1874-07-12 - Departure
Departure
Summary: Alia takes her leave of Four Corners in an attempt to intercept the 13th Legion.
Date: 1874-07-12
Related: None
NPCs: Millicent Durant
Players:
Alia  

"Alia."

"You know that you won't change my mind, Millicent."

"I haven't been able to change your mind since you stopped being the child I took to apprentice."

Millicent Durant, white haired, her face bearing more lines now than it had in the nearly decade and a half since she had taken in the bright, precocious second child and first daughter of House d'Meloni pushed away from where she had stood in the doorway, hands unconsciously tugging the robes more closely around herself. Alia, whom Millicent had never quite been able to stop thinking of as 'the girl', or perhaps it was, fairer to say, 'my girl', had chosen one of the deepest rooms in the college, the coldest she could find, and the fireplace was, as it always was, black and cold. But then, Alia hadn't needed the heat such a thing provided, nor, the older woman thought, looking at the dark head bent over the chest of supplies she was packing, its comfort, for many years.

Alia moved from her work table to the packing crate, the movements controlled and precise. Not only because of how terribly volatile so many of the ingredients were, but because the act of packing and unpacking her supplies had always served as a sort of ritual, a form of meditation for her usually, otherwise overactive mind. "I mean to go. Two years is long enough. To wait for some response, to hope that those that had once commanded our allegiance might seek to exact justice for what was done to us."

Alia looked up, some bright and dangerous light in her eyes, wholly in opposition to the practiced, studied movements of her body, so long trained to the work, that it seemed to be able to act without true thought or effort.

"The Qatunax took something from me, and I mean to get it back."

"But, girl, you are talking about embracing those who have, for generations, been our natural enemies. You can't possibly think that they will welcome you with open arms. And worse, the 13th? Their commander alone, if his actions here in Four Corners are any indication, not to mention the stories they tell about him, is the stuff of nightmares."

Alia pursed her lips, finishing her first crate and beginning on the next. In all the years since she had come to the College, she had saved, gone without, traded and bartered when she could, to save her gold. Since the Qatunax's treachery, the fall of her House, and the loss of her family income, she had pushed herself to take every contract, perform every task that rewarded her with coin or connections. And as a result, she had been able to afford some good store of supplies to take with her. "Nightmares long ago lost their power to frighten me."

Alia looked up, hands falling still as she looked at the older woman over the top of the crate, "Milli," and for all the childishness of that name, which she had not used in earnest since before she had come into her womanhood, her voice was flinty, "What makes you think that I expect or care to have their fair feelings? I have no illusions about the Vir Sidus. Nor any childish fantasy that they will one day come to love me…as much as you do." Millicent, to her credit, did not look away from the other woman. She might have denied it, but what would have been the use? The girl had been closer to her in their years together than her own children. And it was not solely her mind that she loved, though part of her mourned the loss of such a talent at the College.

"They will see me as a tool to be used, of that I have no doubt. And let it be so. For they will also serve their purpose, whether they realize it or not. We will each be a means to an end."

Alia finally stepped away from where she was working, coming around the table to approach the woman who had, for more than half of her life, been mentor, and counselor, healer, and friend. When she took the older woman in her arms, Millicent could feel that unnatural heat baking off of her body. And that only made her worry sharper. The girl's power was…not easy, but certainly easier to control here, in the College, in a time and place of relative peace and plenty in Four Corners. Millicent feared for what Alia might become in the crucible of the battlefield. The older woman's arms slipped around Alia's slim frame, hugging her so tightly she thought, in those last moments she might have felt the girl's ribs creak. And Alia did not need to hear the words such an embrace was meant to convey.

"You play…a dangerous game."

"I know, Milli. Only, trust me. I know what I'm doing."

The two women separated, Alia returning to her work, her voice once again practical. "I have waited too long for justice to be won for me. Now I must go and win it for myself. And if I would win, I must choose those who have the best chance to win the day. And that is the 13th Legion. I need an army to fight an army and I mean to have one."

Millicent, for just a moment, hung her head, that slight tip of her gaze down acknowledging that she had accepted that she could not dissuade the woman. "Well, at least I can send you off with a few things." She reached into one of the many bags she carried when she wore her robes, withdrawing a carefully packed box of the small phials she had had manufactured for Alia's soothing draught. Small enough and discrete enough that, at need, the girl could hide them about her person.

"Come, I'll help you fill them, and then we will have a last meal, before I wish you safe journeys."

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