2017-06-01: The Shepherd and the Assassin

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  • Log: 2017-06-01 The Shepherd and the Assassin
  • Cast: Sorey, Rose
  • Where: Adelyn Ranchlands
  • Date: 2017-06-01
  • Summary: Sorey and Rose finally talk about the elephant in the room. The other elephant in the room. One of them for sure, anyway.

=============================<* Adelyn Ranchlands *>==============================

The area around Adlehyde Castle is occupied by rolling fields of grass that are the envy of nations more seriously affected by the desertification that plagues Ignas. Most of the continent's cattle and horses are bred and raised in these ranchlands, which are owned by a scattered assortment of families, each with lands and borders carefully marked out by poles and fences.

While Adlehyde's soldiers patrol the main trade routes throughout the country, the ranchers are for the most part left to their own devices except during tax season; this has tended to produce an independent and stubborn streak in the people who call this territory home. Folks around these parts are used to looking after themselves, and do so with a brutal effectiveness.

The four-footed wealth that covers the ranchlands attracts its fair share of rustlers, bandits, and other ne'er-do-wells; when local posses prove insufficient to the task, a single rider sent to the Adventurer's Guild will generally bring help quick enough.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfRBmqBlzzQ
<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

With so much of the city damaged by the recent attack, Sorey has asked the Sparrowfeathers if they can make camp outside of the city using some of their supplies. It seems like a good idea, as Sorey isn't completely opposed to sleeping in the wilderness for the time being, and this doesn't put anyone who might be hurt and who might need a roof over their head out of a place to stay.

It also gives him some time to focus and practice on his control of his powers, working to be able to handle more malevolence and recognize how to deal with it. The part that Lailah had always stressed to him was being able to recognize the different ways in which malevolence could behave, and how he could purify it.

But purification wasn't easy, and as Sorey had seen of late he still wasn't strong enough to handle all of the evil he had come across. K.K. was bad enough on their own, but the problems down south couldn't be ignored... and then there was the issue with the Metal Demons and their attack. He had done some good, but was it enough?

And so Sorey was spending most of his evenings away from the camp, sitting next to a large stream and reflecting on the last few days. In this case his mantle is folded over a nearby branch, and a small fire is burning nearby. Sorey has his legs crossed, and he is staring into the flames in contemplation. For the first time in a while he is alone, his Seraphim all having headed over on other business.

In other words, it's probably the first chance Rose has had to approach him without any spooky ghosts around. At least ones that are not using her as a home.

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

Sorey's request was certainly not going to be ignored. For a while the Sparrowfeathers had been distributing food, blankets and their lot of heal berries and potions, courtesy of Jacqueline namely, but once the basic care had been handled, setting up a proper camp - or rather, another camp, as no doubt others had been set up already - was the next logical step. Though Rose knew that in the upcoming weeks, there would be countless orders to fill for building materials, that was Future Rose's problem (and business opportunity). Present Rose just wanted to help the refugees stabilize themselves.

Which meant a lot of busywork. Everyone needed something at all times and there wasn't much time to catch a break. Sorey might have even seen Dezel pitch in... reluctantly, and without making his presence much of a thing to note, but it's not like he could hide from the Shepherd anyway. He'd not, since, jumped back into Rose, prefering high perches like caravan roofs and sometimes larger trees. Wind Seraphs, huh?

This means when Rose approaches, it's just Rose! Her jacket and bolero are off, leaving her in that red tunic. She's also carrying what looks like a bottle of bright red mead, half-empty as it is.

"Hey, Shepherd! Are you just going to keep meditating in your corner like that for days? You're going to have to come eat or sleep sometime. Maybe hang out? The people really seem to like having you around, seems word of mouth is carrying your legend across this world slowly. Thirsty?"

She offers the bottle, looking down at Sorey from her standing position, the only time she gets to be taller than him.

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

"Hey Rose," Sorey states, although he only looks her way for a brief moment before he goes back to contemplating the flames. He does smile though, and scoots over so there's enough room on the log if she cares to join him. He's certainly not going to be inhospitable, and she has always been good company, despite certain... recent revelations.

"So what's in the bottle if you don't mind my asking?" the Shepherd inquires curiously. He's not opposed to alcohol, but he also isn't one to drink too much either. A cup or two of something mild with food is the sort Sorey is, probably because he doesn't want to become inebriated and make things difficult for his Seraphim passengers.

He's been getting his rest, but really training has been taking up a lot of Sorey's time. "I'll probably try and show up around camp a bit more, especially if people are worrying. I don't want them to be concerned when there's no reason to be, but some of my training with Lailah and Mikleo can be a bit unnerving for people who aren't used to that sort of thing. And every since what happened in the city..."

He trails off for a moment, and sighs. Leaning over, Sorey picks up a stick and tosses it into the fire, watching as the flames begin to greedily consume it. "I can't help but wonder what the Trial Knight was looking for when they chose to fight us. It seemed personal to them somehow, but I'm not sure how that would really apply to us."

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

"Well, it STARTED off as mead, and then as the night advanced and we ran out it progressively became more juice than mead. Now it's mostly apple juice pretending to be mead but you'll still look cool if people see you drinking it all loner-like near a campfire." She relinquishes the bottle as she sits down next to Sorey, but not before she takes a quick sip from it.

"You can kind of taste the mead if you try hard enough but I don't think this even counts as alcohol anymore. I'd probably get in trouble if I tried selling this as such." She considered it.

Dodging the matter of unnerving training, because Rose can totally relate to that feeling from several angles (training to stab people is unnerving, and creepy ghost training is unnerving), she instead decides to address the matter of the Trial Knight right away.

"I don't know, but he seems to know a lot about us. A lot about Lunar. Maybe he's a lot older than he... looks..." Oh, that... yeah that doesn't really APPLY does it? "... well, maybe he's really old," she corrects herself. "He seemed to know about Shepherds and their history. And you know, that one time he helped a few of us get through the Berry Cave, and yes it was as awkward as you'd expect, he was wielding that... ornate hammer. It looked a lot like the Sacred Blade. I mean, all fancy artifact weapons look kind of similar, but it looked REALLY similar, like it could have been made by the same person, or at least the same culture." Despite being a merchant she is not a master of artifact weaponry, or archeology. "Do you think it's possible that he's... related to the myth of the Shepherd, somehow? That he's something crazy like a previous Shepherd?"

It sounds crazy but not as much as the idea of alien demons raining from the sky and setting a city ablaze, and look how that went.

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

"It's hard to say," Sorey observes, picking up the bottle and pulling out a tin traveling cup from his kit. Unlike Rose he doesn't down it directly from the bottle, instead pouring out a bit and sampling it. "Well, this isn't bad either way - thank you Rose, I appreciate it." Really, he's glad to have someone out here who's thinking of him. One of the things he's learned about being the Shepherd is quite a few people have a hard time approaching him... either due to his staus, or because they think he is crazy.

But back to the Trial Knight. "Yeah, it is hard to say... the Shepherd legends are not always very consistent, and they generally don't have clear beginnings or endings. Often times it discusses things like 'The Shepherd did this' or 'The Shepherd defeated this great evil', but they don't have a lot about them outside of that."

Sorey takes a long sip, and looks into the flames again, his expression troubled. "But the Sacred Weapons are used by Seraphim, not Shepherds. Each of the Seraphim who have formed a pact with me are bound to a Sacred Weapon, and they manifest when I use the Armatus. So if he had a weapon like that..."

Another long silence, and Sorey shakes his head. "While part of me doesn't want to think about it, I'm hardly unaware of the risks of being a Shepherd - or what has likely happened to many of them. Like the Dragonmasters of old... the Shepherd's path isn't a safe one. I've known that since the beginning, and I accept that fact. But life is precious - and my own isn't a coin that I would want to spend lightly."

He looks at Rose, and smiles. "But sometimes charity is also giving up that which is dear to you, and while Lailah hasn't wanted to talk about what happened to the Shepherds before me, I know that the path I've chosen to walk isn't an easy one."

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

"No problem! That's what friends are for." She doesn't vocalize her curiosity on whether Sorey would still calm himself a friend or not. Alisha... well, Alisha was a different beast. Sorey was far too kind to shun someone. She's pretty sure even the Trial Knight isn't outside Sorey's ability to attempt calling a friend. It's a double-edged sword for sure, but it's also Sorey's greatest strength and trait.

"I wouldn't know much about all that. Most of the stories I've heard are from Mayvin and he's usually pretty vague about it too. I've got to introduce you to him sometime, he's some crazy adventurer who's scoured the entire world's ruins. That book you haul around all the time, he has one just like it. Lots more bookmarks and notes in it though. He's actually the one who gave us our hideout. Some ruins he found years back and that didn't seem to hold any more secrets." Or so Rose thinks. Mayvin probably intentionally set it up so that the Shepherd'd stumble into them sooner or later, but we'll never know for sure!

"Whatever the case he must be someone important and we're not done meeting him. Do you get the same vibe from him as I do? That he's testing you, trying to make you grow? Definitely not fighting to kill any of us or we'd already be dead, or at least, way worse off." If nothing else Rose knew skill when she saw it, and K.K. was skilled enough to aim those techniques away from vital organs. Or at least, away from instant kills.

Deciding to counterbalance Sorey's serious speech, Rose wraps an arm over his shoulder and bumps shoulders with him, grinning. "But I DO know about the value of money and a coin with your face on it would be worth quite a bit! Are you SURE we can't charge people to meet with the one and only Shepherd? Fifty hundred gella for five minutes one on one with you, come on, it'll catch on! You'd get your cut, I'm not a monster. Maybe being rich will make your hard path an easier one!"

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

Another smile as Rose throws her arm around him, and Sorey shakes his head. "I would like to meet his friend of yours, when we get back to Lunar eventually. He sounds like someone I'd be able to chat with for quite a long time." He loves old stories, and getting to compare notes with a fellow explorer could greatly improve what he knows about the world.

As for the whole 'let's make a lot of money off you' idea... "As far as the coins go, I'd really rather not - especially with how the Church of Althena is acting of late. They might get the idea that I'm trying to start a fight with them, given that they're minting a lot of the coinage up north. And I just don't feel right trying to make a profit off of my position. It's... not something I'm doing for the money.

"I just want to help people, and see the world."

And then Rose brings up what the Trial Knight wanted, and Sorey closes his eyes for a moment, before looking straight ahead, the flickering embers rising from the fire reflecting in his eyes as he considers what Rose had to say. "I think that is what *they* think that they are doing, but it didn't feel like it to me. It felt like there was something consuming them - anger, hatred, something dark - and they were taking it out on us. Using the excuse of 'judging' people in order to justify their actions.

"I don't think anyone has the right to decide who lives and dies." Sorey looks over, and his eyes catch Rose's for a moment, and he continues - his voice still the same, not condemning, nor condoning. "There are too many things that can happen to guide a person along a path that might not be a good one - but even so, I think the Trial Knight is just using those judgments as an excuse for their own violent acts."

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

"Faaaair enough, but if you change your mind I already know how I'd set a booth and sign up!" It might be a lie, with Rose it's hard to tell. She certainly respects Sorey's position though.

Of course, with the Shepherd being who he is, he circles right back around to the Trial Knight. Rose hmmms pensively, thinking about what he's saying so as to not mess her reply up. "Maybe. Did you feel any Malevolence from him? He's from Lunar, like us, so... he should be bound by the same supernatural rules, right? If he was really feeling like that, wouldn't you be able to tell?" Rose does not really know how Sorey's Malevolence-detector works, so she's just guessing.

"Still... that's not totally true. There's people in this world, Sorey, you can't help no matter how hard you try. Some people don't want to be helped and you can't convince them. Some people will lie to get out of a bad situation. I know what you're thinking," she says, now gazing deep into his eyes. "And how this relates to me too. And I want to tell you a story, and it's going to be a hard one to hear, but I want you to hear it."

Rose moves away from the Trial Knight to make her own case. She knew she'd have to, eventually. "Once there was a little girl, whose parents were killed by bandits. She was rescued and trained by wandering mercenaries whose mission was justice for those who can't defend themselves. Even though she was trained to kill bad people without a second thought, one day, her ventures took her to an orphanage. The owner was an evil man, who made his children work themselves to death in jobs nobody else wanted. He took all the money to himself, and underfed his charges."

Rose reaches behind her, to unsheathe one of her knives. "So the little girl, now a wee teenager barely younger than you, she tracks him down, and she tells him why he has to die. He says, I'll never do it again! He says he'll give all his money to the children, and he makes all kinds of promises. And the girl, she thought he sounded REALLY sincere. Maybe he'd practiced the speech before. So she lets him go. The next day, the orphanage burned down, and only a few of the children were saved. The owner, he was gone, with all his riches."

"So the girl, she tracks him down. It took a month, and when she found him, he had opened another orphanage in a different town. The children there, they looked unhappy and malnourished too. The authorities, they suspected, but either because of bribes or lack of proof, couldn't stop the man."

Rose twirls her knife, balancing it on a finger. "So can you guess, Sorey, what the girl did, and why she did it? Why she HAD to do it? The world is full of people like that. I don't know if he was afflicted with Malevolence or not, but I know he couldn't be allowed to continue."

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

Sorey has thought about this a few times, especially since he had found out that Rose was an assassin. And she does tell an interesting story, and from his point of view the man did seem terrible. He understands Rose's belief, and he trusts in her convictions. But there are other things that have to be taken into consideration as well.

"He does sound like a terrible person, but did killing him bring back any of the children who died? And when the girl found out about the evil that he was causing... why did she confront him, instead of brining the authorities to show them the proof of his evil deeds?" Sorey sits back for a moment, looking up at the stars. "If she had trusted other people to see the truth of the situation, he might not have been able to run the first time. And what would have happened if she had killed him the first time? Would the children have been left to fend for themselves, while the person everyone expected to be protecting them laid dead somewhere?"

He shakes his head, and looks at Rose for a moment. "I wasn't there, so I can't say why things happened the way they did, or what the best path could have been. But I don't think that man deserved to die. I think justice would have been sentencing him to work under the supervision of people who did care about the children, being required to give what he was exploiting those children for all along. And who knows? Maybe one day he would have realized that there is a benefit to helping people beyond just lining his own pockets. But there's no way to know now that he is dead."

As Rose plays with her dagger, Sorey pulls his belt over and raises his sword up. He takes hold of the wrapped leather, patterns lightly etched into the surface and a tassel with beads set just blow the hilt, and considers it for a moment. "I don't have stories of a little boy that I can tell you, so unfortunately the story I have to tell is one you know too well. It's about a pair of young women who met a young man. Both of them were kind in their own ways, and helped him on the path he had started out upon, although he didn't know where it was going to lead."

The Shepherd unsheathes his wooden sword, the lacquered blade reflecting the fire light for a moment. It's a fitting weapon for Sorey, as there is no real edge to it. This isn't a weapon for killing people, but one meant to save them. "But the two young women both say the world in very different ways. They clashed several times, both believing strongly that the path they saw before them was the correct one. And they both helped the young man over and over again, putting their own lives on the line, until they all became friends and decided to walk forward together, at least for a little while."

Sorey looks at Rose, and holds up his sword, reversing his sword and holding it out to her hilt first. "But what if either of those young women had killed the other during those fights? Each believing the other was a threat for their own reasons. Each believing they had to stop the other for what they saw as the best of reasons.

"I think our little group here would be poorer for the loss of either you or Alisha. I'm not asking you to give up your beliefs and convictions, Rose. But I want you to consider that there is a higher ideal we can reach for - and that if we were to cut someone down without understanding them, without considering all the options, then we might lose someone who could one day be our ally."

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

Rose listens to Sorey's tale, transparent as it is. He is right, after all. Not only can nobody say how things would or could have happened if only this or that was done instead, but there were countless solutions to any given problems. Rose just also happened to believe that sometimes the easiest, and best, solution is the most direct one. She wasn't about to lose faith in her beliefs - what made her such a great vessel was her conviction, and if she didn't have that Sorey may respect her less.

Sorey does strike a pretty low blow though. And it works, or at least certainly seems to. Rose can lie, Sorey knows as much now, but she doesn't seem to be when she answers.

"I know all that. I've thought about it a lot. I don't doubt the path I've chosen, but I do consider the options before I act. Sometimes, I come to the conclusion someone doesn't have to die. Sometimes, everything else is too risky. I want you to know that, the blunder with the princess aside, we don't act lightly. I already apologized to Alisha about that. We couldn't have known the very people in charge of her kingdom were out to get her. We won't make the mistake again."

But that's not really what she wanted to say.

"What you did to us, Sorey, is... really hard to reconcile with our work. You introduced us to a whole new dimension. You introduced us to the idea that someone might be evil not by choice but by outside influence. With that information, I can promise you we'll be more careful than ever. I still think that sometimes there's no other choice but to remove a threat. ... but I'm also going to say that if your powers as the Shepherd can bring someone back from that existence, then... well, it should take priority."

She's not sure if a promise to be more careful will be enough for Sorey, but it's the best she can offer as she is now. "We'd all prefer not to kill, you know? No one in the Scattered Bones enjoys it. If they did, I wouldn't be able to look at them as a family anymore. But it's a necessity we accepted, because unlike you and the princess we can't change the world at large. We can keep the unworthy from changing it, that's it." Despite this, she lets off no Malevolence. None of the assassins do, really... bar one. Sorey's already met mister crazy fox. Not that Rose knows he's a Hellion.

"So... that's my answer. I can't promise I'll never kill again, but I can promise we'll think really, really hard before we act." Self-defense allegedly doesn't count.

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

A moment of silence, and then a nod. Not a hesitating one either, but a firm and friendly affirmation. Because as Sorey had said, Rose was a friend - and he trusted her like he did Alisha. Both of them had a strong character and determination, and he was glad to have them at his side during all of this.

"I'm not asking you to give up your way of life and beliefs - and I'd be a bit worried if you did so from just one conversation!" He grins, and slides his sword back into its sheath. The Shepherd wasn't going to condemn anyone for a belief they sincerely held, even if he didn't agree with it. "But I hope that you can believe in me, and at least wait until we have all the information before you decide that you're going to strike someone down. And even then, the dead can continue to produce malevolence if their lives were dominated by it, or they die in painful, tragic, or horrifying ways."

There had been several such sources of malevolence that Sorey had encountered on his travels, and at least one down in Timney. If he had not found that one, it might have continued to fester and produce malevolence for years, producing the occasional Hellion long after they were gone. "The path we're walking is going to be a long and difficult one, and I'm glad to have had you and Alisha there with me for at least part of it. And I hope that you'll both continue on with me. If nothing else, having someone to help me when I stumble, or give me courage when I'm afraid... I can't tell you how much that means to me."

Sorey smiles, and extends his hand to Rose. "So thank you Rose, for everything so far."

And then he pauses, looks up for a moment, and then asks with a slightly mischievous tone of voice, "...although I do wonder, would you have been as quick to apologize if it was someone besides Alisha?"

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

"I believe in you, Sorey. I believe one day you can bring your vision of the world forward for everyone to see. I just can't have the same optimism and hope as you, when it comes to other people. Maybe it's because of how I grew up that I can't, or it's because of how you grew up that you can. I just know better than to trust everyone can be redeemed somehow, or even controlled or imprisoned. Some people you really can't stop or touch," Rose explains, following a nod to answer Sorey's question about believing in him.

His honesty following that gets her to blush. She looks uncomfortable now! She likes praise, but this might be a critical amount of it. "Well, I should thank you too. You're kind of an example to follow, and you're always helping others. If there were more people like you and the princess we'd need less people like me." That, she also believes in.

Would she have apologized if it was someone else? She's about to answer honestly with hard facts when she picks up on Sorey's tone. She grins. "Alisha got the friend rebate, for someone else I'd have charged a premium!" Case in point she never did apologize about punching Sorey. She has kind of been acting like that never happened, because it was CLEARLY his fault for spooking her out.

<Pose Tracker> Sorey has posed.

Sorey grins at the mention of a 'friend' discount, although he does remember Rose punching him. And it WAS Mikleo's fault really, and Mikleo had already apologized for that. He just viewed the red haired girl as something of an innocent victim. So really there was nothing there for Rose to apologize for.

Sorey looked to the people who committed the badness, and not those who had simply reacted as the victim was expected.

But that smile is genuine, and he turns to look back at the camp for a long moment. "I probably should get back to the camp and talk with people, just to see what the new news from the city is. If there's any more reports of Hellions about, I want to make sure that we can take care of them quickly, before anyone gets hurt."

That's enough to prompt Sorey to start puttering about, collecting his gear and moving to toss some sand on the fire to help put it out. No need to call up a bunch of water or anything, that might weird Rose out some.

But Sorey does continue speaking as he prepares to leave his camp for a bit, touching on an old topic. "If you're still interested in expanding your spiritual sense, I think we can probably work on that soon." Rose had (reluctantly) admitted to being interested, and while he hadn't had a chance to speak to Lailah about her alternate path, this was something they could start with. "You might be surprised at what you end up seeing - you've already seen that Seraphim tend to react more strongly to people who can sense them. And..."

He pauses, and looks at Rose again. It's an odd look, and instead of what he was going to say, the Shepherd adds, "...you may have to come to terms with some things that you've not really wanted to acknowledge for a long time."

<Pose Tracker> Rose has posed.

"Mhm. If nothing else you're moral support just being around. Not to mention those healing tricks you have make it so much easier to treat people. So many people got injured, I can't imagine how many people'd have succumbed by now if not for all the healing magic at play. Yours, Alisha's, the countless other Drifters who're good at it." Reluctantly, she adds: "The Seraphim hanging around." She's not sure how many are, really. She knows Sorey travels with... two? Three? And there's that rogue one constantly hounding on her. Ragnell! Rose almost wants to be able to see her -just- to sock her in the face. Wait, do Seraphim have faces?

Assumptions and mistakes may have been made.

Rose still goes forward with it. "I think the Trial Knight was right, that's all. That I might lose a lot if I don't open my eyes. And... if I'm going to be honoring my promise to you, I need to be able to tell when someone I decide to put down is affected by Malevolence." She's still really freaked out by the entire thing, and uncomfortable too, but her belief in Sorey and her desire not to put anyone's life in danger as a result of her, as K.K. put it, blindness, might overcome that yet.

And so she assumes this is what Sorey means by his ominous and mysterious last line. She laughs, reaching for what's left of the mead-turned-juice. "I guess we'll figure that out when we have some time to rest from all the chaos! Until then, I'm going to pretend this juice is actually mead and maybe go get some more, because break time is almost over and there's still a lot to do."