Private Tales Take the risk or lose the chance

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie sighed guiltily and looked back down at the book on her lap. Before she could turn her mind fully back to her lessons however, Varys tempted her away with yet another story of his life. She collected the little tales like tiny pearls, stringing them together to try and create the story that had made him him. This one she found herself particularly drawn into with the stories of the theatre. How ironic it was he had briefly lived the life she had only ever dreamed of.

"I had an audition or two when I was younger," she said in an unusually shy manner, leaning back against the seat and bringing her heels up to her backside, the book squashed between her thighs and chest. "My tutor thought I had real promise, especially in the ballet," she had loved the dance as a girl. Had worn her shoes to ribbons repeatedly. "When we lived in the forests it was part of what I really loved about sneaking into town. Coming up with a persona, a whole character. I would plan out our backstories, costumes, even accents. It's just so much fun to escape as another person. You have to watch it, from the audience this time. It's like magic how they draw you in."

 

[Varys]

Varys probably should have gently redirected Lottie back to the book she'd wanted so desperately to learn from only a scant few days earlier, but it was difficult to spurn that infectious enthusiasm that always seemed to exude from her, and he couldn't bring himself to interrupt her. Truthfully, Varys hadn't ever had much interest in theatre, let alone ballet, but the way she described it, so romanticized and poetic, the elf wondered if maybe he'd missed the point of it before.

Yes. He'd like to give it a second chance. With her.

"Okay then." Varys smiled, keeping his eyes forward towards the lights ahead of them. "You've convinced me, but you have to pick which show we're seeing. You're the connoisseur of the two of us, after all." He couldn't help but wonder if Lottie would have ended up an actress or performance artist in another life, one where she hadn't been preyed upon so cruelly by fate. She certainly had a flair for the dramatic, after all.

Maybe, he thought to himself, she could try again when all of this business was said and done. He'd like to give her that chance, that freedom... However long it took him.

"We're coming up on the stone." Varys nodded his head forward. "If you're tired or hungry, now's the time to speak up. After we cross through, I'm aiming to make as much distance as possible before I stop again."

Lottie Beaufort

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie had settled back down to her book though her mind kept drifting to what type of play she would take Varys to first when he called that the stone was up ahead. It was so easy to lose track of time on their journeys which was still a surprise to her. In the past she had always annoyed her sisters with her impatience to simply be wherever they were heading. Jouney's had always dragged on for what had felt like weeks when they had taken hours.

"I'm always hungry," she pointed out as they trundled into town. It was almost as busy as Oban on a market day with carts heaving to and fro, groups of travellers walking or riding about the town buying suppliers or haggling for a bed for the night. Her eyes darted everywhere with delight as she drunk it all in. "But... if we are wrong and it was someone looking for us, this would be the next place I tried something. Maybe it's safer if we just pass through." Their luck had already been tested today with their escape. Twisting in her seat she rummaged in the bag she'd propped just behind the drivers bench.

"I think I have snacks in here..."