Plotting Rescue|Aegestrom, Maelstrom

[Kender Bard]

Cloud continued to stare forward with a blank look and glazed eyes until it finally sunk into his numbed mind that the audiences were over. Shaking his head, he remarked, "I can't believe you have to do that... But... Then.. Perhaps it makes sense to stop conflicts before they get out of hand, huh?"

[Northen Light36]

Tuono nods, rubbing his eyes. "That's the idea anyway," he tells Cloud. "You know, you don't have to hang around for these in future. Your main job is bodyguarding and occasionally carrying sensitive messages for Shadow. If you'd rather, you could spend the morning training with our armsmaster."

[Kender Bard]

Cloud heaved a sigh of relief. "I'd much rather do that, thank you. I'll leave this political stuff in your capable hands. However, I believed I was promised something if I sat through this prolonged torture?"

[Northen Light36]

"I'm going to go see how Shadow is," Flash remarks and leaves hurriedly.

"Poor Flash isn't too fond of this story," Tuono comments with a soft laugh. "Which makes it good blackmail material sometimes. But before I tell you it, how much do you know about what Maelstorm was like before Shadow outlawed slavery?"

[Kender Bard]

Brow furrowed, Cloud scratched at his arm a little. "I know that there was a lot of hardship between Talen'sul and Maelstrom. Maelstrom would take a bunch of slaves, and we kept sending soldiers to go get them. So I suspect Maelstrom was full of bad people and had a lot of fights?"

[Northen Light36]

Tuono winces. "That's a rather... simplistic way to put it, Cloud. Most slave owners in Maelstrom weren't bad, exactally... I don't think there was anyone who had been born here that could remember a time without slaves." Tuono tries to come up with a situation Cloud can relate to. "You have a sister and a mother, right? And you've been brought up to consider them your equals, so to you that's what's right and normal. But imagine if you'd been brought up by your father to believe that women are below you, that their own purpose is to cook and clean. Everyone around you holds the same belief as well and most of the women seem to accept this position. Would you think there was anything wrong with it?"

[Kender Bard]

"Well, yeah," Cloud said, a little disturbed. "I mean.. Well.. No, I guess not if I was raised that way. But I sure don't like admitting it. And if I saw how it was outside of my home, I'd probably change my mind."

[Northen Light36]

"Maybe," Tuono agrees. "Leaving home was certainly what woke me up to reality. Or rather the beating your uncle gave me when I tried to lord it over him did. But you have to realise, leaving Maelstrom was rare. Oh, a few left on force quests and a handful would be exciled and disowned for not toeing the line. Most people never left our lands and so few questioned the beliefs we were raised to have. Shadow did, thanks to something - I don't know what - that happened between him and Damien and I learnt to... But the majority of people didn't and so there was a lot of outrage that Shadow would give one of the highest ranks in our land to a 'water half-breed'. Flash, naturally, was certain that with so much presure on Shadow to get rid of Flash that he couldn't afford to make a mistake." Tuono smirks and begins the story, "But you might have learnt for yourself by now, when one gets nervous and puts pressure on themselves, they make more mistakes then they would have normally. The very first thing Flash did that morning was come running downstairs, trip on an untied shoelace and go flying right into Shadow. Both of them went tumbling into a wall and the painting above them, a very expensive and new one, came crashing down on top of them. It was ruined of course, it had fallen with enough force that both their heads were sticking up out of the back of the canvas."

[Kender Bard]

Cloud laughed in delight; he wouldn't have if he'd been told that and thought one of them hurt, but it was obvious they were both fine. "Ha! Uncle Flash must have been begging King Shadow's forgiveness!"

[Northen Light36]

"I'm surprised he wasn't offering to clean the floors with his tounge he was so horrified," Tuono chuckles. "And Shadow certainly wasn't thrilled, but he brushed it off and the day might have passed peacefully... If Flash hadn't become even more nervous." Chuckling, Tuono goes on to tell Cloud about how every disaster that could possibly happen happened to Flash that day, including being pranked by a bunch of street children while carrying a message and having to return to the palace naked. "By the formal dinner that night, Shadow was fuming and Flash was so nervous he was visibly shaking and I was certain that both Flash and I wouldn't have a job in the morning. Anyway at one point in the dinner, Shadow was due for a refill of wine... Flash ran across the room with the wine pitcher, slipped on a napkin on the floor and fell forwards. One of his hands caught the, quite low, neckline of the dress being worn by the girl hanging off Shadow and as Flash fell, the cloth tore and left the girl not only covered in red wine, but naked from her neck to her waist."

[Kender Bard]

Cloud laughs so hard that tears streams from his eyes and his side almost hurts. Once he has breath back enough to speak, he gasps, "You said 'hanging off of'. I take it King Shadow didn't mind one bit that the girl couldn't stay?"

[Northen Light36]

"Mind?" laughs Tuono. "That damn girl and her father had been trying to get the girl married to Shadow from before Shadow even came into power. The best part was that the girl started screaming at Flash for 'exposing her' and, well I'm sure you know how much of a smart mouth Flash is. He told her, "We're not seeing that much more of you then that dress already showed." Shadow damn near killed himself laughing and both the girl and her father left in a huff. We haven't seen them again since and Shadow was so greatful to your uncle that he assured Flash that the only way Flash would lose his job was if Shadow lost his first."

[Kender Bard]

Cloud clapped in delight at the happy ending, trying not to have a fit of giggles all over again. "That's amazing. Poor Uncle Flash! Ha!"

[Northen Light36]

Tuono chuckles. "Indeed, although I suspect that right now Flash is deciding that this is the worst day of his life, just because I told you that story. Well, the blow to his ego can only do him good. Come on, let's find him so you two can run off thief hunting."

[Kender Bard]

With a grin of agreement, Cloud scrambled back to his feet and went searching for Flash. "He needn't worry, I won't tell anyone... well maybe Luna, but she doesn't count."