[center][h1][color=00aeef]Chres[/color] [b][color=c4df9b]Tayla[/color][/b][/h1][/center] Mentioned [@13org][@Fetzen][@JerkChicken] [hr] [hider][color=c4df9b][b]“Wake up, you drunken fool!”[/b][/color] Came a muffled voice. Splash. Chres snapped awake, sputtering and coughing from the bucket of cold water washing over him. His head throbbed like there was no tomorrow. His mouth, tongue and lips bone dry. A pool of vomit stained the left side of his shirt which had long since crusted over with bits of hay glued onto it. With a groan, Chres opened his eyes. Though his vision was still blurry, he could make out that this was not the room at the inn that the army’s gold had purchased for him. Indeed no. This was a stable. The sound of horses and the smell of dong attested to that. Senses. He did it again, hadn’t he? He had drank himself into oblivion with his new drinking partners Týfurkh and Jen. Except this time he had foolishly decided to stay behind when his partners had called it a night. A girl giggled right beside his ear. Chres flinched. The sound of her giggle made his head feel like it was going to burst. [color=a2d39c]“Hurray!”[/color] The girl said, talking in quick succession. [color=a2d39c]“Puddles! Puddles! Puddles! Puddles! Puddles! Puddles! Puddles! Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhooooooooooo!!!!”[/color] Chres’s familiar, Sil, zipped around his soaked body, flying left- right- up- down- [color=00aeef]“Senses… Sil…”[/color] Chres groaned sideways- backways- [color=00aeef]“Sil.”[/color] He said more insistently. circles- zigzags- [color=00aeef]“Sil!”[/color] Chres snatched Sil out of the air. [color=00aeef]“Please stop.”[/color] [color=a2d39c]“Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii can’t!”[/color] Sil said in a jittery voice. Even when snatched out of the air, the damned familiar wouldn’t stop moving. Her sporadic movements made Chres’s entire hand shake. [color=a2d39c]“Too! Much! Coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!”[/color] Chres sighed, exasperated. [color=00aeef]“Coffee?”[/color] [color=a2d39c]“Special type of brown puddle!”[/color] She said in a rush. [color=a2d39c]“Akai gave it to me!”[/color] [color=00aeef]“Akai?”[/color] [color=a2d39c]“Yes! Akai!”[/color] [color=00aeef]“Why?”[/color] [color=a2d39c]“Because! Coffee! Gives! Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Energy!!!!!!!!!!!!”[/color] [color=00aeef]“I know what coffee does! Thing is, Sil, you’re a familiar. You can’t drink coffee.”[/color] Sil suddenly stopped moving. [color=a2d39c]“Oh, really?”[/color] [color=00aeef]“Yes, really. Coffee does nothing for familiars.”[/color] [color=a2d39c]“I see… well in that case I’ll just be normal broken Sil then.”[/color] She said with a smile. [color=00aeef]“Normal, broken Sil?”[/color] Chres repeated. [color=a2d39c]“My mind. It’s broken. Just like yours!”[/color] She exclaimed happily. [color=a2d39c]“See? Normal!”[/color] Chres frowned. What did she mean that her mind was broken? [color=c4df9b][b]“I SAID, WAKE UP!”[/b][/color] Came a voice behind Chres. Chres turned in time to catch a glimpse of Tayla as she dunked a second bucket of water onto his face. Once again Chres found himself coughing and sputtering, as an excited Sil shouted [color=a2d39c]“Hurray! More puddles!”[/color] [color=00aeef]“Pluck out my eyes, Tayla! I’m already awake, damn it!”[/color] Tayla smirked at him. [color=c4df9b][b]“I know.”[/b][/color] She said as she dropped the bucket to her side. [color=c4df9b][b]“That was for wasting so much time talking to the familiar.”[/b][/color] [color=a2d39c]“For talking to [i]Sil[/i], you mean.”[/color] Sil corrected her happily. [color=c4df9b][b]“Oh?”[/b][/color] Tayla said as she eyed Sil. [color=c4df9b][b]“It has a name, does it?”[/b][/color] [color=a2d39c]“It does!”[/color] Sil exclaimed with an overjoyed expression. [color=a2d39c]“It does have a name!”[/color] Tayla couldn’t help but smirk at the response, but the smirk was quickly smothered in a second. [color=c4df9b][b]“Get up, and get dressed into something clean and decent. If you don’t hurry, we’ll miss him!”[/b][/color] Chres grunted and struggled to his feet despite feeling on death’s door. As he rose, his head collided into a bucket of feed hanging above his head. His hangover compounded in pain as Chres doubled over in a squat. His hands clutching his head. Damn Divergent luck! [color=00aeef]“Fucking hell! Couldn’t you have thought to warn me?”[/color] Sil rolled over in laughter as Tayla smirked. [color=c4df9b][b]“There was a thought.”[/b][/color] Tayla said. [color=c4df9b][b]“I simply chose to keep my mouth shut.”[/b][/color] Chres eyed her in annoyance before relenting. [color=00aeef]“Come on then.”[/color] He grumbled, [color=00aeef]“Better not delay much longer.”[/color] [hr] Chres and Tayla made their way down Horizon’s Dip. Chres now sporting some clean clothes. Much had changed since the Battle of Shimmertown and the pactmaker’s second encounter with the Being. For one Chres’s entire purpose had changed. Due to the pact, Chres could no longer seek out a miserable death to scar the world’s memory of him. For now, he knew the world would have no memory of Chres upon his death. And so Chres drank. Unable to rely on others' memory of a miserable death as punishment for his deeds, Chres was left with one other option. To find out what he ‘didn’t understand’ about his wife’s predicament and hope that whatever he learned exonerated him. However, finding out what he didn’t understand of a dead woman was like asking someone to fix a statue that you just smashed into a billion tiny pieces. Just where do you even start? And so Chres drank. Furthermore, what if he found out that he did deserve punishment? Just what would he do then? How would he punish himself when his best option was now void? And so… Chres drank. When Chres had stopped drinking, it was not because he had been a drunk, but because of one terrible night and deed he did when he just happened to be drunk. He had stopped drinking so as to make sure that he wouldn’t forget. He had stopped drinking to make sure he couldn’t escape the thing he’d done. Now that he had started drinking again, he had done so for all the reasons he had forced himself to stop. Chres shook his aching head as he and Tayla walked down the winding stone walkway which navigated through the haphazard buildings that cropped up along the northern slopes of Horizon’s Dip. They stumbled once or twice, on small outcroppings of stones that somehow managed to catch the tip of their boots when taking a step. Such things were expected with the bad luck common in the Dip. For that reason they had made sure to take the trek slowly. Their caution paid off, though not entirely. While they made it down the slopes without injury, someone had decided to empty their chamber pot out the window just as they were happening to walk by. For the most part, the worst of the disaster was avoided. Although the splattering did reach their boots. Tayla tsked audibly at the mess. [color=c4df9b][b]“This is what I get for helping a lousy drunk.”[/b][/color] [color=a2d39c]“Lousy drunk! Lousy drunk!”[/color] Sil repeated happily as she zipped to and fro. Chres merely grunted, hand to his head. Gingerly he moved ahead of Tayla while stepping around the mess at their feet. Tayla frowned in frustration, as she hurried to keep up. [color=c4df9b][b]“You know, over the years, I’ve seen a lot of useless men. But the ones like you are the worst of them.”[/b][/color] [color=00aeef]“I know.”[/color] Chres agreed in a calm and quiet voice. Tayla scowled. [color=c4df9b][b]“Men like you have no regard for the people around them. They slink off in the middle of night, drowning themselves in ale. Senses be damned if something should happen to us in your drunken stupor! Senses be damned if we actually need your help!”[/b][/color] Chres grunted. What else was there to do? Afterall she was right. Tayla’s frustration mounted. [color=c4df9b][b]“No self respect. No dignity. Walking around smelling of yesterday’s stink.”[/b][/color] Chres simply nodded. Tayla’s eye twitched in response. [color=c4df9b][b]“Why are you even here, Chres? Why even bother?”[/b][/color] He shrugged. [color=00aeef]“I’ve asked myself the same question quite often lately.”[/color] Why even bother? Chres didn’t know. Because Karina had asked him, along with the other pactmakers, to come on this latest mission of hers? A mission to investigate who’s behind the recent Crazed attacks? No that wasn’t why. He had started to respect Karina. To maybe even respect their growing friendship, if their current forced relationship could even be called a friendship. But Chres had not come here for her. Had it been for the reward? The Empire had offered Chres and the other pactmakers a generous reward to ensure their loyalty for the mission. Plenty of gold, half in advance, the rest after mission completion, and even a favor from the Empire that is within reason. [color=00aeef][i]No.[/i][/color] Chres thought. [color=00aeef][i]That’s not why I’m here either.[/i][/color] Then why was he here? Not for loyalty. Not for his ‘comrades’. Not because it helped him with learning what he didn’t understand about the situation with his wife cheating. [color=00aeef]“Because,-”[/color] Chres found himself saying. [color=00aeef]“-being here is something.”[/color] Something other than the sinking abyss that had become his mind. Tayla frowned as she took a moment to chew on his answer. Chres rubbed his aching forehead as they continued on their way. His mouth was still parched. And the sun was too bright, even with the Divergent’s unnatural shade. [color=c4df9b][b]“Here.”[/b][/color] Tayla said, offering Chres one of her many waterskins. [color=c4df9b][b]“Should help with your hangover.”[/b][/color] Eying the waterskin, Chres met Tayla’s eyes. [color=00aeef]“I don’t n-”[/color] [color=c4df9b][b]“Take it.”[/b][/color] Tayla said more firmly as she shoved it into Chres’s hands and walked ahead of him. Frowning, Chres took a swig of water. Then, realizing just how parched he was, he ended up downing nearly half the skin. The entire time, Sil hovered next to him, cheering him on. [color=a2d39c]“Yeah, Chres! Eat that puddle! Show it who’s boss!”[/color] Chres ignored her, of course. Tayla, however, smirked as if amused. [color=00aeef]“Thanks.”[/color] Chres said, when he finished. This time it was Tayla’s turn to grunt. For a minute longer, they continued like that in silence. [color=00aeef]“If you thought so lowly of me, why did you come to find me this morning?”[/color] Chres said, breaking the silence. [color=c4df9b][b]“Not ‘thought’.”[/b][/color] Tayla corrected. [color=c4df9b][b]“I still ‘think’.”[/b][/color] Chres frowned. Her recent gesture of kindness seemed to suggest differently. [color=c4df9b][b]“Little Miss Princess asked me to look for you.”[/b][/color] Tayla answered after a moment [color=00aeef]“Do you mean the actual princess who has been traveling with us or do you just mean Karina?”[/color] [color=c4df9b][b]“Who do you think?”[/b][/color] Tayla asked with a smirk. [color=00aeef]“Karina?”[/color] Chres answered. Tayla only continued to smirk. Aside from the pactmakers and the soldiers that Karina had hand picked to come with her, Karina’s father had required Karina to bring another person along in their travels. Chres didn’t think much of it, until Karina revealed later that this person was actually Princess El’lysael, the Princess to the Nation of Sight. Apparently the woman had run away from the palace to assist the Empire in overthrowing her father. The revelation was a shock to Chres. The woman certainly didn’t look like a princess. Her hair had become a tangled mess and she donned common traveling clothes. Her clothes weren’t even neat and clean. They had become worn and wrinkled. Not to mention that they were splattered in mud, because apparently the girl would take every opportunity she got to jump into a bit of mud along the road. But now, the oddity seemed to click into place. The girl seemed to be reveling in her new found freedom. Finally free of the chains that society laid upon her. Of course she would take the chance to jump into a pile of mud! Of course she didn’t bother to make her hair prim and neat! Lys, the name she asked them to refer to her by, was to be their secret weapon. Their way to have an air of legitimacy with Lord Ru’Tev. To convince him to let the Empire into his prison for investigation. Their way to sway him to the Empire’s side while bringing the other prison lords along him. So far, their secret weapon wasn’t being taken seriously. Lys was being stood up day after day. Today, however, was going to be different. Today, the Pactmakers were to work together to force Lord Ru’Tev to speak with Lys. Even if it meant cornering the Lord. [color=00aeef]“You know,”[/color] Chres said. [color=00aeef]“Karina doesn’t like it when you call her princess.”[/color] [color=c4df9b][b]“Tough.”[/b][/color] Tayla said flatly. [color=c4df9b][b]“You don’t get me without the sass.”[/b][/color] Chres sighed. An action that earned him a look of annoyance from Tayla. [color=c4df9b][b]“She asked me to join her on this mission, which must mean that at the very least she was willing to tolerate my sass to some degree.”[/b][/color] [color=00aeef]“Yes, but where do you think she will draw the line?”[/color] [color=c4df9b][b]“I could very much ask you the same question about her and your drinking.”[/b][/color] Tayla shot back. Chres frowned and nodded, accepting the comment. Tayla tsked. [color=c4df9b][b]“Honestly. Where’s your backbone?”[/b][/color] Tayla sped up, forcing Chres to increase his pace. Eventually, the two of them had reached their destination. A tavern with a name that only made Chres all the more aware of his pounding head. A tavern known as ‘The Hangache’. Chres suspected that the name served as a comfort to the people. A purpose similar to the inn they were staying at. An inn known as ‘The Ill Omen’. It was a name the locals hoped would ward off the bad luck common in a Divergent. Lord Ru’Tev was known to dine at The Hangache on occasion. Particularly the morning before heading out on travel, and the morning after he returned from said travel. And it just so happened that Lord Ru’Tev had left on leave five days prior, only having arrived back the night before. Chres entered the tavern’s back entrance. Tayla however hung back to guard the exit. They were the last of their group to arrive. Everyone else was situated elsewhere. Everyone except the princess that is. Every time Lord Ru’Tev spotted her, he would high tail it in another direction. Same for Karina who had already tried approaching the man a number of times. Though admittedly he did seem to avoid her to a lesser degree. As for the others, including Chres, they were not on the Lord’s Radar. Chres took a seat in one of the back corners. When the serving girl stopped by, he made sure to order a small ale. An action that he was sure earned him a look from Karina. The white haired woman stood across the room in the shadows. Chres took a sip from his ale, and gagged. There had been a hair in his ale. A hair that was now in his mouth. Damned Divergent luck. Pushing the ale to the side, Chres took a look around the room. Lord Ru’Tev had not yet arrived, it seemed despite Chres having arrived late. Well at least he wouldn’t get too much of a verbal beating for his tardiness. He sat there waiting for a little over three minutes before Lord Ru’Tev entered the tavern through the front entrance. The man took a seat by a window and ordered his usual meal. Sitting alone, Lord Ru’Tev dug in. [/hider]