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 Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:50 pm
[This takes place in the DF timeline, before Zircon is re-corrupted.]
She was lonely. Lonely and alone and terribly lost. Sphal knew she'd had to have had friends once upon a time. But when she'd become a Squire, had taken on the duties of looking after the Wonder of a Knight with no more line or reincarnation, she'd lost all that. And being alone was...hard. School was lonely, patrol was lonely, everything was lonely.
And then she'd heard of someone else like her, living in the camps.
Sphal had damn near run most of the way there once she was certain she hadn't been followed. [She remembered what the Negaverse was like. She remembered the tells of being watched.] She'd waited until she was almost to the camp to change from Kasih to Sphal [she refused to be Sphalerite anymore...that name was tainted], and promptly started looking for a sign of another Uranus knight. And hope said knight was like her: a former enemy.
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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:19 pm
Zoji La was an enigmatic figure, a pale ghost made of sand that wandered the camps when the day was gone. Long days of running had hardened and blistered the soles of her feet, and there were bags under her eyes that felt so much heavier than three years time. She kept only a modest tent to herself, but it was marked with the insignia of Uranus, followed by a crest of a bird flying free over the rolling desert. This was the freedom she'd bargained for, hidden away like mice in hovels.
These days, freedom felt a lot like marching onwards towards a slow and painful death.
The Uranus Knight had just returned from a courier trip, her pack heavily-laden with goods from the city. She felt the squire before she saw her and slowed her pace, crawling to a stop at the sight of familiar tans and blues. The short woman stared for a moment, then set down her pack, pulling away her cowl to reveal tufts of white-blonde and a face with eyes that had seen too much.
"You look lost, little dove," Zoji La called out, her tone tired but kind. "Is there someone you're looking for?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:54 pm
Sphal startled a bit at the new voice, old habits and things driven so deep they were reflex-beyond-instinct kicking in as she slipped into a defensive stance. And found herself locking eyes with another Uranus knight. She felt her heart soar a little, and the woman smiled slightly as she relaxed, standing normally again.
"I heard there was another Uranus knight like me. Someone...someone that once claimed they were fighting for the world when they were actually fighting to subjugate it." She swallowed, shaking a little at the memory of what she'd been becoming within the grasp of the Negaverse. "I was hoping...that maybe they and I could talk. It's been...very lonely."
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Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 3:47 pm
"You mean someone who belonged to the Negaverse," Zoji La responded plainly, tilting her head to get a better look of the girl. "Well, you found me. Three years a traitor of the Dark Kingdom, I used to be a captain named Zircon." She spread her hands outward from under her poncho and bowed with a smile, as if the action were a bittersweet joke whose taste had never quite left her mouth.
"Most people call me Zoji La, though." Hefting her pack back on one shoulder, she closed the distance between them, and after a moment's pause she placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. "You're brave to have made it all this way in these troubled times. There are too few of us, and it feels like we're made fewer every day."
She walked past the other knight and towards her sparse tent, pulling up the flap and looking back to Sphal with a curious. "Would you like to come inside? I have a few cushions that haven't been rationed out yet, we could sit and chat about days gone by."
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 4:26 pm
Sphal nodded at Zoji's words, pain in her eyes. The person she'd been in the Negaverse had been angry and hollow, becoming hollower by the moment. Perhaps her present wasn't much better, but it was indeed better. The hand on her shoulder brought her to give the other a slight smile, and she nodded, then followed the other. "That...sounds wonderful, Zoji. It's been hard here, integrating after being what I was. And it's been rough avoiding the Negaverse."
At least...she knew someone was safe. She wasn't sure who, but there was a vague memory of her telling someone to be safe, to get to safety. And that they had. "My name is Sphal."
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Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 3:12 pm
"Well then, welcome Sphal," Zoji nodded, leaning back against the entrance to allow the Squire plenty of space to walk in.
The inside of the tent was sparse, ceilings low and decorated mostly with faded slivers of cloth in blue and tan. Except for a small wooden nightstand, there was no furniture, just piles of cushions and blankets surrounded by stacks and supplies. Towards the back sat the largest cushion, and the Knight took a seat in the vaguely Zoji-sized dent at it's edge. She dropped her pack to the floor and rummaged through its contents, tossing Sphal a bottle of water.
"We're supposed to turn all of these in for requisitions," Zoji explained sheepishly, untwisting the cap of her own bottle and taking a swig, "But I think keeping a few is fair compensation for the work that the runners do." She leaned back in her cushion, a position that should have felt comfortable but served only to make her feel even more tired. With a pained hiss, she lifted herself back into a sitting position, tucking her feet beneath her.
"Have you adjusted well, to the camps?" Zoji asked, after a moment's awkward pause. It was still so hard to see the might of Order's power reduced to something so horribly cramped.
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