The Price of Freedom

[Kysis]

There were times when he was just cold, calloused, could not care for any life but his own.  There were times when it was fun just to go into a person\'s mind and toy with it, tormenting them.  But there were other times, too.  This was one of them.  His mentor had warned him of this.  Eilzair swallowed back the sudden lump in his throat, turning to face her again.  There was guilt on his face.  He might have the naturally evil blood of a dragon pulsing through his veins, but he was mostly human.

He couldn\'t just pull her whole life out from under her and then leave her to sort through the rubble.

"I... there is a place north of Thorrian, where I have relocated.  It... it would be better than here... probably."

Eilzair was afraid his voice had been too hushed to hear, but it seemed like the nature had gotten quieter for a moment to let him be heard.  He could hear birds singing in the distance.  He hated not being sure of himself, his words, of what was going on in his head.  It was like there were two different streams of thought, running parallel, both struggling for control.

"There is an old oak tree in the courtyard that has seen better days."

He had no idea why in the nine hells he just said that.  Yes, there was a struggling three which had seen more glorious days in the past, but did it matter?  It seemed like nature was not meant to thrive in the city setting, but that tree was still fighting desperately for some sort of life where it had been sprouted long before the mansion was built there.

[Existentially Odd]

She tilted her head as she processed his words, believing that he was being as awkward about things as she was feeling.  When his last comment came, she smiled a little at him, believing he was doing his best to offer her solutions that she might like better.  Believing that he knew her common name to be Oakenheel because her family had an affinity for the tree and was trying to make a connection.

Would going to this home he spoke of - which obviously wasn\'t a home so much as a temporary location - be better than the academy?  Suddenly, she was feeling nervous about being in two minds and having no certain plans.  She enjoyed dealing with solid things - swords and arrows, punches and kicks - she\'d never enjoyed being given objects and told chants she didn\'t understand over things that hummed with power that just about had her hand tingling, but she\'d done it because she\'d had no choice.

Now she had one (in a manner of speaking), but still there was no solid path for her to walk.

"So I should collect my things?" she asked, the smile fading in due course.  "And withdraw my enrolment officially?"

[Kysis]

Eilzair nodded slowly, stating a yes when he decided it might not be seen, or read as uncertain.  He was uncertain.  Would his master approve.  His master was dead.  Eilzair would never know.  So, his only answer was yes.  He could not imagine the Academy being better, since that was what Zaruul would have wanted.  Pleasing the dead was not something Eilzair was good at.

"There is a ship departing from here later today."

That was the ship Eilzair planned on taking away from the Academy.  The school was there merely to make more death.  As though the world did not have enough of an excuse already.  Eilzair forced those thoughts away, concentrating on the dilemma at hand.

If they did not want to ever see one another again, the abandoned manor was big enough that if they timed their meals right, they would never run into one another.  If the manor could stand much longer.  No one had lived there in years, and it was falling to ill repair.  It had been an old place to begin with, hard to keep up.  Eilzair remembered the work he had to do on the house just to keep it livable.

"I can wait there...?" Eilzair wondered why he was doing this.  Yes, he had just toppled over the life she knew but... Giving a frustrated sigh, Eilzair did not get his answer.  It would be easiest to fly to the docks, as he did not know the way on foot.  With a rip the wings returned, Eilzair springing up and flying off.  If she did not come, Eilzair would know her answer.

[Existentially Odd]

This time, Teyne\'s head tipped back and she watched him go, admiring the figure he cut against the bright blue sky.  There was certainly something fascinating about those wings.  He was obscured by the canopy soon enough and her head dropped so that she could look at the forest floor instead, blinking to dismiss his image from her light-dazzled eyes.  She wasn\'t surprised to find it burned in there.

She must have stood there for a full minute before she started moving, stepping silently through the forest on feet that appeared one with the foliage, disturbing nothing and leaving only a breeze in her wake.  It was a slight surprise to her, for she was still - for all intents and purposes - thinking the situation through.  Somehow, though, her feet had decided to move of their own accord, defying the logic that was weighing her mind down.

In the end, that was exactly how simple it was.  Despite reservations, suppositions and predictions of trouble to come, nothing that she had in the present was any more certain.  Nothing except the fact that she wanted to change and be able to return to her family one day.  That was all that mattered, and so she allowed her feet to lead her to her room, where she packed everything of importance into her two bags (she happily left the robes behind on her bed) and went to the administration building to withdraw her enrolment at the academy.

When she met Eilzair at the docks a short while later, she thought he looked surprised and pleased.  She knew she\'d at least made it possible for her to figure his reaction out for sure, in the very near future.