Closed Serendipity is a Healer (Alaia)

[Eselle]

Timestamp: 67th of Summer 514 AV
Early this morning in sight of the raising towers of Riverfall, Eselle had noticed Simon favoring his right front hoof. A cursory inspection told her the leg was hot but otherwise she didn’t know what to look for. As a result, she had bundled all of their belongings onto her back. The only object she too great for her to carry the remaining miles was the saddle. So Simon was forced to carry this and his blanket. Still the Konti felt it just that she support them through this leg as he had supported her thus far.

In Syna’s most prominent season the Konti sweltered under the weight of her traveling gear. Leading the limping Simon through the unfamiliar streets of Riverfall. There were no familiar faces here. While there had been an advert in the introductory scroll for a stable, Eselle knew none of the landmarks in the area. She had no way to find help but to begin asking.

She was beginning to grow frantically worried, Simon’s limp was only growing more pronounced as the day weathered. Still the konti tried to force her face into a smile as she approached the first friendly looking woman.

Syna had stripped Eselle of her white cloak and that was bundled within her travelign supplies. She wore black pants that held the tail of long roads and filled the weave with dust. Her boots, once white, showed not only dust but mud around the toes. It would be a long time scrubbing her clothing to get them clean if ever she did. Her blouse was a simple affair although it had been dyed with a powdery blue.

Her heavily accented in common gave away her Muran descent and the first woman sent her on down the road. Leading her gilding around the bulk of the people so he wasn’t further stressed the Konti tried to follow the directions. It proved too difficult with all the new sights, sounds, and smells for her to find the way at the intersection. She approached around woman this time. “I am sorry, please could you tell me where a stable is?”

Simon huffed over Eselle’s shoulder and the seer turned to comfort her friend with a pat on the cheek. She noticed now he wouldn’t even use the tip of his hoof, he was truly walking without putting any weight on his leg. Eselle spun back to the young woman she had asked, her scaled cheeks reflecting the midday sun. “Please, is it close?”

[Alaia]

.

Alaia’s day was calm though her mind was anything but. She had come to Riverfall a little over a year ago hoping for adventure from Mura and up until this summer her life had been pretty calm. Her life had exploded this season, everything was different and nothing was going to be the same ever again. She was completely sure of this and she wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. It was what she had wanted all along but after thirty-three years of the same old healing the injured in a clinic every day one was never prepared for adventure. Even with S’Essy over the years taking her on ‘adventures’ around Mura she still wasn’t prepared for the real world adventure.

With distance in her eyes she stared off not really seeing anything going on around her, her thoughts to consumed by what her life was changing for in the better and in the worse. The first words fell on deaf ears from the unknown Konti, it wasn’t until the plead did Alaia turn her eyes on the woman. For a moment she blinked and then she glanced towards the horse who was clearly trying to avoid stepping on one hoof. The woman’s heavy accent was clear and Alaia’s own accent would have been just as heavy but instead she spoke in Kontinese, happy to exercise her native tongue with a voice soft as distant bells. “Is everything okay?” Concern filled her words while she took a step forward.

Displaying empty hands it was more of a gesture that was meant to be welcoming to the woman. Giving her a glance over Alaia noted the clothing and the travel gear wondering how far the woman had been traveling. The desperation in her voice when she asked about the stables made Alaia speak in calm, settling tone next “I’m Alaia, Welcome to Riverfall.” She smiled then and glanced back at the horse before the Konti woman. “I can show you to the stables, yes. Perhaps you should rest for a moment though?” If she wasn’t stopped she would step closer and hold her hand out towards the horse, lower than its head and with her palm up so that the equine could take in her scent if he wished.

[Eselle]

Eselle was preparing to ask yet another stranger when a voice filtered through the day’s traffic. A voice in Kontinese. Relief flooded through her chest, at least the language barrier wouldn’t hinder their ability to find aid now. “I don’t think so,” Eselle answered in Kontinese, “He won’t put weight on his hoof. “

Alaia’s calming tone of voice seemed to get through to her, with a steadying breath she pressed on less frantically. “I am Eselle and this is Simon.” As Alaia moved closer to the horse, Eselle watched in quiet worry. Normally Simon was inquisitive and would already have approached her to get a good sniff. Instead, as a clear showing of his discomfort, he waited until Alaia was nearly beneath him before pushing his nose against her palm. After a snuffle he pulled his muzzle away,

Eselle tried to keep her tension concealed, she had seen no omens to precipitate this. The cards had mentioned nothing of Simon’s demise. Her faith in the unspoken symbols of world could not be shaken. Faith combined with Alaia’s helpful presence let her swallow her anxiety and turn to the problem at hand. “I don’t need a rest, we slept through the night. I just want to see his pain eased, he is too kind of a soul to suffer.” Kind may have been an overstatement, she had woken a number of times to her blanket peeled back by an impatient gilding. His curiosity had gotten the better of both of them on a handful of occasions. In the same turn her cautious nature had to be tempered by something, it might as well be her traveling companion.

Her attention flowing forward from the past, Eselle smiled at Alaia. There were two goddesses that favored the ladies of the white isle at birth. She felt no pulled towards the other Konti and so guessed she was no fellow seeress. Cobalt eyes traced the swirls on the side of other woman’s face. “Are you a healer, Alaia?” She asked delicately. Eselle wouldn’t ask the woman to heal Simon, there might be circumstances that would prohibit it that she was unaware of. Still, she had to try something.

The diaphanous webbing between her fingers stretched as she patted Simon’s neck in comfort. Usually the seer might be called serene, but in the years since leaving Mura Simon had been her only constant companion. To arrive in a new city, with new people and languages, without her closest confidant broiled the anxiety trying to push its way back to the surface. As Simon had followed her lead, his gait had grown increasingly pathetic. Reaching down his back and belly, the Konti unbuckled his saddle and hefted it onto her shoulder. Now appearing more a hermit with her life on her shoulders rather than an ethereal beauty which her race was known for, Eselle turned to Alaia ready to follow. Simon seemed slightly better for lightening of his load.

[Alaia]

The Kontinese that fell from the woman’s lips was so comforting Alaia couldn’t stop the pang of home-sickness. Mura wasn’t her home anymore but sometimes she missed her Konti sisters, the dips and accents on their words and the musical voices that accompanied them. She had Kavala at least but she wasn’t fluent in Kontinese. This woman’s skill at the language was clearly her mother tongue and it took the healer a moment to not ask as many questions as she could think of just to make her continue talking. There was something that nagged at Alaia about the woman’s voice; something familiar that went beyond the mother tongue but her attention to this familiarity was shattered when she was told the horse was hurt.

“Hello Simon.” Alaia cooed softly at the equine as he sniffed into her hand and she would then step closer when he pulled away, her motions were slow and meant to reach out and stroke his neck if he allowed. “Eselle.” She knew that name didn’t she? She thought she did, it was a name from deep in her past. “I am a healer.” She smiled peacefully, the darkness that was consuming her only moments before being pulled into the recesses of her mind so that she could properly care for the horse who didn’t yet know he was about to become her patient. “I can see what I can do for Simon here.” Her bright blue eyes returned to the horse as Eselle began disassembling his saddle to take some heft off him. The healer shifted her weight then and nodded to a grassy patch not too far off the path “I rather not walk him to the stables on a bad hoof. If I can’t fix what is wrong here without supplies then we can but will he let me look first?”

When the trio was settled in the softer grass Alaia would move towards Simon again, still she was only moving in to pet him. When her hands touched the powerful muscles of his neck she’d sigh a moment of relief, her gift didn’t work on animals and it was a blessing to touch flesh without the assault of images. Her shoulder muscles relaxed and she just talked for now letting Simon get used to her touch. “Eselle…” she spoke the name again, tasting the memory of it on her tongue. “…Eselle, do I know you?” She tilted her head and place a second hand on Simons neck petting him with a firm gentleness as she continued to use her bedside voice. “When were you in Mura?”

Soft sounds issued from her throat meant to be comforting to Simon as she shifted her weight down his body and ran hands along his side and back now, the last thing she wanted to do was startle him. A person she could talk to and tell to sit down and let her do her job, animals took more care then that. They pulled at her heart and truly made her aware of her body language so she wasn’t perceived as a threat before she healed them. “I feel like I know you.” Bright eyes swiveled to the other Konti and she offered her a smile and a content sigh “This might sound weird but you showing up was the distraction I needed.” Patting Simon’s side gently she turned her words to him, carefully lacing her voice with inflections of tranquility “Okay Simon, I’m going to look at your hoof now.”

Moving to the powerful leg she’d be working with she’d run her hands up and down it gently before looking to Eselle “Would you mind getting him to lift his hoof? He will be more comfortable with you doing it then me.” Once Eselle complied Alaia would kneel in the grass and take a look at his hoof, her eyes scanning the bottom there as she spoke so that both horse and owner knew what was happening as she discovered it. “It looks like he had a splinter that is creating an abscess …” Her voice trailed off and she hummed softly under her breath a song from her days on Mura, Eselle’s company bringing it to the forefront of her memory. “The splinter is gone, or whatever had created the sore but I can fix this easily.” She smiled up at the Konti “Then I will take you to the stables and Simon will be happy.”

The healer reached out and placed one hand on the underside of the hoof where the sore was bothering him, her eyes closed naturally of their own accord and she tugged at the strings of Rak’keli’s magic gratefully. The warmth of her healing ability spread through her veins slowly but effectively and it was like she could almost feel the inflamed hoof without seeing it. It was angry and pulsating with its pain but slowly she began correcting that, first chasing off the infection that was threatening to create war in the gilding’s hoof. From there she’d begin repairing the hoof from the depths of the wound until slowly the outside was stitched together and several chimes later she was pulling her hands away and looking up at Eselle with a smile. “He should be okay now, it might still be a little sore just because it was on the verge of being something bad but that should go in a day or so once his hoof stops being sensitive.”

[Eselle]

Eselle nodded, Alaia’s advice made since. As soon as they met with the grassy area the Konti began to set down the pack and saddle so she could better assist the healer. Running her webbed fingers along Simon’s neck and back, she drew a line all the way down to his ankle. She put a bit of tension there and pulled it back as the joint would naturally go, lifting the hoof up for Alaia to inspect.

Women of the white isles knowing one another was not uncommon. It was not such a large community that one Konti would never encounter another. Still Eselle had been a quiet child, aloof and observant. When the other girls had played with one another she had watched to see the ways the games worked and how to find the best ways to win. Most mornings when she was free from chores and lessons she spent with her elder sister’s old runestone set made from sea shells. Tossing them into the sand to see how they would land when she thought of different things.

As Alaia healed Simon, Eselle watched her carefully. Trying to find recognition within her features. There was something there for sure, in the lilt of her eyes and curve of her lips. Her features had matured but Eselle did know her once, although that felt more like intuition than real recollection. Alaia smiled and pulled away from Simon, he would be better now.

Lowering the geld’s hoof Eselle finally felt true relief for the first time this morning. Now that the crisis was over, she could appreciate the safety of the city of Riverfall. Here a Konti could walk free in the vestiges of her heritage. In Ravok she had been a hidden wretched thing, seeking but never finding her purpose there. Simon had been across the lake in the only stable. Overall it had not been a happy experience. “Thank you Alaia, I do not know how I can repay your gift but Simon and I will find a way to.” Her Kontinesse flowing like the waters of their Father. “I think perhaps you are right, we have met somewhere. Your face is like a silhouette of a memory I have forgotten. After we find Simon a safe and warm stall, would you please let me buy you lunch? It is the least I can do and we could discuss our histories.”

Eselle retrieved her burdens from the grass and piled them back upon her shoulders. She would follow wherever Alaia led to the stables. In truth she was beginning to sweat under the growing morning heat and her parcels and she would as soon be rid of them for the remainder of the day. “Is there a good place for tea and lunch here in Riverfall?”

[Alaia]

Alaia waved her hand softly in a dismissive gesture when Eselle said they’d find out how to repay her. “You owe me nothing.” She had to atone for her past wrongs and no amount of hoof healing would fix that in her mind. No matter if the act had been in self defense or not it was wrong. When Eselle asked about lunch Alaia bobbed her head in agreement, she wanted to go to Alements anyways because she felt comfortable there more than most places. “Let me help.” When Eselle handed over some of her items the smaller Konti would shift them until she was comfortable carrying them before she set off down the path to the stables.

“I’ll take you to Alements, it’s on the docks and they have some of the best teas and great wine.” Alaia let the next space of time stretch in silence, silence was easier to digest then words to someone you thought you knew but weren’t quite sure. The breeze from the sea washed up the path to greet them in a jubilant dance that blue Alaia’s blonde curls into her face before whipping them backwards towards the path once more. The salty brine of the sea made her nostrils flare and for a moment she closed her eyes to enjoy the sea, with her eyes closed her steps took a rather unexpected twist and she veered slowly to the side until she collided right into the other Konti. The crash wasn’t devastating but none the less bright eyes shot open and warmth graced her cheeks in embarrassment. Quickly Alaia adjusted what she was carrying and set her path straight again while murmuring an apology under her breath.

“The stable isn’t too far up.” She nodded in the distance, the hills and cliffs of the city making it hard to actually see how close they really were to the stables. Alaia swallowed past the dryness in her throat and offered Eselle a kind smile “How long have you been gone from Mura?” There was no sense in calling the island home, even speaking in their mother tongue Mura wasn’t home to the healer anymore – Riverfall was home. Riverfall would forever be home, she could feel it in her veins and so it would be a lie to give her childhood cage such an intimate title.

Alaia would give Eselle the time to answer as they crested over the hill and suddenly the pair seemed to walk right on top of the stables that were lying in wait for weary travelers and their steeds. “Here we are Simon.” She announced to the gilding with a smile over her shoulder as she bounced a shift of what she was carrying again so that she could gain a better grip on the luggage. “Let’s get him settled and then we can go enjoy Alements and all its grandeur.” Smiling she walked around to the front of the building to look for some help with setting up Simon and Eselle before the girls went off to enjoy the afternoon.

When she spotted a stable boy she smiled and switched to common though after the Konti her accent was even thicker then normal and her words stuttered with a harsh staccato "Hello. My friend here just arrived and her companion, Simon, has a sore hoof. Mostly it was already healed but please take care to make sure it is not irritated further." The boy nodded after a moment of digesting her accent and pattern of speech and then he stepped towards Eselle expectantly to help her with Simon.