Sennight.

<Arriving at a serene apartment, surrounded by the myriad green of plants and shadow. Plainer colors, earthy in nature and beyond, blanketed the room; a place of quiet not many visited>

Nathaniel Salem closes behind Lawrence, removing his mantle. He lazily discards it on the nearby sofa, and moves to the backroom.

Lawrence Fathi unlatches a couple of large satchels from his person, pushing them aside with a heel near the door. "Whooaha... What a serene place you've got here!" The man quipped, walking around the lowlit chamber, "So much room..." He mumbles to himself, eyes gravitating to the kitchen.

Nathaniel Salem: "I'm surprised you've never seen the place. I imagine you never really needed to with the Respite and the Flare... Or the Maelstrom's Barracks, for the matter.
Nathaniel Salem: "I've had the place since," he pauses. "The Calamity."

Lawrence Fathi snaps out of the reverie, glancing over his shoulder. "That long? I'm more surprised I've not heard of it." Lawrence chuckles, "Do you receive many guests here? It's so spacious."
Lawrence Fathi: "I've been more than comfortable with ship cabins and closets... I can't even imagine how I'd decorate with all of this room. It reminds me of the Lotus! Only... quieter."

Nathaniel Salem: "No, I don't." He leans against the flight of stairs, voice hardly laced with any emotion or feeling other than fatigue. A hands rest on a step, and the other rubs the bridge of his nose, as he looks elsewhere. "At least, I didn't until recently. I've taken some dust off. Violaine recovered some here, and I hosted Maril some days prior. They're both gone, though."
Nathaniel Salem: "...Nobody comes here." More quietly, as he lowers his hand to look to Lawrence proper.
Nathaniel Salem: "There should be something to drink down there. Help yourself." He grabs a black box by the clutter to his left, and goes to sit on the stairs, to toy with the hinges. Open, closed. Open, closed.

Lawrence Fathi studies his other, curious. A smile forms not long after his explanation, "A respite then. Thank you for showing it to me, cousin—I know I've been gone some time."
Nathaniel Salem snaps the box shut.
Lawrence Fathi moves at the offer, "Adventuring work is rougher than the licensed stuff." He looks up at the sound, but doesn't flinch.
Lawrence Fathi: "Is everything alright, Nathaniel? I—well... I didn't want to point it out while we were about, but..."

Nathaniel Salem pauses. He doesn't humor him right away. "...Have you been doing hunts on Vylbrand?"

Lawrence Fathi blinks, nostrils flaring with a hard exhale. He laughs, gentle. "To a degree. There's been a slew of beasts to tame and conquer there and islands more uncharted."
Lawrence Fathi: "But..."

Nathaniel Salem looks to him, sharp.

Lawrence Fathi glances to the counter top, his hands having absentmindedly prepared plates. Instinct leading him to the cupboard, "I've been on the archipelago. I requested small leave from the Maelstrom, as a representative of the centurio—not unrelated to that notion of hunts in technicality."
Lawrence Fathi: "Simply, that it allowed more freedom to operate as an adventurer in uncharted land. Though my pay is on commission, which is rough."
Lawrence Fathi begins chopping something with a knife. Soft careful thumps, aware of the tense air surrounding Nathaniel's gaze. Perhaps for lack of wanting to disturb it while speaking.

Nathaniel Salem toys with the puzzle box, mixing signs and symbols. Anything else is better than to look to Lawrence, for now. "Who are you fighting for, presently?"

Lawrence Fathi: "As a dog or as a man?" He says, the first words suggesting a deeper bitterness, not directed at his cousin. The question itself seemed earnest in spite of this.
Lawrence Fathi leans beneath the counter, opening a cupboard. "No walnut bread..." He whispers to himself.

Nathaniel Salem strengthen his grip around the item, nails digging into the wood.
Nathaniel Salem: "I care about where you stand, Lawrence of the Ahsan."
Nathaniel Salem: "I'd loathe to face you in the coming weeks."

Lawrence Fathi: "...There have been many that have questioned without care of late, cousin... many who don't see me when they look." It comes out tired, "I'm sorry if it's frustrating." Lawrence glances over for a moment, "At the moment I stand with the Will. Despite Sue's present... demeanor, I have pulling my weight to make sure the others have somebody to look to when she..."
Lawrence Fathi returns to the knife, "Meets her expiration date."

Nathaniel Salem: "The Townsend Captain heard my last warning. To think /you/ wouldn't know what is coming is complete idiocy."

Lawrence Fathi: "I brought my stuff here because I'm well aware of what's coming, cousin."

Nathaniel Salem: "...Sue's no more than a dead body. No matter how real the memories are, this farce has gone too long."

Lawrence Fathi slows in his preparation, looking up at the spices. His brows knit, "...that's been haunting me for some time now."
Lawrence Fathi: "Not Sue herself, I knew well that she is but a memory. Moreso..."
Lawrence Fathi: "Her words did not satisfy me, when she told me her story. Your knowledge. Why did you spare her to come at all?"

Nathaniel Salem: "Power."
Nathaniel Salem: "Divine power."
Nathaniel Salem: "As Azeyma inhabited her. Misfortune through necromancy, the result being a brilliant soul and a leader of men. I told
her to kill the Black Captain in her prime."
Nathaniel Salem: "She failed."
Nathaniel Salem: "And now she decays, her aether understanding that without glory, she's nothing but a husk."

Lawrence Fathi looks over, brows lifting. Though confusion set on his countenance more than surprise. "...divine power?" He repeats as Nathaniel goes on.
Lawrence Fathi: "...When she told me of meeting with you, your estimates for her life and the like—I couldn't stop thinking that it was unlike my cousin to not execute her on the first false breath she took. Especially with your... your apparent history, with the woman."
Lawrence Fathi: "As an adventurer, I think."

Nathaniel Salem has his head tilted back, rested against a step. Golden irises look to Lawrence in the dimlight. "...I believe everything comes with a reason, Lawrence. Fate turns, and we turn with it, at the mercy of Nymeia's wheel and the gaze of eleven other kings and queens in the heavens."

Nathaniel Salem: "The Salemites worship the Golden Fan when the sun sets. She spoke, and I believed her. But Thal had other plans."
Nathaniel Salem: "Perhaps there is a plane where Sue succeeded and ascended. But now, I just see an ashkin."
Nathaniel Salem: "I thought her a divine machination. And she was."
Nathaniel Salem: "But for no longer than a turn."
Nathaniel Salem: "The Black Captain is responsible for the resurrection. He must die."
Nathaniel Salem: "And he will."

Nathaniel Salem rises, discarding the puzzle box on his way back.

Lawrence Fathi frowns lightly, the response satisfying him. He looks back down to the counter, "....." Lips part and shut. Lawrence tucks away the knife and lifts a plate, walking over and presenting finger sandwiches to the man—despite the earlier evening. "I've developed a habit for cooking when I'm nervous in recent moons. The aether triggers haven't come back... but I've developed panic attacks in secret. I've stifled them well, away from the others."
Lawrence Fathi watches the man turn, though holds his own ground in waiting.
Lawrence Fathi: "Have I ever discussed with you my life before Helen found me as a relative? The... youth, rather. Not my courier and miscellaneous duties."
Lawrence Fathi: "Between the Coils and now."

Nathaniel Salem barely turns to look to Lawrence initially, hunched, slow. Tense, his aura tangible. A calm before the storm suppressed in the face of Lawrence's kindness, and words. He turns.
Nathaniel Salem looks at him, pained.
Nathaniel Salem: "...You've not." He takes a piece, but it seems to be in an attempt at reaching out.
Nathaniel Salem: "...Not enough."

Lawrence Fathi meets Nathaniel's gaze with a smile. Weary and tired, a confidence that had grown in their absence—one that doesn't speak of doubt or stifled fear of the man or what he was capable of. He moves over to the stairs after the offering.
Lawrence Fathi: "It took me some years to get approved to be trained formally in the Coral Tower, but your Townsend—well, Sue... had other ideas, perhaps pity on me as a child. I cannot tell very well anymore, with the present ashkin we know. She taught me whenever she had the chance in spare time."
Lawrence Fathi: "I've thought to myself that there might've been many times where as a youth, I could've met you earlier, with the history I found out... albeit briefly told."
Lawrence Fathi: "I was taught alongside others."

Nathaniel Salem licks a thumb and passes by it by the corner of his mouth, hands now empty. He looks elsewhere, but appears attentive, an elbow on Lawrence's step.

Lawrence Fathi cants his head back, looking elsewhere in the apartment. Gaze tracing the flickering of shadows and dim light pouring over plants, "The pirate was also a youth under their care at some time... the more I remember, the more I realized that vile woman's estate was in a way, my own history. The Archipelago's history."
Lawrence Fathi: "...the one I grew up in, before I got to meet you. Before I relived the Golden Coils, with you and auntie."
Lawrence Fathi: "...Sue was my hero because they saved me from the wreckage of that slaver's ship. But there is more that makes me care for that jungle mess floating in the ocean. The thought of seeing it buried has kept me there."

Nathaniel Salem closes his eyes, chin resting on his forearm, still on that same step. His head turns this way and that, and he reopens his eyes, very slowly. "...I understand, Lawrence. I do."
Nathaniel Salem: "And I also think you know it changes nothing to what is about to unfold," his eyes dart to him, sharper than before. "...You've been more than loyal. In ways men do not even deserve."
Nathaniel Salem: "Perhaps the divine was in you."

Lawrence Fathi: "I'm familiar with what you mean to do there in the coming weeks, you know. It's something I would've thought had come moons prior."
Lawrence Fathi smiles weakly, "The greater hunter in me would've wanted it sooner, I think."

Nathaniel Salem frowns to look elsewhere at that.
Nathaniel Salem: "I couldn't do it any sooner, and you know it. Otherwise..."

Lawrence Fathi: "...the memories brought out others in me. I've put up with a lot in your absence. I think it's made me grow, but all I can recount is that I've cried a lot on my lonesome."
Lawrence Fathi: "I stay because I believe it's necessary that I save the leftover living from a lawful reckoning."

Nathaniel Salem keeps his eyes shut at that, and promptly places his face in his hand, bangs unruly. "I'm sorry."
Lawrence Fathi shakes his head quietly, "It's okay."
Nathaniel Salem just repeats himself, forehead lowered to the step.

Lawrence Fathi: "Sue has abandoned her own ideals for the base instincts inside her. I believe her living nature as a construct is being influenced. Her death should come, truly."
Lawrence Fathi: "...I've loyally kept to her crew's goals by working in earnest for the people she means to harm unknowingly."
Lawrence Fathi: "I believe what's within would approve of it... and beyond that, I've a duty to not let brigands win."

Nathaniel Salem stays low as his hands form fists. "You're mine to lose, Lawrence. Whether you like it or not. From the first day you came as Ahsan."
Nathaniel Salem lifts his head, just a touch. "Their stubbornness will be their end. Had Ashkanda been handled better..."

Lawrence Fathi: "...You worry for the purge of those unlicensed members on the isle, aye? The rabble I'd be considered a part of, if I do not leave sooner. You would have to stare me in the eye as it happens."

Nathaniel Salem looks up, but not to Lawrence. Through the wall, to something else; eyes wide open, something mad in his stare. "...I worry for no one other than you, as we speak."

Lawrence Fathi: "...I've done more than just lift my bags off the ship." He laughs lightly, brows knit at the expression but saying nothing of it.

Nathaniel Salem side-eyes the younger man, tense. "I'll burn the whole fucking place for making me feel concern in the first place."
Nathaniel Salem seems to have not heard whatever Lawrence said before, nearly talking over him.

Lawrence Fathi blinks, then looks away at that. A smile on his features, though his gaze lingered on plants. "...it's for my love of you and knowing what you must do, that I've been harder on my own duties. Stronger and more active."
Lawrence Fathi: "I'm sorry I did not contact sooner... after what happened with Ashkanda, I could not face you more often than our dates to the Lotus, out of grief."

Nathaniel Salem moves away from him, gait slow, not as dignified as before. Hunched again, as he thinks, or processes thoughts he has no control over.

Lawrence Fathi: "That I let that happen to you and was not there to prevent it in any capacity, I could not let you worry enough to come back to this isle... that I would end this final phase sooner. But..."
Lawrence Fathi: "Well, being fast is still new to me, outside of beheading the damned properly at Highbridge."
Lawrence Fathi rubs his neck.
Lawrence Fathi: "...and I've no control on your worries." He says quietly.

Nathaniel Salem seems to regain some manner of composure, but it feels more like a beast wearing the body of a man, for a moment. He straightens his back with some difficulty, as if he forgot how to appear noble for a time. "No. You do not. As I've no control over yours."
Nathaniel Salem: "Thankfully, some other things are not out of my reach," he turns to him. "Ashkanda was a miscalculation. One that will /never/ happen again."
Nathaniel Salem: "You've no apologies to offer me. Contact or not; you're your own man, Lawrence. Have always been."
Nathaniel Salem: "I know what binds us. It transcends time."

Lawrence Fathi: "...my apologies are from a place of love, cousin. They aren't obligation, you know. You've protected me before."
Lawrence Fathi: "I simply wished to strive harder, to return the favor by sparing you and your return to this awful island."

Nathaniel Salem: "To strive harder?!" He turns and gestures angrily, a fist kept at his side with a tense arm. ...Like stopping right before considering a hit.
Nathaniel Salem: "You've outdone yourself, and you think about doing more, still! Do you think you can carry twenty years of hatred and hundreds of lives on your back, all by yourself?!"
Nathaniel Salem: "I've been waiting for this moment. As awful as it is, it is something I /want/. I won't listen to you say you didn't do enough."

Lawrence Fathi doesn't flinch, eyes traveling tiredly to Nathaniel's hands. "...Your aether has grown at such a level, that I can barely feel that you exist with how well you conceal yourself." He smiles on reflex, lacking feeling, his gaze low. "Our blood transcends bonds and time."
Lawrence Fathi: "The shadow that gives off the light in your eyes is all that I can do to tell... to get the feeling that I need to carry mountains."
Lawrence Fathi: "Carry islands, so that I can stand beside you, cousin. I already carry over a decade of our brothers and sisters who drowned in that ocean when I did not."
Lawrence Fathi: "...It doesn't compare to you, who says my light greater and will be greater. I'm an ember wanting to be a torch on a sconce beside you."

Nathaniel Salem blows air through his nose and his chest heaves, Lawrence's initial remark keeping him still. But he frowns, and keeps his ground, as if he could not afford to be softened.
Nathaniel Salem: "...Is this how you truly feel?"

Lawrence Fathi: "It isn't that when you fell, I was pained by my absence. The grief in my heart is that, were I there—I could do nothing more than be obliterated as the man I was. That I knew I'd provide nothing but support morally in strength."
Lawrence Fathi: "I'd have been like the men that joined you, who now rest among Thal's gates. These islands... what you want. I've pushed my limits because I need to break them if I want a chance to stand at your side."
Lawrence Fathi: "Because I grow sick of watching you suffer alone when others are afraid."

Nathaniel Salem steps in front of him.
Lawrence Fathi returns to his gaze to Nathaniel's face.

Nathaniel Salem: "...If only you knew how I feel when you stand next to me, Lawrence. This can only come with stories. ...You carry the souls of those who sunk and I,"
Nathaniel Salem: "...Carry the souls of those who've burned."
Lawrence Fathi: "...Salem..." It comes quietly, familiar but cautious.
Nathaniel Salem: "...I no longer suffer. Not anymore, no longer. Not in the way I used to. It is productive pain. The one that teaches."

Nathaniel Salem: "I need you with me, Lawrence. Now more than ever."
Nathaniel Salem: "And I need you as you are. There shouldn't be any limits to break, nor any trials to pass."
Nathaniel Salem: "...My flesh, my Lawrence. The one who believes when no one else can. I need you."
Nathaniel Salem: "I /need/ this faith."
Nathaniel Salem: "...It's all I need. It's all I ever needed. It needs not be proved by taking arms."
Nathaniel Salem: "...It needs not be proved by dying."
Nathaniel Salem: "In spirit and in body."

Lawrence Fathi nearly flinches at the final words, eyes shimmer with the nearby light. Honest tears threaten to fall, "...then I need to prepare these islands for you, Nathaniel. If we are to march side by side, I want it to be with my hands stretched out in offering of this."
Lawrence Fathi: "The legacy that is buried there, I share. It is a chapter I must help close, before the ashkin guarding it are absolved of those duties. I won't let myself be buried with it."

Nathaniel Salem: "...And I will be there for you as you are for me." He extends an arm to him, confident.
Nathaniel Salem: "We walk as brothers. As equals. As the descendant of Ahsan the Great; he who best a thousand man with a single sword..."
Nathaniel Salem: "...I close this chapter with you."

Lawrence Fathi reached out and took it, a sleeve meeting his own face as he fought his emotions.  "Together."

Nathaniel Salem: "...Together." He secures his hand, and reaches with his own free arm to bring closer, to hold the man in a tight embrace.
Nathaniel Salem holds tighter than needed, in an attempt at keeping Lawrence anchored in the present.

Lawrence Fathi hugs Nathaniel close, face burying into the man's shirt. His shoulders heave with the silent suggestion of sobs, the limit of his own composure—which kept its thread in mutual silence for the moment. His own arms grow tighter around him. "I love you." He mutters.
Lawrence Fathi: "...the worst of those isles is that it's been devoid of that... filled with only fear and paranoia... everyone at eachother's throats..."

Nathaniel Salem keeps him for as long as needed, on the verge of rocking him. "...We are looking at evil, Lawrence. Evil for evil's sake. Even a demon does nothing but fulfilling its purpose, as foul as it may be."
Nathaniel Salem: "Galante of the Townsend has pushed malice beyond mortal limits, without any external influence."
Nathaniel Salem puts both hands on his shoulder breaks away, looking into his eyes, focused. He gives them a squeeze, and nods firmly. "...This is what I was made for."
Nathaniel Salem: "And it applies to you."

Lawrence Fathi sniffs, eyes dry enough in time for the separation. "The only thing I've grown tired of is carrying the weight of everyone's anger and confusion..." He smiles at the other hyur, "But many have needed my defiance to it, or they would consume one another in madness. Seeing friends strip the humanity from friends..."
Lawrence Fathi: "The Townsend's matron was truly wicked, to have such a rooted legacy."

Lawrence Fathi: "People no longer know the difference between care and loyalty. I pray we bring about the end soon."
Nathaniel Salem: "...We will. A sennight from now, not a sun more."
Lawrence Fathi nods quietly in agreement.

Nathaniel Salem: "...This legacy was made in her own generation. Hardly a legacy; more of a chef-d'oeuvre laid to contemplate as it burns our eyes and our very souls."
Nathaniel Salem: "I've seen such horrors before. I've grown resistant to them, but I know those are things common men should never be exposed to. Unfortunately for us, it is common men she is looking to make an example of."
Nathaniel Salem: "Common men who served her, common men who made her, common men who destroyed her."
Nathaniel Salem: "...I know myself different. But I'm comforted in knowing that folly has depths I've yet to consider or even conceive."

Lawrence Fathi lets out air, "She has done well of that. Even the thought of her is enough to send other people's crews to opposite sides in search of... I don't even really know, something greater. Consistency, to combat such fear. To rationalize."
Lawrence Fathi looks past him to the bags near the door, contemplative. ""I can't stay for many suns, this break I fear is just to get my things off the ship before it sinks. It pains me."
Lawrence Fathi: "If I'm gone too long... things will undo itself. People I didn't think would are depending on me, too."

Nathaniel Salem: "Do not stay longer than you have to, then. I know what you're doing, and I know what you will accomplish. But still, now, you need rest. Clearer purposes can only be found with a clear mind."
Nathaniel Salem moves to the stool, putting gloves and mantle back on.

Lawrence Fathi finally lets out a low laugh at that, "Rest..." He repeats, relishing the word. "I think I do."
Lawrence Fathi: "Will you not be lingering?" He says, watching the man turn.

Nathaniel Salem pauses as he adjusts a strap on his glove, looking up, but not to Lawrence.
Nathaniel Salem: "...I can't sleep here too many nights."
Nathaniel Salem: "I'm going to the Lotus myself."
Nathaniel Salem: "...I need to hit on something."

Lawrence Fathi blinks at that, though only turns to observe the place greater.
Lawrence Fathi: "I'll be here then, should you visit. I'll leave a note if I'm to go."
Lawrence Fathi: "You're lacking walnut bread. I had to make do with some knight's bread in your cupboard. Hopefully it wasn't stale."

Nathaniel Salem takes the key out of his coat and puts it on the counter, as well as a small purse.
Nathaniel Salem: "Just buy whatever you need yourself."

Lawrence Fathi chuckles.
Nathaniel Salem leaves without any other word.

Lawrence Fathi: "Be safe out th—Yea."
Lawrence Fathi exhales, looking around. "I wonder what this place has seen..." They whisper.