RP:Which Side Are You On?

Part of the Thy Kingdom Come Arc

Summary: Aira meets with Pilar in Frostmaw tavern where they encounter a few giants who voice their (unwanted in this case) opinions regarding Hildegarde's death and the vacant throne of Frostmaw. It seems they have a candidate for regency in mind and Aira does not take too kindly to it. Pilar questions why people would think such, as Hildegarde was a seemingly beloved figure of Frostmaw, and wonders if this unrest would persist even if Hildegarde was resurrected as promised by Leone. Aira seems to think it will.

Frostmaw Tavern

Aira was sitting at a vacant table in the tavern, a plate of bread and a small glass of rum sitting untouched in front of her for the time being. Her copper eyes were settled on a table in the far corner where two frost giants sat huddling together and talking in hushed tones. Her gaze was unblinking as that mesmerizing, metallic gaze was locked on the pair, her slender arms crossed over her chest. Her platinum blonde locks hung loosely about her face, except the part above her left tapered ear which was sheared away to a peach fuzz. She was in her normal hunting attire, fur-lined leggings, boots, and vest (over a long sleeved black shirt); however, her bow and quiver of arrows was nowhere to be seen, tucked away upstairs in the safety of her rented room. She was not without a weapon though, for a knife sat in a holster at her hip, and anyone who knew the huntress knew she was not afraid to use it. For now she sat silently, observing the patrons, quietly drumming her slender fingers on the wooden surface of the table.

Pilar had come to Frostmaw hoping to find her friend. She couldn't help but worry about the woman, with her slowly diminishing form and her broken heart. Sure, the man who'd broken her heart wasn't a lover, but losing a friend could hurt just as much, if not more. Pilar slipped into the tavern, hoping Aira was here, and as luck would have it, she was there. Pilar approached the elf. "Hey there, Aira..." she murmured in Elvish. Things had been slightly tense when they'd last parted. She hoped her friend wasn't angry with her.

Aira heard the heavy tavern door open but did not break her gaze on the frost giants across the room. She felt Pilar approach, heard the familiar voice speak tentatively in elvish. Aira kicked the chair across from her out, a silent invitation for Pilar to sit and join her. The huntress knew that the vampire had only meant well with her concerns a few nights ago, and she was not obtuse to her own tendencies of surliness of self harm; however, she was stubborn and hardheaded and strangely didn’t know how to deal with people caring for her. “Hey Pilar,” she mumbled back in her native tongue, still not looking upon her, her face screwed up in concentration as if she were trying to eavesdrop on the conversation across the tavern.

Pilar sat down in the offered chair. She noticed the bread and was glad Aira at least seemed to have some interest in eating, untouched though it was. Pilar didn't bother asking how Aira was feeling, because she knew the only answer she'd get was a frankly untrue "I'm fine." She followed Aira's gaze to the frost giants. She looked back at Aira. "Friends of yours?" she asked cheekily.

“Yeah, he could definitely take the place of Hildegarde,” one of the frost giants muttered to his companion at the table Aira had been monitoring. “And do a better job of it, too!” The other answered as they both guffawed. That was all the huntress needed to hear for she slammed her hand down on her own table and sprung from her seat, weaving her way through the other patrons quickly as she grabbed her knife by the hilt as she walked. Upon reaching the table she would slam the blade into the table just barely nicking the finger of the frost giant who had made the proclamation about the Silver’s possible replacement. She leaned her head forward as slid her copper gaze from one to the other. “Steward Hildegarde is not even buried yet, she has not been granted a proper funeral. For now she is encased in ice in the fort. Maybe, just maybe, you two could muster some respect and shut your damn mouths about who will control Frostmaw now or I will be forced to shut them for you. Got it?” She asked in a dangerously low voice with an even more dangerous stare. Granted, the two could physically crush the elf with their sheer size but Aira was a scorned woman and a gifted hunter, and she would not stand idly by as others had forgotten so quickly what Hildegarde had done for them and this city. Ending her little speech with a snarl to the two very surprised giants, she wrenched her knife free of the table and moved back over to Pilar, sheathing her knife as she walked, and throwing herself unceremoniously in the chair across from the vampire. “Friends. You could say that,” she spat, tossing another narrowed look in their direction as they stared back wide eyed and speechless.

Pilar had heard the frost giants' talk, and while it left a bad taste in her mouth, she wasn't the type to speak up. Aira, however, was, and Pilar jumped as the woman stormed over and told them off. As the elf sat back down, Pilar felt abashed. "S-sorry..." she murmured. She glanced around at the tavern. It seemed that everyone had stopped to listen, and most were nodding their approval of Aira. Well, at least if the idiots decided to start something, the rest of the tavern wouldn't stand for it. Drargon sent over another glass of rum, on the house. Pilar looked at Aira. "Does talk like that... happen a lot, here?" Hildegarde had been so loved, it just didn't make any sense.

Aira sat steaming in her chair for some time, her leg bouncing anxiously as it was a regular tick of hers. Aira arched her brow as a frost giantess brought over another glass of rum and pointed to Drargon for reference. Aira leaned forward in her chair and gave him a nod and a rare twitch of a smile. Things had been tense between the two immediately after her imprisonment; he had heard of her treachery but was forced to believe her innocence after her interrogation with Leone and subsequent release. Despite his distaste with the high elf initially after the ball, he had not given away her room or her things, and allowed her continued stay even though she hadn’t been up to bringing him much meat lately per their agreement. The huntress turned her copper eyes to Pilar once more when she posed her question, reaching out to tear off a piece of bread and shove it in her mouth. “Lately, I have heard whispers among some frost giants,” she answered in her native tongue so others couldn’t eavesdrop. “Before I came to these parts there was tension among the surface elves and the drow and Frostmaw’s Queen opened up the gates to the elven refugees who were forced from their homes. I don’t know much other than that it was on Hildegarde’s order that Frostmaw joined the war effort. I am sure in the wake of Hildegarde’s death, the Queen’s continued absence is causing unrest and tension in the land.” Aira breathed out a heavy sigh as she lifted the glass of rum to her full lips and took a sip. “Because the question remains, with Satoshi absent for so long, is she still Queen of Frostmaw?” It was a rhetorical question and while Aira considered herself to be a resident of the lands, she had not been here long enough to make an unbiased assessment of the situation. Still, she knew her personal views, and they were that Satoshi was no longer queen and ruler of Frostmaw.

Pilar was glad to see the elf actually eating, but didn't comment. She had heard of the tension between the elves and drow, but it had died down shortly after her arrival in Hollow, and so she didn't know much about it. She also didn't know who Satoshi even was before Aira brought her up. She had thought that Hildegarde was the ruler of Frostmaw already. But there was a missing queen now, too? Sheesh, this all seemed very complicated. Still in Elvish, she said, "Lady Leone promised to raise Hildegarde, and Linn is even helping. Do you think they'll be able to do it? And if they do, you think things will quiet down around here?"

Aira breathed out a heavy sigh as Pilar posed her questions. As Aira thought on them she put another piece of bread in her mouth. She knew it wasn’t going to help her get her weight back up but she had to start somewhere. She had heard that Leone was planning to raise Hildegarde once more but the news on the heart and that Linn was assisting was curious. The information banged around inside her head with some recognition but she couldn’t pinpoint it. “Both are skilled at what they do and I do not doubt in their ability to build a heart and successfully give it to the Silver.” She paused for a moment before finally lifting her copper gaze to Pilar’s own irises. “I think even if she does come back there will still be unrest,” she confessed in a quiet voice.

Pilar was afraid of that. If some people, like those giants, thought that there was someone out there that could do a better job... She feared that someone else might try to kill the Steward more permanently. She wasn't a close friend of Hildegarde, and didn't harbor much love for Frostmaw itself, but all the same she wanted things to be peaceful. Hildegarde was a good woman, and the last thing anyone needed was a civil war in the City of War.

Aira allowed the silence to form between the two friends as they remained lost in their own personal thoughts about the unrest and civil tension that was sure to spread around Frostmaw. As the huntress reached down for another piece of bread she found it all gone and gave the empty plate a questioning look. As if on cue the frost giantess had returned with a bowl and placed it in front of the huntress. “Drargon said you need to try something more substantial. He strained the broth from the stew, so try your best with that, deary.” And then she was off again leaving Aira to contemplate her graduated meal. Slowly, she dipped the spoon in the steaming broth and lifted it to her mouth. Her stomach churned slightly in protest, but she didn’t feel overly sick. As she continued to slowly eat in silence, the elf wondered that civil unrest in Frostmaw meant for its future, and for hers. Hell, she wasn’t even sure if she was still considered an official hunter since her appointment was under Kahn and not the Silver herself.

Pilar wanted to let Aira eat in peace, and so instead of staring at her, she looked around the tavern. The two frost giants from before were gone, apparently having been too embarrassed to hang around. Good, they didn't need those kinds of people in their presence, anyway. This was a respectable pro-Hildegarde establishment. Hildegarde... would she be able to be raised? Would she be able to handle the unrest in the city? Exactly how many people like those two giants were there, anyway?

Once half the bowl was empty, Aira pushed it away from her. She felt far too full despite only having a single roll and half a bowl of broth, but it was more than she had eaten in a very long time. Folding her arms across the table, she following Pilar’s lead and cast that metallic gaze around the tavern, noting the two giants she had accosted earlier had slipped from the establishment. Aira’s stares were met with a few in return, although they quickly turned away once they realized she had caught them. Aira breathed out a heavy sigh before turning back to her friend. “How have you been?”

Pilar thought about how best to answer. There were some good things happening for her, and some bad things that had happened. Also, how would Aira react to the good thing? She might think it was a bad thing. "I and a friend were attacked the other day in Kelay Tavern, by a... I think he was a necromancer. He sacrificed the life of a child to bring this... monstrosity into the world, and he killed at least one innocent bystander. We got away, but barely. It was so terrifying..."

Aira froze when Pilar spoke of being attacked in Kelay tavern by a supposed necromancer. Her pale brows raised as she tilted her head to the side. “Oh?” The huntress leaned back in her chair and crossed her long legs. “I am glad you and your friend got away. How did you manage it?” She asked curiously, wondering how they managed to escape an evil entity who was obviously unafraid to kill if he sacrificed a child. Briefly, her mind wandered to her encounter with the demonic children of the illusion of the previous day, but she pushed it from her mind.

Pilar said to you, "It was my friend. Her magic saved us." That was about as detailed as she could go, since she didn't remember it all very well. It was a blur, almost as if it had never finished and was floating in limbo... "Though, she thinks he's after her. She fought him once before and lost part of a finger to him."

Aira felt her mouth twitch into a scowl as Pilar explained about her friend’s magic and how it had saved them. The further developments about this necromancer following said friend and successfully taking part of a limb from her did not bode well for the huntress. She reached forward than and patted Pilar’s hand affectionately. “Than perhaps you should mind you distance, my dear, lest you get caught in the middle of their battle.” She withdrew her hand then and rested it on her stomach which continued to churn, rejecting the food. “For now, I think I must go lay down and rest for that food didn’t seem to agree with me. I’ll see you soon, alright?” She stood then and lifted her hand in a departing wave and headed up the stairs.

Pilar said to you, "Until then. Rest well"