Carantathraiel

Wanderers

It was one of the few things she enjoyed for herself, as well as survival. Cooking. Back home it was something she was taught young. Best way to know you weren't poisoned was to have your food prepared by your own hands. Ysaryn had always enjoyed strolling through the little garden to pick what herbs she wanted to cook with before losing herself in the task.
She would always make room for a garden, no matter where she went.

"I do not want to marry either." Ysaryn admitted. "Mother insists. Father does not. He does not want some young blood to challenge him. He knows I will not choose a poor fighter." The elf grinned over her shoulder at Kire, before glancing past her. Ruli had snuck back inside to watch her cook. His face was already bruising around the nose, and blood spattered his tunic. When he offered no part in the conversation, Ysaryn went back to her work.

Each item bought and delivered was stuffed with herb seasoned root vegetables and ground up bits of fish or octopus, wrapped and fried until it sizzled and bubbled invitingly. Ysaryn set everything on a roughly made clay serving tray before motioning to Kire. "Take first pick. As thank you." Ysaryn smiled happily. "Then me, then you." She added with a glance toward Ruli, who only grunted. "Take one to Envy. Whatever he want. I suppose I can take one to Zeck. Or you'll get new face." She teased him, and he glowered quietly.

Wanderers

Ysaryn went still, eyes unfocused as she lost herself in thought. Mind and body, enslaved. No thoughts or feelings. She had barely managed to escape, had bled so much, had fought so hard. What of the others that hadn't been so lucky? Her people? Her own kin, trapped and cut into for this mage's dark magic? So many faces swam by her, ones she missed, and thought of often. Gone. For what purpose?
As Kire promised to end them, so no one else would be cut into and stripped of their free will, the elf straightened. "You better." She said firmly, looking back down to the supplies and the potential meal she had looked forward to.

"I cook." She declared, decidedly. "You burn, you say. I need to stop thinking. Busy hand. Clear mind." Her hands rubbed over her face as she shook the chills and crawling flesh away, reminding herself that she was safe.

There was a shout beyond in the main chamber, followed by the clatter of metal falling on the ground, and she froze for a second, listening. "He is back." Ysaryn informed her. "Zeck found him first."
Indeed, Ruli strolled in seconds later, cupping a bloody nose. He grumbled inaudibly to the two women as he strolled by, heading outside to wash.

Wanderers

Ysaryn tensed when Kire's grasp tightened, her eyes darting from the women's face to her hand for an instant. She was released, and Kire felt her own abdomen, and the elf blinked, looking back up, seeking answers.
"A gem?" Ysaryn repeated, thinking of diamonds, rubies, the only sorts she'd ever seen and had only hoped of getting her hands on. "Gem makes dolls?" The word 'dolls' curved oddly on her tongue, the word too foreign. She didn't know this word puppet, either.

"Itallo is two faces. One face is Council. Other face is stoler. Steals elf. Makes his coin with our flesh." The elf shuddered, pulling her sleeve back down. "Neither face is good. But one pretends. Bad blood. Ugly heart." Ysaryn turned her head to spit on the ground.

"What is this word, 'puppet'? Doll is toy? A slave? He wants make slave?"

Wanderers

"Yes." Ysaryn nodded, still looking bothered. "Two face, mirror. I say." She confirmed, watching Kire as she swore (which, she would have found endearing in a different situation), and the anger that seemed to flood through Kire, taking its time to crawl into every appendage. As Kire approached, Ysaryn didn't retreat, but shifted her body when Kire grabbed her, as if ready to fight out of pure instinct.

"I do not recall much." Ysaryn admitted. "I say, they drug us." She pulled at her sleeve with her free hand, revealing scars along the inside of her elbow from multiple injections along the vein. Dozens of small, dark grey spots marred her skin. "I remember being dark. Smell of rot. Like home. Maybe in the slums, but hard to say. Lots of Cordon sunk long ago. Lots of rot and sea."
She chewed on her lip, staring at Kire, trying her hardest to remember to help the woman. "Green eyes. I recall. Very pretty. Rare to us. But cold. Empty." Ysaryn thought some more, then clicked her tongue and raised her leather tunic.

About an inch beneath her belly button, there was a thin, pale grey line of a crooked scar, only perhaps an inch long, itself. "I wake up on table." Ysaryn recalled. "They do not know red hair makes strong against their drugs. I come to. They are surprise. I fought. Bled. Made free, and to Bolym, who sewed me shut." Her fuschia eyes had lost some of their fearless glare, and she looked paler. "I do not know why, Kirai."

Wanderers

Ysaryn turned, arching a thin eyebrow as Zeke swore, her expression alarmed at first. Then, seeing the two side by side, she giggled. "I tell you." She grinned wickedly. "Very good look."
Zeke looked from Kire's new face to Ysaryn, then back. "Tch." He scoffed before he turned and left again.
Ysaryn's chuckle followed him out. "Well, I like you face." She said to Kire. She pointed to the exit, where Zeke had last been seen. "Two of you, face to face, cou-"

She froze, looking contemplative, her brow furrow. "Kirai?" She slowly muttered. "Two face, mirror. I saw them." She recalled, her fuschia eyes moving as she filtered through the memory. "In warehouse, where we are stoled to? Put in cages. Drugged. It is unclear. I recall the name, and see a ...." She floundered, pointing to the place on her chest where a brooch would sit. "Tachol. Gem-in-nai." The elf met Kire's gaze, looking alarmed, her eyes dark and haunted. "They take elves. Many. Many not to sold for slavery."

Wanderers

It took him a bit longer than he cared to admit what she meant by 'little sailors'. Her pursed his lips, if only to keep from cracking a smile, amused more at her vulgarity than the phrase itself. She was gone in an instant, and he relaxed enough to smirk.
He partially wished that he'd gone to watch Ysaryn cook, but he could always being her more of the weird fish, and ask her to teach him how to prepare it another day.
Plus, he preferred remaining instead of leaving Kire here. She couldn't read, and looked far too intimidating with that sowrd on her hip, even with the new face.

As the crowds thicekened on the roadside, Ruli found himself pressed against the side of a building, his hands poised to watch his pockets out of habit. He knew from experience that crowds like this were idea for small-handed thieves to make their move. The crowds would be too thick for an adult to chase a quick child.

Stuck, he was forced to watch the entourage go by, his eyes lingering on the caped figure with bright green eyes. He seemed somewhat familiar to Ruli, but why, he couldn't name. Green eyes like that weren't common, and he felt like he'd glanced at this man before. Curious, he moved through the crowd, trying to catch snippets of the conversation. It was in vain, as he only managed to hear about some wedding jitters before the throng grew so thick he could barely turn in place. Resigned to wait, he stood, watching the entourage make its way down the road.
When at least he was free, he continued toward the docks to purchase tools.

~

Ysaryn squealed at the sight of the bundle in Kire's hands. "Fish!" She exclaimed, stepping forward to look over the supply. "Oh! More than fish. Kirai!" She beamed, pure joy on her face. Quickly, she mumbled in her native tongue, her fingers wiggling, hovering over the fish as if she couldn't decide which to prepare first.

"Come to me! I need to make before they go bad! No way preserve here!" More words in her tongue as she zipped away into the caves, to look for the herbs and vegetables she wanted.
They passed Zeke on the way, who glanced at each woman, then did a double take, halting to leer at Kire. His grey eyes taking in her own greyish eyes, her dark hair, similar to his own, albeit much shorter, and her sun-kissed tanned skin, nearly identical to his. "Is this his idea of a fucking joke?" Zeke snapped, looking around for Ruli. "The fuck is that prick?"

Wanderers

He avoided her gaze when she wondered about his reason for invite, not giving her an inch of satisfaction. He didn't want to answer it. He was glad that she was so easily distracted by food. He listened to her list different things, only half of which he knew by name but had never seen before, the rest were completely new.
He wondered, privately, how these things were cooked, and if Ysaryn would let him watch her work to learn a few things from her.

When she purchased her lot and mentioned the desire to return to deliver it, he shrugged. "Go on ahead. I have coin enough to gather some tool sets. What, in all, do you think we'll need?" He asked, his attention momentarily caught by a group of woman in brightly coloured dresses walk by. Their hair was so matted and built up a bird could have made a nest in it. Why?
"I want to ask the sailors for other locations to reside, as well, in case the other refugees aren't as inclined to share."

Wanderers

As Kire described the marriages Amria had, Ruli refrained from glancing at her, though a shadow wandered over his face, led by a memory. "We have the same." He answered, grateful that the botanist emerged shortly after and cut off further trip down memory lane.
She offered them instructions, which Ruli glanced over after recalling Kire couldn't read their text. It seemed to make sense. Anything he didn't grasp could be answered elsewhere. Though certainly not by Bolym. If no one else, Sid. She'd taken up herbology as a past time for medicinal plants.

"It was a good effort." He offered, trying to be somewhat polite as they slipped back outside. He redirected his feet toward the booths for squid when Kire snuck in another question about royal weddings. He sighed, trying not to visible grumble. "Invited to one." He admitted. "Didn't go. No shoes, no service deal." He lied in jest. "Ysaryn gave me her coin again, if you want. Unless you want this to be a gift from you." Ruli glanced at her again as they approached the merchant stall boasting a wide variety of fish, squid, octopus, and even something round and spiky buried in chunks of ice.
Completely fascinated by both the shapes of the sea critters and the ice, Ruli watched as Kire, who knew better than he which was best, picked out a selection and paid.

"Tools, you said." Ruli reminded her. "Maybe if we purchase another ax you won't cut down trees with your bare hands anymore."

Wanderers

Ruli, too, looked like he'd tried to listen but was overwhelmed by the majority of what was offered. But he nodded. "I remember it, but hopefully Envy or someone else back will make sense out of it." He answered her, stepping away from the counter, his pale eyes on the doorway through which the botanist and the men had vanished. "I recognized most of the terms. Rotation, irrigation, someone else will be able to educate me."
Really, he was trying not to look as confused as he felt by the woman's instructions, fearing she would suddenly decline the sale out of fear for her precious supply.

"She's got to be good, though, if she's supplying flowers to the wedding." Ruli commented. "Two days. Do you want to be done with this place by then, or loiter during? With everyone looking to the wedding, it might make it easier for you to track your query." Ruli glanced at her, then past her to frown at a very odd looking plant that looked like a closed eye, its long lashes overlapping. Beside it, the sister-'bud' was open like a mouth, pink and yellow, waiting. He stared at it, waiting for it to snap shut if they drew another step closer. Death by plant. Not a victorious death.

Wanderers

A hundred. Ruli glanced at her once more, caught off guard by that for no real reason. He, himself, was older than he appeared, a blessing from his elven blood. Envy, too, was about her age. A little older, maybe, he'd never really asked the Kartaian for his exact age. But, considering Envy's retelling of his decades in the den, and then their years together, he could take a fairly accurate guess.

"Here." Ruli said, dropping the subject for the time being and ducking into a building on the corner of the street. The sidewalk and overhang were crowded with plants and flowers that were in more shapes and sizes than Ruli ever recalled seeing in one place. The woman behind the counter was a round woman with fiery curly hair and a gap between her two front teeth.
"Afternoon!" She chirped with a small bounce on her feet.

Great. Ruli internally grumbled. She's a people person.
"Uh." He pulled the cover away from his face. "We're looking for seeds, if you've got them. We're moving to a mountainous terrain, not used to the climate. We'll need any sort of edible plant you can offer that will grow."
"Mountains, hm?" The woman peered between the two. Then she gasped. "My word, are you refugees from Ziad?" She asked, looking over their dark skin. "My poor babies." [Ruli refrained from growling at her]. "I think I have some of what you need. Maybe a few items you'll be used to. Give me a moment."

She bustled around the store talking to herself, while Ruli stood beside the counter and observed her suspiciously.