Completed In the Balance

Logan Banick

The Northwarden
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From Philomina Pirian's gala at the Pirian Estate did they depart. Two years had it been since Logan Banick and Kailani Tal'deneshaar had last seen one another, and at the gala that they were reunited. But the gala proved an inadequate setting.

You powers are astonishing, and to them I owe a great deal.

This Logan had whispered to her. This, Logan feared, might be the very thing which could come to be more dangerous than any foe to the Republic of Vel Anir. For while both of them had served in the Anirian Guard, it was the harsh tradition and law of the land that those with magic were all to be sent to the Academy. A high crime indeed for those with the gift of magic to seek to avoid it.

Thus the weight of their discussion. The thread which begged mightily to be resolved.

One such thread among others, Logan thought, if you are being honest with yourself.

Yes. What futures hung delicately in the balance.

Kailani, visiting from the lands of the Tal'deneshaars in the North, had for herself a room at The Immaculate, an inn which, much like the Golden Rose Cafe, catered only to Vel Anir's upper crust.

Logan shut the door to the room, leaning his back into it. The lights inside the room were magical, soft and easy on the eyes. The bedroom was canopied and the there was an attached washroom, and out through the window could the winking lights of lanterns and candles and torches and other such things be seen across the span of Vel Anir. This single room contained within it more luxury than Logan and Kai had ever known in their service together in the Guard.

Logan reached up and pulled off his ascot.

"I had nearly forgotten how to properly wear one of these," he said, holding the ascot up. "Yet it came back, the memory of it, all of its own accord."

And he smiled.

"How effortlessly we can slip back into the familiar."

Kailani Tal'deneshaar
 
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Kailani had felt extremely torn about bringing him to her room but she had finally justified it with the fact that he needed to speak with her about something very important. They needed privacy to discuss whatever this matter was that was burdening Logan so much.

She turned to see him resting against the door as he removed his ascot. Gorgeous, she thought as she watched him.

"I think it looks good on you but I prefer the rugged Guardsman to this Nobleman in front of me," Kailani smiled and stepped closer to him.

"How effortlessly we can slip back into the familiar."

We are here to talk. We are here to talk. We are here to talk.
It did not matter how many times she repeated those words in her head because her feet were moving of their own accord.

Kailani had come to stand in front of Logan before she realized what had happen. She wrapped her arms around her neck and brought his face closer to hers.

"I missed you, Logan...I miss you so much," she whispered quietly.


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"And I you."

Before he knew it, he'd tipped her chin upward and upon her lips he'd planted a kiss. Soft, gentle, though at the same time tentative and brief. It brought to mind—

(what were they, before?)

—those concerns, that arresting self-awareness he'd had when first he came up with the idea and again when he'd told her of it. Did he want Kailani to come back to the North to aid his banner of Knights, to do this for the good of Vel Anir?

Or did he want her to come back because he wanted her?

The peril remained pervasive and dire, no matter what the heart said. Kress, he hoped that some selfish desire wasn't deceiving him into thinking this was all a sound idea. He would never be able to forgive himself if something were to happen to her on this account.

"I will speak truly," Logan said, his voice matching then the quietness of hers. "I have kept cherished memory of our time together. Of that night."

Kailani Tal'deneshaar
 
Logan’s kiss filled her with a warmth that she had missed and longed for. It immediately brought back the feelings of their forbidden -

(whatever they were, before...)

- relationship. She wanted nothing more than to stay in his arms all night but they had come here to talk in private. There was something pressing on his mind surrounding his admission that he wanted her to come up North with him.

"I have kept cherished memory of our time together. Of that night."

Shivers rolled through her body and she felt her dark cheeks grow warm but she did not break eye contact with him.

"What did you want to speak more of, Logan?" Kailani asked as she finally stepped away from him.


Logan Banick
 
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All that he felt in that moment before their parting precisely pinned down the wisdom in coming here, in an attempt to make the soundest decision possible. It would be to neither of their benefit if this idea of his ultimately turned out to be foolish—deadly, even—and they only saw it when it was far, far too late.

Logan walked to the foot of the bed. Sat on its edge by one of the posts holding up the canopy. And in a thoughtful way he crossed his arms.

"I wanted to explore with you this idea of mine, that of you becoming a contractor."

He met her eyes.

"I care for you, Kai. And while your enthusiasm fills my heart with joy, this is no small matter to consider."

And then he realized what he said, a smile spreading and a soft, singular laugh and a shaking of his head followed.

"Here I am, telling you that."

Kailani Tal'deneshaar
 
Kailani followed Logan and sat down next to him on the surprisingly soft bed. She should not have been surprised though since she had gotten one of the nicest rooms in the inn. Kai could easily sleep anywhere but she would always choose comfort when given the option.

Kai held Logan's eyes as he spoke before she just smiled and looked down at her lap for a few moments before responding.

"I care for you too, Logan. I want to be with you," she paused as she debated if she wanted to clarify anything there. Nah.

"I think being a contractor sounds interesting but I am curious how it would work and if your superiors would allow it..."

She wouldn't be in the Guard so what rules would she follow and not follow? It was a strange concept to her to be sure.


Logan Banick
 
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"Two of my chief concerns," Logan said. Despite the gravity of the topic at hand, he couldn't help but to smile—it wasn't the first time Kai had spoken the thoughts in his head, or had stolen the words right from the tip of his tongue. It was good to be in her company once more.

"I confess that, within the idealistic frame of my mind, this entire arrangement works out smoothly. Yet I know this is wishful thinking. I worry not about my brother and sister Knights, all of whom will gladly keep your secret safe."

His lips pressed thin.

"But it remains that every time you use your magic, you will put yourself at peril. Even innocent, well-meaning eyes pose a risk, for they in whatever recounting of a story would include such an interesting detail."

All this he spoke in the manner of simply presenting the facts of the matter, not speaking as if to dissuade but to merely lay all that rested in his mind out in the open.

Kailani Tal'deneshaar
 
"A little lie never hurt anyone..." Kailani said with a sly smile as an idea started to form in her head.

She had been in the Guard and then she was in the Rangers after that. She was an excellent tracker and there was no need to mention her magic at all.

"What if you just said you needed an expert tracker? My resume speaks for itself as to what I was doing after I left the Guard."

Kailani raised a single dark brow at him to ask if he thought that may work.


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Logan considered it for a moment, then nodded.

"A sound reason. Plausible. It wouldn't be hard to argue in favor of that at all. Good scouts and trackers can be rather difficult to come by. So that could take care of any of my superior officers having questions."

His hands clapped lightly onto his knees. That was the easy part, of course, working up a passable reason for Kai attending to a banner of Anirian Knights.

"Which leaves your magic, and how it should be used. When and where it should be used."

He shook his head in a rueful way, a smile devoid of mirth spreading on his features.

"The woeful state of Vel Anir and how we as a people treat those with the gift of magic. It...is lamentable."

Kailani Tal'deneshaar
 
"I will obviously use it to save your ass, I am sure," Kailani joked with Logan. He would probably never admit but he was lost without her. These two years had been the hardest of his life. She knew the truth.

"But seriously, a lot of my magic is on the subtle side so it is easy to hide from prying eyes. I would just have to be extra vigilant when I am around people who are not part of your trusted banner," she shrugged in a what are you gonna do way.

Kailani was growing more excited with every passing minute. She wanted to be back where she loved, doing what she love. She wanted to be back with the person she - she had no idea because it was more than like but they had been apart for so long.


Logan Banick
 
A flash of white teeth hailed Logan's grin, deep laughs his genuine amusement from her joke. And why not add to the repartee? "However will I indulge in the pleasure of your timely rescues, if I do not throw caution to the wind?"

He dropped a friendly—

(or was it more?)

—hand onto her shoulder and squeezed and gave it a small rocking back and forth. And I, you. There had been plenty to miss in the absence of Kailani's company, was there not? These small tradings of witticisms one among the many.

A lot of my magic is on the subtle side...

"Thank Kress for that. We needn't worry overmuch of dazzling displays of light and blustering crackles of sound to cover. Fortunately, as well, with the degree of autonomy extended to me, I can be selective in our engagements. Though I am sure that there will be times when it cannot be helped, when we will be among bystanders, or other Guardsmen of the North, or what have you."

A small flickering of an idea, and a brief pause and lift of his brow to along with it.

"Mayhap there could be a...sly way to conceal the use of your magic in plain sight? If the need is great and the peril is dire?" And he posited one idea for such: "Perhaps you could pretend to use a potion or elixir? Who other than trained alchemists would be the wiser?"

Kailani Tal'deneshaar
 
Kailani contemplated his suggestion. It actually was a pretty good one. Potions and elixirs brought many powerful abilities for a limited time while the user did not need to be a magic user themselves.

The more she thought about it...it was genius.

"Look at you being more than a handsome face," she said with a smile. "That would actually work, I think. I could make sure to always have a few bottles of potion on me at all times. I think this may be your greatest suggestion besides wanting me," she paused for a breath and then realized it wasn't a smart spot to pause. "Wanting me to come work for you..."


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To whom could he lie? Any god or goddess who may have been watching knew that his heart hung for that very brief and most ephemeral of moments when Kai paused for a quick breath, hung on the faint echo of those last two words. And again Logan found himself wondering the question, what were they before? And as well: what were they now?

"You flatter me, Kai." He placed a hand over his chest and said in a dramatic, stage-like fashion, "And I bask in my Lady's adoration."

He smirked, enjoying the small touch of mirth, before continuing on, "Yes, any small trickery of the sort would do. It's for a good cause, in the end. When has a little white lie ever come back around to bite us in the arse?"

That smirk only grew bigger. He was practically inviting the sharing of a tale or two of mischief gone wrong. Didn't Lady Luck know (since she of course dispensed out certain misfortunes as her whimsy saw fit) that Logan himself had his fair share of little incidents from his adolescence?

It was, after all, how he'd gotten himself into a strange arrangement of moonlighting back then.

Kailani Tal'deneshaar
 
Kailani put a hand on her chest in mock horror, "how dare you assume that I was anything besides a perfect young Lady growing up!" A laugh followed her words and she found herself just staring at Logan for a moment before continuing.

"I am pretty sure it was a little white lie that almost got you killed, Logan. We were not even supposed to be on that mission but you decided to piss off the commander with the insinuation that you had fucked his mom and his sister," she laughed again.

She could see the commanders face and how angry he was at Logan. He was equally as angry when Logan came home from the suicide mission.

"You are clearly the problem, Logan Banick!" She poked him in the chest teasingly.


Logan Banick
 
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With the warmth in his cheeks, Logan could tell there as at least a touch of red in them, most certainly. "Yes, I do confess, my Lady Tal'deneshaar, that my station is not so lofty as to keep the occasional crude utterance from my lips." He shared a laugh with her. "In my defense, the remark was quite deserved and our illustrious commander had set himself up well for it with a poor choice of words."

When was the last time he had felt this exuberant? With Kai there was a something special, exquisite, a uniqueness not to be found anywhere else. He thanked Lady Luck for the arrangement of circumstances to be just so, bringing them back together again at Mina's gala. It felt like one of those moments upon which turned the rest of one's life, so powerful was the potential.

"Now then, perhaps we should—"

Before Logan could even finish his sentence, the door to the room burst open violently, splinters of wood spraying out onto the floor and a tiny puff of fine dust rising from the broken jamb. Out in the hall stood a plethora of Guardsmen, and just over the shoulders of the front two guards was a familiar face.

Garron Banick.

An accusatory finger pointed straight in, straight at Logan, and Garron said, "That's him. My devious cousin."

"Garron! What is the meaning of this!?"

The lead guard stepped into the room along with a couple others, the rest standing ready out in the hall. "Logan Banick, you are under arrest for the suspicion of murder. Come in peace."

Kailani Tal'deneshaar
 
"I was in no way saying he did not deserve it, I was merely pointing out that you are, as usual, the trouble maker." Kailani laughed.

"Now then, perhaps we should—"

The door flew open and Kailani was on her feet in an instant with a dagger in her hand. Just because she was wearing a dress did not mean she was not carrying protection as well. She was not an idiot.

"That's him. My devious cousin."

Kailani's brows knitted together in confusion. Devious cousin? Logan had been with her. He had not done anything devious this evening. She did not hear Logan's question as a few of the Guard entered her room.

"Logan Banick, you are under arrest for the suspicion of murder. Come in peace."

Everything moved in slow motion as she processed the words. Suspicion of murder. Under arrest.

"What? No. He has been with me since he arrived at the gala this evening," Kailani said in Logan's defense.

"Then you can join us, my Lady, and give your story to the Lieutenant," the lead Guard said.


Logan Banick
 
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"Indeed I have," Logan said, as relieved for Kai's corroboration as he was furious at Garron for being, quite apparently, swept away on whatever tide of accusation carried him without even once doubting that Logan could have been responsible for such a heinous crime. "I assure you, cousin, that you are mistaken."

"I don't think so, cousin," Garron said. He prompted one of the Guardsmen out in the hall, who held up plain to see a blue handkerchief with golden trim—the colors Logan wore on his cloak whilst in full battle gear. "You should have hired better help. The fool got himself killed."

"Come in peace," the lead guard in the room said again. Not approaching him or Kai yet, but still with an air of inevitability for it.

Logan glanced over to Kai. Saw the dagger in her hand. And he raised a steadying hand for her, pleading silently for peace. And to her he said, "I know not what miscarriage of justice is afoot, but I swear to you Kai, the truth will come to light."

The subtext: I will not admit to something that I did not do, no matter what they do to me.

Kailani Tal'deneshaar
 
Kai looked at the dagger in her hand and slowly placed it back in its hidden sheath. She had not even realized she was holding. It was just a habit when she was startled and - somehow - no one had gotten stabbed on accident...yet.

She nodded at at Logan before turning to the Guards.

"Alright, let's go then. Let's get this over with because this is clearly incorrect despite what Garron says."

Her lip curled as she said Logan's cousins name.


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Logan gave a solemn nod to Kai. Steady as always, unfazed by this terrible twist of events. He lamented greatly that their reunion tonight was cut short in so ghastly a manner (and no small amount of ire burned in his chest over his cousin's all-too-willing assumption of his supposed guilt), but, Kress, if there was anything Logan could take from this it was the wonderful sight of Kai's strength, her steadfastness and her resolve. He'd seen it on the battlefield, and he saw it here and now. She was truly a remarkable woman.

Logan went peacefully and cooperatively along with the Guardsmen. Whatever misunderstanding there was, it was being exacerbated by (little did Logan know, perpetrated by) Garron, and in his mind they were not at fault—merely doing their duty. And it wouldn't do to be escorted out of The Immaculate with his wrists in bonds or with his arms being gripped and he himself tugged along.

The Guardsmen moved along with Logan, ferrying him down the hallway in their close and vigilant company.

Garron, as Kai was just stepping out of the room, took the opportunity to step forward and, his voice dripping with honeyed concern, say, "My Lady Tal'deneshaar, he didn't hurt you, did he?"

He had a gentle hand raised, as if to stroke or cup Kailani's cheek.

Kailani Tal'deneshaar
 
Kailani started to follow Logan and the Guardsmen out of the room. She was stopped by Garron stepping in close to her as the others kept walking. She narrowed her hazel eyes at him before he even spoke.

"My Lady Tal'deneshaar, he didn't hurt you, did he?"

The back of Garron's fingers gently stroked her cheek and she wanted felt bile rise in throat.

"If you do not remove your hand from my cheek, I will remove it completely from your wrist," Kai spit at him. "You know full well that Logan had nothing to do with whatever is going on. He is the only good Banick so, of course, you cannot have him making people think your family is nice..." She continued with venom in her words.

Kailani had never been good at keeping her thoughts to herself.


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CHAMBERS OF THE VESTIGARE


Logan was sat in an interrogation room, awaiting a Vestigare to enter and begin questioning him. Now he was in bonds, and his clothes were a meager prisoner's garb. Apparently, this grave misunderstanding ran deep. Not only had a House Pirian guard been killed at the Estate during the gala, but Mina Pirian herself along with Jiya Luana were both missing. There wasn't much else Logan knew on that front, being detained as he was, but he had a suspicion that these disappearances were also going to become part of the misunderstanding, that he would be accused of orchestrating them as well.

There was some foul plot afoot, for he himself suspected that there was truth in assuming a connection between murder of the Pirian guard and the disappearances of Mina and Jiya. Which meant, therefore, that they had been most likely kidnapped.

Garron, of course, had been no help at all in this matter, and likely his mistaken conviction that Logan was guilty only deepened with the news of the disappearances. There had been no word from his father Theodore. Logan presumed that he was keen to not get House Banick as a whole embroiled in such affairs, and was likely all too ready to throw Logan to the wolves if he thought it was good for the House. Old age had made his paranoia, his high-strung nature, worse, and he was conservative to a fault in this new age of Anirian politics, overly cautious and desperately engaged in safeguarding all things Banick...unless he needed to cut a small part out to preserve the whole.

So Logan waited.

Waited, to see what Lady Luck had in store for him after casting him into such interesting times.

Ellory Ashford
 
Ellory had made sure that Lady Tal'deneshaar was comfortable in her office before she had made her way into the interrogation room. She walked into that room now and looked at her suspect. He sat at a plain wood table with his hands manacled to a ring in the center. He sat in one chair and she took the empty one across the table from him.

"Lord Banick, I am Lieutenant Ashford with the Vestigare. Did the Guardsmen inform you of why you have been detained this evening?"


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"Yes they did, Lieutenant."

Logan smiled, and though his tone was reserved and dignified, it was clear he thought the charges were utterly ludicrous. "Suspicion of murder and kidnapping."

And he added, "I wager that no one is more surprised by all of this than I."

Ellory Ashford
 
Ellory nodded solemnly in acknowledgement of him knowing his supposed crimes. She set the blue and gold handkerchief that had been found on one of the dead bodies on the table for him to see.

"Is this yours, Lord Banick?"

Ellory hated interrogating nobility. They all thought they were entitled and free to do whatever they wanted. She was sure his father would be here soon to raise hell about his dear sweet innocent son being wrongly accused.

There was something already bugging her about all of this though. Logan was in the Guard. He was not stupid. He would not hire incompetent people to pull off a job like kidnapping two members of Great Houses. No, he would have his own men do it without leaving a trace. She knew how they, herself included, were trained.

He would not have given anything incriminating to his men either. Especially a handkerchief that pointed directly to him. Unfortunately for Logan, Ellory had to follow the clues and make sure that every base was covered. She did not get to let him go because she believed he was too smart to get caught.

"It was found on the body of a man killed a Pirian guard. It looks like the guard took him out at the same time."



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There it was. The one incriminating handkerchief which Garron had (all too readily, in Logan's opinion; with family like him, who even needed foes?) seized upon to be the "helpful citizen" and point the Guard toward him. What was the rationale? That Logan had hired some thugs and paid them in handkerchiefs? Or, even more absurd, that he would gift them all highly unique handkerchiefs for exemplary service toward his nefarious ends?

Logan had a terrible feeling that, if he were allowed to double check his chambers in the Banick Estate, one of his custom handkerchiefs he'd brought back from the North would be missing. Mayhap all of them. Though he would know it, such a thing would be impossible to prove to anyone else.

It was all he could do to speak this truth. "Yes, that handkerchief belongs to me. How it ended up in the possession of some henchman I do not know."

He did need to be careful and precise with what he was saying. With him currently as the only man of interest in this murder and kidnapping, with House Pirian likely to exert certain pressures on the Vestigare, he stood in a difficult and precarious spot. A vindication without a shadow of doubt of his innocence would likely be the only thing to see him freed.

Ellory Ashford