BlasTech

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

... Ven?

On the outside looking in, Kalaya's brain is able to figure this out. It's pretty clear that when one is thinking of a long-lost childhood friend, they can convince themselves of seeing them in passers by. A fleeting glimpse in a crowd or, in this case, an eerie lookalike stranger on a rain-soaked road after an emotionally charged battle. It's perfectly reasonable. There's no subtext or other possible explanation as to why this very (very) pretty priestess should be triggering those memories and feelings. And despite her (again, very pretty) eyes and oh is it getting warmer out here - wait, still cold and raining. Right. Where was I? Ah yes, very pretty eyes, there's no romantic reason why they should be linking to that particular memory or person.

I mean, after all, Kalaya's dream is about being a knight in the truest sense and making the Flower Kingdoms a better place. The idea of getting smitten isn't even on the game plan. In fact, its not even in the arena. If it was anywhere, it would be two kingdoms over, kicking back and going fishing.

...

Even if Kalaya was to let someone into her heart, it probably wouldn't happen quickly. She'd always thought that the person, if they ever existed, would be her friend first. Good and true. A partner and supporter in her dream. Her other half in every sense of the words. If Victorious Vixen were to be that ... Can she even be that?

...

Those eyes. They gaze with such intent.

"W-why me?" she asks, cramming all of that back inside and meeting the priestess' gaze with an sizzling intensity. "Why me, and why now?"

Her body is still, but her hand is gripping her sword hilt so hard that her knuckles are white.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

In contrast to their first march, the journey to northern Rose was muted. The retainers still sang, but Kalaya spent most of the time turning thoughts over inside her head while doing the same to the earring in her hand. Petony couldn't help but notice the change in countenance and, wisely, left the young knight to her own musings.

The presence of travelers out on this road was not expected, given the driving rain. That one was a goddess on the mortal plane was even more surprising.

But all of that was nothing beside the words she spoke.

"I ... am?" replies Kalaya, straightening from her bow. For knights know to afford the divine at least a measure of courtesy.

[Figure out a person: 4 - woo, first xp of the game!]

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

"We're going to want to bring this to a witch." Kalaya says, turning the relic over with Petony as they look inside. "There may be some meaning to these trinkets they can tell us."

The animal bone is of interest, but only passingly. Far more worryingly to her are the items that speak of specific intent or links to the Kingdoms. The coins of Chrysanth, and the blue veil - what could they mean? She pauses as she retrieves the final item.

-==-

Kalaya runs down the hallway, her sandles clapping echoingly on the tiles. She can hear the festival music all around the palace, but the unfamiliar layout almost guarantees that she's taken a wrong turn. Huffing in irritation, she looks around, trying to see anything which might indicate which way leads to the balconies above the river where the fireworks display will be most visible.

"Give that back Lin!"

Frowning, Kalaya heads towards the muted voices and sounds of movement. While whatever is going on is probably none of her business, the anger and pain in that shout piques her curiosity. A few moments later her feet bring her out to a secluded garden, closed off from view from most passers by. A young girl, probably within a year of herself, is lying on the ground while an older boy stands over her. One glance is all it takes to know what's happened here.

"Hey!" shouts Kalaya, turning heads towards her. Stepping forward into the silence, she continues.

"You heard her. Kindly return what you've stolen."

"Oh yeah? Well come get it then." The boy smirks. "But you better run along little princess, before your pretty dress gets ripped."

"I said, give that back." she says, starting forward but the boy just grins and reaches out to grab her.

Flashes of movement, Kalaya's reflexes kick in - twisting away and pushing his arm out, but the boy has clearly had training - as well as the benefit of a couple of years' growth. She lands a solid kick to the boy's stomach in the scuffle but soon has her face pushed into a wall, arms pinned behind her and head spinning from the impact.

"Nice try." he huffs, grinding her cheek against the masonry. "But you princesses belong locked up in your towers or playing your stupid games. Leave the real fighting to the real knights."

Kalaya tries to squrim free, only earning further pain before there's a grunt and the pressure on her is suddenly gone. Blinking, she's steadied by smaller hands as the other girl comes up beside her. The boy, Lin, is now standing a few feet away, trying to balance despite a noticeable limp, and glaring figurative daggers at both of them.

His hand makes for a literal dagger on his belt, fist clenching and unclenching on the hilt. Meanwhile Kalaya and the other girl both stare him down. Arms folded, backs straight, but both acutely aware they are unarmed. For a moment, everything teeters on a point.

"Bah!" he spits, turning away. "You aren't worth it."

Once he's gone, the two girls let out the breaths they'd been holding and turn to smile at each other.

"Kalaya." she says, offering a hand.

"Ven." smiles the other, whose expression turns from relief, to confusion, to surprise as she feels what Kalaya passes her.

"Yeah, he was strong, but wasn't really keeping a close eye on his pockets." she grins.

Opening her hand, Ven can't believe what she's seeing.

-===-

A small earring of pink and yellow. The symbol of Snapdragon.

"Petony" she says, voice rigid from shock. "this is ... can I take this? I ... I need to get this to a witch right now."

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

--Accidental doublepost--

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Kalaya turns her head up to the sky, seeking something beyond sight in the clouds above. When she breaths, the mist that comes out is the twin to the smoke rising from the farmstead's outer buildings. The sign of a fire damped down with the battle's passing. Her hands cradle a mug of hot tea, a gift from a grateful family.

"It's a bit early to be talking of wholesale war isn't it?" she jokes, speaking loudly to be heard over the roar of the rain. "Unless you're speaking about that coward of a legion commander. In that case, I'm fairly sure that if we'd chased him down, there wouldn't have been any fighting."

Turning, she smiles at Petony.

"I don't know whether Red Wolf is easily misled or if something else is at play. I've never met her. But I do know how things changed when she took over the Redoubt. The Legion restrains itself now because it was too close to provoking outright conflict with the Kingdoms. Whether we would win or not, a war is not something the Dominion wants."

"It's not something we should hope for either." she says, casting an eye pointedly at the singed farmstead. "Fighting would be a toss of the dice, with the only certainty being the lives lost and homes ruined."

"But fighting isn't the only way to win." she says, taking a sip from her cup. "The Flower Kingdoms have a strength of their own that surpasses anything Mars can bring."

Chuckling to herself, she finds she's forced to add one more thought.

"Of course, if it really came to blows, I'm sure the two of us could clear out the Redoubt on our own, right?"

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

"COWARD!!" she yells after the retreating soldiers, her eyes briefly singling out the commander. "Come back here and at least clean up the mess you made rather than scuttling away like shamed children!!"

It wasn't likely to actually change anything but it was all she could do right now. Fires and people's lives mattered more than teaching that person a lesson, but by the Sapphire Mother if it didn't sting to let them go.

[Will take the condition Angry.]

Turning instead to the farmstead, she made to vent some of that rage into beating the flames out and pulling those from the smoke whom she could reach.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Walking the hills towards the border of Rose, Kalaya would have been happy had her day ended here. On the road, surrounded by Petony and her retinue, singing songs and travelling through the driving rain. Compared to how they'd been acting earlier, and the unintentional harm they'd been causing those poor inkeepers - this was a win.

It didn't matter whether they found anything, they were no longer sitting in a tavern getting drunk, they were travelling the country with a solid intent to do good. A force for making the world better. It was enough to put a smile on her face and an energy in her step.

The smile lasted as long as it took to find the battle.

"Wait." she said, grabbing Petony's arm. "Safeguard the living first. The captain can wait until the people are safe."

Drawing her sword, she grins a hard smile.

"Let's do some good. For Rose and Lilly!!"

Descending the hill, Kalays runs smoothly through the paddies, dancing from spur to embankment to traverse the water without getting bogged down. Her sword flashes, striking out at the demons like a silver ribbon of light in the night. A demon turns, catching a foot to the stomach and the pommel to the head before it really knows what is going on. A second locks blades only to find itself unbalanced and beneath water when Kalaya pushes it into a divot in the paddy it hadn't noticed. A twirl and flick and the third's sword is dashed against rocks, breaking into shards.

All of it leaving them at the mercy of the men with clubs and fury that follow in her wake.

The plan in simple - she and Petony are the sharp point to the spear, while the retinue are the haft to deal with the demons once downed or disarmed. Her intent is to drive a wedge into the demons' flank. Distract them long enough for the farmers and soldiers to rally and counterattack.

[Rolling an 8 on Defy Disaster on behalf of those in the farmstead. Gallant Rescue will trigger somewhere here, but not sure who to claim a string on.]

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

"Wait, what? No!" splutters Kalaya. "I am sworn to the Lily because of family and birth, not because any of my sisters ... no ... not like that."

She shudders, and draws a long swig from her mug before standing too. As they make to exit, she notices the inkeeper watching them with the unspoken question on her lips.

"Now, before we go." she says, grinning and indicating the copious amounts of empty glasses "We must first remember to serve those who have served us?"

Inwardly, Kalaya is really hoping that Petony is good for this. While she could theoretically direct it towards her own kingdom's credit, a bill of this size in an inn, barely a month out on the road, would be difficult to explain to her father.

[Will take the String on Petony. Not sure if this is a roll of any kind?]

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

A good question: When does one become a knight?

Is it the moment your teacher declares your training complete? Or the moment you're announced to the world as one of the latest in a lineage going back generations? Is it the moment one swears the Oaths and spends the night in contemplation with her armour, in the tradition of the order's first founders? Is it the moment one declares in their heart they want to protect those around them, above any cost to herself?

Officially, the answer is the day your liege dubs you a knight. If you use this yardstick, Kalaya has only been a Knight for a month and most of that has been spent walking. But for reasons that largely revolve around trying to banish the memory of a private, begrudging and incredibly awkward audience with her parents, Kalaya would prefer to define herself using "any of the other ones above".

But the thing is, for all the people who have told her constantly that you can't be a princess and a knight, that it's dirty, rough, just isn't done that way and you'll never make it ... there isn't any rule against it.

So let Petony see through her. She is what she is and isn't about to hide it.

And amidst the haze and warmth of the smoke and drink, Kalaya's smile fades a little as Petony curls in amongst herself.

A new cup is dropped to the table, hitting loudly enough to draw the Tiger knight's attention and the hand of the young lady holding it. Perhaps her eyes will take in the embroidery of her suea pat, or the chain around her neck and come to the appropriate conclusions.

"Petony - you have been wronged, and it is not my place to ask how. But you are also wrong." she declares, a hint of fire in her voice. "We are Knights, and the Order of the Thorn is no one's dogs. We serve the people of the Flowers first and foremost. Our worth is borne from the actions we take in that service, not from the hurts or judgement of some princess in a faraway castle."

"Come, is this any way for the hero of the Blue Marsh to talk? For the Ruby Fire of the Dawn?" she says, voice softening and the smile returning. "You can be, are, so much more than that. And the question of what is not dependent on what that princess, or this one at the table, thinks. It's on what you do next."

"So, Petony-Phraya. What will you do?"

[Rolling to give a spiritual boost of self-worth. Basically, "let's not just waste the evening away getting drunk, get sober and go do something knightly!" 2d6+2:11]

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Petony. She who single-handedly broke the lines of the Blue Marsh bandits, who broke open the Amber Vault, with her bare hands it is said, and freed the slaves within? Yes, the stories speak plenty of the firebrand courage of the Tiger Knight. They also tell of the legendary revels that followed some of those greatest victories. Parties that would go on for days, with food and drink flowing until none were left standing.

The tableau in front of her now is a far cry from that storytale grandeur. But still, it's Petony! Kayala wouldn't let this pass up even if her oaths didn't require her to help (And they do. After all, what Knight sees the weak in fear and need and doesn't work to defend them?)

And why would you need to ask if she's fought a knight before? I mean, the answer is yes - but those were mostly in controlled bouts once she ran out of soldiers to practice on. That said, there's going to be no fighting here! She's just going to go in and join them for a drink.

Bold as tacks, she lets herself into the table before bowing to the Tiger Knight herself.

"Petony-Phraya" she says, a bright grin lighting up her features. "Would you do me the great honour of allowing me to join you for a round? I would not normally intrude, but could not give up the chance to see the fabled Tiger Knight in person."