Closed To Mutual Benefits (Sayana)

[Yisanareysin]

40th of Fall, 515 AV

Rey sat by the fire pit in the Cave, lazily listening to the gossip of the men around him, occasionally interjecting. The rumour mill was slow today, it seemed. All old stuff.
"Someone had cured the city"
Rey'd been hearing that for day, but no one had brought up any compelling evidence for it. Hai, he wasn't even sure it had been sick at all. Most people said a Speaker had done it, but they couldn't decide on which one.
"People were going missing"
Again, no one could say definitively who was missing. Most people seemed sceptical as well, but the rumour persisted somehow.
"There were Zith hunters looking for slaves nearby"
That one was false. Rey had tracked that rumour back to some drunken braggarts who had claimed to have fought of an army of zith.
"The Speakers were organising an event"
That one, Rey might believe, though he hadn't heard a concrete date yet. Some said it'd be on the last moments of this split day cycle, around the temple of Ionu right on the Dawn-Dusk strip. Others said it'd be later this season, and yet others said it was going to be in the middle of Winter. Interesting, but not so interesting was going to risk catching a Speaker's attention.
"There was a new actor in the Crook"
Boring. The others seemed to think so as well, rolling their eyes at the woman who'd brought it up.
"No, shut up and listen. She had six arms, all moving separately and everything." That made Rey sit up. An Eypharian? The local Alvads seemed less impressed.
"So? Fabel does all sorts of stuff in the Crook." One man pointed out.
"I've never seen him give someone more arms before." She retorted. "And she kept them even after the show."

Rey tuned out the rest of that argument, considering what he'd just learned. A female Eypharian, and in the Crook, where he'd first met Sayana. And she had done quite a good job of convincing the fence of her sincerity, empty scabbard aside. An actor. He wouldn't have thought it for her, but it seemed fitting. Eypharians did so love their theatre.

This was all assuming that it was Sayana, and not some other Eypharian, which it might well be. It was certainly worth investigating. He'd kept an eye out for her, of course, but had come up with nothing, at least until now.

Slipping away from the still arguing group, Rey made his way out of the Cave. Outside it was night, as it had been for the last few days. Choosing a random direction, he set off, blindly trusting that he'd either make his way to the Crook, or not.

Finding the Dawn-Dusk strip, Rey wandered down it, figuring that perhaps even the artistic buildings would be gravitating towards it. Even if not, he had as much chance of finding it here as anywhere else.

Half a bell of wandering later, Rey found himself in front of the grand stone archway that led into the theatre, and grinned. Time to see who he had found.

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

[Sayana]

Today was a performance day. About half the time Sayana would be practicing at the Crook and the other days she would perform. At first they were strictly dance solos in which she’d have the stage to herself for the scene. However, today her dancing would be incorporated into one of the scenes of the Ionu play. Often the plays that were in tribute to Ionu featured a trickster character of sorts, and so did this one. The basic premise of the story was that the trickster was going about playing pranks on various high status figures about Mizahar. Thus, as was fitting, she would be playing the Pressorah of Ahnatep.

“You’re on in fifteen!” An actor called to her through the dressing room door. Sayana was sitting in front of a mirror doing the final touches on her elaborate make up. The black kohl was always the trickiest part and her hand trembled slightly as she drew the thin brush along the edge of her eyelid. She added a dazzling swirl well past her eye and then moved on to the other eye. Actually, the hardest part was getting both sides to match. When she finished the other eye, one swirl was slightly smaller than the other and the lines didn’t quite go along the very edge of her eyelid. Still, it would be good enough for the performance. She had face paints of different colours highlighting her eyes and lips and even the edges of her hair were coloured in dyes.

Sayana stood and straightened out her black and gold dress. She was very pleased to have found the outfit amongst Fabel’s costume supply and he helped her decorate two very large ornate fans. She had managed to convince him to let her wear her golden cobra hilted dagger, but her other daggers were safely tucked away. She did a quick spin in front of the mirror and suddenly realized she was forgetting something. Jewelry. Quickly she donned several copper and golden armbands and found the beautiful gold and black necklace. It wasn’t real gold, but it sure looked it from afar.

At last she was ready and picked up the two large fans. As she made her way to the side entrance of the stage she was able to look on at the current scene. An actor dressed up as a knight had just tripped on his own feet and fallen to the ground. Probably an imitation of the Commander of Syliras. Sayana smiled briefly and readied herself to go on as soon as the knight left the stage.

With the sound of drums and the demure music of a flute, Sayana entered with all the smooth grace of the Pressorah. She gave a slow spin and weaved the fans in an around herself. The audience was larger than she thought. Perhaps more people attended the plays that were in tribute of Ionu. Still, she kept her cool and she danced about the stage with purpose and pride. With graceful spins, sensual body rolls, and complex patterns with the fans, Sayana was rather pleased at the response of her audience. However, when she spotted the messy hair and the rather familiar face of a certain dhani near the back, she almost forgot her opening line.

“Welcome, uhh, welcome to the grand palace of Ahnatep,” Sayana spoke to the trickster character who was on stage with her. Her voice lacked all grandeur and she mentally kicked herself for losing concentration like that. The scene continued with some more dialog that she thankfully hadn’t forgotten, but it was the ending that would be the fun part.

“I am the Pressorah! How dare you!” Sayana cried out to the trickster. “Oh yeah?” He replied tauntingly. “What do you think of this?” One of her fans suddenly disappeared and she gave a look of outrage. Then the second fan disappeared. It was the oddest feeling of having the illusion of the fan disappearing yet still carrying the weight of the fan itself yet she played out the scene as convincingly as she could. Next her jewelry disappeared and she looked back and forth in an exaggerated sense of distress and ran from the stage. The audience could only laugh and wonder if her clothes might have been next.

Once backstage, Sayana was eager to find out if that really had been Reysin near the back of the audience. She quickly stripped out of her costume and put on her regular outfit along with her daggers. The makeup she left as is, but in attempt to make herself a little less obvious, she found a large black cloak amongst the costumes and covered herself up before leaving the dressing room.

With the hood up, she carefully made her way into the audience from the main door. Having spent several seasons at a tavern it was easy to move amongst people, but it wasn’t usually this crowded. She had to be careful not to step on people’s feet or push too hard so as to make a scene. But with everyone’s eyes on the stage it wasn’t too hard to shuffle along without too much notice. She grinned as she reached her destination. Yes, it was indeed Reysin. With the cloak covering most of her arms, she reached out tentatively with a high hand and tapped his shoulder.

“What brings you here, my friend?” She spoke softly but obviously glad of his presence.

[Yisanareysin]

When Rey had entered the Crook, he'd been told this play was one in honour of Ionu. Apparently, that meant a constantly smirking trickster pranking his way around the world. He'd walked in just as a Myrian's weapons had turned into flowers, and the rest of the play continued on in that vein. Some human got thrown off a horse, a knight ended up on the floor, and then finally, the Pressorah appeared, dancing to the music of some instrument Rey was not familiar with.

Sayana was as graceful dancing as she was fighting, it seemed. Idly, he wondered if the movements of one might not translate to the other. Maybe not directly, but perhaps each lent itself to better control of the body? Rey wasn't certain if that was how humanoid bodies worked.

As her dance came to an end, he saw her eyes fall on him, and he couldn't suppress a slight grin when she stumbled on her first line. She was impressively observant, to have picked him out of a crowd this large, and Rey was reminded of the comment about "informants" she had made to the fence. Perhaps she was in the same business as himself. An actor/dancer was a little high profile as a cover, though, and doing plays every... however often she did them, must take up much of her time.

As Sayana fled the stage, and the trickster turned to a man riding a giant bird, Rey considered his next action. He'd initially intended just to see if this was her, but now that it was, and especially now that he knew she had seen him, he was reminded of the unanswered questions he'd been left with after her last meeting. Why not stay for a while?

Having decided, he settled back to watch a giant eagle turn into a duck, planning to try and catch the Eypharian after the show. A few chimes later though, he found a cloaked figure slipping through the crowd towards him, and smiled.

"Interesst. A little rabbit tellss me there iss a ssix armed persson in the Crook. Thought it would be you, maybe. Iss good to ssee you well." He glanced under her cloak at the multiple daggers she had with her. "Is good to ssee you sstill have that, too." He gestured at the one that had led to their meeting, grinning playfully."Guesss iss harder for a thief to disssappear through there" he gestured at the stage "when you do work here, yess?"

Rey glanced up at the play unfolding. It didn't seem likely she needed to be on for the rest of it, so he gestured out at the streets. "We go?"

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

[Sayana]

“Is the little rabbit tasty?” She teased, not really expecting a response. It was good to see him again. Perhaps she might be able to call upon his services should she ever need them. Her mind was often coming up with ways to ensure the security of her new slave.

“Yes, I still have it. I’ve been keeping a closer eye on my belongings lately.” Sayana replied at the comment to her Lakan. At the mention of the blade, she couldn’t help but finger the hilt fondly. He looked at the stage with a question on his face and she gave a light shake of her head. “I’m not needed anymore for the day. Day, dawn, dusk…” She gave a shrug of her shoulders. “Not for several bells.”

The Eypharian reached out to take his hand in one of her mids, and led the way through the crowded audience. Her movements were smooth but she chose to clutch him firmly so as not to get parted in the throng. As they exited the tunneled entrance she couldn’t help but look curiously up at Syna. “It’s still dawn and dusk, but I think Syna has moved to somewhere else on the horizon. A couple bells ago she was just behind that building.” Sayana gestured to a tall slender building as she made her comment and idly wondered if Syna and Leth were doing a circular dance around the horizon.

“Ssso my ssslithery dhani, been sssneaking around gathering newsss?” Sayana teased in a friendly manner. “I hear that in the dark side of the city there are people walking and talking in their sleep. And it wouldn’t surprise me if sunny side has people doing practically the same due to the sheer lack of sleep. The first couple ‘days’ for me were rough.”

She plopped herself down on a stone wall overlooking a small river. The waters sparkled with the rays of the sunset or sunrise, a perfect picture for any aspiring artist. It was almost as if the river divided the city in half, with the strip of dawn and dusk running alongside it. Or at least that’s how the city showed itself at the time. Whatever time meant these days.

“And then there were the shadows,” she spoke softly and gave a little shiver. Instead of elaborating further she drew her Lakan and began flipping it in her left mid hand. Every so often she gazed upon it admiring its curves. The blade was a comfort to her despite the fact it still felt foreign in her hands.

OOCYou'll have to initiate the conversation about the Lakan and speaking common, but I hope that set things up for at least one of those topics.

[Yisanareysin]

Rey sniffed in mock indignation, though the grin on his face gave away his good humor. "Doess not eat rabbit that talkss. Only rabbit that iss quiet." Eating one's contacts was simply bad form. His eyes lingered on the blade at her side as she touched it. He still had questions about it, and he intended to have them answered today, one way or another.

Following Sayana through the crowd and out into the streets, Rey considered the approach to take with this. He could be direct, and tell her straight up that he was curious about her blade, but he'd never known an Eypharian that didn't see directness as subterfuge. Call that a secondary plan then. Although....

From the way she'd behaved after dealing with their errant thief, it was clear that the blade had some sentimental value to her as well. Perhaps he could bring that up, and see where that line of questioning led.

He settled down besides her on the wall, listening and considering. She was sharing news. A gesture of good faith, perhaps, from a person who seemed as inclined towards secrets as he was.

"Yess, yess, hass been night for dayss. Good for bussinessss, actually. People confused of time, sstay in inn more. Sstay more, then drink more, then sspeak more. I learn more." It did mean the same rumours got repeated more as well, but that was an acceptable price to pay for such an increase in them.

"People ssay there will be ssomething happening, too. Sspeakers sstarting big thingss. No agree when, but ssooon. To end thisss" he waved his hand around at the city "day and dark break, maybe. Or in middle of winter." He shrugged.

Exchange of information completed, Rey watched her toy with the blade. Now that was as good an opening as he could have hoped for.

"Wass wanting to know, Ssayana." He nodded at the blade in her hand. "What you ssay to the fencce about that, is Akalak forged, is.. connected? Iss true? Or was it lie to have it back?"


noteI hope this adequately sets up the "test" we'd talked about earlier

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

[Sayana]

Upon the word ‘Akalak’, Sayana’s left high hand instinctively lifted towards her neck to where her chevas mark lay hidden under her thick curls of hair. Yet at about a foot in the air, she forcefully stopped it and slowly lowered it once more, feigning casualness. There was a momentary pause before she replied to his question. He was curious, and yet she was also curious.

“You seem to have a way with items. Particularly weapons.” She spoke slowly as she carefully picked out how she wanted to phrase her approach. “And that fence, he certainly believed it. The mystical properties of a weapon.” She held up the blade to eye level and gave a sly smile to the Dhani. Her last comment was intended to plant a seed of doubt, that her words about the lakan had the potential to be believed by some but shouldn’t be believed by all.

“Why don’t you tell me what secrets this blade holds? Since you were so good at discovering that crossbow.” She proposed with a sparkle in her eye. She hadn’t forgotten his display of talent from before and was curious as to how he had achieved such. “And just to be fair, I’ll tell you if you’ve guessed right or wrong, and even elaborate if you guess right.”

It was going to be a guessing game, however, she suspected it wasn’t going to contain true guessing. There had been something to what the Dhani had accomplished that night and she was curious how he did it. That’s why she provided plenty of incentive for him to demonstrate it again. If he was truly curious about her lakan, he’d try to discover its secrets knowing that she’d confirm them if he was right.

She would wait for him to try to figure it out. If he guessed right, or even got close, she would raise her finger with one last requirement. One that she had purposefully left out of the deal until there was evidence that he was really doing something special. “Ah-- One more thing. I’d like to know how you did it. Then I'll confirm your answer. And I don’t believe in lucky guesses that happen again and again.”

[Yisanareysin]

Rey forced down a satisfied smile as he saw Sayana visibly react to his question. She was likely considering how to answer his question, which also gave him time to plan out his next move. If she told him some personal story, he could turn that around, ask what was so special about it, and if she didn't, well, that was it's own way in.

Whichever one she did, Rey would get his-

Or, perhaps there would be an unforeseen third possibility in which Sayana had her own agenda and questions. Ah, well. He'd been getting too complacent anyways.

So. She wanted to see the trick he'd used to find the crossbow, did she? He'd been right, earlier. She was trading information. Only, there was no trick. Just his sense.

Rey leaned backwards, careful to keep his hands in Sayana's view. Taking in a deep breath, he gathered his sense, feeling Djed flood through him, and settle in. His nose tingled, and he locked eyes with Sayana, not looking down at the Lakan.

There was something there. The hum of something... not typically magical, that had a very distinctive smell and feel to it, but it was something. Rey couldn't make out what it was, though. Too faint. Looked like Rey was going to have to study it more. The tang of metal. How useful. A sharpness on his tongue for the leather, or.. whatever it was at the hilt. The metal was sharp at the edges. A very even consistency all around.

What else? That hum... Rey pushed past the other scents, searching for the one that matched that hum. There was some.. not metal in there. Something he couldn't make out, but it had been forged with something. Something alive? No, it had been part of something living. And.. There.

What in Akajia's name..

Brief flashes of a person, flickering flavours of something, gone too fast for Rey to catch. They were.... muted, distant, but there.

Was this.. was this thing alive? No, no, the feelings.. Rey couldn't have explained how he knew, but they trailed off. Into the distance. Connected, she'd said. He hadn't realised exactly what that had meant.

Releasing his sense, Rey sighed heavily, and leaned back to lie on the wall. "Isss like you sssay. Thiss is connect with one persson. Persson.. he? He iss alive, is far away. The connection.... iss both way, I think?" Rey sighed again, weariness creeping through him.

In truth, Rey was not particularly surprised when Sayana insisted on knowing how he'd learned it. He would have done the same in her position. Sitting up, he studied her closely.

On one hand, Rey preferred to keep his abilities a secret. It wasn't safe to speak of magic, not in this city. But his sense wasn't destructive, not the way that Alchemy explosion had been. And with an eypharian like sayana, perhaps carefully giving up one secret could lead to a wealth of opportunity. Hmmm.

"Iss getting cold." Rey hopped off the wall, stretching his legs. "Can sspeak insside ssomewhere, yess?" He gave her a meaningful look. And just for good measure... "No safe in out place"

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

[Sayana]

Sayana gave a smug grin at the surprise on his face. He hadn’t expected that of her. And yet with only a moment’s hesitation, he seemed to oblige. She kept the lakan raised for him, but as he leaned back he locked his gaze on her. Was he trying to read her to see if she would divulge the secrets to the blade? Her expression was that of a playful smile to mask any of her thoughts regarding the lakan. Slowly he seemed to reach an understanding of the blade but with a good sense of confusion that went along with it. He also let out a tired sigh as if it had been a significant exertion.

Connect with a person. Alive… far away. Connection is both ways?

Her eyes lit up for a moment. Both ways? Could she somehow know where Aren was? Just like he was able to find her when she was in danger? And yet, as long as he hadn’t left, she knew him to be in Syliras. But perhaps he did leave, and maybe she’d be able to track him down and find him once more.

Yet she still pressed with finding out how the Dhani had accomplished the feat. During his pause as she assumed he contemplated the matter, she suddenly realized that she had seen something like this done before. In the Underground it had been such a different use and had been out of context, but here in the casual setting, it was far easier to identify. Uncovering hidden truths to a person or object… the reading of auras. A high hand moved to her stomach. Odd, healthy, and most likely blue. That had been Nivel’s prediction when reading the aura of her unborn child, yet her baby boy had died before coming to term. And now Reysin was able to feel the aura of Aren’s blade and feel the connection he had to it.

The sudden realization of how it all fit together made her almost miss what the Dhani was saying to her. “No safe in out place.” The Arumenic words jarred her out of her thoughts and she had to struggle for a moment to interpret them. With a silent nod, she stood up and began walking in search of some place more sheltered from eyes and ears.

“His name is Aren, my lover, my husband.” Sayana spoke but with a distant tone to her voice. “I saved his life once and he gave me this blade as a token of his gratitude and so that he might return the favor someday. That is why there is a connection. I think it is part of him somehow.” There was a mix of both hope and regret in her voice, despite the words sounding like a beautiful love story.

She led the way, weaving through the streets trying to find a suitable place to speak in private. It was a bluster of activity near the sunset strip but as they moved to the darker side of the city, she searched for signs of vacancy. She followed the cracked cobblestone path that veered to the right, and the wild overgrown gardens were another clue that she was making her way to the right place. At last she arrived at a rather old looking house situated between two others that showed slightly more signs of life.

“You can feel things, see things, learn things that are otherwise hidden to the rest of us,” Sayana spoke softly then gestured to the house before them.

“I can look at the grime on the window, the broken down fence, the overgrown weeds, and the dust upon the doorknob to guess this house is abandoned. Yet you can discover the truth and find out that perhaps the owner is just a slob or doesn’t like visitors.”

Previously she had passed off the magic as a trifling. Something that may be nice in appearance but had little to no real use. Now, however, she started to see real uses for something like that. Although it depended on the extent of information one could gather using it.

Sayana gestured for him to lead the way in. She hadn’t been quite as cautious with her words as he might have liked, but she held her tongue in regards to her last point until they were safely inside and out of earshot. “I would like to learn. What might I offer a sly Dhani like yourself? Information? Training?”

[Yisanareysin]

Reysin walked at Sayana's side as they wandered the streets, merely listening without comment. So, her husband's blade. Rey had never known an Eypharian to carry a blade like that one, nor to use whatever magic it was that bound the blade to him, but then again, he had never known an Eypharian like Sayana.

What was that old saying? Snakes that share scales will bind their tails. In Rey's experience, the unusual tended to flock together. Although in this case... Rey's common was far from perfect, but he was fairly certain that she had used the present tense for her husband. Yet when she'd spoken of him, her voice had had a melancholy tint to it, and Rey was certain that what he'd sensed on the other end of that connection was far away.

The possibilities were endless. Perhaps it was as simple as her missing her husband while she was away from Ahnatep. Or something more scandalous? Perhaps she'd been forced to leave after eloping with someone of a higher class? Lower class? Or perhaps even a non Eypharian?

Questions are better than speculations, he reminded himself as they stopped before a dilapidated building. But... not right now. They had other business to attend to, and Rey wanted to do some research before he broached the subject.

Sayana's next words gave him pause. He schooled his face into his best approximation of a neutral expression, trying not to show the spike of worry that shot through him. A phrase came to his tongue unbidden, one he'd heard many times over the last year from his clients.

You never know who might be Listening.

He swallowed it before it left his lips. He'd never much liked that phrase. Made the one who said it sound suspicious.

Instead, he turned to study the house she gestured at. Discover the truth.... Was this a test? Did she want him to sense this house too? Almost without thinking, he inhaled, feeling warmth gather in his chest.

No.

He released it, letting it settle back into it's proper place. No need to overexert himself using his sense, when a quick look and a moment's though had already told him all he needed. Dust on the doorknob was light enough that it might only be a few days worth, but the dust on the doorstep was thick. It showed tiny, but distinct prints, some small animal scurrying around, but no boot or foot print. The door was slightly ajar , but it wasn't swinging. Rust in the hinges, from the looks of it. From the outside, every sign pointed to this house having been abandoned for quite a long while.

It told him nothing. That was the thing, the thing he suspected perhaps Sayana had not yet grasped about this city. Ionu knew it had taken him near a year to. If he opened the door, perhaps they would find an empty, broken down building. But perhaps they might find a massive banquet hall instead, or a smithy. Hai, they might even find a grassy field or a desert in there. There was no truth in this city. Only illusions. His sense had never been able to see through the them, even if it always told him they were there.

No point, then, in trying to divine the truth from the exterior. He stepped forwards, and opened the door, revealing an empty room. Good enough.

They stepped in, and Rey turned to the Eypharian, already considering his options. So many choices. Which opportunity to pursue?

"Two thing. One. In thiss placce, far from home, iss good to have friend. Very good to have one who isss sso watchful. And dangerouss. You ssay to the fencce you have contactss? Iss true or not, I would like to usse your eyesss. However many you hass.

Two. Will teach, of coursse. But... iss difficult to teach now. Common iss... bad. And Arumenic is more bad. Assk that you help teach common, sso can help teach you."

Snake Tongue : Common : Arumenic

[Sayana]

His first request was one she was expecting. Information. She was surprised that he remembered her mention of having contacts. While it had been a lie at the time, it would probably benefit them both if she made the effort to make it become true. His second request, however, was not what she had expected.

“Do you just want to hide your hiss, or teach you the language as a whole?” Sayana asked but already she was musing upon the idea. It made sense. To better blend in, to understand the spoken word more easily. And it was certainly the dominant language in Alvadas.

“Alright, here’s the deal. I teach you Common and let you use my ears and eyes for learning secrets of the city. Then you teach me about auras. And only then will I let you use my contacts.” Truthfully, it was a means to buy herself time and develop some of her own contacts but the serpent didn’t need to know that. She’d rather keep a few things hidden and give him something to admire. Altogether it seemed like a fair enough trade, especially since she was offering her end of the bargain first. Well, first and last but that was beside the point.

So long as he didn’t overtly object to the deal, she would begin trying to figure out how best to teach Common. She glanced around the dusty room as if to start naming objects in Common but then recalled that he was really quite good at getting the overall meaning across, even if it sounded funny. Sometimes he hesitated on words, presumably trying to come up with the appropriate one, and more often than not he merely said things in odd ways. With a hiss of course.

“To start, I’d like you to speak and I’ll correct you where I notice problems. For example, your Common is bad and your Arumenic is worse. I think you were also sometimes missing little words. Like this is my lakan rather than just ‘lakan’ or any old lakan. It belongs to me.” She gestured to the blade when she spoke. “As for what you’ll say… how about you tell me a little about Alvadas? What are its people like? Where do you go for a good drink? Do the people of Alvadas worship any gods?” With a sly smile she added one more question for him to answer if he liked. “And what are its secrets?”

Should he decide to continue with the lesson as she suggested, she would stop him every sentence or two in order to correct his grammar and explain any concepts if necessary.