Though the Pycon's first instinct was to be offended by Esha sleeping, he appreciated this shared moment with the aloof Singh. If the Pycon had had a lap big enough, surely Snowflake's head would also being lying comfortably in it, and it was clear the canine and the Eypharian's sister had shared spirits, which made him smile, perhaps he would take to calling Snow Esha from time to time now. Though 0ver 50% of his audience had fallen to sleep, Singh was truly the one he needed to impress, for it was she that had wanted to leave, gave the Pycon such stares as would make him turn to stone early...in the most polite way possible of course. Shim cleared his throat and continued.
"So Kar and his mother traveled, a grueling journey, escorted by a singular jackal to make sure they went through with their travel all the was to Hai. It was a road fraught with danger, but many tales could be told in this one, and Shim, nor Singh he thinks, has the time." The Pycon smiled and winked at her before continuing.
"The jackal saw them off at the gate to which few ever emerge from, and both Kar and his mother were lowered down through the ceiling into a new world. It was clear soon that nowhere was safe, this place held the run off of not only Ekytol, but the world. Kar left his mother with the lepers, where at the very least she would receive scant food and water, and refusing to become fodder for the other factions, became a rogue.
In truth, though Hai was a horrible place, Kar learned much. Those suffering from cursed Gnosis marks told him tales of what they had done to anger the gods, and many had been mutated from overgiving in Reimancy, with strange appendages or flaming hair. He learned bits of magic from anyone he could, and honed these traits alone. He struggled and fought, but he found it easier in Hai to gain a name for himself than it ever would have been for him in Ahnatep." He let the gravity of that last sentence sink in for a moment before pressing on, checking to make Singh hadn't fallen asleep either, but saw her bright gaze still watching him.
"Being a loner in the depths of Hai is not the safest course of action, though non of the factions could be called kind, some would say the lesser evil would be to join them. Because Kar refused he had to find another way to stay alive, as well as protect his mother and the lepers, who he began to grow fond of, and the answer came when he found a blind old man fiddling with bits of metal one day. He said he had no name, so Kar took to calling him the Old Man.. He had made a living for himself down in the depths by making tools, weapons, and gadgets for the other groups. In return for his inventions, everyone left him alone. He made marvelous toys that hadn't much use, yet were greatly entertaining, strange automatons that could walk and sometimes even make noise, and strangely altered crossbows and swords that moved by themselves. In order to teach Kar, the blind man only required one thing from him, to tell him stories of Ahnatep and the world above to fill his head with where only darkness was, and so Kar began training beneath the Gadgeteer, visiting his mother in his spare time, and learning all the winding ways to avoid those that would do him harm in the underground streets of Hai."
Shim took a breath of a pause to check on Singh before continuing. |