Bloodline

Before - part 11

Awakening to the smell of soup, the sounds of laughter, and the light touch of someone stroking his cheek in their hand, Zircon wakes up to see everyone around him, including Tesath. As she strokes his cheek, he blinks, and slowly sits up, everyone looking at him now. Damian is the first to speak, "Damn Zircon, you never told us you had this many scars on you." Everyone nods as they look at him, him just seeing that he is shirtless, the bandages from before gone to reveal many scars and different wound marks on his skin in many places.

He covers them with the blanket, trying to turn away from the others, the blanket not doing much to cover the other marks and scars on the rest of his body. "Those are from a long time ago, back with my master when I was becoming an assassin." Everyone looks amazed at the extent of some of the wounds, one covering the entirety of his back with a strange symbol made with smaller wounds as well as the big scar. "Those were from when I was training in a special camp with others, where the only way we were identified was with a rock that was drawn from a tumbler, signifying our destinies." Everyone looks to themselves for a second, before looking back at Zircon. "I guess yours was a zircon gem, which must be the one in that bracelet thing you had with you since we left the castle." Damian looks at him, Zircon turning to face him while nodding. "You are correct, that bracelet had the very sky blue zircon gem that was drawn for me. There are many colors of the zircon gem, but my color wasn't one that the elders and my master knew much about, other than it meant my destiny could end up going in many directions." He finds his cloak next to the bed, hanging on a wire hook as he reaches into the sleeve, pulling the gem from long ago and showing it to the others. Maralyne grabs the bracelet, and holds it up to examine, everyone else staring at its soft glow. "Hey, that symbol on his back is also on the gem." Lutol says as everyone looks closer at the symbol of a snake wrapping around a masked person. "What does the symbol mean Zircon? I've never seen anything like it in the castle archives or in the field." Damian says as he looks more closely at the symbol, the snake in the symbol almost seeming to stare into his soul.

"That's because our corp was an extremely secretive society, hired by the kingdom to protect them from the shadows and in plain sight. Members new and old could easily identify each other, and would perform operations and campaigns all without the public even knowing a hair of our presence." Zircon goes on to explain how some of their previous adventures with the kingdom also included the assistance of the group Zircon talked about. Everyone listened intently, thinking about how they were secretly being helped without even knowing of the existence of others. "That's so strange, but I guess that makes some sense with a few things, but I never would've known." Damian says as he shakes his head and looks at Zircon. "You never cease to impress us, do you?" Zircon smiles as he get off the bed, and begins the process of putting his cloak on, along with his satchel of gear and a few other things. "My history is of unimportantance, but if you guys do wish to listen to what had led me to become the person I am now, I wouldn't mind sharing if you have some time." Zircon says as he grabs a bowl of soup on a nightstand next to his bed, and takes a sip of it as everyone looks at each other again. Some nod, and others shrug, and they all look back at Zircon as he let's out a sigh of relief. "This tavern knows how to make some pretty good soup, I gotta admit, but I'll save it for later, now sit wherever, so I can tell you of my story."

*the next paragraphs of this part marked with a dash(-) will be purely dialogue up until the end of this part, with the exception of some parts that will have dialogue quotations for other people or actions*

-I don't know much about my parents, but from what I was told by my master after graduating from the long school of that society, The Crimson Wind we called ourselves, I was found as an orphan in a house fire after a band of raiders destroyed my village, some members of the Crimson Wind came in to see and assess the damage when they found me, a small child who was sitting in the middle of a burning building with his parents murdered at his feet. I was too young to understand or remember anything of that event, but when I was rescued by those members, I was brought to a family in the kingdom walls, who were told of everything of the village and adopted me afterwards. They cared for me for a while up until I had a little brother, which was also the point where I was old enough to go to school. My eyes must've been shining, because I was told that when an elder of the society came in, I stood dumbfounded when he told me it was time to go to their secret society instead of school. After taking me from that home, I was officially a Breeze, as this was what they called younglings and new recruits. After being taken into this large and expansive cave structure which had been the headquarters of the society for centuries, I was taught the many ways of the storm, which was the structure the society used to bend and forge the many younglings into the soldiers, the Winds, that go all across the nations, following their destiny along with other Winds in whatever way they see fit, as long as they follow the teachings of the storm, and dont become the Grounded. The Grounded are those the elders deem as the heretical, or tyrannical to the cause, and are eliminated without a trace.