PM to join [White Swan Inn] What you wanted (Flashback)

[Kahll]

22nd of summer, 506 AV Even when they arrived in Syliras, Kahll was not convinced their journey was over. Sigurd dragged him along, on another optimistic, but ultimately pointless pursuit. There were always excuses like this. He could need an extra hand. There was a lot of backlog with the paper Kahll could help with – even though he had no idea what he was doing. This time however, Sigurd was honest with him. He was along to try to make amends with Doness. The openness of this statement frightened him. If the older man had decided to quit the façade and be so forthcoming in his explanation, then they were nearing the end of their rope. Doness might never forgive. The thought scared him, even if he was getting used to life without him. It would not come to that, he hoped. While they were pushing through the masses, looking as if they knew where they were going, another man joined Sigurd and Kahll. This stranger did not introduce himself to Kahll, nor did Sigurd introduce him. That alone provoked suspicion from the boy, but he scraped along with them, hoping to listen on their conversation. He got nowhere with that, as they stopped talking whenever he neared. This bothered him more than he could ever admit, but he kept quiet. Eventually, if it were his business, Sigurd would tell him. They eventually made their way to a crowded locale. He could not quite pick out the sign in the commotion, but he heard someone say ‘Swan’. He would proceed calling it so. The Swan was a fancy place. The room was spacious. The people were not rowdy. The walls were magnificent. Everything smelled nice. It was so clean. Everything added up to boring in Kahll’s perception. He could not imagine a place this static in Alvadas. As soon as they sat, Sigurd excused himself and threw to the other man “Watch the kid! I won’t be long” to which the stranger nodded. The food arrived as if by some cue. He did not remember ordering, but it was possible that one of the two men did so while he was trying to listen in on their conversation. Without touching his dish, the stranger eyed Kahll. “Kid, huh?” he seemed to wonder; “You’re a man already, I say” he nodded to himself before staring squarely at Kahll. This kind of eye contact made him a bit uncomfortable, so he nodded in order to release some tension. “Sigurd worries. Sigurd always worries” again with those eyes, what was he getting at? “You don’t really need a guardian. Come few years and you will be guarding us, right?” the notion appealed to Kahll, so he nodded before even thinking about what he heard. “Much like I thought – you can take care of yourself kid!” then he reached over the table to pat Kahll uncomfortably “I won’t be far.” With that, he stood up and walked to a nearby table. He sat there as if they were waiting for him all along, and began to speak in hushed tones. Somehow, Kahll felt played.

[Deliath]

Deliath Telori ~ Deliath had spent the day so far down by the docks, talking to a variety of people, both getting off ships and leaving on them. She was an inquisitive girl, loving nothing more than to learn about what others spent their time doing, and she enjoyed just talking to people. It was her favourite pastime in the summer, speaking to those she hadn't met yet and learning from them. Of course, she had had to leave the docks when somebody she knew threatened to throw her into the water if she didn't find something useful to do with her free time, so now she wandered through the streets of Syliras, attempting to find anyone she could speak with that wouldn't just brush her off. Grinning, the fifteen year old girl found herself at the White Swan Inn, somewhere that her adoptive family had never taken her because it was overpriced, according to them. That only made her curious about what it was like! Quietly, she ran a hand through her dark blonde hair making sure that it looked slightly presentable, before she slipped inside and looked around to find that it was really quite boring. It was nothing like she'd imagine, and there was nothing that she could see being worth the apparent cost of the place! Of course, the food and the private rooms could have held those reasons, but that was nothing she'd experience, not with the money she had on her at least! Then her eyes landed on a boy sat alone. He seemed to be around her age, maybe a bit younger. He looked a bit downtrodden and Deliath couldn't help but skip over to him and sit next to him. "I don't want to get kicked out for not buying anything, so can I pretend that we're together?" she asked the boy calmly and softly, before stopping to look at him properly, her usual smile dancing on her face as she stared intently at him. His skin was fairly pale, and his eyes were a brown, his hair an even darker brown. There was seemingly nothing out of the ordinary about him, and she assumed that he was just a human, although his eyes seemed sad, as though he was struggling with something. Maybe he needs some companionship? He does look lonely, the least I can do is talk to him, isn't it? Maybe just try to be a friend? her smile turned into a grin as she thought to herself "So, I'm Deliath, but you can call me Del?" she said warmly, holding her hand out in a friendly gesture. "I'm assuming that you aren't a local, so where are you from, and will you tell me about wherever it is?" she asked, tilting her head as she looked at him some more. "Also, are you alone, or have you just been left out of the loop?" she asked, her head moving back to its rest position as she relaxed and leant back, getting herself comfortable as she kept her eyes on the boy. ~

[Kahll]

Kahll was beginning to pout. The stranger just toyed with him. It took him a while to realize that it actually happened, but when he did, he was angry. What was the man’s damn name anyway? How could Sigurd have left him with someone whose name he had not even heard? All of it made him feel wrong. He stared at the food. There were three bowls of some stew, and three more plates with some sort of seared meat. He could not quite pick apart the dishes with his eyes alone, but they looked inviting. After all, it must have been the food – it was hard to imagine someone found anything else about this place appealing. He was contemplating whether he wanted to wait for Sigurd for the meal, when a girl plopping down on the seat next to him startled him. She was friendly in a manner that made Kahll feel like they already knew each other. Sigurd was good at doing this to other grownups, Kahll gathered over the years. It was easy to talk with people like that. The feeling was nice. It had not been long since he started noticing these things, but she was pretty. Nothing exotic like M’alla or coldly refined as Arabella had been, but normal pretty. Her look alone already made him not mind having her around. Apparently, his thoughts took a while to form, because he could already tell the moment prolonged somehow. It was normal in Alvadas to have quirky conversations where people took ages to respond, but that would likely be an awkward stance here. He turned over to the next table, and saw the stranger give him a wink. It almost made his eye twitch. Insolent prick! “Sure, sit!” he said a bit excitedly “If you’re hungry, you can have their food. Ionu knows they don’t care for it” then, as he spoke, he found himself relaxing more. Extending his hand, he took her greeting “I’m Kahll. It’s my name, but they call me that too” he smiled, because in his mind he had just made a bad joke. He enjoyed those. “It’s nice to meet you, Del” if she wanted to be a friend, she could be. There was no reason against it. “They’ve come from Alvadas on business,” he explained warmly. He liked talking about home. “It’s west of here, and a bit to the south, I think. Hard to tell when you are on a boat. The whole Suvan looks the same to me” then he sulked for a bit “I’ve been tagged along, and now they’re leaving me out. Just like you said” as he said it, he turned towards the stranger and glared daggers. The man stopped paying attention to the children completely by this point. Turning back, he returned to his warmer self “We should eat, it’ll get cold”. If they were going to ignore him, at least he could have a good time by himself…. In this case with Del. The thought made him a bit uncomfortable, but he quickly switched past it.

[Deliath]

Deliath Telori ~ Deliath grinned when the stranger agreed to her joining him, although she hadn't really given him a chance. She was more glad that he hadn't kicked up a fuss and had just accepted her arrival. Then the boy offered her food and she raised an eyebrow slightly, before grinning. It wasn't often that a stranger offered food, but it was something she was thankful for. She didn't like to rely on her adoptive family too much, especially as she was almost an adult and would probably end up leaving them sometime in the near future. "Are you sure? About the food?" she asked with a grin on her face, before hearing the boys name and seeing him smile slightly. "Well Kahll, I'm glad to make your acquaintance!" she declared before listening to him explain where he was from. Alvadas was somewhere that she'd heard about only in passing while on the docks. Some of the sailors had mentioned coming from there, or leaving to head there, but she'd never heard much more of it. "Alvadas... I'll have to remember that name. And I can imagine that it would be overly repetitive on the Suvan Sea. It's never really appealed to me, I prefer dry land! Oh, did anyone fall overboard on the ship? I get the feeling that happens less regularly than the sailors at the docks say." she thought to herself, wondering whether any of what she overheard at the docks was realistic or whether people elaborated upon their tales, then she smiled again, before listening intently, staring into his eyes. She had always had an obsession with people's eyes, with how they seemed to show emotion in a much clearer way. It was harder for people to lie with their eyes than it was their tongues. She also found herself wondering what other people's eyes had seen, and whether she would ever see anything similar to them. Then she heard Kahll speak again. "We should eat, it’ll get cold." she heard and she grinned at him. "If you're sure? And anyway, you don't need those Vagiks to have a good time. You've got my company, and they're probably all super boring anyway. Adults like them always are. They never have good stories and they always seem to talk about things or people you've never heard of, and then belittle you for not knowing. I'm fairly interesting, unlike them." she spoke confidently with a smirk on her face, before she shot a glance at the group, then to the rest of the room and grinned even wider, certain that she had chosen the right person to sit with and talk to. "Anyway, tell me a bit about yourself? Like how old are you? What you like doing back in Alvadas? And what you want to do while here? I mean, so far it looks as though you'd be able to do anything and nobody would notice until you got into trouble?" she tilted her head as she stared at him, wanting to know more about the boy and this Alvadas place. ~

[Kahll]

Her question made him look back to the table, but only for a moment. He would then reaffirm his previous words “I’m sure!” he gestured over their food “If they wanted it, they wouldn’t have left it” with that, he was prepared to dig in. Just as he was picking up the spoon, Del kept talking. This was strange. The meals Sigurd and he had been often silent, at least until everyone finished eating. If there were something to discuss at the table, it would be, then the food would pick up. Kahll spent much time trying to emulate Sigurd – perhaps if he would be more like him, then the man would allow him more into the important conversations. He turned from his food and looked at the girl “Sigurd’s not a vagik!” it came out a bit harsher than intended, but Kahll was not sorry. She had no right to talk like that about Sigurd. The stranger was fair game though, “That one” he gestured, trying to be stealthy, but ultimately failing. The man even waved back at him, seemingly content with himself. “That one’s a vagik, through and through” his eyes became slits, as he really wanted to know what they were saying so far away from him. “He probably thinks soap a god, and worships it humbly from afar” saying bad things about people he did not like made him feel better. It was weird. He would like to understand this feeling someday. It did not help him, nor did it detract from those spoken of, but it still calmed him. “I think they brought me along to meet my father, but that’ll have to wait until tomorrow at least” he did not want to dwell on that part for long, so he proceeded. “In Alvadas, unlike here, everything’s an adventure! Like, if your house feels like you should not get home soon, you will not get home soon. Everything is always moving. People are the same” then he scratched his brow, understanding that not much of this would make sense to her “Alvadas is the city of illusion. Nothing is what it seems, and even when it is, you can never be sure. It’s a fun place” he could not really explain Alvadas to a non-Alvad. “I like making things. It’s my own way of adding to the confusion” he shrugged, it was impossible to explain without seeing. “You should visit if you ever have the chance. Everyone should at least once in their lives” he then blinked a couple of times to her last thought “Why would I want to get in trouble?”

[Deliath]

Deliath Telori ~ "If they wanted it, they wouldn’t have left it” Deliath heard Kahll and she nodded to herself, not having actually realised that they had actually just abandoned the food. It really was fair game to take it then. Then she heard his response to her generalising the others as Vagiks and she couldn't help but smirk slightly. Not a malicious smirk, but one more out of awkwardness. Then she heard him speaking about one of the men in particular. “That one’s a vagik, through and through. He probably thinks soap a god, and worships it humbly from afar." she heard him say and she found herself quietly giggling at the words. "He's probably jealous of Glorg's personal hygiene." she responded, remembering a few stories about the Alvina that reigned over Gluttony. Then she watched the boy as he spoke of why he had possibly been brought here from his home. She hadn't known that the boy and his father lived in different regions, but the idea didn't really seem as horrible as it probably would to others. She'd been left on land by her mother at 6, so the idea of living with people who weren't family wasn't too strange to her. Then she heard him begin to speak of Alvadas and she listened to him intently, wanting to know about the place. It sounded like an interesting place, with the idea that everything moved and never stayed the same. The idea of a city of illusion was both exciting and terrifying to Deliath. "I think I will visit one day! Once I'm a bit older of course. It sounds exciting, kinda scary too, but exciting!" “Why would I want to get in trouble?” she heard Kahll say and she smirked again. "Not for doing bad things of course, but I've found that doing the fun things will get you into trouble. I mean, I get in trouble for talking to strangers down by the docks, or for going anywhere near 'The Inked Pen'. It's not as though I'd even have the money for a tattoo, I just like looking at tattoos, and I want to see how they're done for when I'm older!" she declared, before pouting slightly. To her it seemed as though she wasn't allowed to do anything fun, and the few things her adoptive family would allow her to do, she wasn't able to do because she wasn't a knight or a squire, or she didn't have enough money to do it. "I've decided that I'm just going to buy a pair of gloves and go into the Cobalt Mountains one day, see if I can find any pretty flowers. I don't think I'd get into too much trouble for that." ~

[Kahll]

“Glorg – is that a Syliran name?” he mused out loud. “Sounds rather silly – it could be Blorg or Dlorg or Mlorg or whatever. It would hardly make a difference. That seems like a strange naming custom” maybe the girl was making fun of him in some way he could not quite understand. Sylirans were strange folk, even if it they would point to Alvads first. She did have it right that she should come to Alvadas someday. It was so different than any other place he had ever heard of that not visiting it seemed almost like a crime. At the very least it would provide oneself with a lifelong regret – such was the awe of his city. He felt his chest puff a bit at the thought. This was silly; he was as much to Alvadas as the smallest illusion to Ionu. He was its child – middle, unimportant one. “You should visit, of course,” the he added with a smile “I could be your guide. Strangers often get lost” he quickly moved past with both words and gesture “I don’t see a problem with you looking at tattoos” he looked puzzled. Why would anyone care about what you did with your own body? It was not theirs – therefore it was none of their business. “How do they even catch you? I bet if we snuck out right now, we will not be caught – and that is with me along. I am bad at sneaking. You couldn’t possibly be any worse” it was hard for him to understand how someone could be caught doing something repeatedly if one was careful about it. It might have been because they were in Syliras – back in Alvadas; the city itself would hide you. Provided you were doing anything interesting of course. Looking back to the table of the stranger that Sigurd had left him with, he found that its occupants were no longer there. When did he leave? Kahll never noticed a thing! He bit his lower lip in frustration for getting distracted. It was not as if he would miss the man, but this meant that the older man pulled another con on him without the boy even noticing. The thought that he might have done something to anger Sigurd crossed his mind for a second. Could it be he knew about Giselle? Shaking his head, he let it slide. No, this would be a much different situation if Sigurd knew. They simply let him down like a sack of potatoes. Well, sometimes, potatoes rolled away once the sack opened. Thought became action and he soon started paying attention to Del again, “I think I’m leaving. Coming with? I think I might get lost on my own” he tried to say it positively, but he could not help but feel angry about the whole situation.

[Deliath]

Deliath Telori ~ Deliath raised one eyebrow as Kahll spoke of Glorg's name, thinking that the name was a Syliran name and she found herself chuckling to herself. "Actually I don't know where the name is from. It's Rhysol's son though, apparently, and it's nasty. Unhygienic. That's what I've heard down by the docks anyway. I've only heard a little about it, or him or her, I don't know that much, but from the sounds of it, Glorg is pretty gross." she said, fairly certain that everything about Glorg was just a rumour made up. Then she heard Kahll mention that strangers tended to get lost and she grinned. The idea of getting lost in an unfamiliar city sounded like quite the adventure to her. Then again, almost everything seemed like an adventure to Deliath. "They think I'll go through a rebellious phase and end up getting a tattoo just to spite. Knowing them, they probably think I'll try to do it myself and end up losing a limb through infection or something like that. And I honestly don't know how they catch me. Sometimes I just get home and they know, but I haven't even seen anybody I recognise, so I'm fairly certain they have spies!" she declared, knowing that it was more likely that people that knew her from when she was younger had seen her and told her adoptive family what she was doing. She listened to Kahll as he spoke of how they could probably leave and nobody would notice even though he was bad at sneaking, and Deliath tilted her head to look at him. It would be fun to try and get him to leave the tavern. “I think I’m leaving. Coming with? I think I might get lost on my own” she heard him say and her smile grew. "Well I thought you'd never ask! Any idea what sort of place you want to visit? I know a few relatively fun places after all! she glanced around to see that the table had emptied. That must be why Kahll now wanted to go elsewhere. Either way, it seemed as though nobody would miss him if she took him on an adventure, and he'd be returned to them in one piece. It would just be some entertainment for Kahll, rather than having him stuck on his own when she got bored and left to go outside. "And if they don't take kindly to you leaving, I'll take the full blame. After all, you shouldn't have been left alone with strange girl. I could be a kidnapper for all they know! I mean, I'm not, but I could be." she found herself grinning again as she hoped that she hadn't come across as too sinister. ~

[Kahll]

OOCIt's funny how often I get distracted mid typing - still, here we are. This girl seemed overly eager at his thoughts about leaving the place. It was strange, almost as if it had been what she wanted to do all along. She was the one who snuck in, so it seemed strange to leave without actually gaining anything. Still, looking at Swan’s dullness, this was self-explanatory. He could imagine stuck up traders discussing their next shipments here, as well as some Syliran officials sitting around the table and talking about some new big thing that only they really cared for. No Speaker would ever sit at those tables for long – even if they attendance could have lightened the locale’s spirits. Kahll wondered if the Speakers ever did their shows outside of Alvadas. His gaze fell down to the food, and he grabbed a few mouthfuls before wiping his lips with a napkin. He did not enjoy the thought of this food wasted, but he wanted to take his chance in leaving while it still existed. Doing what he could without taking too much time, he turned to Del “So you’re kidnapping me?” he eyed the girl, and found the thought amusing. It would be quite a sight for someone so small to haul Kahll out the door. It was a good laugh regardless. “I think it’d be nice to see whatever you do to have fun around here. I’m not too certain what’s what here, and wouldn’t be able to point at anything specific I wanted to see. I heard you had a magic tree of some sort here, but they probably wouldn’t let us see that. So wherever you want to go, I’ll follow” his eyes searched the room for the still unnamed stranger. Failing to spot him, Kahll continued, “We should probably go before they return. Sigurd is a man of his word. He said he wouldn’t take long, so he should probably return any tick now” he shrugged uncomfortably; still unsure about the whole thing “I’d like to be gone before that” he disliked the thought of worrying Sigurd, but he liked it better than sitting on his hands and waiting for them to remember where they left the boy. As soon as Del started walking, he’d be right behind – and with that they’d be gone.

[Deliath]

Deliath Telori OOCHaha, don't worry, I get so distracted too Deliath heard the boy ask if she was kidnapping him and a mischievously cheeky grin spread its way across her face. "Why of course I am! If you'll allow of course, because I ain't strong, and I doubt I could carry you out of here without causing too much of a scene." Then she listened to the boy carefully as he said that he wanted to see what they did in Syliras, and the mention of the magic tree caught her attention. "The Windoak? Yeah, you have to be a knight to get into the courtyard, so people like us can't go visit it. I can see why though, it is precious. It's the only thing I can understand restricting access to though." Then she heard him say about how he wanted to leave before 'Sigurd' returned and she instantly took hold of his arm and headed towards the door, wondering where would be best to take him. "Of course... Now, we have a few options here. We could go to the Spinning Coin and watch people gambling, because I didn't bring enough money to bet on anything, we could go to the Stone Garden, or the Theatre, or we could go down to the Great Harbour. Or we could even just go look around the shops." she smiled as she spoke. "Or we could go to a whole bunch of those places, so which sounds best to you?" she asked as they both left the building into the warm sunlight. "It's nice weather today, so rain won't be able to mess with any plans we make, and I think the sea is gonna be fairly calm too. So anything goes today!" She continued to lead Kahll away from the inn, in the direction of most of the things she had given him an option for. She knew that if he didn't have a preference at all, she'd probably take him to the Syliras Theatre for a look around, then to the shops just to nosy around, and then to the docks to just watch the sea and the ships and boats, or maybe to the Spinning Coin to watch people waste their money, knowing that they probably would never earn it back. ~