Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

It was Immortals only knew what time in the early breaks of the morning, and yet she was awake. It was rare that she was awake while Arlo was sleeping, but she'd given up on sleeping any more tonight. She'd fallen asleep in his arms, as she did every night, all tangled up together and both of them still a little out of breath by the time sleep took them. Her head was nestled in his shoulder and she felt his arms tighten around her just as she whispered to him that she loved him and as he kissed her forehead, she was already half way to Jesine's realm.

Yet, here she was, maybe two breaks later but she thought not that much in all honesty, and sleep was definitely not happening. Vega had woken up because she'd got a cramp in her foot; it was strange but it was one of the lasting legacies of the damage to her legs. Every now and then she woke up and her toes on one foot had splayed wide apart - this was inevitably accompanied by a sudden sharp pain and then, she got a cramp in her foot which didn't go away unless she walked. So, she walked. Arlo was fast asleep and, ever since his Cassion mark, although he needed less sleep, when he slept he slept hard. Vega quite often had to untangle herself from him at night when a cramp hit and he didn't move.

But tonight was different and that was why she wasn't going back to sleep.

She'd been walking, pacing back and forth until the cramp dissipated but even in that short time, it was obvious that he was restless. Muttering in his sleep, talking in words which were both incomprehensible and nonsensical when she could understand them. Something about a key, a staff, something he shouldn't have done or, maybe, something someone else shouldn't have. He wasn't thrashing about or anything, but Vega really didn't want to disturb him when he was like this.

He wasn't dreaming about dancing, Vega thought with a smile, which had been what they'd spent their night doing. Their final night of this retreat and they'd eaten a good meal and then danced. There had been other people there, she knew, but she'd noticed not a one of them. It had been something they'd promised each other they'd do, dance together, and they'd done it. On the deck of the ship when her cousins got wed, with bare feet in the dew-covered grass in their camp and now, at a formal dance where he had said that all the women would box their husband's ears, yet she'd been sure that the women would be feeling jealous of her and the handsome man she was with.

As he settled back into what seemed to be a fairly normal sleep - which for Arlo meant fast asleep and still, breathing gently and, every now and then, wrinkling his nose, Vega realised that she couldn't bring herself to get back into bed. What if she woke him or sent him into another moment of tossing and turning. He looked so restful there that Vega sat on the chaise lounge opposite the bed and lifted her legs up. She was wearing a short cotton nightslip, so she pulled her dressing gown over her legs and she determined that she'd just watch him for ten bits, maybe a quarter break. Just to make sure that he was properly asleep now, not about to be disturbed again. With a smile, she realised that he'd tease her if he knew about just wanting to watch him and she'd thump him for being right. But just ten bits, just to make sure.

Except, of course, she was asleep where she was, there on the chaise and out of their bed, within less than five.

As he shouted the word no, Vega was up, suddenly and completely awake. "Where?" She was reaching for her sword, which wasn't there, but then she saw him. He was bathed in sweat and Vega frowned as she moved over to him. "Hey, what? It's just a dream, Arlo. It's alright," She reached up and stroked his hair out of the way, "who killed who?" But Vega was more than half sure that he couldn't hear her. It wasn't a dream, whatever it was, and then he said it. He was marked again? Looking at him she breathed in and chewed her lip. Watching him pace, his hands moving in his hair, she wanted to go and stop him, calm him down, but he was too agitated for that to be any use. Had he remembered Cassion's task, Vega wondered? Did Cassion kill someone, a woman? But then he spoke, he remembered, all of it. She nodded and she was going to say something when he complained that it was hot - stifling. He was sweating and Vega opened her mouth to reply.

But she didn't get to, he turned and walked out, barefoot and barechested, U'frek's aura on him rose and he walked out of their cabin. What he did on the way out, though, surprised her and then some. He ripped the door handle off. Just, casually, not really noticing and more than that, he just kept going once he had. Vega paused long enough to kneel next the door, picking up the discarded doorknob and frowning deeply. She put it on the desk, then she walked out on to the deck behind him, stopping briefly in the galley kitchen and scooping up a bag she kept there, hanging on the back of a chair. The night sky was above them still, but dawn was not far away, she thought. Her bare feet padded on the deck as she moved to stand next to him.

"You were talkin' in your sleep," she said and she glanced at him. Then, she did a double take and she really looked at him. "Arlo.." Well, she could be sure that he hadn't taken any potions from strange women, she thought wildly, because they'd been together for trials. Yet, there was no doubting it. Her hand reached out to touch his chest, but she stopped before making contact, rather like she was afraid what she'd feel beneath her fingertips. "Your body's changed," she said, purposely keeping her voice neutral. Damn, but he looked gorgeous, she thought and for all that her voice was neutral her eyes betrayed her as they always did. Still, she thought at the moment he probably wasn't noticing her eyes so that was fine. Usually, the short cotton nightshift would be enough to ensure that, but right now, he was overwhelmed.

Totally and completely overwhelmed.

But then, Vega touched her hand on his arm, just briefly and opened the bag she'd slung over her shoulder as she made her way to follow him. Vega had grown used to living with Arlo, as he had grown used to his own appetites. "Here," she said, reaching in there, and she handed him some wrapped cheese and crackers, dried meats. He'd been hungry, ravenously so, when he'd been marked the first time and so she assumed this might lead to the same.

If he wanted to eat, she said nothing as he did, just let him do so. When he'd finished, or if he didn't want to, then she slipped her hand into his. "I know it's overwhelmin', Arlo, but it's alright. There's nothin' we can't sort out, remember that. An' I'm right here with you, every step." Just as he was for her, there was no doubt. It didn't need saying on any usual moment, but this was far from usual and Arlo was more disconcerted than she'd seen him for a long, long time. "You want to talk about it?" There was no pressure from her, none at all. As the moons lit her silver blood, Vega saw , again, what this mark had done to him physically and she had to ask. "This is a third Cassion mark, yeah?" She thought so, but then at the moment, who knew?

More than anything in that moment she wanted to comfort him, to calm him and tell him that it would be alright. It would, of course and he knew that but trite reassurances of what she couldn't know were the last things he needed to hear. What he needed was to eat, to know that she was as close as he wanted her to be, and as far away too, depending on what his needs were in the moment. So, she listened. Just listened to him as he spoke. Standing next to him when he stood, Vega's eyes glanced down to the rail and her eyebrow raised just slightly, then she watched as he paced.

No, he said, it wasn't a third mark, but an extension, expansion of the mark he had? Vega understood that, at least in so far as she could. After she had died and during her recovery, her Nalos mark had done the same. It was different, though, less overwhelmingly intense. Watching him, Vega couldn't help but think how very alone he looked. Tio, it seemed, had tried to kill Cassion, but it was one of Cassion's Eagles, whatever they were. His Champions? Vega looked at him, and a war waged inside her, evidenced in the multiple hues swirling in her eyes. She simply did not know what to do.

So, like she had the last time she felt so helpless, she went with her instincts. "So," Vega said, her voice low and calm. "Tio tried to kill Cassion an' failed. But he did kill one of Cassion's Eagles, people, mortals who've been his Champion?" More than anything, Vega wanted to wrap him in her arms, hold him to her and tell him it would all be alright, but she kept remembering the way he was gulping for air. How he'd said it was stifling. He needed space, air to breathe. She was here, near to him and ready to be there the moment he needed her.

For now, she would have to be content with that.

The next one? Would he be the next one to be an Eagle of Cassion? To be his Champion? To be the Immortal? Which of those he meant, Vega had no clue. Maybe all three. She saw his mind moving at breakneck speed and she pushed aside her want and need to comfort him because it would be doing what she desired, not what he did. "I wonder when he offers them that choice, then." Vega said. She tried to get eye contact with Arlo if she could and she spoke, determined to make him listen. "I wonder if, when he offers them the chance to be his Champion, they get to be an Eagle then. Or maybe, he's got some kind of deal goin' on with Vri which means he takes them just before they die. Who know how it happens?" Did he? She didn't think so, judging by what he said and Vega believed, truly believed that it was important that he considered that.

"So, let me get this right. Tio killed one of Cassion's Eagles. Someone who looks like him, maybe is him. Maybe he isn't one being, but he's however many of those birds he's got." Vega lifted her hand to her chest where glowed freckles in an unmistakable constellation of a dragon. "Maybe there's a lot of individual bits that make up the whole picture, an' the real Cassion is the power behind them all. But when she made that choice she made," looking at Arlo she didn't drop her gaze, kept her eyes locked on his. "Because it would 'ave been a choice, wouldn't it? Everythin' about him tells us that. Every adventure, he's asked if you want to. He's not the kidnap an' force kind. So, when she chose that," Vega stepped a little closer to him, her hand reaching for his and she spoke in a whisper.

"I bet the people who loved her were right proud." If he seemed amenable, she entwined her fingers with his. "Because that last adventure, the real big one? Arlo, we can't go on that together. An' if yours takes you there, then proud is what I'd be. So if when you're old an' you've lost yer teeth an' you keep forgettin' to wear your trousers, but you still remember the ginger who caused so much trouble," they'd teased each other about such things more than once, after all. "Well, if he comes then an' you go with him, I'll be as proud then as I would be if you did now. So, that's not to worry about, is it?" As for having seen him since, well, Vega nodded. "More than once, love. We shared tales with him an' Xiur half way up a mountain, too." That was just after he'd come back, maybe two or three ten-trials. "So that means that Cassion is alive, in whatever form, an' you know more about Tio an' about what might be offered to you, one trial, if it's his will."

Standing there, on the deck of the ship, Vega looked at him. "It's a lot to take in. You wanna start at the beginnin' an', somewhere along the way, maybe explain where the doorknob destroyin' strength and ripplin' muscles came from?" She smiled at him, gently. Trying not to push, but equally, giving him every opportunity to talk as he needed to.

She had tried to hold his hands, but he hadn't wanted it so she kept her distance. She kept her eyes locked with his, however, maintaining eyes contact in the hope and belief that it gave him comfort. Grounded him. He needed both of those things, but physically he needed to be free to move, so Vega did the best she could and wished that she could do more. She listened to what he said and recognised it as him working it out, working through. That would be a process which took a lot of time, she knew, it would be something which had a lot of layers, but this was the first one. Just the first. It didn't matter how many or what he had to do, she'd be here with him as he would be for her should it be changed. As he had been whenever she needed him.

He'd told her before about the woman who'd tried to kill him in U'frek's challenge, but Vega still felt the hairs on her skin raise and she put the slight chill which passed through her down to the light cotton shift she wore and the cool night breeze, but she knew better. When she spoke, though, about how the woman who died must have made a choice, about how they couldn't go together into whatever lay beyond, he stopped and seemed to consider it. When he spoke of a different kind of afterlife, Vega nodded and her smile was gentle. "It makes sense, for those who've lived a different kind of life, don't it?" The question was softly spoken but genuine and earnest. For those whose lives were true adventures, maybe Cassion allowed them more and more adventures after. Vega didn't know, nor did Arlo and that was very much the point.

When he looked down at his hand, though, a frown crossed her face and a stormcloud skidded across her eyes but she said nothing. He kept changing. How long would it be before those changes meant she couldn't keep up with him at all, she wondered. Were there other changes, too, things which meant his personality changed? Last time his needs and wants had grown exponentially, would this mean more of the same? There in the dark, too far away from him for her liking and afraid of what this meant for them, she couldn't help wondering if there would come a point where she just wasn't enough. But that was fear and insecurity talking and, at the end of the trial she knew the simple truth of it. He would always need her and that was more than reciprocated. Anything else, they'd just have to work out between them. Now probably wasn't the time to bring the topic of Fi back up, she thought with the slightest smile.

"I don't know, Arlo," she said, her gaze on his hands, too, as his eyes looked there. "I don't think I'd like you to try leapin' any chasms. The last one I saw you involved with, I had to climb down an' get your hat." Stu and Jeannie, Immortals bless them, and that whole sinkhole experience was something which caused her to smile now, but she hadn't been one tiny bit amused at the time. Not one tiny bit. Wrapping her arms around herself as the wind blew Vega lifted head and looked at him as she realised something he'd said. "You won? Congratulations. I'm well proud of you." But he knew that, she knew. She was worried for him, too, for what this meant for him, what impact it had for the two of them - but they'd work that all out later, Vega didn't doubt. "Your U'frek mark colours have gotten more, too." The aura around him had grown in intensity, she thought. Not a lot, maybe, but some.

Standing there, she wondered what he wanted to do. Did he want to talk about this more? Did the physical change mean that he wanted to sleep or go for a run or go and fight someone? She didn't know and she didn't like not knowing, in truth. This had happened to him and she was starting to feel a little like she was interrogating him about it, which she didn't want to do, yet she could give nothing to the conversation because she wasn't there. She hated that, truly ~ and mostly because she wanted to be able to help him, to understand. To share everything. But throughout this conversation, this experience, Vega had fundamentally gone with her instincts. "I'm not sure what any of this means, really. Not for you, an' not for us, but we'll work it out between us. I don't doubt it." With a glance at him, though, Vega's lips lifted slightly. They weren't sleeping any more of this night, she knew and as she glanced over to the sea, she wondered briefly at how different things would be if they hadn't met. It was an awful thought and she turned back to him with a determined expression on her face. "Right, so I get that you're spun right out but so am I an' I need to be able to put my hands on you soon, Arlo Creede, an' know that even though you're some kind of superhuman human bloke, you still want to put you arms around me, too an' can do so without snappin' me like a ginger twig." Supportive as ever, she thought to herself and she smiled. "When yer ready an' all that, but hurry up."