Tales of the Exalted

The weeks after the ambush had been taxing. Suddenly she was a little girl again and a prisoner in her own home. It made her feel weak and lonely. At first she didn’t think anyone would understand but she realized that there were those that this change had hurt much more deeply than herself and it was selfish of her to be fixated on her own worries.

Callista was patient and as kind to the Death Guard members that watched her as ever. It was clear they had a difficult time viewing her as a threat, especially since none had seen her Exaltation themselves so after a few days most of them relaxed quite a bit. She did realize that going out of her way still might be a touch suspicious so it was nearly a week before she managed to stop Eida’s passing in the hallway.

”Good afternoon, Eida,” she smiled as she felt the essence changing her words so only his ears could hear their real meaning. ”I hope you are finding your new quarters comfortable. The quarters in the east wing are much different from what you are used to aren’t they?” I will be in the Orchard at sundown. She politely waited on his answer before bidding him a good day and moving on with her duties. So far it had been easy to assert that she did not need an escort into the garden, let alone the sacred orchard, not that many of the guards knew how to get in there so now it was only a matter of waiting.

Eida did not think that much could get worse than the treatment and suspicion he already had while he was with Awilix, but since his change, and her absence, it had. Roaming escorts that went with him every time he left the room. Glances that were not just caution, but outright fear. He had hoped someday to be welcomed as an actual member of society, but that vanished with his Warlord's last words. Lately, he had stopped leaving his room entirely, choosing instead to spend his time with the books afforded him, eating his meals at the study desk. The room was decorative and well furnished, something an emissary would be located in during a diplomatic mission, but no matter how it was dressed, it was his cage.

He was returning from the palace library with a dozen new books to replenish his empty stores of entertainment when he walked by the Princess, escorted by her own 'entourage.' While they exchanged pleasantries, she seemed to speak two completely different things, and while her mouth said one, he heard another. With a barely perceptible nod, Eida thanked her for the invitation, hoping she did not need more affirmation. "Thank you, Princess, for concerning yourself with me. Though I do miss my old quarters, the palace affords me some unforeseen advantages." He lifted the stack of books to emphasize his point. "If you do not mind though, I have a long evening, and I expect I will enjoy it." Today was the day he needed to get free of those deathguard, and a long boring night like any other would put their guards down. Now he had to be patient.

The hours ticked by. Eida had gotten restless. he could not concentrate on the numbers and themes of the books he had, he was given an opportunity to talk to someone without the guards glued to his side. He only picked at his meal when it arrived, pretending to be engrossed in a novel at his desk while he worked on a simple cantrip. A small bookmark that turned the pages of the book it was in every couple minutes. Simple, but effective. Anyone listening at the door would hear someone reading at their leisure.

Finally the time came when he needed to leave. Eida set up a couple candles at the desk and put the largest book on his desk. It would be hours before the magic would wear off, and by then hopefully the guard would think him asleep. Standing at his door, the Iron Wolf took a deep breath. Focusing on the world around him, he stepped into the door...and was on the other side. The guards on either side of him were passing the time with idle conversation, and didn't seem to notice he was standing just between them.

Down the hall he continued, not letting out his breath until the last guard nearly walked into him. Now that he was confident in his strength, Eida padded down the corridors silently, eventually coming to the intersections he had met Callista in ages ago. This is what Chanekeh felt as we traveled unseen through the palace. There was a power just in knowing that they would never know you were there, and it made him happy.

The orchard was just as beautiful as he remembered it. Vibrant trees were changing colors with the seasons, and though the fruit was all harvested, signs of the next growth were already visible. Callista was waiting for him not far in, and Eida stepped out in front of her, his shroud falling away as the princess' eyes focused on him.

The sun was hanging low in the sky when Callista decided it was time to take another walk around the place. This was all normal for her and the Death Guards had gotten used to her frequent visits to the garden as well as the adjoining orchard so they were none the wiser that this trip was any different. To her though, it was much different, but she willed her beating heart to slow as she calmly worked her way to the entrance. The princess wondered if she would have been so bold to sneak around before she had exalted but then quickly remembered her last visit with Eida could have been considered so.

Smiling, she quietly bid her guards to wait as they often did when she walked in the garden and they dismissed her as always but this time she could feel her inner fire fueling her words to make sure they did as they were asked. Callista found the ancient gate as easily as ever but now that she was one of the Chosen she could feel that power radiating off of it and the land beyond it calling to her. It moved easier for her when she opened it and walked under the shade of the autumn hued trees now stripped bare of their bounty. She moved around just out of sight of the gate to wait, not that she expected anyone else to approach but she felt cautious anyway.

After a moment she turned and found her breath catching in her throat as Eida seemed to appear out of nowhere like a ghost. ”I am sorry, I didn't mean to act startled, I just didn’t see you there,” she smiled, a warm and welcoming one that reached her heart and even surprised her at its sincerity. The relief she felt being alone with someone she could talk to was immeasurable. Callista offered her hand to him to go deeper into the trees as they had the first time, ”Come, let us walk and you can tell me how you have been.”

"That is fine, Princess, i am certain that the others saw even less than you." Eida took Callista's hand and let her lead him through the orchard that he had come to adore. It was serene and forgiving, a place he wanted to visit on many occasions, but was stopped because of the steadfast Azuma. As they walked deeper, he came across a something that was being grown over. Stopping for just a moment, Eida reached down and picked up his walking stick from the first visit they took, it's gnarled ridges softened with the passed time, and green sprigs sprouting from the meristem. He looked at it in wonder, he had cured the wood himself years ago, but here it was growing like a new sapling.

Leaning on his old tool as they continued, Eida relaxed his guard as they went deeper into the orchard. "There really is not much to say. Our transformation has made things complicated, more so than it used to be, and I worry about the future."

The walking stick’s transformation did not surprise her in the least bit. Everything grew there and everything always found a new life even after being stripped bare when Calibration turned and released them into the frigid season of Air. There was a lesson to be learned here, she was sure but now was not the time for that sort of thing.

By habit or some other force she found herself aiming their path towards the heart of orchard and the ever blooming tree that graced it. ”Yes, some things are more complicated but the future is always uncertain. I am not asking about the politics outside these was thought, I am asking about you, Eida and how you have been feeling,” she said softly as she held onto his hand and turned towards him. Callista did not think it was her place to bring up Awilix directly but she had seen the pain hidden in his eyes when the woman denounced him and ran off. Part of her was jealous at his reliance on the warlord but a large part of her understood because of how she felt towards her surrogate “father”.

The two newborn Exalts walked between the trees as Eida thought about the question she posed to him. A sweet fragrance was on the air when he found the nerve to speak up again, they were close to the Sakura. "Me? My lot has not changed much Callista, I am only under more scrutiny since Warlord Awilix left the Khal's side. It was a little lame, that deflection, but Eida wasn't sure he was ready to address everything he felt.

Every few days he had the urge to just...leave. The Nahuatl warlord had a few haunts she would visit, and when she was vulnerable, there was no way she would explore a new place. There was a good chance he could find her if he put his mind to it. But what if he did find her? Would she leave again? Would she accept him like she did the first time? Would he ever find someone he could follow to the end? His eyes swirled with mixed emotions as he asked himself these questions.

"The question I have though, is your situation." he squeezed her hand as they slowed down, the comfort of another's touch was something he wasn't often afforded. "You have gone through so much, your family looks at you different. How have you been through these days?"

His answer frustrated her because she knew there was much more to it than what he spoke. Callista knew that she could not force him to tell her, or it was more of that she could but had no desire to use any of her newfound talents on him. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them.

”And how do you feel now that your Warlord is gone?” She gently prodded noticing the conflict inside him but was ready to back down if his resistance became stronger. Trust was not something the sorcerer seemed to give freely and she did not know if she had earned enough of it just yet.

Callista shook her head, letting a few locks of dark hair that had been meticulously pinned back and a feathery smile played on her face. ”I am not concerned about myself. I will remain strong and weather the storm, whatever it will be as I always have,” she answered but her own thoughts went over the atrocities they had seen. The people who had died and all of the weight that leaned heavily like an impending flood pushing against the walls she had so carefully constructed. They cannot break you if they cannot get to you. And she ironically thought about Shu Han for a moment and their own unbreakable walls. Callista wondered if this was what was like to be a leader and thought that it was going to be a very lonely road she was embarking on.

Eida stopped and pulled Callista to the side, taking both hands in his for a moment and he stared deep into her doe eyes, giving himself that singular moment to be vulnerable. "What do you want me to say? That I am lonely? I would be lying if I did otherwise. She was my mother, my sister, my lover. She was the reason that I survived, and the only one to see past my brand. I just..." He shut his eyes and took a breath, he had to slow himself down, but his fortress was crumbling without the keystone that kept him stable.
"...I am sorry, this is not a burden you should have to deal with. I will endure."

Callista gazed up into his eternally intense eyes almost pleading him to let her in. And he did. She could feel her own resolve crumble a little at his words, some echoing the feelings she had felt herself and others ones she could not imagine experiencing. ”You do not always have to carry your burdens alone, Eida. I cannot claim to understand how you are feeling but I can listen so you do not have to feel so alone. Awilix cares about you, I do not think she is gone forever,” she said gently as she squeezed his hands. ”And for what it’s worth, I am lonely too,” she sighed, casting her eyes downward. No matter how many people constantly surrounded her, she always had felt and would feel as if she was an island.

"But I do. No matter how i talk about it, it will not change. There is no reason for someone else to emulate my pain. She cared about me. she hates what I have become. Just like the people I knew who hated me when I left to become tlamacazqui. She may come back, but she will not be the same. Not for me."

Callista was baring herself to him, and Eida was at a loss. For so long he was an aid to a warrioress who wore everything on her shoulder and shook it off in a matter of moments. For everything he understood, a woman being vulnerable was new. He stood there, unsure of what the right course of action was, when Jaeda prompted him to say the first thing that came to mind.

"At least we can be lonely together then.'

There was so much sorrow in his words that she wished she could take it all from him. He was a victim of circumstance, just as she was and as far as she could tell he had done nothing to earn the prejudice people held for him. She wish that she could tell him things wouldn’t change, but change was inevitable after what had happened to them. In time, she hoped he could heal and she told herself that she would do what she could to aid him in that.

It was silly and selfish of her to feel alone, let alone put that burden on him when he carried so much already. Callista would have said more and let her words die away especially as he stood there silent but as he spoke anything more she could have said caught in her throat. She didn’t say anything but pulled him closer and wrapped her arms around his waist while she lay her head silently on his shoulder.

Eida had no idea what was going on. He was the one being weak. He was the one collapsing under weight of his world. She wasn't supposed to do this, she had a place in this world. Yet she was so warm. She was so close. There was no ulterior motive hiding there, just a naive innocence that he should be protecting. He was cold and rigid in that moment as his insecurity washed out of him. There has never been a time when he wasn't the strong second for someone else. Then his arms were embracing Callista. He could have blamed the viper, but Eida was not sure if part of this wasn't him. He was allowed to feel, he could afford to let this one person in.