The Face of the Enemy: Ravaged Plains

[The Conservatory]

Simon and Virgil waited patiently, glowint faintly golden with a silvery aura shared between the two of them. The faint outline of their canine familiars surrounded them both, appearing to strafe their opponent while the two stood battle ready. The smoke took time to clear, dancing in the passing winds rushing over the cliff's edge, but Ewan remained obscured in the soot, a headless, smoldering beast twitching periodically, only visible in shadow to the Highland Dogs.

Simon's nose twinged as the twilight winds carried a foul stench across them, subtle, but still unsettling. Virgil looked over to him immediately and Simon's pale, glowing eyes darted in the exact same direction as his brother.

"What's that?" Virgil asked, scanning their surroundings with his eyes while Simon's mirrored his eye movements, but his head stayed trained on the smoldering beast in front of them.

"More trouble," Simon said, almost mumbling, keeping his voice to a low whisper while the ground began to quake gently beneath them.

~~~

Back at the Village of Garland...

"Baby? You're referring to the child I'm holding, aren't you?" Saldi rocked back and forth in her chair gently, shoulders covered in a feathery shawl and a plush, fur blanket draping over her lap. She had her head craned toward the child in her arms, nursing beneath the shawl quietly as the rest of the room moved around them. Zero approaching with his bandaged hands and bouquet of flowers only brought her eyes from the babe in her lap for just a moment, but in that moment she gathered everything she needed to know about his visit.

"I don't remember getting an invitation from you, just some whispers through the grapevine. You never struck me as someone so inconsiderate."

Lady Saldi rocked gently, smiling at the soft coos of the child in her arms as she gave Zero the reading he needed after not visiting for the better part of two years and showing up unceremoniously and with little to no good news. He hadn't said anything of material significance to her yet, but with the Urigi Bandages encasing his arms and the current state of the highlands, intermittently sieged by the unrested dead, he looked like the man she remembered from their first encounter days before Skyblight. For better or worse, this was a warrior before her coming to relay the status of the changing battlefield: The ancestral lands of her people.

"I hope you have something better to bring me than those flowers, I could have picked a valley of them in the time it came for you to come see me again. I thought we were friends..."

She glanced at Zero through the long bang of her hair while some snickers filtered through the din of the hearth and the rhythmic creak of her chair with each lean to and fro.

[Zero Venkage]

"Oh, well, you know, everyone was invited. I thought you'd come down with the family and spend some time!"

Zero's face curled in embarrassment, walked into a corner upon entering the domain of Lady Saldi and the Gafren Tribes that hold her dear. He heard the laughter of her aides, attendants, and family while he scrawled the inside of his skull for an acceptable response.

None found him.

Lady Saldi offered him quarter when the Atlanteans were breathing down his neck out of the goodness of her heart without knowing anything about his or his associates whereabouts. In the social network of the Jaida Coast, her generosity put a target on her back for a mere outsider and he couldn't even offer her a personal invite to a party whose inception she played a pivotal part. The Conservatory wouldn't exist today without her backing.

Zero could smell the food being prepared, the scents invading his nostrils, replacing the pungent, persistent odor of doom from the world outside. It took him back to their first dinner. She hosted him in the same place with a similar fare, just without the child nursing at her. It was a simpler time and if he had more time, he'd be more invested in making pleasantries to mend their relationship. Unfortunately, the situation called for a more urgent dialogue.

"I know I dropped the ball, but I've been very busy, young lady." Zero placed the flowers in a jar provided by a very attentive person who'd been behind him ready to receive the gift that Lady Saldi rejected since he entered the room. With free hands, he approached the ornate rocking chair from the opposite side of the hearth, keeping the roaring flame between them. He faced the room while she focused on the child in her arms, a courtesy he'd offer any lady feeding a defenseless child. With his legs crossed, he sat down on the floor and took a deep breath to address the few elephants in the room. Though they traded semi-playful banter, Lady Saldi was right.

Zero hadn't seen her in two years after she showed him a great kindness. The B'halian Empire was also slated to return in the coming months after offering him control of the whole continent. The undead had continuously risen again and marauded their way through the Gafren Highlands.

Though the three events seemed disconnected, Zero felt Lady Saldi's intuition piercing him like thread and needed to salvage what he could of their relationship. He planned to approach her as if they needed one another, but her eerie calm with uncertainty on the horizon reminded him that whether he arrived here or not, whether The Conservatory landed in Toscano Bay or not, whether he would have anchored the Traversing Mirror or not, she and the Gafren Tribes would persevere.

He needed her more than she needed him.