Sand. Lots and lots of sand. Garus had expected that his first time seeing the world would be more…interesting, but as Garus looked out over the desert outpost, he could not help but feel disappointed. He looked around for a moment, taking in the sights or really the single sight. The outpost the council was supposed to meet at in Xerxes was at the edge of their expansive desert, although outpost was a kind word for it. The outpost was only a few poorly constructed buildings with a couple of tents set up. If this was supposed to be the outer defense of the country, Garus struggled to see what kind of defense it provided. Then again, if anyone wanted to get towards any semblance of civilization, they would have to cross an entire desert first.
As Garus observed from the bow of his ship, he noticed the 'Desert Winds,' the vessel he would be traveling on for the journey ahead. He smiled a little, happy to see that the ship was already prepared for travel, meaning they would not have to stay in this desert for very long. However, Garus could hear something coming from the other ship; a large commotion that sounded like yelling. He spread his wings and flew into the air a little bit, hoping to see what was going on and saw some of his new party members engaged in a heated discussion. A smile grew across his face.
"Excuse me, gentlemen," Garus said down to his crew, "if you would not mind carrying my things over to the other ship; I am going aboard." The members of the crew nodded. Garus began to fly over to the other ship; he reached behind him and grabbed his lute, tuning it before getting close to the ship. As he got closer to the deck, he could hear their argument more clearly.
"In what world would I ever let you be the helmsman of my ship!" Prometheus yelled.
"I am blessed by the sea, why would you not want me to be the one guiding the ship?" Rijin yelled back, "Do you expect me to be able to navigate these harsh and treacherous seas without the help of Thalassa?"
Prometheus's blue complexion took on the shade of a deeper, darker color as his anger grew. "Thalassa's help? All you did was walk onto my ship and say 'let me take control of this vessel'; how in the world did that mean 'let me use my blessing to steer this ship?'" Prometheus yelled back.
"I do apologize; I did not realize that the people of Xerxes do not understand the common tongue. Allow me to speak in a way you understand: give me your ship or we will sink," Rijin was obviously annoyed by Prometheus's questioning. And Prometheus was reaching even higher levels of anger at Rijin's inquiries. Garus knew he had to intervene.
He began to strum his lute softly as he got closer to the ship. The men continued to argue until they began to hear the music and watched as Garus softly descended next to them, playing a beautiful melody in hopes of soothing their aggression. The two men looked at Garus with bewilderment. Garus continued to strum, believing that the power of his music could break through their brash nature. Garus began to get lost in the melody; he could feel the music taking control, filling the air; the music was soothing and healing the hearts of the angry. Garus felt elated as he played with confidence. He had seen the effects of his music on the people of Limgren; they always reacted with dancing and singing in joy, or some were even moved to tears. Garus closed his eyes and let himself get lost in the melody. When he finally did open his eyes, expecting to see tears or some sort of movement of the soul; the two men still stared at him.
"What the hell was that?" Rijin finally said, "did you just serenade us for like 5 minutes?"
Garus's mouth dropped to the floor. His music had not been enough to pierce Rijin's soul. "Well, I…I was trying to," Garus started to say but had trouble getting the words out.
"You were trying to do what? Impress us? Get us to sing along in kumbaya?" Qrow asked in frustration.
"I think he was trying to use the power of music to soothe our aggression towards one another," Prometheus says. Rijin chuckled in disgust.
"Maybe if the music was better," Rijin said. His words cut Garus's heart; Garus could not help but keel over in anguish.
My music was not good enough to reach them? Garus thought to himself. He felt the despair coming around him, but in the moment of his despair, the words of his mentor, Harrison Styx, came to his mind like a white blinding light that cut through the darkness despair brought:
"If people are not moved by the music you make, then their hearts are not ready to accept the melody. The problem is never the music; it is always the person listening."
Garus felt the melody come back into his heart. His despair had been rooted out by the brilliance of music. Garus lifted his head ready to strum.
"If the first two did not satisfy your shriveled hearts, then allow this new melody to wipe away the darkness inside," Garus said.
"We do not have time for this," Prometheus spoke up. Garus stopped mid strum, "You are Garus Hayward are you not?" Prometheus said.
"Of course!" Garus said with a renewed smile, "I am happy to be recognized for my work. Are you a fan of Un Direct?" Garus put away his lute and pulled out a quill, ready to sign whatever he needed.
"You were at the meeting, dumbass," Rijin said, "no one outside of Limgren cares about your crappy band."
"OH MY GOSH!" a loud female voice yelled from the gangplank that led up to the ship, "IS THAT GARUS HAYWARD!?!" The group turned towards the voice to see a young elvish woman in ornate yellow and white robes drop the boxes she was carrying as she stared, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at Garus. She jumped around joyfully in a sporadic manner; Prometheus was trying to discern if she was having a heart attack, but Garus was used to this response from his fans, though more typically it was male fans rather than female that acted like this.
"See!" Garus says pointing towards the woman, "that woman is definitely not from Limgren! We do not have elves! I knew I was popular; the power of music cannot be stopped."
"I do not think that Rijin was trying to actually be serious; it seems like he was making a facetious comment," Prometheus answered. Garus and Prometheus both nodded their heads as if they were understanding a complicated truth. Rijin looked back and forth between them, completely astounded by both of them.
"The two of you are future rulers…both of you will one day rule over countries…" Rijin said, looking down with mouth agape.
Soon after, a tall, blonde, elvish girl came up to where the girl was standing and looked at all the luggage she dropped on the ground. "Eritha…" she said in annoyance, "why is all of my luggage on the ground…"
"Mistress look!" Eritha answered, "That is Garus Hayward from Un Direct! Can you believe it!!!" she said, still jumping slightly. The woman was not amused.
"Of course, he is here Eritha…he is on the council…" She said in an even tone, "please pick up my luggage." The woman stopped jumping but was still incredibly elated. Garus felt as if he recognized the second woman that came up; he searched his memories trying to find a recollection of her but between practice, fans, and concerts he could not place her face.
"Lia," Rijin said, "the Penzamite," A lightbulb went off in Garus's head. "You were at the meeting!" He said, snapping his fingers at Lia. Lia looked at him perplexed.
"Yes…" Lia said trailing off, "I thought we would all already know each other, but I guess some introductions are in order." Lia turned to her servants, "you can place my things here and go back to grab the rest," she said in a sweet voice.
"I am Lia of the Court of Sunflowers, heir to the Blessing of life and servant of the goddess of life Alhayaa," Lia bowed a little to the others. Lia was an interesting individual to Garus. She was obviously beautiful, maybe even as beautiful as the Dyvion of Limgren, but she had a harshness to her and her demeanors. When Garus had inquired about Penzamen, his mother would always say they were 'obnoxiously happy go lucky gypsies,' but that was not the vibe Lia gave off. Garus interacted with many different people; it was part of being a musician and had a sense of people's motives and underlying features. Lia looked sweet and innocent, but everything about her demeanor said 'do not fuck with me.' Garus knew she was someone not to be trifled with.
"I am Garus Hayward, as I am sure you are already aware," Garus said, winking at Lia's servant. She swooned a bit, almost dropping the luggage once again but was able to regain her composure just before fully losing it. Garus chuckled at the effect he had on people.
"Yes, I know who you are; there are many in Penzamen who are fans of your music," Lia said. Garus turned and stared at Rijin with a smirk. Rijin simply rolled his eyes at Garus. Garus turned back towards Lia looking rather satisfied with himself.
"Well, I have been known to have fans far and wide," His ego fully inflated at this point, "glad to know I have fans all over; is there a chance that Lia of the court of sunflowers is also a fan?" Garus said. He wanted to gauge Lia, whether she was a friend or a foe, and someone who liked his music was almost definitely a fan.
"No," Lia answered bluntly, "I appreciate your music; the songs you sing about the oppression of the people of Limgren have inspired many people in Penzamen to go against their oppressors; but I personally find the songs filled with fan service and, frankly, vapid." Lia smiled as if she did not just rip Garus's heart to shreds. Garus heard a hearty laugh and felt the large hand of a goliath on his shoulder and Rijin came over towards him. As Garus looked at Rijin, a smirk spread across his face.
"I couldn't agree more, Your highness," Rijin said to Lia. He patted Garus on the back just to add insult to injury. Lia looked at Rijin, and Garus could see the hate in her eyes. She was rather curious about him. Penzamites did not typically express the negativity they held, nor did they typically express hate; her free expressions of negativity towards him and Rijin were shocking but in many ways refreshing. Garus started to feel bad for assuming that Lia would act emotionally fake.
"Yes, well, the music that Garus sings inspires my people to seek freedom from the oppression of your country so while it may not personally be my favorite thing to listen to I respect my peoples appreciation for it," Lia says. This shuts Rijin up immediately. Garus expected a snarky comment or a quick retort, but instead, Rijin just fell silent. This was also odd to him. The people of Midoku were nothing if not proud so a silent Midoken when met with adversity was an odd tune to Garus.
"Damn," a new voice said, "that is the best way to shut two people down I have ever seen." Everyone looked towards the head of the ship to see a man with brown hair, leather armor, and two swords on his back spinning a dagger on his finger. Garus was sure he had not been there when he flew in, but he was also sure no one had come onto the ship since Lia. The man jumped down from the bow and walked towards the group, sheathing the dagger.
"I can go next," he said, "I am Qrow and I also happen to be the Heir to Fearsh," Qrow gave a bit of a half bow.
"How did you get onto my ship?" Prometheus asked, "I did not see you come aboard," Prometheus was befuddled.
Qrow gave him a questioning glare, "I have been here the whole time? What do you mean?" Prometheus looked around for a moment, but with everything else going on his confusion got lost in the rest of the mess. Rijin rolled his eyes.
"You happen to be the Heir to Fearsh?" Rijin asked, "Do you say that because of the death of your brother?"
Qrow looked up at Rijin, "less so because of Haldrin's death, more so because it does not define me. There are a lot of other things that make me more interesting other than being the heir to some old man."
Garus was intrigued by this. Qrow and his father had an attitude with one another similar to Garus and his own mother. He had always assumed that the royal house of Fearsh was a tight ship, their bonds strong and immutable, but the things Qrow was saying here made it seem like there was dissension rather than unity. Then again, Garus knew he could not trust the words of the heir to his country's greatest enemy. Both of them had a role to play; Garus was content with playing the fool, but he needed to decipher if Qrow was playing the role of the willing ruler or if that was actually how he felt.
Rijin Scoffed, "I am Rijin, Son of the Sentinel, Randorin of Midoku. While Randorin may be my official title, I do not require any of you to call me that since none of you are Midoken," Rijin said. Rijin seemed like he was trying to be humble, but to Garus, he just came across as pretentious.
"Wow, thank you for your graciousness," Varithorn piped up, "we are blessed with your presence." Varithorn was clearly being sarcastic with his words, but Rijin did not seem to get that. He nodded in a noble manner towards Varithorn.
"I do not want any of you to feel like you have to treat me with any sort of reverence. We are all leaders of countries here; there is no one on the lower or higher on this council," Rijin said.
"Tell that to the people of Penzamen," Lia answered.
"Or Niepe," Varithorn snapped back.
Garus decided to stay quiet. Midoku had oppressed many countries in the world, but Penzamen and Niepe had the brunt of it more than any other. While Midoku was not on favorable terms with Limgren, the two were not in open conflict unlike some others.
"Bold," Qrow piped up, "to say that being in the position you are in. If anyone has any right to talk about equality among people then it is not you." Rijin glared at Qrow, but most of the rest of the party was glaring at him. Garus was the only one not caught up in the intense staring contest. Garus sighed a little under his breath while pulling out his lute and beginning to strum again. He smiled and began to sing:
This present darkne…
He was abruptly stopped by Lia softly putting her hands on his strings.
"I think we have had enough singing for today," Lia said with a soft smile. Garus was slightly offended but felt that he had read the situation wrong, so he nodded and put his lute away. The others' aggression seems to fade away slightly.
"I am Varithorn, Heir to Niepe, Sorcerer of the Silent Heart," Varithorn said bowing slightly, "I would say it is a pleasure to work with each of you, but unfortunately, it is not." Varithorn is blunt and willing to say his mind; Garus appreciated that about him.
"Well, I guess last but not least I am Prometheus. I am the captain of this ship we will all be sailing on, the Desert Winds, I have quarters prepared for each of you, so if each of you would like to follow me I can lead you to where you will be staying as well as give you a tour around the ship," Prometheus said.
"Thank you for allowing us on your ship," Lia said kindly, "it is a beautiful vessel."
"Yes, thank you for letting us come aboard," Rijin said.
"I am glad y'all approve; it will be your home for the next…however long so I hope it is preferable," Prometheus said. Qrow raised his hand.
"I just have one quick question," Qrow said, "what should I do about Tenatus?" he asked. Prometheus looked confused. Qrow pointed up towards the sky, and the party all looked up. Flying above the ship was a large beast with wings and a lion face and spikes all over its body. Garus stared in disbelief; he had never seen a manticore before but heard they were massive. Qrow smiled slyly and slightly awkwardly.