Unfriendly Allies
  © Dela & Aaron R. & Amber McNett

[16 A 110 ADT - Birchmont]

 Rhia & Electra

<<I don't see why we should have to go and look for him. He'll probably just return after sleeping it off in some gutter somewhere.>> The white mare's tone was laced with lofty derision. She swished her tail sharply and the white strands glittered in the glare of the late morning sun off the town street.

Her human Bonded glanced back over her shoulder into the flame blue eyes, looking deep into the heart of them as only she could do. She saw at once straight to the heart of the mare's pent up energy; Electra was out of sorts.

There were the rest of the Roug troop off out and about investigating while here they were, stuck with the mundane matters of team management - and of locating stray members of that team. Their early promotion had sort of skipped them from trainee to leader role without any of the necessary middle ground in between. Rhia was not one to doubt herself overly, but at times she felt that the step had been too great. In many ways the two of them just weren't ready for the dramatic change. They still had so much to learn from
each other too. Their 'Cha-mates were getting that time to grow together. Sometimes it seemed that Rhia and Electra just hadn't had the space to explore their Bond as had seemed the early promise of the Y'cha.

"Well to be perfectly honest I don't know either 'Lectra. But you know what we were ordered." She let her voice trail off and put the rest of her thoughts into the sort of appeasing look she knew worked well with Electra when she wanted to be talked out of a position but didn't want to admit it.

<<Oh very well,>> allowed Electra. <<If we must.>> She still sounded ill satisfied with the decision however and her hooves clicked their displeasure as the pair walked down the street toward the inn Rhia had in mind as their first port of call.

Rhia ducked in to the tavern and Electra stood with a modicum of patience until her Bonded reappeared. The plain young woman came out looking a little harried - which for her was somewhat unusual. She lifted her brows exaggeratedly. "Well, Valtris was here alright. Bought some ale, and managed to annoy a few of the locals too. I just had to sooth a few bristled backs in there..."

<<He isn't there now?>> Electra interrupted, with what to her seemed the salient point.

"No, but I know where he is. One of the stablehands from where we are staying was at the bar. Would you believe Valtris was there all the time? And sleeping it off in one of the occupied stalls no less." Rhia rolled her eyes a bit and shook her head. She had never really understood the choices drunkards made for their lives, despite having worked in several taverns on her way to the Academy from Chihalla. Still, it was up to them how they chose to live their lives - provided they were not part of a Roug mission at the time...

<<Indeed,>> commented the mare, answering the question and also in response to the slip of Rhia's thoughts that she had picked up from their mind-link.

"Seems that they weren't sure what to do about him and eventually just left him there. Said he was 'talking to himself' too. They weren't very happy about it but Valtris' status is a little dubious at best... even among us..." She smiled slightly at the 'corn. "And they didn't know if they had the authority to... ah... remove... him. So I told them I would deal with it." She grinned then at the mare. "The joys of leadership, eh Electra?"

Electra had a few choice remarks to make about the foolishness of wasting time on foolish timewasters but it lacked something of the acidity that would have distinguished real irritation from her force of habit critique.

Rhia was whistling softly as they approached the stables. The familiar smell of the horses wafted out on the breeze even before they reached the doors.

The doors themselves were open wide. One door was actually off it's hinges and a sturdy-looking young man was busy working at repairing it. He looked up at the sounds of Rhia and Electra's approach, and his eyes went a bit wide. He threw a quick, furtive glance towards the back of the stable, then quickly buried his attention back into his task. His eyes followed them surreptitiously as they moved into the building, though he seemed to be trying to hide his curiousity.

Entering the stables, Electra's nostrils quivered as another and far less pleasant aroma hit the air. Stale human and stale alcohol. She wrinkled her nose, sending her sharp distaste down the mindlink to Rhia as they walked down the row of stalls to the one where Firestepper, Valtris' horse, was stabled.

<<Guess we found him.>> Their thoughts came in synchronicity, each overlapping the other. Differing tones but blending together in a familiar harmony of mindspeech.

Valtris was laying on the ground, unmoving, except for the slow rise and fall of his ragged breath. He probably had not moved an inch since falling on the spot the night before. An empty bottle, laying near his right hand, spoke volumes.

Somehow, the trough that held the horses feed had broken off at one end, and rested on the ground, spilling grain out onto the stall floor, and partly over the back of Valtris' head.

Firestepper seemed not to mind. The horse was quietly eating the spilled grain off of the ground, and occassionally off of Valtris, with little concern. Her hooves occassionaly coming very close to the prone man.

As she looked in, Rhia's foot struck a second empty bottle, laying just under the straw near the stall gate, sending it skittering across the stable floor.

Valtris

It was like drowning... without the water. Val had been struggling, from some great depth, for what seemed an eternity. Sometimes so close to breaching the surface he could feel the light on his face. But inevitably, some unseen relentless force would pull him back, even further down then before.

Strangely, he felt no anxiety about it. For long moments, he was not sure he would ever come out from beneath whatever it was that covered him... But then, for even longer moments, he was not sure he wanted to. Oblivion beneath seemed almost more compelling then the light above. Until finally, he just gave in. Slowly, gratefully, he sank into the darkness, feeling for the first time in recent memory, strangely peaceful.

But it was short lived. Some unseen hand seemed to suddenly reach down, from above, and pull him up and out from beneath his prison with great force. The light surrounded him, air once more filled his lungs with breath... despair once more encased his soul.

It was only fitting, he supposed later, that the dream should wake him at that moment.

At first there was disorientation and confusion all too familiar. His fogged thoughts quickly cataloged the various aches and miseries with which he viewed his waking existence, putting names to the ones he knew, seeking causes for the ones he did not.

Judging by the lack of light filtering through eyelids that refused to open, he guessed it was not yet dawn. Strangely, the Ghost was silent, little more then a droning hum deep in the background of his mind. Slowly Val drifted back into a restless sleep. Not because he was still tired, but because, at the moment, it was far less painful then getting up. Outwardly, he had not moved an inch.

It was the Ghost that woke him the second time. It was singing again. Val had no other word to describe the sounds he was hearing in his head. Or at least, he thought after a moment, he thought that he'd heard them. Like the previous time, as he climbed back to consciousness, and tried to concentrate on the sounds, they quickly fell apart, resuming their usual nonsensical mumbling. Still, it had seemed the same vaguely familiar song he had heard before, only the images it brought to mind this time were of a different foaling, on a different day.

The thought was interrupted by a rattling sound nearby. He recognized instantly as a bottle (thankfully empty) rolling across a hard floor, followed by the quiet whinny of greeting from Firestepper somewhere over his head. Even those small sounds seemed to send twinges through a skull eagerly waiting for an excuse to explode.

Firestepper looked up at the noise, giving off a slight whiney turning to face Rhia as if hoping for some treat, hooves once more flashing dangerously close to Valtris.

Rhia glanced down, tensing slightly as the bottle skittered under her foot. Electra shied back a little and cast her accusing eyes down to the slumped man on the straw.

"Oh be quiet." Val managed to croak out, hoping the horse wasn't going to make a habit of sudden noises. He instantly regretted the effort, as he had to spit out a mouthful of straw and grain to say them.

The Ghost hummed along in counterpoint to the piercing pain in his head.

"You too." He grumbled at it, more out of habit, then any hope it would stop.

He'd heard the approach of shod hooves, far too deliberate and concise to be a horse. A unicorn then, he thought, seeking to identify it by sound.

Where there was a 'corn, a Roug usually followed. And where there's Roug...

He left the thought unfinished, hoping whoever it was would simply just be quiet about whatever business brought them here.

There was silence once again, except for the breathing of the horse, who seemed to be watching Rhia.

Rhia recovered her footing and moved closer to the stable, offering Firestepper a reassuring palm to lip upon. She scratched at his chin with her finger tips, dexterously avoiding the teeth that searched for treats and watching his hooves cautiously. Valtris was in so prone a position it wouldn't do to make the horse restless. There was a myth that horses always avoided treading on a person if they could help it. But Electra had long since informed her that accidents happened with the equine race as often as it did with the human.
The long-limbed young woman widened her eyes as Valtris mumbled to himself. Was he speaking to them? It was hard to tell with one so lost to this reality. She had so seldom taken more drink than was wise herself she could barely remember that drink specific haze and confusion that fogged the mind. Still, it wasn't a very encouraging beginning.

Electra turned her eyes to Firestepper, asserting her authority as a wolf does over a dog and in equine way telling the horse to stand quiet and not trouble Rhia. Rhia however rather spoilt the matter by reaching into her shoulder bag and bringing out one of the carrot squares she carried for her, to offer it to the horse by way of a distraction. Electra eyed the disappearing snack with some disapproval. They really must start to work more as a team, she told herself.

Rhia took a breath. "Valtris?" Her tone was that of one clearly intending on being heard. It was devoid of disgust, but did hold a clear thread of professional rebuke.

Bloody great. Val thought wearily, as it became clear the Roug was meaning to talk to him. He'd already concluded that the unicorn was Electra. Not surprising he'd pictured her foaling only moments before then. Obviously his mind had picked up on the sounds long before his consciousness.

And if it was Electra, then the voice was probably her bonded. Though why the Lieutenant was seeking him out, he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

With what seemed a monumental effort, he managed to get some of his limbs responding, and pushed himself up into a crawling position.

But even that small effort sent throbbing pains through his body, starting at his skull where alcohol and the Ghost played havoc, and coursing down through his left shoulder, still aching from its recent relocation. He almost collapsed back to the floor again, and had to stop, for a long while, before he felt up to any more drastic movements.

Electra was silent. She was frowning mentally however. This man possessed one of the strangest minds she had yet to come across. Even Shinnane - the female human who spoke only in mind pictures - was not so strange to deal with as was Valtris. For when she reached outward, with her natural talent, to seek Valtris' emotions she met only a wall... a haze through which there was no penetrating. It vexed her that he possessed some facet that was more potent than her strong empathic abilities. And it not only vexed
her... it uneased her too. When he looked at her she did not have the advantage of him. She had no added clues as to his real state of mind or intent as she generally did when dealing with others. It was not a problem she previously had troubled to explore, having until this point had little need to come into contact with the man.

"Ya ever had a really bad hangover, Lieutenant?" Valtris managed to croak out of a throat far too dry, while he tried to let the world slow down around him, and work up the courage to open his eyes to the inevitable pain that would be sunlight.

With an audible groan of effort he sort of rolled, but mostly fell, sideways into the wall. He twisted slightly so he ended up in a sitting position, leaning against it. His head buried between knees drawn up to his chest. Bits of straw and seed seemed to cling to his hair and clothing, although he paid them little attention.

After another brief moment, his head came up to rest against the wall behind him. It was the hardest thing he could recall doing in some time, just to open his eyes, and look towards the front of the stall.

As expected, the light sent spears of pain lancing into his head, and he winced noticeably. He could not seem to bring Rhia, or much of anything, into focus.

Electra looked into his eyes and pushed forward mentally, seeking that well of emotional whirl that usually waited for her within a person's gaze. That ready source of information, there to extract what she needed to get what she wanted from those she dealt with. Her nostrils flared as she felt her will resiliently blocked. Her eyes went colder as she looked down on him. Her tail swished sharply to one rear flank.

Rhia shifted slightly and held herself more erect. "Never one as bad as that." She replied to the man, with her usual lack of tact. She regarded him steadily, seeing only the effects of drink acting on an already neglected body. His physical pain looked pretty bad - but it was self-inflicted. How best to let him see that this behaviour was not as acceptable as he had come to imagine... It would certainly not do to let him think she condoned it in any way. Her job here right now was not as a healer - but as a Leuitenant.

"Valtris..." She began, her voice turning serious. Then she broke off as hoof beats sounded behind her and Electra inserted into her mind, <<Starheel's here.>> Electra's mind-tone seemed almost to reflect something of the same sternness that Rhia had been putting into her voice.

Val too had heard the hooves of Starheel approaching, but paid little attention to it. He had closed his eyes once more, to stop the stall careening around him. It was making him nauseous.

In the back of Valtris' head, the Ghost was stirring again. He managed to ignore it for a moment, through his headache. At least until a flash of image came along with it.

It was almost like a memory: a white unicorn with gold fetlocks - Starheel! The unicorn was standing in a dark tunnel, fear in his eyes.

Almost as quickly as it came though, the memory was gone. Unfortunately, he had no time to reflect on the image, or the new mode of communication from the Ghost...

Val had endured one long and consistent headache, ever since the Ghost had become his unwanted guest. Some days were worse then others of course, but he had grown, if not used to, at least to a point where he could endure them stoically. But tones and sounds were all he'd had to deal with - until now.

Now, suddenly, into his head along with the strange memory of Starheel, came intense, stabbing pain that instantly consumed him.

It seared into his head like someone had applied a white hot brand directly to one side of his brain, while steadfastly kicking him on the other. And any and all thought was lost for a time.

{{Greetings.}} Starheel sent with a flick of his tail. {{Angeli and I arrive from the D'liel's on a mission for the Harisol group... I'm just here for a quick rest before we're off to Pallahade to confirm the existence of any or all of three different drafts of the will. Will you let the General and Lieutenant Rowan know of our whereabouts?}}

Electra, at the fore, regarded the stallion steadily. Her tail swished once to dislodge a stable fly. She seemed un-inclined to reply to him and, after a moment, Rhia glanced down at Valtris, who had closed his eyes again, and then back to Starheel.

"Of course," she replied, smiling calmly at Starheel. "Where is Angeli now?"

{{Thank you.}} Starheel nodded his gratitude, perking an ear at Electra but saying nothing. ::If she wishes to play games, I can do that readily:: He snorted to himself. {{My Bonded is at the inn. Private Turak requested a brief meeting with her.}}

Electra chose that moment to interrupt. {{And what is this business with the wills?}}

Rhia flicked her steady blue eyes to her Bonded and then returned them to Valtris, looking down on him in the straw.

"You better get yourself up Valtris..." She started to say, before she realized that he was no longer sitting against the wall. Instead, he seemed to have fallen over.

She saw him now, balled up on the floor, as if every muscle in his body had suddenly tensed. His hands were curled like claws and pressed against the side of his head as if trying desperately to hold it together. His teeth showed clearly, gritted in an excrutiating snarl of pain.

Strangely, he seemed to be making no sound at all.

Starheel felt something strange shift inside of him, at his magical center. ::What...?:: He shook his head. ::Valtris?::

Firestepper too, seemed to react to her stall guest's state, suddenly agitated, and neighing nervously.

Almost before she could react however, the tension seemed to fade. His mouth opened slightly, emitting the faintest of wimpers, followed by a few gasping and ragged breaths.

With the release of tension in Val, Firestepper too, seemed to calm down.

Starheel skidded back. He felt revulsion rising inside of him. ::Light! What is wrong with me?!:: Slowly, he steeled himself, but made no attempt to approach Valtris. Knowing that the man couldn't hear his thoughts, he addressed Rhia. {{Will he be alright?}}

Rhia stared at the man and, after a moments stunned stillness, moved nearer toward him. She assessed him with a practiced eye. "I'm sure it's just a hang-over 'Heel," Rhia assured him.

{{I can't imagine why anyone would do such a thing to themselves willingly,}} remarked Electra to no one in particular. She did however move nearer toward Firestepper and maintain eye contact with the horse.

Rhia shot her a quick look. "She has a point Valtris." She said, either not realizing or forgetting that Val could not have heard Electra's thought. "It's just going to get worse for you as long as you keep up these sorts of levels of drinking." She kept her voice tone lowered and reached for her shoulder bag once more and rummaged around for a neatly folded pouch.

Val heard her words, though was paying little attention to them. It wasn't the first time this sort of thing had happened, but it always came as a bit of a surprise the first time. And it was never very pleasant. He supposed being hung over didn't help much...

That particular irony was not entirely lost on him.

Light, but he needed a drink.

Slowly, with extreme care not to move his head anymore then neccessary, he pushed himself back up into a sitting position. His entire body seemed to be shaking slightly, in the aftermath of the strange seizure brought on by the Ghost.

<Thanks.> He thought sarcasticly at the distant mumbling in the back of his mind. There was no response.

He felt Rhia moving into the stall with him, and he slowly opened his eyes, to try and focus on her once more.

"I can mix you something up to help with the pain," Rhia was saying. "But the only real cure is to stop what's causing it."

A wry smile flashed across Valtris' features and he started to chuckle quietly. A strange, bitter and humourless sound that quickly dissolved into a fit of hacking coughs. Each one wringing a grimace of pain from his haggard face, as it shook a head far too sensitive to such things.

After the initial flurry, the coughs faded, and he once more sat as still as possible, gasping for breath.

"Light, but I hate mornings." He mumbled quietly, then squinting at the sun arcing into the barn. "Or is it noon?" He added, then sighed slightly. "Light, but I hate those too."

"It's nearer noon," remarked Rhia. She frowned at him. "That cough is a bad one Valtris. I mean it - if you don't start looking after your body you'll find yourself old before your time..." She looked down at him without an understanding of what drove him.

"Lady... That's all I need... to live longer." Val replied dismissively, his tone suggesting he could think of few things less desireable then a long and healthy life.

This was all he needed. He thought with annoyance. Yet one more Roug pretending to take an interest in his well-being.

Rhia unfolded a pad of cloth and took out a small pouch of pungent herbs. She turned back to Electra. "Did I leave my water flask on your saddle pack love?"

Electra twisted her neck around a bit, trying to eye the contents of her packs. Irritably she stopped trying after a few moments. {{How can I tell? I don't have eyes in the backs of my ears you know.}}

Before Rhia could reply however, she added more reasonably {{I think you did - I can feel something cold on my spine anyway.}}

"One moment Valtris." The young healer said. She started back toward the mare.

"Oh bloody great." The man muttered behind her, with annoyance. It was obviously time to be making himself scarce. All the fancy foliage in the world couldn't cure what ailed him. The hangover was the least of his problems, and he almost welcomed that pain, over its more consistent neighbour. He had no desire to blunt its effects.

As Rhia exited the stall, Val slowly began to inch his way up the wall, into a standing position. The various aches and pains in his shoulder and head making it far more of an adventure then it might normally have been.

Out in the aisle, Starheel pawed the ground, anxious and upset. Something was very wrong here; he just couldn't put his hoof on it... {{Is there anything I can do?}} He asked Rhia. {{This doesn't seem like a typical hangover.}}

Rhia glanced at Starheel. "Well it seems like a hang-over to me.... what strikes you about it as strange?"

{{Those seizures... Angeli never does that, and oh... nevermind. It's silly. Everyone's different, I suppose.}} Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.

Suddenly, there was a small sound from the corner and a muffled coughing... a curse.

{{What was that?}} Rhia and Electra as one looked directly and questioningly to the corner. There was a flitting of shadows.

{{Is someone there?}} Starheel sent. Another curse sounded from the corner. Starlight cocked an ear. {{You might as well come out. I'm coming over to investigate regardless.}}

Quickly, a tall, lean-looking older man with peppered dark hair and a thick mustache emerged from behind one of the bales of hay. He rubbed his eyes and yawned quickly. "Oh, I...uh, oh...I must have fallen asleep in here last night. Silly me...now, if you'll excuse me..." the man began to turn towards the back entrance.

Starheel peered closer at the man. ::There's something very familiar about that man. I know him from somewhere...:: {{Hold a minute, man. Come here for a second.}}

The man blinked his amber eyes and bit his lip in distress before quickly regaining his composure. "Is there something wrong?"

Rhia sent a private thought to her Bonded. <What can you sense from his emotional state Electra? Do we know him?> She glanced over at Starheel who seemed perplexed by an elusive memory. She herself was not so good with the faces of strangers, but Electra had more of a memory, if she took the trouble to show interest that was...

Electra fixed the man with a penetrating stare. <<He is certainly in a state of some distress Bonded - better hold him for questioning...I'll see what I can pick up from his reactions.>>

Rhia stepped forward. "No, nothing is wrong Sir. But if you wouldn't mind answering a few questions?" Her voice contained the reasonable but firm tones of an officer of the law, she eyed his clothing and his face, looking for those tell tale rumples and fuzziness of the eyes that would state louder than any words that the man had indeed just woken as he stated.

"Oh... al.. alright." the man stuttered. There were dark circles beneath his bloodshot amber eyes.

The sudden change in elevation was making Val's head swim again - a familiar sort of uncomfortableness that he welcomed. An empty nausia was churning in his stomach and his mouth felt and tasted like some small furry animal had curled up and died in it.

His eyes focused for the first time on the broken feed trough, and he wondered when that had happened. He supposed he should fix it, before other things began breaking.

Some things didn't change, anyway.

With a sigh, he pushed himself off of the wall, and shuffled slowly towards the front of the stall, leaning on Firestepper for the first few cautious steps.

"S'alright girl." He mumbled. "Get you some food in a sec."

He got to the gate, and suddenly remembered that there were two unicorns out there. He'd almost forgotten the second that had arrived after Rhia and Electra. He recognized Starheel the moment he saw him, and with that recognition came the memory that the Ghost had shared so painfully with him, only moments before.

He could not help but stop and stare for a moment, with surprise.

Light! He thought. What was going on?!

With a noticeable effort, he turned away from Starheel, glad that both 'corns and Rhia were all too occupied with some local at the end of the barn to notice his reaction.

The memory had not been his own. That much he was sure of. And the Ghost would have been dead long before Starheel was ever foaled, so it could not belong to it either.

A dream perhaps? Maybe he was hallucinating. Wouldn't be the first time.

There was only incoherent mumbling from the Ghost. Maybe it wasn't a ghost, afterall? He quickly clamped down on that train of thought. If the Ghost wasn't... he was not sure he could deal with it. Better not to know. All the other options were far worse.

He stumbled across the aisle, and fell to his knees in front of the water trough that sat there. Without pausing, he dunked his head in, up to the shoulders, and let the wet coolness of it wash over him, trying to send painful memories along with it.

"Are you a guest here?" Rhia was asking the stranger, although Val payed little attention to what either of them were saying.

"No... I am from Rin Caad." He replied with a sigh. "Have... have I done something wrong?"

Valtris came stumbling out of the stall behind them, pausing for a brief moment, then moving with some urgency over to a nearby water trough and dunking his head in.

Rhia opened her mouth as if to speak but Valtris' movements disturbed her and she merely gave the stranger a half-reassuring smile.

"N..no." The stranger was saying, clearly nervous under Rhia and the two unicorns' scrutiny. "I'm from out of town, here on a business deal. I... hit the bubbly pretty hard last night." He glanced at Val. "I must have stumbled in here last night, and I... um, didn't want to interrupt your conversation, madame." He blinked his amber eyes and ran a hand through his dark hair.

Rhia gave the man a long look as he waffled his way through his explanation. She sent a thought through to Electra as he was speaking. <Well love, what do you think?>

<<I don't know, we obviously unsettle him. But then that isn't so unusual...>>

Rhia sent the white mare a mental caress. Electra might have been talking about people in general often being uncomfortable around those who delivered the word of the law, but her words held a trace of the lingering personal resentment that had followed her from early youth.

Electra's mind softened under the touch in the way that only contact with her Bonded could produce. In that more malleable state she reached out her senses to the man once more and sent. <<Somehow looks almost... familiar to me. If we were nearer Pallahade I might think I knew him from the town or something.>>

<Really?> Replied Rhia and then had to divert her attention back to the man as he finished his speech with a question.

"Say, there aren't... well, there aren't more of you, are there? Roug, I mean." He said, nervously.

"Is... is he going to be alright?" He added, casting a worried glance at Valtris.

"I think so," Rhia looked back at Valtris as well, wondering if the two had been drinking together. The stablehand however still had his head in the trough and wasn't much help.

"There are a few of us in town," allowed Rhia, getting back to his first question. Where had he been the day before that he hadn't heard of the arrival of the Roug force? "Why do you ask?"

The man ignored her last. "Where could I find them?" He asked, an eagerness in his voice which was not there before.

"Well," began the young lieutenant carefully. "Right now you'll find them scattered about the town." She gave a slight smile. "The troop will no doubt be reporting back to the inn today however. Is there something that I can help you with Sir?"

She drew herself up into the pose she had seen the seasoned troops manage while on circuit. The outwardly sober and reliable demeanor wasn't so far from her usual style of address in any case. She was practiced now in the skill of attending to the needs of the people they served though their circuit training had been only a brief excursion from the Academy - at the time that Fathom and Athena had died in fact. She still felt a mental relief that Electra had been off-Academy when that tragedy had struck. In truth they could not have answered for the impact of the disaster and the grief that rocked the Academy on Electra's unstable talent. Such an outpour of emotion might indeed have been disastrous in itself. That recollection struck at another niggling concern in Rhia's mind... but she put it aside from her to deal with her official duties and gave the amber eyed man her full attention.

Starheel, who had been busy studying the man, pricked his ears suddenly. {{Angeli calls. I'm afraid we need to go...}} He bowed his head to Electra and Rhia, {{Luck and Light.}} He acknowledged Val with a flick of his horn in the stablehand's direction, then with one last puzzled look at the dark haired man, turned and trotted out the main entrance.

The stranger looked visibly relieved.

Electra watched the 'corn go and snorted slightly. {{Luck and Light.}} She sent back with one ear back and one forward. Rhia nodded in Starheel's direction but the departure seemed to have distracted the man from her questioning. It didn't help when behind them some sudden splashing announced the reemergence of the drunkard from the trough of water.

He had no idea how long he stayed under. The water seemed to muffle him from the outside world, and even the Ghost's incessant droning seemed dampened by the effects. It was a familiar feeling, and one of the few that even came close to being peaceful for him.

It was the burning sensation in lungs starved for breath, that finally intruded - to remind him of the harsh reality that was his life. And not for the first time, he considered ignoring it. Taking a lungful of water, rather then air.

But as always, he could not find the courage or strength in himself to perform even that one simple action, and he eventually pulled his head from the water, and took in a gasping breath of the cursed air that sustained his existence.

With a gasp of air, Valtris finally pulled his head from the trough, sending an arcing shower of water out behind him.

<<Well let's hope it clears his head,>> sent Electra turning her own fine-boned head in Valtris' direction.

"Light." Val swore quietly, a strange sense of sadness and futility in that one small word.

He continued to lean on the trough though, drinking water from a cupped hand, ignoring the bits of straw and other materials that seemed to float on the surface.

Electra's eyes focused on the man in an odd way. She heard the sadness and expected to sense it. But the wave of emotion just didn't come. It was like she was reaching for something in a dream and finding it dissipate as she came near. The result was frustration and... loss. This man was truly unsettling to be around.

"Are you alright Valtris?" Rhia asked him. Steady and unemotional though she generally was herself, even she sensed something of the futility the man was feeling. She felt an unwarranted surge of mild annoyance with the other man - the stranger who had in all probability been drinking with Valtris the previous night. Why did they encourage each other to their mutual detriment? She had seen it a dozen times. One drinker laughingly encouraging another - making a mockery out of their joint descent. And look where it ended -
sleeping in the straw in unwashed clothes. It just didn't make sense to the practical young woman. Where was the future to such an existence? Where even the present? Because it seemed that a drinker passed most of the present in some sort of haze... Why would anyone want to live that way?

Valtris didn't look up immediately, instead continuing to drink slowly from a single cupped hand.

Electra, sharing the curve of her Bonded's thoughts sent a wave of her own personal discomfort. The interlocked mental support made every trouble lessen. There was such reassurance in the Bond. It answered every need. Something in the way Valtris was reminded her of her loneliness of soul before joining with Rhia. And it was not something she wished to remember. She turned her flame eyes away from him at last.

With a quiet sigh, Val finally seemed to be done drinking, and looked up to find Rhia still looking at him.

"Light, I hope not." He said, finally, recalling her question. He wiped a few stray drops of water from his face with a long strangely delicate hand, then slowly got to his feet. A slow, deliberate motion that made one feel exhausted just watching him do it.

Rhia looked again at the stranger. Now that she thought about it there was something vaguely familiar about him. Something about the eyes...

"Were you out together last night?" she asked, aiming the question at both men.

Val squinted through tired blue eyes gone red, at the stranger - trying to recall events clouded by an evening's overconsumption. The man did not bring back any of them. Though they rarely did. Last night had been a bad one.

Damn cheap ale, he thought with disgust.

He wondered judiciously if he had any left. A moment later his eyes turned from the stranger and started to scan the area for leftovers.

The stranger's eyes had searched Valtris' briefly as well, a hint of disgust in his gaze. "No, I don't believe so, madame." His tone was confident now, almost as if he had forgotten to be nervous for a moment. He shook his head, his amber eyes once more taking on a frightened doeish quality. "Again I... I'm sorry to intrude. I am just looking for someone... someone I used to know."

Rhia followed the man's eyes to the disreputable looking stablehand. She frowned to herself. For better or ill Valtris was associated with this Roug Troop and his behavior could not continue to bring disgrace upon them or be allowed to breed the kind of contempt she saw on this stranger's face. Valtris must be brought in hand - for the sake of the troop and of the mission. She began to see what a difficult task Amaris had set to herself and Rowan.

She shot a slightly repressive look at the strange man, making clear that he must disguise his disgust of her associate and remarked. "For someone you used to know?" Her features took on a politer cast. It often happened that Roug Circuit Troops, well traveled as they were, were counted on as country-wide information sources. It had happened before when arriving in other towns that the folk there would hear of where they had been to last and require of them the news of the realm or of the towns they had ridden through. In all likelihood she would not be able to help the man with information he was looking for but the least she could do was to listen readily to him and offer what advice she could.

The man blinked his amber eyes. There was an uneasiness there. "Thank you... if you will excuse me I will see if I can locate the one I seek."

Without so much as another word, the dark man turned and was gone.

Rhia followed the man with her eyes. They had no cause to detain him but she decided that she would mention the incident to her superiors in any case.

Electra shared with her the sense of unease she picked up from the man but nudged Rhia's thoughts back to Valtris who was moving behind them. She herself moved away a little and took a look out of the stable door to see if she could mark the direction the stranger had gone in.

"Maybe it was something you said." The voice of Valtris suddenly interrupted. It was followed by a brief fit of coughing. "Ah..." He commented quietly, between gasps for breath. "Gotta love the country air."

Rhia pivoted on one heel and considered the man. Her uncertainty of the most productive way to proceed kept her silent for a moment and she could not help but be distracted from her task by the terrible physical state of the man she had come to chastise. He really needed some sort of help - not a lecture. But she didn't think that they had that sort of time to spare. She wondered if anyone else at the Academy had ever tried to help him before. Rowan was the student Councellor - who had had the job before she took it? She should
have checked all of this out more thoroughly before leaving the Academy.

Being Rhia she didn't berate herself for not doing so - merely made a mental note of her failing and resolved to do better in future.

Val was standing a short ways back along the stable, near the stall that held the General's horse, leaning heavily on the gate. He looked, and felt, exhausted. He had no idea who the stranger had been, or what he had been about, and he was reasonably certain he couldn't have cared less.

The Lieutenant on the other hand, he thought resignedly, was probably here for a reason. Certainly for more then playing nursemaid to his hangover.

"So... we finally departing this hole?" He ventured, slowly. Considering how critical and important everyone was claiming their mission to Zadiago to be, they certainly were wasting alot of time going about it. Especially here, on a task better suited to a single Circuit Roug.

Not that he was all that eager to go meet the Demon Queen, he reminded himself. But he much preferred getting it over with early, then sitting around drawing the agony out.

Damn Amaris anyway, he thought wearily.

In the back of his head, the Ghost mumbled a silent acknowledgement. <Damn you too.> He added.

<<Disgusting to let himself grow so unkempt,>> remarked Electra inside Rhia's head. Her own white coat gleamed from the steady care of her Bonded and she could afford to be complacent.

<He's like a man that just doesn't care,> replied Rhia. <What is there we can work with in him?>

Electra breathed heavily out sending puffs of vapour to cloud about her nostrils. <<I don't know... his mind is like a closed room.>>

Rhia could pick up the distaste that Electra had for that fact - that she couldn't pick up any of Valtris' intent. It left her off-step and that was something the unicorn had no taste for.

"Yes the troop will be leaving," she replied to the Valtris' question. "Probably tomorrow or the next day if we can get a grip on the case soon enough."

She stood before him, clad in the standard garb of an Uen Roug Lieutenant; white leather riding breeches and black jerkin with a neatly laced shirt beneath, black boots only a little dusty. Across her shoulder her healers kit and her fair hair held back in a single braid down her back. Her features were plain and unstriking, her nails cut straight and short. An ordinary looking woman doing the job she had trained for since her youth. Her manner was down-to-earth and unpretentious and there was nothing about her that was not functional, practical or orderly.

Valtris, on the other hand, was wearing the same clothes he had on the day they'd left the Academy. Simple dark brown leather breeches, well worn, with a long stain running down the left side and a small hole forming just above the right knee. He only had one boot on - the left - and there was no sign of the other, nor did he seem overly perturbed by its absence. His shirt, a simple sturdy workman's style, had probably been light blue once, but it had faded considerably and was marred by many stains, some obviously old. Many obviously quite new, and perhaps better not to wonder at the nature of. The recent dunking in the water trough had not done any of it much good. Bits of straw and grain clung to the wet surface stubbornly, leaving a long golden track from his left foot, up his front, to his neck, with some still clinging doggedly to his hair. So far he had made no attempts to brush himself off, or even make like he was concerned about it, one way or the other. Despite it all, however, there was a certain aristocratic curve to his features, a line
to his jaw, that seemed wholey out of place in their current trappings. Then again everything about him seemed out of place.

The contrast between the two humans was very marked.

She studied the man for another moment, her frank blue eyes considering and then said "Do you still intend to travel with us?"

A harsh discordant bark of laughter erupted from the man, quickly dissolving into another fit of coughing. "What?" He said after a moment, a slight hint of sarcasm evident. "After Amaris asked so nice?"

"Commander Amaris," corrected Rhia automatically, with a frown.

Val seemed unconcerned by the rebuke, glancing at the General's horse then back at Rhia again, doing his best not to look in Electra's direction at all. The unicorn's presence was making him increasingly nervous and he just wished she'd stop staring at him.

"So you got a job, Lieutenant?" He said brusquely, pushing himself away from the stall door. He hadn't quite figured out why Rhia was here, but he assumed she wanted him to do something. He didn't get social calls. The quicker he learned what it was, the quicker he could get away from here.

He moved passed the woman again, staying as far from the unicorn as the walls would allow him to go, and started to rummage around one of his packs, hanging nearby.

She ignored his question as the man bent over his pack, her frown deepening. "Could you leave that for a moment while I speak with you Valtris."

It wasn't really a question and a precise measure of authority rang in her tone. She waited for him to comply without any evident uncertainty that he would. She held her gaze on his face until his eyes would rise to meet hers.

Electra swung her head round from the stable door to fix her eyes upon him likewise, in unspoken support for her Bonded. Her slender horn glinted with a pale blue glow from the shaft of light through the stable door and reflected in the intelligent equine eyes beneath. Her left flank shuddered slightly as if a fly had landed upon it.

Val however, ignored Rhia's request, continuing to search through the pack, giving her and the unicorn only a hunched over back to gaze upon.

"Air's free, lady." He said absently in response. "Waste it if you want."

He rummaged a moment longer, before pulling a small bundle of brown cloth from the pack. Only then did he turn back towards her again, his eyes raising only briefly to look Rhia's way, before returning to the fabric in his hands.

"Though do try to be quiet about it." He added with a faint wince. There were still lingering traces from whatever the Ghost had done to him earlier, and his head was little more then a relentless painful throbbing somewhere above his shoulders.

Light but he hoped the Ghost didn't make a habit of that.

He raised the bundle to his face and sniffed it briefly, before unfolding it to reveal a simple, if extremely wrinkled, rough cotton shirt. He glanced down at the shirt he wore, as if comparing the two, then tossed the cleaner one casually over a nearby stall gate.

Rhia stared at the man as he ignored her pretty thoroughly. His eyes had slid over hers as if her fixed gaze had no power to hold his attention. His words, though aimed her way, did not carry any force of connect. It was as though he didn't really care if they made their way to her or not. She felt Electra's annoyance and knew that he had given an offense to her Bonded now, on her behalf, that Electra would not be likely to forget.

As he brought out his shirt and inspected it, his manner yet again like a man on his own and without company about him, she recognised his intent to change his garb. On one level she applauded it - he certainly needed a good wash and brush up. It might make him feel a whole lot better too. Perhaps if the Academy had issued him with a uniform he might have taken a bit more pride in his appearance, she thought to herself, smoothing down her own tunic with careful fingers.

Valtris saw Rhia's look, as she brushed a few errent lines out of her own uniform, and he smiled, almost mockingly. But any true fire in the gesture seemed missing. As if he made it out of habit, rather then any true feelings.

With a faint exhalation of breath, he pulled his shirt up over his head. His left shoulder, where the flail had struck it two days before, had stiffened up considerably over the night, and he was forced to pause briefly, with it half off over his head, as pain lanced up from it, and his head began to swim, disoriented. He leaned against the stall for support.

"Always found the damned cadet garb pinched in all the wrong places." He said, his voice slightly muffled by the cloth.

He waited for the world to slow down a bit, leaving Rhia only a bare torso to stare at, his upper body still entangled in the shirt.

The man was mostly skin and bones. There was still a fair amount of muscle, from a labourer's life, but it seemed fairly apparent that his liquid food intake far surpassed the solid. The healer in her at once picked a point of focus on his lean frame: His entire left side was one huge purplish black bruise, from the shoulder on down, and he seemed to favour the side slightly as he removed the shirt.

Rhia suspected his careless actions as a ploy intended to drive her out of the stables. However, she was unmoved by the thought of him removing his shirt before her. She had traveled with Nathan and with Frigah long enough not to feel any awkwardness or discomfort in such things and, if Valtris seemed not to be troubled by it, then she neither would be. He needed to hear her words and she didn't have time to waste on him.

"Valtris... the way you went on at the Academy... the drinking... and this... attitude... of yours... well it just won't do out in the field." She drew a breath, feeling about her for a way of saying this that might yield any harvest from the barren man before her.

With a final effort, Val managed to lift the shirt all the way off of his head, and inhaled a deep breath of air. He winced slightly as he did so.

"That explains the wrinkled noses." He mumbled with a humourless chuckle.

"It couldn't really do too much harm back home," Rhia continued, doggedly. "At least only to yourself. But on a mission it's another matter." She paused a moment, her face troubled only by her need to get the message across, spared by her blunt and insensitive nature from feeling anxiety on his account at hearing the words.

Electra too watched him. With her empathic talent, she was used to the sensations of anxiety, insecurity, shame and fear of failure coming from others in waves of crippling emotion. She found herself watching for something of those malleable weaknesses within this man as her Bonded spoke to him. There was always something for her of fascination for the twistings of self-doubt that a person's mind could take them in. That part of her that had always sought to manipulate those around her swept a practiced eye over Valtris
now... seeking some loose strand on which she might pull.

Rhia, absorbed in her own attempts to be constructive, got her thoughts together enough to lay out her concerns plainly and went on. "For a start, a drunken rider will only slow us down. And your reactions won't be fast enough for you to be anything other than a liability to us if we hit trouble..."

She paused in mid-flow, distracted slightly by a shaft of light that let her see more clearly the bruising on his body. It needed some treatment. She had some salve in her pack that might help him. Her eyes raised from the bruising, attracted by something else that glinted in the light against his chest.

Standing out starkly against the discoloured skin, was something that seemed as out of place on Val, as he seemed amongst Roug. An intricate silver chain hung around his neck, supporting a small silver figurine of a rearing unicorn, with tiny brilliantly coloured stones for eyes and horn.

"Drunk rider?" Val replied, as if only now starting to pay attention to the words Rhia spoke. "A drunk horse, now maybe..." He tried to laugh, but it came out as a dry cough. He reached for the second shirt while he recovered his breath, tossing the first one absently on the floor.

This was all he needed. Another darkness cursed lecture. Jenna had given him enough of them for one lifetime. Even Amaris had tried to get in on the fun. And not a single one of them had any idea what it was they were asking him to do. Certainly not this homely young woman.

Bloody Roug. He thought with a resigned sigh.

"Lady, anyone on a horse is slowing down the 'corns," he replied finally, nodding towards Electra near the stable door.

Still favouring his left side, he pulled the new shirt over his head. Aesthetically, it was not much of an improvement.

"Wait a moment," Rhia said as he pulled on his shirt. "You need some salve on that bruise or you'll be too stiff to ride at all by the time we leave." She started toward him, already reaching in her pack for her salve jar.

If Val could have retreated, he would have... but his back was already pressed against the stall door, and he had nowhere to go. Instead, his eyes took on a guarded look.

"Was days ago," he explained impassively. "I'll live..." There was the vaguest of tones in those last two words, that hinted at something regretable.

Little good applying salve was going to do this late, Val figured. Fact was, he rather welcomed the pain that lingered with it. A distraction from the pain in his head, and a reminder to him to mind his own damned business.

"Guess my reactions weren't fast enough," he added, echoing her words from a moment before, but tinging them with a hint of sarcasm.

He made no immediate move to remove his recently donned shirt.

<Think we got a step forward there 'Lec?> Rhia sent.

<<Perhaps,>> sent back the mare. <<But don't hold out too many hopes for him.>>

Nevertheless encouraged, Rhia smiled slightly, inviting herself in on a joke that perhaps was not open to sharing. "Here," She said in a tone that was more on a level than it had previously been. She handed the green jar over to him saying. "You should give the bruising a coat of this morning and night for the next few days... and keep moving around too so you don't stiffen up. Of course you should have reported it when it happened..." She trailed off and then added carefully, "You're part of this troop Valtris. We take care of
our own - if you'll let us. And you have a responsibility to take care of yourself too - if not for yourself then for the team you are working with."

Val almost laughed at her, but the irony of those comments washed over him, and he merely stood there, impassively, staring back at her with lifeless eyes.

Team? He was as much a part of their team as... as the Demon Queen. He didn't like thinking that, but it was somewhat apt, if horribly overstated. They didn't like him, and certainly didn't trust him. And now they found themselves forced to deal with his presence. The only difference was that the Demon Queen reciprocated those feelings. Val just didn't care.

His only reason for being here was because Starlight had pressured Amaris into it. And only those two had any idea why. It certainly wasn't to be considered part of any team - To darkness with prophesies and visions.

The pause was beginning to get uncomfortably long, before Val finally reached out towards the jar held in Rhia's proffered hand.

"We done?" He said, his face not registering whether he'd listened to her comments or not.

Rhia had watched his face until even she had perceived the growing awkwardness of the silence. The jar dropped from her hand into his and she found herself struck suddenly by the inexplicable feeling that this was a very meagre offering compared to... compared to... Her uncomplicated mind clouded, unable to complete the connection. Compared to what?

Her mind couldn't make the leap - but Electra sensed the wisp of puzzled feeling moving in her Bonded and followed it through its eventual process of thought.

Compared to how much help he really needed.

As soon as the mare recognized this conclusion she banked it down inside her own mind. The last thing she wanted was for Rhia to realize the same thing. Then she might feel she ought to do something about it. And Electra had the strong feeling that any effort given to this man would be like pouring it down into a bottomless drain. It was not something she wanted Rhia to get involved it by any means...

A qualm of guilt wriggled inside the white 'corn's conscience. It was not the way of the Uen Roug to ignore need - most particularly among their own. But she quickly moved her thoughts on from this, justifying herself by the remembrance that no one could ever help Valtris anyway unless he should choose to help himself. Besides - it certainly didn't look like he wanted anyone's help anyway!

The final recollection that there were superiors at the Academy - some of them mind-healers too - that had elected to leave this man in his misery, drove out the last vestiges of responsibility, that she and Rhia might owe the man, from her fine-boned head.

She subtlety reinforced the mental decision Rhia was coming to - to leave her discussion with Val to rest - and the fair-haired woman finally replied "Yes Valtris - We're done. Give some thought to what I said... and if you ever do need to talk... please don't be afraid to come to me or to Rowan.."

She paused, as if about to say more but Electra gave her mind an impatient little nudge. <<Talking of Rowan - won't she be looking for us by this time?>>

Electra knew her Bonded well. At once Rhia collected herself, her mind moving away from the man before her and focusing back on her list of duties still undone. <You're right 'Lec. We've done all we can here I think.>

The flicking of eye contact between the two indicated clearly that private mind-speech was taking place. Rhia almost certainly didn't note how rude that might appear to Valtris.

Electra almost certainly did.

Val for once, was not quite up to appreciating such subtle lapses in courtesy. He almost felt relief that the interrogation was over, but such small passions were quickly overwhelmed by a strange all-encompassing fatigue.

He quickly turned away from the woman before him, and moved towards the back of the stable.

He'd promised Firestepper some food and realized he had best do it now, while he could still recall it and go about the motions.

Neither Rhia nor Electra could understand the life he led, because neither of them knew the driving forces behind it. And if they had asked the one man who did... He would have professed to it not being a life at all - merely an excessively prolonged existence.

When Rhia turned back to bid good day to Valtris he had already turned away. With Electra’s mental urging filling her mind, she half shrugged and followed the mare away from the stables and the man within.