Fate - First Reply Cobbled streets, and Calm

[Nuir]

The prevalence of stone cobbled as it was gave Nuir a nostalgic feeling. So much of his travels had been wilds and forests. There was certainly nothing wrong with being surrounded in greenery. In his study of healing methods it often required delving into the thick of untamed nature. The best ingredients were often the hardest to obtain. He was fortunate to have a method which did not solely rely on such gathering.
Still he found the many laid stones to give an extra layer of charm to the early morning. The craftsmanship left something to be desired but it was an unfair comparison. Little could come close to workmanship of the settlement he had grown up in. Imposing and strong structures hewn in angles unfathomable to outsiders. It was with a small pang that he realized that he too was now an outsider.

The early light fell in soft rays upon him and the stones. It gave even this back alley a sense of slow stillness. Sounds of the citizens of the outer wall waking and going about their day were increasing. The quiet of the morning would be gone soon enough. Nuir had bartered mending a few small injuries for information. This he always did when entering a new city.

He would head toward the inner city soon. For now he had taken a moment to rest. Sat out of the way to avoid impeding the bustle he still seemed to catch odd glance in his direction. He had noticed the people here to be more wary of him then in Elbion. Perhaps it was the realtively delicate clothing or his slight frame indicating he wasn’t the hearty working type....or maybe it was the quiet unreadable blankness of his expression.
Whatever the case perhaps he ought not to linger for too long.

 

[Lyssia D'avore]

Running away. She was running away and she wasn't even entirely sure what - or who - she was running from. Lyssia was very much afraid that the specter she fled was actually herself.

Or she would have been afraid if she could have made herself care at all. The gaping wound in her heart still bled freely, casting the world in a grey pall that even the bright sun and blue skies could scarcely scratch. It was better than the all-consuming rage that occasionally set upon her, though. So it had been for weeks now. Weeks spent traveling alone along the coast of Allirian Strait in silence. Considerably shorter than the handful of people out and about so early, she stood out in other ways. Her long red hair was a tangled mess and dirty, her dress clearly travel-worn and as neglected as the rest of her appeared. Eyes of jade deeply underscored by dark circles and rimmed red by exhaustion.

That, and heartbreak.

The young sidhe had been to Alliria before, but those memories were too painful to examine. She had never considered the place to be beautiful or magnificent. That may have had more to do with the circumstances of the past than anything. Before she had been here seeking a way to regain what had been stolen from her.

That had been a lifetime ago. She had no idea why her feet had taken her here other than it was away from her troubles. That she carried one of those problems in her chest didn't much matter; the other problems were certainly more dire.

She blinked and looked around her. She had been lost in her head for quite some time now - not necessarily a healthy practice in Alliria at any time of the day. She was utterly worn out, practically swaying on her feet just standing there.

She needed to find a place to rest. The last time she had slept on something other than the cold, hard ground had been days ago.

 

[Nuir]

Hushed whispering broke the otherwise usual sounds of morning bustle. From where he sat it took Nuir a moment to see what everyone was pretending not to see. The citizens and travelers alike busy assuring themselves it wasn't their business.
A woman had stopped in the middle of the street and was swaying quite heavily. Her hair so striking and wild that it almost distracted from blood soaking the bodice of her dress. With a small frown the pale elf stepped through the thin gathering to stand in front of the woman.
"Miss?...Miss?.... Perhaps you should sit down?" Nuir called softly as if trying not to startle her and gesturing to a crate nearby in the alley.
Seeing her up close he felt it was a wonder she was still upright. His hands raised as if to gently brace her shoulders. She was probably in some kind of shock from the glassy look in her eyes. She was shorter than himself but she didn't appear to be a child. At least not a human one. Alliria was a city with all sorts of travelers so there was no telling where she had come from on looks alone.

His eyes looked over her frail frame with not so subtle concern. Really in such a circumstance he ought to commence healing as quickly as possible. Given her glazed expression he didn't want to risk her simply dashing off if he reached out to touch her unexpectedly.

 

[Lyssia D'avore]

At first, she did not respond to the soft words. After a moment, though, she started and looked slowly round to the source. She had been lost entirely within her own head. "What?" She should have been bewildered or flustered. Instead, she only sounded tired. Her eyes tracked down the stranger that had spoken to her and she blinked at him in blank semi-incomprehension.

"Why? I need..," she trailed off as she looked at herself numbly. She looked considerably worse than she had realized. It was perhaps a small miracle that she had not been cornered by the law. She looked like she had murdered someone.

Wasn't far from the truth, although the circumstance was a touch different than cold-blooded murder.

"...a bath," she finished somewhat dully. She needed a fair bit more than just a bath - a decent night of sleep, a comb, a bath, and a meal. Her high voice carried the lilt of Dornoch on it and half the weight of the world beside.

It was a miracle she was still in one piece in this town, head in the clouds as it was.

 

[Nuir]

The elf gave a small frown in response. He looked over her a bit more closely. Had he been mistaken?
She didn't seem to be fully present which he had initially taken to be due to shock but perhaps she was just travel weary. He tilted his head a little "Are you...not injured?...."

He felt a little foolish but her exhaustion was certainly apparent. Only this was not so easily mended. It fell somewhat out of his area of study. He glanced away from her down the street. He was quite certain there was an Inn not far. His eyes drew slowly back to her. She seemed so unsteady he wonder if she might simply drown in this state.
Nuir fished in his satchel for a moment and pulled out a small package of cloth. He unwrapped it a little to reveal a stash of cocoa sweets. They were little truffles of sweet chocolate and mint rolled in a more bitter cocoa powder. He placed one into her hand "Here Miss, Eat this and I'll walk you to the Inn..." Nuir replied in a soft but firm voice. Chocolate couldn't solve everything but he hoped that a touch of sweet might give her focus enough to sort out her lodging.

 

[Lyssia D'avore]

"Injured?" She blinked a couple of times to clear the fog of lack of sleep and shook her head. Then her eyes cut down at the dried, dark blood stains on her bodice and comprehension bloomed in her eyes. "No. Some men stole my horse on the coast road." They tried to take more, of course, but even in the depths of depression she was not willing to let them have their way with her or kill her either on.

"They tried taking more, but I left two of them to rot." No pride in the achievement or relief was evident in her voice.

She shook her head at the offered treat. "I am not hungry," she lied. Her body demanded sustenance but everything she ate tasted of ashes and soured that appetite swiftly enough. "Just tired and road weary."

Someone in a better state of mind might have asked why the young man even cared. She was a stranger in a city of strangers. Alliria wasn't particularly known for its hospitality in some districts. This part of town, far from the center of commerce, was simply another place where people tried to get by in their poverty and squalor.

It was a sentiment she could relate to, even if her manner of speech spoke of a high-born background. "If you know the way to a dry bed, I would not turn that offer down," she added.

 

[Nuir]

The Elf seemed to hesitate. He really would have preferred she ate the sweet. She clearly needed it. Then again she seemed to be coming around. Talking also worked some times to bring a person free of shock.
Murdering another, in self defense or not was plenty reason to be in such a state. Arethil had many a dangerous land and thus it was a fact of life one might have to kill another even in such a simple act as travel. This was true no matter the persons origin. Though from the way she spoke of it he gathered the incident of horse thievery and subsequent murder was not the cause of the shock. He offered a small concerned frown again.
"My apologies. I suppose I was a bit hasty...Then I will walk with you to the Inn. I believe there was one not far from here..."
He turned slightly to glanced back down the street.

"This way." He replied and began to slowly lead her down the street. The Inn was much like everything else in this part of Alliria, simple. An efficient if not particularly fancy building that was a touch dingy. He had noticed from her general tone and the style of dress (even despite its damage) that she was likely of a nobler class. Well more than the types that bought rooms here. He doubted they would have let her inside a Inn of higher repute bedraggled and bloodied as she was at the moment.

 

[Lyssia D'avore]

Getting moving again after stopping was harder than she was willing to admit. It was the same as it had been up to this point though: one foot in front of the other. One step at a time. She remained heedless of the attention her state drew from the people on the street. In truth, she was scarcely aware of how ragged and run down she looked. The concern from this man was well warranted, but she was oblivious to the reason.

"Anywhere is fine," she murmured in response as she followed. She noted with the state of the part of the city they travelled with disinterest. She had seen the gutters and lived in them as well. It had not been a pleasant part of her life - worse for her than the people who were born to them.

That probably wasn't very fair, but she wasn't feeling very generous right now.

"I really should not follow a strange man from the streets of Alliria," she said as they walked. There was no venom or accusation in it. A simple statement of fact delivered in weary tones. "This city is not kind to travelers." She didn't add that it was especially unkind of outsiders, and doubly so for women. There was plenty of crime to be found in the muddy streets.

 

[Nuir]

In retrospective she was right of course. He had seen first hand that travelers were kept at arm's length here.
He took no offense to her words. Indeed if he had ill intent it would have been a ripe situation to exact such evils. Nuir shook his head lightly "I keep forgetting my manners. I am called Nuir, I am a healer by trade....and also a traveler." He didn't expect such a small introduction to ease her concerns. He could of course be lying.
Still he hoped it would explain some of his actions as altruistic if a bit naive. His tone was matter of fact. His face the same mask with a hint of concern as before.

As the walked his arms hovered as if to catch her if she became unsteady. It was really quite a short walk to the Inn. She might have simply found it on her own without his intervention. He felt a bit silly about the whole thing. Still injury or no, she had clearly gone through much rougher journey than himself. He didn't consider this small nicety to be an unusual act. "Here we are. " He replied with a small hand wave indicating the wide doorway to the ramshackle Inn. The building was clearly old and shoddily built. But the wooden floor was swept and the wood of the doorway polished. It seemed the proprietor put some effort into maintaining it.

 

[Lyssia D'avore]

"Generous hearts still live here," she said by way of apology for the unintended slight. "I am Lyssia, and I do not know what I am anymore. Lost." She shook her head tiredly. It wasn't just physical exhaustion that weighed her down and her words hinted at the spiritual malaise that had swept over her. Heartbreak had robbed her of much of the light in her eyes. It was only that stubborn streak in her that bade her keep pushing forward.

Even if she did not know where to. Only what from.

Her eyes cut sideways as they walked. There was genuine concern for her wellbeing and its presence nearly broke something inside her. She couldn't fathom why Nuir - that was his name - would care one whit about random people. Let alone her, who had been proven not worth caring about by the one person she actually cared for the opinion of.

Couldn't even be bothered to say so to her face, either. Just left in the night. Vanished without a trace.

Lyssia gave a shuddering sigh. Not anything she could do about that. She just had to figure out what she was going to do at all, now.

"Thank you," she said as they came up to a shoddy little way house. It would serve the purpose she intended: a meal, and a bed. She finally turned to look at Nuir with red-rimmed eyes and bit her lip. "Would you care for a meal? It is the least I can do for caring."

 

[Nuir]

Lyssia, that was a nice name. Nuir wasn't so good at deriving a person's origin from their name. Nor could he make heads or tales of her glum, somewhat cryptic description of herself. She seemed to have been through quite a lot. "Well met.....Alliria is a big place. Perhaps you can be found again." He replied in quiet encouragement.

Nuir was puzzled by the offer at first. Offering in reply a slow oblivious blink.
"There's no need for gratitude. It is my duty to care."
He didn't feel he had done much but insert himself in her affairs. After all he had thought his services were needed. Escorting her a few steps seemed a trifle not worth mentioning. He often stuck his nose in before asking. It was poor habit born from working alongside dwarves. He had witnessed first hand that often the people who needed help the most were least willing to ask for it. He had learned to heal first and ask forgiveness latter.
Though as he looked at her tired eyes and down trodden expression....he wondered perhaps if it was a round about request for company. It wouldn't be so strange to want to be near a friendly face for a while after such hard travels. Even if the friendly face is a stranger.

After a small pause he inclined a short nod "A bit to eat couldn't hurt." He replied softly with the hint of a smile.
Well it could but one didn't get repeat customers with poison. So he was fairly sure the food at the Inn would be edible. He gestured quietly for her to lead the way.