That which glitters...(Zephari)

by **Akilah Windsong** on May 15th, 2015, 4:40 am

25 Spring, 515 AV

"Wow."

Akilah never could quite get used to the sight in front of her, the wide, dark sea. While her city followed the coast on its annual migration route, more often than not she spent her time looking within. Toward the plains and wild grasses.

So rarely did she turn her eye back out to the sea and perhaps that was wrong of her. It glimmered under the sun, invitingly. Maybe she could find a path later leading safely down to the shore--she doubted it, the cliffs around her stretch on forever, but maybe.

In the distance she could see tiny boats, people who lived on that sea. Lived there without setting foot on land for months on end. She couldn't imagine it, couldn't imagine living in such a small confined area. Where would she ride her strider?

And the sea animals that lived there...their shapes weird and colourful. All of that, under that sparkling water.

Maybe she should go get a book about it while she was here. Turning her head, she could see the roofs of Riverfall, the houses standing piled on cliffside. How did they do that? Behind her, Adámas whickered nervously, nudging her shoulders with her wet nose.

"Moving back," she said, her fingers signing that she got it already. At times like these, her horse got a little too motherly. The cliffs were beautiful but that wasn't her purpose here today.

No, today she was going to try to map out the cliffs near riverfall. Pulling out her pad, she noted the number of steps it too for her to get to this point of the cliff from the last one. She'd gotten used to using her steps to keep track of scale, though she should probably be using something more accurate.

Maybe next time they got around here.

It had taken her fifteen steps from her last checkpoint, fifteen steps perched too close to the edge for her strider's comfort but not close enough for Akilah. Worrywort, she gestured and her horse bit her shoulder gently in annoyance. "Alright, I get it." She pushed her partner's mouth away and sat down. Looking back at her path, she noted the north-easterly route she had taken.

Flipping the page, she quickly started to sketch out the cliff, the shape of it. The rough curves as it jutted out from the land. It was almost square in shape, compared to the smoother cliffs around it, and she wondered if something had happened to make it like that.

Maybe it was design. Semele wanting something a little different here and there.

Her cliff was starting to jut out a little too much, exaggerated, and she stared at it for a moment. Should she erase the lines? She had the footsteps to give her the real size of it all, but what if she looked at it later and thought the footsteps were wrong?

Better to erase, then. She carefully erased the lines, starting to draw the cliff again. Her pencil sketched slowly, repeating the lines in some places, before she finally got what she wanted.

Not that it looked like it should. The maps they had at home looked much better--how did they ever draw those things?

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by **Zephari** on May 15th, 2015, 5:28 am

This was becoming a habit. Zephari enjoyed her job at the mines, and loved the social structure of riverfall, but she got bored easily sitting around when she wasn't working or out in the city. Every few days she would get tired of the norm and would simply go out and have fun. Some would call it a bad habit, as it often got her into some slightly sticky situations. This was one of those days. Her last excursion had be forcibly ended by a rain storm, so she was itching to get back out.

Rather than simply heading out looking for something to do, this time Zephari simply picked a direction and started walking. This ended up with her taking a larger curved route, that eventually lead her back to The Suvan Sea. I don't think I'll ever get used to that view. Walking towards the edge of one of the high cliffs, one that rose above the others by several dozen feet, Zephari starting searching the ground, almost instinctively looking for minerals. No matter what I do out here I can always turn to the earth for entertainment. After searching the top of the cliff and finding nothing, the benshira inched to the very edge of the cliff side, now crawling on her belly. She immediately notices a glimmer on a lower shelf, about 6 feet down from her. The glimmer is an obvious indication of a crystal, so she inched just a few inches farther out, changing the direction of the glare. With the glare now gone, she saw it was certainly a crystal, a large purple one.

"That's more like it!" she said excitedly, though her voice was drowned out by the sound of the sea crashing on the other cliff side. She took a minute to gauge the distance down, she then lower herself over the edge, dropping onto the lower shelf. She slips down faster than she thought she would, landing hard on her heels.

"Shyke!" she yelped, steadying herself, keeping herself from falling further down the cliff. Once the burning feeling receded from her ankles, Zephari looked towards the glimmer point. She was amazed at what she saw.

An Amethyst crystal, almost the side of her hand, simply jutting out of the rock. Amethyst was extremely rare and coveted back home in Eyktol, so finding something this large made Zephari light headed with glee. She inched closer to it, lowering herself down onto he knees for better stability.My god I've never seen an amethyst this large so close up... This would be worth a fortune back home. Thank you Yahal for this glorious find! After her words of thanks, she took her pick and lightly tapped around the base of the crystal, which was embedded in the limestone wall.Oh crap that's soft, gotta be careful not to crack it too quickly. Zephari took her pick, and immediately made a rooky mistake. she mined at it from the top, causing a crack to radiate all the way around the base of the crystal, making it fall off its socket, and down the cliff.

"Noo!" she yelled, grappling for the crystal, but then she saw the girl. A girl sitting with her horse on the lower cliff below Zephari. The crystal dug it's self into the dirt just inches from the girl's knee, making a loud thud.

Relieved it did not hit the girl, she yelled; "Sorry miss!". She then lowered herself down to an even lower shelf, and started working her way down to the girl and the horse.I really need to be more vigilant...

OOC NoteI may have over written this a bit, but I just wanted a good setup for Zephari getting out to the cliffs. Let me know if anything in this post bugs you!

by **Akilah Windsong** on May 20th, 2015, 5:01 am

25 Spring, 515 AV

THUD!

Akilah jumped at the loud sound, falling backwards from where she was sitting. Adámas let out a loud, startled neigh. Quickly, she sat up again, tense, trying to locate the source of the sound. Was it a sign of danger? She looked around her only to stop when she looked down near her legs.

A purple rock had crashed in front of her knee. Right next to it. Letting out a cry of suprise, she stared at it.

There was like two fingers worth of distance between it and her knee. Two. And who would find her if she had lost her legs?

Reaching out, she touched it, surprised by how cool it felt. Compared to her hand, the rock seemed even bigger. She shivered, realizing just how close of a shave with death she had.

It could have hit her head. Everything would have ended right there.

Sure, there was some danger to being among the cliffs but she wasn't supposed to expect giant rocks to come crashing down. Adámas nickered softly, brushing her lips against Akilah's hair. Shivering, she stroked the horse's head softly trying to calm down. Her hands shook as she did so, the shock running its course through her system.

A voice called behind her and Akilah flinched. Was another rock coming? Was this an attack?

Hesitantly, she turned around. A woman was climbing down the cliff, approaching her.It was an impressive feat of skill but Akilah couldn't focus on it. Had she thrown the rock? Why? The woman might have yelled something, but over the crash of the waves and the wind, she couldn't hear anything.

Refocusing on the rock, she picked it up. Her half-forgotten pads fell off her lap as she stood and she hastily stored them away.

The rock was a mix of dark and light purple, just slightly smaller than her hand. Akilah knew little of rocks, especially precious rocks, but the Amethyst clan could be found sporting similar ones.

An Amethyst. This size. She never knew they could come in such a size.

The woman was coming closer and Adámas snorted, her ears flat against her head. A scream was coming, Akilah knew, and she couldn't blame the strider. Who knew what this woman was after.

Holding the rock carefully, she watched the woman warily as she ran closer. "What do you want?" she asked, her words short and tense.

Akilah normally never got angry, it wasn't a natural state for her. Not like this at least. But her fingers were still trembling, buried as they were in Adámas' mane.

Her fingers were still trembling and the fear wouldn't leave.

OCCNo problem about the length.

I write long too. Sorry for the delay, the long weekend was a busy time.

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by **Zephari** on May 21st, 2015, 5:38 am

Fear set in as Zephari got closer to the girl, scrambling down the cliff side, slipping occasionally and sliding before catching herself. She wasn't worried about hurting herself getting down, all she was worried about was making sure the girl was ok. Sliding down one final drop, landing hard with an audible thud, she turned and started jogging towards her.

She must think I'm trying to kill her! Hoping not to seem intimidating, as she came close to the woman and her horse, she put her hands up in the air, as to show she did not want any conflict. As the got within spitting distance, she could obviously tell that the girl was in defense mode, her shoulders tightened and her stance very forward. Looking past her to the spot where the rock had landed, Zephari saw just how close the girl was sitting to the impact spot. Gods I almost killed her! She must be really frazzled right now...

"What do you want?" the girl demanded, her voice stern and streaked with a touch of fear. Her horse seamed like it was ready to attack at a moment's notice, almost like it was defending the girl. She must be a drykas... Ok just play it cool...

"I am so sorry miss! I was trying to extract that crystal from the rock wall up there" Zephari said, pointing up to the highest shelf. "I accidentally broke it too quickly, causing it to fall before I could catch it. I know it must seem like an attack but I assure you it was a complete accident" she claimed, almost begging for forgiveness. She waited half a second for the girl to respond, but then ended up cutting her off as she had an idea.

"In fact if you want you can keep the crystal! It is the largest Amethyst that I have ever seen and should fetch a very high price. I am so sorry!" Zephari said, now truly pleading forgiveness. Zephari immediately started feeling a little bit of regret at offering one of her greatest finds ever, but she repressed it, knowing it was the right thing to do. After all it almost killed her, its only right that she keep it. Letting out a deep breath she had been holding Zephari then relaxed, and allowed the girl to speak, realizing she had been very rude and talked loudly over her in haste to apologize.

OOC NoteSorry about almost killing to off in the first couple posts! Zephari is just a slightly dangerous person to be around because of how much she over estimates her abilities. Hope we can turn this into a fun and semi long story line.

by **Akilah Windsong** on May 29th, 2015, 5:05 am

25 Spring, 515 AV

The stranger ran toward Akilah. Her words came out quickly, almost too quickly, but the apology was clear enough to understand.

An accident. That's all it was.

Akilah breathed in, slowly releasing the breath after a few seconds. Counting in her head, she tried to calm down.

And observe the stranger in front of her. Her eyes were two different colours--an unusual trait, one Akilah had never seen before in a human. Cats, yes, but humans...

The scars on the woman's arms grabbed her attention almost immediately after and Akilah resisted the urge to reach out and touch. Did someone injure her? Did she do this to herself? An accident? A million responses ran through her head and she looked back at the rock that almost killed her.

"It's fine." Her voice came out a little higher than she liked, a little squeakier, and her strider softly blew in her ear. It calmed her down, this familiar sound, and she reached up to stroke her partner's nose.

She could handle this. "It's fine," she repeated, her voice sounding much better already. She was an adult, she should be able to handle this by now.

"Be more careful in the future." It seemed wrong to not give any warning. Even if the warning was obvious, she felt better after saying that.

Good. She was fine. Her fingers still trembled slightly, but if she curled them into a fist, she could hardly notice it.

The rock still scared her a little but she turned to it anyway. Hesitantly, she picked it up--it was heavier than expected. It really could have killed her--she almost dropped it at that thought.

But she was fine. So she couldn't drop it. Her fingers trembled again and she shook her head.

"An Amethyst? Is that what this is?" The rock looked prettier under direct sunlight, the dark hues of purple more toward the center of the rock. "How did you manage to find this?"

It didn't look like the woman was digging or anything--shouldn't these rocks be found underground? Or maybe--well, actually, she knew next to nothing about this. Maybe those scars came from searching.

Squaring her shoulders, she moved back towards the stranger, still holding the rock tightly. "It must have taken a lot of time and effort to find this. I can't just keep this when you did so much work." Biting her lip, she quickly said, "We can split it."

It just didn't sit right otherwise.
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by **Zephari** on May 30th, 2015, 12:43 am

"Yes, it is an Amethyst, the largest one I have ever seen." Zephari answered, glad to see the anger fade from the girls face. The benshira looked up, and gawked at the cliff. It really was a long way down, and the crater the crystal had left was rather deep.

Ripping herself from her thoughts, Zephari studied the girl in front of her, and the horse. The girl was of slender but not weak build, and had exquisite and elaborate tattoos on her arm. Definitely a Drykas.

Taking a deep breath, Zephari sighed, and was about to say something but she was interrupted by the girl offering to split the stone. Raising her eyebrow, and tapped her chin considering the idea. That was something that was easier said than done, and Zephari had no idea how to easily split such a large crystal.

"I think that would be fair, but that is rather difficult to actually do. Amethyst like that is very dense, making it VERY hard. I don't know if I can split it with just the tools I have on me." she replied, now honestly stumped. Her sense of decency suddenly snapped at her, forcing Zephari to remember he manners.

"I honestly forgot to introduce myself while I was apologizing. My name is Zephari." she said, giving a slight bow. Looking to the rock, she realized that she only really had two choices of how to split it; either take it bad to riverfall and have some one cut it with a gem saw, or try to make a fine crack in it with her chisel.

"If you do want to split it, I can give it a shot" she offered, pulling out her hammer and chisel.

by **Akilah Windsong** on June 1st, 2015, 3:19 am

25 Spring, 515 AV

Akilah stared in surprise at the girl in front of her. "Wow, you can actually break it yourself?" She looked back down at the rock, her fingers curling around the edges of the precious stone.

It was so heavy and solid--she had thought of it like the rocks they found when clearing out an area to make a pavilion. Impossible or very hard to break. But then again...her right hand went up unconciously to touch the small diamonds threaded in the weaves in her hair, the diamonds attached to small weaves in her strider's mane.

The small precious stones the other clans had. She had always thought they were just found that small, never caring too much about geology. The rock in her hand said otherwise--they were carved out.

All of a sudden, Akilah's reservations for the stranger dropped--this was too interesting to let go.

"Oh, sorry, my name is Akilah," she replied, flushing lightly in embarrassment over not introducing herself. Was she supposed to bow back? Unsure, she gave a short, hesitant bow. "Of the Windsong Pavilion in the Diamond Clan."

She hadn't said those words in a while--most Drykas could tell where she came from by sight.

"You can split it, really?" Akilah asked, fascinated by the tools appearing in Zephari's hands. Adámas snorted, amused, and she swatted the horse's head. "Don't tease."

Turning back to her new acquaintance, she held the rock out. "If you want to split it, sure--I was just thinking in terms of money but it would be nice to keep a piece of the rock."

How, how exactly would the woman break the rock? Could she hit it anywhere? Or just specific places? Akilah's mind burst with questions and it was hard to hold them all back.

"Where did you learn to do this?" she asked, watching eagerly. Another thought struck her, a previous question from when she first looked at the rock. "Wait, you said you found this, right? Do they just come out of the ground like that?"

Looking at the cliffs now, Akilah squinted. They weren't too far from the cliffs, she could potentially spot a colourful rock. It still seemed strange that they just jutted out from the earth.

Perhaps Semele liked to leave them out like that, a surprise for those who searched.

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by **Zephari** on June 1st, 2015, 4:55 am

The drykas girl let many questions fly, Zephari only catching parts of each. It seemed that the sense of tension had been dropped and replaced by a growing curiosity. The girl seemed genuinely interested in the rock now, and even asked about how Zephari knew how to do these things. Her horse made an odd, almost condescending snort as she selected her medium chisel and grabbed the rock hammer from her tool belt. Once she stopped rattling off questions Zephari started to explain.

"Yes I believe I can split it. That rock is actually two separate crystals that have grown together, and I should be able to split them down the middle. Crystals like this tend to crack in very certain ways so I just need to find that certain direction, and it will be as easy as splitting a piece of firewood" Zephari said, trying to sound confident. In reality she was very unsure of her ability to do this. She knew from past experience with smaller amethyst that it was a very stable crystal that was extremely hard to break, unless you found the EXACT cleavage direction.

Taking the crystal from Akilah's hand, Zephari continued to explain; "Most crystals do come out of the ground in a similar shape to this, not the refined jewelers shapes like what your wearing." Pointing at the crystals in the girl's hair. Returning her eyes to the giant rock in her hands, she started looking for and cracks.

"Though it is unusual to find most gems larger than a thumb, so this thing is truly monolithic in comparison" Zephari explained, setting the crystal down on a large smooth rock. Taking her chisel, she traces along the crystal's grains, trying to find and cracks to indicate the cleavage. Not finding any after a few seconds, Zephari turned back to Akilah who was looking up at the cliffs, probably looking for other gems.

"Almost all gems are found underground or within other rocks, so finding them at the surface is very hard if you don't know exactly what to look for. That is partly what makes this one so strange. It was simply sticking out of the side of that very upper ledge. It was socketed about four inches into the rock face." she instructed, pointing up at the ledge she had dug the crystal out of.

Cracking her knuckles Zephari returned her gave to the stone. It was primarily two larger crystals that had grown side by side, surrounded by five or six very small crystals. The smaller ones would make breaking this difficult as they helped to bind the two larger ones together. She turned the rock over and over several times, looking for any obvious weak spots, until one was found. Right at the base between the two crystals there was some discoloration, indicating an imperfection.

"Here we go. This should work." the benshira claimed, placing her chisel over the discoloration, and slamming her hammer down on the chisel. It made a semi-loud almost metallic noise, and was followed by the slightest noise of cracking stone.

Taping away at the stone, she continued; "I've been a prospector since I was very little, so I learned most all of this on my own. I learned a good amount of what I know about gems from a man named Velkrem, who worked as a jeweler in my caravan for a few years."

As she finished the sentence, she delivered one last hard blow to the crystal, sending a straight crack right up the middle of the stone, breaking it in two. Taking the larger piece in her left hands, Zephari handed it to Akilah.

"Hows that?"

OOC NoteBit of a long one but I wanted to give Akilah a lot to wonder over.

by **Akilah Windsong** on June 2nd, 2015, 4:16 am

25 Spring, 515 AV

Akilah listened intently, watching as Zephari worked at the crystal.

Her words seemed like common sense, so obvious when Akilah thought about it. Of course precious stones didn't come out of Semele perfectly formed. Obviously they had to be found and worked on.

How they got there in the first place was a different question all together.

It all seemed so easy to reason and yet not once had Akilah thought about it. She had just accepted the rocks in the form they came, as though it was a facet of life and not of hard work.

Even for all her time spent reading charts and maps, physically examining the ground around her in an attempt to make her maps, she had never considered what happened below that ground. How many other things had she missed by just examining the surface?

A thrill went up her spine then, at the endless possibilities. She had been slowly mapping out Cyprus as her pavilion travelled, trying to mark out the good places she liked so she could easily find them again after. Examining the ground around her for landmarks--trees, giant rocks, hills.

All on the surface. She knew, though she had never had the chance to go into one herself, that caves existed. Underground tunnels that went through the heart of Semele.

Not very well charted. Not very well explored.

Smiling at the thought, she almost missed it when Zephari broke the crystal. The woman seemed to have found something she liked.

Akilah peered down eagerly, making sure not to block the light. What she saw was...nothing. Just the rock as it was--maybe something was different about it, but her untrained eyes couldn't pick it up easily.

At the first swing, she flinched at the noise. It was louder than she expected, but somehow the hammer worked. She could spot the crack and up until that moment, she hadn't actually believed Zephari when she said she could do it.

The rock split and Akilah made a small noise of surprise. "You actually did it!" The rock was much lighter now, and Akilah turned it over in her hands, staring at the cracked side.

The edges were rough but geometric--not at all like glass when it shattered. She had thought it would be more stubbly than that.

"How'd you know where to hit?" Akilah turned the rock over in her hands again, trying to see if there was any clear markers. Even now, she couldn't see anything obvious. Maybe if they had a second one, she could have asked Zephari to demonstrate again.

Unfortunately, giant rocks didn't fall out of the sky that often. Or grow so big or obvious out of the ground, according to Zephari. But she had learned from a jeweller, so maybe she could explain and break this rock into a smaller version.

"A jeweller--in a caravan?" The words ran through her head again, she had seen a few come to Endrykas. Rarely though. "You're not from around here?"

Now that she thought about it, it was obvious that Zephari wasn't from the city nearby or at least a native to it. And she was clearly not a Drykas.

"Where--" Akilah stopped, embarrassed by the amount of questions she was asking.

Adámas snorted again, rubbing against her head slightly. Akilah didn't swat her this time, knowing she deserved any ridicule she received.

But it was hard to steer a conversation without asking question. Just one more couldn't hurt. "So, I guess you were hunting for rocks then? Is this the only one you found?"

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by **Zephari** on June 2nd, 2015, 10:30 pm

Holding her hands up at the flurry of questions unleashed upon her, Zephari spoke slowly, a little overwhelmed. "No I'm not from around here. I only came here at the beginning of spring from Eyktol. I'm a benshira from one of the caravans that traveled the burning lands."

Zephari wondered how that wasn't obvious. Had Akilah not had much experience with outsiders? It was something she decided to ask about later, wanting to first burn through the list of questions set before her. Lifting her half of the crystal Zephari pointed to the little remaining bit of the dark imperfection in the crystal

"This is how I knew where to hit it. This darker patch means that there is an imperfection or added material in the crystal, which makes that spot weaker." she said, running her finger along the crystal's cornered broken edge. She then showed Akilah the angle at which the stone had broken, and how it was exactly perpendicular the the grain of the crystal, which was horizontal.

Holding the smaller but darker half of the crystal, Zephari pondered how on Semele it had come to be at the surface. Most crystals where only found deep underground, where they were found in large veins accompanied by minerals. Was it possible that at one point these cliffs had actually been not cliffs at all, and that the constant pounding of the sea had been enough to exposed the depths of the ground? Zephari turned away from the girl and looked up at the large cliff above them. By the look of the stone it certainly wasn't the usual sandy surface stone that was common to Riverfall's region, but it wasn't quite the same as the hard bedrock found in the Coalinga mines.

Returning her gaze to Akilah, Zephari answered her last question; "I am what is called a prospector. Some one who looks for rocks and minerals on the surface, rather than down in a mine." Zephari claimed somewhat proudly, liking to use prospector as a title of sorts.

The rolls of parchment caught her eye. What was a young girl doing out here with so much paper? Focusing her eyes she noticed the scribbles that resembled the nearby cliffs to the north. She must be a map drawer, a caragropher was it called?

Not knowing for sure, she asked anyway. "So what are you out here for? Its pretty dangerous around these cliffs, so you don't see many people out here."

Crystal Image :

Closed That which glitters...(Zephari)