Adrift in the Maze [John Griffin - Open]

[Evarette Karmine]

12th Day of Summer - Year 510 AV


Syliras was a cacophony of sound. Eva gazed across the milling throng of people hustling about in pursuit of their daily lives, feeling as though her eyes could not be in enough places at once. She'd hardly been here a week, and she still felt lost. It was worse when Ivar was not with her. After the first few days, Evarette was forced to admit that his hulking form did not make her progression through Syliras any easier. If anything, it raised too many eyebrows and hindered her progress as people balked at ushering around the giant war horse. She had a hard enough time finding her way about the city without worrying where her horse was going to fit.

There was never anything this difficult about navigating the sea of grass, Eva thought in frustration, tugging her lower lip between her teeth as she rocked back on her heels indecisively. You simply picked a direction. Here, there were too many options, and so many rules regarding where you could and could not go. Most of her so-called 'exploration' of Syliras thus had consisted of blundering into all the wrong parts of town, and endless questions regarding how to get back to where she'd started from. Very little of Eva's time had been directed towards the rediscovery of Dorian...

However, that was all about to change.

Having made it to what she'd been told was the Third Tier of Syliras, Eva decided this was her best bet for encountering some one not only amiable, but hopefully knowledgeable enough to assist her. According to the few briefings she'd had with various folk in and around the stables, the Knights of Syliras were a good place to start. Now, if she could only find one...There!

One of the Knights, unmistakable in his uniform, strolled just across the lane ahead and down another corridor. Struggling to keep him in sight, Eva edged her way into the throng of people, doing her best to weave in and out of the crowd before the Knight disappeared entirely...

She almost made it. The sea of people parted before her, giving her a clear shot to the corridor down which the Knight had vanished, and Eva seized the opportunity. Darting for the clearing, she came into the open just as a basket merchant adjusted his mountainous load of wares strung to his back, switching them from one shoulder to the next. The baskets caught her dead on, and with not even the chance to yelp in surprise, Eva went down in a bewildered heap.

The merchant spared a gruff word over his shoulder and continued on his way. A frown furrowed Eva's brow as she gathered her legs beneath her, blinking between the merchant and where her Knight had disappeared. Just great, she sulked inwardly, backing towards the wall before she fell victim to another merchant...I've lost him. Now wh--!

Her thoughts were arrested as she backed right into another body, and this time she flinched forward, turning about with such momentum that she very nearly unbalanced herself again.

[John Griffin]

John had been standing against the wall, watching the comings and goings of the denizens of the city with mild interest. Occasionally someone asked him a question, but it was usually just a visitor asking directions. So far it seemed as if the purpose of patrols was to give directions, not to help people or stop crime. He needed a quest. His knight's quest had been exciting, even if there hadn't been any action. Something to break up the tedium. Training a squire might do it, but he was still waiting on the interview. Still, thought John. It won't hurt to start anyway, maybe get some sparring sessions in.

He was pulled from his thoughts when a girl caught a load of baskets face first, and fell onto the cobbled stones of the passageway. Making his way along the wall, citizens moving out of his way as had been the norm on every patrol, he moved to help the girl up. By the time he made it near her she was already up. Before John could say or do anything, the girl had backed right up into him.

She spun around and looked as if she was going to fall again, so John reached out to grab hold of her shoulders. Today he had left his shield at home, thinking it extra weight he didn't really need for a simple patrol, so he grabbed with both gauntleted hands.

Seeing that she had her balance without his help, the knight released her and stood back up straight, peering out of his helmet, its visor lifted. "Are you alright miss? You took quite a hit and fall there."

[Evarette Karmine]

"Oh!"

The exclamation flew out of Eva as she felt steel-clad hands grip her arms, and her eyes flew wide at the sight of the Knight in front of her. A tiny flutter of fear arose at the possibility that she might be in trouble...Again, her mind supplied dryly. But all fears were dispelled as the he questioned her welfare...clearly having witnessed her encounter with the basket merchant.

"I'm...fine," she looked down as he released her, brushing a few bits of debris from her attire that had no doubt been collected during her fall. Indigo eyes crept up to meet the Knight a bit hesitantly...he was not much taller than her, but his attire lent him an ominous air. He was a warrior, and clad as such he could crush her in a heartbeat. This was not what made Evarette hesitate, however... She was reading his features, trying to gauge whether or not this was the sort of individual she could possibly ask for help...

"I just...well, I need to look where I'm going," a quick smile flashed briefly to life, averted as she glanced after the disappearing hulk of the basket merchant. "Speaking of which, maybe you could help me?" Eva's eyes snapped back to the Knight, and this time her features had a hopeful cast to them.

[John Griffin]

The girl professed that she was alright, brushing herself off as he did so. He met the indigo eyes with his own green ones, a certain kindness faintly showing in them. Giving a chuckle, he agreed. "Yes, indeed. These corridors can get quite crowded, one needs to keep their eyes up. I'm glad you're fine."

Once she asked for help, John crossed his arm, the metal plates of his armor clanking softly. It was not the in charge type of arm crossing, nor the intimidating sort. Instead it was the, I'm ready to listen crossing of arms.

"Perhaps I could," started the young knight. "What exactly is it that you need? Directions?" He looked at her with soft, inquisitive eyes, his face bright and not ominous at all, despite the metal suit he was encased in.

[Evarette Karmine]

"Kind of," she admitted, sucking in a deep breath as she edged out of the way of more passer-bys. Voices rose and fell, occupied in barter, salutations and laughter. She spared a glance around, turning over exactly how to approach what it was she needed...

"My brother, he has been missing," her dark, cerulean eyes locked on him again, gauging his response to her words. His eyes were kind...and this made the words come easier. "I've come all the way from Cyphrus to find him. I don't even know if he's...still here." ...Or if he even wants me to find him. Eva swallowed, shaking the thoughts aside. Dorian would do this for her...she was sure of it. She just had to hold onto that.

"He is...well, he looks a bit like me. But, taller, broader, more...masculine," ...Well of course! Eva sighed inwardly. This was not how she'd envisioned her quest unfolding...but, what more did she have to go on? Like herself, Dorry had never really stood out. He was without Ivar, even without a Cyphrus Strider to peg his origins.

Evarette raked a hand through her chestnut curls, a lop-sided grin forming at one corner of her mouth as it occurred to her that this perfect stranger knew more about her brother than he did herself. "I'm Evarette, by the way."

[John Griffin]

Kind of? What does that mean?" thought John. How does one 'kind of' need directions? When she glanced around he grew a little apprehensive. Was she running from someone? That might explain the haste that led to her basket incident.

"Your brother. He looks like you but he's a man." He gave her a look that was a mix between incredulous and inquiry. She was looking for a man, and that was her description. He wanted to help, but in a city of fifty thousand, that was monumental task without a better idea.

The girl ran her fingers through her hair and gave a sort of uneven grin, then introduced herself. He would normally have offered his hand, but a gauntlet had a tendency to pinch things it grabbed, so he left his arms crossed.

"John Griffin, Knight of Syliras. And I'm going to need a little more from you, Evarette, if I'm going to find your brother. Does he have any distinguishing marks? Scars, tattoos, et cetera? Or behavior? Drinking, gambling, thievery, charity, anything. Anything is better than searching for a man in a city."

[Evarette Karmine]

The Knight's admonitions rang true, and Evarette's cheeks darkened as she began to realize how ill-prepared she was for this endeavor. Dorian was...well, Dorian! Beneath the expectant eyes of John, she frowned thoughtfully, considering how best to describe her brother to one who had never met him.

"He is...he has dark hair, and a rider's build," her hands rose and fell in absent minded gestures as she spoke, as though emphasizing her points as she touched upon them, "and a scar upon his chin from where he fell as a boy. No wind marks. I do not think...well, I really don't know about his drinking habits. We don't exactly have taverns where we come from...he did like to get a bit loud with his friends from time to time, though..." ..and here Eva trailed off, lost in some distant recollection as she struggled to glean more useful information from her childhood. It struck her quite suddenly that the boy she grew up with and knew so well had turned into a near-stranger of a man. The days of their youth strengthened their familial bond, but as he aged and began to venture beyond Cyphrus with her father, her Dorry had also begun to age in other ways...

Eva gave an exasperated sigh, shaking her head as her shoulders drooped beneath the weight of her thoughts. "I wish I knew more to tell you...I hardly know what I am doing, only that I must find him. He would do the same for me..."

[John Griffin]

The girl blushed as John told her that he would need more information. Thinking about it for a moment, he figured that regular citizens probably do things and think about stuff a whole lot different than knights do. Perhaps he'd best ease into it. Eva proceeded to give slightly better description of her brother. Scars were very useful in identifying people, as were tattoos and birthmarks, and several other things.

John listened to her brief elaboration of his description, and watched as she seemed to get a little bit frustrated. He had no siblings of his own, but he could understand her concern. He had a few close cousins whom he would cross the world to find.

John uncrossed his arms and set one gauntlet gently on Eva's shoulder for just a moment. "It's okay. I'll just have to do with what you can tell me. You and your brother are Drykas, right? How well does he speak the common tongue? Does he speak with an accent? If you can tell me what he was wearing, including weapons, or other notable items, that will help a lot as well."

[Evarette Karmine]

Evarette's shoulders rose and fell in a shrug beneath the gauntleted support of John's hand. Dorian had barely been back the breadth of a day before he disappeared. What was more, he'd hardly even spoken to her. All those many months and years away had changed him.

"I wish I knew...He left with so little, I did not have the chance to hardly see him." she closed her eyes, her lips tightening in a frown as she focussed on that last night...There was much left unsaid all together that night. The Dorian that had been returned to her was a much more hardened man than the boy who doted on her as a little girl. Something flared sharply in her memory, and she grasped at it, her eyes flying wide to find those of John's...

"My father's sword! Dorry had it. I remember thinking it odd, how he didn't want to talk about him...I'd seen father's sword and assumed the worst--" Evarette swallowed back the emotion threatening to leak into her voice, steadying herself with a deep breath. She could not think of her father now. Her brother needed her. She reigned in her panicked thoughts, steering them in the direction of her father's sword...calling to mind it's description.

"It was a long bladed weapon, unique in that the hilt had been crafted by a master smith, sculpted in the form of two horses bowing their heads together..." How often had shetraced those delicate, equine faces as a child? ..."It was a gift my father received long ago, and I cannot imagine there would be another like it."

[John Griffin]

Eva seemed at first to be at a loss, not giving up much. Then she hit the nail on the head with an extremely unique item. A particular sword that John had heard described naught but fourteen or fifteen days ago. His eyes lit up.

"Your brother carries this sword? I have heard of this sword. A man named William Erindale told me of it, towards the end of spring. He has seen it, and the man who carries it." John was excited, things like this often got him worked up. "It must have been early to mid spring, maybe a little later. The man carrying it got into a brawl in which William was injured while trying to break it up. They locked him up for a few days, but couldn't get anything out of him except a name. But it was not...what did you say his name was? Dorry? It was not Dorry. But the man was undoubtedly of your people. Could another man have stolen the sword?"