Completed [Lakeshore] Escaping The Noise

[Kit Rowan]

"That does sound a little odd," Kit said, nodding her head in agreement. "If I were you, I'd ask around some people who weren't quite so invested in keeping you on good terms with your master. See if anything crops up."

Kit settled down into a squat by the dying ruins of Kaie's fire, felt some twisted little amusement inside her turn up its lips in a smile as Kaie struggled to give it life with all the futility of a healer trying to undo Dira's work. She ran a hand over her face, tried to keep it smooth and neutral. For the most part, she succeeded.

Again she needed something to distract herself, and this time Kaie was happy to provide. "Ebonstryfe," Kit rolled the word up and down her tongue. "Ebonstryfe, Ebonstryfe . . . Well, I don't know what 'they' say about them, but I'll tell you what they are. They're loved. Citizens kiss the ground wherever they pass and usually? It's not out of fear, or not all fear."

"Oh yeah, they're the sworn protectors of Ravok!" Now the corner of her mouth did turn upward, her eyes did roll. And as long as you haven't done anything in particular to upset them where no one else is watching. And as long as you don't give them an excuse. If you listen to a Ravokian, there ain't a safer place to be anywhere in the four corners of the world because of them. But a Ravokian's been taught to mind their own gods-damned business, keep their eyes down and never extend their worries quite far enough to reach their neighbor when the Ebonstryfe ravage their home and find an excuse later."

"Except, if you're not a citizen, if you haven't bowed your head to their god before all others, they don't even gotta keep up the pretense." She leaned forward, trying to get a better look at how Kaie was trying, and failing, to ignite a spark. "They'll do what they like to you, and they don't even gotta be discrete. There isn't a citizen in the city who won't think someone without papers didn't have it coming, whatever it is." She scowled at the fire. "No, I'm not a fan. Safest thing is to stay as far away from them as possible."

Ah, she was in a mood now. "Firewood, right? Right." Kit pressed her hands against the ground and pushed herself out of a squat, knuckled at her back and walked off. She took them up with both hands, one piece, two pieces, three . . . She was not big, quite the opposite, and already Kit felt her knees begin to buckle under the weight of three big logs. Kit huffed, straining as she walked slowly deliberately back to the fire before kneeling down and rolling her load out next to the firepit. She huffed and ran a hand across her forehead, smearing a little dirt over it as she sought to wave her sweat away.

[Vanari]

Vanari listened as she hoisted an armload of wood with a grunt. She was never one to pass up an opportunity to glean more information from Ria's sudden, passionate bouts of chattiness, ever curious of what went on in that heavily shielded head of hers.

The more the illusionist rattled off reasons to despise and fear the Stryfe, the more Vanari found herself appreciating the fact that she'd never managed to catch the attention of those bloodthirsty, black armored goons. Not, of course, that she didn't possess this gratitude before, but every once in a while a moment like this would remind her vividly of that night she and Ria had met, and a fresh layer of terror and revulsion would be painted over her formerly fading paranoia.

At Ria's last piece of advice against the Stryfe, Vanari let out a slow breath as she set down her burdens. "I whole heartedly second that. I know you've been in your fair share of bloodbaths, Kaie, but the Stryfe..."

She shuddered, and pushed away the unbidden memories. "Like Ria said, stay away. Safest thing."

With her arms now free, the Vantha planted her fists on her hips and looked at their sizable pile of wood lying next to Kaie's renewed attempt at a fire. It looked enough, for now, but maybe one or two more pieces wouldn't hurt. She was just about to turn back around, when she noticed a smear of dirt across Ria's forehead. Pinching a section of her cloak, she dabbed a small end of the fabric on her tongue and rubbed it gently at the smudge. It disappeared without a fuss, and she grinned before moving back to the pile of firewood.

A few ticks later, she was back with her companions. Plop, plop. There, that should be enough.

"I know they aren't the most pleasant of subjects," she sighed, her thoughts still hung about Ria's earlier words, "but if it hadn't been for the Stryfe, I probably would have never ended up in this twisted city."

Vanari sniffed irritably at having dredged up memories she'd rather leave forgotten, then looked in amusement at Kaie's ongoing efforts to get the fire started. Remembering the Myrian mentioning something about a wire for the new snare, she asked, "Would you need more sticks for this wire trap of yours? Since I...well, broke your other ones. Perhaps we can be your dutiful stick hunters while you work?"

The Vantha snatched up a random twig from the dirt with great gusto and saluted Kaie in the most ridiculous fashion she could muster. "Novice Stick Hunters, at your service!"

[Kaie]

My master...?

That was certainly not a term the woman wanted implied. Master made it sound like she was a slave. Without freedom or choice, and she'd be damned before she let that fate befall her. It immediately darkened her mood, but before she had much time to linger on the subject let alone voice it, Ria got going about the Ebonstryfe.

The Myrian woman couldn't help the grin that turned up one corner of her lips. Ria's views on Stryfe matters were pretty obvious, and she didn't seem to care at all about hiding them. To Kaie, Ria described them in a way that reminded the woman of the Syliras Knighthood. Quite a comparison, she knew, but similarities were there. Both were factions taking orders from a God (or a dead one substituted by a magic tree), doing what was necessary to achieve the ideal society in their cities. While the knights seemed far more benevolent, even by Kaie's standards, the Stryfe were the darker entity. Syliras was a city of peace and Ravok was a city of chaos. Polar opposites. Still they were places with "guardians" prepared to walk fine lines to protect their way of life.

"Firewood. Yes," She replied from her position, giving up on rekindling what hardly existed. While she waited for the wood to be brought, Kaie looped her backpack from her shoulders. Sitting it neatly at her side, she opened a small flap and retrieved her trusted flint and steel. Listening to Vanari's advice made the savage woman's grin widen. A small laugh slipped through her lips and she shook her head slowly, looking down at her tools."Trust me, I don't have any desire to approach the Stryfe or their little chaos haven. I can promise you that."

When the firewood had been generously brought, Kaie began working to create the new blaze. She took two solid pieces first and leaned them up against one another. They wobbled and seemed unsteady at first, but by the time she had added a few more, the weight was pretty evenly distributed. The result was a standing pyramid of firewood with spaces between each piece for air flow. To top it off, Kaie took the tinder beside her and carefully wedged it into the middle. Only when she was finished did the flint and steel make their appearances.

"I'd love to put a pair of Stick Hunters to work, but we won't be needing any of that. Squirrel pole would be best out here. I'll need only wire," Kaie explained, leaning over her creation and clicking one tool against the other. Sparks flew toward the construction but no flames arose. Not yet anyways."It's not too hard. I'll need at least three wire loops for the snare anyways if you'd like to do that. Just a nice circle up top for their necks and some wire hanging down to attach to a branch," She offered, quitting what she was doing to reach a free hand into her pack. After some shifting of materials, she tore out three small lengths of wire and placed it off to the side. Then the clicking restarted, sparks flying, until finally the leaves in the center caught. With just a little bit of air, Kaie managed to get the fire going once more.

"So what happened to you after Pavi Lake?" She inquired, no longer able to put her curiosity to bed. Her eyes flickered up at Vanari for only a moment to make it clear who she was addressing. Meanwhile, she turned from the fire to take a length of wire. Rather than working at the incredible speed her uncle once had when making such traps, Kaie's fingers were slow and methodical. It was a pretty easy task in comparison to some of the snares she'd seen. This wouldn't take half as long as a tiger trap. All she had to do was take one end, curl it into a circle, and wrap it to the main length. In fact, she had made a mediocre loop at least thrice before she settled on binding it. There was no real need for her to hurry, she supposed.

[Vanari]

Intrigued, Vanari picked up a length of wire and followed the Myrian's lead, bending one end into some semblance of a circle and wrapping it to the main length. It was a rather calming task, and her carver's hands were used to such labor. Pretty soon, the Vantha found her mind wandering around and around Kaie's question, not unlike the wire loops between her calloused fingers.

"Well, what happened right after Pavi was uneventful," she shrugged. "We said our goodbyes, parted ways, and I was settling into the idea of being in town for a while, earning my living for the season by being bossed around sun up till sun down. I didn't mind, though, especially not after having found Ardea..."

Vanari looked up, realizing Ria would have no idea whom she was referring to. "...who was a Kelvic tigress, and an old traveling companion of mine. After we rescued that wee Pycon with Kaie and a couple others, she sort of...slinked off into the night to Morwen knows where. And it wasn't long after that when that mad man showed up."

She paused, catching her breath at a vivid memory of the bedraggled stranger. Things were fuzzy whenever she tried to remember everything that happened that night, but not him. His wild eyes and gaunt cheeks remained seared in her mind, as clear as the flames now licking up along the wood.

"Leth was fat and white that night, I remember," she continued, her voice a smidge wispier as she swam through a haze of jumbled memories. "I was pouring out the last of the day's dishwater, worn to the bone and more eager than ever to get it all over with so I could sink into a soft bed. It'd only been a day or two after our escapade up in Cobalt, but the cook would have none of my silly excuses. It took me all day to finish my chores, and I was in a right foul mood when this crazy-eyed beggar stepped right into my bucket."

"Except, of course, he was no beggar, and clearly had more than a few loose screws in his head. I remember his eyes--they were wide and shifty like a rabbit's, almost frightened enough to make you feel a sliver of pity, if you didn't notice the madness swimming around in them as well. Gods, how he babbled. He went on forever, right there in the middle of the petching street at whatever ungodly hour it was, rambling on and on to me about men in black armor chasing him, chasing him all the ways from Ravok, I tells ya!"

The Vantha adapted some of the man's half-crazed accent, rolling her eyes around a bit for added effect. "Theys be followin' me, I swears! You know why, lass? Hmm?"

Vanari blew an errant curl away from her face as she wiggled the finished piece of wire, remembering all too well how exasperated she felt at the time. "Well, like I said, I was bone weary and hadn't the energy to be properly afraid for my life, let alone start an argument with this loon. So I said, no, I haven't the faintest idea. Why don't you tell me, old pal?"

"Cause o' this!!" she hissed feverishly as she jumped up, holding out the wire in front of her to bear her forearm. "You know what this is, lass? Hmm?"

Vanari then adopted a completely different stance, one of shock and downright maniacal fascination. "He was one of The Trickster's chosen! All my years of searching, and my first real clue comes stumbling right up to me, batty as they come. I was so excited I grabbed his grimy arm and--"

She hesitated for a tick. Ria had, in her usual secretive manner, not divulged what she had truly drawn in the air earlier. Perhaps, she decided, it would be best not to raise any more sticky questions, for her sake. "--and that's when he panicked and bolted. I saw and heard nothing, so I ran after him as best I could but...well, he was what he was, and vanished like a fart in the wind before I say another word."

She sighed, plopping down beside the fire before adding, "I did find him in the morning though. Hanging by the neck, apparently wanted for some crime or other. Just my luck. So I got myself a horse and left for Ravok. Simple as that. Maybe he passed me along some of his crazy."

Vanari pointed the loopy wire at Ria, a squinty look of mischief in her eye. "Now, I believe it's your turn."

[Kit Rowan]

Kit scarce had time to guess what Vanari was doing until the Vantha reached up and started rubbing at Kit's forehead. Her fingers skittered in panic for a moment and Kit barely managed to conjure a glamour of unflustered cheeks before she felt them blossom red, though she could not contain the startlement from her face . . . nor the surge of affection that came after.. "Thank you," she said, giving Ari a warm smile, and though . How much about what lay between the two of them was to be a secret? Granted, they had kissed in the middle of a bar, but they had both been drunk, and there was no one watcing worth caring about. Ari knew this Kaie. Would she mind being exposed in front of people that she knew?

It was a question for later, when the two of them were alone. Until then, Ari's story had just started. Kit listened carefull, attentive. What a strange turn of the fates, to bring Vanari to Ravok of all places in search of Ionu. It was a small miracle that she had not heard of Alvadas while she was in Syliras. But luck had brought the Vantha here, to Kit. She tilted her ehad to the side and bit her lip as Ari closed the story, turned to Kit with those playful green eyes of hers. Kit shook the nerves from herself, raising an eyebrow and offered a sly little smile. "You know, I don't think I remember promising anyone a story."

Kit turned to Kaie's makeshift fire, looked up at the Myrian while she went about her work of making it spark alive. Kit clutched her hands together, wrung them out. One tick, two tick, three tick . . . "I guess I could tell you why I left home," she said. Kit closed her eyes, smoothed her mouth into a line, leaned back and tried to find a good rhythm.

"My father was always moving, here and there, there and here." Kit drew lines in the dust with a stick. She imagined how she could make the outlines of the continents flash to light with her illusionism, but did not. "Mostly, he left me alone. I never knew where he came from. It wasn't until he was too old to go on that he finally stayed where he was, with me. I knew him better than I ever did, then, but I still didn't know him very well."

Kit tossed her stick onto the top of the fire pit. Another measured silence. Five ticks now. "He died sick, and slowly. But when he did, before they could clean out his things and sell them, I took a book from his things. It wasn't a special book, it wasn't an important book, but someone had written between the margins. He had written between the margins, in words I could never read."

"But someone had to be able to. I left home to find them. Then some asshole ransacked our camp, took my book and took to Ravok to do gods know what." Kit cracked her knuckles, breathed out. "I've got two reasons to be here," she said. "The first is to find that book, if it's still here. And the last is to get out."

[Kaie]

An action so simplistic was oddly loud in its silence. As Vanari swiped the dirt from her friend's forehead, Kaie couldn't help but notice the redness across Ria's cheeks. In the grand scheme of things she overlooked it though, brushing it off as a friendly action. There was no reason to speculate or read into anything. Besides, with Vanari rushing off into a strange tale explaining her travel, there wasn't any time to. In fact Kaie had trouble focusing on her own work when the Vantha went right to her absurd impersonation. There was no hiding her entertainment there.

The Myrian woman shook her head, laughing with a far less restrained smile. It seemed the more time she spent with her old friend and new acquaintance, the less apprehensive she was. Now that wasn't to say she trusted in the safety of her situation. Such a thing hardly existed for her in or out of the jungle. However, perhaps she was warming up a little. Then again she could've just been quietly overjoyed in the fact she finally got the petching fire going.

"You two were practically joined at the hip. I was waiting for her to come charging from the forest after you when I first saw you," She added in jest, eyes dancing with mischievous intention. "Crazy little adventure you had. Funny you picked Ravok though," She shrugged, then turning toward Ria who apparently owed them all a story. It wasn't hard to see the woman wasn't all for sharing of history. At least she was a good sport about it.

During the few moments of silence, Kaie took the liberty of starting another loop for her snare. As she worked on manipulating the track piece, Kaie's eyes flickered from her task to the speaker. Meanwhile her mind raced along with the story, trying to connect cities with stories she'd heard. At the same time she was doing her best not to relate to Ria, too. The whole thing with her father was more than Kaie wanted to imagine. She didn't even want to bring herself to understand the relationship. She couldn't. The Myrian woman had fortified such a solid fortress around that area of her brain, working from the ground up. There was no chance it would crack with some twisted empathy and topple now. Everything needed to be seen objectively and detached. And that's exactly how she allowed the story to settle in her brain. Facts to be connected with the history of a face.

"Sounds like you've come a long way. I hope whatever those words on the pages mean, it's worthwhile," Kaie offered, finally binding a loop and finishing the final piece to her snare. She couldn't help but almost wish for the poor woman's benefit that the words really did have a meaning. How terrible would it have been for her to travel so far, go through so much trouble, only to find a message of insignificance. She knew how it could be, to sacrifice energy and still lose. How many days had she sat in that bar, trying to prove to herself coming to Syliras was somehow worth her hardship?

[Vanari]

At Kaie's jest, the Vantha gave a sheepish grin, though she cast her eyes down as tawny hues pooled into an inky sort of indigo. Remembering the Kelvic was still a bit painful, since they had parted ways not a day after having found one another again. Truthfully, Vanari felt a stab of guilt as well, having run off without so much as single shred of determined effort to at least say goodbye to her old friend. But, what was done was done. There was no going back.

To her surprise, Ria indulged her request and began weaving a fascinating tale of her perpetually mysterious and intriguing past. Vanari listened with rapt attention, her eyes gleaming gold as she absorbed the rare nuggets of information her friend chose to divulge.

At the mention of a book, the Vantha's mind whirled into action. Ria wanted to leave, but she needed to find this book. Therefore, the sooner she found it, then perhaps the sooner they could leave...

And that meant the sooner she could know how Ria got her mark.

Gods be good, a single, unknown book had never become so instantly vital to her in her entire life.

Her eyes, now a merry sort of tangerine, shifted over to the Myrian once Ria had finished with her tale. It was hard to contain her excitement with this newfound knowledge, but she knew it would be better to wait to ask questions. After all, it had been surprising enough that the illusionist had said as much as she had in the first place.

Vanari waggled her eyebrows at Kaie, who seemed a little more at ease with the fire going and stories shared.

"Two tales down, one to go."

[Kaie]

Kaie had gotten up shortly after the end of Ria's story to stroll on over to one of nearby trees, withdrawing her gladius as she walked. Immediately she looked up at one of the low hanging branches and hacked thrice at it with her sword. The Myrian woman cleaved at the branch several quick times before the voiced reached her ears. The branch swayed under the strikes, its flesh peeled back murderously to expose deep gashes in its pale flesh beneath. Kaie stopped mid swing and registered words.

Two down one to ...Oh.

She kept her back to the two for a moment, brow furrowed in thought. The savage woman did not answer right away. Instead she jumped up and grasped a neighboring branch. Once she had pulled herself up to balance upon it, she brought one foot down onto the former. Her heel crashed down onto the fraying wood in two downward strikes. One of her hands braced itself on the tree trunk to keep her from falling over. The branch of interest cracked under the force, widening the crack to a halfway point.

"Well," She began just as she lowered herself forward to grasp the vulnerable branch. And once she did, she allowed her body weight to tear it from the tree. Kaie landed on the earth haphazardly, the branch coming down with her. It wasn't nearly as graceful as intended but she was a Myrian. A warrior. Not a lumberjack."After the lake, I went back to Syliras. The little Ethaefal...What's her name...Uh...Tessabelle! Yeah, that's it. She got me to throw a few punches with her in the Fighter's Pit, and then got myself a horse," She continued, dragging the branch back toward the pile of looped wire. She broke off a twig or two before she went back to her story. Perhaps it was a tinge of guilt that plagued her from saying his name. Then again it could've just been indifference. A simple detail in her story. Something she just had to do to survive.

"Jervis caught up with me. Forced me into bringing him along. We, uh, parted ways around Nyka. I couldn't get close to that city. You know, Uphis and all that," Kaie continued, practically spitting the demigod's name with absolute hate. A few more branches were broken. leaving the main a long and bare wooden pole."I found my way into a caravan. You wouldn't have liked them much, Vanari. But you do what you have to do. You know that. Anyways, I arrived not too long ago. A new employer's got me hanging out in a barn not too far from here," Kaie finished with a shrug, finally starting to attach the loops to the wooden pole. However she stopped suddenly as if an idea just struck her. Wide, brown eyes looked up at the two before her. Her expression was one of questioning and bewilderment all the same.

"Did you know there are men who can shoot fire from their hands?" Kaie asked, recalling her findings of a mysterious character she met in the woods. Now granted she planned on killing him, whether by her own hand or with the help of the murderers of the caravan she was with, but that didn't change what she had seen.

[Kit Rowan]

The more this kelvic, this Ardea was mentioned the more uneasy Kit felt about it, rubbing at her arms, curling her toes. Though doubtlessly Ari would find the thought abominable, Kit could not help but feel thankful that the kelvic had been waylaid somewhere along the line. It was an awful thought, and Kit did not like lingering on it.

Kaie's story was very bare-bones, and most of it was made up of names and references to other things, all unknown to Kit. It was a difficult picture for her to put together; there was a Pycon that they saved at a lake, with a kelvic. Ari found an illusionist. Kaie was joined and abandoned by someone named Jervis.

"A lot of things are being said," Kit murmured. "But I'm not understanding many of them. Who under the stars is this Uphis you hate so much?" It was a name she had never heard before. Perhaps he was some sort of civic leader, in the style of the Triad back home or the Voice in Ravok? "And what's he done to earn your ire?"

The mention of sorcery brought Kit into familiar ground. She had a good idea of what the warrior had seen . . . A reimancer could not shoot fire from their hands but it was easy to look back on what had happened without knowledge of res, or the rules and quirks of the sorcery and overlook that little detail. Kit's father had known two elements and one of them had been fire, though she had scarcely seen him use it except in demonstrations. "Yeah," Kit said, nodded her head. "I've seen that. Sorcery has so many sides, it's a pain trying to keep track of them all."

Kit clutched a hand into a fist, hiding the scar that marked her as an initiate into reimancy. Her mind told her not to worry; clearly Kaie did not understand well enough to connect the dots. But still her gut hissed warning.

[Vanari]

Vanari raised an eyebrow at Kaie's mention of fighting the Ethfael. Tessabelle didn't strike her as the fighting type; after all, the ethereal woman was reduced to a sobbing heap after the Myrian had held her hostage for a mere chime or two. Somehow, she got the feeling that getting Kaie to "throw a few punches" translated into something rather one sided and less reluctant that it initially sounded. Then came the tidbit about Jervis, and again the Vantha sensed something being held back. Ah well, a Myrian is a Myrian. Though Vanari fervently believed as a general rule in life that all knowledge was worth knowing, she conceded just this once that she was probably better off not knowing. When the story came to the subject of caravans, she couldn't help but grin a little. How she utterly loathed being stuck in one of those ghastly contraptions. It was cramped, it was rickety, and it smelled. All the time. Make no mistake, having people to talk to instead of her horse was a minor blessing on its own, and she made good use of her birthright as a storyteller. But, caravans were a cesspool of discomforts, and if it hadn't been for her desperation she would have preferred to walk on foot rather than spend one more night trying to position her bedroll so she wouldn't fall victim to any stray passing of wind. Most fascinating of all, however, was Kaie's unexpected question, and Ria's characteristically vague answer. Vanari watched as the illusionist balled her hand into a fist, a strange feeling tickling the back of her mind. She recalled how, on their first night of meeting, she felt the roughness of Ria's hands again and again, and had dismissed it each time as a trademark of a life of adversity. Now, she hesitated to adopt the same assumption. What was her clever little companion hiding this time? "Funny, how you think you've seen it all, and then someone shoots fire from his hands just to prove you wrong," the Vantha noted wryly, poking a stick into the fire in idle amusement. "Your sorcerer, what was he like? How did you come to find him throwing around fire? And this Uphis...what does it have to do with Nyka?" She slid another glance at Ria, keenly remembering their promise, and added yet another question to her ever-growing list of risky curiosities.