Removing a Thorn

It's snowing in Bryn Myridorn. The capital city is a beautiful and vibrant place in the winter, and while Yule is fresh in the minds of many, with its decorations still adorning the buildings, it's an odd contrast to what's storming on Seldan's mind at the moment. All it took was one letter sent hastily in Synonie's hand to bring him here to the Temple of Daeus.

The building is one that Seldan would know well. There's a number of acolytes inside, cleaning or tending to people who have stopped in. One person wearing the robes of a Sunguard, a half-elf woman with braided blonde hair and brown eyes, steps forward to Seldan and Zeke. "Brightest of days, Sunguard and Silver Guard," she greets. "How may the Temple be of service to you today?"

Keeping up with Seldan is likely to be something of a challenge, from the Magician's Guild - hastily arranged through Eluna's Temple - to the mighty cathedral of the Draco Solis. He knows exactly where he is going, every tree-lined street and every cobblestone burned into now-more-distant memories. Sure, some things have changed in the half-decade since he left, but not enough to lead him astray. Snow flies from armored boots as he strides towards the cathedral, and although he is usually considerate of Zeke's slower walk, today he has strode ahead, icy fury written in every line of his body, his lips set into a single thin line across the bottom half of his face. The ice-blue eyes are snapping, and he is fully kitted.

"Seldan," the sword at his hip pleads with him in a nasally, grandmotherly voice, "Seldan. Contain yourself. No matter what he has done - take care that you do not meet his level."

The warning is pertinent, and the paladin sighs heavily, and takes a deep breath, forcing himself to slow, to breathe, to not kill the first unfortunate person that crosses his path. He is dangerous at this level of anger, and he knows it, but that letter was all it took.

So, when he answers, it is with carefully controlled and polite words. "Brightest of days to you also, Sunguard. I seek Baram Padaryn. Has he yet left for the day?"

Zeke is normally, even when in circumstances that encourage a bit of speed, a little on the slow side. That is not so today. The blue scaled sith-makar is hot on Seldan's heels today, however fast the paladin is. There's not a thought in Zeke's mind for his own discomfort or the physical push of exertion which he can not at this moment feel. Zeke is not prone to anger, certainly not long lengths of it, but that is not the case in this moment. He holds to the twist of anger that he feels inside, knowing it well deserved. It does not spill out of him, he will not lash out with it, but it exists and abides within him quietly fed on embers of the knowledge of what it is to be a hatchling abused by one who is meant to protect and teach.

Zeke follows Seldan, his tail-tip flic-flicking in agitation.

The woman's eyes blink, both when Reunion starts talking, and then again at the mention of Baram Padaryn's name. She looks wholly uncertain for a moment. "Baram Padaryn?" she echoes. "He has not actually visited the Temple for... at least two months now." Her lips press together.

She looks at Seldan. "I could keep a message to be given here to him, but ah, I don't know if he will be... in the Temple any time soon."

GAME: Seldan rolls diplomacy: (7)+22: 29
GAME: Zeke rolls Sense Motive: (17)+9: 26

That is enough to dump a healthy bucket of ice water on Seldan's seething fury. "What?" he blurts out without thinking. A moment later, he coughs politely, takes a breath, and blinks several times. "That seems - most unusual. Know you why he comes not to the Temple? I know him to be injured, but I did not think-" His expression is openly surprised.

Zeke looks from Seldan to the woman, then lays his flesh-and-blood claw on his kin's shoulder, his eyes understanding. "Sssa did sssome-thing happen here the lassst time that Baram came? Thisss one under-ssstandss if it isss... sssensssitive, but we are all ssservantsss of the divine here. It may be relevant to our bussssinessss with him."

The woman nods a little, relief finding her eyes as she nods at both Zeke and Seldan. "Yes," she says. "It's just... He was quite frightening the last time he was here." Her voice drops a little in volume. "He used to visit to try and get healers to look at his injury. I was one of them. And... it became evident after some time that his leg is simply the way it is now. He's getting older, and his physical condition isn't what it used to be. My supervisor suggested it might not be possible to return to the duties he once had as a Sunblade, at least not in the capacity that he served before, and..."

She winces. "He raged. At all of us. I'm quite concerned that... His faith has wavered. He spoke somewhat cynically of the Knight in his rage, and..." She shakes her head.

The claw on Seldan's shoulder is at once a warning and a comfort, a reminder to still himself and an expression of solidarity. Beneath that claw, the armor is hard, and his muscles are harder still, tense with emotion, but as he listens, the blue eyes widen further still. "No," he breathes softly, a whole gamut of emotions stuffed into that single word. "Can it be? That his pride and his anger - has he fallen?"

He turns his head towards Zeke. "Kin - if he has fallen, then it may be that Synonie is not the only one endangered."

Zeke nods once to Seldan, allowing his claw to fall away. "Thisss one sssusspected sssuch when he turned assside the offer that thisss one made." He should have spoken then, but to cut the man's pride before his kin... Zeke lets out a soft sigh. "We musssst to your kin at onsce Sseldan."

"I hope that he has not fallen," the woman says softly, "for his sake and his own family's. He started coming to the Temple in more frequency when he was no longer permitted to take up the time of the healer that he'd arranged to visit the estate belonging to his mother, or so he divulged to me. But I feel it impolite to speculate on familial concerns."

She curtsies a little. "If there is nothing more I can do for you here, I bid you well and that your steps today are graced with His Light."

GAME: Seldan casts Message. Caster Level: 16 DC: 20

"Yes." Seldan closes his eyes and takes and releases another deep breath, quite clearly containing himself, and turns back to the Sunguard. "I am aware of the situation. Thank you, and may His holy daughter's light shine on your path." He turns to go, but before he gets three steps away, he pauses. "We cannot simply drop in on Grandmother. Such would not be accepted, and may be dangerous. I shall determine if she be awake."

He traces a swift, simple drawing in the air before him, then speaks a word of power to it. The traceries before him shine with a blue-gold-silver glow, and he smiles at his handiwork. "Grandmother, it is Seldan. Zeke and I are here. Are you awake?"

Zeke nods to Seldan, trusting his kin to do what is necessary. "If sssshe doess not resspond, thisss one ssssuggessstss that we go any-way. To ensssure their sssafety." He doubts that anyone in Seldan's tr-family knows that Baram has likely fallen from the Dragonfather's grace. Then he falls silent to allow Seldan to communicate with them.

Seldan receives a reply back in Daneira's voice:

"I am awake. Synonie is with me in the greenhouse. Baram is out but returning soon. Synonie would like to see you."

At that time, another Sunguard approaches and puts his hand on the woman's shoulder in a protective manner. This is an older woman, who regards Seldan with a knowing look and a nod. "See your family through this, Sir Seldan," is what she says. "I have need of her elsewhere, but know the Knight looks favorably upon you and yours."

GAME: Seldan casts Message. Caster Level: 16 DC: 20

Seldan starts at the older voice, and turns just as the spell fades. He bows politely, a gesture that is at once respect and acknowledgement, and turns to take himself from the cathedral. He pauses just inside the great wooden, inlaid doors, and repeats the same spell again. "I understand. We come. Is anyone else injured?"

"No, although I've asked Parnell to step outside. He wants to fight his own brother. I told him he can't. He would get hurt." Daneira's response shows that she clearly is prioritizing the safety of Synonie and her parents over Baram. The words are laced with frustration. She's an old woman; she certainly couldn't fight Baram. No one in the house is a trained fighter except for the man who bruised a child just the night before.

"I understand." The second sigil fades, and Seldan turns to Zeke. "Come. We can go, but we must be swift, and Father may return at any time. Does he do so, there will be a confrontation." _I hope he does,_ the words unspoken clearly read. "Let us make as much haste as we may."

With that, the paladin opens the door and sets a not-quite-so-blistering-but-still-aggressive pace across the snow-covered streets. This is a walk he has made literally hundreds of times before, and it is not one his feet are ever likely to forget. He does, this time, make sure Zeke can keep up, a sure testimony to the ice water dashed on him in the cathedral. Before long, they approach the main entrance to the house, and he raps firmly on the door.

Zeke follows in Seldan's wake like a blue shadow. It's true that he's more careful where there might be ice, but he has little care for himself in this moment. The sith is continuing to hold tight his own emotions, his green eyes on Seldan's tense form. He knows and understands it well. It's a small struggle to not add his own somewhat more impatient knock to Seldan's, but he does not.

A servant opens the door and nods to Seldan. "Please follow me," she says politely. "Madame Daneira has requested your presence as well as that of your companion's. Do not divest yourself of your weapons and armor; she has also requested the full appearance of a Silver Guard and a Sunguard."

She politely leads the way to the greenhouse, her steps quick and almost anxious. It appears they are very much expected and wanted.

About to automatically reach for his weapon belt to remove it - Seldan knows full well the rules in this house - he is forestalled, and stands for a moment, blinking. His hand falls away from the weapon belt, and he instead divests himself only of the winter cloak, revealing a silk cape beneath that is stitched with arcane runes. His eyes go slowly to Zeke, and seek out the bluescale's own eyes. "She means for us to defend them, kin," he breathes. "None save Father in this family know the ways of the blade. And so, defend them I shall."

Zeke's green eyes narrow slightly, but he does not even begin to offer to remove any item which he wears. Not even his cape. "He will not harm any of them again." His words are firm, but laced with an edge that says that he will accept no other outcome. Once Seldan makes his way through the house once more, Zeke follows at his heels.

The servant stops at the door and opens it--

And Synonie comes running at Seldan. "SIR SELDAN!" she cheers. Unfortunately, the evidence of what Baram had done to her is all too evident: a bruise on her cheek that's already looking a bit better, but is surely uncomfortable to rest her head on. "Sir Seldan! You came! You came!"

"Let him in, Nonie," Daneira's voice calls from within the room full of lush plant life that Zeke and Seldan had spoken to her in before they ventured into Ivyhold Manor. "Seldan, my dear, make sure the door is shut behind you and your companion? If that _oaf_ comes in here when he returns, I would at least like the warning of the door beforehand."

"Of course I did, as soon as I received your letter, little one." Seldan reaches down and hefts Synonie into his arms, resting her on one hip and squeezing the pair of them through the door. "The door, if you please, kin, and the wedge is in the main pack. I wish time to prepare, does that seem needful, and doubtless so will you." He pauses, a pace or so inside the door to the solarium, his back to Zeke so that his knapsack is accessible. "Now. That is quite the bruise he put on you. If you would have me make it more comfortable, then I must ask of you a favor. Pull my gauntlet off, and hold it in both hands, all right?"

"Her light upon your path, Grandmother. It is well to see you, though would the circumstances less urgent."

Zeke for one long moment can only see the bruise on the hatchling's fair skin. Evidence of the evil in Baram's heart. If the Dragonfather had not already turned the man aside for his treatment of Seldan, then surely the god could not condone this cruelty. Zeke wonders then for the first time how long Baram has been outside of the grace of the god he served.

Only Seldan's voice draws Zeke from his thoughts, and the sith-makar nods, pulling the wedge of wood he has seen many times from within his kin's belongings and closing the door. Shoving the wood beneath the crack of the door and leaving them locked within this sanctuary. Then he rises slowly to his feet and meets the eyes of the woman who is Seldan's matron. "Are you well?"

GAME: Seldan rolls heal: (1)+13: 14 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Seldan rolls heal: (11)+13: 24

Synonie quickly gets to work with Seldan's ask, pulling his gauntlet off and holding it in both of her hands like it's the most important gauntlet that's ever existed. "Okay!" she says, beaming at Seldan despite the fact he's looking over her bruise. It does look like a mean thing, but thankfully, she doesn't seem to have any broken bones in the face--it's likely that Daneira would have summoned Seldan immediately if that were the case. "Like I said in the letter--I think he hit me harder than he wanted. He was _really_ mad."

"It is still no excuse to hurt a child, Synonie," Daneira says unhappily before she rises from her chair and nods to Zeke. "I am well, aside from the emotional duress that has been placed onto my household in the last day. That boar of a man..." She presses her lips together into a thin line. It's clear she has thoughts but cannot, and will not, express them. At least in front of Synonie.

Once the gauntlet is off, Seldan uses the freed hand to gently press on Synonie's face where the bruise is. His fingers aren't soft - in fact, they're quite callused - but his touch is gentle, and he does not immediately reply to Daneira, so focused is he on this task. "Bruises only, kin. I had feared worse." He seems to let out some very real tension. "Be very still, little one. This might tickle." With that, he lays the palm of his adult hand flat over her face, turning it so that it covers the bruise and one of her eyes, and closes his eyes, beginning to murmur. Those present may recognize a rote prayer in the sibilant sildanyari tongue, one repeated over and over, but before long, silver light forms under his hand.

Zeke nods in understanding to Daneira. Though he is inclined to stay at the side of his kin, the wedge of wood in the door guarantees that they will be warned of any approach so he allows the other man to tend the hatchling. Though it is no easy thing for him, he approaches Seldan's matron and lays his crystal claw upon her shoulder. This is then somewhat easier for him than the other. "You ssspeak the truth, we will protect you both from here. He will not harm another here again without paying the prissce of it."

Synonie stays _so_ still. Seldan's magic works a treat and the bruise lightens under his hand, leaving the flesh looking good, even if the sensation of the bruise may linger on her skin for some time. She giggles as it's done. "You were right, it tickled," she says.

Daneira looks at Zeke with those green eyes of hers and nods gently, appreciation in her face and eyes. "It... Assures me greatly to hear such words," she says. "I just wish..."

She shakes her head before looking at Seldan. "Seldan," she asks gently, "was he... this way with you, when you were growing up? If I had known..."

When the hand drops, Seldan murmurs a phrase of gratitude and smiles up at her. "I am certain it did. Do you feel better now, so that I can greet Grandmother properly?" He does not yet set her down, but he turns towards Daneira at the question, and the sudden return of tension in his body, the stricken look he wears for a moment, is all the answer any adult present will need. "I - it is well, Grandmother. Were it not so, I would not have found it needful to take refuge in Alexandria, and I would not know my kin, or be blessed in the way that I have been." His eyes still drift to the floor. "Do I see to it that it does not happen again, it will be enough."

He lets out a long breath, leaving Synonie to continue to hold his gauntlet, and returning the hand to supporting her on his hip. "It is in my mind - that something is different, Grandmother. I spoke to the temple, ere I came here, and - it is in my mind that Father has fallen."

Zeke looks at Seldan standing there with a second child of this house who is drawn to Eluna and he can not help but think that here stand before him the changing of the seasons. That Seldan stands here strong and resolute with a past carved in pain trying to alter the path that he sees another so like himself doomed to repeat. Standing in the way of it.

"The Dragonfather doessss not condone violensce againssst onesss own innoscent kin." Zeke's voice is deep and full of emotion though he does his level best to keep his own at bay. "That he wasss ever in sservice issss a ssstain."

"I feel better," Synonie insists, before calling over to Daneira, "Look, Grandmother! Sir Seldan fixed me!"

Daneira smiles just a little, despite the pain in her eyes. "He did, my dear," she says to Synonie before she looks at Seldan with a more sober expression. "I suppose none of us can change the past. But we can have a say in the future. And I do not want a future where Baram gets to harm another member of _my_ family as he did to you--and he has begun to do with Synonie." It's clear from the displeasure in her voice that not only is she displeased with her son, but that there was a reason she called Seldan and Zeke here.

Then there's some noise from beyond the door. The thumping of feet. Daneira takes a sharp breath. "Seldan, if you must fight him--which I fear you might--I would remain here with Synonie while you take yourself and the Sunguard into the garden with Baram."

Seldan, too, draws in a breath, and straightens. He sets Synonie gently down on her feet, and drops to one knee in front of her in a clank of armor, resting the other arm on his knee. "Synonie, I need my gauntlet back, and I need you to promise me something," he says very seriously, holding out his hand for the piece of armor. "I need you to promise me that while Uncle Baram and Zeke and I are talking, you will take that door wedge," he points to the triangle of wood holding the door shut, "you will close the door behind us, and you will push that triangle in as hard as you can, just like it is now. Then, until you talk to me again, you will do exactly as Grandmother says, without arguing. Do you promise?"

Zeke turns his eyes on the woman whom he had offered a moment of comfort, removing his claw but still giving her his attention. "Thisss one will keep him sssafe. We will keep you all sssafe." He nods low to her, as is custom among the makari and then strides toward the door. He holds there, waiting but without removing the piece of wood that holds it shut. Indeed, he waits longer for Seldan to join him. He does not want to be kneeling when he lays eyes on Baram. For too many reasons to be spoken.

Synonie nods readily to Seldan's request, her curls bobbing with the motion as she hands the gauntlet back to Seldan. Her green eyes are full of conviction. She won't argue or fuss when something this serious is afoot. "I promise," she vows. "Right down to the letter, Sir Seldan."

Daneira walks closer so that she can receive Synonie when she's accomplished her task, but it's heartbreaking to see the flinch on Synonie's face when she hears Baram's voice boom in the hallway outside at a servant (presumably). "What do you _mean_, she isn't taking visitors? I am her son! Who in all of the realm might be in there that I might not talk to my own mother? Don't tell me she has that _brat_ holed up in there with her."

Synonie eyes the door wedge nervously before she looks up at Seldan and offers him a small smile. "I'll be brave, because you're brave," she says, in a quiet, quiet voice.

Seldan takes the gauntlet back, his eyes closing at that flinch. What he doesn't realize is that it's mirrored on his own features as well, but he remains there for a moment longer, his eyes opening again. "Remember, Synonie. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to stand in the face of it and act." With that, he stands, and turns towards the door. The gauntlet is on, and with a short, sharp nod to Zeke, he draws a swift sigil in the area, one Daneira has seen before. In a breath, the wedge is pulled from the door and tossed at Synonie's feet, and he nods to the door in a silent, _Let's go._

Zeke nods to Seldan, he sees the fear reaction. It's one he knows so well himself. He sees it in Seldan, he sees it in the hatchling. Once, Seldan had slain the source of his fear. The source of the agony which had followed him into adulthood. He opens the door to face the source of Seldan's pain, and puts his own body between it and Seldan.

This is not his fear, this is not the one that caused his pain.

"Baram Padaryn." His voice is low, deep, and careful. "You will come with thisss one to the garden."

The moment that Zeke opens up the door and faces Baram, it's clear that the man had been trying to intimidate the poor servant--the same woman from before. Baram's father contorts with rage as he looks at Zeke.

"You!" he snarls. "Don't tell me that _boy_ is with you as well. I believe I made myself clear the other day with what I said."

"_You_ are not the leader of this family, Father." The man that steps next out of the room is made of steel and alabaster, blue eyes like unfeeling ice. Fully armed and armored, his panoply wholly unconcealed, Seldan closes the door behind him with a *thump* and a *click*. "I was summoned here, to defend this family. From you. It seems that Grandmother tires of you injuring and terrorizing her grandchildren. Harming a child is not the act of a Sunblade, and well both you and I know it. That is the act of a minion of Bauglir. What have you to say for yourself?"

Zeke moves forward, just enough to allow Seldan to exit, just enough to be within reach of Baram. He doesn't give warning for his next action, but rather instead simply acts as must be done. He reaches out with that crystal claw and touches Baram. The sith-makar's touch is gentle, but he does not - will not - allow himself to be untaken. "Thisss one isss to essscort you to the garden. You mussst ansswer thessse thingsss Baram. It issss time."

Baram glowers at Seldan when the man emerges, and the servant buys the opportunity to slink out from between Baram, Zeke, and Seldan when the man's attention is no longer on her. There's a *thump* that comes from the other side, suggesting that Synonie's kicked in the door wedge as Seldan's asked her to. "If my brother will not be a good father to his daughter, then I must fulfill the role--"

He makes a pained noise as Zeke touches him, grinding his teeth together. "I do not _wish_ to go to the garden," he growls, although there's certainly a hint of a whine in his voice. "All I want is to shatter that crystal limb of yours, _cripple_."

The last word is telling. It's venomous. It's also full of sorrow. His other hand goes to touch his knee as he grimaces. "No, damn the gods, not _now_," he whimpers.

"That shall you not do, Father, if indeed you can. I think it unlikely that you possess the means to shatter an enchanted object, and do you try, I shall hinder you." Seldan glances at Zeke as his father's demeanor suddenly shifts, and he takes a step forward, but it is mostly to position himself to cover the servant's escape. "Go," he tells her swiftly. "Barricade yourselves." No more does he say to her, instead drawing Reunion and leveling the blade at Baram. "Go. To the garden. Now. You shall not harm any within this household."

The sith does not tighten his grip for all the insult. It is far from the first time that someone has called him such. No. Not the first time at all. "There issss no choice Baram. It isss time. Thisss one will asssisst you." It might seem odd then, to offer a hand of courtesy to someone who does not deserve it, however that is precisely what Zeke does. He offers the strength of that crystal limb that he bears to this man, to help him move forward. To force him forward.

Baram offers no other resistance, just glaring, although his steps are slow, as he explains, through pained breaths, "My leg is acting up." Once outside in the garden, he looks at Zeke--not at Seldan, he can't seem to meet his son's eyes--and...

"Please, Sunguard, at least allow me to sit. I am in _agony_." Baram begs. "The healers have said there's nothing more they can do. I'm..."

Tears flood Baram's eyes. Zeke's grasp of honesty makes it so he cannot lie. And perhaps the pain compels him to speak the next words, too. "I can't be a Sunblade anymore. I cannot serve the Knight as I once did. I'm broken, everything's gone wrong, my world is falling _apart_."

Seldan trails behind the other two, taking on the role of guardian, ensuring that they are undisturbed, and that there are no outbursts or threats. Once in the garden, the plaintive request is clear enough, and he sheathes the blade again, conjuring before him with word and sigil a floating disk of pure magic, then sending it to be positioned so that Baram might sit on its edge. "This conjuring has carried the carcasses of grown bucks from the hunt. It will not waver." The words are gentle, but with steel beneath him, and he notably takes a step back. The matter of a Sunblade fallen from grace is one for the faith to deal with, and in his mind, it is not his place to interfere.

Gently, Zeke helps the other man sit down, but does not release Baram from his grasp. "There are many waysss to ssserve the Dragonfather." His voice is low and careful as he measures the man with his eyes. The pain, the nearly hatchling-like behavior. "Do you ssstill hear Hisss voicse? Feel Hisss prescensse? Are you sstill blesssed with Hisss power Baram?"

Baram sits down, and the look in his eyes is a pained one. "No," he says. "He is gone. The Knight is gone. I have tried to call upon Him to heal my own self and... I have nothing." His voice is hollow. He still looks away from Seldan, trained entirely on Zeke.

Seldan merely inclines his head, allowing the pair to be as comfortable as they may. His arms are still crossed, but the steel and alabaster has melted into a man, a sober and thoughtful one. "Can you mend his hurts, kin?" he asks quietly.

Zeke's green eyes lift, a small trickle of surprise in his gaze. "Thisss one mossst likely could. Thisss one isss greatly besssed by the Dragonfather." For a moment his eyes close, and when they open again he is looking at Baram instead. "The body isss not sso difficult to repair, but the mind... the sssoul. Thesse are more difficult thingsss. Tell thisss one how long it hasss been Baram. How long sssince lassst you held the Dragonfather'sss blesssssing?"

"I have felt His blessing waning for months," Baram says, still concentrating on Zeke. "When I left the Temple but two months ago in a rage, and I tried to heal my own self... Nothing came of my prayers, my connection. It was gone."

Tears well in Baram's eyes. "It was all I had," he says. "All I had and it was gone. I don't _understand_."

"Vengeance is not the duty of a knight, and there is mercy in the Light," Seldan murmurs, his eyes lowering. To Baram's ears, it is clearly a quote of some kind, but Zeke will know its full meaning. "This, then, kin, would I ask of you, and of the Draco Solis, if it please the both of you. I would ask of the Draco Solis, through you, to heal him, that he might learn of mercy, and of compassion. For as he is now, until he learns of these things, he is a danger to his family, and to his community, and that serves none."

"In return, Father, if this is done for you - you shall show mercy to others in return. You shall permit Synonie to follow the path of the Draco Solis' daughter, She who watches when He sleeps. You shall learn to contain your temper, that you not frighten or injure those around you. And, if you are moved to do so, you shall seek His mercy, and atone for the way in which you have treated your community. For did not Bauglir fall for His pride?"

Zeke considers Seldan's request, but it is Baram who has his attention. How many times would Seldan forgive this individual? How many times could Baram be allowed to cause harm for the sake of his injured pride? "It isss to thisss onesss thinking, that he wasss given a chance to be a good man, a good nessst-father. He chossse a path of pride and violensce. In sspite of that, he wasss given another. Given a chansssce to grow and change. He chossse a sssecond time hisss pride, and violensce."

His green eyes take in Baram, measuring him not with the eyes of someone who once loved him, but as any stranger might. In the shell he has chosen to inhabit. "If thisss one takesss you to the houssse of the Dragonfather, will you let thisss one guide you to atonement? Will you acknowledge your failingsss, and be granted the mersscy you crave?"

Baram looks hopeful with Seldan's words, but that hope is dashed away by Zeke's words. "Why must I atone?" he asks.

The next words are revealing most of all. "I never did anything _wrong_." It is his genuinely held belief. Zeke's grasp of honesty ensures that.

Seldan goes very, very still at this, and the steel and alabaster returns. His eyes lower, and he lets out a long, slow breath. "In that case, Baram Padaryn, you leave me no choice." There is sadness and resignation among the steel. "If you will not understand that you walk Bauglir's path, and err as he did, then you are a threat to all in this community, and all who stand in this place. You dishonor the Draco Solis, and your family. To strike a child in anger is a danger I can no longer afford to ignore."

"Baram." Zeke's voice is stern but still gentle. "The Dragonfather would not have ceassed to commune with you, if you had done no wrong." He shakes his head, looking at Seldan and begging the other man silently to understand. Healing Baram's body will not solve this issue because Baram's mind is so certain of its place, so locked in its thinking, that he can not even imagine his own guilt. "Let thisss one have him Ssseldan."

His request is a gentle, odd thing. Zeke's eyes turn toward the man he has touched. "Come with thisss one Baram. Away from thossse who you would endanger with your presscensse. You no longer belong here."

"I'm not a danger to _anyone_," Baram insists. Finally he points to Seldan. "It's him you should be worried about! He's the one putting ideas into the minds of impressionable children! This family has come to _ruin_ because of him! We were supposed to be servants of the Knight! The Padaryn family lives for His light!" Always shifting the blame onto anyone else.

Baram looks at Seldan. "If it weren't for you, _boy_, Synonie wouldn't be so deluded!" The words are true to his feelings but not true to the facts. It's clear if Zeke's going to take him anywhere, it might be by force.

"Kin, I understand." Seldan turns his gaze to regard his kin with affection and respect. "Until moments ago, I would have permitted such, for it is the place of the faithful of the Draco Solis to care for their own, to turn them back to the Light. That is what I had hoped to do. But -"

The quiet and even words now turn to steel, and the alabaster that was his is suffused with an inner stillness. "Naught do you know of your ancestors, Baram, for it was but four generations past that the family turned to the Draco Solis. I hail from a line, and a tradition, far older than that, and that is why Reunion woke for me. I have had enough of your abuse. I have had enough of your insults. And I have had enough of your stubborn pride!" A snarl infuses the last phrase, but he brings it to heel with a deep breath.

"Stand back, Zeke. His steel shall answer for his tongue, in the way of knights of old. For he is no longer a man of the Light, if indeed he ever was." With a quick gesture of arcane dismissal, the conjured disc of force on which Baram is seated vanishes from existence, and he peels off his right gauntlet, mismatched with the rest of his armor and decorated in gold and green gems. This, he casts at Baram, landing it at his feet.

From his position it is difficult for Zeke to catch Baram before the man can be cast to his feet, but Zeke does make that effort. Green eyes flicker to the glove and he stares at it with a mixture of confusion and concern. How had Seldan gone from mercy to this? To asking a man who can not fight to personal combat? He sighs and slowly rises to his own feet, looking down at the man who is Seldan's nest-father. "The choisce issss yoursss Baram. You have spoken that you are without guilt. That you have done no wrong. You can fasce thisss Sssilverguard and let the godsss descide. Or you can sssset assside your pride and honor and leave your home. That isss all that remainsss to you now."

Baram hits the ground on his rump and groans in pain, looking deeply unhappy as he tries to sit back up. It takes a moment. His pride is bruised in many ways, and the (former) Sunblade is a shadow of his old self.

He looks up at Seldan, looks down at the challenge at his feet, and then at Zeke. Something _finally_ seems to dawn on him, and he turns his gaze back to Seldan.

"Show me," he says. "Show me proof of Reunion and the tradition of which you speak. Show me, and I will leave. I will go. If it is true, then I..."

He inclines his head in Zeke's direction. "I will seek atonement at the Knight's direction, justice, and mercy."

The very, very smallest of smiles forms on Seldan's features, but it is the blade at his hip that speaks first. A blade that Baram will recognize long since as being part of an old family story that it holds the soul of all those who wielded it. "I thought you would never ask." The voice is deep, rich, and full of authority.

With a very small sigh, Seldan draws the blade and offers it to his father on both palms, the challenge forgotten for the moment, allowing him to examine it. It is the same blade, all right, but augmented in both looks and in power. "There are, as far as I can tell, several dozen voices within the blade, but of those, six have spoken to me directly. The voice you heard, I know as Alistair."

A cacophony of competing voices starts up, chiding, cajoling, and yelling, and the paladin sighs. "Perhaps those who would do so might introduce themselves?" he asks wearily. Each of the voices introduces themselves in turn, and appear to have a pecking order of sorts. Alistair, Fallia, Kanian, Golain, Tisa, and Zacharian - of those, Baram will know only the last.

As he allows Baram to examine the blade, he murmurs, "As to the matter of ancient tradition -" One foot shifts backward half a step, and he closes his eyes as mighty, feathered angel wings burst from his armored back, full-sized, beautiful and inspiring. They are hard-put to fully spread in the tiny garden, and so remain half-furled, brushing and tangling with a low-hanging tree as he does so.

Zeke stays close, his hand still upon Baram, but he does nothing further at the moment. Does not interrupt this important moment. It is not what happens now that he doubts, but what comes next.

Baram's eyes are wide as he looks over the blade, beholding it and listening to the voices gathered within Reunion as they introduce themselves. He looks like he's formulating words, but whatever they might have been, they vanish with Seldan's sprouting of wings from his back. The man's jaw hangs open.

Words fail him for a very long moment as he looks at Seldan in awe. In fear. He shivers underneath Zeke's hand.

"I..." The word falls from him. It's the only word he can manage. One step.

"I don't understand." The second step. "I want to believe it's a parlor trick. It's all just magic. But if it is true... Everything I knew of the family is... A lie."

Baram visibly deflates. "Take me away, Sunguard. If the Knight will have my sorry and broken body, then before him I repent. I am no Padaryn because the Padaryn family I have believed to exist does not exist."

His voice is full of sorrow. "There is a family named the Padaryn family. It is not mine."

GAME: Zeke rolls Sense Motive: (19)+9: 28
GAME: Seldan rolls sense motive: (4)+24: 28

The wings furl, and fade, folding themselves back out of existence. A single white feather clings to a sleeping, bare black branch, quivering in the gentle breezes sheltered by the walls, where the wing collided with the branch. Without comment, he straightens and sheathes Reunion again.

Reunion, however, is not so silent, or so forebearing. "Why, you puling little shit," a deep, khazadi accented voice that just introduced himself as Golain spits out. "Not mine indeed."

"Fallia, can I turn him over my knee?" the younger, deeper female that introduced herself as Tisa asks plaintively.

"Do you have hands?" points out Fallia amusedly. "If we did, I would tell you to wait your turn."

"Enough," Alistair says firmly. "Such petulance is not befitting of a Padaryn, and it is not worthy of a Padaryn's time. Silence, all of you."

And - it does. There is no further commentary from the blade. Blessed silence descends, into which the Silver Guard intones, all steel and alabaster, arms crossed. "Go, then. My challenge stands, but is held in abeyance until such time as you once more find favor with the Draco Solis, or until you set foot again upon any Padaryn property, whichever occurs first. At that time shall your steel answer your arrogance. Begone, and be grateful to the Sunguard that I do not kill you where you stand."

Zeke's hand is unyielding and guiding. "Sssa. It isss time." He has his plan in place, and he knows exactly where he will take this man now. "Thisss one will take you to where you belong. Thisss one will guide you."

He helps Baram with great care and understanding for the needs of his body. Leading him from his garden and his home. Zeke knows that Baram will never return to this place. The man has chosen his path. "Ssseldan, will you take thiss one and thisss man Baram to where we mussst go?"

The color in Baram's face drains as Reunion speaks, and then drains almost in totality as Seldan delivers his defiant words. He believes Seldan--that the Silver Guard would kill him if it were not for Zeke's presence. "I understand," are the only two words he manages to say.

He gets up with Zeke and is quiet for the moment, but concern lights up his eyes as Zeke does not name where they are going. "Where are you taking me, Sunguard?" he asks of Zeke.

Seldan, too, is silent, only moving to pick up his gauntlet, cast into the dirt, and clean it with a swift sigil before replacing it on his hand. He inclines his head to Zeke, an unspoken assent, and moves to follow the other two - at a pace or so of distance.

Zeke nods and continues forward. "Thisss one will take you to where you belong Baram. A ssssanctuary." Every step that Zeke takes is certain and sure. "Doesss it matter the location? The plasce is jussst a plassce. What isss more important isss what it can offer you. A new beginning, and peassce."

When the group exits the manor and finds themselves on the lawn in front, Zeke whispers in Seldan's ear, and he listens, his eyebrows lifting. He acknowledges with an incline of his head, beginning the gestures of a complex spell, with multiple diagrams that connect in space and time around him and before him.

The sigils burst into fiery blue before him at a word of power, and he allows Zeke to take his shoulder before the world collapses around the three of them. Long breaths later, they find themselves in an entirely new place, and the hot, sticky air is an assault on senses accustomed to cold and snow.

Immense satisfaction fills Zeke as he looks at the jungle around them. There's a small building of civilization here. Small things. An altar to Talkuatika Tepetl had been the first thing built. Zeke had helped in its construction himself. Then, a few small residences for those who wanted to remain. Zeke had suspicions that the behemoth he had counseled to sleep would eventually draw others to this place, and he had intentions to build the community in other ways as well. Baram would join them.

The sweet scent of flowers is drawn into Zeke and the sith-makar pulls the soft-skin forward, toward the residences. "Thisss isss your home now. There isss no way for you to leave it sssave by Ssseldan'sss grasce. None here know the pathsss or magicsss to return you. Even if they knew it, they will not. Thiss one will council them ssso. You will go with the huntersss and you will provide sssusstanance for your-self and for othersss. You will aid in the conssstruction of food, ssshelter, and sssafety. You will harm none, for if you do, you will be ssshunned by thossse who you will rely on for every-thing. You will be ssent into the jungle and you will die."

Zeke's words are gentle and yet firm. "Thisss isss the way of the People. Thisss isss now your way. If you work hard, you will find peassce here. Thisss one will ssshare wordsss with you. Council you. Teach you. You are a hatchling yet in many waysss. Perhapsss, in time the Dragonfather will return to you."

His green eyes land on Baram. Challenging him to deny the truth.

Once he's over the stupor of teleportation--not helped by the fact that Zeke presses him forward--Baram's eyes are wide as he realizes where he is. Not in Bryn Myridorn. Not in Alexandria. Nowhere on the side of the world he's known. He's in the jungle. In Am'shere.

"No," he whispers hoarsely. "No, no, no, no no no no. I can't be here. They'll--"

He panics, looking at Zeke and at Seldan. "They'll kill me here. They'll kill me. I can't possibly live here. I can't possibly hunt with my leg the way it is! They'll kill me! You can't _leave me here!_"

Baram looks at Seldan and... He _begs_. "Please! Tell the Sunguard this isn't humane! This is no penance! I will _die_ here!"

"It is penance, Baram." Seldan takes a step backward from the pair, his refusal clear. "The sith-makar are not so cruel as you believe. I owe them my life, twice over and more. Zeke is quite capable of repairing your leg, should he feel that it is in the best interests of all to do so. That is for him, and the Draco Solis, to decide." He stands ramrod-straight, a pillar wrought in alabaster.

Zeke's eyes light with Seldan's words. "You may wisssh to be wisse with your wordsss Baram. Thessse are your People now. You will rely on them for your sssurvival. They will not kill nor even harm you outright. That isss not our way." The sith-makar looks at Seldan for a moment. "Thisss one requessstss that thisss one be left for a time, to ssshow him the waysss of hisss new home. Thisss one will meet you again in the new day when he isss ssssettled."

"Come Baram." He gestures the man to move forward of his own accord. "Even a hatchling sssuch assss your-ssself can be of usse. Thisss one will ssshow you the way. After all, thisss one iss a cripple yesss? If thisss one can be of ussse, ssso too can you."

Baram, for all the world, seems like he might be a petulant child in a man's body, unwilling and unbending. But... The alternative _is_ to die, in some sense. If he won't act, then he will eventually perish. Begrudgingly, he moves forward, mumbling about something under his breath.

"Yes, Sunguard," he finally says to Zeke. Dejected and beginning to accept his penance.

"As you will, Sunguard." Seldan bows politely and formally to Zeke, then turns on his heel and strides a few paces away, his back to the pair, preparing to repeat his spell. His formal quietude, his reserve, has returned in full force, and before long, the blue sigils have reformed, and he is gone.

All that remains for Baram is Zeke. Zeke and the faint hope of redemption, but first... Survival. Here in the jungles of Amshere, life is not easy. One requires a community to survive. Requires others for support, for daily living. Everyone chips in. Everyone has a place.

It is in the end, to Zeke's mind, the perfect place for Baram.

Zeke follows in the man's wake, to introduce him to those who will aid Baram in surviving here. It will be hard, but it will not be impossible. Perhaps, in time, the man might find the healing and peace here that Zeke promises him. Zeke doesn't know for sure.

He tilts his head to look up at the sky high above, and silently thanks the Dragonfather for this. The chance to aid his kin as once he was aided. To remove a hurt and offer a blessing.

-End