Carantathraiel

Wanderers

Ruli exhaled a puff of air in amusement at Ysaryn's preference for her own dark skin. Holding his empty cup, he glanced down at her when she asked about Ziad and the news reaching other towns. He frowned, pursing his lips. "Yes and no." He answered, beckoning for her to follow him as he made his way back to the kitchen for more coffee. "Ziad was condemned for settling so close to hostile elves and putting themselves in harms way. It was a nothing city until Envy found his way in and secretly helped to boost its progress. Only then did it show up on trade routes."
Pouring himself a cup, he took a drink immediately. "We're going to need more of this. Anyway." He looked toward Kire. "When Ziad fell, the word got out, but the majority of the cities just shrugged and said 'we figured it would happen' and went back to their business. The only colonies that cared were the elves; Ysaryn's, and, possibly, one other, but we haven't heard from them. For all we know, they were wiped out as well."

Wanderers

"Enjoy yourself." Envy said, and Ysaryn chuckled again.

Ruli, when nudged, grunted and lifted his head from the ground, blinking his blurry eyes at the dark haired woman. He didn't recognize her at first, but he knew the voice. After that, it took his tired brain only a few seconds to catch up and figure out who the hell was waking him. With a heavy groan, Ruli sat up on his straw pile and took the mug. "Thanks." He said tiredly, drinking half of it at once.

"Why is Ysaryn disappointed?" He asked once he'd finished it, turning his head to look Kire over. It did fit well. She looked like a Ziadi, minus the eyes, which had been his own decision. He closed his eyes and opened them slowly, willing the tired blur to ebb. "She probably liked your real face better. Well, she will just have to be patient."

Rubbing his face, Ruli stood, then brushed his hands through his unruly hair to comb it away from his face. "Your family okay?"

Wanderers

Envy, shaking his head about the question of the mirror, suggested a basin of water. Ruli's enchantment was well made. While ti removed the scar on her eye to avoid people possibly recognizing her through that, he had given her new face a small, linear scar on the underside of her chin so her face wasn't absolutely perfect.
That had been the issue with Akuma. She was perfect.

"Considering he's still out cold in the sleeping chamber, I'll assume yes." Envy grinned, finally moving too slow and having his prize stolen by the five year old, who shrieked and ran off in his victory. "Could also be that he's just used to being up all night and snapped back easily. If you offer him coffee, feel free to wake him."

Wanderers

The children stopped running around, their faces zeroing in on Kire. "Whoa." The five year old said.
It prompted Ysaryn to kneel on her mat and raise her head. She looked from Kire's short ebony hair to her lightly sunkissed skin, illuminated by her grey hued eyes. "I prefer the gold." Ysaryn admitted. "But is hard to tell you are you. Details different."

Indeed, aside from the change in colouring, Ruki's enchantment made Kire's eyes appear slightly more slanted, the kids heavier. Her nose was less sharp, and her lips slightly more rounded. She looked as if she could have been born and raised in Ziad, as Kire had requested.

"So her hair isn't gold anymore?" Envy asked.
"No. Black. Grey eye. Dark skin. Not like mine, though. Pity." Ysaryn went back to her exercise.

Wanderers

"I mean, we haven't seen how it wears, yet, but Ysaryn tried the ring on earlier." Envy admitted, twisting again as another kid, nine, went for the rag.
Ysaryn only chuckled again. "I look like my father, instead of my mother." She said, bent downward with her hands and feet on the mat. Her voice was muffled by her stretch. "Bolym would have shit his self."

Ency chuckled in response, fishing into his pocket and holding out the plain silver band. "Here. Try it on. Ysaryn, tell me how she looks."
"She looks very well." Ysaryn answered before Kire had even taken the ring, or she had unfolded from her stretch.

Wanderers

"No, it isn't." Sid agreed about their loss not being a trivial thing. They had been abandoned and damaged long before, and losing Ziad was like tearing open the wound and letting the vultures gorge.
"Believe me, we're not thrilled. I mean, I- sorry." Sid looked up. "You're just ... different." Sid's dark eyes penetrated Kire for a moment. "She was grace, and smiles, and gave off this aura that beckoned you. It made it easy. He brought her in, but we all smiled back at her. But you..." Sid pursed her lips. "You look like we feel. That you've been beaten and battered but you won't stay down. You look as distrustful underneath as we feel. Which ... oddly, makes it easier to accept you."

She shook her head, looking back down. "Its hard to describe. Just. We all feel like you belong because you're wounded."

Upon return, Kire found not Ruli, but Envy, who was circling in the main chamber with a few of the small kids, playing a game of capture the rag. They kept silent, trying to sneak up and steal the rag he held, but with his elven hearing and his blindness, it was easy for him to hear their approach. Not to mention the fact that the cave amplifies their footsteps.

Ysaryn sat on the edge on her reed mat, bent in a stretch to keep herself limber. Seeing Kire enter, she grinned and winked. "Hello Kirai."
"Kire?" Envy spun slowly to face her direction, coincidentally pulling the rag out of the grasp of a five year old, who laughed. "I wondered where you'd gone off to. I have something for you. From Ruli." He grinned, and Ysaryn chuckled as she bent into a lunge.

Wanderers

Sid only nodded to her assumption that Aeron would grow up well, 'hopefully'. She hoped so, as well. The tragedies of losing parents young often left marks on someone. Everyone under Envy's care had lost family young, sometimes pieces, sometimes all of it, and not always without choice.
"He did." She answered about his mother. "Alais. She was a great cook. Always had the kitchen running, no one went hungry, and it was worlds better than what I manage." Sid answered remorsefully. "Ruli is a close second, but its hard on all of us to take her place."

As Kire mentioned a desire to ask something, Sid's dark gaze rose to her, her expression full of apprehension. She shook her head when offered coffee, waiting for the question she knew was coming.
But instead, she asked about Ruli. Sid blinked, surprised she hadn't asked about Envy, himself, or how they all came to be in his care. "Ah." Sid said, pulling another bit of poultry off the skewer and setting it aside. Her eyes lingered on Kire's face for a moment in thought before she focused on her work.

"That's," She began slowly. "-a complicated question, I think." Sid offered first. "In short, he brought her into our cistern. The 'Tunnels', we called them. In Ziad. Where we all lived. Ruli met her, the woman with your face, and convinced us to trust her. Because he did. He's always been our first line of defense, and because of her..." Sid shrugged one shoulder. "We lost everything. A whole city."

She swallowed thickly, her eyes watering. "Its not as though we don't forgive him. We know it was a mistake, and that he's trying to make amends. But some things you can't erase so easily."

Wanderers

Sid offered another small grin. "Yeah, that's me. Go on ahead." She invited, lowering her head back to the work she was doing. When Kire asked about the mortar and pestle, she looked up, thinking. "Uh." Sid thought aloud. "Yeah, its in that pile to be washed, Ruli used it last night, I think." She pointed to the mentioned pile, watching Kire move after it, rinse it, and get to work.

As Kire returned, Sid looked up again, turning the last of the poultry carefully before removing it and tasting a little. It was dreadfully plain, but no one would really complain. If they wanted seasoning, they could add their own. If Sid made an attempt to do so, she would likely ruin it.
"Kind of." Sid said quietly in response. "I mean, yes, I lived with Envy before. Since I was six." She tucked a strand of her dirty blonde hair from her face. "But, Aeron, he's mostly capable of caring for himself. That doesn't stop me from hovering." She twitched a shoulder. "I was close with his mom, so. Its a little more for me than it is him. He just puts up with me."

Wanderers

"No, she knows." Ruli confirmed. "She offered an opinion on the matter, though I'm not sure what to think of it. I think she's trying to be funny." He nodded as she went on to say she'd go home, withholding the fact that she'd asked to watch him work. He'd feel comfortable without her face watching his every move. So, her point was proven. It would make many people far less on edge.
"Safe travels." Ruli said idly to her back, remaining where he was to await the two elves.

The next morning, everyone was sound asleep. Or at least those Kire knew well enough to strike up a conversation with. After Ruli and Ysaryn returned (without Bolym, for the time being), Ruli had gone to work on the enchantment while Ysaryn and Envy had gone out to where they'd decided to build. By the time they'd returned and gone to sleep, Ruli was still working, and when Kire stepped into the caves, all were still sound asleep.
Sid, however, was in the process of making breakfast without Ruli's help, her progress slow and cautious out of fear of burning something. They hadn't found many eggs, so she was grilling one of the birds Kire had caught with more root vegetables. She glanced up when Kire stepped in, fear flashing across her face for only a moment before she put on a smile. "Good morning." The woman greeted, her dark eyes following Kire curiously.

Wanderers

They both went quiet when Kire spoke, two pairs of eyes rising to hers. "Yes." Ysaryn said about Aeron, her fox-like grin appearing. "Then no. I got busy." She answered Kire's follow-up with a gesture toward the figure. "Rulitus need to know how to find his item. I know. I help."

"The last few items I need she knows how to get in Cordon." Ruli clarified. "I've been keeping her mind busy. Sorry. I'll leave soon."
"I go!" Ysaryn sprang to her feet. "My people won't help without me. We take Bolym. I will go to fetch him."

She sauntered off, Ruli furrowing his brow at her as she went. "She's an enigma." He commented idly, likewise rising to his feet. He brushed dirt off his legs and backside. "Once we get back, I can get to work. You can have your new face by morning." He rubbed his eyes, rubbing the tired burn from them.