24 - Dictated - Rogue

[radiantwingedone]

[ Duke is bored - and moderately pleased that he hadn't eaten any of the mysterious food, from checking the journal. Avoiding people on holidays - or maybe just avoiding the new things about the holidays - seems to be a good plan here. ]

A question born of curiosity; what do you all consider an act of betrayal?

[ His voice is carefully neutral - well, perhaps a bit flat. This is perhaps a bit tricky of a subject to get a long conversation on from him. ]

Suppose the follow up question would be 'what is an appropriate reaction to being betrayed'?

[ He'll do his best not to be biased at any responses. ]

Comments

[peacockherald]

_{[ Vanyel frowned at that wording, but decided not to press it, not right now. Later. ]}

So, you live there then. Did you have others with you?

[radiantwingedone]

... My friend brought me here. Said he liked the taste of the spring better than the others we'd tended.

[ So maybe less that it was where he lived, but the one he liked most. And on that train- ]

I haven't had a .. singular location to stay for... a decade, prior to here. [ He traveled a lot.

Of course, "a decade", is also how long he describes his tendency to avoid people being around for... ]

[peacockherald]

So you travel a lot. But surely you do not travel alone?

_{[He shifted his seat, coming a bit closer to Duke, but not much. This was a slow process. ]}

[radiantwingedone]

[ Carefully inch close to the Duke, if you move too fast you might spook him!

.. accurate. ]

... Most of the time, alone. Or loosely with whatever was living in the region.

[ By that, he means the monsters of his world. ]

Khroma was busy, keeping eyes and ears on....

[ Bitter grimace. ]

[peacockherald]

On what, Duke?

_{[He frowned at his friend, sitting with his legs crossed now, like his teachers had taught him his long hours of study with the Tayledras.]}

[radiantwingedone]

... A...

What do you call someone you liked, who was not quite a friend, who you later wanted to kill?

[ Acquaintance doesn't work anymore, friend he would never use in the same sentence as the man's name-

Duke tucks his face into his not-quite-crossed arms. ]

Had helped him, worked together, when we were younger. Then... events, and fell out of contact... and found he was doing.. stupid things with no ear to reason and straight on the path to destroy the world. Khroma was keeping an eye on him so would know when he started to move so could stop him.

[peacockherald]

<sub>[ That explanation startles Vanyel and makes his stomach turn. It made him think of a blonde boy with bright eyes and a smile, with a sweet kiss and a laugh he yearned to hear every day, the music of his soul. A boy who had done terrible things in his grief, who had tore out a part of Vanyel's soul.

But he kept that back, because relaying it now would only not help things.]</sub>

I think you would still call him a friend, only... estranged. Lost.

[radiantwingedone]

[ Duke shakes his head somewhat.. violently, at least, for a motion from Duke. ]

He was not a friend. [ There's some hurt to that, and his hands are curling into tight fists. ]

We were not so close as my friend and I were, even before...

[ Is there a scrap of rock or something he can knock away to use some of the angry energy? One bootheel scrapes to find one. ]

Before he started mad grabs for power.

[ Duke clearly has too many males that he knows and doesn't want to name. It gets a little confusing. ]

[peacockherald]

_{[ Vanyel sighed, not sure what to say. He had lost, but not in this way. Though, slowly, his group of friends had begun to dwindle back home. ]}

What did you do then? When he began these grabs?

[radiantwingedone]

... I avoided him. And people.

[ He's still got his face up against his arms, so maybe its a mumble. ]

I had stolen something he would need, if he continued the way he was. I stayed away, he couldn't get to something he didn't understand. He found a way around it by killing Entelexeia and using their remains to control a Child.

[ Its a title, but the Child of the Full Moon had been little more than a child in age as well. But its a slower anger, the kind he's trying to bury because its over with. ]

[peacockherald]

_{[ He frowns, listening, not understanding any of it but grasping that Duke was both hurt by this, saddened, and angry. He could not blame him though. It certainly sounded like a reason to ask about betrayal. ]}

You did what you could, then. And if he did what you say... then the man who had been known to you was long dead.

[radiantwingedone]

Mmn.

[ True enough. The actions didn't really match up well at all with the Alexei he'd known.

Although hearing this doesn't seem to be much help to his current mood. Seems there's another reason for his betrayal questions. ]

[peacockherald]

_{[ He watches, reading the body language, giving Duke a moment to absorb his words and collect his thoughts. ]}

What happened then, Duke? I still don't understand why you asked about betrayal...

[radiantwingedone]

... Mixed in with... Alexei.

[ Distaste on that name. ]

At least.. possibly...

[ A rare, frustrated use of his hands- he runs both back through his bangs and stops with his fingers snared roughly at the back of his head - if his eyes worked, his elbows would be like blinders on a horse. ]

Cooperated with him during the war; protecting humans, me and my friend, and the knights, which... he lead. [ Meaning that his most important friend wasn't the crazy one- ]

It was against his own people, but he helped because he liked humans and what he called their promise and... Humanity wouldn't have survived if he didn't help.

[ His hands are slowly closing into fists again. ]

[peacockherald]

_{[ It was hard to follow this story, his brow scrunching as he tried to make sense of names and the odd way Duke was speaking. ]}

So, did your friend Alexei betray you then? Is he the one?

[radiantwingedone]

.... Alexei did, perhaps indirectly.

[ Duke needs to work on his speech patterns, particularly when upset. ]

Elucifur was a far closer friend. He did not betray, was rather betrayed-

[ His voice twists- it isn't quite cracking but there's definitely pent up emotion even now. ]

We wouldn't have won if he had not aided. What part of that makes sense to kill him while we were resting?

[ On the way to resting attacked, again while they thought they had hidden. He'd been too late to return to-

Duke can't draw himself tighter into a ball but he tries for a moment. ]

[peacockherald]

_{[ HIs brows scrunched, again trying to wade through the odd speech and make sense of it. ]}

He was assassinated? Alexei assassinated this Elucifur?

[radiantwingedone]

... I don't know.

[ Its pained. There's some closure in getting the people who killed your most important person, but... ]

I don't know if he was behind it, or if he later discovered the uses for the remains of an Entelexeia. I don't know who on the council of nobles, if it was the old emperor's will, if it was just the knights who attacked us that thought he should die. I didn't know-

[ A big part of it, perhaps. Duke feels he ought to have known, as he was a noble, that nobles might decide to do this. ]

[peacockherald]

<sub>[ Vanyel scrunched his brows, trying to decide what the other was speaking about. It was hard to piece it together, to follow what he was saying about people he had never met or heard of and filter out the obvious pain in the other. Being an Empath had its draw backs...

But he could use it to heal too, and he sent out calm, as best he could. ]</sub>

If you didn't know, you cannot feel guilty for what happened, Duke.

[radiantwingedone]

[ This is a twitch and silence. The calm seems to be working - or maybe Duke just got hit in the feels. ]

Still should have known. He was not very good at knowing humans...

[peacockherald]

Sometimes, we are blinded, because we care for someone. We don't want to think the worst of them, and so when it comes we cannot accept it.

[radiantwingedone]

[ ... probably- ]

It... is a confusing, snarled mess.

[ It would have been simpler if Elucifur hadn't asked him not to go and take out anger on the empire, because then the people who were probably behind it would be dead, and Duke could feel better. ]

[peacockherald]

Unfortunately, things like this usually are, especially when we are close to people.

_{[ He tried to release more of that calm with his Empathy, trying to understand Duke feelings with the reverse. ]}

[radiantwingedone]

.... Which is why shouldn't get close to people, so I don't...

[ What's a good word for it. ]

... get snarled up and lost and do stupid things.

[peacockherald]

And yet, if you do that Duke, you miss out on so much. One mistake does not mean you must punish yourself forever. If anything, it makes it so you cannot make up for the mistakes of your past, and only serves to carve your wounds deeper.