Private Tales A new world

[Fife]

Navern's muttered reply and curt nod were enough for her. She smiled softly between them once more and turned to Raigryn. His offer to rest was welcomed, and she nodded. If she was supposed to be practicing this over the next few days, letting her arms rest for the evening was smart. No doubt, they'd be complaining tomorrow regardless.

Telling her that the crossbow was hers, she smiled brightly and nodded eagerly. He'd handed over responsibility in caring for Dusty and Socks. Caring for the crossbow would be easy in comparison. It, at least, wasn't going to try bucking her into the dirt when it got pissy.

Raising her hand to her mouth again, she extended her head and bowed slightly to him in thanks as well. Though Fife was uncertain what she would be good for when he was finished teaching her Empathy, the skills he'd taught her outside of that school of magic were ones she'd never found the opportunity to before. He was teaching her letters, how to fire a crossbow, and the basic care of pack animals. She wasn't going to argue against learning, but he was making the prospect of returning the favor far more daunting -- especially when he gave her things and told them they were hers.

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Jason - who was more firmly becoming Jocelyn in his mind - nipped at his ear and reached out towards Fife when she was done with the crossbow.

"Traitor," he murmured, before lifting the furry bundle from his shoulder and passing it to Fife. "Hopefully you won't need to use that," he told Fife as they left. It might not make Fife feel any better, but it was a last little defence of his own part in this. It made Raigryn feel a little better.

The city was energised. He could feel the emotional undercurrent that was quite unusual in a dwarven city. Reaching out, he drew in what he could. His reserves were almost entirely spent from the skirmish. That was a sad state of affairs. Once he had held so much power he could swing his sword with the strength of an ogre for an entire battle.

 

[Fife]

Jocelyn's movement caught her attention, and Fife smiled brightly at the lunasloth as she reached toward her. She was practically vibrating with excitement as Raigryn scooped her up and held her out for her. Cradling the little creature against her shoulder, she gave Jocelyn's ear a little scratch as she began a slow march to a comfortable perch. The feeling was overwhelming, an excess of happiness that swept through her with abandon as it along came through the fog.

It made focusing on where they were walking or what Raigryn was saying difficult. She nodded idly at his remark and followed along, falling behind rather than walking at his side as her attention was diverted to the lunasloth. Catching up in jogging intervals, she had no idea where they were going. Or what time it was, she realized in her distraction. Fife automatically looked up, as if to look at the sun, and stared into the darkness that loomed far overhead of them.

Hastening back to his side, Fife whistled Raigryn's name to get his attention. Time was a strange concept that she didn't quite have the means to indicate, but she tried. She pointed upward, then formed a circle with her index finger and thumb, the other fingers splayed out like the rays of sunlight. Cycling through the numbers she could with one hand, she pointed each at varying angles upward, traveling as the sun across the sky, and finished by raising her palm and eyebrows in question. What time is it?

She genuinely didn't even have a concept of what time of day it was supposed to be without the sun. It was a strange and unsettling feeling.

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn looked more tired than he had when they had set out. His body was trying to tell him that leaving the bed had been a mistake. He could be stubborn when he didn't want to kept in one place.

"I didn't even show you the water clocks," he said without further explanation. He changed direction suddenly towards and intersection of roads. They met at one of the great columns that ran from the floor to the roof of the cavern. From high above old dwarven Kings of legend looked down at them.

"Lots of places have sand timers, but in every column is a water clock, fed by a damn high above."

There was a clock face with stationary hands marking sunrise and sunset. Notches for the ten sections of time dwarves broke their day into. A single pan of glass showed off the internal system of waterways, flasks and floats that turned the clock face to match a sundial.

"Past midday. Lunch time."

 

[Fife]

Water clocks? Fife kept pace by his side, her curiosity piqued. Raigryn led them sharply in another direction to an intersection. She looked around, a bit confused as to why they had stopped until he pointed up at... well, he pointed at something.

Fife had not seen many wonders, in regards to engineering feats, in Elbion. The strange water contraption was as mysterious as the force of gravity or why she needed to breathe air: something smarter people knew the answers to and she rarely even thought about.

Fortunately, Raigryn was smarter than her. She looked from the water clock, to him, and back again. She looked at how everything was oriented, and commit it to mind as past midday.

Turning to Raigryn, she reached back and touched her shoulder, patting it in approximately the same place he was hurt, then gestured to him and gave a thumbs up. Is your back alright? She gestured to him again, held her hand out and clasped it toward her chest, and then inclined her head over the back of her hand. Do you want to rest?

They had been out a lot longer than she'd realized. He looked tired, whether or not he admit it. And Fife was always hungry, and he hadn't failed to feed her yet, so asking after lunch wasn't as important as checking in on him. They'd spent the first part of the day on her new skill and he had gotten to leave his room for a while. Surely that would make it easier for him to settle in and get some rest with the remaining day?

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"It's alright, but I think it's time I stopped for a while," he said with a slow nod. He didn't like being stuck in a room on his own, but his body was starting to make it explicitly clear that he wasn't treating it well.

"If we get lunch are you alright by yourself if I catch some sleep this afternoon?" he asked. Turning away from the clock he watched for Fife's reaction as he started the walk back to their Inn. "Could check on the horses?"

 

[Fife]

Thankfully, he admitted he was tired, and steered them back toward the inn. Fife kept to his side as they walked, paying more attention to where they were going.

He asked if she could entertain herself, and she had already raised her thumb before he could suggest checking in on the horses. Fife perked up. With only the one hand at her disposal to sign, she walked her fingers on front of her. Take them on a walk?

She might also take a nap of her own. The chance to sleep in and be lazy had been a rarity on this journey. She'd thought (wrongly) that his injuries would mean more idle time than she knew what to do with. A nap and a walk with the horses; it sounded like a good way to spend a lazy afternoon.

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"You can go for a walk if you would like," he said, not understanding Fife's question. "Just stay within this cavern of the city. And wake me up if it's getting towards dinner time. We need to do some more lessons this evening if you feel up to using your aspects again yet?"

They weren't far from the inn now. The streets were oddly empty. As the city's population had decreased they had relinquished districts back to the darkness. Now they were heading to defend the gates it was exceptionally quiet.

 

[Fife]

Fife nodded, assuming he had understood. She wasn't too eager to be leaving this part of the city -- especially not with the unrest at the gate and outside. There was nothing like the threat of death to back up a warning command.

But he inquired after her Aspects, and Fife chewed her lip. She shrugged and gave him an unsure look as she reached up to idly scratch Jocelyn's ear again. A strange fog still veiled her feelings from herself, but the few she'd felt since had come flying at her with unceremonious force. She'd managed them well enough so far, and she wasn't sure if that was something she should be telling him. It was so challenging to discuss the Aspects and how she was experiencing them (or, in this case, wasn't).

Unable to convey what she was feeling, unable to ask if it was okay, and unable to express that she would try regardless, Fife offered him a thumb up and nodded. Even if she couldn't use her magic enough to have a proper lesson, she'd be more than glad to listen to him talk about it or to simply keep him company. She was a good listener, after all.

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Regardless of the words spoken, a silence on its own could convey volumes. Empathy was a magical art form, but it was also about empathy. You couldn't be around people for decades reading their emotions without coming to understand other tells and cues.

Fife wasn't sure of himself. Either he was still recovering from burning too deep or with some more reflection was was nervous about learning the more dangerous aspects. There seemed no need to ask further. There were several hours before they would start.

The inn was not quiet. It was louder than it had been a few hours ago. The only real differences were that most of the dwarves wore chain mail and the songs were almost exclusively about killing orcs. Despite the ruckus he found sleep quite easily.



He woke some time later, trying to run his tongue over dry lips. It felt as if he had been fed a meal of hair during his rest.

Having set a candle, he turned to see how many marks had been burned away. If the water clocks were how they set their time across the city, dwarves had candles at home to monitor the hours. It still made Raigryn feel slightly disorientated.

Groaning in protest to no one in particular he pulled himself up and set about getting dressed. His appetite hadn't been lost at all. During his sleep the touch of magic had helped speed his flesh knotting back together.

 

[Fife]

The inn was lively when they returned. Fife saw Raigryn back to his room, lingering only long enough to drop off Joscelyn before she went to her own room to put up her crossbow. She stretched out her sore muscles and briefly entertained the idea of taking the horses for a walk first. Or.... She looked at the bed and decided against it.

She took her nap, rising without really knowing what time it was or how long she had slept. It was rather disorienting, but Raigryn must not have been awake yet, so she couldn't have slept too long. That, or he was far more tired than he'd let on originally. Fife put her jacket back on and padded down the stairs toward the stables. She took a wrong turn at one point, and though she'd found one of the water clocks, she'd had to backtrack to familiar territory and try again.

But she had remembered enough in passing to find the stables. The groom manning the stables must have had a mind as sharp as a newly whetted knife because he remembered her with Raigryn and left her to their horses unhindered. Dusty had about as much personality as a fencepost and wasn't much interested in the attention she gave him, happy enough napping the day away and eating his hay, but Socks seemed more than ready to take a turn.

Walking him to the water clock and back, she returned him to his stall and spent some time brushing him. She'd have to go back to the inn eventually so Raigryn didn't have to come looking for her, unsure how long he'd sleep. Her stomach, the only true clock she really knew, had been gnawing at her since she'd been at the clock tower. Patting the horses and waving to the groom, she began the trek back to the inn.

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn decided he had liked that coat very much. He had been travelling in it for nearly a decade and they had been through a lot together.

Damnable orcs

The furs he had worn out of the gate had only just been purchased too. His runes weren't good enough to earn much coin as a scribe here and every day at the inn cost more.

They would need to move on as soon as he felt up to being on the road. There were several human settlements west of the mountains where he could find work. Navern had also mentioned a paid expedition east into the wilds. Might be worth looking into, he decided. Especially as Fife would be thrilled to see where Jocelyn came from.

"Want some food?" he called out.

There came a grumble from above the wardrobe. The equivalent of a harrumph.

"Well you're coming with me, can't be grumpy forever. I hope."

The lunasloth didn't protest much at being picked off her perch. Even accepting a little fuss on the way around to Fife's room. The boy was out. Raigryn headed downstairs to the inn just as he came through the door. It was quiet downstairs. He wondered how serious the siege was becoming.

 

[Fife]

Fife saw few people on her walk back, and the quiet made the great cavern feel eerie. It felt more like she was underground when there were fewer people walking and chatting; the general din of humanity must have given the space more life than she hadn't noticed until its absence. Her footsteps seemed so loud on the stone, and she kept glancing up toward the darkness that extended far overhead.

Her discomfort quickened her pace more than the grumbling of her stomach. The inn tavern was almost just as quiet, and her eyes swept over the sparse patronage. It didn't make her feel any better about the siege.

But she saw Raigryn descending the stairs, and her look of concern brightened to a boyish grin as she skipped to stand near the bottom step. She smelled like the stables and her nails were darkened by the grit they'd gathered from scratching the horses, but she still raised her hands to tell him where she'd been. She softly gave the name whistles for Dusty and Socks, raised an arm horizontally, and curled the fingers of her other hand and made a few brushing motions over the arm. I brushed Dusty and Socks.

Then, pointing to Raigryn, she tucked her hands together to one side of her tilted head briefly before showing him a thumb up, her brows raised in question. Did you sleep well?

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Yes I got plenty of sleep. Using a bit of Charity to help the wound seal up. Doesn't hurt anywhere near as much now," he said.

The boy seemed to like his animals. Raigryn didn't get the sense that he did that just to please Raigryn. The boy seemed to generally enjoy caring for them. It gave him hope. Despite the world he had been brought up in, Fife hadn't been hardened to the point that he couldn't find a connection with anyone else.

"We'll have to find some work soon," he explained as he sat down. "I had been planning to head out of the city but I'm not sure thats safe right now.

"Hungry yet?"

 

[Fife]

He seemed to be feeling better, and Fife nodded with a grin. As much as she liked lazing about, the circumstances of it were less than ideal. She would be eager to get back to her magic studies when her mind wasn't so foggy.

Following him to a table, she replied to his question by giving a curt nod. She held up her hands in front of her stomach, clenched her fingers, and grimaced slightly. Really hungry. She had no clue what time it was supposed to be, but her stomach knew it was mealtime.

Then, with a playful smirk, she scooted closer and leaned in, looking about as if she had a secret. Fife indicated Raigryn, grasped her hands toward her in want before shaking her head gently and cutting her hand in negation, then pointed to herself. She then held up a hand near her hip, the plane of her palm and fingers parallel to her chest. Dipping her other hand behind it, she mimed pinching something out of it. Her brows rose in question, but her smirk faded as she shook her head again. You probably don't want me to rob anyone?

Raigryn hadn't asked her a whole lot about her life, but she had assumed he knew how she'd survived this long, considering they'd met because she'd been attempting to rob him. She was a much better pickpocket than a thief. But she sensed that he wouldn't be interested in perpetuating that any further. Still, just in case, it couldn't hurt to remind him that she did have one actual skill, even of it was somewhat in jest.

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

He chuckled, eyebrows quirking upwards once.

"Definitely not here," he said with a grin. He leaned forwards and lowered his voice. "There aren't so many thieves in dwarven cities and they are not tolerant of the crime."

He gave a shrug as he thought about it briefly. Raigryn often gave consideration to the different cultures he visited on his travels. Some of them had outlived various ages of the world, whilst others were relatively new.

"Dwarves look after their extended families and they make sure their children all get to learn a trade. Punishing the crime doesn't really work if you don't remove what causes people to commit it."

The view was distinctly unpopular, particularly among humans in the larger cities. The nobility felt that the lower classes deserved their poverty because of stupidity or laziness, the merchants believed they were proof that anyone could elevate their station. In truth some of the merchant families were worse than the nobility for nepotism. Many of them actually ran the criminal enterprises that exploited the homeless.

"Still, light fingers are good for a short blade," he said. A crossbow was a good start, but there wasn't always the chance to reload.

"Food?" the dwarf called from behind the bar. "Got some boiled chicken or some goat pie?"

Raigryn offered him and nod and turned back to Fife. "Chicken or goat pie?" he asked, raising a hand in turn to each option as he had taken to doing for questions with two discrete answers.

 

[Fife]

Fife smirked and nodded. He seemed humored by the offer, but his reply of not here was a bit open-ended. It was very different from saying don't rob people. Would he be opposed to it elsewhere? If there was a way for her to contribute to her own upkeep, Fife certainly wasn't above sticking her deft fingers in pockets.

She watched him carefully as he spoke of dwarves passing down trade, and the mindset of removing the cause of a crime rather than just punishing the criminal behavior. Perhaps he would mind, then?

It was hard to tell. As soon as she thought she was starting to know her mentor, she learned something new about him that seemed to shift her entire perspective of him. He wasn't a scribe, wasn't a merc, and wasn't just some wandering adventurer. He didn't talk much, but was obviously a font of knowledge and stories that could have easily filled every waking moment of their journey thus far.

She wasn't going to be figuring any of it out today. Fife chewed her lip for a moment, considering her options, before indicating the hand for goat pie. She'd ate enough birds in her lifetime that she would be fine never eating another. With the order for food placed, Fife kicked her dangling feet and picked out the dirt under her nails from scratching the horses.

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Working with horses was repetitive work. So was shooting a crossbow over and over. He couldn't get a perfect read on Fife's emotions, but he felt a little more settled. He knew from experience that tackling the emptiness that filled the void from overusing empathy head on rarely worked. Quiet, calm activities had always helped him.

"Two goat pies please, couple of light ales."

"How are the horses?" he asked, turning to Fife. Big round eyes very slowly emerged from his edge of the table and peered at its empty expanse. The lunasloth was a patient creature.

 

[Fife]

She looked up at him when he asked about the horses. Fife grinned and turned more toward him in her seat to make talking to him easier. She quietly whistled for Dusty and rolled her eyes and waved a hand dismissively. She feinted a yawn (that admittedly turned into a real yawn, in spite of fact that she was wide awake) and mimed eating. Then she shook her head with a slight frown as she walked her fingers in front of her as a pair. Dusty was boring. He wanted to be lazy and eat, and didn't want to go on a walk.

She whistled for Socks, however, and her smile returned. She drew the curve of her smile, tapping her cheeks at the end, and pointed to her eyes before indicating herself. Socks was happy to see me. Fife walked the pair of her fingers in front of her, the set her hands parallel to one another and indicated a length between them, which she widened. We went on a long walk.

She finished by whistling both of their names and hugging her arms about herself, patting her forearms and sighing contentedly. They seemed comfortable.

Fife wasn't sure if they really had much personality (or lack thereof), or if she was just imagining they did because she had been alone most of her life and was enjoying companionship and ownership (even if they really weren't hers). Either way, she was smiling warmly again, and it felt half genuine.

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Another difference between dwarves and humans: its become common practise in human cities to offer as little as possible for the money yet a dwarf works on the reputation of his business. You won't get far trying to undercut a tradesman in a dwarven city with an inferior product. If the stable owner says they take good care of the horses, then they'll do that."

Fife was saved from more of his musings about the world by the arrival of their food. He thanked the innkeeper who grunted back and left them to it.

Two dark eyes watched the dwarf leave. Jocelyn started the excruciatingly slow journey towards the pies.

They were baked in the bowls, with a thin layer of puff pastry over the thick stew of goat and and root vegetables. Raigryn took his spoon and broke through the crust, releasing a puff of steam that carried the aroma of the light spiced interior up to his nose.

 

[Fife]

He began musing on the differences in service between human and dwarf cities, and Fife watched him, attentive as always. Raigryn was often pensive, thinking on more than what was on the surface. Fife wouldn't have thought to compare human stables and dwarven stables, but then again she didn't have much experience with customer service in general.

Fife shrugged. It was, admittedly, a bit above her knowledge. She'd thought Dusty and Socks had been comfortable enough when they'd been previously kept in livery. But their accommodations here had seemed rather cozy. Now that she actually thought about it, they'd had nice stalls, plenty of hay and water, and their feet had already been cleaned. Her eyes had fallen from his face to stare at the counter, a pinch in her brow. She wasn't used to thinking about things critically, so thinking about something so commonplace with real consideration was strange.

The sudden appearance of a bowl in front of her snapped her from her thoughts, and Fife's brow lifted. Food had a way of brightening her mood, and she flashed Raigryn a grin.

She saw Joscelyn peeking her head over the lip of the bar and she perked up to whistle her name softly. Breaking the flaky surface of her pie, Fife scooped up a bit of the crust, blew on it to cool it off, and tapped it onto the table a few inches in front of the lunasloth before she turned to the bowl for herself. The more familiar she became with Raigryn's pets, the more she spoiled them.

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn watched the toes stretch out towards the piece of crust as he blew on his food. He didn't mind Jocelyn getting plenty of food. They seemed to burn through a lot of energy. When they hunted at night in the Wilds they seemed to eat their own body weight in moths and rodents.

He brought a spoonful of food to his mouth. Pointing it towards Fife he spoke and chewed at the same time.

Need to do some more training. Tonight or in the morning?" he asked, words slightly muffled.

 

[Fife]

With Joscelyn reaching for her snack, Fife's attention was on the lunasloth and not so much on her own food. She blew on her food to cool it down, but it was still fairly hot and burnt her tongue a little. Frowning at the bowl, she tapped the crust into the rest of the pie, mixing it together and releasing the steaming heat while she let her mouth recover.

She looked up at Raigryn with a raised brow when he spoke to her, but she shrugged in reply. It was her general noncommital response, but she dropped her eyes for a moment to consider. Then, looking back up at him, she pointed her finger down several times, the same gesture she used for "here". Tonight.

Her day had been pretty good and she was feeling closer to normal, so she was willing to give her Empathy a shot. The fog around her mind was more like a veil now so, hopefully, she could do something with it. If not, she still had a lot of letters to learn. Or did he mean to work on her writing, letting her mind continue to rest?

To ask, Fife set down the spoon and held up the sign for eight against her forehead (her sign for Empathy), then balanced her hands palm-up in the sign for consideration before mimicking writing, her left hand flicking the "pen" away with a flourish she lacked in actual writing. Empathy or writing?

// Raigryn Vayd //

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn didn't answer at first. He'd taken a mouthful of food that was too hot was was trying to suck some cold air over it. He was forced to take a big gulp of ale. Some mistakes you kept making forever. If something was tempting enough then experience might not help.

"Empathy," he said clearly. "I want to teach you to make a barrier with Avarice. Do you think you could tap into that tonight? As long as you don't feel so disconnected from emotions. And can tap into some of your own thoughts of jealousy.

"Still, we can find time for some writing practise too..."

 

[Fife]

Empathy it was, then. Fife nodded and kept her eyes on him as he was speaking. Avarice, as he'd told her, was a bit more dangerous than the other Aspects she'd learned so far. Learning to make a physical barrier was a good lesson, and she understood why he'd chosen now to teach her; the merits of a shield were undeniable.

But her eyes strayed at the notion of tapping into her own jealous thoughts. She frowned into her bowl. There were few things that Fife had ever truly been jealous of. Sure, she wanted for a lot of things and occasionally wished she'd been born into better circumstances to possess some of the things others had. But jealousy was a hard-pressed feeling, even when she was in her normal state of mind.

It was worth a shot, though. Fife looked up at Raigryn again with a shrug and a raised thumb. She'd try most anything if he asked it of her. Working hard to master what he taught her was the least she could do to repay him. He seemed to like a dedicated student, after all. If that meager pride was all she could give back to him for now, then that's what she'd do.

// Raigryn Vayd //