Respect and Discipline
(Crossing, Zoluren: Moliko 363)
A shady looking man with a hideous tattoo on his face enters the tavern along with the faint smell of splattered el’pazi and s’lai. After settling himself at the bar he places a plat on the counter and asks for something strong.
Baresh searches out a dusty bottle and pours a shot of it into a glass, setting the bottle beside it. "I certainly haven’t seen many of your likes around," Baresh said.
The man pauses from drinking to reply, "That’s because I usually don’t drink much, but this smell is starting to get to me."
Baresh nods, filling his glass with another shot.
"Doesn’t s’lai flesh reek?” he asked.
Baresh grins and nods asking, “Hack and slash much?”
The man replied by raising his arms and chanting, throwing several glasses to within inches of Baresh before they settle on the counter. “I prefer to kill them quickly, and permanently.”
Baresh steps back a little from the man and asks, “Moon mage I assume?”
The mage once again chooses not to reply in a normal way, as Baresh jumps back a little, hearing the thoughts of the man in his head saying, “But of course. And one of the best. The name’s Tenion Sunquencher.”
Having heard this name before, Baresh smiles and nods. “I’ve heard about your skills.”
Tenion responds, “Oh, the one’s that people don’t want me to use?”
Baresh appeared puzzled as the man says, ”They don’t? I’ve heard stories of you making puddles of commanders and veterans in one cast, why would one not want you to use your skills?”
The mage shrugs and says, “I guess they want some glory themselves, but it seems every time I stop casting, another few of them fall, but not the ones who asked me to stop. Some of the barbarians ask me to stop so they can learn weapons to circle, being stuck here and all. A lot of times I don’t humor them, but it seems to be happening more and more. A lot of times if I don’t listen, they’ll run into the armies alone, and expect me to help them out if they get into trouble.”
He smacks the counter with his fist and Baresh says, “That’s they way people work sometimes, wanting all da glory themselves.”
“I know about wantin’ glory,” says the mage, “but I won’t be sacrificing others for it. Usually it’ll just be myself… over and over. I think the count is around 7 deaths for me, and 1000 or so for them. Everyone has to learn to work together to kill these buggers, there’s more than enough to go around. Grr… the people here need to learn some discipline and respect.”
Baresh nods as the mage chants then disappears.