[center][h2][color=c0392b]Rudolf Shilage[/color] and [color=#8fbc8f]Viscount Halvor Breien[/color][/h2][/center]
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The night that the Kirins arrived was a busier one than Halvor had been made to endure for a while. Not only did he have to continue seeing to the dinner preparations and other guests he had planned for in the coming day, now he had to make sure enough would be made to feed seven others, plus their moogle and all their chocobos kept stabled; more than that, he’d had to withstand Esben’s protestations after the news had been broken to the rest, before making sure his other staff were set to see to them—mending clothes and gear, the doctor and nurses to see to their wounds, taking inventory of what supplies and goods they could still lay claim to and seeing how to prepare them for when they left...

It was while he was engrossed in such continued contemplation that evening, after having fed the group and seen to their lodging, that he was disturbed by a sharp knock at his door. He looked up quickly, peering over the rim of his glasses, half expecting the door to swing open without any greeting or welcome...but it didn’t. He allowed himself a small sigh of relief. [color=#8fbc8f][b][i]”Du kan komme inn,”[/i][/b][/color] he bid whoever was on the other side of the door, eyes returning to the papers on his desk.

[i]The light’s low. Give it the old college try. One last prank for the road, before you inevitably get into one of your “I’m being very serious, take me very seriously” moods. You won’t begrudge the practice—I can tell you right now, this is going to take some serious work.[/i]

[color=c0392b]“I figured I would catch you ahead of schedule.”[/color] a distinctly ought-to-be-familiar voice floated in through the wood, as the knob turned. [color=c0392b]“I train late into the night, but I’m a bit tired of stumbling into people I meant to talk with in the middle of it—always catches me off guard in the ensuing argument.”[/color]

Much being left unsaid about how they evidently became arguments rather than discussions. Nevertheless, the door gently swung open…to reveal no ward, no guest, naught but the flickering gloom of his hallway.

Halvor looked up from his desk as the door creaked open, candles flickering for a moment with the pressure change, only to see nobody on the opposite side. One of the group that had arrived earlier that day, of course, speaking in the common tongue of Ibros. A man, younger, not speaking in quite the manner he expected of a Dragoon of such high class like the young sir Caradoc...Rudolf, then, it had to be.

And yet nobody was there. No way to hide behind the door as it swung [i]into[/i] the room, either, no sound of footsteps rushing either further in or further away despite the voice being present. Curiously, he hadn’t heard any footsteps as his visitor had come up [i]to[/i] the door, either.

He set his papers down, surreptitiously reaching for a hidden compartment on the underside of his desk. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”If you wish to speak, then you should show yourself,”[/b][/color] he advised, speaking slowly to the empty air. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”I’m not particularly fond of people hiding themselves from me when they want to have a conversation!”[/b][/color]

…

[color=c0392b]“Humor me. I’ve been humoring you all day.”[/color] the voice intoned, after a moment of pensive silence. There [i]was[/i] a token attempt at diplomacy in that youthful timbre, but more pressing was its resonance— distant, muffled. A little off to the right, as though he were in the next room over.

Halvor’s office, of course, was at the end of the hallway.

Halvor’s fingers closed, listening closely, head cocked ever so slightly to try and triangulate the voice better. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”That’s a terrible request to make of a lord in his own manor,”[/b][/color] he dismissed. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”Are you intending just to play a game, or have a real conversation? Shadows and air are terrible partners, especially this late in the evening.”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“You’d be surprised.”[/color]

[i]Haha. You [b]do[/b] like hearing me talk. That’s admitting it.[/i]

Another moment passed. The shadows drew long with each errant flicker of Halvor’s favored candlelight, soft, orange, and so permissive of ambient gloom. The doorway hung open still, and he could feel a shift in the atmosphere. Another flicker. The far side of his bookshelf, an old, proud tower of oak and the century’s canon, seemed to be almost oppressive.

And then a sighing relent, this time much clearer.

[color=c0392b]“I’ve been trying to work on something, that’s all.”[/color]

A hand, grasping around the edge, like pulling oneself through a doorframe. The walking headache’s voice was now surely in the room with him, muttering in disappointment.

[color=c0392b]“Only picked it up a couple hours ago….”[/color]

Laboriously, impossibly, Rudolf’s sword-laden frame pulled itself into view. His head emerging around the side, he finally gave the poor man the courtesy of eye contact.

[color=c0392b]“I am here to talk, though, for rea—”[/color]

Rudolf's greeting was cut off with the sound of a blade whirling through the air, lodging itself in the wood of the bookshelf just above his fingers. Halvor, white-faced, had [i]barely[/i] adjusted his aim before he seriously wounded his ‘charge’ when he made his attack.

[color=c0392b]“... You know what, that’s fair.”[/color]

Gently, Rudolf pried the knife free of the wood after stretching a leg out to hook the man’s office door closed. Hearing a blade flying through the air had seen him almost dive back into the gloom, until his eyes told him holding steady had the best chance of staying out the knife’s path. A good thing he was still good with ballistics.

Halvor paused, straightened, and set the rest of the throwing knives down on his desk. Wiping his forehead with a trembling hand he sat back down, beckoning Rudolf fully into the office. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”What the [i]hell[/i] are you doing?”[/b][/color]

The door lightly knocked against the frame as it swung closed, and the young man nodded along dutifully, taking a moment to properly inspect the space he was now in, and then another for the knife in his hands. It was light as it danced along his fingers, balanced immaculately for its job— unmistakably different from the heavy, rigid thing hilted in bone on his hip.

He tossed it up and down as he stepped forward, indulging his curiosity. No wonder the man had so many of these— they really were [i]nice[/i]. He actually had to fight the urge, just a little, to try and send this one downrange himself, just to watch it soar.

[i]You’d best answer his question before he gets worried again. I doubt he likes you screwing around with his knife, either.[/i]

[color=c0392b]“I was hoping I could get you to the doorway. Pop up behind you, do a whole bit with it.”[/color] he whimsically not-answered, flipping the blade one last time in his grip to hold out for the former SEED to take as he sat down. [color=c0392b]“Learning to use shadows. Stealing ideas from our ninja.”[/color]

Halvor took the knife, setting it down with the rest silently. Having the young man that was supposed to have been staying with him for at least a year suddenly arrive was strange enough, especially considering the extent to which he'd been led to believe this strange boy [i]had[/i] been there the whole time; for him to suddenly start stepping in and out of shadows was rapidly approaching the limit of his tolerance for such insanity. Regardless of the explanation that was offered.

He stared for a moment, before reaching back to a cup on his desk, lifting it up and looking into it critically. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”Out of tea,”[/b][/color] he murmured ruefully. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”It's as bad as my school days. People changing faces, throwing their voices, jumping out of shadows, me jumping [i]at[/i] shadows...”[/b][/color]

He shook his head once before burying it in his hands.

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”Other than trying to scare me, what are you after?”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“Materia.”[/color] Rudolf replied, taking further mercy by getting to the point. [color=c0392b]“I’m fresh out. I trust the others have mostly communicated their needs to you or your people here by now, but outside of having the smith touch up my harness alongside Galahad’s, my resupply needs are primarily materia. I figure I may as well talk to you about it, since I have something a [i]little[/i] bigger to ask for after this.”[/color]

The bigger ask would probably be much better received if he let the guy [i]solve[/i] a problem first, Rudolf reasoned, before he threw another onto his plate. The predictions from earlier in the day had come true— looking at how haggard and deflated the man in front of him was, one ostensibly [i]intended to be fostering him[/i] no less… he was starting to feel bad, after all. Perhaps he’d pushed it a little too hard.

[color=c0392b]“It feels strange to ask this, even as an Edreni, but what might you have on hand?”[/color]

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”...Materia?”[/b][/color] He looked back up, peering at Rudolf in confusion. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”You figure out how to jump between shadows, and you're asking about Materia?”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“‘Figured out’ is strong verbiage, sir.”[/color]

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”...”[/b][/color] Halvor stared wordlessly again, at a loss for words.

[color=c0392b]“...Look, you’re already stressed. Just trust me when I say I’m very not good at this.”[/color]

His gaze flickered over to the gouge in his bookshelf. Just above where Rudolf's hand had crept around it, sidling out of the shadow where there hadn't even been room enough for a man like him to stand. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”I'd just handed some off to Esben, but...Ah!”[/b][/color]

He threw open one of the cabinets on his desk, pulling out another pair of orbs. Much like before, as soon as he had the chance to latch onto something that seemed remotely normal to do, he jumped at it. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”Maybe these? Never had much use for them, not like what I gave Esben, but maybe...?”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“Whatever you can spare’ll work.”[/color] Rudolf agreed, holding his palm out. [color=c0392b]“Utility’s just as good as combative power as far as I’m concerned. Whatever we can do to diversify, and take off of Miina’s plate... Which did you end up giving him?”[/color]

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”Only the most useful thing for someone like him, more time!”[/b][/color] Halvor replied proudly, dropping the orbs into Rudolf's outstretched hand. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”I don't think he'd ever have used these, same as I didn't, it feels a bit wrong...But that doesn't mean they won't be useful to somebody else!”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“You gave him [i]Time[/i] materia?”[/color] a jealous note in the voice, a raised brow.

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”...Please take them? I can't think of much else that [i]would[/i] be helpful to you that I have.”[/b][/color]

He rolled them in his palm, the two orbs sliding end over end with the sound of marble. One was an earthen brown, the other a miasma of cloudy red. He pushed enough aether into them to get a feel for what they were.

His face felt a phantom burn, ghosts of the flames around his eye dancing with the candlelight. For the love of… was that sensation just his new normal? He’d felt it when wrecking his gravity materia, too.

[color=c0392b]“Quake. That [i]is[/i] up my alley. And…”[/color]

He snickered, glancing between Halvor and the materia as an incredulous grin wormed its way onto his face.

[color=c0392b]“‘Felt bad about it’... Is this because I shadowstepped in front of you?”[/color]

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”What?”[/b][/color] Halvor looked genuinely confused. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”I never liked the vampiric materia, they always felt too strange to try and use...But that doesn't mean some of the others of my cohort didn't make off well with them. Might as well pass it along to someone that's likely to have any use at all, no?”[/b][/color]

Rudolf rolled them in his palm a couple more times, indulging in his turn for a flat look—

[color=c0392b]“Well, I was just messing with you there. You aren’t wrong. I’ll have my share of chances for stealing away a little vitality, evening some scores a little.”[/color]

— before rising to click open his trusty pouch, and slot the two spheres of compressed aether into their new home.

[i]I’m such a good influence. Look at us. The family’s whole again.[/i]

Halvor was visibly relieved once again. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”I'm glad to be of help,”[/b][/color] he replied with a grateful nod. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”If that will be all...?”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“Not quite yet.”[/color] he motioned with a head nod to the greatsword in the room— he had carefully leaned it against the side of the bookshelf, opposite of where the knife had embedded, before sitting down. [color=c0392b]“I have a bigger ask, remember? This one’s longer-term, so I figured we’d square the magic away first.”[/color]

Halvor’s eyes were sharp. He’d probably notice, once his attention was drawn, to the fact that Rudolf had contributed no further damage to his tasteful wood furnishing despite the size of the thing.

Indeed, an unsheathed greatsword laying up against the oak bookshelf would be expected to at least [i]scratch[/i] the wood, or dent the cover of a book where the pommel was resting against it...but nothing. He raised an eyebrow, looking back over at his young ward. [color=#8fbc8f]”It looks like the magic hasn't been squared away at all, to me.”[/color]

[color=c0392b]“Well, you have me there— that thing is cursed.”[/color] Rudolf explained. [color=c0392b]“Feather-light in your hands, dances like tigerlily on a strong spring wind, but it can’t cut a single blade of grass. Like it keeps passing through space, no matter how hard or how close you swing it to something it ought cut.”[/color]

He folded his arms, leaning back a little in the chair as he regarded the most tiresome seven pounds he’d ever lugged around in his life. [color=c0392b]“Now that I’m here, I’ve been meaning to follow up on my only lead to breaking its potential free. There’s a cursebreaking ritual that’d circumvent the need to hunt down the person who originally laid hex onto steel— but it has material cost, atop getting ahold of skilled mages.”[/color]

Miina, even down her arm, was quickly revealing herself to be as skilled as anyone going, near as he could tell, but it seemed like he’d be asking her to do the work of two lifetime specialists in the respective schools. And they’d put so much onto her already.

[color=c0392b]“Could I…”[/color] he began, turning his head to look Halvor in the eye once more. The churlish glint that had always crept into his eyes when he was pulling the viscount’s leg was notably absent. [color=c0392b]“Possibly trouble you for a diamond?”[/color]

Eugh.

Eeeeeeeugh. Beggar. Begging! Shameless! Gods above, how that felt wrong on his tongue above all else— even after all his talk three months ago about honor being cast aside or whatever surly misanthropy he’d been spewing!

[color=c0392b]“Not one you’d miss, that is.”[/color] he elaborated, holding an open palm and then making a fist. [color=c0392b]“I need to crush it.”[/color]

Halvor nodded along as Rudolf continued. A cursed blade, having to try and undo it, it only made sense that he'd have to ask for materials to do it. No matter how difficult it looked for him to do so. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”Of course, of course, breaking a curse, that's nothing terribly new...The right components and reagents and all that...”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“Wait, really?”[/color]

He paused, already in the process of sifting through his cabinets, and looked back up. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”A [i]diamond?[/i] Have you gone mad?”[/b][/color]

[i]Theeeeeeere[/i] it was.

For once, Rudolf elected not to undercut himself by hedging that he probably [i]was[/i] psychologically unwell, but that in turn was a different thing. His face betrayed no ill-mannered jest.

[color=c0392b]“It’s diamond dust, or if you could get your hands on a black pearl when oyster diving season’s in full swing. I figured the diamond was the more, [i]readily available[/i] of the two I [i]could[/i] ask you about.”[/color]

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”You'd be better off asking Esben's family about that, they're actually out on the water...”[/b][/color] the viscount replied dubiously. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”Nothing about how [i]big[/i] of a diamond, then...? I, well, maybe...I'll want it replaced, though! Cadmon will never hear the end of it if it isn't!”[/b][/color]

The grumbling continued as he continued rummaging through the cabinet, finally pulling out a small tool kit. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”Do you need something [i]gem[/i] quality?”[/b][/color] he asked pensively, pulling open the kit and showing it to Rudolf. A glass cutter, some drill bits, blades—and diamond. Rough bort with small gem-quality bits sticking out, little off-white ballas spheroids that gave off a similar luster, and even a rough stone that likely [i]could[/i] make for a proper gem if it came under a jeweler's skilled hands, though it had clearly had been cleaved across its planes for little flakes, likely for the same scalpel blades that were lying above it. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”These [i]are[/i] hard to get, even for me, so I really hope you know exactly what you need...”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“Sadly, we’re on the same level of operating intelligence.”[/color] Rudolf ruefully admitted, plucking the stone and idly holding it up to the light to eye for a moment, before closing his fist around it. [color=c0392b]“The late Grovemaster only gave me ‘diamond dust’ to work with— nothing specific for quantity or quality.”[/color]

[i]Since I’m already teaching you things, we’ll circle back to ‘precious stones as aethereal batteries, catalysts, and reagents’ when it becomes more immediately relevant. Primordial Earth is seated in Edren, you really should know these things— I’m gonna get ahead of myself. The point is “Yeah, probably”.[/i]

He squeezed, the corners of his jaw tightening as he figured he may as well try and crush the thing like a walnut, right now, just for the hell of it. Whatever he thought of his standing, of his lagging nerves… it appeared true as well that he had certainly never been stronger than he was nowadays.

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”Wait, wait, hold on!”[/b][/color] While Halvor doubted Rudolf [i]could[/i] crush it in his palm so easily, seeing the tendons and muscle in his hand and forearm move, he wasn't about to risk that the boy would slam it into the table or on the floor or against a wall either. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”A [i]Grovemaster[/i] didn't tell you anything more than that? You didn't think to [i]ask[/i] more than that? Let's—let's write to Cadmon! Even if that Grovemaster is dead, he should know the others, yes? He can get you in touch with another, probably how he did the first, you can get something more specific...Don't just take the rough stone! The ballas are purer, anyways, if that's part of the question!”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“It was a bad week. Isolde and I were not, as it happens, on the same page about much of anything. Not with breaking curses, not with Leviathan, nothing.”[/color]

He set the stone down, something tightly contained in the motion, behind the eyes. Halvor Breien’s fears, thankfully, were ill-applied. Rudolf knew better than to try and test stone against wood, after having [i]maybe[/i] left a hairline crack in the thing with all the force he could muster— were even that not merely a trick of the light. His bones were sturdier, of that he had no doubt.

His eyes bored into the lot of them as they sat there, hand flexing. At this point, he was slipping into purely thinking aloud, that familiar quiet grumble.

[color=c0392b]“Maybe he has a rapport with Zacharias that I didn’t— but I know Neve better, and I doubt [i]she’s[/i] had a whole lot of time to advance her grasp of such a niche subject in the midst of rebuilding Brightlam alongside the old man.”[/color]

His finger began to rap against the wood, in the pause that followed.

[i]If they’re purer they’re better. That’s pretty basically true. Reduces the overhead— you won’t necessarily literally need to go all the way back to Green Hell for your white mage, for example. With what I’m seeing here, we can manage.[/i]

[color=c0392b]“... I’ll take what you’ll part with. If a problem comes up, I’ll find a way to sort it out. I’ve already got some literature I’m consulting from his libraries, so there may yet be some clarity hidden away for whatever moment I can take to get back to reading.”[/color] he concluded, slowly gathering the stones one by one. [color=c0392b]“You’ve already done a lot with this. I know what writing to Cadmon’s like, you don’t have to put yourself through more correspondence than you need.”[/color]

The rough diamond was placed back in the kit, a few of the ballas being deposited into Rudolf’s grasp instead, although Halvor looked up again a moment later with a confused raise to his brow. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”Cadmon’s delightful, though,”[/b][/color] he mumbled, shaking his head. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”This sword, those scars...I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what happened to the bookish boy I was watching...”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“...”[/color]

The once-bookish boy had nothing for that. Nothing could be said without Everything hot on its’ heels. 

He shook his head again, glancing absentmindedly away and back down to the papers he’d been perusing before Rudolf interrupted him. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”Is there anything else you require of me? I do need to get back to figuring out what I can give the lot of you to keep you on your travels, Jorunn made it clear that she was leaving that much to me, and I know Kayliss would probably come start sticking her knives in me herself if I let anything bad happen to you all...”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]“Jorunn?”[/color] Rudolf inquired, buying a little extra time to think. There was something gnawing at him that he couldn’t place, right on the tip of his tongue. One last way to impose. His eyes followed in the wake of his host’s, falling onto the blade he’d leaned onto the shelf.

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”My sister?”[/b][/color]

The scarred boy blinked once, then leaned forward, flattening his affect to a dull, insincere monotone.

[color=c0392b]”I’ve never met that person in my life.”

[i]Please, let me get away with playing this off as a bit.[/i][/color]

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”...”[/b][/color]

Halvor looked up at Rudolf silently for a moment, face a perfectly still, unreadable mask. The moment stretched on without any sound save for their breathing and whatever noise came from the rest of the manor, before he looked back down at his papers. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”Just like your uncle. Knew I should have listened when he warned me. First you stroll into my study, trying to frighten me with shadows, wheedle materia and gems out of my grasp, and now this? Fuck off with you.”[/b][/color]

Rudolf pried a smirk free from the dead-eyed, head-tilted Esben impersonation the moment had seen him resort to.

[color=c0392b]“I thought he was [i]pleasant[/i], sir? ‘Delightful’, you told me?”[/color]

[color=#8fbc8f][b]”Go to [i]bed,[/i] boy.”[/b][/color]

Chuckling, Rudolf gathered his things in short order, reaching over to pluck the greatsword from where it laid. True as ever, the blade moved as though an extension of his arm, a conduit for his countless sleepless nights of hard labor, of honing meager skill to as fine an edge as he could hold..

[color=c0392b]“I will,”[/color] he reassured with a small nod of the head. [color=c0392b]“But like I said, I favor the night for training. More room to move, more room to focus. There’s a good spot, out in the courtyard, for me to get my rounds in with this guy.”[/color]

A deep breath, a half turn away. A wistful remark, floating in the precipice.

[color=c0392b]“I grumble about the curse all the time, but you should see how it moves in a trained hand… It’d put anything in the armory to shame. If it didn’t sing so well under the moonlight, I would hardly have such need to beg at your feet.”[/color]

Halvor glanced up once. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”We’re all going to have a busy day tomorrow,”[/b][/color] he warned. [color=#8fbc8f][b]”I can’t chain you in your room and force you to sleep, but I’d recommend you get the rest you can.”[/b][/color]

[color=c0392b]”Pinky swear.”[/color] he vowed, lifting his smallest digit as if as proof. [color=c0392b]”I won’t be out there too long. I got too used to the northern warmth. I’ll look forward to whatever this surprise you’ve got planned for me is. ‘Till then…”[/color]

He was still much too new to walking through the dark to leave the room by any other means but the door.

[color=c0392b]“You get some rest too, Halvor.”[/color]