Men who play games of war and soldiers born from circumstance...
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“Endure.” The Captain whispers sadly. “You have not lost everything… I am still here, by your side and will do everything within my power to remain as such so we are able to break free… but it will be difficult from this day on and you must find a way past her control as far as your swords are concerned, learn to play this farce of a game all over again so that she will come to trust you once more… and remember through this Kso’ppghiel that no matter what you see in my eyes each day we are forced to remain as such, or what you hear on the winds as they carry throughout these walls…” clawed fingers slip down, Bal’thial daring a moment simply to touch the side of the blonde’s face briefly before he pulls his hand away and begins moving again towards his sword, his final words so quiet they are nearly lost. “My heart belongs only to you.” The Captain’s touch fills him with a sense of warmth that had been all too lacking for the past week. He does not want to hear or see, he does not want to endure, he only wants to be with the one that means so much to him after so long. “There must be a way… I cannot stand her presence and the lack of yours is only driving me to insanity. There must be some place she cannot access.” It troubles him that after so long of wanting nothing but to be left alone, he feels he cannot exist without Bal’thial. Pulling his sword free of the arena floor, he nods softly as he is turning around to move back towards the Harbinger while swinging his weapon up and across a broad shoulder. “I have a pl-“ the Captain’s whispered words stop abruptly as mismatched eyes shoot up and just as confusion flickers briefly through Kso’ppghiel’s white gaze, the other man pulls a boot covered foot up and kicks him hard in the chest. The arena doors burst open just as the Harbinger’s body hits the floor with a loud thump, rust eyes looking on from across the room as the white haired man delivers another kick that sends the blonde’s body rolling away from him soon after. “Your Mistress has come to claim you.” The tall Captain says coldly without ever meeting his Queen’s gaze from across the arena room. “Crawl to her dog.” Kso’ppghiel coughs as he rights himself on his hands and knees, doing as the Captain ordered and hiding the pain he feels from both of them being forced to be this way. A pleased smile forms on Io’fayl’s lips and she watches her Harbinger come closer, dragging the chain attached to his collar behind. “Very good, Captain. Let us continue along this road and everything will be in its proper place.” She grabs the chain as the blonde stops at her feet, pulling him up gently and standing face to face with her dirty and broken Harbinger. Delicate fingers lift his chin, bringing tired white eyes to hers. “Remember your place, Kincaid, and we will have little issue.” Bal’thial can barely stand the scene before him and he’s in movement to escape it as soon as he can. He has to force each step he takes forward to remain casual and paced, force the frost that remains constant in mismatched eyes. He nods without looking at either of them as he passes with his serrated edged weapon resting up on his shoulder still, issuing a quiet ‘Mistress’ before he’s stepped out into the halls. But Io’fayl’s voice stops him only a few paces out, the sounds of footfalls and chain behind him as he stills without turning back, simply forcing himself to remain as is and avoid gritting his teeth even as delicate fingers touch playfully in long braided plaits. “You are doing well, Captain, it is nice to be reminded why I chose you in the first place.” She moves to his front, bringing herself forward and allowing their lips to meet in a brief kiss before allowing him to leave. She smiles as Kso’ppghiel’s gaze turns away from the scene. “As always my Queen.” Bal’thial starts quietly as he resumes his steps to walk away. “I live only to serve.”
He can’t continue this way, he can’t spend every day until who knows when working to earn back trust that may well be lost for good while he’s forced to endure touching the Harbinger with only rough hands when he wants nothing more to just hold the other man in his arms again. He needs to find them a way out of these walls, together with Kso’ppghiel’s swords in hand otherwise one of them, albeit him, the Harbinger or the Queen herself will end up losing a life from rage, madness or both and not one is an option he wants to have come to pass. Uncrossing his arms, the white haired man turns towards his closed doors, quiet and near silent as he moves into the hall and takes swift steps towards the winding stairwell that will lead him to the levels far below.
 Caramel colored eyes shift up to meet mismatched blue and green and he nods the Captain inside, rising from his chair to meet the man partway as his wife closes the door behind them and resets the seal. “And what can I do for you, Captain?” “I am very sorry to disturb your dinner, Mastersmith.” The white haired man starts, his expression solemn. “But I am in need of help only you can provide... is there a place we can talk that does not impose upon your lovely wife?” “De’lenah…” Gran’hein sighs as he looks towards his wife who gives him a smart little smirk before finding something to do elsewhere in the home. “Sit, Captain.” He extends a hand to a nearby chair. Bal’thial nods and seats himself before the large man. Caramel colored eyes study the Captain briefly before he picks up his mug and returns to his mead. “Kso’ppghiel, right?” A small smile forms on Bal’thial’s lips as he sits back in his chair and crosses his arms just beneath his chest. “Am I that easy to read, Mastersmith?” Gran’hein chuckles lightly into his mead as the Captain’s expression straightens and turns very serious. “I want his freedom…” mismatched eyes narrow and shift to the side as his voice falls a little low. “Queen Io’fayl’s obsessions for him are carrying farther than he will be able to endure and I fear that if things continue for much longer the way that they are, one of them will die and… I am not willing to risk this for either… but if I take him from these walls without his swords, I am afraid he will never be at peace and will attempt to return for them only to gain the same fate I wish to prevent. So I need to find a way past her barriers in order to gain them. I had hoped…” His blue and green gaze rises back up to meet caramel colored eyes. “I had hoped there was some way you could help me as well as find me a place to take him in these walls until I have achieved what I wish that would be safe. She can bypass all my own magic, my locks are useless, there is no safety for him… or myself within her realm and while I know I am asking you to risk much in helping me, I canno allow him to live the way she wishes for much longer…” Gran’hein stares at Bal’thial for several long moments until the Captain turns his gaze away. The large man takes a few more sips before placing his mug down and crossing his arms over a broad chest as he leans back in his chair. “You’re asking me to commit treason, Captain. That’s a bit beyond risk... for all of us.” He raises an eyebrow. “Not only that, commit treason against an old friend for reasons I am not even involved with. Why, Captain, why should I help both you and him?” Bal’thial says nothing for a few long moments, unsure by the other man’s tone whether he’s made the right decision in seeking his help or not but knowing it’s already too late for him if he’d misjudged the Mastersmith’s capacity for sympathy towards an old companion’s son… His words alone might have already earned him his death and he’d spent the day since the arena weighing this choice out and the consequences should he have chosen wrong, but for the Harbinger and even the smallest hope of a possibility of his freedom… no risk is too high. “I… love him…” he whispers, mismatched eyes sliding back over to hold Gran’hein’s gaze. “And I do not want him enslaved for the rest of his life. The sins of the father should not become that of his son’s simply because he lives…” The older man lets the silence drag on between them, watching the Captain grow uncomfortable as he sits. “If you do this, you will have to join him. You will have to give up your position and leave her territory for as long as she lives. She would most likely stick a very large sum on your heads and make life miserable for the rest of us. I also don’t think Sav’real would enjoy losing his friend.” He leans forward, threading his fingers together on the table, his stare unwavering as he speaks. “Are you prepared to do this and does he want this in return? Does Kso’ppghiel feel the same way about you?” “I am prepared.” He says solemnly. “To live within these walls and spend my life having to show one face on the outside and another inside, or flee and spend my life on the run… I am ready for either path according to his wishes. I will leave the choice to him but I have yet to find what he truly wants, or if he returns the full measure of these feelings because I have no way to ask him. Those swords of his are his weakness and she uses them to exploit that weakness effectively, and in turn only strengthens her hold. I have tried to teach him control so that he could earn his freedoms and for a while he had done very well… until a week ago when everything he had gained was destroyed and in my own folly, I took actions that nearly destroyed over thirty years of loyal service simply because I could not stand back and watch her kill him…” Bal’thial uncrosses his arms and leans forward to rest his elbows across his knees while pulling clawed hands up to white plaits, raking his hair back with a sigh. “I do not want to lose the friendships I have gained, I do not want to lose thirty years of my life and a position I struggled hard to attain, but I do not want to lose him and I cannot live this way either, ordered time and time again to strike him down with my own hands and never once being allowed to show him what I feel inside. This is no way for him to live; he should be free to go where the winds will carry him, not caged like a dog. That alone would eventually kill him and I just want him spared this fate that was never his own in the first place. If we had safety, somewhere she could not reach maybe I could find a way to teach him past those weaknesses but… as it is now, I cannot even ask him what he truly wants, whether it be freedom or myself or anything… I am at a loss for what to do beyond this; I do not know any other way to help him…” Gran’hein sighs. “Offy’s not an idiot; she sets things up purposefully so this can’t happen. She’s so damn overprotective of those Harbingers now… She’s also doing this to show you that you don’t have a choice in the matter. If she knew of your real feelings towards him, you’d be dead. If she knew he returned them… with any other, she’d simply kill them but she’s a bit obsessed with our poor boy there and I agree he should not be made to suffer because his father did the right thing.” He shakes his head. “You’re going to have to choose; this place or him. You can’t have both. It’s going to require a sacrifice one way or another.” He leans back in his chair once more. “Next time you’re playing dog and master with him, bring him down to see me. I want to talk to him. He needs to know the truth.” Bal’thial slides his hands down to his shoulders as mismatched eyes rise up to meet Gran’hein’s caramel colored gaze. “If I am to chose, then it would be him.” He says matter of factly. That is the only true choice in the end… positions can be earned and attained again, assets taken or traded away, but their lives, his heart… there is only one choice as far as either is concerned. With a sigh, the tall Captain slips his hands free and sits back with a nod. “I am not sure he is ready for that truth but… I will bring him. Once he learns it, and if he survives it, and myself… then I will ask him of what he truly wants.” A smirk forms on the white haired man’s lips that doesn’t reflect in his eyes. “All of these worries of mine may prove to be pointless in the end if he cannot forgive me for knowing of his father’s role here from the start.” He may end up losing Kso’ppghiel anyway and it makes him realize that perhaps he’s the one who isn’t ready for the Harbinger to have this information after all.
 A small back room comes into view through the soot and the steam and they continue along the path until he is practically shoved through, the door slammed behind. Kso’ppghiel pulls himself off the ground as the door is latched shut. The large man in the room stops what he’s doing and takes a moment to set a complicated locking seal on the door before seating himself at his worktable and crossing his arms to stare down at the two before him. “Ok boy, you’re safe here. Io’fayl can’t get in. Bal’thial here has asked for my help and I am willing to give it under certain conditions.” Gran’hein looks over to the Captain, motioning him to remove the mask. “After the good Captain explains himself, I have a few questions to ask and then some information that I feel you should know.” The quiet spell is spoken as the white haired man steps in close, clawed fingers sliding the mask free of Kso’ppghiel’s face soon after and the instant clarity returns to pupiless white eyes, Bal’thial finds the other man’s hands flying up to his face, the Harbinger ripping his head towards him and mouths crashing together hard for the first kiss they’ve been able to share between them in over a week. After many long moments, the Mastersmith clears his throat behind, pulling the tall Captain quickly back to his senses and he slowly breaks away soon after, mismatched eyes reopening and a soft sigh leaving full lips as he keeps their faces locked close. “I have two choices before me, Harbinger…” he says quietly while he continues to remain near, the other man’s hands still tangled in his hair. “As will you. Both of which I will only hear the answer for once Gran’hein has had shared his words…” because either might very well end up lost to him regardless once this is over. “One keeps us here within these walls, enduring every day as we have been while we find ways to remain beneath our Mistress’s notice… risking all to find these moments and in constant danger of being found out. The other is freedom with the cost of a price on both our heads, mostly likely on the run for the rest of our lives… once again risking everything...” slipping the mask down to his side, he reaches up with his free and to pull one of the blonde’s away from his hair and slide it down to rest just over his heart. “This… is yours if you want it just as my life is yours if you want it and once you learn the information the Mastersmith has to share, and if you choose to claim it, I will ask you your choice then.” Kso’ppghiel looks at the large man slightly confused and nods. “I do not care if I am running, as long as we are together.” Gran’hein sighs. “Listen to me and take everything I have to say before you make any sort of judgment on anything, and that includes Io’fayl. I know you want her dead, hell, I’ve wanted her dead on occasions, but her presence keeps thousands alive and cared for. If she does die, it throws the entire territory into chaos, killing innocents like farmers and their children and I know you don’t want that on your head.” He ignores the rolling of Kso’ppghiel’s’ eyes as he continues. “I’m not telling you this to make you like her, I’m telling you this because of how you’re going to react to the rest. I knew your father, boy.” The Harbinger instantly shoots forward towards the workbench slightly in shock. “How did you know him, are you sure it was my father?” “Mithghiiel? Yeah, I’m sure. You’re the spitting image of him, same stubborn will as well. I knew him because I fought alongside him. Boy, I made that sword of his you fight with. I knew him longer than you’ve been alive. He was Offy’s Harbinger for a good thirty years.” Kso’ppghiel blinks, unsure of how to take in the information. “Does she know I am his son?” “Of course she does. Why do you think she hasn’t killed you yet?” Gran’hein smirks. A look of anger instantly forms over the blonde’s features. “She tried to kill him.” “Yes, but she didn’t succeed, largely in part to myself and a couple others who are no longer living. He was going to take his death willingly; we wouldn’t let his stubborn ass. She and him, they had an odd understanding, she was emotionally attached however, and he wasn’t. When he refused to follow orders, she flipped and did what she does best, become a tyrant. He affected her where no other could and emotion is a weakness so she tried to remove the weakness. I believe she’s trying to make up for what she lost with you.” “So this entire time I have been nothing but a substitute for my father?” Kso’ppghiel spins around to look at Bal’thial. “Did you know this?” Before the Captain can answer, the Mastersmith does it for him. “Yes, but only after he procured you did he find out who Mithghiiel was under great risk. Offy won’t even allow his name mentioned for threat of death. He was not allowed to tell you because I said I was going to be the one, since Mithghiiel was a good friend. If you’re going to blame someone, blame me.” “I am unsure how I am supposed to feel. I was not expecting this…” The Harbinger takes a moment to try and process the information. All of this… because of his father. “I have more you’re not expecting, but I caution you beforehand again to listen and not react. Io’fayl ordered the offensives that brought her men to your territory ten years ago, as she’s been doing with many villages that she does not own. She did not know Mithghiiel was still alive when her men took him down and apparently your sister as well.” A look of pure rage forms over the blonde’s features. “I will kill her. I will-” “You won’t do squat, boy, because you can’t take her.” Gran’hein interrupts firmly. “Even with your swords, even with Thial’s help here, she’s got hundreds of years on you both. She didn’t become a warlord because she’s pretty. Think, boy, don’t be an idiot. You can’t take her right now but you can leave and live to take her another day when you’re strong enough.” “She is the reason I am this way. She is why my family is dead and in turn why I have been dead for years. I cannot just walk away.” Kso’ppghiel snarls. “You think you’re the only family she’s done this to? You think there aren’t hundreds, if not thousands of others like you out there who would love nothing more than to take her head? This isn’t about you and it’s something you’ll have to come to terms with until you’re skilled enough. You face her now, you’ll die, there is no other outcome. Would you really choose to cause the one person who loves you the same pain?” The blonde blinks, conflicted by his pain and anger. “Loves me?” He turns to face Bal’thial. Mismatched eyes slide to the side, away from the Harbinger’s gaze and causing metal adornments capping his horns to chime softly in the sudden stillness of the room. “Yes…” he says before his voice drops to a whisper. “…with all my heart.” Barely a second has passes before Kso’ppghiel rushes to the Captain, clawed tipped fingers reaching forward to bring Bal’thial’s gaze back to his. “It is… returned.” The blonde crashes his lips against the taller man’s, who returns the kiss with the same intensity. Clawed hands rise up to grasp onto the sides of the Harbinger’s face, the tall Captain’s heart feeling like it’ll burst free of his chest with the sheer amount of happiness and relief that washes through him while neither man wants, or is willing to give the other up even for need of air. Another loud clearing of the Metalsmith’s throat breaks the spell and a smile forms on his lips as he pulls just slightly back and leans down to rest his forehead against the blonde’s. “Forgive me” he whispers as mismatched eyes reopen to catch white, the smile fading soon after. “For having the information of your family and not relaying it. If I could have…” Kso’ppghiel pulls back and turns away. “I am… upset over this, but understand you could not say anything for fear of both our lives.” He shakes his head, voice coming low with anger. “I cannot face her again, I will not be able to control myself, but I cannot leave my swords and cannot get to them. I also cannot ask you to give up your position. I am unsure how to proceed.” Bal’thial takes a step forward and reaches out to touch at white blonde layered locks, speaking quietly. “My position means little in the end… I am easily replaced anyway and eventually it would happen regardless of your present role in my life or not. I have known this for most of my years in her service and have no illusions to the contrary. I would rather gain your freedom than hold onto an illusion that means little to others beyond myself.” Pupiless white eyes slide back to meet his gaze and he pulls his hand away. “The mask… without the aid of the collar might help in facing her until your swords can be regained. It is not a favorable option, but the alternative would be worse…” The Captain’s blue and green gaze slides past the Harbinger and over to the man at their fronts. “Mastersmith… ?” Gran’hein grumbles to himself. “I’m probably going to regret this…” He rises from his bench and walks to the front to the table, facing the two men. “I’m afraid to send Kso’ppghiel back to her, because- no offense boy, you’re not going to be able to handle your emotions. Even with the mask unhindered.” The larger man ignores the look he receives from the Harbinger once more. “Offy’s going out in a few days time to negotiate with some of the leaders of the larger unaffiliated clans around the borders of the Northeastern territories to try and get a few more loyals before breaking off into a full-out attack. In that time, I can make replicas of your swords and give Thial here the means to break her seal over yours. You switch out the swords while she’s gone, get your asses out of here and she won’t know I was involved… at least at first. I’m betting she’ll figure it out eventually but by that time hopefully her wrath with have subsided a bit. She’s irritating when she’s irrationally angry.” He rolls his eyes. “How am I to survive the next few days in her presence then?” Kso’ppghiel was already rather unsure of this plan. He only hopes this man is as trustworthy as Bal’thial seems to think he is. “By eating this…” Gran’hein reaches into his pocket, pulling out an odd purple fruit and tossing it to the blonde. Kso’ppghiel catches it and looks at him in speculation. “This will make me violently ill, these are poisonous.” “Precisely, but it shouldn’t kill you. You can’t be trying to take someone’s head off if you’re too busy trying to stop the room from spinning. She’ll also be less likely to have her Captain beat on you once you start vomiting.” The Forgemaster grins wide as he crosses his arms over his chest. “It should wear off by the time she leaves, then you two can run off and enjoy your blissful lives of being hunted like animals. Until then, act as normal as possible.” Kso’ppghiel looks down at the fruit before his eyes turn to the Captain and back to Gran’hein. “Whatever grants me my swords and our freedom.” “You have about a three hour window from when you eat it to when the symptoms start showing.” Gran’hein smirks. “And boy, I don’t do this for you, I do this for Mithghiiel. He’d come back from the dead and hurt me should I let his son stay in her hands.” “I think you were right, Kso’ppghiel.” The tall Captain laughs in the slightest. “I would have liked your father.” Clawed fingers rise up to touch the Harbinger on the shoulder, offering him a solemn smile. “So now that you have all the information the good Mastersmith has relayed, and you know the measure of my feelings as well as the dangers that will be ahead… there are two paths that now lie before us and I will ask you again… which will you choose?” Kso’ppghiel turns back to meet mismatched blue and green eyes, moving in close to the taller man’s. Their lips meet, the Harbinger lingering just a little long before he pulls back. “There is no choice.” He bites down on the fruit, wincing a little at the tartness. “Then it’s settled, out, both of you.” Gran’hein shoos them towards his door.
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