(Azure Caves) Meet me at the Caves (21st Board)

Armeno was so warm and comforting, and the closer he held Kassandra to him, the more she realised how terribly she had missed him. She felt like a ship tossed about in a storm, for the loneliness that she didn’t realise had been so bad the whole time, and for the relief of knowing it wouldn’t be there any more, and the relief that Armeno was back. She couldn’t even deal with the thought of having him leave now, the pair of them go their separate ways at the end of this day. She didn’t want to.

She hardly needed Armeno’s direction as he touched his fingers to her chin, gripping her hands in his tousled hair and stretching up to press her lips hard against his. She wanted to drink all of him in and banish all her thoughts, but it hardly lasted a moment before a sharp spark of magic jumped from her mouth. She bit down accidentally on him, then pulled away in surprise, blinking wide before putting a hand to her mouth. Stupid wild magic, it leapt out of her control so easily, with barely more than a moment of letting down her guard and it was already playing up.

This time, Armeno didn’t just feel relief when Kassandra stretched up on her toes to kiss him; the touch of her, the smell of her, all he thought about was her, with a rekindling passion. He leant down towards her, his arm tightening around her back ready to lift her up to him…

And suddenly he felt a shocking, burning pain in his lip which made him leap away reflexively, his body tingling in a far less pleasurable way than it had been previously. Without thinking, he swore, lifting a hand to his lip to feel the damage- before looking up at Kassandra again and swiftly dropping his hand when he saw her watching him in horror. It didn’t take him long to realise what had happened- her magic had never been the most predictable, and given how unstable she herself seemed at the moment, it wasn’t at all surprising that she’d lost control. Certainly he hadn’t been thinking much once they started kissing- but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. Hastily, he licked away the blood which was beading on his lip where she must have bitten him by mistake, and took a large step back towards her, reaching out to take her hands in his own.
“Don’t worry, Kassie, it’s not your fault,” he said soothingly, caressing her skin with his thumb. “It doesn’t matter- I’m fine. Here-” Reaching up to her face, he brushed away his blood where it was smeared on her lip, giving her as reassuring a smile as he could.
He couldn’t let it show, of course, but privately he was racking his brains to figure out why she might have such shaky control of her magic. Perhaps it was just down to the stress of the day so far, and her general condition, but somehow he couldn’t help but feel that something more was wrong. Something in her eyes… it didn’t seem like it was the first time this had happened lately- hopefully none of the other times had been caused by her kissing people.

Kassandra frowned with worry as Armeno pulled away, her mouth drawing down at the edges. She could still feel it crackling on her tongue, like she had a bee in her mouth or something equally unpleasant, waiting to lash out again. Pressing her lips tightly together, she shrank away from him, afraid of what he might say. She had already struck him once, now she struck him again- even if it had been an accident, this time.

When he took her hands, she dragged them back from him in fear, curling in her fingers and drawing them up to her chest.
“No, I… You don’t know, be careful.” She could feel the lightning buzzing on her lips, and was even more fearful for how Armeno was so very familiar. It was reassuring, but strange, and she worried for him.
Her fear was quickly realised as he touched at her mouth, the zap of magic escaping her in a quick burst and making her flinch away, her mouth painful enough to have her yelp. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, and she looked at him with hurt eyes before pulling away further, covering her mouth and turning aside.
“Don’t touch me… you’ll… I can’t control my magic very well…”

Just as he had predicted, Kassandra shrank away from him the moment she got a chance to. Amongst his concern for her, Armeno couldn’t help but feel a brief blaze of anger- finally, they had managed to move on from their issues of the last year, it had looked as if things might be resolved… and they were interrupted by random magic, of all things.
He winced again when he received another shock, but he was prepared this time; it wasn’t like it was the first time she’d slipped up a little, just that this seemed worse than he’d ever seen it before.
“Okay,” he said, keeping his voice calm and even. “Here-” he dropped his arm, taking a step back to just leave a safe distance between them, but gently steering her round to face him again by her arm. “It’s not your fault, Kassie. All strong magic users lose control sometimes. The main thing is, you’re keeping most of it back. Perhaps-” He hesitated, frowning. Weak as his own magic was, he didn’t know much about it. “Do you think it might help if you tried to just release some of your magic? Have you not been using it lately?” Truthfully, he wasn’t sure if it could build up and begin to overflow over time, but it seemed the most plausible explanation right now.

Rubbing her arm across her eyes, Kassandra tried to control herself properly, sniffling, then frowning at herself for being pathetic still. Thankfully Armeno had the sense to give her her space however, enough to shake herself into some sort of sensible state. He was a calming influence on her.
She still tightened up when he turned her towards him though, still hiding her face behind her fussing hands.
“It used to be okay, but it just keeps getting worse, and worse.” Guardians, how she hated her magic at times, and even more now it felt like it could break free of her control at any time, when she wasn’t paying enough attention. At the worst moments, it seemed. Could she have no happiness?!
“I use it all the time. Every day. And I release it sometimes, but nothing helps.” She hesitated, then turned her palms out towards him, looking at the ground ashamedly. They were pink and painful looking, crossed with red and the skin sore and rough at the fingertips.
“I try, but it’s so strong it burns my hands sometimes, then it hurts to use more again the next day.” She hated to admit to her weakness, but it scared her how violent her magic had become.

It seemed that he’d done something right, at last; Kassandra seemed to have mustered some control. Her voice was still shaky, but at least she was talking to him, opening up. Unfortunately, though, this wasn’t really an issue he could help with. True, he’d heard of people simply losing control of their magic, but Kassandra had never seemed that extreme- those people were always extremely unstable to begin with. Emotionally, she was a wreck, but a year ago she’d at least had a fairly decent grip on her powers. Now, though…

“Okay,” he said again, frowning slightly and leaning forwards to examine the marks on her hands. Slowly, giving her time to brace herself or to flinch away if she had to, he reached out to touch them lightly, tracing the welts which crisscrossed her palms. They seemed fairly typical of her powers; certainly not the worst he’d seen them inflict, but they weren’t the marks left by errant sparks, either. “Maybe an experienced mage could help you, or somebody who’s studied magic at the Academy. Did it get worse suddenly, or was it more of a gradual change?” His tone was caring as he let her hands go, returning his gaze expectantly to her face. He didn’t want to come across as overly analytical; however, he realised, while he wasn’t the man for the job, this was a concrete issue which he could at least try to help with. The problems with their relationship would be far more difficult to tackle.

Kassandra’s eyes flicked up again sharply as Armeno moved towards her again, fiercely alert in her nervousness, like a deer about to bound away into the forest to never be seen again. For that though, she forced herself to cooperate, trying not to give in to the urge to pull away from him. He wasn’t going to do anything to her, but she couldn’t keep the slight tremble out of her hands, fingers curling under his touch. Armeno was careful, but some of the welts she had picked up were so fresh they still hurt, needing attention but not given it yet.
“I can’t afford help like that.” She felt so ashamed in front of the elf, her cheeks colouring darkly to have to admit so much; that she had no money, no control, no place to go. What would he say when he knew the full length of everything that had happened to her? She would just be a weight on him, when he was so obviously making a path for himself in the DDC. She hated it utterly.
“I… you don’t need to care, Armeno. I’m just going to mess up your life if you do, and you’ve got a good thing going for you.” She pulled her hands away slowly, tightening her hands into loose fists before folding her arms over her chest, looking away. “I’ll just put up with it, I don’t want to see anybody. They don’t even know.”
It was bad enough admitting it all to Armeno, anyway. She didn’t need anybody else knowing that she was so out of her depth.

Crossing his arms, Armeno scoffed at Kassandra’s excuse.
“Well, that doesn’t matter. The DDC might not have many resources, but mages are one thing we can manage. And this is just the sort of thing they’re good at- scholars and healers. As soon as we meet up with their main body again, we can find somebody who can help you.” He reached out for her again, wanting to turn her chin round to look at him- but he caught himself in time, pulling his hand back with a slight sigh and shoving them in his pockets instead.
“Why don’t you realise that I don’t just decide to care? Or what, do you think that I’m pretending to because I feel sorry for you? I don’t know where you got the idea that I’ve got a “good thing going for me”- I don’t. The DDC is a mess; it would take a miracle to make a proper army out of them.” His tone was bitterly humorous rather than angry; the pathetic state of the DDC was something he’d long since resigned himself to. There was no doubt that their best hopes lay in magic, which the Surahnians seemed largely unprepared for.

“Either way,” he continued with little pause, “While they might not be able to understand you, your story, your personality, they should be able to understand your magic and they can make things easier for you. They all had teachers, you didn’t; it’s not so unreasonable, Kassie. You shouldn’t have to put up with it, any more than you should have had to put up with some of the things you have done before.” And if he had anything to do with, she wouldn’t be putting up with them again.

She was still anxious, not wanting to accept there were things wrong, let alone having to seek help for it all… but deep down she knew that Armeno was right. Kassandra looked up towards him again as he reached towards her, sad to see him just as reluctant around her as she was around him. She fussed anxiously, her fingers kneading at her sleeves, staring at the ground when she disarmed everything she had said and accused him of.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, feeling small. It was a defensive mechanism, for her to bite out before she could get hurt, and now it was doing her no good at all. “I really am. I just don’t know who to turn to, and it’s all so much…” She paced a few steps in each direction, then turned towards him again and hesitantly put her arms around his middle, hugging him tightly, face in his chest.
He was warm and solid, comforting her frayed nerves.
“I need to show you… what happened but…” she mumbled against him, cautious. But, Armeno was safe, wasn’t he? “But please don’t… don’t forsake me. I didn’t want… but I couldn’t stop…” She tailed off, chewing on her lip.

“Don’t worry about it,” Armeno said soothingly, holding her to him and dropping his head to the top of hers. He hadn’t realised quite how much he’d missed just being close to her until he’d finally seen her again- he’d managed to shut it out for the most part, spending a year pushing away any thoughts of Kassandra which appeared. Ever since he’d seen her again in Racksom, though, he hadn’t been able to focus on anything else.

“Listen, Kassie. I’m not going to push you away, or leave you- especially not for something that you didn’t want or couldn’t control. Please- just tell me.” He was hardly surprised that she was being like this- she’d always had problems with trust. In fact, he was somewhat taken aback that she’d even admitted something had happened. Whatever it was, it had obviously been serious- she might not seem physically harmed, past her lack of control, but she was generally even more unstable than usual. If it turned out that somebody had done this to her… well, their future wouldn’t exactly look bright if Armeno had anything to do with it.

Kassandra hugged tighter to Armeno at his soothing words, so thankful for his concern and willingness to help. She breathed in his warm smell and listened to the rumble of his voice in his chest, trying to calm the sudden racing of her heart and quick breaths.
It’ll be alright, it’ll be alright, it’ll be alright. She had to repeat it to herself in her head before she felt calm enough, then hung on to him for a little longer after that just for the solidarity of him.

Eventually she had to pull away though, looking down at the sandy floor before hesitantly up towards Armeno.
“Alright…” Her hands tightened and twitched at her sides, then she pulled off her cloak sharply, dropping it down to the ground in one movement. She got her scarf off quickly next, piling it down onto the ground before she could think about it… then whipped off her outer tabard layer, feeling more exposed now. Her eyes looked to Armeno fearfully, then darted off towards the sea, her arms crossing fretfully over chest as she paced a few steps out like she had before.
She scrunched her fingers up in the cloth of her shirt, then turned away from Armeno and shut her eyes tightly, dragging off her shirt quickly to expose her back to him.
The deep marks were thick and pale, a little jagged where Rintho had slipped with his knife; it made it almost even more horribly obvious. The cloth of her breast bindings covered them a little in one part, but other than that the scars were exposed to the air, almost seeming to glow with lightning magic on her shoulders and spine as she clutched her shirt to her chest, waiting for a verdict from the elf.

For a few moments they stayed still in their embrace, Armeno stroking Kassandra’s hair gently as he waited for her to respond. Finally she moved away; he released her with a reassuring smile, not certain of what she was doing but not about to interrupt her if she was finally opening up to him.
When she began undressing he was even more confused- frowning uncomfortably and glancing about for anyone else who might come to the beach, he was on the verge of asking what she was doing when he saw the look in her eyes as they darted from side to side and thought better of it. That haunted expression, the barely concealed trauma and deep-set fear- he’d seen all of that before, after Tabri’s attacks. Whatever had happened, it was clearly as serious as he’d feared- or worse, if it could match up to what Tabri had done. His shoulders tensed at that memory, thinking of how close he’d come to losing an arm- or worse, his life. Of course, something almost as bad had happened when he lost Kassandra, but maybe this was a chance to fix that.

Any thoughts about Tabri were soon forgotten, though, when Kassandra seemed to brace herself for a moment- before pulling her shirt over her head, leaving her back exposed, bones visible under her skin as she curled forwards. For a moment, Armeno couldn’t quite process what he was seeing, what those marks scrawling a T shape over her shoulderblades and down the curve of her spine were-
And he realised. Scarring was something he’d seen hundreds of times before, after all, including on both himself and Kassandra. He’d just been thrown off by how… deliberate these marks were. His confused expression morphing to one of mingled horror and rage, he lunged forwards to examine the wounds more closely, bracing himself for the shock and simply ignoring it as he traced his fingers along the scars. It took him a few moments to get his composure back enough to remove his hands, shaking and just beginning to feel the burn from the lightning magic. He couldn’t imagine it would do Kassandra any good to see him react like that- she was panicking enough already. He didn’t understand the intent behind the cuts; they clearly had a purpose, but what it was he couldn’t imagine. All he knew was that they’d caused Kassandra to break, losing control more than she ever had before.

Moving gently now, with precisely controlled motions to keep his anger in check, he tugged Kassandra’s shirt back down over the scars before spinning her around again and pulling her into his chest again, pressing a kiss onto the top of her head. He had no idea what she might do, how she might react, but he was determined to protect her now despite obviously failing to before- he wasn’t about to let her run from him, or panic, not if he could help it.
“Who did this?” he asked finally, leaning away from her just far enough to look down and meet her eyes with a barely contained urgency. “Did they use magic somehow? I’ll find them, I’ll make them-”

He broke off abruptly, realising he was at the point of losing his temper, and took a long, calming breath, brushing hair back from Kassandra’s face as he waited for her to reply.

(OOC: Lol sorry, essay again Razz

I just kinda assumed he'd get shocked, lemme know if not and I'll change that bit Smile

)

A small noise escaped Kassandra in her discomfort as she heard Armeno move behind her, then she flinched hard at the feel of his hands on her back, moving along the scar trails she had. She even refrained from touching them, so it was strange to feel a set of hands on them, especially when she didn’t know where Armeno would rest his fingers next. Her fingers worked nervously at her shirt as he stood close, her eyes tightly shut so she couldn’t see his face… whatever worked its way over it. Horror, shock…. Disgust? She feared deeply for what his silence meant, what the press of his fingers would draw him to conclude.
Would he leave her, for how broken she was? Would he leave her, for being so weak?

She could feel the tremble of his hands as he drew away, receding into herself as much as she could. Her hands were tight around the fabric of her shirt with nervousness, chin tucked against her neck stiffly as he turned her around. Fear was obvious in her eyes as she looked up at him, unyielding against his quick motions. He was so sharp about it all; she could feel herself tensing to flee from him in all her shame and fear.
But then, he drew her close, and held her so tightly, and she could feel her fear melt away again. She was tense against him, arms drawn up to her chest, but then wound them around his waist, hesitantly at first, then clutching at him with all her strength. Relief washed over her, tinged still with the fear that Armeno would leave her, but that receding all the time, the longer he held her close and safe.

“Rintho, he was called Rintho,” she blurted, holding his gaze tightly, and blinking fast, wanting to press against him again. “A necromancer, he… I was in Tarz… green, his skin was green and…” She grabbed at his hand as he reached for her hair, holding it tightly within her fingers. “No, no you can’t. Please, don’t go after him, he’ll kill you, he was going to… to… you can’t go.” He couldn’t go, that would have been the worst thing.

It was obvious that once again, Kassandra had been caught up in fear of his reaction; Armeno was at a loss as to why. The only time he’d ever shown any sign of rejection was when she’d attacked Talos, and at this point nobody could pretend he hadn’t forgiven her for that. Who knew what sort of issues that might cause down the line- the other members of the DDC certainly wouldn’t be unconditionally welcoming to Kassandra- but they could cross that bridge when they came to it. Right now, all he could really think about was the horrifically deliberate wounds across her back. It made perfect sense- well, he still didn’t understand their purpose, but he could just imagine how that level of helplessness and invasion would make Kassandra lose it. What he couldn’t imagine is how she’d coped on her own for so long- exactly how long, he couldn’t say, but judging from how the scars looked he suspected it was several months.

“A necromancer-?” For a moment, he almost thought he’d misheard; what business would a necromancer have with Kassandra? She might have a few issues, but being dead certainly wasn’t one of them the last time he checked. He didn’t even want to know why somebody’s skin would have been green; it didn’t make any more sense to him than the rest of what Kassie said. He hadn’t really expected a coherent story from her, and he certainly hadn’t got one. The time would come, he was sure, but for now he wasn’t going to press for too many details. Shaking his head, he quickly moved on from the topic of this man’s magic.
“Alright, a necromancer, it doesn’t matter- Kassie, if you really don’t want me to, then I won’t go after him. But I hate to think of him just getting away with it- he shouldn’t be able to just attack you without consequences. I can’t stand to let him- not when I could do something about it!”

Once again he had to rein himself in, relaxing the hand which had been balling into a fist and placing it gently back on her cheek with a soft exhalation. He couldn’t run off on a mission for vengeance, not after Tabri- that was exactly what had driven them apart before. He still couldn’t understand that about her, how she had put herself in danger just by being stubborn about letting him go out after the dragon. Really, he reflected, he didn’t understand anything like as much about her as he should. And yet, as far as he knew, he was about the person she was closest to. How could she live like that, so alone? Of course, he wasn’t exactly a social butterfly himself, but he had lifelong friends he could turn to when he needed to- not to mention his family, who would always be there if he cared to make the journey all the way to the Isle Triad to see them. Kassandra… well, he didn’t think she had anyone like that.

Kassandra gripped hard at Armeno’s hand, willing him desperately to accept, to understand her words. She looked fiercely up at him, pressing her hands to his cheeks next to try and get him to believe her.
“Please, please don’t go. Just… I want you to stay with me, please. Stay with me and I’ll… I’ll do anything you want.” She pressed tightly against him again, arms wrapping around his neck now, constantly needing to affirm herself of his close presence.
The thought of Armeno leaving to go after that monster though, she couldn’t comprehend it in her head without utter fear and panic trying to overwhelm her again, when she was managing to keep herself relatively under control at the moment. Perhaps Rintho deserved consequences, perhaps he deserved to have all of Armeno’s wrath rain down on him- but Kassandra didn’t want Armeno anywhere near the lich, when he had scared her so terribly before. To think that the one she loved the most thought of facing him was perhaps worse than knowing that she too would follow Armeno wherever he went now, even towards Rintho. Who knew what the necromancer would do to an elf.

“Don’t go. It’s alright, I’m fine, you don’t need to… I just need you near now.” She pressed into his familiar touch on her cheek, closing her eyes and feeling the warmth of him seep into her skin. “Like this, this is better.”

Once again, Armeno sighed out a long breath- this time, though, the tension in his body left with it. After so long, it seemed pointless to waste this time with anger- there’d be time to find this necromancer later, if he was going to. Right now… well, they only had this day at most before they’d need to travel again.
“You don’t need to do anything, Kassie,” he told her, a smile slowly creeping over his face. “How many times do I need to tell you- I’m not planning on leaving you any time soon.” After a moment, as she closed her eyes, he moved his hand round from her cheek to cradle the back of her head, his other arm encircling her waist as he leaned down to kiss her regardless of any errant sparks she might inadvertently send his way. He wasn’t about to let a little shock like that come between them; he’d had plenty worse in his time. For now, he wasn’t about to let anything distract him from just being with Kassandra again. Given how often and spectacularly they argued, it really wasn’t logical or sensible that he cared about her so much, but it clearly wasn’t something he could change or avoid.

“Good.” Feeling more content again now, happy in the knowledge that Armeno truly wouldn’t desert her, she relaxed into his affections and returned her own happily. With more control than before; and relaxed, she found herself much better, and her magic much less errant and wild.

She hugged against him happily as they stood together, purely enjoying his company and the safety net he provided. They couldn’t stay like that forever however. The horses always managed to break apart their close embrace, Tamarisk deciding to wander and chew one of the trees hanging over the beach a little further along. The loud crunching of his teeth made Kassandra look away from Armeno and sigh, although not in irritation. Tamarisk was never one to go without mischief for long.
“Has Tam been a nuisance all this time? Where did you find him?” She extracted herself from the elf’s embrace, picking up and shaking out her cloak and scarf as she started after the horse to bring him to ‘heel’. She hadn’t been able to find the horse anywhere in Racksom, losing him somewhere in the mess of streets… but half the time, she had been in too much trouble, pain, grief or a myriad of other unwanted emotions to put much effort into finding him. Her relief was twofold for that; she had had to resign herself to the fact that he would probably never be found again.

Breaking out into a rare genuine and relaxed smile, Armeno released Kassandra with a quick touch of her hand, turning away to scan the beach for wherever Velox might have wandered off to.
“He’s not been a problem at all, apart from attracting a few would-be thieves along the road,” he replied with a glance back at her. “I suppose he remembered me. I just found him wandering around in Racksom in the area where we’d been.” A light frown creased his brow as he whistled for Velox, spotting the horse grazing at a patch of tough grass not too far away. “I didn’t think about it too much at the time, but looking back it was a bizarre coincidence. Perhaps he followed my scent; I don’t know how well horses can do that.”

Velox had scarcely flicked an ear at the elf’s whistle; with an impatient sigh, Armeno made his way over to tug on the horse’s reins and lead him back to where they stood, looking up at Kassandra with another smile as he did so. It was surreal to just see her again, after so long; he half-felt like he was in the middle of some bizarre dream.

Kassandra felt so much more at ease now, with Armeno's acceptance, and huge handfuls of love showered on her at the smallest thing. It filled her up with a contentment that she found she had been lacking for so long... she had not even realized.
"Tam! What you doing, you bad horse." She grabbed out familiarly at the stallion as he crunched twigs between his teeth, manhandling him away from the tree with a series of shoves against his shoulder and haunches until he snorted and backed off, wandering off across the beach without a care in the world. She shook her head and layered up with her scarf again, pulling it up to her chin and fiddling with it around her neck. Even if Armeno had not commented on her new scars, she felt self-conscious and ugly with them marking her face so badly. In fact, she felt self-conscious of the whole of her; weather-beaten clothes and dusty appearance, her poor choice of faction until now and all her mistakes inbetween.
"He's special. Maybe he knew you'd be in a better spot than I was?" She granted Armeno another smile as she scratched her horse over the shoulders, scrunching her hands into his mane. Then she paused, looking up at the elf across Tamarisk's withers. "How's your back?" It had been the last thing she had seen of him as he had turned to help that avian; not something she wanted to dwell on, but she had to know.

He knew that if he looked at her too long, Kassandra would become uneasy, self conscious- but Armeno couldn’t help but watch how she toyed with her scarf, pulling it up to her face again. He’d almost forgotten how nervous she seemed the whole time, no more able to stand still than Velox. Just looking at her made him feel faintly stressed; he couldn’t imagine what might be going through her mind. Well, hopefully after life became somewhat more stable she’d be able to relax a little.
“Maybe,” was all he said, his mind drifting somewhat as he watched her smiling, some of the tension leaving her expression as she stroked Tamarisk. “Oh- my back?” Without thinking, he reached around to touch the skin where he had been cut. “It’s fine, I found a Euphorn who healed it for me. Not even a scar left.” No scar on his back would have been noticed anyway, not beside the solid half-erased burn which Tabri had left there and which had only been half-healed at the time. “I’m luckier than I deserve when it comes to finding healers, aren’t I?” he said with a wry smile. “You’ve not got any wounds left from Racksom?” Clearly she had injuries of another sort, but those were to be dealt with later. He still didn’t understand what had been done to her back, but the one responsible was going to pay- he was determined.

Armeno’s words were relieving, and Kassandra felt another weight drop off her shoulders. She had seen him hurt, then that was it… it hadn’t been a good image to leave on, at all. He always seemed to come into so much danger around her, although from the stories he had told her before, he always seemed to be in danger. Even still, she didn’t want to have his pain on her hands.
“Definitely lucky. I’d better stick round you a bit more, with that sort of luck.” She hauled herself up onto Tamarisk’s back, shifting and shuffling over the saddle. Ah, to be on horseback again; it had been too rare in the past month. All of this had been so rare, and it filled her with a wash of warmth. Pulling the horse over towards Armeno, she bent down out of the saddle to touch her hand over his face, smiling gently.

“Nothing bad. Nothing worth seeing a healer about.” The scratches on her face were stark and made her feel self-conscious, but she had been turned away for that when there were worse wounds to be tended to in Racksom. She sat back up in her saddle again, taking up the reins and readying herself to ride… wherever they were headed.
“Where are you going to take me, then?"

“I’m sure I could put up with having you around a bit more,” Armeno replied teasingly, starting towards Kassandra to give her a leg up- but before he could, she had mounted on her own, albeit not quite as elegantly as she might have with aid. He had to stifle a smile at how stubbornly independent she was even in this- she seemed to resist help without even realising it. He caressed her hand as she reached down to him, before turning and swinging himself up onto Velox’s back, chastising the horse gently as he shuffled sideways evasively.
“Well, I’m glad,” he replied, squeezing on the reins as Velox fought to move off. “That makes a nice change, I’ll bet.” He flashed her yet another smile- it felt like years since he’d smiled so much- and let Velox move into a walk, heading for the path which led up off the beach. “We’re heading over across the Everbridge… We’ll have to move pretty fast. If we get going, we should be able to stay in Jiluria tonight…” He gritted his teeth, hands fisting around the reins. “The Surahnians have occupied it, but we should be safe enough. They still need people to stay in the inns and spend money. In fact,” he added grudgingly, “I hear there’s much less crime there since they arrived. I’m sure the black market’s just gone a bit more underground, but at least we probably won’t be faced with thieves in the street.”

“Bit different, yeah,” Kassandra agreed. Some months she seemed to be trying to find a healer all too often. She was getting pretty good at taking care of herself without one in all honesty, but that perhaps wasn’t a good thing, when you looked at her track record.
“The Everbridge? I heard there were Defenders up there… but nothing more than that.” As a Native in Racksom, suddenly she was informed of nothing, the only free knowledge given through careful listening of others’ conversations. She could probably spill some interesting information about the Rebels, but as to the whereabouts of the Defenders on Dragons’ Cove… barely a thing. She was ignorant in their movements, so Armeno would have to do a bit of infilling for her on that part.

“You want to get to Jiluria tonight?” They were going to be sore by the time they got there; it wasn’t late in the day, but such a distance would mean some hard riding. Nevertheless, Kassandra was up for that… hopefully she wasn’t too out of riding. Tamarisk was eager to follow anyway, falling into step close by Velox’s side with barely any direction from Kassandra herself.
“They’re not all bad. Apparently. I mean… crime’s down in Racksom, and everything’s being rebuilt quickly but… all the…” She fumbled for her words, trying to put her thoughts from the last month into order. She had had to be so careful before now, curbing herself to not say anything that would get the wrong sorts of attention drawn to her. “…all of what Racksom is is gone. Now it’s just flat.”

Armeno couldn’t help himself from tensing a tiny bit at Kassie’s mention of Defenders- did she realise he was taking her to them? He was somewhat surprised she hadn’t worked it out, but then if she thought they were still camped out at the bridge, then he could see how she might be a bit under-informed in general. Surely, if she knew, she would be far more panicked- not relaxed and happy like this. He felt guilty not telling her, but he suspected that his fears that she would flee right back to the SR if he told her before it was too late to turn back were not entirely unfounded. He couldn’t blame her for wanting to avoid Talos, but he was determined not to let the avian scare her off.

“Most of the Defenders have moved on now,” he said casually after just a beat, hopefully not a long enough pause to be suspicious. “Heading east to rest and regroup a bit. I guess we’re headed over that way too.” He hesitated, the words nearly spilling from his mouth, telling her his plan- but he held back, guilt assuaged by telling her their destination. Even if she refused to join with the DDC when they reached the other side of the island, she could stay in the area while Armeno worked with the DDC… as long as she wasn’t actively fighting against the Defenders, they could work things out.
“I don’t feel like camping out any more than we need to,” he explained. “We could fight off most any attackers, but I’d rather not if it can be avoided. And, to be honest… I just want to get out of the Surahnian-occupied zone as fast as I can. I know what you mean; it doesn’t feel like Dragons Cove anymore. Nobody’s all bad, but I don’t want to live in a place with such a military feel, even if it doesn’t have any crime.” For a moment, he wondered at himself; he’d practically been brought up as a soldier. How could a military feel put him off? But then, the Academy didn’t train a functional army; it trained individuals more to show off than anything. Elves never did anything as simply and efficiently as possible, as seemed to be the Surahnian’s policy on life.

So… where exactly were they headed? It was strange, to suddenly have her entire course put in the hands of someone else, when she had always steered her own ship. “To the Everbridge then? Or further? Tarz? I can’t go to Tarz.” A hint of nervousness crept into Kassandra’s voice and her hands fidgeted over the reins, although her eyes remained steady on Armeno. He would protect her, of course he would… but she felt vulnerable now, easily fraught and easily broken. It wasn’t a feeling she enjoyed, and certainly not one she was used to. She didn’t want to have to spend all her time even more on her guard and stretched to breaking point.

Her lips pursed together at Armeno’s explanation, but she kept quiet, mulling over his words. It was true, and she would happily choose a bed over the hard ground… but towns and villages brought all those extra dangers and uncertainties that she had absolutely no inclination towards addressing at any period soon. She just didn’t want to see anybody else, except from Armeno, for now at least.
Kassandra caught herself fidgeting and tried to relax her muscles, letting Tamarisk guide her path under the trees after Velox.
“Let’s just get out of here. I don’t want to see anybody else.” They hadn’t really had time to properly talk over their plans, the beach too exhausting emotionally, and now this, on the road already. Even Jiluria was far enough away for now to just follow after, and ignore the future and plans for it.