Closed Explorations Pt II [Tazrae]

[Alric Lysane]

Continued from Explorations Pt I 21st Winter 521 AV - Apartments & Abriske Courtyard “Yes, I suppose I do have you both. It is a good feeling, though I didn’t know that I had affected you that much Taz. I suppose, given both of your words, I haven’t really thought that much about many things. Amusing, given that I’ve over-thought others, it seems” he snorted at his own blindness, making a note to not make that mistake again. He knew why he had been ignorant to it, he ad already been prodded upon it before by the curled maned innkeeper – he didn’t really think that much of himself. In the moments that followed, where they simply ate and he puffed away at the last dregs of his pipe, he mused to himself, his gaze upon the fire put turned internally. Bree had been right, more than he had expected her to be, he didn’t really see much for his future beyond Arcadius. He had never really assumed that he would survive, so large did the powers arrayed against him seem. Or, rather, against them. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t pursued that line of thinking before? He had always been alone, surrounded by dirt and death and borderline sufferings, and so wasn’t used to thinking about anything in terms of his having a ‘side’ or a ‘team’ – allies were something he had never really had, most not being trustworthy in Sunberth. Yet the last season or so had surrounded him with people, many of them if he counted those at Ruby’s, and yet he still kept his distance. Perhaps, at least when it came to Taz and Bree, that was a potentially fatal error. Trusting them was unquestionable, he did so without concern. But could they, so untied, finish Arcadius without any of them falling? That…that was a thought worth considering, new as it was. “Some lies are worth more than truths, Taz,” he said, as her words shook him out of internal thoughts, “absolute truth can be a terrible thing. Few people can really handle it. Your uncle may not have been what you thought he was, but that doesn’t make how he made you who you are irrelevant…or a lie. The fact that you are who you are, partly because of him, is a better legacy than most can hope for. You are a good woman, with a good heart…do not underestimate that gift to the world” was all he said, finding his pipe empty and tapping it upon the heel of his boot before tucking it back away and scraping the ashes with his foot to make sure they were properly extinguished. Pushing himself up and out if his chair at her words of a walk he nodded simply and stretched his stiff joints from his lengthy reclining. After which he made his way to the fire and threw another log atop it, enough to last a short walk without it losing its warmth for the Ixam to enjoy. He squatted down next to her and, with a momentary hesitation, stroked her neck a few times before patting it gently. Pushing himself up he stretched once more before he retrieved his jacket, slipping it on against the colder evening of the Outpost and offered Taz his arm. “Enjoy the fire Bree, don’t snore too much you might scare the neighbours,” he said with a small smile of amusement, “let’s go find this Vision Water thing you talked of, I know it’s where you want to go really. You get more thoughtful as you try to nudge me towards it, it’s quite delightful” he teased slightly, but not meanly. Once she was ready it was a simple matter to lock the door behind them, not that it would matter given there would be an angry Ixam for any intruders, not to mention the Keiss – but he was a creature of habit. Taz seemed to know where they were going, or at least the general direction, a few requests for directions and they were approaching the Abriske Courtyard, if not quite there yet, fairly easily and after but a handful of chimes by the evening’s reckoning. “I didn’t know that I was teaching you how to think, or see things differently, you know,” he said after a while in a thoughtful tone, “I knew you were teaching me but I had assumed that it was a somewhat one-sided affair. I was starting to feel a little guilty, what with the sharing of the book, the apartments and all of the legends and realities you’ve shared. I don’t share that much because I never really thought you’d get anything out of hearing about dirty, grubby streets with theft and blood everywhere…amongst other things. Bree as right, I’ve not really thought that much at all about some things. I see why you love her, she is insightful in her own way…even if she thinks she can be…well apparently reptiles are superior shall we say” he chuckled. “Can I ask why you haven’t slept well? I’d have thought your paradise would be quite nice to sleep in, even if you change beds as the guests come. Are you okay?” he asked, realising that he perhaps hadn’t even asked that and shook his head internally at that fact.

[Tazrae]

Tazrae and Bree exchanged another look. This time Bree’s was sleepy. The Ixam had every right to be tired. Tazrae knew for a fact the lizard had been helping Lars at the Sawmill deliver wood for Randal’s new surf shop using her cart and saving extra trips for the Ashta that were delivering the big beams. Bree had at times presented herself before Tazrae and demanded to be harnessed up to her cart just to run errands and help others independent of Tazrae’s views on the matter. Taz didn’t really mind, but she knew why the Ixam was tired and appreciated her all the more for it.

“I sure like that smell your pipe gives off. There’s something welcoming and homey about it.” Taz commented, as if to cut off Bree saying something else. The Ixam would too… if she was awake long enough. The Innkeeper didn’t want Bree to accidently say something she didn’t actually want Alric to know… like how much she’d told Bree about him and what she hadn’t said. Her omissions to the Ixam might just be taken by Alric that he was a shameful secret or an embarrassment. The truth was Taz cared about him and his privacy and didn’t deliberately tell the Ixam all she knew because she knew Bree had a life outside of The Protea and Tazrae. She had made friends and wandered where she would, sometimes even spending time with Mathias on his deck fishing. The Ixam didn’t fish of course, but she did like to talk Philosophy which was a topic straight to Mathias’ heart. Bree was wonderful, but she had no sense of privacy and might just share what she knew if the conversation turned to the right bent or curve. Taz had no idea if Alric would understand by not telling Bree things she was protecting him, not covering up anything she wished to hide.

Taz knew Alric worried. In fact, he got that far off vaguely troubled look frequently and she knew he was thinking of Arcadius. For someone who didn’t even know where Alric was, the older man had a powerful hold on the younger one… that much was for sure. Taz didn’t know if that was healthy or not. It might just keep Alric alive, but would a life filled with worry and planning for the worst be a life worth living? She didn’t always want to make no moves without looking over her shoulders for what might happen. But at the same time, doing so might save her life. Alric might have the right of it, regardless of how much it affected his happiness.

Then Alric started talking about the values of lies. Gods she hated what he said. She truly did. Yet she knew the world worked in the way it did and half of that drive was fueled by lies… not the truth. “Alric…” She said suddenly. “No lie is worth…. what you think it is worth. I would have loved the man my uncle was regardless if he was my uncle or my father. Promise me you won’t ever lie to me?” She asked softly, suddenly worried. “Even if it is to protect me, don’t do it. Don’t lie. I want to be one of those people that can handle the truth, no matter how hard it is. I won’t ever lie to you. Not really. I might not volunteer things, but if you ask... I will always tell you.” Taz said in a voice that seemed gentle yet urgent all at the same time.

She watched as he tended the fire, laid a hand on Bree, and offered Taz his arm. Bree lipped his sleave a bit with her front teeth, a gentle return of affection that Tazrae marveled at. The two o them… Alric and Bree… were definitely going to be friends. That put a half smile on her face.

The young Innkeeper toed on some light sandals, pulled a shawl out from her bag and wrapped it around her shoulders. She grabbed two small tea mugs from the cupboard, tucked them into her backpack, and shouldered the pack. Then she took his arm without comment, matching his longer stride without trouble. Alric could stroll with the best of them… getting them places without seemingly being in any hurry. She liked that… it kept attention off them and didn’t set them up for being a roadblock to people who happened to be going the same way. He smelled faintly of his pipe, and she enjoyed the scent until a rapidly cooling night wind stole his masculine smell from her. It was a gentle teasing wind, almost alive, that set her curls bouncing around her like they had a life of their own. She tucked into him a little, glad for the shawl, and studied the sky which had seemingly within minutes burst into stars.

It was odd… the stars above The Outpost were different than the stars above Syka. Syka’s stars had been Riverfall’s stars just slightly offset and lower on the horizon some parts of the year than Syka’s. “I love the stars.” She said thoughtfully as the glow of sunset gave way to the deep dark purple and blue of the night drifting in. “They are almost then same in Syka and Riverfall, but here I recognize none of them.” she added, finding the fact curious.

“Yes… you are teaching me all the time, Alric. I’ve learned so much from you. I had a very narrow and naïve view of the world, but you are helping me a great deal with that. I don’t think you realize how sheltered I was growing up. I was groomed to be… well I don’t know exactly what my mother … no… my aunt was grooming me to be. But it wasn’t an Innkeeper. And it certainly wasn’t a mage. How in the world would I find the courage to figure all this out… to train without a mentor… if you hadn’t been here? We balance each other out. Bree sees it clearly in how much I’ve changed. She called me soft, weak, looking for just the good in people. But you’ve taught me to look for other things… that other things could be possible in people… darker things. It’s not a bad situation, Alric. I needed my eyes opened. Without you, I was so incredibly… vulnerable?” She didn’t know how to put into words how much the things Alric had said and hadn’t said about his life affected her, changed her thinking, and opened her eyes. “You opened my eyes to a great many things. I mean, you read stories… you hear tales… but when you talk about Sunberth and the reality that you live in… they become more real to me. I know things go bump in the night and that evil… true evil… is real.” She almost whispered as they walked.

The sun was setting fast now, bathing the Outpost in the glow of sunset. It was a riot of color that seemed fitting for the sky above someplace as melting-pot as the Outpost was. Tazrae enjoyed the fading light and how the Outpost slowly became something magical as the dusk grew deeper into true night. The stars in the sky were reflected in the lights of a thousand lanterns from the bazaar that stayed open and from the little parks and plazas that were scattered throughout The Outpost. The walk was a short one… they were what Taz would have considered a few blocks in Riverfall away from where they wanted to be and the course of their conversation was bringing them closer and closer to The Abriske Courtyard. They were at the entrance to it, in fact, when Alric asked her the question that almost caused her to stop in her tracks.

She paused, inadvertently pulling him to a stop before she flushed and moved, continuing on into the courtyard and taking a seat at one of the benches that faced the fountain. It was a pretty fountain, lit at night with luminaries the shape of delicate flowers holding candles within them. The metal refracted off the water which was too rough from the spray to reflect the stars… causing light patterns to dance across the stone and metal benches that created a series of private nook seating areas around the fountain. Tazrae thought it lovely, absently, and then wondered carefully why such a desert place like The Outpost had so many water features.

“I was looking forward to a dreamless night here.” Tazrae said softly, her mind remembering what it was like to stretch out beside Alric and forget her worries as she slept. “I don’t dream when I stay over with you.” She said candidly, hoping the matter-of-fact way she stated it didn’t make him uncomfortable.

Shifting on the bench to draw the shawl more closely around her and slip her backpack off her shoulder, Taz turned to study the way the light from the luminaries played across his features. “I think you actually know why I don’t sleep well. I used to sleep like a babe swaddled and snug in its cradle by the fire.” She said softly. “The warmth of Syka is like nothing else. Life is all around you. You can feel the ground beneath you living, breathing, and the ocean kissing the land is like a reminder that life is a passion we face daily.” She said with a smile. “I sleep with all the windows thrown open – no shutters – and the sea serenades me all night long.” She added, missing the sound of the ocean here.

“Then I met this man in this place and became his friend. I learned the ugly truth of my family and what they did or wanted to do to his, and worry every minute of every day that something will happen to him when I am not around to help him.” She said, drawing a breath and closing her eyes. “I can’t be with him, watching over him, and making sure he’s taking good enough care of himself. I imagine him in a place so horrible it defies my ability to even picture the truth of it. I see ruined buildings in my dreams. I see a fire in a heap of flammable stone … slag… that never extinguishes. I see darkness spreading over everything and soot falling from the sky like rain. I picture my friend there, alone, existing but not living and it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart as I stand in the sun or let the pure fresh rain wash my face as I tip it upwards to greet the morning or evening skies. I feel guilty when I run down the beach knowing no one will try to kill me because that’s what people do in other places in the world. He steals into my thoughts like a thief a hundred times a day and I have to pause what I am doing and wonder what he is doing that very moment. And each time I think about that, I have the fear that something has happened to him grow in me.” She whispered, noting how the fountain didn’t muffle her voice. Its gentle spray wasn’t loud or distracting. It was adding to the ambiance if everything.

She got the words out, honoring her promise to always tell him the truth. That she did it in the third person was telling though, for she couldn't say his name. It would be like breathing life into her fears and giving them true power.

“Tonight I won’t dream lost in nightmares because I plan on curling up around him, using his chest as a pillow, and listening to his beating heart until I fall asleep. And as long as I hear that sound tonight, I will sleep deeply and know that whatever fate lays before us, we will meet it head on. We will be ready because we have to be. And I will sleep because I know he is safe, with me, in this now.” She said simply, reaching out and laying her hand on his knee.

“It’s your fault, Alric. You are an easy man to love.” She said simply, staring at the fountain and wondering what sort of vision the vision water would bring them. She released his knee, pulled two mugs from the backpack, and rose to walk to the fountain. She held a mug in each hand, under the fountain’s spray, filling up each of them. Then she returned to her seat beside him and offered him one of the mugs. “I am Tazrae Ardera. I am Bree’s rider. I am a Guardian of Syka. I am the Innkeeper of The Protea. I am a Wildling of Caiyha. I am Florentin Arcadius’ granddaughter. And, I am your friend.” She said softly, turning to smile at him. There was something honest and feral in her gaze, as if everything she was suddenly manifested in her turquoise gaze.

“I wouldn’t change any of that. That makes me who I am and it makes me stronger than I ever was before.” She said softly then took a big drink from the small mug. Tazrae felt it all acutely. Even if she hadn’t explained all of it to Alric, she knew her words to be absolutely true. She was supposed to be here, with him like this, doing this… exactly in the now. The cool clear water that wasn’t exactly water burned down her throat. The burn wasn’t spicy or heated, but was more like drinking liquid snow. It sent a shockwave of cold deep into the marrow of her bones as the power of the water took hold.

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[Alric Lysane]

“Very well, I won’t lie to you. But I’m not sure it will bring you much comfort, from what I know of the world outside of Syka it isn’t a very pleasant place. Sunberth certainly isn’t. I understand the desire to see darkness for what it is but be careful not to look too deeply into such shadows, they have a tendency to look back” he made the promise, though he wished he hadn’t been asked to. It wasn’t that he thought she wouldn’t, or couldn’t, understand such things. It was more that sometimes it was better not to. Perhaps, he thought, she was right and there was little choice. Still, it was difficult not to feel somewhat saddened to know that he was casting shadows for such a light filled person, even if in many ways he knew it was inevitable, and would help prepare her for what the future might bring. Still, the promise had been made and as they continued with their journey together, he merely hoped that truth wouldn’t drive a wedge between them. “I wish you didn’t have to experience it…I wish many didn’t have to. But, in many ways, it makes the good things better. When you don’t see much charity, or the opposite too often, when you see it manifest it is all the more precious,” he said with a slightly sad tone, “but at least it isn’t all bad. The stars, strange as they are, are a sign that it doesn’t have to be all darkness. A good example of light being made brighter” When they stopped, they were before the Abriske Courtyard, an elegantly put together place even by the standards of the Outpost. He took the few moments to observe how the starlight played with the lights of various lanterns and torches, merging together into a sort of ethereal casting of shadows. He assumed she was doing much the same given their sudden pause, it was enjoyable to appreciate the beauty of things given the fact that darkness seemed to have a tendency to follow them, albeit somewhat removed and thankfully so. Eventually they found themselves seated, watching the waters ripple and the light dance over the carved stone. Idly he wondered whether the carvers thought about the different lighting times, types and so on, or whether they simply created what they thought was beauty and left it for others to decide how best to highlight it. His thoughts were dragged from the stone and its lighting to Taz once more as she spoke, and continued to speak, unravelling things that clearly weighed upon her mind. He said nothing, simply listening to her and being able to relate to her feelings. He knew that the way she imagined Sunberth was, in some ways, darker than it actually was but he also knew that whatever he said he couldn’t give her the reassurance that she needed to not worry. Truthfully he wasn’t sure she wouldn’t be concerned even if he lived in the safest place in all the lands – she was in a paradise and he worried about her, knowing that darkness could simply move towards Syka, rather than spring up from within. “I’ve never been happier to be blamed for being thief,” he said once she had finished, her titles meaning less to him than the last descriptor, impressive though they were, “but you are not so difficult to love yourself” “I’m thankful that at least one day you will sleep soundly, all the more so given where you find it,” he smiled, meeting her gaze and seeing something different there than normal, more intense and direct, “but you are not alone in your troubles...Tazrae Ardera. I know what it is like to sleep restlessly. To have dark thoughts slip into one’s mind, lurking there in wait until you close your eyes. Dark have been my dreams of late, even with all the good things that have entered my life. I have dreamed of becoming that which I’d stop, or of being taken, or running through streets covered in blood…I suppose, though, I am used to such things” “But then I remember that I’m not alone, not really, and the dark brightens,” he said softly, “my memories with my new friend are some of the best that I have and help ease my mind. I remember her singing when alone and I am entertained in my head for an evening, or her laughter cheers me up in the depths of a night’s shift, amongst other things. I worry that she isn’t safe, as many times as she worries about me it seems, that what endangers me has somehow learned of our bond and has decided to use it against me and harm her along the way. It turns my blood cold and makes me wish I could magically transport myself to make sure all is well. All I can do is trust, and hope, and they are both things that I’ve never really experienced before and then my resolve wavers in unfamiliar territory. But I try for her, because it’s what she showed me when she decided to help a random street ruffian from a terrible city, and taught me the value of such things, in the right hands” “I wish I could promise so many things…but all I can promise is that meeting you has changed my life, and me, forever…in the best of ways. And that as long as this heart beats I will be there for you. It might not be much, but it is all I’ve got” He watched as she filled the cups and took one when offered, peering into the water and not seeing much that was different to normal water. Perhaps, he reasoned, the light wouldn’t allow him to detect whatever magic it held but as Taz began to drink he sighed, downed the burning liquid and closed his eyes, wondering precisely what was supposed to happen. A cold wave seemed to rush over him and he shivered despite his jacket and their shared body heat.

[Tazrae]

Tazrae only nodded, glad Alric agreed not to lie. She trusted him to follow through with his word, especially in this, because she wanted no comfort. And she needed to look more deeply into the shadows. It hadn’t been who she was before. But it was who she needed to become. She wanted to openly see what was looking back. Taz was starting to suspect Alric didn’t quite understand that without shadows there could be no light.

Her grandfather was their enemy. But Florentin Arcadius was the reason they came together. He was the reason they had whatever this was between them. Tazrae saw clearly without the danger and the clear and present evil in their lives, they would have continued onward blind and completely without the risk that added so much dimension to their lives. They would have continued on alone. And now they had each other. It wasn’t something she’d mention to him though. She suspected he already had come to that conclusion as well. But she didn’t want to give Florentin Arcadius any more power by acknowledging what he inadvertently had done for both of them just by existing.

No, never that.

Tazrae said her truth and was so incredibly thankful Alric didn’t react. He accepted, taking all that she said in calmly, absorbing it… possibly to think on later or to let age in his mind like fine wine. The young bard knew he was like that, a deep thinker, and someone that needed time to understand all things. His intelligence was cultivated, pragmatic, and based on his experiences.

The Innkeeper relaxed against him on the stone bench, the conversation between them being one of their rawer open dialogs. She hadn’t planned tonight this way. Alric just made things easy for her to confess the truth of her reality. He took her confession to heart, accepting it simply in a manner that made her plain-spoken confession fall softly. With her words out there and his response hanging between them Tazrae felt… lighter.

It was a weight of her shoulders. Anything could happen tomorrow, but tonight she’d sleep well knowing she’d told Alric what was in her heart. If she left him alone or if he left her alone … at least he’d know how much he’d meant to her. Taz wasn’t a fool. She knew these meetings meant a lot to him as well. She’d have to be blind not to understand that, but to her having them spoken out loud just soothed her inner bard who wanted feelings put to words and spoke or sung.

Her lips curled upwards at his pride at being a thief. And his quiet acceptance of her plans and the why of it was also a comfort. She softened when he said her full name, even though she still didn’t know if it was a real or not. It was who she identified as, and spoken in his voice made her feel less imagined and far more real.

“I don’t want your promises, Alric. I don’t need those things from you. This … these times… these special moments are more than enough. They carry me onward and sustain me. We are growing together. I don’t know why or how, but when we come into each other’s lives, we somehow become more.” She said softly, glancing over to catch his gaze and offer him a smile. “You’ve always… since the first day I met you… been enough and made me more.”

Then the drink she’d taken caught her hard and Tazrae was thrust violently and abruptly forward into the future where the scene spread out before her like a carpet being unrolled and revealed.

Taz pressed her back against her sister’s back and the two circled cautious step by cautious step, the men surrounding them staying well back and wary. The young woman could feel her clothing… leather from head to toe. She was in jungle wear but it was more… oh so more. She felt armored and powerful. Her bow was in her hand, arrow knocked, but she knew the minute she fired she’d most likely have to discard it. Kami was breathing as heavily as she was and ready as well. She had matched short swords up and ready, something that didn’t seem to surprise Tazrae, though she’d never seen her gentle healer sister hold a weapon in her life.

There was a bond there, a tight one, and she trusted the woman at her back and knew the woman trusted her in return.

Her intricate witch mark burned up her left arm, forming the ebony tree that encircled her arm like a tattoo sleeve. The first tree seed in her belly burned with need and fed Caiyha’s power to her generously. Help would come from that quarter, but Tazrae wasn’t sure it would be enough or in time. The Audius Marks on the back of her neck were active, power pouring through them as well. Her senses were sharpened as only a bards could be, and Tazrae knew before she fired her arrow she’d use her voice and bring most of these men down. Kami wasn’t without tricks either. She’d keep them both alive if blades and magic made it through their protective shielding. Taz knew she came loaded for proverbial bear. Her pouch was filled with potions, most geared towards keeping her on her feet.

“We’re doing this for him and everyone he’s ever taken.” Kami reminded her even as Tazrae’s eyes scanned the area. They were outside, surrounded by tents, the air wet and wild… like home. “Because you made it impossible for that monster to take you. Alric is the only one left. If they bring us down now, he’ll never be free. But here and now we can make a difference, Tazrae. Keep that in mind. If he can’t switch hosts to someone at least as strong as he is, he won’t survive. And there’s no one left. It was you and Alric, and now you are untouchable. We need to get through these men… after them, its only him.” She whispered; her green eyes fierce.

“We will. They are dead men walking...” Tazrae snarled back over her shoulder at Kami. “He’ll die by our hand today. He’ll die so Alric can live. He’ll die so no one else has to give up their lives to his madness. It falls to us and we won’t let anyone else down.” She hissed, then closed her eyes a moment, settling her mind. “I pray Alric is still alive. I pray we aren’t too late.” Then she took a deep breath and began to sing. She wasn’t planning to die at all. That wasn’t the point. She was planning on all three of them living.

Tazrae gasped as she came out of the vision. She pressed herself back into the stone seat, the mug hanging limply in her hand. She slowly lifted it and fingered it, using the size, shape and feel to bring her back to the now. She carefully set it on the bench beside her. Then she closed her eyes and remembered, whispering what she learned. “Florentin Arcadius took you. Kami and I came for you. I don’t know how it ends, but I do know where it ends. It ends in the jungle. It ends at home.” She said softly, shaking her head. “And I know my grandfather was pissed… I did something… I… the seed. It made me untouchable to him and left only you.” She whispered, shaking her head. “I’m so sorry Alric. I don’t know if we were in time. I don’t know if we even got to him. It was too brief… I didn’t see enough…” She whispered, still half captured in the vision. “But you… you are his only option. I don’t know what that means…”

Then more fully coming back to herself, she turned to see if Alric had experienced anything… if he was listening or if he was indeed locked in his own vision. She reached out and secured his mug, placing it next to hers. Then she took his hands, willing him to make it back from the vision he was obviously locked into.

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[Alric Lysane]

“I know…but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t want to” he said, leaning back further, enjoying the press of her body, warmth suddenly replacing the cold. He felt sluggish, recognising the feeling of numbness quickly spreading, trying to fight it instinctively but losing, his consciousness wrenched from the bench and the world…rippling. ***** “You look terrible Arcadius…what’s the matter…things not working out for you?” Alric tried for a chuckle and managed the beginnings of one before he groaned and spat out some blood to the floor and another slap came across his face “Insolent, inferior creature” the mage hissed back. “Says the one who apparently needs me,” he noted, half amused and half despairing, “running out of time. You can’t hurt me too much, would ruin things, no? Time’s running out. How many times has this happened now? Last chance….you’ve glutted yourself on all of the powerful…go ahead, try and do it. Can’t be sure you’ll win out, can you? Tick tock Arcadius” “Yet still here you are, chained like your parents, at my whim and soon to be mine” “Only got me by cheating, using your men to divert my efforts. Not got many of them left now, I seem to remember. Hope it’s enough to stop a pissed off Grand-daughter and whoever else they’ve got with them. From the sounds of it they’re getting closer” Alric pulled at the chains securing his wrists above his head, his knees scraping the floor, his ears hearing the ring of battle and the faint crackling of flames, the smell of smoke faint but noticeable even above the stench of Arcadius’ failing form. He was unable to stand, his ankles had been chained too and he could feel how whatever metal they were made of seemed to dampen his magical abilities. It had been so close! He had almost beaten the monster, even managed to lead a flanking party away after he had been cut off from the others. He had forced Arcadius to use so much of himself in their fight, had gotten a few good hits in even, that he had started to seem to fall apart, rot setting in and his skin sagging and greying. All he had to do was wait it out, poking at the monster bit by bit, sending him into rages and distracting him until he could be rescued. “There are ways to break quickly, Nymkarta, not my first choice but…if you insist I can demonstrate” “How many centuries spent toward this moment, monster? The beginning of the end, all because of a street rat from a scum city who had a fraction of your time to try to learn…turned into little more than a Nuit…for shame. Go ahead and kill me, save me from listening to you rant and rave anymore before you fail anyway….” “No, no I think you’re bluffing. I’ve had time to study you, you know. More than you know. Do you know what torture is, Alric?” “Listening to you talk” he muttered before one of the mercenaries smacked him about a couple of times and he slumped back down with hisses of pain, Arcadius busying himself with something at the table nearby Alric could see, blinking away watering and bruised eyes. “Funny…I think I will miss that about you the most…well…metaphorically speaking. I’ll be sure to copy it to fool my Grand-daughter, get in close before I rip out the gifts that spoiled her. I want you to know that” “Petch you” “Bravado…useless. Now, a lesson. Did you know there are many fascinating flora in the jungles and wild places of the world. But one such blend of a few is of interest to me now. This vial,” Florentin walked up to Alric and shook it in front of his face, “contains the only known concoction that can slow time. Quite a bit, actually, perhaps a minute might seem like months, years even. I was never able to discover fully, the experiments always led to broken minds after a few uses. A couple, perhaps, might be enough to empty you and provide a good shell” “Bollocks, nothing can do what you claim. Time doesn’t work that way” “That’s where you’re wrong. See people think torture is pain,” he nodded and another few punches to the guts were given and Alric folded over them with air pushed from his lungs as Florentin leaned in, the stench of decay filling his nose, “misery and torment. That’s just the fun passing of time, Alric, sport for my friends. Torture is time…time for you to doubt, lose hope, lose sight of the sun and stars, to lose the sense of time itself until it drives you mad and you beg and babble for release….time….time I can give you all I want of it. And you will destroy yourself in your own mind” “This blend also grants visions, all of your life’s moments flashing in and out at random, every mistake and torture and loss…drawn out for eternity. I can’t imagine you have many happy ones to cling to, but cling all you like, the dark tide will rip you away. At that moment an overwhelming explosive force was heard nearby, accompanied by the clash of steel. Head whipped around as the door to the stone structure rattled. Whoever was coming was getting closer, perhaps even too close for Arcadius to get what he wanted by the look of rage that contorted his features. He gestured to the few remaining men and they unhooked Alric’s chains from the wall, keeping him in them and a tight grip upon him to stop him from fighting back. They were trying to move him even as he pushed back as much as he was able, trying to stall and delay even as punches cajoled him along. ***** The darkness returned and the world rippled once more, normality restoring itself piece by piece, breath filling his lungs sharply as consciousness roared back and the fountain, the bench and the warmth of Taz filled his awareness. He blinked a few more times, rubbing his eyes and pinching his brow as he came back to himself. The vision itself was one he wasn’t surprised at but wished that he hadn’t seen, a signal that one day he would face Arcadius, and on that day would be found wanting. Searching within himself he was surprised that he didn’t feel more terrified. The fear was there, beneath the surface, but it was almost removed, as if he had already accepted the outcome and so truly had already drank, fought and sweat away the terror until it was just…a companion within. If anything, he was proud, in a funny way, that he had managed to get even that far – Arcadius on the brink of destruction and only kept alive by whatever those chains had been made of. He squeezed Taz close and simply looked into the fountain, looking at her briefly and knowing she would ask but not really wanting to tell. As he had awoken the last series of her words had echoed in his ears and he thought he understood…had they been granted two sides of the same vision? Was that some form of fate at work or simply a test, to see whether they would give in, become demoralised or similar? “It’s okay…I trust that you’ll save me when the time comes” he said, meaning that if his mind was also shattered that she’d put him out of his misery before Arcadius could take advantage, without actually saying that outright. “Doesn’t matter, we knew he was hunting me anyway. At least we know that you aren’t ultimately what he can get, that is something to give me comfort” he said, proceeding to tell Taz everything that he remembered of his own vision, knowing that it wasn’t likely to make her feel much better but also knowing she wouldn’t take no for an answer regarding the telling. And then, despite it all, he started laughing. It was a chuckled at first, as he remembered how stubbornly sarcastic he had been, but it turned into a true laugh, releasing the tension within even as he wiped his eyes with his free hand once he bagne to subside. He looked at Taz, who was no doubt thinknig he was going mad by her look. "He asked me if I knew what torture was...and I told him it was listening to him talk..." he said, looking at her and chuckling a bit more before finishing and clearing his throat, sighing after, "it's good to know I can still be annoying when in chains...gods that actually makes me feel better, in a funny way. My sense of humour can't be destroyed...funny" he snorted, looking once more upon the fountain and enjoying its whispered mysteries.

[Tazrae]

Taz would have responded to Alric’s confession of … no it wasn’t a confession. He made no promises nor did he say he wanted too. He had just said that because he didn’t make her promises didn’t mean he wouldn’t want too. The words spun in Tazrae’s head as the liquid still on the back of her tongue swept her away to her own vision. It kept her from responding to his own comments, reassuring him that she had no problem with it again.

They were away an eternity locked in two different perspectives of the same day sometime in the future. And yet they were back in only a few short breaths. When they returned to themselves, Alric held her tight and she leaned her head on his shoulder as they both watched the water. She didn’t ask him any questions. He’d volunteer information if he wanted her to know and did do so before she’d even drawn a second breath. Tazrae listened quietly as he spoke, nodding occasionally.

“You won’t need saving when the time comes.” Tazrae said calmly, eyes still on the fountain. “I agree my grandfather needs to be put down. But I suspect we’ll have equal hands in it. You say you were chained? Then we have to train to counter that. We need to learn a magic that will get you out of chains when you are faced with that situation. This is just more help. We’ve already had so much of it, whether you know it or not. This is just more of that.” She said, her voice sleepy. Taz nuzzled his shoulder a bit with her head, left a soft kiss on it, then relaxed back to where she’d been resting. “Don’t you see it? The Gods have had a hand in this all along. Someone orchestrated our meeting. And Caiyha, for some unknown reason, made me somehow unsatisfactory to him.” She said. “It’s yet another story… one I haven’t told you about yet.” Then she lifted her head from his shoulder and studied him. “No. Whatever you are thinking that caused you to think negative things, stop it. He thrives on that kind of despair and dejection.” Then she in turn told him everything from her vision, all that she could remember.

His laughter surprised her. Usually, Alric was stoic, serious, and reserved. She sat up, scooted back, and studied him. He’d finally lost it. The pressure had done some damage. Her caramel brows arched and her blue eyes twinkled, a mixture of concern and mirth. And when he revealed the origin of his laughter, she finally managed to smile. It was a bright smile, one that lit her eyes.

“Don’t you see what that actually means?” She asked, pride filling her voice. “He can’t break you. It was at the end, the hunt was over, and you were in his control… he had you, yet he never broke you. In a way, it's why he wants you. You are stronger, Alric. Don’t you see that?” She said with a smile. “You should laugh. I should sing. It’s a good piece of information to have.” She added, rising. “I can only imagine he goes on and on. I’ve never met him, but I am sure his arrogance knows no boundaries.” She added, then offered him a hand up.

“Let's go back and check on Bree and go to bed. And I’ll tell you the story about meeting Caiyha.” Tazrae said softly, linking her fingers with him and starting to walk. She was distracted as they headed the short distance back to the apartment. The truth was she was focused on the vision, trying to figure out how old she was, how much time had passed between now and then, and trying to remember any details that she might have missed.

“But before that… I need to talk to you about something… something completely different. I want you to stop. I mean it, Alric. I want you to stop thinking that moment, when you are face to face with Florentin Arcadius, that it is the end. I need you to envision yourself with a future and whatever life you choose for yourself. Those last moments with him will mean the beginning of your freedom. You are going to take him down. Arcadius is waging a war with both of us and right now he’s winning the one with you. He’s winning because he has you thinking he is the end of your life, regardless of what route that takes and whenever that meeting happens. He has you focused on him being more powerful. That man is terrified of you. I see it clearly. Anyone looking at the situation standing outside of the line of fire would see it too. You are wrong. He is not your end. You are his. And he’s terrified of you. That’s why he wants you.” She said firmly.

They’d reached the apartment by then and Tazrae unlocked the door. She slipped in and checked on Bree, and then drew a full bucket of water from their pump, in case the Ixam woke in the night and was thirsty. Taz added wood to the fire, then sighed. She poured two glasses of wine and sat down quietly by the fire once more. She wanted to go to bed, and would soon, but first she needed to tell Alric about Caiyha.

“In the winter of 520, near its middle, I suddenly vanished from Syka. It was like a bad dream. One moment I was sleeping in my tent and the next moment I found myself in a vast forest of giants. I can only suspect it was The Northern Reaches. I spent five days there… no clothing, no weapons, no food… just surviving. I was so scared, but I felt the challenge, and as the days passed, I stopped reacting and started being proactive. And then i started having fun. The land was full of giants… and I shouldn’t have survived but I did. I had this drive to go in this specific direction, and I followed it. I came out on the coast, found a cave, and waited. Caiyha came to me there. We talked at length. Then she gave me her mark and offered me a seed. I took it… it was a seed from The First Tree. She told me to eat it and I did, placing it in my mouth and swallowing. It took root within me, changing me, making me more at ease with the land. Then she sent me home.” Taz said softly.

She took a sip of her wine and continued. “Caiyha named what someone who had consumed a seed a Wildling. We can… sense the presence of lifeforms all around us. We can detect the presence of edible plants. Those lifeforms… where I am now in my training… I can tell what species or race they are if I’m within a half-mile. I can sense their general age and health as well. I can tell if they are doing things like sleeping or hunting…if I meditate and concentrate, I can know everything about the life forms. If I try hard enough, focusing on a particular animal, I can see what they see, smell what they smell, and taste what they taste. I cannot control the animals, but I can ride their senses and sense as they do. My abilities are slowly growing…” Taz said. “I think that somehow makes me distasteful to my grandfather or ruined for his plans. I do not know why.” She said, finishing off the wine.

"My mark was hidden – always has been – until just this season… twenty days ago. It was like the existence of it was wiped from my mind. I met a woman who came to Syka at a Tenday… and she was the same way. Our marks erupted in the presence of each other and this appeared.” Taz said, pulling back her shawl and then unbuttoning her blouse to push it off her left shoulder revealing an almost full sleeve marking from her shoulder to her elbow of an elaborate tree wrapping around her arm. It was obviously tropical with jungle vines, flowering plants, and tropical animals in it. In the center of the tree’s trunk was a triskelion. The tree’s roots touched everything in the scene, flowing outwards as if reaching for more.

“Ialari’s tree was an oak with waves swirling around its base. It was different than mine.” She said softly. “I think I am out of the running for whatever Florentin Arcadius wanted me for. Now there is just you… and I know for a fact he’s terrified of you and that whatever it is… you are his last option and the most powerful one… the one he didn’t want to face.” She said, setting her empty glass down and shaking her head.

“Its so much and so little. It’s power. I feel like I walked out of an old tale… a myth or legend perhaps. And whatever it is I am… you are so much more.” Tazrae whispered, keeping her voice down so the sleeping Ixam wouldn’t hear them.

Words: 1524

[Alric Lysane]

He said nothing as she spoke of the involvement of the gods, being presented future warnings and targeted training for the situation. He simply enjoyed their closeness, such things seeming more relevant in the present given what the Vision Water seemed to be predicting would happen. He wasn’t sure how accurate the vision was, whether it was a divine intervention as a way of aiding him without visibly doing so. He wasn’t even sure whether the water simply read you, somehow, your feelings and mental reckonings, and played something for you that was some combination of fear and fact. But he had to concede that it was possibly more likely to be a true prediction than not, as far as he was aware. “We all need saving from something, I think,” he mused aloud, watching the water ripple, “but even if the vision is true, in its entirety, there’s little I can do but try to be as strong and talented as I can be. Ultimately, we all rely upon others eventually, whatever or whoever that other is. I can’t really go much wrong with relying upon you” he finished thoughtfully. It would be nice, he thought, if he could summon up enough hopeful faith to believe that everything was already ordained in their favour, that they were being prodded down specific pathways toward an end that included victory without question. His life, however, had taught him that even when you thought you had everything panned out, guaranteed certain outcomes, that life had a way of throwing you into the blood and suffering. Still, he liked that Taz thought the way she did, she showed him different perspectives to ponder upon as she revealed her own vision, the two combined seeming to reflect each other. He smiled with a certain sense of satisfaction, knowing that even if things didn’t work out for him, he doubted she’d let Arcadius get away with it, remembering the explosions and sounds of battle chasing the man from his hiding. “Does she move around when she sleeps?” he asked, taking her hand as she pulled him up out of the bench, “if so, we may have no furniture left when we return, it was quite close. Extra kindling, perhaps?” he said with amusement in his eyes, though Taz’s seemed distant he noted, turned inwards in thought, perhaps, eventually slowing their pace and speaking. It clearly weighed upon her mind, and he could see why it did so. But that didn’t change who he was and how he saw the world. He had changed so much in such a short period of time, he could only become so different from his past self without more time passing. He saw the sense of what she said but a lifetime of experience, of being little more than a small-time ruffian, made it difficult for him to see himself as overly important or successful. Most of his life, though he had survived, was a litany of failed attempts to improve his lot. She was so certain he was stronger than he was, that he was somehow unbreakable or was going to make it to the other side. It was warming, that she had such faith in him, but he didn’t feel particularly strong or unbreakable. He sighed and met her gaze for a time before answering. “I promised that I wouldn’t lie Taz,” he said after a while, “and the truth is that my thoughts don’t naturally work that way. I don’t feel the way you seem to see me, I wish I did. A lifetime of Sunberth, watching myself not really succeed at things that seem lesser than defeating Arcadius and I’m supposed to think I’ll manage that, alive no less? It’s…difficult…to see it. I’ve changed much already, perhaps that will change too in time, but I can only try as much as I can…I can’t promise that I’ll change how I feel tomorrow, or the next day, or the next…but I will try for you” he finished as they found themselves before the apartments and slipped within. He settled in for her story after that, sipping the flavourful wine as she spoke, for a time not thinking about anything dark and simply enjoying a good story. When she showed the mark he leaned in, putting his glass down temporarily so that his fingers were free to trace the picture – and it wasn’t a pattern like his mark was, it was definitely akin to a painting, almost. It was curiously fascinating, not to mention the intriguing link between her and this other woman that was mentioned. Eventually, regretfully, he let the picture go and picked up his glass once more, leaning back into the couch as she continued her telling, watching her face become animated as she spoke. “So…you’re now part First Tree too?” he asked softly once she was finished, “every time I think you can’t best your last story you surprise me. World Gates, Verusk, Rhaus…and now a Wildling after eating a seed from the First Tree? Are you sure you aren’t the special one, destined to vanquish the evil? Perhaps you have stepped out of an old tale, it would explain the wild passion and beauty. Caiyha…I hadn’t heard of her before…but I am grateful that she has seen fit to protect you as she has. You are clearly being watched over by the divines…think you could convince her to give me one? No? No…I suppose that would be too easy” he chuckled, and then looking apologetic as Bree shifted and made a noise before settling once more. “You are more special than I, even if you feel otherwise. Ironic given how you tell me I’m better than I think. Perhaps that is what Bree means, at least in part, when she talks of us together. I’ll have to find a magic like yours one day, it sounds nice to look at me through your eyes,” he said wryly, “but who am I to challenge a Wildling? Blessed by three divines now, I’d not wish to invoke their wrath by insulting you so. So, we’ll go with me being more…hopefully not around the middle” “It’ll be nice, to eventually live without the blanket of darkness, when it’s all done,” he continued, trying to envision what that might be like as he had promised, “though I’m not sure what I’ll do after. Syka doesn’t seem like a place for a thief, or bouncer, mercenary or whatever else I am. Maybe I’ll be a fisherman, no? I’d stink like nothing else but at least I’d have a full belly” he said with a mischievous grin. “No wait...you’re about to tell me something sagely like ‘you were born to be more than that’ or ‘you can do anything you can put your mind to, Alric’” he said, only slightly teasingly to alleviate the shadows within temporarily, slipping his arm around her and finishing his wine, the glass put beside hers, “how about…we can be bold adventurers, discover the World Gate, uncover the secrets of this jungle library, open the gate…and then we end up unleashing something else the brave heroes have to vanquish once more, no?”

[Tazrae]

Taz blinked at Alric’s words. Was he telling her what he thought she wanted to hear or was he speaking truly? He’d promised never to lie to her and she believed him. But honestly? She didn’t think he actually believed that ultimately everyone relied upon others. Alric was a loner. He walked his path by himself. He had since he was eight through an ugly twist of fate. But she didn’t want to start an argument or contradict what he was saying. The conversation was an old one between them and wasn’t worth it to rehash. Alric knew what he knew and he wasn’t going to change his mind until he was ready to change his mind, if ever.

She just didn’t believe he believed others could be relied on. But she did. She absolutely had that fact proved to her over and over by the people of Syka. It was why she was giving him all the help she could to even out the playing field between himself and her Grandfather. Tazrae could place all the tools in his hands she wanted to… that he’d let her…. but ultimately it was up to him to wield them and build something. She couldn’t hold the hammer and pound in the nails for him. She just wished he’d build a future instead of simply surviving the now.

And maybe he was, in his own way.

The Innkeeper had to admit to herself that she didn’t know him. Every time they had a meeting like this, she learned something new. Just when she thought she’d reached into his depths and shined some light on what lurked beneath his skin, there was a deeper pool to discover. Taz figured she could live a lifetime of clandestine meetings and still not know him really well. She liked that about him though. And she wondered, momentarily, if it was hard living in his skin being that kind of being.


She would find it exhausting.


Tazrae needed people… the contact, the interaction, the smiles and laughter. She was a caregiver at heart despite everything else she was. The woman had no idea why Alric was such a draw for her with his dark life in his dark city. Regardless of how much he’d tried to convince her, she knew he was something special beneath his skin. She knew he was unique among the world. She thought about his bloodline and how it had once ruled half the world. Had he been born a thousand years earlier, he’d have been surrounded by family and lost among them. Would he have been someone vastly different than the man he was today? Taz wondered what those people of earlier times would have thought about their family’s fall. Were they as strong then as Alric was now? Would they have survived what he survived?

Tazrae stared into the fire, lost in her thoughts a moment.

“I agree with you there. I needed saving from Riverfall once upon a time. If I would have held out for a hero to come and yank me out of that situation, I would still be dying a little inside day in and day out in that city. I just never thought one could be one’s own hero.” She laughed, thinking how childish it had been to pack up her little bag and find James in order to beg him to take her somewhere else because of the friendship he’d shared with her father. To this day she was still thankful he hadn’t said no.

Tazrae laughed at Alric’s question. “She stretches out. She dreams. She slashes at what I think are monkeys in her dreams because they are some of her favorite wild meat to catch and eat. She also cusses like a sailor when she’s been spending too much time with the Svefra and has water dreams.” The woman said with a grin. “I… Lars at the Saw Mill told me she will live as long as I will, maybe even longer, if life is kind to us and we have no disease. I’ve rethought my entire future because of Bree. If I put a second story on the Inn, it will just be rooms. I’m going to build a separate living situation for me, one wide open with room for Bree as well. Putting an apartment upstairs at the Inn made sense when it was just me. But it’s not a good situation for Bree. A stone home filled with wood… at ground level makes much more sense." Tazrae paused organizing her thoughts.

"And I don’t want to live alone anyhow. She’s all the company I need. And if Oralie doesn’t bond with someone in Syka and moves out… I’m going to make sure I have one or two extra bedrooms in case she wants to live with me too.” Taz admitted. “I’m growing fond of that cat… did you know she doesn’t know how to read? She asked me to teach her. It’s been a long time since that part of my schooling. I’m terrified I will turn out to be a horrible teacher. James is going to get me a basic reader on his next trip so I have some sort of guidance rather than just teaching her to sing the alphabets and memorizing letters and what sounds they make.” Tazrae said, turning from the fire to study Alric.

“It’s nice having a family again. When my father passed, my world felt destroyed. But now I have Bree and Oralie, most of Syka, and you.” She smiled… wondering where the nostalgia was coming from.

Tazrae nodded at Alric’s confession of not seeing himself the way she saw him. She understood it. “You don’t have to change for me Alric. Don’t think of it that way. I don’t want to …. turn you into someone you aren’t. I just want you to reach further, longer into the future, and play the long game… not a tomorrow or the next day game. I keep hoping if I keep telling you that you are enough, you will believe it.” She said softly, then gestured around them.

“This place is safe, has plenty of food, shelter, heat… all the basic comforts presented in a lovely package. You come here and study. You’ve learned in leaps and bounds… the magic that we’ve worked on… all but perhaps hypnotism… you’ve excelled at. I can completely see you leaving me in the dust on them. This is what a man can do when he's not fighting for survival, trying to put food in his mouth, and sleeping with one eye open. You grew into a man in Sunberth. That wasn’t an option for you… having just basic security and enough food in your belly. Is it any wonder you feel like you haven’t really succeeded at things thus far? How hard is it to succeed at something when you are constantly glancing over your shoulder and your belly is rumbling with hunger? Even since I’ve met you, you’ve filled out a bit… you’ve always been strong, but you feel even stronger. I’m not talking about the mind… I doubt you ever had issues there. I’m talking about the body. I wonder if you aren't training hard back at your home.” She added, wanting to clarify. “You also carry yourself differently than that first day we met. Don’t ask me to explain. I can’t.” She added, shaking her head and leaning back into the cushions.

She told him about the Wildling things, showed him the sleeve that denoted her Caiyha’s Mark, and chuckled when he called her part of The First Tree. “Caiyha is the Goddess of Wilderness and Wild Things. She works closely with Kihala, the Goddess of Life.” Taz said absently, knowing she'd had the same questions Alric did because she knew virtually none of the pantheon until she’d moved to Syka.

Taz laughed and glanced over at Bree as the Ixam shifted. She tensed a moment, then relaxed. “Sometimes when she gets really relaxed… she has… uh… unpleasant discharges.” Taz pinched her nose for emphasis briefly and grinned. “I try to stay downwind. It's not so bad in Syka where we don’t have glass on the windows and leave the shutters open to catch the sea breeze. They tend to catch any unpleasantness and loft it out and away. Here? We’d be doomed.” Taz added, chuckling like a youngster.

“I haven’t stepped out of an old tale. I’m not the great bardic hope. I think everyone you meet has stories like mine. You just aren’t aware of most people’s history. And I probably tell you altogether way too much anyhow.” She admitted, shaking her head. “Besides, I’m a bard. We have a gift at storytelling. You’d probably drop your jaw at me reciting a tale of going shopping at the market here and buying cut flowers where nothing ever happened.” She added, reaching up and capturing a curl to twist around a finger. She spared him only a glance before the fire caught her attention again.

“What would you think if you didn’t know us, Alric, and someone told you the story of how we meet and continue to meet? How we bought a place together in The Outpost which is everywhere and nowhere… both far from our perspective homes. I’d think it was a poorly written bloody star-crossed romance that was doomed to end in tragedy. But to me, inside it, everything feels pretty normal… pretty tame.” She added, glancing over at him finally. “I think all the good tales are like that. They are just extraordinary things that happened to ordinary people.” Taz added with a shrug.

“Besides, there’s no proof of any of the nonsense I tell you. You are going on blind faith.” She said with a laugh.

“There are other places in the world besides Syka. Don’t let my tales blind you to the reality of what it's like to live in a jungle. It’s … incredibly dangerous, Alric. It rains… things want to eat you. There are bugs and mud and things with fangs and claws around every corner.” She said, suddenly not wanting to talk about how incredibly beautiful it was. Every square inch of her home was alive. The Outpost felt like a dead place compared to Syka. The sun, the sand, the tang of salt in the air, and the smell of verdant things filled with life all around her was a seductive song she couldn’t resist. Tazrae loved her home – the home she picked for herself – and planned on never leaving it. It owned too much of her soul now. And it stole more and more of her the longer she was there. There was too much still left to discover and caretake. She knew the man behind her might never understand something like that.

So instead, she just smiled a melancholy smile knowing that Alric and Sunberth fit each other like a hand in a glove. And even though her vision put him in the jungle facing her Grandfather… maybe the vision water just read her desire and projected it as thought. She had just heard rumors of it. The Dreamwalker and the herbs they’d tried together seemed more reliable.

Taz ran her hands through her tangled curls and stretched, stifling a yawn. Watching the fire and Bree slumber before it was making her equally sleepy. Alric’s mood had turned and either he was putting on a good show for her benefit or he was teasing her shamelessly to amuse his own inner child. She settled against him from her stretch as his arm went around her and she pretended to ponder the whole scenario he laid out before her. “How about we just figure out how to open the World Gate and I just shove you through at the last chime and wave goodbye to you as it closes? That would do the trick.” She said, tapping her chin and seemingly deciding the whole thing. “You can go find the lost twin Marcus Kelvic created all the Kelvics to find. You can put all that Nymkarta in you to use instead of picking pockets or guarding ladies of the night. If you’re nice to me, I’ll even pack you a lunch to take with you… something delicious.” She added and leaned her head against his shoulder. He could feel her smile then, where her lips curled and her cheek uplifted against his shoulder through his shirt.

“That’s something to make a person feel small; other worlds being out there. And I know it's true. I see it every time I see a Verusk.” She mused, closing her eyes and yawning again. Then she stiffened suddenly, voicing a thought out loud. “I wonder what my Grandfather would do with that kind of knowledge – knowing there are other worlds and a gate to get to them.” She said, giving a small shudder and catching her bottom lip momentarily in her teeth. She opened her eyes and stared at the fire thoughtfully. Then she shook her head.

“I’m tired. I think I’m going to bed. Come join me if you get done watching my giant not-a-pet lizard snore.” She said with a smile. “I am looking forward to dreams of shoving you through …. Well, I don’t even know what one looks like… a world gate. But I guess I’ll have a few dreams and can compare them when I get to see the real thing.” She said, knowing sooner or later she’d go look for it. Tazrae was far too curious for her own good and it was the center of more than one mystery involving Syka and its denizens. Maybe, if Moritz was to be believed, the mystery of the whole world.

Words: 2275

[Alric Lysane]

“I doubt you’ll be alone, though it speaks well of you that you’ve clearly thought through how you’d like to make it so, and who you’d like to share it with,” he said after listening to her talk about her home, her plans and the people in Syka she shared things with, “you have a good heart. Such people attract others around them, like moths to flames, and though things may not always be smooth you will likely never be alone because of it. I suspect it will be quite the opposite” “I think it is impossible not to meet people that you form bonds with and not change in some way, and you mean much to me. It’s not that I meant that I was doing it for you…but had I never met you then I’d not be what I am now…is more what I meant. I don’t dislike what I have become, which is surprising given where I started, but it has taken me time to get there,” he sighed slightly, not sure he could put how he felt into words properly, and so leaving it for now, deciding to muse upon her words further for another discussion that would no doubt happen at another time. “I think it helps that I have a lovely Sykan Innkeeper to keep feeding me nice things, though hopefully she won’t let me fill out too much” he said with a smile, though his gaze was thoughtfully staring into the flames before them, watching them dance and flicker, “I suppose you are right, things have improved much since I started focusing upon things more deeply, and having somewhere like this to come to has been marvellous. I think I know what you mean…I suppose I’ll have to wait and see how that changes me further, if it does” The corners of his lips turned upwards at her discussion of Bree’s unpleasantness, saying nothing but amusement twinkling in his eyes and continuing to do so as she asked him about their story and how he would read it. He had to concede that her read upon it was reasonably accurate, though he would have added that had he been asked about it beforehand he’d never have thought he’d have been associating with anyone of her calibre. He nodded and scratched his chin thoughtfully, the flames an ever-present mirror for reflection. “I’m not sure that’s so bad. I mean I’m not going to complain at having this Sykan beauty in my life, though it would seem you got the bad end of the deal in that story,” he chuckled, “I don’t know about tame though, at least some parts are untameable” he toyed with her hair briefly with amusement. “Everywhere is dangerous in its own way, I think. You could try to find the safest of places, a quiet cave somewhere perhaps, and you’d probably find there were some wolves or worse deep within it. The best we can do is make things as safe as we can, and accept the imperfections,” he mused aloud, looking into the fire as she leaned into him, “besides, even if I left Sunberth one day, I think I’m so used to its lack of safety it would feel…strange…to experience pure safety. I’m not sure people were built for it” He snorted at her own teasing response to his teasing, amused by what she laid out. It was the small things, he had found, that really made things what they were. Like their talking, and bantering, before a hearth. Such things, he had decided, made things worth it and were the moments that pushed back at the shadows that all lives possessed – if slightly more in their cases. He enjoyed the fact that she prodded him back, and was quite creative about doing it too, whether she knew it or not. “Ah yes, an excellent use of my skills, and it would certainly get me out of your hair. Serves me right for my stubbornness I suppose. Maybe I should be even nicer to you then, just to increase the odds of staying on this world,” he said with amusement, brushing a kiss into her locks, feeling her smile as she leaned against him, “I don’t know about other worlds. It’s enough to have one to contend with, though I’ll admit to curiosity about them. Perhaps there are other humans out there, somewhere, in a better world that never broke. One day perhaps someone will stumble upon them and they could change everything for the better. It would be nice to think that the other worlds you could visit would be nice places” “Oh, I don’t know, if I didn’t think she’d get grumpy with me for it I’d say she likes being your ‘pet’ at least a little bit, who wouldn’t like free…banana pies, was it? And a lovely, well thought out home built for their convenience? But, of course, my survival instincts tell me to absolutely never suggest that Ixam are anything other than superior to humans” he chuckled, shifting as she moved and pushing himself up, helping her up after, “very well, I suppose dreams of shoving me through a World Gate should provide you with amusement whilst you sleep at least” he finished, kicking off his boots and leaving them to warm on the hearth before topping up another couple of logs for Bree. “Still, I think fair is fair, if you’re going to…pick me up and throw me into a World Gate, then…” he said, picking her up and chuckling at her surprise as he half carried and half faux danced as he hummed the tune from earlier, one last portion of fun before slumber and another day of learning, work and a return to normality. He’d put her down just outside the bedroom but, for now, time was lost in the pure fun of the moment.

[Tazrae]

Taz let out a surprised squeal of laughter, half grabbed at him and held on tight burying her face against his shoulder to muffle her laughter. The young Innkeeper hadn’t expected the Sunberther to pluck her up like she weighed nothing, and she certainly didn’t expect him to dance with such joy over to the edge of the bedroom door. She didn’t want to wake Bree up, so she held on, her laughter muffled until her bare feet were on the floor again. She smiled up at him, caught in the moment for a breath or two before she actually let go of him and linked her fingers with his.

Her eyes were filled with what-ifs and wishes, backed by a softening that came with the realization that none of those things could be. Someday, maybe, but not now. Instead of voicing those things and making their lives harder, she simply shook her head as she gave his arm a tug, propelling them both into the bedroom. “You are enough.” She told him, then glanced around the room. “This is enough.” She said finally, offering him a smile. “Maybe not forever, but it is definitely enough for right now. I hope that’s okay.” She said, sliding out of her clothing. She wasn’t actually asking him if it was. She was more sharing her hope with him that he’d settle for what they had for now.

Taz was conscious of the fact he wasn’t a Sykan so she left her usual crocheted bikini on and took a moment to perch on the edge of the bed. She pulled out a comb, brushed out her hair, and plaited it loosely. Normally she wouldn’t bother, but if either of them dreamed, she didn’t want to get her hair caught under his thrashing body or even her own. She tied off the loose plait with a small band of leather. The entire bedroom… was full of her small touches… things added here or there for the ease of them sheltering here. There was a box of candles for reading late into the night, and even a fresh pitcher of water Taz kept filled on the dresser for a refreshing drink in the middle of the night.

There were a comb and hair ties in the little nightstand, for either of them, since Alric’s hair was on the long side these days.

There were books lying around here and there. Tazrae bought them at the market almost fanatically when she could afford them… on all sorts of topics. Her newest fascination was a small illustrated journal on knot tying for sailing. Laying across it was a couple of small lengths of rope as if she’d practiced sometimes using the short lengths in her learning. It was part of her wilderness survival training. And she was quite bad at it. One knot was even explained as a tree with a hole and a bunny coming up out of the hole, circling the tree, and dropping down into the hole once more. Taz couldn’t master it. The last failure had resulted in the rope being flung across the room in frustration.

Everything in Syka was about surviving, but while she was here, evidently knots weren’t important.

But to survive in Syka, Tazrae had promised herself to never stop learning. The Outpost was good for that… finding supplies and knowledge that wasn’t accessible to people in distant locations. Taz hadn’t yet taken the books back to Syka. She worried, with the frequent rain and high humidity that they’d be destroyed rapidly. She felt it safer for them to remain here, where the atmosphere wouldn’t destroy the paper. One book, on meditation, she plucked up from beside the bed. She glanced at it, then over at the candle which was burning down, and back at Alric… obviously torn between sleeping and reading. Laughing a little, she set the book back down, threw back the covers on the other side invitingly, and returned the book to its temporary location on the nightstand.

“I was tempted… but only for a moment. I’ll only read a page and fall asleep at this rate, drop the book…. and waste the rest of the candle.” She said, with a light chuckle. “Come to bed.” Taz said, swinging her legs up and stretching out. She loved the smell of the sheets. They were changed as frequently as she changed the ones at the Inn, but because Alric spent so much time here… they smelled like him. Once he was settled, she did just exactly as she promised him and curled up around him with her head on his shoulder listening to his heartbeat.


It was more than time, she had decided, as she had drifted off to the sound of Alric’s strong steady heartbeat.

It was an incredibly restful night for Tazrae. The hours were marked by the moonlight through the screened windows painting a trail across the floor across the room. She liked the lack of mosquito netting, and while the constant sound of the ocean was missing, she did not regret the constant sound of night bugs. They’d both worked hard on their magic and needed the recharge. When morning came, Tazrae rose early, slipping out of bed to head back to Syka for a quick trip to pick something up she’d promised to bring.

She took Bree with her, so the Jungle Ixam would have a quick stretch and run up the beach, doing her morning business and feeding on a haunch of wild pig that Taz had stashed in the Icebox. Then, Taz went out to her Reptile Garden, strolled through it, and selected a young male Mussurana whom felt agreeable to Tazrae’s wish to move him to The Outpost temporarily. Taz was finding that more and more, she was sensitive to animals and oddly seemed to know things about them when she concentrated on individuals. The male was young, only five feet in length, not nearly done growing. He was game to see what it was like to haunt a dwelling that was warm and dry. Taz promised if there weren’t enough rodent’s to satisfy the young male and its hearty appetite, she’d supplement its food sources and bring him fresh delicious food from Syka.

The sun was just rising when Taz slipped back into the apartment. Bree wandered to the hearth and using her strong snout, she tossed more wood onto the fire as Tazrae gently let the young male out of his silk bag to roam the room freely. Then she laid out a breakfast of fresh fruits, bread baked yesterday, and used one of their frying pans to set some pork belly bacon to frying. She’d also brought fresh eggs, though she wouldn’t start cooking them until Alric rose.

When he did put in an appearance, she’d be ready to feed him and introduce him to his new house guest. Then, there was more magic to study... much much more.

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