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Being from (Ar)Rakis, Sheeana's first thoughts on the dark dreams that had been afflicting her fellow crewmates had more to do with hurricanes and sandstorms than clouds. The metaphor was the same though.

That was her thought as she sat in the lotus position in front of Arha's door (she would not leave her if she had another such dream, but would not tempt herself into sleep by joining her either). Sandstorms. She missed them so, the beating, suffocating, gritty howl of them. Real weather, to rasp at the skin, to shape both person and landscape. Sand or rock crunching underfoot, screaming winds, danger that could be understood and grasped by human hands. I am a desert creature. I need the environment I was born for.

She longed for them as for the touch of a lover.

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Thinking of his past something he had rarely done, but it became easier the more he actually did it. "My father, Gran no'Bhin, was a merchant. Though we were related to a noble House, our bloodline was separated enough that he himself was no duke. That changed when the king of the land took notice of his mercantile wealth, and granted him status as a minor noble, perhaps to keep my father from ascending to even greater unofficial power, and thus, become a threat.

"This was all years before I was born, mind thee. The political system was likely not one with which thou wouldst be entirely familiar. In it, titles for nobility were permanent. Thus, a rich duke was considered less of a threat than a wealthy merchant. As a merchant's wealth increased, so too his unofficial ties and influence spread. As a noble, he was much more heavily supervised, taxed a little more, and prevented from gaining official power of greater heights.

"This worked out well for my father, who had no such ambitions in the first place, but this king was quite paranoid of his position. It would, years later, spell his undoing."

"Maybe more than you think. That was the type of system that led a young Paul Atreides to power, even though it's history to me." But she allowed him to go on, eagerly absorbing the details of how his world worked, already building up a picture of a type 5 feudal system. She would listen until he was done.

"Much like the Padishah Emperor..."

"Ah. I was a middle son, the second eldest of four. I had two younger brothers, two sisters, one younger, one older, and an elder brother. My mother was noble by birth, but given my father's wealth, her parents hardly complained." Khel leaned back against the meatship's wall, drifting farther back, his dialect slipping into the more simplified speech of his childhood.

"I assume my life growing up was quite normal for a low-ranking noble's son. I learned from private tutors with my siblings, studied the weapons and armors my father had made and then sold ... I even studied swordplay, archery, and equestrianism. My life did not change all that much until I was eleven.

"This king I spake of had a policy: the middle son of every noble family, upon reaching his eleventh year, would move into the capitol, and there complete his academic studies and learnings. This held the middle son as a political hostage, leverage in case any noble's ambition outstripped their sense."

"And so you left for the capitol, there to play your part as chess piece for the mad king." She urged him on, drinking in every detail.

"When I went there, I was appalled. The Royal Children with whom I was forced to consort were monsters. To call them base animals would be an insult to animals. Stupid, deceitful, abusive fools, they treated their servants worse than cattle, and they saw to it that any noble child who outstripped them in any field, whether it be academics, swordplay, or even romance, would disappear.

"So I cheated. I pretended to perform just below their level, and this was enough to earn a grudging respect from them without being considered a threat. I lived this way for four years, occasionally breaking out of the palace to explore the city itself, away from guards and caravans and legions of soldiers.

"I saw a city rife with hatred and mistrust. The king's madness was like a plague, infecting all who lived in the capitol, and I knew that if I stayed he would keep me, marry me off to some ignoble baron's cow of a third daughter, and then ship me off somewhere when I had no further use.

"Salvation came in the form of the Paladins of Tyr. They were a knighthood that served only their god, and lived outside the kingdom grounds of all nations. They performed good works for everyone for nominal fees, only making a profit from sidejobs, aiding blacksmiths and the like. I saw their discipline, their grace ... and I saw the fear behind the king's eyes when he paid them for their work.

"So I ran away, sneaking aboard their caravan disguised as a laborer."

"They tend to be, yes. Aristocracies have a long tradition of inbreeding that doesn't help matters." Sheeana wearily giggled at the last part. "So you learned to see the fault lines in a system of power."

"Exactly. Of course I was found out. I was a terrible laborer, and my hands, no matter how well trained, were soft. Still, the one who found me out did not return me as I might have feared. Lord Gren, one of the Paladins of Tyr, accepted me as a squire, and thus began my life of service to Tyr and the brotherhood of His knights.

"Gren was nicknamed 'Grin' by his peers and the pupils at the fortress grounds. It seemed he never once stopped smiling that any could see. I asked him of it, once, and he told me there was too much beauty and joy to be had in the world to expend energy on grief and hatred. When his friends died, and they had before, he grieved in his heart, but smiled for the friends who still lived, and smiled that the pain endured by his comrade was now past.

"His words struck me true, and I endeavored to be more like Master Gren. In him I saw another father, and I loved him every bit as much as I did my real father, who no doubt wouldst think me dead by now. People vanished, noble children vanished in the kingdom often enough for there to be a standard operating procedure concerning it. They got a letter, presumably from the king, offering his condolences, but reminding them of policy, tradition, and demanding my brother.

"I, in my all my selfish youth, thought of none of this. For ten years I trained as a squire, learning all that Paladins knew. When I reached my twenty-fifth spring, I was given the test of all knights. I passed, and was pronounced a Warrior of Tyr, the lowest rank of Paladin. I cared not, however, for I was now a true Paladin. No longer just a child, I was becoming a man.

"It would soon come crashing down."

"I spent two or three more years adventuring with Master Gren, learning and practicing field arts and helping defend border towns from goblin and orc raids. Still, nothing prepared us for what came soon after.

"The king's paranoia overtook him. He was convinced that if the Paladins ever allied themselves with another kingdom, they could overthrow him. He refused to give them that chance, and he mobilized a full legion against them.

"They weren't stupid, and they had a source of information that could not be outclassed: divine insight itself. Gren came for me himself, urging myself and the other Warriors to take the squires and pages, and leave the fortress. We didn't understand then, but we would later. The king's soldiers wiped them out to a man. We were all that remained of the Paladins of Tyr.

"Neighboring elvish nations took us in. The young ones stayed and studied, but we Warriors needed experience. We needed skill and power to overthrow the king and finally end his mad reign, before he sought to expand his rule over the entirety of the world. I was among the eldest Warriors, and so I was one of the new Masters. Barely out of my own apprenticeship, I now had pupils of my own. The following years were difficult, and I often--" Khel leaned forward, the glowing motes that served as his eyes dimming with grief for his long-lost friend and teacher.

"I often missed Gren. I did my best, we all did, but we Warriors were not masters, and we feared that Tyr's faithful had finally been extinguished."

Although he had no voicebox to issue it from, Sheeana sensed pain in his voice. She too had fled a slaughter, had assumed a master's mantle at the tender age of fourteen, had taken on students of her own.

She slid an arm around a shoulder that was all clavicle and scapula bone and leather armor.

"You need not continue with that part if it pains you. You can skip it."

"Nay. I shall press forward, as always. I simply-- my master was a ... good friend." Khel's words said one thing, but the tone spoke quite another. True, he and Master Gren had been close friends, but while Gren had been teacher and mentor, the death knight could only admit to himself that 'father' was the last thing he had considered the older Paladin.

"We became mercenaries, disguising our abilities and past ties as adventurers. We became quite wealthy, and drew in other skilled individuals: wizards, sorcerers, archers, lockpicks and the like. Soon we had our own official guild, and were separate from any kingdom. Being a mere adventurer's guild, the king did not view us as having the same organization and risk as the Paladins. He would often hire us, unaware that the founders of this guild he hired were those who plotted his down fall.

"We did this for years, gaining in power and skills. We remained apart often, but communicated with the aid of wizarding members of the guilds, and squires and Warriors who filled our need as clerics and priests. They gave up their roles as Paladins to serve in a more academic fashion, but they were brothers still.

"In a few short years we were running the largest adventuring and mercenary guild in all the kingdoms. Soon, we knew we would have to strike. As I had already said, my father was a merchant in arms and armor, and I knew he could be trusted. It was time to return home, and let my past and present finally meet."

"I traveled to my father's home alone, with only a wagon bearing guild funds accompanying me. As I should have realized, my father had trouble accepting it was me at first. Still, I convinced him, and we spoke long over what had transpired. The king had my younger brother, as expected, and my sisters were now married and with families of their own. Still, Gran was no fool, and he knew I had come with a purpose.

"I commissioned a battalion's worth of arms, armor and magic items with the funds I had brought. Across the world, other emissaries did the same for the guild. It took a surprisingly short time: only four months to craft it all, and naught but two weeks to transport it out of the kingdom. The time had come.

"Every Guildhall cleared itself out. We had numerous noble allies among the borders, and we all left under the pretenses of aiding their troops with the raid seasons. In actuality, we left for a neighboring kingdom."

"We gathered swiftly, all of us. Wizard, sorcerer, cleric, fighter, ranger, thief ... it did not matter. We were Guildmates, and we had our purpose. A purpose guided by the Paladins of Tyr." Khel's eyes now flashed brightly, twin flames glowing out from otherwise empty sockets

"We had grown used to battling in teams of eight to ten, deliberately training our adventurers to be ready for militarization. We took the concept of an exploration and dungeon party-- and expanded on it. Before the month was out, we had sent a missive to the mad king, and declared war.

"We knew he would need time to consolidate his army. His troops lay scattered through every duchy and noble's territory, ensuring that his people saw his power. What successfully kept his citizens in line, however, was his deadly weakness to our own army. We took none of the rival king's soldiers. We didn't need it. I and the other eight eldest Paladins traveled at the head of a separate army. We would surround the kingdom and move in, take him piece by piece and ensure victory.

"The war was short, only a year, but in that time there was loss and gain, as is the case in most wars. About nine months in, I was struck by a poison arrow during a battle not seventy miles from the capitol. Though we won the day, most feared I would not last the week, for no clerical magic could cure it.

"In truth, my own body had fought off the poison that night, and the fever dream I had was shared by my eight peers. It was a visitation from Tyr Himself. He came to all of us and told us that the brotherhood had need of masters, and that we were to be chosen. We became his Knights, champions of Tyr, justice, and compassion. We would yet need the power.

"On the seventeenth day of the twelfth month, all nine armies were in the capitol and closing in. When we reached the palace, however, we were rocked to our cores by the pure unadulterated evil emanating from it. We, the Nine, went in alone."

"The king;s madness had overtaken him, and in desperation he had tapped into eldritch forces that few dared to tamper with. He was a lich, voluntarily giving up his life essence to animate his body with sorcerous dark magic. No one had known the king was a wizard, and certainly no one expected him to be this powerful!"

"While our forces battled new abominations, demons and undead dragged from the pits of Hell itself, we fought the evil king. For fifteen hours we fought him, sword and shield and faith against staff and spell and hate. Tyr came to us, granting us His blessings. He helped us ignore wounds, heal injuries, and protected us from the darkest and most corrupting powers.

"The tide turned when we approached as one, and we all called upon the greatest power any good of light can grant a champion: the power to Smite Evil. With echoing cries, we swung our blades, where steel met undead flesh! There was a flash of light, a scream of anguish from the king, and the war was over. His mad reign was ended, and his kingdom done with."

"We decided then and there that no one man should ever again have the kind of power that king did. We took his kingdom and split it into nine parts for the Nine, with strips of land for our allying kingdoms. I did not want to rule, but I saw their wisdom, and so I took the smallest kingdom for myself: some tracts of land and forest, and a large island in the middle of a river.

"There I built a humble capitol, and brought my family to live out our days in peace and joy. Though my father and younger brother had died in the war, my sisters and their families, mother, and youngest and eldest brother lived still. I thought everything would be for the better then.

"In only five short years everything was gone, my people dead and enslaved, and I -- I was murdered by she whom I trusted. That, and no less, is how I came to be what thou see-est before thee."

Sheeana reached over and hugged the mass of bones. She felt them and the armor dig into her skin. But she felt she could safely fall asleep there, though she would wake up with the imprint of ribs on her face.

"We are much alike. I joined my order at age twelve too, and assumed a position of responsibility far too young. I am also bound to a god that destroyed my home. I do not believe destiny is a benovelent force but if I were the type I would say it brought us right here."

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