birthright_rpg | The World is Tiny

With a wadded up hand towel, Rhiannon wiped fog from the mirror in Cian’s bathroom and looked at herself. Her hair was wet from the shower, and there were raccoon circles under her eyes, remnants of yesterday’s makeup. She spun some toilet paper from the roll and used it to wipe away the mascara. As she tipped her face left and right, she saw the mark that Cian’s mouth left on her neck; it was somewhere between a bite and a bruise, but it was faint and wouldn’t last the day. There was a comb near the sink. She parted her hair and brushed the tangles out of the lengths.

It was after noon. Early in the morning, Cian had left the cabin to take a boat of passengers on a day cruise. Rhiannon just rolled over and went back to sleep, tucked safely in covers that smelled like the two of them and their lovemaking. When she woke up again, she was surprised to have been out so long, and she sat on the edge of the bed feeling disoriented by heavy slumber and a bad dream she couldn’t quite remember.

Rhiannon pulled on her sweater, jeans, and boots and rummaged through Cian’s cabinets until she found what she needed to brew a pot of coffee. She took a mug of it onto the front steps and sat down, blowing across the steaming surface.

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Rhiannon took a step away from Cian and retrieved her pack of cigarettes. She lit up and tried to decide where to start. “Well, they’ve been here since almost the beginning. First, there was the slayer, created by a group of men to keep vampire numbers low, and those men became the first watchers. Over the years, the structure’s changed. There are nine slayers, and probably dozens of watchers. Slayers are chosen by mysticism, but watchers usually inherit their calling, and they take it seriously. They find us, train us, and when they think we’re ready, they let us go. From that point on, they’re supposed to be keepers of knowledge. Researchers. But as it turns out, the Council’s one of those things that works better on paper, because, like any sect of fervent believers, there are a few zealots in the mix, and people who abuse their power, and no real system for sorting them out.”

She put the cigarette between her lips and kicked at a large piece of rock.
“But there is a system for us. There’s this test slayers go through once a year, to make sure we’re are still performing out here on our own, haven’t gone nuts or to the dark side or whatever. There’s a rumor that watchers can – have – taken abilities away from a girl because she failed. I think it’s true. I doubt it happens all that much, but still, the story’s enough to keep you minding your P’s and Q’s, right?”

Rhiannon was aware that she was talking too much, but it was easier to just spit it all out and let Cian sort through the mess for questions. “Anyway, I showed up for mine and caught my watcher abusing his power. I threatened to report him, so he recommended that I be removed from the field. Since then, he’s been trying to coerce me into shutting up, but it turns out that it doesn’t even matter, since reports to the Council fall on deaf ears."

She rubbed at her sweater sleeves.

"So Julianna... she wanted to bring me in for testing, and we worked out this agreement, under the table. I let her question me, and when I passed, she told the Council I skipped town. But I didn't tell her about you. I mean, I wouldn't, even if you could help each other, because then I couldn't see you anymore."

At the mention of zealots abusing powers and no justice to keep them in line Cian scowled, his fingers tightening on the edge of the wooden step he was sitting on. Then hearing that those same people were able to do whatever they wanted to the Slayers, to Rhiannon, had him on his feet, eyes narrowing as his head turned left and right, as if seeking these individuals out.

"Help them?" he growled. He turned and looked at her, shaking his head as he held her arms lightly, rubbing his hands up and down. "There's nothin' can come between us, and none who'd wan' t' try."

His words surprised her. It wasn’t like him to state his feelings so plainly. Whatever she said had shaken him up. Rhiannon felt the frustration rolling off of the Were in waves.

“Cian… it’s not that Julianna would do something terrible to me, or intentionaly drive a wedge between us. I don’t—I don’t think she’s like that. The problem is, she’s drinking the Kool-Aid. I used to drink the Kool-Aid. To be a part of what we do, you have to believe in it so deeply, so blindly, that you’d die for it. When I told her what happened with Duncan, she didn’t even ask what he did wrong. I watched her face. It didn’t occur to her. When I told her he tried to have me killed, she basically accused me of exaggerating.”

They weren’t all bad. Rhiannon readily admitted it. But it was way too fucking hard to sort out who was telling the truth, who was lying. It was easier to cut all ties, especially when her word was worth nothing.

“And besides that, if anyone tried to lock you in a cage for three days a month, I’d break their kneecaps.”

That brought him back from the edge of the dark world that had lurched up from long distant, and suppressed memories. Tamping it all back down into the recesses of his mind again he slowly smiled. Both at the idea of her doing that, and the thought of someone trying to cage him.

"Nice t' know," he said smiling. "Not real fond of 'em. Cages tha' is." He sighed, closing his eyes for a brief moment, then looking down at her. "This Duncan, what did he do?"

Rhiannon lowered her eyes to his chin. “Okay." She took a deep breath. "Being told you’re a slayer – that you’re destined for something so incredible – it’s a heady thing, especially if the circumstances you’re leaving behind are shit. So, that person who lifts you out of it, they can be like a god in your eyes. A savior. I know it was like that for me.”

Her teeth gnawed at the inside of her cheek. “Two years ago, Duncan went on sabbatical in Spain. I flew out there to meet him for my test, but he didn’t get the word that I was coming. When I got in, Duncan wasn’t in the house, but I found a girl there. Iliana. He had convinced her that she was a slayer. Only she wasn’t. He must have done a spell to make her stronger, make her think she was a slayer, but trust me when I say it wasn’t legitimate. This was an ordinary girl, sixteen years old, stripped away from her family for a purpose that didn’t even exist. He was dragging her into dangerous training situations without the instincts or the talent to protect herself, all so he could pawn her off to the highest bidder and skip town. A slayer for hire, or for blood magic, who knows where she could have ended up. Even worse, I had serious questions about the nature of their relationship.”

She lightly pulled at the sleeves of Cian's shirt.

"So I flipped out. I mean, I was not covert, which was stupid of me. He knew what I knew, almost as soon as I rifled through his shit and figured it out. And you know the rest."

The misuse of magic was akin to the misuse of any type of weapon, or power and was not something Cian took well.

"'nd this Duncan? He's still one of these Watchers?" he asked, his voice quiet, like the calm before a storm. "'nd this Julianna didn't even bother to ask abou' this?"

"He is for now," said Rhiannon. "Trust me, I've thought about rectifying the situation."

She left it at that, not wanting Cian to know the things she thought about doing to Duncan, on behalf of herself and Iliana. He was trash, worth less than the dirt on her boots, and while she had never cared much for him as a person, she had at least respected him. Finding out she could be so badly wrong about a person was just another reason to despise him.

"I don't know why Julianna didn't ask. I do know she hates me, so it might have something to do with that. I"m sure she thinks I'm a liar. Listen, it doesn't matter, okay? I'll stay out of her way and she'll stay out of mine."

The World is Tiny

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