Flashback The Art of a semi-political mindset (The Enclave)

[Astreia]

Timestamp: 4th of Fall 511 AV
Where: The Enclave, Library

Astreia sits down at a table with a small mischevious smile, tapping her fingers rhythmically on the table, staring down at a book of Politics, feeling slightly guilty. Her Father had only allowed her to go to the Enclave instead of working on her archery on the sole condition that she read about falconry. He would not be pleased if he were to know that she was researching corruption and autocracy.

She sighs, wishing she could find it in her to make her family proud instead of going behind their backs, wishing she could find it in her to gain the skills that would allow her to return to the caste she was born in. Slowly opening the book, she turns to the first page of the chapter on autocracy...

"An autocracy is a system of government in which a supreme political power is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control - except perhaps for the implicit threat of coup d'état or mass insurrection."

Astreia tries to think of an autocratic state within Mizahar, but her limited knowledge of the outside world leaves her struggling and she turns back to the book.

"Both totalitarianism and military dictatorship, are often identified with, but need not be, autocracy."

She continues reading for another half an hour, before her thoughts wander off elsewhere. She sticks her head up and rests it pensively in the palm of her hand, looking around with interest at the other people in the library.

"Hmm."

[Farlen]

Farlen wasn't quite sure how he managed to find him self in a library. Books always repulsed him, perhaps because he knew not how to read, or deemed the knowledge within them completely useless. Anything truly worth while knowing would be passed on my the word of mouth, he assured him self. And as he stared at the red headed girl (who for some mystical reason caught his attention) gazing into the pages with such deep understanding and a smile on her face, he knew he would never understand the pleasures of reading.
His hand grasped the nearest book and opened it, leaning heavily against the nearest wall. He opened it straight down the middle and examined the little black characters which caused his eyes to loose focus. He closed it, smelled it... and with a fed up sigh he placed it back in it's slot. Yes, libraries always confused him.
He had never been to Wind Reach before and everything about it seemed to confused him. Farlen was indeed a simple man.
Lost and out of his comfort zone (providing that zone exists at all) he's about to walk out when once again the red haired girl catches his attention. The rhythmic tapping of her finger nails on the table seems strangely soothing. From beneath the hood of his cloak he stared at her with interest carved into the form of his face.

[Astreia]

Astreia sighed. She would never be able to leave Wind Reach. She would never get as far as Zeltiva. She was going to go back to her book when a man entered the library. She raised an eyebrow at how out of place he was, seeing immediately that he was not one of the Inarta. He was not coloured the way the Inarta were... even an outcast Inarta Dek. There was something not wholly human about the way he carried himself and Astreia found herself wondering exactly what race he was, watching with amusement as he picked up a book, as if it were some sort of powerful dark magic.
After a minute she turned back to her book, but she could feel him looking at her. She kept on tapping her fingers against the table, then suddenly stopped and sat up straight, closing her book. She leant back slightly and smiled at the man. She had hardly ever met anyone who was not of the Inarta, and certainly nobody who was not human.

[Farlen]

He watched as the girl sat up, shut her book and smiled at him. And he stood there like a stone, no animation in his manner. It was almost as if he had completely lost control over his body and it was only the mind that was working; and that was not working so well. He was enchanted by the rich colour of her hair, the sun kissed glow to her pale skin, her innocent eyes... he had never quite stopped to appreciated how simply and beautiful the Inarta were. Then again he had never quite stopped to ponder anything.
Alas it had occurred to he that once again he was acting strange. With a hard line of blush across his cheeks, he pulled his hood over his face so hard that he could hardly see at all, and with haste he hid behind the nearest book case. The whole ordeal looked a lot like a cat realising that his pray had caught his scent, and leaping out of sight with great fluidity to his movements.
However he had failed to learn from his previous mistake which caused him some form of embarrassment. Carefully he peered over his shoulder to stare at her again.

[Astreia]

Astreia bit back a smile at the man's embarassment, worried that she'd hurt his feelings if her amusement at his strange behaviour was too apparent. Though admittedly, the sight of a man ducking behind case packed full of things he didn't seem to be able to understand or like was diverting to say the least, especially when he didn't realise that the section of the library he was now taking shelter from her smiles in was the 'so-called', though really as a joke, cursed section devoted to dark magic that didn't really work. She looked down at her reading, suddenly finding it rather banal then spurred by a slightly mischevious side to her that hadn't come out in a while, she stood up and started walking over towards him. He looked slightly panicky and she wondered what he would do if she started talking. Maybe she would put off initiating conversation for a little while longer. She walked right past him to a bookshelf close-by, observing him from the corner of her eye.

[Farlen]

Ah how he wanted to spontaneously combust on the spot. For a moment he pondered morphing into a lynx and running out of this hell; but leaving his clothes and possessions in a public building seemed a bad idea. For somehow doing exactly the same in human form just didn't occour to him.
Swallowing all his inhibitions he finally spoke in a hushed, rusty voice "What's it about?"
Standing, towering over her, surrounded by book shelves on both sides. He looked her right in the eyes.

[Astreia]

"What's it about?" Astreia turned around immediately, surprised that he had followed, finding herself looking up at the man. He was much taller up close than he had been at a distance, and was the owner of deep set, almond shaped eyes of a light golden colour that reminded her of the warmer amber glass that her father sometimes used to include in his designs. It was as she looked up at him that it struck her - the irises had something very feline and dangerous. He was a Kelvic. She took a step back, slightly uncomfortable at the proximity and smiled, motioning to the book she had just picked up haphazardly.

"Politics, of the same type as the one I left over there, but in more detail. Corruption and Autocracy specifically."

She stopped as this didn't really seem to have much effect on him; it went over his head, so to speak. She didn't say anything for a moment, just observing him and not particularly seeking to hide the fact that she was doing so, something that unnerved a large proportion of the people she had met up until now.

"Something tells me this is not your natural habitat." She said finally, not only referring to the Library, but to Wind Reach in general, "Or am I wrong?"

[Farlen]

"What was it that gave my secret away?" he smiled sarcasticly. "Was it the eyes? Or maybe something else?
He took a step back, hoping not to scare her, as he seemed to every time he spoke to a stranger. "what's your name?" he dared to ask.

[Astreia]

"What was it that gave my secret away? Was it the eyes? Or maybe something else?" Astreia smiled. He couldn't possibly think that he would blend in with Inarta society and not be seen as an outsider. Half breed that she was, Astreia saw that even she, with the typical hair colour of the Inarta, didn't completely blend in, due mainly to her dark eyes - far too dark not to belong to an Inarta of mixed blood. This man was too tall, too blond and too Kelvic. Astreia was now without doubt of his race.

"What's your name?" it came out forcefully, though his cat-like eyes betrayed a tentative nature to the query.

"Astreia." She should have probably asked him his name, asked him what book he was looking for, though he seemed at loss in the environment of the library, but instead, she went on instinct. "Where have you come from?" she said it quickly, spurred by the desire to know why he would come here of all places, then she couldn't stop herself from asking, "Have you ever been to Zeltiva?"

Astreia could have kicked herself. The Inarta did not really stand for petty small talk on principle, she being less blunt than the majority of them, but she could have at least asked his name. Then again, he might just disclose that willingly anyway and, if he did not, she could ask him when he had answered her initial questions.

[Farlen]

"I have been everywhere." he answered, amused somewhat with the her bluntness. In fact the manner with which she carried her self amused him. "I don't really know where I come from, nor do I know where I'm going. I go where the wind takes me and it has taken me here." he added with a blissful smile.
It was a secret he had truly made an effort to hide, but he enjoyed talking about him self. For many years he'd been stuck inside his head, until lonesomeness built up like garbage within him. Every now and then it felt good to let it out. But right now he was more curious about her, for he had never talked to an inarta before. They were always too civilised for his liking. But this girl was different. She was simple to understand, like the wilderness. Not awkward and complicated like the books within which she revelled.