Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

It was a long shot, she knew.

Really, Faith wasn't entirely sure why she was here. Except she knew exactly. In a half break, she had a meeting with Andraska Venora, but right now she had something to do. Something that she had to do for herself, by herself and without discussing it with anyone. When she got home, depending on what happened here, she would tell Padraig. She smiled to herself as she thought that and realised the error of her thoughts. She would tell him, no matter what happened.

"Blessed Famula, I serve you unto my final breath and beyond. Lord Vri, I am yours unto the end and after. Holy Moseke, my life is in service to life, death and the in between. I beg you all three, hear your servant's prayers this trial. If it is your will, any or all of you, show me. Allow me to see. Open the pathway before me and light the way."

Her life, thusfar, had been remarkable and Faith knew that. She had been blessed with love and she had overcome some truly horrific odds. She knew that she was lucky, luckier than anyone should be. She knew the man who made all the things she had achieved possible, who walked alongside her in this moment even though he was across the world. Because Padraig had, more than anything, set her free. Tristan had freed her from slavery, but it was Padraig's slow and careful way of loving her, his quiet support and his determination that she should be everything she wanted, not what anyone else did. It was that which had allowed her to be truly free. Tristan had freed her body, but her mind, heart and soul were free because she and he walked together. Faith did not, not for one trill doubt it.

Smiling as she thought of the man in question, she almost didn't notice it. Yet there it was. Faith stopped, dead in her tracks and she breathed in a gulp of air.

Father to Rey'na and Morana?

"Well, that's two names." Faith said, to no one in particular and she frowned deeply. "It's at times like this that I wish I had a chalk bunny to talk to," she said, possibly a little oddly if anyone who wasn't Padraig, Tristan or, strangely, a young man by the name of Arlo wasn't around. "What would you say, PB? Something rude, no doubt. Inappropriate and largely irreverent." She smiled fondly at the thought of the bunny.

But then, Faith shifted so that she was kneeling on the grave and lowered her head. "Gregory Fleet. As Famula's servant, I request that you show yourself to me. That you step back to this place and talk a while with your daughter." The ability granted to her by Famula, the ability to "Entreat" a soul to come to her and, as the suns had set and dusk was upon them she was able to do it. So, here in Venora where once she had purposely put herself in a situation where a man beat her so that she might get on to the night shift as punishment, just so that she could get to see Tristan and warn him that Elyna Burhan had been kidnapped, here where Cyrus Augustin had raised the serious young scholar who she adored so completely, Faith knelt and she prayed.

"I ask you to come, to speak. Speak with the living, you who have died so many arcs ago." It was when she, and her twin, had been seven, Faith realised looking at the date. So many things. So many pains and tortures, so many things. She looked up at the form, the man who stood there with silver eyes like her own and she smiled.

"Morana?"

Faith shook her head. "No, Father. I'm the other one. I'm the one on the left."

The spirit of her father raised an eyebrow. There weren't a lot of people in the world who could do that with quite the angle that Faith could. She had a single eyebrow-raise down pat and here, looking at the semi-translucent image of her father, kneeling on his grave and recognising the eyes of the stranger in front of her, it was reflected back.

Who would have thought it?

She looked up at him and Faith realised that she felt nothing. Not hatred, not anger, not remorse or even a desire to understand. There he was. The man who had sired her. He was dead, her eyes were like his.

"Vesna. Interesting. What do you want?" His question took her by surprise because, in truth, she had no idea what the answer was.

What did she want? Faith didn't entirely know if she was honest. What did she want?

"I presume you called me here for a reason? Speak it, then. Do you want to know why I did what I did? Why you were sold into your undoubtedly pitiful existence?" He looked irritated, Faith thought and she wondered why. Yet, he had the same expression on his face which she wore when irked, but taken to a much higher degree. He had worn it when her mother had been unable to choose which of them to sell, she recalled "Do you think that you'll get an apology out of me or a concern for what happened to you? Do you expect remorse? Maybe for me to beg your forgiveness?"

Faith shook her head, her expression as calm as her voice. She had really, genuinely thought that there would be something. Some feeling, some worry, some... something. But no. There was nothing. "No, father. I don't expect any of those things." In a way, Faith thought, this man whose biology flowed in her blood, whose expressions and eyes were like looking in a mirror, this man was the first spirit she had met which did not provoke a response, did not bring about an emotion. He simply was and that was all.

"Then what do you WANT?!" The last he shouted, ectoplasm forming spittle on his lips and Faith watched him. Watched it, as it first formed and then dripped down, from his lower lip on to his hand.

It was a good question.

"I had thought that we could talk," Faith said, feeling the dirt under her knees. "But we have nothing to talk about, do we?" She looked up at him.

"Oh, so you're calm? You look just like your mother, you know. She brought your sister to me, useless whore she was. I looked after her, though, looked after them both. Rey'na, Morana, my two girls." He shook his head. "I don't know you. Slave child. I gave you not another thought, although your mother lit a candle for you, like you were dead."

Faith heard his voice and realised with a prayer of thanks to Famula that she was able to do so because of the Immortal's favour.

"You haven't told me what you want, Vesna!"

Faith smiled, "I wanted to know if you had any questions."

He looked at her, and the ghost of her father laughed.

"Do I have questions? We sold you as a slave, girl, don't you have questions for me?" He shouted it, and Faith realised that her father was an angry man. She knew that it was usual for ghosts to be just the same as they had been in life and she had no reason to think that her father was any different now than he had been when he was alive.

"No. I thought I did, but I don't. It seems only fair to ask if you have any," why her calmness and lack of emotion was irritating him Faith truly did not know. He had sold her to the slavers who had taught her the discipline, trained her to be calm. Did that annoy him? She really wasn't sure.

"Vesna," he said and she smiled and shook her head.

"That isn't my name." Faith smiled at him and then realised that she had interrupted him, "my apologies, I spoke over you. Please?"

"Your name is Vesna. We gave it to you. We did!"

"I know. They didn't let me keep it. They never told me it. You knew that," Faith wondered if she should be feeling irritated, annoyed or hurt. She didn't. She didn't feel anything except a little sad for him. "But please, you were going to ask me something?"

"What happened to you?"

Faith looked at him and she felt pity for the man who stood in front of her. For the soul that was so angry, so hurt and so unhappy. "I was trained for seventeen arcs then, just after my eighteenth birthday although I did not know it, I was bought by a Venora noble. He kept me, treated me better than I had ever been. He used me as his bed slave and sent me to a tutor because he did not want a stupid slave and because I had told him I wanted to learn." Facts. Simple, basic and clear. Often she used those to hide emotions, but now it was the opposite. It was because she had none. "I fell in love with the tutor and he with me. My owner fell in love with me, asked me if I wanted to be free. I said yes and I ran to the tutor's home. We are getting married in Vhalar."

He frowned, a deep and unhappy expression.

"Why did you come here, then?"

Faith sighed, briefly. It was only fair. "I came because I thought I wanted closure. I'm sorry, I didn't."

"What?"

She stood, shaking the dirt from her knees.

"I thought I wanted closure," she said, with a smile. "But I didn't. There's nothing to close. Thank you for coming, though. I appreciate it."

"What? Vesna? VESNA?!"

Knowing that he would leave, because that was how it worked, Faith turned off the ability, sent him back and walked away. As she did that, she frowned slightly. "I wonder what PB would say," she muttered and made her way to where she was meeting Andraska.