Closed More Than Just A Frozen Sea Lurks In The Frozen Lands

[Jesslyn Skyglow]

15th of 513AV Summer

Jesslyn took her last shaky step on the third floor and tightly gripped the railing. Getting here had been hell and about halfway through she had almost given up. But she wanted to see the sea. Wishful thinking but she dared not get into the frozen ocean or any deep water. The bathing quarters in Avanthal were deep enough.

Jesslyn let go of the railing and regrabbed it but with her cloak covering her hands. She had forgotten to get gloves after shopping with Lorelle. Silently cursing herself Jesslyn shivered at the cold sea air. It was always colder closer to the sea than it was in the city.

Jesslyn usual purple eyes had long since stayed a dull grey even after the visits from loved ones and friends. Jesslyn slowly got tired of them and left. And here she found herself. Eyes set of the water but her mind was focused on the places around her. The stone was icestone and was pretty much a blind sight for Jesslyn. If she tried hard enough she could see the railing and the wall but the ground was too much of a blur.

Jesslyn grey eyes shifted around as she thought over recent events. She had lost her bestfriend to a childbirth gone wrong and she had lost a possible partner for unknown disappearances. Just the thoughts of both things caused her eyes to shift to a darker and duller grey. A shuddered breathe came from her mouth out of sadness and the sea wind.

She had forgotten where her fur jacket was so she was stuck simply in her regular clothes and a silk cloak. Not the best things to be wearing near the ocean or anywhere in Avanthal. Jesslyn almost didn't catch the sound of new footsteps due to movement inside the lighthouse. Most likely the keepers. But this sound was heavier than theirs so it had to be male. Jesslyn paid no attention.

[Garran Frostfawn]

Garran moved with assurance, though perhaps more slowly than at his normally brisk pace. His face was thoughtful, and he approached the lighthouse with a crease between his brows. Without taking a hold of the handrail, he began to mount the steps, not two at a time as he would if he had a task to do and time was pressing, as was usually the case. Instead, his boots moved methodically, propelling him upwards in the interior spiral of the structure, beating out a rhythm on the icestone staircase. The exertion did nothing to bring about a more rapidly beating heart, nor to greatly increase his rate of drawing breath. But inside, deep in his heart – or maybe his soul – he felt a sharpening stab of pain. Like a stitch from running too fast, but with no physical source. This day would be like the others – six in all. This would mark the seventh year that he had climbed these steps, alone, except for the ghosts… Reaching the turret, where the huge beacon sat, lit each night to warn off ships from the surrounding shallows and shoals, he stepped out onto the catwalk than ran around the concave shield that would reflect the light of the fire outward, over the rolling, restless waves below. Immediately he saw her – the other visitor to the lighthouse – and he did a double take. The place had always been deserted before, and he hadn’t been expecting to encounter anyone on this trip either. So he was taken off guard, for a moment. But there was really no reason to think others might not venture to this look out, to cast their gaze out over the ocean, and mull over whatever thoughts and dreams and regrets lay hidden in their hearts. So he quickly regained his composure and said only, “Oh, sorry. I wasn’t thinking anyone else would be up here. I’ll leave you to your solitude.” He hesitated, thinking that the outline of the form of the woman who had her back to him was vaguely…familiar. But be that as it may, she was here first, and so, he would go, and come back later.

[Jesslyn Skyglow]

She couldn't believe she had let them go so easily. Jesslyn gripped the railing harder to where the cold was almost completely a small pest compared to her angry rage. Her dark dull eyes now ran with small veins of blood read. If she could see them then they would look like an infection or make her look... evil and undead.

Jesslyns' grip loosened when the steps suddenly stopped. She could hear hard breathing and guessed that the person was either seriously out of shape or was running. Why they would be running to get up here she had no idea. Her thoughts weren't answered but who was here was. "Been a long time, Garran."

Her voice was dull and full of death. Jesslyn didn't know had she had placed the voice to a face but she did have great memory. She had to know who was who without sight sometimes. The sounds coming from inside had stopped and when the wind went by again it caused Jesslyn cloak to flutter with it. The ice around the lighthouse gave a creak that caused the situation to turn all the scarce.

Jesslyn didn't turn around or let go of the railing. "Been keeping yourself locked away?" the unspoken also hanged in the air like the bone chilling wind that danced around the two. Another gust of wind caused Jesslyn hood to fall down and her veil of hair to fly with the wind before it died down and laid along her back.

"Say, what bring you up here today of all days?" The red in Jesslyn's eyes started to go down but they stayed at the edges of her iris'. Inside she was warm from rage but on the outside she was cold as the ice.

[Garran Frostfawn]

The voice confirmed what he half-suspected. He did know this woman, and even though she did not turn to face him, he knew it to be the one time healer from the Red Diamond – Jesslyn – who had been involved in a speculative conversation about the newly discovered ice cave, back in the early Spring. Garran supposed there would be little enough reason for her to turn to look at him, as she was blind. So instead, he stepped forward a bit, coming to stand next to her by the railing. It was indeed a chill wind that blew in off the frigid waters, and he noted that she did not seem dressed as well as she might for such a location. Then again, if she was Vantha, she almost certainly had Morwen’s mark to protect her from the cold. He himself did not feel unduly uncomfortable, despite the sharp breeze. For a moment, he was bemused by the fact that, though blind, she had recognized him too, just from his voice, he imagined. Surely, though, that was something nature provided – where one sense diminished, the others stepped up to fill in the gaps. She must have a very good memory, though, he concluded, as she posed her first question. “Locked away? No, not at all. I’m at the stables every day, and…around and about town, of an evening. I’m not a huge fan of the taverns, though. I’ve spent most of my evenings….elsewhere.” He didn’t elaborate. In truth, Garran was something of a homebody, and spent most evenings in, with his family. Lately, he’d been taken more out of himself by a certain someone, but this didn’t seem the time or place or audience to launch into all that. So he simply asked as a polite counter, “How about yourself? Have you been out and about the city?” Her next question went right to the mark, and his eyes turned from an affable perusal of her features to a more brooding look, out, over the waves, and to the horizon. He paused so long before answering, it was as if he hadn’t heard her. But finally he said simply, “Memories.” The word hung between them like a crystal of ice, before he asked, “And you? What’s brought you up to the top of the light house?” He might have added A place most people come simply to look out over the ocean, but as you’re blind, what is the point of you’re being here? But he was far too polite.

[Jesslyn Skyglow]

Garran moved beside Jesslyn and she tightened her hold. The ice didn't allow her to see but the stone it was on made her vision a little better than it would be on solid ice. So she relied on her hearing for her vision. She didn't know how close he was but she could hear is breathing and the ice crack underneath him at he stopped.

Jesslyn fixed her cloak closer around herself after another cold breeze. It was starting to get uncomfortably cold for her here. But Jesslyn didn't feel like leaving too soon, she had just got here anyways. Jesslyn snorted when he paused and then concluded he spent his evenings elsewhere. Jesslyn waited for him to finish talking before replying, "Elsewhere as in a lady friends home, family's place, or like I said. Locked in your house?" Jesslyn closed her eyes and tilted her head in Garrans direction, "I belive it's the 14th or 15h so... not recently. Been working on painting."

'And slowly cleaning up my place' she thought. Jesslyn waited for him to answer her other question. And when the mood around them changed from dull to sorrowful Jesslyn couldn't help but understand. "Memories..." she echoed hollowly. Jesslyn silently sneered at his last question and the unfinished words. Just because she was blind didn't mean anything.

"I hope one day you stop thinking about sight as something required." Jesslyn turned to face Garran and leaned against the railings, eyes still closed, "There are very few place you can go and be alone anymore. The city it getting packed with newcomers. Where else are us originals going to go? The places others refuse to come near in less on rare occasion." Jesslyn nodded her head and listened to the sea a chime or two before continuing.

" What better place to calm your own raging storm than to the sound of waves crashing and ice cracking. I've lost two things and cannot find sight of one while the other is sleeping not far from here." or in other words, 'Soren has disappeared and Sylvia is dead.'