A Homeland for the Homeless

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya Ravenwing sat in her cabin with her head leaning on a bulkhead, listening to the hyperdrive thrumming. Loklorien's last words to her were running through her mind.

Trust me now.

The Wing of the Raven was on a course for Bondan. After a quick stop at Jovan Station to offload the gallo pigs (all the ones they could find, anyway), they were just going to make it to the rendezvous on time, in the next ten or so hours.

Arya tapped her chest absently, letting her eyes close. Just when she was about to fall asleep someone knocked at her door.

"Come in," she called, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

[Dietre san Luthgarde]

Jaassuuvi was taking a nap. He seemed to take a lot of naps. But, it did not bother him so much. Rest was always welcome, especially in the wake of their last stop. The Jovan Station, as Arya had called it... it was teeming with life and sounds and energy. Too much for him, in his still relatively renewed state. He'd not been in this new galaxy for but maybe a month, and what a month it had been!

He'd been given what Arya and Jaassuuvi had both called a 'crash course' in understanding these new times, but it had still not been quite enough to prepare him for the miasma of sheer bodies and life that was contained within a single space station's walls.

And so, he had retreated. He'd sought refuge back on Arya's ship for the remainder of their stay, burying himself in the quiet it offered.

Now though, they were back to traveling. Speeding through the tunnel of hyperspace to... Bondan?

Because of some mysterious woman that Arya seemed to take a liking to?

It was a thought that spurred him on to the door of Arya's quarters, and his hand slapped the hard durasteel.

A muffled answer from inside, and the door opened.

For a moment he stood, collecting his thoughts and the words in Basic that he might need, then carefully stepped past the threshold before the door whisked shut behind him.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya smiled at Dietre, reaching from her bed to where a glass of warm whiskey sat on her desk, the bottle next to it.

"Hey." She took a sip and held it in her lap, curling her legs up underneath her and resting her head back against the bulkhead. "Everything okay?"

[Dietre san Luthgarde]

She was so relaxed. Drinking her brown fire and almost sleeping.

With a heavy breath, Dietre let his chest rise and fall. He was nervous; so new to things, he couldn't help the worry that he would somehow end up in the cold sleep once more.

"De woman. Who is she dat you do what she asks without askink?"

His thoughts pressed on unbidden to the worst possible conclusion; was Arya beholden to a Leh'beni? An A'kha'ri?

[Arya Ravenwing]

"A friend. You know what friends are, right?" Arya quirked an eyebrow and sipped her drink. "Loklorien s'Ilancy. We're like, cousins?"

She shrugged, finishing the last swallow from the glass. "She's a Lupine too. We can trust her." He looked and smelled worried, so she tried to project confidence to reassure him.

"She found something of mine that I've been trying to get back for a while. A medallion that belonged to my father." Arya held up her hand and touched her middle finger to the tip of her thumb to indicate how big it was. "Lok said it was my family crest. But it's all I have left of them."

[Dietre san Luthgarde]

s'Ilancy? He knew of no House with that name. It was enough to make him frown, and Dietre angled his head to the side as he watched Arya describe the crest.

"Like, your Brand, den... but cast in de metal?"

He shook his head, dispelling any answer she might have in favor of yet another question.

"s'Ilancy is not a House dat I know. Are you sure dat she is of our Blood?"

[Arya Ravenwing]

What was it with Lupines and brands? She pushed herself upright and set her glass on the desk, pouring another two fingers of liquor.

"You're looming," Arya said, craning her neck to look up at him. "Have a seat."

She settled back on her bed. "I think her house is... Losstarot? Is that a House?"

[Dietre san Luthgarde]

He was halfway down to sit.

Losstarot.

The pretenders. The second-best. The ones that came after. There were a myriad of names that they had, and none of them particularly flattering.

Again he was standing, 'looming', as Arya had said. Angry eyes now looked down at her as he took a step forward.

"Losstarot is of de rotten Blood," his shoulders hitched back.

"Dey are less dan de ground you walk over. Less dan dat brown fire-water you drink."

He paused, and with a sigh knelt down so that he was directly in front of her.

"Ravenwing, do not go to dis... dis... "

A Losstarot!

"... dis dai'kheh!"

[Arya Ravenwing]

"It's alcohol, I'm sure they had liquor a hundred years ago -" Arya paused as Dietre knelt in front of her, his anger momentarily dissipating before it boiled over again with an expletive of some sort.

She pulled her legs up, shoulders hunching as her Beast raised its hackles. "She's not rotten, she's my friend. I don't know what you think you know but it's out of date."

[Dietre san Luthgarde]

She was adamant in her defense, and Dietre couldn't help but feel sorry for the delusion that she'd been taken by. He could still remember the old stories, the histories, the tales of how the Losstarot waged constant ware with the Loveloxx. With their magics and tricks. With their thralls who never thought twice when butchering the young. And even though they all had an enemy in the dirt-birthed Leh'beni, there was still so much hatred between the two Bloodlines. Sparked by Melkhiah Losstarot's traitorous actions and his betrayal of Townsend Loveloxx, it was a feud that had spanned dynasties.

"De Losstarot, dey are below us."

His accent, already pronounced, seemed to deepen as he went on.

"Dey take de pleasures in givink de Loveloxx pains and heartache. Dey have killed de young, and used de bones as decoration. Dey lie, dey cheat, dey spin de old magics dat makes our, kheh'seh'a... boilink bloods? De mad eyes."

His features hardened even more, at the memory of the last time he had been forced into a Change. Still kneeling before Ravenwing, he felt his shoulder muscles tense, and his hands came up and out to rest palm-down on either side of her legs.

"Dey are of de heretic, and hold his blood. Dey are not friends."

[Jaassuuvi Ageerrodarr]

"Everything okay in here?"

The insides of the ship was a twist of single purpose rooms and connecting corridors. Despite the relative small space there were plenty of hard edges and deep corners for sound to get lost in. Words became garbled and hard to distinguish over the rumble of the engines. Tone, on the other hand, had a way of cutting through the obstacles. It was tone that roused the Cizerack from his slumber and propelled him into the doorway of Arya's room. The tone was harsh, angry. It sounded like an argument.

The Gallo Pig resting in the crutch of his arm squealed it's own greeting.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya surged to her feet, knocking Deitre's arm aside as she stood over him, subconsciously trying to assert dominance.

"Loklorien and I are the last. Were the last. Whatever atrocities her House committed in the past are just that. In the past."

As Jaas' voice came through the door, she turned and shouted, "Everything is fine!"

[Dietre san Luthgarde]

A fraction of a second followed before he heaved upwards as well, and broad shoulders hitching back, Dietre turned to look at Jaassuuvi. Jaassuuvi and the gallo pig. The pet gallo pig.

Despite his furrowed brow and scowling countenance, the Luthgarde Lupine pulled in a deep breath, let it out, and then gave a slow nod.

"Yes. We are all well, in here."

At the last moment, he remembered that good manners were to extend the concern back through the still-closed door.

"And you... are you well?"

[Jaassuuvi Ageerrodarr]

Jaas knew exactly what they were going to say later if he brought this up when minds were calmer. It's Lupine business, Jaas. Keep your nose out of it. Fine. They can tear each other's throats out for all he cared.

Ignoring Dietre's oddball return, Jaas instead thumped his hand on the door. "You don't sound fine."

And with that he turned and left, grumbling under his breath all the way to the kitchen.

[Arya Ravenwing]

Arya shook herself, trying to get rid of the feeling of fur bristling just under her skin.

"We're meeting her in like ten hours, I expect you to be polite. And then we're going to Schwartzweld, or something, I don't know if that's the right name." She swigged her whiskey and set the glass down on her desk, a little too hard.

[Dietre san Luthgarde]

"It is de right name," he groused.

The scowl he wore was a deep one, and slowly, his eyes tracked from the door to Arya once more as his arms came up to cross over his chest.

"I am de last of de Luthgarde Rei'dulf. I will act in de way I am supposed to act."

Like a brooding statue he stood in thought, staring down at Arya as his mind turned over the many possibilities of this future meeting.

"If de Losstarot has magics, we will need Ura'kheta bones. Where do you keep dem."

[Arya Ravenwing]

"What in the hells are you talking about?" Arya thrust her chin out at him. "I don't keep bones on board except for what's leftover when Jaas eats."

And what's a reydulf? She wasn't about to ask that one, though.

[Dietre san Luthgarde]

What in the galaxy had happened while he was in the cold sleep?! Had everyone turned to the arms of insanity?! Had later generations failed their young so much, that the secrets of the blood bones were lost?!

Dietre let out a sigh.

"Dey are like de... kheh'seh'a... you wear it? Only, dey are helpink us to stay in our minds."

There was a frustrated tone in his voice as he did his best to explain.

"If we are around de magics, den we are safe. But only if we have dem."

[Arya Ravenwing]

"Well, yeah, that would be frelling useful. I've never heard of them before."

Arya paused, considering. There had been a few mentions of bones in her mother's journal, but it was all so jumbled. Wait, was that where I heard Schwartzweld before? Her heart sank a bit, and she put thoughts of the journal out of her mind.

[Dietre san Luthgarde]

This day... it could only become worse. First, a Losstarot. And now, Arya did not know of the very things that would help them all, and keep them from being so vulnerable to the whims of a galaxy that already held them in a crushing grip.

"How are you still walkink about? It is amazink dat your modder let you leafe her teet."