tushanshu_logs | Through the Dark (Chihuelan Search log)

Entry tags:

Through the Dark (Chihuelan Search log)

Characters: Valdis and Gene
Date: September 17th
Location: Outside Keeliai
Situation: Valdis has gained information from Malcil on the potential whereabouts of Celauun and the other Chihuahuas, so she and Gene are investigating.
Warnings/Rating: None Yet

Malcil had taken some convincing, but eventually the Chihuelan refugee had told Valdis of a few places where Celauun and the others might be hiding. She hadn't spent much time in the mountainous regions of the turtle, but Malcil had given descriptions of the landmarks she was looking for, unfortunately it seemed that the invaders were searching similar areas. She and Gene had been dodging the Justicar's search parties all day, but now night was falling and the Chihuelans seemed to be settling down, giving her and her ally some breathing room.

The cave Malcil had directed her to was well hidden, even she had almost missed it and she had directions. Valdis kept alert as she moved inside, her low light vision making it easier to see in the darkness. Eventually, as they got deeper into the cavern, even her sight wasn't enough and she pulled out a lanturn and lit it. "How deep do you think they are?"

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Gene followed her into the cave, his rings on his fingers, keeping alert for any danger.

"I don't know. Probably deep enough to make this a challenge." His footsteps echoed in the cavern, even moving quietly; he didn't like that. He didn't like announcing his arrival.

For his own sight, he conjured up a small ball of fire from the red ring. It had the dual purpose of serving as a weapon, in a pinch.

"They know this terrain better than we do," she replied, "We might be walking into an ambush."

She would have preferred to move in silence and without the aid of light, which would inevitably announce their presence to whoever was hiding within the caves. At least she had brought only Revelations with her, the fewer weapons they carried the less of a threat they would appear...hopefully.

"Why would anyone want to ambush a bunch of idiots walking unwarned into their bolthole," said a sarcastic voice from up ahead, shadowed by the darkness beyond lantern and the flames. "You're lucky you brought a light, or you'd've been filled with holes before you got any further."

There came footsteps down the hall, until Zanru's face showed darkly in the lights they held. She turned and whistled behind her, and the dull click of a safety being switched came muffled down the tunnel. Only one.

Zanru turned back to them, crossing her arms, not coming any closer than a handful of feet. It was close enough that they should be able to see the tool-belt around her waist and the pistol on her hip which was most certainly not of kedanese make. "The Justicar sending Foreigners out as bait now, or are you here because you've realised she's a shit who needs a handful of sharp objects shoved up her ass?"

At the voice from the darkness, Gene had immediately pulled up a shield around himself and Valdis; when he heard the safety click, he dropped it, but the little ball of fire was still hovering over his hand.

"That second one," he said dryly.

Though she was grateful for Gene's quick thinking with the shield, Valdis drew her sword halfway out of its scabbard at the sound of the voice. An instant later, however, she had slipped it back inside, mirroring Zanru's stance, eyeing the pistol on the womans's hip.

"So," she began, ignoring the question since Gene had already answered it, "You are still alive."

She had only spoken to Zanru once, and the woman hadn't seemed to have lost her cold edge.

"I don't suppose you know where Celaunn is? Or what the Justicar is really looking for?"

Despite the shield and the half-drawn sword, Zanru didn't reach for the pistol. She tensed, but didn't reach for the pistol.

"Surprised anyone was wondering," she said, but not sourly. She'd figured her family would wonder. Just not the Foreigners. Course, some of them were bloody busy-bodies, weren't they?

Zanru shrugged. "Madam Shitarse, no. Celaunn? Maybe. How did you even find this place, and what the bloody hell do you want?"

"A family head disappears without a trace and you are surprised that people were wondering after you?"

Valdis removed her hand from the hilt of her sword. Zanru had never made a move against them, there was no reason to think she would now.

"Anton is hiding one of the Chihuelan deserters in the Hotel, I spoke with him. It took some convincing, but eventually Malcil gave this place up."

She wouldn't mention the other locations, best to keep those to herself for now.

"It's less of a want." She kept her voice even, non-threatening, "I need to find Celaunn before the Justicar's forces do, because I need to know what she is after so that we can counter her. I have already told Yunxu to have his forces ready." She sighed, "Of course, whether he will or not is another matter."

So if the Chihuelan deserter gave up Zanru's location...oh, that made all sorts of interesting scenarios jump up in Gene's brain. He tamped down all his questions, with some difficulty.

"'Madam Shitarse'...has a nice ring to it," he says, and smirks. "You'll find that most of the Foreigners have a similar opinion of her. Though maybe the words used are less kind."

He shrugged. "So if you want to stick it to whatever her grand master plan is, any information you have on Celaunn's whereabouts would only help with that."

Really. Really. Did they genuinely think they'd just get told, straight out, the location of the most hunted person on the turtle? Did the Foreigners ever stop to think, or were they all really that self-centred? Not even Yunxu would have asked that question and expected a straight answer the way these two did. Zanru couldn't help but laugh. It wasn't a bitter one, but it was a sardonic one. "I'm not telling you. You're both stupid if you think I'm going to tell anyone from the city where she is just because you think you should know, after letting Madam Shitarse in to look for her."

She looked at Valdis. "Yunxu's a ground-crawling slime, but he isn't an idiot. You think he won't already have his forces ready? You think he was waiting for your oh-so-gracious summation before he prepared? You think he won't, just because you're the one who asked?"

Zanru snorted and crossed her arms. "If you want to talk to Celaunn, you talk to me. You tell me what you want to say, and then I'll take it to her. If you don't trust my memory, write it down. But you're not getting to know where she is just because you've got a chip on your shoulders about doing everything yourselves."

Gene smiled sardonically - almost disarmingly, which was a weird and slightly scary look for him in the flickering firelight. "Figured it wouldn't be that easy," he said, glancing back at Valdis with good humor. Ah, yes, the prickly Zanru, like a cat with back arched and tail fluffed up trying to make itself seem bigger. He was no great fan of hers, mostly due to Tony's near-endless carrying-on about her months ago, and he'd pinpointed the woman before him as the source of his annoyance-by-proxy.

Interesting to know they're in cahoots.

If Gene wanted, he could take the information from her, rip it from her brain while she screamed, but that impulse was being kept in check these days. Partially because...well, diplomacy.

"Fǎn jiàn jì," Gene says, with no further explanation. "You're as much of a fool as you accuse us of being if you think we'd let them waltz in without motives of our own."

Several options ran through her head, but Valdis chose none of them, letting Gene take the lead while she thought about how to counter. Zanru's disappearance, her temper, the loss of her daughter, this mysterious 'husband'. There was so much she didn't know, so she didn't have a lot of ammunition. She shot Gene a look, uncertain of what he meant, but she wouldn't comment on it.

"I expect Yunxu to act exactly as he has planned," Valdis replied smoothly. "And I have no doubt that the Snakes will put up a good fight, but they will lose, because their weapons are inferior, because you abandoned, not just your own family, but the rest of the Kedan as well." she laughed, "In addition, I find it quite amusing that you are are so adamant that us foreigners can't take an interest in the place we call home, even though you seem to have lost interest entirely." She paused. "Why do you care so much for Celaunn anyway? She is technically a war criminal." Another pause, "Of course, she and you do have a bit in common. Both angry, hiding and of course both of you abandoned the society that raised you."

That was interesting now that she thought about it, no wonder Zanru was protective of Celaunn, they were like kindred spirits.

Zanru visibly bristled at Valdis's accusation. "Just because I'm not there," Zanru growled, "doesn't mean I abandoned them. Not that you'd know. You lot don't have any concept of family, the way you carry on like you're the only ones who can decide the city's future. I don't owe you answers. I especially don't owe you answers when you're strutting around proving you don't take the kedan seriously by mouthing off about us like we're infants. We're not capable of defending ourselves without your superpowered help, is that it?"

She snorted and turned to walk away from the light, back up the tunnel into darkness. "Fuck off. I don't need Foreigners as a proxy to make alliances on behalf of my people."

There was so very much in Zanru's terse rant that Gene could argue with - especially her point about family, he'd killed for his, he'd die for his with or without the resurrection magic, and he was related to none of them by blood - but if he did the same as Valdis, they'd lose her for sure and waste the only good lead they had. So it was up to him to be the diplomatic one.

Hooray.

"Zanru," he said to her back. "We came here to offer our help to Celaunn, and now we're offering it to you. As little as you think of us, this is our home, too. Your people are stuck here, and so are we, and we are all being invaded. There is nothing to be gained by pretending we don't have a stake in Keeliai. We want to work together."

He paused. "The kedan can defend themselves, as you did during the first invasion. But there's a saying where I come from: 'peace through superior firepower'. We are willing to add our firepower, figurative or literal, to yours."

Zanru was such a self-involved bitch that she took everything Valdis said as if it were an insult. Admittedly some of it was, but not all of it and Valdis had to keep from rolling her eyes. She appreciated Gene's attempt at diplomacy, but she didn't think that Zanru would respond as he intended.

"I'm not trying to make an alliance," she replied, her voice level, "I'm trying to protect my own. The Chihuelans are looking for something and they are willing to kill and sacrifice their own people in order to obtain it.

"You say that we have no concept of family, but my best friend has left, the man I loved is gone and all the power I possess is not enough to bring them back. We have all suffered in one way or another, so do not make the mistake of thinking that we don't know the pain of loss. I could not even protect the man I call father from the cultists, and feeling helpless to prevent such attacks is infuriating.

"But perhaps you don't care about our feelings, that's fine, I'm not asking you to, however, you just implied that you still care about the feelings and safety of your own people. Without true unity between all the people who live in Keeliai, then we will all lose. That includes the Chihuelans that the Justicar is now hunting."

She took a breath, "But that part is up to you, as I said, I simply wish to know what the Justicar is truly after and I suspect that Celaunn knows. If she retains any loyalty to Evandau and the kedanese people, then I hope that she will at least consider speaking with us."

It was Gene's voice more than Valdis's that made Zanru turned and fold her arms, her expression flat. "I don't care about your feelings," she said equally flatly, "because none of you have ever shown you give a shit about ours, even when claiming you do. At least you're finally admitting you're only out to protect your own, instead of making a big deal about the things you've supposedly done for mine."

She'd told someone once that that was how it should be: like taking care of like. Stark, maybe. The Foreigners didn't seem to care about each other any more than they cared about the kedan--they only stuck together because they had to. It was refreshing to have one of them actually confess to caring more about their own group than the kedan. At least there was care there. Maybe now they'd be able to think of themselves as a unified group with things to offer instead of individuals getting in everyone's way because they didn't have everything they wanted.

Zanru pointed at Gene. "But you, I like. You get to the fucking point and you aren't all dramatic about why it's owed to you. Celaunn isn't here. But I'll take your message to her, and if she wants to meet you I'll send you a call on your radio. They're more secure than the consoles these days, I hear."

Gene? Not dramatic?

This is an historic occasion.

"They are. You never know who's listening on the consoles. But maybe you might." He tilted his head in her direction, a gesture of respect.

"We'll be listening."

She felt the darkness shift as her anger rose, but she bit her tongue and stayed quiet, relieved that Gene had managed to get through and that Zanru would help. But unlike Gene, Valdis would offer no thanks, she simply turned around and walked past her partner toward the entrance to the cave. They had what they needed, there was no reason to linger.

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Through the Dark (Chihuelan Search log)

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