The Qiao Residence

[Anouk Qiao]

Early in the Month of Cryxatum in the Season of Summer, of Era II of the Celestine Mandate
Era XI Post Fractum in the Age of the Darkening, the Mageocracy of Julos the Mad.
Paradigm Shift: Schism in the Church of the Faith!

A simple wood-paneled home lay dusty and worn near the walls of the great Fortress, whose shadow always blanketed the house except in the morning. And so it was that the door and the sole windows of the abode faced East, so its ritualistic inhabitants would rise from their beds in time to greet the sun. Since the spring thaw, however, the door never opened for the morning.

The little house was quiet and still, as it had been for a season -- save for a curtain, held aside by a small hand, and a pair of dark eyes which glistened as they surveyed the dusty village outside the walls. A few passers-by may have recognized the pale observer as the daughter of Xuande Qiao, of the elite White Rose, and of Elanara Al'lende -- or so she claimed. Anouk released the drapes with a snort of dissatisfaction; being famous, receiving selfish gifts and offers from selfish people, was not an effective replacement for her loving father, no matter how hard she tried.

She laid her head on her shoulder and stared at the wooden staff her father had carved for her only months before, which leaned silently in a corner, unused. He was going to teach her to use it, as soon as he returned from Zerdargia. He was going to show her how to be a true soldier, how to uphold the laws of Alleria, how to live under honor, how to...how to... Anouk clenched her teeth and punched the wall, only to instantly regret it as she backed away, flapping her hand in the air. How dare he go and die, leaving her alone? It wasn't fair. Wasn't fair at all.

She scooted to the table and poured herself a glass of water, then plopped grumpily into a chair. Anouk was certain that all this time without proper sunlight or nutrition must be taking its toll, for she hadn't been feeling well at all since she heard the news from the captain of the guard. The half-elf wouldn't have been surprised if the entire village had forgotten about her existence, now that her famous father was gone and a part of her own importance had faded. She couldn't bring herself to flaunt her status in others' faces, lest her smugness may turn to a fit of tears. No one cared, anyway; all they wanted was to be remembered and repayed.

[Hsin]

After nearly a month of false starts and a great deal of confusion, Hsin had finally settled into his job as Exquecher for the Administrate of Centripax under the rule of the Governor Tiyribi Andreas. Some days, the Kemite believed the title was far weightier than the actual office. All things considered, he was a glorified accountant working out how much money the province should be receiving, how much it was paying out, and how much some incompetent clerk or math-challenged general was wasting. The war in Zerdargia only managed to complicate matters, forcing the young man to begin the long and complicated tax of funding a relief effort. If worse came to worse, Tiyribi would have to levy a land tax—and only the gods knew how many sleepless nights that would cause Hsin. But life was not nearly as bad as the Kemite thought, unless one considered the rumblings of a schism in Diana, internal discontent, and five hundred thousand troops squatting in and around Fortress Midpoint. Even considering his nightly worship of Kaimelia through nightmares of his past, the young mage found himself in an unusually pleasant mood as he walked through the Midpoint Marketplace toward the residence of his uncle Xuande Qiao. His mother’s brother had visited their small abode on the Island of Demios only an era or three ago, bringing with him stories of his adventures and honorable service to Torek in the Alyssians. He’d also left a calling card of sorts for his cousin, a wooden horse with directions to his home written on parchment and hidden in a hollow in the belly. Tiyribi certainly didn’t know of his small trip, but he doubted she would mind. Everyone had their hobbies that kept them sane, and she was off in Arconis doing Aeternia knows what. And Hsin had not traveled to Midpoint for no reason—he had business with the commander of the garrison. Business that could wait until after he had called upon his uncle.

As he walked past the hawkers and their rickety carts, Hsin remembered that the Xuande had mentioned a daughter. The old man had, if his mother’s gossip was correct, engaged in a number of trysts during his long years of service. One particular affair had produced a half-elvish child. How Uncle Qiao had taken care of her while juggling work was beyond Hsin’s capacity to imagine. The Kemite had already developed the aplomb to practice meditating and spell casting in his office. Otherwise, the young mage would be hard pressed to find free time to practice his craft. Little cousin. Hsin had never learned how old she was, thought the young Kemite supposed it couldn’t hurt to arrive bearing a gift. Drawing upon the memories Hana had gathered over her own sixteen patterns of life on the Material Plane, Hsin found a brown ferret bouncing around a wooden cage in the back of a pet store run by a nearly over-enthusiastic dwarf. Picking up a week’s worth of dog food and nodding politely as Adori lauded a ferret’s mouse-catching abilities, Hsin counted out three ten crown bank notes and two golden coins to pay for his goods. Feeling more than a little bit silly, the short Kemite walked through the market with a ferret cage held in one hand and a bag of dog food in the other. At the very least, it contrasted strangely with the long black cloak, black pants, and red shirt that adorned his thin frame. Never mind the carefully shined black boots and the pair of steel daggers hidden under his coat, but surely his uncle would understand the need for protection in such tumultuous times.

Several wrong turns and a particularly bad manifestation of Hsin’s chronic inability to navigate, the Kemite found himself standing in front of a small, squat house with curtains drawn over the window. He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts and shift the ferret and the bag of food to his right hand. What would he say? Knowing his mother, she would have written hundreds of letters by now anxiously inquiring whether her relatives had seen her wayward son. Hsin had often written home, though he never stayed in a single place long enough for a letter to come back. A feeling of intense loneliness and homesickness suddenly churned in Hsin’s stomach as he raised his right fist to knock on the door. He had rehearsed what he’d say hundreds of times, working through his stories until no discrepancies remained. If Hsin Nasial-Alque had fallen, there was no reason his family’s memory needed to fall as well. With a determined sigh, Hsin rapped on the door twice before announcing his presence. It was nearly time for the evening meal, at any rate—surely the old man would be in? In a slightly raised voice, the Kemite said, ”Serale! Uncle Qiao! This is Hsin Nasial-Alque, your sister’s son.” He winced slightly at the slightly stilted language. It would have to do of now. ”I’m in the area for a few days, and I though I should come and visit my beloved uncle. I’ve a gift for your daughter, too.”

He smiled. It had been a long time since he was near family.

[Anouk Qiao]

His footsteps reached the youth's sharp elven ears long before the young man could build up the courage to sound his knuckles on the aged door; his fancy shoes were quite good for announcing his arrival. Anouk raised her head quickly from her folded arms and cast her black-brown eyes upon the door, her expression a bit twisted. So the townspeople hadn't forgotten her yet. Damn them to Aeternia. It was likely one of those men with pouches of stolen money and half their teeth -- those ones who made it a profession to lick the soles of the nobility's shoes in order to climb into an inheritance or two. Perhaps if someone knocked out the rest of their teeth, they would think twice about buggering a mourning daughter. The thought brought a smirk to the girl's face, but it faded again as the knock came at the door. Curse it.

Just as the Half-Elf was deciding whether to bother getting out of her seat, the voice that floated through the door caught her interest. Hsin Nasial-Alque? Anouk slowly lowered herself to the floor, her almond eyes narrowed in thought. Her father's sister's son would be her cousin, wouldn't he? Yes, of course. If he was telling the truth -- and Anouk was a master at lie-telling. Shining black hair fell around the girl's shoulders as she padded barefoot along the floorboards, quite suspicious of this visitor. She had heard the name Hsin in her father's ramblings about family and honor and being successful -- and Hsin, according to her father, had become quite successful. This, of course, made it quite easy for anyone to research her relative and arrive in-persona. Very clever. But not clever enough!

Anouk paused at the window and cast aside a part of the curtain, giving her just enough room to peer through the glass at the young man standing on her doorstep. Well, he was Kemite, and he seemed to be the right age -- and the ordinary townsfolk certainly didn't own clothes like those. As well, why would an impersonator claim to be ignorant of her father's death? Anouk lifted the staff into her left hand and carried it with her to the door. One could never be too careful.

With the weapon in one hand and the door handle in the other, the Half-Elf took a breath and slowly opened the door a crack, just enough to let a sliver of sunlight shine through. She positioned an eye so she could watch the newcomer's face as she spoke.

"Daddy -- Daddy's not here. Are you really my cousin Hsin? How did you know where I live? I've never seen you before, and I don't forget."

Her attention was momentarily diverted by something furry and bouncy which moved about in a cage on the young man's arm. Anouk's elven temper began to fume and flame at the sight of an animal being cooped in a cage so small; her love of nature and the creatures of Carmelya would not be quelled. The only reason she hadn't put Adori's shop out of business was because she liked the Dwarf too much and knew she cared for her animals. But this! Now that this ferret was out of the shop and into this boy's possession, its release was inevitable. But she would wait for his reply, and to discover whether she should let him in or attack him for possession of the cage.

[Hsin]

Arguably, Hsin had butted heads with some of the shadiest merchants in the city of Tirisfal. Five hundred thousand crowns in liquid assets drew them like moths to a candle. Most couldn’t even produce a coherent business plan or any assurance that the crowns wouldn’t disappear into thin air or, more probably, into their own pockets. Those who managed to bluff their way past the clerks and secretaries in the front office found themselves confronted by a Kemite with little patience for stupidity or deception. If they could present the principle clerk with a reasonable plan and evidence of their trustworthiness, no doubt the found the young man more than willing to assist there ventures. Tirisfal, after all, could use all the commerce and jobs after the armies of the Church of Faith had steamrollered the city back into the Stone Age. However, those who argued and whined and threatened found themselves speaking to the metaphorical equivalent of a diamond wall. His cold black eyes could make even the most earnest salesman stop in their tracks. No matter what hour of day, the young initiate also seemed to have time to wait a little while longer. After all, he had all the time in the world to spend in his office shuffling papers. The combination of Hana’s memories and his own boiling emotions had robbed him of the capacity to sleep for days on end. A waste of time perhaps? Quite possibly. But it had taught Hsin the importance of careful observation and analysis. An argument was not all that different from a spell. It was simply a mixture of facts, figures, and anecdotes held together by a narrow thread of reason. Remove the vis or separate the ara and the spell came undone. Removing the fluff or the reason and the argument became nothing more than a passing annoyance.

But all the rhetorical preparation and logical reasoning fell to pieces when Hsin found himself confronted with anyone under the age of fifteen patterns. They did not follow any predictable pattern. Gold and lust for power did not sway their hearts, nor did they judge the world in the same way as their parents. Still, the Kemite had to confess that the line he drew between the adult and the juvenile was more than a little bit arbitrary. Hana, for the hundreds of years she’d spent in the ether that paralleled the Material Plane, had seemed more than a little bit childish. Of course, the combination of Hsin’s fall from grace and the era she’d spent bound to his being hadn’t helped the slightest. Sometimes, Hsin could swear a random child pulled off the playground had more sense than the generals and officials who were the bane of his existence. His head twisted to the side as he caught the briefest flash of a small face peering out at him. Was this the daughter he’d been so proud of? A moment of awkward silence passed before the door slipped open a crack and Hsin heard the voice of his cousin for the first time. Emotions flowed and ebbed as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. He’d never been particularly good at emotional displays, particularly with relatives.

Truth be told, between Hsin and his cousin, Anouk probably had the lion’s share of confidence. Even in the best of times, the young mage was not a particularly assertive type. Let the world pass and cities burn—he didn’t particularly care if it didn’t pertain directly to him or his interests. He’d fully expected to be greeted by the polite old gentleman that was his uncle. Not a cousin who never seen him. Raising an eyebrow, the Kemite noted her sudden interest in the caged ferret rocking the cage in his hands. ”A…Anouk? I don’t think we’ve met before. Your uncle visited my family in Demios a few eras ago. He left directions for me to find your house in case I ever wished to travel. I don’t quite know how he expected to be living in the same house. Where is your father anyways?” He smiled, trying his very best to look kind and gentle. With the constant state of tension that pervaded the province, Hsin wouldn’t be horribly surprised if his uncle spent the lion’s share of his time in the Fortress or traveling. ”Ah, I was looking through the markets before I came. I found ferret in the store. Uncle Qiao said you’d always liked animals.” Hsin lifted the cage to the cousin’s eye level and moved it toward the crack in the door as a peace offering of sorts.

[Anouk Qiao]

The youth's fingers clenched the staff in her hand as she watched and waited for the boy's response, her eyes narrowed to suspicious slits. His obvious surprise at seeing her at the door instead of her father was what skewed the Half-Elf's presuppositions; of course, any of the townspeople would be able to tell the next about the heroic death of Xuande Qiao and of the illegitimate orphan who lived alone in their home. Perhaps this young, ignorant man was the real thing, after all. He was nervous, this much she could easily tell; he fidgeted and sweat and stumbled over his words. He looked like a successful businessman of sorts -- though he dressed quite dismally for the Summer -- yet certainly didn't speak or act like one, at least according to the books Anouk had read and the stories she'd heard from her father. Of course, this situation wasn't exactly a business transaction. She would give him the benefit of the doubt.

The mention of her father, combined with the gentle and unknowing expression on her cousin's face, compelled Anouk to withdraw from the crack in the door in order to wipe a stray tear from her eye. How long would it go on hurting? How could she bear to tell him without breaking down, herself? She crumpled her fist in the collar of her long, flowered tunic and willed the hurricane of memories to calm once more and leave her to the matter at-hand, but they would not be quelled. Anouk saw her father as he had arrived in the doorway after a long mission, clad in the bright, crisp colors of the Alyssans, and scooped her into his strong arms with little effort at all. She remembered how his voice felt as she laid against his chest while he told her of his adventures and of the heroism of her ancestors. She remembered the horrible smell that saturated the house whenever he tried to cook a meal. He always smelled like sweat and the forest and the wind. He was as honorable as any Dorin, and more kind and honest than anyone she'd known. He was gone.

With a few breaths, Anouk returned to the door and looked out as Hsin continued to speak -- something about ferrets -- and she saw that the cage was held just before her peering eyes. Sadness boiled quickly into anger once more. How dare he state that she liked animals, and then give one to her in a cage twice too small as if it were a toy! She wouldn't even begin to rant about how animals should never be bought or sold or caged or leashed or harnessed; no, she had a feeling that would only humiliate the boy and wouldn't teach him a thing. That poor ferret! Trapped in a cage and forced to slam itself against the walls, hoping against hope to break the bars and escape into the open world it could see beyond the trap. And dog food! Those horrid pellets which she would never feed to a sewer rat! Oh, this boy was just as clueless as the majority of the population -- and the ferret suffered far less than many, she knew. At least she could do something about its situation.

Anouk took her staff in both hands and used the lower end of it to slowly push the door open, letting the sunlight stream into the darkened house. As it illuminated the girl, Hsin could see that his small cousin was wearing a short-sleeved, grey flowered tunic, which fell neatly to her knees, and royal blue stockings, which left her pale feet bare on the floorboards. The dragonfly tattoo was also quite visible at the elbow of her right arm, as if displayed proudly for the world to see. The most striking features at the moment, however, were the girl's eyes, which burned with a dangerous mixture of sadness and anger. She angled her stance and pointed the staff at Hsin, threatening to give him quite a bruise should he refuse to comply with her wishes.

"Let the ferret go. Let it out of the cage, and I'll let you in. Then I'll tell you everything."

Quite blunt, but she knew it was the best way to get her point across. Her weapon would not move until Hsin had done what she had asked. Then, and only then, would she reluctantly step away from the doorframe and allow him access to the house.

[Hsin]

By virtue of his immersion in the discipline of mysticism, Hsin had often woven glamours and illusions to fool the senses and dull the mind. Initiates learned two spells that could pass their physical bodies off as something entirely different: Objectify and Invisibility. Those who dabbled in the art merely for the advantages it offered in politics and warfare would never fully realize its power. Deception and illusion weren’t simply an academic exercise or an exercise for students. They were woven into the very fibers of mysticism, of the raw ara that filled the Psionic Plane. Kaimelia, the Planetar of Dreams, had created the sphere from the power gifted from Phedos, and it still bore the telltale signs of her hands. Every spell could be explained away as a waking dream, a brief manifestation of the stuff of dreams on the Material Plane controlled by a mage. But how did one reconcile the Plane of Dreams and the Psionic Plane? Psionics encompassed every aspect of the mind—nerve control, body functions, the subconscious, and the conscience. The Plane of Dreams only held domain while one slept—or did it? The Kemite had gone far beyond simply partaking of the chalice of dreams. His encounter with Kaimelea, perhaps coupled with his immersion in the unnaturally cold waters of Umbalt, had changed him on some base level. Dreams seemed so much more real now. Perhaps it was simply his newfound devotion molding his subconscious, allowing him to see and feel what was already there. Or was it something more? Hsin had only lived on the Material Plane for seventeen patterns—or thirty two if one counted the sixteen years Hana had imparted him. In the short span of time, he’d seen more than most mortal men in a life time—and seen his life destroyed and re-assembled again and again.

When he drifted off to sleep at night, Hsin told himself told himself that nothing surprise or scare him. He had seen the living dead manifested on the Material Plane, and endured the visions bestowed by Mistress of Nightmares. His hands had become stained black with guilt time and time again; his callousness toward Hana, his recklessness even when he remembered his promises, his willful destruction of another innocent Kemite girl’s life. Aetheria had already damned him to the fiery depths of Aeternia. What worse could life do? But Hsin had seen what happened when he’d wrapped himself in a shroud of lies. A mystic could deceive himself just as easily as he could deceive another. His damnation wasn’t a badge of honor to be borne for the world to see. His guilt would haunt him for the rest of his days. For all of his ruthlessness and apparent power, Hsin still slipped into the Plane of Dreams with all his insecurities and loneliness. Sad and pathetic? Perhaps. Still, in spite of all he’d done, Hsin could not shake the growing sense of—what? Suspicion? The sinking sensation that something wasn’t right? His sisters had been raised to become prim and proper Kemite woman, but they still laughed and shouted when one of Hsin’s uncles or aunts came to visit. Why did she only glance at him through the door? Wasn’t she glad to see him?

Several long moments passed before the doors creaked open and Hsin caught his first sight of his cousin. She was shorter than him, though that wasn’t a particular surprise. The two specks of coal that sometimes passed for Hsin’s pupils took a brief note of her simple clothing and the animal tattooed on the inside of her elbow. Something Hsin had long intended to do but never followed through—and another lost memory of his family. But his eyes gazed into Anouk’s own eyes. Someone had once told the Kemite that the eyes were the gateway into the soul. Hsin could see a twinge of anger diluted with something else. Sadness? Fear? Her demands struck Hsin as immature and completely irrational. Why did she care so much about the ferret, when she wouldn’t tell him about her uncle? With a sigh, Hsin bent down and placed the cage on the ground before lifting the hatch and letting the ferret go. The blasted creature didn’t waste a moment before dashing out of the cage and between Anouk’s legs and into the house. Whether she liked the thing or not, she was stuck with the furry creature. Leaving the empty cage outside the house, Hsin stood back up and walked through the open door, the bag of dried pellets still clutched in his hand. What was he supposed to do with it anyways? His unusually good mood had begun to mellow somewhat as he stepped over the threshold and into the small house. Completely unprepared for what had happened and unsure of what would come, Hsin gave her a thin smile before trying once again to start a conversation. ”So…what do you want to tell me?” he asked in a much softer voice. ”What happened?”

[Anouk Qiao]

The eyes of the boy were not as telltale as her own; as Anouk glared at him solidly, the staff wavering just slightly in her hands, she noticed the lack of shimmer in her cousin's pupils. Was he so cold-hearted? Did that mean he lacked a soul? Was he one of the undead who killed her father? Now, she knew she was just being paranoid and silly, but she refused to break contact; there was no telling what such a person might do once her attention was withdrawn.

An awfully long time had gone by before Hsin made movements that he was going to let the ferret loose. Uncertain, Anouk pointed one end of her staff at him at all times, moving it slowly downward as if it were a threat to poke his eye out should he make a wrong move. The Half-Elf was a bit surprised that he was actually obeying her wishes; usually, the older people would laugh at her and ruffle her hair each time she tried to state something important -- especially when she had something important to say. But Hsin -- who she was increasingly certain was telling the truth about his identity -- was an entirely different kind. Perhaps, however, this could be attributed to his youth. How the older folk came to rule the world, she would never understand.

The hatch of the cage was lifted, and before Anouk could blink the mass of brown fur was skittering between her bare feet and along the floorboards of her home. Bewildered, the girl quickly bent over and looked between her legs after the upside-down ferret, her long black hair sweeping the threshold. That stupid animal -- the forest was the other way! Now she'd have to catch it and release it in the wild, herself. But later.

Anouk lifted herself upright again, her eyes still casting suspicion on Hsin. After a moment, she sighed and stepped away from the doorframe, lowering one end of her staff to the floor. His actions had proven him at least partially trustworthy, and his utter cluelessness suggested his blood relation to herself. As Anouk watched her cousin step into the house, finally taking note of him in an accepting light, she realized just how closely he resembled her father; his eyes and mouth and hands were all too familiar traits, though his were much less weathered than how she remembered them. It was so that the Half-Elf stared at Hsin in a new way: one of profound loss and hope, and of trust. He had to be her cousin -- her father's sister's son. Someone who would care.

The sight of his smile and the quiet of his voice was enough to boil the tears behind her eyes once again, and so she looked away so he wouldn't see. Anouk laid the staff against the wall, then softly closed the door behind them, leaving the cage sitting on the step. Once it latched and no sunlight came through save for the translucence of the curtains, she stood with her arms against the door for a moment, trying to fight the sobs. No, not in front of a cousin she just met! Taking a deep breath, the Half-Kemite shifted to her feet and walked across the room to the table, her eyes downcast to again avoid letting Hsin see her embarrassing state. She pulled out a chair and sat down, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs; she would have to tell him.

"Daddy's the greatest soldier in the White Rose," she began, her fingers fidgeting. "Of course, when the undead armies attacked Zerdargia, he was summoned to fight. It was the only way they could win, was if my daddy fought on the side of Zerdargia and the Empire. So he went to fight, and he destroyed hundreds -- no, thousands of undead. He's a hero." Anouk smiled weakly and glanced at Hsin a moment, but quickly turned her eyes to the floor.

"He's just...not...not back yet. That's all." Her voice was quiet and cracking with the threat of tears, but she swallowed them consciously. Still, her eyes shimmered.

[Hsin]

Sometimes, when sleep fled and the dark and dreary night seemed to have no end, Hsin would lie awake in bed and pine for a better world. Where families wouldn’t be torn apart by war, cities destroyed by their own protectors, and everyone was happy with their lot in life. But these thoughts were few and far between. The young exquecher had seen enough of society to know such a dream would never, ever become a reality so long as a sentient being still existed on Telath. Passage of time had only continued to erode his faith in the human condition. Mostly, he thought about his past and his future. Two months had passed since Hana had relinquished her iron grip on his mind and traveled with her brother back to the afterlife. Shouldn’t he feel some sort of closure, some sense that it had all finished? She’d been at his side for nearly an era, traveling alongside him as he wandered aimlessly from city to city. Thoughts, fears, and dreams had all been shaped by her memories as much as his own actions. The young mage could not help but feel a heavy sense of loss, as if something central to his life had departed and would never return. If he believed the frivolous and empty words of the romantics, the Kemite had found his soul mate only to have a hand in exiling her from the Physical Plane. Of course, they had never really considered the possibility that a man’s soul mate was, simply put, only a soul. Sometimes he thought it ironic, considering his yearning now for a friend with which he could commensurate and share his thoughts. Other times, he berated himself for his callousness and his stupidly. Even though she’d left the material plane, the young man still loved her in his own strange way.

Any illusions of normality had fled like the frost before the dawn. As he entered the house, Hsin licked his lips nervously and glanced around the messy cottage. With the release of the ferret, Anouk seemed to deflate and loose some of her fiery anger. Emotions had a strange way of coursing through a man’s veins and lending them strength and courage. But they extracted a terrible price, overriding the will and driving people to perform acts they’d regret for the rest of their lives. The Kemite thrust his hands into his fists, fingering the familiar cold weight of the pair of climbing claws in his pocket as he slipped his hands through the holes and tightened his grip in a vain attempt to bleed off a measure of his anxiety. Hsin had always prided himself on the ability to predict and plan, to outmaneuver an opponent before they even met face to face. But he had no such goal now, no pressing concern that commanded his attention. Regardless to her strange attitude and her strange concern for the caged ferret, Anouk was simply his cousin whom Hsin had never met. He stood rooted to the ground as she curled into a small ball and gazed at her thin fingers with sad dark eyes. He listened intently as she spoke, doing his best to take her words in stride. And utterly failing.

He blinked away tears as she told her story, fighting the wave of sudden weakness that flooded through his arms and legs. One part of him wished the idea to visit his uncle had never entered his skull. But the young Kemite had run from hurt and trouble before, seeking refuge in his work and the pursuit of position. With a long sigh, he slowly picked his way across the room and pulled up a chair by his cousin. His movements were slow and carefully, as if afraid his movements would scare her away. Ever so slowly he leaned forward and tried to extend some measure of condolence. He’d heard much of the war in Zerdargia, but it’s always been in terms of others people. ”I’m…sorry for your loss Anouk,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper as his mind raced. It had been months since the battle for Zerdargia had ended. How had she survived? ”I know your father’s lived an honorable life, and I’m sure Torek welcomed him with open arms.” He hated himself for saying something so frivolous and shallow in light of her loss. At a loss for what to do, he rose and wrapped his arms around her in a light hug. ”How are living now, without your father? If you’ve need of anything, I’d be more than willing to help.“

[Anouk Qiao]

The sobs that choked Anouk's words caught in her throat, and her tear-filled eyes opened wider as she felt her cousin's arms around her. For a moment, she thought it was her father, having finally returned from a long journey home -- but this, she knew, was impossible. Only her father and nanny had ever purposely touched her in such a way or had sought to comfort her pains. Hsin, she now knew, was someone she could trust and who would keep his word; he was honest in his feelings and was true to the Kemite honor. How she could determine this from a simple gesture, only a child's mind could understand.

With a breath, the Half-Elf grasped Hsin's tunic in one hand and flung the other around his waist, burying her tears in his shirt. She cried freely, her body shaking with sobs, something she had not done since before she heard the news of her father. The shock and denial that filled the girl, fueled by her sense of pride, had trapped her tears behind an icy wall for longer than a month. Now it had melted, and it flowed from her in a torrent of bitter anguish before a relative she had only just met, but with whom she found a mutual understanding. As she clung to him and soaked his clean tunic in tears, she realized she needed him; she needed someone near whom she could count on -- whom she could trust to accept her and care about her and be there whenever she felt alone. Anouk couldn't bear to be alone; there was a part of her that was empty -- a part her father had taken with him to the grave. She couldn't fill it alone.

Slowly, the sobbing quieted and her tears dried, but Anouk continued to lay her head against her cousin's chest for a moment longer, remembering the warmth of her father's embrace. She finally turned her head and sniffed, her eyes reddened and glistening, but didn't look up at Hsin.

"It's harder -- without him," she choked, and swallowed. "I haven't left the house since...since I heard -- about daddy. People bring me things, though. Food and supplies. But none of them really care. They just want to pad their reputations. I don't answer the door. They leave things and notes on the doorstep."

A bit calmer now, the girl wrapped her arms around Hsin and simply held herself close to him, as she had done with her father whenever she felt sad or ill. She felt strangely relieved of a great weight that had burdened her for so long, and was finally calm.

[Hsin]

Even though many of his peers thought him young and inexperience, Hsin had dabbled in an assortment of different areas of life. His exquisitely crafted naginata and small armory of hidden arms attested to dabbling in arts of physical warfare. A silver band encircling his right ring finger attested to his dedication to the discipline of Mysticism. Hours spent bent over the ledgers of the Centripax Provincial Government demonstrated his interest in politics and government. And happy memories of a perky half elf named Jaali reminded him of his brief and disastrous adventure into formal acting. Arguably, out of the four, politics required the greatest measure of cruelty and cold hearted stoicism to succeed. Not so long ago, Hsin had once labored in Tirisfal for the benefit the people of the city. He’d learned now that such morals only shackled politicians and left them vulnerable. To succeed, an ambitious individual had to learn to kill his emotions and banish his morals. They had to learn to ignore the blood that coated the treacherous steps on the staircase of power. And, if they wished to excel, they would learn to spill said blood when necessary. But there was a line that separated the act and the enjoyment of an act. The young mage knew that, as long as he retained his position in the administration of the Governor Tiyribi Andreas, he would willingly employ the ruthlessness and terrible will that had sustained him through the past era. But, underneath a skin that’s thickness rivaled most suits of plate armor, he hated the endless politicking and maneuvering that ate up precious time and resources. It became readily clear that very few truly kept the interests of Centripax at heart, no matter their public professions of loyalty. And Hsin was more than aware of his own hypocrisy in the matter.

He often assumed an air of quite, stoic stubbornness that grated harshly on the nerves of merchants, nobles, and clerks alike. After all, it was merely business. The exquecher could not agree with every view expressed to him. Even in his own private life, the Kemite acknowledged that it was more than an act, or a masked donned for the sake of the public. But no matter what he did, the small spark of conscience hidden deep in the recesses of his soul would not give him a moment’s rest. And now, as he felt his cousin slip her arms around his own thin frame, it flared up again. As she sobbed against his shoulder, the Kemite gently patted her on the back and whispered a few short words of re-assurance into her ear. Guilt was a strange and tricky thing. Dwelling on it caused it to grow, and hiding it only caused it to grow faster. The young mage could not help but think of his own sins as he felt Anouk’s chest heave as her lungs gasped for air. Atonement would not come in this world, but did it mean he needed to continue falling into the abyss? Hsin felt torn for a moment, trapped between his guilt and his anger for his selfish thoughts while his cousin mourned. But concern for his relative over-rode his own thoughts, even as the accursed provincial business pushed its way to the forefront of his mind.

Shifting his weight slightly, Hsin tightened his hands around her body in a brief hug before resting his head against hers. What could he do? Clearly, the young man could not in good conscience leave her here in Midpoint to continue her present life. A girl as young as Anouk could only do so much in the world without a guardian, or at least the appearance of a guardian. Nor was he particularly inclined to give her away into the care of another. She was his cousin and, even though the exquecher had distanced himself from his people and their god, the Kemite could not simply leave her after she’d suffered so much. Blinking away tears, Hsin wrestled to subdue the twin specters of sorrow and confusion that clouded his mind. ”It’ll be better now, now that we’ve met,” he said in a voice laden with emotion. ”I can’t promise you the sky, but you have my word and my pledge that I’ll care for you like a sister. I’ve a house in Primus Gaudeo, where I work.” Did she know what he did? No doubt her uncle had heard, but had he told her? No matter, for the moment. ”We can live together there, if you’d like. Or, if you wish to stay here or go elsewhere, I’d be more than happy to help.”

[Anouk Qiao]

Her sobs slowly quieted and Anouk was finally still, her face buried in the dampened cloth of Hsin's shirt. After a season of cold mourning in blackened rooms with nothing but a ghost to talk to, she took great comfort in the human touch which her cousin offered. Enveloped in his arms, the young Half-Elf could easily imagine the return of her father -- and, indeed, her father's blood ran as well in Hsin's veins.

She had to go on, she knew; there was no point spending the rest of her life cooped in this dark house of memories. Anouk raised her head a bit and absently wiped at the spots of tears on Hsin's shirt, buying herself a bit more time to think over his offer. Should she stay here, she would be miserable, even if her cousin helped her financially or in some other way. Those inconsiderate people would knock on the door each brightening, asking her to put a good word in with the family of her mother and the associates of her father. Should she leave for another city on her own, she would be lost as well as alone, in the midst of different people and different cultures far removed from her own. Having never left Midpoint for more than a cycle at a time, that was a much more frightening idea than it otherwise would have been. To go with Hsin...

"Primus Gaudeo?" she said slowly, her voice quiet and no longer cracking with sobs. Her father had mentioned something of Hsin's work, but she hadn't paid it much mind and had since forgotten. It wasn't important at the moment. Did she trust Hsin enough to commit to living in the same house with him? Anouk raised her head and wiped her eyes on her arm with a sniff, then looked up at him. He cared, at least somewhat -- and he was part of her father's family. There was no one else who could possibly claim as much of her trust as he could.

"Live...together? With you?" The tone in her voice was one of reluctance and heavy thought, but she soon smiled gently. "I really would...appreciate it. I mean -- I'd like that. I...um..." She swallowed, then suddenly drew Hsin into a tight embrace. "Thank you."

[Hsin]

All who wished to survive and excel in the political arena quickly learned to mask their true feelings and intentions behind a calm mask. Survival depended on one’s ability to manipulate, to protect their backs. Simply holding on to one’s position was one thing; aspiring for a higher office was another quickly. Only on the battlefield or in the circles of academia could one find a more unforgiving environment created by human hands. To say the Kemite enjoyed the machinations inherent in his position was entirely incorrect. He tolerated the rituals and habits, sometimes dabbling to make his own activities easier. But when all was said and done, Primus Gaudeo simply represented another milestone on the long journey…to where? Only Kaimelea knew his final destination, and She did not seem particularly inclined to tell. Even in private, the Kemite remained ever vigilant and carefully hoarded his secrets. And even Anouk would remain in blissful ignorance of his secrets. His arms returned the tight embrace as the Kemite inhaled, savoring the soft scent of her hair. ”You’re welcome, Anouk,” came the soft, gentle answer with true sincerity. ”I’ll care for you always…” Most of the time, those words coming from his mouth would only serve as a distraction, a pleasant lie to lull a man or woman into complacency while the Exquecher worked his magic. But not this time.

Moments past as the Kemite’s mind spun, shifting through threads of thought and peering into the future. Ever so slowly, plans and possible courses of action began to take shape. The cruel, cold logic that had governed his actions for so long slowly began to recover from the deluge of emotions. It was a risk, one that could easily the thin web that extended in all directions from the office of the Exquecher. Best to squirrel her away somewhere far away from Centripax, to keep her out of the public eye. His pearly white teeth bit gently on his bottom lip, casting out such thoughts as soon the moment he became aware of their existence. Let Primus Gaudeo burn and the office of the Exquecher fly from his grasp. Scarcely a month in office had already instilled in the Kemite a strong dislike for the city. Awkwardly, the young man stayed close to his cousin, his body wishing to move away but his mind keeping him near her thin body. ”I have business in Fort Midpoint for brightening, perhaps two. After that, we can return to Primus Gaudeo. It’ll give you some time to pack, and to bid farewell to your friends.” A flash of movement caught his eye, making him abruptly turn his head to gaze at the brown furred ferret gazing at the pair of humans with bright, curious eyes. With a wan smile, the young mage asked in a slightly mirthful tone, ”And, what of the ferret?

[Anouk Qiao]

There was a sincerity that Anouk had not heard in any voice save her father's. The child -- for she really was no more than that, no matter how hard she tried to walk in her father's footsteps -- allowed a small smile to lift her expression and to dry what few tears remained. Her cheeks were still stained with trails of salty sadness, but she knew...somehow...that everything would be alright -- that life would go on, that there would be more good things. Her father would not want her to waste away in the darkness of memories; he would be dearly remembered and deeply honored for his heroic sacrifice, but life lay glimmering before her. With a sigh, Anouk nodded slowly and lifted her head from her cousin's shoulder.

"I don't have much to pack, and...and saying goodbye shouldn't be too bad."

Of course, as she thought with glazed eyes, she neglected to mention that she had no friends to say goodbye to. Clearly, to her, most of the people around her would be glad of the riddance of the resident brat. Not that she cared. No, not at all. But Hsin had no need to hear of it.

And...the ferret? Anouk noticed the direction of Hsin's eyes, then turned her head to see that the spindly furball was watching them. Well, it was very cute, and appropriate names were already flashing through her mind. But no! This was a creature of Carmelya, and it belonged in the wild! ...Or wherever it wished to be. But in the wild, it would just get eaten! And it had run into the house. But she refused to cage or leash it in any way. The debate went on in her mind, and her expression twisted a bit as she considered the possibilities.

"I don't want to own it or be its master," she said slowly, her lips moving from side to side in thought, "but if it wants to come, can it? I can take care of it, I'm sure I can."

A brightness had broken through the melancholy of her voice, and only now did she realize it. Hope was a beautiful thing.

"Hsin, if you're staying in Midpoint for a couple brightenings, you can stay here. I have an extra mat you can use, and I'm sure there's enough food. And -- I should go pack!"

The smile returned, and she gave Hsin a quick hug as she laid an appreciative kiss on his cheek. Anouk slipped from her cousin's embrace and padded barefoot across the room toward her bedroom, taking care not to glance at the closed door to her father's chamber. It remained as it had when the White Rose had left the walls of Midpoint for the last time, and the Half-Elf had determined that it would remain so forever -- a memory, left behind but never forgotten.