-Andre Malraux

John's plan had accounted for everything he might face, but he had to admit… when he strolled into the Order's Barracks, when the other roommates of Etriyya filed out one by one, and with the fiery Knight staring at him? That was a wholly new level of determination he had to meet.

The room was empty except for Etriyya and John. Seras was waiting outside, and John had already seen those Etriyya now held as bunkmates retreat to the farthest corners of the Order's Estate that they could manage. Though he might have felt a bit less awkward with someone else present, John couldn't blame anyone - including Seras - for their insistence on avoiding the room at the moment. Etriyya looked not unlike a cornered animal, ready to lash out at any target available. She had even taken to oiling her sword, the most hostile action she could actually muster without disregarding her Warden's orders.

"So, come to interrogate me, have you?" Etriyya spoke, forcing a laugh so painful that John winced a bit at its delivery. "I must warn you, the Warden herself insists on all of her closest Knights going through proper training at the hands of the Inquisitors themselves."

"I don't… I really don’t mean to interrogate you, Etriyya," John insisted, shaking his head for emphasis.

"Really? You ask a proper lady about 'er lifestyle, she politely declines, and you get her bloody boss to order her to fulfill your demands? If I had half a brain about me, I'd flog ye for being such a ruddy spoiled child!"

"Listen, I-" John took a moment to compose himself, refusing to fall for Etriyya's attempts to get him into a shouting match. If anything, her rattled voice and shaky dialect were only adding to John's certainty that he was close to learning more about the Knight - and intensifying his desire to do so. The quest he'd obtained to learn about Moira and Tricia's relationships thrust him into the middle of a cursed mage and the Warden doing her best to keep said mage as imprisoned as she could morally allow. Why had he obtained a quest about what appeared to otherwise be an ordinary Knight with the occasional and dulled accent?

"Etriyya, I know you are not happy about this, but it is the only way I can complete my rapid advancement."

"Well, god forbid my personal fucking privacy stands in the way of your goddamn bullshit quest!"

John didn't have an immediate response for Etriyya's very valid anger. Frankly, he was rather disturbed by his own need. Even if Moira was right, even if Gaia had commanded him to follow this path… why was he intruding on such sacred ground? His own curiosity was not enough; why was a Goddess' insistence so much better? It surely held a higher authority, but what good was that authority with no proof?

"I will try not to ask anything too personal. Give me the minimum answers you can, I just… Knight Etriyya, you have my sworn word that I would not do this if I didn't think it will save lives. And I promise nothing will leave this room without your explicit consent."

"Promises…" Etriyya scoffed in a way that John had not expected, shaking her head with a world-weariness he would never have seen coming from such a youthful and exuberant woman.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, except that your promises alternate in severity between being as light as a feather and as burdened as an anvil," Etriyya said with a long chuckle, avoiding anyone's gaze save her own in the reflection of the blade she now polished. "You are an anomaly in so many ways you cannot even perceive them all. Not the least of which is that none of your promises or vows we are aware of have been resolved yet. You could be an honorable man who will never break his word, or a fiendish scoundrel who would sooner slit your throat than keep a promise."

"I…" John had nothing to say to Etriyya's insistence. It was true that most of his promises had been to keep the Order safe, something he couldn't prove over any one instance. The rest of his vows and words Etriyya knew little and nothing about, meaning they were less than worthless to her.

"That sounds about right," Etriyya laughed with spite, shaking her head as she glanced over to John. "Promises and vows in the Abyss are a highly varying measure of worth. For some, a few words and a noble intent are worth more than their weight in enchanted titanium, more than an entire legion of well-equipped guards. For others, I would trade a vow for their very souls for a single piece of straw. What your word is worth remains to be tested in any real measurement… but all the same, a part of me yearns to find what your promises are worth, John Newman. It is a foolish, yearning part of me that I have tried to beat into the ground like the foolish optimism of a schoolgirl, but I cannot escape it no matter my pessimism."

John stared at Etriyya as a part of him contemplated how to approach this. He needed to at least try to minimize the damage that he had done just then - but if it came down to it, his relationship with her was less important than his actual life or the lives of his companions. A quest reward like he had gotten for Tricia and Moira was enough to get him a level even if it was nowhere near as generous. Anything he could get was worth a small sacrifice.

"Etriyya, I am very sorry for this, but anything I get could be used to save my life, the lives of my friends, or the lives of any member of the Order or our allies. I know that doesn't make it alright, but please - be pragmatic. I won't pry, I'll only ask what I absolutely need to in order to fulfill this quest. Last time I only needed two or three pieces of big information."

"Yeah, two or three big things people really wanted to avoid talkin' about, I'll bet?"

John winced, remembering the depth of the information his prior quest had compelled him to seek out. While none of it was necessarily secret, it was not revealed without provocation and some severe circumstances, and it had brought up emotions that were better off avoided.

"…More than I'd like to admit," John sighed.

"Glad you know how it feels."

John ignored the bite from that comment, convincing himself as best as he could that this was what was right. The Cabal had to be defeated and their deeds stopped. It was the only way John could keep his promise to Maera, the only way Tricia might be safe again for a time.

"Where did you get that half-accent of yours? You speak totally fine most of the time, but when you're upset - like now - I can't help but notice just the slightest tinge of something. I can't pin it down, either."

"Neither can I," Etriyya scoffed, shaking her head, "that's why it's all over the place. I travelled Europe for a while. Lived in a few different countries. Big deal - is that all you needed?"

Storyline Quest Advanced!
Storyline: Age After Beauty Part 2 has begun!
Quest Objective: She's going to make this like pulling teeth, isn't she? Find out what Etriyya was doing in Europe for all those years.

"Years?" John asked, glancing up.

"Maybe a couple, why?"

"N-no, that wasn't a question - this says you were living there for years?" John mulled over why that sounded so wrong in his head.

"Oh Gaia, you really are getting info from somewhere then? I was still hoping this was all a shoddy attempt at seduction," Etriyya breathed, shaking her head.

"Sorry, but no. It wants me to ask what you were doing for 'all those years'."

"Little of everything, little of nothing sometimes," Ettriya said off-handedly. When John raised an eyebrow to show how little even he thought of that answer, much less his quest, Etriyya gave an exasperated sigh and continued on with a roll of her eyes, "Really - I did whatever I could scrape by on. Enchanting jobs, manual labor, mercenary work, anything I thought I could survive. I was a freelancer; since I was never associated with any guilds in the Abyss back then, I was a free agent. As long as I didn't get my nose too deep into any one of them, I could keep doing work and be safe from most of them. Well, all the ones with a speck of honor anyway."

"You did that much stuff?" John asked, genuinely curious now. "How long were you there? You look like you're in your mid-twenties, but to get that much experience-"

"I thought you were only going to ask questions from the quest? Unless it's so important to Gaia to know how old I am, not that she wouldn't already…"

Storyline Quest Advanced!
Storyline: Age After Beauty Part 3 has begun!
Quest Objective: Figure out how old Etriyya is.

John didn't even have to say anything. To a veteran Knight like Etriyya, the flicker of his eyes to the side and the way that he winced as he glanced at those words told her all she needed to know.

"You're kidding me?! She obviously already knows, why doesn't she just tell you? She's basically leading you down the path to find everything out anyway!"

"Everything?"

"Gaia forbid I have some secrets," Etriyya spat. "Oh wait! Apparently, she actually does! You want to know, ya wee little brat? I'm seventy-three years old!"

John's eyes went a bit haywire as his neurons misfired for a full second after hearing that, glancing over the form of Etriyya. Even in her full armor, it was relatively plain to see that her figure was that of a very youthful, fit woman. Her face, unmarred by any imperfections and only colored by the tattoos across her forehead and neck, flowed with the sharp curves and smooth grace of what was unquestionably a beautiful woman, but a very youthful one yet.

"Wow, I- I did not expect that."

"Oh, come on. Moira has told you a little bit about magical extensions on life, hasn't she?!"

Storyline Quest Advanced!
Storyline: Age After Beauty Part 4 has begun!
Quest Objective: You're on the right path. Keep going down this road.

That quest description was a lot less direct and helpful than the last couple, leaving John to pause as he contemplated where this line of questioning was leading. Why would Etriyya be so embarrassed about him learning these things? True, one should never ask a lady her age was something he'd been told quite often enough, but Etriyya had never seemed overly formal or vain. She was just as beautiful as she'd been fifty years ago. But then…

"That's actually really cool!" John said, smiling as he tried to lighten the situation a bit with a few compliments. "I knew you were one of the most magically skilled Knights around here; is it because you're older than most of the Knights here? The rest of the ones I talked to when I was here said they have only been working for the Brightons for the last few years, since they came to America. You were probably with them before, right? Why did you come over but nobody else? Actually, why did Moira and her father come over? How long have you been working for them?"

"That is their answer to give, not mine," Etriyya insisted, holding out a finger. "Moira ordered me to answer your questions, but it was under the assumption they would be about me."

"Okay, that's fine - why did you come over with them? Why did no one else?"

"There- I- John Newman, please… just abandon this quest. You can surely get another, can't you?"

"Not before whatever plan Moira has to attack the Cabal goes into effect. Not before all our lives are at risk."

"If you'd have just stayed here, we could have- we could have-"

Etriyya howled in frustration and stood from her chair, donkey kicking it so hard that the chair collided with her desk, snapped the back entirely off at the seat, and sent both separate parts clattering to the floor. John jumped at the sudden noise, seeing in Etriyya's face something he hadn't seen even in the heat of the battle. Her nostrils were flared, her eyes wild. She bore the look and intent of an animal fighting for its life, ready to lash out at anything in its distress.

"I can fix that, I'll pay for a new one," John offered, trying to mitigate some damage from the situation.

"Why would I need you to fix that?! That's what I learned how to do!"

John was a little confused until Etriyya put her hand out, and with a blue wave of energy, the chair knit itself back together. It even properly situated itself by sliding under the desk again, and the few dents and cracks the impact had put into the desk itself were immediately sealed again.

"You don't seem like the angry type, why learn that?" John's question garnered only another scream, this time causing Etriyya to slam her armored fist into the desk itself, splintering the wood and bowing the legs from her fury.

"John Newman, if you were not so innocent that it's almost pathetic, I would throttle you for playing with my feelings like a toy!" Etriyya emphasized her point by grabbing at John's collar, before glancing down at her hand and scoffing as she released him and began to pace the room. John bristled at the insult, used to being called innocent but never in such a hostile tone. Disbelief, yes, disdain, no. "I learned this because these are the things I chose! You want my secrets, my history, my age? I know not why your abilities cannot tell you themselves - they have clearly been leading you to ask these questions, so they must know already!"

John opened his mouth to say that he didn’t know why, that his own abilities couldn't give him perfectly mundane knowledge, but Etriyya didn't seem interested in a genuine answer. As she stalked the corners of the room, she continued speaking while only occasionally glancing up at him. Before she had gone much further, she waved her hand once, and a purple glow covered the walls of the room.

"Very well. If you insist on knowing the things only two others in this compound are aware of, I will at least ensure it does not leave this room. If you do not receive a quest to spill my secrets, that is."

"That's not f-"

"It is perfectly fair, and you are actively demonstrating why! How much do you need to know, John Newman? Be specific, if your abilities have any mercy!"

Storyline Quest Advanced!
Storyline: Age After Beauty Part 5 has begun!
Quest Objective: It is dedication, not your grades, that have failed you.

"It… it doesn't say what I need to know. It just says 'It is dedication, not your grades, that have failed you'. I don't know what that means."

Etriyya paused for a moment, her mouth hanging agape. John could feel the same reaction that had passed through him when Etriyya told him her age, only it was amplified in the glorious brunette. She went so far as to stumble, missing a step in her rounds and collapsing briefly against the wall.

"No… not that, surely? How would- it was just-"

Etriyya returned to her desk shakily, armor rattling as her knees struggled to carry her with the same grace and wrathful pride they had held only a few moments ago. It wasn't until she was seated again that she regained her demeanor, meeting John's eyes with a firm intensity.

"This is something more than I realized. I only wish I could know what it means. Now, be silent. This is not easy for me to admit to myself, much less an intruder."

Was that what he had become? It wasn't entirely wrong. John tried to steel his resolve, but Etriyya's repeated chastising and his own conscience poking through were making that incredibly difficult.

"I have worked for the Order twice in my life. Once before, as a teenager, and again as Lady and Lord Brighton were relocated here. The first time lasted only two years, and I spent the entire time within their British manor, which is why I was not a known associate of theirs. I was raised in an Irish noble family - well, noble in the Abyss, to the extent that a single nation's nobility means anything to anyone outside that land. Outside the Abyss my family were just the owners of a few foundries. In the Abyss, we supplied the Order and a few other organizations we trusted with weaponry.

"From an early age I didn't have much interest in running the family business - my younger sister had a head for numbers and management, and two of my brothers were already working as Enchanters to enhance the steel while it was being formed, so I knew that it would be in good hands anyway. I wanted to be on the front lines, to see what our weapons and armor were being used for, and to really see the people we were helping."

"Sounds like a noble goal, uh... no pun intended."

"Silence," Etriyya hissed, "you only make things worse! Given our status in relation to the Brightons, it was a given that I would be accepted as a recruit - they had likely run a hundred investigations into myself and my family over the decades, so there was no reason I would not be trusted. So I began to study under their tutelage, a young woman of twenty-four readying herself to spend a lifetime on the most hostile frontier in existence - the Abyss, and all those who would stand against the Order.

"Six months in, everything was going well. I was toned from my apprenticeship at the foundries, and the Order taught me how to wield that strength. I had experience with magic, more than most raw recruits, and they taught me how to refine it and make it something powerful. I was so excited that I began to search out new and exciting forms of magic. Magic for war, magic for peace, magic for love, magic for daily chores…"

Etriyya's hand had come to rest on the corner of her work desk. There came a creaking sound, a mixture of metal and wood, as Etriyya's grip tightened slowly. Etriyya didn't seem to notice until her hand finally tipped the balance of pressures and began to press through the wood itself, splintering and misshaping the wood with only the pressure from her fingertips.

"Magic for life," it was almost a whisper as she stared at the splinters and shards of wood decorating the crevices and joints of her glove. Rather than casting a spell, Etriyya picked them out slowly, one by one, until she had gathered the last of them. Then she piled them up on the corner where the damage had been done and left them, turning her gaze to the floor.

"I had always known that certain people, like the Wardens and more powerful of mages, could learn to extend their lives, but that magic was unrelated to what I had learned. It wasn't even something the Order taught - it takes months to learn and years to master for most people. I stumbled upon it in the library they allowed us to access, the non-Order spell and history books - the ones they didn't keep under lock and key."

Etriyya paused, raising up a hand and running it through her hair. Twirling a soft, brown lock, she gazed wistfully at it for a moment. Then she reached down and began to remove the armor itself, stripping away the partial gauntlet and the blue gemstone embedded in the palm. She laid the armor gingerly on her damaged desk and gazed over her arm. It was one of the few times John had ever seen her without any piece of her full suit of armor on, and he was again struck by the flawlessness of her skin. Not a mole, not a wrinkle, not even a scar… the tattoos were the only thing that broke up the endless curves of pale skin.

"I had… always been a brilliant smith, an excellent mage, and a decent swordswoman. But for as skilled as I was, for as much effort as I tried to put into everything I did, I still got more compliments on my beauty than anything else. I ignored them as best as I could, but I still felt a sense of pride. Foolish, isn't it? Pride in beauty, the only thing I had that I didn't work for. But I knew from seeing people in the Order and my family that a man in his fifties or a woman in her sixties could swing a sword and handle a hammer and anvil nearly as well as someone half their age.

"But beauty? That peaks early, and can only ever diminish. It was something that I couldn't conquer with effort alone, but there - there in that lonely, dusty library - I found something I could work toward. The only catch was that magic which can reverse aging is above and beyond merely delaying or halting it entirely… it is difficult to achieve, and can take years of focus. Years that might well stretch into decades or longer if I were constantly busy, always on the run completing missions and assignments for the Order.

"So I studied on my own. At first I tried to balance between the Order's studies and my personal ventures. My performance lagged a bit, but it was going well. Then, after yet another night spent following in Ponce de León's footsteps, I would wake up with shadows under my eyes, dry skin, or fraying hair. My desperation slowly grew as the months ticked on. After my twenty-fifth birthday, I began to redouble my efforts, the very number twenty-six filling me with more terror than any instructor or foe I had faced off against before."

Etriyya's voice was still level, but now John could see it. Etriyya's stone-cold face was set in grim determination, but her eyes betrayed her. A wet trail traced its way from the corner of her eye, down and just around the corner of her mouth to drip abashedly against the distant floor.

"In time I ceased my studies altogether. I had once reckoned myself superior to every other student at the training grounds I attended in at least one field, even if they bested me in another, but after two years at the academy I was scarcely better than the failures. And then I became one. I had made so much progress, come so far and demonstrated that I was capable of going further, that I don't think they gave up on me… I think they knew. I don't know if they were watching me at the library or if they had been monitoring us in our spare time, but I'm sure they knew. So they failed me and banished me because I had prioritized my own vanity and a foolish pride I never asked for over the Order itself and the mission that it served.

"So, what was I to do?" Etriyya shrugged helplessly. She slowly stood from her chair and began to remove her second glove, placing it beside the first. Then her hands traveled downward, beginning to undo the straps of her armor. John opened his mouth in shock, as the first buckles fell away, but Etriyya let nothing show on her face as she continued.

"I couldn't return home, not in good faith. Were I a fool or a delinquent, I could have pretended that I had given it my all. But vain and foolish though I may have been, I was not a liar. I could not look my family in the eye and deceive them as to why I had been unable to become a Knight… and I could not look them in the eye ever again if they knew the reason why. So I did not return home. I sent only a simple message to assure them of my well-being and inform them that I would not be home again.

"Then I was in the wind… I hid my identity as much as possible to avoid my family tracking me down, but they never showed up. I still don't know if I succeeded or if they were simply never looking that hard. I can't blame them. I didn't want to return home, and I'm sure they didn't want me back anymore. I spent decades on my own, travelling from country to country through Western Europe. When the Brightons were sent to America, they were deprived of most of their forces… I saw an opportunity for redemption. I had learned a variety of skills through the years, some mundane, some magical, and all useful in or out of combat for an organization struggling to function. Then I wound up here… roommates, however briefly, with a young boy determined to make me relive it all."

Storyline Quest Completed!
Storyline: Age After Beauty Completed!
Rewards:
+6,000 EXP!
+5 Charisma!
+1 Acute Emerald
+1 Blarney Whetstone
+War Completion Rewards

John has Leveled Up!
John has reached levels 13 and 14
+6 to all stats

"E-Etriyya, that's enough, it's over," John stammered as the completion notification arrived. Etriyya had, through the last of her speech, continued doing buckles and removing bits of cloth from her body. First her breastplate, the leather armor underneath, and then even her tee and the bra hiding beneath. Her boots were cast aside carelessly with the socks still half hanging in, and now her greaves had clattered noisily to the floor.

"Is it? You wanted me to bare myself for you, John Newman," Etriyya said, eyes filled with hate as she hooked her hands under the waistband of her remaining garment, in one motion stripping herself of her last bit of decency. John glanced to the right, but immediately found himself verbally accosted.

"Don't you dare pretend to respect my privacy after that! Look at me!" Etriyya had no apparent shame, holding her hands out and baring it all for John. Her tight, taut B-cups hung freely, and a lightly-trimmed bush of reddish-brown hair was clearly visible as she took a wide stance to confront him.

"I'm not ashamed of my body, so don't pity me. I'm ashamed of what I did for it. I walk around every day in a reminder of how my youthful dreams of valor and honor were overpowered by a young woman's vanity and pride. There were so, so many women in those classes that were stronger than I was, and I couldn’t even see it. I thought myself above them, and I was so afraid of being lowered to their level on one thing that I risked and traded every scrap of dignity I had for it. So, have you heard enough, John Newman? Have you seen enough?!"

"Yes, yes," John pleaded, still not looking away, "I've seen enough!"

"Good. Then get the fuck out of my room. And if you tell anyone what I've shared with you here today… well, then at least I'll have learned one thing about you today."

Before ashamedly ushering himself outside, before allowing himself to begin praying that those two levels were worth the damage he had just done, John stole one final glance at Etriyya while passing her. A quick Observe told him everything that he wanted to know… and only deepened John's regrets.

Etriyya MacGabhann
Level 14 Magiknight
<Knight of the Order of the Golden Rose>
235 / 235 HP
Relationship: -37
Alignment: +61