Closed Just a wager (Alric)

[Cleon]

For a man that professed to not be a spy, he certainly came out sounding a lot like one. Avoiding directly answering his question only to later misdirect it further on down the line. If Cleon hadn’t been on the verge of outright panic only moments ago, he might have looked deeper into it, but as it stood, he didn’t feel much like arguing the point. This interaction had flipped in a totally unexpected way with the introduction of this new bit of information, and it all seemed to conveniently line up with Alric’s interpretation of their circumstance.

Cleon didn’t normally put much stock into fate, but even he had to admit this was beyond odd, more odd that a city full of cursed individuals perhaps. Whatever this was, he didn’t much care for it, and if it was fate steering him in this direction, well he had to wonder why. Why this man, this time, this place. Why did he have to experience what he had to get to this point. It made no sense, and he immediately realized the futility of chasing that particular thought down. It would only lead to more questions which was something he currently didn’t need to multiply. He had enough on his plate as things stood.

“So if you’re not a spy, you must just be a very lucky individual, or unlucky? Depends on the way you look at it I suppose. If I wasn’t there already I’d certainly avoid any and all mention of these curses even if I had to sever a few ties. Like cutting off a rotten limb. Surely you’ve seen your fair share of amputees, better to part with a diseased piece than to lose the whole. So my question is, why do you linger? Are you hoping to catch something yourself? Is this person you care for really worth stepping into all of this trouble which stinks of magic through and through.” Cleon groused as they walked along, not really checking his voice and speaking louder as his emotions ran their course.

Then somewhat more calmly, he continued. “Then again, perhaps you have another stake in these events. You seem to be a strangely common denominator in all that is transpiring.” He said, baring his suspicious tone openly. He was far from certain about how to feel about this guy, and this whole situation had his hackles up, his nerves on edge as he tried to figure out this piece of the puzzle.

When they finally entered the establishment, Cleon made sure to talk quietly as he certainly didn’t want to be kicked out of the place when he was just starting to relax and cool down from the heat of the day outside these walls. He considered not telling Alric anything, but if he did that then what exactly was he doing here now. If that was what he wanted to do, he should have just walked back home. No, he had committed to this folly, so he would see it through as best as he could be capable of managing.

“My curse, well if there is a vice, I have it. Simple enough, although hard to measure. Its like a constant tax on my willpower, and its not just one thing but many to keep track of. I could fulfill one without feeling any improvement because the others are still neglected. Everything in excess, and I’m afraid my mizas won’t hold out for much longer.” Cleon chuckled, then rapt his knee with his knuckles. “There isn’t really anything else to point out though. Everyone’s got a curse, well almost everyone.. There is a group of children that came with the Veronica, and none of them are cursed I don’t think. An Stu, and Matthias, they’re not cursed but that’s because their priests and everyone thinks their gods are protecting them. Is their a god of children? Maybe they’re protecting the orphans, I don’t know but it does seem a might bit strange that this group would go untouched when my sister was cursed as well, and she’s of an age with most of them.”

“Aside from that, it was generally agreed that this all started when the Veronica came in to Syka on the first day of Spring, or around thereabouts as near as anyone can tell. For my own experience, I felt the first stirrings of my curse while we were still on the ship while my sister didn’t experience hers until later that night. Like everything else about these curses, they seem to be all over the place in cause and function so I don’t really know how any of this is actually helping.” Cleon said exasperatedly, then leaned back in his chair to blow out a long breath through his nose.

WC - 799

[Alric Lysane]

Alric couldn’t help but laugh at Cleon’s words about luck – they were too neatly mirroring his own at times. He didn’t immediately interject, the lad’s tone was laced through with suspicion and an acidic dislike that he was familiar with, though he had left his own behind a long time ago now. They were fair questions though, and he had pulled a dagger on Cleon – even if briefly – and so he was entitled to some answers. Said answers were more complicated than a quick, witty response though and so he too some time to consider how he would response. Eventually he nodded as if to himself and tilted his head as he answered.

“Cutting out rot might save the person…but what about the town? We are, all of us, unable to truly thrive alone. Some can give it a good go, I certainly did, but eventually you hit the wall and realise you need more…or you meet someone who changes things so much that you change,” he said slowly, thoughtfully, “the person that I’m doing this for is one cursed to be forgotten. So answering your question is…difficult. But yes, the answer is yes if you want it simple”

“The real question is, why cut losses and run at all? You went halfway across the world and this evil found you. What makes you think that you could do it again and not have it repeated? Remember Sunberth…how the gangs fought each other? How the natural order kept things in check, stopped one side from overwhelming? Think of the people of Syka as like that…sort of…would you really be happy with their freedom being crushed, replaced with a tyrannical order?” he offered up by way of a more Sunberthian turn of thought.

“As for being strangely common…thanks, I’d rather be that than anything else. You can believe me on that” he said, with such feeling given his life these days that even Cleon would know it for absolute truth.

He listened as Cleon discussed his curse, adding the facts to those that he already had and lining them up for inspection. Much of it was still the same as what he already knew, but there were a few pieces that he had yet to find and every piece of information was useful. He scratched his chin thoughtfully, waiting for Cleon to finish and nodding slowly before his gaze then turned distant, a frown of concentration. He still wasn’t sure what was happening to Syka, but his growing suspicions were that it was divine in nature. Cleon told him that it had begun for him whilst still on the boat…which was interesting. As was the fact that children were no cursed either.

“Sounds like a terribly fun curse. I imagine that things lose their shine after the thousandth forced time of doing them,” he said aloud, his tone ponderous, “but you said that the children were not cursed? And that yours began whilst still on the boat? That means…surely…that the curses came in on the boat then. The timing of the Veronica suggested it but now your curse timing confirms. Something to muse upon. Children aren’t affected…so perhaps the children are linked somehow? Not sure how but…anything in particular strange about any of them?” he asked softly.

“And this is a puzzle, Cleon, something to figure out. A sick game perhaps, but a game nonetheless. Talking about it might seem annoying, but the more you all do it the more you will all discover…reveal. Do you not see that your strongest force is the community? You’ve got many people at your disposal – Stu and Mathias are unaffected…priests…that’s interesting. Gods..>” he trailed off thoughtfully.

[Cleon]

Alric’s words struck a little too close to home. Perhaps they had more in common that Cleon first realized, but there was a noticeable difference about them that stuck in Cleon’s throat. Where he had amputated, Alric had found another way to remain whole, and that made him feel powerfully empty as they walked along. The sort of empty that draws out spite, which could be the only way to characterize what he said next.

“I cut out my own sister to get me and Faye away from that place. Sold her like a piece of meat, and I’d do it again. An when the time comes when I’m more of a hindrance then a help to her, I hope she does the same to me. Its our way isn’t it? The way of the churn. Sometimes bad things just happen, and you have to adapt, survive as best you can, and if you can’t make it, sink to the bottom.” Cleon said, and by the end of it even he didn’t know quite what he was saying. He had never been much good with words, and even less at putting his feelings out there. He just wanted to regain a sense of control over his life, and stop dwelling on how powerless Alric had made him feel earlier.

“So say you’re right. How do I know who to trust? How do they know to trust me, or anything I have to say? I’m as new as they come. For all they know, I could have brought these curses down on their heads. Just because I was among the first to speak first, doesn’t mean a lick.” Cleon said, but even that didn’t stop Alric’s words from reaching him. The man was right as much as he was loathe to admit it, and eventually it mollified him somewhat. Enough so that for the rest of their conversation in the Redynn he found himself leaning towards the man slightly as he became more receptive to what Alric had to say.

“Its something yeah. A bit of a flashback really to worse times in Sunberth when getting by was not remembering what happened the night before. Those children though, do you think they might be protected like the priests? Or- no that doesn’t make any sense because Faye is still pretty much a child herself. I don’t know if their is anything strange about them we should know, but I can certainly ask Matthias or James about it when I get back to Syka. Do you really think that they could be behind these curses or maybe it just missed them because that is the extent of the curse bringer’s power.” Cleon mused as he tossed his hair back, and gnawed on the back of his thumb where a small callous was starting to form.

“There is something I’m missing, I just know it. Something we all are missing back at Syka that is probably so obvious we’ll slap ourselves when or if this finds a satisfactory conclusion. What do you think? You might have more experience than I do with this sort of thing.”

WC - 523

[Alric Lysane]

“And yet you wanted to hire me to go an find her,” he said quietly, but pointedly as he raised and eyebrow slightly, watching Cleon, “you talk about cutting off and yet like someone who has had a limb severed you can feel it perhaps, the ghost of what was there…wishing you had it back? At least in part. Do you think yourself the only one? My curse from Syka is that I cannot remember the one I love most, no matter how much I try. But I can feel her…deep within…and know it would be better to be united once more, to remember” he sighed sadly, shaking his head slightly.

“There is truth in what you say, Sunberth is ruled by natural law. The strong survive, the weak die…the middle suffers. Slavery, murder, rape and more. But what is need not always be, at least I hope. You’ve seen other places now, and despite the curses a paradise beyond what I have ever seen. When you are these does it strike you that Sunberth’s way is the only way…or even the best?”

It was an honest question, he was genuinely curious as to how a Sunberthian was Syka. Did he think it foolishly innocent? Or, perhaps, as a store of nice trinkets to be taken and then flee into the waves once more? How strongly he held to his Sunberthian heritage Alric couldn’t guess, though the noise he made was loud whether there was a substance to it would take longer than their meeting would last, he suspected. He knew that he had taken a season at least to even become open to things like magic, and that was with the pressure of Arcadius and his lineage hanging over him. Cleon would have to make his own choices, but he suspected that his new home would erode much of the shard edges of Sunberth’s chips on his shoulder sin time. In many ways Alric envied the younger man, he was firm in his convictions, something he himself no longer had much option to be.

“You don’t…they don’t. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts…and so from day to day, season to season, the only constant is that there is change. This season may have had change for the worse, but that does not mean next season will also. Especially if you all figure out what is going on” he mused aloud.

“As for the children, I do not know, but it is an interesting thing. Perhaps you should pay more attention to them, investigate and see if any are…not what they might first appear as. Founders may know things, they are worth asking. But really, whenever I’ve tried to hunt for something, I’ve gone back to the last place it was known to be active – in this case the Veronica I suppose – and I’ve worked from there. Was there cargo? Did it have this corruption. If not, then the people…who was there, what did they bring with them? Did anything stand out?” these are all questions worth considering, I’d think, even if it is just to eliminate the answers as irrelevant”

"If you can all work together I'd think you'd have the best chance...but the improtant thing is to act, if you can"

They spent some time in conversation and discussion before a young lady approached them and asked them what their ailments were – he urged Cleon to tell them and they nodded, heading off to find whatever it was they might have available to help, leaving them for perhaps one more short space for conversation before whatever aid there was – if any – might be found for Cleon.

[Cleon]

Cleon rolled his eyes. Alric had a point. A good one too, but a truth he wasn’t willing to embrace just yet. It didn’t feel right letting himself off the hook so easily. Burdens should not be so easily cast off, and if did so now, how could he ever look himself in the eye or expect anyone else to for that matter. Fidgeting with his hands, he thought about the last time he was so pressed like this which didn’t seem all that long ago. In a way, Alric reminded him a lot of James.

“It is as you say, but I think we can both agree that Sunberth is beyond saving. There has been too much pain. The sort of pain that begets damaged individuals that beget only more pain in a never ending cycle that stretches father back than anyone can accurately say. Better if some god or goddess just wiped that city off the map.” Cleon muttered but that was the last gripe he would voice about his former home. Cleon had ruminated on that city enough, and his hatred for it was clearly detracting from their conversation enough that even he noticed it.

“That said, these Sykans seem to be onto something with what they’ve started there. Everyone has their baggage, even before these curses, I’ve learned only bits an pieces but the people there are just as damaged in some ways as the people back home only they’ve decided to do something productive with their lives. Perhaps it is trying to survive on the edge of the jungle that forces them to do so, but the people there seem to have something different, something that makes them stronger that I just can place although it seems to be on the tip of my tongue. All I can say is that they know how to work together, and even seem to enjoy it.” Cleon remarked before considering Alric’s next words.

“You make a good point though. Those children where on the Veronica, some much later than others and perhaps there is a clue there between that and when this all started. I will ask James about it when I get the chance to see if we can’t figure out something about these children that we might be missing.” Cleon said. He didn’t like to be looking at the children in such a light, but he knew as well as Alric, that a small hand could stab you in the back just as well as a large hand could. “I.. I might be able to do a bit of snooping on my own. I’m a decent sneak, and perhaps I might be able to filch a clue or two if need be. You’ve given me a lot to think about Alric.” He said, feeling a little more at ease now that he felt he had a good grasp of the man’s motivations. While he couldn’t exactly place the woman he was referring to for obvious reasons, he could almost empathize by imagining if the same thing could have happened to Faye.

When the woman came by, Cleon cleared his throat as he uneasily shifted towards her. “I’ve got drinking problem. I’d like to stop, but well..” Cleon said, punctuating it with a shrug as the woman gave him an almost pitying look as she touched his arm and then walked off. Looking at Alric, he figured that wasn’t exactly what the man had wanted him to say, but to be honest, Cleon didn’t want to feel crazy trying to explain to a second individual today his odd afflictions.

“So what’s next for us? You deliver my message to my sister, we meet up in a few days, I tell you what I learn if anything, you tell me, and we try to see if we can’t get this all solved? What if- nevermind” Cleon said, stopping himself before he continued the thought, and leaned forward so his elbows were across his knees. “Yeah, that sounds about as good as we can manage currently. Do you want me to deliver anything to this lady friend of yours?” He asked, giving Alric a curious look as he speculated how exactly he would go about finding someone who couldn’t be remembered.

WC - 712

[Alric Lysane]

Alric nodded in silence to Cleon’s words at Sunberth being beyond redemption, but largely in agreement at present circumstance rather than the suggestion that it could never change. Since moving to the Outpost for the most part he had sensed there was something…off…about the city he loved. It had been a slow realisation, built over time and hundreds of visits back and forth. It wasn’t just the dirt, grime and general violence…no it went deeper he was sure. He just didn’t know why. Yet every time he returned to Sunberth for a prolonged period, despite his current actual feelings upon things such as magic, he felt his own opinions shift and change…for no reason – grow darker, more hateful, filled with self-loathing at his ‘tainted’ blood and evil Djed. It was so subtle that it had taken him forever to pick up on it, but it was there.

Perhaps a different kind of magic lies over the city…stopping it from looking towards something hopeful…I don’t know, but he is right. Without a good shove in the right direction Sunberth will never change he mused to himself quietly as Cleon talked.

“What is need not always be,” he sighed, noticing the other man didn’t want to talk much upon Sunberth and not wishing to press further himself, “but perhaps what they have is hope…it would be almost poetic, I suppose. But really I’ll never know unless I visit, which may not be a good idea. Still, often the hardest struggles form the strongest bonds, carving a life and home out of the wild…perhaps it provides a glue for people, one which normally is unbreakable?” he suggested thoughtfully.

He was about to respond to the talk upon children and snooping when the attendant appeared, showed sympathy and swept off to seek out whatever help might be available, and Alric said nothing about Cleon’s secretive responses. It was his business as to what he revealed, though Alric suspected full truth would perhaps get him more targeted help. Still, the base condition had been expressed and that was what mattered. He felt sure that there must be one healer or vial of medicine that could at least help the lad ease his symptoms, if not outright cure things. In fact, with a slightly mischievous smile, the slow realisation came that perhaps a slight portion of help had already been discovered. He began to put together his pipe, thumbing in some tobacco but not lighting it whislt inside the building.

“One thing I have learned of Syka and its people, even though the one who gave me the knowledge to write down and think upon is forgotten, is that truth is most important. No strong bonds can be formed upon shaky foundations. Talk to this Founder first, ask for permission to dig into things, at least then they will know your intention for what it is. I think you could trust the Founder at last,” he leant back into his seat as he wondered what he could possibly give Tazrae that wouldn’t just make things worse, their letters alone were sporadic and she had said she found it difficult, this loss of their bond, “no Cleon…the only thing that I could give her that might make things even a little better is something you couldn’t pass to her. But thank you…for the thought. Just…if you meet a Tazrae in Syka…treat her kindly and help her where you can, if asked. I will find your sister…five days and she will be here with me if I have my way, and you can do what you need to do” he sighed, pushing himself up as he saw the attendant talking in hushed tones to what looked to be a Konti, he let his Djed fill him and cast his senses upon her before smiling slightly with satisfaction - there were three bright shining lights about her form.

“You are in luck, Cleon. That one there is a three marked healer…you won’t get better help aide from the goddess herself. I do not know if she will have a cure, but it is worth trying, even if all you get is the same answer. Life is as we make it, and accepting our fates is an attractive thing…I should know. I may have little choice but you…you can do otherwise” he turned slightly and looked down upon Cleon as he sat still, putting a hand upon his shoulder after a few moments of reflection.

“It’s funny how time can pass quickly in good conversation, do you not think? One can easily become addicted to such things, and it is a distracting muse, letting most other things fade into the background if the talk is particularly interesting. Food for thought, no? Thank you for the company, good luck with the healer…Courtyard Cantina, five days. I should go and get started on the hunt. Whatever you do from now, just remember that you often have more control than you think you do. If you can act, then you can change” he patted the man’s shoulder, nodded and then made his way towards the exit as the Konti healer walked over to Cleon to begin her ministrations, such as they may be.

[Cleon]

Cleon nodded. “I’ll try, but I make no promises. I have a hard enough time keeping track of my own actions these days. Everyday the curse grows stronger and a lose a little piece of myself in the process. You don’t have to worry about me misbehaving though on account of my sister Faye.” Cleon stated plainly, rubbing his face with both hands before staring longingly forward trying to think if he should ask anything before they parted ways. When nothing immediately came to mind, he rested his chin in the palm of his left hand with his fingers curled in front of his lips as he thought on the rest of what Alric had said about Syka.

Strange to have met a man whom had been thinking more deeply on the issues in Syka than he himself had, although he supposed this man had an edge on him there. Although he was really no good with ages, it was clear enough that Alric was drawing from a lot more experience, and perhaps even there was baggage that came along with that experience.

He smiled wryly. “Suppose I am still fortunate in other ways. See you then Alric, and take care of my sister.” He said steadily as he waved the man off, and turned to look towards the healer. While he was puzzling over just how Alric had known that she was a three marked healer, he was seen to the best of their ability which managed to alleviate some of his symptoms before he headed away from the clinic a smattering of chimes later. The man had definitely given him plenty to think about on his journey back, and he figured he would still be thinking on it when they met up again.

WC - 295