Private Tales The Last Resort

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

Hadn't thought of it, indeed, although any meaning beyond the literal one was not at the top of her mind at the moment. She had deliberately slowed her intake of wine this time, and when he stood - a trifle unsteadily, perhaps - she did as well. There was no swimming sensation this time; she was as sober and clear of purpose as she had ever been.

"You can be as you desire to be, Draedamyr; I shall not stand in your way." She offered him a coy smile, although she was anything but shy. "Bring it along; you shall need it. I think what you need is back rub after all that sword-swinging you've done."

Truth to tell, she would have liked the same, but the prospect of helping the younger man relax a bit was appealing to her. "If you will lead the way?"

 

[Draedamyr]

What I desire? A question that was far easier to answer than usual. Draedamyr held the bottle around the neck by fingertips, offered a smile and turned for the door at the back of the inn. He had a small key for their room and the tub full of water just beyond the door was enough to know for certain.

The door closed. The drum beat from one bar to the next. Perhaps even the end of one song and the start of another. Easy conversation and wine meant that it wasn't a sudden switch to nervous anticipation, but it was there now, deep in his chest.

"We could both fit in that," he observed. Reverie was left beside the bed. His boots were slipped off. Small aches and pains left after her healing were dulled by the wine and he suspected that the water would chase them away if Seska warmed it first.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"We could," she said without any apparent unease. She did not make any move to doff her clothing yet, though. Instead, she stood in front of the now closed door, a look of mild concentration on her face. After a few moments, she turned to him and grinned. "That should be much better," she said. The water steamed faintly in the tub.

Still making no move to strip, she went and sat on the edge of the bed. She gave him a coy smile that was as genuine as a street merchant in the slums, and gestured to the water. "After you," she said. There was a touch of malicious intent in those eyes, or perhaps not malicious, but mischievous.

 

[Draedamyr]

One eyebrow arched upwards. An expression he used quite often for many different purposes. It had never been used for Seska quite like this. Not framing the salacious smirk.

Draedamyr was slow. Not to draw out the event, but because his wasn't certain how many wounds he still carried.

Seska's magic had done its work. There were scrapes and bruises underneath dried blood, perhaps taking away from the aesthetic of the moment.

His lithe form padded towards the bath, last of his worn out travelling clothes discarded into a heap.

The water was delightfully warm, setting his skin tingling and working into his tired muscles.

"Coming?"

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"In a moment," she replied. She stood up slowly, stretching muscles until she thought they would twang audibly. She had looked upon that lithe form as he stepped into the water, and it stirred a range of emotions and visceral feelings she had thought long lost, abandoned and disused.

There was a difference between lust borne of good wine and close company; this was something different, deeper, and more demanding. Somehow.

She was slow to remove her own clothes, her mind captured by fantasies that played themselves out in staccato rapidity. Her dress slipped to the floor, pooling around her ankles, blue like water; a moment later the thin shift she wore underneath was deposited on top of it.

The woman beneath the fabric was remarkably slender, her hips only a little wider than her waist. She slipped forward as noiselessly as a ghost, and her pale skin lent a certain degree of substance to the metaphor.

"I don't get naked for just anyone, you know," she said as she stepped up to the side of the tub. She had her arms folded beneath her bosom, which made them stand to attention a touch more. There was not much there, only a gentle swell of modest proportions. "You going to make room for me?"

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

Brilliant sunlight fell through the window, although the angle clearly indicated that it was still early in the morning, not much past sunrise. Heavy lidded eyes regarded the scene, and instead of rising immediately she instead pressed herself further into the warmth of the body behind her, an arm draped over her slight shoulder. Memories of the night gone by filled her with glow as complex and layered as the heavens themselves.

She could not lie there forever, though. With a certain degree of regret, she slipped from underneath the elfin arm and sat up, sheets falling away as she sat on the edge of the bed. Her garments remain where she had left them before the bath and, with a drawn out moment to stretch aching muscles, she slipped from bed to floor, bare feet lightly slapping the rug as she padded over the pick up her things.

They needed a wash, she decided, but there wasn't time for that now. Later. She pulled on her small clothes and then slipped the dress over her head. That done, she went to the window and stood in the sun, looking outside as the brilliant light streamed across her fair skin.

 

[Draedamyr]

He remained silent as he woke. He could have called out a greeting and distracted her. Draedamyr chose to stay in silence and watch the sidhe as she greeted the sun. Moonlight or sunlight, she seemed to bask in them both. They each illuminated her in their own way, but she almost seemed to carry a glow of her own.

Eventually he drew himself up, softly padding around the room to gather his things. There was a very tepid bath still in the middle of the room, making it feel humid despite the night chill in the air.

"Want to join me to get some breakfast?" he asked.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She could not remember feeling so refreshed in so many years it was nearly comical.

The suggestion to eat breakfast was accepted warmly and, after spending a protracted period of time bathing and cleaning her things - an easy task to accomplish with a bath full of tepid water and the smallest effort to heat it - she came down from upstairs. There was a certain vitality to her, in the morning light; she fairly glowed, which might well have had something to do with their activities the night before.

Regardless, she scanned the room for the elfin swordsman and spotted him at a table, already at work on a crusty bread that steamed on its platter. Seska flagged a server down, which was rather easy to do considering the light patronage at this time of day.

She drew up to the table, and then climbed up onto an unoccupied chair that was, typically, to low for her to maintain dignity sitting at the table with.

"I see you decided not to wait," she remarked with a grunt as she pulled herself up. The levity in her eyes cut any of the tartness of the comment to nothing but a fleeting dream. "I might actually be hungry for something today," she added.

 

[Draedamyr]

"Was it impolite of me to start?" he mused. It would normally be considered so, but Seska hadn't held much interest in food the evening before and he had expected the same.

It felt like a very different meal to the last. Lighter, more free. Perhaps they had been exhausted, but perhaps there had been a building weight of expectation upon them. It was a new day.

There was another Sidhe to find, but that also was not a tsk for the day.

"I haven't seen Red. We could take a walk around the village adter you've eaten? Maybe check on the Smith later."

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She leaned back in her chair, pretending it was suited to her size. Pretending it was a different place and a different time, when there were more of her kindred around her. Imagining what Draedamyr would do if he had to try to fit himself into a chair designed for someone as small as she was, seated at a table low enough for her to feel like he did now.

She laughed silently into a closed first for a moment at the image it conjured up, eyes closed and cheeks flushed.

"Ah, no," she replied to his comment, which was obviously intended for his ears only. She had to clear her throat a touch to keep the laughter from bubbling out; the image in her head really was silly. "I don't normally eat anything, anyway, dearest," she said to cover herself further.

"i could use stretching my legs and enjoying some outdoor time," she said. "I had forgotten about the blacksmith for some reason," she added, and gave the elf a significant look.

 

[Draedamyr]

"Yes he wasn't quite at the front of my mind, through no fault of his own," Draedamyr replied.

He looked over his shoulder, as if expecting to see something highly amusing. He already wore half a smile in anticipation.

"What's tickled you?" he asked innocently. Draedamyr even looked down at his shirt to see if he had spilled something.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"Just imagining you in a different setting," she replied. Laughter still trembled beneath the surface, but she mastered it more easily now. "The world is a strange place, is it not?"

With a complete lack of dignity, she drew herself up on the chair and crouched there, giving her better access to the crusty bread that still faintly steamed on the table. Bread and butter, staples of travelers the world over. She helped herself to a thin slice, liberally smeared with creamy, glistening butter, and then settle back. She took a bit, eyes closing at the faint sweetness of the bread melding with the saltiness of the butter.

"Almost as though the world is fresh and new again," she said to herself in a low voice as she swallowed. Luminous eyes opened, regarding the elf across from her.

 

[Draedamyr]

Draedamyr frowned a suspicious frown, but Seska clearly wasn't going to lay out exactly what she was picturing.

The swordsman noticed her trouble with the chair and yet this still didn't draw his mind to the answer.

He returned that smile before looking out of the window. The sky was clear, the air crisp and still. No crimson mists, no demononic shrieks.

It was a new world. Not just for the lack of danger, but for them. For the change that had come from being allowed some time to themselves.

"This day feels very different and I'm glad of that. We could go for a walk?" he said.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"A walk would be refreshing," she said with a smile. "And it does. At least there are no shrieking demons and no one is trying to kill us."

But she did not move to rise yet. The bread, completely unnecessary, was delicious. She had always wondered why they had a stomach to start with, let alone taste buds. It wasn't as though eating was required for her; she could survive just fine off of the magic that floated, unseen, in the world. A holdover from some time in the past, perhaps.

"All of that seems worth it for the precious gift we have been given out of it," she said, coloring a little. "Although I don't think we should bathe, next time."

 

[Draedamyr]

Even Draedamyr found a little colour at that. His smile contained a hint of pride however. He looked up at her and thought of his moonlight goddess.

"I wouldn't change the path I walked. Not for anything," he said firmly.

Leaning back he peered up and out through the windows. The sky was fairly clear. Just a few wisps of cloud passing overhead.

"After our walk, we can always spend more time indoors," he suggested.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"I wouldn't change the outcome, but I could certainly do with a lot less shedding of my blood," she remarked. Without preamble, she slipped from the chair, eyes outside. Sunshine had not always suited her - there had been times when she had been quite happy to be buried in a shrouded realm. Of course, those darker days saw a lot more hedonistic pursuits and quite a number of darker desires. Most of them were not of the flesh, but certainly involved it, or at least other people's flesh. "Or yours, for that matter."

She beckoned him to rise. It would be wonderful to breath deep air that had not been soured by the taint of another world, or sickened with the bloating corpses of those corrupted by the denizens of that realm.

"Indoor exercise," she said, tone coy, "sounds awfully indecent. What would my mother say?" As if she could remember her mother, and as if her mother would ever have cared by this stage, anyway.

 

[Draedamyr]

"Don't trust strange elves. Unless you happen across them in the middle of a demonic incursion and then you might have to do so but you'd better hope they know their way around a sword?" he offered with a shrug.

He offered Seska his arm so that they could step out into the fresh morning together. The height difference didn't matter today. There was no hurry, no specific place they needed to go, or anything behind them they needed to be far away from.

There was just the passage of time to be enjoyed. It made a nice change.

"Where do you want to head? I mean, not right now, but after we may have found this other sidhe."

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She had not considered this, and was not in the habit of thinking so far ahead in any case. The time for planning had passed when the wars had ceased, when the search for a way out had grown stale and seemingly hopeless.

"I do not know," she replied lightly. The sunlight felt delightful, the clean air pure. It was amazing how a demonic incursion could change perspective. "I have just existed for so long, without any clear purpose, that the concept of thinking so far ahead is strange. When I sought a way out more fervently, there was always the next lead. When there was war, it was always the next battle. Now?" She shrugged.

She looked around and saw all the people here in this town, moving on with their lives, and tried to imagine what it was like to be them. She could not, though; she had never been and would never be mortal in their way. They were at times simple, but unknowable to her and her kindred as she was to them.

She shook her head, clearing the distracting line of thought. "I suppose where ever you are heading, I shall as well."

 

[Draedamyr]

"My nature is of course then to carry on the Alliria and a city full of culture."

Draedamyr did not mind the outdoors, per se, but he didn't like this backwater settlements. He had made that perfectly clear to Seska already.

"If you have been so removed from society for so long, then there must be things you have not experience?" he asked, slightly nervous of what the answer would be.

How would he respond if she felt she had seen everything this world had to offer?

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"Not every specific thing, no," she replied, heedless of his inner concerns. "I cannot remember every thing that I have seen, anyway. I can recall the..."

She struggled to define a concept that was likely to be alien to even long-lived elfin kind. She shook her head slightly. She settled for, "...the shape of things. Truly novel concepts do not exist," she stated matter-of-factly. "Think of the world as a wheel; things come, vanish, and then return. The form may be different, but the shape is the same."

She laughed nervously. "A touch heavy a topic; I will just say I have not been to Alliria in a very long time, and remember little of it beyond a small seaport."

She leaned in to her companion, making walking awkward. She did not care. "If your desire is to go to a city, then I shall follow you." After all, what or where would I do or go otherwise? Aside from the fact that she had reached out and made a connection to a being of this age, a rare and precious thing itself, she had no purpose. An elder living past the time of her kind, in a world anathema to her spirit, she had little to strive for or do.

 

[Draedamyr]

He could only imagine that it was akin to the difference between himself and a human. To him, they stored their memories in big chunks, like bricks. His were strings, all wound up. It took time in silent contemplation to tug on a thread to rearrange them to find what he needed. Perhaps hers was more like a maze of mirrors, vast to his little ball of twine.

"That's good because my knowledge of 'things worth doing outside a city' is very slim," he mused. Draedamyr didn't laugh often, but he was increasingly wearing a smile more easily. The months before meeting Seska had not been kind to him.

He laid an arm across her narrow shoulders and enjoyed the morning. Dew still turned spiderwebs to silvery fields on the common spaces, the sun coloured shards of light in the sky as it greeted the world. It would keep on turning long after he was gone and long after Seska too. Every piece had its little bit of time. If he spent the last of his doing almost nothing, it would not be so bad.

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

She made no comment that she couldn't think of anything worthwhile doing in a city. He was obviously far more at home in the confines of the artificial wilderness as opposed to the true wilds. She couldn't help but grin at the thought of an elf that did not like the forest, cliche though that trope might be.

This town was more of a town than she would usually have liked to be in, but as early as it was it was still quiet, with only a few out and about. The clean air was good for their spirit, and the brilliant sunlight seemed to fill her with a radiance that could not be seen but surely could be felt.

"What does an elfin swordsman do in the city to pass the time," she asked lightly. In a more flippant tone, she continued on. "Fight duels with arrogant human whelps with sharp tongues, I'd wager. Do you look for brigands to skewer, or do they look for you?" She wore an open smile now, looking up at him sideways as they walked down dirt streets.

 

[Draedamyr]

"Now that is a cutting question - not a pun, just to clarify. I find that the trouble makers find me quite quickly. Those that need taking down a few pegs for their own good are easily incited into making the challenge."

Draedamyr didn't steer them in any particular direction; he couldn't recall where anything was.

"The playwrights worth spending coin on make their way to the cities. And keeping with traditions I am going to mention the very good wine again, because along with conversation it is a perfectly good way to spend time."

 

[Seska the Dragonslayer]

"I've deliberately tried to keep a low profile when and where I can," she said in response to his comment about attracting trouble. "A sword fight to 'knock someone down a few pegs' is a fair bit more...tame, than the same between some upstart wizard and myself." It was not bragging, not even in the slightest; she prided herself in surgical use of her abilities, but no matter how precise, sorcery was not a scalpel.

She did not cease leaning into his side. She seemed quite content to press as much of herself into as much of him as she could, without anything so crass as carnal interest being expressed in the act. She seemed equally content to take in the sunlight on her pale skin, and to enjoy the freshness of the new day.

"People draw others to them, and cities draw powerful people to them," she remarked. The concept of convergence was one not lost on her, and she thought it would require little explanation for the swordsman to understand it, too. "Power attracts power, conscious or unconscious. It is an unwritten law of the universes."

"Of course, it is where knowledge and, yes, wine flow freely." The way before them opened into a green of sorts, small considering the size of the town. Honestly, it was surprising to even find such a space in a place not out in the sticks.

 

[Draedamyr]

Draedamyr enjoyed holding her close. He took a breath of fresh air. That was, at least, something these small towns had that Alliria didn't. Some of the areas of the Shallows held a distinctly putrid smell during the summer months.

"Well if I need the coin you can always join me hunting down some 'upstart wizard' if they do something dangerous enough to end up with a price on their head," he replied.

Draedamyr typically worked alone. Hunting down a mage was a dangerous business. A wrong step was death by fireball.

"I need to make more wards actually. That damned demon burned through most of my defenses. All of my defences.."