--- TAASEN ---
Taasen listened as his companion dictated her story. Erane made it almost an art as she explained the things that had befallen her. Her voice rose and fell with emotion and intensity that was lost on her audience. But she was vibrant by the end of it, filled with life and feeling.
“-my goal has been to get a master since then, and to do that I have to find my way to the Forge.”
Taasen nodded slowly, “Which institute of learning would you invest your time in?”
By now, Erane seemed to be used to Taasen’s oddly formal way of speaking, which was odd since most people never got used to it. “The school of dancing, or music, I’m not sure yet.”
Taasen frowned, his own discipline being seen by members of his institute as vastly superior to dancing. Taasen also had a grudge against musicians because they had a tendency to read minds. “I see. Well, of those two equally horrible professions, dancing is better.”
Erane brightened, “I am leaning more toward that one. You’re a warrior, right? Could you give me some tips?”
Taasen grimaced, “No.”
“Oh come on, why not? It’ll be fun!”
“I sincerely doubt that. Dancers are…undisciplined.”
Erane frowned, “aren’t they basically the same kind of magic though?”
Taasen was offended at the mere thought, why would she possibly think that?! “Frosts no! They’re like fire and ice!” I’ve never understood this idea. As far as I can tell, warrior magic and performance magic are fundamentally the same. Though I have met a sparking good actor who was actually a musician. Taasen didn’t explain why, but Erane finally stopped prodding him.
She shrugged, focusing on Taasen, “Well, you got my story, what’s yours?”
“I was born and raised in Northern Lekesh, I learned to be a warrior and now I hunt people who have deceit in their blood.”
“Very descriptive.”
“Thank you.”
Erane shook her head slowly and finally glanced at his pack with a frown, “Don’t humans need to eat or something? Sleep? We’ve been walking for quite a while.”
Taasen shrugged, “The sun is still up, and I believe I ate a few weeks ago.”
“...I’m by no means an expert on humans, but I feel like my father ate almost every day, multiple times.”
“And you would most likely be correct, he would have done that as long as he had the food for it.”
Erane glanced at his pack again, it didn’t seem overly full. “Do you not have the food for it? Are you one of those ‘poor’ people I’ve heard about?”
“I have plenty of money.”
“Then why—”
“Frostbite, now I’m getting hungry, that was a new record…” Taasen shook his head mournfully and set down his pack, “The thing about warriors my construct friend, is if we don’t think about something, it’s more likely to not happen. If I don’t think about how high I’m jumping, or how strong my strikes are, then they will simply become more improbable.” He took out a container of dried meat.
Erane blinked at him, “So if you don’t think about not having eaten then you won’t need food?”
“Precisely. Now I’m going to have to ask you not to remind me about food anymore, I don’t have enough here to eat every day for more than a week.” He chewed on the strip of meat, grumbling internally about his broken streak. He could have easily made it to a month or two, now he would have to start over…
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Erane though, determined to be as annoyingly perceptive as possible, had to know more. “What else can you do? I’ve heard about the concept of breaking reality, and I know that's uh…similar to what dancers do.”
Taasen shrugged, wondering how he could explain this without deactivating any of his abilities, he’d no doubt destabilize some of them simply by thinking about their existence… “Art is fundamentally about the artist’s perception, one who is never satisfied with what they make is weaker than a regular person who never learned to create. Some disciplines are about knowing your limits and working around them, and I’ve heard that in Melor Warriors have to know those limits intimately. But here? It’s better if we don’t know what our limits are, or even what our abilities are. On some level I know that things I can do are impossible, but there’s a reason warriors learn to only think in terms of goals.”
Erane thought for a moment, “So basically you can’t tell me because you don’t actually want to know the answer.”
He nodded. “And if you’re going to be a dancer you shall be the same in this aspect.”
“Maybe I…” she trailed off, her eye going wide as she stared off to the side at something.
As a result, Taasen had barely enough time to lunge to the side as something struck him in the side of the neck. He spun around, sword in his hand, his stance ready as he met the eyes of the assassin.
Finally.
Simply react. Taasen lunged toward the attacker, his movements a flurry of swipes and jabs, he had to move faster, he had to be better.
And so he did.
It was nothing like the fight with Erane, and Taasen suspected she would realize by now that he’d been going easy on her as a means of feeling fulfilled at the end of it, but that didn’t matter, all that mattered was destroying this enemy.
Taasen dodged an attack by a hair's breadth, he sliced at the assassin with violence and certainty, getting through the light armor and cutting deep into flesh.
“Did you come from Pamor? Did Selneth send you?!”
The attacker grinned cruelly, and they exchanged another flurry of blows, he managed to slice Taasen across the cheek, but he didn’t have time to gauge the wound, his heart was thumping, his mouth was twisted into a grin, he was speed itself, but he still needed to be faster.
And so he was faster.
“Selneth wants to know how you keep finding our bases!” The attacker shouted, blocking a blow and coming in for his own, his voice was gravely and unpleasant to the ears, “Either that or you get to die today!”
Taasen stabbed him in the shoulder, dancing backwards out of reach before coming in again.
“That isn’t an explanation I would even gift to my closest of allies!” Taasen replied, jumping to the side as the enemy tried to strike, leaving his back exposed. An exposure that Taasen eagerly took advantage of, finally cutting him down.
“Frosts! That poison was—” and then he was silenced forever.
Poison? A voice in the back of Taasen’s mind asked, remembering the pain at his neck before the fight began. No, that wasn’t poison, you can’t be poisoned. At least, he couldn’t be poisoned as long as he believed there was no poison.
And so there was no poison.
Taasen glanced back at Erane, who was watching him with wide eyes, “That was…”
“Impressive? I am well aware.” Taasen plucked the needle out of his neck and flicked it into the woods, poking at the gash on his face too, it wasn’t even that bad. Oh well. He’d be fine in a few days.
Erane knelt beside the body and examined him for a moment before rifling through his pockets. His headless form was disturbing, but she didn’t seem to notice it even as the blood stained the pure white snow.
She examined something that looked vaguely like an identification, “Taasen…I think he was sent by the crown.”
He blinked and took the proffered card, looking it over front and back, ‘royal seal of authority, this man is to be given entrance to anywhere the king would be.’ on the back of the card, not subtle at all, was a job description. ‘Royal assassin, watch your windows.’ Taasen examined it for a moment longer before handing it back, “Apparently so… Perhaps they realized I was going after them next, the deceivers…”
Erane stared at him for a moment and then sighed, “They aren’t going to let me into the Forge if they know I was with you, will they?”
“I… never thought about that possibility, but I have been banned from the forge.”
“Taasen, if the king is after you, and he’s working with this Selneth guy, where the frosts do you think you can possibly go and still be safe?”
Taasen began to rub snow across his blade, cleaning off the blood, “Safety has never really been a concern of mine.”
Erane frowned back down at the body, “You’re literally an idiot.” It sounded like a realization, but Taasen wasn’t quite sure why she thought he might be one.
“I have goals, I work towards those goals. If it means I can’t sleep anymore from assassins, then I’ll simply teach myself how to do that. All I know is that deceivers need to be destroyed.”
Erane continued to stare at the body, for some reason she looked lost.