Better Ambitions

[Navisya Curare]

Fall 83rd, 512 Third bell. Somewhere near Kalinor. The sound of the roiling stream did well to mask her footsteps. Navisya crossed the water again, deftly trotting along a suspended, narrow log. Her hooded crimson cloak passing briefly beneath the cold moonlight. She hesitated at the far bank, stopping to listen to the nocturnal chorus of the Kalean forests. Readying an arrow against her bow, she eyed the trees ahead for movement. Stealth was not her strong suit, nor was it her usual role in group hunts. Navisya was more accustomed to stillness and ambush, waiting for her father or her cousin to coax an animal toward a strategically chosen location. But they weren't with her tonight. She was on her own. The gold and crimson colors of her attire might have been considered garish in the foliage around her, but the hues were downplayed to dull eyes by the darkness of night, and anyway her current prey had poor vision. It was more important to keep her almost-white hair under cover and her face shadowed. A suspicious young quarter deer stepped from behind the trees and closer to the riverbank. Navisya, hidden behind a large pine, smiled toothily to herself as her heart pounded in her ears. She had not been certain tonight's hunt would be successful. Apart from being alone and poorly skilled, she'd been feeling a bit faint and nauseated. Nothing more than altitude sickness, she'd told herself. It was to be expected, being Kalinor was a mile underground and it had been months since Navisya had traversed below and above with any regularity. Aiming her arrow, she drew back on her bow. The arrow went sailing into the high branches of the tree, and the bow fell onto the damp earth. While the quarter deer skittered off into the foliage, a larger form clad in gold and crimson collapsed and hit the ground. *** The Temple of Viratas She had gone to the Temple to pray and to visit the resting place of her mother. Aessila had become a quiet creature since her blunder in the weeks before, already at odds with the rest of her family for her radical beliefs. After she had publicly embarrassed her entire Web, neither Kelswyn or Tevander wanted to speak to her. Duvalyon's cutting remarks, too, had taken their toll and sat in a burning pool in the pit of her stomach. The worst part was that Navisya, who became an unwitting part in her plan to confront the Golem, was the only person who had forgiven her. It was difficult to tell whether or not she was sincere, or was trying very hard to be. She was much less upset over her Esterian remarks and more hurt that Aessila had lied by omission and used her selfishly. In these odd hours, a new brand of anxiety was welling up inside the young girl now, eclipsing her guilt and shame. She wallowed in a pool of worry, standing near the entrance of the Temple and chewing at her claws. Aessila looked as though she were trying to decide whether to stay or leave. Her eyes feverishly searched the faces of the visiting Symenestra while she fidgeted. All movement ceased when she recognized a tall form moving to the exit. His black hair was tied up, unlike the last time she had seen it, leaving his burgundy eyes unobstructed. Somehow he looked much older than he had only a few weeks ago. The idea of speaking to him filled her with a sense of trepidation, but she thought, here in the Temple of Viratas, she would not have to fear her own kind. "Hi," she said quickly, once he was close enough. Not expecting much of a response, Aessila was bold enough to begin following him. "Duvalyon? I, um… I need to talk to you. I just wanted to… I don't know what to do, and…" It didn't seem like she was going to use any real sentences.

[Duvalyon Hellebore]

Surprising some, Duvalyon was an especially religious man. His devotion to Viratas was one of the pillars of his life. He prayed to the god with sincerity and sought Viratas's hidden will in the choices he made. While some served only in name, Duvalyon placed more than red promises on the altar to his god. His life had been given over to the blood: his family, his race and those ushered into his community. If the Symenestra was anything, he was unflinchingly loyal. His principles had cost him years of his life, and forced him into contortions of spirit that no man would envy. Let the sin rest on my head, he thought, so my blood may be spared it. It was love and loyalty in their most terrible and beautiful incarnation. When Aessila spotted him, he was leaving a ceremonial reading of a portion of the Viratassa. The sacred words were being turned over in his thoughts and examined for wisdom. Amidst his meditations, the young woman's greeting was a sharp stick in his ear. All she reminded him of wasn't supposed to be here, not in this sanctuary. But what use was a faith that didn't depart the temple? Duvalyon had the sinking suspicion this was some sort of divine test. Keep going , his conscience warned. She might not even be addressing him. If he stopped within earshot of her, he ran the risk of continuing what he began at the party on the hallowed temple's threshold. The sound of his name, timidly spoken, overturned the fiction she wasn't really talking to him. He considered which would be worse, ignoring her worried tone or listening to another idiotic tide and losing his temper? The obvious distress on her face, was the deciding factor in making him turn back and approach. Viratas would have him mend the blood where it was within his power to do so. "Spit it out," he said brusquely. Leaning forward a fraction, Duvalyon cast his grim shadow on the girl and added with ominous calm, "This better be the start of an exceptional apology."

[Navisya Curare]

When Duvalyon turned toward her, Aessila did not expect the sudden chill she felt tightening her skin. She stepped backward a fraction, lips parting as wisps of fear visited the amber pools of her eyes. Closer to his natural element and unrestrained by the courteous etiquette of a social setting, he seemed to hold nothing back. It took a moment for Aessila to find her voice again. She grabbed at her long, ash-colored hair and wrung it between both delicate hands. "Well, um… it's just, I mean…" She wasn't apologizing. It had been Navisya she'd wronged, and Duvalyon only heard her version of the truth. It was her mother who had told her never to apologize for her values. "No. It's not that, it's…" Now she had to speak quickly, or Duvalyon would lose interest. Or strike her. It was difficult to tell. Aessila drew in a breath. "Right, so I'm having a hard time wording my thoughts, because Navisya is still mad at me about what happened at the dinner party even though I already apologized at least a hundred times. It wasn't that I was trying to lie to her but I thought she disliked you and also I thought if I told her who you really were, she wouldn't have gone at all, and once she did find out who you were, I thought she would simply reject you and then I could talk to you myself, and I didn't think I would be interrupting anything. Problem was that she did like you I guess so it sort of ruined the entire thing and it made me look awful, but I mean I had no intention of actually hurting her. "Well, I digress. So now I'm becoming worried because I badly need to talk to her but she isn't home and her human said she wouldn't be back for a while but I have searched everywhere for her and I still can't figure out where she is. I think I might know where she could be, but I'm too afraid to go there by myself and I can't tell Father or Kelswyn but I don't know who else I can talk to because none of my friends have ever been topside, but then I don't even know if I should tell you or if you would even care, but if I tell Father then Sya will just be even angrier with me for betraying her trust and it could all be for nothing and then she would never speak to me again. Do you think I'm worrying about nothing? Because it's been a while now and I'm starting to wonder and I don't know what to do or if I should even do anything." The end of her speech was painfully abrupt. One might have forgotten what the bliss of silence was until it finally returned. Grimacing, Aessila kept worried eyes on Duvalyon and waited for his input.

[Duvalyon Hellebore]

OOCWe agreed to contribute dialogue from each of us in one posts for the sake of pacing. Listening to Aessila talk was like trying to follow a bee with your eyes. Duvalyon heard sound and saw her lips moving, but nothing made any sense. He wondered momentarily if she had switched to some bastardization of Symenos. When she stopped, he felt mildly disoriented. "None of that sounded like an apology," he said flatly, "It didn’t sound like anything." Aessila's brow creased, parting her nerves with sudden confusion. Hadn't he been listening at all? After a dazed moment, she shook her head. "Well, no. I-I'm not apologizing." Duvalyon made a brief sound of understanding. He looked down and said casually as a hello, "Then petch off." Aessila's life seemed full of people who would cater to her, so Duvalyon was apt to introduce her to the concept of someone who could not care less about preserving her unearned happiness. The temple and Aessila's vague self-justifying rambling were swiftly left over his shoulder. He was leaning forward to creep along the silk road home when he heard her voice cracking with desperation behind him. "Wait!" The medic was tired of having his ear pulled to the ground every time he tried to get away. Aessila could hear the last plateau of patience in his tone. Beyond it was a gorge of indifference. "You have one sentence to explain clearly. Now." He said from the net of silk. Aessila twisted her fingers white in one hand and picked through the heap for the most important words before releasing them upward. "Navisya is missing and I think something might have happened to her!" All Duvalyon's steps away were immediately undone, and he was on his feet beside Aessila again. He subtly and quickly bullied her into standing in a space away from the route to the exit. "What do you mean 'missing'?" The last word was a nail driven into the ground. "How long?" As his voice grew more precise, the hostile growl from his first lines departed. "Where was she last? Does your family know? Why are you telling me?"

[Navisya Curare]

Trepidation melted into pure worry, and Aessila's concern began to shine through like a blinding lantern. Duvalyon's hurried questions made her choke on her voice, and for a moment she was unable to speak. Her hands lifted into the air, beginning to gesticulate as she plucked the answers from her head. "I-I don't know who to tell! You were just here and… I don't know, perhaps a day?" Her tone became hurried again, but now she spoke with unwieldy sincerity. Aessila struggled for the right words. "She just hasn't been home, and that's not like her… her human friend said he hasn't seen her and her bow is gone. So I don't know, she-she might have gone hunting, but you aren't supposed to hunt alone." Aessila couldn't decide whether to be more worried or relieved. Until this moment, she had been the only one worrying that something could have gone wrong. Now Duvalyon showed clear concern, but she still wasn't certain he would help in the way she hoped. "But she does… a lot… and Father doesn't know, just me. You can't tell him! Because what if she isn't hunting? Then Father will be mad at both of us and Navisya might never speak to me again." Her family had been cross with her since the dinner party, so she had been hesitant to speak with either Tevander or Kelswyn. She would have to brave their impatience, and then see their shock when they learned Aessila was keeping a secret from them. Any anger they felt with Navisya would be directed in Aessila's direction. And Navisya, already hurt by her younger sister's deception, couldn't possibly forgive her for also breaking her years-long trust. "I don't know what to do, I might be worrying for nothing. I can't sleep, I don't know who to talk to… but I know where she goes sometimes to hunt. She's taken me there. Can we just go there and look? If she's there, then we can just bring her home, right? And no one gets in trouble…"

[Duvalyon Hellebore]

As Aessila explained the predicament, Duvalyon wove her moments of clarity with the wild jumble of earlier. A recognizable pattern was emerging, though he was still looking at the tangle beneath it. "We're telling your sister and father." His tone was unyielding as truth. "Immediately." Expecting a fit of verbal and figurative squirming, Duvalyon warned Aessila with the alternate, "I'd rather risk her anger than find her too late smeared over a rock." The gory image made him resolute. Duvalyon forgot his offense when it was placed next to something larger. It was comparing river stones to boulders. Whether Aessila was following or not, he was going to Kelswyn's home, the closest Curare web to the temple. Duvalyon launched himself toward the proper strand, using every limb to pull the distant point toward him. He dropped between routes in his hurry, feeling momentarily weightless until catching on the silk nets that covered the infinite murk. It reminded him of the reckless shortcuts of his youth, when falling seemed impossible and distant as sunrise. Blood could drain from the skull in chimes; an infection could pass treatment; roughly three days was threshold for lack of water. Moments began to accrue infinite importance. When he reached the heavily curtained window that made Kelswyn's door, he was breathless. "Kelswyn!" he didn't mean for the name to come out angrily. When he continued, his voice was more recognizable. "It's Duvalyon. Aessila just admitted to me Navisya is missing. She's worried." He didn't want to traipse through details or introductions with the family. He just wanted the necessary facts for a cure.

[Navisya Curare]

Laughing voices inside the structure made it evident that several people were home and wide awake despite the late hour. Through the entrance drifted sweet and savory scents of cooking, with an herbal hint that denoted tea. The Curares were used to odd hours, being a family of hunters acquainted with Leth's night. Kalinor's lightless clock was not as religiously followed as in other places above ground, but certain things still remained unusual. Tevander Curare, like his father and brother, stubbornly kept a reversed schedule, and receiving him as a guest meant having second bell lunches. It was a quaint occasion fondly thought of. Three-year-old Dacydes could disagree, but he was happily nestled in the arms of his grandfather, who held him in his lap. His mother Kelswyn was sat nearby, talking on about the caveats of travel and hiring decent help. Contributing to the second half of the conversation was her lighter-haired husband, standing beside her and holding a cup with both hands. Tevander participated quietly through listening or pitching in a word or two. When Duvalyon called inside, every voice suddenly ceased. There was a heavy moment of silence before a feminine hand pulled open the curtain. Kelswyn's face appeared at the other side, wearing the sharpened scowl of a guardswoman accustomed to scrutinizing visiting azo. Her yellow eyes bored into his, seeking truth or fallacy. "Duvalyon? What are you talking about? What do you mean 'missing'?" Kelswyn's initial reaction mirrored Duvalyon's from earlier. She held her breath for a moment, pausing to think. It wasn't clear whether or not she remembered him, but a moment later she moved out of his way. "I knew something was wrong. Come inside. Tell me precisely what is going on." A much older male was still seated inside, little moved by the intrusion (probably attributed to the sleeping child in his lap). By luck or by fate, Tevander was already here. It was an unlikely coincidence, but it could also help explain what Aessila was doing at the Temple. This appeared to be a family occasion, and she had either not been invited, or she had been asked to leave. Tevander was allowing Kelswyn to take charge for the moment, so with his attention piqued, he waited patiently for Duvalyon to speak. He looked calm, but someone who was used to maintaining such an air could recognize when it was forced. Aessila had not arrived yet. Although she had begun following Duvalyon, perhaps hoping to dissuade him from involving the rest of her family, his route had quickly left her behind.

[Duvalyon Hellebore]

Duvalyon folded himself slightly to fit into the entrance. He had fallen into a warmly active home with grim tidings. It felt familiar. He was often the bearer of bad news, and had learned to distance himself from his diagnoses. If the medic couldn't maintain a calm mien, his patients would fling away all hope. Duvalyon did not have the power or personality to catch it and restore it to them. It would have to be of their own making, while he just did his best to protect it. He looked around briefly, pulling a loose strand of hair from his eyes to behind his ear. It was his only hesitation, and chance to reclaim some breath. While not friendly with any gathered, their faces were familiar enough. Solemn Tevander he recalled from his visit to the Purging with a hunting injury and Kelswyn was a common sight in her official capacity. Though usually polite, Duvalyon cut through formalities to reach the purpose of his arrival. "Aessila is probably behind me somewhere. She caught me leaving temple and told me she was worried about Navisya being gone too long, possibly on a hunt alone. There was some agreement between them to not let anyone know." Duvalyon's presence clearly expressed what he thought of that idea. His voice continued in the same rapid clarity. It felt like a brief lesson with a test to follow. "She said she's been gone for a day and her human hasn't seen her." Belying his emotionless tone, he added, "I was concerned." The words seemed odd when delivered so cleanly. "If Aessila was desperate enough to contact me, something is wrong." Any questions as to him remembering their previous animosity were quelled. His memory of the event was still pristine, and the passing reference to it made his voice flatten.

[Navisya Curare]

OOCA little more collaboration here for the sake of flow. Quid pro quo and all. The room was absolutely quiet as Duvalyon spoke, grave concern displacing the warm environment that had sat here only moments before. Kelswyn listened intently, still as a statue, her eyes unnervingly wide. There was a flicker across Tevander's brow when Duvalyon mentioned a secret agreement between Navisya and her sister, but otherwise he hardly moved. Only Reverin shifted, his anxiety wearing no masks. A strange scrabbling could be heard outside, telltale signs of a new arrival. It could only be Aessila, evidenced by the silence that followed. She was too timid to pull back the silk and look inside. At last, Kelswyn sighed and let her shoulders fall. She shook her head and looked down for a moment, evidently exasperated. "That's ridiculous. Navisya would never go alone. She knows how dangerous it is." She tried on a smile, but it somehow looked more angry than pleased. Her eyes flickered up at the entrance, glaring at someone who couldn't be seen. "Duvalyon, I am so sorry that you were pulled into this, but this is obviously one of Aessila's little games. She is wasting your—" "Kelswyn." The voice was quiet, but deep. Kelswyn stopped at once. In the pause that followed, she saw the flicker of rage cross Duvalyon's eyes at the idea that Aessila had tricked him again. It made her shut her mouth. Somehow, Tevander had brought himself into the vicinity of the conversation in a matter of seconds, coming up neatly behind her. Reverin was scaling the far side of the room and putting his son to bed. "Take Dominyon and search the ridge." The muted protest could be seen on Kelswyn's face, but Tevander was resolute. A wordless debate when on between them, wherein Kelswyn questioned Aessila's story and Tevander told her to take no risks. "The ridge?" she asked finally. "He will know where." Tevander turned to consider Duvalyon for half a moment. "I will take Aaliyon and look in the valley." Duvalyon's voice was calm and matter of fact, "Where should I look?" Trying to smother his pride with necessity, he admitted, "I'll need another who knows the terrain better." Hesitating, Tevander turned fully to Duvalyon. His topaz eyes surveyed him head to foot, appearing to be sizing him up. He was not familiar with Duvalyon or his capabilities, but his unasked offer to help said enough about his integrity. Perhaps he could use a third body to help sweep the valley. "What about the peak?" Aessila chirped in from the entrance. The curtain had been pulled back by clawed fingers, ashen hair framing her face. All that could be seen of her. "I mean… I know there isn't any game there anymore but that also means there aren't any kougaras left either. But I remember Sya took me took me there because it was her favorite spot and it wasn't very hard to get to and it was fairly safe and there was a great view of the valley…" Tevander held up his hand and Aessila trailed off. His demeanor hadn't changed, although his jaw had tightened. "You know where it is?" She nodded. "Show him." He paused. "And do as he says." Tevander shifted his focus back to Duvalyon, nodding respectfully. "Thank you for your help." Aessila shrank away from the entrance as her father moved to pass through it. Kelswyn had already gone to begin gathering her things, whispering to her husband who followed and acted as her shadow. Naturally he would stay home to watch over Dacydes. "Return to Kalinor if you find nothing." Tevander raised his voice, which filled the room. It barely sounded like the same person. "And wear something warm, both of you."

[Duvalyon Hellebore]

Duvalyon considered the cold with displeasure. He flexed his hands, trying to summon wayward blood back to his fingers. With partially academic interest, he thought of how the snapping chill could be affecting Navisya physically. Was she injured and exposed or simply relishing an evening in her tent while her sister spun dervishes of panic? Whatever troubles Navisya was rolling herself in likely wouldn't be his difficulty to face. Since he was assigned the last territory with Aessila, he had little expectation of success. Tevander would find his own daughter and Duvalyon's involvement would be a discordant note in the retelling of the search, hopefully interpreted in the light of his duty as a medic to be available for the injured. His rapid betrayal of her sister's confidences would be a snag for a different time... unless Navisya was sitting in a tree and merrily braiding leaves into her hair, or whatever it was women did when they hunted. He would then be the easiest and earliest sacrifice to her irritation at being found out. A mental shrug countered this thought. He'd be no worse off than before. Duvalyon hooked his thumbs under the bands of his pack, unused to not being able to support it with every portion of his body that touched it. A winter cloak and armor made the adhesion impossible. Even his feet were properly shod in boots. It reminded him of Lhavit and the bulky disguises he had to wear to pretend that he wasn't so fundamentally different in his construction. The fiction helped his interactions with the locals. Many sunborn were happy to believe the milder incarnation and not look too closely at his hands or complexion. Denial kept their world comfortable. He tilted his head up toward the pine boughs, watching other nocturnal creatures skitter across the branches. Some regarded him curiously with yellow eyes then dismissed him as harmless. Even they knew he was a shyke hunter. He had prepared most his life for a more cunning prey, and was largely useless in snaring anything else. Aessila was ahead of him, occasionally calling her sister's name into the silver woods. It had been the only word she spoke thus far, and he was glad for it.