Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Four (section)

===Dinnertime===


Below, Lord Redwind, the presiding second in command of the Twelfth Great Company, slowly paced the small room the serfs had set aside.  He hadn’t met Freya before, but from what little he knew of her, he expected the meal to be eventful, to say the least.
The door swung open, and a pair of skjalds in formal uniforms stepped in and offered up crisp salutes.  “Lord Redwind, on behalf of the Imperial Army Sixth Grand Army Group, I present to your Lordship: General Bletcher and General Mustafa,” one said.  The odd tone in his voice spoke volumes about how unusual it was to speak so formally, even to a Lord, but certain protocols mattered more than others did.  Lord Redwind was nothing if not a stickler for protocol.

The two Army officers walked in and saluted sharply.  Redwind eyed them both before gesturing them to seats in silence.  As they sat, Redwind halted his pacing and slowly walked up to the table.  The loose blue robe of office he wore did very little to conceal his massive frame, and the tracery of tattoos and scars over his face and upper chest.  “Warriors.  Welcome.  I am afraid none of us have a great deal of time to chat,” he said, completely without preamble.  His voice was surprisingly soft, which was all the more unnerving for his bestial eyes.  There wasn’t a scrap of humanity left in them.

“I understand, my Lord, and we are sincerely grateful for the time we have,” one of them said.

“Do not mistake me, General.  I mean that we may discuss freely, but there is another guest arriving shortly, and that guest and their companions demand the highest attention I can provide.  So please, let us be frank,” Redwind said.  His Fenrisian accent brought his vowels long and cut his consonants short, lending him a somewhat imposing tone that did little to put his guests at ease.

“I see.  Then straight to it, your Lordship: the call has come.  I understand that the Seventh has mobilized?” the other General said.

“It has.  Part of it, anyway.  My own company will be next to dispatch on the hunt, I’m sure, if it is dispatched.”  Redwind sat as well.  “What’s your own disposition?”

“The regiments are raised, your Lordship, and the Naval assets diverted.”  The first General looked sideways at the skjalds who stood motionless by the door, and decided not to make a point of them.  “The messages coming in from the fronts suggest that the activity of the green hordes has died down a bit since the dam broke on the Void Walks, but we can’t rely on that.  The very nature of the greenskins is a persistent one: when they find a target, they literally CAN’T stop fighting it.  We have to be ready for greenskin colonies to be forming outside the traditional…‘borders’ of the Imperium,” the General said.

“Naturally, General.”  Redwind leaned forward, setting his unblinking gaze on the speaker.  “What are we looking at?”

“There are whole regions out along the Void Walks that are completely unexplored, sir.”  The General shrugged awkwardly.  “Worst-case scenario, there’s entire Webway networks and Ork empires out there we’ve never even mapped.”

“Sounds like a best-case scenario to me,” Redwind said, very softly.  Both Generals shifted uncomfortably.

Redwind’s ears caught the other guest walking down the hall.  He straightened in his seat.  “Gentlemen, as much as I’d like to sit and talk shop…”

“Of course,” one of the officers said, rising to his feet.  He paused with a gesture from his host.

“…Perhaps we could pause for supper and simply continue after my other guests are gone?” Redwind continued with a slight smile.

“Oh.”  The General sat again, feeling somewhat foolish.  “We’d be honored to eat at your table, of course, your Lordship.”

“Good.”

The door swung open.  Both skjalds immediately sank to a reverent knee.  “My Lord Redwind, her Majesty, Blood Princess of the Rout, Freya Russ.”

Both Generals froze stock-still.  Redwind finally grinned.

He rose to bow his respect.  “Sister, welcome home.”

“Good to be back, Brother Redwind.”  Freya sketched a quick nod and made the symbol she had made before.  “We’re honored.”  She reached her hand out behind her, switching back to Gothic.  “Lord Trader Alex Carlin, Sieur Jacob Seager, Lady Primarch Venus, Lady Primarch Remilia Dorn.”

“A true honor, my Lords and Ladies,” the one of the Generals said, rising to his feet.  He started when he recognized the redheaded girl leading the group.  Freya clearly made the connection, too.

“How’s your hand?” she asked slyly.

“Good as new…Princess Russ,” the General said sheepishly.  “Sorry if I was short before.”

“Sure.”  Freya swept her cloak aside and sat at the table as the rest of the group took their seats, and the skjalds discreetly closed the door behind them.  “I do feel welcomed.  This is hardly my first homecoming, of course,” she added with a tilt of the head.

“Naturally.”  Redwind was still speaking Juvjk.  “Perhaps you could share your own tales with the other Brothers at a later date, but for tonight, we thought you might want to ease back into the routine,” he continued.

“Of course,” Freya said, again in Gothic.

Redwind paused as the skjalds returned with the food.  “Do you not speak conversational Juvjk, Sister?” he asked cautiously.

Freya replied in that language.  “I’m entirely fluent, Lord-Brother, but I didn’t cross the sea of stars with my closest friends to speak in a language they don’t understand,” she said, with an undercurrent of instruction to her words.

Redwind nodded contrition.  “Of course, my apologies,” switching back to his accented, but understandable, Gothic.  Jake eyed the two officers sitting nervously at the other end of the table.

“Afternoon, gentlemen,” he offered.

“Good afternoon…I’m sorry, Lord Seager, was it?” one asked.  “General Anton Bletcher, Sixth Grand Army Group.  This is Lieutenant General Yusuf Mustafa, Ninth Army Group,” he said, introducing himself and his companion, who merely nodded respectfully.

“No ‘Lord’ in there, but yes.  Jake works,” he said.  “We’re out from Terra via Nocturne.”

“A home tour, sir?” Mustafa asked.

“Well, we’re from all over, but we went to school together on Terra until a few months ago,” Jake explained.  Rising sounds from the Fenrisian end of the table necessitated he speak up.  “We’re here for the next…hmm, twenty six days.”

“Indeed?  Afraid we’ll only be here another few days ourselves,” Bletcher said.  “Some of this job you just can’t do through couriers and Astropaths, you know.”

“Security risks, of course.”  Jake dug into his own steak with enthusiasm.  “You just might run into some friends of ours out there in the black, sirs.”

“Pardon?” Mustafa asked.

“We’ve got some friends who enlisted after school,” Remilia supplied.

“Oh?  Good for them.  Do you know what section?” Bletcher asked over his drink.

“Well, let’s see…Andrew was talking about Praetor Field Artillery.  Julius was talking Geno or the Janizars,” Venus said, thinking it over.  “Hana, of course, is just going to go home,” she chuckled.  “And poor Julius is probably getting a taste of it right now.”  She noted Bletcher’s raised brow.  “He was travelling from Terra to Ultramar via Seadelant when…well.”

“Ah.”  Neither General felt the need to continue.

Alex, meanwhile, was trying not to stare too hard at the display of Redwind tearing through his steak.  Even Freya was more sedate.  “So, Freya…” Alex said, looking for a distraction.  “What’s on the agenda for tomorrow?”

“Hmmm…I was thinking we go seize that rock-climbing idea,” Freya said.  “There’s a stable range of basalt pillars around here, we had a small training camp out there before we relocated it.  We’ve got heaps of climbing gear, some of it rated to cargo-hauler levels.  We could go scale the pillars.”

“Sounds like a lot of fun,” Alex said.

“I love it.  First thing I do when I go to a new gym is try the climbing wall,” Remilia proclaimed.  “It’s always fun.  The hive skins on Inwit were rough instead of being smoothed over like on Terra, so climbing the hive walls is something people used to do for fun back home.  Even Mom was a climber when she was my age.”

Freya downed a cup of her honey mead.  “Really?  Never knew that.  Where did you climb on Terra?”

“Oh, the Public Center in Startseite.  I’m just a bit out of practice.”  Remilia sighed.  “Might have to take it a bit slow.”

“I’m a little out of practice myself, but I’d love to go climbing.”  Venus stared into the dusky orange mead in her glass, turning it the color of a sunset over the walls back on Nocturne.  “I should make sure to write home tonight,” she said to Jake.  “I forgot to write when we arrived.”

Redwind paused his consumption long enough to address her.  “Then please send your messages to the Star-speakers Temple, milady, not the system Astropaths,” he said.  “The system Astropaths are way out in the Oort cloud, on a relay station.  Messages can take days to arrive.  The Star-speakers are here in the Fang.”

“Sure thing, thanks,” Venus said.  “Is there a cap on message length?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Redwind said.  “Do speak to their liaison.”

After the meal concluded, the five teens made ready to leave, when Redwind held them up.  “One thing, Sister,” he said, as the other four rose with thanks for the meal.

“What is it?” Freya asked, her hand on the armrest.

Redwind switched back to Juvjk.  “Please understand that any involvement with the Legionary Brothers beyond tomorrow night is at their discretion.  You’re welcome in your own home, obviously…but your friends will not understand.”

“I know,” Freya said.  This time, she was using Juvjk too.  “They’ll be all right with it.  We did the same thing on Venus’ world,” she said.

“Very well.”  Redwind paused to offer the small group a befanged smile.  “Now, do enjoy your stay, so long as you don’t get too near the Thunderwolf pens,” he said evenly.  Nobody was quite sure if he was kidding, save Freya, who kept it to herself with a hidden grin.