Closed [Dawn Sister] Exchanges

[Eleret]

Summer xx, 513 AV exact date pending quest developments Summer xx, 513 AV exact date pending quest developments Eleret had given some thought to the offer she had made Brodon before departure, the offer to help mentor his Common. In truth, reflecting upon such speech as she'd heard from him -- both that night before sailing and later on the ship -- his Common really seemed quite good. He had the essential base; the greater issue was with his anxiety... which was the more difficult issue to address. Eleret still wasn't sure how to help him settle his nerves, but she also felt that contemplating longer would aid nothing -- only trap her in indecision. Accordingly, she had that morning approached the Drykas at breakfast, inviting him to join her on deck during the day. Exactly when -- well, that was his discretion. She'd be up there throughout. It was a lovely summer day, the sea as blue as the sky above, Syna's light glittering off the slow swell of waves below. The great expanse of water around them and a gentle drift of breeze kept the air from becoming entirely too warm, despite the sun. A long-winged seabird hung aloft in the distance; which variety, the Konti wasn't sure. Prepared to wait a while if need be, Eleret had brought with her the little piece of wood which was her current preoccupation, and leaned against the rail with it in her hands. A small, sharp knife shaved off its edges one thin strip at a time, flicking the discards over the side behind her. In the depths of the sea, some manner of algae would no doubt take root and feed on the shavings. Perhaps in the Suvan, there was even some breed of fish which ate wood. Her thoughts wandered a bit, envisioning such a creature -- and realizing, eventually, that if it ate wood shavings, it would probably relish an entire ship. Hopefully they wouldn't encounter anything like that...

[Brodon Windriver]

Brodon cinched down a third pallet of crates in the hold. It was just practice, but he was getting better. "Strap", the crewman who taking time to show Brodon new types of knots and hitches, would only approach him on days where the signs were all for good weather. This was definitely one such day, and if not for his bungled attempt to explain this new pursuit to Eleret, he might have shelved the whole idea of working on his common.

But the very fact of his stammering, and the cornering of his remarks into embarrassing linguistic dead-ends, made for his acknowledgement of its necessity. Oddly, he'd had no problem with it while interacting with Strap. But there was not much to say with him, outside of asking if he was weaving the knot correctly. It was mostly just observing, copying and practicing.

He wondered if the fact that he knew and accepted his position as learner and novice made it less significant to his pride if he messed up. He never felt the anxiety, with Strap, that he did when being an equal part of a conversation. In those cases, he felt an obligation to be on an equal footing with those with which he was conversing. The moment the first gaffe occurred, his self-consciousness kicked in to progressively debilitating levels.

He made his way topside, already rolling his eyes at the cycle of scolding himself in anticipation of verbal blunders, dread of their inevitable occurrence, and a bizarre mix of vindication and humiliation when they DID. 'I'm hopeless.' he thought glumly, in Pavi, as he made his way to the rail.

There stood Eleret, all self-assurance and contentment, in a cute, petite, blond package. If he didn't know she was older than his mother, he might have pursued a more intimate relationship with her. 'Nah, it's for the best anyway. Even if she was interested in a kid like me, she'd probably outlive me by an hundred years...' he grinned. '...and I'd hate to make her suffer like that for so long...'

He was still grinning at the blatant, self-glorifying exaggeration of his last inner comment as he reached the rail beside Eleret. She was whittling, trailing shavings in the wake of the vessel, and looked lost in thought.

"Making a second offer of sacrificing to Laviku?" he asked with a wink.

[Eleret]

Though she heard the man's approach, Eleret didn't look up until he had come quite near, slowly slicing off one more peel of light-colored wood. Then she lifted her gaze, smiling amiably at the Drykas. His query was a curious parallel to her own earlier musings -- inasmuch as both concerned wood as a gift to the sea. In yet a third curious parallel, that was almost -- but not quite -- the intent behind her project... "Should all doing be sacrifices?" she asked Brodon, dry amusement underlying her tone, offering the lopsided curve of a smile to match his wink. "No," Eleret continued with a shake of her head, answering his query more seriously. "It is not to be sacrifice... but it is to be a gift. You know the otter, the one that goes with Sirroco? There are otters around Mura, my home. They play with many things as toys. He is a different kind of otter, but I think in this they are as the same." The Konti laughed then, briefly, the bright sound carrying out away from them over the water. "Most of what I make, I think, it is to give away. There is little -- not none, but little -- I keep for myself," she allowed, perhaps unnecessarily precise; more a surprise if the carver never made anything at all for herself. Tucking the block under one arm, Eleret raised her hands in a good-natured shrug. "But what is being good at a thing for, if not to share?"

[Brodon Windriver]

"Well, when this good thing for doing is fighting, then is not being good for sharing. That is what I am being good for doing. I am not the one who is starting the fights, but if there is a...is fighting that is a must-do thing, I can be probably being good at it." He grinned as he spoke, knowing the two activities, carving and fighting, were really not comparable. But he did joke further that sometimes the "equipment" used was similar. He slapped the dagger on his belt.

He went on to struggle through a description of the Diamond clan's War Storm Pavilion, and to a lesser degree, the other training centers of Endrykas. It was one that did not focus on magic, but on physical weapon training. He explained how he had chosen bow to focus on, but had been drawn to the iron staff his father carried as well. Its weight had served well to develop his strength while he struggled to become comfortable with it.

He talked about the different weapon champions in the Diamond Pavilion, and the masters of the other pavilions. The healers of the Opal, the craftsmen of the Ruby, the hunters and animal trainers of the Emerald, the superior horsemen and navigators of the Amethyst, the statesmen and social developers of the Topaz and the mages of the Sapphire. Each clan being headed by an 'Ankal', who heard all sides of an issue and then handed down a final decision.

Here Brodon suddenly became strangely quiet. His eyes lost focus and he seemed to look back toward the mainland, disquieted by the decisions made recently, of which Delani had informed him. Eleret had been making subtle corrections to his sentences and phrases as he had been talking of home. But now, he didn't seem to hear her.

[Eleret]

Eleret chuckled at Brodon's counter to her statement; she thought of and returned a counter of her own. "Ah, but I would say fighting is good to share with friends. Not for fighting with friends, but to fight for them." She grinned at the jest he followed with, apt as it was -- even if her chosen weapon wasn't anything edged. She couldn't really claim to be a fighter, in any case. They settled in for serious conversation afterwards, Eleret putting her patience to good use as Brodon struggled his way through descriptions of his people and their lifestyle -- topics difficult at best to convey in a foreign language. She endeavored not to interrupt, even when she could guess what he was leading up to; offered corrections when needed; and from time to time reminded her companion to take his time organizing his words. She had all day to spare, and nowhere else pressing to be. He spoke of community groups named for precious stones, the 'clans' of the Drykas, each with its own professional focus. The strangest thing to her was that while clans shared common jobs, a couple of questions on her part teased out the clarification that Drykas did not choose their clans based on aptitude, but were born into them. The discussion of weapons training was also interesting to her, for sake of being mostly novel, and learning why a warrior -- or at least this warrior -- would choose one weapon over another. It was different to hear it from someone who made that choice and lived by it, than to know intellectually a few basic differences between weapons. In the end, Brodon fell quiet, his expression becoming a distant regard of the far horizon. To Eleret's gift, the quality of the scent the breeze lifted from him changed -- a thread of sour-sweetness, a smell she could not put name to then and there but which spoke clearly of his preoccupation. The Konti leaned against the railing and waited with abiding patience, wondering if Brodon would work through his thoughts or needed an interruption. Eventually, as the silence stretched on, she offered that gentle distraction. "Is there a thing you need to talk about?" Eleret asked, politely diffident. "Or you would like it if I talk of Mura instead?"

[Brodon Windriver]

Brodon half turned, a look of indecision on his face. "It is being..." he shook his head, starting over. "It is...hard...to go...slow...ly when feelings are...being strong." He sighed and paused a moment, collecting his train of thought.

"My talkings of Endrykas are...only being my rememberings from when I leaved it. And much is being not the same now." He suddenly realized that the Konti may not know the name of the great migratory gathering that served as the main city of the horseclans. His speech frequently lapsed into his confused patterns as he described his reason for leaving: the inexplicable collapse of his father into 'the unwaking sleep' and the equally strange symbol that appeared on his head as his fellows carried him back to the Diamond pavilion on a sled. He said no more about what changes had occurred.

"So I leaved...left..." he corrected, with a smile at having been previously corrected by Eleret. "...to search for the meaning of it, and to what it might be taking for...it...not...uh...staying on his head. I am be...I am sure...it...that when it goes away...my father will being awake again." He described how many of the elders, if not the Ankals themselves, felt that the singular iron staff his father had always carried, may be a factor, as it was covered with symbols they did not recognize. And how this had prompted him to take it with him. "I am believing Father would have been want...ing this."

Brodon shrugged, an element of bitterness in his demeanor. "I had always been training with it...both for strength...it has much heaviness...and...smooth...moving ability." He did not know the term 'dexterity'. But he had no problem conveying his initial feeling of resentment of the attitude directed toward his father's chosen weapon. His father had been a great benefit to his pavilion and he had not felt there was cause.

But he tempered it with his realization that the gods' wills had exerted themselves and been the cause of his people's feeling, else he might have left the staff behind and his recent revelations would not have occurred. He recounted his discovery that the symbol on his father's head matched the outline of the pre-Valterian boundaries of Falyndar, and how he expected now to find that a particular highlight within the symbol would match the location of this Syka they were journeying to.

"I had a...reading with...um..." he struggled a moment to remember, "...Lucas! And he only was sensing a thing in the staff itself. And only when I was touching on it. He was not being surely of anythings it was meaning, but is thinking, like me, it is for my bringing it to Syka. I do not understanding why Lucas did not choosing for coming with us. I am wishing for he could be doing more...readings."

[Eleret]

Endrykas. The illness of his father, and a strange symbol... connected to Falyndar? To Syka, and with it this iron staff? Eleret listened to Brodon's tale with a distinct sense of wonder only deepening as he went on. "It is like from a story," she remarked softly. "Like Kuvali Natra. Or like this --" She blanked on the Common word, and waved a scale-traced hand to indicate the ship, its journey... the day they had set off. "Kuvali is... she was the first Konti to have a Call," Eleret added, knowing her companion likely wasn't familiar with that part of Konti history. "Her Call, she went to Syliras before it was Syliras, helped make the city be." But that piece of Muran history was offered only as an aside, her attention going to the last set of Brodon's remarks. "Reading?" she echoed. "A fortune? I did also. We traded," Eleret commented, little though that trade related to the current circumstance. Her hands dropped to her belt, where she untied a small pouch. "I can do also, if you want." Tugging its mouth open, she spilled out two wooden discs and held them up for Brodon to see: weathered, silvery wood, each engraved with a single symbol on both sides, one side having the symbol inked and the other the background. " I do not know what I can tell you, but I would be happy to try."

[Brodon Windriver]

Brodon was a little puzzled,"You did a...reading...for the reader? Lucas? You...are a reader too?" he brightened at the discovery. "Yes! I would be very much with wanting to know what would be said by your reading! If it is more clearer, or different, and different in how."

He went on, "I did not be knowing readers could read..." he paused for a moment,not knowing if there was a suffix he needed to add to this basic word. "...from other readers. I would not be thinking it would being like a training round with a weapon." he didn't notice that his grammar improved as he spoke of something he was comfortable with. "In that case, you are getting the reactions being back and forth from the other, and it is helping you improve, as the better...weapon user...shows what the...worse...er...one is doing wrongly."

Though his sentence structure had been sound, there were still many forms of many words he simply did not know. "I am thinking that a reading is only going one way, and the one being readed is not really...giving back reading...senses." he suddenly got embarrassed, concerned that he may have come off as insulting. "I am not meaning any mean...ness by my words. I should be knowing when to stop saying things I am not knowing nothing about."

He tried to change the subject. "If you would rather stay speaking of...Kulani?...did you say?" he mixed the name "Kuvali" up with "Delani". He stepped away from the rail, ready to go an fetch the staff, then stopped himself and stood weaving in two directions, unsure of whether Eleret wanted to go on about her Konti history or do a reading.

[Eleret]

Brodon started talking about fortune-telling being like weapons practice, about being wrong or right... Eleret shook her head a bit at that. But before she could reply, he backpedaled, apologized, offered to listen as she went on about her people's history and culture. She smiled, a smile which shortly stretched into a light grin, chuckling softly as she shook her head again, this time in uncritical amusement. "It is well, do not be worried," she assured the Drykas. The Konti settled back against the railing with the air of one about to tell a story -- or provide something of a longer explanation. "Telling a fortune is not like using a sword -- or suvai," she began, gesturing towards her own odd weapon. "With sword, right and wrong is easy to see, and the same for all people. With fortunes," she continued, turning the wooden disc between her fingers end over end, "...with fortunes, it is like art. Two people paint a house, the third person sees a house, but each house is different from the other. Telling is between the reader, the question, and the... the how it is told, tiles, tea leaves, cards." Pausing, Eleret held out the disc, offering it up for Brodon's examination if he so desired. "This tile, I made. It is different from what Lucas used; our teachers were different. It also has many things it could mean. It is to the reader to know which things fit. A different reader might find a different message in the same tiles -- and maybe both are right," she concluded, lifting her free hand, palm turned up. "To improve is to practice. Other readers have different method, different reading, and you learn to think... more, to think bigger, in the differences." The Konti paused for a moment, pursing her lips as she mulled over her thoughts. "Right and wrong are... small words. Even a very new reader can be right, but she reads the simple story. Old readers see more and take all things together." A quicksilver smile flashed across her features. "It is I admit, I am not so 'old' yet... but I am happy to try telling for you." The Konti gestured towards the deck, and herself folded down to sit there. "It is good to have a question, or a subject, you want told about. It is your staff? Yourself?"

[Brodon Windriver]

Brodon shook his head, smiling "No...I am being afraid of not agreeing with you." he said, unaware of the misleading way this was stated. But it had been clear enough for some time that Brodon was not afraid to speak his mind. "You are making the blade cutting into the enemy as if the same as the...art...of the movements, the dodges, the feints to set up the opening for to strike."

He gave an example of how a warrior may make several strikes, not so much intending to hit, but to give his enemy a false notion of how the real strike will be delivered. He went through the gestures of repeatedly swinging the staff, right-handed, on a horizontal plane. But then went through a slow motion display of beginning that type of swing again, but loosening the grip with his right hand to allow the pull of his left to slide the staff through his grip until his right hand was positioned in the center of its length. Then, gripping hard with the right and releasing with the left altogether.

He stayed in that position, showing how he was now suddenly gripping the weapon like a spear facing a foe who was out of position to block it, because he was anticipating a side swing, and was, in fact, most likely already reacting to it. And further, how a spear can be used to block blows, and appear to end up being held wrong, putting the enemy off his guard, because he is not expecting this reversal of hold to allow such a surprise repositioning of the attack.

He caught himself, realizing he had gone on more than necessary, without really making his point. "I am sorry. I am only being to mean the "wrong" attack can BE right. And the "right" defend...ing...can be wrong. But I am seeing big difference in how it is that, in fighting, right and wrong attack, is message being given on purposely, not out of just...being...not sure." He made a slightly uncomfortable face, worried that he had just now insulted her by suggesting that readings like hers were not reliable.

He started to hurry to correct himself, but thought suddenly that perhaps it was best if he did not. Because, in truth, he was skeptical of them. He had raised his hands in his haste, and now stood there frozen for a moment. Then he looked at her directly "Have you ever had one be going all wrong? Where you or...the one you readed...think a thing as being surely what the gods did mean, only to be finding later on that it was not?...Or the other way around? I will tell you in true...ness, I am not sure of readings, though the boy Lucas' certainly was given a "reaction". Do not be getting of me wrongly, I am not in doubting of your being honestly trying, and that there is being...something said...by someone."

He was relieved to see that Eleret did not appear to be growing angry with him. "I guess I am just being wonder...ful...ING...wondering...how you...or IF...you can be sure. Because that is being largely part of it. It seems only to be the staff, and not me. Lucas got no reading from me...Am I going to die?" He quickly gestured to wave off any discomfort his question may have caused. "It is alright if so...well, I don't be meaning I want to die, but I am prepared for having to, if it is saving something."