Northstar Vale aranea

for @Arsenio, backdated to 12.28 <3

he marched with the greek man where he was led.

the vale was beautiful but of course they had not cut aside to discuss the loveliness of arsenio's home.

his eyes were quiet but resolute and he waited to hear the words of the arche.

You have been well? 

The redstone wolf’s voice was rough on the air. It had been a long time since he had last spoken with the Roman. It felt strange that their friendship had arrived at a sudden halt, a disagreement. 

Arsenio had not wished to chase a war. Now, he was not certain they would escape one with the Pharaoh. He knew of Epoch, now. He was not the type of man that the Arche believed would let them live in peace.

"we have been well. i am settling into marriage. fennec is good for me and for mereo. we are reshaping things."

now his yellowpaint eyes rested quietly on the man. arsenio had not brought him here to bandy idle words. the imperator waited to hear the truth.

What Germanicus shared was surprising to the Arche. He did nothing to conceal the disapproval that had found his features. Glacial eyes pierced through the other man.

It was all business with the Roman. Wives, women, outposts – Arsenio could not help but wonder if there was an ounce of genuine heart in Mereo’s Imperator. Once, he had believed so. When they had raced through the canyon together and had found a bond in each other, he had thought the Roman was just like any other unfortunate soldier. To hear that he had married a different woman, and so soon after Ruenna had gone away… his stomach twisted with disgust.

A thought found its way to Tamar. The mercenary’s heart would always belong to her. There was not another woman on earth that would draw at him the way that she did. His soul belonged to her, entirely. These thoughts were what clouded his head and darkened his expression on the Roman.

Well, I am sure Mereo needs it.

The words were cool, bordering snide. Children ran from Mereo, from their families and the imposing weight of duty that was lofted over their heads. Any change would be for the benefit.

Anyway, enough of that. It was business that bound them, now – nothing more.

It is clear that the Pharaoh knows of our home in the vale, by now. You and I both know how that man seeks beautiful things, beautiful companions. Arsenio thought of Belen, for only a moment. We know his penchant for taking what he wants, as well. Cold blue eyes remained steadfast on the yellowpaint of the other man. If he wishes to take from Epoch- there was a strong pause in his words.

I will kill him. And any who sought to fulfill his desires. It was that subject that clouded Arsenio’s face with intensity.

I know that you had wished to stretch your ties with Akashingo. If you have remained an ally to the Pharaoh and if you seek to march with him…

Pink tongue washed across his whiskers.

I will kill you, too.

germanicus listened with the impassive look of one who had seen war and death.

and still he felt the breaking of things, the shattering of them. arsenio shamed him and posed a threat.

he did not care for the disdain which crossed the greek's face. "i know you think very little of me, arsenio. but i work beyond the eyes of pharaoh now, as i always have."

the men were at an impasse. how could arsenio believe this of him? when germanicus had gone against all conscience to free tamar. 

"if you think ending my life will end your guilt, then let this be the end of it." a hand hard upon the secret between he and the mercenary and the man's pretty wife.

a tactician. 

"there will be continued peace between mereo and epoch. to keep it, i will not return."

I have not always thought so little of you.

A small shrug lowered his shoulders. Arsenio glanced to the right, brows raised in apathy.

I have watched you from the side, though. I have seen how you are just as politically crafty as the Pharaoh is. I have seen you stand firmly in your beliefs, damning the voices around you if you did not agree with them. I have seen you play every role that you must.

It had been different, when they had stood side-by-side. It had been different when Germanicus had felt like a brother and less like a man who might turn on you at any moment. Arsenio had seen him go from Akashingo to Mereo and the wolves that he had tossed aside without care in his wake. All the while, the Imperator marched on, head held stoically above the rabble.

You do not do anything to risk angering even the worst men. You remain the same, detached, stony, immovable mountain of a man who’s greatest strengths are in deals and ranks, but not the heart. Am I to believe that you told the Pharaoh that Mereo is not his outpost, that you will not answer to him? I know it cannot be so.

To claim otherwise was bold and angered Arsenio.

For your soldier Reyson was stationed there, serving his time to the Pharaoh. It is the reason Meadow went to him, no? So, please… drop this cool-faced façade. You and I have both seen each other’s true colors.

A wicked smile turned his lips and scrunched his snout.

But I do not carry guilt for the choice that I made. I will tell you the same thing that I told Tamar. I would trade twenty girls for her life, without question. There is no cost too great. There never would be.

I have seen you slight others. You have slighted me, already. When their word was their bond and Germanicus had not upheld his end of their discussions, what trust was to be given? How could Arsenio put his faith in such a fickle thing?


I do not say these things to you because I wish to fight you. I say these things to you so that you know, without question – if the time comes and you decide to uphold your ties to the Pharaoh, you will have made yourself my enemy. And that is all there is to that.

arsenio spoke at length and germanicus listened, if not for the respect he bore the red wolf.

and arsenio was not so incorrect in all that was said. he seized upon the core of what he felt was being said and when the greek had finished his words the imperator collected his own.

"reyson served of his own accord in akashingo. lady meadow went of her own accord. it was not i, arsenio, who allowed her to go unknowing to that den of sin. and it was not i who led them to your names and to your door. if you will not blame her, i gladly stand in stead, but give me honesty in that regard."

his eyes were harder now. "i do what i do for mereo and for its future. you are willing to deal in flesh to protect epoch. i will deal in tactics."

and he might have shared these manueverings between himself and makono now, had he known that arsenio would see any worth in it. his pride, wounded; why should he move to defend himself against such accusations? let the red wolf think him a pawn while he worked in treason against ramesses with the arrogant man's own heir.

when akashingo was subdued and beneath another hand, arsenio would eat his words.

"if you think i would march with the pharaoh anywhere you have already deemed me an enemy. if you think me too weak to have told the man that mereo no longer serves, we are at odds. i will slough off all those who do not stand with me, yes, arsenio. i will abandon those who do not abide by my tenets. but i hold to them and always have."

he was wounded. "remember that you had peace in mereo. remember that i asked you to come here not as an outpost but as your own people." his yellowpaint eyes did not relent, although there was such a great anguish in germanicus as to almost sicken him.

but to be compared to that arrogant, cruel, and gloating egyptian was the worst curse of all, an epithet leveled at his very soul.

Germanicus answered the only way that he could – with empty words.

He had already broken the trust between them. The things he said, the indignance that stirred beneath the Roman’s stony face, they were empty. Arsenio could take him at his word and apologize for taking his leave from the Pharaoh and the Pharaoh’s pawn’s little games. He could say that he had been mistaken and work to repair the bond that had broken between himself and Germanicus.

But the Roman had lied once, twice, more times than the Arche could count.

Germanicus spoke with words tinged in warning. Remember that I allowed you to settle the vale, was the true message behind what he said. As if Arsenio could not have taken his wife and claimed some other peaceful little hollow in some other mountain. As if Germanicus had been a gracious and benevolent ruler, instead of a man who flipped and flopped to latch onto whatever would give him the least grief.

You are not an enemy, yet, Roman.

Arsenio blinked coldly.

But you are a fool, if you think that my words are unfounded.

The redstone wolf smiled smarmily. He lifted his head high above the Imperator’s. This was Epoch – this was his land.

I cannot trust you. You broke that. You, with your higher thinking and tactical plans… leaving others to wonder about the things you promised and if you ever intended to fulfill your word.

Ah, but it was all in the spirit of the greater good, wasn’t it? That seemed to be what Germanicus was suggesting. Perhaps the Pharaoh’s ego had rubbed off on the Roman.

And now you wish to change Mereo. Only now… that your most trusted soldiers and peons are finding their children fleeing from the great good that you brought to them.

Arsenio snorted.

I think Epoch will do well without Mereo’s kindness. We will be better off.

If it was not the Pharaoh, it would be another, and another. Unless Akashingo was wiped away and removed from their lands, Germanicus would play pawn to every ruler who sat on the throne. And Arsenio wanted nothing more to do with their careless games.

germanicus found he could not think of a single lie he had told.

and perhaps it was his own brash thought or his own inability to feel any longer on behalf of others. long years had taken it from him.

but what it had not robbed was his anger. "any failure of mine is your success, arsenio." those who had sought to change what he had built would fall away. he meant to shave the pack down to its bare bones if only to declare himself free of the spywork he wrought elsewhere.

it was a fierce irony and one that was not wasted on him. 

he longed to be outside the mountains and in the taiga once more.

but this was his own aim and his own shame. "i do not need your trust. i need continued peace in the sunspire as these lands have long needed and as they have long been kept." arsenio said he was not an enemy and yet he stood in that place before the red wolf now.

he could not change that. but for mereo he would insist upon affability, especially when families and blood-bonds were now shared between them. their wolves were one, and that was by design.

That is not true.

It did not feel like anything more than a formal breaking of their bonds. If the last conversation they had shared had not done it, this would.

Your failure is your own. The trust that you have destroyed is your failure. There is no one who benefits, in this. For the first time in a long time, Arsenio thought of the dark young shadow that had followed Germanicus on eager paws, ready to give himself entirely to any wish that the Imperator had. He thought of the faces that he saw come and go through the Roman’s life – his own wife, included – only to be replaced with the next best thing.

You have your peace. I have told you my concerns and if you are true to your word, your mountains will remain peaceful.

The mercenary nodded in the direction of their border.

I hope you are… fulfilled, Germanikos. In all that you have done.

Arsenio waited to make sure that the Roman would leave.

<3

germanicus saw no reason now to try and compete last-words against a man who stood in his own land.

he stood for a long moment only regarding arsenio and then he turned.

the truth of the red mercenary's words burned through him: all he had lost and those he had failed, gathering here. and while germanicus bid them well and truthfully so, knowing he himself had no vision had tormented him.

twisted now beneath the tongue of his one-time friend, the imperator departed for the final time.

his mind would replay every word of this discourse for days and days to come.

Mwah! I love you dearly and every thread I get with you is a treasure. <3

The Roman departed the vale without another word.

Arsenio turned sharply away from their meeting point, head swimming with thoughts of the Pharaoh, of Akashingo, and of his wife… who he desperately wished to see. Prowling to their den, the Arche stopped just outside the entrance and allowed himself to succumb to the swelling wave of rage and hurt that had filled him.

The smell of Tamar soothed him, after a short time. When Arsenio entered their home, it was to plant kisses atop the heads of his children and then to draw close to his wife. He would tell her of his conversation with Germanicus, when they had a moment to themselves.