Silesia's Loudest Whispers @hushesofathunderingwind-blog - Tumblr Blog

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{ Just letting you all know I have officially moved blogs again. I’m working on following people now and I will be moving all my kept threads and anything else from this blog to that blog. Anything still active that I plan to continue will be reblogged to that blog and other assorted things from this blog will be reblogged there.

Only ongoing threads will be reblogged. }

dusterluster

#| ☾ Reflections |#{ I mean what part of this isn't literally entirely Sety }

lightsguidingwind:

What citizens and refugees had been rescued upon the capturing of Chronos were not worthy of celebration. It was the beginning of a far longer march deeper into Miletos, and deeper into the land that had become known for the Lopt Sect’s atrocities in far greater numbers. All the faces, all those children that had escaped their captors, all those civilians who felt even a bit safer leaving their homes were only a fraction of Miletos’ population, and on that sour note, no one could celebrate until the republic had been liberated and the Sect had been driven out.

There was no time to rest, and with Sety leading the defense at Chronos, the army could proceed further with reduced fear of an attack from behind. Still, the army was in a bit of a sorry state- many of their plans had to be rethought and thrown out, and the army was becoming more scattered. They would have to come together eventually, but there was no time to stop with Grandbell itself so near and time to reach it became ever scarcer. The bulk of the army had to press forward, and with Sety’s fatigue becoming more obvious, it was good to leave him off the front lines. Or at least, that’s what most people thought.

They had to keep pressing forward, though in the chaos Holsety himself had to become more engaged and make sure orders were relayed properly, with new information coming in all the time. The sect and the empire knew this area far better than they did, and dark mages had many uses for their powers of teleportation and access to various staves… more than ever before, everyone had to be engaged to keep up with the pace of the rapidly changing field.

It was only when a great gust of wind blew across the open battlefield that Holsety stopped, his thoughts violently interrupted.

Holsety held himself to the responsibility of watching the army’s back as well, as with the wind at his beck and call. It filled his senses with something foul, like blood and smoke, though the air had come from behind the army with a message. He could hear a series of voices, Sety’s voice among them, ring in his ears…

“We’ll stop this child hunt and let these people go if you take their place as a hostage against the Liberation Army…”

“We’ll see which one breaks first. Me or that tome…”

Had Sety been targeted specifically? While he had his worries about the boy, he had more than proven himself on and off the battlefield as capable. With a small collection of men left with him, he figured no one would be foolish enough to challenge him as they pushed onto Rados.

He gripped his sleeve tightly with his opposite hand.

Had he let Sety’s confidence cloud his judgement? Or just gone with an obvious idea for defense in the wake of their rush to Grandbell? He shook his head. Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter, although he could already feel it nagging at him. He knew what dark magic was capable of. He knew that they could be attacked from any place at any time.

Perhaps, if anything, it was better it had happened to someone who could handle himself… Someone who could still keep in contact with the army, whether he knew it or not.

Holsety gave the surrounding soldiers the order to act without his guidance, following their current plans and precautions. “New information has come to light” he explained, “and must be seen to immediately.” If it was nothing that would last, he would be back soon. If it needed further attention, orders would follow…

He summoned the wind to him as he walked away from the immediate chaos. Now he could listen… and when he knew Sety could hear, call his name… Though the picture that was painted for him made his steps hasten.

{☾} It would have been better if he could have managed to let someone know about this and the exact details, but there had been no time. The civilians knew, but Sety hadn’t been paying attention to how many people from the army had noticed. Eventually someone from either group would likely inform the more important people in the army, but he knew it was a blow to the army’s strength. The difference was, the army had done fine without him previously. If they managed that long without him, they could continue getting by without him.

For as strong as he acted about it, his body still tensed further against his will whenever the mages got too close or had their hands on him. Eventually he had told them to let go of him in a low, borderline hissing tone, their natural reply that they couldn’t risk him running off snapped back at with a heightened “where am I going to run to?”. It was at that point that they mildly backed off, taking in his point in full agreement that he wouldn’t get far if he tried to get away. It didn’t exactly help the tension, but Sety couldn’t have guaranteed to himself that he wouldn’t have reacted more violently if it had kept up.

The present ruler of the castle was skeptical of his men’s claims at first, believing something to be off that they would be able to get their hands on a major blood so easily. The “so easily” stung if nothing else, and Sety bit back commenting on it. The mages answers were that they didn’t know when asked if their target had the proof of his blood - the mark to prove it - and the words stung even more. That mark had been what led him to this, and why he wasn’t safe no matter where he was in the world. If they had found him off the battlefield, it would have been all the same. As much as he could by all means say that this power was precious to him, it was, in its own way, also a curse against him.

His jaw tensed with the rest of him when asked if he had that mark. If he lied and said no, they would just search for it, wouldn’t they? Instead he nodded, slowly, remnants of defiance still reaching his eyes. He was sure he had almost growled at them when asked to prove it, but he wasn’t about to let them look for it themselves when he’d already made such a fuss about being dragged around. He stilled for a moment, eventually pulling his cape off his shoulders and using his free hand to slide down the top of his shirt over his shoulder that covered the top part of the mark at the end of his neck. “...Is that enough?”

There was a silent, slightly aggravated sigh of relief as the men looked to their leader and confirmed it appeared to be the correct mark. Figured that they had actually done their research on those things to locate their targets easier. He said nothing as they discussed what to do with him, merely refitting his cape and eventually just looking elsewhere to occupy his sight with anything else, but he could tell their eyes were on him as his own strayed away from theirs. They seemed to settle on not dropping him in some dungeon, and while there was slight relief at that, it could have meant they had other plans.

Still, from what he understood, he would be kept in relatively good shape, and he gave little objection to being told he would be staying in a single room unless pulled out, which, unfortunately, they made sure to emphasize he would be pulled out eventually. Though they had left him for the time being in that room, door locked from the outside, he still couldn’t help feeling a sense of dread pushing at him. The best way to fake it was to retort whenever possible, right? As if things were normal. That was how he had to be. Though fear did not mean broken, they would be hard pressed to get him to show even that.

He was sure he wouldn’t find much to do stuck here, and he had been ready to let himself pass out before he noticed the window in the room. Of course they wouldn’t block it off... Even as a hostage, nobody would be dumb enough to try to get out through a window. Though in Sety’s case, if even part of it wasn’t blocked off, that worked for him. He moved to it, hands resting on the ledge as he noticed the above average speed of the wind. The least he could manage right now was to let him know what was going on... His body had moved practically on its own to open the window, his own element compelling his actions without even a thought needed.

‘I don’t know what’s reached you yet, but the Sect has me. At the moment, I’m safe. They won’t kill me as long as I have value to them. Don’t have anyone come after me for now. I’ll find out what they plan to do... and they won’t be getting anything out of me. The army won’t have my strength directly, so I’ll make it up this way. Leave me with them for now and I’ll do what I can. I don’t know what they plan to do with me yet, so I’ll try to be quick about it.’ {☽}

#lightsguidingwind #{ lightsguidingwind: Thread: 2 }

fujinyumi

FIGHT!! FIGHT!! FIGHT!!!

#| Muse |

pretentiousgit

Underestimate me. That’ll be fun.

Shit Slytherins Say (via pretentiousgit)

#| ☾ Reflections |

{☾} They all knew Miletos was going to be bad, but was bad the word for this? The Lopt Sect had full control of the place, as if worse than Yied. Rather, this seemed like their new Yied. If it had been their stronghold before, this place was now. It made being left in charge of Chronos much more difficult, and even though they had saved the civilians from the earlier attackers, there had been no intel on Sect reinforcements. Sety couldn’t help the disappointment and aggravation that followed the lack of preparedness, and currently, the army was mostly scattered.

Normally, Sety would have had no problem fighting them off. He had been left to Chronos’ defense after several people who knew him well could tell he was feeling off and shouldn’t have been sent out for the scouting and cleaning up of the remaining scattered enemies, and at the time, he also believed that was best. Now, he wished they had agreed on someone who could presently handle the job better. He’d already been suffering heavier pains and aches since arriving in Miletos due to the dark mages that had been in Thracia, but the last heavy lot of them had been too much.

But this? This was too much. More of them than he could handle in this state. He didn’t have enough of the Liberation Army’s men for this, and he certainly couldn’t make up for that right now on his own. Granted, he had attempted to keep fighting, worn down as he was, until one of the foul mages had approached him, an injured - bruised and scraped everywhere - child in their arms, seemingly closer to the age of thirteen. He had considered attacking the man much more carefully to avoid the child, but that stopped when he was urged to surrender.

“Why... should I surrender?”

The mage was clearly noting his exhaustion and occasional wincing, but the smug change in his expression left the Silesian’s grimace turning to a softly appeared shock. “Trade places with him.” He gestured mildly to the boy who wildly shook his head. “We’ll stop this child hunt and let these people go if you take their place as a hostage against the Liberation Army.”

There was a pause, and after a few seconds he stiffened as he realize there were other dark mages with their attention on him. The way they were positioned, even if he were to fight the one in front of him and go for the ones diagonal at the same time, he would still be hit with at least two Fenrir users stationed in different areas of the mountain from behind. Even if he faked it and the kid was released, if one of these guys had Hel and he wasn’t aware soon enough, he would have been a lot more sorry for attacking than giving in.

His eyes narrowed on the mage. “...I don’t believe you. You would take a single person over all these so-called sacrifices?” The smug look directed at him became more of a smirk - a perfectly knowing smirk, and the calm demeanor he’d retained until then had been switched with a more genuine shock, a light expression of confusion filling his face. “...How did you find out who I am?”

As the man gained more confidence in his words, Sety could have sworn he sensed - felt - some of the others were lightly preparing their own magic if need be. If they knew who he was... they knew he was a legitimate threat. “There were rumors in Manster. People talking about someone who had the same name as the former Crusader Sety, whispers of a foreign prince with unusually powerful wind magic on his side; whispers claiming you were the one with that name and power who killed Lord Berdo some months ago. Strong as you were, we did have men watching; reporting. Our higher lords believe you’re better under our watch than actively as our enemy. If they play things out right, it would be better... to have your power on our side than against us. Besides, you’ve caused us a fair share of trouble. You can sum it up to saying that you’re worth more than those screaming kids as long as we even so much as have you. You’re also worth more alive than dead.”

It hurt to watch the growing child nearing his teen years. This kid was hardly younger than Fee... and part of him wouldn’t stop projecting the situation as if it was her instead. If it had been him in that situation as some helpless kid, wouldn’t he be scared too? Being in the body of a helpless child who saw the world through their own eyes fearing death...

This entire riot actually would stop then, wouldn’t it? He didn’t believe they would never go after these people again... but if they had time to run away and warn Celice of what happened, they would also have a better chance of surviving. No less a matter was that this was essentially what they were fighting for. To stop these things. Holding them off for any period of time could change the balance in this. Worse, if he still said no, he was only dooming all of these people and potentially himself at the same time anyway. While one could normally not blame a person for choosing themselves, he knew better than to think the others wouldn’t also give in for now.

After a pause that felt like more than five minutes - surely it wasn’t, or they would have spoken up by then for an answer - his voice lowered unintentionally as if in sync with the hand that gripped his opposite arm in hopes of settling down the trembling he now had to try to control. “If you’re saying getting me out of this instead of them is acceptable... fine. I’m not making any promises until you all lower your casting hands and stop attacking the Liberation Army.” He waited, but they seemed to be doing just that. He couldn’t help how much it bothered him how serious they were; how much value had been put on him that they would rather have him than another infamously bloody child hunt. Just another reason to lament having too much power...

After giving it a bit of time, he removed his Lightning tome and let it drop from his hand, kicking it away from himself. “That’s dangerous to you, right? Would you prefer I drop everything?” A moment’s hesitation, the mage seeming to calculate if he was feigning it and planned something involving him somehow having enough comrades to back himself and attack, but he eventually slowly nodded. “The kid first. I’ll drop the rest when he’s far enough away from you.” Despite the mage doing so after waiting a couple seconds, Sety also hesitated, both of them quite clearly distrusting as neither had taken their eyes off the other as he tossed his Recover staff, perfectly aimed the Elwind tome to carefully land on the Lightning tome out of peripheral vision, then dropped the Holsety tome behind him. “Is this enough?”

A slight nod as the mage thought out an answer. “I suppose it should be sufficient. Step away from the equipment and move to the nearest group of our men.”

He tensed much worse this time, and it took longer for him to react than he would have preferred. While he did wish to have some level of caution, there was quite a line right now between caution and anxiety. Between caution and fear. He had never been that close to them before, much less willingly, and even more less so to a group of them. It was almost relieving when he’d managed to force himself to move, nothing but utter willpower and pushing it all out of his mind helping him with this.

Eventually the lot of them seemed satisfied, and the one who had been previously holding the boy followed after Sety, stopping in front of the group and holding up a Hel tome, the disgust Sety receiving from his sickening grin leaving uncomfortable knots in his stomach that caused him to involuntarily back up into one of the other mages who held him in place just below his shoulders. (It bothered him. Too close to his shoulders. Shoulders were too close to the mark on his skin that made up much of his pride.) “Being a hostage isn’t all you’re doing. While it’s too late to decide otherwise, I don’t think you would change your mind anyway. You’re... strong, right?”

A sharper look mixed itself in with a nearly emotionless and dead look in the prince’s eyes, but they met evenly with his captor’s. “We’ll see which one breaks first. Me or that tome.” {☽}

#lightsguidingwind #{ lightsguidingwind: Thread: 2 }#{ I considered writing this in more depth until I realized that's a Bad Idea #because it's Already Too Long so I kinda had to rush it-- }

lightsguidingwind

A Moment of Meaning

hushesofathunderingwind-blog

lightsguidingwind:

Holsety’s expression hardened as Sety began to speak more vigorously. The vitriol in his voice was surprising to his ears, and made him worry.

“They are our enemy.” Holsety corrected. “They serve the empire. They stand in our way, and they leave their own country with scraps to further their ambition and war plans. You are part of this army, as is Lord Leaf. The desire to upturn the Thracian army is shared by those around you. This is no longer a battle that only you have to fight.”

He placed his hand softly on the shoulder of Sety’s bad arm to remind him.

“I expect you to rest tonight, and control yourself.” He said sternly, his voice now lower and quieter. “You have to take care of yourself. I don’t care how long you’ve been going alone, you’re with us now. The way you’re talking, you sound as if you want to take on Thracia yourself. There will be no demise for us as long as we act quickly, but with the big picture in mind. This means knowing when to rest.”

{☾} Only him? He supposed it had been only him most of the time. Despite being dubbed the leader of the Magi for a time, he still did things on his own. Even when they had joined up with Leaf, he had run off and continued fighting alone. The difference between himself and this army, however, was that few people here truly knew the extent of what Thracians would do for their country. Those from Manster here of course knew, but there were times it sickened the Silesian prince to know such men called themselves the rulers of the skies.

If they ruled the skies, then the skies had betrayed them in Sety’s favor. No sky was safe if the wind was too strong, and that wind was enough to make those men fall from their own battlefield - from their own skies. As far as he was concerned, it was nothing short of what they deserved. Even as he’d been waiting for Celice’s army to arrive, the Thracian squads attacking at the time had also been aiming for the civilians. Those people had done absolutely nothing except live in Manster, and they were targeted for absolutely nothing. And they felt pride for these actions?

Sety had seen Silesia become overrun with similar instances from the Empire, and now indeed, Thracia was working with them. He had felt the need to fight them. Still, even if it was a battle not only he would be fighting now, it had become a habit. How long did his father think he was gone from Silesia for? He had been fighting this way long enough that he almost couldn’t fight any other way. Even now, he still fought mostly alone. If he wasn’t just fighting, he was using himself as a decoy or infiltrating on his own. Almost all the work he’d been doing had been on his own.

“I plan to rest for today. Habits aren’t easy to kill though. And it’s not that I want to take on Thracia by myself... it’s that I can.” The Thracians weren’t even half as intelligent in tactics as the Empire. As long as their stubborn pride was at the forefront, it would only distract them. He had had more trouble fighting the Empire than Thracians. Granted, Thracians were in the sky... and that made them easier targets for Sety. They would be out of the sky as soon as they were in it, and the best place for wind was in the sky itself.

Perhaps it was also that Thracians were simply lacking consequence for him in their defeat. He could fight and move on. The men the Empire had around, less this year after Berdo’s defeat, were the ones he knew he really shouldn’t have been fighting alone. “Still... I know I need to be prepared and not exhausted once we reach Miletos. Even if I did need to fend off Thracia that long, we’ll all need our energy once we reach Miletos. I’ve heard the child hunts there are particularly bad... which means the Empire is most active there.” It was hard to believe it wasn’t Manster that had the worst Lopt Sect activity. It had been horrible around a year ago, which meant Miletos was no place one even wanted to be outside in during the night.

His eyes focused on the map again, but this time instead at Miletos; specifically around Peruluke. How many of them would be there...? Thracia was hardly something he needed to worry about... “We can’t waste everyone’s strength here. I’ve fought them... It can’t be just me who reserves his strength. We’ll need people in groups to fight them when we get there. The problem is that we need to get through Thracia itself as well before then. We need to have everyone keep in mind that Miletos is going to be exponentially more dangerous than either of these countries. It’s not just the Empire’s usual men... It’s the Lopt Sect out there. Even as early as taking Peruluke could have us fighting them. You absolutely can’t let anyone fight them alone. The others have to know.” {☽}

#lightsguidingwind #{ lightsguidingwind: Thread: 1 }#{ I ' m s o s o r r y .#Huge reply in comparison because this child runs on autopilot #His replies are as fast and powerful as his goddamn in game self }

wordsnquotes

I am not sorry for who I had to become in order to survive.

Schuyler Peck (via wordsnquotes)

#| ☾ Reflections |

dmclemblems

okay, who is ready to die

#| Muse |

lightsguidingwind

A Moment of Meaning

hushesofathunderingwind-blog

lightsguidingwind:

His arm… Holsety thought to himself as Sety mentioned it. As Sety continued to outline his thoughts and turn his attention to the map before him, he couldn’t help but glance at his arm from behind. He suppressed a tingle in his arm, a desire to reach out and touch him. Of course… that would explain why he had been favoring one arm over the other, and why he was able to take this much time off the front lines… It was out of character for him to leave when the battle had not yet been fully won…

A reminder that this boy, this child, was still human.

He closed his eyes gently as he returned his attention to the map. He had still caught every bit of Sety’s explanation. It was impressive how much Sety knew about their comrades already. Sety had been traveling around the continent as well, of course, but as far as he knew, this was the first time they had fought together with him as the liberation army. He rose some very good points.

“Hmm… Having individual squads lead by ones who know the area, or at least advised by them, is very smart. I recall that Prince Leaf’s forces have likewise been down this route in the past.” Whatever intelligence we have on the terrain may prove to be our most valuable asset.” What he had heard from August’s travels with the boy was not sufficient for their current plans. What knowledge he had gleaned of Leaf’s travels during the previous year would be far better presented from the mouths of Leaf and his compatriots themselves, perhaps with some prompting to evade questions regarding his amount of knowledge on the subject. “While many of the people that made up that army have scattered since, they may have insight into the surrounding area that yet remains untapped. We should receive their input as well.”

“The longer we take to get from one place to another, the more resources we will use in the process, and the more time we will give our enemies to plan our demise. Anticipating the movements of our enemy is likely the best weapon we will have. They will likely have several ambushes planned along the path, and attempt to herd us into them. Sending forth effective scouts may truly win us the day, as well as effective communication between forces, primarily between fliers and ground troops. I shall be listening carefully for further intelligence reports myself.”

“The uneven, barren terrain will be rough on our cavalry, and provide little nourishment, if any. For the health of our men and their horses, cavalry should remain towards the back, with our infantry leading the charge. Our archers and magic users will be key in this conflict, and our fliers must continue to fight proactively even as our other mounted forces take the rear.” “And you…” He trailed off. He exhaled through his nose.

He turned his head slightly, to look Sety in the eye. “You will rest after we conclude here.” He said, sternly. “I want you to stay off the battlefield until we march for Mease. Your health will be critical for our success, and you must recover.”

{☾} He was silent first, only staring back for a few more seconds before slowly looking back toward the map. It had been a long time since he was even able to do that. Before now, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to; simply that he couldn’t. Most times he’d had to fight on his own and had nothing to fall back on. Unfortunately, that was catching up to his body. There were still times he felt delayed aches settling in when he finally did have time to rest.

“The fliers can send any messages from the people familiar with the areas. I was with Prince Leaf’s army for a short time before I returned to Manster, so we’ll have to split the intelligence up between the four of us.” It still confused him as to why many didn’t stick around, but he wouldn’t bother questioning it. The wars were still going on, yet they had all gone elsewhere for whatever their reasons for. The ones from Fiana he could scratch off since they were supposedly still fighting in their own area, but most others? They needed all the capable fighters they could get...

Granted, many of them were probably not out for as long as he was. He had likely seen more than most of them combined. It wasn’t the odd occasion that he found himself sneaking around and infiltrating. Information had been part of what he’d been doing, and it had helped Leaf out plenty. Still, what he’d been doing was dangerous, and he was luck to even be alive, or at least not stuck in an enemy dungeon.

Being around an army again was an odd feeling, and it had been brief last time. He had no doubt he would be in this one longer than that, and he wasn’t sure how well he would operate in this kind of setting. His work was better done alone, and he had little doubt that was how he would work to help the army in the end anyway. Celice would probably worry about that, and Leaf even might as well... but not only did he have destructive magic, but he wasn’t sure how well he could deal with other people. Not that he didn’t like them, but it always seemed his social skills were... sub par.

“But there is one thing you’re wrong about. There won’t be any ‘demise’ for us. The only demise will be that of the savages who invade someone else’s home to take it for themselves. Make innocents starve and say if they have to starve that innocents do as well. If our formation is broken somehow, as long as this army has me here, they won’t be in the sky for very long. Make no mistake, they’re every bit my enemy as they are Prince Leaf’s by this point. If they think they rule the skies with their treachery, they need to be taught by a country that really knows the skies.” {☽}

#lightsguidingwind #{ lightsguidingwind: Thread: 1 }