As befitting a guard-captain, T’Bren couples natural ability with a strict dedication to her craft. Her long hours of training in many disciplines make her a versatile, formidable foe - however, she treats the taking of a life very seriously, and will do everything in her power to avoid it if possible.
Karatek:
Raw power: ★★
Formal Training: ★★★
Combat experience: ★
Willingness to kill: ★
Previous victims: -
Karatek pursued martial training so that he could better protect his Charge once he found it, and while he’s picked up enough to hold his own in a fight, his natural aptitude for combat isn’t great. He chooses to avoid fights when possible, and while he thinks he could kill to protect his Charge, he’s never been tested on that belief.
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Karatek blinked numbly down at his hands, folded neatly in his lap. They were still grubby from his travels, and he rubbed them restlessly on the hem of his tunic, only succeeding in smudging the dirt over the fabric as well.
Someone must have led him from the infirmary, because he was outside now, that same hot sun beating down like it had for so much of his journey here. Except now, he didn’t feel that urgent and exciting pull - just a weird hollowness, and the hopeless need to somehow fill it.
A hand dropped onto his shoulder and he startled, blinking up through the harsh sunlight at Teknat.
“How are you?” he asked gently, easing himself to sit on the stoop next to Karatek.
“I’m -“ Karatek started, then shrugged. “I don’t know. Is he - what happened to him?” he asked helplessly.
Teknat sighed. “Anauk is… not well.”
“So he’s sick?” Karatek asked. “Can something be done? A cure, or a treatment…”
Teknat shook his head. “He’s healthy enough in body, though he’s certainly not eating or drinking as much as he should be. I’m afraid it’s more difficult than that.” He frowned. “From the beginning, I think, is the only way…”
Teknat still looked uncertain, and Karatek nodded, leaning forward. “Tell me.”
The healer nodded slowly. “All right. Okay. Anauk… when he came here, he wasn’t a pearlcatcher. He was a guardian, like you.”
“What?” Karatek said, and Teknat quickly raised a hand to forestall him.
“Please, let me finish. He was drawn here, like you were - he got through the sandstorms somehow, we’re still not sure how. Except his charge wasn’t one of us, it was our oasis. You have to understand,” Teknat said pleadingly, “that’s our only fresh water for miles. Our only place to fish, for an entire clan. We need it to survive here.”
“So?” Karatek said desperately. “It should’ve been perfect! Anauk would protect it for you, right?”
“Yes, well,” Teknat said, smiling humorlessly, “He’d - been alone, we think, for some time. Maybe his entire life. He was all instinct, you see, and he thought he had to protect the oasis from us.”
“What?” Karatek breathed. “What - what do you mean?”
“He attacked our fisher, when he came out one morning with his nets,” Teknat said, voice gone startlingly cold. “It was so early - hardly anyone was about, and he was half-dead by the time the guard could get Anauk off of him. And he just wouldn’t stop - struggling, fighting, if someone held him down he’d hurt them and if we tied him or caged him he’d hurt himself trying to get free. We didn’t know what else to do,” he said shakily.
“So you took his charge from him,” Karatek said, horrified. “You made him a pearlcatcher and - and now he’s like this.” He pressed a hand over his mouth as Teknat nodded, not meeting his eyes.
“Hey,” Karatek said quietly, easing the infirmary door closed behind him. Teknat had assured him he was welcome in his and Inara’s home so long as Anauk was here - the least he could do, Karatek thought. “Anauk? Are you awake?”
The Anauk-shaped lump on the far bed rose, then fell, accompanied by a gusty sigh but no words.
“Do you mind if I come in?”
That same carrying sigh, and then his rusty voice. “Could I stop you?”
Karatek faltered. “Well - yes? I can go, if that’s what you want?”
Anauk shifted enough for one baleful green eye to peek over his shoulder. “What I want,” he repeated flatly.
“Yeah?” Karatek ventured, when he didn’t continue. “I want what you want. What would make you happy,” he said, quirking a half-smile, though it felt more like a painful grimace under that cold stare.
“Then you should know that what I want is to be left alone,” Anauk said. Karatek nodded, biting his lip as he turned back to the door. He didn’t know what he’d do if his Charge didn’t want him near, but surely he could stay close by, check in occasionally - Anauk cleared his throat, and he halted.
“You think I can be alone here?” Anauk said, extricating a hand from the blankets to gesture around the infirmary. “Teknat and Inara both coming in and out at all hours, hovering, with all their guilt and shame -” he scowled. “I hate it.”
“They won’t let you leave?” Karatek asked, eyes wide.
Anauk snorted. “Apparently there are concerns that I can’t take care of myself. Won’t take care of myself,” he corrected himself, with a harsh laugh that turned into a rattling cough.
Karatek took a few hesitant steps closer. “…wouldn’t you?”
“Who knows,” Anauk said. “Now either get me out of here or get out.” He rolled back over, effectively ending the conversation.
“Not what I had in mind,” Anauk growled, and Karatek flinched, rubbing the back of his neck.
“You didn’t really specify…” he started, only to be silenced by Anauk’s glare.
“I specified alone,” he said shortly. “I thought even you would be able to understand an instruction that simple.” Even leaning heavily on a borrowed cane, squinting up at Karatek against the sunlight outside that he likely hadn’t seen in weeks, he was formidable.
“Inara and Teknat thought it’d be good for you,” Karatek said weakly.
“And we know how highly I value the opinions of anyone in this clan,” Anauk said, voice drier than the desert around them.
“This is the only way they’d let you go!” Karatek said. “You’re not taking care of yourself! Someone has to!”
“I didn’t ask you to!” Anauk snarled.
“And I didn’t ask for this either!” Karatek said. This, of all things, left Anauk speechless. Karatek quickly took advantage of his silence. “Look, I wasn’t lying to you. I’ll leave you alone as much as you need, but I’ve also promised to make sure you eat and maybe see the sun once in a while, okay?”
Karatek’s chest heaved with the force of his outburst, but he deflated quickly when Anauk stayed quiet. “Anauk?”
“Fine,” he said, hands clenched on the cane and eyes downcast. “Fine. Where are… we… living?”
@dragonknightmidnight i believe you asked for a ping?
Shielding his face against the hot desert wind, Karatek pressed onward, following the urgent pounding in his blood - well, it had been urgent when it began weeks ago, but now it has dulled into a strange normalcy. A threat, imminent yet enduring, a call for protection only he could provide - that’s your charge, his mother had told him, and sent him to follow the call with her blessing.
He felt close now, so close, but this storm - he pressed into it, airborne sand burning his exposed skin, but it was as if he shoved his face into a solid wall. Feet slipping in sand, eyes held shut against the storm, he couldn’t tell if he made any progress at all.
Nonetheless, he pushed forward, nothing but the howling wind in his ears.
And the discordant sound of a low laugh.
“Who’s there?” he called, then coughed on his mouthful of sand.
“You’re awful persistent, aren’t you,” the voice came again, soft and lazy. “I shouldn’t, really, but… oh well. I can put it back in a minute.”
With all the suddenness of a lightning strike, the storm died. Karatek flailed as the resistance he’d been working against disappeared, and he fell to his knees in the settling sand.
“Woah now, careful there,” someone said, and Karatek blinked grit from his eyes to see a hand extended towards him. He took it, clambering to his feet.
“Who are you?” he asked. His rescuer had hair and skin the same dusty gold of the desert around them, though whether that was their natural color or simply a result of the clinging sand he couldn’t tell.
“Just a humble Wind mage,” he said, crooking a smile as he leaned on a gnarled wooden staff.
Karatek squinted. “So you - that storm…”
The mage gave an indolent salute. “I like my privacy, y’know how it is.”
“We’re in the middle of a desert,” Karatek protested. He just smiled and shrugged.
“That we are, that we are. So what’re you doing out this way?”
Karatek straightened up, eyes bright. “I’m searching for my charge! I know it’s near, I can feel it - I’m so close. Could you keep the storm away while I pass through?”
The mage readjusted his stance, eyes flicking to the side. “Your charge, huh. And about how accurate is that little homing beacon of yours?”
Karatek shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know, it’s kind of my first charge,” he joked.
He didn’t laugh. “Gimme a wild guesstimate.”
“Well… that way,” Karatek said, gesturing in front of him. The mage sighed, and let his head fall down to thunk loudly against the top of his staff. Karatek looked on in concern but didn’t know what else to say.
“Okay,” the mage said, a little muffled from behind the fall of his hair. “I’m gonna ask you to do something, and I’m gonna need you not to ask questions, okay? This isn’t really in my purview, is the thing, but I do wanna help if I can.”
“Yes, anything,” Karatek said eagerly.
“Good,” the mage said. “I need you to stay right here. Don’t move, just sit your butt down and wait for me to come back.”
“You’ll be back soon, though, right?” Karatek asked nervously. The sun here was blazing, and he hadn’t much water left at all.
The mage looked up at him, then the sky, then back at him. “Soon enough. I mean, if I’m not back by nightfall, I’d continue on your way. Who knows, you might be headed past…” he mumbled, then turned away. The storm whipped back into existence right behind him, and Karatek stumbled back in surprise.
“Hey, wait -“ he called, then subsided as he realized the mage was probably beyond hearing already. With nothing else to do, he lowered himself to the hot sand, tugged his shirt over his head to shield it from the sun, and waited.
Despite his worrying mention of nightfall, the mage returned before too long, the storm parting before him with two others in tow. Karatek blinked to see the newcomers, both of them in golden armor that gleamed harshly in the sun.
“Alieth tells us you’re searching for your charge,” the woman said, and Karatek nervously noted her hand resting casually on the hilt of her sword. She certainly looked like she knew how to use it, with muscular arms tanned by the sun and laced with the odd scar.
“Yes ma’am,” he said, struggling to his feet as they slipped through the sand. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“I’m sure you don’t,” she said, firm but gentle. “And we hardly do either. Our clan lives in the direction you travel, and we need our sanctuary to remain intact. Do you understand?”
Karatek hesitated, but ventured, “Honestly, no… will you let me pass, or…?”
She sighed. “I’m sorry, I was unclear. We’ll lead you around our clan, and if you’re pulled towards our settlement regardless - well, we do welcome any who wish to live here, if you’d be willing to live according to our laws.”
“I need to be with my charge,” Karatek said firmly. “If it’s in your clan then I need to be too.”
“All right, then,” she said. “My name is T’Bren, this is Vaikarik, and you already know Alieth - though he probably won’t be joining us.”
“Absolutely not,” Alieth said brightly. “I’ve already walked more today than I do in a week, usually. Good luck, and all that,” he said, and Karatek laughed and nodded as they left him behind.
His two new shining companions spoke little, guiding him onto paths that were marked only by occasional footprints. Alieth’s storms were nowhere to be found, only the faint whistling of the winds in the distance.
It felt like it had been hours under the hot sun when he came to a halt, T’Bren and Vaikarik quickly looking to him. “It feels -” he started awkwardly, then huffed. “We’ve gone too far. I need to go that way,” he pleaded, pointing in the one direction they’d unerringly steered him away from.
T’Bren sighed again but seemed unsurprised, nodding and turning in the direction he’d indicated. “To the clan it is, then.” Vaikarik looked ready to protest, but she shut him down with a glance.
Karatek hardly cared. Finally he felt as if his charge was within reach, and it brought back all the urgency he’d felt in the first days of his Search.
Soon, pale stone walls appeared in the distance, and Karatek wondered how he hadn’t seen any indication of them before now.
“Welcome to Shi’Kahr,” T’Bren said, and Karatek nodded, barely listening. So close.
If pressed, he doubted he could recall much of anything about his first journey through the city. Through an arched gate, left wide open, down a wide street, buildings in various states of gleaming decadence and disrepair… the only thing that stood out was the few wary faces that watched his progress. Because he was flanked by two guards? Or maybe any outsider was a novelty here.
He sped up as he approached one building, brightly colored curtains hanging in its open windows and a bold red cross painted on the door.
“Seriously?” Vaikarik whispered, and T’Bren quickly shushed him.
“What d’you mean?” Karatek asked distractedly. He kept walking until a firm hand landed on his chest, holding him back.
“Ah-ah,” T’Bren said. “It’s rude to just walk into someone’s home, you know.”
“Right,” Karatek said, embarrassed. “Sorry.”
She nodded, and clapped his shoulder. “Wait here. I’ll talk to Teknat and Inara.” She walked to the door and rapped her knuckles against it, the door opening promptly to reveal a tall, bespectacled man, the doorframe barely high enough to accommodate his antlers.
“T’Bren?” he asked. “Is something wrong?”
“No, don’t worry,” T’Bren said, then explained Karatek’s situation.
Teknat seemed oddly cautious. “And he’s sure… here?” His eyes flicked to Karatek, and the guardian straightened quickly.
“Karatek,” T’Bren called, motioning him forward. He hastened to the door, Vaikarik on his heels.
“Please,” he said, staring unblinking into Teknat’s wary gold eyes. He didn’t know how else to communicate the urge, the need he felt to come inside.
The imperial slumped, opening the door wide and stepping back to let them in. Karatek bounded forward, looking around the house. There was a long, high table across the room, shelves filled with neatly labeled bottles and jars and rolls of bandages.
“You’re… a healer?” Karatek asked, and Teknat nodded, closing the door gently behind the guards.
“My wife and I,” he said. “Our quarters are there,” he nodded to a door on the right, “and the infirmary, there.”
It was the latter that Karatek was drawn to, and he walked slowly towards the door, easing it open as his breath caught in his throat.
A window was open, casting bright light over a row of neat beds. Only one, at the very end, was occupied, blankets pulled up over the person laid there. Karatek paced slowly towards them, only peripherally aware of the three following close behind him.
He extended one hand slowly, hesitating over the lump’s shoulder. Reddish hair in a dark tangle on the pillow and a single pointed ear were all he could see of them. He glanced back at Teknat, who looked worried but nodded. Karatek laid his hand on their shoulder.
His blood sang, a shimmering note of completion warring with the sense that something was wrong, his charge was here but he was in danger, but that couldn’t be right, could it?
“What do you want?” the lump rasped, voice raw with thirst or disuse. They didn’t move at all.
Karatek blinked. “I’m - I mean - you. You’re my Charge. I’m here to protect you.”
They laughed hollowly, rolling over and dislodging Karatek’s hand from his shoulder. Soft green eyes to match Karatek’s met his, but they only sent a frisson of unease down his spine as a terribly bleak smirk curled his cracked lips. “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”
