Rask approaches Alexis in moment where the others are busy.
”Alexis, have you ever heard of Raiden being named a Storm God?”
Rask looks around warily, “My connection to Aegir is lost here, and it has been difficult…”
He gestured at the tattoos on his chest and back. Clearly a saddened and a bit lost.
“I have a vague… memory? “My… grandmother? Referring to Raiden as the Storm God…”
Rask’s brown furrows… Alexis gets the sense that’s not quite right, and that Rask is hoping for help understanding…
After the creepy blue goblin-wolf things are driven off and everything settles back down, Rask mutters in his bedroll to himself:
“taste like blood and steel…”
…
“War… man.. abomination spirt… pester you?
…
War… sh… what… the dwarveson ThuBalDor fell?
…
“Knock knock… gifts… How many souls… the blade is full? war …man?”
…
Later… sleepily…
“…ak the Endless… wh.. talk.. with… soul’s in the blade…”
Rask follows Alexis direction and keeps his distance from Drinos as much as possible throughout the journey. When not marching on the opposite side of the wagon from Drinos, Rask keeps himself busy with camp chores, helping Gus and Ca’armine hunt and gather when needed, and tending to the group’s horses. He prays with Ca’armine to Raiden whenever he can, and listens closely when anyone in the group talks about the gods.
Rask puts very little of his kit on the wagon most days. He typically wears his armor at all times as far as anyone notices. Those close to him can hear him singing Raiden-themed songs, sometimes to a marching cadence.
Rask stays up on watch for much of most nights. Over the first week or so he pushes his sleep schedule to the point of exhaustion and naps a bit in the cart one day before finally sleeping a bit each night.
Rask starts focusing on the last watch, early in the morning. He still sleeps for some portion of most nights, and avoids sleeping in the daytime again. Occasionally he sleeps thought most of the night.
In the wee hours of the morning, always after he is certain Drinos is sleeping, Rask removes and services his armor, and works through his full set of sword forms using the red blade, he does a set and then starts over, this time slightly modifying each strike to turn the blade just so to not do deadly damage. Somewhere near Earamos, he switches to carrying and using his black blade for these exercises, wrapping the red blade.
Rask still manages to make a point to be kind to Sally-Crow and he helps Gus train her as needed. Rask follows Gus’s lead and copies and reinforces and rules for tricks Gus works to train Sally on.
One evening after dinner, after a full 15 days have passed since the group arrives, Rask looks at Ethelred and inquires:
“He- Mastercraftsman, would it be possible for you to make a me fine wooden sword, like a practice sword, perhaps out of a dense wood like ironwood, that I could wield as it were mine own Blade?
Rask unconsciously nods at the bundle tucked in against his bedroll, where it has lain except when so recently examined by Ca’armine, Blessed Priest of Raiden.
“Should we find the right wood of course, and perhaps wrapped in leather like the cudgels Brother Blade has been using.”
After a few days a routine develops, in the mornings, Rask trains with whomever will join him. After sword and bow practice, he swims with Red.
In afternoons Ca’armine prays to Raiden, Gus does Gus things, and Red and Alexis study.
Rask assists with camp chores in the afternoons and often continues to practice his sword forms, never using his Black Blade, and working diligently to advance with the flat of the blade and on pommel-strikes.
One afternoon, about five days into their stay on the banks of the Llanos River, Rask approaches before dinner as Ca’armine is concluding his afternoon prayer, he waits patiently for the right moment and then addresses the holy man,
“Brother, Can you teach me some prayers so that I might join you on occasion? I know a little from Service in the chapels at various Forts, but would like to learn more, and learn more stories of Raiden if you would be willing to share?”
On a lovely sunny day, late in the early afternoon, after a fine day of exercises Rask addresses Alexis and the group as a whole.
Rask’s exercises of late have including live blade sparring with Ca’armine and Gus, the two of them taking turns wearing Red’s armor. Rask working to burn non-lethal longsword-strikes into his muscle and bone through repetition. Along the way he offers many suggestions to his Brothers-In-Raiden in the art of fighting defensively, his expertise in combat as evident as the Power of Aegir is represented and channeled by the tattoos on his chest and back. Rask wears little but the shield ring and boots, but he is maddeningly difficult to land a strike on. When he does get hit or cut he shrugs and fights on, accepting first aid at the end of the skirmish, and only after he opponent has been looked to.
Sitting in the midst of camp, clean, content, and sun-soaked, Rask speaks clearly and catches Alexis attention, and looks at Ca’armine as well.
“My Liege, our target, what do we really know about about them and their Band-Leader?
“Did they really steal away the Empress from her wedding?”
“Their slithering and spinning pets, and their truffle-hounds, we have met, and we seek their farrier now?”
Rask is clearly still paranoid not naming their enemies. In addition, the group may have noticed that he has been trying hard not use any of their names since they left the sewers.
Gus and Ca’armine he calls “Brother” or Brother Arrow an Brother Blade when he needs to specify, he calls Alexis “My Liege,” or “Boss.” Ethelred is too busy studying for Rask to talk to often, Rask usually address him as “Friend,” but Rask has been testing out a few nicknames, “Book” and “Ak’lyte,” “Hedgey,” but nothing has stuck yet.
In the dry part of the sewers, where the Crimson Calling has paused, and as Alexis starts to relax: Rask is on guard facing back the way the came when he quietly but clearly starts to speak to the leader.
“Alexis, you – all of us -” He looks around in the darkness, “Need to understand the Army and the Raidensblud.”
“The second group we fought was Raidensblud and probably some their soldiers, maybe mercenaries. They are, in theory, the King’s Guard, right? The sworn brothers at least, and serve the King Directly. In theory.”
Rask looks at Ca’armine briefly.
”Out in the world, the Sworn Brothers primarily act like officers do in the Armies. The Raidensblud have their own men at arms, most are not much better trained than a common foot soldier. And they hire mercenaries.”
Rask’s disdain for mercenaries is as evident as ever.
“In the field, the Kings Dogs work like that Blade did, leading a group of 4 to 10 men at arms, archers, crossbowmen and sometimes a specialist or two, trackers, trap-breakers etc.”
“The Raidensblud, all of them and their soldiers, are probably about the size of the First army, but they… operate in the King’s Interest… anyhow…”
He looks to where he thinks Ca’armine is again.
“They are separate from the armies, but do work together on occasion. Sometimes the lead groups of soldiers, sometimes the really high ranking ones “advise” commanding officers in the Army.
In addition to one leading a group of men at arms, they travel in pairs, or in small groups, and some times lead larger forces in pairs or small groups, The army in general doesn’t usually work that way, but some of the small companies, like mine, do.
“There is a bit of a rivalry between the Armies, especially units like the one I was in, and the Raidensblud. There are a lot of high born in the Raidensblud, and even the ones that aren’t… often act like their shit doesn’t stink.”
“My unit, Captain Thorne Blackwood’s unit really, Company A, Fourth Battalion of the Second Army’s 9th-Infantry, numbers about 100, mostly probably about half soldiers, a quarter scouts and a quarter specialists and leadership. I was a sergeant, so lower level leadership. I did what that Blade was doing, led a group of soldiers though, no mercenaries.”
“So, not exactly what Darius was doing, but.. still, I led a group of solders and a specialist or two. Most often I was second in command, under a lieutenant, and had a small group that was the ‘distaff claw of the pincer,” or the ‘bolt of the ballista.”
Rask smiles ruefully recalling a some of the ambush maneuvers he used to drill with Lt. Nightshade.
“Sometimes there are two or three of us of rank, Sergeants, a Lieutenant and maybe a promising corporal or two, in a small hard-strike team, or surveillance team. I was less on the surveillance teams.”
“The battalion had 5 fighting companies, most of them larger than 100, not all of them as well trained as ours, and but the Fourth is a proud fighting battalion, even the support battalion had some tough cooks and paper-pushers. The 9th Infantry.. has maybe 5 battalions? The Second Army doesn’t really have 9 Infantries, really, the 9th is just the division that the Infantry is in. I’m honestly not sure how many Army’s there are, at least three, I think?”
“I have no idea how many battalions… or Army’s Aedelfred has in Sutheron, nor how many Raidensblud are here, but I doubt more than Company A is here with Cedric and Maris, it may not even be the whole Company, though, just survivors that worked with me closely enough to recognize me.”
“I am my own Kaelen Darkwater.”
Rask shakes his head.
“I led the Bolt of the Ballista, the frontal strike team on that mission. Our whole team was about thirty people. Kaelen Darkwater was a former Aegierian soldier who had served in the First Army under Ursill, and had been one of their toughest commanders. He knew of Aegierian military tactics well, and used them.. quite effectively against… us… his former comrades in the Aegierian army…”
Rask becomes very quiet.
Inside the confines of the Mithril Lord’s estate, not long after after Gus brings up feeling uncomfortable in Sutheron, Rask asks in Gus’s direction but to everyone:
“What’s Aegier-Aegier, yah know Aegier-city like? Does it smell like a battle, a brothel, a well-used latrine, a garbage dump, and fish harvest… all at once, but worse, too?”
He wrinkles his nose, and pauses for a moment.
“Are there Temples to Raiden there?” He asks disbelief.
His eyes widen, his mind realing, he look more seriously at Gus and Ca’armine. Raiden is a god of battle and protection, and… Aegir…
Since arriving in Sutheron, Rask and Ca’armine and occasionally Ethelred, have been singing hymns of Raiden together. At first none of them really remember the words very well, and none of them are trained singers, but Rask and Ca’armine are fervent, and Ethelred is a true Aegierien, so they persevere.
“I wonder if there is anywhere we could show our faces and sing songs of Raiden with a big group again?” Rask wonders wistfully to the whole team while settling in for bed after the most recent session
A little later, after realizing that, without talking about it, they have all been editing Aedelfrid out of their renditions, he sleepily adds,
“Could we pay Grimsby to write and sing songs about Aegir and Sutheron and Raiden without Aedelfrid in them? Or a song about Aedelfrid the Pretend Raiden? Grimsby sang about Fjellsby, isn’t that where… the leaders of the Rebellion were from?.”