Private Tales Scorched Earth

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Avarice can be difficult to get rid of," Raigryn said. And then he frowned. "That sounded very preachy, but it is true.

"Each of the aspects is tied to those emotions that hold it together. Embodies a little of it. Green with envy always seemed a little on the nose."

It was a long time since he had been trained himself. They had not even shown them how to use avarice offensively in the school. Classes of eight had been tutored in each of the aspects a pair at a time. It was only when he had graduated that his tutor had shown him how.

He hadn't stuck them to his fingers on the first lesson. He had conjured nothing at all. A few days later he had smashed a very expensive window. Raigryn had not been a much better student than he was a teacher.

"Do you feel like one more try? How well balanced do you feel? Later this week we can draw on some more Avarice."

 

[Fife]

It did sound preachy, and it really was too on the nose. Fife smirked. She could hardly tease him about it like had had made it up. She pondered if, perhaps, the phrase might have once come from the social acceptance of Empaths.

Raigryn asked how she felt, and Fife wobbled her hand. Crouching down, she drew a circle with a rock in the dirt, scoring eight marks along its rim. She paused, then placed the rock off center where she was still feeling unbalanced. It wasn't nearly as bad as it had been before, but she was still tilted. And she trusted herself to be honest to her teacher. Lying about it was dangerous to herself and wasted his time with these lessons. She couldn't very well decide how she paid him back for teaching her if she lost her marbles or got herself killed in the process.

I will try. With a curt nod she moved back to her spot.

The process still felt new, and it needed a great deal of refining. Fife touched the Aspect once more and felt it in her hand. She flicked it toward the rock, focusing the feel of the Avarice in her palms out to her fingers and then forward. In the end, the result was the same, only a few bits streaking forward and sticking into the red gritty earth, not even reaching the target.

Taking the failure in stride, she came back to Raigryn. Practice, she signed with a heavy huff. Still, even after the rocky afternoon she had had, Fife was smiling. An expression she quickly remedied when she glanced briefly toward the Idemni scout who had taken up watching.

Not much to see, she joked, hand moving in humor.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"They don't have much magic around here. Conjuring a few flecks of green out of the air is probably quite exciting when your day job is pretending to be a rock," Raigryn said with a shrug.

"That will do," he declared. "It was a good effort. These things do not burn through much of an aspect and they're dangerous. They're at least a distraction. They won't go through full armour and in that case you would be better off cursing the armour. We will do curses in detail next."

He cast a glance towards that damned mural and wondered how much magic it would take to sand it down. Theirs was not a magic of great destructive power. It was a toolkit that had to be wielded carefully, but could be used in almost any situation. And Raigryn was very good at finding any situation.

"There will be many times when you are not at your best when you need to call on your magic. In fact most of the times when the need is greatest. Now, you do need to eat now. And I will take the soap of your choice down to the lake. No matter how floral."

 

[Fife]

Whether or not he was trying to be funny, he often was. She found not smiling much harder when he was around. Fife from a year ago would have fit in here just fine, silent and even, but she had felt blank and empty. Now she reflected the colors of the sun like a crystal prism -- still simple and unremarkable, yet capable of things she hadn't imagined.

It was a warmth she carried close to her chest. It would take time to center herself again, but she knew that she would. The anxiety picked at the back of her mind like a scab over a very old wound that she couldn't let alone. But she was good at distracting that feeling already. Perhaps that was what helped her make her way back to center again.

Raigryn granted her request to eat in their tent, apart from the crowd. When she was finished, she pulled out every bar of soap from the box and smelled it until they were all mixed up in her mind. Lucky for him, she was shamelessly saving the floral bits of soap for herself. For him, she settled on one that was reminiscent of pines with a small smile.

I miss trees, she explained. And she did. Not the shrubby things here, but the sights of forests undulating across the landscape for days on end. She missed a lot of things from travelling, and the soap reminded her of some of it.

Sated on almost too much dinner, she kicked off her shoes and took off her belts before she picked up her letter from Belduhr and plopped down into the cushion pile. While he was at the lake, she planned on being comfortable while she read as much of it as she could.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

I miss trees too, he had agreed. It was remarkable how intrinsically scent was tied to memory. At the very back of his mind he had heard bird song and rustling leaves as he smelled the soap. He missed the colour explosion that was autumn too. It was also a reminder that their time here was finite. The longest they had stayed in any one place by far, but they would have to go eventually; he had promised dwarven pies.

Raigryn meandered through the copse of little trees and shrubs that guarded the washing end of the river. There had been settlements in this locations before. It had only belong to the idemni since he had led them to it. It was out of sight, easy to defend and had water. It had probably been though many hands before the dwarven empires had even collapsed.

He set down his sword on the bank. It was much larger than the rest in the neat row. They were almost like tombstones with the guards mostly pointing up the bank. A morbid thought, he decided. After today he actually looked forward to the calm of the waters.



Raigryn gave a soft call before sliding into their tent. He carried his coat in his arms to keep it from sticking to slightly damp skin, yet still had his sword over his shoulder. It was entirely inappropriate to walk around Indretar without wearing a sword.

"Got through the letter?" he asked. "You can write any words you need help with on the slate. Here, smell," he said, standing close to the table after discarding his sword. "Better than lavender?" he chuckled.

 

[Fife]

Fife sat up when he came back, an eager smile replacing her furrowed scowl of reading. She stood and dropped the letter on the table before stepping close to give him a sniff. Not that she needed to be as close as she got, because she could smell the change over a step away. Regardless, she came close, stood on her tiptoes (still not standing to his shoulder), and closed her eyes to inhale deeply.

So much better than a rank boot, she decided.

I like that! Flashing him a grin and a note of happiness and excitement. it is an old forest. It is good.

Fife retreated from his personal space and sat down to the table. She drew the slate over and looked at the letter to write out a word she really didn't know. "Splendid." Fife hadnt heard it before and really and no idea what it meant when she sounded it out in her own mind.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

He knew that she was making a show of checking the soap. She stepped in close for the effect and to make him smile. It did make him smile. Fife wouldn't recognise the way he looked at her as she stepped away. The bemused smile that shifted to one side of his lips a he looked down at the floor for a count of three.

"Yes it is a little like a forest," Raigryn agreed, sighing softly. This was becoming a problem and today of all days was not the time for it. He took a seat next to at the table, putting the collection of Feathers and shells beside him.

"That is splendid. I don't think we've had a sign for it, but it is the same as excellent really," he said. The idemni sign could have been excellent, very good or 'the murder went as planned'. "I expected worse from Belduhr."

 

[Fife]

She rolled her eyes. Too many long words, she agreed. Laying out the very long letter, she pointed out just a few of the words shebhad struggled with: medium, versus, necessity, particularly, mercenaries, experimenting, enthusiastic, convey, foreseeable.

I have heard them but never seen them. They weren't like splendid, which was new to her vocabulary.

He thinks my bad spelling is your error. You teach the sword too much. As if he wasn't slowly teaching her with whole evenings of torture. Fife was better at reading than writing -- the difference between understanding how letters on a page made a word versus trying to write the proper ones from the sound alone.

She sniffed a little indignantly. And he said the wrong name for Socks. Fife whistled the pony's name and pointed out their friend's mistake with a sharp frown. She hadn't really gathered that this letter might have been intended for her alone, since he had helped her write the first one and would absolutely have to help her write the response. And she would have to write back. He had sent them a gift, after all. Even she understood it was polite to thank him for that.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Oh does he now?" went Raigryn, leaning over the letter. Apparently that was far more of an affront to him than getting the pony's name wrong.

He repeated the difficult words in turn and pointed out what made them hard to spell. However, he was still muttering when they finished.

"I made a good living out of being a scribe and teaching penmanship you know?" he said, as if speaking to Belduhr directly. "It is not as if you would like to be writing all day."

One final harrumph and he nudged Fife conspiratorially with his elbow.

"Besides, leaning swords and magic and adventure is far more fun," he offered. An Empath had walked right into his room. He didn't trust Fate it was a fickle thing, but this had been an opportunity for him as well.

 

[Fife]

Of course, he took note of Belduhr's criticism. Fife's brow hitched upward as he grumbled at her about it. He was not what she might have pictured a notable adventurer to be like -- a sentimental, grumbling gossip with his share of dark deeds.

Her response, however, was a dubious look. In the last year she had scraped past death by orcs, siege, demon, golem, bandits, and plague ghouls. His idea of fun was certainly odd.

But she couldn't help it. Fife cracked a smile and looked down at the letter again, nodding. Yes, she agreed. Between all the danger and upset, she the world. That, more than anything, was what she enjoyed the most. And she had a friend. She wasn't all alone in the world anymore. Fife couldn't complain about that too much.

Folding the letter again, she ran her finger over the circle of wax to feel the texture of the seal.

You don't miss it too much? While we remain here? she asked without looking up. We stay until I am ready. When will I be ready? How do I know?

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

They could do a few drafts of the response, Raigryn was thinking. There wasn't enough room on the slate but he had enough paper. Maybe a first draft on one side then a correction on the other before a careful final version to send.

That train of thought stopped with her very heartfelt question. Over time he had told Fife more and more of how he made his own decisions. It was, he supposed, all part of a slow transition from Fife becoming purely a student to a capable Empath in her own right. There was not just magic to teach the street urchin.

I have to be ready too, he signed. There is good chance here to learn Empathy around the Idemni. When you feel ready to leave tell me.

They had their own sign for Empathy. It was like drawing from the chest and flinging it away as magic.

"Books!" he declared suddenly. "I might have some friends in Elbion with access to the library and I know you don't want to go there, but when we leave we could get some works of fiction. Stories to read to help your reading and writing but the kind you won't be able to put down!"

 

[Fife]

She had made plenty of choices for herself, but never for another. In regards to the choices she had made on her own behalf, Fife would argue that most of them had been bad. The verdict on attempting to steal from Raigryn was still uncertain. It was difficult to believe that fate had ushered her here with all the other hardships she had endured. One brief window of reprieve hardly seemed like deliverance.

Fife looked up when he answered with the sign he had been learning alongside her. Her gaze slid up to his face and she studied it for several beats before she looked away and nodded.

When she was ready. She got the impression that this wasn't something he could teach her. Fife would have to learn how to know on her own.

When he spoke suddenly she started, blinking up at him with offense before her expression softened. Rude! She looked rather cross.

What would I want to read about? If it was anything like what he had read recently, she was just as sure to fall asleep reading it as she did listening to it.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn's face creased apologetically. He held his hands up to start signing and held them still. There was no way he understanding of the Idemni silent way was going to cover this.

"Old stories, new stories. Tales of how Brednar the Bold slayed the dragon Hurrash. The great romance of King and Queen Haron Farr. There is the epic of Lennios take on the war of the gods that banished them from the realm. They are fictions or inspired by events written from the perspective of the characters. When you read them your mind starts to picture it all. Sometimes when I'm reading a great book like that I put it down and find myself confused I'm not where the book was set... "

 

[Fife]

He listed some stories he either thought would interest her or ones that perhaps he was fond of as examples. She didn't know, because she hadn't the first idea who they were. Fife could admit they sounded interesting, but she raised an inquisitive brow.

That is good? Raigryn could be a bit scatterbrained without a book to make it worse. She wasn't entirely sold on it, but he seemed to like it. Obviously, he liked the written word enough to have made a career out of it. And he seemed to enjoy even the dull things currently in his possession. Then again, she had found a few parts interesting. As long as they were more engaging perhaps she could like them.

Fife shrugged. She'd find out eventually. Another weird island in her strange, yet-to-be-determined future.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Good? Losing yourself in a great book for a fire on a winters evening is...the Idemni don't have enough signs.

Raigryn grinned and shook his head. He often wondered how many great works of fiction had been lost. It was rumoured that during past ages there had been libraries of a size he could not even conceive of. There were reference books maintained that had vast lists of volumes no one alive had even seen.

"It is hard not being able to express yourself. Genuinely it is," Raigryn admitted more softly.

A small paw appeared on the far side of the table. Star shaped and open. The painfully slow approach of the Luna sloth to investigate the bounty of items Fife had arranged on the table once more.

 

[Fife]

He met his limitations with sign and Fide offered a warm, knowing smile. She nodded. There is much I want to say but cannot. Far more than he was probably imagining. This was only talk of books and pastime.

But Fife wasn't critical of his steady realization of how shallow her means of communication was. It wasn't his fault and he was doing his best to understand. He was the one who had brought her here to learn a silent language in the first place. For him to make the effort of silence for even part of a day meant something. Someone tried; someone cared enough to make that effort.

She felt a warmth in her chest and that same off yearning as before, wanting to say something she didn't yet understand or have words for. It was a flicker of color and then gone, pulled back behind her mental walls where it belonged.

Thankfully, a little paw reached over the lip of the table and Fife smiled in excitement. Jocelyn, she whistled softly. Folding her arms together, she laid her chin in the hollow of her elbow and settled in to watch the sloth. There was little else to do by way entertainment, and she was always delighted to see the lunasloth when she made an appeadance.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn felt just a flash of warmth before she closed herself off. It could have been almost anything, perhaps simple embarrassment. Fife had a lot to work through and he had to be patient. She hadn't been given the opportunity to settle and find her balance, her emotional maturity. It felt as if it had been a long day.

He turned to watch the lunasloth. It was a particularly slow form of entertainment. Raigryn sighed as the hand inched down towards the table. It would be minutes before her face appeared.

Raigryn let a sudden laugh bark out. The paw went still.

"Want to play a quick game? Memories what's on the table, close your eyes on the count of three and we'll see what she takes."

 

[Fife]

It was an odd suggestion, but Fife wouldn't admit to having thought the same thing. With a sly grin, she nodded and surveyed the table. She had the advantage on him because she had been the one to collect the items. They were painfully random, mostly bits of rocks, colorful pebbles, pressed desert wildflowers, dried wood, a couple of odd sage leaves, and feathers.

Confident she knew it, she nodded once more and closed her eyes, laying her face in the crook of her elbow. She listened, however, very carefully.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

There was a a patter of steps and scratching as Fife's treasures were sorted around the table. A full thump was Jocelyn landing on the floor. Then came the fabric shaking as Jocelyn climbed. Raigryn had made a sling against one wall which the lunasloth was content to curl up in through the day.

Raigryn opened his eyes. Jocelyn had shuffled through the treasures.

"Hmm. This isn't as easy to play as when I was younger..."

 

[Fife]

There was a ruckus, and Fife was grinning to herself in an effort not to laugh and startle Jocelyn. The lunasloth scurried around and she waited patiently until she heard the sound of her climbing back into her nest.

Opening her eyes to survey the scattered mess that had previously been her nice collection of oddities. She spent a few moments looking it over before she knew what was missing. It was difficult to overlook the absence of the dark mussel shell with the pearly inner wall.

I know, Fife signed with a victorious grin. You guess. She technically told him to 'make an attempt', but that was the closest she had for this situation. Making the murder-heavy vocabulary work was always entertaining.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Erm that pink... No, that's there..." Raigryn trailed off, squinting at the collection. Having suggested the game he now found it very frustrating that he couldn't spot what was gone.

He was going to be more annoyed to find that he had picked out a shell not too dissimilar to the one Jocelyn had a hold of.

The lunasloth made a soft grating noise as she tried chewing the shell.

"Is it a little pebbled?" he guessed. "Shall we go find out?"

 

[Fife]

He was struggling a bit, but Fife kept her smirk to a minimal. When he began to suggest pink, her finger silently touched the rock in question and the corners of her mouth twitched in amusement. As if to give him a hint or, perhaps, taunt him, Jocelyn chewed noisily on the shell in her nest.

Raigryn made his guess, and made it wrong, and Fife laughed once, a huff of breath from her nose.

Go see, she told him. Fife picked up the slate, leaning over it and right hand shielding it as she wrote to keep it a secret. She put down the chalk and waited, only turning her own guess around when he wasn't looking. Only when he turned back with the item would she be proved right or wrong. In this case, right.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Jocelyn watched him with her large, round eyes as he stood over he hammock. As he reached in towards the shell she carefully moved a paw to block him. Her instinct to move an an almost imperceptibly slow pace when observed meant she barely placed a paw on his little finger as he removed her prize.

"Let's see your guess then?" Raigryn asked. "We can't play another round because Jocelyn will just take the same one back and don't look at me like that," he said to the out of view luna sloth.

"Can she have it back?" he asked, rolling his eyes.

 

[Fife]

Fife had the slate up when he revealed the shell, a pleased grin plastered on her face. Of course she had been able to tell what she'd taken. Fife had spent weeks with these little items, sorting them by shape and size and color and type. She liked the ways that Raigryn arranged them differently. They were silly things she didn't need and would probably be left behind when they departed, but for now they were hers.

But she nodded when he asked if Jocelyn could have the shell. It belongs to her, she told him. There were plenty more in the lake. She didn't mind if the sloth wanted any of the treasures on the table.

At that thought, Fife scanned the items again and pick up the pebble to set it at the edge near Raigryn's seat. She didn't get to tease him often. With that found, she began to straighten up the ranks of treasures again, lining them up by color.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Fine, fine," he said with a shake of his head. She got a small laugh for her efforts with the stone.

He held out the shell to Jocelyn. Many times Raigryn had tested to see if she would ever move more quickly under his gaze. Not once and not with any of the luna sloth's he had kept. He was convinced there was magic at work, particularly with how quickly they could move when they were not being observed. At night she would leave and eat plenty of insects from around the tent.

Raigryn walked past Fife and leaned over her. He placed one finger in the top of a pebble gently and slid it out of order. Then he moved away quickly.