#altosk

The quiet echo of porcelain against porcelain as teacup and saucer met the table below was a subtle gesture; one Alexei hoped might lure Damuron from his trance and out of that stiff and worn down infirmary bed, and instead to the small side table atop which sat tea and pastries Alexei hoped the other could manage to stomach.

It had been far too long since his last meal. No doubt, a part of Alexei worried the other intended to starve himself to death; yet the fact remained that Damuron had ample opportunity to take his own life in the days up until now, and never did. It was enough to convince Alexei that the other had at least some will to live.

There was an added relief in knowing he now held onto the device in direct control of Damuron’s life, convinced that it was less likely he’d walk through that door to find him lying there dead a second time, but he wasn’t so foolish to believe he was out of the woods just yet.

No. Alexei really had no idea what might still happen.

He sympathized with Damuron’s plight, but it wasn’t enough to merely guess how he felt. Having not experienced the same loss firsthand, he found it difficult to conceive exactly what emotions he must be experiencing. Even now he still struggled to get a gauge on the other’s mental state.

Some days Damuron would leave the infirmary out of the blue without a single word of warning, opting to stroll aimlessly about the castle multiple times a day, yet still speaking a word to no one. Other days, he refused to leave his bed at all, simply sitting there, wasting away like an empty husk. Today, quite clearly, fell into the latter.

Never before had Alexei found it so difficult to speak.

For a man of Alexei’s stature, silence would normally serve as a most welcome comrade. With it came the ease to focus, regardless of the task, whether it be an onslaught of paperwork or the meticulous planning before a meeting. Even outside of work, silence would serve to calm his nerves and help him to recharge. It had always been a peace he enjoyed; but silence felt much heavier these days.

Each moment would only lead him to question himself further.

Was he misguided in believing he could truly bring back the dead?

Was it even the right thing to do?

Perhaps it was simply torture.

Damuron claimed he did not resent him for his choices, yet Alexei found himself wondering if he even deserved such solace. Damuron may truly have been better off dead. He was alive now only because of Alexei’s own selfishness, yet still Alexei sat here, convinced that he might be able to rest easier, were Damuron to take even one small bite of food.

He needed that small victory.

“I won’t force you,” Alexei compelled himself to break through the silence at last, gesturing to the tea and pastries before him.

When it happened, Yuri didn't have any time to think. His instinct just knew Raven had brought him and Alexei here together for a reason. That the man was trying to mend things between them. Truth was, Yuri had never hated Alexei before everything that happened on that journey. He had been hoping Alexei would turn out to be reasonable when he'd met him personally at Heliord. He had been angry when he was proven wrong, but... also disappointed.

And he knew Raven still respected what Alexei had once been. He had made that clear at Heracles. He had made it clear when he'd saved Alexei from being crushed under the debris of that core. Part of him had been confused and maybe a little angry that Raven had done that that day, but... he knew for a fact if Flynn hadn't recovered and had lost himself for a while that Yuri would never have let him be crushed either. Plus, at the time... Yuri didn't have time to think about it before he fell from Zaude's edge.

That was probably why he had moved so fast when he recognized the intent the soldier had. The way the soldier pulled out a knife and went straight for Alexei. Probably a bout of revenge. It could have any kind of revenge, really. General revenge for what Alexei had done, anger at being betrayed, possibly having lost a loved one because of Alexei... and Yuri didn't not understand that, but stabbing the man now after he'd made it a point that he felt like shit about it and wanted to atone made it pointless.

If it was Ragou he would have understood. If it was Cumore he would have understood. They had no remorse. Yuri could tell in their final moments that they immediately caved and reverted right back to being the selfish scum they always were. If Alexei was truly pained by his actions all amounting to nothing and was truly trying to better himself, he wasn't someone they could just stab now and say it had to be done. It wasn't that simple at this point.

And if Alexei died now, Raven wouldn't take it well. Raven had been through enough. Lost enough. Almost lost his own life. Yuri wasn't interested in seeing Raven have to grieve more than the story his eyes already told Yuri. More than the way his eyes looked that day at the bridge in Dahngrest in the middle of the night.

For a second or two, the knight that had stabbed Yuri by mistake hadn't realized that mistake. Hadn't yet processed that Yuri had shielded Alexei and had taken the knife in his place. It was enough time for one of the two of them to act where Yuri couldn't. Even if the man's face clearly registered a mistake afterward, he had still attempted to kill an atoning man that even the emperor himself had agreed would be given time to atone.

"One of you grab him!"

"Seems like a perfectly reasonable time to me!" Cyra growled in response to his observation. "Please! I can't swim!"

She had found herself clinging for dear life on the creaking branch that hung dangerously close to snapping and sending he healer into the river. It was a mistake to try and climb the dead tree. Though, she assumed that her small stature would have granted her some safety while in her quest to gather the rare mushroom that grew on the ends of the decaying branches. It was an opportunity she thought she couldn't afford to miss.

Even though her prize had been located over the rushing water, she still thought it a wonderful idea to pursue the samples for her collection. Yet, it was her severe misfortune and miscalculation that she guessed her weight wouldn't have been enough to put her at risk of taking an unwanted swim.

Flynn didn’t even hear him appear. Didn’t even sense him. He supposed it was understandable. Captain Schwann– (No, not Schwann. Not anymore, at least.) Raven had a tendency of just appearing where he was needed. For a man who seemed to be the type to act out and be as loud as the rest of his companions back when they had traveled together, Flynn quickly noticed that the man was quiet, almost silent, when he needed to be.

When Raven appeared almost as if from nowhere, Flynn had been a bit startled by his appearance. The guild member that had decided to try and interrogate Flynn on his presence in the city had been rather relentless and Flynn had just been thinking about how he would have rather been literally anywhere else other than here. 

Thankfully, Raven’s skill at reading people seemed to be rather top notch. Just to be expected from the man that worked under both the Don and Alexei, when they were alive. When Raven very quickly swooped in and distracted the guild member, Flynn only had to take one look at Raven to get the message.

Without a word, he very quickly left the scene, sighing only when he stepped outside of the building. As he breathed in a lungful of fresh air, he couldn’t help but feel bad about leaving Raven to deal with his own problem but they both knew that Flynn wasn’t going to get out of there so easily without  a bit of outside help. 

It was probably not the wisest idea to stick around but Flynn couldn’t help himself. He didn’t crowd the building, of course, but he still waited as long as he could until he saw the familiar man in the purple robe leave the headquarters some time later.  “Capta–” Flynn stopped himself again, very quickly biting his tongue to stop the old title from escaping. ‘Not Captain Schwann.’ He reminded himself.

Masks... Nazamil wasn't sure how she felt about the idea of everyone wearing masks at the festival, if she was being honest with herself. She'd taken hers, of course, and did think it was cute to some degree, but but there was still something a little uncomfortable about the idea. So, there she was, wandering about the festival with mask in hand and heterochromatic eyes fixed on it.

It's not like the prime mask, Nazamil told herself. It wouldn't have the power to alter anyone's thought process. Still... she wished she knew how to feel about it. Maybe she could just put it in her room at the inn and forget about it. Or maybe, she told herself, she should just put it on and try to have fun.

Right as the thought crossed her mind, though, she lifted her head and saw someone in her path. A soft gasp escaped her. Instead of turning invisible like she was want to do, though, Nazamil simply took a couple of steps back.

"Sorry! I... I almost... I didn't see you, sorry," Nazamil finally managed to say. She'd never seen Raven before. He probably had been at the festival for a bit by then, but she just hadn't paid attention. In fairness, she and her new friend had been preoccupied with the stamp booklets recently. Of course she wouldn't know who everyone there was. Still, it was a little embarrassing to nearly bump into someone around all these booths and things.

Emily had been doing her normal routine down in the Lower Quarter. Asking if she can help, and Hank and some other's politely refusing. Mainly because they didn't want to seem like they were using her. But what good was money when she couldn't help when she wanted?!

Granted, she was the only noble in the Royal Quarter to think this way. Her father having better success now that he can openly trade with the Guild's and selling off business ventures after showing the new owner what to do to sell, buy and if things go wrong. So while her parents were busy doing that, Emily upkept their house, her harp and her massove book collection. And when that was done? She had a lot left over why not help those who need helping?

Things had gotten better thankfully. The Schwann brigade helps out and helps find new recuits. She has donated to helping fix up the Lower Quarter.

"I come here twice a week to help out." She held her hand out to help the strange man up.

@altosk

“Oh, is that so?” 

He hadn’t really been expecting Raven of all people to try and get Yuri to open up to him. He wasn’t sure if this meant that the obviously secretive and suspicious old man was beginning to open up to them more as a group or if it meant that Yuri was handling this whole thing worse than he thought, to the point where the old man felt that he had no choice but to reach out and check on him.

After all, committing a murder, no matter how justified it was and no matter how much he didn’t regret it, was still clearly taking its toll on the younger man. Accepting the fact that he had taken the life of an unarmed man was a heavy burden but it was one that Yuri was intending on taking on by himself. 

And he had been doing plenty to distract himself by putting all of his effort in creating Brave Vesperia with Karol and Judith but then there were some nights, like tonight, where Yuri’s mind wandered. Where he couldn’t get even a wink of sleep because of it. He had never been that great at sleeping lately anyway but now it was just getting ridiculous.

Usually, a walk calmed his nerves and Nordopolica was a huge city. It had plenty of ground to cover and that gave Yuri plenty of time to either clear his head or exhaust himself to the point where he didn’t have to worry about any of the thoughts plaguing his head. He had noticed that Raven was absent from the inn room too, but he figured he was just off doing things for his own guild. Maybe to try and pull some strings into seeing this Belius earlier rather than later. 

Whether Raven sought him out or just randomly stumbled across him, Yuri didn’t know. But now, here he was asking how he was holding up. Yuri had shrugged him off but Raven seemed pretty intent on not letting it go. Almost like he knew something was bugging Yuri. It wasn’t like Yuri wasn’t being too secretive about his lack of sleep. But he at least didn’t want Estelle or Karol to worry too much.

There’s a slight laugh hidden in Yuri’s tone as rolls his eyes. “You being a good person or not has nothing to do with it, old man. I just can’t sleep. That’s all. I hope you weren't planning on offering a shoulder to cry on or anything because I’m not that interested and it's not that deep. Sorry.”