Augury
This thread is part of a series of threads in Zida 706 when Yrmellyn Cole meets her mentor in painting and magic, Mariuz Arbin. Arbin is an attunement mage and when he sometimes stands totally still this means he is turning the attunement on.
Rharne 1 Zida Arc 706
It was in a gambling house in the glass quarter of Rharne. The courtesan Yrmellyn Cole laughed at the tasteless jokes her newfound company the jeweler made, but the laughter didn’t reach her eyes. She was “between protectors”, which meant she was looking for a new “relationship” to keep her floating for a while. She needed to find someone new before she ran out of money. Her latest lover had left her with a generous farewell gift, but her lifestyle was expensive, had to be expensive even, and gold in Yrmellyn Cole’s hands tended to melt away like butter in hot sun.
She was from the dust quarters, the slum of the city. The poor people there grew up without learning anything about how to manage money, except for spending them while they could. Easy come, easy go. If you didn’t hurry up and use your nels, someone would rob you. Owning money, however little, was guaranteed to draw attention and evoke envy and greed. Holding on to the nels could cost you your life. So spend, spend, spend and have a good time today, and immortals may care about tomorrow. This was the kind of short term thinking Yrmellyn had learnt in the dust. It still guided her. Every time she was between relationships she started to gravitate back towards poverty as predictably as night follows day.
The courtesan dressed expensively in the latest fashion and laughed like she didn’t have a trouble in the whole world, while she carelessly watched her money shrink away and supposed it would be alright, somehow. She used to find a new lover to keep her before she reached the bottom of her pouch, but this time the trials had been passing by without any of her prospects leading to a new arrangement. She had started to live this way at age sixteen and now she was twenty. For the very first time she had started to fear that she was no longer new and fresh enough, compared to the never ending stream of new girls who emerged from the dust.
She needed to find a new lover to provide for her soon, or else she would be in dire straits. This meant she couldn’t afford to not laugh at the bad jokes of anybody who might be the solution to the financial troubles that threatened her. She looked at the jeweler and acted entertained, but not exaggeratedly so. Yrmellyn didn’t want anybody to think she was demanding and hard to please, but she also didn’t want to come off as too eager. Seeming desperate could lower her appeal. She also had “the audience” to think of. Others were watching them, even if they did it discreetly. The jeweler had his merits, but there could be more options for her among the clients of this gambling house. She wanted to look sought after, courted, desired but not already spoken for.
As a courtesan she paid enormous attention to her own appearance. The off-white silk dress she wore tonight could have been made for a woman of Rharne’s rich upper class, albeit the courtesan’s décolletage was somewhat deeper than average and added a hint of classy decadence to her looks instead of just class. She was as well-groomed as a rich woman. Her makeup was done with high quality cosmetics, just like theirs, but the lovely rose color of Yrmellyn Cole’ lips was stronger and instead of keeping to demure and modest lighter shades she had painted her eyelids golden bronze, with a hint of a darker shade of plum. Her hairdo...was not at all the kind of complicated braided artwork that adorned wealthy women who had chamber maids to help them. The courtesan used to put up her hair herself, in a soft and simple style. She did her best to make it look like her dark golden hair could escape the hairpins and come tumbling down any trill, despite how it was actually well fastened and meant to look great for hours. This look was fairly hard to achieve, but Yrmellyn had been practicing for four years. Her hair looked just right, for the effect she wanted to achieve.
She smiled encouragingly at the jeweler and sipped on the drink he had bought her, while she listened to his conversation, acted interested and laughed at every right place when he dropped crude jokes. Crude. This single word summed the whole man up. He was a wealthy man of wealthy family, and not bad looking, but despite this, or maybe because of it, his manners were unpolished. According to what he told her about himself, he was the one who would become the head of their jeweler firm when his father would retire. This was maybe true. Yrmellyn made a mental note to investigate the facts later. She was no stranger to lies and deceit. Some people weren’t above attempting to make her believe they would be more profitable for her than they really had the money for. For this reason the courtesan didn’t take the jewelers words at face value, but she noted that the diamond button on the lapel of his coat was a beautiful piece of artwork. Gold and diamonds. There was that. It could make her overlook a person’s flaws in favor of financial benefits, for the limited time a relationship would last.
Relationships were basically time limited transactions.
Love wasn’t on her agenda.
Sex was business.
She was from the dust quarters, the slum of the city. The poor people there grew up without learning anything about how to manage money, except for spending them while they could. Easy come, easy go. If you didn’t hurry up and use your nels, someone would rob you. Owning money, however little, was guaranteed to draw attention and evoke envy and greed. Holding on to the nels could cost you your life. So spend, spend, spend and have a good time today, and immortals may care about tomorrow. This was the kind of short term thinking Yrmellyn had learnt in the dust. It still guided her. Every time she was between relationships she started to gravitate back towards poverty as predictably as night follows day.
The courtesan dressed expensively in the latest fashion and laughed like she didn’t have a trouble in the whole world, while she carelessly watched her money shrink away and supposed it would be alright, somehow. She used to find a new lover to keep her before she reached the bottom of her pouch, but this time the trials had been passing by without any of her prospects leading to a new arrangement. She had started to live this way at age sixteen and now she was twenty. For the very first time she had started to fear that she was no longer new and fresh enough, compared to the never ending stream of new girls who emerged from the dust.
She needed to find a new lover to provide for her soon, or else she would be in dire straits. This meant she couldn’t afford to not laugh at the bad jokes of anybody who might be the solution to the financial troubles that threatened her. She looked at the jeweler and acted entertained, but not exaggeratedly so. Yrmellyn didn’t want anybody to think she was demanding and hard to please, but she also didn’t want to come off as too eager. Seeming desperate could lower her appeal. She also had “the audience” to think of. Others were watching them, even if they did it discreetly. The jeweler had his merits, but there could be more options for her among the clients of this gambling house. She wanted to look sought after, courted, desired but not already spoken for.
As a courtesan she paid enormous attention to her own appearance. The off-white silk dress she wore tonight could have been made for a woman of Rharne’s rich upper class, albeit the courtesan’s décolletage was somewhat deeper than average and added a hint of classy decadence to her looks instead of just class. She was as well-groomed as a rich woman. Her makeup was done with high quality cosmetics, just like theirs, but the lovely rose color of Yrmellyn Cole’ lips was stronger and instead of keeping to demure and modest lighter shades she had painted her eyelids golden bronze, with a hint of a darker shade of plum. Her hairdo...was not at all the kind of complicated braided artwork that adorned wealthy women who had chamber maids to help them. The courtesan used to put up her hair herself, in a soft and simple style. She did her best to make it look like her dark golden hair could escape the hairpins and come tumbling down any trill, despite how it was actually well fastened and meant to look great for hours. This look was fairly hard to achieve, but Yrmellyn had been practicing for four years. Her hair looked just right, for the effect she wanted to achieve.
She smiled encouragingly at the jeweler and sipped on the drink he had bought her, while she listened to his conversation, acted interested and laughed at every right place when he dropped crude jokes. Crude. This single word summed the whole man up. He was a wealthy man of wealthy family, and not bad looking, but despite this, or maybe because of it, his manners were unpolished. According to what he told her about himself, he was the one who would become the head of their jeweler firm when his father would retire. This was maybe true. Yrmellyn made a mental note to investigate the facts later. She was no stranger to lies and deceit. Some people weren’t above attempting to make her believe they would be more profitable for her than they really had the money for. For this reason the courtesan didn’t take the jewelers words at face value, but she noted that the diamond button on the lapel of his coat was a beautiful piece of artwork. Gold and diamonds. There was that. It could make her overlook a person’s flaws in favor of financial benefits, for the limited time a relationship would last.
Relationships were basically time limited transactions.
Love wasn’t on her agenda.
Sex was business.
