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[Faith Augustin]

14th Vhalar, 716:
Aboard the Boat

"Good trial" came the quiet and hushed tone of his by-now regular student. It was fair to say that the young woman really had not expected to see Padraig here. Not expected it at all. Of course, she also hadn't expected to actually be here, either, so it was rather a moot point. But of all the folks in Rynmere that she had met since that fateful trial when Jamal had first let her out, Padraig was probably the least likely. By a mile or two. But she smiled as she joined him where he was standing on the deck, careful to stand not too close to him in case the boat rocked and she ended up landing on the floor. She glanced down at said floor and a thought hit her "Is that where the phrase 'hit the deck' comes from do you think?" It was a question that she had never considered before and suddenly she thought of a number of phrases like 'clear the decks' which might be nautical by nature.

Since they had got aboard, Faith had changed into the armour and tied her hair back in a high ponytail, pulled away from her face and without makeup. She stood next to him, starting to get the grip of standing on a moving vessel, cutting its way through the water. "I have to admit, you are developing a habit of popping up in all sorts of unexpected places, you know" she smiled as she spoke, letting him know that she was joking. Mostly. But her expression told him that even though she was joking, she wasn't joking entirely. The apothecary the trial before had been unusual, but this? This ship was a far call from the logical, practical and sensible man that she had believed he was.

"Quite an eclectic bunch" she said, motioning around to the others, pointing out those that she knew. "The blonde man in the cloak is Aeon. He is a skyrider, and a hero in the civil war" she explained, proudly. "He helped me home once, he is a nice man. Huq, who is friends with Master's brother, who does not appear to be here. That lady is called Alys, she works in a local book store. I met that woman at a party where I was serving, but I do not know her name. She was with a man who tried to get me to kiss him in order to make her jealous. Then, that is my owner" she explained, pointing to the man leaning over the side and trying not to throw up. She shot Padraig a smile and motioned to the general vicinity of everywhere they were. "I had a dream" she explained, looking out at the ocean. "I had a dream and I had to come here. What's your excuse?"

[Padraig]

By now, Padraig had come to terms with the fact that wherever this ship was going, if it was as he and others had been told, that was where he was going too. He hadn't strayed far from the rail when Faith found him. He'd explore more in good time. But for now, after he'd gotten into the leathers he'd found, he contented himself with watching the sea speed past around them. The young man looked the part in what turned out to be very fine armor. He didn't quite feel it yet but there was time. "Maybe," he said, regarding the phrase. "A nautical term, it appears to be." Seeing that they ihad their feet planted on a ship's deck. "Maybe it means something alike to, feet on the floor, up and at'em. All hands on deck, so to speak. Or maybe," he added dryly, "it means incoming, low flying cannonball. Duck and cover?" He would in fact, should anyone shout out anything of the sort.

"Yes, we've got to stop meeting like this," Padraig added, in response to her joke, or no. "People will start asking questions." She pointed out those who she knew, and he frowned. He'd been surprised to find her there. But it made him wonder, had everyone on the ship been summoned in the same way as him? He still wasn't sure...Why him? Why any of them? "I had a dream as well. I don't usually remember them and when I do, more often I dismiss them. But this one seemed persistent, and so I came. The immortals needed me." He wasn't going to tell her that he'd been about to get off the ship when it set sail. It wasn't a lie but an omission. For her, it was plausible deniability.

"Did you remember to bring your cheese knife?" he asked, and for the first time smiled before patting the grip of the sword at his hip "Maybe I should get better at using this thing before we reach our destination. I can't imagine what the immortals were thinking." He'd feel better assured, was there time to get a lot better before they arrived.

[Faith Augustin]

He humoured her apparently random concern with the phrase and she smiled at him for so doing. "Maybe if anyone yells it, lets just go with doing it and not worry about its origin?" Her suggestion was a genuine one, she was more than a little unnerved by all that was going on here and although she was wearing the armour, she didn't even quite manage to look the part. Somehow, she managed to pull off looking like she was playing dress up and she knew it. The armour fit her well, but Faith had something of a tendency to squirm in it and that didn't help with the whole ambience or attempt to look all grown up. Of course, the fact that she was trying to look grown up was really the problem. As she tugged at the buckle on said armour, she looked around and considered who she was speaking about as she told him about each of the people here how she knew them. She sighed slightly and then turned back to look at him, as though her attention had been pulled away, which in fact it had.

But, focus back on the here and now, she chuckled "Let them ask. They are merely jealous" she gave a grin which was rather ironic "They all wish that they knew a slave who cooks as well as I do. That's what it is" she informed him. "I think that your reputation is intact, all things considered" she highly doubted that anyone noticed what a slave did from one trial to another, in truth. He told her of his dream, though and Faith frowned slightly "All of them?" she wondered of 'the Immortals'. That seemed rather different to the dream that she had, that was certain. "I wonder if we all had dreams but each one was different. Yours wasn't of a pretty girl, by any chance? The only other person who has shared it with me had a dream of a pretty girl" Somehow, if he was going to share a dream, that it might be the one involving the pretty girl rather than the Immortal of souls, servitude, resurrection and blood would not surprise her at all.

She looked at him with confusion on her face for a moment and then shook her head with a beaming grin "No, I did not. No cheese knife. Sadly. Nor did I bring a frypan which is what I used to batter a zombie some time ago. I did not even bring the brush which I attacked Master's brother with, when I thought he was a burglar. I wonder if there are any spares here or anything" she glanced around, as though expecting one to jump into her hand. Squirming in her armour some more, she leant forward slightly and spoke in an even quieter tone than usual "I am not really used to wearing armour" she confided, probably unnecessarily "And I have weilded a cheese knife only...oh, actually, three times now. Or no. No, twice. When the shadow creatures attacked Master's cat and chased it into the garden, he used the cheese knife, I hit it with a stick"

But he would like to get better with his sword? She nodded her head and considered for a moment. "I know that skyrider. His name is Aeon, although I call him Fred" she said, without appearing to think that it was a ludicrous thing to do, indeed she explained most sincerely and with her usual earnest nature "I told him I am not permitted to address him by his first name" and indeed, she had never addressed Padraig as such, either "He did not like that and he did not like being called sir, so we agreed that I call him Fred. It works. In the spirit of fairness, he calls me Velma. However, I know him and he is a swordsman. I could ask if he would maybe teach us both some moves with the sword?" She looked around and considered "I'm going to have a look around to see if I can find a spare sword, or even two" she suddenly had visions of herself, cape flowing in the wind and twin swords flashing like the ultimate warrior in defence of her owner and his family. With a grin, she looked at Padraig and asked with a touch of her usual sass "Would you consider helping a girl out?" she wondered, tilting her head to the side and looking at him with a wicked grin.

[Padraig]

He watched her squirm and fidget in her armor for a moment in silence, and then grinned just a little. It was a rare thing, but there it was. "I see you didn't take my advice about the rosemary or cedar shavings." he said. A moment of levity never hurt anyone, Padraig guessed. And maybe it was needed in the middle of all this mystery and dark foreboding.

"The immortals. That's what she said," he explained when Faith asked about his dream. "Young, old, I"m not sure. But pale hair, as if she'd just rolled out of bed, tattooed skin...Jesine, I think," he considered after pausing to remember. "That was what she called herself." So no cheese knife? No frying pan? He smiled again, but only slightly. "I'd like it if my reputation wasn't to be stories of the fool who was the first aboard to die of a self inflicted wound."

The young scholar glanced in the direction of the man she called Aeon, or Fred, and frowned thoughtfully. It appeared he was missing an arm. It meant that either he was a very poor fighter, inexperienced, or a very good and experienced one. By the general look of him and the way he seemed to carry himself, Padraig guessed it was most probably the latter. He was in agreement then. This time aboard was an opportunity to find some ease and comfort with the blade at his side. If he did nothing, then it was nothing more than an ornament to wave in a panic while he tried to outrun his opponents.

"Let's find you a weapon then, and you can make the introductions." Below deck seemed like the most logical place to start. Whatever had been up top had probably been picked over by now. So that was the direction he'd go. Down below deck into the corridors and to the hold if necessary, with Faith at his side. It wasn't long really, before he spied something metallic that caught the light as they passed and a lamp flickered. There, half hidden in shadows, and he pointed it out.

[Faith Augustin]

It took a moment and then, as the realisation hit of just what he was saying, Faith pursed her lips and then grinned. "It is not that, I have just never worn armour before and it is uncomfortable. I feel like I am pretending" she explained, the best she could. In truth, she did not do pretending very well at all and her discomfort was much more about how she felt about wearing it, rather than any physical sensation at all.

"I do not know who that is, I am afraid" she said of the Immortal Padraig spoke of "My training involved devotion to one immortal and so I know her and no others, really. I should remedy that, I suppose, but it has not seemed at all important to do so. But here, we have it. The moment where I do not have a book" it had to happen evenutally they had agreed. Where else but on a strange and ancient boat moving at an impossible speed heading to Ne'haer (she had no idea where that was) because Jesine the Immortal (who she knew nothing about) had told him and Famula had told her to be on it? It was strange enough, and so her lack of a book was a passing and fleeting thought in her mind, nothing else.

But, she showed him Aeon and then the went down below decks to find a weapon for her. There were cabins and all sorts and an exploration of the ship showed that it was more than sufficient for their needs. However, as they were looking in what seemed to be an abandoned room, filled with boxes and so on, she was looking in one direction, him in another, and she spoke of something which seemed totally unrelated. At least at first. "The rebels were rebelling against the king. They were led by a man called Velijorn and he was married to a woman who is my owner's cousin. They had amassed an army" she explained. "But more than that" standing still she had her back to him as she spoke, ostensibly looking for a weapon "They had taken a noble lady prisoner, and I heard of it when the servants spoke. I told my owner and he sent me with his cousin to help her. I was given to her as a gift, with the aim that I would help her escape."

It had all been quick, and Faith had been caught up in the whirlwind of it, but she turned to look at her tutor and her gaze was serious and her eyes haunted. "I was there when the rebel king died. The true King held my hand. The rebels were defeated and Velijorn was killed. I rode on the back of a dragon and escaped. But.." she motioned around "All of this is because of that. I was there at the attack on the city. We didn't stop them all, didn't contain them all and so they attacked. Aeon lost his hand and his eye in that battle." And a part of her would always blame herself. Kneeling, she slid out a long dagger from underneath an open lid on a crate. Lifting it she shot him a grin. But then, another flash of metal and she moved over. "Sword and long knife. Nice. I couldn't really help before, but I won't be that way again. I seem to keep getting into trouble" she considered that and breathed in, gathering her thoughts and herself in the same gesture. "It's probably a good thing that you are going to learn that, too, since you and I seem to keep bumping into each other"

Gesturing around the room, she raised an eyebrow "Do you want to keep searching, or shall we go speak to Fred now?" she wondered.

[Padraig]

"I'd never have guessed," Padraig said when she argued that the armor was uncomfortable. "You'll get used to it. I have anyway, after wearing it for most of the trial. Better the lack of comfort now than later, in the thick of it." Or so he believed anyway.

As for Jesine and Faith's lack of familiarity with her, Padraig frowned. "I'm not sure was an immortal herself, exactly. In fact, I'm fairly sure that she wasn't." Why he thought so, well, he couldn't say. But nonetheless, he added, "I got the impression that she was delivering a message for them, nonetheless." It still didn't explain why him. But he'd come to the conclusion that to keep asking why, would get him nowhere fast. The reason would either come with time, or it wouldn't. But better to be well armed and more comfortable with a blade, than not, should the answer come in the thick of it.

"So you've met the king? And you have a tendency to get into trouble, and by association, others with you. Good to know," he'd added with something of a smile. "All the more reason I should learn to better defend myself," he maintained while they looked for spare weapons. For her, and a knife for him before they were done. "No better time than now," he agreed. "Let's go find Fred."

[Malcolm]

Faith

Knowledge:
Seafaring: Deck, sails, guardrail
Padriag: Dreamed of the old ship
Padraig: Was visited by Jesine
Padraig: Has a very dry sense of humour
Armour is uncomfortable
Aeon: Calls you Velma
Seduction: Playing the damsel in distress
Storytelling: Skip to the juicy parts

Loot: n.a
Injuries: n.a
Fame: n.a
Magic: n.a

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Padraig

Knowledge:
Aeon: Blonde
Aeon: A Skyrider
Aeon: Faith calls him Fred
Aeon: Calls Faith Velma
Aeon: Has a missing hand
Alys: Blonde
Alys: Works for the local bookstore
Faith: Dreamed about the old ship
Linguistics: Seafaring Slang
Seduction: Remembering the little things
Seafaring: Deck, below deck
Qe’dreki: Led by the Dragon King Veljorn Burhan
Veljorn Burhan: Married to Tristan Venora’s cousin
King Cassander: Held Faith’s hand

Loot: n.a
Injuries: n.a
Fame: n.a
Magic: n.a

Story: 4/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Comment: I liked this thread a lot better, less grindy, more story! Faith so has the hots for teacher (don’t blame her), and teacher is so clueless and dry. More please. Pad, I chipped off a point because your posts were quite brief, but everything was very well written. Do I sense… could it be… editing!? Squeeeee.