Everheart: Chapter 4

In the cabin, by the spring, near the cliff, the two figures stood on opposite sides of the large wooden table.  The card with the image of the green and gold coat that sat under the card with the image of a sapphire trembled, and flipped over on its own.  The amalj'aa clad in shining steel growled and slammed his fist upon the table, sending a shock wave through the wood so powerful that the neatly stacked deck of as-yet unused cards tumbled over.

"Weakling!" he roared.  "He didn't even wound her!"

The porcelain skinned elezen raised her hand in a calming gesture, her long dress flowing with a non-existent breeze in the tiny and cramped cabin.

"Be at ease." her voice gently echoed.  "The game is not yet lost.  Perhaps we targeted the wrong one."

She waved her hand across the table, and the deck re-stacked itself.  The elezen offered a gentle smile to her companion, her eyes gleaming with patience.

"Sapphine has the greater experience, as well as the Ishgardian relic to bolster her power.  Emera lacks both, and there is also the Soldier." The lady suggested.

The warrior's posture relaxed at the suggestion, and his harsh features twisted into a vicious smile.  

"The Soldier is angry and humiliated." the warrior stated.  "His blood burns for retribution, but he may still not be enough to kill Sapphine."

"Emera is the weaker of the two, and we need only to kill her to shatter their union."

"You may have the honors." the warrior offered with a gesture toward the cards.  "But this time,  empower him more."  

The lady drew a card from the deck with the image of a bone-carved spear upon it, and placed it under the card with the emerald.  She held her palm over the card as aether swirled around her hand, and poured into the picture of the spear.  The lady and the warrior met each other's gaze, and nodded.

"Our will, be done."

A thundering hum, a sensation of flying and falling, and the endless black of nothing slowly gave way to a world of shape and color that spun about.  Aether coalesced on the wide wooden deck that surrounded the large, spinning tower of crystal, followed by a second manifesting form.  Ginal waited for the disorientation to fade, but as she stumbled forward, was caught by Selah's arms.

"Easy, Kitten."  The hyur smiled at her beloved, "You really are sensitive to aethernet effects, aren't you?"

Ginal frowned as she steadied herself, and blinked at a curious sensation, finally realizing that is was raining in Gridania.  She smiled wide, stretching her arms out as she spun about and down the ramp, under the dark clouds.  Selah laughed as she joined the miqo'te on the grassy ground.

"You are adorable."

A mischievous grin formed on Ginal's face, as she noticed they were both standing at the edge of the pool that the aetheryte deck was built over.  She quickly waded into the shallows, and threw her arms forward into the water to throw a small wave onto her lover.  Selah was already wet from the warm rain, but now she was soaked from the cold pool, and glared at the cackling Ginal as her entire body tensed up.

"I know I am!" the miqo'te finally replied.

"You're...going to...get it..." Selah threatened.

"Gotta catch me, first!"

Running proved more difficult than Ginal had thought, as her soaked long skirt clung to her legs awkwardly.  She tripped over herself, and was saved from hitting the ground by her lover's graceful catch, once again.  Selah pulled the miqo'te back to her feet, and firmly swatted her behind.

"Naughty and careless, Kitten!"  The hyur grinned and kissed her fiancee.  "We should get inside and dry off."

Ginal giggled and led Selah by the hand, down the muddy path to the Carline Canopy.

They stood under the awning at the entry, laughing at themselves as they drip-dried for a moment.  The long hall of the tavern was filled to near capacity with patrons seeking shelter from the downpour's increasing intensity.  The sounds of conversation, clanging mugs and the singing bard at the far end of the hall were nearly raucous, and the lovers smiled happily as they took it all in, realizing how much they had missed being here regularly.

A beaming smile greeted them from the back-left corner of the tavern, as Mother Miounne waved at them from behind her counter.  As the two approached, they also saw Guildmaster Ywain, meeting them with his slight, quiet smile that was reserved for those he favored above all others.  Miounne eagerly steppped around the bar to meet them, hugging Selah, then Ginal as a mother would.

"Oh, my dear girls!  I've missed you both terribly!"

Ywain followed suit, offering an affectionate embrace of his own to his two former students.

"As have I.  I haven't seen you two since that tournament a while back."

"I'm sorry we haven't made more time to visit sooner." Ginal stated.

"But life has been speeding along like a ride on an airship.  We keep getting caught up in the moments." Selah explained.

Miounne and Ywain nodded their understanding.

"Considering the whispers floating through my doors," Miounne began, "I'd say that's understandable. Oh, but by Nophica, you two are soaked!  Come now, into my office!"

Ywain leaned against a tall, somewhat disorganized bookshelf, as Selah and Ginal fell onto a large and thickly cushioned sofa, wrapped in towels.  Miounne poured a small glass of whiskey that she handed to Selah, and a mug of a nearly black beer for Ginal.  She circled her small desk and relaxed in her tall chair, smiling at the two adventurers.

"So, how have my girls been?"

Ginal purred as she swallowed a gulp of the hoppy beer, and leaned over to rest her head on Selah's shoulder as the hyur slowly smelled and sipped at her spirit.  A bright smile formed on the miqo'te's face as her ears sprang up at the question.  She bit her lip to subdue her sudden burst of joy, but sprang from her seat with a jubilant mewl.

"We're engaged!" Ginal exclaimed.

Miounne clasped her hands as she looked upon the lovers with joyful eyes.  "My dear, wonderful girls..."

Ywain looked to the proprietress with somewhat smug grin.  "I told you so."

The elezen leaned back in her chair and met Ywain's grin.  "Yes, you did."

"Look at you two," the Guildmaster began, pushing himself from his lean.  "When I first met the both of you, you were broken, wandering aimlessly, with only a shred of courage and a vague dream.  And now..."

Ywain sat himself on the edge of Miounne's desk as his ever perceptive eyes took in the couple before him.  Selah could see a silent joy there, just beneath the surface, as well as something else...

Pride?

Ginal sank back onto the sofa, taken aback at the sight of the joyful tears in her otherwise stoic mentor's eyes.

"Not only have you two done everything that only the best of my students have managed," Ywain resumed.  "You've accomplished the impossible.  You've brought poacher lords to justice, slain primals and legendary monsters.  You've brought a new found respect for the lancers to regions outside Gridania, and you've made the Ixali very hesitant to raid our territory for some time."

He paused for another moment, looking behind to the proprietress who bade him to continue with a gentle smile and a nod.  Both of the lovers felt in awe as they watched this ever taciturn embodiment of Grindania strength speak with tears in his eyes and a rasp in his voice.  The display and vulnerability made him seem like a different person entirely.

"And more than that, you've conquered yourselves, something that almost nobody in this world can truly claim.  All done while trusting in each other, and the love that bonds you, and never turning to run from the undeniable terror that is to let yourself be truly naked before another person.  You have, truly, made me so proud."

"I feel the same." Miounne stated.  "You have both made us so very proud to be able to say that we have ever aided you in your journey."

Neither Selah, nor Ginal could help but feel touch by the words of their mentors.  Their hands entwined as they shared a smile, and they took a short moment to bask in the love and pride that was filling the room.  The miqo'te again rose from her seat, and quickly threw her arms around her former trainer.

"And I'm so grateful for everything you ever did for me.  The ways you pushed and directed me to find my courage.  How you nudged Selah and I together...Thank you."

She pulled away from the embrace, smiling through her own happy tears as Selah approached to give the Guildmaster an embrace of her own.  Ywain laughed at the exchange of affection, but made no effort to fight any of it, and more hugs were exchanged when Miounne rose to join them.  After the long moment of affection was done, the lovers returned to their seats and Ywain returned to leaning against the bookshelf.

"Aside from that wonderful news, what else is happening?" Miounne inquired.

"Well..." Selah began.  "There are a few things.  Let me tell you about the worst date ever."

Ginal chuckled as she and her fiancee returned to their drinks.  They might just need them to make it through a reliving of that awful night.



By the following day, the rains had drifted to the Thanalan region.  Since The Goblet was already known for the humidity the local waterfalls brought, the warm rains only served to bring an oppressive feeling to the town.  And with the thick, dark clouds capturing all the day's light, only the chronomoters knew the true time on this dreay afternoon.

Selah and Ginal had lingered in their room all morning playing card games, along with their other favorite pass time,  but were growing restless with nowhere to go.  Ginal moved from the couch in the corner to the bed in the center of the room, and threw her arms around Selah, who was tuning her lute.

"Bored." the miqo'te simply stated.

"I know.  I am, too."  The hyur sighed as she reached behind to scratch at her lover's ear, "I was really hoping to put these new companions of ours through some training today, too."

"Downstairs?" Ginal inquired.

"Hmm, what's there to do down there?" Selah asked.  "Maybe some others to share some lunch with?"

"You can play us some of your songs." the miqo'te suggested as she nuzzled her fiancee.

The hyur chuckled at the idea.  "You think they'll like my silly little limericks?"

Ginal moved to the armoire to fetch one of her favored skirts and matching tops, and brought Selah one of her own low-cut shirts and form fitting shorts.

"I guess this means you don't want me showing off my undies to everyone?" The hyur asked with a smirk.

The miqo'te grinned playfully as she dressed.  "Just for me, my love."

A short stroll through the manor's halls and down a flight of stairs, and the two stepped into the cavernous basement.  The wide open area was designated as the company's all-inclusive lounge, kitchen and bar, and was furnished with all the things that the mercenary company's employer Elysande believed her hard working misfits needed to blow off steam.

Selah smirked as she glanced at the circular dancing stage in the center of the space.  Her beloved had suggested that the two of them should take to the stage some time to work out a provocative routine.  While it was meant mostly in jest, the hyur found the idea has a certain appeal.  Selah was thinking about it.

"Lookie here, if it isn't the Emerald Lancer." remarked a miqo'te woman sitting at the bar in the corner of the room.

The snide tone of her words wasn't missed, nor was the sharp swishing of her purple-furred lions tail.  Her long hair of the same color fell messily in her face as she shot back the remainder of a glass of golden liquid, and she growled in frustration as a drop fell off her chin and onto the thick hide armor her form was hidden under.

"What's Miku's deal?" Ginal asked of the dark-haired elezen man sitting next to her.

He shrugged dismissively, his turquoise eyes glancing from Miku to Ginal.  The sconce light that reflected off his pale tabard-robe cast an almost other worldly glow around his figure. 

"Ah, she's just pissy because she and Astania were fighting earlier." He cracked.

"Shut your mouth, Kraio!" The woman warrior demanded.  

Kraio simply raised his hands in defeat, and turned back to his mug.  Another sharp flick of her tail put her agitation on display.   Selah frowned as she looked at the the lute in her hand.  She exchanged a glance with her beloved, both knowing that the situation was already on the edge of getting out of hand.  

"Come on, Miku, tell us what happened." Ginal suggested. 

She and Selah found seats near their distressed fellow, trying to display concern for the warrior's problems as obviously as possible.  Miku leaned over the bar and managed to grasp a bottle from underneath it.  She momentarily admired the clear liquid before filling her glass, and downing about half the contents in one gulp.

"Pff...Is Gridania's great champion a relationship counselor, too?"

The redhead let out a heavy sigh, shaking her head in bemusement.   The hyur offered her lover a comforting pat on the thigh, already feeling quite done with her company-mate's tantrum.  Selah was no stranger to the stress of lover's quarrels, but found Miku's hostility to be very much pushing it.

"I'm just trying to help you out by listening, Miku." Ginal explained.

"Well, listen to this..."  The warrior woman turned to the lancer and leaned close, "Fuck off!"

Selah noticed the sharp twitch of her finacee's ears, flick of her tail, and reveal of her canines.  She took Ginal's hand as she rose from her seat.  Kraio rose from his seat as well, shaking his head as he stepped away from the bar to nurse his drink away from the tension.

"Come along, Kitten."

As they began to leave their brooding friend behind, the rumble of hurried footfall echoed through the manor as a figure dashed down the stairs.  Selah recognized the spiked, green hair and matching beard of the hyur man they all knew as Six.  He looked ever the noble knight in his shining suit of steel plates layered over chain mail.  Selah was curious why he chose a number to replace whatever his real name was.

Six stopped midway down the stairs and leaned over the railing, a worried expression on his face.

"Get up here!  There's some lunatic calling for Ginal, and he's got Asti!"

Ginal and Selah glanced at each other, then hurried up the stairs with their other friends trailing behind them.  They stepped onto the lawn of their manor, where the gentle but steady rain was continuing to fall.  Ginal gasped in shock as she took in the sight before her.

On the paved road running before the manor stood an elezen man with short-cut blonde hair, clad in the forest green leathers of the Wood Wailers.  Robimont glared at Ginal with unnaturally glowing eyes, and he wasn't alone.

Kneeling just before the rage-filled soldier was a miqo'te woman, her long hair of orange and yellow looking like a mane of fire to match her red eyes.  Her purple tunic and pants were muddied and torn, and her left eye was swollen shut, her hands bound behind her back.

"Oh Gods, what have you done to Astania?!" Ginal demanded.

"I saw the patch on her sleeve was that of the free company I heard you joined up with," the Wailer explained.  "She didn't tell me how to find you quickly enough, so I gave her some incentive.

Kraio struggled to restrain a screaming and writhing Miku as Robimont's lips curled into a sadistic grin.

"Do I have your attention, freak?"

Ginal's ears twitched at the insult, "In all the wrong ways, I promise you."

"I can't believe I let you humiliate me like that." the Wailer spoke through clenched teeth.  "You.  Some weakling freak."



Selah dropped her gaze to their half-conscious friend on the ground, then followed Robimont's gaze and realized that the man barely saw anything aside from Ginal.  She gave Ginal's hand an encouraging squeeze, then slowly backed away, into the mercenary company's manor.

She hurried through the foyer and its adjoining hall, and into their chambers.  Ginal's steel-forged lance was the first weapon within reach against the wall, and the hyur hurried to the window that overlooked the neighborhood behind the manor.  Opening it as far as it would go, she threw the weapon to the ground and crawled through herself.



Robimont gripped his bone-carved spear anxiously, the tip of its blade resting at Astania's neck.  Ginal didn't dare move, nor did any other of her company companions.  Miku had ceased struggling against Kraio, and was clearly now very sober as she looked upon her lover remorsefully.

You're going to pay for this , Robi.

Ginal's fists were clenched as tight as possible.  She would do what she had to, to stop this man.  Even if it meant killing him.

"Do your new friends here accept you as you have come to accept yourself?" the Wailer inquired.

"Don't drag them into this!" the lancer demanded.  "This is between us!"

Robimont laughed sharply at the answer, grinning wide as he surveyed the group behind Ginal.  For a moment, the glow in his eyes seemed to intensify, and that glow was beginning to truly bother Ginal.

"They don't know, do they?"

"Robi, don't do this..."

"I wonder how they would feel, to know..."

"It's not their business!"

"That they serve alongside something like you."

Ginal's tail whipped sharply as she trembled, "Just let Astania go!"

"A false woman.  A man in disguise." Robimont spat his venomous words.  "A filthy, dick-packing freak."

She could feel the gaze of her company mates shift to her, and a wave of humiliation washed over her.  She wanted to run, and hide, and cry, and curl into a ball and never be seen again.

All this, just to get back at her for standing up for herself.

Selah landed on the ground before the Wailer, pulling Astania into her arms, and leaped away in a blurr.  When she landed a short way down the pavement, she released the lance from its harness on her back, and hurled it as a javelin at Ginal.  

When the weapon pierced the ground beside Ginal, the miqo'te took up the weapon and charged Robimont, a lioness' roar escaping her throat.  The Wailer lunged forward and locked spearheads with the Lancer, his features twisted in rage.

"I'll rip you apart, Gin!"

Baring her canines as her tail whipped sharply, Ginal pulled her weapon from the lock and slashed back and forth, the weapon a blur as it tore through the air near Robimont's abdomen.  She swung the blunt end of her weapon around and caught him in the side hard enough to make him stumble, but he regained himself quickly enough to deflect her following thrust with a twirl of his weapon.

Selah carried Astania over the short stone wall that bordered the company's manor, and released her into the care of a sobbing Miku.  She heard them apologize to each other, but was only half listening as she met Kraio's gaze and gestured to Astania.  Kraio silently nodded and moved to the miqo'te pair.  The hyur knew Kraio was a very skilled healer, and Astania should be fine.

She walked to the front of the gathered crowd of her company-mates, and watched as her fiancee battled this returning foe.  A hand fell gently on her shoulder, and she turned to meet Elysande's smile.

"Shouldn't you be there with her?"

Selah shook her head, "Not this time.  I saved her from defeat the last time she fought.  She needs to do this for herself, to prove to herself that she can."  She looked back at her beloved with a confident smile.  "And she can do it.  She will do it."

But if you hurt her I swear I'll kill you.

"I earned that moment in Bentbranch after what you put me through!"

The Wailer swept his lance at her feet, which she flipped away to evade, but as Ginal landed Robimont surged forward and connected the haft of his weapon to her chest.  The miqo'te tumbled to ground as her lance slid away.  He towered over and spat at her. sneering contemptuously.

"You're not a woman!  You're a freak!  Defective, and unnatural!  That I was ever defeated by you is unforgivable!"

Ginal clutched her chest as she tried to rise, but a boot to her gut put her back on the pavement, winded and gasping.



Selah clenched her fists as she stood witness, and she struggled to control her trembling.  She wanted with everything to leap to Ginal's aide, to take the blows for her, and to put this cruel and bigoted bastard in his place.

But she couldn't.

Ginal was one of the finest lancers in Gridanian history, this Selah firmly believed.  She had just been dealt too many emotional blows in her life that left her struggling with confidence in herself.  If Selah went to her fiancee's aide yet again, then Ginal may never find it in herself to stand and fight without Selah.

So the hyur stood and watched, wishing for her heart to stop thundering in her chest.  Though she was able to choke back the cries in her throat, she was unable to hold back the desperate tears in her eyes.



The miqo'te rolled to her side as the elezen's spearhead met the pavement, and though she still struggled for breath, the adrenaline in her veins helped her spring to her feet.  She rolled to avoid the lance as it was wildly swung at her, and she took her weapon back in hand.  She dropped her stance low and unleashed lioness' roar from her throat that sent a very clear message for all to hear.

Fear me.

She leaped high and brought the blunt end of her lance haft around to meet Robimont's head.  His weapon clattered onto the ground as he stumbled, and Ginal thrust her spear through his kneecap.  He fell screaming as his blood poured from the wound.  The miqo'te twirled about to deliver a mocking slap to his face with her tail, and followed through by piercing his shoulder.  She hovered over him as the life-fluid dripped from her weapon.

Never again.

"I'll say again!  I am a woman!"

Ginal swung the lance-head across his leather clad torso, slicing the thick fabric and shallowly cutting into his stomach.  She noticed the glow in his eyes was fading as he winced.

"I am beautiful as I am!  I will not be shamed ever again!"

She rubbed her boot into the wound in his shoulder.  His pained cry was almost enjoyable to her ears.

"And I'm a damned good lancer, in every way your superior, Robi!"

The miqo'te looked upon the elzen, a writhing, bleeding, moaning mess, and spat on him.

She turned on her heal and marched directly toward her beloved.  She dropped her lance, and was caught in Selah's loving embrace.  The hyur stroked her fiancee's hair gently as tears steamed down the miqo'te's cheeks.

"I know, Kitten.  But you did it.  It's okay."

"One hells of a fight." Six commented as he strode up to the lovers.

Elysande motioned for Six to follow as she approached the still-groaning Wood Wailer.

"Come on Six, let's haul this bastard to the guard station."

The male hyur nodded, and turned to the embracing couple.  "So...what's this about you having a package?"

Ginal looked up with an expression that Selah knew was very dire, but the miqo'te remained silent as she stalked away into the manor.  Selah sighed and looked to the man with furrowed brows and pursed lips.

"You're an asshole."

Selah retrieved Ginal's lance and hurried after her lover.  This day was going to need a great deal of salvaging.