Almost as if by will, the warrior made herself feel the room expand. She heard the sound of chairs and silverware scraping ahead of her; felt the thud of goblets and fists against the counter, as well as the circulation of air that teased her face as the inn's door opened and closed. She took another swig of her ale and felt all right again. Warm even.
Elmiryn let her arm drop.
"Don't worry, Nyx," she said, eyes still closed. "Just listen--we're bound to hear something."
"I'm not used to these places." the youth answered.
"To be honest, neither am I," Elmiryn said. "This place is very tame."
A small snort. "Oh, I bet you'd love a good bar fight. ...Hey, why are you keeping your eyes closed?"
Settled in a zone of comfort, Elmiryn resisted a chuckle at Nyx's dry comment and gently let out a, "Shhhh," in answer of her question. She then turned her full attention to the conversations around her.
"...see the new baker's wife? Boy, I'd love to fill her bun with my...!"
"...been word of a forgetful girl up north, who seems to be looking for..."
"...a marriage next week...!"
"...storms are getting worse. So odd. They aren't even in season...!"
"...some new parchment going around. People can't stop buying it..."
"...past the mountains. Word has it that the Medwin River has become poisoned. The people of Gamath are suffering..."
Elmiryn's eyes snapped open and she looked to her right, where two men sat two tables away, grim looks on their faces. She took another second to listen to them--to watch their lips move--just to make sure she got it right.
"I hear they are having great trouble. The storm passed them by without a drop of rain." The eldest man said, turning his cup idly. "They've been resorting to using fruit to keeping hydrated, but the supply is running low and they lack good meat. Most of the plants in that area have been killed by the river, and the animals have turned rabid. It's horrifying how quickly that place has come to smell of death." He shook his head, liver-spotted face pale and drawn.
"Won't Tiesmire help?" the other man asked, younger and with a bushy beard.
"King Brice is taking advantage of the whole thing. Tiesmire's economy has flourished since this tragedy began. No 'competitors' to rob them of trade."
"Has anyone gone to speak to the river's guardian?"
"The last one that went never came back. No one knows what happened to him."
"Perhaps they just need someone more skilled."
The two men looked up with a start, their eyes resting on Elmiryn's beaming face. "Hullo. Care to tell me more about this issue?"
The gray-haired man frowned at her sharply. "Who're you?" he grunted.
The warrior pulled out a chair and sat next to the stranger, her elbows resting on the table. She felt Nyx reluctantly sit on her other side. Elmiryn felt pleased that she didn't need to tell her to join. "I'm the one who's going to help Gamath. My name is Elmiryn. I'd like it if you could tell me what you know."
"But you're a--"
"Warrior. Yes. You're right. Do we need drinks?"
"No, no we aren't interested in--"
Elmiryn snapped her fingers and called over her shoulder."Inn keeper, can we get four drinks here?"
Nyx began to protest, her tawny eyes going wide. "Oh--no, no, no! I don't want one!"
The warrior waved off her protests with a crooked smile. Oh yes, the ale was doing its duty. "You're old enough." she said jovially to her companion.
The Ailuran grit her teeth. "That's not what I meant!"
Elmiryn leaned in and muttered out of the corner of her mouth. "It isn't a big deal. I'll take your drink if you don't want it!"
"You're kidding," Nyx deadpanned.
"You're an Ailuran..." the bearded man said, his gaze going narrow.
Nyx paled, and even out of the corner of her eye, Elmiryn could see the girl's muscles go tense. "No, no. She's a turnip," the warrior said, without skipping a beat. All at the table blinked at her. Smiling goofily, she rubbed at her face and said through light chuckles, "She's my ward. Completely harmless. Doesn't have the slightest idea how to throw a punch let alone kill a person."
"No Ailuran is harmless," The bearded man argued obstinately. "I've seen them in battle. They killed my friends without a thought!"
Elmiryn quirked an eyebrow at him. "You really don't believe me?"
He slammed his fist onto the table, making Nyx jerk as though she were about to launch into a run. Elmiryn snatched the front of her gambeson and gave her a sharp look. The youth looked at her, equally startled by this sudden action. She fixed the woman with a bewildered stare. Elmiryn slowly let the girl go, and made a point of raising her eyebrows.
"Trust me, damn it," she wanted to say.
"Of course I don't believe you!" the man snarled, going red. "I'm shocked you were even allowed to bring that thing into the town!" He pointed a shaking finger at Nyx. People around them were beginning to watch.
The warrior shrugged and leaned back. The world shifted as she did so, and a giggle built up in her throat before she brought up her palm in a quick strike upside Nyx's head. The girl snapped forward from the harsh contact as a loud yelp escaped her lips. Nearly all the tavern stopped and stared now as Nyx rubbed the spot she had been hit, a look of dumbfounded anger on her face.
"That hurt!" she snapped irately.
Elmiryn snickered and raised her hand as if to say to the men, "See?"
With a bang, Nyx stood, her breath coming quick through her nostrils. With a sneer she stormed out of the inn, but not before the warrior noted a glistening at the corners of her eyes. Elmiryn gazed after her, suddenly sorry for what she did.
The woman looked disdainfully at her empty mug and thought, "...If only I'd had two more of these. That may have turned out better then!"
The bearded man shook his head, clearly impressed. "Gods...I'll admit. I've never seen one of her kind take an insult like that so lightly. She behaved more like an embarrassed child!"
"It doesn't matter about her," the older man said firmly. He looked at Elmiryn with furrowed brow. "If you want to know about Gamath I'll tell you all that I know, but I really don't think you can do anything. The situation is just too terrible."
The warrior rested her chin on her laced hands and smiled at the man sweetly.
"I'm all ears."
NYX____________________________
That wretched cocksure witch made me want to scream.
How dare she.
How DARE she?
No debt was worth that humiliation, I thought to myself. The nerve, doing that to me in front of those men, as if it didn't matter? If she made any attempts to explain the issue later, I certainly wasn't going to indulge her. No clever reasoning could ever forgive the blatant violation of trust. And what of her expectations from me? How did she expect me to take my duty to her seriously after having my pride stepped on like a belly-scraping roach?
Hypocritical bitch.
My skin tingled and my clothes felt tight. Heat flashed over me. Anger and fury played games with my misplaced pride, calling up the ghostly vestiges of self-respect I'd once had. It seemed to appear from nothing, like sparks from flint, and if I'd thought about the situation more, I'd have seen the gross hypocrisy that existed not just in Elmiryn, but in myself. I was a Marked therian. What respect did I deserve from anyone? But I'd been away from others for a long time, and to have my trust violated in such a way made anger a slow thing to cool.
I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply--taking in the human scents around me. Things to hold onto while my other self writhed. I leaned back against the inn behind me and wondered why it was I separated my current state from my bestial one. 'Her', versus 'me'. Us. Like two things could ever really ever occupy such an uncertain shell. Bitterly, I thought of how my animal counterpart would have stood up for herself given the great insult I suffered. My shoulders deflated with a sigh, and I shook my head, allowing my eyes to open.
"If
She were in charge, I wouldn't be here to begin with." And this confession seemed enough to quell the stirring creature into silence.
All around, the smells and sounds of town life called to me, draped over me; it was warm like blanket--one that wasn't mine. I stood awkwardly for a moment before deciding a small walk wouldn't hurt. Ruffling my uneven mop, I stepped out onto the street. I could hear Elmiryn in my head, saying with amusement, "Good. That's the first step. What do you do next?"
Gods, she was already becoming a voice in my head. How pathetic was I?
A group of teenagers stampeded past me, knocking me around in their haste to get by. As they continued out of view, I muttered shakily, "You try not to get run over."
"That can be quite a task in this busy little town, miss," a new voice said.
My head turned, and between the passing bodies I made out one man whose gaze locked with mine. Instinctively, I shrunk in on myself and took a step back. I didn't look away, though. He had already seen my eyes--seen the otherness that colored them. Better to see what he did and react appropriately.
But the man only smiled, his mature countenance wrinkling with mirth at my reaction. Dark eyes peered from beneath a barely connected unibrow--a trait that on anyone else would have seemed brutish or unkempt, but somehow rested regally on him. He extended a hand to me and I could see the blisters in his palm. My suspicion increased and I took a deep breath through my nose. I managed to make out his scent from those around me. Citrus, oil, and earth mixed together with the common scents of a warrior; the scent of leather, metal, and sweat.
"Don't be afraid, kitten. This lanky oaf means you no harm," he said. His voice was calm and deep. I was reminded of my mother's heartbeat when I slept beside her. Reluctantly I came closer.
"What do you want?" I asked, my eyes wide and wary.
"You seem upset," the stranger said, brushing his overgrown coal-gray hair away from his face. He was seated on a thick honey-colored wicker basket, which was turned over and strained beneath the weight of his long body. His legs were bent as if he were ready to spring away at any moment, and the cloth of his crimson aketon was tinged a darker shade in some places. "I saw you come in with your friend," the man continued, nodding toward the direction of the gate, "And next I know it you're outside that inn with the most puckered face I ever laid eyes on." He shook his head, looking at me sympathetically. "She did something brash, didn't she?"
I crossed my arms and frowned at him. "Do you know her?"
The dark man chuckled. "Personally? Oh, heavens no. But her eyes say a lot. Sharp eyes, yes, but eyes that wander--like she's looking for something. A little aimless. Careless in their own way. You could say I was just waiting to see you come out of that inn by yourself."
"And of me? What did you gather from seeing me?"
"That's a trap, young girl. I won't go tripping that anytime soon. Too many men have stuck their foots in their mouths from a question like that."
I shook my head and waved him off. "This is silly. I shouldn't even be talking to you." I started to walk away.
"I bet your life makes it hard to speak casually with anyone, kitten. But you should know that not everyone in this region wants your kind dead."
I turned and glared at him, my eyes searing. "Shh!" I hissed. I went back to him and said through tight lips, "Most haven't noticed what I am, and I'd like to keep it that way! And stop calling me kitten, for gods sakes. I hardly know you!"
"Sorry," the man said. He held out his hand, "I'm Tobias. Not from around here, as you can probably guess."
I didn't take his hand. "Leave me alone," I snapped. I stalked back toward the inn, deciding that finishing my bowl of stew seemed a lot nicer than dealing with odd men.
"I've got something I think you'd like. Something that might take your mind off things when they get hard." he called after me, his voice carrying easily through the bustle that surrounded us.
Against my better judgment, I stopped. I looked back at him over my shoulder, trying to seem indifferent despite my curiosity. Tobias smiled, his large upper-teeth a little crooked but otherwise endearing in an honest, openhearted sort of way. He reached behind him, rummaging through things I couldn't see, and a moment later he straightened again with a worn, leather-bound book in his hands. I frowned and turned fully as he stood and crossed the stream of passerby to hand it to me. He towered over all he passed.
The man stopped just short of arm's length and held out the book. I thought for a moment before I took it gingerly from him, half-expecting him to grab me as soon as I did so, but he didn't move. Instead, Tobias only gave a satisfied nod and went back to where he had sat and picked up a traveler's bag from behind the basket.
"There. I hope you enjoy that," he said, returning to me. He shouldered his bag.
I blinked at him. "Why give me this? What is it?"
"Poetry, thoughts, small stories. It has a little of everything," Tobias said with a shrug.
"That's it? This is what you planned on doing all along?"
"You sound disappointed."
"No," I said, shaking my head. "I just...I mean...why?"
The man quickly tapped his long finger on my head before I could react. "Because you seemed like the grounded, intellectual sort. Or perhaps, a person who could be one." He winked before walking away. I stared after him, mouth slightly agape.
"When you tire of the book," he called over his shoulder, "Trade it for another! It's the only way things like that should be shared." And after that, even my keen eyes couldn't make him out of the smear of the crowd--colors and scents melding together in a great and formless herd as the suns crept closer to the horizon. I looked at the book in my hand skeptically. There was no title to it.
I went to the basket and sat down. It didn't sag nearly as much as it did with the man. Nervously I looked around me before I opened the book and began to read.
"There was not enough in me to speak lest I drown. Any other dawn and this man would have been as brave as a minute--knowing nothing more than that moment's charge of exhilaration and fulfillment by the sweep of his sword..."
ELMIRYN________________________
There is no barring imagination from reality when walls shift and waver, and humor makes a home in bruises and dust. She delighted in the weight of her limbs. Lyrical language and capricious phrases darted about her head in a game of tag. Her tongue tingled with want of speaking these nonsensical fragments, but Elmiryn refrained, aware she lacked an audience.
When she came outside of the inn, the air was cool and the sky had shifted to a glorious velvet. The merchants were long since packed and gone, only a small crowd of folk wandering here to there, taking care of things before they were expected to retreat for the night. The warrior spotted Nyx across the way, sitting on a basket with her head bowed down and what appeared to be a book in her hands. She cantered towards her.
"Hullo there, my kitten in cutie's clothing. What is that you've got?" Elmiryn chirped. She bent over and tilted her head to one side, her body swaying. "Is it because of what you are that you can read out here with so little light?" the woman asked.
Nyx sighed and stopped reading, her tawny eyes rolling up to glower at her companion.
Elmiryn pouted. "You're still mad at me," she grumbled asininely.
"That's very astute of you, considering your head's drowned in ale." Nyx looked back at her book. "Step back, please. I've got a sensitive nose and you're making my eyes water."
Elmiryn knelt down with a flop before the girl and blew wisps of hair away from her forehead. "My head isn't swimming just with ale, you know," she said matter-of-factly. "It's also swimming with information!"
"Lovely. I can just imagine what that would look like," was the dry response.
"We're going to Gamath."
"Fine. Go to bed. I'll see you tomorrow."
Elmiryn shifted so that she could stare up into Nyx's face. She blinked a lot, trying to get a fix on the girl's face, which just didn't seem to sit
still.
The youth looked up at her in annoyance. "What?" she snapped.
"I don't want you to be mad at me," the woman said, cerulean eyes lidded. She leaned forward unsteadily, her neck straining as she tried to look at Nyx full on. The girl sat back with a curl of her lip. "C'mon...please don't be mad," Elmiryn beseeched. "I didn't mean to hurt you. Honest!"
The girl frowned at her. "Sweet Aelurus, you're just like a child!"
"Sweet as a babe when drunk, my mother says," Elmiryn said proudly. "It's also been said that I'm more attractive when tipsy. I'd say I'm beyond that state, right? So what would you make of me now, Nyx? Am I...desirable?" The woman waggled her brows.
Nyx stared. Her cheeks became flushed, so much so that even Elmiryn noticed it in the poor light.
"Hey, it's working!" The warrior said, her voice strained as she held back a giggle. "And to think, I didn't expect that line to go anywhere!"
"It hasn't!" Nyx huffed. She stood to her feet and began to stomp away. "Gods, I can't believe you! I thought there was some level of respectability in you, but here you are acting like a callow, fatuous nincompoop!"
"Wait! Come back! I'm still apologizing!" Elmiryn stumbled to her feet, limbs in seeming rebellion; but as she fixed her eyes on Nyx, she shifted her weight and followed through with her momentum, her mind caught up with her desires and she found herself moving purposefully in a calculated line. The woman managed to stop before the girl, successfully cutting her off. Nyx stared at her in surprise.
Elmiryn held up her hands, her breath heavy. "Now wait! Just wait!"
"No." Nyx said vehemently, the muscles in her face strained. "You're acting like a buffoon, and I'd rather not talk to you like this. It's shameful."
"Shameful." Elmiryn's face fell. She rubbed the back of her neck and looked down at the ground. "How is it that you take words and give them so much meaning? Am I really so blind...that it has to be brought to my attention all the time?"
The Ailuran faltered. "...Sorry?"
The woman looked up at the girl, her wavering gaze somehow brighter by the drink in her system. The space between them seemed so great, and there was something vibrant, but flat about Nyx that made Elmiryn's eyes water. She slowly stretched out a hand toward the girl, and when the youth didn't pull away, she stroked her cold cheek.
Eikasia: Tributaries Page 5