Closed [The Sanctuary] The End of a Long Road

[Roland Eir]

Her explanation of the jobs available made him question any thoughts about staying. Out on the veranda he thought about the work he could be doing here, and measured it against his chances of finding work elsewhere. It was better than no work at all. Was it? Surely a place like this would have a variety of valuable, pocket-sized items. The medicine alone could fetch a good price. Roland closed his eyes and sighed in frustration.When he had first set out from Sunberth, he vowed never to commit theft again. Already he was considering what he could lift here. The evening air was warm, but not uncomfortably so. Any clouds that had covered the sky during his journey had passed, and the sky was gorgeous. A variety of blues and blacks surrounding glittering stars and the pale moon. A light breeze brought the smell of the sea and the sound of waves crashing on the shore far below. He hadn't realized how close they were. Regretting not taking a longer look at his father's maps, Roland wondered what body of water it was. When Kavala returned he scooted the chair in so that he could reach the tray. Her comment about his arm stopped him cold. Infection had crossed his mind--he'd seen the results of such wounds back in Sunberth--but had no idea how he could help it on the road. If it was true... He didn't want to think about it. Amputation was a very real possibility under normal circumstances. Maybe with her magic? Clinging to that hope, he settled in to eat. Hesitantly, he picked up a meat roll. His nose picked up the strong scent of herbs before he even had it in his mouth. There was a momentary flutter of panic in his chest--had she poisoned him? That immediately melted away when the savory flavor hit his tongue. It had been a long time--years--since he had had anything nearly this delicious. He recognized none of the spices; his life had not been blessed with a wide range of culinary tastes. But the meat was chicken, fresh as it could possibly be. Two more of the small rolls had disappeared into his mouth before he realized she had asked him a question. "Yes, battle. Battle, storms, wild animals, and every other disaster that could possibly befall a traveler," he said in a wearied tone, before clarifying: "Or so it seemed to me, at least. I've been on the... Kabrin Road since Syliras. Most of the dangers had been short-lived or less life-threatening till then. A miserable trip, to be sure, but one I figured I could handle. Then just a few days ago bandits came out of nowhere." He did not add that he'd been dozing in the saddle. "As I said before, I'm not much of a warrior. They knocked me off of my horse before I could even react. Understandably, the animal bolted away. It was lucky, most of what I carry I leave in the saddlebags, so I was light enough on my feet. It took some struggling, but I managed to get past them and start running. Earned myself this--" he gestured to his arm. "--but I escaped with my life, so I can hardly complain." In hindsight he should have given the rider a wider birth, otherwise the saber wouldn't have been able to reach him. But with his concentration fully on pumping djed through his limbs, he hadn't been giving much thought to his surroundings. His use of Flux was still limited, and the burst it took him to escape--and catch his horse--had nearly killed him. The damage to his muscles had hurt worse than the cut on his arm, but luckily it had healed faster. The ache was still there, pervading his entire body. The price he payed.

[Kavala]

If Roland would have been thinking, he would have realized that the small salary was more than made up for with the fact that the woman offered him room and board, meaning he could have a place to sleep, board his horse, and eat all free of charge. That made his three miza base salary as a laborer something of a gift since he'd basically have his living expenses taken care of. Plus there was training and a medical facility at hand.

Of course, if Kavala knew that Roland was already thinking of stealing, the Konti would have been greatly saddened. She didn't have it in her to judge others for their misfortunes and bad upbringing, but the Konti firmly believed that one didn't have to live as life dictated unless one was extremely lazy or determined to not better themselves.

She had not been born to wealth. But Kavala had been born with huge measures of Denusk stubbornness and determination. Everything around her had been built up by her hands and those that chose to work with her. And she was grateful for all of it. Everyone here was family of a sorts, some pulling more weight than others, and most giving far more than they took.

Kavala watched the stranger eat and wondered what he thought about. His answer, while slow in coming, satisfied her. The Kabrin Road appeared safe at first glance, but the reality of the patrolled road was that it was a dangerous ride. Anywhere was dangerous, really, even in the confines of these walls with a stranger she knew nothing about.

"Even though the Syliran Knights patrol it, the Kabrin can be truly dangerous. I once rode it from Zeltiva to Kenash where I set out across the grass. It wasn't a positive experience for me, not with the people I ran into. It's actually how I ended up in Riverfall. And its ultimately the reason this place got built. I wonder what your misfortunes will lead you to?" She said aloud, then glanced up as an eagle passed overhead. He banked, backwinged, and transformed in a shimmer of colored lights as his talons turned to feet and he slapped down onto the stone of the veranda. The boy was utterly nude, a teen really, who studied the stranger openly then walked over and gave the Konti a brief hug.

"Everything okay, Kavala?" The Konti nodded. "Roland, this is Larik. He's my nephew. Him and his twin live here with my brother the Armsmaster Vanator. We have quite a few employees, but you'll meet most of them when the sun rises. Roland is going to be here for a day or two unless he decides to stay and take a job." Kavala added, smiling.

"I'm going to take him down to the bathing room in a few to let him get a bath and to take care of his wounds. Can you bring me one of Vanator's shirts and a pair of his cotton pants? He won't miss them but this man could really use them while his other things are getting laundered. I was going to let him wash up in the washroom in the guest and patient quarters, but he really needs a bath." Kavala said, giving Roland an apologetic glance.

Larik nodded. "I'll bring them down to the bathing chamber Kav. Do you want Cadre to come join you or are you fine?" He asked, worried more about then stranger than he was letting on to his aunt.

"That'd be great, Larik. Thanks." Kavala said softly, then turned back to Roland. "I hope you like baths. We are big on them around here." She said, nodding off the way her nephew had taken off. She knew he had her own well being at heart. And she also knew that Larik was checking out the new man to make sure he wasn't a slaver. Larik hated slavers.

"You about done?" She asked, noting how empty his tray was getting.

[Roland Eir]

Roland listened to her speak while he ate. He grabbed a roll of meat right as the eagle began to bank. The roll dropped from Roland's hand to the tray with a thump while his mouth, poised to bite, remained open in shock as the eagle transformed before his eyes. In the span of that night he had already witnessed more magic than he had in his entire life. The boy was seemingly unabashed in his nakedness. The eyes bothered him, especially when they were examining him. He felt like a rodent under the eyes of a bird of prey. Perhaps it was not too far from the truth. He managed to get his features under control by the time mention of a bath came up. It wasn't until the boy was flying away before his heartbeat was under control. It had pounded incessantly against his chest like an inmate on the door of its cell throughout the encounter. He watched the eagle wing away in fixed fascination. It appeared to be a bird. A real animal. Not an illusion of some kind. The possibility that he had just seen a kelvic set a strange half-smile across his face. Never had he felt so far away from home. It almost felt like his goal had been reached. He'd seen everything now, so he might as well head back. At the same time it felt like he had only just turned past the cover of a new book and read the first line. Sunberth was just a small, dirty corner of the world. At this point he was starting to wrap his brain around just how different the rest of the world would be. From now on, everything would be new. And he might as well get used to change. For example, now he had to bathe. Hygiene had never been of paramount importance in Sunberth, especially for people of Roland's class. Deep beneath the muck from his journey, there was likely still some grime from the streets of home locked away against his skin. This would be good then, he assured himself. In a symbolic way it would represent a breaking away from his old way of life. "Ah, yes. I think I'm finished," he said. His appetite had shrunk when the boy--the kelvic?--had first transformed. "Please, uh, lead the way." He waited until he was following her back inside to ask "Was that--was he," he corrected himself. "A Kelvic?"

[Kavala]

Kavala watched the strangers reaction. In a way, he was young - for a human - and she guessed he hadn't been out in the world all that long. Her nephew was fierce, but it was just Larik's nature to stare everyone down and contemplate where they fit in on the pecking order. And Larik was still young, barely into his second year. The two could teach each other a great deal about the world, Kavala thought, glancing from the teen to the man sitting across from her.

When Larik had taken wing again, Kavala spoke.

"His name is Larik. He's my brother's son.... my nephew. There's a great deal of family around here. He has a twin sister named Cadra who's mostly a large golden orange house cat. She's easily distracted by string and loves to play or curl in your lap. She's learning to cook while Larik is a guard and scout for us. He goes out with the horse herds during the day and watches over them. They are both just into their second year, so forgive their manners. Riverfall has quite a few kelvics, and this is the center for healing for them. You'll find a few here and there, sometimes they stay a day or two and sometimes they move in and never leave. Quite a few come here to give birth as well, so if you see them waddling around in the later stages of pregnancy, don't think anything of it. The Akalak have quite a few kelvic partners. Ravok breeds kelvics as pit fighters..." Kavala's voice took on a disaproving quality here. "... and when they don't get something fierce, they oftentimes ship it to Ravok for breeding if its a female. So we have a lot of deer and songbird kelvics around here. Things that don't work out well in gladiatorial combat." The Healer said, looking thoughtful.

She paused for a long time.

"In the city they are considered pets and often treated as such. Here, we consider them people. Absolutely treat them with respect." She added, as if it might be necessary. She didn't know Roland, so indeed it might be.

The Konti rise at that point and beckoned Roland to follow her. If he did so, she'd lead him back through the clinic, and down a walkway that crossed over to the double door entrance to a tunnel and started down a large spiral walkway made of ridged stone that gently dove into the earth. The walls were etched with garnet, malachite, and lapis. Onyx added to the scene, so the walls depicted something of a descent from the shore to the depths of the sea in mosaic stonework that could only have been produced by the finest artist or by arcane means.

Kavala's footsteps were soft as she took Roland down, finding a right turn splinter hall and passing into it. They skipped a large door and then walked through an arch that lead to a huge Commons that looked more like a comfortable Inn than a great room. A kitchen was off to one side, and a red-headed teen was standing there kneeding bread. "Hey Aunt..." The girl greeted. Kavala smiled. "Cadra, this is Roland. He's a guest for now." She said as Cadra smiled at Roland and nodded. "There will be sweetbread later if you want some." She informed as they pair passed through the richly decorated commons and its stone floor much like the hallway.

They crossed into a library filled with books which had doorways leading off in all directions. Kavala turned left, passed down what looked like a hall of general quarters and into a lush bathing area. The bath was rougher, as if no one had gotten to finishing the walls yet. But the bath was dominated by a huge pool lit with candles and surrounded by shelves of towels, robes, and toiletries.

"I'll need your clothing." Kavala said, gesturing to a pile of clothing left by the pool, most likely by the teen eagle. She then went to the shelves and took down towels, wash cloths, and an assortment of creams and soaps that she laid out by the rim.

"Once you get your shirt off, I can look at your wound. But I want you in the water, because if its anything like the rest of you, we'll need to get some of the dirt off first." She said, beginning to slip off her kidskin boots and roll up her pant legs. The woman looked like she planned to get into the bath, which she did, sitting down on the rim and dangling her feet into it.

The Within :

[Roland Eir]

Roland nodded slowly as Kavala talked. An innkeeper in Sunberth had claimed to have met a Kelvic, and he told Roland stories of strange creatures--half man, half beast--who stalked their prey through the forests with an animal's ferocity. The older man had pointed out scars on his forearms, informing a wide-eyed young Roland that they were the marks of combat with the beasts. The tale had sent him home shivering in fear, avoiding every dark alleyway. But such was life in Sunberth. Anything even remotely related to magic was treated with superstition and fear. The kelvics here, as far as he had observed, were not ferocious. Neither could they stay in a half-bestial form, it appeared to be all or nothing. Strange though he was, "Larik" did not seem to match the stories he had heard. Maybe the ones in Ravok would live up to the tales, but it didn't seem likely. Kavala said to treat them like people. And with that she rose, and Roland followed her down a dazzling walkway. If he'd had time, he would have stayed there to examine the artistic tunnel. Everything in this place was beautiful, but this took his breath away. It felt like he was slowly walking into the depths of the ocean. Every step brought him closer to the deep. He found himself wanting for air, and for a moment he thought he might be drowning. He'd only forgotten to breath. As they walked, he reached a hand out and drew it across the mozaic. Smooth, and cool to the touch. Roland didn't know how this artwork had been created, but it was beyond anything he'd seen in Sunberth or Syliras. In the kitchen he paused briefly to examine the Kelvic girl, again struck by how young and friendly she looked. Kavala had said they were both in their second year. Surely she doesn't mean they're less than two years old? he though. They must be in their teen years. As swiftly as they had entered they were gone, through a library rich with books--Roland hoped they were in common--and then through the general quarters and into what Roland assumed was the bath. It smelled strange to Roland, with the candles and the aroma of many different soaps and creams. At Kavala's request he hesitantly drew his shirt off. First his left arm, and then his right. He gingerly slipped the rough fabric past the bandage, wincing slightly as they brushed together. His arm ached furiously, but he was not eager to remove the bandage. Neither was he eager to remove his pants in front of this woman who was still a stranger to him. She is a doctor, he reminded himself. A pet doctor, but the idea was the same. He bent over and pulled off his shoes, wrinkling his nose at the odor and dimly aware that he had probably been tracking dirt all throughout the building. His feet were wrapped in cloth to provent them from rubbing raw while he was rubbing, and he removed these as well before moving on to his pants. When he was finally bare, he pushed his stinking clothes into a pile off to one side of the room. Conspicuously avoiding Kavala's gaze, he stepped into the water. Instantly the warmth seeped into him, and he sighed in pleasure. The relief to his travel-worn feet was a godsend. Lowering his body, he used his left hand to steady himself on the rim. Aching joints seemed to loosen in the warm water, and he gratefully submerged them. Finally, he reached over and undid the bandage on his wound with some effort. Instantly the air filled with an oppressive stench, like something rotting. The skin around the long, ragged wound was swollen and purple. Blood and pus mingled within the unclean cut. The veins surrounding it were dark. Roland forced himself to look away as his heart sank. He'd seen men who'd lost limbs over less. If Kavala's Gnosis couldn't fix it he wouldn't be good for labor, nor much else.

[Kavala]

The Konti watched him. She didn't watch him as a predator watched prey, no, there was something altogether different in her eyes. Sympathy mixed with curiosity was flavoring her features until he revealed the wound and she hissed in concern. Swearing softly, she had suspected he was as injured as his horse, but it was far worse than she had anticipated. The wound must hurt. It must have hurt a great deal. Because when Kavala's eyes caught sight of it, her compulsion kicked into high gear and it almost physically hurt her to see his arm in the shape it was in without moving to instantly help him.

She reached down and slipped off her sleeveless tunic, lifted her legs from where they dangled over the edge, and her rolled up pants soon followed. The Konti was in the water with him in an instant, and was reaching out to capture his arm in her hands. She lifted his high, keeping it out of the water where the skin was broken with one hand. She used her other hand to gently push on his chest and move him into deeper water where there was a bench built into the far wall. When she was almost treading water and he'd backed against the wall, she said softly, "Sit".

She released pressure on his chest, still facing him, and took his arm in both hands. She gripped his arm up by his shoulder and ran a thumb down until she seemed to find what she was looking for and pressed, hard, on a nerve bundle there. The arm went almost instantly numb. She shifted then, so it was still out of the water but as she kept up pressure on the nerve bundle, she released his arm with her other hand, held out her empty palm, and pooled res into it. The concentrated look on her face, the intensity that she stared at her palm, was a change from the surprise and concern. This was all concentration. The res in her palm grew, took shape, and before he probably could really understand what was happening, a long black wicked looking obsidian knife lay in her hand. It was deep black, and the edge was razor sharp like only flecked stone could be. She twisted her hand, and it went from laying across her palm to being clutched expertly in her hand.

Kavala glanced up at him, made a soothing noise, and began cutting into his arm. Pockets of pus erupted, pulled tighter than the skin could normally hold, and infection ran down his arm freely and into the pool where the warm circulated water washed it away. Kavala kept the pressure up on the nerve, gripping his arm stubbornly as she cut away dead flesh, debris, and then finally dunked it under the water to rinse the wound and get a better feel for what it looked like. He felt nothing. When his arm was just bleeding, and not running with puss, she dunked it a second time, lifted it up and then released the pressure on his nerve. Pain flooded him, almost in a blinding debilitating manner. But she needed both hands, and she used them, as she whispered a prayer to Rak'keli and tapped the gnosis on her leg. The black knife was tossed onto the shirt she had discarded on the far edge of the pool, and both hands were plunged into the cuts she'd made and into the original wound.

The stench vanished, pain vanished, and the cool blue power filled his arm, mending flesh instantly and chasing poison away. Kavala worked slowly, intently. Missing nothing, her healing practices were obsessive in their pursuit of perfection. He felt the drain the infection had been on his body vanish and a new strength filled him. Between the food and healing, the Konti before him was nurturing him back from someplace dark he'd been on the road. And she seemed to do it effortlessly and fearlessly, as if she took everyone that came before her as a gift from the Gods for one reason or another.

When Kavala released his arm and stepped back, allowing it to float freely in the water, she smiled.

"I bet that feels a bit better." She said, her head tilted to one side, causing her loose translucent white hair to floating around in the pool, more wet on one side than on the other. She studied him then, undeterred by his nudity or by hers. Healers by nature were not prone to be shy about the physical form. Kavala seemed to have no problems standing naked in the bath before him watching him intently or in fact having him stare back.

The water in the bathing chamber was odd. It seemed to come from the wall warm, cool off slightly as it passed through the pool, and vanish at the far side through another rent in the stone it was formed of. Formed. In fact, the whole bathing chamber looked like it was formed, not chiseled nor naturally occurring. It looked absolutely designed, and if the Konti could form a knife as easily as that out of nothing, odds are the chamber was formed in a similar manner.

The Konti shifted, moving away from him to fetch a basket that was filled with cloth and a sand-textured soap one used by the handful. She brought him a washcloth filled with the soapy sand and handed that to him. "You better get some of that road dirt off you." She added, offering him a smile. "Clean, fed and healed, you'll be feeling a thousand times better in the morning." She predicted.

Moving through the water, which was clear, though the slight steam coming off it did obscure things a bit, Roland could see Kavala's form closer. The gnosis on her leg with the two serpents intertwined with wings was clearly evident, but so too was an odd mark on the back of her let hand. On her right hip, more concealed, was another gnosis with the form of a spiral. And all over her skin, where the scales didn't obscure it, was scars. They were easy to see in the water and in the light because they contrasted with her paleness as even paler lines etched into her form.

Torture.

The woman looked like someone had once taken a knife to her body repeatedly, deliberately, to spark pain over and over again. There were other scars on her as well. Her wrists had marks that looked like once she'd been tied and had fought to be free until they were bloody and raw. And there were jagged lines in a half moon shape around the base of her neck and shoulders that in the odd light of the bathing room looked a great deal like teeth impressions that had been made so deep and so hard that they'd scarred. Her face and collarbones were clear. But everywhere else there were subtle marks of either confinement, or violence, or a sick combination of both.

The rest of her was built odd, at least for a Konti or a human woman of her size. While she was slender and short, with full breasts that were a good balance between too small and too large, the rest of her looked like she worked on her strength constantly. Her arms were sculpted like a warriors, and her clean leg lines were not smooth and soft like a woman's should be. They were instead muscled and well defined as if she spent a great deal of time in the saddle and fighting. In fact, that was something that might nag at someone that watched Kavala move. She had incredibly kind and concerned eyes, but her entire body moved like a predator. There was a grace there that translated into strength and devotion to making her life better.

And while he washed, she in turn studied him. She made no bones about how serious his wound was as she did so openly. "Another day or two, and that would have killed you. Any of those pockets of infection... if they would have burst inside your skin and flooded your bloodstream, they would have shocked and killed your heart. The Gods sent you to my doorstep for a reason. Just getting a room in Riverfall for the night wouldn't have saved you. You might not have even woken up the next morning anyhow. You are lucky. But now, now I wonder why you are here. The wound... was the excuse. What is the real reason?" She said softly, speculatively, as if she was used to saying what was on her mind.

[Roland Eir]

Staring at his wound in rapt, horrified fascination, Roland didn't notice that Kavala had joined him in the water until her pale hands had taken hold of his arm. Despite the situation, her sudden nakedness caught him off-guard. He lowered his gaze, allowing her to lead him over to the bench. At her bidding he sat. Flashing his gaze between her concerned face and his arm--and with great concentration ignoring what he saw between--he let her run her thumb down his shoulder. He was about to ask what she was doing when her thumb suddenly jammed into his upper arm, above the wound. The whole of his body flinched at the feeling. First a sharp pain, and then suddenly his arm went dead in her hands. The throbbing ache that had pained him over the last few days seemed to disappear. It scared him slightly that he could see his fingers twitching at his command, but could not feel it. That small fear melted at the sight of the ethereal substance pooling in her palm. The man's eyes shifted in confusion to the look of pure concentration on Kavala's face. When he looked down again she was holding a dagger that would make some of the most stalwart of Sunberth's citizens cringe. Dots connected in Roland's mind. Bits of lore he'd heard both at home and in Syliras, people talking about demented wizards summoning forth the elements from within themselves to rain death upon innocent folk. The practice of Reimancy. Hope and fear swelled within him. That he would stumble upon a practitioner of these arts by chance was convenient at the very least. Miraculous at best. At the same time, the way she wielded the blade did not strike him as very healer-like. Despite her attempts at soothing him, he drew back, pressing himself up against the wall and holding his arm away from him. With practiced ease, she brought the dagger to his skin. He winced, but the pain didn't come. It felt like he was having an out-of-body experience. Or maybe that he had died and become a ghost. Pus and blood leaked from expertly cut slits in his arm as the swelling died down and yet he felt nothing. She was steadily carving his arm up like a butcher, cutting away the dead, unpleasant flesh until only the healthy, choice cuts of meat remained. Roland shook his head in amazement. At this rate he wondered why she didn't just lop off his arm and be done with it? The water ran red and yellow, discolored by the work being done. Finally she seemed finished with the blade, and brought it away from his arm. He sighed in relief, having spied what looked like the white of bone through the original wound. Then she shifted. In a panic he realized that she was removing her hand from his upper arm. He opened his mouth in protest, just in time to cry out as pain blazed a trail up his arm. Muscles, flesh, and bone screamed lances of throbbing pain that seemed to extend throughout the rest of his body. With fierce concentration, he forced his mouth shut, gritting his teeth against his own moans of pain. Dimly he saw her toss the dagger, and he compelled himself to return his gaze to his arm. Her hands returned to his wounds. Within his wounds. Light danced at the edge of his vision, and his mouth opened in a soundless scream. And then cool relief flooded him. As fast as the pain had come, it was being chased away. Muscles knit and flesh rejoined under her fingers. Strength returned to his fingers and he clenched them, flexing the newly fixed muscles in his arm. As she worked, Roland felt even the aching pains of his other limbs fall away, even the painful reminders of his Flux use. Before long nothing but a long white scar gleamed up at him from his arm. She said this was the work of the gods? Even in his wildest fantasies he had not imagined that the gods would work in such a way. Sitting there in the warm water, with his body once again whole and this mysterious, powerful woman before him, he felt very far away from home. "Better does not begin to cover it," he said softly. "That was the most... miraculous thing I've ever experienced." The words seemed inadequate, but fitting. Technically, he mused, it was a miracle of a sort. He raised his eyes to her thankfully, then stopped cold. Her eyes looked back at him, examining him without shame. The calm, even way she did it made him feel inhuman, like he was just another animal she had healed. In a way of course, he was. But unlike an animal he did have some shame, and he turned his head away from her, heat rising to his cheeks. Unconsciously he rolled his shoulders, a nervous habit. Hearing her move away through the water, he turned his head slightly, stealing a glance out of the corner of his eye. The sight of her scars made him do a double-take, this time more than a glance. He winced at the pail marks. Even after this ordeal, he had no idea what kind of pain she must have gone through. Whoever this woman really was, there was more to her than just a simple healer of animals. She looked like a warrior, and moved like a huntress. When she turned and brought back the washcloth, he averted his gaze once more until she was close enough for him to turn and take the cloth. "Thank you." Facing away from her, he washed himself. It took some scraping, but eventually the dirt began to wash away from him. The whole time he was uncomfortably aware of her studying. A combination of running and climbing most of his life had given him a balanced physique--broad, tapered shoulders, long muscled legs. His season on the road had destroyed it. Though he had always been lean, eating nothing but rations for most of a season had stripped any fat from his body. The outline of his ribs were barely visible against his skin, and his stomach visibly bulged from the meal he had eaten. But strength still flowed through him, thanks in large part to Kavala's ministrations. And it seemed he owed her thanks for his life as well. He had been lucky, for once. Or maybe it was even as she had said, and the gods had sent him to her. The thought seemed impossible. After all, what did the gods care about him? They'd never helped him before. As for the reason he was there... "I heard that Riverfall was a good city," he said with a shrug. "Different from Sunberth, and that's all that really matters." Talking about his home at all left him with an unpleasant pit in his stomach. He eagerly changed the subject. "Kavala, how did you make that dagger? I've heard of magic like that, but never seen it." He did not mention that he'd also heard that it was practiced by dangerous and evil individuals.

[Kavala]

Kavala listened quietly to him. The Healer watched him too, as she had from the moment he'd set foot inside her home. Her azure blue eyes had gone pale during the healing, and were so light now that it gave her the look of being almost blind. She looked like that when she was trying to decide something, concentrating, attempting to understand. His voice was soft, balanced on the edge of something - maybe his own sanity. She liked it and didn't like it at the same time. It was rich but not with strength, with other emotions instead, ones that spoke of exhaustion, fear, and uncertainty.

He answered her question, but not in the way that she wanted. Kavala forgave him though, for most likely he didn't have the answers she requested. Events moved around humans in ways that humans didn't always see. It was part of their brief mortality. And while it gave them, at times, incredible fortitude, it made them vulnerable a great deal to things they did not understand.

"I am many things. A healer is only one of them. I'm a geomancer as well. I have an affinity to stone, to making it and manipulating it. It comes from a magic called Reimancy. Reimancers can manipulate the elements... earth, air, fire and water. But some Reimancers love one or two elements above all others... I'm one of those. This fortress Within... it was created by my hand." She said softly, her voice not filled with pride or arrogance, but by humble admission.

It would make sense suddenly, if he thought about it, how the walls were decorated and the whole place flavored with aspects of the sea. The artist, the hand sculpting them, had been a Konti, a race of daughters who came from Laviku's bloodline. The Sea God always left his stamp, always, upon those he sired.

Kavala moved backwards in the water, tipping her head back and soaking her hair. She moved to some of the things she'd laid out and pulled shampoo from a glass container and worked it into the long strands. The Konti, it seemed, had no sense of modesty nor was willing to waste a good bath. The Healer turned her back to the human, to rinse her hair out and gave him a measure of privacy in doing so. When her hair was clean, she took a handful of the soap that was formed into the texture of small grains of sand, and worked that across her skin, scrubbing the patterns of scales and intertwined flesh, and erasing any signs of Rolands blood and pus off her body. She glanced at him periodically, still willing to talk, and concerned that too much had been put upon him for one night.

"You should sleep long and hard tonight. Your body has been through a great deal. You will most likely awaken ravenous. Don't neglect your stomach. Wounds such as the one you've suffered take days for the body to fully recover from. You will need food, lots of it, and water aplenty. Your arm has unbroken flesh well healed now, but that does not mean the rest of you doesn't need attention." She said softly, moving to get settled.

Kavala turned then, clean, the soap swirling away to vanish at the far side of the bathing pool. She took an invisible sunken seat across from him, lounging in the water, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do. In another situation, it might have been awkward, but there was just something almost comforting about it. Kavala hid nothing. She seemed unashamed of her hair swirling around in the water, caressing her small breasts that were gently bobbing, buoyant, in the forest of translucent strands. The openness wasn't sexual, but it was rather raw like she deliberately stripped him of anything that he could just hide behind as a sort of assumed identity and instead laid bear his true self.

Had she known him better, she would have slipped into the Chavena then and there, leaving him and leaving their bodies... and walked his Chavi to see exactly why he'd shown up. But she would not leave her body unguarded, even with a stranger that seemed to be in too much shock to do much more than keep himself from drowning in the bathing pool.

The Konti wished suddenly she had a better bedside manner. There was, perhaps, a reason she was a healer of animals and not of people. People to her were mysterious things. Humans, most of all, defied her explanation and sometimes understanding. They were creatures of great passion and creativity, but they were also capable of such evil. She did not know which he was, or perhaps if he fell somewhere in between. And in her mind she categorized him and examined him like she would a young horse. He was lean, well underweight, but strong none the less. With decent meals and hard work, he'd fill out and loose the slight gauntness to his features. With the right nutrition he'd probably bulk up as well, keeping his trim waist and adding more layers to his chest and arms. He was lithe right now, and had the gaze of a camp robber... a bird always on the lookout for a free meal and willing to take one that was unguarded.

Did that make him a thief? Kavala tapped into Crescent's training. Hundreds of years ago, before the Valterrian, she'd been another person... a human woman named Crescent. That woman had been raised at birth as an assassin, though when she was only seventeen, she was captured and subverted by the enemy to be used for the rest of her life unknowingly. The fact that she'd walked her own Chavi and remembered Crescent's life gave her insight into this one and new training about people that Kavala hadn't had access too before. She, more Crescent than Kavala, looked with once-human eyes and decided he was no assassin. He didn't move like one nor did he seem to be aware of himself the way assassins were. The death dealers knew their own bodies and dwelled within them quite effectively.

Roland felt fear. She could sense it in his uncertainty. It wasn't because she was gifted to read emotions. But rather because she was observant of people. Young. Human. Still looking for a place in the world. He had potential, but he also had no ties to hold him anywhere, and untrained in most things. Part of her, the sensible part that was Crescent, smiled. Kavala wanted to pull back that awareness in her because sometimes the assassin saw too much, plotted ahead too far, and didn't give the Konti time to think. Her past lives were not multiple personalities. They were facets of who she was now. If the Konti would have been asked, she would have described it as 'awakened'. Each life she remembered gave her more wisdom and a wealth of knowledge someone having only awareness of 'this' life did not have.

It was the Dreamwalker in her and why she was an absolute loyal servant of Nysel.

"You need someplace to stay. You need time. You need to have more experiences and a safe place to come into your own. You should take the job I offered here as a laborer. I will teach you more, or others here will if your interests lie away from where my expertise is. I suspect that is why you are here. We have need of you and you have need of us. Everyone here is important. Everyone here is necessary. Have you ever lived anywhere that your presence has been important and necessary?" She asked, hoping the answer was no.

[Roland Eir]

As he continued to scrub dirt and grime from his body, Roland had to focus to listen to Kavala's soft words. He was tired, and in the warm peace of the spring water he felt as if he could drift away right there, soap in his hands. But he perked up when she mentioned Reimancy. Then as he had suspected, he had indeed stumbled upon a wizard. And even better, the kind of wizard he was looking for. Since he'd first heard of the power of reimancy, he had felt inexplicably drawn to it. And if what she said was true, the magic held greater power than he suspected. A weary smile crossed his lips as he gazed around the underground space. It was both functional and beautiful--the winding tunnel that lead below seemed to him worthy of a master craftsman. Using this magic, it had all been done by one woman. The dagger was impressive, but it was nothing compared to the solid roof over his head, or the exquisite carvings. "Amazing," he breathed, loud enough that she could hear. "This place is beautiful." He wished he could find the words to correctly express the awe he felt. "You... did very well." The words were insufficient, but they were the best a young man from Sunberth could muster. Growing up under his father's guidance, words had been a tool. If you were talking, you were either conveying essential information, or lying. Genuine complements or words of beauty did not flow easily from Roland's lips. A soft word to his mother, maybe. With a sigh, Roland glanced over at Kavala's sitting form. She was watching him again, with a strange look on her face. Like before, her examining stare made him uncomfortable. Before, he had felt like an object, or an animal that she was examining. This time there was a hard light in her eyes, a look he had seen many times in Sunberth. Like the eyes of a thief sizing up her mark. It was a dangerous look that set him on edge. It was different from what he'd seen of her so far, yet the look was not out of place on her face. Like it was a different aspect of her personality, one he'd not seen yet. With a chill, he turned away. His night couldn't get any stranger. At this point he just felt exhausted. And, despite himself, safe. This place set him at peace. Kavala had helped him, and his horse. For the first time in a season he had a full meal in his stomach. What's more, he had an offer of work. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to stay. Here he could regain his strength, find a new path for himself. He could learn. Useful skills, maybe even Reimancy. A new life. A place where he could belong, if only for a little while. She asked him if he had ever been important and necessary. I suppose that depended on who you asked. To his father, he had been important. Important enough to try and stop him from leaving. In a way he was important to his mother and sister, too. But he hadn't felt important in years. More like a tool than a partner. Or a son. "I can't say that I really have," he said finally, squeezing some of the water out of his hair. "And you're right, I do need somewhere." Standing in the water, he leaned against the wall and rolled his left shoulder a bit. It was a good deal, and given the situation he'd be stupid not to accept it. With nowhere else to go, and--if he was honest with himself--nothing else to do, he may as well be here. "I'll stay," he stated with some finality to it. He shrugged. "I've got nowhere else to go.

[Kavala]

The Healer nodded, then as if judging they'd bathed enough, she turned and slipped from the water. She shook herself lightly and squeezed dampness from the strands of her hair. Then Kavala walked over to a large wardrobe, opened it, and took out a towel. She wrapped her hair in it then pulled a robe from the other side of the wardrobe that had been neatly folded on the shelf. She slipped it on, and pulled a second robe from another pile - this one larger - and laid it over her arm. She did the same with a second towel.

"Come out. We've got to get you to bed before you fall asleep and drown." She added with a smile. She held open the robe for him and if he exited the water she'd leave it draped on his shoulders and hand him the towel. "Now that you are going to work here, there's no need to stay in the infirmary. It's where we house people that aren't necessarily going to stay, but need to rest or are passing through. You can have your own room. Come." She instructed. Kavala was frankly tired too. It had been a long day and she was anxious to go check on Tasival and make sure the twins were doing okay. Larik hadn't been back to check on them which meant he was most likely occupied.

She lead him back down the hallway out of the bathing chambers, but stopped at the first door to the right. It was a private room with an enormous bed, trunk at its foot, and a huge wardrobe. There was a desk, bookshelf, and lanterns that could be lit all over the room. It's walls were decorated in Isurite, a stone that was mostly dark in color but veined through with deep green, blues, and occasional streaks of warm orange or red. It looked luxurious because the onyx floor was softened by a night lion's pelt that acted like a rug. The bed was not made up, but the mattress looked like it was stuffed with feather ticking. "You can have this as your own. I'll bring your saddlebags down in a bit. Let me grab you some linens and a blanket for the bed." She added, letting the door swing wide, and exiting briefly to come back with sheets, blankets, and a pair of pillows.

She was quick about making up the bed while he explored. An unassuming door at the far wall opened and lead to a privy area that was shared between himself and another room on the other side - most likely his neighbor to the east since the bathing chamber was to the west. There were rooms all the way down the hall and across it, so he could safely assume this was staff private quarters. The room had square footage too... it was at least 500 square feet. And there was room for more furniture, a table and chairs if he wanted one, or anything else he might like. The only drawback was that there was no window, anywhere, due to the nature of the fortress and its location underground. But there were vents and despite being so far below, he could smell fresh air circulating.

When Kavala was done, she offered him a smile. "I'll bring your saddlebags down and leave them at the door with a knock. Breakfast is first thing in the morning. You'll hear everyone stirring. Cadra makes it in the common room. You are welcome to come, meet everyone, and fill up. You'll need it since tomorrow will be busy." The Konti said, then left him alone to sleep. She'd answer any questions he'd have before she left though.. .and the saddlebags would have appeared leaning against the door in a few minutes later with a soft knock.

They could discuss things more in the morning.