RP:To Oaths and New-Forged Bonds

Frostmaw Tavern

Hildegarde had been kindly offered a fine room in the accommodating building. She had spent the majority of her time out of her armour, wearing her cotton clothes in order to relax and ensure she didn't develop any sores or anything similar. But now, she waited in the tavern area itself. Sitting on one of the over-sized, plush chairs as she chewed upon a luscious apple. Halberd held carefully in her free hand. She seemed to be fairly relaxed in these surroundings.

Kirien has made some attempt at tidying himself up, in so far as making sure both his clothes and his face are freshly-washed and free of mud before coming to find Hilde. With the summer rain turning the exposed ground to a wet, earthy mess, however, his coat tail and boots are almost as dirty as they were before being cleaned as he steps into the tavern. He spares the rest of the room the briefest glance, making a beeline for where the Silver is seated. "Is it to your liking?" he asks by way of greeting, offering a nod and a smile. "Drargon might look fairly imposing but his establishment et his service is brilliant."

Hildegarde was taken off guard by the sudden and unusual way of greeting. She chewed the remnant of apple in her mouth as swiftly as she was able, swallowing it hurriedly which caused a few coughs and splutters. Hilde offered her potential liege a smile, "Yes, sir, the room is most excellent. I have not lived in such finery and luxury before, it is an...alien experience. But not an unpleasant one." She nodded in agreement though, offering a little laugh, "Yes, I thought he was rather imposing and not one for trouble... But he's actually quite sweet. He's been feeding the youngling that lives in the fireplace."

Kirien casts the keep a slightly skewed grin before turning his full focus back to the knight. A faintly sympathetic expression surfaces as she coughs, which he then hides behind a smile while walking slowly to the edge of the fire pit. Blindly he peers into the crackling flames for a moment, feeling the heat against his face and the contented heartbeat of the sleeping wyrm within the fire, and then he steps back. He claims a seat on one of the massive armchairs opposite Hilde, one ear cocked to the side and the other standing alert and swivelled in her direction. "I'm glad tu approve! I'd have given you a room at the castle but...we don't have one." He laughs. "Only the old fort, et I think Drargon's rooms are more comfortable than any there. Not that I've explored it much. Anyway! I came to give tu some news."

Hildegarde watched him in relative silence. She was not quite so familiar or friendly with him that she could openly interrupt him or what have you, plus she was attempting to become his knight. Her eyes flicked up to the ear as it swivelled in her direction, obviously intrigued by it. "Ah, a room at the castle would be far too grand for me, sir. I'm just a knight, after all!" she offered a small grin, "the rooms are terribly comfortable here, sir." At the mention of news, she tensed ever so slightly; pulling herself upright in her chair. "What is your news, sir?"

Kirien's hands flutter in a dismissive motion. "If tu were to become my knight, my swornsword -- is that the correct term, even? -- a room at a castle would be yours for certain." Truthfully, he's been entertaining the notion of trying his hand at some more architecture for a while now - a terramancer he may be but Kirien does not create buildings nearly often enough for his liking. A typically vulpine smile curves his lips and he scrutinises the knight intently, sensing her tension - he leans a little closer so as to answer softly, "I spoke with my sister about those matters, tu know. Soon, I'll be in official standing within the city, et we're just waiting for the right time to announce it to the public. So...I could call myself worthy for you now, j'suppose." After that the man sits back, still smiling and looking very much like a fox who's just gotten into the chicken pen.

Hildegarde nodded when he asked if that was the correct term, "It can be, yes. Some use shieldmaiden and what have you." But Hilde found the idea of herself living in a castle to be terribly humorous. It felt all very unrealistic to her, that sort of image! But she leaned forward as he did, lips eager to curl into a happy grin. She managed to restrain it to a small smile, slipping off the seat to kneel before her new liege; halberd in hand. "I shall serve you until death, my liege." After a pause, she added: "I won't call you liege often, sir. I know you don't like that. We'll save it for official things, yes?"

Kirien asks with genuine curiosity, "Do you prefer swornsword, or shieldmaiden? I've never understood the way titles, et a lot of things, divide up men and women. If you fight just as well as a man, tu can take any title a man could, I should think." That said, he's waving to catch Drargon's attentions and making the motions he knows the keep will understand as 'regular order, please', before Hildegarde kneeling before him, swearing oaths, draws Kirien's focus entirely once more. For a long few seconds he regards the knight wordlessly. Then he leans forward again and lays a hand on her shoulder. "Hildegarde the Silver, I vow that you will always have a place in my house, at my table, et by my side. I will ask no service of you that might bring you dishonour...et I promise not to toss you thoughtlessly toward your End. I swear it, by all the world beneath our feet." He adds thereafter with a nod and a grin. "For official things, oui."

Hildegarde replied with a simple: "I like knight, really. But swornsword is just as acceptable to me." A little smile offered as if to assure her words were genuine. As the hand rested upon her shoulder, she tensed in anticipating of reprimand for her words or actions, knowing his dislike for her...knightly actions! But instead, she was met with a vow. A vow that almost had her eyes misting over! Instead, a small veil of frost left her lips as a sign of awe. "Then I am glad and fortunate to be your shield before death." As he grinned, Hilde found herself grinning in response, "Is there anything else you would rather I didn't do?"

Kirien's brushy tail gives a particularly pronounced swish in a clear sign that he's pleased. A second nod follows, tousled auburn hair briefly obscuring his eye before he lifts his head, straightens some in his chair, and removes his hand from Hilde's shoulder. "I'm glad, also. Et, ah...there's nothing I can think of right now, to be honest. Just...don't feel as if anything you say would offend me. It probably won't." Then he pauses, considering, fingers drumming on one knee before he announces a little louder, but still only loud enough for her to make out, "Rise now, Hildegarde the Silver, as a Knight of Frostmaw et my swornsword. Tu say things like this, right?" Something in Kirien's tone at the end of that is playful, reflecting the glint in his gaze.

Hildegarde gave a small nod, "Then I shall speak freely around you, sir. I feel that by speaking openly, it would allow us to bond." At his proclamation of her status, she couldn't help those silvery scales rippling briefly across her countenance in surprise. "Yes, my liege," she declared, rising to her feet with halberd held steady in her hand. She grinned at his playful tone, "Indeed, I do, sir. Does my diction amuse you?"

Nicole oocly thinks many things amuse Kirien. But icly, Nicole doesn't even know the blighter, so she just wanders into the tavern with her nose buried in a rather thick book. Not-quite-full lips move as stormy eyes pass over each line, and after certain points the book...sparks, releasing energy. Just what is this book? Well, it's not likely to become clear to anyone not attuned to magic, what with Nicole hunching over the thing after she seats herself.

Kirien manages to contain the faint stirrings of irritation and discomfort that come along with that title, to the extent that the emotion is never hinted to in his body language. He might as well get used to it, after all. "Amuse me? So, were you teasing moi just now?" he responds, squinting up at the knight, his tail still flicking to display his good mood. A drink is brought his way by the keep, an amber fluid swirling in the glass that Kirien cups with a smile to Drargon, and then a look toward Hildegarde. "Would you like a drink? A toast of a sort, maybe." Then, his gaze flicks toward the door and the new arrival, though his attentions are mostly arrested by the tome the woman carries and scrutinises so intently she barely gives the tavern a second glance. Kirien wonders if the stranger even knows she's wandered into Frostmaw while reading, and stifles a laugh in his glass.

Hildegarde grinned slightly, fingers flexing around the shaft of her halberd, "I am supposed to be bonding with you, sir! One might assume jesting would work well." She settled back into her chair, before she replied with a small raising of her hand, "No, sir, I do not partake of the mind-altering nectars." She had never drank an alcoholic drop in her entire life. However, her attention was stolen away by the entrance of Nicole; a woman so engrossed in her book she may not really know what she had stumbled into. The sparks of energy piqued her interest, scale tipped ears perking slightly with curiosity.

Nicole snaps erect with a great "Aha!" and promptly follows it up with a string of what would either sound like gibberish or a rather elegant foreign language. Either way, she winds up disappearing from her seat...and reappearing. In the air. Above Kirien. It's a yelp that announces her quick descent onto the poor man, and then a loud 'thump' as her tome falls on her own head. Cue groaning.

Kirien's fingers tap at the glass to a thoughtful tune. "Just Kirien works. I said that, didn't I? Back when my bones were broken. We compromised with 'Sir Kirien', wasn't it? Not that I'm much of a sir, but..." He laughs, shrugs, and waves a hand while sipping at his drink. "Water, then? We can't -not- toast to this occasion, after all." A blink follows as Nicole vanishes from his perceptions following a set of euphonious words and Kirien's eye widens just a little in recognition - blind as he is to anything in the air, he's only given forewarning by the faint flicker of magical energies above his head, right before the bookish girl comes tumbling down into his lap with her book. Kirien slumps in his seat a bit, blinks once, then says with a remarkable degree of nonchalance, "Been a while since I had a woman on my lap."

Hildegarde laughed as he mentioned their compromise. "Yes, we did compromise on that. I will stick to calling you sir, but I will do my best to address you as something...less formal. We'll work on it, we have the time." She offered a smile, quite certain that the two of them would bond quite well. "I suppose we must toast it! Water would do just fine, sir," she smiled, before realising that the other woman had...vanished! Just vanished. She rose from her seat instantly, wondering if this was some kind of magically-imbued assassin, here to kill her liege. Halberd twirled with grace, upper end of the shaft falling into her hand in a readied position. At Kirien's remark, she found little humour in it. Mostly due to her own sensibilities, but mostly due to the situation at hand. Hilde merely stared at Nicole, halberd ready to swing and end her if called upon it. "Ma'am, state your purpose and vacate the lap of my liege."

Nicole doesn't state her purpose, but she does vacate Kirien's lap by way of another teleportation. Seems her spell simply had a hiccup. And awaaaaaay she goes!

Nicole vanished before your eyes, perhaps never to be seen again.

Kirien blinks a second time when the woman vanishes as quickly as she appeared on his knees. He scrunches his nose some, then slowly levels his gaze on the bristling Hildegarde and, after waiting a couple of moments to see whether Nicole might manifest elsewhere in the tavern, nods to the knight. "Well, she's gone now," he says with a pointed look to her halberd, indicating it's of no further use when the target has already vacated the premises...and his lap. Wetness on his hand catches his attention and Kirien looks down, brow wrinkling in quiet dismay - he huffs a sigh for his spilt rum then turns, calling lazily to Drargon, "Water. Two glasses." Another moment passes before the man snorts, setting his empty glass on a nearby table. "'Vacate the lap of my liege'. Aha."

Hildegarde eased up once she noticed the woman hadn't reappeared elsewhere. Her halberd slipped back into one hand, sliding down until it touched the floor again. She returned to her seat, smiling slightly at his last words. "Again, sir, does my diction amuse you? You appear to be amused by it..."

Kirien snickers lightly. "How can I -not- be amused by that? 'Vacate the lap of my liege'. Et spoken so seriously! Really, I appreciate it, but it's...hilarious." When the glasses are delivered he takes both then passes one to the Silver, offering his own for her to dash hers against in a toast. "To bonding? Ou some such," he laughs before taking a long drink of the perfectly-chilled water.

Hildegarde grinned slightly, fingers flexing around the shaft of the halberd. "Your life is serious business, sir! I am trying to prove myself worthy, after all." She accepted the glass of water with a gentle 'thank you', clinking her glass against his. "I hope I can make you proud, Kirien. I'd like to prove that I'm a good choice. Make you and my family proud," she said almost into her glass, taking a sip of the clear fluid.

Kirien is suddenly grinning around the rim of his glass. He does not explain why exactly for a minute, indulging in his own drink and allowing the cold liquid to trickle down his throat, and taking the time to answer her words afterwards. "I'm sure you will et I'm sure you are. I might be blind but there are a lot of things I can see." Leaning over, the empath narrows his eye some as he squints at the woman intently, scrutinising her face with an altogether calculating expression on his own. "You'll prove yourself, I know. Also..." The grin resurfaces, wider than ever. "..You said my name, without a title."

Hildegarde smiled slightly, taking another sip of her water. "I hope to fight soon in your name. Not a needless battle, of course! Against a fellow knight or something, just so I can show you that I can be your knight. Your swornsword." Hilde took this whole situation very much to heart, it was...amazingly important to her. This entire thing was her life, basically. At his words, she grinned back at him, "I did, didn't I? One must do what they can in order to make their commander happy."

Kirien, reclining back in his chair, muses, "My sister has her own swornsword. As I remember, he's the captain of Frostmaw's knights. Tu could spar him, maybe?" Thought of the undead swordsman has his lip curling very faintly, his name spoken almost as a hiss; "Ignatius Dispada," though there is no recognisable emotion tainting the syllables. Kirien's gaze darkens momentarily, before he shakes his head, realising he was staring into the depths of his glass (though he can't watch the liquid swirl), and says to Hilde with a smile, "Do what makes you happy, too."

Hildegarde nodded with interest, "Yes, I've met him. He..." she frowned slightly, shaking her head and choosing not to divulge the information as of yet. Hilde finished off her glass of water, replying to him: "It makes me happy to serve you. I, ah... Do you think your sister will approve of me..?"

Kirien presses idly, "He...?" Curiosity piqued, he now searches for an answer, watching the knight over the rim of his glass while recalling the matches of the Titans of Winter tournament, and the colosseum choked with echoes that was left in their wake. A pensive sound emerges, a thoughtful, "Hm," and Kirien shakes his head again. Dwelling on all that will only make him feel ill. "I think she will, oui. She's not all ice and cold, I promise."

Hildegarde kept up her frown, uncertain of how to really explain it all. "His arm. I saw that it is actually...a dragon arm." A pause as she attempted to formulate the words properly, "I understand there must be some kind of just reason behind it. But it pains me to see it, sir. It is, after all, one of my kind." Hilde then looked to him, placing her empty glass upon the table. "I hope so. Perhaps I should fight her swornsword, hm? See who has the better protector!" A very sly grin crept across her lips.

Kirien finds a frown of his own when Hilde explains the situation with Ignatius' arm; a newer addition he did not have when last the empath saw him, and a curiosity as well as something painful. Hilde's hurt over the limb and what must have happened for the swordsman to obtain it do not please Kirien, though he couldn't have done much about it at the same time. "I understand. Perhaps...if tu fight him and win, you can remove that arm et see it's given a proper burial," he suggests in a sombre tone, before scrunching his nose and downing the rest of his drink. "A spar would be interesting, though - do tell me if you arrange something of the sort with him?" Standing, Kirien offers the woman a smile and a nod. "I'll head out now, I think." There is business to attend to, after all.

Hildegarde smiled slightly at the suggestion of giving the arm a burial of sorts. "That's a fine suggestion, sir." As Kirien stood, so did she, halberd held firmly in hand. "Ah, if you do not require me to accompany you, then I shall head to Xailous for a bit," she was going to tell her parents the good news, "but I should return here soon enough, sir. Enjoy your day."

Kirien stretches up on his toes so as to bestow a pat on the head to the woman. It's not condescending even if it might seem it - he simply has a habit, and habits are hard to break. "I shouldn't need a guard at home, non. I have some experimenting needing...more work. Eh." Judging by his tone he's been unsuccessful so far with whatever 'experiment' he might have. "You too, Hildegarde." That said, he's off, striding out the door and headed back along the road toward the cavern and the mansion.

Hildegarde didn't find the pat to her head particularly condescending. She knew the man was odd, so she suspected that this was just another one of his peculiar habits! She'd grow to love it, most likely. Once her charge left the tavern, she wandered back to her room to don her armour and hurry back to Xailous! Her mother and father would be ecstatic to hear her news.