The Conjured and the exiles

Daen hadn’t stayed asleep for long. She woke long before dawn rise if somewhat groggily. If anything Daen had always been a creature capable of action when the situation called for it. She had also learnt that the best way to avoid trouble was to run, run as quickly and as faraway as possible.

She only half believed what Veione had said about Lord Darcia been able to find her anywhere. As she bundled some of the left over food in to a pillowcase she rubbed her wrists were two livid bruises stood out on her creamy skin. She couldn’t explain what he had done to her last night but what ever it was she was sure that she would be better off as far away from that sinister man as possible.

Daen knew that given time he would get her name from her. She couldn’t stand much more torture like that. Perhaps it was just a fairy tale but it was well known that if a wizard had your name he had complete power over you. Either way she didn’t want to find out.

But where should she go? She needed money and perhaps even a horse. For a moment she considered finding her brother but she had already told Veione about him, so that would be the first place they would look for her. Jac, Jac would help her and they didn’t know about him yet. By dawn Daen had managed to escape from the tower. It had involved some climbing and her hands and knees were grazed but she was free. Hefting her makeshift pack she lost herself in the already busy streets of the imperil city the city that never slept.

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‘If you’re not signing on as a combatant I’m not interested. Not that we would even take on a scrawny pale faced beggar like you anyway!’ Scoffed the old gladiator owner ‘We don’t give out tips So don’t bother asking for favors here.’

Veione blinked in surprise. He wasn’t wearing his master’s livery (a sure way to get any one to jump to attention) but it didn’t stop her from been annoyed at the pompous fool. All he was trying to do was drop off a letter after all. Gladiators could be so precious, thinking that you would steal there secrets just by coming in there training grounds. It’s not as if they had anything that they could teach Veione about fighting. But he knew bickering with this ass down hear wasn’t going to get him anywhere, and he didn’t have time to waste. Veione had about half a dozen other errands to run today (he had wasted a grate deal of time last night with a scrumptious little maid from Lord Farwills house) and it had already taken him over an hour to find out which house the Filly’s brother fought for. But since this puffed up fighting cock wanted to be rude, he would have to be rough.

With a move so quick the old gladiator couldn’t follow the blond man had wiped out a rapier blade and had it pressing against his jugular vain.

‘Now since its obvious that your brains have been scrambled by one to many blows to the head in your time I will ask again where could I find the gladiator called Leoff Sheld, he’s a young man, quite new, brown hair, tall? I have a letter for him from his sister.’

The old man swallowed dryly his voice came out high and forcibly bright. ‘His sister, why didn’t you say so. Unfortunately he’s not hear right now but I can give it to him.

.‘That would be very helpful.’ Veione showing off elaborately sheathed his blade. ‘Be sure he gets it if not I will know.’

‘May I have your name.’

Veione smirked over his shoulder, ‘Captain Faorin of the west.’

If it was possible Sarol blanched even further. Veione laughed. A pretty woman sat legs akimbo on a barrel at the far end of the room and gave him a wry grin. ‘Poor old man you almost made him piss his pants.’

Veione smirked. ‘I hate when people are rude, and im in a rush.’

‘Oh?’ she said her smile a warm invitation.

‘Well I can always make time for you.’ Veione said.


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Leoff and Vas made there way to the Nagg’s head. It was an old tavern close but not to close to the arena. Its high back settles were perfect for private conversation. Once they were settled down at a worn but comfy bench with a pint of ale set before both of them the dark haired man started up the conversation.

‘ Your not doing this for the fame are you?’

‘No, I’m in this for the money.’

‘Interesting. Jos told me that you come from noble stock, so you shouldn’t be lacking funds, I had figured you for an seeking fame and glory type. I guess not eh?’

Leoff took a mouthful of the ale, and shrugged, ‘If there was money in the family I didn’t see any of it. Besides there aren’t really any nobles in Nheim How about you, why are you in this game?’

‘The fame, I suppose I want to show my father I can shape my own fate.’ Vas said pensively, Leoff kept quiet he had a feeling Vas needed to get the story off his chest. After a moment Vas began to talk, ‘My dad’s a sword smith and so was his father, and his father’s father, and his father’s father. So I was expected to become a sword smith or at least some kind of metal worker.’

‘You’r quite skilled at it.’ Leoff commented.

‘I know, but I don’t want to be just a sword smith, I want to be a bard, I can sing, and my mother taught me how to play a harp, the bards used to come around and play in the guild halls and i thought that could be me. My father disagreed, he said that the gods had given me a path and I should have the sense to follow it and be grateful. And no one in the town would let me do as I wanted because of my fathers standing within the guild. One night he and I had a final falling out and I left to prove that I can succeed. So if I’m blessed with fame then the gods are on my side and I’m walking on the right path, the path of my choosing. However I need events to sing about, I thought the arena might be a good place to find those stories. And that’s my story.’

Vas took a swig of his ale; he smiled wistfully ‘I wish they had some decent brandy! I would kill for some Firebrand!’

Loeff laughed ‘Firebrand, I never got on with that stuff, you Clodden have such strange palates! You know I would never have Guessed you were from the sword smith’s guild, you’re far too….. ’

‘I’m not very serious, I know.’ Vas sat up a bit more, his face animated with curiosity ‘Now, I’m interested in where your from, you seem to know a lot about Cwarmourth, the guilds, and our language and I noticed when you practiced that some of your blade moves, they are Swords smith moves.’

‘I had a Clodden tutor for a while, I didn’t know if he was from one of the guilds or not, I suppose since he was working for Nhemian he wouldn’t say.’

‘So you are a noble then.’

‘Not really, where i come from we dont really have nobles not like here in the empire, my father was well off and we came from an important clan.’

‘Nheimian? I always thought you were from northern stock.’

‘Why?’

‘Your size and you look imperial. I heard that Nhemian’s a short.’

‘Our women are pretty small. But most of the men aren’t that small. I am quite tall, my dad used to say I must have been putting muck in my shoes to grow up so tall.'

‘ I also know that you are not as old as you say you are.’

‘So?’

‘Well you have to have had twenty one summers to fight in the arena.’

Leoff stared blankly at him. Vas put his hands up ‘Don’t worry I won’t tell! But I am curious as to why you want to risk your life in the arena?’

Leoff groaned, the one and only curious Clodd in the world and he had to meet him, of all the luck.


Vaz settled himself to be more comfy once they had brought another round.

‘When I was young we lived in Riften its high in the Nheimian highlands, so we were over on a clear night you could sometimes even see the red lights of your mining towns’ Leoff's voice faded out, his eyes blank as he retreeted in to some private memory.

‘So what happed?’

Leoff startled at Vas's voice, like one poked. ‘My mother was killed bandits apparently robbing the house, when I was only a babe in arms, and if there was any money in the family I didn’t see any of it like I said. My father came back after he had taken me and my sister in to town to find the house ransacked and nowt but the body of my Mother. No one in the place would say what had happened to them, even though my father tried to beet it out of a few people they were all to scared or embarrassed to say.’

‘ And so I left with my father to travel with him, He hired out as a trained swords man. We roamed about just about everywhere in the empire and a few places beyond. My father he..... he never wanted to come back to Nheim. In the end he was hired by a noble on the border because my father came from Nheim he would know the people. He was promoted quickly and he made alot of money, and we lived there for two years. Then he was killed. My sister she found me, she had been living with our younger uncle from Highrock the captial of Nheim she came and got me and we left…’

‘I thought you said she was living with her family why didn’t you go back with her?’

‘Aye. But she.., well she had ran away.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know, she never really said, and I never asked.’

‘She sounds brave.’

Leoff realized that Vas expected him to go on. ‘She is brave, our father’s family were well known inquisitors, it was tradition or something and she was some kind of Protégé, but she didn’t much like it she gave it up when we left. She’s dam clever too Daen had been working for a healer. But with me there she had to move out of the guild house and rent a property for us to live in, so as well as her guild duties she had to work to get money. She did all sorts from going out and making potions from ingredients she collected, and all sorts of other odd jobs she never complained though. By then we had moved here. There was an outbreak of blood plague and Daen working with the sick the whole time caught a nasty case and couldn’t work. So I decided to join the Markmen to keep some money coming in, She was furious with me for leaving school.’

‘A month ago, Daen disappeared. I thought she must have been on guild business she was often away researching herbs and the like, or so I thought. Then Last week I got a message from one of her teachers at the guild asking me to meet her by the statue near the sixth gate that evening that it was about my sister. When I got there it was actually one of her friends from the guild a healer named Jacobi Fausta. one of his colleges was called to the prison, and it seems found her imprisoned in the imperial jail, on the charge of murder and which craft.'

'Jacobi had been Daen's lover,' Leoff said with a scrunched face, 'he had a suspicion that she had been hunted by someone apparently someone had tried to kill her. I asked if he could get her out but he said he couldn’t, though I got the impression it was more he would not then could not. So if I wanted her to live, I needed to pay her fine of four thousand heads myself. I haven’t got that sort of money, so I decided that I could make some quick cash in the arena.’

Vas sat back in his chair ‘Now that’s a grate story!’

‘Well don’t you go singing about it!’

‘Who could be hunting her?’

‘Our family.’

‘By the god’s why?’ Vas stuttered excitedly

‘Shushh! It’s just a theory. But when they said which craft, well lets say Daen didn’t think that mother’s death was bandits, I think that’s the reason she decided to stay with our family was to find out. But she so closed about it all so I’m… Look before you ask no I don’t know anymore about it, wish I did, but I don’t. Could we change the subject?’

The gladiator agreed, as he could practically taste the bitterness of Leoff’s temper. And Vas was not keen to have the crap beaten out of him by an angry Nheimian. He noticed when Leoff got angrier his accent got thicker. They chatted over a few ales and a loaf of bread, with some boar meat talking about the places they knew, and the fights they had fought. Leoff relaxed, and actually was finding the Clodd good company. They walked back somewhat unsteadily after a quite a few more pints of ale. They made it back to the bloudworks, only attracting cursory glances from the watch as they stagerd by.


‘Leoff a word.’ A gruff familiar vice called from across the room. Vas wiped his face comically and tried to make himself seem more sober, he had already been chewed out once by Sarol for been out late at night, getting drunk and not training hard enough once this week, and he had been promised to the lions next time if he was caught. But the grizzled old gladiator didn’t seem to be paying much attention to them; in fact the old man seems a little green about the gills as if he had a shock.

With a slightly trembling hand Sarol handed over a letter to Leoff. ‘It’s for you Leoff. I don’t want this happening again I’m not a clerk and I don’t like when nobles lacks come and threaten me on my own ground.’

Vas was pulled by curiosity but he decided that he had better slip out quietly before his master noticed him. He made a dash for the stairs. Sarol shouted after him ‘Damn well better run, if you end up dead tomorrow that’s your own damn fault for getting lashed!’


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Jac looked at his face in the mirror, a large ugly bruise marred his hansom face.

He touched the shiner gingerly, ‘Nhemian barabrian.’

A smile twisted the healers lips, and his eyes lit with their usual haughty humor. ‘You can tell they are related, his left hook is just like hers.’

Jac had a bad feeling about all this. Jac true to his proud city native nature rarely took any notice of anyone and certainly not some guild associate. But Daen had caught his eye at once and it was not just her obvious good looks. She shone like a becon in the dark. Quickly she had proved herself his equal even as an associate, and that had sacred him. When she entered the collage she became his rival, both sought to out do one another. The guild head had seen this at once, and encouraged them to work closely together, fuelling the rivalry. For a while Jac had thought he hated the Nheimian woman. But she was all he could think about, and one drunken night when it finally boiled over an argument turned in to a kiss.


He lay back on his bed. He didn’t really blame Daen’s brother for hitting him. Truth be told he wanted to hit himself, he never should have dug in to her past it just met that they could find her. All week he had been agonizing over the decision. But an order from the guild head was absolute. And the guild head had told Jac on no uncertain terms not to get involved anymore. ‘Allegations of witch craft are to be taken very seriously, only nobles are allowed to sanction the use of certain magic’s.’

One month since he had seen her smile, two months since she was in his arms. three months since she had left him, and it all seemed like only yesterday. Daen.


‘Jac?’ a familiar voice called. He opened one eye and looked sideways. Standing by his bedside was the object of his thoughts. How she managed to sneak up on him like that always surprised him.

Sitting up hastily he gaped at her. ‘Daen, you were released!?’

She cocked her head, ‘Well kind of. I need some help I have to leave this place but I need some things first I was wondering if you could help?’

He stood up now, a good head and shoulders above her. ‘Why are you leaving? You haven’t been thrown out of the guild have you? I’m sure if you just talked to the guild master he would…’

‘Oh no, I haven’t been thrown out.’

‘Then why are you leaving?’

‘I’m not leaving for long, I hope. But I have to get away for a while, and I don’t know when I will be back exactly.’

‘I was scared for you.’ The mage admitted and drew the small women in to a hug. ‘ And now I expect your going in to more danger.’

She laughed, ‘I trust my luck.’

He nussled her hair, inhaling its sweet sent. ‘Oh I trust your luck, but it’s your intelligence I question sometimes.’

‘Hay!’ she slapped his chest playfully grinning up at him. Her small hand reached up to touch the ugly bruise. ‘You could heal that yourself.’

‘I know, I just felt as though I deserved it.’

‘No one deserves to be punched by my brother.’ Jac couldn’t look away from her, and with the smooth grace of one, who has kissed another as many times as he had kissed her he kissed her in a warm open mouthed kiss. Faint warmth spread over his cheekbone as she cast a small healing spell mumbling it against his lips.

‘There all gone.’ She smiled drawing back from the kiss.

‘Why did I let you go?’ he sighed.

‘You didn’t, I left you remember.’

His lips clamed hers once again. She made a brief attempt at protest her hand pushing at his chest. ‘I have to go, I have to get away from hear as quickly as possible else he will find me…..’

‘Just this last kiss…’ he murmured hoarsely.

‘It’s always just one last kiss..’

He silenced her once again with his lips, and all her resistance stopped, as his hand that had been resting on her hip now slipped over the tight leather of her leggings to rub none to gently over her sex.

With his height and weight it was easy to gently force her back on to the bed. Quickly he covered her body with his own, laying between her spread legs.

It was much like his first time with her, a release of pent up emotions. It was rough, passionate, and over all too quickly. Jac had a grate many skills as a lover, but right now he simply wanted her. And he knew that she would not hang around long is the spell of lust was even lessened for a second. He needed to keep her mindless. For a second as there mouths met once again he toyed with the idea of tying her up, so he could take is time.

Daen was now bucking her hips up, her groin rubbing against his. Jac held in a hiss. And rocked back to kneel over her. Swiftly he divested himself of his robe. He looked down at her. Daen’s ponytail was coming lose and her mahogany hair spilled messily across the pillow, her lips were kiss swollen, and parted as she panted for breath. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips as she watched him undress.

‘You look really slutty right now.’ He snickered looking down haughtily at her. But he couldn’t help the smug smile on his face, his masculine pride been stroked by her reaction to his body. Not that he was ever unaware of the fact that his body was a golden and toned perfection.

Watching with hooded eyes his nimble fingers divested her of her laced top. And then standing he swiftly divested her of her leather leggings that clung to her like a second skin. ‘Robe’s are easier to get you out of.’ He commented.

Now she only had her underwear on. Jac never wore underwear, finding it refreshing to feel a breeze in his never regions occasionally. He resumed his place above her. He rand his hands up to grasp her breasts, pulling her corset down to reveal her dusky nipples. ‘Strawberries and cream.’ He mused and began to rub his thumbs in slow circles around them.

Daen’s desire had sprung mainly from a simple wish to feel alive after the events of the last few days, but even in Jac’s arms she couldn’t forget. The haunting image of lord Darcia filled her mind; his voice still rang in her ears. Even in her own mind she could not escape him. And right now Jac's touch felt all wrong.

‘I cant.’

‘Daen?’ Jac looked down at her confused.

‘I can’t do this Jac. I’m sorry.’ Daen said with absolute certainty and seriousness. Jac let her push him off. Too soon she was up and pulling on her carelessly discarded clothing. Jac watched with hurt in his eyes. Too soon she was ready to go she looked over at her old lover hopelessly ‘It was a mistake coming here if I stay I put you in danger.’

‘Danger from who, your family?’ Jac asked, he felt a surge boyish emotion deep in his chest. ‘Tell me Daen, then I can protect you from who ever it is my family have connections.’

Daen wanted to laugh but she couldn’t not with Jac looking so honest and earnest like a boys in their first flings of calf love. She sighed. ‘My family, but they aren’t the ones I’m worried about right now. Right now… Jac a noble was the one who paid to get me out of jail.’

‘A noble? Which one?’

‘Lord Darcia.’

‘By the god’s what could he want with you?’

‘I don’t know and I don’t want to find to either that’s why I’m leaving right now.’

‘But where will you go?’

Daen paused for a monment in the door way her eyes far away. ‘I don’t know yet, not west, not east either I guess I go up, lose my self in the Hy-b-dry for a while, may be I could go south to Sidana, I hear that they are always looking for people to pick the silk. Perhaps i will even get on a ship just see where the wind takes me.’

‘I will come with you.’

This time Daen did laugh. ‘Good bye Jac.’

‘Do I get a last kiss?’

She smiled, ‘No, not this time.’

And with that she walked away. He watched her retreating figure from his window. ‘You worst habit Dean, was always running off were no one could follow you.’ He said to no one in particular.


a/n; Thank you for the review ashesxxx2xxxashes I’m glad your enjoying the story so far!