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The house is dark as Verin splashes cold water on his face, trying to erase the haunting images fading from his sleepy mind. Dressing simply and leaving the armor behind, he sneaks quietly into the kitchen and snags some fruit and nuts and stuffs it into a bag and slips out the front door.
The early morning streets of Roshona are quiet with few folks moving here and there. He nods politely to an older gentleman pushing a cart of packages down the street and continues on toward the Xhorhouse, pace quickening to a jog, trying to get the blood moving. He wasn’t 100% sure that the dangerous one, Beau, was serious about training in the morning, but he didn’t really care. Whether she meant it or not, he was curious to know more about this group and what they’re capable of. Besides, he’d be up training anyways, the work doesn’t end when he’s on vacation.
He turns the corner and slows to a walk when he sees the half-orc, Fjord outside the front of the house looking up into the giant tree on the roof with his hands on his hips. Verin squints up into the tree trying to see what he was staring at and quietly stands beside the other man and pulls a couple of fruits out of the back and takes a big bite out of one.
“What are we looking at?” He asks, mouth full and offering the other to Fjord, ducking and jumping back when a sword appears out of nowhere.
“Gods above you startled me!” Fjord is staring at him, sword at the ready.
Verin laughs and tosses the fruit at him. The sword disappears and the other man catches the fruit and inspects it.
“My apologies, my new friend. I developed a habit of sneaking around in my youth for mischievous reasons and I can't quite seem to shake it. Neat sword trick.”
Fjord grins and shakes his head. “Well, I may need that someday for revenge purposes. Prank wars get a little intense around here. As for the sword,” he shrugs and does jazz hands. “Magic! I guess.”
He laughs at himself as Verin nods. “That tracks. And the tree, why are we staring, besides the obvious?”
Fjord points at a flash of blue in the tree. “We’re looking at one punk with a long list of questionable life decisions, testing out her most recent: whether she can do pull ups in the tree.”
Verin squints up and chokes on his bite of fruit as he realizes Beau is, in fact, successfully doing an impressive number of pullups on an overhanging limb of the tree. Fjord thumps him on the back a couple times as Verin continues to cough on the fruit that had lodged temporarily on his sharp inhale.
“Thanks,” he croaks, hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath.
“No problem,” Fjord looks at him strangely before tilting his head up. “Beau! Verin showed up, let’s go.”
Beau flips up to perch on top of the limb and peers down at them.
Verin waves weakly. Beau give a two fingered salute back, looks around her, grins and slips off the limb, sliding her way down the side of the tree, flipping over the edge of the tower and down the side of the building before landing lightly on her toes and rolling with the extra momentum to the sound of protesting men standing in their yard. She dusts the grass off her pants and hands and looks at them innocently. “What?”
Verin’s mouth is agape as he stares before shaking himself into some form of neutrality and digs another fruit out of the bag.
“Breakfast?” he asks nonchalantly. She snags it out of his hand and leans against Fjord to take a bite.
“So you came.” She says and pushes the hair that’s fallen out of its bun behind her ear.
“Yes, I was thankful for the invitation, as I would be up and training anyways. Thought I might bring a small breakfast as thanks for the companionship so early in the morning.”
Beau raises the fruit as thanks, blowing another strand of hair out of her eyes. “Yeah man, as long as we’re all in the same town, open invitation. You can even use the tree if you want.”
Verin’s eyes dart back up to the tree for a moment. “I have so many questions--” his train of thought derails as Beau frustratedly yanks her hair ties from her hair and shakes her hair out over her shoulder before finger combing it back out of her face. She hands the ties to Fjord and plops down on the ground. Fjord huffs out a laugh and sits as well, tilting her head back and splitting the hair into separate chunks and beginning to braid it tightly down both sides. Beau hums contentedly with her eyes shut before squinting one back open to look at Verin.
“Questions?”
Verin blinks before remembering. “Right! The tree?” He gestures vaguely upward. “That was not there when dear old Cousin Tybal lived here.”
Beau grins. “That would be Caduceus. We weren’t in the best shape when we got here. We’d had a tough go of it, nearly dying every other day, finding ourselves as outsiders in a land unknown, accidental heroes, and Caduceus is the type to try to hold us all together. When your den gave us this house as thanks, he asked if we were putting down roots here. When we said yes he literally put down roots with this magic thing. He and Jess spent nearly a week bottling enough magical sunlight to keep it alive. Oh and the garden alive. There’s bits and bobs for the entire god squad up there as a small place of worship and meditation.”
Verin nods as though that makes sense. Oddly enough, the more he thinks about it, it does.
“And do you always jump out of giant trees?”
Fjord snorts as he begins the second braid.
“Yep, jumped out of the Arbor Exemplar too.”
Verin’s brow furrows for a moment before he remembers what the Arbor was and he sits down hard.
“You...what?”
She gestures at herself. “Monk.”
Verin shakes his head. A picture of recklessly ambitious people was coming into focus with this group. No wonder his brother liked them.
“And my brother, you met him in the palace?”
They both nod.
“We kept bugging him,” Beau says, stretching her arms out in front like a cat.
Fjord pipes up, “Pretty sure he was regretting his assignment to be our warden while we were here up until, oh how long ago was that dinner, would you say?”
Beau yawns and shrugs. “I can’t keep track anymore.”
“Anyway, we finally wore him down to come to dinner. Well. Jester finally wore him down to stay for dinner. That was the first time we had an actual conversation with him. A real one. And then recently we had a, uh,” he pauses and ties off the end of Beau’s other braid. “Well, the playing field is a little more balanced now. We have an understanding that we didn’t before. From there, we can continue building a relationship.”
Beau wrinkles her nose. “Maybe. Depends on him.”
Fjord yanks gently on her braid. “Hey now, give him a chance. We didn’t start out as fantastic people either.” She smacks at his hand and he manages to catch it and a scuffle breaks out there in the dirt that has Fjord calling for mercy within seconds.
Verin looks thoughtfully at them both. “I can’t pretend to know my brother’s secrets and failings. We’ve both done things in our line of work that would disappoint our younger selves.” He rips a piece of grass and studies it. “What I do know is I’ve not seen Esse this happy since he first successfully used dunamancy. Nearly a century ago.” He starts shredding pieces of the grass into thin curling pieces. “Our upbringing was...well...I was always a bit of a disappointment, and you can see where that put me. Essek, took it to heart and did everything and more that was expected of him. It wasn’t good for him.”
He tosses the shredded grass aside and looks up to see understanding in both of their eyes. He sniffs a bit and stands. “And he would erase me from existence if he knew I was telling you this, so keep it quiet or I’ll reunite you with your moorbounders in as unpleasant of a manner as I can.”
Beau quirks an eyebrow but gives him a thumbs up before leaping to her feet and offering a hand to Fjord who grunts and stands.
Verin resolutely doesn’t stare as Fjord stretches before quickly braiding his own hair back and tying it off, bouncing on his feet a little.
“Alright old men, we’re gonna run to the Lucid Bastian and back. Last one back has to clean the hot tub and carry Caleb’s next paper shopping trip. Ready go!”
She takes off in a dead sprint. Fjord sighs and motions for Verin to go ahead and takes off after them both. They set a simple pace just fast enough that conversation isn’t easy. They can see Beau far ahead on the straights, but lose her in the turns. Verin takes in the sights of a city he hasn’t seen in years. Looking ahead, he sees the entrance to one of his old shortcuts and motions for Fjord to follow him. They slip into an alleyway that cuts under the buildings and streets of the markets and neighborhoods allowing a straight path to the Bastion rather than the winding, often crowd-filled streets up above. They emerge nearly on the other side of the winding central part of the city. They wind around the last of the twisting roads and into the open street with the Bastion gates visible ahead. They run up and tag the gate, Verin saluting at the confused guards before pivoting back towards the city when they see Beau pop out of the crowd and shout outraged at them. They grin and wave innocently at her and before disappearing into the crowd and slipping into the tunnel again before she can see them.
The boys collapse at the Xhorhouse breathing heavily, leaning against each other and the front door. A few minutes later, Beau appears and glares, stalking towards them, barely winded.
“How. Explain.”
Verin sucks in some air before wheezing, “Shortcut.”
“Not fair,” she crosses her arms and cocks a hip out. “Doesn’t count.”
“Does too count,” Fjord says panting. “We ran the same distance as you, just in a straight line and underground,” He slumps further against Verin. “Besides, you started early, so none of it should count.”
The door opens behind them and they both fall backwards into the house in a tangle of limbs.
“Oh hello.”
They look up into the concerned eyes of Yasha who is leaning over them, worried.
“I heard voices, I didn’t think you’d be…” She trails off looking down at them. “I didn’t interrupt anything did I?
With that, the two scramble for a moment to stand up, flushing.
“NOpe!” They say in tandem.
Yasha looks at them strangely, before stepping between them and closing the door. “I’m not one for running but Beau said you may need another sparring partner this morning so. Here I am?”
She walks over to stand next to Beau and gently picks up one of her braids, still intact from when Fjord had weaved them earlier.
“This is cute.”
Blushing, Beau stammers out something unintelligible before nodding. “Yeah, uh, Verin, I assume you have fighting experience?”
Verin nods and shuffles over to his bag to pull out a waterskin. “I didn’t bring my gear over this morning, is that a problem?” He tosses another fruit to Yasha who delicately sniffs it before taking a bite. Verin’s eyes glaze over as he fails to not track the bit of juice running down an incredibly muscular forearm before realizing someone is responding to him. He quickly takes a drink and offers it to Fjord.
“Nah, we’ll just do hand-to-hand today,” Beau smirks at him with a knowing look. “Bring your stuff tomorrow and then we can play.”
Verin flushes again as he drops his eyes to the dirt and scratches the back of his neck. “Yep, cool. Sure. Sounds great.”
“Yash, you and Fjord wanna square up over there? Verin and I’ll go over there.” Beau points and everyone moves.
Fjord and Yasha begin moving through different positions, copying forms Beau had taught them previously, trading off defense and offense, laughing at each other and talking low.
Beau stands beside Verin and gets into position. Verin stares for a moment before copying her. Beau begins to shift through a sequence of forms slowly and Verin follows along behind her. They move in comfortable silence listening to the sound of the city waking up before Beau says quietly, “I hated this when I first learned it.”
Verin breathes in slowly and wobbles on the one foot holding all his weight before stabilizing.
“I can imagine. You seem to be a can’t-sit-still type.” He touches a toe back down to stabilize again. “This is not the exercise to do when you have energy to burn.” He laughs a bit.
Beau huffs a laugh, “Yeah, well you seem to be doing fairly well for your first time.”
Verin sighs. “Well, etiquette lessons with Mother are basically the same amount of stillness and muscle control. Some habits become muscle memory.” He sees Beau nod out of the corner of his eye. “So, your group seems pretty close.”
Beau looks at him curiously. “Yeah, what about it?”
“Nothing, I’m just curious as to how such an eclectic ensemble met.”
“Would you believe the circus and then later a graveyard?”
Verin collapses to the ground laughing. “I would, actually. Please tell me it’s true, that is too wonderful for it to not be true.”
Beau untwists and bounces on her toes. “I mean, basically. We were all eating breakfast in the same tavern and got invited to a circus by Yasha and Molly that got attacked by zombies. We sorta got blamed for it and had to prove our innocence and then just kinda travelled together afterwards.”
Verin looks up at her. “Amazing. And the graveyard?”
She sits cross legged beside him. “Well, that was how we got Caduceus. Part of our group got kidnapped in an ambush and in trying to get them back, we lost Molly.” She looks down at her hands, picking at calluses. “Anyway, we heard about a healer in the woods and came across Cad. He helped us get our friends back and stuck around. I think we were a bit more than he was expecting but he seems to have faith in us.”
She looks up to see Verin watching intently and shrugs a shoulder. “We were kinda assholes when we all met. Selfish. We’d just done something good. For no real tangible reason, just for the sake of being good, and then-” her hands flutter. “Well. Molly wanted to leave everything better than he found it. I don't know that we did that with him-left him better than we found him, but that was the last adventure all of us had with him.”
She looks up at Verin for a quick moment. “We reunited a family right before he died.” Her eyes go to the dark horizon. “We were trying to reunite ours, but. Anyway, now we try to be better. For him.”
She shakes her head, “Why am I telling you this?”
Verin sits up straighter and laughs a little. “Genuine curiosity begets forthrightness. I love learning people. What makes them group together. Stories, gossip. It helps me be a better leader. Especially in a place that is a near constant stream of deadly horrors. If I can keep my soldiers glued together with half the bond that lies in your group, I’ll have a fairly efficient team.”
She shoulder checks him. “Mmmm, you’re just as weird as your brother. I thought you were normal but you’re just as weird.”
“Hey! Maybe you’re the weird one.”
They sit in silence watching Fjord and Yasha laughing at each other so hard they aren’t even remotely sparring anymore and more just holding each other upright.
“So Yasha.” Verin leans over and says quietly. “You two looked pretty cozy last night at dinner.”
“Welp, that’s the end of the training sess-” Beau hops to her feet but is stopped by Verin catching her hand and tugging her gently back down with a pleading look on his face.
“Please please please, I live for gossip and I haven’t had any interesting tidbits since I left my post 2 weeks ago. Essek won’t ever tell me even if he dug his nose out of a book long enough to even notice that there are interpersonal interactions happening around him, I beg of you Beau. Just give me something.”
Red-faced, Beau sits back down stiffly before dropping her face into her hands and groaning loudly. “Aughhh, I don’t know!” She peeks through her fingers at him. “We’re taking it super slow because like neither of us know what we're doing and past relationships, and stuff and she’s just so--” she flaps her hands in Yasha’s direction.
They both turn to look and both their jaws drop when they see Yasha successfully attempting to deadlift Fjord. Beau flops onto her back with a high-pitched whine.
“I’m going to actually die. Just expire right here.”
Verin flops down beside her and jams his fingers into his hair. “Imagine my shock when I met all of you. Like, seriously. You’re all incredibly intimidating of course, and if my brother is close friends with any of you you’re incredibly dangerous. But he seriously failed to mention how insanely attractive the entire group is! How does he get any work done around you? How do any of you get any work done around yourselves? Did you actually return any beacons or did you just murder-strut into the palace, flip your hair and wink and they all thanked you allowing them to view your ridiculously attractive selves?
Beau is curled up in a ball next to him wheezing with laughter. “You know,” she manages to get out. “I never thought about it before, but yeah you make a good point. You gain a resistance to it all after awhile, especially when you’ve all been covered in the guts of a monster and on death’s door.” She props her head on her hand. “Although to be fair, we have privately dubbed your brother as Hot Boi and you’re like a muscley version of him so don’t sell yourself short, man. Objectively. All of you dudes are nice to look at but eh, not my type.”
Verin fans his red face and shakes his head grabbing some nuts out of his bag and munching on them. “Well, good luck and all that for you and Yasha.” He leans in closer again. “But what about the others?”
Beau sits up and snatches a handful of nuts out of the bag, “Well your brother seems to have a thing for our resident nerd…” and the two of them continue gossiping and sharing snacks until Fjord and Yasha finish horsing around on the other side of the yard and wander over.
“Well we were going to invite you to stay for breakfast, but it looks like you're already eating.” Fjord squats down and reaches for some himself, passing half of them to Yasha.
Verin smiles and shakes his head. “I’d best be getting back before my brother thinks I’m missing.” He nods at Yasha. “Impressive show of strength.”
She smiles and offers a hand up. He stands and looks around, making sure he didn’t leave anything behind.
“Thank you for the invitation and conversation. I’ll return in the morning?” He smiles at everyone’s nods and turns to leave.
Beau calls after him. “Tell your brother you’re both invited for dinner.”
Verin bows slightly. “I’ll do that. Have a great day.”
Yasha waves slightly and he turns and walks a steady pace back to his brother’s home. More insight into his brother’s new friends, ammunition to tease him with, finally some gossip to ponder. It had been a productive morning and it wasn’t even breakfast time yet. He sighs contentedly.
This is turning into the best vacation yet.