[Sanctuary] The Hearts of Weavers (Kavala)

[Ronan]

Kavala seemed nervous when she talked about the coming season. Ronan shivered a little. There was something in her blue eyes. They went glassy, fearful shadows cast across their surface. He turned away. She was a Konti, seer of the white isle. Did she know something he didn't?

Memories of his mother, Jakeyna, resurfaced. She had been a prophetess amongst their Pavilion, a master of fortune telling. Dowsing with wooden rods, reading the earth and sky.

They ended up on the veranda again, Kavala offering him wine, and then busying herself with what looked like bread mixture. He smiled at the warmth of the hearth, looking out at the Strider, wandering around like some proud grandfather.

He took a sip, so as not to be rude, but then he stood, walking over towards Kavala. "Let me help," he said, softly but forcefully. "I'm not very good at baking mind, but I can talk to you about my home."

He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, grinning, and following Kavala as she added bits and pieces to the mixture. Flour, yeast. Most of the time he just watched.

"Well I had a home once... but it started to unravel when my brother died. When my parents were killed in the Grasses... well, my home disintegrated around me. I lived in the wilds for a long time, on the outskirts of Endrykas, sleeping alone in my tent."

He stuck his hands into the mixture, helping to combine the ingredients. His fingers rubbed across her own once or twice, and he became acutely aware of the scales on her skin. He did not find it repulsive though. Anything, but. He had never stood so close to a Konti. They were curious... intriguing. Most of all - beautiful.

"But I suppose home isn't a physical thing. It's where you share your heart, into little pieces that you give out to the ones you love. I used to think that lent itself to vulnerability... but now I'm not so sure."

[Kavala]

Kavala was somewhat surprised when Ronan rolled up his sleeves and after about two chimes of letting her play hostess was up helping her mix bread. It was a strange feeling but a good one. She was surprised to find that unlike most men, especially human, his presence didn't bother her at all. She glanced out over the courtyard, watching her stallion for a moment, and smiled. Windsongs indeed. They always brought her comfort.

Kavala didn't know anything special about the coming winter. Her sight was dim enough for a Konti to be considered all but blind. Had he asked, she'd have told him plainly. But instead, she quietly filled the carefully spaced silence with words which wasn't like her. Kavala enjoyed long silences and never felt the need to break the blessed periods that enfolded her. But with Ronan, there was a strange compulsion within her to simply talk to him.

He did a fair bit of talking himself. And it made sense to her, everything he said. She'd seen loner men living on the fringe of Endrykas. Most were like Ronan, pavilionless due to circumstance or choice, waiting for something to happen to them to fill the time. Sometimes women took them in, claimed them as brothers and brought them into strange pavilions. Sometimes they banded together and formed new ones like Sama'el was doing. Sometimes they just died, living on the outskirts they were the first to be attacked and vulnerable to everything from fire to theft. And often their life was rough. No livestock, no women, no brothers to hunt together. Some survived by charity, others joined the watch, and still a few more made names for themselves other ways. Some even took up magic.

She carefully explained to him they were making sourdough bread using a yeast starter that Kavala treated as if it were a living thing, feeding it twice a day and making bread with it almost as often. It was a simple recipe to make two loaves. She already had two loaves rising from the morning, so once they had these done, she could bake the others. While she stoked the fire, she explained to him how the bread worked.

1/4 cup starter
6 1/2 cups four
2 1/2 cups water
2 tsp Salt

"You measure the starter first, Ronan, after whisking it so you don't measure air bubbles in the starter but measure actual yeasty goodness. Then whisk in the water, add most of the flour, and then the salt. Set aside the whisk, and get a wooden spoon. Add the rest flour a cup at a time, stirring as you go. After a while, the dough will become too stiff to stir. At that point, we'll turn it out onto our kneading surface after flouring the cutting board we're kneading on. Flour your hands before you start kneading." She said taking his in hers and coating them well with flour. "Knead the dough 15 to 20 chimes, or until it is resilient and springy." She added. By this time she had him half coated with flour and was laughing just a little, half at him and half at herself for enjoying his company so much.

Laughter was good medicine to those tragedy had struck more than once.

"Once we get the bread kneaded, let it rest for 30 chimes, Ronan. Resting is just letting it sit. Then we can form the dough into baguettes, boules, or pan loaves. Cover the loaves and let them rise at room temperature until doubled in size, probably about 12 to 15 bells." She instructed, setting aside the raising dough. She showed him two loaves that had been made that morning which were resting on the top of the hearth. Then she stoked up the hearth and put them in the oven.

While she explained things to him, Kavala studied him. He was taller than she was. And though she had more years on him in terms of physical age he was older in spirit, for humans grew up fast and matured far sooner than the konti. In many ways Kavala was supposed to still be a teen though she was a mother and nakivak. Ronan was as worn as she was, but in a way Kavala saw it as more tempered. When his hands brushed hers she didn't pull her hands away. She could see the curiosity in his eyes and let him look, touch, and get used to her. Ronan couldn't help it. But it was nothing new to her. Born within the Drykas, Kavala had often stopped to stare at her own reflection in still pools of water after not seeing it a while. She grew up surrounded by humans and feeling human herself.

When he spoke of home, she nodded, her lips curled into a smile. She reached over to brush flower off his nose and smiled. "I agree, Ronan. Home is where you decide its going to be. It's where you decide to thrive. We can thrive anywhere and under any circumstance if we put our minds to it and let certain things rule us. Honor being one, love another... I think we just need to be the people we want to be around. Like draws to like, which makes things in the end easier." She said softly, brushing off her hands and surveying the fact that two more loaves were in the oven part of her hearth and two more would be ready to bake for breakfast.

"So did you just decide not to be alone one day or did something else happen? I guess I'm asking you how you met Sama'el and Leto." She said, watching him now, leaning a hip against the counter. She had the strongest urge to ask him to take off his shirt. It sounded silly so it was something she'd never outright ask him, but she just wanted to see the windmarks on his skin. She hadn't seen any for years, both her visits to Endrykas too short and in the wrong weather to see the Drykas men stripped to the waist. And it was cold outside so he had no excuse to do it. But her eyes strayed to his collar and sleeve line nevertheless.

"Tell me about Teirell too. I'd love to hear your bonding story." She said shyly, not knowing if he'd talk about that or not.

[Ronan]

Ronan listened to Kavala's instructions carefully, kneading the dough as best as he could. He followed the timings, managing to coat himself in flour as if he were to bake too.

She was knowledgeable at this, but that was evident through her hosting. When he had gotten up to help she had seemed taken aback. Did she always work so hard alone? Was she surprised seeing a man lift a finger in her support?

When his fingers ran over hers, she did not pull away either. He gave her an awkward smile, moving his away first. He felt stupid... on one hand, he knew he was a human being, with heart, soul, and self control. On the other, he remembered Khiara, and what had happened.

Vanator. That's what happened.

As Kavala took control of the dough and baking, she reached out a hand and pulled him from his reverie. She shuffled flour from his face, and he found himself grinning at her like a wool-headed fool. But he nodded at her words. He was glad she felt the same way.

"I met Sama'el in the Sea of Grass. Glassbeaks... a pack of Glassbeaks attacked us. Sam saved me with his reimancy, and we kept in touch ever since. I think... I think I gave him a little of my heart because his life mirrored my own. Leto. Well Leto has his own reasons for travelling, so he became my travelling companion. I won't talk behind his back. I'm sure he will tell you about he and Sam one day."

When she asked him of Tairell, he thought fondly on the Strider. She seemed so happy here, amongst her kind. Sanctuary seemed to have a calming effect on the animals.

"I don't talk about it much - Tairell that is. She... she came to me when I needed her most. I was foolish, trekking so far out into the Grasses alone. You and I both know of the dangers. It was not Glassbeaks though." He choked a little, struggling to find the word. "Zith." He had his suspicions. His parent's deaths had always been a misnomer. He wondered if it had been bloodthirsty Zith that had ended their lives.

He finished talking, watching Kavala finish the bread. She had a fine powdering of flour over her face. It only made her all the more endearing. He looked away when he saw her eyes move to his chest. He wondered what she was staring at, but he would not pry. He had more than likely done the same to the Konti.

[Kavala]

NoteI'm incredibly sorry for the delay. You deserved a far faster response.

Kavala wasn't a woman of many words. Nor did she ask people to help her much at all. The Konti always felt that by the time she could explain something to someone else and instruct them on what to do, she'd be able to get the job done. It wasn't that she was impatient. She wasn't. Kavala had patience in large measures. It was simply that she didn't want to trouble people when in troubling them what she troubled them to do could be completed and there'd be no need anyhow.

"Striders have a way of being at the right place at the right time. I know my own has saved me more than once." She said, smiling at his story and nodding at his words about Sama'el and Leto. She understood. Some things were yours to tell and others were nothing of your business. Her life was like that.

"Having you here reminds me of my brothers Bolden and Vanator. They used to be working in and around us women when i was smaller, stripped to the waist, their windmarks showing proudly. Here, ink on skin is a bad thing and I miss the pride and artistry of the Drykas. The Akalaks have control issues sometimes. Some of them have a darkness in them. But since they are so few in number and so very much on the verge of extinction, they do not punish the dark brothers among them. They keep them contained and controlled and cover their faces with Ink to warn others that they are dangerous." Kavala said.

"Nor are there many women. I miss Endrykas for all the women and children running free through the city. Its such a busy happy place. Here, they stare sometimes. I know they cannot help it. And each and every one of them take your hand and pull up your sleeve to see if you're owned. A bracelet on your wrist, one you cannot remove, tells them all they need to know. If you wear a Nakivak's bracelet your body belongs to them." She held up her arm and showed him the plain silver cuff enclosing her wrist. It had no noticeable way to be removed.

"I left Endrykas and the Denusk Pavilion a few years ago to do what I needed to do - go to Mura to further my education - had have in many ways regretted it since then. I was captured by slavers on the way home. Windsong fell, tripping over a slaver's tripwire on a known trail. I don't know if they were trying to capture wild striders too or if I just had the dumb luck to ride into their hunting plans. Either way they captured me. They were on their way to a Zith city in the center of The Sea of Grass. I was with them thirty days before I was rescued by an Akalak hunting party. I belong to Riverfall now and can't leave here other than for short trips home for a visit. I'll belong to them until they decide my debt is paid. Sometimes its a good thing and sometimes i can't imagine my life any other way. Here I have value, be it what it may, and on the Sea I was not valued for anything but my healing skills. Its an odd trade. One, of course, I've made the most of." She added.

[Ronan]

OOCSeriously, don't sweat it. I know you've been busy. I'm just glad you're still here. I only just found Ronan again... he felt a little lost to me recently. Oh, did you get the message from my staff account? I can resend if it didn't work.

Ronan brushed the residual flour off of his face, slowly listening to the Konti's tale. And what a tale it was. A winding road, never slowing, never stopping. When she showed him the bracelet, it reminded him of a manacle, for it only lacked the chain and master.

Dark brothers... he wondered on her choice of words. It was sad they used ink for such purposes. It was not there to taint the skin, yet windmarks were not simply adornments. They represented the ability to nurture, and to protect. They were not simply works of art, given freely. They were earned through ordeal and respect.

"When does your... contract become fulfilled?" he asked quietly. He suddenly felt a great degree of sadness for Kavala. Though she spoke of the positives of life here, she was obligated to stay nevertheless. She was not so free to make her own decisions. Though he could not pretend to understand the Akalak culture, he felt a bubble of anger at their treatment. "I am impressed that you can even think on the positives, though who knows what might have happened had you ended up in Zith territory."

He had heard of Mura before. The isle of the white seers. He had not met many Konti, but Kavala did not seem to fit the image of her kin. She was not so distant as he imagined the Konti to be. She did not stand before him like some wise sorceress, spouting her prophetic visions.

No.

She was rooted. More earthy than he could have imagined. She was a Drykas through and through, he smiled. Blood did not matter. The way you held yourself, the way you lived. That was what made all the difference.

[Kavala]

NoteThank you for your kindness and understanding. And I did not in fact get anything from your staff account. Can you resend?

She watched Ronan's face, his eyes, and the way he seemed such a mixture of compassion and understanding mingled with curiosity and acceptance. There was no judgement at being captured or for allowing what was happening to her to happen. For a moment Kavala was angry, very angry, but not at Ronan. This was the conversation she should have had with Vanator. This was how she had wanted to tell him, anyone, from her old world about her new world and what it was like therein. Walking in the herds, dealing with Kashik, had all taken something from her - the closeness she had desperately needed from her brother - that made her life less important than his and all the things he had to juggle within it.

Kavala was glad then, suddenly and perhaps unfairly, that Ronan wasn't an Ankal or an Ankal's heir. It made him far more valuable to her as a friend because in the end it made him approachable and sensible and not looking at her life or anyone else's with an eye for the value it had to his people and those in his charge.

Ronan would see the Konti looking at him intently, her bright blue eyes going so pale they looked blind. Yes she was Drykas, but her scaled inhuman form set her apart even from that family. She looked with the eyes of a long-lived race, from someone who stood outside another's situation and could clearly see how it was. And in that moment she understood that Ronan was one of Sama'els most valuable friends, whether he knew it or not. Ronan could be what Sama'el could not be in many cases and that made him indispensable to an Ankal or to someone who would in the end lead.

Ronan's question struck her and she blinked, her eyes darkening again. She'd never discussed the terms of her contract with anyone, either the one she had now or the one she had previously. She'd meant to tell him only the basics, but when her mouth opened, soft words poured out, pent up and necessary. "You are group property in a way until an Akalak of eligible status and age approaches the Oathmaster interested in your contract. He then brings it to you, or a member of his family does to negotiate for him. You cannot refuse him in the end, but often they will agree to some terms. My first contract, when I was ill informed, was never negotiated. My Talvas, which is a sort of owner though the Akalaks give it far more status, came and went as he pleased. He disappeared shortly after I began showing with my son. I birthed the child and the Oathmaster informed me he'd left me the rights to raise the boys. They often take the child immediately after birth. I have not seen him since. I thought I'd be released from my duties at the birth of Tasival and Shayru. But it seems a Konti healer who births easily and bears Akontak is of far too much value to release." She said, glancing around. She picked up a towel and started to clean, as if her hands could not stand to not be busy while she spoke.

"When you quicken with child, they make a big deal out of it. Your bracelet is cut off, and a fancy very embolished gold one is placed on your wrist. It's a sign that someone has successfully impregnated you and that you are carrying an Akalak's child. It's a big deal here. When we are braceleted in gold, we are protected fiercely. It's almost stifling. There is a lot of backslapping and congratulations, and mostly the human women start counting down the days until the birth because that normally means the day they will die. I have started watching the kelvics here. The Akalaks use them for reproduction a great deal and they survive easily, like Konti do. It's my job now, as decreed by the Council, that I take them into my care and see them successfully birthed." She dropped her head, not outright saying but implying that she wasn't allowed to help the humans nor did she rarely see them in the late stages of their pregnancy.

"My current Talvas was negotiated by his father. He came to me. I thought he was the interested party but it was for his son. You see, they cannot move up in rank unless they themselves have sons and their sons have sons. So it was important for him to get his son either a kelvic or a Nakivak. My Talvas had a kelvic but she fell ill to a weak heart partway through her pregnancy. I met him and saw how devastated he was. I was slightly surprised. I hadn't known them to have feelings for kelvics. They treat them with the status of pets here. His father caught wind that my 'rest and recovery' period from my first pregnancy was over and so he came and negotiated a contract for Cugacon. Cuga did not know. I didn't understand at first we weren't discussing the father's rights. It was... embarrassing." She said softly, then glanced up at Ronan and smiled.

"I was still angry they didn't let me out of my contract for the first child. But I was also smart enough to know that by negotiating at least I could have some control. He walked away with a good deal though. I am not so good at getting my needs met too. My Talvas pays no support funds, which is often part of a contract. I felt too much like a brothel worker to accept anything. And he gets two visits a day if he chooses to have them at his convenience. Though he must wait if I am with a client or there is an emergency situation. After I have conceived, he has negotiated for continued visits up until the time it is no longer safe to take his pleasure." She said softly, suddenly understanding how weird it was that she was discussing her body like it was a thing, like it had no purpose other than as a reproductive source for the Akalak.

"If I birth a live child successfully, I'll ask out of my contract. I do not know if they will allow such a thing, but I'm going to try. Often, they start asking to provide things for you... bigger housing, better conditions, servants, fancy furnishings, food, protection, and each thing they give you has a total associated with it. It builds up debt. When I first came here, I was given the lands of Sanctuary, which were rather run down, and two thousand Mizas to buy my initial horse herd. Sanctuary was nothing like it is now. I rebuilt it from the ground up and have always ran it at a profit. I used the profits to pay off my land debt and then my horse debt. Riverfall has no hold on me financially. I've accepted no funds from my Talvas' either so they cannot count such gifts in my debt either. Adding the clinic here and watching over the Kelvics has increased the birth rate among them as well. They can't refuse to free me after this next child. If they do the whole system is a lie and I'm truly a slave." She said softly, speaking to Ronan still, having the conversation with him that she needed to have with her brother. She just never realized how much she needed it until the words were out and she felt lighter.

"I'm sorry to tell you all this. Vanator never asked. He never wanted to know. I needed... I've always needed... to tell someone from The Sea of Grass what's happened to me. But there's never been anyone to tell before. It feels... good. Like a relief. Don't be sad for me though. Please don't be. It would kill me if you did because I have a good life here, despite the bracelets and Talvis'. I'm doing real and true good for others. It's more than most people get a chance to do. It really is. I just need my freedom as a next step." Kavala wanted Ronan to understand there and then that she wasn't truly unhappy.

[Ronan]

For a moment, Kavala watched Ronan intently. He met her gaze briefly. Was it understanding? Thankfulness? Relief? Perhaps a combination of the three, he thought.

He listened to her explanations, taking it in with nods of understanding. He couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable though. The way she talked of sex. Of need. Of... lust. What other way was there to describe it? Not from Kavala, but from the Akalak that used her body as property. She seemed so nonchalant however. Even if she had had misgivings in the past, it seemed she had made some sort of peace with the concept now.

"Well I can see you are not truly unhappy. At least, that isn't the sum of you. Sanctuary is a home for you, isn't it - there can be no denial of that fact." He looked down at the table uncomfortably. "I hope when all is said and done, that I can find a home with Sama'el and his pavilion. Even with Akilah - as much as she's a part of my blood - I don't truly feel connected. I was away for too long. People say bonds never break, but I think they can. They just fade away, until there's nothing left."

"And I understand why you couldn't really talk to Vanator about it. At least, from what I saw of him, he doesn't seem the listening type. I think actions speak louder than words for him. I had a sore nose for days..." he trailed off, almost smiling mischievously at the memory.

"I hope that you are freed from your contract Kavala. I would have you as a sister of sorts. That's what I feel towards you, and I hope you... feel the same way," he shook his head, cheeks warming, "I'm sorry, I make everything so damn awkward."

But in his heart, he knew she felt some kind of kinship towards him. There was the Strider, Sama'el, and a past he could relate to on some level. He found himself agreeing with much of her outlook.

"The bread? Is it ready yet?"

[Kavala]

Kavala saw that she had made him uncomfortable, though that was not her intent. He just seemed so... easy to talk to. And so Kavala had started talking. It wasn't fair of her and she knew it, layering her problems on a stranger and simply letting words escape her lips that would potentially hang awkwardly between them forever. But it was good he knew. The Konti healer carried a lot within her that she didn't share with her staff whom she also considered her friends. None of them knew how homesick she was or how much she missed being part of a pavilion. There was no one here to unburden her thoughts with. No Ankal took the load. There was only her.

Someday she hoped that would change. But for now it was what it was.

Kavala didn't regret that she'd spoken so frankly though. Someone somewhere needed to know what she truly was, even if he was a stranger and not her brother whom she'd truly wanted to be so frank with. There were ugly words that people various places labeled it - whore, light woman, slave - but she used none of those phrases. In fact she changed the conversation willingly when his words lead them down another pathway. She didn't want him uncomfortable and she knew she'd pushed that too far.

It was enough, at last, that someone from her home and her old world knew what had happened to her.

"No, it's not ready yet. Forty five to sixty chimes depending on the way you like the crust sealed. I like it a bit chewy with a soft interior so more like fifty chimes and counting. You'll tell by the smell and the coloring when you peek in at it." She said, moving to do more cleanup. The bread they'd made up needed to rise twelve bells at least, so it would be ready to bake by dinner.

"Is there anything else you'd like to learn to cook while we're here?" She said. "I have more chores to do today, but nothing that can't wait. Not like the bread." She said softly, glancing towards the hearth to check on it tucked neatly back in its baking shelf.

[Ronan]

"Oh!" Ronan said surprised, "it sounds silly, but I didn't even know bread took that long to bake. My diet... it seemed to always consist of plant stuff and rabbit. Not particularly exciting," he added with a grin.

She looked lost for a moment, as if she had said something wrong. Perhaps she had not intended to tell him so much. He didn't mind though, and he certainly thought no less of her. More, perhaps. She was a strong woman. She had faced a lot, and found the good in every patch of broken glass that fell beneath her feet.

"I think I'll leave the cooking lessons for today, if that's ok. But thank you for showing me how to make the bread mixture."

He looked out at Riverfall, wondering how long it would take Sama'el to come back from Endrykas. He had heard fragments of the story. Of Denen, and the trouble on the boat. Their journey had been fraught with danger, it seemed, and who knew what obstacles they might come across on their second attempt.

"Thank you for being so open with me, Kavala. I can see why Sama'el counts you among his closest friends. And what you said... I understand now. When I touched your strand on the Web, I felt some of those feelings. I've only just begun to understand... the Web, it's a complex thing. I have a lot to learn."

He concentrated, the fine strands of Webbing becoming visible around him, crossing everything. And Sama'el had made an Origin here so long ago? What were they exactly... he vaguely remembered. Some kind of anchor. Perhaps he could get Sama'el to show him at some point.

"I'm going to miss Sanctuary, Kavala. Everyone keeps telling me the journey's going to be hard. But I think we'll be just fine."

He smiled at her, wishing he could just stay here, in Riverfall. But life was never simple, especially for the Drykas who had grown up amongst the always dangerous grasses. His land had taken his family from him, but they could not take his spirit.

"And come late spring, or summer, however long it takes, we'll return. Perhaps it will be a fresh start for everyone."

[Kavala]

Kavala nodded at Ronan's words about the Web. He was right, and that was perhaps the reason the Drykas guarded the knowledge of webbing so jealously. "When I was small, my father Lachlann took me and my sister into the web, initiating us into it. I'll never forget that first plunge and all the people I felt there, both living and dead. Now that I'm older and more worldly - if having traveled to Mura and now living in Riverfall makes me so - I know about quite a few things I didn't then. And it makes me wonder just how interconnected the world is, Ronan." Kavala said softly, then reached down to bare her mid-drift. She twisted to the side where he could see what looked like a twisted double helix on her side disappearing down into the soft white leather pants she wore and up into the hidden flesh beneath her arm and breast.

"It's a mark from the God Nysel, the Dreamlord. He teaches us many things, Ronan. Each of us, every one, has a Chavi. Its like a silver cord that stretches from the land of the Gods, the Ukalas, to the mortal realm. There's a place between these two realms where dreams are born and exist called the Chavena. It's filled with the twisting lines of the lives of all who have ever lived." She let her tunic drift down back into place. Then suddenly she reached out, closing the distance between them, and ran her webbed hands through his hair lightly as if she were a lover. Pulling back, she lifted her fingers to show him the stray hair caught there, fluttering. It was one of his.

"All a Dreamwalker needs is a key. It's a piece of you. And from that key they can tap into your Chavi and walk it from the current day backwards, through the whole of your life seeing all that you have done, thought, and stood for. They can walk even further backwards, into lives before now and read what was written there too. It's an incredibly powerful thing, Ronan. Especially if you are looking for lost information. Currently I comb the Chavi for healing techniques that are lost to us now. I look for things of power that can help the living. And when I see the web, I see a tiny piece of interwoven Chavi laying upon the world, captured and stolen by the Drykas and put to use here. It is not a bad thing, Ronan. But it is a tiny piece of the larger world." With that she reached forward and offered him the hair back.

"I do not walk without being invited too or unless there is great need. It is also, like the web, a way to find someone who is lost." She added. Then at the last moment, she paused, the hair still in her possession. "If you let me keep it, I can use it if you and Sama'el do not return. I can look for you and find out what happened to you. Then I can tell your kin where they can find your bones and how you died." She added.

In another time or place it would have been morbid. But in Mizahar's world it was smart.

"I do not tell you this lightly. It is one of the biggest secrets of the world. You won't find Dreamwalkers written about anywhere, not as I've explained, Ronan. And I gather them here, in Sanctuary, because we are going to be something of a force to fight the darkness in the world. Sama'el would do well with a Dreamwalker in his Pavilion. I do not speak of me, Ronan, but of you. I've seen your weaves on the web. You have a gift for it, especially if you can read my pain so clearly by just touching my strands. We have a name. The Cytali. And we have enemies - the Ruv'na. They seek to eradicate the influence of the Gods from Mizahar. In a life before this one, I was born to one of their leaders as a daughter. My name was Crescent and I was raised to be a killer, one of their finest assassins. I didn't have a life of my own nor really my own identity. They requested action and I preformed it... over and over again. I've always loved daggers. Holding them in my hands and feeling them tucked up under my ribs beneath clothing comforts me. When Nysel marked me and I learned the truth, I understood then and there what had happened. I was told to target the leader of the Cytali - Nysel's Dreamwalkers - and I did so. Only he saw me coming. Sometimes, with more than one mark you can do such things. You can also stroke someone's chavi and rewrite it to reflect your will, changing their whole history and erasing their memories. He captured me, and rewrote my Chavi so I did not know who I was, Ronan. And in that life, so very recently even though it was in The Suvan Empire before the Valterrian, I served him unknowing what I was. I became something more, something better, because of his actions. So here, even though most are long dead, I am rebuilding the Cytali. No matter where we are from each other, we are only a dream away, Ronan. Only one instance of laying a head on a pillow." Kavala said.

Then she finished offering him his hair back. "I don't want you to miss Sanctuary, Ronan. I want you to be part of us, just like I want to be part of Sama'el's pavilion eventually. I do not know if Nysel will accept you, but we could ask him. He is not like the others I have known, even Rak'keli who is generous by huge measures. I want you to join the Cytali and be one of us on the grasses." She said softly.

Kavala had just reveled one of Sanctuary's greatest secrets. Perhaps foolishly, but she wanted Ronan, in a way a budding new leader saw the value in someone and didn't want them to slip away onto a life to far distant or too alien to be part of. She was attracted to him, yes, to his mind and his heart. She was also attracted to his soft words and his quiet attentive awareness. He missed little. He was invaluable as a person and she could recognize that a mile away. The truth was too that if she wasn't a Nakivak contracted to Riverfall, she'd look at him another way as well, maybe even allow herself to flirt which three years ago she would have due to the warmth he generated within her. He was kin. He was safe. And she thought he was just a little bit amazing.

"Say yes, Ronan. Say you'll come with me and ask Nysel for a mark so that you can learn from him, from us, and be more than you are now." No, she didn't want to give him any more cooking lessons, not really, not now. She wanted to give him something deeper, something more profound - an introduction to parts of the real world now hidden from him - and jealously she wanted to keep a part of him for herself and the Cytali in doing so.