Devastation

[Ran Azshmatha]

"Aren't the battlemages. . ." Ran frowned, realizing how little he knew of Marn. All he really knew was what Saruna had told him. The way Kori was talking, it made him nervous. But she had saved his life. If that didn't count for something, what did?

"Do you mean. . .now? Aren't you going to . . .how will you manage that?"

He knew Kori was serious. One look at the other man proved how serious he was. But matters had gone suddenly and sharply from Ran thinking Kori might kill himself or Ran to attacking the city itself. And Ran had been in enough cities to know what happened to those who tried to pull down the ones at the top without enough support. And Marn, with its oppressive rules and powerful, near military guard?

Ran cleared his throat at the tail end of his words, and tried, that time, to ask the right question. "How can I help?"

[KoriStronghammer]

The barbarian rolled his eyes as he started to grab things.

"No, not now. I have to prepare. Have to make a plan. Have to see if anyone else is going to help me. Saruna... I don't know how much she's into it." He grabbed a long knife and shoved it through his belt. Weapons, weapons, armour, something. He knew that his hammer axe and bear pelt were still under the rock. He would need to get those. Some chainmail. Throw a brigandine over top that for arrows. "She wants a revolution. But I don't know if she'll kill for it, or what'd stay her hand. The streets are gonna run red before it's all said and done. Whether she plans for that or not."

Kori shrugged as he grabbed a few more knick knacks and shoved them into his pack. "If you can't slit a throat without flinching, you're not for my side of this. Saruna's better for you."

[Ran Azshmatha]

"You're going to go out into the street with all of that?" Ran tried not to sound as doubtful as he felt. He crossed his arms as he watched Kori move, the indecisiveness burbling out from nowhere.

"You planning on making the streets run red today?"

[KoriStronghammer]

Kori blinked, turning around and looking at the person he had completely forgotten about. "Yes. I fully intend to assault the jail with no support, no plans, and nothing but sheer brawn. Hopefully, I'll make it about five steps before I'm cut down and killed." He grabbed a hunk of jerked meat, shoving it into his belt pouch. "That was sarcasm by the way. Just in case you didn't catch it." Changers above. Some people were foolish. But then again, they couldn't know what he was thinking, so there could be very good reasons to think he was going to foolishly attack today.

"I don't intend on coming back here. So, I go to the city. Stay at a friends. Plan attacks from there. My life here, in Shim? It's over. Peace was never an option for a man like me. I have work to do."

[Ran Azshmatha]

Ran eyed Kori, and shook his head in frustration. "You're a known criminal and you're going to go wandering the streets armed and armored? You're -- " he stopped and took a breath. No, he was not interested in pissing off this bear of a man, and he wasn't looking for a fight. He considered his words for a moment, and then continued. "A lot has happened to you. If you're not planning to attack today, stop and think. How will you last long enough to do what you want to do? By laying low. This -- " he grimaced and rubbed his chin.

"Let me help you get this into the city. You go in as. . .as. . ." he looked around the shop and settled on the forge, "a blacksmith looking to purchase raw materials. Saruna has a handcart if you don't. Meanwhile I'll come behind you with another. We'll have to disguise it, but we can put your gear in the bottom. Then we can meet up somewhere inside. After that, I don't know but -- well, I owe Saruna. I told her I'd help. I can't let you get yourself killed or arrested again when I offered to help you."

[KoriStronghammer]

Kori sighed, desperately wanting to thunk his head against a beam. Okay, he was big. He looked stupid, yes. He had not always done the smartest things in the world. That was also true. But that didn't mean he was a child. He wasn't entirely stupid. You're going to assault the city. Try to force violent rebellion while severely outnumbered and out powered, and with very little chance of getting anyone to come to your cause. You are stupid. He waved a hand absent mindedly, like you would at a fly. He hated his own thoughts sometimes, the ones that told him he was going to fail. It was annoying. Maybe if he hadn't failed so much since coming to this place, it wouldn't be so bad.


"I'm not an idiot. Well... I am, but not always. I'm just gathering things. This is the easiest way for me to carry them for the time being until I get a cart." He sniffed and glared at the man. "And as far as the city is concerned, I'm working for them, which is why I have to move now, before they find out I'm not."

He had a plan. Why was this ant of a man doubting him? He was just constantly assuming that Kori was going to run in, axe swinging and roaring, and that wasn't what was going to happen. At least not today.

"You could always ask to hear my plan, instead of acting like you don't think I have one."

[Ran Azshmatha]

Ran stared at Kori, a mix of frustration and confusion dancing through him. "Not so long ago I thought you might kill yourself or me. If I might be blunt, you rather appear as if you're. . ." he gestured vaguely.

He still wasn't convinced Kori wasn't going to kill himself or Ran.

". . .not thinking straight. Reacting rather than thinking things through."

He could have said more, but he decided that, maybe, erring on the side of brevity was a better course of action.

[KoriStronghammer]

Kori snorted, staring at the little man. "Because life is reaction. Not thinking things through." He grabbed his packs and brushed by Ran, dumping his things into his cart. "You know what happens to plans little man? The first chance they have, they go wrong. You have to be able to think and move on your feet. Planning is like battle. Give a block for a thrust, thrust around their block. You can't follow a plan."

He stretched, listening to his back pop. He was running on little sleep, pain, and a fire and oil plan. But that was the best way to do it, as far as he was concerned. Run fast, run hard, and take the objective. "I'm going in tonight. You can help, or you can't."

[Ran Azshmatha]

"I can help," Ran said, stung past his caution into making a stronger assertion, "if you'll let me. Look, maybe you think that you can get by on what you know and do just fine but from what you've said, you're not from any place like this. I've seen enough to know that you're on the same road to being locked up again. You like that idea? I figure you don't.

"Now, I told Saruna I'd talk to you, and I owe her. So either you let me help you work this through or you're right, I won't be able to help you because you won't let me."

Ran was afraid. He had every right to be afraid. He'd been at death's door not so long ago, and now he was trying to make deals with rebels and murderers in a city that wasn't so keen on either, with a proven reputation about taking care of those kinds of troublemakers. He didn't know what he was doing, and he wasn't so sure it was the right thing. Aie, the whole world had gone crazy, snuffed out in the faces of men and women he'd known and come to respect. After years of being collared, of following orders, he was finally free to make his own choices and ride them to their conclusion. This was what he was chosen. He had to have gone sun mad.

Still, afraid or not, he was not a stupid man, nor was he one who blithely gave his word to all and sundry. He had made his choice. He would stick with it.

[KoriStronghammer]

Kori looked at the man, studying him before saying anything. Not much, but then again, this world didn't take much. All he had learned from his time here was that this world wasn't the kind he came from, a world of strength and steel, it was a land of what you could do with your mind and your funds. A quick tongue worked far better than a quick blade, and he could use that. But was it going to be worth it in the end? If he was chasing death, and some small corner of his brain knew that's all he was doing here, was trying to do one last act of defiance before he made them kill him, was it going to be worth it to drag someone else into it?

"You know that I cannot guarantee your safety?"

[Ran Azshmatha]

"Yes." One word, a world of stubbornness behind it.

[KoriStronghammer]

"Don't try to grow a spine because you feel offended." Kori searched the other man's eyes, looking for weakness he felt he would find there. He had seen enough of that in his time. Men that felt they were being called a coward, that their honour was in question, so they stiffened up with what little steel they had in their bodies. But it was steel just like them, weak and brittle. Prone to breaking and snapping. "Because if that's all you have invested, it's not going to get you through it. Know that too, boy."

[Ran Azshmatha]

Ran avoided Kori's eyes. "Aren't you trying to scare me away? Saruna did the same thing. I told her the same thing."

He clenched his teeth. "Boy" was a common insult. He'd endured worse. Much, much worse.

[KoriStronghammer]

"If I was trying to scare you, I would have a knife in my hand." Kori stated it matter of factly. Words didn't scare people. If they did, they were lying. But a blade, that drobe threats home. That scared people. That kept people in line. The man was avoiding his eyes, and that Kori did not like.

"Look at me."

[Ran Azshmatha]

Ran did so, but he used a rather common trick: he looked at the bridge of Kori's nose. It was all but impossible to tell the difference, he knew that from experience. He wanted to retort. He wanted to call the bigger man out on his intimidation tactics. Kori was trying to drive him off. How long did Ran have to keep trying? Saruna certainly didn't want him to push to the point of his own death, and Ran didn't fancy getting himself killed. He'd come a long way to freedom, and like a long abused horse, he wasn't about to let himself be steered to doom when he'd gotten the bit in his teeth.

He waited, silent.