A Relaxing Swim in the Bay (Eorar)

[Avari]

To the furiously paddling Avari, it seemed as though one instant the Charoda was crouched alongside her and the next instant he had shot toward their improvised finish line like an arrow fired from a bow. Without appearing to exert any physical effort whatsoever, the Charoda simply undulated through the water as gently as a ribbon fluttering in the wind yet as effectively as a bird flying through the air. While she was kicking her legs and pinwheeling her arms, he rippled and weaved his way toward the finish line and hovered there, waiting for her to arrive. She gritted her teeth with envy, annoyed at herself for not knowing better than to challenge a creature who looked more fish than man to a swimming race.

Perhaps it would have helped, she reflected, if only she were able to read some emotion in that smooth, blue-skinned face. An expression of triumph, of "I told you so" gloating and boasting, might have made her feel better. But the Charoda's flat, sleek features betrayed no emotion that she could see. As Avari approached the large crate that marked their finish line, her gills swelling and contracting with effort, the only thing he said was something like, "Do you always swim like that?"

Now that he had clearly beaten her, Avari slowed down and dropped to a more natural, freestyle stroke that didn't require quite so much movement. By her estimation, the Charoda had been waiting for her at the finish line for at least two or three minutes before she made it. She let herself drift to a stop against the large crate, ashamed that she needed to catch her breath after her swim.

"Not always," she told him, forgetting to enunciate clearly. She debated between two further remarks, one honest and one brash, and decided on bravado. Summoning an impish grin, she added, "The next time we race for something, I'll know to actually try!"

With a swish of water, she executed an exaggerated bow. "The necklace," she panted as graciously as she could manage, "is yours. To the better swimmer go the spoils, and you are, unfortunately, much better than me."

Avari gave one more wistful look at the shining necklace hanging on the clump of seaweed, but shook her head. The Charoda had won it fairly, and she was in no shape to seize it and flee or to challenge him anew. As her eyes swept over the sea floor, alive with kelp and an occasional flashing fish and littered here and there with refuse from the city, she wondered why he had coveted it. Inquisitively, she tilted her head at the Charoda.

"So," she asked him with a faint smile, "what do you plan to do with your winnings?"

[Warden Thrice]

She had slowed to what Eorar though was a better-looking style by the time she reached him. “Be I’d honored to race again, if to find reason. You are swimming better than any abovewaterer than I’ve seen ever. He looked at the necklace as she inquired about it, and frowned. What would he do with it? The Charoda were a race of hoarders, and to him, hoarding was something instinctual. If you found something you liked, you kept it. There wasn’t really a reason for it, it was something you just did. “I… don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I will treasure. Appreciate.” He cocked his head. “What of you? What are you plan to do?”

[Avari]

A wide array of answers presented themselves in Avari's head in response to the Charoda's innocent question, ranging from the frankly larcenous and avaricious "I'm going to sell it to raise enough money to buy that new set of lock-picks I've been eyeing, or maybe even a good bump key," to the believably vain "I'd wear it. Those blue gems would wake all the color in my eyes, until onlookers might believe I was Avalis come to earth," to the complete and utter lie of "I was planning to give it away to a starving orphan out of the goodness of my heart." She opened and closed her mouth a few times, uncertain of which reply to voice aloud. Unadulterated honesty did not come easily to her, even when speaking to a creature who didn't seem likely to go tattling to the above-water authorities.

Finally, the Konti answered, with something between honesty and evasiveness, "I understand why you would treasure it. It is very beautiful." She mouthed the words carefully. "But not as beautiful as life and survival. I would sell it, to buy food and clothing. Something so lovely would fetch much money."

A silvery fish swam near her shoulder as she spoke, no doubt attracted by the drifting strands of her pale hair. It made her smile, especially when the fish tried to nibble at the ends of her hair with little success. She drifted lazily through the water, finally catching her breath after the exertion of the short but intense swimming race.

Watching the fish give up and swim away, she remarked, "I guess you don't have to worry about those things, right? You have all the food you need here, underwater. And I don't suppose you need to wear heavy clothing down here, either."

Looking the strange creature up and down, Avari couldn't hold back her curiosity any longer. A flurry of questions poured from her lips, some words enunciated more clearly than others in her inquisitiveness.

"You are a Charoda, aren't you? I have read about your kind before, but never met one! Where are you from? Where are you from? I'd wager an oyster shell full of pearls to a grain of sand that you're not from this city."

If she could not win a rich prize from her race, Avari was determined to gain at least a little knowledge about the wider world beyond Zeltiva and Mura and the people who lived in that world. For as long as she could remember, her favorite books had always been accounts of people's travels throughout the different cities and the wilderness of Mizahar. Now that she was finally encountering a man who was neither Konti or human, she was intent on taking advantage of the opportunity.

She smiled winsomely at the Charoda. "Tell me about the waters of your home."

[Warden Thrice]

Eorar frowned slightly at her answer. “Is life… life being truly so hard up there?” He gestured to the surface of the water. Astrolabe had told him of the many hardships that came with living abovewater, but to be honest, Eorar had never really believed them. It just seemed so… unreal. Underwater things were much simpler. He knew what he could eat and he knew what he couldn’t, he knew how to find shelter from the tide, and it was definitely warmer down here. Then he saw a very, very familiar expression on Avari’s face, one that he himself had worn more times than he could count. He had been about to say something but stopped and leaned back, waiting for the questions. The floodgates opened and the queries rushed out. Eorar gave a small, almost imperceptible nod at each question, noting each one. “Yes,” he said with a chuckle. “I am Charoda, and not being from here. I come far from southwestern sea.” His face lit up with a smile at her next inquiry. That was probably the one request that he most wanted. He was silent for a few moments, thinking of how to begin. “Hmm… it is being warmer there. Yes, much warmer. Cleaner, too, and open, very open. You can seeing forever. Most seabeds are rock, but where I live… there is more.” He tilted his head, unable to find the word. Seconds passed, and then he brightened when he remembered. He crouched and sprang in the direction they had come from, leaving a small trail of bubbles behind him. He found the crate where the necklace had rested and retrieved his small bit of coral, then returned to the Konti as quickly as he could. “Here,” he said, handing her the colorful thing. “This. Underwater flowers, everywhere. Mountains.” He smiled wistfully. “Charbosi. My city. This is what it is making of. It is like a mountain, too. Mountain of underwater flowers. Buildings and streets and everything is made of it. All beautiful. And peaceful. No one bothers us. It is completely safe.” He trailed off, as if in a daydream, then shook himself. “What of your home? How is it like?”

[Avari]

When the Charoda began speaking of his home, Avari almost regretted her impulsive question, for she found it very difficult to understand his halting description of his home waters. The water muffled most of his words, and his fishy-looking mouth did not seem to shape Common words the same way that a human's would, making his lips harder to read in the diffuse light that penetrated the water's surface. Avari grasped the words "warmer" and "very open," as well as a word that either meant "forever" or "never" and another word she was fairly sure was "rock" and not "talk."

She was about to ask him to slow down and enunciate more, when the Charoda tilted his head and then sprang off in the direction from where they had first encountered each other. To her astonishment, he returned with a small but brightly colored piece of coral, which he placed into her hand. Avari had seen coral before, from diving through the waters around Konti Isle, but none this vibrant or striking. She tore her fascinated gaze from it only when she noticed the stream of bubbles signifying that the Charoda was speaking again and managed to catch most of the rest of his speech.

Beautiful, and peaceful, and completely safe, she thought, trying to envision the exotic underwater city that the Charoda was describing. Just like Mura. No wonder he wanted to leave. Perhaps she and the Charoda had more in common than she'd thought.

A grim smile touched her lips when he asked about her own home. The Konti silently reviewed his words in her head, to make sure she had understood him correctly, and then gave her answer.

"My home," she said, in a voice that would have sounded harsh above-water, "is here. Zeltiva. Nowhere else has been home for me."

To take the sting out of her curt words and tone, Avari softened her smile into a gentler, more pleasant expression. There was no need to take her tangle of emotions out on a stranger, after all. Instead, taking care to enunciate her words clearly, she redirected the flow of questions back to the Charoda. After all, she had quite a large store of pent-up curiosity yet to be exhausted and a much greater desire to learn about the unusual Charoda race than to discuss her own past and let him learn too much about her.

"So, your home city is completely underwater, is it? Can you visit dry land at all, or can you only breathe water?" she asked, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

"And speaking of swimming… Did you swim all the way here, from your home? Or did you take a ship?" She was not sure exactly how far his home would be or how much distance he meant by "far from the southwestern sea." Still, Avari imagined the voyage could not have been particularly short or simple to undertake, or she would surely have met more than just the one Charoda in her time.

Tilting her head curiously, she couldn't help asking one more question. "Do you like it here, in Zeltiva?"

[Warden Thrice]

Avari’s darkening expression was lost on Eorar, and by the time he surfaced from his reverie it was gone. She was silent for a few moments at his question, and when she spoke again her voice was hard. Eorar tilted his head. It may have been because of the water, but… There. She was smiling, so things must be fine. He couldn’t help but be pleased at her inquiries. He had been deprived of intelligent contact for longer than he was comfortable with, and was already thinking of things he could ask her when he answered. “Yes, is all underwater. Even the top is very far from the surface, and the top is very high. It making us safe from pirates, but sometime we dealing with an anchor in the wrong place. We can breathing air, but we needing water before too long or we drying out.” He stood, or stood as much as was possible underwater, and set a lazy pace back to where they had put the necklace while gesturing for Avari to join him. “No,” he said with a chirping chuckle, “I ride. Swimming a bit, but mostly ride.” He wasn’t sure how to answer her next question. He hadn’t really been in the city yet, aside from falling up some stairs and meeting a bookkeeper. “I… don’t know,” he answered honestly. “The water smelling is bad, but I having it all to myself. There are many nice things around, if I looking. I haven’t walking Zeltiva yet.” He frowned to himself. “Do you liking it here? Is it usually warming or colding? What kind of city is it being?”

[Avari]

Avari followed alongside the Charoda back toward the clump of seaweed where the jeweled necklace hung, grateful for the comfortably slow, languorous pace he set after the furious efforts of the race. As she listened to his answers, the Konti couldn't help reflecting a little on the strangeness on the situation. To her surprise, she was actually enjoying learning more about the Charodae, even though there wasn't any profit in the knowledge that she could see. Frankly, though, mizas and treasures could be obtained fairly easily, especially in a bustling city like Zeltiva, but information on the unusual aquatic race would be much harder to come by any other way.

His comment about having to deal with errant anchors made Avari giggle at the image, even while she wondered at the same time whether she would enjoy living in an entirely underwater city. She decided that she had to visit someday, simply to find out what it was like. Oh, there were so many places in the world that she wanted to visit: Avanthal, Ahnatep, Alvadas, and now the city of the Charoda! The Konti still didn't quite understand where the Charoda's city was or how he'd gotten here by "riding," but she didn't want to reveal her ignorance with more questions. With luck, she'd be able to pry it out of him later and perhaps use the same method herlself to reach his home city safely in the future.

However, the Charoda's questions about Zeltiva gave her pause for a moment. She should have guessed that he had spent more time underwater than aboveground. His final query was so broad that she could only open and close her mouth soundlessly for a while, unable to find the words to answer him properly.

"It is a good city," she said at last, simply and fondly. Bubbles streamed from her mouth as her words slowly emerged. "The weather is usually pleasant, not too hot or cold. The summers are warm, and fall and spring are mild. But the winter…ah, that's a different tale altogether. The wind turns freezing cold and cruel in the winter, and I never stay outside longer than I have to."

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "It's a city where all kinds of people come together and meet each other. Rich, poor, wise, ordinary, noble or wicked, human or Konti or Charoda, everyone can come to Zeltiva and find something here that interests them. Zeltiva's full of possibilities."


A slow smile curved her lips. "I like it. It's an exciting city. You would too, I'm sure. You should visit, if you walk half as well as you can swim."

Avari came to a stop next to the waving clump of seaweed and paused to admire the deep, rich color of the blue gemstones. They didn't seem to sparkle quite as much now, causing her to lift her gaze toward the water's glimmering surface. Only then did she notice with a small dart of disappointment that the rays of light penetrating the water were growing pale and faded, signaling that the day must be drawing to a close. She sighed, discharging another stream of drifting bubbles, and began thinking about evening in the city and the opportunities that nightfall offered aboveground. Food, for one thing, and her warm cloak to keep off the autumn night's chill when the waters of the bay grew cold.

"Well," she said reluctantly, "the necklace is yours, fair and square. Seems I might as well be heading back above water, seeing as it's growing dark up there and I ought to be getting home."

She kicked upward with both legs and started rising slowly through the water. The Konti hesitated for a moment and then, despite herself, stopped her progress to look back down at the Charoda. She smiled warmly at him, the flash of her teeth visible in the dimming light.

"Look me up sometime when you visit the city. You can't miss me, as I'll be the only woman with white hair and scales," Avari told him, with a hint of irony that she hoped wouldn't be lost in the water. "We can talk more then about the waters of our homes and the merits of treasures we find under the sea."