Honor

[bound_by_honor]

Honor doesn't see mortals often. She doesn't think they're very interesting, but she's seen and spoken to several mages. Helped a few, even. But she's never been tempted to try and leave her home. What is there to gain from the mortal world? The fade is all she needs, ever changing and beautiful and yet so wonderfully straightforward. She is Honor, and she may contemplate that as much as she likes in peace. Not that she's narcissistic, she is not technically honor itself, but it's not for lack of trying. She is, in every sense of the word, honorable and true and right and Honor doesn't understand why demons would ever be anything but.

So when she sees a young, sobbing elven girl, the thing to do is kneel down next to her and say, "Hello. I am Honor, are you lost?"

"Y-Yes," mumbles the girl.

"It's not safe here," says Honor. She's never encountered children before, only the idea of them, she has no idea how that this might not be the right thing to say. Naturally, that causes the girl to cry more.

"I-I'm scared," insists the mortal through her tears.

"Yes, you are, because you are in the fade. It is a scary place for mortals, even mages. You should go home. You are vulnerable, now, with too much power and no idea how to wield it. Many other mages have fallen from stray demons."

"I can't go home," cries the mage.

"Why not?"

"I need - I need help," she whispers desperately.

"What do you need help with?"

"It's my mommy. She's worried, she's worried all of the time and - and we're in such strange places now, she says we can't go back, and she's acting like she's not scared but she is and I want her to stop!"

Honor peers at her. "It is noble of you, to worry for your mother. But you are not aware of what you're asking. I do not meddle in the mortal realm, and any spirits who would you would not wish to speak to."

"Y-You can't - you can't help me?"

"No. I'm sorry."

The girl sobs some more. Honor suspects that if she were a spirit of compassion, she would know what to do with a crying elven girl. But she isn't, so she doesn't. Honor doesn't do anything at all, except watch.

"I don't - Mommy says I can't see my big sister or my father or any of my friends again and what if I lose her too, I don't know how to get home!"

"You will need to be strong," says Honor.

"I don't know how!"

"It is a difficult thing to teach."

"Are you strong?" begs the girl, desperately.

"Yes," says Honor, without a trace of doubt.

"Can. Can you teach me?"

"Perhaps. If you will conduct yourself honorably from my teachings."

"I will!" promises the girl.

"Very well," agrees Honor. "What is your name? I will teach you the ways of strength, bravery, and honor so that you might grow up and conduct yourself as such."

"Viandra. Thank you," she says.

Honor hasn't had a student before, but she copes. A lot of the philosophy goes over the child's head, which is quite frustrating, but Honor will not hold it against her. She is her teacher, now, at least temporarily, and so the holds herself responsible. That is the honorable thing to do, Honor is certain of it.

After , Viandra says plaintively, "I think I need to wake up."

"Why?" asks Honor.

"My mommy will be worried if I stay too long."

Honor nods. This makes sense. "Then I shan't keep you. Go, and remember what I've taught you, for the lessons will serve you well."

Viandra nods, and then she looks up at the spirit. The spirit looks at her.

"Can you come with me?" asks Viandra.

"No," says Honor.

"But -"

"The mortal coil is not meant for spirits. Only demons want to visit it. And I am not a demon."

"Oh."

"You should depart, your mother is waiting."

"Okay," mumbles Viandra.

She looks up at Honor with an expression Honor doesn't recognize. What is that? Hm. Well, she doesn't think she cares, actually, the mage girl is departing and now Honor can be left to her peace and quiet.

"I want you to come with me," says Viandra. And that's when Honor recognizes the expression. Desire.

"I cannot-"

"Yes. You can!"

There is a flash of light. The fade spins around her, and Honor knows and sees nothing.


------

When she opens her eyes, Honor is surprised by the light. It's so bright, where in the fade is she? She looks up to the - blue? - sky and sees a blinding orb of light. "Ack," says Honor, shielding her eyes from the unfamiliar - thing.

.... That was not her voice. Her voice echoes, and it's deeper, softer, less high pitched.

"What...?" hisses Honor. She struggles to a sitting position, on - on limbs that are too short and spindly to be hers.

Very, very carefully, she looks around. She is - someplace she's never seen before. The world around her is wrong, everything is wrong. The ground she sits upon is too uniform, the buildings she can see in the distance too tidy. There are no landmarks that she recognizes, of any kind, not even the black city. And she should see the black city, because in the fade, you can always see the black city.

But she's not in the fade, is she.

"What did that girl do?!" mutters Honor, standing on her weak, fragile, too-short limbs. She wobbles, a bit. She rights herself, and looks around for the girl. Where is that little brat?! After Honor helped her, she drags her here, out of her home? Where demons want to be, and pathetically weak mortals roam free? Where the world is unchanging and static and and - and ugly?

"I want to go back!"

"Oh, sweetie," says a voice Honor doesn't recognize. "I know you do, but we can't, okay?"

Honor looks at the woman, staring. Elven, with the same distinctive black curly hair. Viandra's mother, she assumes. Oh. Oh no. And she thinks that Honor is Viandra. She's in the elven girl's body. That's - where is Viandra, and why is Honor in her body?

How does she get home?

She doesn't manage to figure it out before the templars find her. She has two choices - death, or join the Circle, even at the apparent age of six. Honor suspects that death would send her home, but in some way, she feels responsible for the child's mistake. She should not die while someone else is in her body, for someone else's actions.

So she goes with them, to the tower in the middle of the lake that looks as lonely as she feels.