No Salvation (Closed)

[Clair Feldsky]

"Bern!" The Falcoknight uttered a groan equal parts weariness and disgust. Bern was the perfect mess. Completely impossible to organize into any semblance of order or categories. Simply put, Ilia had now outstayed their welcome, but they'd done so when some of Bern's population had roused trouble, and tried to kick the northerners out. Since Ilian's were there to keep the peace, this created reason for them to stay in a never ending spiral of vicious circles.

Clair wasn't even certain on her own feelings around the matter. Ilia was dangerously close to conquest. At least in appearances to some. She knew many of the Ilian leaders must feel the temptations towards Bern's comparatively warm lands, but they must know open conquest would never last long once the other countries became involved. They would come together to force the taken land to be relinquished. Not out of benevolence, but out of fear. To keep the status quo.... She also knew, that while most would see her casting blame at Bern as nothing but excuses, that didn't absolve them of their own responsibilities.

Because of the chaos, the simplest thing to do was look to her immediate goals, and see how they fit into the scheme of things. They were to calm Bern? Then they would need to quell the source of the trouble. Either through talks or force. That was where she and Richter came in. The reputations they'd built were as leaders. Perhaps even heroes of a sort. But primarily, they weren't quite Ilian heroes. Their nationality may have connected them to their home, but their claim to fame and success did not. Thus, a measure of neutrality was established.

"I don't even want to try and guess what it was like there. Ilia and the Bernese loyalists..., and the rebels..... They're just waiting for someone to make a wrong move, by the tales I've heard." Even if the rebellion is still small business, it could still cause alot of trouble for us.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Nayru couldn't hold back a small snort of amusement, about as close as she was likely to get to legitimate rolling peals of laughter. "I ran into a wyvern lord and a pegasus rider right near the border. Both offered me their version of the tale, each making the other side out to be the very embodiment of evil. Granted, the pegasus rider was more worried about the man's wyvern eating her pegasus..." Oh, that had been a wonderful mess. Had it already been weeks? She spared a thought to wonder what Jasper was up to, but gave it an uncaring shrug a few moments later. She had felt no spark from him; rather, a darkness that she didn't particularly want to explore.

Still... Clair seemed to feel somewhat strongly about the Bernese mess. The dragon couldn't help but wonder why. Was it an Ilian thing, a pegasus knight thing, or - something the woman in particular had a particular tie to? Hm. Curious. It piqued Nayru's curiosity, if nothing else. Richter and Clair hadn't been leading a grand army so it was unlikely they were Ilian high command en route the conquer all of Bern, but there were any number of other, more reasonable explanations. "You seem - somewhat emotionally involved in the matter. Might Bern be your destination, perhaps even your mission?"

If so... that couldn't be good for the rebels. Not that she particularly cared. It was an amusing game to attempt to connect the dots, though; a trail of ifs and ands and buts that led to nothing. The idea of Richter playing diplomat was itself ridiculous enough to draw out a vague half-smile, but perhaps he was Clair's bodyguard or something. Not that she seemed to need one, exactly. Maybe it was just a relationship thing. Neither of them really seemed like diplomats, though. Not in general pleasantness, of course, but neither did either of them have the sliminess and concilliatory air that she would have expected from the two had they been career diplomats. Sending two soldiers to another country certainly didn't seem like an attempt at diplomacy, at least as it was usually defined.

[Clair Feldsky]

Clair's expression froze as Nayru made a few guesses. She was very emotionally involved in this. Ilia's future would be affected by what they did, and what happened in Bern. It was unlikely friendly relations would be able to resume after this whole debacle, but Bern still held the main key to supplying the cold northern country. Nowhere else, and at no other time had they had such heavy dealing with the other countries. At least, not that she had ever heard of.

"You could say that." The falcoknight wore a confused expression, unsure whether she should tell everything or not. Secrets came easily to her, regarding her profession, but they weren't always needed or advantageous.

"For better or worse, the fighting in Bern needs to be stopped...." Clair said finally, standing up from her gear and turning to face the silver haired dragoness.

"If it isn't stopped, there will be no one to stand in the way of Etrurian forces marching on our homes, of monsters, opportunistic brigands who would take advantage of the situation. You name it. It won't be an easy job to do.... so I suppose you could say I'm involved in it. The events in Bern about to begin now will shape the nature of Elibe's future." She could be exaggerating some, but there was no denying that Bern would have an impact on Ilia, and she wanted to be there for it.

"Most people in the south probably haven't thought of it, but Ilia has changed much in the last eight years."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Ah. A "peace-"keeping force, with the emphasis liable to be on the bit about force. That made more sense. Nayru didn't know either human by name or deeds - it was amazing how much you could miss while just farming; perhaps someday there would be a better network for intelligence - but was beginning to suspect that one or both of them were war heroes or generals of some variety. Less a strong-arm force so much as either weapons of surgical precision, or a manner of organizing and leading the existent Ilian forces in Bern. That would... probably explain why they were traveling without a massive army. And they definitely weren't diplomats if they were going to tell her that. Or maybe they were, and this was all just a trick, and they were actually Bernese rebels moonlighting as Ilians pretending to be Etrurians who were actually Sacaens.

She smiled pleasantly, quashing that line of thought with ruthless force. "It certainly seems that Ilia is taking their... conquest quite seriously." The words came out just a hint slower than usual, her intonation slightly off; while she respected the apparent goals of the Ilians, they were still in Bern to forcibly subjugate it. Her ties to Bern were nonexistent, but she was enough of a pragmatist to call it for what it was... in her mind, at any rate. No need to antagonize the pair further, and it wasn't really her problem in the first place. Nayru chuckled quietly, slipping back into the mask. "First Bern, now Etruria - this continent seems to have no shortage of madmen in charge of overwhelmingly massive armies. Perhaps it is something in the water."

It was - bothering her, though. Clair's last words seemed to be almost defensive, an idea she felt strongly about but recognized the need to defend to others. Imagined the need? Anyways, it was strange. Even if she wasn't exactly involved - maybe she could do with prying a little more. "...Changed how?" The dragon held back the urge to comment on their acquisition of a previously-sovereign country as being one of the more obvious manners in which Ilia had changed, more interested in pursuing a neutral route than taking out her frustrations with the other human on the more-or-less innocent one.

[yeah sorry for lateness and badness]

[Clair Feldsky]

The blond haired Ilian felt a cringe attack her self control as Nayru referred to Ilia's "conquest". A slight knitting of the brow. A twitch at the end of an arm. A small stiffening of her stance. Small giveaways of the frustration which the falcoknight knew wasn't truly aimed at Nayru, but at the unfairness of the world. At the suffering her people endured, and what her country and others were doing that caused misery to be spread to other nations, intentionally or not. By all of Ilia's cold winds, how much of this pain had she caused by herself? And she knew she wasn't done yet. Probably wouldn't be. If she was lucky, there would be a lull someday, when she wouldn't have to be expecting to kill an enemy at any time.

Completely unsure of the results, Clair started to answer Nayru's question. What had changed in Ilia? She had been very young before the changes she meant had taken place, so she relied mostly on secondhand experience from people she knew and trusted. Much of it came from her parents.

"The question nobody ever seems to think about." The falcoknight shook her head, pushing away the pain and confusion from the entire Ilian-Bern situation. "Nayru, if you've been to Ilia, then you would know how cold it can be there at times. Next to nothing usable will grow there. Exporting goods is difficult. The only thing we can truly rely on selling are the blades we wield. This.... is a partial fix to our problems." Clair frowned, unsure if she was wasting her breath, or if maybe a little bit of awareness could be gained from the speaking.

"It gets people out of the land, so we need less in the way of imports. It also gets people out there to send money back into Ilia. It's a broken, dangerous way for a population to live. That changed several years ago though. When we took over Bern's security, plenty of Ilians moved in and started sending supplies back home. An Ilia with the supplies to build better roads, outfit its soldiers and officers better, support itself without starving.... This is what I grew up with, hearing stories about what came before."

The Falcoknight closed her eyes, affected by what she had finally let out to someone else. It'd made occasional forays out into the open, but never had she spoken of Ilia and its situation so openly before. Her voice quivered slightly as she looked back up, a light changed from candle to bonfire burning in her eyes.

"And, you can be damn sure that I'm not letting my country go back to that!" She looked down, the Thunderlance somehow having made its way back into the iron grip of her left fist as she gestured with her right hand. Thankfully, the point was down, although the light coming from the weapon seemed to have risen with the fervor of her emotions. Rather than putting it down again, she reaffirmed her grip, making sure she didn't lose it, while aiming it into the ground....

She'd let herself get a bit too far out there. She was supposed to be balanced, and controlled, but on occasion, true conviction demanded more than quiet obedience and dedication. It still didn't change her embarrassment at having lost her discretion during the story.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

SOUNDTRAAAACK

Nayru couldn't help but pity Clair, pity Ilia; she hadn't been to Ilia often - pegasi were about as fond of her as they were of wyverns. The idea of being seen as identical to a wyvern still rankled at her perfectly reasonable draconic sensibilities but that was something else entirely - but she knew what Clair was talking about. Ilia wasn't a mercenary country because they liked killing people; they just didn't really have any other way to survive, and over time they had become very good at what they did.

The thought of suggesting that maybe they didn't live on top of Mt. Buttfreeze occurred to her, but for some reason people were a lot less open to repositioning halfway across a continent than one would think, so the dragon saved her breath. The problem was - "And in return, Bern chafes under Ilia's heel. Deprived of their independence, their say in their future; what Ilia gets they give with little recompense. One wonders if they would not be able to re-assert some measure of 'peace' left to their own devices in short order, given patriotism and sudden freedom from their yoke of servitude." Nayru trailed off for a moment, then continued, her voice a little further away. "There isn't a pleasant solution, of course, and it isn't as simple as just... pulling out. People always look out for themselves first; in this world there is no other way to survive. Even if it means hurting others sometimes to hold fast to what happiness we can salvage from the ashes."

Elly was foremost on her mind, and a sideward glance in the direction of the camp belied the subject of her thoughts. It still - bothered her, though, to be frank. She wasn't likely to tell the human up front, needless to say, but there was this whole little mess a while back that a couple people might be familiar with on the matter of some people screwing over some other winged people and taking their land that Nayru felt it was reasonable to consider an excellent example of how the losing side didn't exactly get a lot out of the bargain, other than having a bunch of them die and being stuck living in a world gone crazy. And going quickly downhill in the eventual aftermath, if all these evil creatures were any indication.

That all said, the dragon wasn't sure that she could... blame Clair, exactly, or Ilia in general. She didn't agree with what they did, but - she wasn't naive or stupid enough to think that if dragons as a species saw their chance they would likely happily redo the Scouring, in reverse this time, and take back their world. Most groups in this world had a grudge against someone or something they believed was theirs, or at least had something they would like to obtain. "Mmmh." She breathed out, frustrated a little by her inability to offer an easy solution or magically come up with the perfect advice.

Still, she wanted to at least show some token of support. She might not agree with Clair's actions and goals entirely, but the reasoning behind them made sense, at least. "I do hope you can salvage something good from the situation without the need to use your... magical wand." Wave the magic stick, make the bad guys go away! "Perhaps there is some area of true mutual interest to be found that leaves both countries happy. Perhaps not, and I am little more than a naive fool who would see a silver lining where there is none to be found."

Nayru smiled genuinely at Clair, not really sure what she was trying to say but acutely - and awkwardly - aware that she was still talking nonetheless. "Or perhaps Elly is the Chosen One who will unite all countries under an eternal banner of peace and awkward well-meaning, and we are all to be her babysitters in the meantime." That might have sounded more amusing in her head than in practice, she decided. Back to square one with this whole joke thing. "Still. I choose to believe that perhaps you can make something good come of this. You care too much for your people to be interested in a simple greedy grab for territory, and there are just as many people in Bern to consider, whether or not you see them as such yet. Perhaps in another decade I shall pull my head out of my latest venture to hear that you've brokered permanent peace between Bern and Ilia, or unification, or a mutually beneficial arrangement from which both countries can profit and grow strong... together."

Or perhaps Clair would just beat down the insurgency and go home, convinced that she had done the right thing and saved the day. Nayru supposed that there was little she could do on the matter other than attempt to nudge the human on a more peaceful path, but she held no delusions about seriously influencing the woman with jus ta few simple, empty words

-And yet she wanted to believe, so very much, that those meaningless words, which held so much meaning to her, might hold some meaning to Clair, to others as well. They didn't need to rewrite every living being into mindless obedience to achieve peace; even now humanity held within it the seeds to greatness, to walking together into a brighter future. Transitory and fleeting though a generation or two of peace might be to her, to every human who lived through it, it would be an example of what a perfect world might be like, something they could instill in their children, and their children's children.

After all, it was the children that would carry that dream into the future. For now, all she could do was lay the framework.

[YEAH THAT ENDED UP LONGER THAN INTENDED SORRY. 4am, been doing calc since like 7pm, suddenly had inspiration >_>]

[Aerious]

Aerious had been quietly brooding for a time, leaving Clair and Nayru to their discussions. In truth, he was quite certain he had not made any friends with the lot of them. Nayru might have thought worse of him now, but he knew she'd understand where his rather...strong feelings on humanity came from.

He returned to the pair after a few moments, hefting his pack and the worthless sword onto his back.

[red]"Nayru, it's probably about time for us to head out if you are done."[/red] He called to her as he approached. He turned to Clair as he spoke, his face as difficult to read as ever. [red]"Oh I had a question for you before I left, just a habit I started a few years ago when I met unique humans. Can you think of a message for your descendants? There may come a time when I meet them, and I find that those with honor and strength should not have their lessons forgotten."[/red] He pulled a small book from a pocket. It was clearly ancient. The cover was an odd metal, the pages something other then parchment as he placed a finger on a blank 'page'.

It was an oddly subtle way of speaking, but it was about the closest Clair would get Aerious to saying he actually respected her. Not a very trusting one by nature.

[Clair Feldsky]

The thought that Bern gained little from Ilia's presence rankled at the fair haired northerner. Yes. Bern had lost its independence, but with all the rebellion fired up, she doubted that things would remain tranquil if the Northmen pulled out. Plenty of Bernese would still remember the Bandit War, and the chaos of those times, and be grateful for the Ilian presence. Others, many whipped into a fury by the rebellion, only wanted them out of the country, and took no thought for what would happen next: a whole lot of mess as a country bereft of its leaders, and its overseers strove to sort itself out, and then the inevitable fighting over who was to lead them now. Bern's only true hope was to find a strong person to be that leader, who could sway events for the country, and work selflessly for his people.

Regardless of her feelings on the matter, Clair was glad to see some glimmer of understanding and sympathy for the north land in the silver haired dragoness.

"I hope things go well for us too...." Clair stopped her sentence, unsure where to go from there. She was but a young woman. At times, she felt like barely more than a girl, and yet she was also a Falcoknight with the strength and will to do what she believed needed done. Independent of the her country's army, and yet loyal to its people.

She was surprised when Aerious returned to the conversation, and even more surprised when he addressed her. He had seemed fed up with both her and Richter in general. Now, he was suggesting a departure, but this question he asked her... " Can you think of a message for your descendants?"

Did that even mean what she thought it sounded like? She knew Dragons could live very long lives, but the idea that one would be willing to carry a message for her. A time capsule, so to speak, where she could hide away a message to be delivered to her children's children, or potentially further down the line.

The idea that the Dragon had paid her a compliment finally settling in, she asked a question, partly stalling for a bit of time as he mind wrapped around this new and unexpected event, and partly out of wishing he would naturally elaborate more.

"You would do that?" Part of her found the scaly lizard completely disagreeable. He had been rude, smug, and she his methods and beliefs surrounding his goals were a complete break from hers, but a part of her also saw the value in what was being offered to her.

"This surprises me, Aerious."

[Aerious]

Aerious chuckled a bit at her hesitation. [red]"Don't get the wrong idea, I don't intend to track down members of the Feldsky or Abend clans. But who knows, one of you might become someone very important in Ilia's history in time. Perhaps in a thousand years I'll run into one of your descendants, it is possible. A small enough world, I suppose."[/red] He mused, looking back in the book. [red]"I have a few here already...hmmm, Vince deRosa, nice man but a bit childish, he said 'Try not to take life so seriously, you won't survive it anyway.' Not sure I agree with his sentiment, but he was a remarkable fellow."[/red] He said flipping a page back and scanning the book. [red]"Ah, here is another one. 'Those who are fearless are merely without fear. Those who act in spite of fear are the ones who know bravery. - Devenus.' He was a knight, of Etruria as I recall. Honorable and noble man, always tried to get others to stand up for themselves, rather then relying on him and others like him to do it for them. Commendable goal."[/red] He turned back to the blank page where he had added her name, though by what means was not directly apparent.

[red]"Well then Clair Feldsky, what wisdom do you have to share to the future?"[/red]

[Clair Feldsky]

The falcoknight's head spun in amazement at what the dragon had done. Was still doing. The legacy of people he'd met who knows how long ago, preserved through him. It wasn't much. Only a snippet out of the story of someone's life, but still, they were speaking to her through those pages. Of course, he could be pulling her leg, but something seemed to ring true in the words he read. She still wouldn't place her full confidence in him, but this at least was something she could appreciate.

Now he was asking what she would add. Where to even begin? Much of what she fought for and loved probably wouldn't even matter in a thousand years. Ilia may not even exist anymore. Almost certainly not in the same form it did today. Hopefully. That removed much of what she knew of from consideration. The rest was a dizzying jumbled maelstrom of ideas, which would take too long to organize into anything usesful. The answer to this question would come though. This chance was too amazing for her to pass up and waste. She'd been fighting to leave her mark in history for what seemed like a long time, and there wasn't a plainer chance than this to do so. Whatever she left then, should come from deep inside her.

What was at her core? What had become the motor driving the young rookie knight to where she was? The first things she thought of were fighting for her country. Not only ensuring it survived, but making it better for the people there. That was what drove her efforts so strongly. She didn't stop there though. Survival was a key component of her being. It had to be in this life. She had always wanted to become a mark on the map, and considered someone worthy of note. It seemed frivolous now, after remaining so long in this duty and war, but it still remained. From her youth, when she'd only wanted to match her mother's fame and skill to now, where she strove after the ongoing goal of excellence. To become a name to be remembered.

The troubles in Bern demanded more than a glory seeking survivalist though. She just hoped that she and Richter the right ones for the job though, because their country seemed to think they were. Ilia intended to set them to work shoring up the weaknesses which had splintered into the rebellion in Bern. Whether the northern country knew it or not though, these workers had minds of their own, and were able and used to making their own judgement calls.

"If you must fight, never forget why, never fall short, and never be ignorant of your deeds. Never should the excuse "I didn't know" pass the lips of a leader."

The words came out almost of their own accord. Likely some combination of her discussion with Nayru, and the brief bit of soul searching she'd managed. She hardly knew what to make of it herself, but these words were some of the main rules which she kept in mind whenever she did anything.

She felt curiously quiet after voicing her statement, but managed a small farewell.

"We should go." It was just a simple statement. She looked to the dragons, and beyond to where the pegasus squire was bound to be. She would miss Nayru and Elly. Aerious not so much, but he was still someone worth having met. Perhaps if they met again, there would be fewer harsh words.

"Tell Elly I said bye, and take care of yourselves.... And thankyou for that chance, Aerious."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Clair still seemed troubled by something, evident in the way she carried herself, but the human apparently decided against vocalizing it. Part of her approved - Nayru decided that she, for one, had already been through enough arguing to last her for the next few century over the last five minutes - but it still bothered ehr that Clair didn't seem to entirely agree with her assessment. Humans had always been stellar at deluding themselves, she supposed, but the dragon caught herself a few moments after the thought; that was something she was quite glad she hadn't said. Did it bother her more that Clair didn't reach the same conclusion as her, or that the human woman didn't accept her word as fact?

That she could not answer so simple a question worried Nayru somewhat. She was used to being right simply based on experience - people really were creatures of habit, and she didn't need to be good with people to eventually recognize patterns and personalities - but the hypocrisy of talking about alternate perspectives while willfully enforcing her own as fact was not lost on her. Whether or not it was actually true - and the dragon wasn't going to lie to herself and say that she thought Clair's was better - was irrelevant. Perhaps it was for the better that Aerious chose that moment to interrupt the conversation with his own method of transporting stories through time; Nayru listened, intrigued, as he explained the concept.

It surprised her somewhat that he had chosen to do that. He certainly hadn't mentioned it to her before, but she supposed that the hints had been there if she had known what to look for, looking back; they'd talked about her archivist tendencies, but not his. It was a different approach, an attempt to compress a life into a sentence or two; where she told stories, he carried snapshots. What was the saying? A picture was worth a thousand words? Perhaps a quote would be worth... five hundred. Nayru smiled to herself, holding back an uncharacteristic snort. She certainly had a tendency for the latter.

-Of course now Aerious had stolen her thunder as a historian, so talking about carrying anyone's stories would probably seem derivative. She paused, realizing how odd that sounded even in her mind; it shouldn't matter, but the last few days had given her much to think about and she was still somewhat out of her depth dealing with so many intense individuals. There was greatness everywhere she looked, seeds of possibility and sweeping majesty. ...And Elly and her... Nargles. Nayru was forced to raise a hand to cover her lips as she shook for a moment with quiet laughter, safely out of the limelight as the two conversed. Yes, perhaps it was about time to check in on the girl's hunt and see what monstrous aberrations she had managed to hunt down and enslave.

With the conversation wrapping up, though, she was forced to acknowledge that there were other people in the vicinity, and that farewells generally required most of the people involved to be, well, involved. Other than Richter, the human group had been surprisingly interesting. Perhaps they would run into each other again in the future... or one of their descendents. "Too many stories are left untold, people forgotten by their fellow men, deeds that tell the story of an individual's true character when done with the knowledge that no one will ever know." Men who fought to the death to protect their loved ones, even knowing that no one would have seen them flee, or resisting temptation in far-away lands. "I like to think that reminding others of the goodness inherent to people helps engender more, a chain reaction that never ceases to push people towards bettering themselves and the world about them."

All in all, it had been a learning experience. Nayru smiled gently, basking in the warm sun and quiet breeze of the Sacaen plains. She really had to come here more often. "Farewell, Clair. May Father Sky watch over you and Mother Earth hold you safely in her gentle embrace." The sheer quantity of Sacaen proverbs never ceased to amaze her... nor did how inconsistently they actually went. She had heard at least three variations of that exact one; this variation was the most poetic, and therefore her favorite. The quieter dragon didn't feel particularly shallow for admitting that.