12.23.2132 - Back to the Future

[Johan]

"Pay attention to details, boy." Smokey scathed. "Did you catch her oath? By the gods? Plural?"

"It's ok, Mia." He tried to reassure her. "If it makes you uncomfortable to talk about, it, we can wait for some time. Weeks, if it helps you."

"You see, in our small Clan, we've been getting the feeling that the government isn't telling the people all the truth, and that there are things going on that we should know about, but that they're not telling. They have, for instance, told us that to go beyond the Holy Fire brings insanity and death."

"Then you hear of the Outlands Patrol, and they deny it ever existed. To find evidence of it is to reassure ourselves that they aren't being level with us. It reassures us that maybe, there's a life out there somewhere, somehow, where we aren't in danger of our lives by virtue of having a life."

"So for now, we're just looking to verify that it existed. Solid confirmation. As to how Leslie knows what she knows, we all wonder about that!" He smiled at his young friend.

"But again, we don't have to talk about it. Although it might be a good idea for you to take the medallion off of your wall." He suggested. "If I spotted it..." He left the thought hanging.

[Dray]

"Wait a minute..." Leslie said, just catching up to the full meaning behind Temmit's words. "You actually have one of the medallions?!"

Mia still looked nervous, but Leslie's childlike enthusiasm, although intense, was infecting Mia with pride, and putting her at ease in the process.

"It is in the corridor behind you, about two feet away from my door, close to the floor, in a shadow-box," Mia said.

Just then Aunt Deidra came in, making Leslie jump.

Not noticing the skittish lass, she simply walked in and put a plate of fried potato planks on the table near the crystal ball.

"The bread won't be done for another half-hand, thought you three could use a snack," she said and turned to walk out. "Oh, and I put the closed sign up for you Mia dear, I figured you wouldn't get much more business before leaving for your dorm anyway."

"Thanks Auntie."

As Deidra walked out, Leslie got up and scooted along behind her. She came back quickly with the shadow-box holding the medallion behind a thin plate of glass. As an afterthought, she pushed the bedroom door with her hand and it shut behind Temmit.

As Mia watched her, Temmit watched the initial shock and nervousness, of being asked about the secretive subject, melt away from her features.

"So Leslie, how do you know about the Patrol? The government eliminated traces of their existence over a thousand years ago." Mia asked as Leslie fidgeted with the glass to get the box open.

[Johan]

"Do you need to touch it, Leslie?" Temmit asked, balancing somewhere between curiosity and admonishment.

[Dray]

Within a tenth of a click Leslie shot back to him in excitement, "It's a piece of ancient History Temmit!"

’Sounds like a justifiable excuse to play with it.’ Smokey judged sarcastically.

Mia giggled. "Push in the bottom of the glass Leslie for about two clicks, then let go," she instructed.

Leslie did as she was told. The glass pane, on some slow-acting spring, opened by itself at it's top hinge. Leslie didn't hesitate to take hold of the medallion and bring it up to her eyes for a closer look, her fingers caressed the medallion like it was pure gold.

"Leslie?" Mia pressed her former question.

. . .

"Leslie?"

"What?...ah, oh! Yes, how do I know," she said then giggled. She finally looked back at Mia and said, "I am a library rat. And as hard as the government tries, they can't cover their tracks in such a massive place of information. I put the story of the Outlands Patrol together just last week."

"And?" Mia asked. Temmit was impressed, Mia was clearly testing Leslie and perhaps both of them for some reason. She wanted to know what they knew before divulging any of her own knowledge.

“Well...” Leslie stopped, she looked at Temmit to see if it was okay for her to tell Mia what she knew.

[Johan]

"We three are in a similar business." Temmit said, almost seeming to change the subject. "We are all brokers and guardians of information. It's all right, I think, Leslie. I'd be interested to hear you out as well."

[Dray]

Leslie gave him a smile that spoke volumes to her appreciation of him.

She turned back to Mia.

“What I know doesn’t add up to much I am afraid, at least not yet.”

“Outlands Patrol was formed in 846 ESH, about a hundred years before the Battle of Millenguarde...” as Leslie mentioned the fable, Temmit turned his eyes to Mia for any hint of a smirk at it‘s mention. It was something he typically did when Leslie spoke of her favorite epic to someone.

Mia didn’t smirk.

“...it was formed by the Council of Five itself. They sought volunteers from the entire Armed Forces of Safe-Haven and tested the hundreds of the willing men to narrow down the special unit to only eight. The Outland Patrol’s special mission? To attempt to covertly penetrate the Outlands and explore the ruins of the human civilization beyond. To seek other survivors like ourselves,” Leslie said. Temmit could tell this was simply fodder for another play, poem or song she would write some day soon.

“Only seven short years later however, the group, which had lost all of it’s original eight members in battles with the Karh’Thul was finally disbanded by the Council. Dozens and dozens of men had entered the Outlands Patrol while it was active, and many of them never survived.” Leslie said solemnly, and Temmit noted that she actually seemed sad for the men who died 1300 years ago.

“The next part of the story, which I just found last week, was what peaked my interest though. I found old census records (OOC: See below for note after) and crossed check them against the men who were in the Outlands Patrol when it was disbanded. I found out that all eight men died within a year of the unit’s discharge,” she said conspiratorially.

Temmit whistled.

“Yes, and consider this...each of the eight men was assigned by the council to work in eight separate sectors of the Outer-Rim Defense. Which doesn’t make any sense to me, why split up a group that obviously was trained to fight together?”

(OOC: Temmit from his knowledge gained in his house and it’s specific classes knows that Leslie is not telling the whole truth. No census records would be found in the library. The government may miss many things in the massive amount of information in the Library, but not census records. They guard records harder than they guard the Flame Barrier, within a locked up Census Bureau.)

[Johan]

"Were you able to find any indications of how they died?" Temmit asked, his curiosity piqued.

[Dray]

"Each of the eight men died while on duty along the border, two were simply listed as 'accidental deaths'[/i]. Epitaph and full military records (OOC: Same note) didn’t mention a single word of their service in Outlands Patrol either. And let me remind you, they died only a year[/i] after the unit was dissolved. It's all very suspecious.” Leslie was in her element. Gone was the little giggly lass he so enjoyed, and instead he was talking to the Sage of Safe-Haven, a hundred years older than the 12-year old she played in real life.

“Balthier Von Rosenburg was the leader of the group of men when it was discharged in 853 ESH, he was a known friend of Xander Prescott, Mia’s ancestor,” she said and turned back to Mia.

“Indeed he was Leslie,” Mia began and shifted in her seat as one who was getting ready to tell a speech of her own. “Balthier, like my ancestor, was gifted...just like us.”

[Johan]

Temmit's brow knit profoundly as Mia spoke. "Wait...I thought that these sorts of gifts only began to appear in the last two centuries?" You're saying that gifts have been evident in Safe Haven since the beginning?"

[Dray]

Leslie spoke up. “Oh no Temmit. In fact, her ancestor, Xander, was...” Leslie looked at Mia a bit sheepishly.

“It’s okay Leslie, it was 1300 years ago...I didn’t know him,” Mia said with a giggle as she anticipated what Leslie was going to say.

Leslie continued, “...Xander was hung for practicing sorcery.”

[Johan]

"And look how far we've come." Temmit observed, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

[Dray]

Both girls laughed despite the dire truth of the quip.

“Mia? You know something don’t you. You know something about the Outlands Patrol, something you ancestors left behind I bet,” Leslie asked gently, her thumbs still caressing the edges of the medallion in her hands.

Mia looked back and forth between Temmit and Leslie.

After a few contemplative moments, she spoke. “I am going to have to trust my reading in that by telling you, I will end the day with a polished finish.”

“That medallion you hold in your hands Leslie?” she said in almost a whisper. Leslie looked down at it and said “yeah?”

“It hides the bearer. It makes them invisible to Karh’Thul.”

[Dray]

Both of the house guests stared at Mia in undisguised shock.

“My ancestor, Xander, was indeed very close with Balthier Von Rosenburg. When Balthier joined the group, via unfortunate attrition in 849 ESH, he had many great plans. Knowing Xander was a great artificer of magical devices, he commissioned Xander to make that medallion and seven more just like it[/i].”

“While Xander worked on his commission, Balthier spent years gaining the trust and confidence of his fellow Outland Patrol comrades. It was in the thick of battle, one day in late 852 ESH, that Balthier gambled. He used his own command of his sorcery, his gift with arcane magic, to save the Outlands Patrol from certain defeat at the claws of the Karh‘Thul.”

Temmit saw Leslie tense at the moment in the storyline. Revealing your gift was a last resort that no Whisper member ever wanted to face.

Mia continued.

“The gamble paid off, and all of the Patrol accepted his magic and didn’t turn on him. They instead made him leader of the Patrol and vowed to keep his power secret.”

“Very cool,” Leslie exclaimed.

“Indeed,” said Temmit. “I imagine that changed the group dynamic a bit?”

“Very insightful Lieutenant,” Mia complimented. Temmit was not used to hearing his actual Whisper rank from anyone in the guild, let alone a new recruit. He politely smiled back at Mia and nodded.

"He was in fact, made leader of the group."

Mia grabbed a potato plank and munched it down before continuing. As she talked, Leslie stood up and scooted around Temmit so she could do the same.

“For their friendship, and for the good of the mission, Balthier gave each of them one of the eight medallions after my ancestor presented them to him.”

Leslie looked down again at the medallion which was still in her right hand and said, “wow”, in a whisper. She stared at it, even as her left hand was grabbing potato planks for her little mouth to nibble on.

“In a small ceremony that Xander witnessed, each of the eight men donned an Outlands Patrol Shield[/i],” Mia nodded at the medallion as she revealed it’s name. “And the next day, they went back into the Outlands.”

[Johan]

"And only a year later, the Outland Patrol was disbanded. Less than a year after that, all the current members were dead." Temmit summarized.

"Do we know if those who were members when it disbanded were also those who were the original recievers of those shields? I just wonder if the members suddenly stopped dying after getting these shields."

[Dray]

"And only a year later, the Outland Patrol was disbanded. Less than a year after that, all the current mambers were dead." Temmit summarized.

Mia had a puzzled look at the statement and then looked apologetic. "Oh, I am sorry, as I was truncating the story a bit to get to the points of importance, and therefore probably confused you."

"It wasn't a year later...it was a week[/i] later (after they donned the medallions) that the group was disbanded." Mia said with some emphasis.

Temmit and Leslie both raised eyebrows.

"And this is another reason I whole-heartedly agree with Leslie's suspicion," Mia said as Leslie smiled with a closed mouth that was busy chewing a plank. "During that week, the Outlands Patrol succeeded significantly[/i] in getting beyond the border. They traveled out for dozens and dozens of miles outside it without incurring a single battle with the Karh'Thul! They only came back at the end of the week to report the good news and to get more supplies."

"Report the good news that magical[/i] medallions had saved the day?" Temmit questioned pointedly.

"No. It is written in Xander's journal that they had planned to tell the Council the following story,” Mia closed her eyes as she continued, and Temmit noted she was reading from her memory of the journal in her mind. “ ‘We have found a natural passageway just beyond the Outer-Rim. It traverses underneath the first layer of standing forces of the Karh'Thul around the kingdom’s perimeter. Because we escaped their initial detection, we therefore could use far more stealth in the Outlands than we have ever been allowed in the past. In affect, the demons congregate at our borders, but are very dispersed a couple of miles beyond it. This is the chance we have been waiting seven years for, this is the chance many of the Outlands Patrol members lost their lives for. We must be allowed to continue!’ "

“And of course, you know what happened,” Mia finished.

“They debunked them, but why?!” Leslie asked.

“Why indeed,” Mia returned. She looked back at Temmit, “so to finally answer your question."

"Yes."

"The original members who received the Shields were the very same ones that were discharged and placed back into the Outer-Rim Defense force, along with, I imagine, the very disgruntled Balthier Von Rosenburg”.