Blackblade 12.4 - Sunrise Over the Mountains

Stepping lightly through the darkness, Caelan wound his way through the camp, picking a careful path between his sleeping companions.  The birdsong beginning in the trees around him told him that it would soon be time for them to awake anyway, and for him to sleep, but not yet. Not for the most part, anyway. Stopping next to one of the sleepers, he dropped into a crouch and lightly touched his shoulder.
"Vol. Wake up. I want to show you something."
Vol started at the touch; he had been sleeping more easily as of late, but he still woke with the slightest provocation. He drew a sharp breath as he jolted upright. His eyes darted around, but he settled quickly as he recognized his wherabouts and travelling companions. Mumbling a "Hmh?" while rubbing his eyes, he looked at Caelan questioningly. " 'S early," he added groggily, though the pre-dawn darkness hardly affected his perception.
A slight, crooked smile touched the corners of his mouth, "That kind of goes with the territory. Come." Standing, Caelan motioned for Vol to follow as he began retracing his steps across the camp. Pausing for a moment, he waited for the elf to catch up before making towards the rocky outcropping where he'd been keeping watch, "You've been sleeping better," he stated, matter of factly. "I'm glad to see that."
"Yeah..." he replied, still waking up. "Guess I'm having fewer nightmares." He trailed behind Caelan, unable to match the northman's ease of motion on the uneven, overgrown ground, but he still managed to avoid tripping or waking anyone.
A silent nod was all he offered in reply. Reaching the outcropping, he easily clambered up it and stopped to offer Vol a hand before taking a comfortable seat, facing southeast. Turning his gaze to the craggy peaks rising before them, he pushed his hat back on his head and sat in silence for a long moment. "You seem to be adjusting well, everything considered...better than I'd expected."
"I...I guess," he sat down as well, bringing up his knees in front of him. He looked out over the scenery before turning his gaze down towards the rock they perched upon. Considering a piece of gravel before he flicked it away, he added, "What...did you expect?"
Caelan regarded the boy out of the corner of his eye for a moment before returning to watching the sky. "Honestly? A lot has happened since we found you, I suppose I sort of figured you'd get worse before you got better. In my experience, thats how it usually goes. But you're a very smart kid, that much is easy to see, a quick learner. I'd imagine that's a good part of it..." He trailed off, fiddling absently with the beads in his braid.
"Heh..." he gave a quiet chuckle, though he kept his gaze down. "You have experience smuggling fugitives from the city into the woods?" he asked with a small grin, tentatively joking. With a sigh and another flicked rock, he added, "I guess if I was going to meet one expectation, this was an alright one to pick."
A crooked smile crossed Caelan's face for a moment, "I'll admit this exact circumstance is a bit new, yes, but it's pretty close to my day job, in some aspects." He turned to look at the boy, growing serious again. "Have you given any more thought to what direction you want to go? Assuming that everything we're doing now pans out, of course?" with a small sigh, he leaned back against the rock. "You're picking up the horse work pretty well, and the tracking, but I have no illusions that you'd aim to do either in the long term, it's not the sort of work you're meant for..." He glanced at Vol's hands.
Vol tipped forward, leaning heavily on his legs. "I...I don't know. I didn't know what I was going to do when...before, all of this. Not that it really mattered." He looked around vaguely. "I don't know how to do anything. Out here, in the...villages, I guess, everything has a cost, and I've got nothing to pay with. I don't even know what people do to get, what is it, money? Out here in the woods I probably wouldn't last an afternoon." He sighed, "Lord Kamun's been talking a lot about Yeto, but I don't really know what I can do there either." He shuddered and added quietly, "And it's not far from Lord Miro..."
Caelan's face twisted into a sour expression for a moment. "If you listen to one piece of my advice, be wary of Raito." He made to say more, and stopped himself with a shake of his head. After a moment he sighed and continued, "Be wary of people in general, really...until you get your footing sorted out. You're clever, and you can use magic...you can use both things to great advantage for yourself...but you're also young, and inexperienced, and there are many who would use that, and you, to their advantage," he paused for a long second, "...and not necessarily to your benefit. It's not a terribly pleasant situation to be in, trust."
The young elf considered that for a minute. "That's...that's just how it is, though." He continued, his face belying confusion as he tried to straighten his thoughts on the matter. "Everyone has a place, and everyone does what they have to. No one really does whatever they want: they do what their family wants, or needs, and if it works out alright, then they can do what they like. Or maybe not their family, village or something, I don't know. You're born to a family, your family raises you, and you do what your family needs you to do to help it carry on. And then, every family has its own place, so that everything works out for society. It's not..not always good, not everyone in every family is going to want the same thing, and some people have to do things they don't like, but...how would anything even work otherwise? Wouldn't it just be chaos?" He paused, "Do people out here 'take advantage', because it's their role to tell others what they need to do, or...because no one actually has a place?"
Caelan leaned forward and dropped his chin into his palm, chewing absently on his lower lip as he tried to sort out how to answer. After a long while he began, "Its...not so simple...not at all. I suppose everyone does have a place, or at least most do...but its not so rigid as in Riolythe...your place can change, or you can leave and someone else will fill it, oftentimes. But see...when you are fufilling your duty to your family, or village, or people...they have a duty towards you, yes? You get food, shelter, protection, status...whatever it is, its always give and take." with a shake of his head, he continued. "Thats what you're thinking of, I think...but its not always like that, what I'm talking about is something different...." he rubbed at the bridge of his nose, "...it's neither...people out here take advantage because they want some personal gain, and often its easier or more convenient, or safer to have someone else do the hard or dangerous work for their own reward...and you get nothing in return, or less than you ought...do you follow?"
"...Yeah," he admitted, though without comfort. He was quiet for a minute, then asked, "Did your family send you out here, or did you leave because you wanted to?"
Closing his eyes, the northman drew in a deep breath and sighed heavily, looking up at the sky. He stared for a long moment at the fading stars before quietly replying. "There are greater forces at work here than you'd believe; I know where you're from nobody believes in them, but it doesn't make them any less real. I left because I had to; my family certainly did not send me...heck, I'll have a far less than friendly reaction if I ever get back home. As far as wanting to..." He shook his head again. "We're all here because we must be, not because we want to be." With an amused snort, he went on, "You could say the lot of us are fufilling a duty to the world at large, and if we do a good job, we'll be free to go about our lives again." He fell silent again with a shrug.
"Heh. If we do a good job of stopping the crazy powerful man calling devils out of hell, or something else we haven't been told yet?"
"Mmmmh, could be either, but stopping whatever this Miro fellow is up to does seem to be a logical starting point."
Vol poked at the ground, "Not like I have a life to go back to, in either case. If the border attendants let me in," he stressed the 'if' heavily, "and if the rest of my family doesn't want me dead, and if they decide that it is less of a hassle to un-pronounce me dead than to just call me a lying Cor, then I'll probably by tried for the death of my cousin." He gave a sarcastic hand gesture with a flat "Woo. Good life." He sighed again, "Guess I'll have to find...something." 
Caelan looked at the elf for a long moment before softly answering, "...Let it all go. There is far more to the world than Riolythe. And I understand that it was all that you've ever known, but it's, so far as I can tell, lost to you now. And really..." he paused, "...the rest of the world has so much more to offer you...it's less a matter of what you could do honestly, and more of what would you like to do...at your age, and being able to do magic...almost every option is open. And as far as not knowing where to get started is concerned," he guestured at the rest of the camp "I doubt you'll ever find more people skilled in a more diverse set of fields all in one place. Just ask."
Vol laughed a little, "It's so weird, you keep mentioning magic like it's something special. I'm not...wasn't, even done schooling yet, and even that wouldn't have put me close to a lot of people. And now it's like, 'wow, you can cast cantrips, that's amazing!'." He chuckled again and said quietly, "I wouldn't ever tell him, but I'm pretty sure that Lord Kamun doesn't know much of anything more advanced then me. Heh. My uncle would be horrified that someone could be an adult and not know the proper pronunciation of the applied basic energy genesis theorem execution statement." He chuckled a bit quietly, "I don't know if that's like, an accent or what he's doing. I'm surprised it still works for him. Heh. He's still teaching me a lot of things though, just mostly about Yeto."
Chuckling slightly himself, Caelan shook his head, "Thats the thing, Vol, out here...magic isnt everyday, or for everyone, it's something very special. In Gaivoutna, my village, I know of three....no, four counting Bizu....four people who can use magic to any notable capacity...I don't know about Asanon or Yeto so well, but from what you've just said, I'd imagine it's the same."
A bit of the sadness creeped back in as Vol added, "I wish I still had my spellbook," he mentioned as his eyes drifted to the one he had tied under his belt. "This one...don't get me wrong, I'm glad I have it, but...it's not mine. This is a Cor book. A Cor child's book. Mine was a Vol's...it was mine." 
Caelan followed the elf's eyes to his spellbook and nodded slightly "...I didn't know there was a difference."
"Well, yeah. The colour and design of the cover. It's like you were menitoning before. There's meaning in how it's made and what colours it is," he half-paused, "even if I'm the only one out here who knows what the meaning is." He fiddled with the corner of the book; his expression was one of someone who wanted to ask a question, but was unsure of how to ask it. "Umm...this...probably sounds weird, and I don't want to be rude or anything, and you probably don't know anyways but...I don't know, I know that some people do leave Riolythe. Not like..." he glanced over his shoulder, "Ridley." Using the other elf's chosen name was awkward for him. "I think what he does is just plain illegal. I don't want to ask. Anyway, but the people who actually leave and don't go back. No one ever talks about them. I never really gave it any thought before, but...why did they leave? I don't know anyone whose ever been outside the country; the only reason I know that anyone leaves is because I asked someone why a branch on the family tree ended abruptly. And that was something like, 11 generations ago." He looked somewhat sheepish as he haltingly continued, "And, I guess I thought I'd ask, since it looks like you, have Riolythan ancestry, and maybe you'd know why your ancestor decided to leave." He hurredly added, with his slight blush barely visible in the dim light, "But...but it's ok if you don't know, maybe it was a really long time ago, or if you don't want to answer, or...or I'm wrong entirely. I'm sorry, I know I'm prying."
"It's alright, I don't mind in the least," he paused to think for a moment, then continued, slightly bemused. "My mother left Riolythe many years ago...at least over seventy, she's never given me an exact time frame though...I'd imagine everyone has their own reasons, but in her case, as far as she's told me, she was looking for freedom and...real-ness? The way she described it, she felt like everyone was putting on an act all the time." He shrugged, "I guess she just wanted to get as far away from everything Riolythe is as possible...hence why she ended up in Gaivoutna."
"Wait, your mom?" Vol looked confused. "I didn't know anyone had left that recently. But I guess I don't really know that much about other families; we don't exactly talk much. What's her name?"
Caelan chuckled slightly, "Lilivale....er...I suppose in Riolythe it'd be Ara Lilivale."
Vol looked a bit thoughtful, then shook his head. "No, never heard of her. I know the Aras, of course, but not her specifically." He grinned and looked a bit sheepish again, "Honestly, I don't know why I asked, I don't think I know anyone's name outside of the Vols. I wasn't kidding when I said we don't exactly talk much." He stretched his legs out, sitting more comfortably. "I never really met anyone outside of my house. No one from outside goes to anyone else's estate, and I wasn't exactly let out often. Heh, that was my fourth time to the city, when you found me." He added, more quietly, "This is probably the most I've talked to anybody, ever."
Caelan regarded the boy silently for a long moment before grunting softly and shaking his head. "The way Riolythe does things really is...different...I suppose..." he trailed off into silence and shook his head again frowning slightly, fixing his eyes firmly on the crest of the mountains. After a long moment he spoke again. "For what it's worth, you're always welcome to talk to me...about anything at all..." he cleared his throat and tugged his hat down a bit lower, suddenly changing tone, " Here, look." He pointed towards the place where the flanks of two mountains met "Watch that spot, the sun is going to crest that ridge soon." His expression took on a far-away look. "There's nothing in the world like seeing the sun come up over the Seldarins."
The two watched in silence as the sun rose up over the horizon, peeking between the rocky crags and painting the sky a soft smudge of pastel colours as the night turned to day. When it fully breached the horizon, Vol mumbled, almost to himself, "It does look different, then it does from over the trees. I wonder what it looks like over the ocean..." He shifted around and said to Caelan, "I should probably go get my spells in order. I don't want to make everyone fall behind." Standing up, he held his elbow awkwardly, then bowed his head slightly and said, "Thank you."
He nodded in agreement, standing up and stretching languidly, "Yeah, its about time for me to catch some sleep too, anyhow." A yawn punctuated his words, followed by a blink and a lopsided smile. "No problem, kid, nothing you need to be thanking me for."
Vol smiled in turn. "I think I can think of a couple of things..." he said, then turned and started to make his way back to camp, where the others had begun to stir.
Category:Banishment of the Blackblades