[WFRP2e] The Power of One - Part 2 - "Transire Benefaciendo"

[BananaPhone]

Taalia Giovanni

As they took off into the sky and left Tarantio behind them, Taalia rested back in her chair and exhaled. A new book was tucked into her little side tray and the memories of the printing press and statuary still fresh in her mind. But also her imagination wandered back another week to that lonely, forgotten villa and the ghost within whom they finally granted peace. It wasn't as exciting as Remus had been, what with jumping down into a gladiatorial arena and helping a team win against the odds. But when Cestie spoke about time and investment, she wondered just how long the spirit of that minor noble had lingered on in the lonely dark of his delipidated home, never knowing what became of those closest to him, and how now, finally, thanks to their little trio, his soul may find peace and reunite with his wife and daughter.

It was a pleasant thought and one she took to the air as the rolling green fields and tree's bellow them blurred into a collage of land.

But, ironically, the second treasure was during the departure. As pointed out by Cestie when he and Taalia had mapped the route out all that time ago, upon leaving Tarantio's borders they would need to head north-west towards Mariagliano, which meant crossing the Tilea Sea. Taalia's first six years were in a fishing and orchard village, the ocean was their livelihood. When the Norscans came, they did so across the sea, and when they stole her away, they did so across the waves. And when the Skaven finally received her and marched her into their Under Empire, it was deep beneath the vast waters. In some ways the ocean had always been a part of her, its prominence rising, falling and at one point becoming distant. But when Cestie and Taalia had looked over maps of the world one evening, speculating where she may be from, whether it be Couronne, the Wasteland, the border of the two, or maybe even Nordland, perhaps even Kislev or even Norsca itself, the single theme was always there: somewhere connected to the ocean. When she had been sold to the Skaven she had been taken below and disconnected from the waves, never to see them again

Until now.

It was likely Taalia was the second or third to spot the spectacle from their elevated position. She was peddling, absentmindedly and automatically, as she sat in that chair and read her new book, despite the clawing of the wind, but then the shout came out at her to peer off to the portside. Snapping her book shut and tucking it safely away, the Shepardess drew her head up and peered over yonder, the vast, bottomless blue horizon catching the afternoon sun in a bowl of glinting orange-and-gold. The girl grinned as she saw the sight once more, her primordial connection seemingly re-established in an instant as he felt a part of her reach out to that great, blue eternity, before soon they were passing over it and she could look down and see the crooked fingers of sea foam and froth marking the crest of each wave making its way to shore. The salt in the air, the cooler breeze brushing off from those waters, sailing across them in the sky as if she were a soul returning home.

Taalia was still daydreaming by the time they set down on the outskirts of Mariagliano, but she soon snapped out of it and to attention of what was going on around her. She received Cestie's friend with earnest warmth, smiling and shaking hands, offering his wife the usual embrace and kiss upon the cheek along with the offer that she should relax in her own home and let Taalia and Bella prepare something for them all as a token of gratitude. Nonsense, of course, such a thing would never do. This was a little social ceremony of offers, rebuttals that played out daily across Tilea, and soon the group were seated and revelations stirring.

Cestie's father was alive?! Taalia thought in wonder to herself, trying to picture a man who was 20 years even further along than Cestie himself. He must be a mark of fortitude to have persisted for this long! And stubborn too, but given the sound of their current estrangement, perhaps that refusal to yield was coming with a high price indeed. Whether this price had been paid by Cestie's brothers remained to be seen.

Nodding to Bella's whisper, Taalia spoke with her eyes: we certainly must!

"I would love to meet your father, Singore Cestie," Taalia spoke up openly and earnestly, her sonorous, smokey voice suddenly just emerging after a dinner-time of silence. It was clear by the accent that lined her speech that Tilean was not her native tongue.

And that's all she'd have to say for now. Sure, she could lay it on heavy and pull the slavery card, or a little lighter with the fathery roles he and Gaulfredo had played for her. But for now she'd leave it as just a seed planted to make the man think about it: Taalia wanted to meet his own father, which would, in turn, bring Cestie into contact with him once again. If there was something she'd learned about the male temperament here in Tilea, it's that the men needed time to dwell on these big, emotional dealings and had to come to the conclusion themselves. Simply pushing from the outside would only freeze them up.