Don't Trust Me (Amirah)

[Lye]

Fith Day of Fall, 509 AV
Closed
Tag: Amirah

As was typical for a day where there were no orders to be filled, Lye Varcolac sat sprawled out in the back of his trader's cart, smoking a shoddily rolled cigarette and muttering under his breath. One of his arms was thrown lazily over the top of it, the fingers drumming slowly, idly against the wood as smoke curled up into the crisp, cool Autumn air. Even the outskirts of the city of Riverfall were busy; dozens of people strolled or jogged along the path beside him. He watched them pass with his dark eyes, glaring at each of them, his lips curled down in an irritated frown. There was no peace and quiet in Riverfall, or even in Cyphrus. In the city, there was also the squabbling and squawking of his brothers, strutting to and fro in their narcissistic, haughty ways, struggling to impress their whores. The fields were teeming with bloodthirsty monsters and barbarians too stupid and violent not to slobber as they swung their cheap, handmade weapons.

With a sigh, Lye pulled his arm back into the cart, digging a copper miza out of his pocket. Flicking hot ashes carelessly away from the end of his cigarette, he carefully set the coin on top of the knuckle of his index finger. Then, slowly at first, with a rippling, fluid motion, he rolled it across his knuckles, and seeming satisfied, began to pick up the pace. For a human, rolling the coin like such would take quite some time and frustration, perhaps a year of aggravating practice before they could send the miza from the forefinger to the pinky without pause. However, his years of training with his little wooden lakan - often on his lonesome, Arkoh did little to prepare him for life - had made his hands quick and vicious, dexterous enough to hypnotize and amaze with a weapon in hand.

Truth be told, he was rather annoyed to be sitting around instead of riding through the plains towards the nearest civilized settlement. It seemed there were more copper gleams in his wallet than gold or silver. With winter coming, the travel would become more difficult, too, slower, with a better risk of death then ever before. Anyone could freeze to death in this world, even if they were a hardy Isurian or a powerful Akalak. Perhaps one day in the winter, the horse would clop up to the bridge, letting the guards take a look at his icicle of a corpse, still holding the reins in brittle fingers...he scowled, looking up towards the animal, who merely stood oblivious, its face stuffed in its bucket of oats. If it came down to it, the thing would be food, and he'd be more than happy to smash the cart for firewood.

Lye groaned, throwing his head back, staring up towards the sky. Thankfully, it wasn't too cold yet at all; he was still comfortable enough outside without having to don his coat. Bringing his cigarette to his lips again, he wished for a gambling parlor, or a dice game, or a full jug of wine. Anything at all, really, as long as it gave him something better to do than smoke and roll coins.

Voices nearby drew his glare again, but he was faintly surprised to see one of his brothers, a guard, pointing directly at him. The guard turned his head to say something he couldn't make out to the woman beside him. The angular curve of her cheekbones, which slanted her eyes into an almond shape gave her as much an exotic look as did the four arms hanging from her shoulders. "Fust," he muttered, feeling annoyed as he began to sit up, the pair of them beginning to walk over. He had a feeling the two of them wanted a ride someone into Riverfall, and if that was the truth, he was going to hurl a furious string of violent expletives at them. He was a trader and a money enthusiast, not some idiot in a tall hat and a suit that gave rides through the park to some gushy couple.

[Amirah]

Almond eyes looked upon the guard, and white teeth chewed lightly on the inside of supple lips. She really did hate to leave so abruptly but the letter she had received had been so disturbing to the wayward noble that she was rushing home after her five year absence. Not from the urgings of her parents or siblings, but of the sounds of distress, from a … friend.

Chibale was kind, although older than her by a hundred and twenty something years, the warrior had a sense of humor that kept him dear to a number of people male and female alike. Amirah was fond of the Akalak for his ease they shared, their nights as lover’s came and went, yet they were comfortable enough still to tease and flirt, if perhaps she was a longer lived woman things might had progressed further. The Akalak’s words, not hers. Yet all same the pair that regarded Lye were familiar indeed.

The slender woman before him who was usual light quick smiles and poise, still held her grace tightly around her, yet trouble tightened around her eyes, and stole easy laughter from soft lips.

“Do not worry Amirah. We will see if Lye will be willing to take you to Ahnetept. I would feel better if you at least made the journey with an escort at least part of the way. Knowing you, you would come riding back to Riverfall in the dead of winter, alone. If your business is brief, maybe Lye would even accompany you back up this way.”

“I just need a faster horse. I made it to this city alone, I can make it home alone.” Even as she protested the woman followed a step behind the Akalak, her arms released her form and as they approached Lye and his wagon the guard was quiet.

The worry the eyes a someone close could pick out from the Eypharian’s features was nonexistent as the pair neared. Her hair straight and pulled back from her face left her features unhindered to the eye. Delicate bones, gave the woman a fragile air that surely many in the city were more than willing to fall victim to. Yet the way she moved was one use to getting her way, or knew just how to get it. And something in the face, be it the make-up, or the smile on her painted lips, almost promised you would like it as well.

Truthfully, Amirah was not at all pleased with her darling Chibale. Like most here he was a tad too protective of the woman, had even insisted on accompanying her on trek to Mura. Yes of course he and the rest had perfectly good sense, and she was in truth happy to have him after they were on their way.

She was glad at least the Akalak had not grown so lax that he thought to speak on her behalf, it was not that any of them had treated her as either incompetent or a burden, all the same Amirah was sensitive perhaps to it.

“Lye Varcolac?” She spoke his name like a question, while Chibale may have recognized the trader, Amirah had neither met him nor knew him, and it was a good start to verify to whom one was speaking with.

“How much could it cost me to persuade you and your services to accompany me to Ahnaphet?”

[Lye]

With a grunt, Lye hauled himself up the wall of the cart with a heft of his powerful arms. The closer the pair drew, the more twisted the akalak's expression became with distrust and annoyance. While many of his other brothers would throw themselves at the feet of others to aid in them, he pursued the noblest cause of all; his own needs. True, he had just been lamenting his own idleness, but he had no wish to help out the four armed woman and the guard. His eyes locked on them in scorching disdain, his upper lip quirking upwards from his teeth in a scornful smirk.

Raising an eyebrow as they paused beside the cart, he realized he recognized the man - Chibale, dozens of years his senior. Chibale was just one of the hundreds in the city that annoyed him - so many found that sense of humor of his as a rare gem, but Lye only bristled at the man's well natured jokes and quips. Raising his burning cigarette to his lips, Lye took a deep drag from it, and blew a thick, cloudy plume of smoke towards Chibale's face. "What?" he asked, his tone as quick and sharp as the lash of a whip, feeling a certain joy as the guard squinted his eyes against the sting of the smoke.

He shifted his attention from the man to the four armed woman. A trader by possession, he'd seen a great deal of the world, but only once or twice had he bothered to venture into the arid expanses of the Eyktol. Lye had hated it more than he hated nearly anything else, liking the smell of the sands to an unwashed armpit. Only once before had he met an Eypharian, and he had ended the brief acquaintanceship by cutting off the four armed man's head so that he could take his gold and jewels for himself. Seeing the second face of the people, the akalak realized just how absurdly easy it had truly been to rob the desert dweller. The woman looked too soft, too spoiled, too mollycoddled to be any sort of threat in a fight, whether or not he had his lakan in hand. He'd seen her around the streets over the years, but never bothered to learn her name. Surely in Riverfall, she had been doted upon, babied by his brothers to the point where he was nearly honestly shocked that she had not been killed with kindness. Just the few seconds in front of him told Lye that Chibale had gotten what he'd wanted out of the woman, too. Curious for the moment, a quick, bitter laugh burst out of his lips just after the woman spoke his name.

"Yeah, that's my fusting name. Don't fusting wear it out. Whadda you want?" As though she'd been anticipating the question, the woman immediately stated her business. Lye brought the last of his cigarette towards his mouth, arching his brows in the hot glow before flicking the stub into the street, past the woman's head. "Ahnatep?" Lye whistled loudly, rolling his eyes and laughing, smoke pouring casually out of his mouth. If there was one redeeming quality to the woman, it was that she was fast to talk money.

"All the way, you said? Well, there's a few things to take into consideration; I hate the Eyktol cause it smells unwashed Sunberthans, so we'll have to adjust the price already. Then, we have to consider the fact that I'm a trader - what, Chibale, did you forget that? I'm a trader, not an escort, so we'll adjust the price there, too. Then, we have to account for food and drink for me, as well as the horse, possible repairs on any of my goods that may be damaged in the trip, lodgings, entertainment - look, to be perfectly honest, I'm not going all the way to Ahnatep for less than six hundred gold mizas." Lye sighed, a hint of a sneer flickering on the edges of his public relations smile, and sat back into the cart. He went quiet for a few moments, gazing at something off in the diostance to the far left, drumming his fingers on the wood. "Well," he perked, looking back at the two, "I'll at least escort you across the blood hungry plains to the nearest civilized outpost for two hundred, maybe one hundred and fifty gold. You have to understand, you're causing something of an inconvenience to my business. I have to make that money back somehow, and that's, at most, a seven percent gain when not counted towards my travel essentials."

[Amirah]

The response, it was similar to what she had suspected, and while that in itself was a nice comfort. It was also proving to be a pain in her ass for certain. She could easily get the trader paid, in theory, giving the trader half now up front, and the rest, lay upon her families door. They had been asking her to return for years, surely a few mizas were worth their blood’s safe arrival. But that was as if she wanted an escort all the way to Ahnatep. She hardly wanted an escort to begin with, no this was fine, more than fine. It was perfect.

“That will be all I need. Accompany me beyond Riverfall, across the plains to the nearest outpost, and I will pay you the full two hundred mizas for your services. Beyond that point you are free to return to your usual business with much of my thanks. Can you be ready to leave today?” Business was done all that remained was to set the time and be off. She did not haggle the man to lower his price, even seized the higher price mentioned for the small task to persuade the trader to be ready quickly and that she was serious.

She did not put it past the Akalak to abandon her once out of sight of Riverfall, at the first shanty outpost they found, but that was well within her plans, it made not good to pay a large amount of money for the full services you had no plan to receive, because surely if she did not abandon her guide, she had the feeling her guide would surely abandon her. It might be biased to take his demeanor to be his approach to all things, but Amirah could not care to be the one giving the benefit of the doubt at the moment. Just get done what needed to be done, and when she returned, the trader having been more than she thought, perhaps she would find a way to repay his unexpected kindness, but for now, they needed to get the agreement verified and on the trail.

[Lye]

Lye felt a twing of disappointment when the woman opted for the cheaper option, but was uplifted a moment later when he realized that he didn't have to trudge through the Eyktol. It took weeks to get the sand out of your clothes, and longer even to get it out of the places you'd never expect it to sift into. Pushing forward onto his knees in the cart, he drew close to her. "Deal," he announced through a wide grin, grabbing the wrist of her lower left arm, squeezing it, feeling her return the gesture a second later. It was a curious motion, but one that unmistakably sealed an agreement. It was most definitely an improvement on his old habit, which involved a knife and had left many scars on his and his client's hands.

Closer now, the akalak's dark eyes narrowed, flickering over her dress and face baubles, appraising her as he would an expensive vase. Not for her beauty, as many of his kind had undoubtedly done, but merely to spring a quick estimate on her value - exactly how much money could he wring out of her? Lye sat back, his finger tips brushing against her palm, smiling lightly, obviously pleased with the number that had just formed in his mind.

"Truth be told, I'm ready to leave right now. It's not like I have to get my affairs in order or go stock up. But you look like you still need to go get your junk." With a sigh, he settled back into his resting place, tossing his feet over the lip of the cart. "Me, I'll be right here. Don't make me wait all day, eh? Or I'll get too drunk and we won't be going anywhere until tomorrow." With a smirk, Lye watched them depart, strolling away down the road. The plans, the schemes, they were all forming in his head - one way or another, he was going to make a heftier profit than just two hundred gold.
_____

Whan the woman returned hours later, Lye was in the exact same position as he had been the last time she'd seen him, though he was now finishing off an apple with dark red skin and smoking another cigarette, a clay jug of wine sitting by his hip. "Gods damn it, where the hell've you been? Another hour and I would have finished this." Picking the jug up by looping a finger through the handle, he brought it to his lips, took a deep drink, and pulled himself into a sitting position. He sat there for a minute, staring at her, smoke rolling lazily off his cigarette, until he tossed his hands into the air in a gesture of impatience.

"What? Get your stuff into the cart." Muttering, Lye stood up, hopped out and onto the ground, and grabbed one of her packs and tossed it carelessly into the cart. "C'mon, c'mon, I ain't got all day."

[Amirah]

The woman did not move, simply raising her eyes as the Akalak neared, neither cowed or impressed by the shadow that crawled over her as the taller male neared. All the Akalak towered over her, but she had learned years ago not to be intimidated by physical nearness. She tensed her arm in reflex as he grabbed hold of her lower left and squeezed her wrist. The word ‘Deal.’ had been heard and after a moment the gesture was returned, her slender hand squeezing hold of Lye’s wrist. The deal was done it seemed, but the male lingered, looking down upon her face. She wouldn’t had suggested the look was sexual. More like appraising her. Not as if to see what if he could imagine her in his bed, but, as if she was an object.

It was not something that was pleasing, or flattering, yet the grinning Akalak stepped away from her before she spoke, his fingers trailing across her palm. The Eypharian frowned, looking at the Akalak as the offended hand closed. He was smiling again, yet again she had the feeling it was not the train of thought many would have.

He spoke and the woman did not show too much interest or rise to his common phrases. Truthfully she was ready to leave now, was packed and all, she simply had to saddle her beast, although this still meant she wasn’t getting the new horse she originally set out for, her stallion was still well tended in the city but she had felt with the life in the city, it’s plentiful grasses and lack of hard riding at made the desert strider soft, perhaps unable to make the journey back and forth again. She was ready, but if he expected her to dally, why should she not indulge his perception.

“Of course dear Lye, I shall not tarry too long.” The woman smiled and slowly and turned away slipping her arms through one waiting at Chibale’s side, two linked arms over his, with a hand laying upon Chibale’s bicep. Her head turned as the pair turned to head back to Riverfall, her gaze stayed upon the waiting merchant for a moment before a smile curved her lips and she turned back towards the city.

Hours later the woman returned, her eyes darken and sultry, she didn’t speak to Lye but brought her single bag and horse packed and climbed into the cart for a moment with a sigh. Her skin was freshly washed and scented with oil, hair cleaned and piled upon her head. Her skin was flushed and glowing. The sleepy gaze of her eyes and languid motions of her body faded as she swung herself up into her saddle and lead the horse near the front of the cart and the merchant. “Well, let us go.”

Amirah smiled lightly, feeling well and good, her body felt wonderful one last visit to the spa had been a departure well deserved. She would have been swifter in her return were it not for Chibale offer to a massage. Her friends’ skill was on par with her own, but to have familiar hands upon her for a change was a long ignore luxury that the woman did not partake of.

"Think you can manage?"

[Lye]

Lye rolled his eyes at the woman, scowling. He could already tell it was going to be a long, boring trip, his only pleasures getting drunk and playing solitaire with himself. He felt it in his bones; not a single fight seemed to lay in the horizon, only sleep worthy peace and tranquility. "Gee, I think somehow I'll manage to get along," he snapped, circling the cart to climb up onto it's front, picking up the reins. Setting the jug of wine at his sides, he set the horse in motion with a curt snap. Slowly at first, it began to clop forward, the wheels of his cart grinding along the stone road. Settling his cigarette in the corner of his mouth, the akalak slumped forward, smoke curling out of his nostrils. "Ugh...why the hell did I do this again?"

The trip out of the city was rather uneventful. Many of his brothers paused to say goodbye to the woman, and after nearly a dozen had done so, Lye quickly told the last in a series of colorful words that he was a little late to the party. Before they'd even reached the gates, the akalak had finished off his wine, tossed the jug carelessly into the street, and stopped to buy another. He had the cork pulled out of it by the time they reached the gates. The guards there bid them farewell, and a safe journey. With his head tipped back, and drinking deeply of the wine, Lye returned the good gesture with an obscene hand gesture.

Syna watched them closely from her seat high in the sky as they set out on the plains. Lye remained hunched over, looking disgruntled with a sour expression on his face. The grasslands had begun to turn an amber shade as the coming winter cold began to kill the long, soft blades. A chilly wind swept a hand across it, sending a lovely ripple across the plains that the akalak didn't seem to appreciate - or was not yet drunk enough to revel in it's splendor. In the distance to the west, farther than human eyes could see, tall necked glassbeaks roamed.

In the hour that passed, not once did he cast a glance over his shoulder to see how the woman was faring in her travel. In a show of super human fortitude, he managed to finish off the second jug, casting it into the thigh high grasses passing by. "So," he suddenly spoke up, turning his head to the side, yet not looking at her, raising his voice over the hoofbeats and creaking wheels. "What'd you come to Riverfall for, anyway? First impression, you don't seem the type that would want to get knocked up with one of their thick skulled, bratty little weasels."

[Amirah]

"No I am not one of Riverfall's little 'breeders'. I want more than any of your kind can offer. Riverfall is a place of great oppertunity if one knows how to flich it right, and it has everything Ahnetep does not. " The first words from Amirah’s lips after hours of travel did not hold the sounds of disuse. They were quiet, and they were soft, but they were not of the sugary sounds of earlier The words were plainer spoken with no thought or effort put into them. The woman upon her horse paid little mind to her ‘escort’ and the silence that had fallen since they left had been a god send.

She did not particularlly care for riding, but it kept her in control, and the silence that fell gave her time to mull and think, and generally not have to deal with anyone for a while. Yet after getting settled in her thoughts a plan, tentive but a plan all the same, formed in her mind, there was nothing, but silent meditation, mantras echoing silently, deafeningly in her head. Then the merchant had spoken, and the Eypharian had paused to consider responding before her lips parted and the words came.

They were said with a shrug, she was honest at least, and that was that.

“You do not seem to be of the sort to hold their ideals to such high regards yourself.”

[Lye]

"Feh. Don't bunch me in with them!" he snapped quickly, nearly cutting off the end of her answer to his small talk. The akalak seemed to squirm, uncomfortable in his own skin. "Of course it's easy to filch them," he said through a sneer, smoke threatening to roll into his eyes as they floated away in soft gray whirls. "Some of them are far too trusting. The same ones always forgive to keep themselves in good graces, too. Real turn the other cheek kind of guys, when dealing with business - not combat, then they're shrewd sharp eyed butchers that catch every mistake. But they're always so worried about disciplining themselves to satisfy Wysar, or make the next little squall bag that you can rob them blind, ha ha ha."

Lye turned on the riding bench of the cart, throwing his legs up onto it. With a grunt, he scooted down, so that he was laying on his back and staring up into the clear, bright blue sky. He kept the reins twined around the fingers of one hand, smoking slowly with the other. The colorsplash seemed to have been trained for such a thing, and continued on in a slow, seamless walk.

Scowling, Lye brushed hair out of his face, feeling hot sweat welling up on his brow. The two jugs of wine had certainly brought a heat to him, though the autumn chill didn't seem to bother him much; the crisp wind couldn't cut through the studded leather he wore. The woman could see nothing of him save for the occassional plume of white smoke and his knees, bent up into the the air.

But when the woman spoke again, Lye's fist shot into the air and he let out a bitter laugh. "Ha! Ain't you the perceptive one? No, I don't think much for their laws and ideals and customs - then again, I don't think much of any other society's, either. They say you're supposed to feel like brothers...but....what family has ever really gotten along? I took up a life of mercantilism because it'd mean I'd almost always be on the road, barely in Riverfall. I can't stand those jackasses...seriously, they go on slaver raids for charity?Charity?! That's a prime opportunity to make some good coin, and they always waste it."

Lye sighed, a sound full of irritation and, perhaps, ignorance. The still smoldering stub of a cigarette went sailing off into the dry grasses off the plans, and then he folded his arms under his head, tucking the reins into the waistband of his pants. "All I wanna do is get rich and live an easy, cushy, life. But when I say anything about making a little extra monmey on the side to one of them, they don't want to do it. All I'm doing is rotting in Riverfall."

[Amirah]

19 th of Fall 509 AV
Cyphrus Eyktol Border

The days of their travels had passed, nearly two weeks of them in fact and in less than a hand span of them the pair would finally part their ways and Amirah would continue on her path home. But for tonight, there was their nightly routine of making camp, eating, and going to sleep.

A friendly game of cards and a shared bit of wine before bed though, was only polite. Amirah smiled leaning near to the fire two of her hands holding her hair back from the flames while another held the cigarette to her lips as she lit it from the camp fire. She didn’t even smoke, as far as he knew, yet she blew a plum of the white cloud from her lips as if she knew well what she was doing and relished it.

IT might had been more for the pettiness than the actually enjoyment of the cigarette but it was all the same to her. It was THE cigarette, the very last one the Akalak had on him, and she had one it last night in their game. He seemed to smoke more when agitated, and after a few nights of her declining cards, then losing hand after hand, the Akalak had grown cocky and smug, and foolishly indulged her in a game, to give her a chance to win back a faction of her losses, now that she was ‘beginning to understand the concepts’.

Poor man had been filched, for the money he had won and a bit more, even Lye's last cigarette. Tonight, they were playing for the last jar of wine and a handful of coin.

“Well, what say you baby? Ready to go to bed sober tonight?”