Closed A One Way Trip for Two

[Edreina]

24th Day of Summer, 514AV
Dawn in the Sunset Quarters, Nate's Residence

Dawn woke the Svefra.

In and of itself, this was an innocuous enough occurrence. Humans the world over had been using the rise of the sun to mark the beginning of their day since their formation. But, for one that had spent nigh on a season in a lightless room of the Sahovan citadel, each dawn was something worth celebrating.

Edreina's eyes opened the instant light, pale and pink, started to fill the room. She had slept better this night than many past. The ship she had slept on never stopped moving and, though once that gave her peace, it had disturbed her on her journey to Sunberth. Before that, she had slept upon stone. The wood of the floor and walls of Nate's room may well have been a feather bed; she had even had a pillow, this night!

Warmth had allowed her to sleep well, also. Gone was the ever present musty dampness that had pervaded her prison. One of the first things Edreina saw was the speckled belly of Jorka, sprawling comically against her legs with her excessive jowls drooping to expose teeth that sent a trill of instinctual fear through Edreina though her conscious mind knew it to be groundless.

Smiling gently, she moved to rub the sleeping creature's exposed belly and caught sight of her wrist cuff in the light. Brief disappointment flickered through the Svefra's being, as if she had expected them to disappear now that she was free and erase just a handful more of the physical marks left by Sahova. If they were gone and she kept the mark on her leg out of sight, she could try to forget it had ever happened.

But, what purpose would that serve?

As quietly as she could, Edreina stood and stretched, reaching high over head. As if mimicking her, the dark-colored dog stretched out, keeping her rump high in the air as her front limbs rested on the ground. The redhead stifled a laugh as the dog's tongue and tail curled at the same time.

Seeing Nate had not yet woke, the young woman decided to make the best of her time until he could accompany her to the docks. She reached to touch her toes and then stretched each arm across her chest before finally grabbing her toes and pulling her legs back behind her, stretching them as well. When in Sahova, she had done hours and hours of exercises until her body started to give out from exhaustion and hunger just to fill her time. Here, she did not wish to do anything to regain her former body than eat and swim. As her soul had been stripped to it's barest elements, so had her body. It was still hard to believe she missed the curves that had once made her undesirable her among her own people.

Stranger still was that Edreina had come to terms with not feeling at home among her kin any longer. She had seen life outside of Laviku's realm and found it to be satisfying. Perhaps one day that would change and she would grow tired of the dirt but... there was still so much left for her to see, so many people left to meet.

Frowning slightly, Edreina pressed her back against the wall and slid down until it looked like she was sitting in a chair without the support of one. Her legs flared and cried out nearly immediately, but she endeavored to continue until she could no longer. Reaching her arms out sideways, she started to make small circles in the air, much to the displeasure of her weakened shoulders. If Nate woke while she was still at it, at least he would be entertained.

[Nathaniel Ankah]

He dreamed of floating water, and oft it tread close to nightmares. All he had seen told him that her gifts were made to heal, like the words she had whispered, but... djed. Magic. Mages. Wizards. For years he'd been taught to hate and fear such people. Those that did exist in his city did so in secret, never revealing their curse to the world at large. Djed was a powerful force, but the mob had ruled Sunberth for centuries, and magic could not dent the rabid fury of thousands.

He'd seen a mage torn apart in a crowd, once. She'd threatened to burn a man to cinders for breaking into her house, and made a ball of flame with her hands. But the crowd had seen; the mob had formed. It closed in her with jaws made of disgust and hatred and fear and fists and Nate saw that flame leap once to scorch someone to death... and then the mob closed in, and there was nothing but screams and tearing flesh.

And try as he might... Nate could not imagine Edreina's face there.

Then the screams of the past became the yelp of the day and he was dragged to reality by that cry. The instincts of years had his hands gripping his weapons before his eyes were fully open, up on one elbow when they were, wide eyes scanning the room, and finding...

Huh. Never seen that one before.

"What are you... oh." It took Nate a moment, yawning and bleary-eyed mind processing the strange contortion the woman had put herself in... but finally he got it. Ah. Some sort of exercise. He chuckled and set down his weapons, running rough hands over his face and wincing at the aches in his arms. "Woman after my own heart. Shite... shoulda' been up earlier..."

Without any other words the man got up and tended to the morning routine. He drew a bucket of water from the pump in the communal yard out back, returning with it and finding Jorka snuffling around his fear, tail wagging expectantly. The debris of yesterday's meal was swiftly shunted into her bowl and she nuzzled his face once before ignoring him completely and gorging herself.

Water splashed his face, cold and numbing and yet awakening at once. Freezing blast against his skin, chasing away the last dregs of his dreams... and he sighed.

"Well, I'm to do the same," he said simply, grabbing a towel hung by the door, obviously for a reason, and nodding to the yard, "You're welcome to join me..."

If she did, Edreina would find Nate in the midst of his own particular regime. For half a season he'd been torturing himself like this every morning, and gods help him if for some reason he missed a day. It meant he had to double it up the next morning.

Never fun when you have to do that, Nate thought wryly as he finished a set of push ups, augmenting each on with hi knee pulled up to his chest. Make's the first shift on the Docks a fucking nightmare...

It was constantly evolving, too, though Nate didn't know that word yet. All he knew was that one a particular exercise became too easy, too familiar, he either replaced it or made it harder. The push ups were one example; the other was his sit ups, now each one ending with two short jabs over his knees before he let his back fall to the cobbles.

If you weren't pushing it every day, you allowed yourself to stagnate. Stay at the same level. That wasn't acceptable to Nate, especially considering he was making more money now from fighting at Johnny's than hauling sacks under Sodding Strabo. Speaking of which...

"What you did last night," he said mildly, after his breath was caught and his face was shining, meticulously wrapping his hands with thick cloth as he stood before the training dummy, "What you did last night... to my arm? What is it called?"

Good a place as any to start.

[Edreina]

"Woman after my own heart. Shite... shoulda' been up earlier..."

Despite herself, Edreina smiled ever so slightly and slid upwards along the wall until she was standing. Only a hint of wariness remained in her eyes as she watched Nate make his way about, debating whether she should continue or focus on her own hygiene.

It had been a weird transition, back into the world of free folk, where things such as hair tidiness and clean teeth mattered to those around you. So long as it was living, Annalisa had not paid much attention to the state of her body. In that woman's cold eyes, Edreina had nearly lost her humanity. But, things were different now.

The Svefra thrust her hand into the pack and pulled out her comb, toothbrush, and the small flask of a mint-scented liquid with the faintest bite of pure alcohol. Red locks were savaged by the feral teeth of an unfamiliar comb and teeth were assaulted by the bristles of a brush. Finally, she took a mouthful of the liquid, swished it about a bit, and then swallowed hard, shuddering as the burn made it's way down her throat into her chest. It was a refreshing process but one Edreina did not see a point in luxuriating over.

At the offer to join, Edreina paused for a moment, considering the benefits and possible dangers that came with the level of exhaustion she liked to achieve with her exercises; anything less would leave her feeling incomplete. What she had been doing when Nate was one of the various warm-ups she had used to wake herself in Sahova when absent light made the task a chore. To go further in her exercises would put her in a mindset that was far from helpful for the tasks they needed to accomplish this day.

Finally, she shook her head and moved to sit and observe him, instead. The Svefra's earlier assessment that this man focused more on bulking up his body instead of tuning it was confirmed. When he started to move towards the dummy, Edreina was struck by an idea of her own. How long had it been? What would something as simple as sparring do to her mind?

Just as she was standing, the dockworker asked a question she had been dreading. With a sigh, she pursed her lips and decided it was better he learn from her than from another with less innocent intentions."Spar with me, instead. I can explain while we do so. Mind you, I'm not as good at fighting when my life isn't on the line..." The final statement was punctuated with a smile in which she allowed her lack of surety to become apparent along with her will to attempt that which made her nervous.

One foot slid back and her hands came up just below her chin, one fisted and one open-palmed, as she assumed one of the stances Razkar had taught her. Once this was done, blue eyes turned to Nate once again, inviting him forward. "Before I answer your question, I must ask you to relay all that you know about Magic..."

Without Edreina's noticing, Annalisa the Teacher had entered her voice.

[Nathaniel Ankah]

Nate couldn't keep the look of amused incredulity hidden when she made her offer. He looked down at her from just shy of twelve inches and about a hundred pounds, wondering if Edreina hadn't suffered some latent brain damage in their tussle the night before. Sparring? With him? Surely she'd run daft...

One way to learn, I suppose, he thought to himself with a shrug as he finished taping up, not wanting to shatter those lovely features with his bare knuckles if he forgot to hold back a punch, and besides...

The thought trailed off as the Svefra slid into something... not seen in the alleys and taverns of Sunberth. It was a stance, designed to ready the body and prime it for sudden movement. Nate had heard of them before, but rarely seen them.

In the heat of a brawl, you didn't bother with any of that; you just hit the cunt. Most times you waited until his back was turned, too.

"Magic? You mean djed?" He circled her, guard up but loose, secure and confident. It would take only a span of ticks for Nathaniel to realize that mistake, but for now, he had only past experience to go on. His and hers. "I know... well, what I have been told, mostly. All in this town hate and fear The Warlock and The Wych. We're raised hating them. I've seen some of them. Men who can... make fire with their hands. Throw things without them. Even make people... do things."

Eyes like jade pearls darkened in memory and Nate shook it away, bending his knees slightly as the circling stopped. He had to tasks, after all; talking was only one of them.

"But I don't know how people do it, or learn it, or..." He snorted softly to himself, as if realizing something that had been so obvious for years. "... or even what it is. I just know people use it, and people here hate them for it. Yourself excepted, of course-"

The last word ended with a burst of air as Nate jutted forward, right arm straightening out and aiming a quick jab at the Svefra's... shoulder. Ah. How chivalrous. He still didn't like the idea of breaking her jaw with a fist nearly the size of her head, so he was keeping it pleasant. He didn't even have his other hand low to guard his torso, kept it high and to the side, like a sodding amateur.

It occurred to him about ten ticks later that she had most likely been trained by a Myrian. Not that the realization eased his pain much.