Beware the Abandoned Districts (Chaeli)

[Devero]

Timestamp: Winter 45, 503 AV Time: Early Morning Location: Abandoned Residential Areas Who: Chaeli Snowsong "Devero! What is wrong with you boy? You look like a drunkard!" Devero had been awake all of six chimes and his mother was already nagging at him. Why did she care if he didn't fix his hair and clothes? He really needed to find his own place. He went over to the mirror in their home, and realized, begrudgingly, that she was right. His hair had somehow managed to be sticking up in nearly every direction, his silk shirt wrinkled and crumpled. He grabbed his comb and a bowl of water. He would dip the comb the comb in the water, then run it through his hair. The first tuft refused to bend to his will. Annoyed, he repeatedly stroked the comb through until the hair fell down into place. One battle had been won, but the war was not over. The rest of his hair was still a jungle. And his comb was the sword in this fight. He wielded it uneasily, forcing it through the insanity with the help of the water. But every time he got one tuft down, another would rise up again. He brought his spare hand into the fray. His comb would fight through, wetting it, and his hand would smooth it down. The tide of battle had shifted. Soon the tufts began to fall, and the hair began to look like a proper style. When he finished, he smiled. He knew he looked damn good. "Hair just like your father's. Get your clothes straightened, and get ready, I need you to make a delivery. It's in the bundle by the door. Everand over near the abandoned area needs it." Devero sighed and began to straighten up his clothes. He smoothed his silk shirt, fixed the sleeves, and straightened his trousers. Thanks to the quality of the silk, it wasn't hard to get it to look presentable. Like his Uncle used to say, "You really only need the first 5 seconds to seduce a woman. The rest of the time is reminding her why she wants you." So appearances were everything. He grabbed the bundle of silks, they looked to be sheets. Out the entry and onto the walkways he went. As he neared the abandoned neighborhoods, remnants from times since passed, he began to wonder if he was in the right area. He'd been to this man's house once, and that was a good while back. He found himself deep in the abandoned areas looking around. He was definitely in the wrong place.

[Chaeli Snowsong]

The air went cold.

She knew the effect she had on the living, how she made them shiver like a tikita when she neared them. Sometimes she reached out to them, to see how long it would take for them to notice, but mostly she was afraid to get so near. It disturbed her to think that this symptom of her existence might alert them to her presence before she knew of theirs, but then she escaped into invisibility again, and knowing she was hidden made her almost feel warm.

Despite that comfort, it was easy to get lonely. It had been days, or maybe years, or maybe hours, since she had last seen another living thing. However long it had been, she decided, was too long; the subtle scratch of a Spider’s hands on their silken roads startled her and thrilled her all at once. She had gone to the noise, to the creature, the man, and now she examined him with unseen eyes. He was very handsome, she noticed. She could not tell if she liked him better for it, or hated him more. She needed a little more time to choose, so she watched him from afar. She wavered and drifted, to and fro, approaching carefully. As she looked, she wondered if he was afraid.

And she sang.

It was one of her favorites from back home, so it did not matter that he could not understand it. There was plenty of exposition, but it bored her to go through it all and it embarrassed her that she could not remember all of the words, so she skipped to the good part. Who else would know? Who else would care? As the slow chill mounted with her approach, so too did the sound of her voice, resonating through empty air from a breathless throat.

“And she was to mourn, to mourn, she was,
and he was to wed, to wed, he was,
but as luck would have it, as Lhex would give it,
they would give all they had to run, to run,
They gave and they ran and they loved.

And there they stood, they stood, they did,
and there they saw, they saw, they did,
the face of the other, the heart of the another
on the other side of the river, the river.
They stood and they saw and they loved.

And they walked to the water, they ran, they did,
they swam to each other, they swam, they did,
for love and fate, for fate and love,
at the middle they met and they kissed, they kissed,
they kissed and they drowned and they loved.”