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Post by Jacie Morralles on Oct 23, 2015 23:45:01 GMT
"To long, have you been laboring in the hot sun, day after day, while the foreman gets fat off of the sweat of your brow!" Jacie's words carried far, and always had. Perhaps it was the literal soapbox she was standing on, maybe it was the passion with which her diatribe was delivered. Most likely, it was influence of essence lending weight to her words and shooting them into the hearts of her mortal listeners like crossbow bolts. "You dig the goods from the mines, and you create beauty with them - so why should the Zaman family reap the prosperity while you languish?!" The petite young woman demanded, her keen eye on the doors of the small, dusty town's saloon. While she was busy holding her rally, she knew that one of the Zaman family's younger and more abrasive sons was inside, drinking deep of the mine owner's wealth. Hopefully, he found somewhere else to be, and quick - for his own sake. Jacie didn't care if another fatcat got lashed, strung up and run out of town on a burro, but he might.
The crowd grumbled and shifted, the early signs of discontent moving through the masses. What she was saying, was sinking in. Great.
Jacie whipped her wide-brimmed hat off and threw it to the ground in a dusty heap, her leather boot stomping her wooden platform to call attention back with emphasis. "Every crate of jewels and spices that moves out of your fair town is worth enough jade to feed a family for a year!" She exclaimed. "The lion's share of that wealth goes right up the hill, never to be seen again! The Zaman family feasts on imported meats and hosts lavish dinners, when everything they have is thanks to your labors, and your family's suffering - and they have the gall to look down their noses at you?! To imply you should thank them, when if they didn't exist, every one of you would be twice as wealthy as you are today?!"
The young woman from Paragon stood upright and become visibly calmer. If she'd been wearing suspenders, you could bet your bottom coin that her thumbs would be stretching those bad boys out. "Now, you may have heard things about me, folks. That I'm a murderer - a barbarian, a brigand in a skirt." She allowed smoothly, her dusty black hair blowing in the noon wind. "Base name-calling by those who would poison my reuptation out of fear that I'll come to their town next. And I've taken lives, I'm not ashamed to say - but I've never turned my piece on anyone who didn't deserve it. When good folk, such as yourselves, take up arms to defend the ones they love from attack, can it really be considered anything more than self defense? Righteous, good, and reasonable self defense?" Jacie asked, making notable eye contact with a few members of the crowd. "If a thief in the night came into your house and took nine out of every ten things you own, why, you'd be well within your rights to shoot that man where he stood, wouldn't you?"
A few scattered cries of 'yeah' came from those already under her sway. Jacie cupped her hand around her ear and leaned forward. "What was that, friends?" She asked. A few more replied with more conviction, then were joined by those who didn't want to be left out, until the crowd was cheering like a proper rally. Jacie pumped her fist into the air, giving a radiant grin of approval. "That's right, you would! And you wouldn't lose a moment's sleep for protecting your family and land from the claws of that vile thief, would you?!?" She demanded heatedly.
A cheer erupted, the honeyed tongue of a Celestial Exalt doing it's work. "So why in the name of the stars do the Zamans get a pass?!" Jacie asked of them, hopping down from her soapbox. She wasn't tall, by any means - a compact and fiery slip of a young woman, carrying the bearing and confidence of a seasoned general or other great leader. "Defend your land, people of Westwind town! Defend your families! March up to that palatial castle the Zamans are hiding in, and demand your fair share!" She ordered, pointing up the hill outside of the dusty, sun-bleached town to the white house where the founders of the mining city had decided to settle centuries ago. "Demand fair hours! Demand a slice of the pies they're hoarding! Every time one of your children went hungry, it was because they'd taken the food from your table! Take back what belongs to you! Take back your town!"
A cheer erupted from the crowd, which began to surge around Jacie's body - making a beeline for the Zaman home, which had already heard which way the wind was blowing and taken defensive measures. They wouldn't be enough. Grinning at another battle for Freedom won, Jacie scooped up her well-worn leather hat and adjusted her satchel, then whistled for her horse. She'd ride to the front, and be a shining beacon for freedom and equality leading the charge. Violently, if necessary.
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Post by Kajek on Oct 24, 2015 0:37:26 GMT
Trouble... There was always trouble in the South, in lands blasted bare by heat with little left to survive were it not for the hardwork of people hardy enough to continue living in such desolation. However recently a different kind of trouble had begun to stir. Though much of the South remained outside the reach of the Realm, their dogma was not so constrained by geographic borders. Tales of Anathema, demons in the guise of mortals, had long since spread throughout creation. Tales of cities corrupted and laid low by their evils. How they nearly destroyed Creation until they were defeated by the Dragon-Blooded. A foolish tale, to be sure. But not one without merit. As Kajek walked across the dunes towards a frontier town, he was reminded of his own life. He was certainly no demon in mortal life; he wasn't one now either, though he was no longer mortal either. He still vividly recalled the warmth of the Unconquered Sun as he was touched, receiving his Exaltation in that moment. His life had been, and remained, dedicated to the lives of others in the name of balance and justice. But this Solar he was following... He could not be sure what to expect when he found her. Obstinately she acted as a force for good, liberating towns from those leaders with whispers of corruption or incompetence. Yet she never seemed to stay still for long. Sometimes she left a town better off. Sometimes she left it in flames. But she always left it before the dust settled. Some called her a savior, others a destroyer. By many indications of the Realm's Immaculate Order, she could be called a demon. Kajek knew he had to find and meet her. While her motives seemed honest enough, she was not without fault. Perhaps she was just misguided, or perhaps she was a demon. He had to find out, as she was the only other 'Anathema' that he had so far heard of in the South. Perhaps she would help him answer questions about his own existence. Perhaps she would just be another face that had to be put down... By the time the sun was beginning to set, he could hear the grumbling on the wind. The fields were emptying out, and many were flocking to one particular place. A crowd was gathering, a sign that too many were already within. That was as likely a place as any to start. Hiding his hands within the sleeves of his robe, Kajek came as close to the crowd as he could, but found that it was suddenly shifting and turning around as people began to spill out. He could hear their hostility in the air, the cries for freedom and fairness and bloodshed. This is what alarmed him the most. Some were calling for the Zamans to be exiled. Others were calling for their heads on a plate. Running to the front of the mob, Kajek threw back his hood and held out a bandaged hand. "Enough! Stop this madness before innocent blood is spilled!" His arrival caused a moment of hesitation among those who could see him, with whispers being carried back to those he could not. The emblem on his forehead marked him as an Arbiter, an officer of justice and mediation. But even his status could not hold back the flames that had been stirred. He could hear hooves on stone as their arrival seemed to give strength to the mob once more. Atop the horse he spotted a young woman, a woman old enough to still be his child. "You there. This is your doing." He leveled a finger in her direction before turning back to the crowd. "I implore you all; disperse and let us avoid any violence." Some along the edge of the crowd seemed ready to stand down, but many more were still calling for the fires of justice to be brought down upon the Zaman house. He turned back to the woman and leveled a hard gaze. "What have you done? Make them see reason before this madness gets anyone killed." Jacie Morralles
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Post by Jacie Morralles on Oct 24, 2015 1:02:02 GMT
Jacie, an old hand at horseback, canted her destrier to a stop between the mob and the arbiter defending the Zaman estate. Her eyes traced the only-mostly decorative walls that kept the town's owners-in-all-but-name safe, and the handful of guards posted up there with bows and the rare firepiece. They were sweating bullets right about now, and reasonably so - almost all were citizens of Westwind, with friends and family in the crowd. How many would chose duty over community, and fire upon their own? How many would see the day's end for such a thing? Her focus was on the arbiter, however, who nobly and selflessly threw himself in her path. It would have been admirable, if he weren't in her way.
"This man asks what I've done, good people of Westwind!" Jacie called out loudly, before swinging a leg over her horse and landing softly on the sand-worn stone path. In the light of the setting sun, the torches of her 'flock' cast an eerie and flickering shadow over the gate. The imagery of her form cast in corona by the flames of revolution, throwing a shadow over the desperate form of a peacekeeper, was entirely lost on Jacie Moralles. But then, no one had ever accused her of being particularly imaginative or poetic. "No doubt, he wishes to stop a river of fattened Zaman blood from flowing through Westwind tonight, at all costs - but where were the arbiters and compassionate souls when the Zaman family grew indolent, fat and insular at the expense of Westwind's people?" Jacie took a step forward, her stance challenging, her hands resting over the butts of her overlarge plasma-tongued repeaters.
"Why do those in power only cry for negotiation when the flames of revolution howl at the door!?" The small woman from Paragon demanded in a fury. "Where was this sense of fairness for all the years they held the advantage?!" Her howls of rage were little more than incensed rhetoric - not questions for the bald stranger to reply to, but words to throw fuel on the fires broiling at her heels. It worked; her essence-honed words were like gunpowder in a furnace, building the fury of the mob up even further. "Every child who's illness could have been prevented if only her parents had the jade, every man who died working the mines for a beggar's pittance, every mother who's heard her children weep from hunger - Make no mistake, blood has already been spilled, and it lays on the hands of those you now protect!"
Jacie stood upright and stared down the arbiter, filled with the resolve and self-confidence that came with being a chosen of the Sun - she needn't her caste mark to declare that. But it was also the haughty self-confidence of a scorned teenager, someone who had seen the excesses of oppression carried to an ultimate extreme in Paragon, and had decided to go equally as far in the opposite direction to level the playing field. She wasn't knowledgeable, she was young - she was not malicious, but absolutely destructive. "Come what may, Arbiter, Westwind will see the dawn tomorrow as a free city." The young woman promised, pointing right back at him. "Be it over the corpses of the Zaman family, or not. Be it over your corpse, or not. You can stand with us, and fight tyranny and abuse - or you may get out of the way. But I would not recommend standing in our way. The peace of law has failed the people of this town, and only action may make it right again!"
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Post by Kajek on Oct 24, 2015 4:40:47 GMT
There was passion in her voice, that much Kajek could see, and she tugged on heartstrings that anyone with a heart could sympathize with. Were he a younger man, he might be swayed by her brash arguments. But he had seen what damage passion could bring; how the good for many could still bring pain and suffering to all. What drew his ire though was the manner in which she assumed an ulterior motive on his part, that he had been involved in defending the Zamans through coin and honeyed words rather than pure providence. "You speak for justice. That is admirable." Kajek nodded slowly, his rumbling bass of a voice carrying easily despite the growing dissatisfaction that was spreading. "However, you err too much in your cause for me to step aside. What you seek to fan now is not true justice; it's murder." He did not blink as he continued to stare her down. "To begin, my arrival here has nothing to do with those who control this city. Indeed, I did not even know the family name until you uttered it. They did not call me to defend their ways. I came here, in fact, to track you down." He emphasized that word like a punch, letting it catch several onlookers unaware. They were left looking confused as he continued to stand against her. "You claim to lead these people to freedom, to justice. But I have seen your justice, little girl, and I am not convinced of your righteousness." He let his voice rise in volume as he began to sweep the crowd. "I would ask if you had seen the justice you brought to other towns like Orn Terik or Pyre, but I know from the tongues that could still speak that you were gone long before the chaos subsided. I have seen firsthand those freed by your words bury their kin. Whole towns have been rendered havens for ghosts as the flames of justice overtook them." Kajek turned once more to the girl with a frown etched on his face. "You claim injustice for the sins that have befallen these people, but have you taken the time to speak to the Zaman family? What is proper justice for them? You claim to know their evil deeds and deemed Westwind in dire need of your salvation. Have you ever spoken with them?" Despite the question, Kajek was already faily sure he knew the answer. "You claim to be bringer of justice. Where is the justice in murder? Hm? Justice for some?" He began to pace ever so slightly, looking around but always back to the girl. "Justice for some is not justice at all. Revenge is not justice. It just begets more revenge. At some point, the cycle must be broken, and it is only broken by justice. And should you remove them, Sandwalker, what then? Will you oversee their transition to a new leader? Will you settle their disputes until things are satisfactory for the entire city? Or will your gift of freedom be a gift of death to these people?" Despite her feverish cries, he was not swayed of her righteousness. In fact, he just seemed to dig his heels in harder. "What then is justice?" Jacie Morralles
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Post by Jacie Morralles on Oct 24, 2015 5:23:36 GMT
She could have poisoned his words to the ears of the mob with but a thought - such was her province and, in a way, her right. Sol knew she'd done it to silence detractors before, to make an example of those who doubted her. But this one was brave, and his station - if nothing else - deserved the respect of a fairish argument. "You claim to have coming looking for me, and you speak of the places I've been, but your intentions suggest that you are an obstruction on the path of liberation, peacekeeper." Jacie accused heatedly.
"Am I to leave these people to suffer under the yolk of oppression as slaves, then?!" Jacie asked loudly, spreading her arms. "Or would you have them kindly ask those in power to amend their ways - because that, historically, has not had much success." She spat. "There is a time for peace, and there is a time for action. For too long have the fat and powerful hidden behind the cover of peace and laws that only serve to shield them from the repercussions of their actions. And you, arbiter, stand to block our way when we shout 'no more!'?"
Jacie turned to the mob, grabbing hold of her horse's saddle. With one foot in the stirrup, she could see above the heads of the angry throng under the influence of her talented tongue, and address them all. "Orn Terik and Pyre fell - but they fell under their own power, ruled by the common people. If you would prefer to live as a mindless slave, by all means - look the other way, as so many do. Or take a ride to Paragon, and finish trading your freedom and pride for a life of slavery and security. Surrender, knowing that you'd rather live as an object to be taken advantage of than risk fighting, bleeding, and perhaps even dying, as a free soul."
Jacie turned her attention back to the arbiter, stepping down from her horse. "I am no bureaucrat - I am the reckoning flame that burns the red tape that only protects tyrants. I am not a builder, I am the hurricane that clears the land of corrupt establishments so the people can build anew. If you'd like to know who'll rebuild this town, who will rule this town, once I'm gone? They're standing behind me. I'm no queen, empress, or ruler, arbiter." She swore. "I'm the worst nightmare of those sorts."
"If you want to end this without bloodshed? You'll go in there, and tell the Zamans that we'll give them ten minutes to pack, and leave Westwind." She offered sternly. "But if I find so much as a dull jade yen on them, I'll burn the whole lot to ashes. Everything in that building belongs to the people of Westwind - It's time the Zamans endured a turn at a little hardship."
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Post by Kajek on Oct 24, 2015 6:10:28 GMT
"And by whose authority do you derive your power?" Kajek could scarcely believe the arrogance he was hearing from this girl. "Who gave you the right to blow into town, upend the very lives of its people, and then leave just as quickly without answering for your actions? How many people have died because of your freedom? How many mothers had to bury their husbands? How many children now sleep without parents because of you? Anarchy is not the way, yet you propose so shortsightedly that these people just kill because you say it is just? Who gave you the right?"
"You speak of authority, yet I see none. I see a girl, foolhardy and arrogant, who has swept into this town and marshaled a mob to destroy and murder to sate their wrongs. I see a girl who harbors no responsibility and thinks herself pure and just. You, who upend lives to satisfy your whim, have no right to give out such sentences. You are blind to the injustice you create, to the lives of the common people you destroy yet claim to stand against. You are just as corrupt as those you pass judgement on. I have spent my life ensuring justice is served and that peaceful solutions are found. I have endured the challenges and trials to become an arbiter, and this brand is my proof. What right do you have, Sandwalker?"
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Post by Jacie Morralles on Oct 24, 2015 6:37:02 GMT
Bait.
A wise soul might have realized what Kajek was up to, they might have been able to navigate the rhetoric smoothly. Someone with experience might have known that throwing her own words back at her in contempt was the easiest way to goad someone led by ego. Jacie was neither wise, nor was she experienced. But she was very, very proud. And very, very passionate. Those two didn't always work well together.
"You ask what authority I claim?" Jacie demanded, pushing the front of her wide-brimmed hat up to better expose her brow. With a flash of light, the solid golden disk of the zenith caste blazed alight on the girl's brow, casting a golden glow before her as surely as it caused a gasp to ripple through the crowd - who were, perhaps, less spellbound than they'd been a moment before. "This is my badge, Arbiter. This is my mark of authority." The young gunslinger declared proudly.
She lifted her chin and straightened her back. "Change hurts. Growth hurts. But both are a part of life. I've watched, helpless, as those in power grew to ridiculous excesses - while men like you kowtowed and shushed anyone who might rock the boat. Rulers, tyrants gone mad with power - able to turn brother against brother, to force a father to kill his daughter." Jacie declared defiantly. "The Perfect of Paragon is not a rare man with rare powers - his choking control and excess are the wish of most who grow fat on the lives and labors of others, and give nothing in return. He was simply given the opportunity to exercise what all their black hearts desire."
Jacie took one step forward, her spurs jangling quietly. "Lancing a boil hurts like hell. Childbirth hurts like hell. Should we cower and whimper away from them as well, arbiter? Or do we burn away the parasites, and grit our teeth through the pain knowing that we've got a better tomorrow for it? You would ask me to not rock the boat - but I think it's time we kicked some of the dead weight off it. Starting with the Zamans, up to the Perfect, and even those tax-counting bullies on the Blessed Isle, if I get the chance. My authority is given of the Sun, and no wickedness can forever hide from my purifying flames."
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Post by Kajek on Oct 24, 2015 18:39:20 GMT
"It is fortunate then that such authority eases your conscience and shelters you from the cries of innocents. Truly I can think of no other way for a being with a heart and soul to otherwise endure the suffering of others so easily." Though Kajek continued to let his voice boom amongst the assembled, he did not strain himself to shouting just yet. She might have meant well. Certainly there were excesses and corruption in high places that needed to be excised. Yet her passion clouded her reason. All he needed to do was get her to see reason, and bloodshed could be avoided. "It is the mark of the foolhardy to say that change need always be painful. Yes, some change is painful. But not all change must be. With your authority, you could be a proper leader to people; instruct them in the ways of peaceful living, to mend fences with one another through words, not violence. But I wonder if you have not been wronged." There was something in her words that made him consider and wonder. Paragon was hundreds of miles away. The way she specifically targeted him... "I wonder if you realize how much revenge has hardened your heart. Are you so intent on seeing your own pain repaid that you are deaf to the cries of others?" The crowd was restless. His voice and arguments kept those nearest to him from moving forward, but he did not have quite the effect that she did on those further out. This was not a debate that could be stalled forever. He needed to get her to back down, and soon, or this would spiral beyond their control into madness and violence. "Fire can be a force of good. It gives us heat and life. Yet if not checked, it can spiral out into a force of destruction. I implore you, Sandwalker. See reason and disperse this crowd before any get hurt. Let us talk to the ones whose lives you have sought to claim as forfeiture and seek an end to this conflict that benefits all with peace and prosperity." Jacie Morralles
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Post by Jacie Morralles on Oct 26, 2015 2:04:31 GMT
"Westwind is four hundred years old. The Zaman family founded this town - their name is on the charter. In that time, they've ruled over the populace, paying them a beggar's pittance and preventing their labor source from having enough jade to relocate elsewhere." Jacie stated flatly. "Why would I break bread with them, when they've had four centuries to amend their ways? Why should they be allowed to cower behind their stone walls, upon marble floors, when every other building in Westwind is adobe and ancient wood, barely fit for keeping out the howling wind?" She asked, folding her arms. "Were I to leave them with their wealth under a treaty, my steps would no sooner carry me out of town before they enforced the ways that brought them profit, with bow and blade. And if I were to stay, the Wyld Hunt would descend upon this town in forces they cannot hope to stand against and 'cleanse' Westwind to a man; even now, they dog my steps, mere days behind me."
"Those corrupt, who fancy themselves kings, relinquish for nothing but the flame of righteous death licking at their heels, and the feel of a hangman's noose around their neck." Jacie stated firmly. "I've made my position clear, Arbiter - and although I have humored your opposition to this point, that time has come to an end."
"If you can convince the Zaman family to pull stake and leave of their own accord, they will not suffer the flame by my hand, or the hands of those with me today." Jacie promised solemnly. "They will flee in the night, carrying no wealth - only what necessities they can carry, as so many have done to seek a better life that they might have provided. But I think you'll find those miserly souls will find any excuse to remain squatting on their pile, even if it means their death - otherwise, they'd have fled while you were talking to me."
"That is the first option. The second is that you stand aside, and we finish what we came here to do - or you continue to vouch for the corrupt and greedy, and so stand against the cause of righteousness. What say you?"
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Post by Kajek on Oct 27, 2015 2:32:17 GMT
"Though there is some reason to your words, I cannot yet yield to you, Sandwalker." There was a hint of regret in Kajek's voice, as he knew there was a risk here that would see bloodshed. "If there is but a single innocent within these halls who could lead Westwind to prosperity and justice, I must seek him and protect him. Even from you." "What I propose is a tribunal. As an Arbiter, I am empowered by the Gold Lord to serve as the mediator in this dispute. Those who have proven themselves wicked and have committed heinous acts against the people of Westwind shall be punished. If they are as wicked as you say, then there should be no shortage of witnesses to testify against them. Those who are deemed guilty will be handed over to you for punishment." "Those, if any, who are found innocent will be allowed to stay. Perhaps they can be of use in helping usher in a new era for the city. After all, if other cities hear about such an uprising they might not be so inclined to trade with Westwind, seeing its ruling body as illegitimate. Without the influx of such critical goods, the people here would perish." He was taking a bit of a gamble here, hoping that the compromise would appeal to the Solar girl's sense of justice. The fact that he would be handing the sentencing over to her for those who were found guilty would hopefully strengthen his case. Jacie Morralles
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