Blood and Gold: Chapter 22 (the real thing)

[jiminee]

 Here's the actual chapter,, since I got you all SO GOOD on April 1st. Yeah this is to make up for that. It's a lot longer than usual and I cried writing it so.... have fun. c:

Chapter list | Map

Zisteau looks up as Blame and Vechs come into the room, the ladder creaking with fast and heavy steps.
“Zisteau!” Vechs says, hurrying over to where he sits, and spreading the poster on the table before him. “These are everywhere in the city now. People might start recognizing us.”
“Blyx. Are you joking?”
“No. These are still the posters from Feretan, though – they don’t have Nebris or Etho on them. Doesn’t help the cause though, if people know we’re in Corax. We’re screwed.”
Aureylian nods. Zisteau calls an impromptu meeting and everyone pulls their stools closer, huddling worriedly over the poster laid out on the table between them.

“We could run now,” Blame suggests. “Ditch the plan, go somewhere where the news hasn’t caught up yet. Mes is our safest bet.”
“No, no,” Zisteau says. “We still have time to get into the palace. The tunnel is almost finished, and if we get into the palace without getting caught, we can run after that. In fact… I think we’ll do it tomorrow.”
“Are you kidding?” Blame says. “If we get caught, we die! Has that not registered in your thick skull yet?”
“Blame,” Zisteau says calmly. “I’ll give you the chance to run now. Get out, get yourself to safety. You don’t have to take the risk.” He doesn’t say it aloud, but his tone of voice calls Blame a coward.
“Don’t you get it?” Blame asks. “It’s not about me. I don’t want any of you to die!”

Zisteau puts his hands on the table, standing up to stare Blame down. He doesn’t want to have to raise his voice any higher. He’s surprised to find that his limbs tremble. It was never meant to come to this, but he can’t let his teammate get in the way of his plans.
He didn’t have the nerve in Kyfez or Fallor or Lyren. He failed in Feretan, and he is not going to fail once again. And Corax is the heart of it all, the nest of corruption it is with its most toxic past.
Zisteau doesn’t doubt there are good men. He’s met them, he travels with them, he lives with them.  But many, so many are terrible men. Zisteau knows this, he feels it in his entire body and sees it every day in the marks on his skin and in his past and the best he can do is try to topple what they’ve built for themselves with their bloodstained gold.
Lofty dreams, perhaps, but Zisteau finally has an end in sight and it’s closer than it ever has been before. Which is why it must come to this.
“Out,” he says, his voice level but tinged with poison. “You’re out of Naziv. Anyone who thinks the same can go, too.”

He’s surprised at how quietly Blame stands and turns, walking towards the ladder with no words and not a single glance back at any of them.
“Zisteau!” Aurey says. “You can’t do that! Blame, come back here.”
Zisteau waits to see what Vechs will do. “Aurey, I’m sorry, but I’m the leader of this group. Blame has done nothing but oppose our plans.”
“Come on! He’s still a member!”

As Zisteau and Aureylian argue, Vechs feels himself torn in two. It’s not as simple for him as it is for Blame. Blame’s severed himself from the group before, it should be easy for him.
Vechs’ life is only in Naziv. Zisteau has been his companion from the start, and so has Aurey. He’s grown close to Nebris, too, and even Etho, the newest member.
But he still loves Blame, and to see him walk somberly out of his life would kill Vechs once again and would feel like another betrayal. Vechs twists his fingers together. Half of him feels rooted to the spot and the other half is glued to Blame, already running off with him and not looking back.

“Vechs.” A hand touches his shoulder, and Vechs looks up to see Aurey. Her red hair falls in front of his face and she looks at him with concern. “Would you be able to convince Blame to stay?”
“I don’t think he would. And Zisteau…”
Aurey sighs. “I don’t know what’s up with Zisteau. I thought he could be rational about this, but he’s just so drunk on this idea of stealing from the palace that he forgot to be kind.”
Vechs pauses, looking at Aureylian for a long time, taking in her face, her hair, her worried expression, before turning his eyes back to Zisteau. The half-Grax looks almost defeated, sitting back down and with his hands on the table before him. Nebris looks confused and unsure of what to do, and Etho is sitting near him with a similar expression.
Then Vechs says, “Goodbye, Aurey.”
“What? You’re going?!”
“Yeah. Sorry. I have to! I’ll try to convince him to come back, but Aurey, I don’t know if I will. I hope I see you again someday.”
Aurey doesn’t say anything. It looks like she’s trembling, and her eyes glisten. Vechs stands up. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know if we’ll ever meet again, Vechs.”
Vechs just hugs her.

He says goodbye to Zisteau. He wants to hug Zisteau too, but doesn’t. Looking at him for what feels like the last time makes old feelings flood back, like a dull ache behind a long-healed scar.

He says a quick goodbye to Etho, then turns to Nebris.
“You should make Blame come back,” Nebris says. “Come on, if anyone can do it, it’s you!”
“I don’t think I can. I said I’ll try. It’s more a matter of if Zisteau wants him back, and I don’t think he does.”
“Do you have to go after him?”
“I have to. Goodbye, have fun, try not to kill Etho, okay?” Vechs turns away before Nebris can see the tears forming in his eyes, but Nebris turns him back around with a hand on his arm.
Nebris suddenly hugs him, and in a low voice says, “I wanted to get to know you a whole lot more, Vechs. Goodbye.”

Vechs walks to the bedroom to get his bag with the small amount of possessions he has. Goggles, helmet, clock, dagger, money, rope. Nobody says anything when he goes and takes some bottles of drink and food from the rudimentary kitchen, making sure he has enough to share with Blame too.
Vechs hopes Blame hasn’t gone far. He can’t be sure he would have waited for Vechs – it isn’t as if he has in the past.
Vechs hurries out of the hideout, glancing back once again at it, then back up to see Blame leaning against the nearest tree.

“You…”
“Vechs, I should know by now that wherever I go, you won’t be long after. Of course I waited.”
“Blame.” Vechs can’t say more than that before stepping forward and falling into his arms, letting the tears he’s been holding in spill onto Blame’s shoulder.
“I left them.”
Blame just holds him. “So did I.”
“It’s easier for you!”
“What makes you say that?”
“We betrayed you! And you haven’t been with us as long as I have. I have history with Zisteau and Aureylian.”
“They were my friends too, you know,” Blame says.
“Yes but – ,”
“Shut up, Vechs. We have to decide what to do next.”
Blame abruptly steps away and Vechs wipes his face. Blame is simply walking off into the forest and Vechs forgets to follow for a second before his legs start to move, almost automatically.

They walk in silence for a while, Vechs beside Blame. The forest is silent aside from the scattered bird calls and the leaves rustling in the wind, and the cracking of twigs beneath the pair’s feet.
They walk until Blame stops, and as abruptly as he started walking, sits down in a small glade with his back against a tree.
“Vechs,” he asks. “What did you mean about having history with Zisteau and Aurey?”
“You know what I mean.” Vechs sits down too. “They’ve been my life for the past four, five years.”
Blame looks at him and Vechs knows he sees the truth and everything in him seems transparent now.
“I fell in love with Zisteau, way back when I first met him. So what? It didn’t work out. That’s long behind us, and we both promised never to speak of it again.”
Blame is silent for a while, but somehow, Vechs knows he knew.

“Anything else?” Blame finally asks.
Vechs sighs. “I dated Aurey too, for a little while. And we decided that we like each other just as friends.”
“And?”
Then we met a guy called Chad. Excellent pickpocket. We had… something. But then he was captured by the police, we never heard of him again.”
“And then?”
“Seth. He was incredible at creating little gadgets to get us out of tight situations. Taught me and Zisteau to make explosives. I thought we had something pretty good. But they got him into trouble in the end, and he was… captured and killed somewhere between Fallor and Feretan.”
“And then?”
“Various flirtations on the road until I met you.” Vechs laughs with a tight smile. “You know what happened there. But you were the longest I ever stayed with one person. I never loved anybody as much as I loved you.”
“Then?”
Vechs blinks. “I… had a one-night thing with Bdubs. But I don’t count that, really.”
“I know,” Blame says. “Bdubs told me. Right when I first met him. He was so proud.”
“Oh. Blame, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, it just,” Vechs tries to stop his thoughts from coming out in a jumble but Blame is already moving closer to him, putting an arm around his shoulder.
“I forgive you, Vechs,” he says.

At that moment every emotion clashes into every other and they cancel each other out into a flat nothing. Vechs welcomes it and grips Blame’s shirt with one hand to anchor himself to something as he floats in the small moment of quiet peace.

“Where are we going now?” Vechs finally asked, lifting his head from Blame’s shoulder.
“Guude’s, I guess. We still have to stop them.”
“We, what?”
“Vechs. We may not be in Naziv anymore but we still need to stop them!”
Vechs doesn’t argue, just closes his eyes. “I want this all to stop.”
“I do too.”
“Let’s run away or something. Go to the sea, live in a nice little hut on the beach… make an honest living.” Vechs half-laughs at his own suggestion.
“Vechs don’t be ridiculous. Listen, let’s just do this.”
“Blame. Don’t you see? If we stop them this time, it’s not going to make a difference. They can just move on to the next project and steal until they get in big trouble. Stopping them this time isn’t going to change Zisteau’s mind!”
“You don’t know that,” Blame says quietly. “Can we just try? One more time.”
Vechs reluctantly follows Blame as he gets up, picking up his own bag and walking with a sense of purpose towards Guude’s.

“We’re not in Naziv anymore,” Blame explains bluntly to Guude. “And have you tried convincing Bdubs yet?”
Guude leans back. “I told him I never want to see him get hurt. He just laughed and told me I was worrying for nothing. He still doesn’t know I know his plans.”
Blame sighs. “Fine, that’s fine. I know what we have to do.”
“What?” Vechs asks.
“We show up tomorrow at the Underground. Show them we’re not letting them go. At least not without a fight.”
Vechs sighs. He’s too tired to argue, after everything.

Aureylian watches the falling pieces of Naziv crumble around her.
Zisteau has gone quiet but it’s clear he’s thinking, his head still as his brain works. Nebris looks unsure of what to do.
Aurey knows they’ve been through worse than this before, and didn’t let it break them, but it feels like hell anyway and she has no idea what to do. Two of her best friends are gone and it feels partially her fault.
Greed. Greed brought us here, and it’s my fault. And what’s been done can’t be undone.
“Are we still going tomorrow?” Nebris asks.
“Yes,” Zisteau says.
Aureylian sits down beside him. “This is my fault.”
“No it’s not. You know whose fault it is. Mine.”
“Both of us are at fault!” Aurey says. “Whatever. I’m going outside for a bit.”

Aurey doesn’t wait for a response, leaving the hideout. Once again she needs to escape the claustrophobic tension of the hideout.
She’s surprised to see it’s already getting dark. The day felt too short. Aurey decides to go to the same direction she did the previous night. If nothing else, she might see the Coraci man again.
She has questions for him.
Sixteen years. I waited sixteen years to find out absolutely nothing.
She has no idea if he’d have seen the posters or not, but with luck he won’t recognise her. She doesn’t even care as much as she could, and it almost scares her, the ease with which she can stroll out to the edge of the desert and sit on the slope, looking out at the vast sea of sand before her.
She has to confess to herself, quietly, that the dream scared her. It was one thing when they plagued Vechs, and she knew he suffered from their presence.
Now she’s had one, she understands why they bothered him so.

It’s not long before Aurey sees the starwatcher again, lugging his backpack and setting up down on the sand. She calls to him as she stands, slipping down the hillside with small steps.
“Oh it’s you again! Hello,” he says.
“Hi. I thought I might see you again tonight.” Aureylian sighs. “Things with my – my friends got unbearable.”
“I see.” Kurt spreads a blanket on the sand and begins taking instruments and notebooks out of his bag. “Your friends. What did they do?”
“One of them kicked two out because they didn’t agree with him on something he really wants to do,” Aurey says. “I just lost two of my best friends!”
Kurt casts her a sideways glance, unfolding a tripod and setting it on the sand.
“Kicked them out of where?”
Oh blyx. I’m just revealing more and more information about myself.
“Out of our group. We – oh you’ve probably seen the posters already, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. You’re Aureylian, aren’t you?”
Aurey isn’t sure what compels her to trust the man so easily, given that he’s almost a stranger. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
“You and your group are criminals.” Kurt is setting up something on top of the tripod as he says this, calmly adjusting it.
“Yes.”
“You should know, people are starting to talk, in the city. I don’t get involved much, but I hear things, and you and your friends are wanted. For a lot of money. People know Naziv is in Corax.”
“I know.” Aureylian pauses, waiting for him to try to capture her or reveal police lying in wait but nothing happens.

“I have just as much reason not to trust you as you do me,” Kurt says.
“Huh?”
“You’re a dangerous criminal. I should be scared you might kill me for knowing.” Kurt sits cross legged on the blanket, looking through the eyepiece of his instrument and swinging it towards the stars. After some hesitation, Aurey sits down too.
“Dangerous? We don’t kill people. We steal. We’re not murderers.”
“They said you killed guards when you escaped Feretan prison.”
“That was different! We needed to escape.” Aureylian quickly redirects the conversation. “What are you doing, anyway?”
“This is a telescope,” Kurt says. “Helps me see the stars better.” He notes something down with a quick scribble in a notebook and turns his eye back to the telescope.
“What are you writing things down for?”
“I’m charting the stars. And planets. I want to compile everything I’ve discovered into a book and publish it.”
“Why?”
Kurt chuckles. “Why not? It’s interesting. Well, I find it interesting.”

Aureylian pauses. She has to ask what she wants to know before it’s too late, before she has second thoughts.
“Kurt,” she asks. “Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?” Kurt adjusts his telescope and looks through it.
“What’s the prince like? Is he a good ruler?”
“He’s a quiet fellow. He doesn’t make public appearances much, but the city’s still moving along. Slowly, but it’s still here, as you can see.” He laughs. “The judicial system kind of collapsed a while ago. But I guess the prince is doing a good job, behind the scenes.”
Aurey looks at him curiously. “What’s the prince’s name?”
“Prince Einar, of the Abaddon line. Why do you ask?”
“No reason, just wondering.” Aurey sighs. “Thank you.”

“Hey, M- Aureylian, can I ask you something in return?” Kurt turns from his telescope and looks down at his notes with a sheepish grin.
“Sure.”
“What’s the Grax man’s deal? I mean, I saw his picture on the poster and was confused. Why is he here, in Aextanis? I thought they didn’t leave their islands.”
“Zisteau won’t tell me. He won’t tell anyone. It’s kind of a thing in our group, we just don’t talk about our pasts.”
“Sounds…”
“Weird, yeah, I know. But it suits me just fine.” Aureylian looks up at the stars. They are much brighter out here in the desert, it seems. “I better get going back. Things might fall apart even more.” She laughs quietly.
“Goodbye, Aureylian,” Kurt says. As she stands abruptly to go, he says, “I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

“Thank you.” Aureylian slips off again into the trees, overthinking again as she heads back towards home in the darkness. Everything still feels like it’s falling, but the talk with Kurt somehow made her calmer.

Comments

[ruddiestbubbles]

Still waiting for SMS :3

[scara]

Same, Kurt has been staring at Zisteau's picture though so that's a start :D

[ruddiestbubbles]

It is indeed

[tanadin]

I am currently SCREAMING SOFTLY

[jiminee]

aaaaa

[(Anonymous)]

The tension is real. (::)
-Observing Anon

[scara]

This all feels like a powder keg ready to explode...

Also is sounds like Aureylian is originally from Corax, the whole sixteen years thing; and I'm still getting the strongest suspicion that she is something to do with Corax royalty.

Guessed that Vechs had dated Zisteau a while back, he's a real heart-breaker (or just skilled at getting his heart broken) with his long list of relationships that have ended in tragedy.

Yay for Blame forgiving Vechs, they still love each other \o/

I liked Vechs' suggestion about running away, living on the beach and fishing for a living; not too unlike what I hoped for them at the end of the last chapter ;)

[jiminee]

Powder keg is an apt term.

You're not the only one to theorise the connection with Aureylian, I'll be interested to see your reactions once /things/ happen.

...and may or may not have thrown in Vechs' suggestion bc of your comment c;

[scara]

I await the /things/ to happen and will post accordingly.

Might just be a case of Vechs and I thinking the same, great mind think alike and all that ;)

up to date sadie here

[(Anonymous)]

boop aururt? kaurt?

Re: up to date sadie here

[jiminee]

huh i thought you'd be more interested in other kurt ships sadie
c;

Re: up to date sadie here

[coolboynbg_1]

i know but there is no shown interest for sms in this story yet so no available reason to go after it. Zisty doesnt know kurt yet. I can hope for my SMS delectibles to show up but as of now the aururt kaurt... err that thing seems to be a route.