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[Cosette Merryweather]

4th of Winter of 512 A.V. Complacency was the enemy. She'd read that, somewhere in Sahova year ago. Just because one was able to become accomplished, or competent in one field did not mean that they should not strive to become better. Having reached her objective of using morphing to emulate the hue of a living person's flesh she had abandoned all other uses of it. Her models had all been humans for the past seasons, that mistake she'd made in imitating a small hare three years past had become a deterrent that prevented her from exploring beyond her comfort zone. Today, with the season turning in full force from autumn to winter she sought to change as well. Her newest model something that was still human, but not quite. An isur smith who was busily striking hot metal with his bare hands. The strange composition of that limb was a point of interest for Cosette. Mimicking it would have practical applications in the future. One could never tell when an arm with the durability of tempered steel could come in handy... an introspective pun she giggled at. The smith across the road noticed her and instead of pretending to ignore him she waved merrily with her unaltered hand before she returned to the idle task of feeding pigeons that had gathered around her - one even daring to peck her skull until it was deterred by the thick cotton cap. The other arm she was attempting to morph she would keep under the long robes as she continued to draw inspiration from the model meters away. Slowly but surely, she would feel the heat and the accompanying pain that was married to the process of transformation. Regulating the flow of djed and mastering the urge to rush through the process was the real problem, rather than a lack of ability.

[Jilitse]

Jilitse was dressed in her green peasant dress, simple and plain, even with the colorful contrast offered by her sharp blue cloak. Her soles fell quietly against the street, and her undeath was masked by the scent of rainwater. There was something intriguing about her in spite of appearances, something that made you look twice, or even uncertain if you got it right the first time. Perhaps it was the way she walked with otherworldly finesse, the uncanny style of slowly walking down the road, as if it didn't matter to Tanroa chimes and bells passed by.

For all her awkwardness, Jil blended in Alvadas. Her striking blue eyes hinted Benshiran descent, but her pallid skin had outlived the beauty of her host. Dark rings around her eyes suggested nocturnal habits, but the rest of the story behind it was easily given away by her ashen gray skin, a reminder of her slow descent to putrefaction. Her hair fell in disorderly waves on her shoulders, one hand occasionally drawing it back away from her face.

She had started to develop a habit of strolling outside for a bell or two, so much so that it had become part of her day to enjoy the sights and sounds of the evershifting city. The Nuit thought it good practice because it allowed her to silently observe and participate within the weirdness of Alvadas.

Today, she picked out a person from a crowd. Pigeons seemed to be attracted to the girl. The little woman did not seem to be entirely bothered, or, to Jilitse's keen eye, she must be preoccupied by something else. Jil traced the girl's line of sight from where she stood, glacing ever so casually to the Isur smith the girl was ogling.

Finding nothing interesting about the instance, Jilitse shrugged to herself and passed by Cosette. She threw a sidelong glance at the other Nuit, long enough to establish eye contact. It was a dead stare and meant nothing. One of the pigeons sat on her shoulder and nipped at her hair. Jil nudged it off and let out a soft curse, "Petch!" She paused and toyed her locks, checking if they were still in place. She threw another glance at Cosette, harder this time.

[Cosette Merryweather]

"Uhm... is there something wrong?" Cosette asked, shrinking from the other's heavy gaze. "You've been looking at me a little too long." in turn, Cosette couldn't help but stare back, though her gaze was less harsh, more akin to that of a frightened animal... one that was deciding if she should be running or standing her ground. But how could she leave just yet? She wasn't done with her business and she had become curious. There was something familiar about this woman, something she couldn't quite put a finger on. She was graceful and was certainly pretty in her own way, but there was something off about her physical appearance. Something that hinted at more than a tired face beset by sleepless nights. Her paleness, bordering to an unhealthy shade of ash was unnatural for a person of her race... Connecting he dots from that point on was as easy to Cosette as breathing. She figured it out swiftly, the reason the woman's features was familiar to her was because she herself, stripped of her morph-endowed glamour resembled the woman closely. She saw that decaying complexion when she wiped away the make-up she often wore or allowed the morpher's magic that enhanced her complexion to it's creamy if almost rosy life-like hue to subside. "I see..." her comment was loud enough that Jilitse wouldn't miss it, but nobody further away would be able to interpret her words accurately, if at all. She smiled, weakly. "You're a nuit aren't you?" "Don't worry, your hair is in good condition... But I must say, you're either very bold or powerful to be walking around looking like that, aren't you?" Cosette leaned forward slightly from where she sat, comparing the artificially infused healthy flush of cream that her skin assumed against the other's ashen grey under the daylight. "I've make-up... or paint if you want something more... lasting to fix that." Cosette was making no secret that she was criticizing the other nuit's complexion, but there was sincere concern behind her voice that was extremely hard to fabricate, perhaps enough to convince Jilitse that she only meant to help out... even if her approach was crude.

[Jilitse]

The stare evoked Cosette to respond to the static Jilitse, but her replies did nothing to cease the Nuit's gaze. Jil held her glare and nonchalantly answered back, "You are starting to forget," a dying hand pointed at Cosette's face, as if to indicate a smudge or dirt, "how to blink." Jil rarely missed things like these, as she had spent a considerable amount of time observing miniscule expressions of pulsers. For what reason did the other Nuit hide her undeath? There was more to it that skin, in the way Cosette carried herself, almost as if she was mimicking life.

Returning to the topic, and partially amused that she was able to start a conversation, "I do not care for appearances, this is how I look. Though it is courteous to be presentable and highly advantageous for when dealing with people who discriminate." She snickered and bore her eyes into Cosette, "You're a Nuit yourself," there was no second guessing that, "but your body somewhat appears to be new. If I had it my way I would dab on better embalming than something temporary like cosmetics. Far too expensive for my taste." If she had any of those glyphed coffins in Sahova, Jil would have no problem in preserving a new host. "It does get rather inconvenient, but I'm sure you know how it is during the time when our bodies are begging to return to Dira. You're falling apart and there's no healing it." She gave no shudder in saying death's name. She had offered multiple prayers of undeath extension to her and her jackals, if it could buy her time to complete her life's mission.

Jil waved her hand in front of her and swayed in place to discourage pigeons from perching on any part of her body. She viewed pigeon claws and beaks as tiny weapons that do her harm. "My name is Jilitse. It is a pleasure to meet another Nuit in these streets. I am sorry for bothering you, but how do you manage to look..." the Nuit extended her words and left it hanging, nudging for Cosette to give her a name.

[Cosette Merryweather]

The reminder was enough to cause the girl to bat her eyelids and rub them gently with the hem of her sleeves. Had she really forgotten how to blink? Was there even a need to remember doing such a thing before? With the diminished sensitivity to certain stimuli she was becoming less able to emulate the more natural habits of the living and it was especially harder when she wasn't quite synchronized with her host, or if the body was in the later stages of decay... but still, could she blame everything on that? Or had she changed too? The possibility that she was becoming less and less human frightened her. But she wasn't alien to that fear anymore and she wasn't immature to deny what had happened to her. She had accepted her condition, but she was still holding on to the hope that she could still recover what she had lost... regardless if she would have to return changed. "Freshly obtained, but I am not sure about it's condition. I found it in less than favorable conditions, but it will endure... though I am having difficulty synchronizing with this one, more than any other body I've used before." and her experience was still limited, at least compared to that of most nuit. The ancient ones had probably tested every race, both young and old, male or female. She had stubbornly stuck to her preferences and it made the selection process that much more time-intensive... but what was a day or two to a nuit? "Yes... it is most troublesome." she agreed with some displeasure, "I'll be pleased when I finally figure out a way to make a lasting living body to sift into..." she'd heard of Drainira's means of escaping Sahova by now and she meant to emulate it. But her goal of obtaining a perfect body was not nearly as lofty as the supervisor golem's. She would be satisfied with something simple, even if it would not survive a century. "Jil-" Cosette choked on the name, repressing the laughter that shook her small frame "-liste." "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but find it amusing. Talking like this." she sighed, making room on the bench for Jilitse to join her, if the other wished to. "We met once, a few years ago. In Sahova. You almost decided to throw me into a cell to use as a lab rat. I suppose it was my fault, but I did not quite understand how Sahova worked back then. Farke was very sparing in the details he shared with me." Cosette peeled away a few inches of the sleeve hiding her left arm revealing a crystalline arm, much like the Isur's not too far away. The only difference was it was smaller and significantly lighter. "I've been practicing, morphing that is."

[Jilitse]

It was very rare, though it could sometime happen, as it did for her once in Syliras, for people to say "Hi, I think we've met before." People like that weren't foreign to Jilitse - they start with the sudden gush of familiarity to the face worn by an undead and then end with the slow cooking realization that the corpse of someone familiar had been recycled. Add that to the fact that the other Nuit seemed to have missed the cue to introduce herself, Jilitse was left confused how Cosette found her familiar. Was it her name? Her face? Sahova?

She accepted the invitation and sat down, her gaze muted but still fixed on the girl. Jil listened as Cosette talked about Sahova, dropping the name of Farke in the process. Only a rare few ever get out alive off Sahova, and it was near impossible to miss the names of the Council of Five. This girl, who could she be?

"Ah," Jil pursed her lips and just when it looked like she had recognized Cosette, she let out an apology instead, "Sorry about that. Years tend to pass by without notice in that place. Though I could count the outsiders I've worked with in Sahova, I am sorry, I cannot take a guess as to who you are." The Nuit squinted, like it would jog her memory.

When Cosette revealed her morphed arm, Jil titled her head ever so slightly to scrutinize the skin. The memory of Ialari Pythone drifted in her mind. It came back to her now, the girl Nuit who morphed and wished to return to life.

Her name was...

[Cosette Merryweather]

The girl tilted her head back, towards the clouds and she answered the other's question honestly. "Cosette.I guess you wouldn't remember my name, I did nothing worth remembering so I suppose that's the natural response." "I am surprised that you left the island however," Jilitse had resembled many of the nuits in Sahova, reluctant to move out of their comfort zones... or perhaps they believed there was little of worth to be found beyond their safe haven. The island did have everything but raw materials and even that was brought to them by enterprising sea men. "I don't think many Sahovan nuits elected to travel beyond Sahova's shores. What brought about the change of heart?" she looked to Jilitse expectantly, for a moment she looked hopefully but she quickly shook her head, as if some great mistake had suddenly occurred to her. "I'm sorry, that was rude." she hastily corrected herself. "You don't have to tell me why you left. I'm merely glad we had the opportunity to meet again. I do hope you'll stay here awhile, it would be nice to talk every once in awhile and I haven't many acquaintances who knows the truth about me, it's sort of lonely, befriending people for awhile only to move away as soon as I can no longer maintain my body..." she relaxed her arm, straightening it at the joint and the skin's almost metallic shine vanished to give way to what resembled a living human's flesh. "I could probably maintain the same face no matter the bodies I swap through using morphing, but I'm conserving my djed for other projects at the moment." "Do you still practice your art of making living dolls? Animation was it?"

[Jilitse]

It was Cosette.

Jilitse nodded as the Nuit chattered. Their meeting back then was brief and perhaps written off into the unimportant parts of her memory. Cosette was right, it was sure pleasant to meet a familiar person. Jil thought better than to be skeptical. "We do venture out for various reasons. Research. Missions. Trade." She made a light pat of the girl's shoulder. "Fret not Cosette, I am not at all bothered by your curiosity. I left Sahova for a mission under the Archwizard. That and I've got half the Council of Five breathing down my neck." Succint and straight to the point.

"I don't think I'm going back anytime soon. Over the past two years I've went to Syliras, crossed the desert to Yahebah, and ended up here. I am still into Animation. As a matter of fact I have recently set-up shop under the name Mekaniks and Golams. It's a gadget and golems shop, and business is not so bad." It was more interesting to talk of the now instead of the past. "I intend to stay for the long run. I just need to find the gold to buy my own house, one way or another. This place isn't so bad. You have to admit, Alvadas can get outrageous. Definitely a far cry from the monotony in Sahova. Mindfuck, of a different kind. I can see why Ionu revels in being entertained.

How about you, Cosette? What brought you here?" A pigeon sat on Jilitse's knee and cawed. It tilted its head to Cosette, almost as if it was listening in on the two Nuits. "Are you going to stay for a while? Where are you staying?" And finally inserted, "If you are, maybe you should go and gather Ionu's Stars. Those sparkling motes that turn into pretty much anything. From what I heard it's the latest rave in town. They are quite easy to spot. In the dead white of winter, they stand out and shine."

She eyed Cosette's morphed Isurian arm. "There's something that doesn't look quite right about that." More to the point, "The veins, I think. I wonder whether you could really make a perfect copy of an Isur's arm through Morphing."

"That trick with your face though, you should teach me sometime." Not for appearing alive, but Jil suddenly recalled that Drainira's body was made from compacted human cells. If she was going to create another supervisor to match Sagallius' champion, she would need Cosette's help. The ulterior motive could be hidden until much later. Cosette's ability to disguise herself she could find handy. Call it foresight.

[Cosette Merryweather]

"A mission from the archwizard... I suppose it's a respectable one, of that I'm almost certain." it brought back memories... of a long time ago when she was still naive to a fault. "I've not conversed with Mashaen long but he seems a decent person... more than I can say for most Sahovan Nuits... no offense meant to you of course, but many of your peers already suffer from mild overgiving." The council? She knew of them, but only through one of their own and that one man was not even truly a part of the council. "I know little about the council, but I'm willing to bet this body Alobeius must be one of them. The man's a creeper. I only spent a few minutes near him and that was more than I could handle... well, he's not likely to leave that island anytime soon so I suppose you can forget about the council for the meantime." "Besides, Master Farke's the only one who ever leaves and even then I don't think he'd bother hunting you down... he did bother helping me when there was nothing for me to gain." "I quite like this place, I may stay for an extended period of time myself... if only because its convenient for our kind. Everything's weird enough that we aren't truly out of place." true enough, the colorful but weird motif of the streets around them changed color and style. The distinctly Kalean architecture shifted into the style that sandstone buildings made by Benshiran assumed. "Plus the way the streets re-arrange themselves is also convenient, puts people off my tail when I want to lose them." "I'm only renting a room at the moment, I am planning to buy my own place as well... but I have no idea what a good price is for a one room apartment." that was going to be quite a dilemma, it was bad enough finding a place to work but inspecting places she wanted to buy when the streets kept moving was almost infuriating. "Ionu's Stars... I'll think about it. I've been trying to learn about the city that I neglected to join the festivities, perhaps I'll try participating once I find the time." She gracefully accepted Jilitse's critique of her handwork. "Its supposed to be like that actually, the flesh I'm using isn't as fresh so I have to compromise. Its still durable but I don't believe it will be as strong as the original." she flexed her fingers, stretching her arm underneath the robes. "Hmm... The trick? You want to learn morphing...?" "Normally I would refuse teaching anyone, but you're not exactly normal and nuits are able to switch bodies they mangle up through practice... Sure, I can teach you if you're available." there were many reasons a nuit might consider learning morphing, chief among them in Cosette's perception, was the ability to create disguises impromptu.

[Jilitse]

"It's far more complicated than it sounds Cosette." Jilitse laughed from her throat. "Council business is always tricky. Especially when..." Jil decided against revealing much of the political turmoil in Sahova, besides, Cosette didn't seem the type to be interested in that kind of stuff. Jil found the other Nuit a little too... airy. "you inspire the ire of Aelobius. Let's just say I had a run-in with the voider." Remembering Marie Suzanne hurt her mind. It was a weight that pressed against her brain, begging for justice. One day, she will retrieve the book from Drainira. One. day.

"That mage was totally deranged." She offered Cosette an anecdote. "While you could say all Sahovans are deranged, Aelobius takes it to a higher level. He is a master of the Void, I am not sure if you are familiar of it, but let's just call it a bottomless pit of cold." Jil closed her eyes momentarily, and tried her best to describe the horrible imagery that Aelobius left her. "He is a sadistic son of a shyke. Who knows what else he's got anchored inside that zero-gravity stinkhole." An emotion weaseled out of her lips, doubling as a warning to Cosette. "He keeps corpses in the Void. Of his dead wife. Dead wives." It was one thing for Cosette, an outsider, to be spooked by a Sahovan. An another for Jilitse, who lived all her undead years in Sahova, to be horrified by one of her own. A wise person would take her warning and run away with it. She repeated, "Who knows what else he's got anchored inside that zero-gravity stinkhole?" I do, thought Jilitse. I have a book to show for it.

Jil detailed he plans to Cosette. "I have already asked Serenity regarding the house I want to build a few days ago. It roughly costs," for emphasis she paused and the lowered her voice, "4,600 gm."

"And that does not include a kitchen and a dining area. To be fair, a shop and a storage room was included in the plans. And... a number of special rooms. The price is still steep for me, I couldn't afford it at my current state even if I sell all my ichor. However, I don't think you'll worry for funds the way I do. If it's just going to be a plain cottage with a room I doubt it would take you more than a thousand miza." Like miza were berries you could pick from wild bushes.

"Hm, yes. I think I do want to learn Morphing. The stitch is that..." Jil gave a worried look to Cosette, before revealing, "I am a klutz when it comes to Personal Magic." Hopefully, the girl knew the difference between that and World Magic. "Other mages discriminate me for it, and I let them. I was never comfortable wielding my own djed. I always feared that I might suddenly overgive and die." Suddenly there was a dead pan look on the Nuit's face, as if she was recalling something truly horrible. "It is what you would call a block. A limit that I have already imposed upon myself. Like a diary you'd lock whose key you throw away never to be found. My mentors in the Royal Academy of Magic," talking about Alahea like it was yesterday, "had a rather difficult time teaching me. I just resigned myself to the idea that it wasn't for me and I stopped trying."

"But I'm ready to give it a shot. Are you free right now or should we set it on another day?" There was a fierce determination in Jilitse's eyes and she looked at Cosette with such expectation. Oh, if Mashaen could see her now. She felt so petching pro-active, she wondered where the initiative stemmed from. Had her exile from Sahova taught her this much independence?