Reflection, Imitation, Experience [Kavala]

[Cayenne]

The Konti smiled, listening as Kavala spoke, utterly focused on the other woman, her tattooed arm resting over the back of the bench. She was right, so very right, and quite frankly, this pleased her. It was thrilling to talk to someone who understood such matters, and spoke of them with the fervor and pleasure that the young woman across from her did. "I've heard tell of such things being true, you know. They say that Eyris might bless those whom have an affinity for learning, for wisdom, for knowledge, with such a gift. To know who wrote a book, and who came after it... who owned it, who used it, who read it... who learned from it," she shook her head slightly in awe.

"You're right. There are so many ways to learn. All of what you mentioned now, and even the rest that we know and didn't speak of, can be boiled down into three methods. These are reflection, imitation, and experience. We learn by watching, listening, doing. Be it writing notes to train our hands and minds, or actually practicing the task we want to master with our hands, as you said... that is how we learn to do it." The hand on the bench reached up to tuck some of her own hair behind her ear, and followed up on the motion by smoothing some of Kavala's as well, a light, intimate touch like one shared between friends, or perhaps in between sisters. "Many use a combination of all three. They learn the theory, and put that theory to work in gaining practical experience." She paused. "My name, by the way, is Calla."

"There's not many nowadays that learn for the sake of learning. Perhaps they feel it is a luxury that they have to forgo. Don't misunderstand me, of course... they learn what they need about their given trade, but many never seek the whys. Most people nowadays are more comfortable with old problems than they are with new solutions. They forget that life itself is about always learning... it's a journey. When you stand before Dira, one ought to be proud of what they have accomplished... but can anyone be proud of ignorance?" she tilted her head, making the little braids within the locks of her hair move, the weight of the beads sliding them forward as she leaned in just a bit more towards Kavala, her voice thoughtful, serious. "You know... perhaps you could help me with something, since you're an animal healer. It is said that cats have more fur on one side than they do another, simply because of the way they lie on the cool floor, so surely they need to be warmer on that side. So tell me... which side of a cat has more hair?"

[Kavala]

Kavala smiled, nodding in agreement to Calla's words. The Konti liked the other Konti enormously. And she agreed with her. 'Sometimes I think learning is all we have. It's a sort of strength, Calla, that arms us in the way leather or metal arms warriors. I hold it close to me and it makes me stronger." Kavala said, watching Calla smooth her own hair then adjust the healers. Kavala didn't mind her touch at all, not one bit, and in fact craved it because in many ways Calla reminded her of her own mother, a woman she missed beyond belief.

Kavala nodded. "The new is hard for people. New thinking, new ways of doing things, new ideas, even new states of being. But they make the best ways sometimes because we'd never move forward in life if we don't take to heart what others have learned and utilize the knowledge. I wish there was a collective repository of Nakivak knowledge. It would so help those of us new to being ... property to them." She hesitated using the word, but it was what she was, regardless of what the Akalak dressed it up as.

"Learning isn't a luxury, its a necessity. It's not something someone can forgo. That's dangerous thinking - putting knowledge in the category of a luxury - because survival depends on us being clever, knowing the way forward, and seemingly doing what we can to make things safer, better, feed more people, prevent another Valterrian... all of that. Knowledge is the key to our survival. Retaining and learning that knowledge is just as important." Kavala said firmly, knowing this was her truth and her reality. She sat back and looked over at Calla and smiled. She liked her. She felt good around her. And she most importantly agreed with her. Life was a journey. All of it. Each step was a learning process. "No... no one can be proud of ignorance. It's a lazy man or woman that says they 'don't know' when we have all this knowledge around us to seek through." Kavala spoke softly. She searched Calla's gaze and suddenly overwhelmingly felt like she'd finally found a friend in Riverfall, one that could relate to her and her passions. Learning was a passion. If she didn't know, she'd soon find out. It was why she spent so much time in the library copying books.

Kavala started laughing the moment Calla asked her question. The truth was she needed the laugh. Glancing at the women Kavala decided would be her new friend, the healer reached out and hugged her gently, mellowing her laughter slightly in respect for the atmosphere they were in. "That's an easy one, Calla... its the outside." The Konti healer said, still chuckling. Then she grew serious, leaning back and gesturing to her bracelet.

"Is that how you handle this too? Take it as a learning experience? I have to trust that they won't go back on their word and will release me with the birth of a child to them, but it still feels like slavery even though the cage is a gilded one with room enough to fly within. Just no cage would be preferred. Have you... had to .... be of service to them? I do not know how I am going to handle it when someone takes my contract. I do not want to be what I am, and the lessons are hard to learn if they aren't of your choosing." Kavala said softly. It didn't mean she wouldn't learn them, just that it was hard. "I wish I could touch my bracelet and know the women who'd come before me... who'd worn them and how they've lived and died. I want them to have names and a story and not just faceless wombs in service to the Akalak. I know they need us, Calla, but it just seems so... awkward like this." She added, fingering her own silver manacle and looking thoughtful. "It would help if they were somehow here with me, present for all I have to go through, and if I could learn from what they went through. I'm afraid to love them, the Akalak, but I know that I will. I admire them greatly for all that they own me. But maybe that is yet again another lesson for us. Love our captors." She said softly, once more leaning her chin on her upraised knee.

[Cayenne]

“Knowledge is power,” the tattooed Konti agreed. “But it must be utilized to to have a benefit. Many don’t, not any more,” she shook her head slightly, the braids and beads moving once again. “It’s a sad state of affairs, isn’t it?” But she liked Kavala’s idea about a knowledge repository, if that broad smile was any indication. “Why don’t we start one? Even if it’s just recording our experiences and those that come after us? With luck, those who come after us will be able to read it, lest they try to destroy it to prevent others from knowing what we go through. But to be forewarned is to be forearmed.” She seemed to take an ‘us versus them’ way in her thinking, sometimes, it seemed to Kavala. Perhaps she had her own experiences. Perhaps others had tried for her contract. Perhaps a thousand things....

But it was clear, though, that she appreciated Kavala’s thoughts and the way she enjoyed knowledge, creating it, finding it, discovering it, understanding it... it pleased Calla immensely. It did seem like Kavala had certainly found a new friend, someone who shared her views, thoughts, and situation. What more could a lonely person, whose needs of food and shelter were met, want? Her eyes twinkled as when Kavala started laughing, a mischievous grin tugging at the corners of her lips. But she started laughing, too, once Kavala gave her the answer, and returned the gentle hug, using the moment to get closer still so that her tattooed arm was draped around Kavala’s back. Clearly, she had been caught in her little riddle, but it only encouraged her.

She followed the other Konti’s gaze to the bracelet on her wrist. “I take every day as a learning experience,” Calla told her honestly. “I promise myself that I will learn at least ten new things each day, be it about myself or the the people or the world around me. Even if it’s as simple as making a new recipe, making a new weave with metal, learning new words in another language, or reading another book. Life is about learning. Because I love to learn, I live. The lessons we must face are hard ones, hard lessons of reality, so far from what we want and expect. But each lesson is a lesson, regardless. Life is what you make of it. You have that power, Kavala. You have that strength within you... that strength is what you will need. Don’t let them take that from you. You must nurture strength of spirit and soul to shield yourself when you need it. They will take our bodies, because that is what they need us for. But even when they do that, you must not let them take you. I’m not so foolish to think that I am irreplaceable. I’m not... none of us are. It is not that one of their own cannot or does not weave chain rings together. They tolerate it and humour it from me because it makes a distraction from what I am kept here for. It’s one step away, one step, from what the Symenestra do. Have you ever heard about their Harvest?” Calla left her book in her lap and reached for her new friend’s hand, so close that her head was almost touching the other’s.

“Almost every time, the Symenestra kill their mothers when they are born. It’s not that the pregnancy is difficult... it’s that they poison their mother from the inside out and devour her as they are being born,” Calla was quiet. “So rather than risk their own kind carrying their own children, most of whom would die if the infant is not cut out in time, and might die anyway, they abduct females of other races, any kind, to carry their infants for them... and then the females adopt those children of the dead surrogates and raise them as their own. Those surrogates have even less freedom than we do. They are trapped. There is no hope. No escape. Nothing but certain death.” Calla squeezed her hand and was quiet for a moment. How was it that she knew this? It... it had a way of making their situation as Nakivak seem a little better - at least for the Konti, who were most likely to survive it. For other races, one was as bad as the other. “What makes it different is that we, at least, have a choice about it. Do not distress yourself with dark imaginings, Kavala. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Look after yourself. Promise me that,” her fingers found Kavala’s hair, stroking gently.

“They cope as I said to you - they separate themselves from it. It’s a bad cycle, isn’t it? They withdraw from us... keep us merely for what we can produce for them... and we, in turn, withdraw from them in order to cope with the impersonal treatment.” Calla continued to stroke Kavala’s hair. “I think because they are afraid of emotion. They are afraid that showing us that emotion gives us a power over them. They are afraid of losing every last bit of control they have over us. They cannot cede it. For all their strength.... they are counterbalanced with that weakness. They are afraid of being hurt. They are afraid of being rejected. So if they treat us like property, like walking wombs, they can convince each other to treat us as being less than they are,” she confided. “And unfortunately that is something neither you nor I will ever change. They are not open to learning a new way. They go through life lonely, because they are convinced that no one will ever be able to relate to them... and no matter how much we try... they keep us out.” She sighed. The beads in her hair clinked.

“I’m on my second contract here,” she told Kavala quietly. “My first one, I made a mistake. I fell in love with an Akalak, who took my contract. I returned that love, and we had a child. A daughter. A beautiful white little girl, who I named Masala. I never saw him after that. He didn’t come around. He ended our relationship and told me it was just business. Now, if we cross paths here in Riverfall, he ignores me and pretty much denies my existence,” Calla gently touched Kavala’s hand with her thumb, stroking it. “I offered to try again. He refused... like my giving him a daughter was a weakness that he refused to have any part of it. Just prepare yourself for that. Promise me. Because it can happen. It has happened. For all that they like us to bear their children... to them, it’s not theirs unless it’s a blue-skinned, dark-haired boy. One of them will take my contract, even though my record says that I bore a daughter. She is no longer with me,” Calla was quiet. “My mother came from Mura to come and get her. I did not want her raised here, being groomed beyond my influence for this life, not while I am under a contract, seeing me like this. She will learn about it, because I wrote it for her for to read when she is old enough to understand. Perhaps it makes me a bad mother... but one day, when I have paid my debts... I will get to see her again. I would want her to know about this... about our experiences, mine, yours, and everyone else’s, so that she knows. I want her to be loved and cared for by any partner she falls in love with.”

“But you could, you know... touch that bracelet that we wear, and know something about those who came before us. I understand that that’s how Eyris works. She grants people knowledge about who came before them. Not all of the past has been written down. So much has been lost. But through that... perhaps more can be found. What was lost can be discovered,” Calla mused. “This seems like something we could work on, don’t you think? To discover. To learn. To uncover. To find out the whys and the hows, the wheres and the whens. The whos and the whats.”

[Kavala]

Kavala had never felt so at ease, so comfortable, as if she'd been given a gift of understanding and kinship by this woman she'd only just met. Kavala sat quietly, holding Calla's hand and listening to her story. There were times her eyes teared up and other times her
chin dipped in a nod of agreement.

"Learning... yes. I feel the same way. Knowledge can arm us better than all the Akalak weapons in the world." Kavala said thoughtfully, leaning back into the seat and looking carefully at Calla. Calla continued and Kavala nodded. She remained shockingly quiet as Calla told her about the Symenestros and what happened to them during reproduction. It didn't make any sense, naturally, to have a species that poisoned that which produced more. The healer in her twitched, slightly taken aback but believing what Calla said nonetheless. "That's quite possibly the worst thing I've ever heard, Calla. No wonder I've never seen an Symenestros. I don't think I want too now. That sounds completely unnatural yet fascinating as well. I imagine healers have looked at the situation for generations too, gaining nothing of it. How sad? To be granted life, you must kill your mother always. And the Akalak think they have it bad." The Konti added.

"If they just appealed to people, especially the Konti, Mura would help them. Don't you feel it at times, Calla? We were two races that were meant to be together, to intermingle and interbreed. Its like they don't understand it or acknowledge it. But its so true. I have a powerful love for the Akalak. All of them. And I think most of the Konti that come here do. But they are so blinded by their losses and their situation, that they can't see solutions right in front of their eyes. How many of us come here on Call? I bet if someone started recording it, started amassing the data, Mura would be shocked at how high the actual numbers are. We don't have to serve in bondage. Most of us would fall in love and grant them what they needed anyhow. And if we didn't, the daughters that came of the union would." Kavala said, confident at least in this awareness.

"I will prepare for the fact I might have a daughter. I'd welcome her if I did and not take her away but keep her here so she could be raised among these warriors and know safety and security and in turn help them when she was older. We can't help but love them. All of them. Even the ones with inked faces... though I think there would be far less of them with far more Konti in the city." Kavala said quietly, her voice filled with conviction.

When Calla spoke about the bracelet, Kavala lifted her eyebrows. "I didn't know. I knew Eyris has domain over knowledge, and often doing Rak'keli's work I've asked for help seeking answers. But I did not know her gifts come through touch. I would do it. I would touch my bracelet and know the women who have sacrificed before me. I would walk their chavi if I could and see what became of them. Everything intermingles, Calla, all the gifts the gods give. I don't believe they are to control us. I truthfully believe they are to make us stronger and more aware. Its the Gods way of arming us and then being free to ask us help in the future. Rak'keli has never failed me, and I have a tentative relationship with Nysel which is something I'm comfortable with yet. I don't believe Nysel was ever an easy god to serve anyhow. But Eyris... can you imagine the potential? Even working in ruins you can touch bones and old broken pottery and know about who lived there before... who they lived and died. Maybe even understand medicine that was lost." Kavala smiled and shifted on the hard bench.

"Someday...Calla. Someday. I have a hard time believing though, that Gods would bother gifting slaves like us even though they have before. My question would be why? In many ways, I wait for my life after even though I shouldn't. If I asked Eyris of anything, it wouldn't be for her gifts because maybe they'd be wasted on someone like me just a little. Because for all that I roam free now, once I am with child, I think my world will halt and so will my travels and my ability to help others. That's what Eyris' gifts should be used for. Instead, it would simply be for an answer to the questions... ."How many babies... how long... are they lying to me? And finally the most important question of all... "When can I start my life or is this it?" Kavala said.

"I want to ask more questions - to be a seeker and search out the answers - but how can I when someone is visiting me twice a day to ...." Kavala picked up the book in her hand, clenched it, and slowly released the title clutched in her hand. "I get confused sometimes. Live now? Live later? Don't let anything stop me? Can I be both and be everything? My gut tells me that I can. That to be fully realized, I have to be both. Really, that's what this life is about. One minute you are so strong, supported by all the Akalak around you. The next minute your so beaten down. I just want a choice. And they are fools not to give us one." Kavala said softly, then glanced back over at Calla.

"There is one other thing. Their lost city. Pieces out of time when they thrived and had no problems reproducing. If Eyris' knowledge can be used in any way, that's the way I would choose to use it. I'd look for the answers on how and why... I'd solve the core problem to begin with if I could. So, you understand, this cycle could get a little closer to ending." Kavala said. She wasn't so confident that she could solve the mystery wholeheartedly, but she know she could find pieces and answers to smaller questions that would lead to the overall question being settled.

[Cayenne]

“It would help if they could learn to love the daughters they father with us,” Calla sighed. “It takes a certain mindset for them to appreciate a child that isn’t blue-skinned, and I’m hoping that my next contract will actually produce a son, if Oriana wills. But I want the children I have to have a father who will love his child no matter what. No matter if they’re white, pink, blue, green, or orange,” she made a slightly silly face. An orange Akalak. Now that would be something to behold, certainly. But Kavala had seen a red one. So maybe an orange one was some... weird... shade off of that. If they were even possible. Possibly, Calla was just playing with her, especially after that silly riddle about cats and fur. But it was more likely that she was proving a point, and it was a good point.

The love had to go both ways. It couldn’t just be all or nothing, blue or white with them. Love freely given would come back tenfold. But it had to flow both ways.

“I like the way you think,” Calla smiled at her. “I like the big questions, personally. But you know, you’re right. More could be found by taking the beginnings of our inquiries back to the root causes, and go from there. Have you ever seen the fish-people? Charodae. I wonder if they might have seen something. It strikes me that if something was below the sea, they might know where to find it... or something about it,” she was thoughtful. “It might be something worth pursuing, at any rate. If we could find that place... maybe we could find some more answers about why things are the way that they are, and how they survived before us. Because the Konti were not around before the Valterrian, but I suspect you already know that bit of history, right?” She paused, considering. "The gods have an interesting way of influencing our lives, don’t they? You know... the funny thing is, all this forgotten knowledge, so much that’s lost... I bet they’d know. But like a parent with their children... they let us try to find out through our own experiences. To learn on our own. Nysel... well, Nysel is very interesting, isn’t he? Takes after his mother,” her eyes twinkled. “I think, personally, that dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions. But even Akajia might have some answers about Valkalah... if the right person approached her properly.”

“You know,” the other Konti mused, “everyone dies, but not everyone lives. Ask questions, and find those answers. Who knows? It may be that one such question that you ask could take you from here to the snowy reaches of Avanthal, or to the humid, bloodstained depths where the Myrians feast on the flesh of others. Live your questions... and perhaps, some day, you’ll find yourself living alongside the answers,” she smiled. “What can I know? What ought I to know? What may I hope? Ask those questions. You might be surprised with the answers. They may not be forthcoming immediately... but don’t give up. Pursue them, wherever they may lead. There will be years that ask questions... and years that give answers. But the important thing is that you must not give up. It’s very refreshing to hear such things, you know,” Calla caressed Kavala’s cheek with her thumb. “What is the difference between here and there, do you think?”

[Kavala]

Kavala nodded. "They just don't show their emotions much. It makes life for us harder. Raising our daughters equally to their sons instead of giving them back to us unwanted would put more females into their society that would eventually grow to give them more sons." Kavala reaffirmed, knowing it was true. "Instead, how many Konti do we have walking around with Akalak fathers and a sorrow about not being wanted?" Kavala said softly.

"I've only met a Charodae once. I found them exotic, but I didn't know they frequented the Suvan Sea." Kavala replied in regards to Calla's question. "And you are right. They might indeed know. It would be worth it to ask one for certain or else look for it ourselves." Kavala said softly, contemplatively. There were certainly things she needed to do, things she needed to know.

"I've lived here almost a year now and never seen Akajia. I know those who worship here though. They might be willing to broach the subject with the Goddess. As for Nysel, I find him warm and approachable. He covets mystery then reveals it in equal measures." Kavala said once more in her soft approachable voice. "It's a lot to think of. Eyris help us. I think I need to do something for all this now that I am here and firmly here. Until a baby comes, if ever, I need something greater. Valkalah will do. It's search, its rediscovery, and uncovering its mysteries. We Konti have gills where the Akalak have one. We should be the ones to find it. And it just... somehow... feels right. I should walk my Chavi, Calla, and see why Valkalah invokes such warm feelings from me. Myth and mystery seem to say nothing was there - no women - and certainly no Konti for we did not exist at that time. But there's something there, some secret, some inner knowing deep within me. I feel like I was there. I just can't remember." Kavala said softly, thoughtfully turning to look through the stacks of books and through the walls as if her vision could grant her the view out across the Suvan.

"Stupid, I know... but it feels so incredibly true inside." Kavala said, then turned to Calla's question.

"The difference between here and there is only time and space. And whether we know it or not both can be easily manipulated by us. We can make there into here and here into there easily enough. We just need the two points visible." Kavala answered.

[Cayenne]

"There is nothing stupid about it," Calla shook her head. "Stupidity is only found in blindly accepting conventional wisdom. Know this, Kavala, that what everyone says to be true cannot possibly be. Don't ever let go of that." Her eyes twinkled at Kavala's answers, though, particularly with regard to her question, her riddle about the here and there. She listened with a slowly blossoming smile on her face that lit up her unique, almost otherworldly eyes. Eyes that told her she had found a fast friend that had been chased inside the library on this wet, cool day.

"That was very well-said and eloquent, my dear," Calla squeezed the other Konti's hand. She seemed to approve of Kavala's answer, if her expression and words were anything to go by. "And do you know... the biggest difference between 'here' and 'there'... is only the letter 't'," she looked about ready to break into peals of happy laughter right there in the library once Kavala understood. She wasn't laughing at her, the young Nakivak knew, but rather at the riddle itself. Yet another riddle that Calla had not treated as such a thing, but as if it was a serious question. Kavala realized right then that it was. Each of the things she had asked her so far had double meanings that could be drawn. She looked pensive after a moment, and was quiet as she seemed to be contemplating something.

What did the other Nakivak think about? How old was she? How old was her daughter? Had she others? She could only wonder. "One more animal question for you, while I'm thinking about it," she sounded thoughtful. "How far will a blind dog walk into a forest?" the shells and beads in her hair clinked, and for one moment, Kavala could have sworn that the fish in the tattoo that covered her new friend's arm had moved. But closer inspection seemed to refute that, and that the brilliantly-inked fish were as still as the Konti that they were tattooed on. Calla hadn't seemed to have noticed, and just watched her, her thumb caressing Kavala's with sisterly, almost motherly, affection.

[Kavala]

Kavala was quite enjoying herself too. She hadn't ever thought she'd meet a Nakivak with quite such good humor nor prone to asking quite so many riddles. But Kavala liked Calla and hoped they'd run across each other again.

It was so hard to find friends in Riverfall. The men looked at you like you were a breeder and when you did find the women, if you were a Nakivak they looked at you like you were a whore. A friend that did neither would be really really nice. Kavala studied Calla and wondered if such a friendship were possible. She also wondered if more Nakivak gathered together, supported each other, and how come she didn't know if such a thing did happen. Maybe she could spearhead such a group where they all went out for a meal or gathered once a ten-day and just enjoyed each other's company. The idea seemed ripe... as if someone needed to do it. Kavala thought perhaps she might if given half a chance.

Kavala sighed deeply smiled and then nodded. "You love your little facts and riddles don't you? I had a brother like you, one long disappeared, that was so keen to know everything in the world and housed bits of knowledge in his brain like a packrat hid seeds in his cheek pouches. I miss him being around." She said, smiling then, holding the knowledge that Bolden might still be alive out there close to her heart.

Kavala thought about Calla's question when she asked her and didn't respond for a while. The Konti felt no need to hurry an answer. Some things were really enjoyed just thinking about them. She laughed lightly and then looked at Calla and said..."Would a blind dog really walk in the forest? Or would he or she walk in darkness? But that seems too easy. Regardless of what you perceive, the reality of your situation is still the reality. So if I take it at face value and say hes really walking into a forest..." Kavala paused there, thought a while longer, and nodded. "... the dog would only walk IN halfway because after he or she crossed the center of the woods, they'd be walking out then... changing direction... in verses out. Like your here verses there example." Kavala laughed then, delighted in Calla's whit. "I love your riddles. Which is your favorite of all time?" She asked, delighted.

[Cayenne]

“I do,” Calla admitted. “I love them. I find them refreshing,” she reached and tucked a lock of Kavala’s hair behind her ear. “They can help people learn in a fun and different way, they can bring a touch of amusement to a hard day, they can make people laugh or groan and just lighten the atmosphere. They make wonderful distractions,” she smiled wistfully, remembering. “My mother, Goddess love her, was terrible at medicine, and I and my sister were, well, very enthusiastic children...putting it mildly... always getting into scrapes. But she could make the hurt go away by distracting us with a riddle or a pun or a joke, to take our minds off of whatever we had gotten ourselves into that time while she either applied a salve or one of my cousins came who had been blessed by Rak’keli,” she smiled a bit.

She didn’t rush her or push her to hasten her answer. Calla was perfectly content to just sit with her and let her think it over and work it out. To her, that was part of the fun - letting someone work out one of her teasing riddles. Sometimes they got frustrated and gave up too fast and too soon, never realizing that if they had only stuck it out, they likely would have found the answer in front of them... just as her new friend was now. She slipped her hand inside of Kavala’s, linking their fingers and squeezing gently. Calla’s smile became an impish grin as the young Nakivak worked it out aloud successfully. “Logic doesn’t have to be a cold and emotionless thing, now, does it? Well spotted,” her grip tightened as she squeezed encouragingly.

“My favourite?” Calla paused to think about it for a moment, looking thoughtful. She brightened, then, and pursed her lips and made a face that almost resembled a fish as she sucked in her cheeks and crossed her eyes before smiling normally. “I know a number of them, but this one is one of the ones that I like the best. Ready?” she squeezed Kavala’s hand again before releasing it, and stroking lightly along the lines of her palm with her thumb. “A man is walking outside, and all of a sudden, rain begins to pour from the sky. Before long, his clothes are soaked completely through. But not one hair on his head got wet. How is this possible?”

[Kavala]

Kavala thought about Calla's question and frowned. "It doesn't seem possible that he could escape any hair on his head getting wet. It doesn't make sense, because if he had an umbrella most of him wouldn't be soaking wet anyhow. And if he was wearing a hat, you said all his clothing was soaked through meaning so too would his hair." Kavala pondered on it more, thinking aloud. She frowned, glanced around as if seeking some outside source, then frowned again. "I am not sure, Calla, honestly. It has to be a trick, like maybe the man is bald because I'm completely missing figuring out how his hair could remain dry." Kavala said, flushing slightly, as if embarrassed.

She smiled sheepishly, waited for Calla's response, and then nodded. "You know, my mother was a great herbalist. I just lost her young. I would have really benefited from having her longer, I think, rather than being raised by drykas women who knew nothing of Konti culture. I liked my father's other wives. They were kind women and strong women, but they weren't the same as my own mother." Kavala said, smiling at Calla's explanation about her mother trying to use riddles and puns to tame willful children.

"I want any children I have to be willful, not necessarily meek or mild. I want the girls to be strong and the boys to be brave. I've always been to subdued. It got me really hurt. Now I'm different. Now it won't happen again, or at least not in the same way." Kavala said, firmly believing that.

Kavala looked thoughtful and decided she'd ply a riddle for her new friend as well. After long careful thought, she finally spoke quietly and slowly, as if afraid to get it wrong. "I have one for you." She said softly, then carefully constructed it in her mind then asked it. "I initiate sorrow, and end sickness. You cannot form happiness without me, yet I am in the midst of roses. I am always present within risk, yet I am never really in danger. You may find me in the sun, but I am never not in darkness. What am I?" She asked, grinning.