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[Alea Davenport]

The Gods can have kids?! Alea yelled incredulously, but only in her head, because the Bran-man was still talking, and she didn't want him to get annoyed and stop explaining all the things. Her self-control was rewarded. At first, it seemed like he meant to say that gods are basically people, which didn't seem quite right, because she'd always felt like gods were too busy doing their god-jobs to worry about things like, well, that thing that takes up an awful lot of mortal time for some reason. Luckily for Alea's worldview, there were apparently other ways for gods to have children, including literally "making" them. And, she noticed, all of this was just stories, so it wasn't like anyone really knew for sure. But she supposed if there were enough baby gods to have a name for them, something he was saying must be plausible.

But when he suggested that gods and Alvina inhabited different worlds, Alea was confused, and her face showed it. "Don't the gods live in this world?" she mumbled distractedly. She was sure they did, she'd seen one once. Granted it was from a distance and at a festival, but everyone knew Morwen lived in Avanthal (except for the Winter season of course).

Before she could pursue that line of thought too far however, he continued his explanation. Alea tensed up when he mentioned Nyka, but it was subtle, and a stranger like Branimir could be forgiven for not noticing. Her eyes focused hard on a point slightly below his left knee, as she tried with all her will to hold back the tide of memory. Unfortunately, all this only primed her for his last question.

Her fingers stopped moving, and she stared at the bracelet as if only just noticing it was there, a look of pure horror on her face. Her fists and jaw clenched and unclenched several times. These precious few moments of near-motionlessness would give Branimir a clear view of the bracelet, which would reveal that the teeth were certainly not human, and moreover, the points of the teeth appeared to be slightly embedded into the skin of Alea's wrist.

Unfortunately for Branimir, in those few ticks Alea's brain had decided what her reaction was going to be. Her face contorted into a twisted mask of hate. "Maps, I said!" she growled with a fierce energy. She angrily pushed past him and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Her whole body vibrated as she stalked the shelves, focusing single-mindedly on this one, small goal, just to block out everything else.

Of course, she didn't know what she was doing anymore than she had before, but the difference was, this time the search was more important than the goal. She began picking out books at random, opening to somewhere in the middle, and seeing if there was anything useful. Unfortunately, the first few she opened were in a language Alea didn't even recognize. Fighting the urge to throw up, she ran to a distant bookshelf on almost the opposite side of the library, in the hopes she could get away from the gibberish section.

She opened a book, expecting to find more unfamiliar words. Instead, she was surprised to see, there were rather familiar numbers in this book. She flipped slowly through the pages in wonderment, the harsh storm of her emotions fading until she was as calm as a pond on a windless day. She did not fully understand what she was reading. She recognized numbers and the basic mathematical operations, but there were letters and other symbols that had no business being in a math equation. When she glanced around the numbers at the paragraphs describing them, she was relieved to find the words written in Common.

Curious, but not quite ready to resort to reading, she flipped closer to the front of the book. Here, the equations made more sense. It started with a normal equation:

2 + 3 = ?

She immediately filled in the answer (5) in her head. She expected the question mark to be replaced with the answer in the next line, but then something funny happened:

2 + ? = 5

Alea frowned at the page. Why would you put a question in the middle of a problem? Perhaps the next line would be more enlightening:

2 + a = 5

Alea slammed the book shut with a cloud of dust. She coughed and tried to understand why they would suddenly put letters in with her nice familiar numbers. She liked numbers, they made sense, and words hardly ever made sense! But she was in no condition to puzzle out why the book might have stuck letters in her math (probably because it's a book she thought resentfully, but that still didn't explain what the letters were for), so with a quiet, resigned sigh, she opened the book back to that page and started reading the words.

Luckily for her, she was too clever to read the whole thing from the beginning, so she just read the words closest to the equation with the confounding letter in it. The book explained, quite plainly and much to Alea's relief, that the letter wasn't actually a letter, but was just a symbol that represented the question mark, which in turn represented a number.

"So 'a' is short for 'we don't know what this number is yet but we're going to find out.' Huh." She didn't realize she was talking out loud until she heard someone behind her.

[Branimir]

Click, click, click went the gears inside his head, though nobody heard them. This wasn't so much the grinding of the cog slaving away tooth by tooth but a complicated puzzle lock turning into place. And every time a puzzle resolved itself before him, it made a little inaudible click in his head. Or would have had Branimir been able to hear it. Still, in some fashion, he did feel pieces coming together, if only to reveal but a speck of clarity in the muddied picture. There was more to the girl than met the eye at any rate. Which was more than could be said for most people. That was why, when Alea decided to just abandon him on her apparently very mad quest for maps, the young man chose to follow. And as he went, he also chose to pick up the pieces of wreckage the storm of her passing through left. He smoothed all the rufled corners, neatly placed all the leaning books into straight place and stopped to pick up a particularly unlucky volume from the floor. A look at the cover told Branimir that it was Airon's tome on directions and navigation, The Lays of Zintila. It was, he thought, quite ironic to find this particular tome on the floor for one. Further consideration was however painted over by the very clear sense of boredom the book's copyist left on its pages like a bad smell. Despite himself, Branimir allowed for a little smile. The next irony was a man or woman with no vision copying a text about navigation by starlight. Tome in hand, the young man caught up with the girl, stood in the midst of the mathematical section of all things. Not that he minded, he just doubted her mind was cut for clear, cold numbers. Or anything abstract, really. While he neither truly sympathized or at least empathized with her, it was obvious to him that something was amiss with the girl. Him mentioning the toothy bracelet had been the obvious cause of her flight. Maybe they were from a loved one freshly gone and the memory stung? Branimir could not tell. But what he could tell was that him even inquiring about the ghastly charm had served to give her utter and complete pause in all things as she ground away at her own teeth. Maybe the bracelet was a set of spares? And maybe, Branimir's curiosity opined, maybe there was more to them; more to her reaction. Sliding up behind her at a safe distance, he knew only one way to proceed. Commenting on the one thought she uttered out loud, Branimir tentatively supported Alea's epiphany, "Mostly correct. The important thing is that 'a' is always the same number every time it appears in the same context. If 'a' and 1 is 3 and 'a' and 2 is 4, then 'a' is definitely 2. Other placeholders are not that concrete." A smile flashed over his lips, gone in an instant and aimed at the back of Alea's head. Maybe he was also totally off on which mathematical problem Alea was tackling right now. Not that it really seemed to matter if he had read things correctly. "At any rate, a curious way of going about finding a map." "Also a curious reaction to a simple question. And, speaking of which..." "What is it about the bracelet? You wear it yet do not want to be reminded of it? Now that is the most curious thing of them all. No?"

[Alea Davenport]

Alea jumped at the sound of Branimir joining in on her thoughts, but not too high. Part of her mind had registered his approach, and the intriguing book had brought her mind to a place completely alien to the fear she had felt only moments before. She heard Branimir's words, and even understood them to some extent, though he spoke a bit quickly for her to follow. She wanted to find a chalk and slate so she could write this out and visualize it properly, but there was none readily available. Perhaps another time she could pick his brain, or maybe even (dare she think it?) study the book.

Unfortunately, that time was not going to be now. Branimir insisted on dwelling upon things Alea would rather forget. And yet, she knew she could shut him down if she wanted to, by saying telling him to mind his own business, or even by making up some innocuous story that would satisfy his curiosity. And yet, she hadn't done either of those things.

She no longer looked about to bolt, but she was still clearly uncomfortable with his line of questioning about her bracelet. She refused to look him in the eyes, and squirmed and picked at the bracelet when he refused to let the subject drop. She bit her lip and failed to answer for a good many ticks.

Finally, in an attempt to forestall actually having to speak, she began to slowly remove the bracelet. She gently tugged each tooth free from where the point was embedded in her wrist, wincing each time as it pulled out of her skin. She made sure he could see this, since it was, in a way, part of her explanation. When all the teeth were free, she took it off and held it loosely in her fist.

"I'm pretty sure it's cursed," she said bluntly, in a deadened tone of voice. Her fidgeting grew worse, and took a few steps back, still looking all over the floor. She clutched the math book to her chest for and illusion of security, and her voice what very quiet when she added, every word sounding like it had to be dragged out of her, "But...it's...the only thing I have left. From...Before." The final word was barely a whisper. I don't want to talk about this! her mind repeated hysterically, as she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to make reality and this bracelet not exist in the same place.

She just wanted to look at the maps, or maybe keep learning about the letters that weren't letters but were secretly numbers. That sort of thing was fun and interesting and didn't bring up bad memories. But she didn't say anything this time. Branimir was just going to keep talking about the cursed bracelet, and she didn't know if she could handle fighting him on it just now. If the conversation was going to happen anyway, she might as well get it over with.

[Branimir]

Brows raised ever so lightly, Branimir listened and observed as the young woman gave in to his curiosity. After a fashion, she laid herself bare before him, he understood that much. The hesitancy with which she did so, he understood even more. Branimir himself might have been paralyzed at first if pressured on any weak points. Not that he thought himself to have any, and at any rate he'd have retaliated with something at least verbally hurtful if possible. But this wasn't about him, it was about the girl he'd dubbed Zinty in mockery. The girl he was watching still, with all the interest of the cat that's managed to corner the mouse. Was there a question as to what he'd do next? After a fashion, there was. He considered tormenting the little creature. He even briefly considered consoling her. Both was ultimately pointless, he knew. Tempting on some ends maybe, but pointless. He understood clinging to things one knew, he thought. After all he'd only truly made peace with his father after leaving him behind and while he didn't miss the old man like he'd miss an arm, he certainly did miss his presence in an intangible, unquantifiable way. And at times, he understood how a creature without goal or purpose could feel lost in this strange city, pink or white among the blue crowding the streets, looked down on, marginalized. Some people, Branimir thought to understand, some people did not like new challenges. And to his surprise, he found he did not even mind. It left more room for him to find his own, free of interlopers. Tugging on his own little bracelet, Branimir returned to the issue at hand from his flight of airy thoughts. Instinctive curiosity drove him to almost reach for the string of teeth in Alea's hand. Stopping short (if barely), his gloved hand hung in the space between them, the other still clutching the book he'd picked up. If this object was cursed, did he truly dare touch it? A year ago, a life away, he would have laughed at the notion of curses to begin with. Before a witch visited him in a dream and spirited him away into his own past, a past long before this body had been born. Curses no longer seemed a silly thing. So, quite soberly in his mind, Branimir decided against daring to touch the thing and instead routed his curiosity through his mouth. "I do not know where you came from, nor where you are going... though I presume the latter is what has you scrambling for maps." the young man began and immediately digressed from. He spoke quietly as befit a man in a library, but also oddly softened. He'd never had a pet that had lived long enough for him to establish any kind of rapport with, but he'd seen his parents and others speak to frightened animals. Branimir tried to approximate the tone of voice they'd take in those situations. Being himself, he couldn't help it still sounding stilted, but the boy was unable to tell that. And so he continued, hushedly. "And I think therein lies your problem, Zinty. We all came from somewhere, and we all are -hopefully- going somewhere. We are all in the middle of a road of some description, to each of us our own." "The path we've trod remains behind us forever unchanging. And the path ahead of us is seldomly clear but always alluring and dreadful at the same time. The trick... the trick then is to accept the transitory moments for what they are." He looked at Alea hard. Did she understand what he was getting at? Did he himself? Was it all just hot air from the mouth of a young man who'd travelled just the one time in his life? Or was it an apt image? If Branimir himself was uncertain then, he reasoned with himself, maybe something more concrete and to the point was required. The flowery turn of phrase was already getting to him at any rate. "What I mean is, you have to decide whether to embrace your past for what it was, good and bad. Then you also embrace... that." The index finger of the hand he still held stretched out straightened and and curved into hyperextension as he pointed at Alea's fistful of teeth. "Or you decide that the future you will shape for yourself is more important to you than whatever may or may not have been. Then you should discard the whole thing." "Or you just live in the moment and try to do right by it all. But you, you have to make that decision. Willingly. Freely. Consciously." Branimir's voice caught with a rasp on those last few words, owing to the dry air in the old library and not being used to all this talking. But in the one sentence Alea had spoken he'd seen something. Maybe, unlikely but maybe, he saw someone equally lost in Riverfall as he was. Or maybe and far more likely he thought to see a problem he could casually analyze and fix with a superficial analysis and all the wisdom someone a mere two dozen years old could muster. Regardless of his motivations, Branimir did feel very much correct about his assumption, analysis and solution and straightened with an appropriate measure of pride as he tried to take on an encouraging smile that made him look somewhat constipated.

[Alea Davenport]

As Branimir reached for the bracelet, she opened her hand a little wider, held it just a little further out toward him. When he didn't take it, she repressed a sigh of disappointment. It would have been nice to have someone take the responsibility for the cursed thing off her hands, but she supposed that would be too easy. Not that there was any reason she had to be responsible for it, but, well, it had ended up with her, and it didn't feel right to try too hard to get rid of it. Besides, she had a feeling that if she just threw it away, it would somehow end up back on her wrist, or otherwise creepily follow her around, as sometimes happened in stories of such things.

Then, Branimir began talking. Or, at least, he began saying words. Alea's face twisted into a mask of somewhat incredulous confusion as she tried to wring meaning from them. But try as she might, she could not seem to interpret his speech into words that meant anything solid. She had a flash of consternation as the thought occurred to her that maybe the Bran-man was one of those unfortunate specimen of person who was in love with the sound of his own voice.

That though made her a little bit sad. He had been nice to her so far, and she'd hoped he could be more than someone for her to beat up on occasionally. He knew about the letter-numbers, for goodness sake! He couldn't be completely useless in the brains! She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he could still be helped.

"What...are you talking about?" she said when he'd finished. "Paths? Decisions? I mean, of course I decide what I'm going to do, why wouldn't I?" Their mutual confusion wouldn't get them anywhere. If they were going to reach an understanding, she'd have to set the record straight on a few things. "I'm not going anywhere. I wanted to look at maps to find out where I am. Best I can tell, I think I'm somewhere south. But that doesn't really help."

More of his speech had been trickling through her head, and she got the sense that he had been suggesting she throw the bracelet away, which was silly because she had just been thinking about why that was probably a terrible plan. Except, he had sounded like he thought it meant something to her. And had also suggest she give it a hug. What? "And anyway this thing, it doesn't have anything to do with my past. It's not like it's a specially engraved compass that was given to me by my best friend who betrayed and abandoned me twice that I then lost forever..."

...what? Alea had to stop talking, because her throat had closed up. What had made her think of that? She hadn't thought about this stuff for years, why was it all coming up now? She gritted her teeth. She did not want this relative stranger to see her cry. It would be too embarrassing.

[Branimir]

Victory. Branimir thought. Though what he'd somehow wrung from the girl made no sense in any context of the things they'd spoken of before. At the same time as he'd managed to coax her into divulging something she apparently had not meant to let pass her lips, her words ran roughshod over his careful analysis of her prior utterances. Never mind that Little she said made much in the way of sense to the young man. People were creatures of habits; of patterns that could be read and understood. Some were a mite more complicated than others but by and large, people were people. Whatever emotional turmoil bubbled beneath the lid of this particular pot however must have sent her mind and maybe even sanity careening off. Branimir made a little face, an expression that came much easier than those fleeting smiles. It lasted longer, too. And yet, something else speckled itself in amongst his features. Still, there was a sense of, well, not triumph, but in getting somewhere. Clearly he'd underestimated the complexity of this creature and her troubles. Maybe, maybe if he helped unravel some of those troubles, the pattern would be less obfuscated and his understanding could commence. So his analysis had been rash and superficial. That much he understood now. But he could still go by what the young woman said, couldn't he? Simple problems had simple solutions, and victory was achieved one conquest at a time. So off he strode, figuratively. "You need to know where you are? You do realize, young lady, that you could simply have asked, no?" As he tackled this first conquest of a problem they were facing (somehow together, through no fault of his own other than his stubbornness to get the hang of this people thing; surely people couldn't be harder than mathematics after all) he did his best to hide hi own amusement. The problem itself was hard to take seriously. [i]"The big round bay, the muscle-bound blue men, the waterfall... I thought it was obvious we are in Riverfall by the Suvan Sea, just before it meets the ocean." Even if the girl knew little of geography, the Suvan Sea had to be something she knew of. Another victory, certainly, though the question remained: "May I ask, again, why you did not simply ask around?" Branimir reinforced his earlier aside before somehow unknowingly agreeing that first they might want to get rid of the overall confusion and leaving it at that. The rest, the next conquest of whatever problems persisted, could be taken care of after that. One conquest at a time.

[Alea Davenport]

Much to Alea's relief, Bran-man distracted her by returning to her original purpose. Unfortunately, Branimir seemed to be missing the point.

Alea fixed Branimir with a withering glare which, translated, said, I'm not stupid. Are you? Aloud she said, in a tone of voice that communicated much the same thing, "Well, obviously I worked out that I'm in the city of blue men. But where is the city? Which Sea is the Suvan? How far is this place from...other places?" In her life thus far, Alea had yet had neither cause nor opportunity to consider the geography of the southern lands. This realization lead her to ask a most daunting question, "What does Mizahar even look like?"

Nope. That question was too big, and not immediately relevant. She distracted from it by cutting the problem into pieces and focusing on the pieces she knew about. "I had a map of all of Taldera once," she said, matter-of-factly, staring at the book in his hand and idly wondering if it had anything useful. "But I know tons of places that weren't anywhere on that map." Well, perhaps "tons" was an exaggeration, but certainly of the places she knew, more were off the map than on it. "And besides, I lost it anyway." Don't ask me how! her mind whispered desperately as she unconsciously began rubbing the tattoo on her right hand.