auspex_caelo: (Explanation)
Stratos Caelus ([personal profile] auspex_caelo) wrote in [community profile] dear_mun2015-03-24 11:38 pm

(no subject)

Any attempt to find a face for me was destined to be futile. I confess that your struggle has amused me: after all, appearance will always be malleable. It’s enough not to look like a child or a knight.

But since we are here at last, I trust you will confine yourself to worthwhile interruptions of my duties. Should you feel the need to waste anyone’s time, you have our mutual friend to call upon. When you find means to further the Empire’s interests, I will be waiting eagerly.
zealots: (Night)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-29 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
[Releasing his hold on his captive, Bennet takes a step back and gathers himself. He's shaken, in a way he is entirely unaccustomed to being shaken.

How is any of this possible? A people that know not of Jerusalem, a Legion in the hinters of ancient Mesopotamia, it's as if his trek into the desert took him out of the world he knows and into another one entirely. Which ought to be impossible. For all that this man may consort with 'spheres' or whatever he may call them, he is just a simple warrior, nothing more.

He hadn't wanted to speak of this. His furrowed brow speaks of his reluctance even before he finds the words. But if he is to make any sense of this at all, he must divulge all information, even that which is of personal shame to him.]


There is one another waypoint you may or may not know. A place within the wastes the locals called 'Akkaba'. Within those wastes, deep in the cradle where our history began, scrolls writ long before my birth told tales of an Eternal Pharaoh, who ruled in antiquity from a tower of power beyond the reckoning of man.

[He sighs. What comes next is painful to recount, yet recount it he must.] Eobar and I heard these tales together and decided to find that tower, to claim its riches and its secrets for our own. But then, the day we were to set out, a mysterious black-haired woman arrived at our camp. A sorceress whose first act was to assault our brothers, yet Eobar took to her as though bewitched. He refused to allow her to be killed and refused to carry on our quest. I resolved to carry on alone. Taking what provisions I could, I rode out into those wastes and spent three days and three nights searching, long enough for my mount to sprain its leg and die in a sandstorm. Before I caught sight of the valley I emerged from, I thought all hope lost, I thought I would die in those empty desert lands. But I did not die. Instead I am here, in this strange land that seems removed entire from any reckoning of the world I know.
zealots: (Warrior)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-29 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
[That mercy is a subtle thing but it does not go unnoticed; Bennet feels a pang of guilt for handling him roughly earlier. The mage is telling him the truth, much as he would rather it not be. Everything he has said so far is truth. Which means he truly is lost, lost in a way he can scarcely even fathom.]

Towards the end I was myself dehydrated, half-mad from the tricks of the desert sands... [He hesitates, but then presses on:] I did feel, several times, as though I was being watched. Observed. And yet whenever I would turn, of course no one and nothing was there. I took it then for the leave of my senses, but now I am not so sure.

[His mouth presses together into a thin line.] An Egyptian man, Sahreed, appeared before Eobar and I shortly before we were to test out, just a day before that woman arrived. He claimed to know of the location we sought and offered to guide us there. He changed his mind after coming to blows with Eobar, and I never saw him again. I took him for a mere lapdog, but mayhaps he had something to do with this. Mayhaps he really was a servant of the Eternal Pharaoh, as he claimed to be.
zealots: (Zealot)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-29 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
I believe so. Since my first encounter with a witch, I have found that I can sense it when magic is at work, though how and why I cannot say. I carry no relics, as Eobar did, nor do I hail from any honored lineage.

[He folds his arms.] Someone was watching me in those wastes. Someone or something. I did not feel any of the normal sensations that come with the working of magic, though that proves little. Anyone powerful enough to conceal themselves amidst great dunes of nothing would surely have the power to conceal their sorcery from me as well. It may have been the woman, or that man Sahreed, or even the Eternal Pharoah himself. I will never know, unless--

[He lifts his head quickly. And slowly, he smiles.] ... Unless I returned to the valley I emerged from.
zealots: (Confidence)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-29 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
[Bennet really doesn't think it will be that simple either, though a man can hope. And the sureness of having a clear path for his boots is, as ever, a fortifying experience for him. He is not quite so encouraged as to smile, but he does look a good deal less dour now.]

Come then, let us set out. As I said, the valley is fifteen leagues away by my reckoning. If we keep a steady pace, we can be there by midday on the morrow.
zealots: (With a mighty hand)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-29 07:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[Frankly, he is ready for something that will occupy his body rather than his mind. After these many strange revelations and this stranger still situation, a fair bit of trekking ought to do him good.]

Aye, just over those hills and from there down across a bit of a ridge. The ground awaiting us is treacherous, so mind your step.

[He quickly takes up step beside Stratos. Yes, the mage is his guide and his prisoner, but what he is not is a human shield. Bennet has no intentions of using him as such.]
zealots: (Bedouin)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-29 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[Bennet meets Stratos's gaze blandly, without a hint of suspicion or anger. Whatever else can be said about him, he is not a man who dwells in the past. What has happened before his before; his concern is for the here and now.]

Far north of here, then? [The question is put gamely, as though he were interested -- and he is.] A perilous place to call home, I would think. I was myself raised in a small peasant village in my native France. Living was difficult, but not for the land -- that at least was fertle and welcoming.

[He moves at a brisk pace, swift and sure-footed, clearly in his element.]
zealots: (Mission)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-29 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[He finds himself pleased with the man's pace; Stratos does not slow him down nearly as much as he expected the mage to, and he barely has to adjust his pace at all.]

South? [His dark eyebrows lift in surprise.] Are we truly so far north then? The air is not as thick as north should be, or mayhaps we are not simply high enough.

[A wry smile.] Aye, and nay, and every which way besides. Have you ever been to a nation that can be said to be at peace, yet within its borders wars are waged with pen and quills? A nation where there is enough for everyone, not no one has enough? Where men are called equal and treated as not?
zealots: (Zealot)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-29 11:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Forgive me for saying so, sir, but I have no intent on remaining in your lands that long, the Lord willing. [He crosses himself as he takes the oath; even though this realm is not at all unpleasant to his tastes, he still has pressing business elsewhere.]

It is not magic that brings justice or unity, only men. [His tone is stern, but only there, and he proceeds on without qualm.] Nor do simply the scholars quarrel in my land. Nobles quarrel with nobles, peasants with peasants, kings with kings. Only a mission as sacred as redeeming the only one could possibly have brought a people like mine together. Be grateful that your own lands are quieter.
zealots: (Doubt)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-29 11:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Perhaps you should.

[He reaches the top of the hill and stops, waiting for Stratos to catch up.]

Thus far I have only encountered threat from the local wildlife. A great cat of some sort attempted to ambush me upon my first nightfall, but I drove it off.

[He smiles wistfully.] A shame I had not managed to cripple or slay it; a beast that large could have us both well.

[The mention of 'rebel forces' seems to make him antsy. The fingers of his sword hand tap his thigh impatiently.]

These rebels you speak of; how numerous are they? Are they well-armed?
zealots: (Bedouin)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-30 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
[From this height, they have a fairly good view of the ridges and surrounding hillsides. Considering the view, Bennet lets his hand drop from the hilt of his sword.]

Know you where they might be like to set up such camps? If you can instruct me on how to spot them, it would be child's play to infiltrate one under the cover of night and kill the party within before they had sufficient time to ready themselves.

[He speaks with the easy confidence of a man who has done precisely that before.]

I can outfight any vagabond in single combat. It is only their numbers that we need fear.
zealots: (Confidence)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-30 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
[To that he gives the mage a sidelong look.]

Would you prefer to be ambushed and slain instead?

[Listening carefully, he lifts a hand to his chin and smiles.]

Ah, they do not think so differently from the English then. 'Tis a strategy I am more used to having used by friends than foes, but I know it well. And they are used to looking out for the threat of your Legionnaires, aye? A single man they would not expect, for they would themselves consider such suicide.
zealots: (Mission)

[personal profile] zealots 2015-03-30 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
Oh? [Dark eyebrows rise in polite surprise.] You do have some proper field experience then?

[That is... not entirely unexpected, given how sure-footed his captive has been thus far, but still interesting to have confirmed.]

Tell me of it.

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