Figures

Max actually laughed out loud for the first time in a while when she told him his job sounded boring. It wasn’t much more than an amused chuckle, paired with a light shaking of his head, but it surely felt good. Emilia asked him a question, and he had to ponder about the answer for a couple of seconds. “It’s not as bad as it sounds,” he then concluded. “I get to travel a lot, meet new people.” Probably his favorite things about his occupation. The optimism kind of ended there as well, though. “Whether the job’s fun kind of varies from client to client.” Some of them were straight to the point, wanting to talk about nothing but business. Others didn’t take life quite so seriously and were adamant about entertaining their business partners with drinks and courtesans.

Max took another sip of his whiskey, letting it slide down his throat a little hastily this time. “And what is it that your family does?” he then asked. She was well-dressed, had the money to travel, and the time to go on lousy dates. Surely, she was at least somewhat well-off. Quite some women in Navarre didn’t actually have a job themselves, depending on their fathers, brothers and/or husbands for financial support. However, Max got the feeling that she could fend for herself pretty well.

The way he explained it, his job sounded quite alright. Still, he could never bring himself to do anything. Sure, he travelled a lot, to places he was supposed to go to, but he usually ended up doing something else. It wasn’t like his job was hard either. He never had any trouble reeling in new clients, it was just simply that he didn’t want to try anymore. Max was starting to wonder what his next destination would be. Spending time with his family made him want to leave the country again, and he probably would. Soon.

He raised a curious eyebrow when she mentioned that she wanted to leave Navarre for once. Perfect. Max put on a nonchalant face. “I could take you with me,” he offered. “If you have time, of course.” Travelling took quite some time, after all, and Max was planning on spending a significant amount of time across the borders. When he asked what her family did for a living, he got a rather vague answer in return. Her brother had gotten promoted. To what? Max tried to guess. “Is he in the army, then, or..?” It wasn’t at all clear what she meant, and chances were that she wanted to keep it that way. However, she had awakened his curiosity. Max actually smiled when she told him she was a nurse. An honorable profession. “Good to know ,” he remarked. If he ever got in trouble, he knew where to go now.    

Of course she was a little skeptical about him, a stranger, bringing her with him on his travels. They hardly knew each other, but Max absolutely didn’t mind having some good company when leaving for a business trip. “More often than you think,” he answered, honestly. It wouldn’t be the first time he impulsively took someone with him, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Most relationships he had were intense but short-lived, so he was frequently looking for new companions to waste his time with. When she asked where he was going, Max shrugged. “Wherever my brother needs me to go,” he told her. “I think Brightwater Keep was next on the list.” It was about time the rum-drinkers were introduced to some decent liquor.

He lifted his eyebrows in surprise when she revealed that her brother was a Lord. Of a small town, but a Lord nonetheless. After that, it wasn’t difficult to put one and one together. A Navarran Lord of a small town, the family resemblance. “You’re an Amarok?” he asked, slightly amused. For some reason, he felt like he should’ve known right away. Max grinned at the comment she made next, then shook his head. “Oh, no. I’m very careful,” he told her, which was a blatant lie. Especially when intoxicated, he lost all heed for his own wellbeing. “But you never know when such a thing will come in handy.”   

Rhoynar had to be one of his favorite destinies in the entirety of Fallen Skies. The weather was great, the country was breathtaking, and the people were lively and entertaining, if not a bit rude. Valyria was too hot, Falkreath too cold, Nymmerwell too humid. Vanaheim was off-limits. No, Max would call himself lucky if Enzo were to instruct him to go back south again. Apparently, Emilia felt the same. She voiced her wish to visit Rhoynar, and Max grinned. “I’m not entirely sure yet,” he warned her. “But consider this an invitation.” If he were to go to Rhoynar, and she wanted to come with, she was completely free to do so.

Emilia didn’t look very pleased with the fact that he figured out she was an Amarok. Maybe she wasn’t all that proud of her family name, or maybe she simply didn’t like the attention it brought to her. She continued telling him she was good at what she did, and for some reason, Max wouldn’t have expected anything else. “Duly noted,” he said, taking another sip of his whiskey afterwards. After swallowing it down, he looked at her again. After her little reveal, there was a question on his mind. “If you’re an Amarok, and you live in Nordshal, does that mean you’re a… you know-” His voice was a little more quiet than before, not knowing whether it was alright to ask her this or not. Still, he couldn’t help his own curiosity. “A werewolf?”

Of course, there had to be a catch. Men would never just appear out of the blue and offer you their money to travel to where you’ve always wanted to go. Except for the fact that that was actually what was happening right now. “There isn’t one,” he said, shrugging a little. If he was going to go to Rhoynar anyway, and she wanted to see it really badly, why not take her? “I suppose you’d be tied to my schedule, but that’s all.” She would arrive and depart when he did, but otherwise she was completely free to do as she pleased.

His question wasn’t welcomed very heartily, as he kind of expected. Still, she seemed like she was going to answer him regardless. Her response managed to turn up one corner of his mouth. “Only if there’s going to be a full moon in the next five minutes,” he answered. He wanted to bring the glass to his mouth once again, but nearly dropped it as her eyes suddenly flashed green. He managed to hold on to the crystal and put it back on the table, looking at her a little sheepishly. “Damn,” he murmured. “What’s that like?” Obviously, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to turn into a giant feral animal every month.

Max wasn’t planning on babysitting her while they were in Rhoynar, and neither did he think she needed any of that. He always preferred a certain sense of freedom, a no-strings-attached policy. He had no problem taking her with him, but he didn’t want to be tied to anyone at all times. Hopefully, she knew how to find her own way. A playful grin appeared on his face when she pretty much agreed to go with him. “I’ll let you know.” He just hoped it wouldn’t take too long before he actually could leave.

His reaction seemed to surprise her a little, although he wasn’t sure whether it was in a good or bad way yet. Maybe he was supposed to be more sympathetic, maybe he actually should run for the hills. He’d never come in contact with someone like her before, and now that he had, he was interested. His knowledge on werewolves wasn’t exactly up to par, so he mentally reserved the right to ask stupid questions. His expression softened a little at her words, but they quickly turned into  a grin at her final remark. “But you can’t control it, can you?” he attempted to reason. “I mean, the thing that comes out at full moon, it’s not actually you, is it?” The kills they made at midnight were far beyond their control. Wasn’t it unfair, then, to call them monsters?

Apparently, his werewolf crash course was about to start. There were only a handful of things he knew about the terrifying creatures, and he wasn’t even sure if most of them were true. He knew they were regular people that shifted into uncontrollable wolf-like beings at full moon, but that was approximately where his knowledge on the topic ended. Of course, he was very eager to educate himself through her.

As he listened to her, he lifted up his glass once again and emptied its contents. The muscles in his face contracted a little because of the inevitable burning of the liquor, but his mind was completely set on her words. Locking yourself up once a month to avoid hurting people. He didn’t really know what to think of it. He raised an eyebrow when she told him that intense emotions also could trigger werewolves to turn. “Fuck, I didn’t know,” he murmured. That only complicated matters further. “Remind me not to piss you off.” His chances in a one-on-one versus an actual werewolf were rather slim. “It must be nice to have a place like Nordshal then. A safe haven.” Acceptance was never a given, unless you were surrounded by people like you. And even then, it might come with some difficulty. If anything, Max didn’t envy the position she was in.

Emilia wished him good luck. Max didn’t know whether to worry or not. She didn’t seem like someone who was quick to anger, but not everything was what it seemed. He figured he would just have to tiptoe around her in an attempt not to make her angry. Ever. Watching his words was exhausting, but it was still far better than being mauled by a werewolf. Apparently it had been Duncan who was to thank for making Nordshal the way it was now. “I’ve never even been there,” he thought out loud. He didn’t know what the place looked like, or whether he should feel bad for all the werewolves that were ‘trapped’ there. Max smiled when she told him of her goal. He could kind of identify. The Bourbon mansion felt like a prison to him more often than not, although he wasn’t in any position to complain about his life. So he simply kept quiet. “Doesn’t your brother mind that you’re running off all the time?” he curiously asked. Enzo was constantly looking after his siblings, especially his younger sisters. Max, however, didn’t really care what they were doing. Maybe that was a character flaw on his part.