Topic: A truth's cage...

Emlen Slane

Date: 2013-07-25 05:35 EST
Starring: Clara Mars and Solaris Slane

Beneath heavy boots, the foliage cracked and snapped, hard thumps, rattling the woods themselves, throwing leaf and twig aside. Solaris, in his armor and beneath a red cloak, approached the meeting place. Moonlight slithered through the trees, the night hot but easy without humidity. Solaris found a grand oak, sided his body upon it, crossed his arms and waited, an amused and expectant smile stroking his broad jaw.

Wearing her own cloak of navy blue, the weapon made her way toward the center of the woods. Toward that one open area that was claimed by not either Samalian or Savian. She stepped on to the free territory and sought that red cloak. "...You called me here?" Clara asked, a careful brow rising above its mate as she waited for the explanation.

"I most certainly did, Master Clara," Solaris said, eyes low and big. The man lifts those big eyes and they thinned and lasered straight into the leader of the opposing clan. "I wonder if you have heard from your son recently' I wonder if you are aware of his ineptitude; aware of his idiocy and freelance decision making" I wonder Clara. I. Do. Wonder."

"Been a while since you called me that..." Clara informed him thoughtfully as she picked a tree to lean on. "My son?" She asked, and then those lips twisted up in a smile that displayed sadism at its finest. "What did he do this time?" The weapon asked as one leg kicked over the other and she lengthened her lean.

Solaris slammed the side of his gauntlet into the fine old oak, splintered it and the armored wrist cleaved into the old bark. And following this rare spark of anger from the regal despot, Solaris leaned forward at the woman and hissed, "He invalidated our agreement." A smile comes and Solaris leans against the shattered bark. "Yes. He informed me that he is no longer interested in working with me. You know what that means, Clara." He spoke grimly, directly.

Clara's smirk widened and she pulled the cloak from her eyes, revealing navy blue orbs that were as dangerous as they were beautiful. "Our agreement was that if you fixed Martyr, I'd turn a blind eye to you taking Emlen beneath your filthy little wing..." She bit into her lip. "I did just that, and you held your part....Emlen coming to his senses is not my problem."

Clara's smile widened, Solaris" stayed on its heels, strong and snide. "Those were the particulars." Solaris nods. "Those were the particulars indeed." A groan spins around in his throat, and from that villainous grin, it scuds out and hangs in the thin, hot air. "Let me ask you, Master Clara: do you love them?"

"Your question is a trap, and I do not intend to fall into it....Was there something else you needed, Solaris?" Clara asked, she visibly relaxed against the bark, folding her arms over her chest. Did she love her children" Yes. Did she put them before the needs of the village" No....

Emlen Slane

Date: 2013-07-25 05:43 EST
"Do. You. Love. Them," he queried carefully this time, the man's voice unamused now because impatience had usurped his mostly coy and stoic constitution. "But you are unwilling to answer," he said to the tree. Solaris looked at the tree, perked a brow and spoke to it again. "But, Grand and Ageless Oak, I wonder—-does she think that her children could best me" Should I come for their heads as retribution, would they stand a chance?"

"Do you love them?" Clara turned the question back at them and shrugged. "I love them, yes...but I also have the safety of my people to look out for..." She turned on her heels and faced him. "There was a reason you chose me, Solaris....To take on your spawn....Because you wanted the best. My children would destroy you, and you know that....Why else would you be throwing your temper tantrum' You're scared." Clara shook her head. "I don't know what to tell you...The trade was Emlen, for Martyr....I cannot control the boy."

Solaris shrunk on his springy knees, braced himself against The Grand and Ageless Oak and laughed, full and boisterous. The chortling putters to a stop and Solaris lifts himself back up, eyes down Clara and extends his arms out to the side. "You are a comedian now, Master Clara. I say—-do it to keep morale up" When the Savians come for your scalps, I do pray that they retain their keeper's jokes and crack smiles as their heads are severed from body and soul. To say that I am afraid. Woman: I guffaw." Solaris leans into an almost bow, his chin hoisted so that he could keep his eyes affixed to hers and laughs ornamentally, "Hah—Hah—Hah." He pulls back and severs himself. "I do not fear a being in this realm, Clara, and do not lie to my face and tell me that you believe otherwise. Caia's power is yet untapped—-Emlen is a wash, I would not waste another moment with him. And it is Caia that I shall turn my attentions toward. I will have her, and I will decimate whomever is foolish enough to venture an attempt stop me. Am I being clear?"

"Caia's young, childish....It's true, but she'd never leave her friends....You could dump all the blood from your body into her, and she'd still never attach herself to your heels. Give it up, Solaris. You've lost." The mother informed him and her palm sank into the tree. "You might kill off the entire village, you might cut me down, but you'll never have Caia, and I'll laugh to watch you try.."

"You insult me," he says casually with a wide smile. "You act as if killing off Sama would not prove satisfying enough. I wonder—have you just initiated another deal, Master Clara" The lives of your clansmen in exchange for my vow to leave Caia be? I would gladly accept!?

"You know I can't make that trade...But I'll say this....Caia will be backed by our finest soldiers should you come close to her....I've already sent two to watch over her." The woman mumbled softly, "Caia has bonded with another...She'll reach her prime soon, and you're in over your head."

Emlen Slane

Date: 2013-07-25 05:46 EST
"You and your prophecies. Caia will reach potential through training. Tough and rigorous and painful training. No great warrior ever became as such through a work-out, through a grand, empty prediciton." Solaris lifted one of his fingers, it was sharp and pointy through the golden gauntlet. "Warriors are forged in the fire of tragedy and of loss. They are born again, here. They become greater with no weaknesses tethering them down. For warriors that fight for ideals, for pride: they are whom the world respects and fears. So I shall meet your challenge, take away what tethers her to weakness and refire her soul in the kiln of loss and power. And what ends up on the other side may be stronger than I. But until then, dear Clara, I have nothing to fear. And therefore fear nothing."

Clara's eyes narrowed on him, "Do what you must, say what you must, but Caia will never be yours..." The woman smiled and waved him off. "She would sooner die. I know my daughter. Can you say the same?"

"I know that you do not put her above your ideals and your station. And you know that I feel the same. Perhaps you do not use her, but you are no grand parental unit, Clara. Perhaps Emlen is of use to me yet. What will he say when I mention our "agreement' to him' Will you lie to his face, Clara?" Solaris lifts his brows amusedly. "Hmmm?"

Clara did not falter beneath the weight of his words, she pursed her lips and scoffed. "Emlen has left both our sides, I knew that the day he came to the village on that strange girl's heels....So it matters not."

"Then I may have an ally in Emlen yet. I am quite sure the boy hates me, fairly sure he dislikes you—-but he seems to be the kind of boy that would respect my outgoing dismissal of him over your under-the-table deceit. But we shall see. Even if I can re-enroll him, I do not know what I could use him for." Solaris smiles chipperly, salutes with a fling of a flat hand and steps backwards. The shadows stretch from the backdrop, from the black ground and black sky, as sickles and climb into the hood of his cloak, veiling his face. "I will go after them," he says while backstepping away. "Your entire village could not deter me. So you had better get to thinking, Master Clara. Because should you not approach me soon with a grand offer as retribution, I will take out my frustration on whatever I can. You can use your imagination from there."