Ruin: Hierophant Candidates, Part One

"That's enough for today," Alnira said, looking over her ragtag group of pupils. "Those of you old enough to have chores, get to them. Those of you too young... back to your parents, or whoever's taking care of you now."

She watched as they dispersed. Milathyra had shown up with young Joe R. Pious a week or so after the battle for the sacred grove, and she watched as the two of them moved away again. The boy still woke up screaming in the night sometimes, and after what she'd heard Alnira didn't blame him in the least. Takshin stalked away like he was on the hunt, one hand on each of the scimitars that he'd claimed from the dead. What sort of druid he might eventually become, Alnira had no idea.

As the others moved away, Alnira realized that Ilanora and Nadja, the red-headed weather witch twins, were still sitting in front of her, holding hands. Both were still but girls, but as long as they were together their influence over the weather was uncanny. "Girls?" asked Alnira, to get their attention. 

Nadja looked stubbornly past her. "Who's that?"

Alnira turned, and saw Ruin walking towards them. Towards her, most likely, though his expression was unreadable and his attention flicked from point to point around the camp. "Ah," she said. "That's Ruin."

"I told you," Nadja said to her twin. 

Illanora looked up at Alnira. "Are you in love with him?"

Alnira made a sound that was halfway between a laugh and gasp of surprise. "Sacred Trees, I surely hope not," she said. If ever there was a man who was going to break hearts and never intend a bit of it... "No, but I do need to talk to him."

"Oh," said Illanora, as Ruin reached them and stopped. 

He paused, looking down at the twins, and his expression lost some of its usual intensity. "Hello," he said. "I'm Ruin."

The girls exchanged a glance, then looked back up at him, and after a moment he said: "You don't have to tell me your names, though in some places it's considered rude not to when someone offers you theirs."

"In other places it's safer not to, though," observed Nadja. 

"True," Ruin admitted. "Which sort of place do you think this is?"

Nadja scrunched her face up, thinking furiously, but Illanora said: "It's neither. It's not rude not to give our names, but it's not dangerous to give them."

"Very good," said Ruin. Then: "Girls, will you give Alnira and me some privacy? Not to follow us, not to listen?"

Illanora nodded, but Nadja said: "Wait. I'm Nadja."

"I'm Illanora," added her sister. "We need to check the berries now, but I liked meeting you."

"I liked meeting you too," said Ruin, looking back and forth between them to make it clear that he was addressing both.

Alnira turned to him as the girls stood and walked away. They moved deliberately, not quite as focused as Takshin had been but very much following their own chosen course. "You're very good with them," she said, turning back to Ruin. 

"They're good kids," he said, though to her knowledge he had never so much as seen them before. "Do you have some time to talk?"

"I do," she said. "What did you want to talk about?"

"The Druid Hierophant," he said, looking serious again. 

"Saladhel?" She frowned. The Hierophant's death had thrown the druids into disarray, some of it born from fear and some of it simple disorganization. 

"Yes," said Ruin. "I knew him. Not well, but I knew him. And I condemned him to die."

Alnira gasped, then looked quickly around. Ruin had spoken quietly, in little more than a whisper, and nobody around them seemed to have noticed. Still, druids had notoriously sharp hearing, and she had already heard that Ruin was somehow supposed to replace the fallen Hierophant. 

"We should... We should take a walk. You don't actually know how to change your shape, do you?" She didn't think he could -- he didn't seem like any sort of druid or magus she'd ever met -- but there was something about him that was just feral enough to make her wonder.

"No," he said, "but I can do this." He took her hand and the world lurched around them, and suddenly they were standing in the trees well outside the camp.