeah, why would Delft even bother to tell us that Grappa left Flint. On his own. And most likely without anyone knowing. Yeah, Cippiano hit a sore nerve there.)</span></p><p></p><p>Carlyle returns to the Liss construction camp two hours later. He's given a warm welcome back, especially as he's accompanied by Andrei who's carrying a lot of cake. We then rally our workers and introduce them to Andrei von Recklinghausen. And throw a small, spontaneous party. Needless to say that our crew is more than glad to have us all aboard. </p><p></p><p>After the party is over, Auryn takes Carlyle aside to talk to him in private. It seems as if she's still troubled by her relationship to Fordren and explains that it isn't exactly easy for her to have him “so close” right now. She says that while she definitely knows that she's way stronger than before and that she already got the upper hand in their ongoing struggle, she still feels some kind of subconscious fear. A fear she doesn't know how to fight or put aside. </p><p></p><p>Carlyle agrees that she kind of won their battle for mental supremacy as she evolved from where she had started while Fordren basically stayed the same, even if she just learned about a few new facets of his personality. He's also quite certain that she won't have to meet him every other day as he'll surely take some time to scan his company for Ob infiltration. She thinks about his words for a while and then surprisingly states that she didn't regret her past confrontations with Fordren. On the contrary, experiencing that she was able to pull through these complicated situations helped her find normalcy, sovereignty and stability. But she isn't quite sure how this man would act in future meetings or whether he'd be able to keep his promises. Even if she technically has no reason to doubt his honesty when it comes to their pact. </p><p></p><p>Auryn then asks Carlyle for his assessment of her nemesis. Carlyle doesn't need much time to think about his opinion and directly states that Fordren seems like a hardened and cold businessman who would not hesitate to use any trick he got up his sleeve. He shares Auryn's assessment that Fordren is mostly interested in his profit, wealth and benefit, even if he's capable of feeling remorse, bitterness and longing for something he cannot put his finger on yet. What's worrying though is the fact that he's still obsessed with Auryn and strangely fascinated by her, even if he doesn't know whether this obsession would eventually collide with the pact he made with her. </p><p></p><p>But if one out aside all this baggage, then Fordren could turn out to be quite useful in the future as he's a powerful man who appears to oppose the Obs with an uncanny honesty. He also seemed to have honest intentions with Lord Vantrys which makes him hope that his protegee might have a brighter future in sight than a few years ago. </p><p></p><p>“Let's put it that way: Other than Goodson, Fordren doesn't seem to overpower Lord Vantrys. He aims for a collaborative partnership in Flint. Despite being a shark, he has been tame so far. And I'd honor him for that. But should he make any mistake, should he ever touch you or try to make you his again, then I'll cut him open bottom to top.”</p><p></p><p>Auryn looks very much baffled at this last statement as Carlyle dryly and calmly finishes his assessment. </p><p></p><p>“And there you shot your arrow right through my heart” </p><p></p><p>“Huh? I never thought that you, of all people, would like to hear me talking about violence.” Carlyle says, even more surprised than she was. But Auryn just shakes her head in return, laughing quietly.</p><p></p><p>“No, that's not what I meant. I just couldn't imagine that you'd use such drastic words. After seeing your positive reaction to Fordren's stance towards the Obs, I feared that he'd be the literal 'enemy of my enemy' for you. But now I know that I got you wrong and your reassurance touched me. Gods, you really are like one of those perfect risuri damsels from your novels: Hot and cold, daring and shy, distanced and interested at the same time.”</p><p></p><p>Carlyle just smirks and shrugs in return. Auryn then brings the subject back to Fordren as she tells Carlyle how and why the man brought her to the edge of losing herself. She explains that she first tried to negotiate, and then tried to gain his sympathy. When both diplomatic approaches failed, she then simply defied his wishes and neglected herself, hoping that he'd lose interest in time. She also tried to flee, but those attempts had not been successful. And when she realized that she couldn't hope for external help either, she felt into despair. But she wouldn't allow herself to lose hope and instead turned to a long-time strategy, knowing that she'd eventually be free as she'd easily outlive Fordren by centuries. So she just played along, saving her strength for developing plans and learning all about her “prison”. She survived two years playing this game, Auryn says, which is why Fordren might have thought to have won and made her his Charusheela even when she had always been Auryn on the inside. </p><p></p><p>Carlyle thanks her for sharing this story with him as he starts to understand how hard it would be to confront such nightmares again and again. Auryn then moves on and removes her dearly beloved scarf <span style="color: #008000">(the magical one Carlyle gave her for her birthday</span>), stating that she doesn't wish to let the scars of the past make her scared of her future. She then takes Carlyle's hand and carefully touches her scarred throat with the back of his hand. </p><p></p><p>“I've never let anyone come near it after Killika had removed the golden choker. And I don't wish to be afraid of your touch.” she explains when Carlyle looks estranged by her gesture. Only to wince shortly after and breathe heavily as she feels... somehow being observed. </p><p></p><p>“Everything alright? You seem troubled.”</p><p></p><p>“I just felt as if something was watching me. Guess I'm being a bit paranoid right now...”</p><p></p><p>“I don't think so.” Carlyle says, casting a magic detection spell before scanning the whole tent for magical sensors. When he finally finds what he's been looking for, her conceals it with his hands, calls for Auryn and shows her his findings. When Auryn takes a closer look, the sensor suddenly vanishes as if someone realized he or she has been found out. </p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(Can I just say that Carlyle always taking Auryn serious despite her occasional neurotic tendencies is more than just charming? As long as his behavior isn't the subject of debate, he's so genuinely trusting, sweet and caring towards her.) </span></p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p>We assume that this poor attempt at spying was conducted by Team Lya and brush it off as part of the game. Even if we both value our privacy. Carlyle then returns the subject to Auryn's scar (which isn't really made of scar tissue, but rather miscolored skin) and asks why she wouldn't ask Margit to heal her.</p><p></p><p>“Margit, huh? Never thought about it.” she answers, signaling Carlyle that this isn't really about physical healing. Carlyle then offers to mix her a healing balm instead, which Auryn gladly accepts. Before the situation gets too awkward, Auryn then switches subjects to her friend Nymeia who still hasn't gotten her response from Carlyle. She says that all she wanted was to give Nymeia a chance when she encouraged her love-struck friend to invite Carlyle to tea, even if she knows that her friend's chances are pretty dim right now. </p><p></p><p>“But she's a little girl. She should try dating people of her age.”</p><p></p><p>“Then tell her you're too old for her. Politely. She may be young, but her intelligence would surprise you and being treated with respect shouldn't be a matter of age.”</p><p></p><p>“And she'll swoon and sigh and blush.”</p><p></p><p>“She's a young woman from Risur. So yes, she'll probably do that. And talk about botany, herbalism and alchemy. She even reads the same books like you!” Auryn counts before bursting into laughter at the absurd situation of advertising Nymeia despite her own attraction.</p><p></p><p>“I know these feelings. I've been a young man as well, you know. A few centuries ago or so.” </p><p></p><p>Auryn continues to laugh as she tries very hard to imagine a very young love-struck and very human Carlyle. He then promises to take care of “the Nymeia dilemma” before she grows quiet again as she reflects on the attack of the Crisillyiri. All of a sudden she then mentions a suspicion she had back then when the agents talked about killing and reprogramming Carlyle: That maybe the Vantrys incident wasn't meant to assassinate the noble family, but to force Carlyle's rebirth. And that maybe some Crisillyiri agents had tried to get their hands on said reincarnation to “reprogram” him. But Carlyle, unlike other devas, she says, was gifted with the ability to remember much more of his past lives than usual, which is why such a plan had not been fruitful. </p><p></p><p>Carlyle frowns at this train of thoughts and agrees that there is some logic behind it. Even if he doesn't allow this idea to take root as if such a chain of events was something that mustn't be. Still he believes that meeting and talking to other devas in Flint might be a good idea as he knows next to nothing about other people of his kind. Especially in terms of handling reincarnations. He adds that, besides the obvious Stanfield, he knows exactly one other deva, a curator who had been an Eladrin in his first life. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(That guy who he met in adventure three)</span></p><p></p><p>He then talks a bit about his own first life and how he himself and his unit had been transformed by Srasama's fire. He explains that all of them had become devas. All but the one man he had killed to save his commander's life. The first human whose life he had ended, and a terrible human being indeed. He doesn't go into detail, but he roughly describes a soldier who had abused his position as interrogator to torture their captives, then shakes his head and explains that there is a fine line between soldier and beast. Still he'd think about maybe visiting his old comrades again, even if that meant going to Crisillyir again. The place he had to leave as he couldn't bear to hear the wailing of the dead.</p><p></p><p>Auryn promises to protect his mind as she had done during their trip to the Bleak Gate and to Elfaivar should he really wish to visit his friends. Carlyle adds that he hasn't seen them in decades, so they maybe don't recognize him anymore. But there is one, a man who came to visit him in Flint on an irregular basis, a man who's still struggling with his “new” identity. He says that he sent him to Smithee so the medium may help him, but even then poor Eddie has never been whole again. </p><p></p><p>Auryn thanks Carlyle for this small insight into his private life and thoughts as she's usually the one who's talking about her thoughts and experiences.<span style="color: #008000">(Carlyle is better at listening, he says) </span> </p><p>She then says that it's getting pretty late and points to her private room. </p><p></p><p>“I wouldn't mind to feel some warmth tonight” Auryn says, smiling mischievously. </p><p></p><p>“You realize that you won't exactly feel much when you're sleeping?”</p><p></p><p>“A bed isn't just for sleeping, you know? Being close to someone you like can be quite comforting sometimes.”</p><p></p><p>“Very well then. I don't mind sleeping next to you either.” Carlyle finally admits before changing into his sleeping attire and offering his partner a shoulder to sleep on.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(Yes, he's making a total fuss about being close to Auryn – or anyone else in that matter – as he really isn't used to bodily contact for comfort's sake. He sometimes just forgets that people do such things and then gets surprised when someone gets too close to him. </span></p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #008000">And yeah, now the cat's out of the bag regarding Auryn's feeling towards the “enemy of her enemy”. And she's pretty embarrassed to have doubted her partner because of this sore spot. Problem is that they're both beating around the bush to an extend that they regularly misunderstand each other. Even now, there is a large part of the Carlyle persona that Auryn doesn't understand (and that will continue to cause trouble) and vice versa. </span></p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #008000">On top of that, she's really not used to be rebuffed so much after Carlyle kind of agreed to be in a relationship with her and even asked her to be her exclusive partner. In her mind, Carlyle had been this closet romantic who secretly wished to live like Hector Fernandez. And while she didn't care much for romance, she would have expected her “lover” to be more openly into her. After all, she was used to being courted by confident men and women alike. </span></p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #008000">So it took her a while to realize that Carlyle's confidence and even his affection wouldn't be on open display. That he was a man of small gestures who implicitly defined their relationship in very casual sentences. That he didn't place too much value and importance in himself, other than these Eladrin warriors who had tried to impress her. And these Carlyle-erstics were both charming and irritating for her.</span></p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #008000">On the other hand, she wasn't really sure about her own emotional state either as she couldn't really place her many-faceted feelings towards the people she cared for. She knew that she loved Dawkins dearly, but she loved him like a mentor or an older member of her family. And her feelings for Gabriel were quite different, even if she trusted him just as much.</span></p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #008000">Without spoiling too much in this regard... she only said the three magic words when she faced “death” almost a year later...)</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7613746, member: 6816692"] [b]von Reckinghausen the second // To heal[/b] Once we arrive at the construction site, Margit informs us about what happened during our time in Citada de Cavallo: There had been a bandit attack and one of the workers got wounded by a gunshot. She healed him up afterward and the rest of the workers were glad to have healing hands in their team. Flying Spark did a good job with patrolling the camp and construction areas and so far everything went according to plan. Still, Liss is kind of working at the edge of bankruptcy and they all hope that the new shipments arrive without delay. [COLOR="#008000"] (We did play the first two days with Margit and Flying Spark to get used to the mechanics of the minigame. And we quickly realized that Liss couldn’t risk getting more than 1 materiel per day as any kind of disturbance would have been his ruin. But I'll talk more about the mechanics at the end of this or the next recap) [/COLOR] We take some time to get accustomed to the working processes and the location and then assign our security staff (the half-giant mercenaries) to the most vulnerable parts of the track and camp. [COLOR="#008000"] (Yeah, we just realized that we had basically hundreds of miles of potential targets in form of already constructed railway. And no way to protect all of it. So we placed them in the camp, the construction site, and the intermediate stops and switches) [/COLOR] While we're busy structuring our staff, we smell traces of smoke and rush to find its source. To our surprise, the culprit is a small fire elemental who's nibbling our planks. So we banish the elemental and look for people who could have summoned the creature. As we find none at first glance, we use a fly spell to increase our field of vision. We then spot two rugged looking people riding away from our camp on a horse. Turns out that they're bandits, too, who got paid to summon this elemental near camp. And as dealing with bandits is none of our business in Ber, we tie them up and get them delivered to the next Executora. This evening, we receive a letter from Burton who successfully managed to infiltrate the enemy team. Team Griento, he says, is still busy with constructing mile 3 (we're at 4 already), but they got reinforcements today as Mr. Pemberton sold a lot of automatons to the Danorans. We curse the man for being such an unpatriotic capitalist, but understand that he's just a businessman in the end. [COLOR="#008000"](This came pretty surprising as we've been pretty sure that Fordren would supply the Danorans with his mechanical creations. After Pemberton's kind of charitable help in Sawyer, we expected him to be less of an opportunist, but it turned out that we got him totally wrong.) [/COLOR] Burton also mentions that Lya and Ulrik returned to Griento's camp and that Lya brought a huge amount of money with her. So we send a message to Delft in which we tell him about Ulrik's current whereabouts and ask him for more money to maybe even the finances between us and Team Lya. We then discuss how to repay the two sabotage events and agree that neither of us would like to see Ber burning or harm innocent bystanders/workers. After all, Team Lya used non-lethal methods so far which were not much more than mere nuisances. We include both Margit and Flying Spark in our tactical discussion as we'd like to take advantage of the superior risuri magic and knowledge of myth and legend. Carlyle then mentions that we might just ask a friend of ours to help with the construction: After all, we know one “railway hero” who's used to fighting bandits and who's not so easily scared off by flying bullets. So he excuses himself to return to Flint and ask Andrei whether he'd lend us his strength. After he teleports back to his home, Carlyle heads to Andrei's apartment, but finds no white-haired inhabitant there. So he then checks up on Auryn's home, only to hear two people singing a strange duet on the inside. Turns out that Andrei is visiting Isobel on a regular basis. He also seems to have developed a weakness for crisillyiri fashion (Isobel loves his new clothes, he says) and Carlyle congratulates him on his new taste. He then tells him about his new job prospect in Ber and adds that he'll make sure that he's payed well. He'd also talk to Andrei's current employees, a construction company owned by friends of Cippiano, as he'd be leaving Flint for a couple of weeks. Andrei sounds interested, but asks to spend some time with Isobel before leaving. Isobel, of course, is less enthusiastic about Andrei's trip, but doesn't wish to stand in his way. So while Andrei uses his last hours in Flint to be with Isobel, Carlyle pays visit to Cippiano in his Cafe. He asks to lend Andrei for a while as his help might be pivotal in getting the upper hand against the conspirators. Don Cippiano thinks about the request for a while and then agrees, even if he needs to ask a friend's friend for a favor. He casually mentions that Andrei is a pretty skilled construction worker who'd surely make a good living of his work in time and Carlyle takes this as an opportunity to stress out that getting a variety of experiences would help him refine said skills. They then switch the subject to cakes and sweets as Mr. Cippiano offers Carlyle a late-night treat. He, again, sees an opportunity and asks Cippiano whether he could get more of the sweets as he'd like to buy a gift for his railway construction crew in Ber. He'd pay for that favor, of course. Cippiano laughs at this request and adds that he'd surely win any man's heart with some good cake and pastry. He orders some of his men to get him cake and then, again, quite casually tells Carlyle that this strange talking golem that started working at the RHC recently left Flint quite a while ago. But he's sure that Carlyle's already knew that. Hint, hint. Which leaves Carlyle pretty embarrassed, but he manages to hide said feeling. [COLOR="#008000"](Yeah, why would Delft even bother to tell us that Grappa left Flint. On his own. And most likely without anyone knowing. Yeah, Cippiano hit a sore nerve there.)[/COLOR] Carlyle returns to the Liss construction camp two hours later. He's given a warm welcome back, especially as he's accompanied by Andrei who's carrying a lot of cake. We then rally our workers and introduce them to Andrei von Recklinghausen. And throw a small, spontaneous party. Needless to say that our crew is more than glad to have us all aboard. After the party is over, Auryn takes Carlyle aside to talk to him in private. It seems as if she's still troubled by her relationship to Fordren and explains that it isn't exactly easy for her to have him “so close” right now. She says that while she definitely knows that she's way stronger than before and that she already got the upper hand in their ongoing struggle, she still feels some kind of subconscious fear. A fear she doesn't know how to fight or put aside. Carlyle agrees that she kind of won their battle for mental supremacy as she evolved from where she had started while Fordren basically stayed the same, even if she just learned about a few new facets of his personality. He's also quite certain that she won't have to meet him every other day as he'll surely take some time to scan his company for Ob infiltration. She thinks about his words for a while and then surprisingly states that she didn't regret her past confrontations with Fordren. On the contrary, experiencing that she was able to pull through these complicated situations helped her find normalcy, sovereignty and stability. But she isn't quite sure how this man would act in future meetings or whether he'd be able to keep his promises. Even if she technically has no reason to doubt his honesty when it comes to their pact. Auryn then asks Carlyle for his assessment of her nemesis. Carlyle doesn't need much time to think about his opinion and directly states that Fordren seems like a hardened and cold businessman who would not hesitate to use any trick he got up his sleeve. He shares Auryn's assessment that Fordren is mostly interested in his profit, wealth and benefit, even if he's capable of feeling remorse, bitterness and longing for something he cannot put his finger on yet. What's worrying though is the fact that he's still obsessed with Auryn and strangely fascinated by her, even if he doesn't know whether this obsession would eventually collide with the pact he made with her. But if one out aside all this baggage, then Fordren could turn out to be quite useful in the future as he's a powerful man who appears to oppose the Obs with an uncanny honesty. He also seemed to have honest intentions with Lord Vantrys which makes him hope that his protegee might have a brighter future in sight than a few years ago. “Let's put it that way: Other than Goodson, Fordren doesn't seem to overpower Lord Vantrys. He aims for a collaborative partnership in Flint. Despite being a shark, he has been tame so far. And I'd honor him for that. But should he make any mistake, should he ever touch you or try to make you his again, then I'll cut him open bottom to top.” Auryn looks very much baffled at this last statement as Carlyle dryly and calmly finishes his assessment. “And there you shot your arrow right through my heart” “Huh? I never thought that you, of all people, would like to hear me talking about violence.” Carlyle says, even more surprised than she was. But Auryn just shakes her head in return, laughing quietly. “No, that's not what I meant. I just couldn't imagine that you'd use such drastic words. After seeing your positive reaction to Fordren's stance towards the Obs, I feared that he'd be the literal 'enemy of my enemy' for you. But now I know that I got you wrong and your reassurance touched me. Gods, you really are like one of those perfect risuri damsels from your novels: Hot and cold, daring and shy, distanced and interested at the same time.” Carlyle just smirks and shrugs in return. Auryn then brings the subject back to Fordren as she tells Carlyle how and why the man brought her to the edge of losing herself. She explains that she first tried to negotiate, and then tried to gain his sympathy. When both diplomatic approaches failed, she then simply defied his wishes and neglected herself, hoping that he'd lose interest in time. She also tried to flee, but those attempts had not been successful. And when she realized that she couldn't hope for external help either, she felt into despair. But she wouldn't allow herself to lose hope and instead turned to a long-time strategy, knowing that she'd eventually be free as she'd easily outlive Fordren by centuries. So she just played along, saving her strength for developing plans and learning all about her “prison”. She survived two years playing this game, Auryn says, which is why Fordren might have thought to have won and made her his Charusheela even when she had always been Auryn on the inside. Carlyle thanks her for sharing this story with him as he starts to understand how hard it would be to confront such nightmares again and again. Auryn then moves on and removes her dearly beloved scarf [COLOR="#008000"](the magical one Carlyle gave her for her birthday[/COLOR]), stating that she doesn't wish to let the scars of the past make her scared of her future. She then takes Carlyle's hand and carefully touches her scarred throat with the back of his hand. “I've never let anyone come near it after Killika had removed the golden choker. And I don't wish to be afraid of your touch.” she explains when Carlyle looks estranged by her gesture. Only to wince shortly after and breathe heavily as she feels... somehow being observed. “Everything alright? You seem troubled.” “I just felt as if something was watching me. Guess I'm being a bit paranoid right now...” “I don't think so.” Carlyle says, casting a magic detection spell before scanning the whole tent for magical sensors. When he finally finds what he's been looking for, her conceals it with his hands, calls for Auryn and shows her his findings. When Auryn takes a closer look, the sensor suddenly vanishes as if someone realized he or she has been found out. [COLOR="#008000"] (Can I just say that Carlyle always taking Auryn serious despite her occasional neurotic tendencies is more than just charming? As long as his behavior isn't the subject of debate, he's so genuinely trusting, sweet and caring towards her.) [/COLOR] We assume that this poor attempt at spying was conducted by Team Lya and brush it off as part of the game. Even if we both value our privacy. Carlyle then returns the subject to Auryn's scar (which isn't really made of scar tissue, but rather miscolored skin) and asks why she wouldn't ask Margit to heal her. “Margit, huh? Never thought about it.” she answers, signaling Carlyle that this isn't really about physical healing. Carlyle then offers to mix her a healing balm instead, which Auryn gladly accepts. Before the situation gets too awkward, Auryn then switches subjects to her friend Nymeia who still hasn't gotten her response from Carlyle. She says that all she wanted was to give Nymeia a chance when she encouraged her love-struck friend to invite Carlyle to tea, even if she knows that her friend's chances are pretty dim right now. “But she's a little girl. She should try dating people of her age.” “Then tell her you're too old for her. Politely. She may be young, but her intelligence would surprise you and being treated with respect shouldn't be a matter of age.” “And she'll swoon and sigh and blush.” “She's a young woman from Risur. So yes, she'll probably do that. And talk about botany, herbalism and alchemy. She even reads the same books like you!” Auryn counts before bursting into laughter at the absurd situation of advertising Nymeia despite her own attraction. “I know these feelings. I've been a young man as well, you know. A few centuries ago or so.” Auryn continues to laugh as she tries very hard to imagine a very young love-struck and very human Carlyle. He then promises to take care of “the Nymeia dilemma” before she grows quiet again as she reflects on the attack of the Crisillyiri. All of a sudden she then mentions a suspicion she had back then when the agents talked about killing and reprogramming Carlyle: That maybe the Vantrys incident wasn't meant to assassinate the noble family, but to force Carlyle's rebirth. And that maybe some Crisillyiri agents had tried to get their hands on said reincarnation to “reprogram” him. But Carlyle, unlike other devas, she says, was gifted with the ability to remember much more of his past lives than usual, which is why such a plan had not been fruitful. Carlyle frowns at this train of thoughts and agrees that there is some logic behind it. Even if he doesn't allow this idea to take root as if such a chain of events was something that mustn't be. Still he believes that meeting and talking to other devas in Flint might be a good idea as he knows next to nothing about other people of his kind. Especially in terms of handling reincarnations. He adds that, besides the obvious Stanfield, he knows exactly one other deva, a curator who had been an Eladrin in his first life. [COLOR="#008000"](That guy who he met in adventure three)[/COLOR] He then talks a bit about his own first life and how he himself and his unit had been transformed by Srasama's fire. He explains that all of them had become devas. All but the one man he had killed to save his commander's life. The first human whose life he had ended, and a terrible human being indeed. He doesn't go into detail, but he roughly describes a soldier who had abused his position as interrogator to torture their captives, then shakes his head and explains that there is a fine line between soldier and beast. Still he'd think about maybe visiting his old comrades again, even if that meant going to Crisillyir again. The place he had to leave as he couldn't bear to hear the wailing of the dead. Auryn promises to protect his mind as she had done during their trip to the Bleak Gate and to Elfaivar should he really wish to visit his friends. Carlyle adds that he hasn't seen them in decades, so they maybe don't recognize him anymore. But there is one, a man who came to visit him in Flint on an irregular basis, a man who's still struggling with his “new” identity. He says that he sent him to Smithee so the medium may help him, but even then poor Eddie has never been whole again. Auryn thanks Carlyle for this small insight into his private life and thoughts as she's usually the one who's talking about her thoughts and experiences.[COLOR="#008000"](Carlyle is better at listening, he says) [/COLOR] She then says that it's getting pretty late and points to her private room. “I wouldn't mind to feel some warmth tonight” Auryn says, smiling mischievously. “You realize that you won't exactly feel much when you're sleeping?” “A bed isn't just for sleeping, you know? Being close to someone you like can be quite comforting sometimes.” “Very well then. I don't mind sleeping next to you either.” Carlyle finally admits before changing into his sleeping attire and offering his partner a shoulder to sleep on. [COLOR="#008000"](Yes, he's making a total fuss about being close to Auryn – or anyone else in that matter – as he really isn't used to bodily contact for comfort's sake. He sometimes just forgets that people do such things and then gets surprised when someone gets too close to him. And yeah, now the cat's out of the bag regarding Auryn's feeling towards the “enemy of her enemy”. And she's pretty embarrassed to have doubted her partner because of this sore spot. Problem is that they're both beating around the bush to an extend that they regularly misunderstand each other. Even now, there is a large part of the Carlyle persona that Auryn doesn't understand (and that will continue to cause trouble) and vice versa. On top of that, she's really not used to be rebuffed so much after Carlyle kind of agreed to be in a relationship with her and even asked her to be her exclusive partner. In her mind, Carlyle had been this closet romantic who secretly wished to live like Hector Fernandez. And while she didn't care much for romance, she would have expected her “lover” to be more openly into her. After all, she was used to being courted by confident men and women alike. So it took her a while to realize that Carlyle's confidence and even his affection wouldn't be on open display. That he was a man of small gestures who implicitly defined their relationship in very casual sentences. That he didn't place too much value and importance in himself, other than these Eladrin warriors who had tried to impress her. And these Carlyle-erstics were both charming and irritating for her. On the other hand, she wasn't really sure about her own emotional state either as she couldn't really place her many-faceted feelings towards the people she cared for. She knew that she loved Dawkins dearly, but she loved him like a mentor or an older member of her family. And her feelings for Gabriel were quite different, even if she trusted him just as much. Without spoiling too much in this regard... she only said the three magic words when she faced “death” almost a year later...)[/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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