A Dream of Empire Ch. 008

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"It means that I'm talking to you," she lied. "Anyway-"

"Neat. Can you always see them?"

"Yes, but they're easy for me to ignore," Tatiana answered succinctly before returning to her previous thought. "Anyway, everywhere you go there's a thousand thousand strings. But none of them travel upward, Talos," she explained softly, raising her forefinger towards the heavens. "No strings go up there."

"Why not?" Talos asked.

"No one has ever known, or maybe the answer's lost to us. Some think it's because there's nothing up there but stars, and that they're just other lifeless suns. Others reason it's because the life that is out there is too far away. That's what I think."

"Why'd you think that?"

"Well, when I... reach out to other places, other worlds, I feel as if I'm traveling really far away. I even have to make my own strings to connect me, for they aren't produced naturally off-world. But the strings that I create travel through a ripple of... well, a portal, so it doesn't snap from the length. And I feel as if those places are..." she pointed upwards again, "up there."

Talos brought his hands to his chest, folding his fingers together as he thought on it for a minute. Tatiana glanced towards him, letting him think. She always needed her own thinking time, after all, when she was reading a text that interested her.

"Wow," was all the man said after two minutes of silence. Tatiana giggled.

"Yes, and get this; the strings empower almost everything a sorceress does. They can transmit anything in a blink of an eye. Thoughts, emotions, raw, and even people. I can only teleport because I travel along them, descending from my chosen root when I reach my destination. Diviners can see far-off places because of them. Enchantresses can read people's minds from dozens of miles away, because they're already attached to all their potential targets."

Talos shifted towards Tatiana at the mention of that particular vocation, supporting himself on his side.

"My sorceress back in Catriona is an enchantress. Can you see her string?" he asked softly, nodding his head roughly in the direction of that city. Tatiana didn't bother looking for it to study, having already noticed it earlier thinking it was his connection to Casiama.

"You have one traveling west. It's a deep red," Tatiana sighed. "The strongest color. It's faint, though. Severed. Because of the valley's ward."

"Severed?" he asked.

"Don't worry. It will rejoin once you clear the valley."

Talos squinted, nodding as if he were following along. "Oh. Neat. Is there another? A second one?"

"Um... It would be difficult to tell from this vantage," she replied truthfully, again not shifting to look for it.

"How many red ones do you have?"

"None," she replied instantly, without having to think of the answer.

"And purple?"

"Five," she answered again, also instantly.

"Can all sorceresses see them?"

Tatiana sighed with a mixture of exhaustion and appreciation from the flurry of questions, pleased that Talos was so inquisitive. All the best minds were, after all.

"Yes," she replied with a smile, "but most do not look for them, as they're very distracting. Many have only seen them once, during school for assignment. As a teleporter I'm required to look for them, so it's more natural for me."

"Who are the five?" he asked with a smirk. Tatiana pursed her lips, but figured now wasn't the time to stop answering him.

"My mother, my sisters, Dusk... and you."

Talos smiled too, then sighed contentedly and glanced away from her for a second. He spoke in wonder after two moments of silent thought. "That's really cool, Tatiana. I truly had no idea... about the strings."

Tatiana turned towards him, resting her head on her arms. They were now both perched on their sides, eyes transfixed to one another's. "I can teach you so much more, Talos. I have an entire library in Redstone, all to myself, and there are a lot of... cool things out there to learn of. Like the strings."

Talos chuckled. "Maybe later, Redstone's a long ways off. I do miss the eats there, though."

There was a long silence then, under the infinite sky displaying the infinite worlds, broken by only the crackling fire and the rustling of trees in a calm breeze. A lonely and beautiful sorceress gazed into the eyes of one handsome noble, ruthless within the midst of battle but entirely accessible without. It would be easy to see why the sorceress had found her next words appropriate, if anyone else were wearing her boots.

"But Talos... we could be there now," Tatiana whispered with every alluring fiber of her body.

She knew her talents of teleportation were all the man needed to sate his wanderlust. She could weave an unending adventure for him within the infinite aether roots, a journey from storm to storm with no calm in between. If only he would accept. If only he would agree.

Instead of accepting or agreeing, Talos only cleared his throat at first. He must have realized a moment later that perhaps staring into Tatiana's eyes were not at all appropriate, as he turned away from her to lay on his back once again and stared at the stars. His eyes flickered about here and there, but they weren't looking at anything at all.

Tatiana, by now, expected him to reject her utterly.

"I was close to a teleporter, once. Years ago. Hells, it almost feels like a lifetime ago," Talos reminisced, his words soft as a midsummer's breeze. "She was a... field historian. A writer. She traveled from ruin to ruin, whether it were elven, human, or dwarven. Didn't matter to her, really, so long as she could write. I got wrapped up into it when she hired me on as muscle. Just a man good enough with a sword to repel the inevitable guardians of one particularly fortified tomb."

"Sounds like a good story," Tatiana whispered, staring at the man's lips. He nodded, and a gentle smile formed on his lips.

"Yeah. Dozens of good stories. Eventually that relationship turned from professional to... something more, something indefinable. She always offered to port me from place to place after that, but I always declined. Never trusted it back then, you see."

"A common fear," Tatiana reassured softly.

"But we always met again, at the next place all the same... until one day we didn't. We just had an argument about some banal matter or another a couple of moons before... I don't particularly recall the specifics. Anyway, when the portal opened that day, the only thing that appeared was a... mass of flesh turned inside-out. Blood still flowing through its veins. Heart still beating."

Tatiana gasped and her eyes widened in shock, and she only calmed the smallest amount when Talos chuckled.

"Yeah. I thought it was her at first, too. Thought the portal had... ah, I don't know. After what might have been the longest panic in my life, and I'd expelled all my guts had to offer, I eventually found the courage to inspect it. It wasn't a person at all, but a horse. And it wasn't an attempt to meet up with me, but merely a warning for me to never seek her out again. At least, that's what I interpreted it as." Talos exhaled slowly, shaking his head. "And I never did see her again."

Why is he telling me this? Tatiana wondered. "I'm sorry," she muttered instead. Talos turned his head towards her, remaining on his back.

"It was a long time ago. Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say here is that life is... fickle. People are fickle. Their feelings, their wants, their passions. Yours can change in the blink of an eye, or perhaps someone else's will and they'll make the decision for you. And I've learned over the years that it isn't right to give up a truly good thing, a good thing that might disappear in an instant, all for the promise of another."

Oh...

Tatiana flipped onto her back with trembling lip, unable to keep eye contact with Talos any longer.

But... he said it could end in an instant. Perhaps he's expecting it to end soon? Maybe he's telling me to wait! Or, maybe he's-

"Well, uh, I'm going to hit the hay," Talos said with a sigh, lifting himself to his feet. Tatiana nodded, her gazed fixed on the infinite, twinkling skies far above her.

"Yes. Okay," she exhaled abruptly. "I'll be here in the morning, Talos."

-=-=-

Tatiana awoke six hours later in her black bedroll, under the darkened skies of a pre-dawn morning. She tilted her head towards Talos' tent to find the man still in the deep of sleep, judging from his light snores.

Never one to distance herself from her comforts immediately, Tatiana gazed at the sky for a minute or twenty within the warm confines of her furred bedroll before she rose to greet the chill morning. She decided soon after to venture towards the lake once again, to both walk along it as well as change into her attire for the day.

The morning finally began to brighten as Tatiana gazed out over those calm waters and the valley beyond for another quarter-hour. She soon slipped her boots and pants off after a quick glance back towards camp to ensure Talos hadn't yet risen, then pushed her soft black skirt up her legs. The hem only fell to an inch above her knees, and Tatiana already felt the pangs of embarrassment for wearing such provocative attire as she tugged on the soft cotton. She somehow found the courage to keep it on, then carefully pulled her black lace stockings up her legs, hugging her pale skin tightly. She glanced at her dim reflection in the calm waters of the lake and pouted, hoping Talos would at least appreciate her efforts. She equipped her boots once more, then returned to camp.

Tatiana learned that day that she awakes far earlier than Talos does. She paced about the camp momentarily to ponder on her next activity, wishing she had brought a book for the excursion. She decided on raiding Talos' saddlebags in the hopes that he brought a book, as unlikely as it was, and was somewhat surprised to find 'The Subjugation of Tardia' in the third bag.

Tatiana shrugged, taking the tome after a moment's hesitation. Sure, the writing style of Tacitus was a little juvenile, and most of it was obvious Imperial propaganda, but Tatiana felt there would be no harm in reading the book a third time. She walked over to her bedroll to sit cross-legged, only realizing how compromising the position was when her cheeks had met the ground.

Returning to the bedroll it was, then. She snuggled in to her furs once more, summoning a floating white light with the snap of a finger when she was settled. The white orb hovered in place two feet from Tatiana's head, but she found it far too bright in this early hour. She willed the illumination to soften wordlessly, then found herself lost in the words of an Imperial general until Talos woke an hour later.

-=-=-

"Mornin'," the sorceress heard a man grumble as she relived the perilous Ferlo campaign of two-and-a-half hundred years ago. Tatiana shook her eyes awake, then tilted her head towards the voice, spying Talos already rising from his tent. "Hope you haven't been up too long," he groaned groggily, glancing towards the morning sun.

Tatiana only raised her hands and smiled at first, displaying the man's own book.

"I've been content," she replied softly. "Good morning, Talos."

Talos returned his gaze to her. "Yeah? Enjoying the story of your homeland's fall?" he smirked.

Tatiana shook her head. "Not particularly. The ending's not so bad, though. The Treaty of Selphyse."

"You've read... hm. How long have you been up?"

Tatiana giggled, shutting the tome in her hands. "Only an hour or two. Sorry, I've already read this one. I should have mentioned that."

Tatiana wiggled in her bedroll, removing herself from its warmth while Talos' gaze was still fixed on her. She kept careful attention to his eyes as she revealed her lower body, only spying him make a fleeting glance towards her legs. She had thoroughly embarassed herself by the time she awkwardly found her feet, and instantly turned away from his visage.

"So. What's your plan? For today?" she asked him nervously. Talos yawned before replying, flexing his shoulders awake to greet the day.

"Well, uh, since you're here... there's a cave nearby, and I won't let you miss out on it."

Tatiana spun back around, wearing an anxious smile. She noticed his gaze flicker up her form. "A... cave?"

"Yeah, it's - well, you have to see it," Talos shrugged. "In fact, I won't have it any other way."

"But what about... bats?" Tatiana squeaked with wide eyes.

"We'll take the risk," the man smirked, bending over to retrieve his shirt from yesterday.

"I hate bats."

"Are a few bats really going to scare away a star-walking sorceress?"

Tatiana, fixed deep in the man's eyes, hastily convinced herself to show some courage in front him. Talos likely didn't appreciate cowardice in the slightest.

"Um... no," she blushed, "of course not. I was only joking."

"Mm." Talos didn't press her, only smirking as he turned away.

Tatiana finally dropped the book she was still holding atop her bedroll, then gazed over the valley with her hands clasped at her side as Talos readied himself for the day. The lake, the trees, and the mountains all around her were lit up warmly once more, and she found it a pleasant enough sight to hold her attention.

That is, in between quick peeks of the man behind her. Frustratingly, it appeared to her that Talos wasn't terribly taken with her provocative outfit today. She silently decided to toss the skirt in the trash heap first thing when she'd returned to Redstone. Talos soon called her attention with a whistle, and the pair made their way to the valley's terminus.

-=-=-

Talos led her to an unassuming granite cliff at the end of the valley that morning, the pair sharing small talk as they made their way there. There was a small, dark crack in the granite at ground level, and betrayed no evidence that there was anything worth seeing within. Tatiana was consumed with anxiety when Talos said that this was the cave he had wanted to show her, and her anxiety didn't lessen when the man entered the dark crevice first.

Darkness soon consumed the pair as they ventured into the mountain. The cave Talos had dared her to enter was only a small and claustrophobic tunnel for the first mile, and the only noises which could be heard were their shuffling steps and the eerie drips of water echoing off the stone all around them. Tatiana felt utterly trapped here surrounded by the cold and wet rocks, and summoned an orb of light to follow her into the darkness in hopes of assuaging her fears. It didn't help, but she hoped her companion didn't notice as she followed him deeper into the mountain.

"So," Tatiana whispered softly, letting her voice bounce along the close cavern walls, "where's your next adventure going to lead you?" Hopefully somewhere nicer than this?

"Not sure," Talos replied with sight cast towards the wet stone floor, "I usually don't plan ahead like that. Doubt I'll be allowed out of Catriona after coming here, anyway."

Tatiana smiled, hearing a nascent flow of running water coming from deeper within the cave. She only now realized her fortune today, in that the pair hadn't encountered any bats so far.

"Allowed?"

Talos gripped the wall as he rounded the next corner. "Only jesting. Actually, think I might head to Dun Aysla next. It's an island just north of Catriona. Got some impressive elven architecture on it."

Tatiana nodded, gripping the same part of the stone a two seconds later. "I've read of it. One of the moon towers of Remilla, if I'm not mistaken."

Talos mumbled in agreement. Ask him if you can go too!

"Think I can go with you?" she asked as casually as she could.

"Sure," he shrugged instantly, rounding the next bend. Tatiana figured not responding to his acceptance would likely be the suave move here, so she limited her reply to an unseen smile.

The rushing water was growing louder as they delved deeper into the cave, and a hint of the morning sun soon made itself known further within. Tatiana squelched her magical lumination with a soft snap of her fingers when the natural light was sufficient. The dark and claustrophobic tunnel soon widened, then dumped the pair of adventurers into a gratuitously-large chamber.

The grotto they entered was illuminated in the center by sunlight, pouring angelically through a large natural opening in the roof of the cavern. Several waterfalls streamed from the same opening, pouring straight into the abyss below and into a small lake situated in the center of the grotto, about forty feet away from Tatiana and Talos. Greenery was evident all along the water there; grasses, flowers, and even several stunted trees. Talos turned about with an open palm, smirking.

"Well? Worth it?" he asked smugly. Tatiana agreed wholeheartedly as her gaze danced about the chamber, already absentmindedly stepping towards the lake.

Be smooth! she reminded herself.

"It's kind of cool," Tatiana shrugged softly as she stepped past him. She didn't notice the man's subtle frown.

"I... found it fifteen years ago, completely on accident," Talos replied with only a hint of disappointment, looking over Tatiana's backside. "Just got lost one day hunting down a... ah, it doesn't matter. But I've been back six times since. Although, this is my first since I've actually lived here."

Tatiana was too far away from him to reply aloud as she neared the water, but nodded in reply as she gazed out over the subterranean pond. She glanced towards him, finding his gaze fixed solely on her back... or perhaps lower. She decided now was the time to tease Talos, but soon realized she had no idea how.

Even through her naivety and anxiety, Tatiana decided to lean over towards the water as if she were merely testing it's temperature. She bent at the waist as alluringly as she could, practically feeling the man's eyes drilling into her legs, and dipped a hand into the freezing water. She held the lewd position for a second or ten, imagining Talos' lust building upon seeing her lace-clad legs, her naked thighs, perhaps even her innocence through her panties...

She shot back up, straightening out when she had thoroughly embarrassed herself. Tatiana heard the man's heavy footsteps nearing her a moment later.

"Ya know, you didn't seem like the skirt and stockings type of mage to me," Talos said as he walked towards her, grinning smugly as he kept his gaze turned towards the natural skylight. Tatiana, understandably, feverishly blushed from the candid statement.

"Oh... these ol' things?" she nervously, hoarsely, and yet somehow nonchalantly replied, bringing her fingers down for a quick, casual tug against her skirt. Talos didn't seem convinced, although Tatiana couldn't see into his eyes. "I guess every... mage has her secret, huh?" she asked huskily after a bitterly long moment.

"Well, you have me there," Talos shrugged, "but I always figured your secret would be something far more mystical. Y'know, something that would just blow me down if I ever heard it. Short skirts and stockings? Every sorceress does that."

I'm an idiot!

"Does it... bother you?" she pouted.

"Nah. Known enough mages."

Tatiana squinted at the response, realizing Talos was far better at acting aloof than she. Was she just another sorceress to him?

"Hey, let's have breakfast," Talos added after a moment, glancing towards a rock across the lake with a nod, "and tell me more of these moon towers."

The sorceress gave a haste nod as the man turned away, now sauntering around the lake towards the stone outcropping on the other side. She kept four paces behind him, contemplating silently how she could salvage the conversation.