A Past Forgotten (An SG RP)

[TaeaDawn]

It seemed the past always snuck up on him when he least expected it. Riding alongside Cari towards Fairhaven, a city he had barely seen, to get supplies for his place on the Ranch, he hardly expected memoeries of his mothers and father to overshadow the ride. The road was similiar to the one he had taken after his father's death, the road that had taken he and his mother to Arad Doman, a place full of memories too complex to dwell on.

 

His father had died when Demus was 12 and the life of the Children of the Light had seemed far too constricting and severe to a young man raised on his mother's stories of the Domani. He had followed her, though he thought the Children would have taken him in if he had asked. For his father's sake if nothing else. His time with them had been good, but the hypocrisy of some of the supposedly enlightened had always left a bad taste in his mouth.

 

Arad Doman had been a breath of fresh air, the openness of the people and their ways reviving him from a life of rules and strict discipline. He missed it at times, but he had been young and easily adaptable. His mother's teachings in the art of seduction had been entertaining and had certainly come in useful though in ways his mother would have been ashamed of.

 

He had no care for that now. The woman was dead and the man that had thrown him out and given so little care for her was dead by his own hands. The Inn had been taken over by one of the former patrons and was now in much better hands.

 

It had been his introduction to the life he had been meant to lead, the life of an assassin. He had no moral issues with being a part of the dark while the whole world prayed to the light. When the final battle came, history would be re-written and the Dark would be forever praised. He had no hope of glory for himself, but a life lived in the puruit of something grander than himself, to serve a purpose better than himself, made him move forward.

 

Taking a deep breath, he looked across at Cari. She had found him and helped him, got him settled at the farm for no reason other than to help a person in need. She was a darkfriend, and a good person besides. "This is hardly the life I ever envisioned." He said with a small smile. It seemed the right thing to say, to share that small confidence with her after she had given him so much already.

 

[Matalina]

Demus had arrived and settled in nicely on the ranch and when she was asked to show him the town she agreed. Cari liked the man despite his age difference, their common alignment and professions seemed to make him comfortable around her. She didn't mind, as long as he didn't.

 

Cari laughed at Demus's statement. "Too Quiet for you liking?" It was a retorical question for the most part. "I hardly envisioned this life my self. After Devon died I didn't think I'd ever find a home, or love again." Cari knew this was a lie, but it was her story, and only partically true. She had never expected in all her life to have a real family. As odd as her family was it was still real. Love on the other hand she wasn't sure about. She was fond of Sam, but not sure there would ever be more to it than that.

 

"What life did you expect to be having? If this isn't it." Cari smiled to let him know it was friendly conversation.

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

"Too Quiet for you liking?"

 

Demus snorted quietly, an amused sound that said volumes. Quiet wasn't necessarily what made this life different from what he had expected. The quiet, in fact, was the least of it.

 

"I hardly envisioned this life my self. After Devon died I didn't think I'd ever find a home, or love again. What life did you expect to be having? If this isn't it."

 

Demus thought about it for a moment. "When I was a kid, and you're going to laugh about this, I thought I would be one of the Children of the Light." He smiled at her and nodded. "It's true. My father was one. He was killed when I was 12 though and by then I was old enough to know hypocrisy when I saw it. I left the Children behind then and didn't look back. In Arad Doman I was just drifting. I didn't have a reason for anything, just some dumb kid with no one in the world but my Mom and that was enough." He shrugged.

 

"Before she died, I took an interest in...well.. darker things. The Children, for all their hypocrisy and better than thou attitudes, did know at thing or two about the Dark and what I learned from them led me to people like us."

 

"Maybe I would have lived a nice peaceful life if my Mom hadn't died, settled in with a Tavern of my own and serving girls to pinch until the sun was down, but things didn't work that way."

 

He was quiet for a moment before continuing. "Ironic that it was the Children of the Light who taught me the way to become a Darkfriend." It was a cryptic tale at best, but if she wanted more details, Cari could ask. He felt like there was some openness between them and he wouldn't say no to any questions. He just didn't bring up his mother's death easily and his first murder was something that still moved his heart to remembered grief and unexpected excitement.

 

[Matalina]

Cari laughed it seemed that they held more in common than just their professions. "My eldest son has chosen to become a Child of the Light." Cari knew the look she'd get from him and continued before he could say anything. "None of my children know my true self. It helps that they are either too young or too far away to know." Cari didn't mention her eldest daughter, speaking of her past outside of Cari's was difficult, there were things she liked to keep hidden.

 

"You've done very well for yourself then, but why choose the darker side of things? The Children may be corrupt and full of nonsense but you don't have to be such a devote follower to stay in the light." Cari wondered if he'd ask her about her story and she wondered what she could say. It's like like Cari has ever been to Tar Valon much less bonded three times.

 

OOC: Do feel free to ask her about her past.

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

"You've done very well for yourself then, but why choose the darker side of things? The Children may be corrupt and full of nonsense but you don't have to be such a devote follower to stay in the light."

 

And there it was, the openness and understanding he knew she'd have. Cari was a remarkable woman, he thought as he rode along beside her. "I could have stayed I suppose, and if my Mother had wanted to I might have, but she was off to her homeland and I wasn't ready to be a man yet out on my own. As for falling into the dark, well I guess that's the right way to put it." He said with a smile.

 

"Like I said, the Children taught me something and when someone I knew was showing the signs of a drakfriend, it didn't make sense. How could a good man be a Dark friend but hypocrits be part of the Light? I followed him around for a while, just trying to understand it. Eventually he found me out, talked to me about it. By then I had already found the truth I needed to find, that there is no good and evil, only strong and weak. When I looked at it that way, I realized where my path lay." He shrugged again.

 

"I just wasn't sure what talents I had or where it would take me, but life chose for me. When my Mother died I needed revenge. And i've been an assassin for hire since."

 

He looked over at her, wondering how her own story was different from his. She seemed so, calm, so sure of herself. "What about you? How did you end up on this side of the battle?"

 

[Matalina]

Cari answered truthfully. "Completely by accident." She wasn't sure how to elaborate. And she made Demus aware she was thinking of how to put her transformation. Demus hadn't seen the switch in personality yet, he would eventually she was sure of that. Her weakness lay in her fragile mind. And weakness came at the times she needed to be strongest the most. It hadn't always been that way.

 

"Many years ago I walked a different path - the way of the warrior." Still no lies have been told and Cari was proud of that. It was hard to keep Cari Namere and Matalina Gaidin separate, but she had done so for so long it seemed as second nature now. "But this path lead to my breaking." Cari smiled. "Literally pain brought suffering and a split in my mind. Doors fell that I hadn't known I had locked shut. One door lead to the darkness and she swore my soul to the Great Lord." Cari remembered the day it had happened, the pain then the realization of what had happened after the bond to Alencia broke. "If it hadn't been for a friend I would have been dead that night, by my own hand." It had been Raeyn who had saved her, and that was her only reason for continuing her life. "My duty disallowed my death by my own hand at that time. And I later began to accept who I am." Cari looked over at Demus. "My life now means more to me than just my duty. The Great Lord will do with me as he sees fit and my day will come." Cari looked out into the horizon, towards where the town would lie in a few more miles. "I doubt my eyes will see the day the He wins the Last Battle." Cari knew that before the Last Battle would come she would lie in her grave, the eternal sleep.

 

There was no lie in what she told Demus, she did leave out the important bits and there were a ton more questions he could ask about the holes in her story. The holes in her life. So many things she knew didn't fit with the story her and Glen created for Cari Namere that didn't mesh well with her life, but she would take the questions as they came and forge truthful answers if she could, and lie when she couldn't.

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

Demus listened in silent fascination as Cari told her story. There were things she wasn't telling him, but of course he hadn't told her everything either. It wasn't his way to trust too much and she seemed to feel the same. It made him feel better to know her story though, or part of it, made him feel a little closer to her, a little less like an outside in this new place he was trying to carve out for himself.

 

He smiled at her. "It is strange how we all come upon the paths we choose in life." He said. "As for the Last Battle, I have no idea if i'll make it that far. Who knows the will of the Dark Lord? By his blessing i'll live through it, or die for his cause." He said.

 

Demus was a man about causes. With little in the way to guide his life, it had been the cause that had set his path as much as any. Something to be a part of and to fight for. Something that he, a poor peasant who came from nothing, could be proud to be a part of.

 

[Matalina]

Cari smiled. She knew she'd never make the last battle, her profession and her attitude towards life, tho her attitude had gotten better since coming to the ranch almost 8 years ago.

 

Town neared and Cari started telling Demus about the shops and who to talk to, where to buy the best things. Cari let Demus do his shopping after she told him the locations. The town wasn't that big and everyone was friendly if you asked polietly. Cari stopped at Ashet's shop to talk to him while Demus did his shopping.

 

OOC: We can continue or not totally up to you. But you've covered the requirements I beleive.

 

Cari

[TaeaDawn]

All in all, it had been a good trip, Demus thought as he settled in for the night. He had been able to pick up a couple things in town that he missed, in fact two items that had seemed to keep the place empty. An apron that hung proudly on a nail in the kitchen and a rolling pin. No one asked when he bought them and he wouldn't have explained anyway, but it gave a piece of family back to him, a piece of his mother.

 

Other than that he had picked up a nice run to add some color and soften the starkness of his furnishings and a couple nice dishes. He had a place now. If Cari and the kids wanted to come by he wanted to at least be able to offer them something. She was the only one on the Ranch who had taken much notice of him so far, but that was probably best at first.

 

He sighed as sleep tugged at his consciousness. Life at the Ranch was hard, in the purely physical sense, but it did give him a feel of community that he hadn't had since his days living among the Children. He shook his head, thinking it off that they had crept into his thoughts twice in the same day. Still, a nice village, Fairhaven. A place to get drinks when you needed to get away and you could pick up just about anything you would need there.

 

Of course, there were a couple things he might need to visit Cairhein for. Just small things that he'd like to do. He owed Cari a lot and a small gift might be in order for all she had done for him. She'd probably like something for her kids too. Well, if they ever sent him off he'd keep an eye out. She deserved something nice for all she'd done for him and Demus like to show people appreciation.

 

With those thoughts running through his head, sleep came swiftly and as it had since his mother's death, unkindly.