PSLs

[bardische]

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[disarming_prince]

"You presume this course of action your queen has been fooled into will win your country any safety. Lady Lunafreya of Tenebrea believed that, were she to abide by the rules her conquerors laid down, she and her people would be safe. And surely we have all heard tell of what happened there."

But those oaths had not been given to her. They had been given to Ravus. Should he behave, should he do what they wish, his sister and his people would be safe. And so Ravus Leonis had been forged into a weapon, and the son of the Nox Fleuret line to be left to be forgotten.

[bardische]

He's quiet at that, pausing at the threshold, weighing if he should keep this to himself or not.

"My home country fell, while others who assimilated quietly kept their autonomy and the lives of their people. Dalmasca has tried to hold it's own on military might thus far. Too many are still dying, and we do not want a generation enmeshed in war. My queen is not a fool, and we will raise arms again if terms are not kept. But we have to try. No one else should go through what Landis or Tenebrea did. No one should have to grow up parentless with only the option of being a soldier."

Basch was a weapon too, or maybe a shield. He'd accepted his fate a long time ago. But he didn't wish it for the youth he trained, or the children he saw on so many streets.

[disarming_prince]

Yes, Ravus was aware of what this particular general was supposed to be like. Who he was supposed to be. What his history was.

"A man such as you, with the history you have, I would think you less willing to play their games. But I see you chose to be tamed by the hand of your new queen. You lack the fire to fight, to protect."

And with that disdainful comment, Ravus settles into his seat as best he can.

[bardische]

Ah well, nothing he hasn't heard before. He isn't the sort of man who needs to defend his pride, so he shrugs. "Perhaps you are right." And then he's gone, mountain a chocobo, and they increase their pace.

It's good riding, and they don't need to slow often. So they go until it's time to camp. He doesn't wake their hostage, though he does peel back the flap once or twice to check if he's awake, and sets food just inside.

He'll take watch, just like any of his men. It's near the end of his shift when the commotion starts, shouting behind him. They've got wards on the camp, of course, so he isn't worried so much as discerning.

Until an enchanted arrow, bright with mage fire, pierces too close to the wagon. That shouldn't have gotten through, and immediately he's calling orders, pressing fast to get to the wagon. They can't lose Ravus, and more important, Ravus is still partly bound, and secured in the caravan. If soemthing happens, he won't have a chance.

[disarming_prince]

Indeed, if something happens he won't have a chance. Ravus wouldn't even care, would he? Sure, fire is a bad way to go, but he had already shown his lack of care as to where his life went from here.

And then the door is being thrown open. Ravus raises an eyebrow.

"Very secure perimeter there."

[bardische]

"You can critique my leadership later. We need to move. Can you ride?"

He's already undoing Ravus's binds. He doesn't want to lose the man, but he wants him dead even less.

[disarming_prince]

"I assure you that I am more than capable of multitasking," Ravus assures the other man. He can critique and ride.

"I can ride. My balance has not suffered enough to not handle a bird. But I will not be able to direct it as easily."

[bardische]

Well, at least he isn't too rattled, if he can quip.

Basch just nods, getting the binds off and offering an arm to help him up. He hadn't meant it as a jibe at balance, only a question of skill and and stamina.

"Your bird will follow mine. We go."

Except an arrow pierces the wagon's side, and immediately the heat of flame blooms.

[disarming_prince]

What is the point of being rattled? There's no value to it. He was battle hardened, so he was not going to be shaken by all of this.

He doesn't even flinch as the arrow lands so close to them. There is a little jolt of something around his hand which had already come to lay on Basch's skin. But it's gone just as fast. Ravus ignores it, ducks low, and tackles Basch right out through the open door of the wagon. There. That gets them outside with minimal burns. You're welcome.

rises from the dead on this one. it sure has been a month

[bardische]

He lets out a startled sound, when Ravus lays something on his skin, and stronger yet when he's tackled out.

He says nothing. Rolls the other man and gets to his own feet while offering a hand up, eyes searching.

The camp is ablaze. It's chaos, and hard to tell who is who. The chocobos are still penned. He'll free them, and they'll leave that way.

"This way," he says, taking Ravus's forearm. "You first. I'll steer." He frees the other chocobos, then gets to his knees, offering laced hands as a step onto the bird.

[disarming_prince]

Getting just short of dragged along to the birds is frustrating, but he supposes there's no point to arguing. And he even swallows his pride at having to get a hand up. Which is clearly kind of him. He mounts up and goes his best to tangle his hand into the reins to stabilize himself a bit more. Surely the man doesn't mean sharing a bird... Surely not.

[bardische]

He can't leave Ravus on his own, not as a prisoner and not when he doesn't know how stable the man's riding is. The latter matters more to him. It's hardly a beat before he swings up behind him, oblivious to their closeness outside putting a stabilizing arm around the other. He scans their attackers, but its fire and chaos, and so he clicks in his throat and kicks lightly, urging the chocobo on. There's a safe house east of here, and they can zigzag through some of the desert.

[disarming_prince]

Ravus is too dignified and proper of a man to yelp in shock over a man mounting up behind him. Wrapping himself around Ravus. Which is a reasonable thing to do when sharing a bird.

Which doesn't help with the fact that there is this strange tingling running over Ravus's skin. He hates it.

"Is this bird even any fast?"

[bardische]

"Faster than we are on foot," Basch grunts, attention on their weak flank and the trajectory of another fire spell. When Ravus does not take the reins, Basch reaches around to grasp them, clicking instructions to the bird while kicking its sides lightly.

The bird breaks into a canter, and Basch instinctively moves his thighs to stabilize the other, like he's a new recruit or a civilian.

[disarming_prince]

That's perhaps true, if the thing was carrying but one person. Who knows if that is true now.

"I still cannot fathom why you are so intent upon my safety," he grumbles as Basch gets the bird moving.

[bardische]

Basch has trained double. He's had to rescue too many people not to.

"You are my charge, and it is not your fault you are here," he says, once again missing that the acerbic tone is how Ravus deals with this situation.

[disarming_prince]

And Ravus, of course, was never expected to do rescue duties. So of course he wasn't trained to ride double.

"Is it not? I traded my life for hers," he says, his voice soft and pensive. If he had resisted... But alas, he had failed her.

[bardische]

"It matters not; you are my charge and I will protect you within my ability."

It was not worth arguing beyond that; he understood sacrificing one's life for someone else's, ad he would be a fool and a hypocrite to try to talk that down. But it did not affect his own duty.

"But I respect your commitment and your obligation. Still, are you not more use to her alive?"

Talking helps. It's a distraction. But he's scanning the horizon, expertly steering the bird in the direction of the safe house.

[disarming_prince]

"One cannot be of use to the dead by being alive," Ravus hisses out as they ride. "And my nation will never forgive me that fact. It is not the sons of the line that matter. It was always the daughters of the Nox Fleuret."

And there, he supposes, is that useless secret out in the air between them. Ravus was no mere general being demanded for a hostage exchange. He was a prince, and perhaps key to control being maintained over Tenebrae. No wonder he was so bitter about being turned over to the nation who had been the death of his mother. She had been no incidental lost in the war by accident, she had been actively executed. And his disdain for the Nilfheim superiors had a lot to do with the loss of a sister, not just a rightful queen.

[bardische]

His grip tightens in sympathy, even as he drives them away from the chaos.

“I am sorry for your loss.” He understood what it was to lose someone to war.

It takes him a moment, busy as he is, to link together the information Ravus has revealed. His own queen has lost family in politics for the throne. It makes his chest ache. He wants to intervene somehow, but — what is the cost when nations are at stake? and what does he know of politics. He is a soldier and nothing more.

Still he finds himself saying, “I am not sure my lady has your side of the story. You should speak with her. If it is advantageous to keep you in our country instead, she will be open to it.”

[disarming_prince]

"No one has my side of the story," Ravus dismisses. "Ravus Nox Fleuret died alongside his mother years ago. To all knowledge, the line died with my sister."

Which was not at all accurate of course. He kept it silent for her. He was willing to be dead for her. And now it would help no one.

"They need me, to put a new puppet in charge. Perhaps to try and force your Queen into a marriage into the empire by using me. There are many reasons to not let me survive this trip."

[bardische]

He may not be a politician but he knows his queen. She must be missing some piece of this; he thinks she would have told him Ravus was a prince, and he knows she does not wish to marry. Someone is playing her.

“Perhaps you could be lost on this trip. A fatality of this ambush.”

But — “Would you know how to disappear?”

It isn’t worth helping him escape if the man is just going to let himself wind up dead.

[disarming_prince]

Someone was playing them all. This is not strange. Ravus knows that the Emperor's advisor, one Ardyn Izunia, was quite cunning. If there was a hand moving pieces it woudl be his.

As for knowing how to disappear, Ravus laughs. Of course he does not know that. He is unarmed, literally in two manners. No, he could not survive out here. But he had already made it quite clear he did not care to.

"Of course I would," he lies, confidently, blatantly.

[bardische]

Basch doesn't believe him. He can't say why, but he feels it deep in his gut. He would need to get word to the Queen, would need to give her time to sort this out, but there were other Guards, and others with a better hand in politics. She trusted him to handle those things that were messy, complex, that she did not need to hear.

He'd already made his decision. He would disappear with Ravus, at least until the other was properly settled. And for that they'd need to get out of this country and the adjacent ones.

"How far can you walk without deep rest?"

Because he's judging when to lose the chocobo, perhaps with false evidence of one or both of their demises attached.

[disarming_prince]

"I am not certain," Ravus admitted. If he had been asked before his injury and capture, he could easily have given a good metric.

But that had been a while ago, and the guards upon him in his captivity had been by no means gentle. Nor his meals full. So he had no good measure of what he was capable of now.