Meet the Parents, Act 1, The Capellas

Candace didn't know much about dark knights, but she did recognize the message sent by disarming...and matched it by removing her own sword, leaning it next to Vix's, and placing her targe over them both. Pulling a few stray hairs back from her face, she shut the door and sat down next to the younger woman.

"Yes. Candor. I'm a mother worried about her son, and you're either the cause or solution to those worries. I'm afraid of driving him away by rejecting you out of hand, but I'm more afraid of seeing him hurt because I blindly accepted you. I'll start with a few questions, but this isn't an inquisition. I want to start a conversation...I know so little about you.

"To start with: how many serious relationships have you been in before? I'm not asking for names or details, I just want to know where you're coming from. And what drew you to Valedec? When you met him, he was barely more than a boy, lanky, awkward, and with all the combat experience of a blade of grass." Part of me doesn't even care what she says, so long as she's honest.

Vix gave a short, barking laugh. "You truly do know very little about me, if you have to ask the first question! None. None whatsoever. A few dalliances when I was younger, but never anything serious. I never told any of those few what it is that I do, and never even contemplated introducing them to my parents - or meeting theirs."

She shifted uneasily as she considered how to best answer the next question. After a few moments of awkward silence, she answered, "I wasn't drawn to him at first. As you said, he had all the combat experience of a blade of grass, and I considered him a burden on my travels...but he learned quickly, and grew stronger.

"I think the turning point came roughly eight years ago. A lich we had been trying to reason with decided to make his own argument in the form of shadow bolts. I might have survived them, but thanks to Valedec, I never had to find out. He simply leapt in front of me, absorbed it, and I let him stay there. The lich obviously knew nothing of rune knights, for he kept casting, as if thinking Val's defenses would eventually fail.

"They didn't, of course, and an hour later the lich was finally drained and defenseless. That wasn't the first time I'd seen Valedec's abilities in action, but it was the first time they'd made a decisive difference...and the first time I saw that he was no longer so frail, and that he was no burden, but an asset.

"Even then, I only considered him a useful person to have around...I didn't consider him a friend for another year. It would be safe to say that my current 'trust issues' are nothing compared to what they once were. We were staying in separate rooms at the inn, and I was woken in the middle of the night by the sounds of a scuffle outside my door. I grabbed my greatsword and prepared myself - when the door open, I swung my shadow-enchanted blade instantly.

"It struck Val's runic targe; his mace was bloody, and there was an unmoving body just behind him. I will never forget his reaction...he scowled at me and asked, 'Was that meant for me, or the assassin I found outside your door?' Unbeknownst to me, he'd been standing guard outside my door because he'd noticed a suspicious figure eyeing us when we checked in.

"And what he'd meant by his comment was that I had been keeping him at arm's length, treating him like a second-rate sidekick even as he did all he could to help me, and up till then, not even questioning me about it. Those words - combined with the surprising fear that I might have hurt him if he'd not been prepared for me to react violently to his entrance - forced me to accept that he was, indeed, a friend. The only one I'd had in quite some time, and still the truest.

"He is loyal to a fault, caring when he can be, forceful when he needs to be, and he understands me better than any other. He knows what to say when I am upset, and how to cheer me when the task before us seems overwhelming. He has been all of these things even before I finally tore the Mist-shrouded veil from over my eyes - I didn't realize, didn't put a name to how I felt about him until just a few weeks ago. It was -"

Vix cut herself off, and reached into her pack. She came out with a small, leather-bound and metal-clad book. Flipping it open, it only took a moment to find the entry she was searching for. "I started chronicling my thoughts and deeds as a sort of final will and testament, for I thought it would be the only way my story would be told. By now, it has become a cathartic habit...ah, here it is. Read this entry...and this one alone."

She held it out to the older woman, forcing herself to loosen her grip on it. So long as she doesn't flip back a few pages, and see the entry where I talk about the cause of the damage to her son's eye...she could probably see it before I could stop her, were she so inclined.

Sitting on the lower bunk with his dad - the bed he and Vix shared at night - the rune knight gulped. "Um, wow. This is really awkward. I really expected them to go at it in there, and we'd have to keep them from strangling each other...since it sounds like they're being civil, I'm not quite sure what to do. What brought this on, anyway? One minute Mom was livid, the next she's practically begging Vix to go in there and talk to her."

Wow. I think they're both crazy, Candace concluded after she'd finished reading Vix's journal entry. "Your handwriting is very nice...I don't know why that surprises me, exactly." She shut the journal, but still held it. "Anyway, I'm glad you showed that to me. It makes me think you're both a bit nutty, but I...I think I believe it, and it does answer some questions I was going to ask."

Candace shifted on the bed, turning to more fully face Vix. "But I do still have a few left. First, how could you not have been in a serious relationship before? I can tell there's a lovely young lady under that battered armor, and I can't imagine that my son's the first to recognize that. For that matter, has he met your parents?

"And...in your entry, you mentioned his eye in such a way that...well, you sounded like you felt guilty about it. What happened to his eye? What did it have to do with him being obsessed or crazy? And please be honest. Even if you did have something to do with it...like one of those sparring sessions...better I find out now from you than later.

---

Brent sighed, and crossed his arms. "I reminded her of a few things she'd forgot. And I made her slow down and think. I know your mom's a bit trigger-happy sometimes, but she does the best she can for you kids. If this Vix girl really loves you, Candace'll accept her in the end. That, and I think she finally got that you two're serious."

This post has been edited by Brent & Candace on Jul 10 2009, 10:16 PM

Vix shifted again, trying not to let anxiety color her features. "You only say that because you have not seen...also beneath this armor are more scars than I can count, discoloring my fur where they grow back; and my mutilated tail, of course. I cannot understand sometimes how Val sees past them and still finds me attractive when-" she cut herself off, reversed course from forbidden territory, and spoke rapidly to try to keep from blushing.

"At any rate, I was a late bloomer, you might say. I was teased horribly in the few classes my parents sent me to as a young teenager, trying to get me to meet others my own age. I suppose they also wanted me to realize how different we were from them...in that vein, it worked, as I could barely stand to hear them complain about not being able to go to the festival or having to clean the dishes when I had to go to battle and clean corpses from the traps that surrounded our home.

"A combination of the teasing - and the reality that I really was quite plain - ensured I never took the chance. And when I was in my twenties, I had other things to do, never stayed in one place...and the only men strong enough in body, mind, and spirit to brook familiarity were loathsome, lascivious curs unworthy of any woman's attention. Except for Valedec, of course...though it took me years to recognize, understand, and accept that his quiet strength..."

She shook her head. "I apologize. The stress of the day is causing my mind and words to wander. Now, as to his eye." The former dark knight looked away at last, unable to hold the older woman's gaze as she reluctantly reached a nerve-wracking decision.

"What I meant by 'strong enough to brook familiarity' was that I am - was - a very dangerous person to be around. I reveled for a time in the influence of the Mist, ensuring that all around me lived in constant fear of my wrath to be sure they wouldn't betray me. My Mist-enhanced paranoia only made my natural sense of wariness that much worse, and with a violent addition. If in doubt, I would attack."

She forced herself to take a deep breath. "To give you some idea of how ingrained these instincts became, when we began to share a bed, I had to ensure that not only was I disarmed but there were no weapons within my reach. Otherwise, I might have done something terrible in a vulnerable moment...but the incident with his eye was before all that.

"It happened three weeks ago. We were fleeing the monastery a month ago, he at the controls and myself in the craft's lone turret. I can only assume we went off-course while evading the Mistaurs, for we crashed into the mountainside. We were saved by a patrol sent from a nearby village. To this day, he has not told me how bad my injuries were...only that they were far worse than his, and that I was mad with pain.

"He said I was lashing out at any who touched me, like a wild beast. In an effort to soothe me enough to save me, knowing full well the risks, he said he stroked my hair, and I lashed out." She shuddered a bit, and huddled her arms over her chest before continuing. "Know that I was - and am - mortified by the knowledge that his..disfiguring was utterly my own fault, and that if words could express my shame and regret for being as I am, I would use them.

"That is why I disarm myself before we get in bed, why I have kept my nails short and dull, and why Valedec and I have taken to performing a series of slow, deeply calming stretches and exercises before we slumber each night." Vix sighed, amazed that Candace hadn't interrupted her in fury yet.

"I do not ask you to understand; you could not. I do not ask for your forgiveness; I hurt your son, the last person I wished to come to any sort of harm. Instead I ask...that you give me a chance." Vix's ears drooped, and she still couldn't make herself make eye contact with Candace. "I have caused Valedec enough pain already - I do not wish to be the cause of his parents' rejection."

Candace gently put her hand on the younger woman's back. "I know where he keeps his journal...and I skimmed through it. You might like to know that you had a head injury, which is why you lashed out so viciously at Valedec. He didn't notice it, and practically rubbed it with his armored hands trying to comfort you."

She removed her hand, and sat up straight again. "I think you know what you ask isn't easy, Vix. Though you did it in Val's defense, you did threaten my husband and I. You saved our daughter from herself and others by helping her to the monastery, and have saved our son numerous times on your adventures together, but you've also exposed him to great danger he wouldn't otherwise have been in.

"And it isn't even really that I completely disapprove of you, Vix...it's...it's really more what his life became when he met you. Before that, he was going to be a smith like his father, take over the business, find some nice Burmecian girl and start a family of his own...then after Eleanor got turned, and he went off with you...he hasn't been the same. He always wanted to be the knight in shining armor, helping people like his sister. And he's become that, I guess...but...it's hard to put my finger on, but he's definitely different."

She sighed, hunching her shoulders a bit. "Maybe that's a good thing. He wrote you'd made him a stronger person, because he had to define himself or be overcome by the force of your personality...definitely not something he'd have experienced at home. Maybe he's a better person for the trials he's faced with you and overcome...but this isn't what I wanted for him." Candace sniffed a little, eyes glistening ever so slightly when she faced Vix. "Is it so wrong for a mother to mourn the loss of the life she wanted her boy to have?"

This post has been edited by Vix Arkelith on Jul 20 2009, 05:32 AM

At that, the former dark knight felt as though a weight was lifted from her shoulders. A small one, to be sure - there was still plenty there. But the knowledge that what she'd done had been to unconsciously lash out the touch of a grievous wound rather than thrashing like a beast was a comfort. But why did he not tell me earlier? As soon as this conversation is done, I'll ask him...though...it might make things worse for him to know his journal isn't entirely a secret. Before she could decide, Candace was talking again.

She had better not be racist...and as to him being different, I have no doubt. When keeping company of those such as I, he's had to adopt some new habits. Vix started to open her mouth to speak on the matter, but Candace was talking again, and the former thought better of interrupting the latter when she was on an emotional roll.

Vix sighed, and she made herself look the older woman in the eye as she placed a hand on her shoulder. "No. I have no doubt that my own mother would feel sorrow that I am no longer a Gatekeeper as she wanted me to be...but I also do not doubt that she would not attempt to force me back into it. By this time, I have earned the right to make my own decisions, by virtue of the fact I am an adult and am who I have become.

"As self-evident as that may sound at first, think on it: I am not the same person I was when I first set out from home. My parents would have had a fit if they'd known of my altruistic quests with Valedec, but I did them anyway. My experiences have shaped me to be someone other than that which I was; the same is true of Valedec. As you said, he has seen and experienced things, both in my company and out, that are unlike anything where he grew up under your tutelage.

"So no, I don't think it wrong for you to silently mourn the life you wanted for him - but nor do I think you should let it prevent you from being a participant in the life he's created for himself. You should be proud of him for retaining the core values that you instilled in him, that which makes him a good person, in spite of all we've endured. And, I admit, in spite of my own treatment of him during our early years together."

She smiled, then - awkwardly, but genuinely. "Of course, I am unabashedly biased. Take my thoughts and opinions as you will." Finally, she removed her hand from Candace's shoulder, and leaned back. "And yes, he has met my parents. My father told me I shouldn't have any friends, and to choose my allies carefully. My mother told me he was cute, but entirely too nice and would probably bolt first chance he got.

"I, ah, vehemently disagreed with my father - we were still not on speaking terms last I saw him - and while I had to agree with my mother on the first point, I took issue with the last...but in spite of my fear she might be right, I've been sure to give Valedec numerous chances to leave out of respect for his free will. He's never hesitated, and has remained by my side each time.

"As to your fears...I love him, and I assure you will not put him in any unnecessary danger. Ask him if you wish - I expect that if I were to propose we quit this venture and go into hiding, he'd drag me back out to finish this. That said, once this is done, I...I want to make more permanent plans. I..." Vix found that her mouth was suddenly inconveniently dry, and she had to swallow a few times. "What I mean to say is that we are no one-night fling, no short-term affair. We've been together through good and bad - mostly bad - and neither of us is leaving."

And, Vix left unsaid, If you have a problem with that, then I may have to have a problem with you. And that would be unfortunate, regrettable, and preventable. I don't know yet if I like you, you nosy woman, but I do know that if you push your own son away on my account I won't soon forgive you.

This post has been edited by Vix Arkelith on Jul 30 2009, 11:36 PM

Candace nodded - hesitantly, but she nodded nonetheless. "Maybe. Maybe there's some truth in what you say..." she sighed heavily. "Against my better judgement, for the sake of my son and at the urging of my husband, I will give you a chance, Vix. You seem sincere in your efforts to change, and I do respect that - but understand that our relationship is tenuous at best. You have, as they say, a lot of baggage to overcome."

The runeforger's eyes narrowed at the former dark knight briefly, and her voice hardened. "In that vein, you'd better be there for him the way he's been there for you...and know that if he comes to further harm because of you, I will find a way to make you regret it." She paused for effect, then sighed yet again and continued in a slightly softer tone. "And one last thing...keep in mind that my husband and I expect to be included in any 'more permanent' plans you two might make, understand?"

This post has been edited by Brent & Candace on Aug 13 2009, 02:45 AM

The former dark knight had to keep herself from grinning at first...before gritting her teeth at Candace's suddenly hostile demeanor and tone. I would hope that my honesty and candor bought me some respect...but I suppose I should have expected her to - she dares threaten me?! I should- She took a deep breath to calm herself, and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

I should remember how much is riding upon the outcome of this conversation...and that this time, violence is not an acceptable negotiating tactic. And that she seems willing to at least not reject Val and I straight away- As Candace's final, hushed words reached her ears, her eyes shot open again, and blinked twice. "Why, of course."

This post has been edited by Vix Arkelith on Oct 13 2009, 05:11 PM

Giving a little smirk at having succeeded in startling the generally unflappable dark knight, Candace gave her a gentle push. "Get out of here, then. I'd imagine he's waiting for you." I'll still be watching you closely, Vix Arkelith. I'm giving you a chance, not a free pass...

Vix started to rise, then sat back down and held out her hand with a subdued smirk. "Hm-hm. Not without my journal, if you please." You surprised me, but that doesn't mean I'll leave THAT bunch of potentially volatile information in your hands. You may have been able to overlook some of what you've read, but I daresay if you read it in its entirety...which matters little, because you won't.

"Oh!" The older woman pretended to be surprised, eyes wide. "Of course. I'd almost forgotten." She quickly took the journal from her lap and handed it to Vix. Damn. I hadn't really expected her to forget it, but it almost appeared as though she would for a moment there... With a tight smile that was, nonetheless, not entirely feigned she added, "Go on. I'm sure he - and probably the others on the bridge - are waiting for you."