Choice

[Kagemaru]

The thing about the world is that everything has many ways to work itself out.  Through the choices of one or the choices of many, there is only a single choice that can come to actualization.  One choice, right or wrong, ends up being that one choice that is carried out.

Choice the First
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Those that wandered the ancient plains used to believe the winds were the breath of the gods, and that their words would carry in that breath all over the world.  They would have large bonfires as a celebration to the beginning of a new month - the entire caravan would attend the mass, each person offering something to Karana.  At the end of all the song and dance, and before the fire's dying embers, each man, woman and child would sit in silence and listen to the wind.  Often looking for advice or direction, a sign and some guidance, hundreds of people sat in complete silence and if only for an hour, then entirety of the plains complied with silence of its own.

Rafe knew nothing of this ancient practice.  He just liked to sit in solitude in the Antonican highlands and listen to the wind blow gently past his senses, carrying the sounds and scents of the world around him. He didn't fear attack from his enemies or predators, though this was the best time to strike at him, he was simply happy to be alive and able to be free of thought if for only a moment before a hard choice had to be made.  It was these fleeting moments that made any weighty decision seem like a leaf in the very winds he listened to, able to be snatched with a quick flick of the wrist from its swirling chaos.

That was what ususally happened, anyway.

This particular decision proved to be like a boulder in the wind-dried mud pits of the ravines below him - unable to move because it sat in its own stew for too long.  Rather than a relaxing experience, he stood alert in his perch as if the next time the wind picked up, it would carry daggers to his heart. That gust never came, though.  A constant breeze carried throughout the hills, and with it scattered the answers he was looking for.

Two hours pass...

And as if some sort of miracle, the answer came with the wind.  An internal voice sounded off in his head:
"Get up. Go home."

Rafe's body listened to his mind and he began his walk home. He knew what he had to do.

"Stop carrying the your weight like the stone's.  Be the fallen feather of the hawk and be free to roam the world," the wind had told him. "Stop being a slave to your past, because it is only heavy as long as you let it be."

Choice the Second
====================
Kagemaru sat atop the walls of Qeynos, surveying over the city as if he lorded over her.  It wasn't like him to be nostaglic for the days of old, but it also wasn't like him to feel homesick.  It is true what they say, that you do not know what you have until it is no longer yours.  His feet dangled over the edge, hanging and kicking like a child's right over the oblivous heads of the city watch.  He liked to watch the sun set over the city, which in those days of old, he had never done.  He was too busy running from one hiding spot to the next over a plot involving a smuggler and a Tier'Dal general to ever enjoy anything other than killing before he was killed himself.

Those days were mostly over.  Mostly.

Tonight was the deadline he had set; either he would tell Rafe's half-elf woman friend about Rafe's problem or Rafe would have to do it himself.  Kagemaru wasn't sure if he was doing it to help himself or help Rafe. He was tiring of Rafe perpetuating the lie that he was marked for death by him, and on an equally selfish finger of the same hand, he would miss out on using this ultimatum as blackmail.

The altruistic reasoning was that he saw himself in Rafe. A slave in many different meanings to the ideals of others, and no true homeland of his own.  Someone who never had guidance or a real ally.  It would made a fantastic novella of a sob story if Kagemaru didn't act like such a bastard - abusing the the knowledge he had of peoples' pesonalities for his personal gain.

From high above the city, he was able to see Rafe and the girl's home from here.  He had used the same way to get in the last time; from the rooftops and through the window of their garden.  Qeynos still, after all these years, had such terribly easy locks to pick, even on the most expensive looking of windows.  Kagemaru was thankful for that as he made is way towards the house, skipping across the wall like it was three times as wide as it really was.

Rafe was standing alone in the garden when Kagemaru had arrived at the window.

For now, they both waited on Nixabella and the choice she didn't know she had to make.

[Anaris]

Dagger:

     I cannotbelieve you didn't tell me your secret sooner!  I thought we were friends!  How can we be friend, no, roommates even, if you don't trust me enough to tell me these things!!  I'm through with our friendship!

"No...  Too whiney..."

Rafe:

     You BASTARD!  You lied to me!!  How dare you pretend that Shadow was after your life when the man was actually looking out for you!  You talk about him being full of deception yet the only one who deceived me here was you!!!  I hate you!  I'm moving out!

"No...  Too mean..."

Dear Rafe:

     Thank you so much for finally telling me your big secret.  It means a lot to me that you finally trust me enough to share this kind of personal information with me.  I mean, it's not like we live together or anything.  It's not like you don't have me followed everywhere at all times...

"No...  Too soaked in sarcasm...?  I didn't even mean to be sarcastic..."

Bella sighed and scratched her head in frustration, crumpling another scroll.

Ethos nuzzled her face.  He liked to sit up on her desk while she scribed.  He purrred back at her.

"I know...I'll be done soon."

Dear Dagger:

   I'm glad you finally told me everything.  Or mostly everything.  I'm also glad I heard it from you and not from Shadow.  I won't apologize for my rash reaction but I am not as upset anymore that you...concealed the truth from me for so long and led me to think something else was going on.  Though I do hope you never do that again, leaving me in the shadows (no pun intended).  Now, I want to know something.  Why are you having Shadow guard me?

     He said I needed protection, that I might in danger.  I'm not sure I understand that.  Who do I need protection from?  Why am I in danger?  I think you're being overly paranoid.  I'd like for Shadow to stop following me everywhere.  It's actually a bit invasive.  I have no privacy.  What if I had a date?  Surely whoever I'd be with would be able to protect me!

Everywhere I go, he's there.   He even admitted to going into my room as I slept!  He was in our guildhall and I am sure that Lady Bou was none too thrilled to have an assassin in our midst.  I had to lie to her and tell her he was a tailor picking up a fabric swatch from me.  I do not like lying to anybody, especially the Borus.  Not to mention she'd kill you both if she found out certain things...

     Now, about your....mission.  I know you don't like it.  I am aware that you do not want to do it.  But those people, they need you.  Let me know what I can do to help.  I'd be happy to, from a distance.

Your friend,
~Bella

Bella folded the scroll, then melted a piece of wax with the tip of her fingers and stamped the letter closed with the elegant seal that her grandfather had custom-made for her on the day she started her first calligraphy class.  She was a very young girl at the time, but she remembered feeling very important that she had her own signature seal with her initials on it.

"Here you go, Ethos.  Would you be so kind as to slip this under Rafe's door, please?  Thank you."

The kitten held a good grip of the letter between his teeth, eagerly hopped on his feet, and made his way to the basement of the house.

Bella sighed and ran her hand over the flames emanating from the row of candles on her writing desk, putting them all out.