Character Scenario — Rhodarth [Episode 1]

On days he cannot think, Rhodarth returns to the sea. 

Not that Rona’s shores amount to much. Murky, brackish water with several centuries’ worth of refuse littered across the ocean floor. Tumultuous tides that crash against jagged rocks and bits of surfacing shipwrecks, threatening to pull any swimmers down, down, down into the abyss. It’s dangerous to swim here, even for a melusine. No melusine in their right mind would. They would choke on the rubbish. 

Still, despite Rona’s peculiarities, there is something soothing about looking out to the horizon. He sits perched on a rock jutting out from the shadow of the villa’s walls, not unlike he did once as a child in Corsida. The island city is a long way away, Maira even further if you count the fathoms it takes to dive to its borders, but these waters flow to the Lotharic Sea. He remains connected to his homeland. Both of them. 

Not that he can return. Not without consequence. 

A crumpled letter is crushed in his fists, the ink already smeared and blotched from Rona’s endless rain. It’s useless now, its contents illegible, but it matters not. The message has been received and memorized. 

Rhodarth,

I hear you set yourself up with your own mercenary company. Under normal circumstances, I would congratulate you. But these are not normal circumstances and it is on my honour as your friend to tell you—by the gods above and below, get your fucking head on straight. You’ve had your moment of dissent—as we all do—and it has been very amusing to watch from a distance, but the overseers want you back. They want answers for Nemain. 

I am telling you this as a friend, but consider it a threat if you want. They are prepared to send Nezra once he is finished in Velantis. And unless the Guild somehow manages to pluck all his feathers out, I think you and I both know how that will go. 

Enough dallying in the ass end of Rhesainia. It is time you came back into the fold. I’d rather it happen willingly. 

Iaera 

Easier said than done. What Iaera—and the overseers by extension—do not know is that in his efforts to distance himself from the Brightblades entirely, he has bound himself to a pirate warlord. He couldn’t return even if he wanted to. 

You really fucked us both, didn’t you, Aeran? 

He looks to the north, following the coast around its twisting shoreline. The harbour is somewhere in the distance, out of sight. Curse the ship that brought him here. He should have expected it. Aeran has as much reason to run from Rhesainia as he does; it was only a matter of time before they both ended up in the same cesspool of a border city. Call it fate or misfortune, but Nashira must be playing games with him. Perhaps there is some divine law that says as soon as you mend your broken heart, the person responsible for shattering it will stumble back into your life. 

Whether he knows it or not, Aeran Kellis continues to make his life difficult. And this time he brought a friend.    

Rhodarth exhales a long breath and closes his eyes, listening to the rushing waves crash against the rocks below. Wayfarers in Rona will not go over well. The Seven will do what they usually do—sit and watch and wait and squabble amongst themselves until the Viridian Lady’s patience snaps or the Crimson Count gets bored and one of them swoops in to make a move. That’s if someone else doesn’t try to kill them first. 

If he were a better man, perhaps he would try to do something about it out of respect for their former relationship. But he cannot see a way through this that ends well for either of them. If the Count discovers a connection between his new favourite mercenary and a wandering Wayfarer, he will not hesitate to exploit it. And so for now, he can only hope that the Count keeps him close at hand, that he somehow miraculously avoids crossing paths with his former lover until the day he leaves. He will put his faith in the hope that Aeran will not stay for long. 

That is his way. 

Always on the move, always running. 

Some day his luck will run out. Gods willing, it will not be here in the ass end of Rhesainia.