My actors and peering eyes wanted to know a bit more about the story, and the snipits of information I had been giving them simply wasn’t enough, so I mustered up a diverse scene for later in the series to combine several (but not all) characters that have not been cast yet, in hopes to find the right ones for the part.

Ezari returns scene

All rights reserved.  Do not share.

(C) Riley Marengo 2014-2022

Season 1- Episode X (mid to late season)

Premise- Ambassador Ezari Eschron returns from his mission to the western empire - Amalgia (land of the slavers) - and regales Dairr Ken Vo, Advisor to the king of Vius (city of the psychics), of his interactions with the Amalgian spiritual leader Briar King Moselley. Struggling with the emotions of losing his lover and the natural emotionless state of an Empath, Ezari’s challenged to overcome his fairly unstable and inconsistent thoughts and  battle trauma as it affects him.

Pronounciations: Dairr (DieAir); Vius (Veeus)

Scene: Returning alone from his mission and having lost his entire crew, an emotionally numb and exhausted Ezari walks on his sore and calloused feet into the open entryway to the palace. He is muddied, bloodied, and reeks of death. He watches the king across the hall from the entryway in silence. It’s as if no one can see him, or sense him there at all. The king speaks to Dair Ken Vo, about urgent matters that are mostly inaudible. 

Dair (at a distance): … you carry the weight of that decision and let it blind you to matters at hand. If you aren’t going to look at life’s moving parts, you’ll never see what will hit you, I always say.

Ezari debates approaching, but his eyes droop, his soul is burdened, and he doesn’t want to feel anything anymore, so he stays only for a brief moment, and wanders off into the shadows, down the hall leading to a corridor around the corners of the throne room. Vairra Argessa, standing between one of many pillars, listens with folded arms, then leans against the stone. As he leaves, she catches him from the corner of her eye, and her head tilts of curiosity.

Ezari walks the empty hallway in silence, opening up a door in the wall somewhere in between the end and the center. Into it, he walks down into a pool of flowing water, redirected from the river, as their plumbing and water lines is natural and not electric. Without remove his clothes or his chains-sword, he submerges his body up to his torso, and he begins to wash the blood away. Then, the mud. Then, by using a brick of soap in a stack of bricks of soap, the stink. 

Ezari (*singing an Izyat shanty*): “Across the ever deep blue sea… the tidal winds doth sing to me… and weep the mellows hauntingly… across the ever blue…”

He then washes his hair, and the moment his face becomes wet, his paste white makeup begins to wither off his body. Finally, he removes his gloves, coat, and shirt, to reveal an entirely opaque skin that is a mixture of colors from creamy white to a filthy yellow. All the makeup falls off his face, and he looks at his own reflection.

Ezari: “These trauma’s will burden me until I die, won’t they?”

Memories of his adventure are floating behind his head, and he sees the death and violence, and the fading sight of his lost friends. He has his hand on his clothes, simply holding them there, as the current takes them, seeping through two grates of water-flow. He speaks to himself.

Ezari: “I gave a lifetime for a failed mission…”

Vairra: “You did no such thing.”

Scene: Ezari, unmoving, simply breaths. Vairra had entered the bath quietly, but Ezari, the Empath, knew her presence since she came down the hallway herself. She sits near the edge, grabbing a towel from a pile, and a canister of white makeup. Ezari moves to her, and she dries his head, looking into his eyes and seeing darkness. Sadness that didn’t even process. In the shade, his face simply looks like an ordinary one, but if its hit with light, you can see the alien.

He takes her hand with his right, and the towel from his left and wears it over his shoulder. She looks at him, then opens the makeup and applies it to his face again.

Vairra: “You have yet to report, but I know already. Of your command, the explorers… your… friends… they’re all dead. I am so… so sorry. Ezari. If there is anything I can do for the moment, ask me and I will. You have earned as much from me. We are all indebted to you. You stood against all fear and returned to the abuser, the oppressor, surviving an obvious horrible outcome.”

Ezari (calmly but shaken): “But… my lover Blynn did not.”

Vairra: “Can… Empaths love?”

Ezari: “… for a while… Even now, my memory of her fades. The callous and cold curse of the breed of me. Its so… unfair… that tomorrow I won’t feel anything.”

Vairra: “Blynn was… a sweet girl…”

Ezari: “And one of the like that I will never find one again amongst these people of our own catastrophes. This city will weep, but it is her father, the doctor who will suffer most. He loved her more than I did. More than I could even muster. I want to love better next time…”

Vairra: “Love is not a need for the future, Ezari. It is charming that you care but you’ll never succeed at this position with any love. It’s best for you to just indulge in pleasures so you ought naught be wasting the time away.”

Ezari: “You may know the future, Crystalline girl, but you truly know nothing of love. It may be the only sustainable ideology that prevents us all from becoming the murderers they fear. A Psyza Empath without love is a monster, and I have many graves to visit bear I prove it.”

Vairra: “There are other ways… more than one solution.”

Ezari: “And they are for other people, Argessa. And none of which make me succumb to valuing life. Without love, I am only a machine.”

Scene: Vairra’s hand stops, just before the slave’s face tattoo. He looks down at her hands, and up into her eyes. 

Vairra: “… should I cover the branding?”

Ezari: “… don’t waste the resources… I never do.”

Vairra: “You may find it easier to move on from the past if you can feel like you change it…”

Ezari: “That’s not how the mind behaves.. but yes, I am sure I could. It would just be difficult to sustain my power without the history. I could adapt to the future and become something else entirely, or I could thrive from the past, so long as the world itself improves.”

Vairra: “I think you might die for this country.”

Ezari: “I do every day.”

Scene: Ezari grabs her legs, and she is slightly aroused, but he simply moves her aside, and climbs out with his clothes. He dons his entire suit again, it soaking wet. He sends a burst of his power through, surrounding himself for a flashing moment with a single wave of blue light, and the water simply deflects off entirely, leaving him dry, the pool simply at his feet. 

Vairra: “Of all things of you I would never want anyone to go through, that is the one trick you have that I crave.”

Ezari: “There are plenty other things I can do that you crave, but I would never look at you the same. You’d just be… another disappointment to me. At least this way, we’d stay friends.”

Scene: A tool to scrape the water into the pool is there, and he goes to reach for it.

Vairra: “Don’t bother. I will clean up when I am finished. The King needs you more each second. Leave the petty service to someone else.”

Scene: Ezari nods, and leaves, without facing her. She begins to disrobe, but he is already gone. He walks the hallway again, leaving a few footprints behind on the floor from the water, and they fade into the carpet. In his mind, a memory of the first day in this cities old ruins replays, and he recalls moving vines and webs and filth on the solid stone floor. He remembers workers, scurrying about to build, hauling massive beams and stone bricks, fresh cut from the mason. As he re-enters the court room, he finds Dair Ken Vo alone, admiring the throne, and his hand is on the arm rest.

Ezari: “We’ve all come a long way, haven’t we?”

Scene: Dair turns to him, with his contemplative face turning into a face of overjoy. He immediately starts treading quickly across the throne room floor. Ezari’s tense expression is faded into an obviously more relaxed one upon seeing and hearing the enthusiasm he was so fond of in the king’s advisor. When the Advisor makes it to Ezari, it is about 1/3 of the way across the room, with Ezari covering more distance. 

Ezari: “You should settle down, Dair.”

Dairr: “EZARI!! Ha ha ha! You made it back!! I was so worried about you! I off’d to send out a rescue mission within a day of not hearing from you!!”

Ezari: “I would have advised strongly against it, had I been here to entitle myself to a choice.”

Dairr: “Mmwell, that’s why I did nothing! I thought of you and what you might tell me! Ha ha!”

Ezari: “You’re lying, old man. You sent them anyways, didn’t you?”

Dair: “Mmwell, *I* did nothing of the sort. You can take the decision up with the king ha ha ha!”

Ezari: “I hope they return. Our journey was perilous. I am… sole survivor. I lost them all.”

Scene: Dairr’s smile and mood fades, and his eyes become teary at the news.

Dair: “… oh, Ezari…”

Ezari: “We were… attacked in the caverns by beasts… overwhelmed… they reminded me of the old stories from the Cataclysm.”

Dair: “Monsters… fiends, the lot. I remember the stories of them hauling the corpses of children to simply leave out the dead as warnings. They built nests of corpses, Ezari. Human and Psyza, alike. Hunting as a pack to maliciously intimidate even the bravest of soldiers. The fact you survived at all terrifies me on a level I have only felt while watching that Aegis Omorro destroy everything in his wake.”

Ezari: “Surely… but…”

Dair: “… I am so sorry… I did not mean to interrupt. Please tell me, what happened.”

Ezari: “… I killed them all.”

Dair: “The pack?”

Scene: Ezari releases a dark look on his face that unsettles Dairr.

Ezari: “… the species.”

Scene: Dairr is taken aback, shocked and appaulled, but there is fear that Ezari disregards. Dairr stops himself. His sympathy for Ezari endured, knowing the anger he must have felt upon Blynn’s demise was expressed in a vengeance that would have destroyed anyone less than a Psyza Empath.

Dairr: “… Oh, Ezari…”

Scene: The sound of his voice was pity. Ezari’s eyes flinched and he had to refocus them, feeling the sadness, guilt, and briefly reliving the fading memory in crystal clarity of his dying lover before stowing away the emotions.

Ezari: “It was a… tactical choice. It… was, I think… maybe the only way… They had been preying on the outskirts of Amalgia for many moons since the slaves no longer worked the mines. I used it as a way to gain favor, spreading stories of a hero before people knew my name… I took their teeth, and I presented it the the Briar’s court. Had it not been for this, there would have been no fear of me.”

Dair: “There are other ways…”

Ezari: “People keep saying that to me, today.”

Scene: Dairr closes his eyes, scoffs and then smirks.

Dairr: “Ah. Must’ve been Vairra. A bit nosy that one, but I admire her efforts to rise above and take the challenges that no one else seems to have the skill or certainty.

Ezari: “I know her power, and her personality is quite a fit, but I often wonder why she is even here. Still, she does the job, and I like her company.”

Dairr: “Tuh. Don’t tell her that. She’s been trying to sleep with everyone in the court. I am not complaining, but I certainly won’t volunteer.”

Ezari: “Why?”

Dairr: “Probably never going to ask her that.”

Scene: Ezari laughs, Dairr joins in. It quickly dies down.

Dairr: “Ah, laughter at someone else’s expense. What. A. Treat.”

Ezari: “I don’t think a few hormones merits any form of disrespect, certainly, but I needed that laugh. Thank you.”

Dairr: “Ehhh… well… I could wait for the debriefing, I suppose, until after dinner?”

Ezari: “No… you need this, now. Time is crucial. I can stave off a sour mood, a sore body and hunger for a little while, while certainly we need to focus on the model paradigm. It takes time to move this many people, and honestly, if the Amalgian’s strike, they’ll be coming on horseback. We have months, not years. A year, at maximum.”

Dairr: “… Are they… warring?! Mobilizing?!”

Ezari: “Unclear. They still harbor a deep-seated hatred for the Empath, and though I believe sending me as Ambassador had many insightful advantages, ultimately I believe that it may have been seen as arrogance. The people, at least, were reactant to violence quite often, so much so that I actually had to steal pigments for the chalk-paste, and disguise myself as human.”

Dairr: “It makes sense… still, that must have been very difficult.”

Ezari: “Not at first. After days of it, yes. Barely enough food to go around, and if I would have been careless, they would have seen me eat slave-rations and I would have been done for. Where is the king? Shouldn’t he be here for this?”

Dairr: “Leozen is still in his study and is reflecting on his notes to solve some very serious issues we’ve been having since you’ve left.”

Ezari: “How serious?”

Dairr: “Direly so. They are… truly nightmares. But I am afraid none so irrefutably serious as war. Once I have found the best way to formulate this information, I will relay it to him, and you will go on rest leave for a few days and seek medical treatment for any… oh no.”

Ezari: “… Exactly right.”

Dairr: “… what are you going to tell the doctor and his family, Ezari?”

Ezari: “… exactly right…”

Dairr: “He may never forgive you. Us. The King. We may lose him forever, and now we cannot afford even a single man down, let alone the head doctor.”

Ezari: “We can tell him you received communications from an unknown Projie on the status of the mission, and that may afford us time, but he may be suspicious immediately…”

Dairr: “Ezari. How dare you? I will not lie to people under this banner of Vius. Even to protect a friend. If this court is ever challenged for its integrity and under attack from any enemy, even our allies, for the sake of our credibility, I will see to it that we are found preserved, both for the sake of faith and for justice.”

Ezari: “… no, you’re right. I… had an urge to save myself from this, and I saw a tactic that would be benificial for all sides, but the right one…”

Dairr: “Ezari, this is going to be hard. Even for you. Find it in your power to say the right thing. You can save them heartache, and it will allow a graceful descent that is recoverable, instead of consuming their trust and faith.”

Ezari: “… I worry that… I still see it as a way to protect myself in the future, by ensuring the doctor is available to *me* in a time of need. Of course, I see how it helps others, but… I don’t want to keep lying to myself and friends on who is more meaningful to me.”

Dairr: “How you can live under such irony is beyond logic to me.”

Ezari: “I exist in all realms of thought.”

Dairr: “Did you love her?”

Ezari: “I did. But its fading—“

Dairr: “DID YOU LOVE HER?!”

Scene: Dairr’s shout reverberates through the hall. Vairra listens behind the pillars, just out of view. She flinches at the sound and covers her ears. Ezari’s hand moves to defend himself, and eyes flinch and widen and his head shakes at the intensity, while his hair is blown slightly back from Dairr’s ability as a Projector.

Ezari: “I… do…”

Dairr: “THEN YOU WILL FIND A WAY.”

Ezari: “I… can’t…”

Scene: Ezari’s mind was shaken, and flashes of her memory comes flooding back into him. Glimpses at possible futures of being alone, and   all the times he would reach out and never connect again. Suddenly, the rarity of love reached him, and the lack of it penetrates his mind. He saw visions of him killing people, maybe fighting to defend his country, or maybe fighting to defend himself, and his callous and cold eyes ruined by an ever-growing lack of sympathy. He imagined people - his own people - cowering in fear before him as he slices them down for simply being witness to him. He dreams of being tied by his own chains and executed in court in front of all his friends, the king, and Dairr, because of his craving for Supremacy- the fear drilled into any empath to ever exist after what the man Vius did to Early Amalgia. He kept seeing her smiling, warm face, lift his spirits. ‘I’ll never let you go’ she kept saying. ‘I’ll never let you go.’

Ezari: “I-I-i… can’t… s-s-top t-thinking… about herrrr…”

Scene: Ezari, full on having a PTSD attack, clenches his head. Flashes of the beasts attacking, surrounding them in hordes. Ezari defending them. The court room, and Ezari is swinging his hand like he was then, not even seeing the reality. Dairr, surprised, takes a few steps back. Ezari swings his blade, and with his power, he moves it through the cavern beast, slicing one by one, two, five, eight, fifteen, twenty six, thirty two, fifty, seventy three, ninety one, two hundred, three, endless… climbing over corpses, keeping his team under his wing while his nervous system was burning his skin, himself screaming in pain. One swing gone wrong with the blade, and it was too late. The last memory he sees it her being eaten.

Ezari: “ I CAN’T believe I LET HER DIE… I can’t… it was my fault?! Why?! Why am I like this?! WHY DID I NOT PAY MORE ATTENTION?! WHY?! WHY WHY WHY WHY-y-y?! Why did I LET — HER—- die?!”

Scene: Ezari, in tears on the floor, holding her body in his memories. Barely there.

Dairr: “… find a way out, Ezari… come back to me.”

Scene: Ezari stops crying with a large grunt and inhales to steady his breath, taking several breathes to tame the quivering. Vairra is covering her mouth, as she holds back tears, pressing her head against the pillar. She leaves the room through the open front, taking a breath of fresh air outside the palace. She runs down the stairs and lets off a scream of anger and pain. 

Vairra: “WHY MUST WE ALL SUFFER?! WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO YOU?! WHAT HAVE WE DONE FOR THIS?!”

Scene: She looks at the storm-weathered skies. 

Vairra: “I… hate you… I HATE YOU!!! AHHHHH!!”

Scene: Vairra runs down the steps in tears. An angle where we can see the redness in her eyes and the frustration in he jerking arms. Then, Ezari, as his eyes readjust.

Ezari: “Dairr??…”

Scene: Dairr chokes back a sound of sadness in response to his name. He just hugs Ezari, as they both stay on the floor, Ezari, collapsed, and Dairr, crouching. Dairrs eyes close shut. Clenched as hard as his arms. His tears stream.

Dairr: “Ah.uh.. *sniffs*”

Ezari: “Why can’t I breath, Dairr?”

Dairr: “Because you aren’t alive anymore… but you will be… we will survive this, Ezari… we have to… we have to…”

Ezari: “Dairr… I can’t… see her anymore… I  forgot what she looked like. I forgot what she smelled like. All I remember is death…”

Scene: Dairr’s eyes open, and he contemplates. 

Dairr: “Is it…  really that quickly that your mind erases it?”

Ezari: “Its the longest I have ever held on to a memory. It is either I live it to its fullest potency, or I eradicate it and extrapolate it for data. Thank you for trying… I suppose I am lucky to it, that you’ve seen her, know her. All I can recall are concepts.”

Scene: Ezari’s eyes close, as he rolls them. He let out a sigh of a quick burst. He gets up slowly, separating from Dairr, and watches Dairr process his own emotions. Dairr furrows his brow momentarily, and picks himself up from the crouched position.

Dairr: “Then… I suppose I can stow my own tears for another day… perhaps the funeral…”

Ezari: “I am sorry to be so selfish. I have a mission to report. Let’s just… let’s just get this over with.”

Dairr: “… don’t be sorry to be yourself…”

Ezari: “Right… where should I begin?”

Dairr: “… ask ‘what is the most important details’, and start there. If it gets too raw…”

Ezari: “— Those emotions will never happen again. I believe it was because I defined so much importance for her, it clearly was an overreaction, and I regret it. My mind only does what it is designed to do after all.”

Dairr: “The Empath is so complicated.”

Ezari: “I couldn’t agree more. Dairr, I think it’s time to take a small break though. Perhaps it would be easier to relay if I wasn’t so… raw?”

Dairr: “I understand… I understand. Oh. Oh! Oh! You’re going to love tonights dinner! We had a new recipe found out by Soyo Ka’bar! It’s a deliciously seasoned steak from the forest game… and it doesn’t have any adverse affects to most of us…”

Ezari: “… that sounds… terrifying.”

End Scene.