Turn Tail

[Hekatos]

Turn Tail

Harbinger Company Barracks, deme Hinya, Silfanore
75th of Glade, 125th Year of the Age of Steel

Captain Pasiphaë Len'Minoa didn't have an open-door policy, exactly; order and discipline were necessary for a company to work as a tight unit, and Order was holy to her, the gift and the demand of the Allfather. That said, she wanted her people to feel comfortable coming to her with problems. Some, of course, were not hers to deal with.

Nírnaeth's tears, for example, were the result of homesickness. The girl had come from far outside the city and felt out of place, and Pasiphaë had listened and commiserated over tea once, then encouraged her to make friends among the company. It hadn't taken her long to do so, and then she knew her place in the order. She had her people in the city, in the company, to keep her level.

A runner waited at attention across the black marble desk in her office. The captain finished scribing her response, rolled the scroll into an onyx case that clicked, locking shut as she imprinted an identity upon it.

"To High Command," she ordered. The runner saluted, and accepted the case. "And send Len'Lavian in."

"Yes, ser," she replied.

It was a momentous ask—not to let the recruit in nor to run to High Command, but rather what High Command asked of her and her Harbingers.

"The captain is ready for you," the runner said outside the office, holding the door for Thimryl. She almost bounced on the balls of her feet, ready to race.

[Thimryl]

Turn Tail

75th of Glade, Year 125, A.o.S.

➸ It was a decision that didn't come easily to the young elf, as he always wanted to be a soldier of Sol'valen. He knew it was something that he had always dreamed of doing, but given the peace of the realm, he didn't feel of any use, and in that mindset, he knew the best thing for him to do was to travel, to get the restlessness of longing for combat out of his system.

He sat nervously as he was unsure of how this meeting would go, let alone what the captain of his company would think of him. Then again, there would be no reason for him to be as nervous as he was, as his mother and siblings all did the same when the time had come, and it wasn't as if it was a final goodbye or anything like that.

An attendant soon opened the door to her office, signalling him to enter as they left. Entering the room, he smoothed out his clothes as he saluted the commanding officer, knowing that even though this was an exit interview, formalities and decorum still had to be held. "Thimryl Len'Lavian reporting captain." he stated, keeping his stance respectful, awaiting her command to sit.

His nerves couldn't help but return upon entering the room, as this was the first time he had met her in person, only catching glimpses of her here and there. Her presence was imposing despite her frame, but he did his best to keep his nerves from overtaking him. Despite what she may think of him, he knew it was better for him to go and experience the world outside the safety of Sol'valen than become resentful of the lack of action the company was experiencing.

He would return better after this, and be able to be of better service to the realm and company as a whole then. ➸

"Common Speech"
"Mythrasi Speech"
"Self-Thoughts"

[Hekatos]

Turn Tail

Whatever she was working on when he entered, she set it aside. A great deal went into leading a unit, even one as relatively small as the Harbingers. At one hundred soldiers, herself included, it was the precursor to what their Solunarian cousins would call a century, but that was derived from the Vastian they had inherited from their former human masters.

The tide of his nerves was so great as he entered that she had to scale back her Semblance, the which she kept up, surveying her surroundings, in order to be prepared for whatever might come. While they harbored safely behind the ancient wards, that was no excuse to grow soft or rusty. Perhaps it was his nerves that caused that first misstep.

"You requested this meeting, recruit," she reminded him quietly. "You are not reporting for duty."

Filtering out his nerves, she allowed herself to sense the thoughts he hadn't the discipline to keep within, what his mind was shouting out loud for anyone sensate enough to pick up on them. His memory seemed compromised by nerves, too; this was not their first meeting. She had welcomed him personally to the company as she did all her recruits, and while there were other veteran soldiers whose responsibility she made it to oversee training, she was not some absentee leader. After all, with ninety-nine soldiers under her command, it was not difficult to know their faces, their names, and how they performed in training and in missions.

And she trained with them. She had to if she was to lead them.

This was the one who made missteps on ridges and in front of the Hytori elite, the one whose trainers came back to her with mixed reviews. Perhaps it was the fall that had punched holes in his memory, or made him so nervous, so damned nervous that she had to actively filter it out so that her mind didn't take on his anxiety as her own.

Ah.

"Have a seat. Tell me what is on your mind."

[Hekatos]

Review

Captain Len'Minoa listened impassively to Thimryl's explanation, nodded, and had him sign another document whereby he broke his contract. She then undersigned it, witnessing. Once that was in his file, she divested him of the bow, quiver of arrows, and the leather armor that the Harbingers had supplied him with. As he had made the broadsword his pact weapon and she wasn't a cruel woman, it was merely docked from his pay.

Then, she accompanied him to the barracks so he could pack his things. She ordered another soldier to strip his bed and take his linens and his uniforms to be laundered and recycled. Most of those who were in the barracks at that time made themselves scarce, not knowing what he had done to be expelled from their ranks.

At the gates to the Harbingers' headquarters, she wished him good fortune and bade him farewell. Nobody else did, but perhaps someone would seek him out at his parents' home down the Long Walls and into Limánia.

!

Message from: Hekatos

It has been over a month since my last reply, so I am assuming this is another dropped thread. I have wrapped this up and am now reviewing it and closing it. You wrote a little over 400 words, so I'll throw you 3 XP. Please remove the bow and leather armor from your character sheet, and adjust it such that he is living in Limánia with his family (or wherever his journeys take him). Also, please remove Harbingers from his current employment.