A Dream of Empire Ch. 018

This chapter's all story.

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Lord Talos of Evora

Kingdom of Solais

21^st of Starset, 1282 D.f.

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Gloomy clouds of gray reigned overhead as the party traveled the plains of eastern Solais. Any remnant of civilization was now a three-day's ride behind them, and was an idea so very distant that it may not have existed at all. The brisk autumn wind smelled of rain, and the rolling horizon held nothing but grass, streams, and the occasional tree.

And plenty of rabbits. Talos, riding point, kept his crossbow at the ready lest he rode within ten yards of one of those frolicking bunnies, but otherwise made no change of course as he led his sorceresses through solitude and desolation. Fresh meat was merely a luxury when traveling with a teleporter after all, and his crossbow bolts would be worth more than a meal if he ever needed them.

Talos typically enjoyed solitude on his travels, but solitude of this magnitude typically led to an idle mind; and idle minds oft turn to anxiety, as if reminding itself that it's wiser to struggle than to live comfortably. Talos did not mind the struggle, of course; he was one to pick the difficult road over the simple when given the chance, and would never shy away from danger as long as he could swing a sword. Yet, his mind now always turned to one particularly gnawing worry; the fate of Casiama, his Cass, and what she would think of him when they finally reunited.

The day of answers drew nigh. Only eight to ten days remained on his journey to the straightened shore, a journey which would have already been completed if he'd traveled alone and not gotten himself distracted. There he would find Casiama alone atop a hill, fall hopelessly in love with her once again, and then have his soul shattered when she enlightened him of an infallible truth. At least, that's what the Oracle had told him two months ago.

To Talos, this prophecy now made distractions more valuable than food or water, no matter how they slowed his travels. He calmed himself with a deep breath then turned his attention to his lovely enchantress, who was riding thirty yards behind him beside the gorgeous Tanya.

Alanna was just then attempting to stifle a laugh as she looked on a concentrating Tanya. Tanya had her eyes glued to the book at her side, which levitated in the air beside her as she rode atop her terrifying black stallion. She had a hand raised skyward as if attempting to grasp the clouds above, and muttered a silly phrase under her breath which was clearly the source of Alanna's joy.

"Be the water... I am the water... I am made... of water..."

Alanna couldn't help but snort with laughter. Tanya had been trying her hand at elemental evocation for the better part of a week now, and hadn't gotten much further than a pitiful trickle of water.

"Go!" Tanya cried to the heavens, a sudden burst of steam exploding from her palm. The enchantress beside her giggled, shaking her head.

"Nooo Tanya, you have to be the water," she teased, puffing out her cheeks and bobbing her head as if it were a vessel at sea. "Like this!"

Tanya huffed, shooting her a look of disgust. "How is that water? And why must I say these words? Humans are already mostly water."

"I'm telling you! You can't study your way into elemental mastery, Tanya. You have to feel it."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "And what does water feel like?" she scoffed. Alanna puffed out her cheeks again, causing Tanya to giggle at her silly face and Alanna to giggle in turn at her sweet laugh.

"Okay, okay, let me help you. Shut that book and shut your eyes, Tanya," Alanna warmly said. Tanya gave her a smirk of disbelief before snapping her book shut with the wave of a finger, then closed her eyes just after. Alanna willed her mare two lengths closer.

"You are the water, Tanya," Alanna softly said. "You are everywhere. You rest, you wave, you splash about when asked by the wind, and you never mind her asks. You're calming, you're powerful, yet you are always modest. You are only water. You're... transparent, you're refreshing, but most of all..."

Alanna raised a palm, then willed a spout of water from it to splash Tanya in the face.

"You're wet," she grinned.

"Alanna!" a soaked Tanya thinly screamed, glaring at her. She wiped her face clear of water, but certainly not of shock. "You'll rue the day you ruined my makeup!"

"So liike... yesternight?" Alanna teased. "Or yester-yesternight? Or yester-yester-yester-"

"Ah!" Tanya yelled, expelling another cloud of vapor from her palm towards Alanna. Alanna diverted it simply with a raised hand, then willed her mare to gallop away.

"Tanya, no! I've appearances to keep!" the enchantress cried as she rode away.

"And I didn't?!" Tanya squeaked in reply, kicking the flanks of her stallion. "Get back here! I'm sure you'll look great with a crooked nose!"

"Noo!" Alanna giggled, leaning over to shoot another spurt of water at the sorceress chasing her. Tanya warded it with an iridescent bubble then conjured a dozen black roses, their stems covered in thorns, and flung them at the enchantress.

And so the swift battle of irrelevant magics continued. Alanna soon raced past Talos, who had a hand to his face to hide his smile, as she cried for mercy and warded away the simple illusions. Tanya's black stallion flashed past him a moment later charging at full tilt, but was soon driven away from Alanna by a stream of water and a helpful enchant.

"Traitorous steed!" Tanya loudly declared as her horse turned about and slowed to a halt. Talos, keeping his same pace, rode past the drenched sorceress and her unwilling stallion at a trot.

"It's probably for the better; I like her nose how it is," he softly said, silently telling his enchantress to return the horse's self-determination in the same breath. Tanya huffed and wiped her face again, then rode up beside him.

"I would've returned it come nightfall," she muttered with a smile, reaching out for her levitating spell tome. She looked it over in her hands and wiped the cover clean of water, chuckling. "Oh. That's why she told me to shut the book. How thoughtful."

"Gracious, even," Talos dryly replied.

"Let's not be hasty here," Tanya smirked.

"I think she may even like you," he continued.

"Yes, well... tell her to come back," she sighed, giving the distant enchantress a friendly wave. "I won't give her a crooked nose. Today."

"Mm. Sounds like the feeling may even go both ways."

"Now that's very hasty, Talos," she warmly replied. "But probably true. It's difficult not to like her."

"Told ya," he shrugged.

"Not to mention we... well, you know..." Tanya shook her head in an attempt to will her blush and smile away, but failed in the endeavor as she looked on the approaching enchantress. She cast her gaze skyward instead. "Why are we following the sun, Talos? Where in the world are you taking us?"

He cleared his throat. "Old man Barnabas' place," he answered.

"Old man who?" Tanya smiled. Talos reached for his saddlebags, producing his map of the easterlands a moment later. He unfurled it, then leaned in towards Tanya to share it.

He pointed at a small 'x' on the map. "Here. The only company we'll likely find out in these parts."

Tanya took the scroll from him, squinting at it. "Old Man Barnabas... the Greatest Hooch-Maker in Solais?" she asked, reciting the marking's label.

"Mhm. I'm hoping it's drink," Talos replied, taking the map back. "And I'm hoping it's good. Though, judging from Mattias' strange taste in women... who knows?" he chuckled.

"Oh? Are you telling me you wouldn't sleep with a succubus, Talos?"

"Sleep with? Sure, I'd try anything once, even the goat-woman. Live with, though?" he replied, shaking his head. Alanna spoke when she soon completed her fifty-yard return to them giggling, smiling, and being that ray of sunshine she was.

"Don't be greedy, my love. We've Tanya to dream of now," she gently chided him, turning her horse about to trot alongside.

"I dunno, Alanna. Mattias professed that the goat-woman could ride for hours on end, whereas we know Tanya tires after only a quar... ter... sorry," Talos coughed out, backpedaling from his jest at the sight of one displeased sorceress.

"No no, go on," Tanya replied with a coy smirk. "Please, continue to compare my sexual prowess with that of a demoness. Your nose is safe for now."

Talos wiped his nose as he looked out to the horizon instead, decidedly not continuing that avenue of conversation. He sighed.

"Sure hope it's drink."

-=-=-

The clouds overhead were swept away and the sun had turned to orange by the time the party neared their destination for the night. A brisk wind pushed against them as they rode, as if telling the trio they were headed in the wrong direction, but Talos paid it no mind.

Before them stood a gently-sloping hill, ringed by trees and a pair of streams flowing to the straightened shores to their south. Atop the hill laid a single modest house, from which a soft trail of white smoke rose into the sky. The location of such a home wouldn't have confused Talos had there been farmlands around it's perimeter, but as he neared all he spied was a small garden fit for one. A hermit, he supposed; he'd encountered their kind more than a hundred times, and found that each was more insane than the next.

Talos took the lead as their horses cantered up the hillside. His eyes darted left and right as he neared the cottage as if suspecting a trap, but besides the garden, the home, the trees and the streams, all he could see was a single, lonesome dog, who barked at him as they neared. Talos dismounted first, unequipping his sword and crossbow as he did, and made his way to the house's entrance.

Sure, it would have made more sense for Alanna to take the lead. No man or woman could resist her charms, after all, even if they were warded; but three days without seeing a single soul made a swordsman nervous, and so he was the one who rapped on the door whilst his sorceresses stood behind him wearing their best smiles. Talos crossed his arms when he heard the approaching footsteps from inside.

The door slowly creaked opened just a crack, displaying a portly, older man who held a loaded crossbow pointed at Talos' chest. The old man cleared his throat, and spoke to his uninvited guests with a raspy voice.

"I've no coin here for ye to thieve, scoundrel," the old man said with a squint. "Best try Hardcore, or another town who's more use of currency."

Talos waved a hand, but kept his arms crossed. "Fortunately I've no desire for coin this day Barnabas, no matter how true your story may ring. I'm unarmed. Can I ask the same from you before someone is injured?"

Alanna was already reading in the portly man of course, and she found he held no desire to shoot at his guests. The portly man wasn't even sure if the crossbow would still work, seeing how old it was. Alanna pushed these thoughts onto Talos, who found them entirely irrelevant; no man but the stone-hearted ever desired to shoot another, and the stone-hearted typically don't grow old.

The man's squinting gaze finally left the bloodied, intimidating form that was Talos, to instead look at the two deceptively-innocent-looking maids behind him; he lowered his crossbow soon after.

"Ye've heard of me?" old man Barnabas asked of Talos. "But, how's such a thing possible? Who're ye?"

Talos extended a gloved hand before realizing it was covered in a layer of blood and grime, then removed his glove.

"Name's Talos, and my women go by Alanna and Tanya, mages both," Talos greeted, nodding his head respectively, and shaking Barnabas' trigger hand after he'd set his crossbow against the inner wall of his cottage. "We were led this way by the half-man Mattias, who swore up and down that you were the greatest hooch-maker in Solais. So, rather than coin, I seek whatever deserved such praise, and perhaps a sturdy roof for the night if you could offer it."

"That fookin' midget!" Barnabas guffawed with a hearty shake. "How's tha' little bastard getting along? Hopefully hasn't lost his legs I pray, lest he be forced closer to the ground!"

Talos chuckled. "He's well Barnabas, and fortunately still possesses both his feet. May we come inside?"

Barnabas put a hand on the door to swing it fully open, and offered an outstretched palm for his unexpected guests. "But of course! Any friend of Mattias is a friend o' mine. Just mind the mess, if ye would. Not many travelers venture this way, if ye can imagine such a boon."

Talos nodded. "I can. Gratitude, Barnabas," he softly said before stepping past him to enter the cottage. He was aware of the hermit's lingering gaze on both Alanna and Tanya as they did the same with smiles and gratitudes, but didn't pay it any mind. Such a thing was to be expected.

Barnabas poked his head out from the cottage once the threesome was inside. "Mutt! Inside!" Talos heard the jangling of a collar, and then watched on with a smile as Barnabas' dog ran inside the house. Barnabas shut the door after him, then turned to the trio.

"Make yerselves comfortable! I've rabbit and greens fer supper tonight, same as all nights, and there's a washboard and suds by the stream if either ye ladies need'ta wash yer clothes."

Want to be my washerwoman? Talos smirked to his enchantress, receiving a similar smile from her. He figured the old man's haste recommendation came from a desire to see the sorceresses disrobe, which was also to be expected.

"Gratitude, Barnabas," Alanna giggled. "Perhaps on the morn', when I could better see what I'm washing?"

Talos grinned as he looked around the room. Everything appeared self-made by the old hermit, with materials found nearby rather than purchased in town. The couch, for example, was more of a wooden bench, whilst the rocking chair beside the crackling fireplace had the simple edges of an untrained carpenter.

"S'pose that makes sense," Barnabas grinned, clasping his hands together. "Well, I've a never-used guestroom in any case, just down the hall there," he nodded, then turned his gaze back to Talos. "But ye came fer hooch! And I got yer hooch. Tell me, Talos, do ye desire mandrake, or nightshade?"

Talos smiled, now that his hopeful wish that hooch was indeed drink was answered. "I'll avoid the poison tonight and take the mandrake, Barnabas."

The hermit guffawed, clapping Talos on the shoulder. "But, me man! They're both poisons, just like all drink! Perhaps I should'a said woody nightshade, though; a bit more'va edible fruit than it's cousin."

Talos grinned, shrugging. "Let's try both, then. What the hells."

"Both! I can already tell yer a good man. Sit down, all ye, and make yerselves comfortable. Let an ol' man fetch the drinks and cups."

"Thank you," Tanya smiled, taking a gander at the bench behind her before gracefully lowering herself onto it. She was joined by her companions a moment later, whilst Barnabas skipped towards the back of the house to clang around in the kitchen for a minute. His dog came up to Alanna in the interim, who gave him her back-patting, ear-rubbing attentions.

"What a nice man," she said to her companions as she pet the dog. "He gave us the warmest welcome we've received in all of Solais."

"Besides the crossbow, you mean," Tanya softly mused.

"Can you blame him?" Talos shrugged. "He may not have coin, sure, but drink and a house is more than enough reason for bandits to strike. Hells, I've seen robbers try to take a life for a pair of boots."

"Boots?" she asked with a raised brow.

"Boots," he confirmed. "By their nature, peasants aren't blessed with the fortune of being the Chancellor of Tardia's daughter, Tanya. A good pair of boots can cost them a month's fortune, and a lack of boots can cost them their lives. Poverty breeds desperation, desperation breeds thievery, and the world spins on anyway."

"Well, I know that," Tanya blushed. Alanna giggled, leaning in to ruffle the dog's fur with both hands.

"If I were queen, I'd give boots to all my subjects," she generously declared. Talos scooched towards her to kiss her on the cheek.

"And what great royalty you'd make, honey," Talos smirked as he retreated. "Queen Alanna the Temptress."

"Queen Alanna the Well-broken," Tanya giggled in jest. Alanna shot her a glare as she assaulted the dog in front of her with love.

"Queen Alanna the Beautiful," she corrected her. "Come on Tanya, you know I'd only spread my legs for my most loyal subjects."

"Which would be literally everyone, enchantress," Tanya shot back, sticking out her tongue. Alanna groaned.

"Ugh! The things I put up with to keep the peace in my realm," she giggled as Barnabas returned to the hall, juggling two large glasses and four wooden cups in his arms. Talos shot up from the wooden bench to help him set them on the table, then sat back down between his sorceresses as Barnabas poured the first round.

"Alright ye intrepid folks," he said. "We're startin' with the mandrake. Ye've had hooch before, I take it?"

"None of us have, sir," Alanna answered with a smile. Barnabas grinned.

"Ohh, I see. So none of ye's have nothing to compare it to. Well! It tastes like fire," he explained, handing a cup to Alanna, "it's repulsive to all ye's senses," he continued, serving Tanya, "and it'll knock ye's on yer butt if yer not careful," he finished, handing a glass to Talos before taking one for himself. "Fer the ladies, I'd recommend holdin' yer nose. Goes down easier that way. Talos, I'll kick ye out of my home if ye try the same. Give us summin' to drink to."

Talos raised his drink, as did the other three. "To finding friends in unexpected places," he cheered, tilting his drink towards Barnabas, before bringing it to his lips and downing the double shot of poignant liquor on the first try. He couldn't resist grimacing when he felt his throat, lungs, and heart fill with flame, and he sharply exhaled when he slammed his cup back onto the table. "Hoooo shit."

Alanna, in the meantime, was sharply coughing to his right and shaking her head. Tanya, still plugging her nose as best she could, was now panting louder than the dog.

"It's... it's... respectable, Barnabas," she tried complimenting, her cheeks reddening whilst she gave her damnedest not to hurl. Barnabas grinned as he stood over them, apparently immune to the drink's effects, and set to pouring the second round.

"A bit spicy, that one is. Let's try the nightshade next," he generously proposed. Talos nodded, Tanya put a hand up in refusal, and Alanna continued to cough and sputter.

"Sounds great," she croaked out.

-=-=-

And so the drinks flowed as the night drew long. Talos and Barnabas matched one another's pace with enthusiasm as they shared tales of heroism and adventure, whilst Alanna and Tanya, neither of them enthusiastic nor eager to consume any more of the vile liquid, kept to water.

Talos felt on top of the world after only three drinks of the magical liquor. With a peasant's drawl did he slur his words after five. Somewhere between the seventh and tenth he'd even somehow found his sword, and decided from then on to swing it about as he paced about the room and regaled the old man Barnabas with many a tale.

Only after the eleventh did he begin telling the story of why he, Alanna, and Tanya were actually here in the first place. He spoke of elven princesses, of white towers of yore, and of the origins of the Emerald Moon seen the world over. Barnabas, to his credit, seemed to take the stories in stride, no matter how ridiculous they would have seemed to most. The party had learned earlier that he'd been an adventurer in his younger years as well, before deciding to settle in the countryside and away from the troubles of civilization. This worldly view likely helped his digestion of Talos' tales.