Spirits of the Earth

It had been merely a single sunrise and sunset since the ceasefire had been enacted. Three days of nearly endless fighting had come to a close by little more than words. But it was little more than words that ensured the survival of the Vigilant Shadow, and everyone within the Clockwork City below the earth.

A celebratory party had begun at sunset, not to praise survival, but instead to exalt those who had passed on. Small parties were happening all over the city, however only one was taking place in the City's only tavern, Moonlit Tonic and Ale. The place was run by an older Ranger named Dimitri, who had retired from ranger life two years prior. He was one of the lucky ones to be graced with old age.

There were a group of three at the bar drinking themselves stupid, trying to replace the names and faces of those lost with a blackness only alcohol could give. Others were laughing in guffawed tones with friends, taking in each others presence like a drug, laugher fueled by remembrance of those that had returned to the void.

Huddled in the back booth, alone, sat Alucard. He unknowingly watched the formation of condensation on a glass of ale set out for him an hour prior. It had not been touched.

He was not even aware of the ale sitting before him, or the dried blood that was caked to his face. It was not his own, it belonged to some Cleara Verdad peon who was now nothing more than a pile of blood, flesh, and ground up bones thanks to Oberon's hammer. There was only one thing that bounced around in his state of shock. One hundred and ninety two.

The number of Rangers currently unaccounted for. It was just over three-fourths of their main force. It would take at least a decade to recover half of that. Sure, the number would fall some as more Rangers remembered to mark themselves alive in the Hall of Tasks, there had been a registry set up as the easiest way to account for those lost.

It was the ringing of the bell above the door to the tavern that brought Alucard from his stupor. And it person that had just come through said door that made his heart a bit lighter.

Time passed so differently when one was acting on instinct alone. Had it been three days or three hundred since they had started fighting? Was it only an hour or a day since the ceasefire? Rowan could not say for certain. All she knew was that without end until called to do otherwise. When others had left to tend their wounds or the dead, she had dropped where she stood, uncaring of the blood and grime as she sat in a field of death, staring unseeing ahead of her. The pain had not come at that point. The Shadow Ranger was still too numb to everything to realize how badly she had been hurt. Time passed.

She could not say what compelled her to stand and leave anymore than she could explain why the sun and moon changed places int he sky. Rowan headed to the Hall of Tasks to sign her name, ignoring the flocking men and women eager to see if their loved ones still yet lived, before moving on her way back to her quarters. There she carefully set her things down in order to busy herself with cleaning each of her weapons before sending them back to their places in the Shadow Barracks.

There was water in her room but it was cold as ice. Any other day she would have groused at needing to heat it before enjoying a relaxing bath, yet not this day. She dumped it into her tub. Some of the warriors who lived in the barracks preferred the communal bathhouse. Rowan liked her privacy and had worked hard over the past three hundred plus years to move up through the ranks to have her own small place and money to buy the things she wanted for herself.

Clothes were dropped to the floor carelessly moments before she stepped into the tub, the water instantly swirling rose then crimson as she sat. Her knees curled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them tightly. Going through the motions of a routine, soap was claimed and rubbed into a towel that was then used to roughly scour every inch of her body. She scrubbed until there was nothing more she could and had to exit the tub to keep from sitting in the filth. Looking at her hands, they were not clean enough to her liking. Rowan could still see the blood there, real or imagined and took up a brush to vigorously scrubbed her already bruised and scratched hands until they were raw and bleeding.

Dressing was a perfunctory action, as was cleaning her home, placing books on shelves and washing dishes. The tub and sullied clothes remained where she had left them. She could not face them now. They reminded her of what she had left behind. With no tasks left to complete, Rowan realized she was beginning to feel the pain she had been ignoring up until that moment. One hand was purple from being crushed and most likely broken. Her leg sounded off its displeasure as it spasmed in pain. The muscle of her calf had been torn and seized. Walking suddenly became difficult.

Aggravated and desiring to return to her former numbness, the woman limped out her door and through the streets, trying to avoid as much of the revelry as well as the mourning as she could while on her persistent trudge to the city's sole tavern.

Once she entered the door, the tinkling of the bell announcing her arrival, Rowan was forced to brace herself slightly against the nearest wall. The pain was quickly becoming too much for her, so as soon as she could she teleported from where she stood to a shadowed spot behind the counter. A quick swipe of a bottle and a mug, was all she needed before she blinked back out of existence and right into the occupied dark corner.

Rowan nearly stumbled as she attempted to stop from falling into Alucard. "You're in my spot," came a grumble as she plopped down opposite him and began pouring herself a drink. First things first she was getting her drink. Whatever happened afterwards could wait. Her head shot back as she downed the entire mug in one go before moving on to pour a second. An angry hiss escaped her lips though as she first pressed a finger to her bottom lip then licked it in realization that the burning alcohol had managed to find another injury, namely a busted lip.

"Of course, I was just keeping it warm for you" he said with a slight smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. It soon faded as he say the state she were in, hands raw and bloodied, a busted lip which was bleeding thanks to the exposure to alcohol. She most likely had many more wounds that he couldn't see.

He slid over in his booth, the fine sanded wood making an interesting noise against his metal cloak. "There is a spot open should you so desire." With that he took a sip from his ale, it was rich and hot. It alerted him to the fact that he had missing teeth, two on the bottom right and one on the top left. They would grow back soon enough. A Shtahl could regrow anything as long as you didn't cauterize the wound. However if a limb was lost. It was best to cauterize than to risk bleeding out.

Rowan made a low grumbling sound in the back of her throat but made no move to get back up again. If she was honest with herself, she was not sure she actually could get back. Beneath the table, the ranger attempted to straighten her injured right leg, only to grit her teeth in searing pain.

Gripping her mug awkwardly with her left as she attempted to keep the other from Alucard's sight and therefore concern, she busied herself with trying to down it for a second time albeit at a slower rate. In her mind's eye she kept seeing flashes of memory that she used the alcohol to chase away. So much blood and death. She like the other Shadow Rangers had trained for this but it was not something they had ever truly faced before, not like this at least.

Behind her the other occupants of the tavern cheered and laughed, further souring her mood. "How can they be happy? What fools are they to celebrate so much death?"

Alucard cast emerald eyes to the loud party going on. "It's quite the opposite actually. They aren't celebrating death, but the lives of those that they have lost. Of there is one thing that I have learned throughout my life, it's that everyone mourns differently. For some" he gestured to the three at the bar, "it is easier to forget. And others will do what they can to deny the pain." He nodded towards the party.

He pressed a hand to his temple and soon heard his stomach rumble. "Are you hungry?"

"Same difference," she muttered, sulking where she sat. The sound of his stomach made her snort and shake her head. The very thought of food now seemed ridiculous to her after everything they had been through. Rowan shrugged in answer.

"Drink is fine, I don't really care. If you want something, you're moving because I just got comfortable," she told him, leaning her head back to rest against the back of the booth. Her eyes slid shut as she rested, although they did not stay that way for long. She found that the memories were more vivid with her eyes closed.

Alucard laughed lightly before waving Dimitri over.

"M'lord?"

"Could you bring a plate of food over? Doesn't matter what of."

"Yes, M'lord."

Casting his eyes back to Rowan, he smiled slightly. Despite her hard and often cynical exterior, she was one of the few within the Vigilant that he could truly connect with. Why? Who knew, he just felt more relaxed around her, perhaps it was because she was so cynical of everything that he knew he could trust her.

It wasn't long before a plate was set on the table. Two loaves of bread, some cheese, grapes, a couple of apples. There was, thankfully, no meat. The smell of flesh was liable to make any appetite head for the hills.

Alucard broke one of the loaves in half, taking in the rich smell, before passing some coin to Dimitri. He offered one half of the loaf to Rowan, "feel free."

She watched the interaction through slitted eyes, still wary of the people around her after having fought three days without end on a battlefield. When the food arrived, Rowan flinched slightly at the sound of the plate clattering on the table. She tried to hide the movement with sitting up straighter and opening her eyes to look at the food.

Her lips pursed together into a thin white line at the offered food before she slowly reached out to take it. "Thank you," she murmured, letting her hands rest in her lap so she could pick at the bread mournfully.

Without looking at him she asked him in a quiet voice, "are you hurt?"

He matched her gaze for a moment before looking down and tearing his half of the bread into small bite-sized pieces. "I'm missing some teeth. But other than that, I'm not sure. I've only just come put of a state of shock. Everything still feels like it's there. The pain helps with knowing. What about you? Even with as great as you are, I know you walked away with more than just a busted lip and a broken hand that you keep trying to hide from me." He popped the first bite of bread into his mouth, tentatively chewing as to avoid thrusting food into the gaps where he once had teeth.

"The dead don't feel pain," she said distantly, her eyes clouding with thought before she shook her head, sending the thoughts away. "Not hiding anything!" Rowan scowled and squirmed in her seat, wincing as she jostled her hand. "I'm fine!" came another attitude-filled growl as she viciously torn her bread into pieces.

She huffed and refused to look at him. "Nosy."

He chuckled at her outburst, Alucard found solace in the fact that despite all that had happened, Rowan remained unchanged in her stubbornness. He knew that she would be fine, eventually.

He took another gulp of ale before extending a hand out to her. "Come on, let me see your hand." With his other hand, he called forth Aldria's Wand.

The eleven inch long magical mahogany stick had the ability to cast a splendor of spells. Healing spells among them. Alucard had used such spells on her twice before. Both times due to unexpected occurrences on tasks that she accompanied Alucard on.

Stubborn to a fault, Rowan offered him her mostly fine left hand and turned it at the wrist to show him. "See nothing wrong with it. There's no need for that. If you're so concerned maybe you should use it to fix yourself up, toothless."

The last word came out a bit more shaky than she had intended as she nearly started laughing at calling him such a name. Her lips wobbled in the faintest smiles before returning to a stony scowl. While she had indeed been graced with its assistance in the past, the ranger much preferred to suffer her injuries now rather than have the wand divest her of them.

She did not feel that it would be right to be healthy and healed when so many of her people had been lost. The lives she had not managed to save and protect. Rowan still saw the faces of the fallen who had laid at her feet in eternal slumber. She punished herself for their deaths, relishing the pain and the scars.

While her work may be done, the healers still worked themselves to the bone to keep rangers alive and healthy. So many had fallen and so many more would still die from injuries sustained on the battlefield. Rowan closed her eyes to the memory of the moans and screams she had heard coming from those rooms as she head walked to her own quarters.

"Better yet, use it to heal those that really need it."

"Your other hand!" He chuckled.

He cast his eyes to the clock in the corner of the room. The Grandfather Clock was one of many blessings in the Clockwork city. It five minutes past nine, "funny you should mention that. I have a healing shift that starts at the top of the hour. Couldn't hurt to start early."

"Save your energy for others Alucard. I'll stop by the healer's ward later," she told him before finally taking a bite of the bread she had been mauling into crumbs. A disgusted look crossed her face as it tasted like ash in her mouth. Rowan sighed in disappoint and drank more to chase it down.

Rowan yawned slightly, weariness seeming to catch up with her in body. If only if it would do so in mind as well. "How long is your shift?"

"Six hours, long enough for the healers to get some rest. They have been working almost non-stop since day two." He placed the bread aside and went for the grapes, breaking the vine of bright green juice filled spheres in two, laying one close to Rowan.

Popping a grape into his mouth, he closed his eyes to savor the taste. However, they soon popped open as images of the battle filled his mind just as they had for Rowan. "Fucking troll and his damned battle-axe" he mumbled. It would be several weeks, if not months, before the battle was no longer at the forefront of his thoughts.

His eyes cast back to Rowan, "I trust you will show up at the healing unit during my shift, right?"

Rowan smirked, scooping up the grapes with both hand. The injured hand cupped the fruit to her chest while the other picked off pieces to roll between her fingers before popping them into her mouth. She liked to peel the skins off and suck the insides of the grapes out, which she did without caring that she was playing with her food.

"Now why would I do that? Knowing you, you'd find some excuse to keep me there."

'Wouldn't be far off either.'

"It's a long shift though. Sure you're not stretching yourself too thin? Two days for them, it's been three for you. I don't care how different you are, you still need to rest at some point."

Alucard stretched but resisted the urge to pop his neck, a particular habit of his. "Perhaps I am. But the souls of all those within the Vigilant are more important than my desire to rest. Needs of the many, and all that." Even though the signs of exhaustion were starting to set in, there was a fire behind his eyes.

"If I absolutely need to, I will wake up one of the healers. You have my word." He popped another grape in his mouth, chewing it thoughtfully. His eyes strayed once again to the clock in the corner of the room. 9:45. Time was an enigma. "It's time for me to go. If you are still up when I get off, meet me in the courtyard next to my loft." He raised his glass, it was little more than half full, "To the Honorable Dead, may they walk with us in shadows." He downed his drink, then stood up too leave.

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OOC: I was thinking you could either have her showing up at the Healer Unit or waiting in the Courtyard. Up to you

"To the dead who feel no pain," she whispered back, solemnly raising her glass before finishing it. "I'll see what I can do Alucard." Rowan did not want to make a promise or perhaps she did not want to ordered around after three days of taking nothing but orders.

She watched him go, finally slumping the moment he was out the door. The alcohol was starting to take affect but far too slow for her tastes. Her hand pulsed with gripping pain and her leg still screamed with every movement she made.

Now alone, Rowan ate and drank slowly, more picking at it than actually consuming. Finally frustrated, she tossed some coin on the table and got up to leave, nearly passing out from the effort of having to put her weight on her right leg followed by accidentally using her right hand to brace herself.

Gritting her teeth, a chime of the clock informed her it was nearing the end of Alucard's shift, although how so much time had passed, she was not quite sure. 'Maybe he'll be too tired to notice I'm there and keep me. Pop in, swipe a few bandages, pop back out. Would've kept my word.'

Out into the streets, the ranger dragged herself, clinging to passing walls as she went while ignoring the whispers that she was drunk. Rowan was anything but. Her pain was coming on full-force now that the affects of her drink were long since wearing off and she had to pause several times to keep from vomiting from the pain and resulting dizziness.

Rowan stumbled into the healer's ward, far louder than she had intended and tried to keep herself to the shadows away from the attention of others. Her leg seized though, finally giving out beneath her and forcing her to her knees. Her body had had enough of her abuse and was having none of her shenanigans. There was no escaping now, the ranger was in far too much pain to even consider teleporting safely. If only she could crawl away into a corner before Alucard saw her.

It had been a long night of healing. The Master Shadow found himself thanking various comic entities that he had held up and that they hadn't lost anyone else. There had, however, been several close calls. In total, forty-seven limbs regrown, nineteen fatal wounds closed, twelve induced deep sleep for further intensive care.

Alucard was downright run ragged, and he was in the process of heading out when Rowan stumbled in and huddled in the corner. "You stupid and prideful woman" he jibbed without any real anger or venom. With the help of one of the other rangers that had been assisting him, she was carefully moved onto a stone healing table.

"Congratulations Rowan. You get to be my last healing of the night. Lets start with the leg." It was bad. A deep gash across the calf revealed torn and cut tendons and muscles, as well as an infection starting to set in. A quick muttering of an ancient tongue and soon muscles and tendons started to regrow. A greenish black bile fell out of the wound before it finally closed. The Master Shadow shot the bile with another spell, eradicating it in a puff of smoke.

"If you had waited any longer, you may have lost that leg. Now lets see that hand." The two bones in the hand which gave the pinky and ring fingers structural support were broken in two places, Alucard very quickly set them in the correct position before using a smaller amount of power to mend the bones.

That was when Alucard's steam finally ran out. He slumped over the healer's table, able to catch himself mere inches from crashing into Rowan. He picked himself up and sat on the side of the table, slouching before turning his head to look at the the female Shadow Ranger with an exhausted smile, "feeling better?"

The head healer, a Dark Mother who had become barren a few years back, came from the far back of the ward looking at least slightly rested. "Thank you, Alucard, my healers and I will take it from here." He nodded to her before looking back to Rowan with a naughty smile as the healer walked off.

"If I stand up, my legs will give out." He whispered through a near hysteric smile, chuckling like a child who despite being scolded wasn't sorry in the least.

Rowan and struggled to get up, too weak with pain to actually put up much of an effort. The drawing of poison from her system and mending of her leg, exhausted nearly all the fight left in her until Alucard attempted to heal her hand. Then she fought like wildcat, fighting to curl in around her hand and keep it from his grasp.

Unfortunately, he was far too patient and persistent and thereby was healing it in no time, wasting his energy if Rowan had anything to say about it. A broken hand was certainly not life threatening and could have healed all on it's own. If was that concerned, simply setting it into place would have been more than sufficient.

Suddenly, the Shadow Master was nearly nose to nose with her and for a brief, delirious moment Rowan considered stealing a kiss but then he was pulling away from her again to settle beside her. 'Fool, told you you shouldn't have drained yourself so. Never do listen do you, Alucard?'

"Then don't stand," she quipped, struggling to sit up beside him. "Well, take care and get some rest. I'm out of here!" Rowan moved to get down but felt as if the world was trying to spin on a completely new axis. Queasily she leaned into Alucard's side and tried to catch her breath. "Maybe in a minute, that is."

Alucard wrapped his hand around her back and latched onto her hip with surprising strength for one so drained. He next shifted his weight, trying to ready his legs for walking, "we need to get off this table, the healers may need it soon, see that bench?" He motioned to one by the wall, "lets go recover our strength over there."

When he felt like Rowan was ready, and his legs were stable enough, he hobbled over to the bench while both carrying and leaning on Rowan. When they finally did take a seat, Alucard quickly leaned back. He however did not let go of Rowan,

"You are very warm, Shadow Ranger Alvar." He spoke formally out of jest, but there was affection behind his tone. Now with his eyes closed, there was nothing but the blackness of his eyelids, perhaps due to his exhaustion, or due to the closeness of the someone he cared about. He would figure it out sometime later, because he was already asleep.

She grumbled at being moved, swaying to and fro as they moved due to both of their weakened state. Rowan tried to let him go once they reached the bench but his fierce grip and weight dragged her down beside him instead.

"And you're awfully clingy, Shadow Master Leohalt," she muttered back, trying and failing to pull away. He was asleep on her in a matter of minutes and Rowan found herself sighing heavily. All about them men and women bustled about quietly tending to the injured and trying to make them as comfortable as possible. More still trickled in through the doors albeit far slower than they had over the course of the past two almost three days.

The ranger considered trying to drag the larger man out and to his own quarters but once he started lightly snoring, knew she was doomed. There was no possible way she could lift him. Rowan made the decision to try and teleport them to his loft where she would put him to bed before heading back to her own room.

The sheer will and energy needed to complete the act though left the woman dizzy and disorientated. They arrived and Rowan essentially dropped Alucard on his bed, wincing slightly as he bounced. She braced herself with hands on either side of him as she tried to prevent herself from his earlier move of nearly collapsing on her but found she was losing an uphill battle.

Alucard simply lay where he landed, his torso twisted to one side while his shoulders remained flat against the bed. It would not be a comfortable way to spend the night.

His room was in a disarray that one would expect if a small windstorm ran through it, the desk was cluttered with papers strewn everywhere, many thrown to the floor. Cleara Verdad's attack had been a surprise, and it showed.

Rowan groaned, realizing she was too tired to do much at that moment let alone find a way back to her own room. Leave it to Alucard to sap the last of her strength with his weight. She cursed silently, unclasping his cloak but giving up on trying to get it out from under him. He would just have to live with an uncomfortable sleep. It was the best she could.

Toeing off her boots, the ranger rolled over the Shadow Master, carefully to not crush him as she curled up beside him. Her hand quickly found one of his as she molded herself against him. Rowan lay in an equally odd position as Alucard but could not bring herself to move either of them. She was simply too weary.

Her legs hung over the side of the bed and atop his own as her upper torso lay parallel to his own as she lay upon her side, formerly injured side up. Through bleary eyes she watched him until sleep claimed her a few seconds later, relief in the lines of her face. They had survived this time.

Morning ushered in the fluttering then squeezing shut of eyes as their owner roused from a deep sleep. Rising early was a habit many thousands of years in the making, one the Master Shadow was clearly regretting. However, what he regretted more was falling asleep in the position he had. His spine ached with a passion. As he went to correct the he realized that he wasn't alone, and that he was still in his leather vest and mail. The latter brought a disdained scowl to his lips. The former replaced it with a smile.

Very carefully, as to not rouse Rowan, he shifted his body and hers into a more comfortable position. Two dark toned arms wound around the half elf and a metal cloak was discarded to the floor. Now far more comfortable, the Shtahl closed his eyes again in an attempt to get back to sleep. Given the events of the recent days, he could be forgiven for wanting to sleep in.

His shifting about woke her with an unhappy groan. Rowan made a series of displeased grunts and grumbles in the back of her throat as she squirmed around trying to find her warm spot in the bed only to discover new aches left unfound from the night before.

With a huff she peeked one eye open as he pulled her close. "What time is it?"

The Master Shadow groaned, he had hoped that he could get them into a more comfortable position without waking her. That proved to be an impossible task. The chiming of a clock down the hall told him that it was six in the morning, they had only been asleep for two hours, possibly less.

"It's time to" his speech interrupted with a yawn, "to back to sleep." But even as he said it, he knew that his body was already waking up and it would be extremely difficult to get back to sleep, if not impossible.

She lazily counted the chimes of the clock as he spoke before moments later shooting up with an elvish curse upon her lips. Already not a morning person, her start was made even worse as several new aches and pains made themselves known with vicious clarity. A twist of her neck first left then right sounded off multiple loud yet mildly relieving pops as Rowan scurried to climb over Alucard and off the bed.

"I'm late," she hissed, pausing in her movements to try and run her fingers through her hair. Unlike her companion, she did not feel that she deserved a break for even a moment. The world did not stop working just because there was a war that had come and gone. If anything there would be more duties for her to take on with so many losses. Rowan believed herself able-bodied enough to leave the healer's ward then she was strong enough to help in even the simplest of ways.

Crawled over and abandoned in the bed, Alucard stared at the ceiling for about two and a half seconds before he too got out of bed and removing his bloodied armor, "if you want a shower, the water runs hot here. One of the benefits of living near the Bathhouse." He called out to Rowan. He quickly sat down at the desk and scribbled out a note. It said to gather oil and four able bodied Fledgelings.

Alucard's shadow spirit, Nexus, was at the window. Rolling up the note, he placed it in the bird's beak and sent it off to find the King, Alucard would be on the mass grave above ground, all day. The bird quickly took flight. Then Alucard headed to his shower room.

Rowan snorted at him as she worked on trying to straighten out her clothes. "Of course because sleep is such a grueling activity that would cause me to require a bath two hours after my previous one"

Bending to try and locate her other boot under the bed, a large black blur shot out, knocking her onto her rear as it raced to beat Alucard into the bathing chamber. Rowan growled and shouted the name of her familiar even as the large panther forcefully headbutted against the Shadow Master's legs and generally tried to keep itself underfoot. Unbeknownst to Rowan though, the spirit animal had the missing boot in her mouth, enjoying the torment that would result from the action.

Vesna pressed her head to Alucard's calf and the Master Shadow flinched. Quick as a whip, the Shtahl already had one of Promanthano's daggers summoned forth and in hand. As so as he realized what had happened, the dirk was dispelled and reached down to pet the Shade.

"Hello Underboot" a nickname that Alucard had given the shadow cat, as it generally liked to stay under his feet, "up to your old tricks again?" He asked, shaking the boot lightly in the Spirit's maw, yet at the same time keeping a firm grip in case she ran.

The creature growled narrowing its eyes playfully as it shook its head violently and tried to back away while holding the boot firmly. It was all a game and Rowan's man was not letting Vesna enjoy it thoroughly. Any minute and the Shadow Ranger would be walking through the door and the Shade wanted to be as far from sight as possible when that happened, or at least wanted the boot well-hidden.

Thoroughly frustrated, Rowan kicked a fallen pillow grumbling at it knocked into the chair causing it to wobble. "Vesna you bloody traitor come back here!" The Spirit Animal seemed to smile as it fought harder with Alucard, lowering its hindquarters and bracing itself away from him.

Alucard let go of the boot and pat the Spirit's head, "go quickly" before standing and heading back to the bathing chamber.

Casting eyes across the chamber, Alucard wistfully sighed in the fact the Rowan had not joined him. Black Marble laid the floor in a dark sheen. An oak conduit that hung above a tub about seven foot across and three deep and a lever next to the wall were the only non-marble things in the room.

A quick pull of the Lever redirected some of the water from the Aqueducts that fed hot water to the Communal Bath. The tub quickly filled while Alucard removed what remained of his clothes and pulled the lever to an off position. He stepped in the tub, soap already in hand.

Vesna bounded off, choosing to hide self and boot behind some curtains moments before Rowan stomped in. The woman did not even blink as she watched Alucard enter his tub. "Alucard I have work to do. You have work to do. Am I truly meant to march around with a boot and a stockinged foot?"

She let out a defeated sigh before catching a glimpse of herself in a looking glass and wincing. Rowan looked like hell with fresh bruises that had developed overnight. It was a wonder her left eye had not swollen shut with the way it blackened. Flexing her hand though brought her some relief. While stiff it was at least healed.

That thought brought her back to Alucard who she glared at. "Don't think I forgot about what you did last night either. You wasted energies on me and nearly got yourself killed for it. What were you thinking? There are others with far worse injuries. I told you I was fine and that I would go to the healer's ward. I was and I did. Have you no confidence in me?"

In the time Rowan took to verbally accost him for supposedly shirking duties, Alucard had already scrubbed his body clean with the course cleansing stone and about to dunk his head beneath the waters to rinse it of oils. When he did emerge from the bathing chamber, Rowan as gazing at herself in his looking glass. The Shtahl shook his head and returned to his bedroom to dress. Donning a subtle leather vest and a pants, not bothering with chain mail, it would only serve as a hinderance today. Finally he picked up the cloak where he had discarded it just moments earlier. Tying it around his neck, he felt the familiarity of it, the weight it on his shoulders was a comfort he seldom went without, it was akin to dragonscales in the fact that it was near impenetrable. He felt quite naked without it.

He stepped out of his room in time to have Rowan remind him of last night's healing. He could remind her that her leg was taken with infection when she finally entered the ward. And he could remind him that no other healers could literally pull infection from a wound like he could. He could also remind her that while he could regrow a limb, it was impossible after cauterization, which was sure to happen after amputating an infected limb. He however, did none of these, "I trust you with my life, and I am confident that the feeling is mutual" with that he went to the window and pulled back the curtains to reveal a startled shadow spirit. "Get your remaining boot and let us be off." He said with a smile and a quick nod.

Rowan let out a sound of extreme aggravation and threw her hands in the air. "The two of you!" Vesna yowled angrily, swiping at Alucard's coat before shooting off and dropping the boot in front of the irate woman who promptly scooped it up and jammed it on.

She was in a sour mood from lack of sleep and the combined behaviors of the two individuals in the room. As Alucard drew near to exit his quarters, the Shadow Ranger latched onto him and shoved him into a wall. "Don't order me around when we're in here and don't assume you know what I feel," she hissed mere seconds before she was leaning up on her tip-toes and kissing him hungrily.

Her passion was in complete contrast with her words yet she did not care as she clung to him. Rowan knew there was a chance he could have been lost just as easily as she could have been. This was her only way of admitting how relieved she was they had both survived.

Alucard's eyes widened, unsure what was going on at first. The hours and days after an extended conflict effected each person differently, while Alucard merely wanted to move on and take the future on one event at a time, for others it was something far more troubling. Some developed personality disorders thanks to the traumatic events that only landwars can show. Her hiss ushered in and out one of the deepest moments of uncertainty that the Shtahl had ever felt, she could end him, right then and there. Then all the work he had put into his life would be for naught. All of the meticulous planning towards thing that played in the background of reality would be wasted. Then she kissed him.

He tilted his head down and returned the kiss, nerves alive with fire and ice as he pressed his lips back to hers. However, a flap of wings brought his attention away from her. He broke off the kiss and cast eyes to the nearby window, where Nexus rested with a note in his beak. The king had written him back.

He pushed himself from the wall, Rowan's body merely pressing more into him due to his momentum. Then he very gently separated himself from her and took the note from the falcon and quickly read it. With a sigh, he folded it and put it in his pocket.

"As you said, there is work to be done" he gave her another quick peck on the lips, "If you go to the hall of tasks, on the urgent bulletin in the top right corner, are two jobs that should yet to be claimed. If you want them, they are yours. Otherwise you should organize a patrol around the city, make sure people don't do anything stupid."

He glanced at the clock and added, "I will see you soon, promise." before heading out the door and tower that acted as a gate to the Forlorn Temple above ground.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," she growled storming out of the room after him and turning in a different direction, her Shade following quietly at her heels. She fought back her anger at being brushed aside but knew it was to be expected. They both had duties to attend to, him more than her. It was not like they were more than friends, if that. She believed that Alucard trusted every Ranger with his life. To say he trusted her just meant he accepted her as a female ranger. Women were seen as weak after all and she had worked hard to prove herself as otherwise.

Rowan obeyed the directives he had given her, quickly taking on the sole remaining that had been left there. Another ranger had already checked in to handle it. She was stubborn and planned to work herself until she dropped. There was much to do and it would keep her mind off the dead.

Reading the missive she found that there were concerns over the structural integrity of some of the city's support columns. It would be grueling and tedious work but it would be enough to keep her mind off the nightmares.

The damage she and the others under her temporary command found was not as bad as they feared but they still extensively checked everything to ensure there was no underlying damage. Schedules were also created to ensure the stonework was re-evaluated to see that repairs held and no new cracks had formed or been missed.

Reports of leakages in the city's water supply room were coming in and it was not long before the call went up that all able-bodied and without duties were to report to assist. If the great basins that contained and warmed the city's water for use ruptured then there would be a serious problem on their hands. Rowan could only imagine what it would be like for Alucard to deal with not only the flooding but needing to provide an entire city with another source of fresh water. Looking at the mess though she realized that it was going to be a long day.

It was going to be a long day, a once green and luscious field was trampled, stained red and brown, littered with the bodies of felled enemies and friends. Alucard looked over the field while his body trembled in rage. Mostly at himself. How had an entire army just snuck up on him? With his network of Shadows acting as a unique warning system that had never failed before. Not once! It was a failure that Alucard took extremely personal. He was soon joined by four Fledgeling and the King. Alucard set out hatchets in front of the Fledgeling.

"I want you four to go south to the forest and get lumber, lots of it. Each of you fell three trees, then the chop them up and carry the lumber back. If something seems off or out of the ordinary, run. Come straight to me like I am your father. Don't stop until you are at me for any reason. Do you all understand?" The four boys nodded. It was probably unnecessary to tell them to do so, all these boys were of the age to take the Rite of Shadows, they had at least one successful field operation, therefore they had the common sense enough to know if they should run or stand and fight. And they had the understanding that a war without a victor was just waged.

Soon after the boys went off the king spoke up, "anything you need me to do?" Alucard shook his head, this man was either a father or grandfather figure to the entire guild. He had kind brown eyes with white hair and a white Van Dyke that was peppered with some of the darker colors that he once had. Old King Kinder, that was the name given to him, and at nearly 112 years old, it fit him. The powers afforded to him allowed the old man to have the body hand mindset of someone in their sixties despite the fact that he was almost twice that.

"When they get the majority if the lumber up here, have them arrange it into a pyre, make it as big as you can, then have them soak it in half the oil. After that, they can go down below, for now, note down any names I call out to you, for they are confirmed dead." The King Kinder nodded, despite the fact that Alucard held a lower "rank" then he, the old man understood difference between his leadership as a figurehead, and Alucard's back breaking day in and day out running of the Vigilant in order to see it run smoothly.

With orders issued, Alucard went out to the field. The stench of death was thick. It was all the Shtahl could do to keep from gagging. The Master Shadow went to a nearby corpse and turned it over. Sickly pale skin and an unfamiliar face looked up at him unseeing. Alucard stood and dragged the body towards the nearby cliff. Far below, turbulent waters churned against the cliff side. Soon, the corpse of a member of Cleara Verdad splashed into the water, joined by many, many more as the day played out.

Alucard worked tirelessly, hour after hour, until midday. By then, a pyre had been built and filled with fallen shadows, and the nearby ocean had turned into a watery mass grave for the fallen members of Cleara Verdad. The fields behind the temple were still stained red, but that would wash away with the coming storms. With the aid of Rangers who came to pay some final respects, the last of the fragrant oil was splashed over the massive funeral pyre before a call was sent out. Anyone who wanted to attend the lighting ceremony were invited to come and give a vigil for the fallen, and after sunset when the pyre was lit, all non-urgent duties were to be suspended.

Alucard sat atop a crumbling pillar, he was told there had been reports of a leak in the underwater river basin that fed the city's water supply. He was then told that the reports were a false alarm but it had led to finding out that an aqueduct was beginning to fall apart, so in the coming days there would be a need to repair it, and such tasks were already being set in motion. It made him somewhat proud that the city was able to see the problem and know what to do in order to fix it. Alucard decided that if Rowan didn't show up for the lighting of the Pyre, then he would leave, he had his fill with corpuses today.

Rowan sent Vesna ahead of her as the pair made their way to the surface and the funeral pyre. It was not something she wanted to see but would be necessary not only for her but the others as well. United they stood on the battlefield, united they would honor those they had loved and lost. They shared their grief as one. Later they would share their joy.

While the panther made a beeline for the city's Shadow Master, the half-elf moved much slower, pausing from time to time to greet the living as she weaved her way through the crowd. Here stood men she had trained with, patrolled with, fought with, and one day expected to die with. Her hands were gentle as faces were touched and bodies were embraced. Many a forehead rested against her own in a silent gesture of comfort and strength as a hand gripped the back of her head. They lived while others had been lost. They all suffered the losses of friends, brothers, and fathers. It weighed heavy on their hearts.

A hand latched onto her own as she passed and pulled her to a stop. It was one of the newly initiated rangers. Rowan could not recall his name even has he looked at her with such wide and fearful eyes. She the chaos of war reflecting within their glassy depths. The boy turned man was shell-shocked as he suddenly clung to her, tears soaking her front and his cheeks as he made his sorrow known.

In quiet words, she did her best to soothe him, speaking of the peaceful place his friends had returned to. Eventually she was relieved of him as the king moved to speak. The man spoke of their great losses and their pained victory. He urged them all not to lose hope though as they would rebuild as the fallen would wish of them. The memories of the fallen would not be forgotten but treasured and their names would be forever remembered.

Rowan listened yet the words fell on deaf ears for her. She heard something else and far less pleasant as the woman was lost in her own world of cold memory. With her own eyes closed to the sight she watched through the panther's as the pyre was lit and the flames hungrily rose to the darkening sky. Where the woman had failed to, Vesna had found Alucard and sat quite subdued at his side. The quiet stillness with a deep indication of how low Rowan was feeling if it affected the usually rebellious and mischievous Shadow Spirit.

From somewhere to her left someone broke out in song, the words haunting and chilling and so filled with mourning. Others who knew the words picked up the call, their voices soft yet strong as they took comfort in each other. She felt it in her very bones, the pain the release, the sorrow the joy. All of it coursed through her as if she was nothing and everything. Rowan's head fell back, her body swaying with the words as her own voice soared beside the others.

If Vesna was there next to him, it was an obvious sign that Rowan was somewhere below, milling in the growing crowd. From where the Master Shadow sat, he had a brilliant view of the nearby ocean as well as the the pyre. The four Fledgelings that had gathered the lumber for the pyre now held torches and stood at the edges of the wooden platform. As the sun touched the ocean, they stepped forward and cast the pyre in fire.

The song that reverberated through the Shadows fell on Alucard's deaf ears, his own voice joined the song without his realizing. His entire focus was on the point were the sky met the ocean, each cast in shifting, darkening colors.

The fragrant oils overpowered the scent of burning flesh, which was the intended affect, and it also burned through the fuel very quickly, before an hour after sunset, the pyre was little more than embers, the bodies of the fallen shadows were one with the night, creamated below the darkened skies.

Alucard slipped down the column, and helped to usher everyone back to the city below. He gave Vesna a message to relay to Rowan, he would be at the Moonlit Gin and Tonic in about an hour if she wanted to join him.

---
OOC: sorry for the weak post, cranked on out while I had the chance.

She lingered even after others began to make their ways home. It was only the return of Vesna with a message that drove her away from the pyre and back towards the underground streets. Rowan arrived before Alucard despite her sloth-like meandering towards the tavern. With a heavy sigh she took her seat, propping her legs up on the bench opposite her as her eyes fell closed. One arm rested across her chest as the hand on the other dug firmly into her temple and forehead.

Drinks were placed on the table without a word and Vesna curled up beside, head in her lap with eager eyes watching the door for the Shadow Master's entrance. The pair was outwardly like oil and water it seemed. The Shadow Spirit was ever curious and playful where Rowan was somber and reclusive. While the animal's strength and prowess was a direct compliment to the ranger's own, its personality was vastly different. Over the years rangers had commented amongst themselves about the difference and rumors abounded. It was not fully understood why a vigilant shadow received the Shade they did. Some it was grossly obvious while for others it appeared to be ill-fitted.

Regardless though, Vesna belonged to Rowan and her to it. So as the ranger began to let her mind drift and ignore the headache wrapping around her skull, she watched through Vesna's eyes as people came and went. The tavern was filling quickly as the wake was over and it was time to loudly honor all that they had strove and succeeded to accomplish.

Alucard watched as the people slowly went below the temple, on the path back to the city. The Mass of people soon became a few stragglers, then finally, the empty feild. The master shadow leaned against a crumbling pillar, the same one he had most previously been sitting on. His eyes were upon the still glowing embers, their red hot glow a testiment to his mounting anger. With a roar, the threw a punch at the black marble pillar. With an extremely loud crack, the pillar broke and started to fall. The Shtahl grabbed the falling remains. Lifting with incredible strain, he carried the pillar to the edge of the cliff and dropped in, in the same place that he had thrown the bodies of Cleara Verdad members.

Looking down into the heavily churning water, he called forth from his barracks a burning pot of oil, why he would have a pot of burning oil? Who knew? Alucard tossed it over the cliff too, when the pot crashed into water, it shattered, spraying fire over the water. Looking over his small bit of carnage, he muttered, "I feel better."

Just before the hour was up, he was walking into the tavern. "How was your day?" he wasked, taking a seat across from Rowan.

Rowan did not even her eyes as he took his seat. In a sigh she breathed, "no different than any other day I suppose. There was work and I did it. Mm that reminds me," she pinched the bridge of her nose before letting her head fall back against the back of the booth so she could look at him, "there was a bit of a scare with the water tubs. We're going to have to keep an eye on them for further problems. They're getting old and probably could do with some replacing at this point. I'm sure someone's already told you that though."

The door jangled as some more rangers entered and moved to greet their friends. Her own eyes followed them as she spoke softly. "Vesna missed you."

'I missed you.'

"Kept sneaking off to try and find you."

Alucard pressed to fingers to the side of his chin, as if pondering something. Then, with a very loud series of pops, he popped his neck, sighing as it helped to relieve a large majority of the stress he was carrying in his neck. "How curious" the Shadow Master uttered while reaching out to pet the panther.

The Shtahl took a long sip of a dark ale after hearing about Aqueducts, his eyes quickly darted around the now filling room, his vision came to rest on a young and tired looking Ranger who was  half nursing a drink, half petting a shadowy marble fox. "I will leave him in charge of making sure the Aqueducts get exchanged, I'm sure Atlas will do a great job." Alucard never forgot the names or faces of those that took the Rites, "I am both deeply sympathetic and in great awe of that boy, in less than a year as a Ranger, he has faced Carnage that most of us have not scene for centuries. He is the only one from his class of fledglings to survive."

Alucard took another long draft of ale and stretched before looking up at her and half-smiling. It was not a smile of any real amusement, "and he was the only non-Pure Vigilant in his class."

The panther purred at the attention while Rowan winced and grunted at the sound his neck made. She had heard too many bones crack over the past few days and the sound was far too similar for her stomach's liking. Her eyes slid to where he directed though, watching the young man currently curled around his drink as if it was his lifeline.

The memory of the carnage brought her no joy but she had to smirk at hearing that he was not a Pure Vigilant. It brought her a small sense of satisfaction given she too was not born into the fold and had been brought into it. There was not a great deal of animosity among the believers that Pure was better than not but there were still some that felt themselves to be elitists while Rowan had always felt it was not your blood and birth but your skill and fortitude that made the better ranger. To hear another had proved himself in battle sat well with her.

Her eyes closed once more as a smile played on her own lips. "He was well-trained. I have heard of Atlas and his skills. I am glad they have served him well though they never should have been put to such use." Rowan sighed heavily and shook her head, her eyes reopening as she moved to take a drink. A question was eating away at her and yet she feared knowing the answer just as much as not. She wondered if Alucard blamed her for some of the death that occurred. If she had foreseen the battle, she could have saved many. If she had seen and not spoken she was the cause of such death. Yet, the Shadow Master never asked if she had and it sat heavily in her gut. Rowan hated not knowing what he was thinking and always felt out of balance around him. He was the only man that could ever make her feel less confident and completely unsure and she hated that with a fiery passion. She had always been independent and on her own until she met him. In a single moment he could make her feel like a child again not that she would admit it.

"What other duties do you have tonight?"

Unknown to Rowan or Alucard, they both feared the same thing, that they were the blame for so many deaths. Alucard personally blamed himself for something that he couldn't control, the Rangers that had formed an early warning system had merely vanished. He found that even trying to recall their names got exceedingly harder, the more effort he put into recalling their names, the more elusive the names became. Alucard slowly shook his head of it.

"According to King Kinder, I am free for the rest of the night, but I think I will stop by and see just how bad the condition of aqueducts are in. That won't take long at all. At the most, ten minutes."

He took another long swig of the dark ale before tossing some coins on the table and standing up, "Come with me?"

"Of course," she readily replied, moving stiffly to her feet as Vesna hopped down and moved to twine between Alucard's legs. "Not like you'll know where to look without me. Last thing we need is a Shadow Master forever lost in search of the ever elusive leak," Rowan quipped with a snort as she made her way to the door. "My evenings would become rather boring without someone like you around."

Alucard looked down at Vesna, she looked to be trying to tie herself in a knot around his ankles, "Why, cat, are you always underboot?" Looking back up, he smiled at Rowan, "Really? I can't be that interesting." He chuckled as he stepped out of the tavern, holding the door for her, "I'm flattered you think that highly of me."

Vesna purred loudly before shooting out the door into the streets, disappearing deep within the shadows. Rowan on the other hand snorted and rolled her eyes. "Don't be. It just goes to show the extent of how utterly boring my life is. Could be worse though, I suppose," she mused also exiting and taking long, slow strides towards their destination.

Alucard chuckled heartily, "Oh that bad huh? Perhaps you need to go on a few missions" He started to walk off then stopped, "Perhaps you should lead the way, after all, I don't want to be 'forever lost in search of the ever elusive leak'." The Ale was beginning to take affect, knocking the edge off his demeanor.

"Mmm anything to get away from here is good enough for me," she replied, stepping forward to take the lead again. "You sure you want to do this tonight? It was patched up enough that it can wait until morning. Surely you've had enough of a long day in addition to the drink." Rowan eyed him warily from the corner of her eye. "I would hate to have to drag you around because you passed out at an inconvenient moment."

"That doesn't happen, where would you ever get a notion like that?" He chuckled at her again, "In all honesty, I wanted an excuse to leave the tavern, I don't much feel like drinking tonight. Dimitri's Ale is strong, but today it tastes too bitter for my fancy. Besides, there was a funeral today. Not a good day for drinking." Alucard leaned against the wall and cast his gaze to the high cavern ceiling, blue crystals illuminated the city in a soft light, "You are free to go back in, should you wish. Unless you wanted to come relax with me."

Rowan shrugged nonchalantly. "What's the point when I'm already out here. Not like I was doing much drinking to begin with. However if you wanted an excuse to leave I think you could have done better than to ask to see the aqueducts. Surely there are far better distractions someone could have assisted you with?" She raised a brow at him invitingly even as she turned to walk backwards while watching him.

Alucard laughed softly and shook his head, "Yes, I am quite certain there are!" He slowly walked after her, a smile now fixed on his lips. "After all there is the undercity clockwork mechanisms that need to be serviced, the Timekeeper on Tower Alabaster needs to be calibrated, and a million other things that could serve as a distraction. However I do believe I find myself before one very enjoyable perplexity."

She paused, moving to circle him as her lips pressed into a thin line of displeasure. "I swear if you place the Timekeeper above a night with a willing woman in your bed I will disembowel and use your entrails as my battle banner." Her teeth flashed in a tight smile as she batted her eyes up at him.

Alucard watched her very carefully as she circled him, a smile still upon his lips, while keeping his feet firmly on the ground and in place. "It's a shame you won't be getting a new battle banner then."

He stepped up to Rowan and looked in her rich brown eyes for a moment, he then leaned forward and gave her a peck on the forehead. With the application of several faster-than-thought teleportations, they were back in the living room of his house in the Tower District before he even leaned back from the quick kiss.

"Oh I hate it when you do that," she grumbled, always finding something to complain about when she was around him. Rowan pulled away from Alucard while shaking her head to clear the dizziness that always resulted from being dragged along with him so quickly. She hated side-along teleportation as it left her feeling dependent on someone else for her safety and with Alucard it was only made worse by his practiced speed and power.

Moving with purpose as if she owed the place, the ranger brushed passed him and began the act of toeing out of her boots as she made her way to his bedchamber without so much as a backwards glance to him. "You know that battle banner's still debatable," she called over her shoulder from his doorway.

"Oh yes" He called after her, kicking off his leather and cloth shoes, "and I am absolutely certain that it would look quite lovely while you brandish it in all your fearsome might as you roam the endless halls of Zenith's Grasp." He jested as he followed her in a leisure pace up to his bedchamber.

If it had been any other person, he never would have made the joke, Zenith's Grasp was a truly heinous maze, it existed outside of time, so victims withing the maze could spend years in it, but on earth it would be mere minutes, or the exact opposite. Inside the maze, anything could become real, that is why the Rite of Shadows were performed in the maze, it was impossible to hide something withing Zenith's Grasp.

Rowan grunted in response, beginning to undo her own belts and ties as she made her way up and finally towards the bed. This was far from their first time together though it was a more recent development between the two of them. For it was perfunctory though, there was no shame in her body or its needs and she looked to Alucard to cater to it. If he could not or refused then she believed she could just as easily find someone else to warm her bed if she so chose.

While on occasion she had indeed invited other males into her domain, no other had ever made it into her bed. It was however something she was unwilling to comment on for fear of understanding what it was about the Shadow Master that had her returning to him and keeping a strange faithfulness to him alone.

"At least I wouldn't be kept bored unlike how you've been keeping me of late Alucard Leohalt. Tell me Shadow Master what do you have to say for yourself? What defense would you give to your ever-defiant Ranger?" She turned to face him, arms crossed over her bare chest as she stood in naught but a pair of leggings that hugged her gently curving hips and toned legs.

Alucard removed his cloak, hanging it on a hook by the door to his room. "Why should I defend against the truth? After events like those we had most recently, the normal day to day is very non-stimulating." He togged off his own shirt then cast his eyes at Rowan, "However, there is an excellent answer for such a problem."

The Master Shadow, stepped up to her, so they were only about a foot apart, "By filling the nights with vigorous activity." He gazed into her eyes, they reminded him of the chocolate that he had once bought while on a mission in Essyrn, and he had an addiction to the stuff ever since.

She stared at him, her head cocked to the side for several moments. Then wordlessly, Rowan struck. Her hand latched around his wrist before using it to half-drag, half-fling onto the bed before she was likewise leaping up to follow, her legs straddling his torso on either side.

Rowan leaned down over him, the fingers of one hand tangling tightly in his dark silken locks as the other helped her balance over him. Her lips crashed down upon his fighting for dominance until she was forced to draw away for breath. She rested her forehead against his as her chest heaved with the need for more air.

"Sure you can keep up? Hate to wear you out before I've even begun."

Alucard looked up at Rowan, keeping to himself just how marvelous the sight was, "I think you have forgotten who I am" he grinned. Leaning up, he picked up the kiss where she left off.

And so hours came and went until mornings call, alas, not much sleep was had that night. He just lay there, enjoying the closeness, Rowan having dozed off about an hour ago. The Shtahl listened to the soft chime of the grandfather clock in his sitting room. They had another hour before they had to be anywhere, so he laid there and continued to enjoy himself. It wasn't too long before he was whispering in Rowan's ear in an attempt to rouse her.

As the first rays of sunlight began to warm the earth Rowan drifted off into light slumber, not truly asleep but not awake either. When Alucard called her to wake, her head flinched away to the side, as she grumbled in protest. One dark eye slid open to look up at him in disgruntlement. Yet, upon seeing how content he looked, Rowan could not help but settle back and blink tiredly up at him.

"You know you never asked..." she quietly began, letting her voice fade as she watched his face. It had eaten away at her too long and in the dim twilight hours she found she had to know. She could not live with herself without knowing whether or not he blamed her with or without reason. Rowan had to know and she was determined to at last get her answer even if the moment was not ideal.

Alucard scrunched his eyebrows together and gave Rowan a perplexed smirk, "I never asked what?"

"If I saw it coming," she replied quietly, eyes focused firmly on the ceiling. "If I saw the end before the beginning. You know my gift, my curse and you have yet to ask. Are you so afraid to hear the truth that you daren't ask? Is the possibility of my betrayal too much for you? You have a responsibility Alucard and still you have not asked. You know betrayal means The Grasp. You need to ask."

The smile faded from his face as Rowan spoke, he looked over her face with indifferent eyes. Rowan was extremely worried. He recounted his own worry from late yesterday, he was so sure that people blamed him that he never thought to ask Rowan about a vision, but then again. He was sure that if she did, she would seek him out. He very carefully chose his words, "The way I see it, the fact that you are asking me if I dared ask. It could mean one or two things. One, that you are innocent and you fear that you may have judgement passed on you without a chance to defend yourself, or two, that you are so infallible in your cocky and narcissistic attitude that nothing could possibly break the defense that you have fabricated.

"Now, I have trust in you that if you were to have a vision that had given you such reason to worry, you would have tracked me down or gone to the king. So tell me, have I misplaced my trust?" He looked here directly in the eyes when he spoke the last part.

She watched him closely, ready for any sudden motions that would hint at an oncoming attack. It was not that Rowan did not trust Alucard, she did. But, past abuse even centuries old still managed to leave her wary around others during times of high stress and vulnerability. She did not know what to expect from him even has she mentally depreciated herself.

"There is still a third, a guilty conscience." She raised her chin up slightly, tightening her jaw as she spoke. "I fear no punishment if it is to be my fate. But I cannot bear the unknown. Only you can say if your trust is misplaced. I only know what I know." The eyes that looked up at him were clear, the brow creased. Outwardly, the rest of her appeared still and calm but Rowan's expression said it all. She was being torn apart by a war inside her and only a resolution would save her.

Alucard matched her gaze, in a low clear tone he asked, "Did you, Shadow Ranger Rowan Alvar, have a vision of an attack on The Vigilant Shadows, or any other premonition of some sort of catastrophe, that led you to believe that the lifes of your fellow Rangers were going to ensure en masse?"

Rowan's eyes closed quickly as she inhaled sharply. When she did open them again the look she offered him was that of a tortured soul. The voice she spoke in was dead and emotionless. She believed her she had done wrong and desired at last to be free of the weight of her failure.

"I foresaw the battle."

To say Alucard was shocked, was a gross understatement. He felt numb. He felt like the world lost all light, Rowan was his most trusted friend within the Vigilant. If ever forced to chose between saving her life, and the life of King Kinder, one of the single best kings that the Clockwork City has ever known, he didn,t know what he would chose. But he never let it show on his face. "How many hours prior to the battle did this vision come to you?"

She sat up, uncaring that the covers pooled around her waist, revealing her nakedness as she stared at her hands in her lap. "Every night for a week," she answered quietly feeling equally numb. "Maybe longer, I don't know."

Again, the word hit him like a blow across the face. He got up from the bed and walked over to a closed window. He was uncaring that his naked form was infront of the window. He purposely kept his window oily and uncleen. So that the harder one tried to look inside through the window, the more impossible it became to actually make any clear sense of things that lie beyond the window. "Describe, in as much detail possible, what you saw."

"It always started the same," she recited, refusing to look over at him for fear of getting distracted. "Clear as day I stood upon the smoking field. I was tired and my sword arm was as heavy as my heart. As I moved I picked my way through rocks that turned into faceless bodies of shadow and enemy. From there the image always shifted."

Rowan shook her head in frustration, her hands clenching and unclenching as she tried to keep her voice steady. "The images always bled from one to the next with no sense of rhyme or reason. Red, blood, lots of blood and black moving shadows. Figures dancing and fighting. You," she paused gulping heavily while casting a fleeting glance his way. "You and the troll giant with the axe. Tershal's eye bandaged. Atlas alone. Other things..."

Tears began to burn her eyes as she spoke and wrapped her arms tightly around herself. "Alucard every night I tried, I tried to see more and I couldn't! It was like trying to stare out of your window. The more I looked the less I could see. Grotesque shapes and shadows, nothing more. All this gift, wasted!" She slammed a fist down against her thigh. "Useless! And it was all for naught. I could not tell you because...I couldn't. If I could just have seen! I failed," she cried brokenly. "Just like the last time. It happened all over again, just like last time."

The Master Shadow closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the window, and just listened. For a moment after she finished talking Alucard did nothing. Then, very slowly, he moved across the room to a hope chest. He popped the lid open and removed a small white bolt of cloth. He laid it in front of the sobbing half elf.

"Dry your eyes, then get dressed. The king will need to be informed of what you have told me." His voice was quiet, without harsh cutting blame, or sympathy, or much of anything.

Rowan immediately reigned in her feelings, chocking back further tears as she uncurled to sit up straight. Once more she looked like a composed soldier even if she felt like she had been slapped in the face. She moved quickly and quietly to gather up her clothes even as she without realizing clutched the soft white fabric tightly in her fist.

Internally she repeatedly berated herself for being so foolish and selfish wanting to see more rather than bringing it to anyone's attention. Then she turned to blaming herself for getting involved with the Shadow Master or forgetting that it was nothing more than a passing fling that sated both their needs. Her duty to The Vigilant Shadows and their king came first.

She would be prepared for whatever fate the pair decided for her. As she pulled her boots on she called out softly to Alucard. "Are you going first or am I under watch?"

Alucard was just about to put on his cloak when Rowan spoke up. "No. You are not under watch. But, if it is all the same to you, I would request that you leave with me."

He left out the fact he was quite certain that if he were to be out of people's sight that he would break down. He tended not to show pain when in the prescense of others, it was a quirk of his that he never could quite understand. Perhaps it were because he led a city full of potentionally dangerous people. He didn't know what to think about about this most recent news come to light. But what he did know, is that the idea of having to banish her to the Grasp, and untimately having to face day to day without her. It was a painful and bleak notion. She brought alot of color and spontinuety into his life.

She nodded her head without a word and moved to stand beside him, intent on following him silently wherever he would lead her. Rowan found it ridiculous that she had been more afraid of telling Alucard than she was now about having to tell the king of all their people. She could not say though if it was because he would be by her side or if because the Shadow Master was actually the one whom she respected more than any other member of The Vigilant Shadows. Behind them Vesna padded along, head hung low and tail dragging across the floor. Even the exuberant Shadow Spirit was subdued in the face of Rowan's fate.

It didn't them very long to walk from Alucard's home to the Clockwork Spire, or as many referred to it, The King's Own Shadow. The Spire had many levels, admittance to which was based entirely on personal standing within the Vigilant. Fledgelings were allowed on the lowest levels, which is where various classes were taught on a variety of subjects, from stealth to armed and unarmed combat. The next two levels held the hospital, where Dark Mother's were taken when they went into labor. The next level up was the Shadow Barracks, only accessible to Shadow Rangers, the Master Shadow, and the Shadow King. On the final level, sat the Void Throne and the two offices that belonged to Alucard and the King.

Standing before the Void Throne, which was currently unoccupied, Alucard turned to Rowan. "Please wait here, I will return shortly with the King." His eyes strayed over her for a second longer before he left out one of the side rooms, supposedly where the king slept.

Rowan felt that every step forward she took, her heart dropped another millimeter into her boots. She did not fear King Kinder or her judgement but she did have regrets and those combined with her sense of guilt and disloyalty weighed upon her thing shoulders heavily. She felt like a failure to her people and almost wished to be sent to Zenith's Grasp to carry out the severest of all punishments for her extreme lack of judgement.

Once again she offered Alucard a sharp yet silent nod in response to his command. Her face remained impassive as she stood, eyes focused straight ahead and hands clasped behind her back. She stood as a soldier at ease awaiting further orders and not as a fool awaiting a fate worse than death.

Shortly soon became twenty minutes, pushing on thirty. However, it wasn't Alucard who returned with the King, but just the king himself. The old king looked at Rowan with indifference, not anger nor hurt nor betrayal, but indifference. As he moved along the floor, the tower seemed to react to him, gears under the floor started to turn and a chair rose up before the throne. As if out of nowhere.

"Please have a seat, Ranger Alvar." King Kinder spoke up as he went to sit in the throne across from the chair. "I have come to understand that you had a vision, one of most dire imaginings. Yet you weren't forthcoming with it, not in the slightest. Do you deny it?" His voice wasn't accusing. He was like a grandfather in his speech, he wanted to know all sides of a story before he cast a judgement. That was part of what made him such an effective king, he was Just and Fair.

As the minutes ticked by, Rowan found herself fighting the urge to pace or otherwise fidget. She did not know what to expect and while unafraid she still felt sick to her stomach. She constituted her failure to communicate her visions as an ultimate betrayal as it resulted in a lack of preparedness on the part of the Vigilant Shadows. While she could not move around, Vesna at least whipped its tail back and forth where it sat.

The entrance of the king sent Rowan's head shooting downward as she bowed before him, her dark hair feathering across her cheeks as she waited for direction. She could feel beneath the ground the machinery that brought a chair up to her right.

Obediently she hastened to sit on the edge of the seat, her back ramrod straight and eyes respectfully lowered while her hands rested folded in her lap. She raised her gaze to meet his own so that he may see her honesty as she answered his questions. Her voice contained the same deadness it had when last she spoke to Alucard. Her spirit was weak and it was reflected not only in her person but in the depressed form of her Shadow Spirit who lay where she had left it.

"I do not deny it, Your Majesty."

The King thoughtfully rubbed the salt and peppered Vandyke. "I am just going to assume that you have had visions before, especially ones that came true, otherwise Master Leohalt never would have brought you before me. Describe to me what happened in these visions, and how did they change as the progressed. After that, I will have a few questions for you, then I shall come up with my ruling."

Rowan bowed her head in understanding before beginning her tale again in a slow, quiet voice. She left nothing out in her telling, repeating everything she had told Alucard and more. The ranger gave every little inconsequential detail of what she remembered from the visions, the actual events that had taken place, her own musings and rationalizations as well as her fears and self-blame. She told him of her feeling selfish and childish for wishing to see more, doubting herself even as she knew she was gifted in such a regard.

"I hoped with more knowledge I would be able to present my visions in a way that would be believable. I wasted too much time needlessly and our rangers paid for that with their lives." She sighed heavily and mournfully, fighting the way her eyes begin a slow burn against saltwater tears. "All I've ever wanted since I arrived her was to serve and protect my second family and I have failed just as I failed my first. Forgive me Your Majesty," she murmured, lowering her head respectfully, "I have cost us much."

King Kinder nodded and listened attentively. After she finished her retelling, he was silent for a long moment. "I have heard your testimony, Ranger Alvar. In a moment, I will begin asking you a series of questions, how long this takes depends entirely on your answers. I could ask you as few as two, or as many as Alucard is years old. Now my first question to you, would you like something to drink?"

The mirthless bark of laughter escaped her before she could quell it. Composing herself once more, Rowan shook her head with a fleeting smile. "Thank you but no Your Majesty, I am fine and ready to proceed as soon as you are."

The king nodded, "Very well. Now, if you were in my position right now, what would your judgement be in this situation? Would you issue a punishment or no? If so, what kind of punishment? Think carefully about this."

To say she was not shocked by the question would have been a lie. Rowan had certainly not expected to be asked to place herself in the king's shoes and make the decision he was now faced with. She licked her lips as she furrowed her brow in thought.

"What your ask of me Your Majesty is quite difficult to answer as I find myself quite torn between choices. Judging myself I would in a heartbeat say that yes I do deserve punishment and a quite severe one at that. Yet when I think of other rangers and wonder if they were in my own shoes and I was forced to make the same choice I could not answer as readily. I feel I have betrayed your people, whether that be the case or not. I feel guilty for our losses, for not being able to prevent them and yet," she was forced to pause to swallow back the tears that fought her even harder to fall.

"Yet I know that if I had no visions I would still blame myself. All the things I see and I could not see this! What good is a gift when it cannot be used in the moments that matter most?" Gritting her teeth, Rowan could not hold back any longer. Once more tears coursed down her cheeks though she made no sound as she squeezed her eyes shut in grief.

"How can anyone consider forgiving me when I cannot forgive myself? How can anyone trust me when I could not protect them when they needed me most? I see what I have done and failed to do as strong of a betrayal as bringing the enemy straight to our gates though this I did not do. Punishment is yours to deal Your Majesty but for my answer I see nothing but death or The Grasp for my fate, the same that awaits any other who dares betray the Vigilant Shadows. That is my answer."

King Kinder nodded, "That is all for the questions. I do believe I have come to a verdict." The King stood and drew his sword, "your punishment shall be delivered immediately."

He strode forward, "Ranger Alvar, your punishment is as follows. Because of your Longevity, you are to take my sword. Her name is Doubtbane. You will outlive me. The other part of your punishment it to use this sword to defend the Vigilant Shadows. Until you have enough faith in yourself that you don't blame yourself for the hard times that we all face. Even if you had spread word of your visions, you would have only been stalling the inevitable, fate sees through to get what she wants. Instead, focus on those you saved. You prevented the Vigilant from losing the entirety of one of our Ranger Classes from being wiped out. And for that, I applaud you. Now, you are dismissed."

The king laid the sword down across Rowan's lap and left the throne room. Once the heavy door closed behind the king, Alucard stepped out from behind the high back of Rowan's chair.

Rowan accepted the sword out of reflex instead of comprehension as she stared up at her king completely speechless. What he had done was unbelievable. Instead of punishment, she had been rewarded. In a way the half-elf felt cheated and if in that moment she could have found the words she would have voiced them as her heart raged angrily within. She had expected punishment, even death instead had been thanked and made to live.

The sound of the door closing sent a whoosh from her longs as she suddenly slumped forward, her head falling into her hands. Rowan breathed heavily as she fought the urge to leap from her chair and cast the sword violently away from herself or in turn throw herself upon it.

From the corner of her eye she caught movement and once she recognized whom it was, she groaned. "How long have you been there?" the ranger asked in a barely level tone, anger and grief riding just beneath the surface. She felt it was incredibly unfair that he should have been there without her knowledge as she poured out her heart and more to her king with the expectation that it would be the last words she ever spoke. Now knowing she would live coupled with not one but two people knowing over her failures was nearly enough to cripple her. The things she had kept hidden from Alucard yet spoken to Kinder made her stomach roil with apprehension. He was not meant to know what she saw of him nor her insecurities. It was not his place to invade her privacy so.

Instead of answering her, he looked off to the side. "Do you know that I, too, blame myself?" He didn't wait for an answer, "Over the past three centuries, I have been building a very unique early warning system over both land and sea. It was made up of over thirty Rangers. Now, after the attack, they, and their shadows, have all vanished. Off this earth it seems. I can't remember any of them, not names or faces. The harder I try to recall them, the harder it is to remember. And it is not just me, their friends, their mothers, and in some cases, their children cannot remember whether these individuals ever existed."

"The fault for this attack lies not on our shoulders, but on that of our enemy. The have some means of altering reality. And while I think I may know what it is, I find it almost impossible to recall." Alucard paced around the room, it ate at him that he couldn't remember something so vital. "We managed to, in their attack, kill two of the five leaders. But when I went to disarm them last night. They had nothing, no weapons or armor. Or clothes for that matter. The Verdad must have come for them during the night. But the point remains that this attack wasn't our fault. These deaths weren't our fault. And I blame myself needlessly."

'And so do you..'

"It is expected that you would blame yourself though," she spat out. "You are one of the leaders of our people. A good leader would blame themselves regardless if it was there fault or not. I cannot say the same! I am no one but a ranger and even then I failed my duty. I cost mother's their sons. I am the reason for their tears. Shadow Master you do not understand. You cannot possibly," she informed him candidly. "You are no common man."

Rowan rose from her seat, Doubtbane still clutched loosely between her hands. "The enemy may be blamed for what they started but they never should have been able to succeed with what they did if our people had been left without such warning. You can stand there and tell me that those pigs SOMEHOW stole my sight from me! But you cannot say they stopped me from speaking of what I did know. That was on me and that will forever be another stone around my neck."

Curtly she bowed before him before attempting to leave him. "Good day Shadow Master. By your leave," Rowan formally stated, her eyes as cold and lifeless as the stone walls that was the foundation of Clockwork City.

Alucard looked her hard in the eyes, but he just couldn't bring himself to try and rebut her. His only argument was fool of holes. Instead, he merely sighed. "Just go." Besides, he had no way of knowing if she felt the same about him. If, you know, he could figure out just what she did mean to him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Practice Yard in Shade District was virtually empty, save for a lone Ranger and his Fox Shade. Atlas was throwing a wooden discus around and the Shadow Spirit would bound after it. Atlas, who's weapon of choice was a pair of Chakrams, could get some very fancy and hard to reach throws. But the two were having a blast, laughing and getting themselves winded. After a while, they went to sit off the the side at the spectating bleachers. The black and grey fox immediately hopped up into her master's lap.

She did not need to be told twice as she fled on flying feet outside of the chamber, Vesna so close behind the poor cat's tail was nearly caught within the closing door. Rowan raced with one destination in mind. Yet once she reached the Practice Yard she could not even remember the journey of getting herself there.

When she burst through the doors into the room she was too winded to notice the pair upon the bleachers. Instead she banished away the king's blade and called to her hands the first thing her mind conceived in her barracks.

The smooth leather handle of a cruel whip pressed neatly into her palm moments before she raised her arm and in a split second sent the tip of the whip crashing down with a sharp crack upon the tiny flame dancing upon a candelabra close by. Over and over she did this without knocking a single candle from its precarious holder until every single one of the tiny flames on the single candelabra were extinguished.

It was through her Shade's eyes that she caught sight of the Shadow Ranger and his own Fox during her frustrated display. "Care to spar?" she called out to him once she was done. Rowan still felt she was due some punishment and Atlas seemed like a likely candidate to grant it to her.

It was all Atlas could no to not flinch every time he heard her whip crack, it brought back very bad memories from his time in the Illuminate Dawn Cult. The leader of the cult was damned good with a bull whip and quick to use it on anyone who dared to be insubordinate. So naturally, Atlas had deep, set it, permanent scars up and down his back. That was not to say he liked to start trouble in the Vigilant, his scars told of when he stood valiantly against the evils of a cult. Unknown to him, it was his insubordination that actually brought light of the cult to the Vigilant Shadows.

He looked down to the Vixen, She yipped happily. Seemed she was in the mood to prover her shadow do a senior member of the Vigilant Shadows. Standing, Atlas banished the discus and called forth two of his old practice Chakrams, they were without the cutting edge that his main two weapons had. "Against my better judgement, I accept."

Rowan nodded her head once in greeting, waiting only long enough for him to summon his choice of weapon before cracking her whip close to the Vixen's side wishing more to corral rather than harm as she faded back into a set of shadows to reappear at random several feet from where she had been before. Her own Shadow Spirit circled the edge of the grounds in a counter-circle, keeping a watchful eye out for any trouble.

The ranger was taking things slow, desiring to allow Atlas take the lead as it was as much for his benefit as her punishment. He could learn from the challenge she presented and perhaps she could find release from her guilt through a fight that might leave her at least temporarily bruised and bloodied. Rowan believed he had incredible potential to have survived the battles of above and be so new to their ranks.

Atlas eyed the whip, for the moment, he was out of it's range. He, however, knew that she could close the distance between them in a mere heartbeat. All Rangers could. "That's not very nice" he teased when she popped her whip next to Vixen. Spinning the wooden chakrams around his middle fingers, getting a high enough rotation to make the disks a viable attack weapon wasn't that hard but it did take about three second.

Once ready, he snapped his wrists, sending the two disks in a wide arch around the space between them so they would approach Rowan from two directions. He then charged at her, running full tilt.

Where some would have chosen to bleed in and out of the arena's shadows or a younger ranger would have backed away, effectively stepping right into one of the Chakram's paths. Instead, Rowan barreled forward into Atlas' head-on attack. It was a reckless move and likely to get her just as easily injured as it was meant to surprise her attacker.

She could have cared less though. Whip was effortlessly exchanged for a pair of small knives which were far better suited for such a closerange confrontation. The whip would only cause her more trouble and give him the advantage over her if he managed to get a handle on it. It also kept her safely away from Atlas and Rowan wanted anything but to feel safe and secure right then. She wanted to feel alive. She wanted to repent and in her mind only the dead feel no pain.

Atlas had survived the Battle of Blood Moon, and It wasn't due to the fact that he was easily surprised. Summoning forth his own daggers, he dove into a slide in a hope to get a glancing blow on the ankles or calves. A small scratch that would be, if nothing, annoying. Sliding under an opponent was a risky strategy, one that most often paid off.

He then disspelled the daggers and cartwheeled to his feet in time to snag the chakrams out of the air and brace himself for attack. Vixen had busied herself with engaging Vesna so that Atlas didn't get flanked by the half-elf's shadow.

Rowan grunted as his blade glanced off her shin and grazed upward, leaving a stinging sensation behind in its wake. As he slid under her though she somersaulted in the air over him, twisting like a cat at the last moment to land on her feet, facing him. Behind her, Vesna shrieked a warcry in anger as it attempted to smother Vixen.

The woman at the same moment struck out like a viper, her hand shooting out in an attempt to slam her dagger into his shoulder. If she could immobilize or stun at least one of his arms then she had a better chance of cornering him without the threat of his chakrams literally coming around to catch her from behind.

Through Vixen's eyes, Atlas saw the strike aimed at his shoulder. Gods bless her, the shadow sacrificed her availability to oxygen in order to help her master before trying to shake off Vesna.

Atlas twisted, using his left shoulder and arm to knock away the woman's strike, earning him a small scratch across the back instead of a stick in the shoulder. Following through with the momentum, he spun and pivoted his left foot as his right swung around, up, then down. Hopefully on Rowan's left shoulder.

The panther shade would not be shaken though and growled deep within its throat as it attempted to clamp its jaws around the scruff of Vixen's neck to quell her as a mother would her errant cub. It too sent images to its ranger, providing Rowan with a wealth of information both trivial and important.

Against better judgement, Rowan shut off her mental view through Vesna's eyes. She did not want help, feeling that it was cheating her way through her self-determined penance. A piercing yowl of disbelief sounded though the room as Vesna forgot about her own quarry and stared fearfully towards the dueling rangers.

Rowan collapsed to her knees as Atlas' foot came down heavy upon her shoulder, causing her to reflexively drop the blade in her left hand. She tried to ignore the mind-clouding pain as thrust out with her right hand to drive and knock the hilt of her dagger into his kneecap.

Atlas felt the sting of the dagger's hilt crashing against his kneecap, he noted that fact that pain wasn't following the strike. His Adrenalin was flowing, the pain would come later with a vengeance. Pushing off with his left foot, he hooked his leg under her armpit. Popping up and over the half-elf, using his own momentum to twist his body yet again, so that Rowan flipped over him and landed hard on her back.

With left leg now straightened out under her neck and pinning her right arm just past the elbow while his right leg was pressing the back of her head to the ground. His left elbow pressed down on her left forearm, effectively pinning it, while the right arm spun a chakram trained at Vesna, "What now Rowan? Even if you teleport you are only only going to drag me along with you."

In a matter of seconds he had her on her back and the wind knocked out of her. Rowan tried not to panic even as her lungs fought for air and he taunted her. She had no worries about the chakram as Vesna could get away easily enough.

Yet as oxygen finally flooded her system, she felt herself go still and even limp beneath Atlas. Her eyes closed tiredly as she wrapped herself in a blanket of mental darkness. It would be so easy for her to give up in that moment, so easy to just give in and let him win.

Instead of answering him though she suddenly teleported them both straight up, effectively nullifying his hold on her before she attempted to shove him away from her and teleport again in midair over to where their shadow spirits still struggled against one another.

"What was the problem with that again?" she called back, her voice echoing through the arena.

Atlas was so sure of his win, only to literally fall from his grasp. Before he could crash to the ground, the nimble ranger teleported himself back to the ground in a standing position. The two combatants now stood a good twenty feet apart.

"Alright, I'll admit. I wasn't expecting that, but I can assure you, that will not happen again." He smiled at Rowan, waiting for her to make a move.

"Of course not," she replied quietly. "That would mean I would be repeating a past maneuver. Do you really believe me so set in my ways Atlas as to repeat myself and rely solely on muscle memory. I'm not that old boy."

Rowan circled him along the wall, placing one foot slowly in front of the other as she kept her back to the wall. "You're going to have to learn not to anticipate things or you're going to anticipate your way right into someone's sword point."

"Zander always said that the key to a solid victory was equal parts anticipation and spontaneity, although I am sure that with your superior battle experiance tha-" He didn't finish, he cut off his speach with a quick jump through space to right behind the woman, already launching off a kick aimed for the small of her back.

Rowan rolled her eyes at his tactic even though she was not quite fast enough to spin and avoid his attack. His foot collided painfully with her solar plexus causing her to grunt even as her ribs protested the abuse. She winced heavily even as her hands locked around his heel and toe, intent on sending him spinning with a quick twist of her arms.

"It's rude to leave a lady waiting for an answer Atlas. Surely you know that by now."

Atlas took a long look at the grip she had on his ankle, if he stayed his footing, she could very easily break his ankle. He would have to roll his body around the way she would eventually twist. Likewise, if he commit to rolling in one direction yet she twisted another, that would most definitely break the bones of his ankle.

"I fear you misunderstood earlier. In future sparring sessions, I will go for a complete pin instead of one against the ground. But say we call this match, I'd rather like to avoid returning to the infirmery. I have had quite enough of that infernal building the past two days." He did just get the okay to leave the day prior, after Alucard had mended several of his ribs.

The woman paused before shoving Atlas back by his leg with a huff. "I think we all have," she muttered darkly, images of a certain Shtal healer popping up before her eyes unbidden. Sending away her weapons to her personal barracks, Rowan bowed respectfully to Atlas, officially ending their dual.

"Perhaps if you have no other plans Ranger Atlas, I might interest you in a drink or two? I have a few prized bottles I have a mind not to drink alone tonight. Your company would be appreciated," she offered with the barest of hints of a smile.

Atlas raised his eyebrows, visibly taken aback. She wanted him to join her for drinks? it wasn't long before a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I would be a fool to refuse. Some wine sounds most appealing." With a short bark from Vixen, he added, "Lead on."

-----

Off in the shadows, the Master Shadow watched. A bottom lip swelled from where it was most previously split and having healed within the last hour. Alucard watched the way Rowan moved, with such refined elven grace. Even while fighting, she had a gracefulness about her. And now as she walked, with such a gentle sway of her hips, it was surprise to him that she held so much interest from many of the Rangers. Male and female alike. "Saucy little minx." he said with a slight grin as he watched them leave.

"Excellent," she breathed, holding an arm out for the taking. "I'm sure we can find a thing or two to share besides the wine over the course of the evening. You don't have anywhere to be, do you Atlas? I feel as if I've been remiss in my duties as a Ranger. I have not been paying as much attention to the up-and-coming Fledglings as I should have. I hope you don't mind and can forgive me."

Atlas took the offered arm in his while he thought, "Tomorrow morning I have a forest patrol. Three hours. Then forging and game hunting. Seven Pounds." Tomorrow would be a long day of hunting unless he could land something big. For Rangers, since they had superior tracking and survival skills to Fledgelings, their hunts ended when they achieved a weight goal. "And since you spared me a broken ankle, I suppose I can find it in me somewhere to forgive you."

The young Ranger glanced up and whistled a low sound of amazement, "Damn, still as beautiful as when I first set foot in this place." Atlas was, of course, talking about the roof of the gigantic cavern that the Clockwork City made it's home. On his first time walking into the city, breathing the open air of the cavern, and happening upon a glance up, he was so stunned, he fell on his ass and sat there.

The cavern was a stone dome, so massive that the entirety of the City and several stretches of land used for farms were housed within. All across the roof of the dome were small Sunstones, amazing little crystals that emit a soft blue hue, making it seem like the Vigilant had they own personal star-scape to peer into. Then, placed in strategic areas, were massive columns. Even today, after he had seen this place for so long, it managed to steal his breath from time to time.

Leaning into his side, Vesna weaving between her legs as they moved, Rowan replied. "Good because I would hate to share my home with someone who hated me." The statement had her stomach turning slightly as she remembered a different male who she had let into her home and very well may hate her now. Thoughts of Alucard were hurriedly thrust away as Rowan placed her head on Atlas' shoulder instead so she could look up as well.

"Aye, the shadow's heavens. I remember the first time I saw it. I knew right then that I was where I needed to be. Perfection."

She continued walking further before finally stopping at a door tucked away from the center of the city. "Here we are, make yourself at home! Mind the mess, I've been a bit preoccupied though I'm sure you understand."

Stepping into the first room of the half-elf's humble and let out a low whistle, "This is better than my place by half, which is of course due to the fact that half of this place is still larger than my place." Atlas joked. Vixen, hopped up onto the nearby table, and from there, lept atop a bookshelf. She was, visibly unhappy about being in the home of another female. She would no doubt voice this to Atlas later in subtle ways.

"So Rowan, what do you do when you aren't given a task or away on missions?" The young ranger asked while removing his boots before venturing further into Rowan's home.

Rowan's lips quirked slightly with smug pride. She had worked very hard to be able to earn enough to afford her secluded home and though she was private enough to not have many guests, her heart still warmed to know this was all hers. While Vixen was making herself at home on the bookshelf, Vesna was pacing below it as that was her usual vantage point to view the entire room. Finally deciding enough was enough, the Shadow Spirit likewise leaped up on top of it except straight from the floor and without a care for the other currently there, decided to completely plop down on Vixen and spread out, tail twitching down the side of it.

"I'm afraid you will find me quite boring. When I'm home I traditionally train, go for a run, that sort of thing. You know get a good workout, work up a sweat, that sort of thing."

'Especially in the bed of a certain Shadow Master.'

She shook her head as if shaking the thought away. "Make yourself comfortable," she offered, waving him towards her couch past the dining table by a low coffee table and more bookshelves. "I'll just be in the kitchen getting you that drink I promised." So saying, Rowan disappeared into a room to the right of the dining table to retrieve a pitcher of wine and two goblets.

Atlas chuckled softly, "I wish I could say that I do more, but that's just about the same for me. Some days I will stop by the Archives in the Tower and read old reports. I often go and play fetch with Vixen as well."

At the mention of her name, the fox spirit shifted slightly, she really just laid there while Vesna flopped atop her. She looked up at the black panther, before shifting again to make her slightly more comfortable.

Atlas took a seat nearby the bookshelf and looked around. Supposedly this place had been build several thousand years ago. The young ranger couldn't imagine the endeavor that had been, building an entire city under ground, and making in sustainable. Atlas dared not think of what he would do if he were building such a thing.

And then it donned on him. The way she had smiled while inviting him over. The way she had leaned into him as they walked. The fact that he was now sitting in the home of Rowan Alvar, one of the most talked about rangers at the Moonlit Tonic and Ale. As long as he didn't screw up, he may have a tale that no one would believe, if he dared to tell.

She listened, nodding her head to herself though he could not see it even as she kicked off her boots and removed a few of her outer layers. Dressed in her leggings and a loose tunic that laced in the front, she finally returned with the items she had gone to get and sat down next to him on the couch. One foot tucked under her while the other rested on the table directly in front of her.

"Something in particular you're interested in the archives?" Rowan queried while pouring them both a drink before placing the pitcher on the table and handing him his cup. "Or is it just a passing interest of curiosity?" Her own goblet rested on her knee untouched for the moment as her dark eyes watched his face intently like those of a great hunting cat, surveying its prey.

The true hunting cat however, was far too busy tormenting Vixen to be paying much attention to the seemingly boring conversation going on below. Vesna applied herself to slobbering the smaller creature in an interest in thoroughly bathing it. The panther shade made sure to try and soak as much of Atlas' companion as possible in as short time as possible.

"Knowledge." He said with a grin. "I was in a class of all Pures, information has always been my edge. I figured it would help me again when I try to test out of Antumbra. It was supposed to take place today actually." But shit hit the fan topside. He took a long dreg from the goblet she handed him, trying to wash away any memories that tried to bubble to the surface. "And you? You are Penumbra correct?" He asked, trying to shift the conversation off him.

The Marbled Fox however, was trying to shift something entirely different off of her. A jungle cat. However she clearly wasn't trying to hard. Maybe is was just the lethargic feeling that hung in the air for those not attending to some task.

Rowan nodded her head slightly as she took a sip of her wine. His question turned that simple sip into her draining the entire goblet in one go before placing it rather forcefully down on the table. "For now," came her tense reply. It was a sore point for her that Alucard had still not given her his answer as to whether or not she had met the qualifications to advance. Those thoughts followed by others made her feel bitter.

"I'm sure you've been tested enough Atlas. We have all noticed your valuable assets and you have more than proved yourself to be ready," she commented instead while refilling both their cups. The movement of the two struggling shades though caught her eye, making her shake her head. "I must apologize for my Vesna. It is very rare that I ever invite company home. She is unused to others in her domain. Your Vixen," she paused clarifying the name before continuing, "is not too distressed I hope.

Atlas nodded his head very humbly at the compliment. He wasn't all to used to receiving praise. At the mention of his shadow spirit, he looked up the fox. "She's smarter than a horse, but more stubborn than most mules. If she gets fed up, she will vanish into the shadows. She knows better than to start a scene in another Ranger's home."

It seemed that Vixen took his statement as a challenge. With the shadow cat's next lick, Vixen had her fill. The fox screeched and twisted under Vesna, gnashing at the cat's tongue and strongly kicking up with her back legs into the cat's stomach. Atlas reacted immediately by jumping up to intervene. This caused the rest of the wine in goblet to splash all over himself, covering a surprising amount of surface area of his shirt and pants while the metal goblet smashed into the floor. "Vixen! Into Shadows." As the command was issued, the marble fox's form solidified into blackness and collapsed into an almost discolorized stain on the bookshelf. Vixen's Shadow crawled along the side of the bookshelf and across the floor until it was hid within Atlas's shadow.

"I'm sorry Rowan" Atlas sighed, "Vixen has... never actually done something like that before. Is Vesna alright?" He asked, just noticing the wine splattered across his shirt and pants, already beginning to soak in and stain.

"Apparently not," Rowan commented dryly as the pair broke out into a fight. She placed her cup down but did not otherwise intervene in the manner that Atlas did. The spilled wine did cause her to sigh though and stand to get a towel. When she returned, Vixen was under control and Atlas was apologizing.

A wordless look sent the relatively unharmed but sulking panther spirit away to no one knew where though Rowan suspected she was well onto her way to see a certain Shadow Master. "You might want to take your shirt off Atlas," she quietly and calmly told him while handing him the small towel. "I don't think you'll be very comfortable in soaked clothes. I can bring you a blanket if you're uncomfortable or cold."

Atlas sighed and followed the half-elf's suggestion wordlessly as the shirt came off wordlessly. However, since the shirt had already absorbed the wine spilled on him, so the ranger set himself to cleaning the wine that had spilled on various other surfaces, a task which was quickly accomplished. While it was true that there was a slight nip in the air, Atlas didn't mind. He sat back down, bare chested.

"Well this could have gone better." He said with a half grin and a shake of his head.

Rowan took the shirt from him and took it to another room to quickly soak. "It still can," she called back to him as she worked on scrubbing out the worst of the stain before pulling it out to hang-dry and returning to the room. Her eyes quickly took in the muscles of his chest and abdomen before meeting his eyes again without shame.

"Now what were we discussing before the girls decided to throw a fit?"

Atlas held his gaze up, instead gazing over Rowan with his peripheral vision. The muscles that rippled in her arms and legs spoke of well restrained violence channeled into graceful action and ease of motion. "We were speaking of our daily lives, our interests." He enunciated the addition, as her eyes rose back to his.

"Were we now?" she repeated, raising a brow slightly before reaching for her cup and finding it empty. The ranger nodded towards their empty cups "Would you care for more? I'm afraid you were left without the opportunity to finish it as you would have liked. We wouldn't want me getting ahead of you, now would we?" Rowan smirked playfully as she glanced at him coyly from the corner of her eye.

Atlas returned her smile, "I would, what I've had of it was pretty damn good. Where did you get it anyway? I know old Dimitri doesn't offer high grade wines, publicly at least." Without realizing, Atlas found that he had sucked in his gut, allowing for more of his muscles to be more prominent. Not that they was much hidden that a sucked in gut could reveal. 

Rowan smiled a secretive smile and shook her head. "If I told you that well...I would have a lot of blood to clean out of my rugs that's for sure," she jested with a wink before once more sauntering off to the kitchen to bring back not only the partially full bottle but a second one as well to refill their cups.

The ranger sat down with a plop, tucking herself in nicely against Atlas' side as she did so. "You drink, good sir," she offered, extending his now filled cup out to him as her other hand gently clutched her own.

Atlas took a long, slow, deep drink from the goblet, draining more than half the glass. The sweet scent of it filled his know while the sharp undercut of fermentation scored his tongue. "There, that should put us closer to even." Beyond that, he said nothing. This was new ground for him. During his later years as a Fledgling, he was too focused on staying ahead of the pack to seek out anything more than friendships. Never before had he been invited, nor half naked, in a woman's home.

"It's a start," she murmured softly from beside him before taking a far more sedate sip of her own drink. With her feet crossed at the ankle and propped up on her small table, Rowan felt completely at peace pressed hip to hip and side to side with Atlas. Gradually her head began to drift to rest against his shoulder even as she mused on the antics of her familiar.

Breathing in deep to signal a return to awareness, Rowan shook her head softly, inadvertently nuzzling in against him. "I never realized how quiet and still it is without Vesna. I have lived too long with her at my side it seems. I've forgotten what it was like to not have her a heartbeat away."

As she leaned into him, his arm wound around her back. His hand finding her hip to be a natural resting place. "I get what you mean, I think the one and only time I have banished Vixen to shadows since she first appeared what when I took the Rites. And then it was required of me." he took another generous sip of the wine before asking, "How long had you been here before Vesna came to you?"

Memories whirled before her eyes as Rowan recalled becoming one of the Vigilant, first entering the Clockwork city, first meeting Alucard, first...She slammed a mental door on the memories that proceeded her life as a ranger, feeling that she was not nearly drunk enough or in the right company to recall the parts of her she had long since buried.

"I drew breath and she was there," she at last cryptically responded, remembering the glowing eyes in the dark that had stared back at her and through her, allowing her to see beyond what her own eyes could pick up but through the eyes of the shade as well. For a brief moment, Rowan peeked once more through Vesna's eyes before angrily slamming another door in her mind at seeing where her little "pet" had scurried off to, or rather whom she had scurried to. The ranger did not wish to be reminded of a certain man and his ability to invade every private aspect of her life with his cruel presence.

"Vesna bent the rules a bit...she does not take kindly to not getting her way."

"I hope that Vixen and I haven't caused her too much unrest. I was actually the last in my year to receive a Shadow. But then again I was in a year of all Pures as an outsider, most already had their Shadow before even entering the training." He brushed off the notion with a dismissive chuckle, word was already making rounds that Atlas was all that remained of that particular group of Rangers. Atlas himself didn't know this. By the end of the next day, he would be quite confused over the frequency of sympathetic nods in his direction.

In the meantime, he helped himself to the last of the wine in his glass, unaware of how his group had suffered the most losses. "To the Outsiders, may they shine bright under heavy scrutiny." He added, raising his empty glass.

Rowan shrugged with disinterest. "She'll live. It's hardly as if she's faced anything different since living with me. I'm not the easiest of people to get along with." She sneered at the mention of Purebloods and shook her head. "There's no such thing as Pure. No matter what they say Atlas, don't believe it for a second. I'm as good a fighter as any man, so-called Pure or otherwise. You're no different."

Taking a moment to calm herself with a sip of her own drink, Rowan at last raised her own cup for her own toast. "To the shadows that frighten away even the scariest of monsters." With a chuckle she drained her own cup and reached to pour them each a third round.

Atlas felt a great warmth to her words, 'Your a much better fighter than most, by half. I know this, I fought you, remember?' Not yet realizing he was drunk, Atlas laughed at his words that he hadn't said aloud, a nice amused chuckle. Having never really drank before, he had no idea that the creeping warmth spreading across him was in fact intoxication. As Rowan refilled his glass for the third time, he hugged her a bit closer, and took a long sip once the goblet was full after raising it in the air to acknowledge her toast.

She raised a brow in obvious amusement at his antics, neither dissuading nor encouraging his advances even as she quietly drained her own cup again. Unlike Atlas, Rowan recognized the blooming warmth spreading throughout her as well as the relaxed sense of calm that came with it.

"And what pray tell is so funny that it has you nearly in stitches?" Rowan smirked softly while looking at him with her head cocked to the side slightly.

The Ranger gave another short chortle, "I just realized something. Real or not, a lot of people subscribe to the pures and outsiders way of thinking. And the outsiders tend to be stronger. I mean, I was one of the strongest in my fledgeling class, you are an extremely competent fighter, better than most. Is it because so-called pures find comfort in their status and slack off, or is it because the outsiders work harder to prove themselves? Or is it a combination of both?" He followed her example and drained his glass and gave her a smile. His head beginning to bob a bit as he became that much more drunk.

"I cannot really say," she admitted while resting her cup on her knee. "I have always felt it was more an individual's strength rather than their birth that defines them. By no means could I say I am as I am because I was trying to prove myself as an outsider. Perhaps a bit as a woman but...there have always been other factors at play at least in my life that have driven me onward. If not to them then at the very least to myself I had to prove that I deserved to be that ray of light in another man's darkness. We are shadows but not of malevolence. We are the vigilant and we are the protectors of the moonless night.

"Or something poetic to that effect," she chuckled before pouring herself yet another glass from the second bottle but refraining from doing the same for her guest. The bottle was then left wedged between the two of them to keep her from having to continuously reach forward for it.

Atlas leaned his head back and closed his eyes, gently bobbing his head in a mutely happy agreement. He had meant to speak up, share some of his history that was somewhat relevant. But with his growing intoxication, the late hour, and his exhaustion from training after the days task, he had fallen asleep without realizing it.

Rowan chuckled once she realized the young man had fallen asleep on her couch but left him to rest whilst she finished her drink at her leisure. As she lost herself to the peacefulness of stillness, she reflected on the honor she had been bestowed and did not deserve. The memory of a certain sword residing in her barracks both frightened and awed her. It was however, something she decided that she would worry about another time as her thoughts were drawn back to her sleeping companion.

With a quiet sigh, the ranger placed their goblets on her table and her feet back on the ground before placing an hand on Atlas' shoulder and nudging him gently. "Come on kiddo, time to get you to bed," she murmured while trying to direct him into enough of a sitting position that should could assist with guiding him to her bed where he could sleep off his alcohol.

Atlas arose to the sound of scratching on glass. Opening his eyes just a little, he immediately told the noise- and the vice is head was in -to fuck right off. The Clockwork City was by no means a bright city, but something about the soft light of the Star Stones through the windows- what little of it there was -made his head explode into brilliance and pain. Oh so much pain. The Ranger pulled the covers up over his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, cursing audibly at the scratching noise. Unaware that is was Nex, the Master Shadow's Shadow Spirit, with a summons for him.

After the ranger had managed to tuck the young man into her bed she had soon taken to removing the majority of her clothes to sleep on her now abandoned couch. Clothed in only a loose tunic and a thick wool blanket, Rowan had spent hours staring off into the stoked fire before her until sleep at last claimed her.

It was not to last though as an incessant tapping woke her, causing her to growl and glare at her ceiling in frustration. With a growl she pulled herself to her feet and padded her way into her bedroom to see what her guest had managed to get himself into that would cause such a racket.

"Atlas? Do you need help?" she murmured softly from the doorway.

Atlas didn't reply, couldn't if he wanted to as he had fallen back asleep. A deep sleep devoid of thought. The tapping at the window, however, persisted. Perhaps even becoming stronger. But the young ranger slept through it, aided by the hydration robbed of him in the alcohol from the night before.

The summons that Nex carried, while the loyal bird tapped away incessantly, was for Atlas to make his way to the tower post haste to the Clockwork Tower for the Ranger Trials.

Rowan sighed heavily as she entered further into the room to find Atlas fast asleep and burrowed under her warm covers. With a shake of her head she moved towards the shuttered window where tiny pinpricks of light still shone through.

With a gentle rap on the window she whispered hoarsely to who she guessed was on the other side. "Go back to your master, Nex. If he wants to talk then he can do his business himself instead of sending others as his little messengers." Her words were kept quiet so as to keep from disturbing Atlas but still harsh in tone, belying the anger she still felt towards the Shadow Master.

If Rowan had opened the window, she might see Nex giving her something resembling a death glare. Even so, in the next minute, the bird was gone. Atlas stirred to adjust his body make breathing a little easier, leaving room for Rowan there on the bed should she wish to take it.

With an aggravated groan she found herself dragging her overtired and sore body back to the comfort of her bed, uncaring that it was already occupied by her guest. She flopped onto the mattress, yanking part of the covers over her body haphazardly before getting comfortable with her back to the window. Rowan had no doubt it would not be long before Alucard came pussyfooting his way to her door and she wanted to at least shake part of the ache that had settled into her bones after so long fighting. While Atlas would eventually regret his alcohol consumption, the elder ranger regretted their sparring that not left her still mending leg screaming in protest.

Alucard found is already fowl mood was souring even further as he made his was to the house of one Rowan Alvar. He wasn't there for her, oh no. He was there to collect Atlas, the young ranger who was the only outsider of his fledgeling class, and the only of his class to survive the battle. It was time for his Ranger trials, and it was long overdue.

So it came to some surprise when the summons was outright ignored. When the Master Shadow's spirit has informed him to Atlus' location, it was all the more surprising. Not a pleasant surprise. Not in the slightest. Alucard's knuckles rasped harshly against Rowan's door. He also has a small roll of paper, it had Ranger Alvar's tasks for the day. Two birds, one stone.

It seemed that Rowan had been truly wicked as sleep was not hers to be had. A new set of rapping, disturbed her, this time from her front door. "Persistent bugger," she hissed, flinging the covers from her body and onto Atlas. For a moment, Rowan had contemplated telling her caller to leave but propriety demanded otherwise.

She was slow in dragging herself out of bed though, not even bothering to pull on a pair of trousers as she limped her way to her front door. The bolts that locked it were opened slowly before the door itself was pulled open enough to see who called without signaling an invitation to enter.

Alucard kept his face to the passive neutrality that he'd perfected of many years. One that Rowan has somehow snuck past on more than one occasion. Needless to say, maintaining the mask was no small amount of effort on his part. "Ranger Alvar, I have come to collect Ranger Atlas for his Trials. It seems he has been otherwise waylaid and was unable to receive his summons. I have also brought you the tasked assigned to you for the day." The master shadow produced a small scroll sealed with a paper adhesive, unique to the clockwork city and nigh impossible to forge. He offered the scroll out to her.

Alucard considered, with how disastrous his last interaction with Rowan had been, it best to give her space, and keep their interactions formal, in a hope of perhaps mending things when tensions and stress weren't so high.

It was as if a mask had been slammed onto her face at his words. She was expressionless as she accepted the scroll from him and turned her back on him as if he were not even worth her time to invite in personally. Rowan did her best not to show her limp as she walked towards her kitchen. Her pride demanded it after all.

"He's in the bedroom," she called icily over her shoulder. "I trust you remember where that is."

"Aye." Was all that came from the Master shadow, he quickly made his way and and jostled the sleeping form of Atlas with a rough shake of the shoulders. The young Ranger shot to alertness, almost headbutting Alucard it the action. He would have, had the Shtahl not had a firm grasp on the young man's shoulders. "You have fifteen minutes to get to the second floor of the Tower. Someone has sponsored you for your trials, if you are late, you fail."

The shock of the dark man's words surged though Atlas like rolling thunder. The ranger scambled- nay -leaped from the bed, and was almost out the door before Alucard called after him again. "You need to be clothed." The young ranger looked at him incredulously, his suddenly conscience mind not realizing the fact that he lacked a shirt. The Master Shadow sighed and picked a rather large shirt off the ground, it was partially hidden underneath the bed. By the weight of it, Alucard realized it was one of his own. His clothes were made of metal threads, stronger than even the most Mastercrafted of chainmail or platemail.

Atlas quickly put it on and was out the door- out the small house, in a flurry. Alucard wondered how long that shirt had been there, shaking the thought away, he walked back to the main room. "Rowan?" His voice fell away. He wanted to ask her if she would meet him at Dimitri's, if she was still angered with him for reasons that he didn't quite understand. "May your tasks see you to the shadow of dusk." But he didn't ask anything. He feared that she might rebuke him. Marvelous though that was, the mighty Shtahl feared something after all. The feeling was foreign to him and he didn't quite know how to treat it. In place of the question, he gave her an idiomatic phrase, one that had been popular when Alucard first came to take notice of the hard working she-elf. It had meant something along the lines, 'I hope you have a good day' but the phrase had fallen out of use some decades ago. Without waiting for a response, Alucard turned and left, making his way to Altas' Trials.

------

Atlas finally burst into the room where his trials were to be held, officially referred to as the Chamber of Trials. Atlas had always found it quite dramatic. Somehow, the Master Shadow had beaten him to the room. Some part of the Ranger's brain clicked, He'd teleported, Altas realized, glad that some amount of logic was returning to him. Quick glances about the room told him that more than half of Umbra Regiment was not present. A grim thought passed over him, he'd heard somewhere that the Umbra had suffered the greatest casualties. They had stayed in the fray for longer bouts, damning themselves to fight multiple opponents at once to allow battle weary Penumbra and Antumbra the ability to make a tactical retreat.

The Ranger also noted several dozen prominent members of Penumbra, which made sense. One needed a sponsor from either of the regiments in order to move forward. Lastly, Atlas noted the presence of the Shadow King. The Ranger lowered his head in deference.

"Antumbra Ranger Atlas, Third in his year. First in his name, First in his line among the Vigilant Shadows." Atlas stiffened a bit, hearing the King announce his full title in a surprisingly loud voice. It gave his rank, how his placed among his Fledgeling Class when he graduated, and his lineage among the Vigilant. The last of these marked him as an outsider. "Where is your Sponsor?" The question was not to him, but rather those in attendance.

Rowan gripped her counter with tightly clenched fists and a bowed head as Alucard went about his business. An archaic phrase and he was once more out her door, a glass bottle flying across her kitchen to smash against the opposite wall, signalling her displeasure with the entire situation. Not one word for her as if she had not been worth his time or effort, as if they had not shared many nights in each other's beds or working closely side by side.

Add to her troubles that her tasks were a punishment in and of itself. A grueling day of hard labor was ahead of her that she could not shirk in completing. Determined to push through the pain of her leg and her heart, she strove to serve her penance in silence. It might kill her in the end but she would succeed without Alucard's help or notice. At the end of the day which could not come soon enough she would retire to the darkness of her rooms to lick her wounds in privacy.

~~~

"I sponsor him," a voice readily rang out into the room, filled to the brim with self-assured calm and confidence. "Umbra Ranger Marcus Avron, first in his year. First in his name," the man paused offering a slight smirk as he nodded his head to Atlas, "first in his line." For a moment Marcus looked about the room at his gathered comrades, men and women he had fought side by side with over the years. There was pride in his voice to stand there as a sponsor though he found it bittersweet. There were others who should have been here with Atlas. There were good children barely of age themselves who had been lost in the merciless bloodshed. One look at Atlas though told him all he needed to know. The boy would do his class proud.

"Will you accept our claim?" he called back, head held high as if to challenge anyone who would deny them Atlas' right.

Atlas was stunned. He was being sponsored by Marcus Avron. THE Marcus Avron. Most- if not all -members of the Vigilant had heard of him, the man who took on Missions that would take most anyone else years, only to come back in mere months! Rumors about him were extravagant and hysterically exaggerated, but for his part, Marcus did his best to neither confirm or deny any rumor. Most he didn't even acknowledge. The things that Atlas had heard of this man alone made the young ranger want to put him on a pedestal. But beyond that, Marcus was undoubtedly a prodigy with a weapon. Any weapon! Atlas found himself suddenly wondering if he were the butt of some joke. There was no way that a man like Marcus even noticed a lowly Antumbra like Atlas.

King Kinder let his voice boom across the chamber once again. "We shall see. Shadows, to what Trial will you see Atlas Overcome?"

"Combat!" Someone shouted.
"Are you daft?! We've seen enough combat of late! Diplomacy!" Someone countered.
"Cunning!" Offered a third.
"Decisions!" Came another.

Kinder raised a hand to silence the room. "Sponsor, it falls to you, how will you showcase your protege?"

Marcus perused the room with pleasure, enjoying the command he had over the moment. Atlas was not the only one honored on this day, as the elder ranger too was blessed at being able to sponsor such a capable and young fighter.

"It is true we have seen enough combat for a lifetime. Atlas has proven himself worthy in that respect a thousandfold and I dare any man or woman who would call his strength and courage into question to cross steel with me." His eyes scanned the room not expecting anyone to make good on his challenge.

"Nay, the challenge I choose is closer to home," he continued, "closer to heart. A challenge of choice, of what is hard and what is impossible, what is right and what you can live with." Marcus turned from the gathered rangers to meet Atlas' eye once more.

"Atlas of the Vigilant Shadows I set to you the Trial of Decisions. What say you?"

"I accept." Came the young ranger's reply. In truth, he felt almost numb, like his body were preparing for battle.

Alucard took up the mantle of questions immediately, "You are on a time sensitive mission of great importance. Yet when the objective is finally within reach, you and your ally come against heavy resistance. You can complete the mission, but you notice that your partner is engaged and is slowly being overwhelmed. Do you complete the mission or go to the aid of partner?"

Atlas answered without hesitation, "I trust in my comrade to hold out- if not overcome -against the opposition while the mission is completed." Alucard noded, accepting the answer and allowing for someone else to ask.

Another voice soon rang out not long after his answer, barely giving the boy a second to breathe before he was faced with his next test. "While on a mission of great stealth and importance you are briefed that you have but one opportunity to eliminate a target before he commits another heinous crime. However, when you come upon him he is not alone. The target is surrounded by his five young children. Your time has run out and it is now or never. Your choices are retreat and fail in your mission, or eliminate the target as well as the potentially innocent lives of his offspring in order to ensure the safety of your people, yourself, and countless other innocent lives. Which do you choose Ranger Atlas?" the voice queried coldly as all awaited the young man's answer.

Altas rounded on the direction of the voice, the dim lighting of the room and the close nit congregation of rangers made it quite difficult for Altas to pick out who was talking, "I choose to wait. If his children are innocent, then they will have no part in the crime, if the man leaves, I will pursue him, and if the children do take part, then they too will go into the Night." This answer caused some heads to nod briefly, it hadn't been a presented choice, but sometimes you needed to make your own outcomes.

Another voice called out from behind his shoulder, "A warrior comes at you with a heavy, two handed war ax, his intent is to kill you. How do you respond?"
Atlas looked over his shoulder and summoned forth his chakrams, "I don't give him time to close the gap. Seeking to incapacitate, I would like to find out why he was trying to kill me."
A quick reply to his answer came from somewhere to his right. "The man is a brigand. What then?"
"Then I snip his gripping tendon in his right hand and maim his left heel, leave it to god to sort him out."

This time, The King spoke, "Why wouldn't you kill him?" Atlas turned to face the king, "Banditry is a result of a hard time. Wars, chaos, and general discourse encourage men to seek a life of hurting others. My punishment makes him into an ill fit warrior, to continue life as a bandit would be to give up his life in the next skirmish. I cannot force him to walk the straight and narrow but I can pray that the man will see the extent of his injuries and decide to leave banditry behind him, maybe become a break maker or something." The king nodded, motioning for the trial to continue.

Marcus raised his arm, commanding silence as he claimed Atlas' final test and question for his own. He kept his back to the young man as his head was bowed in thought. When he at last spoke, his voice was low and somber. There was no trace of his usual smug mirth that anyone who had ever met him never forgot.

"With the powerful and weighty responsibility of defending our world, comes even greater sacrifice. It is the burden we all agree to pay when we take up arms in the name of peace as shadow rangers. Yet, in order to do this sometimes we must make decisions in which there is no true correct answer. Life is not a test where there is always a right and a wrong."

The weathered ranger turned to face Atlas, his eyes hooded with the shadows of lives lost and lives saved, all by his own hands. "Given the choice to save the many or to save the one which would you choose when the many is an entire city of innocents? Innocents who more often than not will not even thank you for your good will. In fact they very well may curse you for it instead. But the one," he swallowed thickly, his voice dropping to a softer tone before continuing, "the one is someone you care for deeply, a loved one, a friend, your fellow ranger even who is downed and incapable of saving himself.

"Before you answer though," he raised his hand once again to prevent the young man from answering immediately. "Know that there is no other option than choosing. You cannot sacrifice yourself. You cannot save only some of the city to help the other, and you cannot save both. It is all or nothing.

"So which do you choose Atlas? The ungrateful many or the one you keep close to heart?" Marcus turned away once more, walking towards the other seated rangers in order to join them. "Choose wisely, this is your final question."

Atlas was silent for a long time, not that anyone could blame him. It wasn't a silence of a man trying to find the right words, nor was it a silence of uncertainty. Rather, it was the rare obscure sorrow that existed whenever everyone in a group shared the same pain. After several minutes the Shadow king breached the silence, "We need your answer, Atlas." The old man prompted gently.

Atlas looked to the Ranger who sponsored him, looking Marcus in the eyes. "A week ago, I would have- without hesitation -proclaimed that I would save the innocent people, no matter the cost. My every morality along with all my teachings growing up tell me that is the choice I need to make. But a week ago, I didn't know the depth of despair found in the death of someone you care about. I didn't know the weight of the silence once filled with the sound of friend and acquaintances. Nor did I know sudden absence of people who have been there your whole life can ebb at your mind, or the gnawing unsettled feeling of something that will always be missing." Altas cleared his throat. "I don't know what I would do in that situation. I know what I want to say what I would do, but I don't know if that would be entirely honest. I pray I am never faced with such a choice outside of hypothetical situations."

This time it was Alucard who stepped forward, "Very well Atlas, please step outside while we discuss the result of your Ranger Trial." The ranger gave a slight bow before stepping out.

Once Atlas had exited and the door had closed firmly behind him, Marcus rounded on Alucard. His gaze was for the Shadow Master alone but his voice projected clearly for all to hear. "I defy any man, or woman," he added with a wink to some of the lady Umbra rangers, "to give a more truthful answer to that question. Atlas has proven himself in skill by surviving what even some of our far more experienced brothers and sisters were unable to. You may call it luck. But that answer was from the heart and spoke of the same sorrows we have all faced in the field. Perhaps real life is not as dramatic but in my defensive of him I know of no better man than he to be granted a place among the Penumbra rangers. Though I do not say this lightly, I might even go so far as to say that despite his youth, he may have earned his place as an Umbra class ranger."

Marcus gave a short bow to all in attendance out of respect. "Having spoken my piece, I leave the decision in your capable hands dear friends."

Alucard looked back at Marcus with a mask of non-expression, "I was thinking Umbra would be best for him as well. It was always been a tradition to elevate one from each year to the Rank of Umbra. If anyone deserves it, it's him. For those of you who aren't aware, Atlas was from the Year of Fledgelings that were elevated to the Ranger Corps two months prior to the attack of Cleara Verdad. He is also the only one from that year to survive the conflict. As unfortunate as that is, it shows great strength and skill." Alucard was never one to put personal things before professional things, but he couldn't help but realize that if Atlas was raised to Umbra, he would spend large amounts of time away on missions. Away from Rowan as well.

"We have two supporters for Umbra, are there any who oppose?" Came the low voice of the king. There came some dissent, mostly about his age. When no one else came forward, King Kinder spoke again, "Very well, I have heard what you all have to say, Please bring Atlas back in." It didn't take long. "Ranger Atlas, Your Fellow Rangers have deemed you worthy of to Join the Umbra Regiment. For the next eight months, you will undergo intense training, after witch you will have a month of rest before your first Umbra Ranked Mission. Do you accept?"

The shock was still evident on the young Ranger's when he was questioned, "Yes. Absolutely. It's an honor."

King Kinder made a slightly bemused grin, "You'll need someone to train you, Umbra Ranger Grog Strongjaw, come forward." A second later, a bald man with unnaturally white skin popped into existence beside Atlas. Baring his full height, the man was probably under seven feet tall, with the the bulk to match. The man made no noise as he came to attention. The most noticeable thing about him was his eyes, pupil-less and they seemed to radiate a small amount of white light. "Will you train Ranger Altas?"

The low voice of the giant responded, his answer filled the room no less than if someone had shouted, "It'd be my pleasure, Ser."

The King nodded, "Very well, you two leave in a week. This Ranger Trial is over. Good luck Atlas. Shadows guide you." With that, the King teleported out of the room.

As many of the rangers exited the chamber, some offering congratulations to young Atlas, Marcus sauntered his way over to the newest Umbra-to-be, clapping him heavily on the shoulder and giving him an enthusiastic shake.

"Well done young Atlas! There was never any doubt you would pass and go on to do great things. Have any plans to celebrate? Will you drink the night away with the lads or spend it in with a lass or two if you know what I mean?" he queried sotto voce with a waggle of his brows and his arm draped about the other man's shoulders. "I owe you a drink regardless, come let's get you drunk my young friend."