Wyn walked into the King's chambers on the large ship, having been summoned once Lyana saw to her wounds and she'd had time to clean up and eat something. She hesitated in the doorway, seeing Lyana sitting down on a bench watching her hands with an odd expression on her face, Lord Shiar standing off to the side, looking angry and the Knight Keana standing in the corner, his features half obscured by the flickering shadows of the room.
She heard the door close behind her as her eyes settled upon Caelur, who stood on the opposite side of a table, upon which a map was stretched out.
"Lady Wyn, thank you for joining us." He murmured, glancing up to her for a moment, then back down at the map. His expression was oddly cool, more the King than the man, and she adjusted her expectations for what the conversation would entail.
"Your highness." She offered him a bow and moved to stand between Keana and Shiar, glancing around the room again, then back to Caelur. "You asked to see me."
"Apparently the Sellexun men are calling you the Lady Shadow-killer" Quipped Keana, straightening enough for her to see his amused expression, before he shifted back into the shadows, chuckling even as Caelur growled at his next words. "But not everyone thinks you should be fighting with the big boys."
Wyn fought a smirk, appreciating the contrast in expectations between an Aupanan man and those from Sellexu. Kannein had always been so protective of all those he believed his "younger siblings", that she had never seen an Aupanan male react to the benignly sexist behaviour of the Sellexun propriety. Keana seemed to care as little as Nerini about protocols and tact, and Wyn found herself liking the man already.
"I had made myself very clear to Lord Shiar that you were to be asked to board my ship before he set forth with reinforcements." Caelur said hotly, looking at his High Lord Commander with an expression promising death.
"Yes, and I told him if he tried to force me to leave the ship, I would knock him senseless and swim ashore myself. He was more in need of a rest than I was, if we are going to be completely honest, he shouldn't have been fighting." Wyn snapped at the King, causing the room to go silent as Caelur blinked in surprise. Wyn plowed on before he could recover himself to respond. "I respect you as the Regent of Sellexu, I value your opinion as a friend, Your Highness, but I will never be ordered to retreat to my own personal safety when my abilities could help save anyone's life, let alone be of assistance to another friend. High Lord Shiar had no other choice but to leave with me when he boarded, and if you're intending to punish anyone, you can arrest me for stealing your prized warship with your High Lord Commander under my sword as a hostage."
"You could have been seriously hurt." Caelur breathed, his gaze intent on her. "You were hurt. I was merely trying to protect you."
Wyn shook her head slowly, giving the rogue a hard look as he chuckled once more. Wyn clenched her jaw, letting out a calming breath before responding. "I understand that you've been raised to believe that women are weaker creatures that need to be protected from the world, but that is not me. I'm honoured that you value our friendship so much that you seek to protect me, but I'm Aupanan. I've been raised alongside brothers and cousins, boys and girls, as an equal in everything. I can fight and die just as well as any man, and you do me great disrespect in not trusting in my abilities as you would with Shiar, or any other of your friends. I have the right to help people in need, I have a DUTY to serve my people like that."
"You mistake a key part of Sellexu customs and perhaps it is not your fault, because a great many of our own people do as well." Caelur replied stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Women aren't barred from fighting and power struggles because they are weaker or less valuable. In Sellexu, they teach us that women are superior to us and it is the men who are servants. A King may inherit, but he gets everything from his wife, the Queen. It is her the people love, it is her who gives him a reason to fight. They raise us to be your servants, to keep you safe, because we, the men, are the expendable ones."
"Why can't we just be equals? The moment you try to treat us differently, put us on a pedestal or otherwise, we become other. We are human. We are all human." Wyn asked softly, shaking her head, her heart hurting at the thought of how far apart their cultures, even as friends, could still be. "I don't want servants. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, when people work as a team, they complement and protect each other's weaknesses with their strengths. We get nowhere trying to lock one another in cages for our own good."
Caelur nodded, turning his eyes to the map for a long moment before letting out a breath and looking up to her once more. "I am trying, Lady Wyn. You and your friends have thrown a great deal at me and my people and we are trying to catch up, but I am doing the best I can. I do not wish to give you any offence or cause you to be aggrieved with me."
"So, you're not angry with Shiar?" Wyn pushed, glancing to the other man as if suddenly remembering he was still there.
"No, I was only perturbed that he disobeyed me. I didn't want him to go either. As you said, he's barely been able to stand for two weeks now. But I understand the need for action, and I wouldn't have picked two better warriors to lead a war party." The King said stiffly, inclining his head. "I have sent word of Lord Kannein's recovery to Queen Rael, I've also advised her that we'll be heading to Alliance with him."
"Thank you." Wyn offered him a bow and smiling in relief. "How is he?"
"He's resting, I will need to heal him again, I did the best I could, but there's a lot left, he's... lost inside himself right now." Lyana whispered, looking ready to cry at what she must have seen while healing Kannein. "I've never seen someone so far away... I could barely find him."
Wyn watched her for a long moment, nodding slowly as she fought to control her own emotions. "He's safe, we can help bring him back, I have confidence in you. That's all that matters."
Lyana nodded, even as she looked at her hands with eyes brimming with tears. "Seeing all his pain, feeling all the fear. Those creatures were horrible, I can't imagine him having to spend months with them. They... they did their best to destroy him. I can't pull him back without walking through it with him, but it's harder than I can imagine."
"You're stronger than any of us, little bird." Shiar murmured, sitting beside his sister and pulling her into his arms, holding her for a moment.
"We need to also discuss how long we're going to wait." Caelur offered gently, leaning on the table. "Or what sort of search we should launch."
"Look, with all respect, the plan was to get to the ships. The ships take the precious cargo to safety. That's what I agreed to." Keana said suddenly. He moved out of the shadows, his expression guarded as he looked around the room. "And no offence, but I swore an oath to someone who's not currently on this ship. Make any decision you would like, but me and my Company are leaving when you pull anchor and we'll look for our Lady."
"You think we're just going to leave her behind?" Wyn said incredulously, looking at the man.
Keana gave her a hard look right back, clearly pulling no punches. "No. I think you'll be as stupid as her with your noble ideas of service to the land and the people and screw around. You are here, without your people, or if you have people, you don't know the land. Best case, me and my people will search for her, like we searched for Kannein."
Caelur watched the Rogue darkly for a long moment, bristling at the man's clear lack of deference to rank or even common tact, though he didn't push the issue. "You've lost much of your people battling these creatures. You need fighters."
"How about we sleep on it?" Wyn blurted, sensing a fight brewing that she didn't have the patience or energy for. "We aren't due to start south until mid-day tomorrow, according to this plan of yours. Let everyone get the rest and we'll figure it out in the morning. We earned a win, let us give ourselves that."
"And if I'm sleeping in a warm bed, while she's bleeding in a damp, forgotten cave, fighting for her life?" Keana asked softly, letting out a breath, his expression an icy calm that chilled her, reminding her that this man used to kill for profit.
One moment he could grin at her with an emotion that she felt herself and the next he looked like a calculating killer. Wyn felt off balance, though she understood what Nerini had found in the man.
A counterbalance of realism. A harsh reminder of the world to anchor herself in. She was pretty sure that if this darkness had not come, if Nerini had not caught wind of it and returned to Rael's court in response, her friend may never have left the rogue's side. And Nerini may have become as cold as the man standing beside her.
"Your men need the rest, even if you don't." Shiar said simply and inclined his head toward her. "Look, Lady Wyn is right, wait the night and in the morning, if she doesn't meet her target, I'll be the first off the ships with you and your men. I've given her up for dead in worse circumstances than this, and she's survived. As we said on the shore, if we do anything other than the plan, we may miss her all together."
"Right." Keana offered a bow to the room before spinning and slipping out the door. The soft click was far more chilling than a slammed door would have been.
Caelur frowned after the rogue. "He lacks a certain amount of respect."
"Where do you think Nerini learned it?" Wyn said suddenly, smirking to him. "That man is the one who taught her how to be Foxes."
"Ah..." Lyana breathed, looking at the door, then let out a soft breath. "She's alive. I can feel it; I can feel her. She's going to be ok. I wanted to say something, but I didn't know if he'd believe me."
Wyn closed her eyes at the girl's words. She had debated asking, but had not wanted to strain the other woman's capabilities, with so much else to heal. "Thank you Lyana, I was half tempted to go after him and propose we left tonight."
Caelur straightened suddenly. "What?"
Wyn shrugged sheepishly and smirked. "Half tempted. For all my brave words."
Whatever Caelur was going to say was interrupted by Shiar offering a bow and escorting a pale and exhausted Lyana out of the room. Wyn paused for a moment, before offering Caelur a bow and left with them. She would have left with the rogue if he had pushed the issue, knowing that as exhausted as she was, she would not get much rest with Nerini missing somewhere out there with those monsters.