In the country I cannot have [Kavala]

[Trista]

It was a strange and, to Trista's way of thinking, rather unpleasant story that Kavala told. Being captured, raped, and nearly eaten was, of course, unpleasant to nearly anyone, but it didn't seem that Kavala's troubles had ended with her rescue. If anything, it seemed that the Akalak were going to rape her again, although they were probably going to be more polite about it.

She had little to say, though she nodded somberly. A mental note etched itself in the back of her mind -- don't wind up needing help in Riverfall. Trista was usually self-sufficient enough to keep from requiring assistance from anyone, Akalak or no, but Mizahar was a dangerous place, and it didn't require much of a slip-up to, say, wind up trussed and dressed for a Zith dinner.

The next part of the conversation was much more interesting. "No large-scale projects at the moment -- just a few sketches of the city skyline, that sort of thing. I did a public mural in Mura, and if it's not too big a project, I'd be more than a little interested in doing one here."

Abruptly, she stopped, and there was an uncomfortable pause. Things had changed for her in the last few months, and she now had a gift-curse that made her art much more complicated than it had once been. Nothing was as simple anymore.

"I...I have to tell you though, that I have a...very specific artistic philosophy." The words were strung together awkwardly. "I don't paint real places or real people. I'm happy, for instance, to paint a generic Konti in a generic field, but I can't do a specific Konti in a specific field. I don't know if that conflicts with what your plans for the room are -- if it does, I absolutely understand." She sounded apologetic, and vaguely uncomfortable, which was entirely true. It wasn't a philosophical problem at all -- rather, it was that Avalis herself had come to warn Trista about the problems her newfound powers could bring about, and so Trista was loathe to let anyone even know about them.

[Kavala]

Kavala looked thoughtful. She smiled slightly then nodded. "I would love to hire you for a mural here. Actually two." Kavala said softly, tilting her head slightly in thought. "One of your choice downstairs in the waiting area... anything you want to paint as long as its soothing for the clients and not of any disturbing images. Perhaps a grassland scene of horses grazing or something... natural. Maybe even a mountain scene. Just scenery or animals. It's a fairly big wall that begs some attention. And I'd also like to have you do one for my own living quarters upstairs. I'd like that one to be an ocean scene, like an undersea coral reef with perhaps some ruins of a sunken city but it doesn't have to be any real place. Either of them. The one upstairs I'd love to have in blues and violets and colors that are muted and soothing... something I can drape the rest of the walls with fabric and have it match beautifully. The one downstairs would be colors of your choice. What would you charge for such an undertaking... if I supplied paints and brushes. And, is there any chance you'd let me help so I could learn a little painting too?" Kavala asked thoughtfully, wondering maybe if Trista would let her help fill in the big spots that needed painting while she came back and did the detail as the true artist.

"You could stay here while you worked on it and we could feed you. I want the downstairs mural for professional reasons, but the upstairs mural is personal. I feel like I want to live in the sea. It calls to me like nothing ever has. But in so many ways the Konti don't fully belong there and aren't truly ever going to be part of it." Kavala said softly. "So having a mural would be like living in the place i cant ever truly fully live in... if that makes sense." She said softly, almost sadly.

And if on cue the rain started again, and Kavala scowled... looking decidedly uncomfortable about the constant wetness of the rains in Riverfall.

[Trista]

Trista looked away, her gaze taking in the rain that swept over the countryside and the city as far as could be seen.

"It makes sense," the Akvatari said, picking up on the last phrase Kavala had said. Her voice was so quiet that it was almost difficult to hear. "I've spent my entire life living in places I can't fully live in."

She turned her head, blue eyes now focused on Kavala. "But yes...yes, I'd be happy to do the murals, both of them. And if you wanted to help, I imagine I could show you at least some basics. I'll be working quickly, but not so quickly that I can't give pointers."

She laughed, a little ruefully. "I've a terrible head for money. I don't have the faintest idea what I'd charge, and I'd likely take whatever you gave me. Perhaps there's something you could teach me in exchange? As long as I've got pencils for my sketches and strings for my dulcimer, I don't really need that many things." A shrug of her bare shoulders. "I'd welcome a place to stay, though I won't require much in the way of food. I've tried, but I can't fathom this concept of 'cooking.' I don't eat much except fish and kelp -- shellfish or snails sometimes for a change of pace, though they're far too rich to eat very many at one sitting -- and I can catch those myself."

It was true -- perhaps in compensation for their incomplete past and lonely present, the Akvatari were very nearly the hardiest of Mizahar's inhabitants. They could sleep in the open, regardless of the elements, and they could catch all the food they needed as long as there was some water around. Trista had certainly spent more than enough nights curled in a ball in a windstorm to vouch for her own toughness on that front. Nonetheless, it was nice to be warm and dry.

"Erm...out of curiosity, if it's not impolite, what exactly is the Sanctuary? And what do you do there?"

[Kavala]

Kavala smiled. "Then I'll give you a five mizas a day to paint the murals... so however long it takes depends on you. And that way if I slow you down asking questions, you aren't being hurt in the long run." Kavala suggested, though she was completely open to debate on it. "You can crash upstairs in my living quarters or take one of the guest beds or staff beds for your own." She added, smiling. "Its a good thing you don't need food because I'm not that good of a cook. But I'm learning, so there's be no guarantee of poisonings, though I wouldn't mean it." She added with a slight laugh. "I burn more than I salvage at this point." The konti was humble about her abilities. For truthfully there was no ability involved when it came to her cooking. She was simply learning.

"Okay... you feed yourself. That's great. Really... though truthfully I cant imagine clams raw. We eat them steamed and in soup around here. I imagine if you say you catch them yourself you don't cook them... or do you? That might be a good thing, around here, and I myself have been tempted to try some of the fish I see raw. I'm just never one to be sure. I didn't grow up around Mura. I grew up in the Sea of Grass instead." She said, curious, but trying not to offend with her questions and comments. "Maybe you can show me what types are best raw so I can try them myself." Kavala said softly, knowing that a part of her, the same part that bore the scales, was meant to live in the sea and be sustained by it.

"I'm a healer. Sanctuary is a clinic for healing animals rather than people. I can do people easy enough, but Riverfall has their own facility for wounded warriors. I feel animals, their thoughts and emotions. If I have a close enough tie with them, I can almost talk to them because my horse for example, can send me images of carrots when hes feeling needful of them. But mostly its feelings... so I treat them. Animals and Kelvics both. They aren't so great with the Kelvics up at the Akalak center. Here... its my understanding they consider them pets only." The implied was pets not people. Thus, less status and less importance. Kavala took a deep breath, gesturing to the building behind her. "The whole lower floor is the healing clinic with a few labs and a waiting room... the mural is for the waiting room. The rest of the place is a boarding stable for horses. We also breed here." She assured Trista, smiling slightly. She was proud of the stables.

"The whole of it is owned by the City. I just manage it. Here, if you want to eat and live in Riverfall, you have to be productive. If you can run something or do something well, they will often provide land and or a building to aid this.. but they get the profits and pay you a salary. So even if I build it up, its never going to be fully mine." She added looking a little pained by that thought.

"It's part of the way I am paying my debt to them. But the reality is they don't really care about this part. The real care is in my status as a brood mare for them." The Konti added, looking thoughtful.

"Shall we go into the market when the rains get better and get supplies? I can show you the walls until then. I don't know if you can fly up the stairs but there's a balcony upstairs that would make an excellent place to land and you can go through the doorway up there to see the larger wall in my quarters." Kavala added. "The clinic waiting room is just inside through the examination room." She said.

[Trista]

Trista had no quibbles, given that the niceties of financial debate were entirely beyond her. In a sense, the Akvatari was the ultimate anti-entrepreneur -- if her physical well-being had been in any way tied to her business skills, she would have starved to death a long time ago.

"Yes, I eat everything raw," Trista said, tilting her head to one side. "Why spoil something of the water with fire? I don't know what would taste better raw to someone used to cooked things, but I'm personally fond of flatfish -- although I don't know if it's because they're particularly delicious or because, if you know what you're doing, they're among the easiest ones to catch." A shrug of her bare shoulders, the Seer's Lily inscribed there rippling slightly.

It was an interesting gift that the Konti had, though Trista had to think a little to get it to be useful. The Akvatari were not a pet-keeping people; cats, dogs, horses and the like didn't take well to living hundreds of feet in the air, fish were food, and the only birds that visited Akvatar were various species of seabirds that took badly to captivity. But the land-dwellers weren't like that, and if one were going to insist on keeping animals, having an animal healer around would no doubt be valuable. And Kelvics...yes, it would probably take a special person to care for someone like Amaya.

In sort of a similar vein, Kavala's wistfulness at the city of Riverfall's universal ownership was a stretch for Trista to understand. The concept of "owning a business" scarcely registered in Trista's brain, and even in Abura, the homes weren't so much "owned" as "occupied," given that the city had been built as a sort of gargantuan art project and as such was vastly larger than the population could possibly warrant. She could sympathize with the Konti, but it was hard for her to empathize, no matter how much she wanted to.

The last bit though...that, the Akvatari could understand. To treat someone as a womb rather than a whole person seemed more typical of the Symenestra and their ilk rather than a supposedly civilized race. She shivered without noticing it.

"Yes, we can go to the market when it stops. And...I don't think I'd make it up those stairs," she added, looking dubiously at the narrow passageway. "So I'll see you at the balcony."

She flitted away from her chair and then up to the place Kavala had designated. She wondered idly how much room she would have for a mural. It was hard to plan a design until she knew what the location looked like.

[Kavala]

Flatfish eh? "I'll have to try the flatfish. Perhaps maybe you could teach me how to catch them. I grew up on the grasslands away from the sea. I never knew what I missed until I moved here. Now I rarely want to be too far away from it. So far I've mastered digging clams, hunting crab, and catching lobsters and shrimp though the shrimp take a really long time to find enough when you're feeding as many people as tend to eat here." She confessed, then smiled as Trista agreed to both look at the walls and go to the market with her. Kavala followed Trista upstairs as the woman flew herself neatly. The Konti figured it must be handy to both fly and swim so easily. But it was an odd combination, though a beautiful one, and unexpected too.

Once on the upper level, Kavala let Trista into the room that was wholly undecorated except for an incredibly large low bed against a far wall. The wall Kavala was talking about was the full length of the room and overlooked the courtyard though there were no windows. Just a set of glass doors lead to a small landing where a stairway was in the process of being built that lead down to the courtyard. The other wall, however, was a different story. It was mostly windows and overlooked a balcony that in turn had a lovely view of the Suvan Sea spreading out beyond the cliffs the facility was perched on. Trista could see immediately why Kavala thought a sea scene here would be appropriate. "This is my room. I've done nothing yet with it, but I'll paint the other walls a matching shade of blue and then drape them with fabric to make it look like they are the inside of a Pavilion. Then I'll go get some furniture to match.. .low things so people can sit on the floor. The bed is big because my sister and I share it... and sometimes house guests. That's how the Drykas are and how we were raised. Plus sometimes there are also kelvics here." Kavala said, smiling and thinking of Flick. "One never knows if they are going to sleep in their animal form or if they are going to actually take up human space." She chuckled, then moved into the virtually empty room.

"I was thinking a coral reef, rife with bright fishes and beautiful flower like plants." Kavala suggested, then grew quiet to let the Akvatari take in what she was saying and really look at the plain wall that was indeed rather ugly as it was.

[Trista]

Trista was silent for a long time, staring at the walls. She was in art mode now, and the wheels in her head were turning hard.

She set herself down on the floor, and then opened her satchel. She sorted through her carefully-organized supplies, finally settling on a very large, very thick pencil. Trista held it up to her eye, checking to make sure it was sharp.

Once satisfied, she flitted over to the wall in question. Immediately, she began making light sketch marks on it.The shapes were still not fully fleshed out, but there was an easily-identifiable reef on the left side. It was foregrounded, and in addition to blocking out the general outline, she had added some fan corals at various points.

She was entirely focused, and even if Kavala said something, Trista wouldn't give her any reply. In the center of the composition, the Akvatari added a series of dolphins at various distances. They were still merely crude outlines, but one could tell both what they were and where they would go.

The right side of the wall was largely left open. A few corals and sponges were placed at intervals, and the arc of the sea floor sloped downward. After she finished this final line, a good hour after she had begun, she sank to the ground again and exhaled a loud sigh.

"Right then," Trista said, finally looking at Kavala again. "How's that for a basic design?"

[Kavala]

The konti had stood marveling, watching the Akvatari work. She knew the rough pencil sketches wouldn't last but rather seemed to serve as placeholders in the composition for things that were coming in paint later. But the Konti was still amazed. The length of the piece stretched the entire wall and had so many small marks, tiny indications of what was to come, that Kavala was simply stunned.

She'd heard that Akvatari were incredible artists, but this was something altogether different.

In fact, Trista had sketched so long that Kavala was able to leave partway through, tend to a few chores, and return with some findings from the market she rode to briefly. Kavala had picked up pots of paints and extra brushes (so she'd have a few) all in colors of the sea - blues, greens blacks, whites, and a few smaller bottles of bright oranges, reds, yellows, pinks, and purples. When she returned, she laid out the supplies along with bowls to hold or mix the paints on a low slung table near the wall. She knew Trista probably had supplies, but she wanted to make sure she had a variety and didn't cut into her personal stash too deeply during the project.

"It's lovely." Kavala said, touching it in places as if not sure what the sketches would lead too. "So the process involves first sketching on the wall with a pencil then painting over it? Is there something I can help with? I brought more paint while you were working. The booth owner said it was appropriate for wall murals." Kavala said, hoping she got enough and the right kinds at that.

[Trista]

Trista smiled softly. "I'm glad you like it."

She looked back over at the wall. "Most times an artist will do some preliminary sketches on paper in order to help block out the composition for a mural. I was feeling inspired, I guess, so I skipped that step this time. But yes, it's easier at least for me to work if I pencil in the shapes before I work. I can remove the pencil during the painting process, and it will help me make sure to keep the overall composition straight while I'm putting in the details."

The Akvatari looked over the paints Kavala had purchased. "These should do nicely," she said. "Thanks." It was rare that someone would, of their own volition, simply bring the necessary supplies to her, much less take the time to make sure they were the proper ones.

She found a light blue pigment and started to mix it so the consistency would be uniform. "This will be the base color for the water. I want to make sure that it's light enough to allow me to overlay it later with dark colors in some places to add the feeling of distance and depth. If you want to take a brush -- a relatively broad one is fine -- and start applying an even coat to the sections of the mural that will end up being water, that would be wonderful. When you get to the outlines of the fish, the rocks, that sort of thing, just get as close to the pencil lines as you can. I can do the detail work later, when I'm working on the fish and such themselves."

[Kavala]

It was something so different than her day to day life that Kavala found delight in it. Following Trista's instructions, she took a bit of the pigment that Trista mixed for her and a brush and began putting in the background color. Kavala was careful, working painfully slowly but applying color to everything she could that did not need the artists attention initially. And as she painted, she hummed a tune someone else wrote a long time ago. For some reason, Trista reminded her of tragedy, in all her strangeness and beauty. And it was tragedy and the sea that Kavala ended up singing about.

"Look out at the sea,
You feel it,
But it is not the sea you feel is it,
It is but your soul,
Traped in the sarrows of the seas,
It never is but a sea,
Walk along the beach,
Cry and pray to the waves,
All you can see is but the sarrows of the sea,
Alone I sit,
Alone I cry,
Alone is but the sea,
Alone my soul alone my shadow,
It is the sorrows of the sea,
Cry to your self,
Cry to the sorrows of the sea,
I am alone,
I am alone and only I and Me know,
And the sorrows of the sea,
I am but the sorrows of the sea"

She came back for more paint multiple times, noting how Trista mixed it until finally she could mix it for herself and get the same color. The konti didn't move with familiar grace around the paint nor its tools. Instead she moved with caution, watching the Akvatari and trying to mimic her as she worked. Kavala wanted to talk with her, and wished she knew what to say. Instead, she simply hummed, moving from one song to another, looking for a common ground with the muralist she'd just hired.

"That if I would,
I would stand immortally at sea
Gazing for eternity at sea

The beauty struck sea
I’d set leave of quay
To immortally find way

Stand upon the ocean shore
Reverberating sea splashing at my feet
Shore washing sea, covering my feet

To close my eyes is to be at sea
This dream lasts all day to me
One day is like twenty years at sea

That if I would,
I would stand immortally at sea
Hoping for eternity at sea

Wonder covered sea
I would bless the shore
And leave to be once more

Out at sea to sail
And stand upon a ship and sway
Listen to the creak of the wood, and say

To close my eyes is to be at sea
A dream that lasts eternity
Eternity, guaranteed, to live

Would one day be eternity
I would spend it out at sea
Stand upon the ocean shore, foaming at my feet"

She finished her section, went back for more paint, and carefully began remixing. "Does my singing bother you? I'd love to just... talk with you... but I can't... I don't want to intrude. You just seem so... sad. So alone. I don't know what it is exactly... you just seem different." Kavala said softly.