Every step Dula took felt harder than the time before it, she was using Mercury like a walking stick and leaning on her heavily. The resounding sound of the metallic...something falling out of the sky and the subsequent BOOM effect it had in her mind rocked her every ten bits. The "boom" had a metallic property to it, as if many sharp edged objects scraped against one another, but it was also filled with a deep bass that sent her head splitting like a gong being rung. The woman had spent the last few days holed up in her house, having Teyga bring her smoked beetle and roast ant for lunch and supper by delivery. The poor thing quaked in her boots the hole time, anticipating and dreading the noise that surrounded her but at least she had her favorite food.
Today though she decided it was time to get out of her house and work on a project, mining for quartz crystals being the first step. The next step would be breaking her window for glass, but that is a story for another trial. It was early in the morning and there was a nip in the air, cooler still under the cover of the Lori's trees. She trudged along side the Tosibeere River following it upstream to the mining area she had loved to scour as a child. It wasn't a well known place and she hadn't been there in a long time but she thought she knew the way. On her back her traveler's pack was hung, mostly empty save her knife and her axe, the axe was strapped to the side of the pack. It would be difficult to mine into the earth with no shovel but she thought that if any gems happened to be exposed she might be able to pick them out with her knife and a rock.
This area was still rather close to Desnind's walls, it would be safe enough here for her to mine even with her distracting condition. There was no hiding in her home anyore, she HAD to get out and do something with her hands. A certain fear of losing her mind crept up on her each day she stayed cooped up in her tree house, it was time for a change. The trill dropping noise and then the BOOM came rising in her mind again and her legs faltered. She steadied herself but took the moment to rest on the tree. It would be clear to anyone who saw her that she was out of it, perhaps something heavy on her mind. The dark skinned woman looked down but not in anguish.
Desnind was weird, Tristan decided as he walked along the Tosibeere River, towards the mining area where he had been told that he would find the gems he needed for his latest experiment. He didn’t mind the weirdness though, and he didn’t mind the fact that the people here ate bugs either. While his companions had gotten sick and thrown up their lunch, he’d happily devoured a plate full of beetles and ants – and demanded seconds because they had been absolutely delicious. He only wished that Desnind didn’t have so much nature. He didn’t like nature. He was a city boy. Nature made him uncomfortable.
From what Tristan knew, nature usually meant animals on top of all the other unpleasant things, and since some animals were dangerous, he had brought a weapon, his beloved crossbow that was strapped across his back. He also carried a bag that contained his tools and some food, and he was dressed in … well, the outfit he was wearing wasn’t exactly suitable for trudging around in the wilderness. He was wearing a bright blue coat and an equally bright blue suit where any kind of dirt would immediately be visible, but that complimented the mark of Vhalar on his face just so nicely.
He’d almost reached his destination when he suddenly saw her. A young, dark-skinned woman was resting on a tree, and she looked a bit unwell. For a moment Tristan was worried that she might be a witch or a cannibal, but then he remembered that he quite liked witches and cannibals, besides, he couldn’t just leave her here when she might be sick. For that reason, he decided to approach her, smiling so that she would know that he wasn’t a threat, in spite of his crossbow.
“Are you alright?” he asked. “Do you need help?” He paused for a moment, looked her over, took note of her clothes and the pack on her back and decided, pouting slightly, as if he were disappointed, “You don’t look like a cannibal. Are you exploring the wilderness?”
Holding her head in her hands she sighed as the noise left her mind. With the assault passed she registered a man coming up to her. Odd, he must have been not far behind her this whole time, or how long had she been standing here? He was dressed in rather fancy clothing in a style that marked him as clearly not from Desnind. The strange symbol on his face is what caught her eye first and she did notice their shimmering like water in the morning light. 'How odd...'
Came the thought across her mind as she reached up in a subconscious movement to touch the left side of her own face, mouth slightly agape. That was when she noticed the crossbow, a wary feeling settling over her as she changed her stance slightly to show off her staff. It was plain to see he wasn't a hunter, was a foreigner, and possibly some sort of mage. While this would make a normal person uneasy she felt more so curious within her wariness. She had her staff in any case, there would be no harm to come to her on this day. The well dressed man's next words were in Common and he seemed to be very well spoken at that.
"Be fine. No help. Just resting on tree. Mind is have a lot inside. You Common? Speak Xanthea but know mite bit."
With a shrug she regarded him with eyes that seemed to study his person. What he said next made little sense to her. "Can-na-bel? Willed-ern-ess? Am here for.... the shiny? Find the shiny gems. Down river."
She sounded stupid, common wasn't something she ever had to use often. Pointing to herself she noted. "Alchemist. Make things. This time...."
Her eyes seem to light up and glitter. "Big sparkling boom!"
It was then she remembered where she was, that she was talking to a stranger and she noticeably righted herself. "No fire with boom, methinks. Am go down river now. Where you be going with that?"
Nodding to the crossbow the irony of such a suit in the Lori, while armed, didn't miss her. Dula was clearly giggling at him. Tristan might notice bags under her eyes. She is wearing her cold weather outfit; a dark grey dress, belt, no cloak, and boots, plus her fitted hood.
“So you were just thinking about something unpleasant?” Tristan asked and furrowed his brow a bit before he sat down on the ground next to her. His hands were in his lap where she could see them. He’d noticed that she had looked at his crossbow, and he didn’t want her to feel uneasy – although the thought of anybody feeling uneasy in his presence was absurd. He only used his crossbow on people that tried to hurt him first!
“I don’t speak Xanthea, I’m afraid”, he admitted. “But I speak Rakahi, and I know swearwords in at least a dozen other languages – although I’m not sure how useful the latter will be. As for cannibals”, he continued. “Cannibals are people that eat other people. I was told that they often hide in the wilderness. I interviewed one for a play that I was writing once. She was nice. Of course, I didn’t serve her any food”, he told her in quite a serious and matter-of-fact tone as if there was nothing weird about it.
As Dula mentioned that she was an alchemist, his eyes widened and lit up. “What a coincidence!” he exclaimed excitedly. “I’m an alchemist as well, and I just love to make things go boom. My friends say it’s dangerous, but alchemy just isn’t alchemy without the occasional explosion, don’t you agree?”
“This here?” He took the crossbow off – slowly so as to not scare her – and showed it to her. It was quite an exquisite looking crossbow, and it was blue and golden instead of brown or whatever colour crossbows normally tended to be. “I brought this here in order to defend myself against wild animals. A crossbow is quite useful. You can just climb a tree and shoot things from a safe distance!” he informed her.
“You can hold it if you want”, he offered.
“I’m looking for shiny gems as well, by the way”, he told her. “Maybe we could look for shiny gems together! Are you sure you are okay though?” he wanted to know.
The man with the markings on his face asked if she had been thinking of something "unpleasant." While she wasn't entirely sure what that word meant his facial expression was that of concern, so she assumed he was asking why she had just been leaning against a tree looking faint. She had a sour look on her face as she tried coming up with a lie, and in common tuboot. In the end her only heavily accented reply was, "Yes."
With a nod and a bow. Though if Tristan was observant he might notice the way she fidgeted with her hands when she said that, as if she had something to hide or more was on her mind than what she wanted to admit.
No longer holding his crossbow the conversation became a little less tense, Dula being a trusting person as it were, but with him being foreign she still gave him a wide berth. It was mostly his facial markings that threw her off. Although she was extremely curious about them and why they were there the language barrier wouldn't help what she wanted to ask. Her puzzle eyes were subtle enough markings that they could go unmissed, she really wondered how he walked around with that thing on his face. Realizing she had been staring, she shied her face away and focused on his next words intently.
He confessed he didn't speak Xanthea which was unsurprising but a bummer. Oh well, she would just have to work on her common. "Ahhhh yes. Knows swear. 'Cassion's balls'! 'Bad luck'."
She found him rather morbid to walk up to a stranger and just start talking about cannibals. But now she understood that he was implying she might be one. Then again she just cursed at him, so maybe she was in better company than what she wanted to admit. The word "interview" went over her head but she understood the gist of "he was playing with a cannibal but didn't serve her food". He seemed very serious about it which confused her. "Cannabal. Disgusting. Hmph. She kind? Why play? Methinks would have hunger for you, ser!"
When he confessed to her that he was also an alchemist her heart soared! While he was weird he seemed knowledgeable, and as half of his words were things she had never even heard in common before, perhaps this would be a good contact to make in the future for her exploits. Dula grinned largely at him, eyes squinted from the apples of her cheeks being raised. "Yes. Very good explosions. Unless caught. Danger yes. Turned blue once."
She quickly took back her admission though, trying to sound impressive. "Only awhile. Not long being blue. 'Cani'sliwa'. Or common, 'dog's hair'. What you make?"
He began taking off his crossbow. She gave him a side eye, not out of fear but just dubious of him in general. It was her way to seem aloof. Seemingly he wanted her to take it and that, to her, was in good faith. She inspected it, running her dark hands over the wood, the blue color matching his entire person perfectly. It was noted that the craftsmanship seemed to be rather nice. Definitely wasn't cheap, that was for sure. Her eyebrows raised and she scrutinized him. Dark honey colored eyes pouring over him and drank in his appearance, noticing now that his suit was also fantastically made. He was scruffy and weird but apparently rich. She handed it back to him as another fall and horrible BOOM rang through her mind. Her blood went ice cold, eyes going wide. Hygge had broke her, that retched foul born! It had no physical effect, no pain was associated with it, but having her mind invaded was terrifying and distracting. "Yes. A beauty."
She squeaked, clearing her throat. It was time to get on her way.
"Shiny gems together?"
A hand raised to her chin as she mulled it over, caught off guard. Well that wasn't according to plan. Though.... He was an alchemist, a foreigner. Had a cross bow. Dressed in an uncomfortable suit? This man expected to get dirty and wet looking for crystals? Internally she scoffed at him. Really she was just going to have a hard time hiding every wince and jolt from her overstepping condition, it wouldn't be pleasant to be in the company of another right now. Looking to his face again, the strange markings there, she thought to herself that maybe he would understand if she confessed this to him. No, she wouldn't tell him just yet. "Yes. Why not? We go same place anyway. I know way better after all. Come. Am fine, no worry!"
The short stature woman introduced herself proudly, her accent deepening as she spoke her name. "Am Dula Mii'krill. Nice apologies."
She meant "nice to make your acquaintance".
“These are great swears!“ Tristan complimented Dula and grinned because swears were a topic that he found quite interesting, in spite of it being totally inappropriate for a noble. “I can teach you more, if you want! How about ‘fek’ or ‘fod-sack’ – or ‘bogs’?” he asked, momentarily wondering what his grandmother would say if she could hear him now. She’d probably be absolutely outraged and insist that he had to uphold certain standards as a duke, and he’d laugh because he quite enjoyed shocking her!
Talking to Dula was a bit of a struggle, he had to admit. Tristan hadn’t had to deal with a lot of foreigners that couldn’t speak Common properly when he’d still been living in Rynmere, but that fact didn’t dampen his good mood in the least. He tried to speak a little more slowly and clearly in order to make it easier for Dula to understand him though.
“I used to be a playwright when I was younger”, he told her. Realizing that she might not know the word ‘playwright’, he added, “I worked for the theatre. I wanted to write a scary play. The cannibal might have secretly been wondering what I taste like, that’s true. But if she had eaten me, she wouldn’t have gotten paid, and there wouldn’t have been a play about her either!” he informed Dula so that she would know that he had thought things through. Cannibals wanted to get famous, too!
Tristan’s reaction to her admission that she had managed to turn herself blue once was probably not what she had expected. He looked excited – in his opinion, turning yourself blue was quite a feat! “How did you do it?” he wanted to know. “I haven’t managed to turn myself blue yet. I made a potion that enables you to talk to cats though. If I had it here, I’d show it to you! I also built an invisible box that you can hide treasure in!”
When she suddenly squeaked, he looked a little worried and quickly put the crossbow away again. Maybe his weapon had caused that reaction? Maybe she was still afraid of it?
“Sure!” he said as she suggested that they go looking for shiny things together – because that was what he had pretty much proposed a moment earlier.
“Well met, Dula. I’m Tristan. Tristan Venora”, he introduced himself and extended his right hand for her to shake. “I’m not sure what you are apologizing for, but it’s great that you do. Apologies are a good thing, especially if you say them nicely”, he informed her.
“Anyway, let’s go. Are you familiar with the area, Dula? I asked somebody in town where the shiny things are, but I’ve never been there myself”, he admitted.
Listening intently to his swears she tried them out for herself, saying them out loud. Swearing was also something of one of her favorite colloquialisms. “You know one for Xanthea?”
She asked him, implying she would teach him one. In Xanthea she said with a grin, “Moseke’s right boob!”
Then switching back to common she told him, “Means ‘Moseke breast’. For ‘surprise’.”
That was her favorite.
His story about the cannibal was interesting to her. So he wrote “plays”. She thought she knew what he meant by that. Like a performance? To this she merely nodded, though it was clear she was impressed. Although he was odd he seemed to be eager, not to mention agreeable, and despite the handicaps she had was enjoying talking to him. Standing up and stretching she was ready to go, Dula brushed the dirt off of her legs.
Giving him a rather sheepish look at first, when she saw that he was serious about his enthusiasm for her mishap she quickly changed to a wolfish, conspirator’s grin. Oh how everyone had made fun of her, but a real alchemist sat here dead impressed by her antics! Yeah, take that “fod-sacks”. “Dogs hair. Night light powder. Explosive, must be quick with make. Wasn’t. So much der was blue glow on face, arms, hair. Very blue for some time. You say talk to cats? Oh! What do cats say?”
Taking his hand and shaking it gingerly, her hand feeling rather dainty in his own, she finally got his name. “Nice apologies….? Uhm….”
Tristan had confused her, she must have gotten the colloquialism wrong. Shrugging, she then headed them farther down the river to a place where it was narrow and shallow. Along the way she had answered Tristan’s question. “What? Yes. Familiar. Have lived Desnind all my life. Grew up in Lori. Parents were hunter-gatherers. You meet Teydroa? Medicine house? Great-grandmother.”
She said while pointing to herself. It was clear she was proud of her heritage. “Half-sev’ryn. Half-human. Mixed but not…. Hm. Strained. Die-loo-ted. You human yes?”
Again her eyes rested on the strange marking on the side of his face, she stared at it for a moment, then flicked her eyes back in front of her and lead the way. It wasn’t much farther.
She led him through a fair amount of brush now, dodging a spider web, and pushing through the low hanging branches. It took moments, maybe five bits of walking, before the brush opened up to an area that had a large bank, the first thing to be noticed as that the river here was mighty low. It was about a three foot drop down to get into the low river’s bank. On either side of the narrow river a ten foot recede of exposed river bed was there, just a flat expanse of rocks and pebbles. If they would cross the river to the other side to look for gems on the opposite bank the water would be about halfway up the calf in the middle most point, this is where it was deepest. The whole river, receded beds included, was about thirty feet from one bank to the other side. The river seemed to trickle here.
Hopping down and waving him to come with her, she began the first visual search for crystals and gems. “Vhalar best of year for this, this area. As child came play. Look at gems around bed.”
Her head swiveled with her fluffy curls bouncing to and fro as she scoped the ground, stooped low and running her hand over the gravel and stones. As she spoke occasionally she would pick one up and toss it, frowning. “Look around, will find plenty. “Eye for de shine”. River washes them down stream, then dries up. Clear quartz and smoky. Jasper, yes. Egg rocks, cracks them open sometimes amethyst in-side. Hope beat rush. Many people love shiny gems. Come lookin’, slim pickings.”
She stopped talking then and slung her pack off of her shoulder. Throwing him a side eye she tossed the thing beside the bank like a sack of potatoes, then set off to scour this side of the bank. Looking hard, either of them could spot a shine that as different from the browns, blacks, and dark greys of the rest of the rocks. It was mildly difficult to the find clear quartz points and formations, which were about an inch long, usually less. By thirty bits she had found about a dozen or so tiny quartz points. As it turned out she was right about getting out of the house and moving her body around instead of staying cooped up and shivering under the covers. It was now apparent that about every ten bits the noise would sound, if her counting was correct, and it didn’t have any physical effect on the body. Just felt disturbing. Each time it sounded she would huff out a large puff of air, as if she had a pain or cramp.
“We can help? Help Tristan, help Dula? Look these. Break as they go down river. Get small.”
“Moseke’s right boob“, Tristan repeated, butchering the Xanthean words horribly despite the fact that he tried so very hard before he suddenly realized something. “Wait! Why do your people associate Moseke’s breast with surprise? Is it deformed – or does she have more than two breasts?” he wanted to know, briefly picturing an Immortal that looked like some sort of mutated freak under her clothes – even though such a thing was probably not very nice.
Fortunately, Dula’s listing the ingredients for her blue potion kept him from thinking about Moseke’s chest further. “Does it have to be a specific breed of dog?” he wanted to know. “My little daughter has a NightPup from Scalvoris. It has four eyes. Do you think that would work? As for what cats say, most of them are unfortunately not very intelligent.”
“They just talk about mice and world domination. Strangely enough, they don’t mind dogs nearly as much as we humans think they do. In fact, some of them are friends with dogs”, he said in a very serious tone – because it was the truth and nothing but the truth.
Since Dula claimed to be familiar with the area, he followed her. “So, you have some Sev’ryn blood?” he asked, making sure that he had understood what she had said correctly. Her accent was quite terrible, and sometimes she just used the wrong words altogether. “As for me, I’m human. At least I think that I’m human. I’ve always dreamed of secretly being a Mortalborn. That would be a lot of fun, don’t you think?”
He caught her staring at his face again. Was she staring at him because she found him so overwhelmingly handsome or because of the mark on his face? He thought about it for a few moments and came to the decision that the latter was unfortunately a bit more likely to be the case. “That’s the mark of Vhalar. He’s an Immortal. We made a sculpture together once”, he explained, grinning because it was one of his favourite memories.
While Dula managed to dodge the spiderweb, Tristan whose experience with traversing the wilderness and avoiding the things that lived in it was next to non-existent almost ran into it. He glared at the spiderweb for a moment as if he were quite mad at it, and then he abruptly produced a small knife, cut the spiderweb off and stuffed it into his bag.
“Maybe I can use it for one of my potions”, he explained and closed his bag again. A moment later, they stood directly in front of the river, and he stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at Dula, at the water that was at least three feet below them and then back at her as if he was having second thoughts. A moment later, he jumped down though.
Compared to Aelig, Syroa and Lisirra that had tried to ruin his life, compared to the shadow monsters and the Plague, this here was nothing. He probably wouldn’t even die!
He landed in what was a somewhat undignified manner, brushed the dirt from his clothes and started to look for the gems, occasionally picking a stone that looked promising up.
“Of course I’ll help you”, he assured her.
“What do you think of that?” he asked and showed her a particularly shiny stone.
When he asked if Moseke’s breast was deformed Dula threw her head back and laughed. A real, hearty laugh that she could feel in her belly. Wiping a tear from her eye, getting out the final snickers, she responded, “Not sure. Possibly. Why ‘Cassion’s balls’? Great mystery, maybe see them both someday. Let’s hope.”
Tristan then began talking about dogs and cats. Something called a “night-pup” with four eyes? That peaked Dula’s interest and she listened attentively, nodding as he finished telling about dogs and cats being friends. “Cani’silwa be plant. Call dog hair as for gets everywhere within Hot Cycle. Dog hair is cani’silwa for common. Cats though, they have nothing head? Heart aches.”
Putting her hand to her heart she was decidedly solemn. “Not good cat then, must find better one. Study. Teach? Could useful friend. Cat’s honor, loyalty, worth more for simple dog. Earned. Not given. Lazy yes, some tricksters. Quiet paws. More cuter cats, anyway.”
“Consider self Sev’ryn moreso den human. Yes. Am both in accordances otherwise. Grew up with Sev’ryn. Blood stronger. What is be human? Not sure. Know what be Sev’ryn. Hmph.”
There was a pause as she took in the rest of what he was saying, focusing hard on his words in order to understand him. “Find out you mortal born?”
She stopped in her tracks and looked him up and down, as if she were appraising him, hand on chin in contemplation. “Neh. You wish.”
Dula was teasing him, grinning after a moment. They continued on.
“Your face? Beautiful markings. What means? Know Vhalar. Have seasons for Desnind, of course.”
So he had created something with a god to get that marking. Didn’t marked people have powers? Giving him a sort of side eye she was impressed, he must be an important person to get marked by a god. That wasn’t something usually arbitrary.
It would seem that her small handful was all that was left from the previous miners. Or rather, all that was easily found. Tristan was picking up pebbles, as he showed her now a wet stone, so he was going to be rather unable to help. Probably didn’t want to get his fancy suit dirty. “Noooo… Tristan that be stone. Wet stone.”
She smacked it out of his hand. “I share my crystals with you, no worries. Methinks to use them as primer. Grind grind,”
She made the movements of grinding in a mortar and pestle with her hands, “Make powder. Hm. Must break first into pieces? Won’t be easy. But worth it? Hm we shall see. Distill dem crystals? Ohhh much think about. Don’t know!”
By the end of it she was mostly talking to herself, back to a crouched position moving the riverbed stones around to look for more crystals.
For another twenty bits she lifted stones, moved her hands around, used the best eye she could. But if there were anymore crystals or gems here, they had eluded her. Likely the place was picked clean by now and she was just finding what was left over from previous miners. Visually finding crystals wasn’t easy for her, the old timers who had been at it for so long could come and just sweep the place, it would take much more practice to get an eye for the shine. But what she had found already was easy pickings, she would be satisfied with this for now.
“Going to cross river, you coming? Looking for geode on other bank. Can show you?”
The blonde, dark skinned woman was putting her backpack on, getting ready to cross, but paused long enough for Tristan to make his decision.
“Wait, Dula!“ Tristan said and signalled for her to stop. If she turned around, she would be able to see that the noble looked quite confused. “Does that mean that you don’t actually need dog hair for your potion? What does the cani’silwa plant look like?” he wanted to know. He was, he had to admit, a bit disappointed. Dog hair sounded much more fun than some plant that grew everywhere, if what she had said was true.
Maybe he’d put dog hair into his potion nevertheless, he decided, just to see what happened!
“I agree that cats are pretty cute”, he proceeded to inform her. “I have a cat. His name is Mistral, and he’s completely black and has yellow eyes. He’s not a normal cat though. He originally comes from the Misty Miasma where cats walk on two legs and talk. Do you know what the Misty Miasma is?” he wanted to know.
When she teased him about his statement regarding Mortalborn, he laughed with her, because it was kind of funny, and he quite liked her, but then he remarked, “Well … it could happen. I seem to attract a lot of attention from the Immortals for a mortal man.”
“Vhalar is the Immortal of Art”, he explained, hoping that was what she’d asked about. Sometimes he wasn’t sure what she wanted. He didn’t mind though. He still enjoyed talking to her. She had a sense of humour that rather reminded him of his own.
When she smacked the nice stone he’d just picked up out of his hand, he looked rather indignant for a moment, and then he shrugged his shoulders, picked it up again and stuffed it into his bag that he’d already put the spiderweb into. “You never know if something could be an alchemical reagent until you test it”, he informed her in quite a serious tone.
When she made weird movements with her hands, he just stared at her blankly for a few trills before he exclaimed, “I have a mortar and pestle at home – and a hammer. I smashed crystals with a hammer once and made a potion with them. That was fun!”
His eyes shimmered brightly as he said that.
He watched Dula for a while as she examined the area in order to see which kinds of stones she picked up and tried to find a few similar ones before he just stuffed everything that looked halfway interesting into his bag.
“Sure”, he decided as she mentioned crossing the river because he wasn’t satisfied with what he had found so far. “How are we going to cross the river though?” he wanted to know and wondered how he was supposed to keep his clothes from getting wet.
Maybe he could take his boots off and roll his pant legs up? He looked at the river appraisingly, wondering if that would suffice and did just that. He walked until his toes were in the water, as if he wanted to show her how brave he was, in spite of coming from a big city and wearing clothes that were much too fancy for exploring the wilderness.
And then … and then he pulled a box that was filled with delicious looking pastries out of his bag.
“Want anything before we cross the river and look for those geodes?” he asked her.
“I’m already hungry”, he informed her and bit into a pastry. All that looking for gems had made him crave something sweet!
