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[Tsaba]

61st Summer, 513 Tsaba carefully ran the fingertips of her right hand over her flesh, checking for wounds by touch. She held her paralysed little finger up as she worked, where it wouldn't get in her way. Her fingers paused on her collarbone. Embalming incision. Still closed, but a few stitches have swollen. Probably due to Zeltivan weather. She moved them down her thighs one at a time, pausing and noting each cut and nick in her skin. Falling injury. Minor tear from running into a table. Loose nail. Her back fared better, but for the long, shallow tear in her skin she'd acquired when her body didn't agree with the Zeltivan heat. Her arms were probably the worst for wear, although inconveniently paralysed finger aside, the only really concerning injury was the hole in her right arm where she'd tried a horribly dangerous body preservation experiment (which had resoundly failed). The hole had never really closed properly, and a single tight stitch and a layer of bandage kept her ichor from oozing out of it when she moved too vigorously. As for her face... well, she always took care to preserve her face. But there was nothing that she could really do about the split in her lip that had appeared that morning. Tsaba sighed and got dressed. There was nothing for it. She'd put it off for far too long, and it was only going to get harder if she kept waiting. It was time to find a new body. The question was, how? Were bodies even for sale in Zeltiva? These were questions that she really should've thought about in advance. Castor. Castor would know. Or know somebody who would. Before she could change her mind, Tsaba headed for Castor's room and knocked on the door, hoping fervently that he was in.

[Castor Riley]

A distant hammering brought Castor groggily out of a deep sleep. He got up, completely disoriented. What time was it? Was he supposed to be awake? And who on Mizahar was making that infernal noise? The fog in his brain cleared just enough that he realised that the sound was a knock. He hadn't had many visitors over the course of the Summer (or over Spring, for that matter), and a feeling of curiosity seeped through his sleepy mind. He took a few unbalanced steps towards his dorm room's door, his legs not yet prepared for movement. He finally managed to get to it, unlocking and opening it widely. Tsaba was who he found standing there. Seeing the familiar face brought joy to Castor, though he felt that there was something off about the Nuit that day. She had a split lip, but he hardly imagined she'd got into a drunken fistfight. "Hey Tsaba, is everything alright? What brings you to my humble abode?" He said with a tired smile by way of greeting her. He waited for her answer, while his brain, still not completely awake, continued to ignore the nakedness of his body. Since the heatwave had rolled into Zeltiva, it had become impossible for Castor to sleep in anything more than his underwear without suffering horribly. Even like that his body became covered in a sheen of sweat. If only his mind had woken up a bit more, he might have avoided this embarassing visitor reception faux pas. Instead, he stood there, the concern on his face and in his voice ridiculously juxtaposed with his attire of a simple loincloth (which thankfully hid the most sensitive parts of his anatomy), as yet oblivious to his embarassing state of undress.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba paced while waiting for Castor to answer the door. Perhaps he wasn't in? What if he wasn't? Who else could she go to? Ignotus would be most likely to know how to help but he wasn't... well, there was something about him that she didn't really trust. He might be the 'let's go kill a guy to solve this problem' kind of person, and she didn't want to deal with that. Dr Marin... she was smart and capable, but would've had much more important things to do with her time than help some student who couldn't keep her own affairs in order. A couple of the healers she'd met were nice enough, but asking them to go looking for bodies with her might be a little bit more than she could reasonably ask of them, given their relationship. That was true of Castor, too, but... well, she trusted him more. And he had an academic curiosity that she could connect with intellectually. He would probably help her. If she could find him. If not... well, she wasn't sure what to do. But eventually, he answered the door. He looked tired, and hot, and she felt a little guilty for disturbing him. Was he sick? Or had he just been sleeping? He greeted her, and she remembered to smile. "Hi, Castor. It's been awhile. We should catch up more often." She glanced about, running one hand through her tattered hair. Nuit hair didn't grow, so that was just one more thing that was becoming increasingly raggedy. "I, uh, I have a slight problem. Actually. I thought you might know how to help, being Zeltivan and all, but... well, this is kind of awkward." She brandished one hand, avoiding eye contact. "I need a body. This one is starting to wear out. You wouldn't happen to know, well, how to get one, would you?"

[Castor Riley]

The last vestiges of sleep were swiftly driven away from Castor's mind by Tsaba's request. His eyes went wide as saucers when he heard it. "A..!" he began loudly, before reconsidering, and gesturing her quickly inside the room, feeling like a criminal. "A body?" he whispered urgently. He took this new information into consideration and looked Tsaba over once again. She didn't seem like she was in urgent need of a new body. She had a little split lip, yes, and there was that paralysed finger, but no one really needs to use their pinky, do they? He alsmost started giggling madly at this thought. "Come in, come in!" he whispered urgently, suppressing his nervous laughter.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba followed him back into the room, a little awkwardly. Yeah, she'd upset him. She'd definitely upset him. But even if she allowed for the fact that some Pulsers might be put off by her constitution, his exaggerated-criminal-scandal actions seemed a little over the top. "I'm not asking you to go graverobbing with me," she said, a little put out. "I just thought that you might know where bodies could be acquired here. Being a local and all." She started pacing. "I'm used to Sahova, where this sort of thing isn't such a chore, but Zeltiva as a whole seems to be frustratingly low on fresh corpses." She paused to consider that sentence. "Well, you know what I meant. Would an undertaker sell me one, do you think? I'm not... I'm not entirely certain on how Zeltivan property laws relate to corpses. And obviously I'd prefer not to run into some poor grieving family while wearing their loved one's face, so an out-of-town body would be better, but I don't think finding one of those is very likely. I want to get one as quickly as possible because Dr Marin's stepped up the class schedule somewhat and I'd like to be as recovered as possible before glyphing with her again. She ran one hand through her hair distractedly. Talking so much was making her breathe, and so much breathing was making her feel nervous. "Anyway. Any advice? Where does one get a body in Zeltiva?" She was half-tempted to simply write to Craun for advice. But the time it would take for a reply to return from Sahova was too long. Her situation could be quite critical by then.

[Castor Riley]

The Nuit being inside his simple dorm room and thus (slightly) less audible from without, Castor began to calm down a bit and think about the situation a bit more rationally. His intellectual curiosity was also peaked; might he not actually witness the body-changing ritual while helping his friend out? Had Tsaba managed to establish a relationship between the runes used in that ritual and the glyphs they'd both been studying? But Castor put these questions out of mind - they were for a calmer time. Also, he realised with a rising blush of embarassment, one when he was adequately dressed. "I'm so sorry..." He stammered out and stopped. He didn't know if he should be thankful or peeved at the Nuit's lack of a reaction to his state of undress. He jumped one-leggedly around the room as he got his pants on. "I'm not actually a local, you know. I've only been here about a season more than you..." he mumbled, getting his shirt on, the blush still quite visible on his face and chest. She didn't seem to have heard him, or else it didn't matter, as she began to go through her options and reasoning. Finally focusing on the Nuit's problem, Castor saw that it was a very tricky one to handle. One would expect that a city such as Zeltiva -- whose university must surely count at least a few Nuit amongst its students if not its staff -- would have provided for the eventuality his friend now faced. However, this did not appear to be the case. He supposed theirs wasn't an issue that humans really concerned themselves with. He gathered that it was no wonder Nuit got such bad reputations-- if the infrastructure for their needs to be met isn't in evidence, they are by necessity forced to graverobbing, or taking on the face of a recently dead local. Castor suddenly came to the realisation that he'd been staring at Tsaba dumbly for a few chimes as he'd been thinking all this. What's more, she seemed to be expecting some answer. "Uhmmm, I don't really know how I can help. We could look around for an undertaker shady enough to sell us a fresh corpse, I suppose... don't know how well that would turn out... And I'm pretty sure that the only way to get an out-of-towner's fresh corpse, would be if we made it and I'll just go ahead and say that that's not happening." He let out a breath of frustration. "Zeltiva isn't like Sahova, fresh corpses aren't really on its list of imported goods." He said absent-mindedly, scouring his brain for what other options there might be.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba froze, and spun to face Castor. "You've hit it! That's perfect! Corpses are on the list of imported goods!" She smiled; practice was paying off, and such things were becoming properly ingrained habits. "All the common boats that ship to Sahova come through Zeltiva. That's why I ended up here in the first place. So all our goods come through here, as well. Now, this isn't perfectly timed in terms of the shipping schedule, assuming the schedule I looked up to get to Zeltiva is still accurate; but bodies are heavy and difficult to transport en masse overland without golems. They must be stockpiled somewhere. Stored. In a dock warehouse, I suspect." She began counting off the things she'd need on her fingers, absent-mindedly listing them aloud. "I need a shovel. My stock of embalming salts are probably sufficient. Transport for... I can use that hip bath that came with the room, I guess... new clothing if the body is a different size. Linen. And the body, of course." Only then did she remember that Castor was there. She met his eyes. "If you want me to, I'll leave now and not disturb you on this matter further." She grinned. "But you like learning new things, so how'd you like to help me steal a body?"

[Castor Riley]

Castor stared at Tsaba, an expression of surprise and a confused smile on his face "I... I did?". Tsaba's explanation quickly resolved his confusion. "Ah, I see, of course!" he said, beaming a smile back at the Nuit. "I suppose the question now is where these bodies are stored..." Castor muttered, bringing up a hazy mental picture of the docks in his mind. He'd never really paid much attention to them, as he had only passed them by on a couple of morning runs, and it had been a while since he'd done even that. He did feel that he should have more actively explored the city. You obviously never knew when the location of a corpse storage warehouse would become crucially important. Castor sat down on his bed to get his shoes on while Tsaba started making a list of everything she'd need for the ritual. When she turned back to him, her sunken eyes meeting his, she offered him an out before making him her outrageous offer. Castor could have laughed, as his excitement at the peculiar adventure that lay before him swiftly drowned out his nervousness. He walked over to the door and held it open "Midnight is the best time to visit the docks, wouldn't you say?" He smirked.

[Tsaba]

Tsaba smiled again, a little taken aback at how relieved Castor's agreement made her. She would hate to be working alone. "Let's meet a bit before midnight, then. Say, at the Kelp Bar?" Tsaba had a lot to prepare before then, and quickly got to work. First, she went to the market and bought everything that she needed. She didn't know what size clothing to get, but everything else was fairly straightforward. The big problem was waiting for her at the docks. The big problem was finding the bodies. Bodies were a very common export to Sahova, so they probably had their own permanent warehouse. But then, a lot of goods moved through Zeltiva. It was, after all, a trade city. Tsaba had no legitimate reason to go poking through warehouses, which meant that she had to identify something the couldn't see, through a solid wall. It just so happened that she had the perfect skill set for that. She headed for the docks, and quickly found the warehouses. Leaning against the wall of one, acting like she had every right to bee threre and hoping that she didn't look too odd, Tsaba began to chant very quietly under her breath. "Djaspond dalat. Irst Radjudt. Abase pechit pond. Caposirst, daeqirst... radjudt!" She pulled djed into her sight. The warehouse she was leaning against had lumpy sacks of something behind the wall. She didn't waste energy identifying them further. The next that she wandered over to and casually leaned against had crates, but they weren't human-sized. She had a closer look anyway; they contained small, pulpy spheres, probably fruit of some kind. The third one, though, contained long, rectangular boxes. Tsaba closed her eyes to block out unnecessary distractions, and focused. Inside the boxes... dead meat. Human meat. Perfect. Trying not to look suspicious, Tsaba mentally noted the warehouse's location, and went on her way. She didn't want to be late meeting Castor. BoughtShovel (2GM); sewing needle (5SM); 2 yards linen (8GM) = 10.5GM

[Castor Riley]

After the time and place of their meeting was set, Tsaba quickly left to begin whatever preparations were necessary. Or, at least, that was what Castor assumed as he watched the Nuit's back as she walked down the hall back to the darkness outside. 'So much for having an early night...' he thought to himself, chuckling. Castor had little to do as he waited. He thought about taking his dagger with him, more as a tool than a weapon; he wouldn't want to hurt somebody with it (and, truth be told, he was more likely to hurt himself), but it might be useful as a lever, or there could even be some knots to cut through! The contradiction between his childish excitement and the gravity of what he was getting himself involved with was becoming apparent, even to himself, so he made a conscious effort to restrain himself a bit, as he made his way to the Kelp Bar. He considered going inside to wait, but he had no desire to get drunk, or to taste the foul concoction so needlessly. He tried not to think about all the ways the endeavour could go wrong, as he waited just outside the ring of light shone by the bar's door. The inebriated laughter of the sailors was beginning to fill the air, as even they began to lose the battle with the stuff's high alcohol content. He peered into the darkness around him; was that just a shadow or Tsaba that he thought he could see moving over there? "Or something else" he mumbled, shivering despite the summer heat and despite recognising the absurdity of the statement. This summer night was bound to be very interesting indeed.