Kaeson's Fortune

by **Anselm** on April 28th, 2012, 8:14 pm

Kaeson's Fortune
59th Spring 512
Marketplace in Zeltiva

OOC :

Anselm was meditating when the man made his entrance.

“Is this enough?" he asked, putting five silver mizas on the table. Anselm's eyes snapped open, gray and dark and empty, and stared directly into his, unblinking. Not that the tall man with the unkempt black hair could see his eyes very clearly since most of his face was hidden in the shadow of the cloak's hood. Other than that Anselm made no movement.

“That depends on what you want,” said the old Nuit in a low raspy voice. “If you want to have your fortune told, then you have managed to produce the exact amount of silver specified on the sign outside the tent.”

Anselm paused for several seconds while he surveyed the man. Plain shirt and pants. Sensible shoes. Clean-looking. He thought, I suspect this man is from out-of-town. Perhaps a visitor. Seems confident and self-assured.

“Do you have a particular question you wish to answer?” Anselm asked. “It is not strictly necessary, but it is often helpful.”

by **Kaeson Dakano** on April 28th, 2012, 8:53 pm

"Do you have a particular question you wish to answer?” Anselm asked. “It is not strictly necessary, but it is often helpful."

"Any question?" Kaeson responded. He couldn't think of anything at the top of his head, so he decided to go over the last couple days of his trip to Zeltiva, maybe he could find a question there somewhere.

"Well," he thought. "It hasn't exactly been as easy to get here as I thought, and the boat ride over was no picnic..." In fact, the last couple of days had been nothing but a pain. As Kaeson went through the memories of the last couple of days of his trip, a question popped into his head.

"Is it worth it? My time here? In Zeltiva, I mean. The ride over wasn't exactly foretelling of a great time, or even a productive one. I know it a little superstitious to believe that my trip here has anything to do with how I'll do in Zeltiva, but if I'm going to ask someone it might as well be a fortune teller.

by **Anselm** on April 28th, 2012, 9:52 pm

“Very well,” said Anselm. He slowly reached into one of the pockets he had sewn into the inside of his cloak, and withdrew a small cloth bag. He carefully untied it and poured the contents into his right hand, which he held open so that the man could see the set of small carved bones with intricate etchings on them. Then he quickly reached across the table with his left hand and placed his index and middle fingers on the back of the man's hand. Anselm always wore thin black gloves so as to spare his customers the sometimes disconcerting experience of coming into contact with his cold, dead skin. He let his mind reach out to gently touch the man's aura. He turned his right hand, letting the bones fall on to the table. He stared at them for the better part of a minute. Then he intoned:

Earth above, obedient. Thunder below, active.
When activity obeys the mind, the heavens will turn in their course
While human affairs proceed successfully.

One particular phrase of the oracle created a small emotional spike in the man's aura. Anselm withdrew his hand from the stranger's wrist and said, “This is an ancient oracle. It does not easily reveal its secrets. You should not lightly dismiss it.” He was quiet for a few moments before continuing.

“You asked whether your journey to Zeltiva will be worth the effort. The words 'When activity obeys the mind' have particular applicability to your question. There is a teaching associated with the oracle. Perhaps it will be of help to you.”

“When people are first born, they are all good, with no evil; then when they get mixed up in acquired conditioning, there is loss of original natural reality. But even though it is lost, it is never totally nonexistent; there still is a breath of living potential within. To return to it, restore it, it is necessary to take advantage of times when this living potential appears and set about quickly gathering it - only then can it be one's own.”

The old man carefully gathered up the bones and put them back in the bag, which in turn disappeared beneath his cloak. He folded his hands in his lap and peered at the man with his cold empty eyes. This was the crucial moment. Either he had seen the heart of the matter or he had not. There was never any in between.

“Tell me, why have you come to Zeltiva?”

OOC :

by **Kaeson Dakano** on April 28th, 2012, 11:27 pm

Kaeson smiled as the covered man told his fortune, enjoying hearing what he already knew to be true. Hearing it, the fortune only seemed to enforced his own beliefs that his own talent and work ethic would lead to his success.

Kaeson's confindence in his interpretation faltered as he began to reexamen what the covered man had said. "Surely, it shouldn't be that easy to understand?" he thought. The more and more Kaeson thought about what the man had told him, the less it made any sense. Whatever the meaning, the fortune had definitely hit home Kaeson; whether the fortune teller had intentionally done so or not was another matter all together.

Not wanting to seem like he had been stumped by a fortune teller, Kaeson quickly answered his question, "I've come to study at the University. I like to consider myself an animator, and would like to study more in that field of magic. Of course, I'm fascinated by any and all magic so I'll be taking other classes besides animation."

"And you?" Kaeson added, "Why do you find yourself in Zeltiva, besides telling fortunes?" "Where did you learn, if you don't mind me asking," he added as an afterthought. Kaeson had been curious about the bones the man had used, it had all seemed so random but his fortune made Kaeson think otherwise.

by **Anselm** on April 29th, 2012, 12:00 am

An animator, thought Anselm. Able to put life into an inanimate object. “What an interesting coincidence,” he said, thinking, In more ways than you know. Apparently the man did not realize that Anselm was a Nuit, himself a product of animation.

“As it turns out,” he said. “I have need of a lock for a medium-sized chest I have in my home. I could, of course, purchase a normal lock. But I would be very interested in an intelligent lock. Perhaps one that responds only to a certain secret word. Or that can report to me what events took place in my home while I was gone. Or perhaps that can carry on a conversation with me. Tell me, is there anything along those lines that you can create?”

OOC :

by **Kaeson Dakano** on April 29th, 2012, 3:06 am

Kaeson scratched his head, thinking about the man's request.

"An intelligent lock? I could do that...probably" he thought, "I could give the lock a soul core easy enough, shouldn't take more than an hour or two. The real challenge would be getting the lock to recognize his voice, not to mention communicating with him. I'd have to think of a way to give it ears or something like them...maybe a cloth membrane? That would work, it'd be cheap too. The actual lock could be the mouth, especially since he doesn't intend to put a key into.

"Yeah, I could do that well enough," Kaeson said. "I'd have to make some actual adjustments to the lock itself, to be able to hear you, so to speak. That in itself could be a couple hours of work, unless you want to pay an actual blacksmith to do the alterations. The tough part would be getting it to recognize you, of course that's assuming that's what you want. I could easily get it to know a single word by myself, but then I'd assume the lock would open for anyone who knew the word."
"Teaching to converse is out of the question, that's extremely advance stuff and I'm fairly certain only true golems can do that. I could possibly teach it some basic language...enough to tell you if someone had tried to open it, that's for sure."

Seeing the opportunity, Kaeson added "Are you looking to hire? I'd be more then willing to do the job!"

OOC: The language would be very basic, most likely it would be recognition of the word to open it and being able to say yes or no to a small variety of questions -- I think that's the maximum of what Keason can do at his level.
OOC: how do you do the OOC box you do?

by **Anselm** on April 29th, 2012, 2:56 pm

Anselm thought about this for a few moments. He didn't need an especially elaborate lock, since a determined thief could easily bash the chest open. On the other hand, he did want to discourage casual thieves. Something made from iron, like a Kelvic's collar for example, would be perfect.

“A simple iron lock that responds to a secret word would be sufficient,” he said. “Something like 'Open Lazlo' would do nicely. It does not have to converse with me, although that is certainly an interesting idea. I am not a wealthy man. What would you charge me, assuming you are responsible to find the materials required?”

OOC :

by **Kaeson Dakano** on April 29th, 2012, 7:10 pm

"An iron lock? I should have one in here somewhere..." he said to himself as he searched his backpack. Kaeson remembered buying a lock somewhere, and hoped he had decided to bring it with him when he left for Zeltiva.
"Here it is, it's not the prettiest lock but it'll do for the job". Kaeson smiled as he reexamined the iron lock. "It might be dented, but some of the dents look like they might be perfect for ears. He gently touched the dent slightly about the lock, and wondered whether or not he could attach the cloth there. "It shouldn't be too hard, maybe if I could get my hands on an adhesive of some kind..., the cloth would be easy enought to obtain and there should be a blacksmith that could make an adhesive in the city."
"Oh no, I don't need money. At least not know anyway." Kaeson said as he examined the man in black. "I'm sure we can come to some agreement by the time I fully animate the lock though."

<OOC> :

by **Anselm** on April 29th, 2012, 7:56 pm

“That is acceptable,” said Anselm. “I too am confident we can arrive at some mutually beneficial arrangement.” Anselm was indeed pleased. “I am in no hurry. When you have finished, I am here most mornings and would be happy to conclude our business.”

OOC :

by **Kaeson Dakano** on April 29th, 2012, 11:29 pm

Kaeson nodded to the covered man as he exited the tent, adding a quick goodbye just to be safe. He wasn't entirely sure the man could see that well, "He wears his hood awfully low" Kaeson thought, wondering why the man covered himself so.

Leaving the tent, Kaeson mentally reviewed what he would need to compete the task at hand. " Chalk to draw the animation circles. I haven't seen any laying around, but I should be able to buy some at the General Store. Of course, I would have to find out where the General Store actually is... ." Having just arrived in Zeltiva, Kaeson had little idea where anything was and only had the memories of his grandmother's stories offering any idea to the city's lay out. He could remember her saying something about the marketplace...

Thinking it over, Kaeson decided to just look for a stall that sold artist supplies in the marketplace. He knew he'd eventually need to find the General Store, and soon, especially since he was low on food. As it was, he had enough food and water to last him for a week, but he needed chalk now.

Looking around, Kaeson spotted a small stall that had a small collection of paints, stencils, and canvas. Approaching the stall, he heard the merchant quickly conversing in Fratava with a young girl, most likely his daughter. Taking a chance, Kaeson fumbled his way through a basic greeting and asked for what he hoped was chalk. The merchant gave him a sympathetic smile, giving Kaeson the impression that he had asked for the wrong thing. The young girl, on the the other hand, laughed aloud and asked him "What exactly did you hope to draw with a potato?" Blushing at his foolishness, Kaeson asked in the common language for the chalk. The girl collected a small bag of chalk, and with a smile said, "Only 1 silver miza for a fellow Fratava speaker". Paying the girl, and managing a quick goodbye in Fratava, Kaeson quickly left the marketplace and headed home.