PM to join [Alements] Drawn to a Dream (Caelum)

[Alaia]

.

The space given by Caelum was much appreciated and she settled her eyes on his watching his face closely. She hoped silently that her own reaction to him didn’t put him off though in the time they had been touching she didn’t think it did. Instead she slid the sketch pad towards him when he asked for it, her body leaning forward with the gentle push until finally she stood. There was too much intrigue thrumming through her veins that she had to watch what he was drawing. Her body shifted around the table carefully until she was standing to his side and watching with large eyes.

“You recognize me?” It was to her to think someone she never met before recognized her; she didn’t realize the lack of the literal translation until his next set of words. She grinned to herself while muttering “Nevermind.” His words hit close to home, somewhere deep inside of her turned its attention to Caelum like a feline who just decided something was interesting. How did he know how to string those words into exactly who she was? Most people saw her for the healer she was, the student and the teacher but no one saw the rest after just starting to talk to her. “How do you know these things?” She murmured, it was more a whisper then anything since she was standing beside him, her eyes never leaving the motions of the charcoal on the paper.

Caelum was better at drawing then she was, her mouth relaxed as she studied the drawing and took it from his hands when he offered it. The shading on his jungle scene was better than hers has been, granted she didn’t get much into the shading aspect of her drawing but he had gotten the bend and curves of the leaves better then she had as well. Pale fingers hovered over the drawing, tracing the branches without actually touching them so she didn’t smudge the charcoal. She didn’t notice him examining the cheese knife until it was held out to her, she was to engrossed with his drawing.

“W-what did you say?” She put the sketch pad down and looked at the cheese knife when he asked her to prick her finger. Shock at the question spread through her veins like ice and she wasn’t entirely sure how to react. One did not typically hear the phrase ‘prick your finger and ruin my pretty drawing with it’ okay those weren’t the exact words but they might as well have been. It was artist’s blasphemy, and healer’s blasphemy! Her mouth opened to ask him why he wanted her to do it but the inquiry was squashed the second the idea hinted at her lips. He was one step ahead of her it felt like and she shifted her weight beside him slightly frustrated that she couldn’t know right then.

Patience Alaia, patience. Scolding herself briefly she turned her mind towards his question that hung in the air. Could she trust him? The war was brief in her mind; the doubt that tried to sicken her thoughts was chased away almost as quickly but the overwhelming belief that she could trust him. She had no reason not to and yet she had just met him that evening as well, her mind was made up and if he didn’t stop her she’d reach out and grasp his hand in hers. Her fingers would curl into his palm and her eyes would search his face though she wasn’t really seeing his face. This time she was ready for it and the sensation wasn’t as unpleasant but more a way to seek the answers she wanted, a way to confirm the trust that was washing away the thunderstorm of doubt.

The look in her eyes was distant again and it only took a tick of his desire to help her suffocating her and the journey he was going to take. Journey? The path, or rather it was more of a journey he was planning to take directly to her. She was standing there though and she wasn’t planning on leaving Riverfall for a while so he couldn’t possibly know that, plus her gift was to limited in time to stretch that far. It was cloudy and unclear to her but she didn’t push it to try and assume something that wasn’t in the vision. When Alaia didn’t see anything that should cause her alarm she focused on him again and gave his hand a soft squeeze finally giving him the answer to his question that she felt was completely true in that moment. “I don’t know why, but I trust you.” Her smile was gentle and lacking the fear she had, had last time they touched though there was still a lingering taste of guilt in the back of her mouth for using her gift to pry.

Releasing him the konti reached out to seize the cheese knife and brought it to the thumb of her left hand, pressing the sharp tip into her pale flesh the quick pain registered as a flinch of facial features but she otherwise remained silent. A bead of crimson life stood out like fire against her skin coloring and she quickly pressed the bloody fingerprint into the center of the keyhole drawing. “I’m so sorry…” she muttered in regret to the image, she was ruining it and she felt the need to say sorry to it. Pulling her thumb away she sucked the blood away from her skin momentarily, frowning around her thumb as she looked at the ruined art and then at him “…better be worth it, you draw better than me and that was painful to ruin.” she paused and then added with a thought "Now that I trust you and everything ... what the petch?" She blushed as she swore, the word uncomfortable and virgin on her lips "Did I use that right?" Quickly she knitted her brows in worry "I heard it from a patient ... I think it is a swear right? Yeah I think it is." Her eyes widened with panic as the words tumbled out of her mouth "I'm sorry I shouldn't have sworn at you, that was uncalled for."

[Caelum]

A laugh came out of Caelum like a flock of great winged birds startled into flight. It was powerful and stirred the air, changing the currents of ambiance in Alements until even the lights seemed to glow a little brighter. "You used it alright. Don't worry about it, Alaia. I've definitely heard worse."

The drawing in one hand that, with the blood on it now transforming it into a key to Alaia's chavi, he gave her hand a warm squeeze and let her go in order to climb to his feet. He peered down at her now from this close distance, one eye squinting a little as he searched her face.

"Later on, I'd love for you to tell me what your gift is," he remarked in low, easy tones. "I know that you were using it when you took my hand. If you like, I can show you up how to get away with such miniature investigations without the other person catching on."

He tipped her a wink and backed up a step, then two.

"It'll be worth it ," he promised her. "Why don't you have another glass of wine? Enjoy some of the food. This won't take too long. Maybe half a bell. It's hard to discern at times, but don't leave, alright? Hey --"

The drykas looked down with a toddler ran right into his legs. He dropped a hand to the little konti girl's shoulder and as Alaia watched his entire countenance seemed to soften. "Hey, Lils," he murmured over the sound of muffled giggling. "I take it you finished your dinner, eh? I'm about to step into the infirmary. Will you sit down in the kitchen and let Elise bring you your chocolate?"

"No," the toddler said, face buried in Caelum's legs. Her arms were squeezed tight about his knees. Caelum spilled his hand gently down the drykas-style braids in her hair, intricately woven into a blond crown about her head. "I want to watch people, Daddy."

Caelum hesitated for a moment and looked up, studying Alaia. His head turned and he took in Elise behind the bar, raising his eyebrows at her. When she nodded, Caelum's smile came back and he turned the full force of its charm on Alaia.

"Alaia, this is Lillian. Lillian, this is Alaia. Say hi."

Lillian peeked out one big, blue eye. "Hi." A pause. "Daddy, she has drawings."

"She sure does. Let her show you them. I'll be back." Caelum's smile flashed right into an only faintly apologetic grin for Alaia as he gave his daughter's shoulder a firm nudge. Lillian relinquished her death grip on him to go bouncing over to Alaia's table and clambering right up into the chair Caelum had just abandoned. She reached for a strawberry from the plate and Caelum, satisfied, waved Alaia on before turning on his heel for the infirmary door.

"Are you a painter like my mama was?" Lillian was quick to wonder.

[Alaia]

“Well it was rude.” She blushed as she chastised herself though he didn’t seem to mind that she had sworn. In fact he was laughing as she rambled and the sound made her smile, unable to help it as the warmth his laugh caused filled her as well. She would settle a bit more comfortable when he squeezed her hand and then she’d back up to give him room to shift around her, it was his stare that made her blush and his next words that made her look away towards the fumble of her hands before her. “I’m sorry, I don’t use it like that normally.” She was embarrassed that he had figured it out, she thought she was being sneakier then that. In past experience she either found people didn’t know about the gift of her people who forgot they had them and so they never even thought to ask why she usually kept her distance. Caelum was uncommonly observant of her, she almost felt like an open book before him.

Her breath pushed out of her nose in a sigh when he told her waiting for him will be worth it and then their conversation was interrupted by a small head of blonde hair that flew into the legs of her fellow healer’s legs. Alaia’s eyes dropped to the toddler and her mouth opened when she realized she was a Konti, she hadn’t seen a Konti child since leaving Mura. Her heart swelled then and without even a thought a smile spread across her face taking up as much of it as possible. The healer adored children, they were so free and innocent compared to adults. Their intentions also didn’t usually have the darkness that tainted people as they grew in age.

Alaia didn’t speak to the girl yet though, Caelum was speaking to her and then looking towards Elise. When he turned back to her and smiled her heart stopped for just a tick before starting up again. The small konti was his daughter and when he finally introduced them Alaia’s eyes were only for the small girl. “Hi Lillian.” She breathed with more excitement then she had, had in a long time and then the girl was heading off to the table. Alaia followed the girl, forgetting Caelum for the moment and she moved to pull a chair up alongside Lillian, plucking a piece of cheese from the table she glanced to her when she asked the question about painting and suddenly Alaia realized that Caelum’s wife had been the girl’s mother. Her heart softened even more if that was possible and she smiled warmly “No unfortunately I’m not that good – I only use charcoal. Here I can show you one of a svefra I did by the docks the other day.”

Reaching out she flipped the sketches back to her drawing of Adney, most of the pictures were of people rather than places or things. It was the closest Alaia got to others typically so she tended to focus on them in her drawings. “His name is Adney …” She smiled and glanced at Lillian as the young Konti leaned over the drawing with big eyes and munched on her strawberry. “When I met him he was bustling around humming to himself and swimming, I thought I should draw him because he seemed beautiful on the inside.” She smiled and bit into her piece of cheese, her eyes dancing over the braids of Lil’s hair. “Did your daddy braid your hair? He has pretty braids too.”

Alaia watched as the animated child bounced in her seat slightly and waved to the drawing “My mommy used to paint pretty pictures, you draw so good.” Her little hands discarded the strawberry and picked up another, the juices of the fruit staining her lips red as she grinned “Yes my daddy always braids my hair, do you like it?” She reached up and touched the drykas braids and giggled when Alaia nodded happily. “Look we match!” She held out her arm towards Alaia’s and lined up their scales to show off their Konti heritage. Alaia nodded “That we do, your scales are very pretty.” Tilting her head to the side briefly the healer reached out and grasped a piece of charcoal that had been left out by her and Caelum “Would you like to draw your daddy a picture?”

“I paint like my mommy …” Though the words seemed to deny wanting to draw like was typical of most children she grabbed the charcoal and waited for Alaia to flip to a blank page. “What should I draw Alaia?” Her hand was paused and she was looking up for help with a large grin “Anything you want, why don’t you draw your favorite animal?” Even before Alaia finished her question Lillian was already drawing on the paper and humming softly under her breath. Contentment settled in on the older Konti and she just sat there and watched, occasionally asking a question or commenting on how well Lillian was drawing. Laughter from both Konti’s filled the room, sometimes there was silence but the stress that had enveloped Alaia during her attempt to find out who her dream lady was, was gone.

[Caelum]

The dreamer fell asleep on a bed in his infirmary with the key to Alaia's chavi clutched close to his chest. The door was closed to the tavern and locked from the inside. The light of a solitary candle glowed through the room, limning the pale edges of moonlight from the window along the far wall. Caelum slept.

Meditation and long practice had taught him how to fall asleep quickly and in all manner of situations. Truth told, he could have closed his eyes at the table with Alaia and climbed himself right out of this world and into the Chavena, but that would not have been terribly conducive to maintaining the secrecy of his identity as a dreamwalker.

Within a few chimes the Chavena welcomed Caelum back. He crawled in via the line of his own chavi, running over the intricate weave of color and mystery that constructed him. He ran so fast he flew, dancing through the happiest hours even as that flashed by swift as sparks off the sun and he tumbled right over the blackest years, daring not to linger because tonight he had other goals in mind than relearning all of the stories tied up in the soul of him. He slid the last few lives, skidding and cross stepping as if on skates, recalling the great dream that had led him back to Nysel's citadel winter last. And, at last, he ducked down and crawled, emerging into the glowing heart of the Chavena grinning and flushed.

As he stood, the cloak of stars that had gathered itself from the night sky in the Citadel spilled around him, hems flickering with clutching shadows and comet tails as he took in the glory of millions upon millions of floating chavi. He took a little while just to absorb it. The sight never grew old and tended to seed somewhere in the core of him vast and ascendant goals that caught momentum when he was back in Mizahar.

The remarkable landscape would have daunted most people, but the dreamer simply reached into his cloak of the night-sky and removed a tiny scroll of paper. It was unrolled to reveal the jungle path and the keyhole door with Alaia's blood marking the center. After a moment he tilted his head and his feet wandered, boots coming down elegantly toe to heel as he idly balance-beamed walked a narrowing thread of his own chavi and then stepped right off it into nothing.

And kept walking.

The picture was turned around in his hands, twisted this way and that as if it was a map and he was unable to determine which way was north. The result was that he spun a circle, turning one way and then the other, and eventually smirked with sudden realization. He looked up, head tilting far back and black hair fanning down, and looked far, far down the cord of his own chavi. One eye narrowed in a squint.

"I should have guessed," he muttered.

Then he reached down and grasped a fold of his cloak and pulled it up and over himself. The fabric rippled with the glory of night and zoomed rapidly in to follow the swift pace of the golden red comet. Within a breath the comets light consumed the dreamer entirely and he shot through the Chavena toward his goal --

Nitya, of the Poisoned Arrow.

Comet fire flowered outward and died amid the long green shadows of the jungle. The thick canopy nearly blocked out the sky but sunlight managed somehow to dapple through nonetheless. She ran, fleet footed and limber, dark hair flagging behind her like a war banner. Power and grace carried her through the trees and underbrush with the knowledge of one who had navigated this wild piece of the world since birth. A sheen of sweat glimmered on dusky night skin and her pulse thrummed load as skin drums in her ears.

She was not hunting. She was being hunted.

A ghost chased her, equally as quick, tumbling and diving through holes in the jungle that Nitya could not fit through. She called after Nitya, high and begging, she called after her mother and gave chase.

Thunder like a tiger's roar shook the scene and it blurred. An array of wood and clay bottles were arranged before the Myrian, each intricately marked with careful carving marks. Poison symbols patterned the tops and delicate, strong fingers danced over them, trying to make a choice.

There was more. Bells upon bells and nights followed days that skipped through the dreamer like a stone thrown over water until eventually he surfaced with a gasp.

The elegant, dark hand of the Myrian whose chavi the dreamer walked breached outward and closed upon a star. It paled and broadened, turning into the hand of the dreamer as he lifted himself out of another's life and back into the Chavena. For a little while, he stood there, peering out into the vibrant forest of history and knowledge surrounding him. At length the dreamer turned, cloak flaring behind him with a glimmer of distant suns, and began to climb up a ladder of stars, higher and higher, until the multitude of chavi spilled away around him and he spilled out onto the floor of Nysel's own Citadel.

He gave the place a smile, secret and deep, and rolled forward on his knees to wordlessly lay the picture of the jungle path. There it floated, suspended above the pearl fog until the dreamer mouthed words of a prayer for the Dreamer. They were meant to draw Nysel's attention to Alaia, a potentially worthy soul, and he finished them with an expression of love before tumbling backwards and right off the edge to fall --

Home.

Waking, Caelum inhaled deeply. He lied still for a few ticks before sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. The picture that was the key to Alaia's -- Nitya's -- chavi was carefully rolled up and stored in a locked, out of the way drawer at the desk in the corner. That accomplished, he gave himself a bit of a shake and unlocked the infirmary door to return to Alements.

"Having fun?" He murmured while appearing at the table Alaia shared with his daughter.

"Lookit, Daddy." Lillian proudly help up her half finished sketch. Caelum squinted at it and then nodded solemnly.

"That's going to be wonderful, Lils. Why don't you go finish it in the kitchen? Elise will make you a chocolate."

Lillian brightened at the promised treat and shot Alaia a smile before scampering off. Caelum watched her go, something weary in him now, and then pulled the chair his daughter had abandoned further out so that he could drop into it. He reached for the mug of ale Elise had left for him and drank deep.

"I found her," he said finally, and met Alaia's eyes. "Her name is Nitya, of the Poisoned Arrow."

[Mayhem1]

You're an excited PC roaming around a thread.

You're not paying attention that the story's over.

Then...BAM! You're hit with a Grade.

I'm Mayhem, the ever-present Junior ST of Cyphrus. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this grade, please don't hesitate to shoot me a PM! And please, please remove or edit your grading request once you see this. Thank you!

 

Alaia

XP

• Drawing - 2
• Socialization - 4

LORES

• Identifying Calgonquit
• Use of Calgonquit
• Caelum: Owns Alements
• Effects of Calgonquit Combined with Hyssop
• Location: Alements
• Caelum: Magically Knows Things
• Using Petch Correctly
• Lillian: Caelum's Daughter
• Past Life: Nitya of the Poisoned Arrow

MISCELLANEOUS

• +1 Half-finished sketch of Nitya

 

Caelum

XP

• Socialization - 3
• Drawing - 1
• Meditation - 1
• Bartending - 1
• Hosting - 1

LORES

• Bribing Decath
• Focus Drink: Wine, Calgonquit, Hyssop & Bay
• Alaia's Past Life: Nitya of the Poisoned Arrow

MISCELLANEOUS

• +1 Picture featuring Alaia's blood

Notes: I loved the description of dreamwalking. And Lillian has once again stolen my heart, even if her appearance was brief.

With Regards,
- Mayhem