Closed A Watery Meeting

[Alses]

e

Timestamp: 39th Day of Summer, 515 A.V.
Location: The Kinell Hotsprings

Summer in Lhavit, that most agreeable of seasons. A time of abundant sunlight, bell upon bell of solar glory pouring down from on high – was it any wonder Alses delighted so in the summertime? Any Synaborn worth the name craved Summer and the long bells of celestial fulfilment it brought – how could they not?

Yes, there were few downsides to the season, as far as Alses was concerned – the heat that made nearly everyone else lethargic and slow served instead to fuel her meteoric rise; merely watching her work like a demon was enough to make most people tired at the sight.

That, of course, was as a beautiful celestial Ethaefal, chosen and favoured. When the sun went down and she was stuck in her Konti chain, though, Alses suffered just as much as the other citizens of the Diamond as it roasted in the muggy heat of the height of summer. Today had been particularly bad; barely a breath of air had stirred through the streets of the city all day; the doughty citizens of the city had wilted beneath Syna's burning gaze and prayed silently for relief from the heat and humidity.

Their prayers, it seemed, had been answered; out in the Unforgiving, beyond the city and the tamed summits of the Misty Peaks, the clouds billowed and proliferated from nothing as hot and wet met cold and dry, battling and duelling amid the knife-edged peaks, erupting into prodigious thunderheads that were already sending outriders to tease and tantalise glittering Lhavit.

Those rolling clouds quickly took away the starry vault of the heavens and swallowed up the silvery glow of the moon, wrapping Lhavit in a cocoon of cloud above and mist below, all of it lit by the shimmer of the city; skyglass and calias luminescence alike. They were the harbingers, growing in depth and menace as each tick passed, heavily pregnant with rain and waiting for a critical mass before opening.

'Apres moi,' the last gasp of heat seemed to murmur, 'the deluge.'

A

Alses rocked on the edge of the hotsprings, unselfconsciously naked. Volcanic heat struck up through the slick rocks beneath her feet; she curled her toes in pleasure at the warmth, a contrast to the chill coming down in tumbling drops from the louring sky. A shiver raced up her spine and down again at the delicious conflict of hot and cold; she felt her breath catch.

Kinell was gorgeous, and in its current state – deserted – perfect. The rain whispered its subtle serenade from all around, playing its toccata on the myriad leaves, the verdant foliage that owed its year-round existence to the geological fury of the region, the heat that forever radiated from the springs. In the glow from the calias-infused plantlife, the world was thrown into high contrast; the light had that curious quality of drinking much of the colour from around it, leaving only its own blue blaze in solitary glory. Green became a shadow, a mere hint in the black depths of the leaves, flowers turned mere ghosts of themselves.

The perfumes, though, like that from the bougainvillea tumbling with reckless abandon down the striated bluffs, or the wild roses that scrambled and clambered through the trees, wasn't dimmed in the least, and it lay thickly around the pools, great banks of it filling the air with all the scents of summer.

A million million raindrops danced on the emerald surface of the pools, and, almost too fast to see, the jewel-bright flit of a kingfisher, darting from one sheltering overhang to the next, flashed over them, leaving a snatch of its haunting song hanging in the moisture-laden air.

The continual thunder of superheated water jetting high into the air and crashing down on unyielding granite enveloped Alses as she carefully rounded the poolside, the sound whispering promises of supporting, cradling warmth, its comforting roar already working against the head-splitting drone of unceasing thought. Her clothes had already been left behind, in niches carved with cunning and care into the cliff-face, kept dry and warm by the heat of the rocks and sheltered from the worst of the spray, and now she was headed for the pool itself.

Anticipation – and another delicious thrill – quickened her step. Swift and sure, now, she padded along the pathway, a ribbon of rough-hewn and algae-slick black that hugged the steaming pools, her goal and prize now in view.

Alses had lived in Lhavit long enough – and frequented the springs enough – to have a favourite place there. For her, it was a perfect little plateau of granite jutting up from the water's surface, right in the path of the waterfall, the hottest part of the springs. A few swift strokes took her there, still gasping from the million million lances of warmth that prickled across her rain-chilled skin, the tumbling cascade drawing a pleasured groan from her lips as she settled in place, gills opening and luxuriating in the water-rich environment.

The heat and the pressure, constantly renewed, forever shifting, never exactly the same from one tick to the next, acted like the finest of masseuses, a battering massage that pounded the tight-wound knots of tension that she wasn't even consciously aware of into submission, kneading away the poisons of fatigue and anxiety.

Alses closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift, shutting out the world and letting herself simply feel.
e

[Tanell]

Tanell reveled in the warmer weather. Syna's light warmed the city, bringing thoughts of long days at home in Mura. She and Eleret had often gone for a walk in a park in such weather, the heat and the exercise providing a wonderful excuse to slip into the cool water of the isle. The chill of the water a delightful change from the heat of the day. These days, any reminder of her sister was welcomed, their time apart and the falling off of their communications, it was worrisome, and quite lonely. She often mentioned such things in her prayers to her father, asking him to send word to her beloved sister, or pass word back from her. The lack of answer was no deterrent, if her sister wasn't near the water, there wasn't a simple way to reach her, and Tanell could expect nothing more than that from one so busy as a god.

Instead of worrying excessively over the welfare of her elder sister, Tanell had sought any excuse to be in the water. For it was in the water that she felt most at home. The Syna lit depths of rivers, lakes, and oceans a welcomed embrace. She was not so changed now, in the glittering city, trekking often to the shore or the hotsprings to lose a bell or two in enjoyment of the water. Proximity to her father aside, she missed her sisters, missed the beauty of her home on the isle.

She shook such thoughts away, turning her reflection outwards, towards the views she passed. Or rather to the mist laden sights around her, for the city seemed to have found itself in the midst of a storm about to break. The damp heat that found them was far less pleasant than the drier heat of earlier in the day, humidity seeping into the city, coating its people in a layer of damp that had nothing to do with sweat.

Relief came as she reached the springs, a crack in the clouds allowing the first large drops of rain to splatter against the hot stones beneath her feet. The rain was all the more reason for her to undress, folding neatly her clothing, the simple task taking no more than a chime. She breathed deeply, the smell of rain joining en masse the other scents, billowing the warm honeysuckle and heated rose up into the air in abundance.

The trailing scent called to her as she stored her clothing, alone in the carved stone but for one other similar bundle. She would have been concerned then, after her run in with the boy who had been so concerned for her modesty. Though it seemed strange for strangers to tell other strangers they must wear clothing to swim, he had said it was the truth, and that most people would dress for swimming. She set such thoughts aside, the other woman, for it was clear by her clothing it was a woman, had no such concern.

A good thing, for Tanell had not brought clothing to swim in. In fact, she still wondered what one should wear when swimming if they should wear anything more than their own skin-

How quickly she had fallen back to the same topic. Perhaps it weighed on her more than she thought. She took another deep breath, this time with more intent; letting the breath inwards fill her with Semele's abundant energy, and after a few long ticks, returning the breath and with it most of the same energy to its source. She repeated the process until her breath no longer shook in her chest as she exhaled, allowing the sensation to clear her mind and settle her nerves.

She looked up, allowing the rain to wash over her face as she searched for the stars and the moon. She found nether in the sky above, so covered by the clouds that provided the long awaited rain.

"Makutsi, my father's daughter, I see you dance across the sky and hear your waters pounding against the stones beside me, I welcome you as you join me today, the gifts of our father a joyous reminder as I visit your domain." The quiet prayer seemed to carry loudly in the quiet of the springs, though surely the rain muffled the sound as Tanelll slipped into the water of the springs. The heat for a moment was an unwelcome change, after the relief of the rain pattering across her skin, but quickly the warmth seeped through her skin, soothing muscles and joints alike. Her time spent in her garden, and bowed over unfamiliar cards, deciphering the stories they told had taken its toll on her back and neck. Aches that were easily ignored until she stepped into the water.

Careful of rocks hidden by the reflection of the gently glowing flora that surrounded the pools, Tanell moved out into the water, seeking depths that would allow her to duck beneath them and hide from her worries.

Before such depths could be found, she instead discovered something else, the woman the clothing belonged to. She was tucked up beneath the falls where Tanell had discovered, quite by accident, the water grew hottest. It was quite surprising that the woman sat beneath them, the waters around them were usually more than hot enough for Tanell's own comfort.

The calias lit pools were steamy, the cool rain and the hot surface of the water creating soft clouds of steam that rose up around them. Even so obscured, it was obvious that the woman was a Konti, the achingly familiar crown of scales, hair and skin so pale, perhaps more so in the calias glow, she, as most Konti did, epitomized the look of their heritage.

"Good evening," she called softly to the woman, the faintest tinkle of sound dancing in her awareness as the other woman became aware of her, perhaps for the second time, although distance had protected Tanell from the music of the woman's mind before. Her native tongue sweet against her lips, for speaking it to a god was different, separate, from speaking it to someone who was more likely to respond in kind.

[Alses]

e

Alses was as detached from her body and as content as she could possibly be whilst stuck in the corpse-flesh of her mortal chain. Hot water was everywhere, thundering down on her head, her shoulders, cascading over her collarbone, inundating the gills on her neck and then rushing in a rippling wave over the pale swell of her breasts to drain into the pool proper.

The rest of the world could go hang; the tumbling, steaming, near-boiling curtain cut off Mizahar and let her rest, perfect and alone in the middle of Kinell, far away from duty and responsibility and company and all the rest of it, lurking up above the clouds amidst the skyglass fantasy of Lhavit.

Elysium Hall was her home, her sanctuary and soon to be her fortress, but there were times when the walls closed in and she needed space, the open air. Sometimes the wide boulevards and parks and squares of the city were enough, and other times – like now – only somewhere like Kinell, or a walk down to Port Tranquil, would do.

Such solitude was not to last, however. The soothing shimmer of the auras of insensate things paled into insignificance as another sentient – one reeking of seawater and far-off places – intruded on the otherwise-calm mileiu. Waves of bright blueness – almost the colour of Tanroa's blessing – washed and rang against Alses' extending Yggdrasil of golden djed, sparkling and dancing at the edges of her consciousness, her mastery of auristics patiently and inexolerably pulling her forth from her near-dreaming state with a continual whispering susurrus of secrets and information.

Tendrils of glimmering magic curved and bent as the tight-whorled knot of a soul made itself felt and present, djed curving in from all sides to curl amorously around the radiation, sampling it with a million million grasping fingers, drinking in all the secrets that people broadcasted, all unknowing.

So...sea-linked, but not Svefra, too ordered and too serene for that, the magic whispered as Alses swam up from the depths of semi-consciousness. This one didn't taste of the delicious sea-salt spikiness of Cassandra, but had a faint echo of familiarity nonetheless, some reflection she ought to have recognized.

Alses' hands parted the curtain of tumbling water and she shifted herself a little further forward. Annoyance tingled at the edges of her mind, a dissonant chord as nictating membranes slid away from her eyes and she beheld the intruder physically for the first time, liquid-singing words dancing in the rain-rippled air.

It wasn't Common, slipping between the raindrops; the cadences were all wrong for that language, but nonetheless the words sparked off something deep in the recesses of her brain, memories long-unused unfurling, from lives long passed.

Blinking the last of the water from her eyes, Alses stared narrowly at the intruder, her lip curling ever so slightly as her gaze slid up and over the girl's pale, fishy form – a near mirror to her own. It was an instinctive reaction, much the same as the one she saw whenever she was unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse in the mirror of an evening.

Just...the sight of another corpse-pale Konti – albeit one with a glimmering gnosis-lily in full purple bloom instead of her own withered and grey brand - wasn't her favourite thing to see, even if she knew, logically, that they couldn't help it, that they were born that way. Still...so pale.

“Good evening,” Alses replied, her tone cool if not outright unwelcoming, echoing the girl in the same language that had bubbled up, all unbidden, from inside – before fading away as quickly and maddeningly as it had come, leaving just a vague impression, ghosts of words and concepts floating aimlessly and without anchor or structure in her head.

Determinedly, she looked away from the woman, hoping it would mitigate her own gut reaction. “Enjoy the springs,” she murmured, this time in Common; politesse never hurt, after all, and she had been soothed and mellowed by the hot water. “Try not to disturb the kingfishers, hmm?” A haunting ripple of their song danced across the pools for a moment, underscoring her point.
e

[Tanell]

Tanell

The tinkle of music grew into full blown symphony, many tones all conveying the same message. Dislike. Hate perhaps, but not so simply told, not from a stranger.

"Good Evening." The woman answered, although reluctance clung heavily to the words as the humidity of the day had clung to her body. Breath bubbled from her lips, hidden beneath the water, the exhalation an exclamation in its own right. Her next breath was all water, as the woman continued in common, words that were more polite, but could not clear the dripping disdain in her words or her feelings. The cacophony of sounds that marked the woman's words speaking louder than any thinly veiled attempts at a smoothing of the moment.

More than she wanted to admit, the dismissal hurt. Cutting right to the core of all the struggle she faced since leaving her family in Mura. She missed her family, her people, and here was one, a Konti woman, but she had no interest in even polite conversation.

She may as well have been struck. It was surely written across her face, plain as day if the woman bothered to look, but Tanell doubted it was her intention.

"Have I done something to offend you?" Tanell asked, switching to the language the woman had used, politeness dictating that she should. The dripping disdain from the other woman echoed in the quiet, reverberating through Tanell until she could hold her tongue no longer.

"Or perhaps you treat everyone you meet as though their very presence disgusts you?" Her mother would be ashamed, giving breath, even so little, to such words would have caused uproar in her home. Despite knowing it was so, she couldn't stop the words, gently spoken, more to herself than to the woman, but who knew how closely the other woman was listening, or how she would react if she heard.

It was a poor decision, and Tanell really had no excuse for such childish behavior. She shook her head, unsure the woman would even dignify her with a response, the decision was made that she would not force her company on a woman who so obviously did not want it. She stopped the gentle movements of her body beneath the water, allowing herself to sink into the warm embrace of the pool.

There was really no escaping the woman, the pool, while grand in size really offered no seclusion. So Tanell just floated in the water, surfacing when she grew quite warm, to let the suddenly cool ambiance of the surroundings chill her exposed skin.

The contrast of the gently falling rain against the throbbing warmth of the spring brought gooseflesh breaking across icy skin. Half in half out of the water, Tanell gazed at the sky above her, though covered in clouds, there were varying degrees of darkness, forming shapes of the clouds and occasionally a glimpse of the sky behind them.

The flora around the pool made its presence known once more, drifting on the steam across the pool, filling her mouth ans nose even as water danced across her gills, and lifted her hair to dance in fumbling currents beneath her in the water. The very birds for which the spring was names sang across the water, the one bit of advice the unhappy Konti had gotten right, disturbing the haunting beauty of their song was the last thing she could have imagined doing.

Despite the beauty, the delight the water brought her, she could not escape thoughts of the Konti woman. Hurt easily given and slowly forgotten knocked incessantly at the door of her mind, not even the pleasure of the springs could chase it away.

[Alses]

e

The wounded expression flashed across Alses' own face before she could suppress it. Entirely unwarranted as a reaction, since the other Konti had definitely picked up on her own discourtesy, and was reacting as might be expected, really.

It was made worse – in Alses' head, at least - by the fact that manners were important in Lhavit; grace given became grace received, and both gifter and giftee were the richer for it. So common wisdom held, in the skyglass city, at any rate – and, Alses would freely admit in the daylight hours when she was really herself, that it definitely greased the wheels of civilisation.

And here, now, Alses, tired and irritable from a long, hot and demanding day, had run roughshod over convention, with only the faintest veneer of politeness overlaid on her own feelings, a cover that the mind of her new companion had burned away in an instant.

Blast.

Slightly chagrined, she waved a dripping hand in apology, looking off to one side. It helped that the rain and the water blurred the lines and curves of the unwanted company, melting her into a blobby, amorphous pale mass.

That was easier to deal with. Somewhat. The words didn't come quickly, or easily, but the Konti girl's aura was poisoning the serenity of the hotsprings and affecting Alses' own mood – an unwelcome side-effect of surpassing skill at auristics.

“It's...nothing to do with who you are, and...everything to do with what,” she explained, somewhat reluctantly. A scowl flitted across her fine-boned features, and then came back to camp there, darkening as she continued to speak.

“You look like me right now, and I look like a Syna-damned walking corpse and – try as I might - I do not like it.” Disdain – but directed inwards more than at anything, or anyone, was plain to hear. A shake of her head, sending water flying in all directions. “I'm not good at accepting what I dislike,” she admitted, much more quietly. “It's more in our nature to change it, to craft and shape and mould until we do approve.”

“I shouldn't project, but...Konti are rare in Lhavit, and those that are here I tend to avoid.” There wasn't a trace of guilt or shame in her voice; to Alses, there were just some things to be evaded at night wherever possible; Konti, for one, and any Lethaefal being so inconsiderate as to bask in their full celestial glory being the two that came most strongly to mind.

“There is no slight on your person meant, but it's been a long day and I'm not...so good at tact when I'm tired.” In truth, tact and Alses were uneasy bedfellows at the best of times, even if necessity was slowly buffing off the rough edges and experience giving her a bank of past embarrassments to draw on in avoiding similar situations.

There was no sound from the other woman for a while, the air filled with the mournful songs of the kingfisher choir, singing a high and lonely descant that thrummed in the clearing, driving out thought with a cadenced fall of notes, a beautiful counterpoint to the dull roar of the waterfall.

Alses half-slid off her rock, out of the direct path of the pounding waters but still close enough that streams of steaming liquid roved across her body. “I go by Sela, here,” she muttered, a veiled extension of pax across the hotsprings. Calming and soothing the other woman was now a priority, if only to restore the serenity of the place and allow Alses to finish her soak in blessed peace.
e

[Tanell]

Tanell

Despite the space between them, the motion of the woman's hand caught her attention. She drifted slightly closer, halting to float just inside the range of hearing the music of the woman's mind. It was no kinder than before, the thundering notes pounding out vague anger as steadily as the fall of water which the woman sat under.

She was not quite content, floating inside the range of supernatural hearing, the water's embrace a solid comfort as she listened to the rancorous explanation. The Konti woman disliked Konti. That was an odd tale, perhaps one she was missing part of, some explanation she had not been given. 'Right now', she had said, meaning that she looked different some other time. Although, how that was possible was not in the stores of Tanell's knowledge.

The sound of her mind had changed, taking on a new, unfamiliar dynamic, the melody falling beneath the unchanging sound - clarified by the Konti woman's words as dislike - it was softer, perhaps sad, maybe forlorn. It was hard to tell with a stranger.

She was silent a long while. Floating in the sea of understanding imparted in the frank words. Syna-damned, she said, openly admitting to a shocking amount of dislike of her form. The rumble of falling water and the gentle splatter of rain almost obscured the words that followed, more gentle in their very nature, their imparting more significant.

Syna-damned. It was such a strong visual, it chilled her despite the heat that held her aloft. She drifted, surrounded by water, falling from above, rippling against delicate skin in such a way as to tickle at her body the way the music from the woman tickled against her mind. Pacified by the almost apology, she let the words process, thinking over her response while an atmosphere of tranquility reigned once more.

Her words fell slowly into place, the utmost care given to what she felt was a required response. She moved no closer, not wanting to risk the violent tones of the woman's mind growing any louder, but sat up in the water so that she could see the woman more clearly.

She regarded her for a long moment, feeling the gentle urge to respond grow stronger the more closely she looked at the Konti woman who had fallen so far.

"You do not look 'Syna-damned' to me." She spoke slowly, her tone carrying with it a strength that her previous communication had lacked.

"Loved by Laviku, gifted with markings that claim you one of his daughters." But that wasn't enough, not the woman's concern.

"You look like long days spent in leisure on the white isle, basking in the glow of Syna's light, like the radiant joy of a people reveling in the freedom to walk in two worlds - one above the watery depths, the other beneath the reflection of the worlds above." Her words were earnest, and well meant despite how the woman may take them.

"Our hair sines like Syna at her zenith. Our skin the color of the light Syna shares with the god Leth. Konti are pale, but not like death. Death is dark, cold. We are warm, shining brightly even in the dim night.

There was no hesitation, not break in voice or word to signal that her words were pretense. She spoke only what she believed, and in her heart, no god nor goddess would leave behind someone that loved them, and it was apparent that this woman held Syna in great regard.

"Do we not flush with anger and burn with joy as any other? You see 'Syna-damned', but you are looking in all the wrong ways." Tanell concluded, her impassioned speech coming to a close.

She blinked moisture from her eyes, unsure when the runoff of her hair and the droplets of rain had become joined by the salt of her own tears. To have such dislike for oneself that it was superimposed over all others who appeared similar. It spoke volumes of the poor woman trapped in such a state, bringing forth tears of compassion in Tanell. She wasn't able to leave her to sit in despair of her own making, but now that she had said the words, let them flow across the space interrupting the staccato of the rain and the dance of the waterfall, she realized that perhaps forcing her own views on the other Konti was not likely the solution to her misery.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't my place to speak so, I..." her words faded, leaving her speechless far too late.

[Alses]

e

Curiosity about that language, the one that had been spoken – by them both, which was unsettling; Alses hadn't known she knew that particular tongue before – would have to wait, at least for a little while.

The flash and flare of Tanell's aura burned and sizzled, sputtering and dancing as her emotions changed and as she spoke, the golden beacon of her certainty strobing across the hotsprings, tinged with a soupcon of...was that pity, of all things?

She was being pitied by someone who had to spend all their life, their mortal life, in a corpse-pale sack of flesh? The thought of it put a smile on Alses' face.

“I've never been to the white isle you speak of,” she said softly. “Nor felt the touch of sunlight like this. I have a better form, under the proper light of the day, rather than the pale reflection that is Leth's radiance; this...this...this body is...” Alses tailed off, entirely unable to articulate exactly what it was that her mortal chain represented to her.

“It is the physical reminder of my chaining, my diminution.” She had a game stab at it anyway. “And it's so...drab. Colour is...important.” A helpless little smile – but a smile, nonetheless.

“I'm sorry. It's difficult to talk of such things – and it's sweet of you to try and cheer me up, I must admit,” she remarked, head tilted back so that the waterfall beat her forehead and hot rivulets ran thickly over her skin. Alses was wreathed in steam, her gills wide and open in the humid air, pulsing and rippling with every gulp of mingled air and water.

“Very...understandable, especially if all you know is this form.” It was so easy to slip back into the mindset of the head-in-the-heavens mourning Ethaefal, the aloof and patronising and so very, very sad manner that so many had.

Especially at night, when Alses was cut off from the continual subliminal reassurance of Syna, from the bountiful energies that banished hunger and thirst and fatigue and made her whole again, at least for a little while. She was vulnerable, and worse, acutely aware of the fact, in the dark. “You cannot miss what you've never had, no?”

“But. That's perhaps enough of that,” Alses remarked, still determinedly not looking – or not looking for very long – at the Konti she was sharing her bath with. “I'll not start an argument to satisfy my baser impulses.” She still looked as though she dearly wanted to, though, lip bitten hard as though to prevent something nasty from escaping.

“I have a question,” she started again, after a few chimes, gliding quietly through the steaming water, her approach masked by the mournful choir of the Kinell kingfishers that flickered and danced through the dripping foliage at the edges of the springs.

“When you first spoke to me – that language, that dialect; what is it, exactly?” A wry smile up at the glittering stars, imagining the confusion of her companion. Alses had replied in kind, at least at first, after all; it would surely seem odd not to know about a language that had passed her lips.
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[Tanell]

Tanell

A better form? Tanell could not imagine what the woman must look like in the day if the form she admired now was so much less than the one she took under Syna's light.

A better form, she mused, that had never been to the white isle. She watched the woman closely, watching as she turned her face to the falls to let the water pour over her form. She was stunning, the delicate pale in skin and hair that Tanell wished for herself, and yet the woman called it drab, the ring of glistening rosy scales that marked her form and crested her brow lacking in color.

Tanell couldn't understand. She spent endless days in the sun hoping to lighten her hair to the color that was natural to this woman, yet she thought it corpse-like.

The woman fell silent for a number of chimes and Tanell took the opportunity to duck back beneath the water, letting the heat of the bath chase away her worries, concerns, and frustrations. The ministrations of the water letting her forget for the moment the hauntingly beautiful Sela who thought herself hideous. Who thought Tanell hideous, too.

The wake of the water drew her to surface once more, along with the confusing sounds of the woman's mind growing louder as she approached, or at least neared, perhaps only in passing.

"I have a question," Sela began, indeed nearing Tanell, who in turn pressed herself back until the hot stone throbbed against her back, ceasing her retreat from the confusing sounds that danced in her head. Did this woman hate her or not? Was she annoyed with her, or curious towards her? Her disgust was clear, drifting in the back of her mind, rising each time the other looked at her. Like the note of desire that accompanied her as she roamed the city, only far less pleasant for Tanell.

She was safe with her distance for the moment, having abandoned the approaching woman in the depths of the pool with the excuse of seeking the firm heat of the stone to sear the stress from the muscles in her back.

She didn't know the language she had spoken? Had she not greeted her in return? The siren call of Sela's appearance drew Tanell's eyes back, flitting over the ruffled column of her neck as it turned her to gaze up at the stars. She turned her gaze away, considering what the woman had revealed about herself. She was depressed for reasons beyond Tanell's understanding, trapped now in a body she seemed to desperately hate, and spoke languages she didn't know. What sort of creature was she? Clearly one who was more than confusing.

"Kontinese, the language of the Konti, spoken mostly by those on the White Isle, although, it ins't uncommon for visitors to learn more than a handful of words and phrases in the language while they visit. It is a delightfully lyrical language, beautiful when spoken." She had nearly said it was as beautiful as the women who spoke it, but that was a comparison bound to fail.

She let the words drift in the water between them, eyes locked on the flora that softly lit the rock pool to prevent them from wandering to the pale glowing form beneath the dark waters. The heat of the spring throbbed with her pulse. The rock ledge she perched upon, crushed herself against to escape the sound of the woman's mind, pressed back against her with sweltering heat, daring her to move.

She merely embraced the heat, the cool night air chilling her exposed skin and creating a balance, a semblance of peace that counted on the self imposed mental silence.

[Alses]

e

Alses watched, disinterestedly, as the woman withdrew at her approach, pressing herself against the slick and warm black granite that made up much of the hotsprings. Her aura was incredibly responsive, far more than it had any right to be, flashing and flaring in response to Alses' own as it surged and boiled and leapt and fell back with every change, as though she were telegraphing every internal feeling out into the world.

Well. Perhaps she was; heavens knew it was so much more difficult to don the armour of the Ethaefal without the benefit of the body befitting the soul.

And she was tired, right down to the bone. The heat of the springs, the comforting roar of the waterfall and the whispering susurrus of the cold rain coming down all around all added their own murmuring cadences to the tune of tiredness, sapping away the stresses of the day and with it her remaining energy.

Zintila's jewellery box glittered down from on high, too – and Alses had...complex feelings, when it came to astronomy and the great vault of the heavens above, the night sky so beloved of the Lethaefal and their ilk. Daytime wasn't ever a problem, the bowl of blue with Syna burning bright a warm and welcome sight. Catching a glimpse of the sky at night, too, that was fine, even looking at the blackness from within the comforting embrace of the skyglass and calias glow of the city.

Difficulties arose, though, when she wasn't insulated from the million million miles of sparkling space, when the glitter of the Diamond of Kalea died away and the sparks of stars and planets and the wash of galaxies and nebulae wrote themselves on the blackboard of the sky.

Too far, too high, too fast – her mind was being pulled inexolerably skywards, and to reverse the ascent Alses cast around once more for a distraction, finding it in the uneasy trill of Tanell's reply, and the bright-burning, dizzying confusion that swooped and soared around her.

“It sounds well enough,” she allowed. “Lyrical, indeed. Intriguing, although I shouldn't be surprised I retain at least a smattering of it.” She paused, for a little while, and then confided, voice a low and carrying murmur that rippled across the dancing surface: “I'm trying to distract myself.”

Absently, not really thinking about it, Alses turned over in the water, pale strands of hair surrounding her upturned face in a gently-moving halo. A twitch of her hands sent her gently away from Tanell; she was savvy enough to recognize, even without the benefit of auristics, when her presence – or rather, the closeness of it – caused concern.

It happened quite a lot, really.

“You have me at a disadvantage, you know,” she observed idly, not moving her gaze from the stars above, gleaming down through gaps in the leafy canopy that swaddled the hotsprings themselves. “You know my name, and yet I have to think of you as 'the Konti I met at the hotsprings'. Unless you have some need to be anonymous?”

It was an honest enough question; Alses could respect a need or a desire to be one of the crowd, unremarkable and unremarked-upon. Syna knew she positively craved it, at times, when the pressure of expectation and the pedestal upon which Lhavit placed all its Ethaefal grew heavy indeed.

In a way, Alses mused darkly, thoughts turning to Hayani and her bloody fate as they always did whilst she was at her nadir, it was astonishing that more of the city's Ethaefal hadn't gone quietly mad.
e

[Tanell]

Tanell

Sela seemed not bothered nor fooled by Tanell's charade. She turned up to the sky, floating back away from Tanell without comment. "How is it that you have come to forget the language? It seems unusual to me that such a thing would be true." Tanell asked, not willing to part poorly with the woman, but also unapologetic for seeking her escape.

Sela presented a pretty picture, the gleaming ideal of a Konti, but she was a nightmare behind her beautiful mask. Her strange shifting moods and the darkness of her mind were foreign to Tanell, how one was to navigate such things even with a semblance of grace escaped her. Not even the music of the woman's mind helped, instead it was dissonant, hurtful, and interested all at once. It was difficult to stand, and so she had sought escape. She almost regretted it, the clear sign that she disliked the Konti's closeness; one that could be detrimental.

She wondered briefly if the woman's feelings were hurt by her actions. She gave no indication, in fact, she seemed to react hardly at all to anything Tanell said or did. Kept separate from Tanell by some force, whether practice or because she found Tanell so 'corpse-like' that she could hardly take offense. After all, someone so beneath another was hardly worthy of note.

"Konti tend to learn language quickly, perhaps you will find the time to pick the language back up." Tanell continued, sure that someone like Sela could convince a person to do nearly anything she asked. She was seeking a distraction, but obviously not a physical one.

Probably for the best, Tanell wasn't sure she could handle such a thing with how wildly the woman's mind sang so many different tunes. Although her body sang a song Tanell was more than tempted to join in.

She shook her head, such thoughts were pointless when the woman was so obviously not interested, so obviously repelled by Tanell's own looks. It was quite the turning of tables. It almost made her laugh to think it. This was how those men felt. Poor souls, she would strive to be nicer to them in the future.

"Perhaps I should stay anonymous." Tanell mused, her voice a purr of not quite laughter, "So that the tale of the corpse like woman you met in the hot springs does not follow me to my home and my work. Half my regular visitors would leave me just in hopes of meeting the creature who holds others to such high standards of beauty." She drolled on, her voice lifted only slightly to reach the growing distance between them.

She let the song of the Kingfishers pick back across the water, floating through the mists in gentle ripples. Tanell took a deep breath, letting her own mind fill with the peace and quiet of the springs. Just the birds, the chirping bugs, and the water. They didn't speak, not for a while.

Soaked in the heat of the spring, the night growing older, the stars shining above her head. It was a long moment of peace that found her, lulled her into languid relaxation as her eyes drifted closed.

It was only the ripple of the water that reminded her that Sela was waiting for an answer, and without hesitation she shared her name, she could not keep it for herself, not when she hoped to become known in the city.

"I am called Tanell." She murmured finally, the words nearly a purr as she melted into the quiet of the water. How had she become so tightly coiled in such a place, the tension and confusion, upset and pity, it was all the woman who was her companion, not that she considered for even a moment holding that against her.

She was interesting as well, and gorgeous. Tanell could overlook quite a bit when there was so much waiting to be returned. Besides, even if the woman hadn't been stunning, she was drawn to her, perhaps her intense dislike for Tanell was the reason. The unusual was often a source of study.