"Tengri Geneq needs no introduction. Now go on. He's waiting for you. Tengri Geneq needs no introduction. If you're not of a mind to hear him out, you may take your leave if you so wish. I have been instructed to let you pass. Tengri Geneq needs no introduction."
Those words rippled across her thoughts, an echo of mere moments ago which threatened to unhinge her. Her heart raced, as though bound to break free of her chest. She swallowed, held her grimoire tight against her side, and stepped up to the corner.
She’d come to the Atheneum Astrologicium in search of a certain text. Aqua Vitae and Its Common Uses. She needed that tome, no matter how much she wished to run. A recent outbreak of disease here in Ishgard had left many bedridden in its wake, and House Sauveterre was relying upon her and her friends to deliver a cure.
She glanced back at the Elezen behind her. Pierre. This had to be Pierre. He was still smiling as though he had not a care in the world. Innocent looking fellow, for someone who’d manipulated and maneuvered her with such ease to bring her to this place, to this moment.
"Ahhh,I do so happen to know of such a text,†he’d said, â€and where a copy might be found! Alas, I believe a friend of mine borrowed it from this very establishment not two nights ago!"
She took her lower lip between her teeth and held it there as she considered her options, recalled the warnings and recommendations of her husband. Jasper chirped from his perch on her shoulder. She narrowed her eyes at Pierre, steeled herself, and turned.
Kanaria Melkire peered around the corner of the Atheneum.
The first thought that struck her was how very tall he was. Then his horns registered, and then his outlandish hair. His tail swung like a pendulum, from one side to the other, as though counting the passing seconds, minutes, bells. She couldn’t help but wonder at the contrast, couldn’t help but remember the man as she’d once known him. Old. Grey. Desperate. Spiteful. There was no trace now of the man they’d once cornered, so long ago, in one of the many alleyways which branched off from Pearl Lane. In his place stood… someone else.
He stood against the stone exterior of the structure behind him, rifling through the pages of a rather small tome. Disinterest was evident on his face, as though he were quite familiar… and quite bored... with the contents.
“Ser Tengri….â€
"Lady Melkire. Apologies for intruding upon your personal affairs.â€
She eyed the tome. Was that it…?
"I-it's quite alright." It wasn’t, but manners and etiquette demanded the bold-faced lie. "I believe th-there was a reason for that..."
The pads of her fingers, covered though they were with her gloves, curled and pushed against her grimoire.
"I guess now it can't be helped as you've something I'm in need of...."
He eyed her back. "I would not resort to crude measures if our shared history would leave me some other recourse. Alas, mistrust is difficult to overcome."
"You did this on purpose then..." Her eyes drifted from him to the book. "Is that what I am looking for, then?"
She raised her right hand, her attention back on him, and pointed at the tome he held. She kept her distance for now. He held it up and snapped it shut. The cover clearly read ’Aqua Vitae and its Common Uses’.
"It is."
Her eyes drifted back to the book. "Dare I ask what your price is Ser Tengri…?"
"A few moments of your time, a few words between us, and an answer to a question."
"You've my ears, and an answer if I have one…."
He grinned and beckoned her closer. "Would you at least step out of plain sight? I do not care for eavesdroppers. Pierre is competent but not all-powerful."
Kanaria looked to the left, over the railing that stood but a few fulms from the Atheneum’s exterior, and moved a little closer to him. Tengri raised an eyebrow at the bluebird as he pecked his way into her flaxen mane, but the Geneq said nothing. He looked back to her with a slow nod.
"You must understand that others have negotiated on your behalf. So long as your husband cooperates, I cannot and will not touch you, nor will any of my servants. So long as Korofi upholds his end of our mutual understanding, then your friends and family will also share the aegis of my good will. Are we clear?"
She eased a little and nodded. Osric had relayed to her as much, but even so trust was hard to come by. "We are clear."
"Good. Then I must ask you for the answer to but a single question. That answer is why I am here. I require complete and brutal honesty, upon which rests our best chance of ridding ourselves of a mutual source of strife, grief, and sorrow. Is this acceptable to you? Knowing that, should you choose to not answer honestly, or should you prove incapable of doing so, you might doom us all?"
She sucked in a cold breath and let it out slowly. Her lavender hues looked across the way as her left hand settled upon on the railing. "I believe I know what you are speaking of... "
"No." The response came immediately, in a flat tone of voice. "Answer the question."
She blinked at him, somewhat startled, and he smiled for her, as though to put her at ease.
“Say rather,†he went on, “answer my first question so that I can then ask you the important question."
"...I'll answer to the best of my knowledge."
He nodded again. "Jin'li Epinoch has been obsessed with you for a long time. If not since the day I sent him to you and your friends in Drybone to relay my demands, then very nearly so. Why?"
Kanaria tilted her head and her eyes widened. The heat rose in her cheeks a little.
"Heh… that's an easy answer." She turned to face the street below. "I am...'kind,' though perhaps not in the manner he claims. I love too much and ask little... I can see good in people where others cannot…."
He grunted. "Some advice for you, then. Were I in your shoes, I would listen, and listen well.â€
"Hmm?" Her lavender eyes tracked back to him as he pushed himself upright.
"It took time. It took pain. It took blood, and toil, and sweat, and more blood. He hates me all the more now for that necessity, for forcing the words out of him, but in the end, your husband told me." He looked her in the eyes as he settled the small tome into the crook of one arm.. "He told me you could not pull the trigger alone."
Her fingers curled into her palms as she tensed and looked away, averting her gaze, her guilt plain on her face.
"I could not…."
"You should know that I cannot anticipate the circumstances. I am trying... but I cannot, in truth, prepare for the worst. I can only prepare for the worst that I can expect. I cannot know to whom will fall the opportunity - a moment in time, a sliver of the Keeper's realm in which to decide. Should that chance fall to you, Lady Melkire... should Fate and Fortune choose you, I must know that you can and will pull the trigger. You must know that, if you cannot, you are a hindrance and a liability to anyone and everyone you hold dear. Should you hesitate and should you fail, you and I will lose everything."
Tengri Geneq, once Adin Adonis, narrowed his eyes at her. "You are better off deciding now... preparing now... for that moment. Hesitation is the doom I spoke of."
She licked and purse her lower lip as she crossed her arms. She listened, heard him well... perhaps a little too well. Tears were welling up in her eyes.
"I can't this time... I know what I have to do." She shook her head slowly. "I will not fail. There's too much at stake..."
Her fingers grasped her arm tighter as she spoke… an unconscious gesture which was not missed. He turned to regard the thoroughfare, as she had.
“You say you are 'kind'. That is both strength and weakness. Where Epinoch is concerned... where his dangerous, lethal, 'avatar of the void' self is concerned... kindness is no strength. Love is no strength. Compassion is no strength. These are weakness, and weakness only, and they will be exploited. I will not fail because a mere wisp of a girl has a soft heart," he sneered. "If you are truly the woman I recall... a woman of strength... then you will find the fire and steel within you to prove yourself worthy of your husband... and you will not need a suit of mail with which to do so.â€
Kanaria’s hand broke free and slapped the stone railing as her eyes shot back up to him, her silent tears trailing down her cheeks.
"I know what I need to do." Her soft voice was harsh. "I've too much to lose, I am not going to let him win. I cannot!"
Tengri glared out over the empty street for a moment... and then set the tome he held down atop the railing in front of him.
"I want you to remember how you’re feeling right now. I want you to recall this moment when opportunity arrives. And I want you to fire." He tapped the cover of the tome. "This is yours now. Good day, Galanodel."
Her gaze slipped to the book and she took a step forward. "Melkire... please... I'm sure you'd dislike it if I called you by your other name."
"Assumptions are dangerous," he said. He moved to vault the railing, and as he did so a serpentine trail of smoke shot around the corner, plucked him from midair, and carried him off into the far distance. She stared after him, somewhat surprised to see a man in full plate vault anything of note, much less a waist-high railing, and somewhat astonished to witness for the first time that which she’d heard so much about for so long.
She stepped forward and claimed the tome. By the time she emerged from the shadows, Pierre… the Crow… was gone.
Those words rippled across her thoughts, an echo of mere moments ago which threatened to unhinge her. Her heart raced, as though bound to break free of her chest. She swallowed, held her grimoire tight against her side, and stepped up to the corner.
She’d come to the Atheneum Astrologicium in search of a certain text. Aqua Vitae and Its Common Uses. She needed that tome, no matter how much she wished to run. A recent outbreak of disease here in Ishgard had left many bedridden in its wake, and House Sauveterre was relying upon her and her friends to deliver a cure.
She glanced back at the Elezen behind her. Pierre. This had to be Pierre. He was still smiling as though he had not a care in the world. Innocent looking fellow, for someone who’d manipulated and maneuvered her with such ease to bring her to this place, to this moment.
"Ahhh,I do so happen to know of such a text,†he’d said, â€and where a copy might be found! Alas, I believe a friend of mine borrowed it from this very establishment not two nights ago!"
She took her lower lip between her teeth and held it there as she considered her options, recalled the warnings and recommendations of her husband. Jasper chirped from his perch on her shoulder. She narrowed her eyes at Pierre, steeled herself, and turned.
Kanaria Melkire peered around the corner of the Atheneum.
The first thought that struck her was how very tall he was. Then his horns registered, and then his outlandish hair. His tail swung like a pendulum, from one side to the other, as though counting the passing seconds, minutes, bells. She couldn’t help but wonder at the contrast, couldn’t help but remember the man as she’d once known him. Old. Grey. Desperate. Spiteful. There was no trace now of the man they’d once cornered, so long ago, in one of the many alleyways which branched off from Pearl Lane. In his place stood… someone else.
He stood against the stone exterior of the structure behind him, rifling through the pages of a rather small tome. Disinterest was evident on his face, as though he were quite familiar… and quite bored... with the contents.
“Ser Tengri….â€
"Lady Melkire. Apologies for intruding upon your personal affairs.â€
She eyed the tome. Was that it…?
"I-it's quite alright." It wasn’t, but manners and etiquette demanded the bold-faced lie. "I believe th-there was a reason for that..."
The pads of her fingers, covered though they were with her gloves, curled and pushed against her grimoire.
"I guess now it can't be helped as you've something I'm in need of...."
He eyed her back. "I would not resort to crude measures if our shared history would leave me some other recourse. Alas, mistrust is difficult to overcome."
"You did this on purpose then..." Her eyes drifted from him to the book. "Is that what I am looking for, then?"
She raised her right hand, her attention back on him, and pointed at the tome he held. She kept her distance for now. He held it up and snapped it shut. The cover clearly read ’Aqua Vitae and its Common Uses’.
"It is."
Her eyes drifted back to the book. "Dare I ask what your price is Ser Tengri…?"
"A few moments of your time, a few words between us, and an answer to a question."
"You've my ears, and an answer if I have one…."
He grinned and beckoned her closer. "Would you at least step out of plain sight? I do not care for eavesdroppers. Pierre is competent but not all-powerful."
Kanaria looked to the left, over the railing that stood but a few fulms from the Atheneum’s exterior, and moved a little closer to him. Tengri raised an eyebrow at the bluebird as he pecked his way into her flaxen mane, but the Geneq said nothing. He looked back to her with a slow nod.
"You must understand that others have negotiated on your behalf. So long as your husband cooperates, I cannot and will not touch you, nor will any of my servants. So long as Korofi upholds his end of our mutual understanding, then your friends and family will also share the aegis of my good will. Are we clear?"
She eased a little and nodded. Osric had relayed to her as much, but even so trust was hard to come by. "We are clear."
"Good. Then I must ask you for the answer to but a single question. That answer is why I am here. I require complete and brutal honesty, upon which rests our best chance of ridding ourselves of a mutual source of strife, grief, and sorrow. Is this acceptable to you? Knowing that, should you choose to not answer honestly, or should you prove incapable of doing so, you might doom us all?"
She sucked in a cold breath and let it out slowly. Her lavender hues looked across the way as her left hand settled upon on the railing. "I believe I know what you are speaking of... "
"No." The response came immediately, in a flat tone of voice. "Answer the question."
She blinked at him, somewhat startled, and he smiled for her, as though to put her at ease.
“Say rather,†he went on, “answer my first question so that I can then ask you the important question."
"...I'll answer to the best of my knowledge."
He nodded again. "Jin'li Epinoch has been obsessed with you for a long time. If not since the day I sent him to you and your friends in Drybone to relay my demands, then very nearly so. Why?"
Kanaria tilted her head and her eyes widened. The heat rose in her cheeks a little.
"Heh… that's an easy answer." She turned to face the street below. "I am...'kind,' though perhaps not in the manner he claims. I love too much and ask little... I can see good in people where others cannot…."
He grunted. "Some advice for you, then. Were I in your shoes, I would listen, and listen well.â€
"Hmm?" Her lavender eyes tracked back to him as he pushed himself upright.
"It took time. It took pain. It took blood, and toil, and sweat, and more blood. He hates me all the more now for that necessity, for forcing the words out of him, but in the end, your husband told me." He looked her in the eyes as he settled the small tome into the crook of one arm.. "He told me you could not pull the trigger alone."
Her fingers curled into her palms as she tensed and looked away, averting her gaze, her guilt plain on her face.
"I could not…."
"You should know that I cannot anticipate the circumstances. I am trying... but I cannot, in truth, prepare for the worst. I can only prepare for the worst that I can expect. I cannot know to whom will fall the opportunity - a moment in time, a sliver of the Keeper's realm in which to decide. Should that chance fall to you, Lady Melkire... should Fate and Fortune choose you, I must know that you can and will pull the trigger. You must know that, if you cannot, you are a hindrance and a liability to anyone and everyone you hold dear. Should you hesitate and should you fail, you and I will lose everything."
Tengri Geneq, once Adin Adonis, narrowed his eyes at her. "You are better off deciding now... preparing now... for that moment. Hesitation is the doom I spoke of."
She licked and purse her lower lip as she crossed her arms. She listened, heard him well... perhaps a little too well. Tears were welling up in her eyes.
"I can't this time... I know what I have to do." She shook her head slowly. "I will not fail. There's too much at stake..."
Her fingers grasped her arm tighter as she spoke… an unconscious gesture which was not missed. He turned to regard the thoroughfare, as she had.
“You say you are 'kind'. That is both strength and weakness. Where Epinoch is concerned... where his dangerous, lethal, 'avatar of the void' self is concerned... kindness is no strength. Love is no strength. Compassion is no strength. These are weakness, and weakness only, and they will be exploited. I will not fail because a mere wisp of a girl has a soft heart," he sneered. "If you are truly the woman I recall... a woman of strength... then you will find the fire and steel within you to prove yourself worthy of your husband... and you will not need a suit of mail with which to do so.â€
Kanaria’s hand broke free and slapped the stone railing as her eyes shot back up to him, her silent tears trailing down her cheeks.
"I know what I need to do." Her soft voice was harsh. "I've too much to lose, I am not going to let him win. I cannot!"
Tengri glared out over the empty street for a moment... and then set the tome he held down atop the railing in front of him.
"I want you to remember how you’re feeling right now. I want you to recall this moment when opportunity arrives. And I want you to fire." He tapped the cover of the tome. "This is yours now. Good day, Galanodel."
Her gaze slipped to the book and she took a step forward. "Melkire... please... I'm sure you'd dislike it if I called you by your other name."
"Assumptions are dangerous," he said. He moved to vault the railing, and as he did so a serpentine trail of smoke shot around the corner, plucked him from midair, and carried him off into the far distance. She stared after him, somewhat surprised to see a man in full plate vault anything of note, much less a waist-high railing, and somewhat astonished to witness for the first time that which she’d heard so much about for so long.
She stepped forward and claimed the tome. By the time she emerged from the shadows, Pierre… the Crow… was gone.
![[Image: 1qVSsTp.png]](http://i.imgur.com/1qVSsTp.png)
