Lilian watched as the woman Lorne spoke to left in a hurry. She saw that whatever he said had been gentle, but given that the brawl had clearly nearly put her over the edge. The poor thing. But with those who weren’t involved now safely away from the brawl Lilian was afforded the space to deal with the men who were so deeply involved with themselves that they couldn’t even have a simple conversation. She leaned against the door while they all duked it out. She could see Lorne and Calisto already moving in. She might as well get on with it.
“Alright that’s enough!” She yelled, banging her shield as she spoke. Grunting in frustration as absolutely nothing happened. Lorne snickered at her, only encouraging her as she steeled herself to try again.
This time when she drew in breath to call out over the din there was a veritable thrum of energy coming not only from her, but her armor. Aether flowed from her and suffused into the air around her almost feeling like a physical thing.
“Enough.”
The room fell silent. Men were locked in place as one held the other in choke holds, pins, blows that were about to fall upon their victims stopping dead in their tracks. They watched, waiting with baited breath upon hearing her threat - no her promise. Lilian stepped forward her scowl carved into the very flesh of her being as she took in each and every one of them.
“That is more than enough.” Her tone brooked no argument, and though it was leagues quieter, it was still made of mythril. “This can, and will, be settled without it coming to blows. If you so desperately want this to be ended with a fight then the three of us are more than willing to act as impartial judges in the case of trial by combat.”
No one moved. No one dared to even breathe. Good. Maybe then this will be all over and she can go back to nursing her hangover and sleeping under the shade.
“Lorne, Calisto,” Lilian started, “What do you say about settin’ up just the thing?”
“N-now now,” A man started whose voice simply could not stay steady. “Is there no other way?”
The look that Lilian gave him could have turned him to stone, in fact with how still he grew he very well may have. She considered shoving him to the ground just to see if that was all that was going to take for him to shatter across the floor. Alas as entertaining as that would be she knew that it would only hurt their working relationship.
“I don’t know sir,” Lilian said in a steely tone. “When I got here all I saw was a barroom brawl. Children behave better than this and they fight over less!” Pinching the bridge of her nose she gave the one man in the room who was ostensibly in charge a pointed look. “And you, when we agreed to our mission here we were under the impression that you were going to be more than capable of acting civilized. This. Isn’t. Your. First. Time.”
With each step she drew closer to Ezekiel he slowly started to shake in place, and much like a leaf in the wind he was not going to be able to withstand the gale force winds that were gathering not all that far from him. The magic within her thrumming with passion and rage, promising violence and purification. Slowly Lilian drew her blade and Ezekiel watched as it slowly had flames draw down its edge in golden brilliance.
“This isn’t really needed ma’am” He stammered, struggling to his feet while he desperately tried to look at anything but her burning blade. “Really, we can come to a-a more peaceful resolution? … Please?”
Lilian didn’t show any sign of slowing down, which only made Ezekiel’s stammering worse. When she was close enough to him to smell the fear eaking out of him at an unpleasantly rapid pace her scowl screwed up into an expression of disgust. She loomed over him, mercy a concept she seemed to have left at the tavern. When she spoke again she spoke in a hushed tone, a slow rumble of thunder announcing a particularly hellish storm.
“The peaceful resolution, councilman, is for you to simply give aid to everyone here and take not of any of their possessions. None of their lands, nothing.”
“Madam ple-“ He didn’t even get to finish before she headbutt him. Landing on the floor in a sprawl and groaning softly in pain.
Looking out over the assembled people, she narrowed her eyes at everyone, flaming blade still in hand.
“This? This will not repeat. If me and mine have to come in and break up every fight and start correcting things like this again, y’all are on your own.”
With a flick of her wrist the flames died out and she sheathed her weapon, turning to storm out of the meeting hall. She slammed the door behind her not waiting for either Lorne or Calisto, both of whom seemed more than happy to just let her rage at the jackasses. Stomping into the main hall with balled fists. The fire in her chest raging as a storm, and oh how she wanted it to spill out. To bring that dreaded blaze upon the most ungrateful of people she’s ever had to work with. Taking deep breaths Lilian tried to calm herself, tried to quench that flame.
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Lorne and Calisto were going to be fine to handle whatever she had left in there. They were going to have to, if she stayed in there for a moment longer? Then she was going to thrash someone, or worse. Lorne is more level headed of the two of them at the least. Only the gods knew how many times that he’d said something in that Tone of his and caused Lilian to stop everything she was doing immediately. Calisto on the other hand… it wasn’t that he was hot headed but she was looking forward to hearing about how he did thrash someone because of their ignorance, stubbornness, or their own hotheadedness.
Deep breath’s Lilian, she thought to herself. Deep breaths, remember what happens. Remember what happened. Deep breaths. She repeated this mantra over and over again. The burning warmth in her chest slowly but surely starting to go away, not snuffed out as she would have liked. Gods did she ever wish that it was as simple as pinching a candle. She could still feel the smoldering embers in her chest refusing to die no matter how many times she doused them.
“Excuse me.” A small voice asked her, causing Lilian to look up. It was the woman from last night, “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” Lilian said a little tersely. “I’m just tired of dealing with these people.”
The woman nodded slowly, uncertain. Fearful? Quickly Lilian realized that she might associate her with what happened, especially with what she just did.
“Is there anything I can help you with.” Lilian straightened up, trying to appear approachable. “If its something related to the meeting then I think you’re on your own.”
The mystery woman shook her head. Seeming to think something over. “No, you just seemed like you needed…” She paused, gathering her nerve. “Something nice, away from all this.” She gestured back at the meeting room where Lorne and Calisto were more than likely handling things just fine. “And, and for helping me last night.”
Lilian blinked, she didn’t expect her to come around like that. “Oh,” She started, “Then lead on I suppose.”
Nervously the woman nodded her head and took off. Well took off was a bit of a misnomer, but the way she moved was not that dissimilar from a prey animal. A rabbit in human…ish shape. Lilian could almost see the way that her proverbial ear were swiveling back and forth to watch for threats. Even walking along next to her Lilian could nearly feel how tense her body was, coiled tightly around itself threatening to break.
“Oh, um, my name’s Pyra.”
“Lilian, or Lilian The Dawnblade if you wanna be fancy.” She smiled back at Pyra.
Pyra looked up at her from under her hood, small whisps of silver hair delicately hanging out from it. She could see scars along her cheekbones as well, and the beginnings of scales once again trying to grow in. She knew the signs from when she saw it, that smoldering ember of heartflame that she herself had. That she herself hid away from the others, she was The Dawnblade after all.
“How long are you planning on staying?”
“Not long, just until the town is on the road and then we’ll take our leave as well.” When Pyra looked at her curiously she continued. “We were going to help guide them to their usual evacuation spot, but with today and some of the other things I’ve seen today, what the council expects us to do for them? I’m just going to follow the contract to the letter. And we only signed on to be here until they themselves started to travel.”
“Oh.” Pyra sounded, almost dejected at the thought.
“You’re free to come with us if you wanted to, I’d, obviously have to talk to Lorne and Calisto about it but if you wanna leave I don’t think they’d object to taking you away.”
There was a pause, and then silence. Lilian turned to see that Pyra had stopped walking, her hand over her chest with wide eyes.
“Is that a problem ma’am?”
Hurriedly she shook her head, shock plastered all over her face as if someone had thrown a water balloon. “Not at all!” Pyra said a little too fast.
But Lilian knew that look in her eye, the slight tremble in her hands. That rabbit that still looked for any kind of path out, always on alert for danger. She couldn’t in good conscious force her to do anything, if there was nothing for her here but no path out with them then the conversation was effectively over. She didn’t feel like dying on this hill, and it didn’t seem like Pyra had any interest in even approaching it either.
“You’ve time to make your choice,” Lilian waved it off. “Have until the day we leave to make up your mind.”
Her words seemed to bring a wave of relief to Pyra, washing over her like a spring breeze. Her shoulders relaxed and she lost some of the anxiety that seemed to permeate her very being. Lilian couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. Some people were just far too wound up for their own good. There wasn’t anything for her to do about it, but she would at least offer a open hand to her. If she can’t get over herself in time to take it, then it would be on her. Taking her would only make it worse, make the old pain feel like bliss compared to the new.
“It shouldn’t be long.” Pyra said, breaking Lilian from her reverie. “I-I would bring you to my home but…”
“But?”
“But its a day’s walk.”
“Ah.” Lilian tapped her cheek in thought, looking around as she followed Pyra for something she could ‘borrow’ to at least keep up on the trip “Well, I doubt that I could ride with you, I can always borrow someone’s-“
“I didn’t ride here.” Pyra quickly interrupted, her cheeks turning a scarlet that made Lilian’s gaze linger. “I walked.”
“Oh.” And then it sank in. “Oh you were being serious.”
Pyra’s scarlet face only deepened. “I can’t afford a horse.” She said a little tersely, but tensed when she realized her tone but Lilian only waved it off.
“Its fine darlin’ we can walk just as fast as them horses. Just don’t expect me to carry nothing understand?”
She had meant it as a joke, but Lilian’s heart sank when she saw Pyra obediently nodding to her. Taking what she had said purely at face value. It was probably too late to go back on it now. She took another breath, the smoldering embers in her chest slowly starting to become manageable. Lilian looked at Pyra for a long while. Really taking her in. The moment lasted long enough for a dragon to have found its rider, and so she offered her a smile.
“I suppose we should get to walking then hm?”