Eashira

(Clan rune rep)

It was raining. Again. She was beginning to think that this fort that sat upon the borders of the Scarred Wasteland and the Windswept Plateau suffered from a limited number of weather settings. It was either a drab grey and foggy morning or nights where water would fall out of the sky like it was going out of fashion. In the distance was the mournful but ceaseless howling of wolves and beyond that, if she really focused her attention on it, there was the steady creak creak creaking of the hanged criminal across the green. Once, when the company had first been setting up within the fort, she had put cutting the poor fellow down and giving him a proper burial on her bucket list. Now, two years on, after all of the fighting and defending the counter-attacks and the espionage she had never gotten around to doing it. That's something for the morrow then, he's become a sort of morbid mascot, hasn't he? The thought flittered across her mind like something of a mental sigh as she began to tuck away the codes and cyphers and documents that were on the desk in front of her. The room she was in was sparse but without her meagre possessions, it barely looked lived in at all. Give it a few more moons and the cobwebs would return. It would seem as if she had never been there at all.

Once her work was done, she stepped out of her office. It was routine to lock the door, and she did so without thinking about it. One of her associates would probably try to pick her pockets for it before the dawn. She would not have been surprised if she came back to her chambers to find someone hopelessly tangled in the trap that she had set. What a delightfully miserable evening, she thought as she made her way down the darkened corridors of the fort. Just another miserable evening in a long line of miserable evenings but her company carried on. The guards were steadfast sentinels posted along the walls. The scouts were minding the Ravens, making sure that none of the missives got soaked through. Everybody was hard at work. Everybody but...

Her path took her to a flight of out-of-the-way stairs which she mounted swiftly, fleet footsteps making nary a sound as she made her way to the top. There were no voices to be heard coming from behind the sturdy wooden door but it only showed that they had gotten better at hiding. Reaching out, she gingerly tried the doorknob and discovered that the way forward was locked. Stupid. Ordinarily (i.e when no one was trying to hide inside this room) the door would have been left unlocked. They should not have over-compensated as it only served as a confirmation of their whereabouts. It was quick work getting the door unlocked. She slammed it open for effect, pleased with herself when her movements coincided with an ominous roll of thunder. There, seated at a table in the middle of the room and caught in the glow of candlelight were her crew. They stared at her like a group of stupified lemmings before someone moved and the bickering broke loose.

"I told you we shouldn't have locked the door!"

"I told you we shouldn't have left our post early!"

"Will you two be quiet! Now she knows we've left our post early you gi-!"

The door creaked as closed it behind her. Crossing the room, she notes that there is one chair left empty at the table. Maybe they weren't so clueless after all. "Deal me in." She says quietly as she leans back in her seat. There was food at the table which she helped herself to and soon the game was underway. The chatter was calming, both quick and cutting in turns as the scouts ribbed and taunted each other but she could also sense something hanging over their heads.

"I am not disbanding the company. It is only a change of leadership and all of you have been under Skoll's command. You know him as well as I and, I like to think, trust him as much as you trust me."

"Yeah but this is so sudden. Why do you want to leave if everything is fine? If no one is pushing you out? If there is no threat of death?"

There was a beat of silence in the wake of this question. She does not know how to answer it, but that was because she could not identify this longing within her to break away from the life she had always lead. It was a mystery a promise of adventure, and she was always one to heed that call.

"Isn't the unknown reason enough?" She flashes them a smile as she spread out the cards in front of her. A winning hand. "Now, it is a long and sacred tradition for the new company leader to suffer pranks for a week when they take up their new esteemed position." She could see how eager and bright the eyes of her companions had become, they were never ones who would stay wistful for long.

"Tar on his pillows?"

"Spiderlegs in his stew?"

"Scorpions down his pants!" She added her own suggestion to the mix and was met with a chorus of gleeful shouts. A week from now she would strike out on her own, only following this mysterious pull. Just where would her journey lead?

"Put out the candle."