In Need of Information

[Orin Evans]

Alexandria was gone now, on her way to Tresteria for that mess of a situation, and everything was on his shoulders now, as he was left to keep things in order while she was away.  Orin wasn't exactly pleased about this, but he would do anything to support his sister and do whatever she needed him to do.  He just hoped and prayed that Saelis would not arrive while she and Aric were away.

What he also didn't like, was that Alexandria had no idea there was a Saelisian intruder in the dungeons.  One he had yet to go visit to question.  He needed to speak with Eoin Rodain about what had happened to him, what he experienced, saw and what he knew exactly.  He promised Alexandria that he would and that he would send word if he found anything out that would be helpful to them with planning for things.  Orin and Aric had agreed not to let Alexandria know--there had been too much going on, she didn't need to know that the enemy was here, right inside her kingdom.  He would take care of it before she got back, anyway.

Aralore really did not need another war, and he honestly had no clue how they were going to pull this off if Saelis was, indeed, planning on attacking again.  
Lucky for him, the two people he needed to speak to were hopefully in the same place.  He remembered that Nemeris had offered Eoin a place to stay at her manor, so he would head there first to seek them both out.  If Nemeris could work on sending word out to the allies for Aralore, to see if they would back them again should anything happen, then it was at least a start.

There really wasn't much time to waste, so Orin saddled his horse up and rode as quickly as he could to Arundel manor, nearly jumping off his horse when he arrived.  Booted feet would carry him down the walkway and to Nemeris' door where he would knock loudly and with urgency.  
He silently hoped Nemeris wasn't in one of her dark and cruel moods at the moment... He wasn't in the mood to deal with that.  Then again, who was?  He assumed it was why the woman lived on her own.  She had barely done anything to help out as of lately, including her pointless suggestions when they met to try and figure out what to do with Edward after the night of the banquet and his sister's near assassination attempt.  

When there was no answer, he knocked again, louder this time.  "Nemeris?  Eoin?  I need to speak with you.  Please."  

[Eoin Rodain]

Today was supposed to be a better day. A calm day. But there was a chill in the air and dark clouds looming in the distance that was telling him otherwise. Something didn't feel right again, and had awoken this morning in another fright. Eoin was still having those dreams, those nightmares of the Saelis prison...no matter how much he tried to shove them from his mind. He could only assume that they would linger for awhile, much like the heartache he still bore.
Although it hurt to hear that Alexandria had moved on, he still understood it. What kind of a man would he be if he didn't? He wasn't a fool- a year was a long time, and he couldn't help but wonder if he would have done the same. If maybe, he already slowly was moving on from the past. Their love had been almost an immediate love, one that they really did not get to explore because he was always needing to leave. Perhaps, in a sad sense, they wouldn't have survived it anyway. Maybe this was all meant to be.

This was everything that he was wondering as he sat outside, waiting for the sun to fully rise. He hadn't seen Nemeris when he woke up while it was still dark out, so he could only assume that she was still asleep. Spending the hour gathering more wood for the fire, a smoking pipe dangling from his lips, he was carrying an armful of logs back towards the manor where he saw Orin. Honestly, he was the last person he expected to see here, and he was suddenly worried.
"Orin?" he called out, his pace quickening. The firewood was dropped into a heap outside the front door and he regarded the man with concerned eyes. "What's wrong? Has something happened?" Maybe he shouldn't jump to conclusions, but he was the bearer of bad news the other night. Was Saelis already here?

[Orin Evans]

When he heard the voice behind him, he quickly turned to see Eoin with the stack of firewood in his arms. He was rushing towards him and dropping the firewood, seemingly worried over his presence there. Orin held his hands up as if to try and calm the man down. Nothing had happened. At least not yet.

Orin stepped away from the door and turned to face Eoin, shaking his head in response. "No, nothing has happened... Other than Alexandria leaving to go to Tresteria for the King's funeral. He was killed, but he fucking deserved it, anyway." Clearly, Orin was angry about something that involved the Tresterian king.
He clenched his jaw at the thought of what had happened and he sighed, shaking his head.

"I was actually hoping we could talk? And is Nemeris around?" He glanced around and back at the door. She hadn't come to answer it, so he wasn't sure if she was home or not, or if Eoin knew. "I am trying to prepare things... Get what information I can about Saelis?"

[Eoin Rodain]

He breathed a small sigh of relief as Orin made it clear that nothing had happened. Alexandria had gone to Tresteria, so he was assuming that she left her brother in charge. This was probably the worse time to leave Aralore...but he supposed there was little choice in the matter. When the brother of your new husband- a marriage that solidified an alliance- died, you kind of had no choice if you wanted to keep things civil between nations. Still, it was almost strange for Orin to be here... considering Eoin knew he didn't much like him. The feeling was basically mutual. So, he assumed his reasoning before he explained. A part of him wanted to ask what happened with the king...but maybe it wasn't the time nor his place to.

"Yes, of course," he answered him, moving to open the door and offer him entry into the manor before following behind him. "She should be awake by now." Truth of the matter was, he and Nemeris were supposed to hunt today. Or, well, he was going to try and teach her how to. It would have been a fun distraction...but it may have to wait. "Nem?" he called out to the empty manor. As they waited, he regarded the queen's brother once more, a solemn look on his face. "I'm willing to help in whatever way I can." Because right now, he felt lost.

[Nemeris Arundel]

Nemeris had woken and started to get herself cleaned up and dressed for the day.  She hadn't heard the knocking at first, but the second time around, she did and she was trying to finish getting herself dressed and she hoped Eoin would hear the door and answer for her.  

She heard the door open and heard Eoin call out to her, so once she finished getting her last boot on, she left her room and moved towards the stairs and descended until she spotted the two men at the bottom, by the door.  She was finishing up braiding her hair back when she reached the bottom of the stairs, and she blinked slightly, confused that Orin had come here.  "Is everything alright?"  It wasn't often that he visited her, so she, like Eoin, was assuming something had happened.  

"Come on in.  Can I get you some tea?  Something to drink?"  She directed them towards her kitchen where she would busy herself with boiling water and getting some things ready.  For whatever this was.  It wasn't very often that Nemeris had guests...And now she had two in her home?  Something seemed off to her.  

"Eoin told me that Alexandria left to go to Tresteria?  The king died?"  She hadn't heard the whole story--only what Alexandria had told Eoin and what Eoin had repeated back to her.  She sighed and shook her head.  This wasn't good news, and she wondered what it meant for their alliance and why Alexandria needed to leave.  "What in all of hell happened?"  

She motioned to the two men to sit at her table so they could talk.  

[Orin Evans]

It really wasn't by choice that Orin was here. He had never liked Eoin, but now he felt bad for him for everything that had happened. That he had found that necklace and assumed him dead...And told his sister that he was dead when clearly he was not. The poor man had been held prisoner for a year, and no one had gone looking for him because they didn't know. Now, he was back and found his whole world was just turned upside down.

He forced a bit of a smile when Eoin offered him his help, and he nodded in response. "Thank you." He was appreciative that Eoin was willing to talk, despite everything that had happened to him.
And the fact that Orin had been the one to have to break it to him that what had been inside the library was something he would not want to see. Yet, he persisted. He did try to stop him.
He would have found out soon enough, anyway, though.

When he spotted Nemeris coming down the stairs, he watched her as she seemed to take her sweet time. It was annoyingly frustrating to him, but he had to remind himself that the woman had just lost her baby by falling down those very stairs. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose until they were being ushered into the woman's kitchen.

He shook his head in response. "No, I'm good. Thank you." He moved towards the table and sat down, nodding at her question about King Edward dying. "He was poisoned in his prison cell." Oh. Why was the king in a prison cell? She didn't know, did she?
He shook his head. "He tried raping Alexandria on their wedding night..." He'd let the two of them put the rest of the story together in their own mind because he really did not want to get into it all.
He laughed a frustrated laugh and rubbed his face in his hands. "And yet...she goes to his funeral." He knew why. She needed to. Not only to support her new husband but to also support the alliance between Tresteria and Aralore. He got it, it just seemed funny to him, in some sick twisted way.
"So I am trying to help deal with this Saelis threat so she does not need to worry about it." He explained, lifting his head up from his hands and looking between the two of them.

[Eoin Rodain]

This was a bit of a strange trio right now, wasn't it? Still, there was a larger problem at hand that hopefully they could all put aside whatever annoyances and differences to push through it. Clearly Alexandria was going to need them to, and Eoin assumed he was looking for Nemeris because she was the Aralorian ambassador. He meant it, though. He promised Alexandria he would help, even if he didn't wind up taking the commanding post of the rangers again. He could still help in other ways.
Following them into the kitchen, he was slow to take a seat as Orin began to explain what happened with the Tresterian king. And he immediately tensed. "He what?" King Edward tried to rape her? Of course, it would have upset anyone to hear this news, but it hit a heavy nerve with him...even if it wasn't his place to care as much as he clearly did. There was more he wanted to say, more he wanted to assume, but Eoin bit his tongue. And he had to bite it hard. It was quite obvious that their queen was okay because Orin would have stated otherwise. This was not why he was here.

Instead of sitting down, he paced a few steps before leaning against the counter; facing them with his arms crossed over his chest. Grinding his teeth, he forced himself to stay quiet until it was time to speak. "Alright, so what can I do?" he asked earnestly. "I don't know for sure how far along they were...just that they were beginning to plan, gathering their men..." A pause, he refrained from sighing, not wanting to further be a burden of bad news. Maybe it was a little late for that. "Do we have scouting parties? Men at every beacon on the shores?" If Saelisian (or even foreign) ships were spotted, they should be notified immediately.

[Orin Evans]

Orin gritted his teeth when Eoin reacted as he did. Not because of his reaction, but because of the memory of it all. The way he had found his sister when he entered the room, the fact that her guards hadn't been there in the first place. He shook his head. "He had one of his guards hold Aric back so he would have to watch him while he had his way with her. If Alexandria's guard hadn't gotten there and stopped him, he probably would have succeeded." His hands balled up into fists on top of the table and he sighed. "So yes... He was thrown in prison... And was later found dead. He had been poisoned by one of his men...Which was slowly making him go mad." He left the whole part about Cassandra out, because well, that wasn't really important anymore. She had gotten lucky.

Eoin was already asking what he could do, and Orin nodded. He was about to ask him if he knew how close they were, if they had left, and how much time they had, but he was already answering that he did not know. "Do you know of any of their plans? What was their intent? Why? How many?"

Though Eoin refrained from sighing, Orin did not. He let out a heavy sigh and then nodded in response. "Yes...We have scouts everywhere... Men at every beacon... Everything. Ever since the group of imposters came and tried to assassinate Alexandria, we have been on full alert. Which reminds me." He glanced over at Nemeris for a moment to see her reaction to all this, before he looked to Eoin. "We found and captured one of them... He is in the dungeons and I need to question him...Torture him...Whatever, to try and get some answers. If you'd like to help, by all means?"

Orin could be brutal and get the job done. But something told him that maybe Eoin would like some part in this, revenge, perhaps, for what had been done to him?

[Nemeris Arundel]

Nemeris had made herself busy when Orin had begun to speak. But when he just blurted out that Alexandria was nearly raped, she quickly turned her attention to the two men, eyes wide with disbelief as Eoin questioned Orin, as if he hadn't heard him correctly.

So when Orin gave them a little more detail, Nemeris remained there, eyes wide in shock and disbelief. She had seen the man at the banquet, and he was mad.  But she didn't expect he would do something so boldly.  And to make Aric have to watch that?  It was sick and disturbing.  
Her hand went to her mouth to hide her gaping mouth.  

Orin began to explain what he needed, what questions he had for Eoin.  She would stay quiet for now, allowing the two men to discuss matters on Saelis. 
She assumed he wanted to ask her about possibly reaching out to the allies to find more aid and support if a war was indeed coming.  

[Eoin Rodain]

Poisoned? It should have been far worse than that...but he supposed it would have made matters worse. Aralore truly needed its allies now, more than ever before. Still, he didn't want to hear any of this. He couldn't hear any of this. Not that he didn't care about what happened to Alexandria...but he couldn't let his heart linger back in that particular place again. He needed to move on and treat this as a subject would his queen.
Finally sighing, he ran a hand down his face in attempts to clear his head. Orin needed to know everything that he did, so it was a matter of taking a moment and remembering. Everything had been a blurred, jumbled mess upon his escape, and he only caught glimpses, only heard brief tidbits of information here and there, but it would be better than nothing. "They already had several thousand men and were waiting on Noath..." So, that of course meant there would be more men coming. "Were I to guess, Saelis will have nearly ten-thousand men at their disposal." And that would no doubt include a naval fleet from Etravia.

Fingers rubbed at his temples, trying harder to remember everything. "They're...searching for something. A weapon." Blue eyes regarded Orin with a bit of confusion on his face. His next words would probably make little sense. "Something they think Aralore has, or Alexandria has...but it's like they don't know what it is." Yes, they would hear him correctly. Saelis was after something that they didn't have an idea as to what it was. If anything, however, it would prove how desperate they really are.
When Orin mentioned the prisoner, his whole body seemed to stiffen; his jaw clenching. "Let me have a go," he said lowly. "I've...learned quite a lot over the past year..." They had done much to him, much he should forget. Maybe this wasn't the best of ideas, considering he could spiral back into that darkness he was only beginning climb out of...but it was already too late to care.

[Orin Evans]

Orin's eyes widened and then twitched slightly when Eoin stated that Saelis would have near ten-thousand men. Were they planning a massacre? They knew Aralore would never be able to fight back against that. It would be complete destruction. He supposed that was the point, then.
He sighed and then nodded, not knowing what else to say. They would need to be smart about all of this.

"A weapon?" Orin gave Eoin a confused look. "What kind of a weapon?" No, Eoin wouldn't know--he just said that Saelis didn't even know what they were looking for exactly. That didn't make sense. Orin had no idea what he was talking about or what it could be. "That makes no sense...And I don't think we have anything like that? Unless they know something we do not." He shrugged his shoulders and then folded his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair.

As Eoin suddenly was volunteering to speak with the prisoner, he nodded. Orin wouldn't hold him back from anything, other than killing the man before they got the information they needed. "Alright. I will take you to him."

[Nemeris Arundel]

Nemeris had a confused and puzzled look on her face when Eoin mentioned Saelis looking for a weapon of sorts, and that they didn't even know what they were looking for. Her brows lowered in confusion as she watched Orin and Eoin. It really made no sense, and she tried to think of what that could mean, but nothing was coming to her mind.

But when Eoin was suddenly jumping at the opportunity to see the prisoner, Nemeris cleared her throat and looked at Eoin with a concerned expression. "Do you really think that is a good idea?" Yes, she would be that voice in his head...The one that was doubting the idea being a good one. Because it wasn't. He should just let Orin do it and wait to find out what he would get for information.

Nemeris looked to Orin and spoke quietly. "What do you need me to do? I can reach out to our allies and find out if they would be willing to help again, should war come to our shores again..." Well, it seemed that they were going to...It was just a matter of when.

[Eoin Rodain]

Yes, it was completely strange and confusing. Eoin sighed again at seeing the bewilderment across both their faces. "I know...it makes little sense. But whatever it is, they believe it enough to wage another war on us." That was possibly the scariest part of all of this. What if Saelis was mistaken, considering no one seemed to know what this weapon was? What if they attacked for absolutely nothing? But trying to reason with them would impossible. Alexandria had tried that before...and that was over an arranged marriage. "Perhaps you should be asking your sister about that." If anyone knew, it had to be her, no?

With the mention of the prisoner, he should have known Nemeris wouldn't have liked the idea. At least someone was still thinking clearly...but maybe he didn't wish to. Grey eyes shifted sidelong to her, a flicker of understanding in them before it was gone. She had a point, he knew, yet that didn't mean he was going to listen. "I'll be fine," he answered. It was more of a fact that he needed to do this. Eoin felt like it was the only thing that was going to help him move past the nightmares, the memories of it...even if he lost a bit of his humanity in the process.

[Orin Evans]

Orin frowned. Did Alexandria know something they didn't? Or was this truly a mistaken thing that Saelis was assuming? It worried him and he really didn't know what to think about all of this.

Blue-green eyes lifted up at Nemeris when she asked Eoin if it was a good idea that he go and face one of the Saelisis prisoners. Orin didn't care regardless, but he knew if he had been held prisoner for a year, he certainly would want to take that out on whoever was involved with his capturer.

When Eoin persisted in that he would be fine, Orin nodded. It wasn't as if he would be left alone. Orin was going to be with him and most likely helping. They had almost killed his sister--They had given him this damn scar across his eye. And they had almost, or could have killed Cassandra.

He glanced back to Nemeris and nodded. "Yes...If you could reach out and see what we can get for help should another war come to us. We will need all we can get." And hopefully whatever they could get would be enough.

[Eoin Rodain]

This all meant that, quite obviously, his day with Nemeris was going to take a backseat. It would have been good for him to get out to do what he used to, and to get her out of this dark, cold manor for a little bit. It was going to be good for the both of them, and he looked apologetic at her before Orin was addressing her.
"Is there anyone else we can reach out to? That aren't already allies?" It had been a year- Eoin didn't quite know who they were on good terms with, who were still officially allies or potential, and so on. He'd have to catch up on everything if he was going to be of any help. Already he was trying to search his mind for possible ways they could, somehow, get through this should they have little aide. The real question would be, would they have time to even fortify the shores? They had no way of knowing how close Saelis was, if they had already left...everything was up in the air. Holding in yet another sigh, he blinked to try and free his head of all these thoughts. Orin needed help and would need a lot of it even still. He had to remain in the right head space in order to be of any help.