"Why do you call me stupid for it when you are after the same thing?" Rynn asked, her tone even and calm. It just seemed odd for him, a man that agreed to help her, to insult her.

For this first day, Rynn decided the best attempt was to tread quite cautiously. They had plenty of days together, she could work on a friendship with him as they went along. It was still very uncomfortable being together, and there were moments where she wondered if this was a good idea at all, but then she remembered her goal and she knew it had been the right choice.

As they stopped to rest, Rynn was quite thankful. She had done her best not to show it but the young woman was fairly tired after the long day of walking. But that's what she'd signed up for, and she'd be damned before she would let Boj have the satisfaction of knowing she had found it difficult.

"I can go find some meat if you want, I know how to hunt." She offered, feeling silly for doing so, but he'd worked hard leading them all day, she could at least get the main course of dinner.

The only response Rynn's question elicited was a shrug of those great, too-wide shoulders, his manner indicating that he either didn't care to answer or agreed with her. Both, perhaps.

As they settled in beneath the ledge--Boj's own bedroll and blankets clearly well-worn--Rynn offered to hunt. He gave her a slow, blinking look, unsure what to say.

"You will get lost. Better to build a fire here, I'll go." With that, he stood, as if the matter was decided. If she didn't stop him, he soon disappeared into the trees.

Rynn sighed as he yet again refused to answer her. But the frustration had soon passed when they walked on. She pulled out her own bedroll once she found her preferred spot in the area where they were resting- not very close to Boj's but not far enough for her to not hear him if something happened. Her bedroll was fairly new, she'd only bought it a few months prior. She felt so silly in comparison to this rugged man of the wild. She was just a princess who had a tantrum about marriage and had run off. But no, she told herself, she wasn't. Rynn was going to do this, she was going to make a life for herself. She'd made it this far.


"Alright, I'll do that." Rynn agreed, gathering some small logs from around the general area and piling them up in a flat area of their little campsite. Rynn pulled a little matchbook out of her sack and lit the match, tossing it onto the fire as the flames began to consume the logs. She smiled, it wasn't the first fire she'd made but it still made her feel good to have it. The young woman began to warm her hands by it, staring into the flames.

Boj had been gone too long, and dusk began to make the slow turn into night. Just as the last lights of the sun filtered through the Gale trees, a familiar growl reached Rynn's ears. There, in the space between two rays of sunlight, stood a figure unlike anything she had ever seen.

Her eyes widened as she saw the horrifying thing. They weren't supposed to bother them here... and where had her guardian gone? Rynn looked about herself wildly, as if Boj would just materialize out of no where. But taht was not in the cards. She would face this herself. Rynn could handle it, it didn't look too large. "What is it you are after?" She asked, leaping up as her hands hovered above her sword hilts, ready to draw at any moment. She was terrified, of course she was, but Rynn needed to remain level headed if she was going to make it out of this one.

Boj sighed and scratched the back of his neck with one, massive hand. He could hunt, but that required animals to be anywhere in sight. He'd found a rabbit, sure, and a few inedible other animals. But the Gale woods were not known for bursting with animal life. Here, even the birds did not stay long.

He was beginning to think of heading back and sucking it up to ask her to help him out--after all, there were two of them, and a rabbit wouldn't feed even one of them.

The strange figure only cocked it's head at her, and asked her in her own voice: "What is it you are after?"

"Im not sure how wise it is to be speaking to you." Rynn said simply, her face betraying no emotion. She was buying time, if Boj came back he'd know what to do. After all, Rynn wasn't even sure if blades would work on this thing. "I seek to make a life of my own, free from the bondage of my "birthright"." Her elongated canines were evident as she spoke, though Rynn suspected the creature knew everything about her and had known all along she was a runaway noble.

The creature smiled under its mask, the pale lights of its eyes blinking once. Again, it spoke in her own voice. "How wise it is to be speaking with you." The lights of its eyes did not flicker at her revelation, but its lower lids squeezed upwards and neck muscled strained beneath the mask. "Birthright?" Rynn's next words would find her voice a little hoarse. Boj was, yet, nowhere in sight.

What a confusing creature this was. Rynn listened around her for the sound of leaves crunching or some sign of her companion but there were none to be found. "By birthright I-" she cleared her throat, the hoarsness surprising her "I only meant that I was born a noble and I do not want that life, it is a cage, though a beautiful one. I don't do well with cages. All I want is freedom." She said, her voice back after clearing her throat. "But I doubt you are here to listen to my life story..."

The creature let out a child's giggle, muffled behind its mask. His next words were disjointed, pieced together words of hers. "I only--want--to listen." Rynn's throat might have felt odd and encouraged to cough, perhaps a little ticklish on the inside of it. It would become a little difficult for her to speak.

Boj had begun to walk back, a second rabbit now in his hand in addition to the one hanging from his belt. He was sliding his knife back in its sheathe when he heard a most awful, familiar giggling echo through the trees. He froze in his tracks a moment before dropping the small hunting prize and sprinting forwards towards the sound.

The sound had carried far, but Boj was fast and knew this area well. He burst through the trees and threw himself at the creature just as Rynn would find a coughing fit bursting from her chest.

Rynn went to say something else, but felt her voice catch in her throat. She stopped trying to talk, realizing that the creature was only using the words she spoke to it to speak. Was it stealing her voice? She didn't know, but she wasn't about to give it another chance. She drew her blades, ready to leap at it.

Before she could move, however, she started coughing violently, desperately trying to clear her throat. She brought her hand to her chest which was heaving with the effort of the cough. Thank goodness then, that Boj came bursting through the trees just as the coughing nearly brought her to her knees. She caught her breath, leaning against a tree for support as she tried to get her breathing even again. Once she was back to normal, she would aid Boj in the battle.

Boj moved like a man who knew exactly what he was doing. He did not hesitate in tearing the mask from the spirit's terrible visage--thin, sticky tendons stretched from the featureless face and clung to the mask, snapping with a sickening sound as Boj tossed the thing aside. It clattered at Rynn's face, and her voice began to return from her.

Without further hesitation Boj reached into the gaping maw of the eyeless creature and shoved his thick hand deep in its throat. It let out a terrible, muffled scream, feet flapping and armless body writhing.

She watched, apt with attention as he destroyed the creature. It would be good to know how to kill one. Rynn jumped aside as she saw the mask flying at her, but she felt the itching in her throat go away as Boj tore the thing to shreds. She was embarrassed for having spoken to it, and figured Boj would get onto her later.

Rynn watched him tear it apart, knowing now that she would be unable to help him on this particular kill. She felt so useless, so clueless. How had she ever have thought she was cut out for this? Boj knew what he was doing. She didn't. She knew how to fight a normal enemy, one that could be killed with blades. She was quite good at that. But Rynn was clueless about these other ones.

Spring, 1130

The queen waits under the stained glass dome atop the highest seat in all of Cann. It is a symbolism hardly lost on her, or her son--who sits to her side and several feet below her, quietly stewing. The two elven women he laid claim to during that unfortunate business a few months ago stroke his arms, calming him as they knew she wished. Nerifai had let him keep but two--only to prevent his uprising.

He was, in truth, technically King. But he wasn't stupid, and he knew that few bothered to even address the technicality. None bothered to address him as anything other than Prince, and for good measure--she had worked hard to maintain the favor of not only her people but even ex-slaves. She need only appease him with some superficial gesture every few months. He was too weak-spirited and spoiled to try anything otherwise.

She had to admit, regardless, that this idea of his was a good one. Nerifai had wracked her brain--and her advisors--for a way to balance the risk of searching after this relic without putting the nation in a weakened position. This shift particle might well provide Tyrisia with the grandest army the world had seen, but if she left the nation without an army in the meantime, what good would it do?

The prince, surprisingly, had been the one to come up with the idea. Just pay someone, mother. How stupid of her--her advisors! More than a few had been fired as a result--to think of her navy as the only tool at her disposal. She was getting soft.

There were mercenaries and treasure hunters aplenty, enough between here and Bursia alone to fill all of Cann itself. A reward, then. But it would not be enough. The relic already promised great reward, and none had been able to attain it. And no wonder: they were paying for these expeditions out of pockets that relied on petty smuggling and piracy. She would fund a few. Ensure greater odds for success. It was worth the price. And, perhaps, to two or three...provide a little extra information, at the cost of some insurance on her part.

And so it was that the Queen sat atop the stone city and awaited the captain of the legendary Ardent.

As Rynn stood aside, Boj's arm moved deeper into the being's throat than should have been comfortable to watch. The spirit-thing lurched as Boj wrenched from its throat a stone carving--which he threw in Rynn's direction as well. It clattered at her feet.

He was not done, however. He reached back into the shrieking, writhing creature, and felt around much longer this time. A muffled, pleading woman's voice spewed from the thing's cracked lips just as Boj tore another, differently shaped carving from within the beast. He let go of the creature and stood slowly, letting it clutch its throat and flee from them. Silent, now, he studied the stone piece in his hand.

Rynn cringed at his destruction of the figure. She leant down and picked up the stone, turning it over in her hands. She was curious about it, she'd never seen anything like this before "What's this?" Rynn asked, looking up at him.

The woman's voice sounded oddly familiar, but Rynn couldn't quite place. It made her feel good to hear it, except what it was coming from was horrifying, but she still wanted to figure out whose voice it had been. It certainly hadn't been her own. Rynn's eyes went down to the stone Boj had picked up, wondering the significance of it. She walked up to stand next to him. "Boj what are these?"

Boj did not look up from the curl of stone laying in his hands, but he did answer her. "I still don't know. Don't lose it." Just there, at the end, was the slightest of cracks in his voice. He hesitated some moments longer before pulling a surprisingly fine cloth from his pocket and carefully wrapping the item. "Never lose it," he whispered, and slipped the package gently into a pouch on his backpack.

He began to settle down again, digging through the same pack for a small tin box filled with rather clumsily wrapped lho-seed joints. Gazing into the woods, he lit the match with a few spark-producing snaps of his fingers. He drew in the sweet smoke and exhaled. An Innate, it seemed.

"I will protect it with my life.." She said, placing it gently into her pack. Rynn watched him curiously as he lit the Lho seeds. She'd never one herself, Although what was more interesting to her was that he had lit it with his fingers. "Wait you're an innate?" the young woman asked, her voice curious "I've never met someone with those abilities before." her eyes were wide, though her curiosity faded from her face. "What does smoking Lho Seeds do? I know a lot of people smoke them but why?" She was painfully naive about all these real world things, though very knowledgeable about the grand history of Kerria and Tyrisia. It seemed her knowledge wasn't very useful out here.

He leaned his head back against the rocky wall. "I've met that one before..." he murmured, more to himself, before puffing a curl of smoke and glancing at her. Boj raised one thick brow, slow as a crawl, at her ignorance. "You shouldn't use it. That's all."

With another puff of the sickly perfume, Boj nodded. "A lot of us are. What, you think we carved that city of yours with bare hands?"

"Why shouldn't I? Is it really that dangerous?" Rynn asked, looking at him as she pulled an apple out of her bag and began to eat it. "I suppose thats a good point you raise there. It had to be built by someone..." She sighed, feeling guilty about how her people treated everyone else.

After a long moment of silence, Rynn turned her face back to Boj "You know, that last voice, I heard it somewhere before. I recognize it. I can't remember who it reminds me of, someone I think I met a few times briefly but always liked... it was a few years ago." She mused, having caught that he'd met that one before. Perhaps he could help her identify the voice.

The cigarette nearly slipped from Boj's thick, clumsy fingers words, his face paling and jaw tightening. He recovered with a faux-nonchalant shrug and drew in an especially long breathe of the smoke. Eyes locked on her handiwork and the fire roaring within it, he exhaled carefully. "Hell do they teach you in those schools of yours...?" he murmured.

"Nothing useful. General history, but they cover up the nasty things that my people did. Makes everyone else look like savages. They teach us table manners, dancing, diplomacy, and how to behave to be a decent marriage prospect. I'm a woman, they don't teach us shit. The men get a much better education, but we don't need it. Essentially we are sold to the best prospect and become no more than bedroom slaves and homemakers with lots of money." The bitterness that Rynn held towards her society was quite evident in her voice. "I wanted the freedom to choose so I left...." she shrugged.

Talking about her awful society reminded of the voice she'd recognized. "Ah yes... that voice... it was the voice of a woman who helped me realize that I needed to leave. She left too. Her name was Asphedalia Hurphine. Wow its a wonder I remembered that. " The fact that creature had spoken with that voice was quite odd to Rynn. What were the chances of her, Boj, and the other woman meeting the same creature? And why didn't it use Boj's voice?

Boj's jaw tightened as she began to speak, only to unclench and begin to laugh with a low rumble as she continued--a low rumble which was cut short as he mentioned the woman's name. His visage didn't pale, it whitened, and he turned his face away. A sharp, curt nod at her remark, and his jaw wound itself shut again. He shifted to face his body as well as eyes away from her, and nursed the lho-smoke silently.

She watched his body language carefully, the whitening wasn't lost on her. The fact that the creature had used Asphedalia's voice was really quite odd, not to mention the way he reacted to her name. "You know her, don't you?" Rynn asked gently, trying to soften the question as much as she could "That's why it used her voice...."

Damned and double damned, by the Golden Throne.

Fortinbras Carlyle limped up the thirteenth flight of stairs with a muttered curse for every misbegotten step. His hip predicted rain with a dull ache. His knee predicted monsoons, if the stabbing, wrenching pain which sent lightning bolts dancing along his nerves could be believed. His gut predicted trouble. The first two were parting gifts of a miraculously survivable chance encounter with the surface of Kerria at all of sixty knots from 9000 feet. The latter he chalked up to experience.

He wasn't particularly late when the seneschal drew the bolt on the double doors which led into Seat of State beneath its crystaline dome. Only a handful of minutes. Certainly nothing unforgiveable. Or so he hoped as he tried to turn his aching limp into a brash swagger, swinging the offending leg more than was strictly necessary for a man who hadn't adopted the rolling gait of a sky-dog. No doubt, he'd have to mind his P's and Q's from here on, in any case.

Unconsciously he tugged at the glove over his left hand, ensuring that the scarred flesh beneath did not show in the slightest.

The Queen sat before him, patient and serene as a creature carved from marble. Her son, the Prince (King?) looked on glumly, even being waited on as he was by two elven beauties. Bored, no doubt, that yet another adventurer had come to visit his royal mum.

A golden dragon-shower upon that. And him too.

Fort hid his wince as he dipped into a courtly, if unconventional bow. Court fashion, he'd read over his morning coffee, was currently a flourishing sort of actor's bow. Had he tried it, his knee would have screamed bloody riot. He settled instead for a soldierly bow from the waist, eyes never dropping from those of his Queen turned prospective employer.

"Highness," he murmured in a hushed baritone, as he rose. "Captain Fortinbras Carlyle of the Airship Ardent, at your service. What is it I can do for you?"

Boj would no sooner answer her than cut his own eyes from his skull and present them to her. More likely the latter, even. Instead, he leaned his head against the rock wall and closed his eyes, fumbling with the hook on his belt and prying the dead rabbit from it. He held it out for her.

"You can cook."

Some small distance away, through the trees, was the other one he had dropped earlier. Boj rose slowly and slipped into the trees, weaving between them as his eyes swept the forest floor for the discarded meal. And there, a few feet away from a writhing fawn, he saw it. The little thing was silent as death, mouth open and contorting with the struggle to make some ungodly, panicked noise. It's feet shot every which way, legs tumbling over each other, eyes wide open and round as coin.

Boj froze at the sight of it, inner brows rising and crinkling with empathy. The animal was in pain, and he needed to eat. Nevertheless, the giant hesitated greatly as he moved closer step by step, finally slitting the poor thing's throat. He stooped to snatch the rabbit and slowly, head hanging just the littlest bit, dragged the meal back to the campfire. Dropped it.

"You can cook," he mumbled sullenly, and sat down facing away.

The too-young queen leaned forward in her seat with an amused curl of his lips at the sight of his peculiar bow. She wouldn't fault him for it, of course--she needed men as tough as steel, not polite courtiers. Still, his attempt was admirable. And a good sign.

"Fortinbras Carlyle," she began, leaning her chin into curled fingers. Her voice was a little higher than it should have been, and it spoke something of haughtiness or feigned politeness. "I'm told of your last foray into the savage lands to the west. Just how far did your ship fall?"

The prince watched Fort with sullen eyes, the elves at his side moreso. The queen went on. "Your ship still lives, no? Remarkable craftsmanship. And remarkable crew. I heard much about them in the aftermath of that nasty business, I assure you. Come on, come closer. Let me get a look at you." Her hand rose and fingers twitched, bidding him move forward. She moved forward most slightly, chin rising as she appraised him from above.

"I'm considering an offer to fund your vessel, if you'll consider making that journey again. There's already a fine reward for the particle, I'm sure you're aware. And I'm sure you've become more than aware that airships are a pricey business..."

Rynn hadn't really expected an answer, he didn't seem like he liked her very much. It frustrated her, being in the company of such a cold distant man. How could she make him respect her enough to consider her worth talking too? All she wanted was a little conversation. As he asked her to cook, Rynn immediately went to work skinning the creature. He wandered off and she sighed to herself, hating the situation but it was better than any other option she'd had.

By the time he returned with the deer and the second rabbit, Rynn already had the first one speared on a stick over the fire. "oh wow..." She said softly, seeing the small deer. It would have been far too much food for the woman, but for Boj and herself it was probably just enough.

As she continued to work, first skinning the second rabbit and then starting on the deer. "I'm sorry Boj.... I didn't mean to pry. I was out of line asking about it." She said simply, not looking up from her work.

He had found out about the queen's idea fairly quickly, being a member of the first family had many many benefits. The first being the privilege of choosing only the very best to be his betrothed. He was twenty-six, a young lord, having only taken up the official Randersvayne title two years prior. At that time, he took it upon himself to attend the balls and take his pick of the women that were paraded before him like prized peacocks. Few had caught the cruelly handsome man's interest, as Nathaniel Randersvayne was a difficult man to please. He had always been one of discriminating tastes, and his choice in a wife was by far the most important. He needed her to produce for him the smartest children, along with, and most importantly, being as beautiful as his expansive art collection.

To most, it would seem quite unconnected, this airships captain's visit and his selection of a wife, but it was all very much entwined together. Nathaniel had chosen his wife, the beautiful first daughter of the Arokit family. The Arokit family was second only to his family when it came to the nobles. It didn't hurt that someone old Elias and Marion Arokit had also born and raised one of the more beautiful of the ladies. And so, after seeing Rynn Arokit in all her finery at one of the balls, Nathaniel knew she must be added to his... collection. A beautiful piece of art deserved an equally beautiful home. Nathaniel also couldn't help himself when it came to her personality, she had a fire in her that was so often stomped out of the noble women. That made her a rarity, and Nathaniel prided himself on his ability to secure the most scarce of rarities. She was a choice that required no deep thinking or decision making. All he had to do was go to her father and put in his offer of marriage.

Rynn had had other offers of course, though she had no knowledge of that, but Elias Arokit knew a good deal when it came to him. And so, he promised his daughter to him and the announcement was made public at the couple's debut. Rynn however, had allowed her spirit to get the best of her. The night of the ball, after denying his advances in the darkened parlors, had run off. She had just left, leaving no word with anyone of where she had gone. Nathaniel was enraged, angrier than he ever imagined he would be when his beautiful prize had refused him. He snuck into her home one night, looking for clues and found her journal. In it, she had made reference to an object known as the shift particle and how she had intended to find it to earn her own fortune. And this, this had given the dark, cruel man an idea. He was going to get her back.

When he had heard about the captain's visit and what he would be seeking, Nathaniel took it upon himself to make sure he was in court the day the offer was made. It was not unusual for Nathaniel to be around the palace during the day. He waited where the courtiers had been told to wait during the meeting, a room that Captain Carlyle would have to go through. And it was there that Nathaniel would offer his deal. He had heard word of Rynn, but only that she was seen in the company of a hulking giant of a man in Kerria and that they were setting off on the trail so many hunterst chose- the shift particle.

Nathaniel would offer the captain free work from his own private guard indefinitely and a large sum of money if, when they came across the rebellious noble and her idiot companion, the captain agreed to simply keep the woman on his ship until Nathaniel could get there and return to her to him. She was the captain's rival and enemy anyways, so he foresaw the captain agreeing. But Nathaniel would not know for sure until the meeting had adjourned and he had a moment to speak with the captain.