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Hakon and His Squire Actually Do Battle
Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 5:14 pm
by Andros
The lion comparison was seeming more and more apt. Hakon crept over to the house, launched himself silently onto the roof like it was nothing, then crouched, waiting to pounce. Ajax waited until Hakon was in place to clamber down off the boulder himself. With shorter legs and less experience, he made a hash of it, slipping and falling to the ground in a tangle of limbs.
He kept his mouth shut, though noise didn’t matter at this point. He wasn’t aiming for stealth, but boldly walking up to the door. Well, boldly perhaps implies a courage Ajax lacked, but he tried to think bold thoughts in any case. The scratches he got on his hands and face lent some authenticity to his story, along with the wine stains. Perhaps that might help.
Ajax knocked on the door firmly, only to be greeted with a dull thud and a sore hand. He’d forgotten that Hakon had guessed it to be stone, painted to look like wood. Hakon had been correct. Ajax cursed under his breath, but still called out politely.
“Sorry to bother you, ma’am.” he said, loud enough to be heard through the door. “I’m searching for a potter and the girl at the store in town sent me here.”
All true, no lies yet. He heard footsteps and then the door opened and there she was, smaller than she’d seemed through the window. Most women in Radenor looked Ajax in the eye, but this one was a full head shorter, with round cheeks, blond curly hair pulled back into a messy bun, and flour on her apron. Every inch of her screamed ‘mother,’ down to the full, attractive figure that even Ajax had to notice, though there was no sign of any children here.
When she opened the door she initially looked suspicious but a quick glance at Ajax put a friendly smile on her face. Mothers were especially vulnerable to the handsome young sheep, even if this woman merely looked the part.
“Aye, I’m a potter. How can I help you lad?”
Ajax put on his saddest face and told his story, this time with a lot more detail. He didn’t hesitate to tell the lies, though perhaps he would have if he’d been a more honest person. He was very aware that Hakon was listening and wanted to show him he could make a real contribution, even in a way Hakon probably found contemptible.
“So you see, ma’am,” he said as he finished his false tale of woe, “if you can’t help me I’m in a lot of trouble. That cartload of wine is worth five years of my wages as an apprentice. My master said if we lose it on my account, he’ll drag me over the border to Daravin and sell me as a slave to pay off the debt. I believe him too. Can you come patch up the jars? The cart is just up the road.”
“Please,” he added in a mournful tone, laying it on rather thick.
She hesitated, but not for long. Brushing the flour off her hands, she sighed. “Yes, very well. Hold on a moment.”
She turned and went into the house, giving Ajax a clear look for the first time. If the exterior was meant to be unobtrusive, the interior gave the game away. It was simply stunning. There was glassware and pottery of the finest quality covering every surface and stacked high in the corners. And there were statues too, so lifelike they seemed about to move. Fell didn’t make statues. He also wasn’t stupid. This woman might as well have hung out a shingle that said “Mage for Hire.” Foolish. Ajax had little sympathy for that.
The mage emerged a moment later with a bucket full of clay slip and a roll, which must have been fresh from the oven because it burned Ajax’s hand when she handed it to him.
“Thank you,” he said as she turned to lock the door. He couldn’t eat, not even to sell his story more effectively. He was too on edge. Hakon would jump at any moment. Ajax took a few steps away, trying to put a little distance between himself and the woman before that happened.
Re: Hakon and His Squire Do Battle
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2023 12:25 am
by Hakon
Ajax made this look so easy. He approached the woman and lured her out of her little fortress without any apparent effort. In minutes, he had her outside, and not looking around besides.
Hakon took advantage of her distraction and leapt upon her from the roof.
The relative mismatch between their sizes ensured she went down easily enough, landing heavily on the bucket she'd been holding. He had been hopeful that he could knock the breath out of her but she managed to twist on her way down, preventing his hand from connecting to the point below her sternum. He brought his hand up in a quick punch, cursing when she again managed to dodge; he'd been going for an uppercut and instead his fist connected with the plane of her jaw. Still unpleasant for her, but not incapacitating.
Then, quick as anything, he felt it: he'd been stabbed. He didn't need to look down to have an approximate idea of what was going on. She'd used the earth from the ground they'd landed on or the bucket of clay or something else she had handy to impale him with something that felt sharp and spiky, like a spear with barbs on it. He didn't hold back a bellow of pain and outrage.
"Witch," he spat, springing to his feet and yanking the shiv out of his belly.
Normally, it was better to leave sharp objects where they were until the battle was done, but when one was fighting against someone who could grab a glass object and move it to and fro with their mind, it was best to get it out or she'd cut him to ribbons. It turned out to be a perfectly cylindrical glass rod with a barbed tip that looked almost like a flower, stained deep crimson with the blood from his gut. The shock was hitting him, and it said the object was almost pretty. He hurled it aside, hitting the big rock he and Ajax had been on earlier so that it shattered. Let her waste her time trying to put it back together, or try to use the individual shards against him.
He conjured up his kite shield. He was going to need some ability to guard against whatever she threw at him, and it would protect the wound in his belly while he stitched it up with the energy in his torch.
"Revenant," she returned.
Hakon's mood soured. She knew his nickname, which meant she knew other rogues, or had heard tale of his exploits such as they were. As if doing one's duty to the Four Kingdoms was a capital offense. He aimed a bolt of lightning at her, which she dodged. He followed that up with a hail of throwing stars, which she deflected in midair with projectiles of her own.
That, he had expected. It was like he'd said to Ajax earlier: keep her off-balance, keep her distracted. Keep her from being able to marshal a proper strategy. Otherwise, she'd level her house and impale him with it.
Re: Hakon and His Squire Actually Do Battle
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2023 1:16 pm
by Andros
It happened so fast. First Hakon jumped on the little woman, eliciting a shriek of panic. For a horrible instant Ajax thought it was all over. Hakon would break the defenseless lady’s neck before she could even say a word. Then things got abruptly much worse. Hakon let out a wounded cry from deep in his throat. Ajax knew that could only mean he was grievously wounded. During their training yesterday Hakon had stayed stoically silent while being severely slashed again and again. He wouldn’t sound like that unless Hildegard had done him real harm.
Hakon caused his shield to appear, separating himself from Hildegard. Now he could repair himself, all well and good, and he used the opportunity to launch a bolt and his throwing stars at the witch while deflecting the objects she hurled at him. But it quickly became apparent that Hakon had underestimated Hildegard. Mud started flowing towards him from all over the sodden ground, faster than mud had any business flowing. Quickly, Hakon was knocked off his feet and covered over by a deepening pile of sludge. Ajax twice saw the corner of the shield pierced up through the mud and then get covered again.
He was so shocked he didn't know what to do. He started to back up without thinking, inching towards the locked door of the cottage. He ought to run but was frozen in place, by fear as much as by loyalty to the man who was currently drowning in mud.
With Hakon occupied and presumably dying, the witch rounded on Ajax, advancing on him and magically flinging small rocks and sticks at him. He put up his hands to block them but was soon cut up on his forearms and face anyway.
“You lied to me, boy. Are you Scarlet Watch?”
“No!” Ajax shouted. “Stop! You’re hurting me! You let Hakon go right now or I’ll…”
He didn’t follow it up. He couldn’t threaten anything. She was smaller than Hakon but her magical abilities made her just as formidable. The lion had attacked a she-wolf and Ajax was a deer caught in the middle.
“You should have let me be. I just wanted to be left alone,” the woman cried as she fling a larger rock into Ajax’s leg.
That stung. Well, both the rock and the words. It was true enough - she hadn’t done anything to deserve the Scarlet Watch coming for her in the first place, but that didn’t matter now. Hakon was trapped and Ajax was toast. It wasn’t like he had a choice in the matter. He pulled out his dagger with a trembling hand and prepared to fight.
Re: Hakon and His Squire Actually Do Battle
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2023 4:30 pm
by Hakon
Hakon was capable of holding his breath for quite a long time. Andros had taught him to swim, but this went back further than that. As a kid in the tower, one of his favorite things to do was go to the baths, get down as far as he could go under the water, and just count. It was quiet, down there, with the water surrounding him. No one could ask him to do anything or be anything. In the midst of his latest confinement, he had found freedom and incidentally developed good lung capacity.
All of that was coming in handy right now because he was being mired, sentient mud crawling in through his nostrils and ears and mouth, plugging up his ability to do anything. His shield helped a bit. It made it difficult for her but he knew that once she had enough of it inside of him she'd use a more formidable ability. Or worse, she'd petrifact him. He had no desire to feel an arm or a leg be turned to stone, especially because her next logical move from there would be to take it apart and use it to shred him.
So he did what he had to do and galvanized the mud she was forcing to cling to him. It let out a static charge that hurt him, but it used up the ether in the area, giving him a second where the mud was just mud. He wasted no time in gaining his feet again, scanning the scene to see what had changed. She had turned away from him, whirling on Ajax and starting to throw stones at him, hurling invective at him.
As for Ajax... he was not exactly exceeding Hakon's low expectations, but he had his dagger out and he hadn't run away. He also wasn't sniveling or cowering. That was something. Overall, between the two of them, it wasn't bad. Hakon had her rattled and Ajax had her distracted.
"I'm just a mother of two, boy," she was saying, correctly inferring that Ajax was the softer of the two of them and incorrectly concluding that he could somehow call Hakon off. "And the Watch have separated me from my family, destroyed my house, and forced me into the mountains. Now, they're trying to kill me!"
Hakon expectorated a ball of mud and took a deep breath of fresh air for the first time in a full minute. He wanted to argue, but that wouldn't help him win the fight. That was the point of tactics like this -- get your opponent thinking about having a dialog instead of winning a battle.
Instead, he hurled a throwing star at the back of her leg. It was his first successful blow. It hit her right in the meatiest part of her thigh. She cried out in pain, and he Revoked it so that the blood would flow, hopefully distracting her further. Then, he conjured up his mace and threw it at her head. He could maintain control of his weapons with magic just as she could with her stones. He rarely bothered, but in this instance, he wanted to make sure it connected, so he allowed himself the extra help.
It missed, but he continued to menace her with it, forcing her to duck, dodge, and weave as he produced another lightning bolt and aimed it for the middle of her back.
Re: Hakon and His Squire Actually Do Battle
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2023 8:20 pm
by Andros
The words shook Ajax. Of course they did. He had no desire to hurt anybody, least of all a defenseless mother. They would stick in his head for later, but at the moment his only concern was Hakon. He could see the mud jerkily rise and fall as he thrashed about under it, but his face never broke the surface. How long could the man hold his breath. Thirty seconds? A minute?
He looked at the witch in desperation. “Let Hakon out, then maybe we can talk it out,” he lied. It was the only thing he could think of.
“He’s a monster. Every free mage knows how much blood is on his hands. He must die. And you too, I think.”
So much for that. Hildegard threw a rock that knocked the wind out of Ajax. He whispered a prayer. Not to his own gods; he had accepted by now that their power didn’t extend to Radenor, though he still made offerings to the sea at Oxentide now and again just in case. No, he prayed to Hakon’s gods, or to the one of them he found less horrifying in any case. Granted, Ajax’s gods were horrifying too - he’d seen them fleetingly with his own eyes- but Jaxkael gave him the willies. Ajax picked Saren. Maybe he would help.
Saren, Empty Defiler, please let Hakon be alive.
And then suddenly, there he was, throwing a star into the back of Hildegard’s leg. Ajax would have to tell Hakon about that later. He’d appreciate it, as Ajax appreciated Hakon’s reappearance. Revenant indeed.
Hakon didn’t stop when the woman cried out and started bleeding. Instead, he hurled a thunderbolt at her that missed its target but knocked her off balance. She staggered forward straight into Ajax. She grabbed onto his shoulder to steady herself and used her other hand to grip at his throat. Naturally, that brought back some past trauma and set him off into a panic. He forgot his training and stabbed his dagger straight into her arm, where it hit the bone and instantly fell out of his hand.
“Idiot,” she shrieked, furious and now bleeding from wounds on two of her limbs. She let go of Ajax’s neck, trying to staunch the blood with her sleeve, and took a step backwards
Re: Hakon and His Squire Actually Do Battle
Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2023 3:55 pm
by Hakon
Ajax had lost his weapon, which wasn't ideal. If Hildegard were thinking straight,she'd whip it out and hurl it back at the lad. Fortunately, though, she seemed more aggrieved than incensed. Hakon had been right about her; she was a runner, not a fighter. The thought galvanized his spirits just as he'd Galvanized the mud she'd been using to try and suffocate him.
He continued to use the mace from afar, getting in a successful glancing blow on her shoulder as she backpedaled. His features stretched into a grim smile. This was promising. He threw more stars at her, blinking them into existence and encircling her with them, orbiting her and slashing at her with no rhyme or reason, forcing her to take superficial wounds or counter them with projectiles. It wasn't going to win the battle, but it would keep her from concentrating enough to Petrifact or Parch him, and that was all he needed. He had no issue using the basic abilities Brand allowed for while moving, walking, and talking.
It was one of the many things he liked about Brand. He was not thankful to the killer who had marked him and put him on this path, but he was thankful that it had been Brand and not any of the other schools as he hurled his kite shield at her. She saw it coming and swore, conjuring up a crude barrier of rock that it bounced off of with a clang. She didn't see the stars come for her back, shredding in to the flesh of her shoulders. The pain caused whatever spell she'd been casting to fizzle; the stones that had been rising from the ground fell back to the earth now that gravity applied to them once more.
"Please," she said to Ajax, switching from threats to entreaties now that things weren't looking good, "call off your dog. He'll kill me, lad, same as he's killed dozens of others. And for what?"
Hakon looked at them and considered his next move. He was almost within distance, but not quite. Hopefully, Ajax could distract her one last time. Then, he'd close in.
Re: Hakon and His Squire Actually Do Battle
Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2023 8:58 pm
by Andros
Hildegard was obviously suffering. She was cut up all over as Hakon slowly bled her to death with his stars. Her resistance was crumbling like the wall of rocks she’d tried to build. Now she was throwing herself on Ajax’s mercy, which was a mistake because it wasn’t his to give. Nor, at this point, would he if he had that power. She’d tried to drown Hakon in mud, and she’d threatened to kill him too. It was her or them. That was very clear.
The best Ajax could do would be to help Hakon make it quick, so as not to prolong her agony. To that end, he pulled up his lying pants and started to spin a tale. First, he made eye contact with Hakon, hoping the mage would follow his lead. Then he looked back at the witch and put on his saddest, most vulnerable face, batting his eyelashes as if he were holding back tears.
“You think I want to work with that brute? He made me come here. He made me lie. He’ll kill me next, when he’s done with you. You have to protect me! He’s a cannibal - he’ll eat us both!”
It didn’t make any sense. Ajax had already made it clear whose side he was on. He was gambling on his charm, and on the fact that the woman was badly wounded and not thinking clearly. And it worked.
She dropped the projectiles she’d been hurling at Hakon and turned away from him. Suddenly fence posts and fallen timber and chunks of stone wall began to fly through the air towards Ajax from all directions. Briefly, he was terrified, but they didn’t hit him. Instead, they spun around him as if he were in the eye of a hurricane, then before his eyes they assembled themselves into a wall. No, not a wall, a small tower surrounding Ajax on all sides, protecting him from anything that might come.
If that wasn’t a good enough distraction, Ajax didn’t know what would do it
Re: Hakon and His Squire Actually Do Battle
Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2023 10:59 pm
by Hakon
Were Hakon the philosophical sort, he may have been struck by how there was strength in Ajax's seeming fragility. Were their roles reversed, he had a feeling that the witch would not have built a barrier for him. People looked at him and assumed he was never the victim, always the perpetrator. Perhaps that thought would have made him melancholy.
Hakon, however, was not inclined to think about such things. Where some would see a koan, he saw an advantage.
With Hildegard distracted, he closed the distance between them and laid his bare hand around the back of her neck, Withering her and healing himself of the rasp in his throat, the fracture in his ribs from the mud bearing down on him and squeezing the air out, the asphyxiation-induced cramps that he felt but kept his body moving to alleviate, and the bruises that were taking root under his skin. As he became invigorated, his smile grew. It was a grim thought, but there was nothing quite like gaining strength from an opponent that wished for his death. Their enervation became a double advantage.
Then, he withdrew his Sunderstrike from the his pocket and drove it into her back, neatly piercing her heart. He couldn't see her face, but she made a surprised noise when he did it, and muttered something. A curse, he thought, though he wasn't entirely sure. He put his free hand around her waist, holding her up in a cruel parody of aid while her body jerked and spasmed. When she stilled, he jerked the Sunderstrike free, then harvested the gleaming yellow stone left behind on the instrument.
Hildegard's lifeless body fell to the ground. Knowing he didn't have much time to waste, he Engulfed all of the vitessence that remained in her, his torch gobbling it up with a voracity that almost concerned him.
"It's done, lad," he called out to Ajax. "You can leave your fortress now, provided you're not worried that you're next," he joked.
It was rare for Hakon to engage in sarcasm, but he was in a good mood. This was an understatement. With the completion of their task, he was positively jubilant.
Re: Hakon and His Squire Actually Do Battle
Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2023 8:08 am
by Andros
When Hakon killed Alecto, Ajax watched, riveted. It filled him with relief and joy and gratitude. This time, not so much. He saw everything through the flimsy wall of brush and rock that surrounded him. He watched Hakon’s big hand choke the life out of the witch and saw him stab her in the back, pull out the sunderstone, then let the body crumple to the ground. Where there had been a living woman making lunch twenty minutes ago, there was now a lifeless corpse.
It was all too much. Not just the fact of death but that Hakon seemed relaxed, even rather pleased with himself, as if he hadn’t stalked and killed a human being with Ajax’s willing connivance. He even cracked a little joke. What had happened was hideous and the man who’d done it was frightening. Ajax pushed a hand through the wall and then kicked it over, then got a good look at the body, still lifelike but twisted in an unnatural way.
Then everything caught up with him all at once. He felt nausea overtake him and before he could do anything about it, he threw up all over Hakon’s shoes. His mouth tasted like ashes and his throat burned. All the cuts and bruises Hildegard had given him hurt at the same time. He was disgusted with Hakon for what he’d done, and with himself for taking part. Tears started to well up and he blinked them away.
Ajax was freaking out and he knew it. He had to get himself together and act like a man. He took some deep breaths and touched his own sunderstone for comfort. They’d done what they set out to do, and he’d conducted himself reasonably well. He’d been instrumental, actually, though he couldn’t be proud of it. Hakon was scaring him out at the moment, yes, but Ajax wasn’t in any danger. Things were going to be alright.
“That was awful. I’m sorry about your shoes. I’ll polish them again later. Let’s give her a decent burial first.”
Re: Hakon and His Squire Actually Do Battle
Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2023 1:43 am
by Hakon
Hakon didn't bother holding in a grunt of displeasure as Ajax vomited on his shoes. His eyes narrowed, but he was mollified by Ajax's promise to clean them. It occurred to him that perhaps, other than the witch in the woods, this may have been the only other violent death Ajax had witnessed. It was odd to think about.
Ajax was younger than him, sure, but even at the lad's age he'd seen his share of corpses and participated in his portion of battles. For that matter, he'd already killed his first man years before then. Hakon looked at Ajax inquisitively. He wondered if the younger man had ever killed anyone, would ever kill anyone. Maybe it was better if he didn't. Andros had asked Hakon to make a man out of his grandson, but Hakon wasn't sure if that meant murdering someone to Andros.
"It gets easier," he said reassuringly.
Ajax gave him a look that suggested that maybe that hadn't been the correct thing to say. Hakon looked back at him, for a beat, unsure of how he'd erred, unsure of what words would be the right ones. He let out a frustrated huff of breath, then pivoted to something more concrete.
"You're hurt," Hakon stated. "I'll heal you."
He had plenty of vitessence, having just absorbed an entire human life almost immediately after she died. He used it now to ease Ajax's cuts, scrapes, and bruises, the white light coming from his lantern wandering over Ajax's body, coalescing around the man's wounds and leaving behind unmarred bone and flesh in its wake.
While he channeled the energy to heal Ajax, he wrenched the lad's dagger out of Hildegard's corpse where it had been buried deep in the bones of her arm. He wiped it clean of blood on the dead woman's dress, then offered it to Ajax.
"You might want to keep hold of this," he said without judgement. Just a simple fact. Daggers are useful. Also, when he'd attempted a joke, Ajax had vomited on his shoes, so maybe Hakon's more customary solemnity was more aligned to what Ajax was looking for. Hakon was unsure either way, but he didn't want Ajax to be mad at him for doing his job.
"We should clean up," Hakon said, feeling the strong pull to head into her house and begin cleaning.
It was something he liked to do when the job was done: tidy up. Part of it was pragmatic, but mostly it was satisfying. So he went into her house in search of her tools. He spent several minutes looking for a shovel before cursing his idiocy. What Divide practitioner would ever have use of a shovel except as a prop? She would just use her magic if she'd ever had need of one, and based on the interior of her house, she had not made much of an attempt to blend in. There were stained glass windows and elaborate carved cornices of the kind that no peasant could possibly afford, More troubling were the two lifelike statues of men screaming in agony that Hakon had a sinking feeling had not always been statues in the large chamber that made up the entirety of the first floor.
Assuming they had been people, though, there was nothing he could do for them. Men didn't survive being completely Petrifacted unless there was someone at hand when it happened to reverse it and someone else to heal them. If these had been men, once, it was far too late for them.
He did find a pile of neatly corded firewood in the kitchen and a hatchet. Finding dry wood at this altitude after such a wet Frost would be a challenge, but Hakon was willing to look around for whatever tree she'd fetched the wood from. Perhaps she'd left a log or two behind to age.
He left the interior toting the hatchet in one hand.
"Couldn't find a shovel," he said by way of explanation, "so I plan to build a pyre. I'll be back with wood. If you want to make yourself useful, you could finish up the lunch she was making. I'm hungry, and I imagine you will be, too, once you get some liquids back in you and you don't feel sick any more."
He winced internally. This didn't sound very compassionate, and Ajax did not seem well. He should try to be mannerly about this.
"Um," he added, thinking hard. "If you need to lie down or something, that's okay, too. She has a nice enough looking bed. Too small for me by a good margin, but I think you'll fit."