Of Weak Hearts and Twisted Minds (Elianos)

[Crismento Miren]

12th of Winter, 511 AV The two men were walking down along the canal away from the Silver Sliver. Although one of them was clearly taller, the build of the other man made him appear to be the bigger one of the two. A deep laughter could sometimes be heard from further away when the large man felt amused by the conversation often attracting glances from the passers-by. His wide, bearded face reflected the orange hues of a setting winter’s sun and the light brought out the sweat on his forehead and cheeks. Their short trip eventually brought them to a less popular dock for ravosalas where they waited for the boat. The stouter man put his hand on the wooden pier for support and leaned forward. ”Damned Ravokian food will kill me before I leave this lake,” he panted. ”I see you are not charmed by the local cuisine, sir?” Crismento’s eyebrows rose inquiringly. ”Bah, it’s my own petching fault,” he swept dismissively with his hand. ”Eat at the Docks and you get what you paid for.” ”My apologies in that case for having offered you that place for a meal. I have not realized it to be such a poor choice.” ”You wouldn’t now anyway, would you? Eh, forget it. I told you, it’s my own damned fault. I had a say in that matter and that tavern looked attractive to me either.” ”All those pretty lasses surely don’t hurt their image, I suppose.” Rumbling laughter escaped the tubby man’s throat in response only to be chocked by slight coughs moments later, but Cris felt satisfied to offer such entertainment. ”Anyway, you were saying earlier about…” the man paused rubbing his chest just above the stomach. ”Tell me again about how it works out in the end. I find it… I find it hard to see how… Ahem, excuse me, some petching bastard is messing with my throat. Hope the Pits have good ale to wash that shyke down… So yeah, I don’t see why you need a middleman like myself for this. I mean, what’s in it for you?” ”Trust me, this was not our first option either, but after considering the alternatives we came to conclusion that this method was simply the cheapest for the transfer. With the right, trustworthy partners it is also the least risky one as well.” The swindler would have carried on, weaving words into sentences filled with lies and unfounded promises, but he noticed that the man wasn’t listening. His gaze had wandered away from the liar's eyes to the canal looking somewhere further than he could actually see. Plum fingers clutched his chest just before lurching towards Cris, grabbing his shoulder and collapsing. The con artist instinctively caught the man and almost fell to the ground from the unexpected weight put upon him. He managed to step back to keep the balance and almost gracefully and slowly dropped to his knees. ”Sefarei? Are you alright? Sefarei, what is it?” This was not good. Crismento hastily looked around, more concerned with the surroundings than the man in his arms. He may not have done anything wrong yet, but even thought his mark wasn’t a citizen, neither was he, and that felt to be enough to easily get in trouble. ’Come on, fat fool, I wasn’t done with you yet, damn it.’ What was he to do if this idiot died just like that? Should he just role him into the water and hope that no one had noticed? And the day had been off on such a good start that morning…

[Elianos]

It was such a good day. Elianos was just returning after a fulfilling time at the pits. Unlike the other people that were satisfied with a full purse, he was satisfied with just seeing people with whole bodies pounding on one another together with others so full of emotion as they looked. It made him excited, happy, interested and jealous because it was something he had to give up just to live this long. No strength and no joy for the nuit. One day he would get that perfect body he could and the knowledge he gained from today would help in his efforts but for now he would have to contend with just any lesser body off the streets. It was like eating leftovers from the garbage.

No one would be able to tell his mood in his walk. It was a strange mix of skipping, storming and dancing all in one. How much he wanted another body. After nearly a year he was beginning to feel the weakness in this one and getting used enough to make it his own. He could not allow that. It was as worse as getting a sickly body like the falling man he saw in front of him. Serves him right from eating from the garbage but at least he had friends, friends Elianos could use because all he had were allies. A whole bunch of crazy nuits all working towards their own devices.

Adopting the role he would be playing in a few days, Elianos skipped along to the pair with a smile on his face to ask if they were "having problems?" They should not worry if he was no Stryfe which was looking to get anyone into trouble because "I'm a doctor." This would be a good way for him to get back into the practice before he had to go on the expedition where the people would be more important. What they had to worry about was that as far as he was concerned the one in the arms was nothing more than a slab of meat for him to cut up to his heart's content.

But would they really allow him to do that? While they were both not citizens, Elianos did not know that but what he did know was that Ravok had a really good healthcare system. He needed to suggest something that would allow him to do whatever he wanted and since he introduced himself he might as well continue with saying that "you better get him some attention fast. He looks bad" or so he would say before and after to get his way. "I can help and you wouldn't have to wait like in the other place." If this could work it would go down in history as the day Elianos conned the con along with the other unimportant events in Ravok.