Completed Lonesome birthday celebration

[Ornea]

...

Lonesome birthday celebration
Timestamp: Day 46 of Winter 514 AV
Location:The Scholar's Demise


Ah. Here it was. The Scholar’s Demise. A good but affordable bar, she had been told.

Ornea opened the door and stepped in. With mixed feelings she followed a narrow corridor, wondering if this really was the right place. But soon she came to a cavernous tavern room, dimly lit with individual candles on the elaborately carved tables that littered the floor.

Surprised, she noticed that the candles were placed in glass orbs and some of them seemed to be burning with a blue light. The faces of the people in the room could only be seen if they were near the small lights, while others appeared like shadows, mixing with the shadows playing over the walls as the light flickered and people moved. Very mysterious, spectacular and exotic ! It reminded her of the dreamlike and enthralling bioluminescence of the city outside. This would perhaps not be so bad.

An onslaught of typical tavern impressions flooded her senses as she made her way to the bar, and she observed and took in all of it. There were happy, cheerful patrons in laidback clothes as well as more festive outfits, gathered in groups around tables with food and drink. There were animated intellectual chats and stupid drunken chitchat, loud guffaws and low seductive laughs, occasional songs from bards and non-bards, some gambling and the fragrance of delicious Lhavitian cooking blending with the scents of perfumes and the smoke of insence burning in a simple pottery jar at the bar.

Ornea reached the bar counter. It was really long and spanned over one whole side of the room. Dressed in her Inarta evening outfit in order to honor her people on this day, she pulled out one of the high slender stools, and then she sat by the counter and studied the list of drinks the horned barkeep point at. She needed something suitable for celebrating a totally solo birthday long way from home. But what?

It was an unexpectedly hard decision, but finally she made up her mind. It was her 31st birthday. She had decided to go out and celebrate it solo instead of just moping in the apartment all alone. So now when she was here she wasn’t going to spare any effort to make it a noteworthy evening, no matter how lonely it might turn out to be.

“One Prospector’s Rush please. And fried onions, vegetables, cheese, and bread.”

LedgerCocktail: Prospector’s Rush - 1 KI, Fried Onions - 2 KI, Vegetable platter -3KI Cheese platter -5KI Enriched bread and aged cheese -6 KI = In total - 17 KI

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[Ornea]

...

A FEELING OF DÉJA VU
The ethaefal barkeep mixed the cocktail while she sent a waitress to fetch the food. “I haven’t seen you here before” she said in the well-practiced conversational tone of people with her profession. “Are you new in Lhavit?” The quite small horned woman smiled benevolently. “I’m Aleah.”

Ornea shook her head, her long red hair moving dangerously near a candle nearby. The barkeep swiftly moved the candle while the Inarta answered. “I moved here in the beginning of fall. So I have been here for a little while, though I haven’t been at Scholar’s Demise before.” And as the barkeep seemed to wait for more Ornea added: “I’m working as Lucis. Name is Ornea.”

An unremarkable glass of common quality was put on the counter in front of her and the ethaefal poured the drink. The food arrived too and everything was ready for the celebration, such as it would be. Ornea took the glass and tasted it’s content; it was definitely special. Somewhat surprised, she asked the barkeep what the ingredients were.

“Distilled brandy, lemon juice, syrup, egg white and bitter herbs” Aleah said, without revealing the exact recipe. “A very special drink” she added in a thoughtful tone. “You could say the distilled brandy is like the excitement of a prospector looking for precious things. Then comes lemon, as the sour realization of the next day that this t may not be as easy as it seemed. But, sweet syrup, there’s a lot to gain in case of success, there is that. Then comes egg white, the fluffy clouds of success. But watch out, you never know. The good luck you are basking in can be temporary, and what seemed to be success today can become bitterness tomorrow, says the bitter herbs. And all in all, I call this cocktail the Prospector’s Rush. A heady mix of strong spirits and bitter setbacks, topped off with the sweetness of stubborn hope. If you don’t mind, I find it interesting that you started out with this one. It tells a lot about people, what they order to drink. “

Aleah sounded so mysterious when she spoke that Hesper, the rare seen proprietor of Solar Winds came to Ornea’s mind. Buying a drink had seemed like easy case. But no more. She wondered silently what exactly Aleah meant. She wasn’t sure she would like to know though.

“These onions are delicious” she remarked instead, as she started at the food.

Prospector’s Rush wasn’t something anybody would just gulp down quickly, so Ornea drank it only slowly and in small sips, in between slowly starting to eat. The simple food was truly good, but there was no denying it felt a bit odd to her to celebrate a birthday alone in a bar in Lhavit. Last year she’d still been living in Wind Reach. It seemed so long ago now.

She drank more of her Prospector’s Rush in a try to not think of the past. It didn’t help any.

The atmosphere in the tavern was really nice though, and it was interesting to study the other guests there and speculate about them. Strangers, as Ornea didn’t know so many people in the city. She was working long hours at Lucis and sometimes being tasked with evening missions to the observatory as well. This hadn’t given her much time for making friends.

Her gaze fell on an elderly man at a table at moderate distance from the bar counter. His white hair, was elegantly tied back in a short ponytale at his neck. He was dressed in expensive looking clothes of darker colors; despite the distance Ornea could see velvet and silk, lace, fine leather and even a hint of brocade on the cuffs of his jacket. His face was framed by a short and meticulously groomed white beard and adorned by spectacles. The thick glass lenses reflected the scant light in the bar and made it impossible to see his eyes, and they were held in place by metal frames that looked like silver. The total impression was utterly sophisticated.

As a metalsmith, Ornea studied the spectacle frames a bit extra, with professional interest, wondering if they were of cast silver, or if they had been crafted some other way. She didn’t stare of course, but she watched. This made her slowly come aware of the two people who were the white haired man’s company at the table; one of them was a beautiful, dark haired woman dressed in typical, layered Lhavitian clothes, the lighter colors of her attire taking on a mysterious blue shine in the light of the candles. Ornea let her gaze rest on the woman for a few chimes. For a moment she felt an odd feeling of recognizing her, but she was unable to recall ever having met the woman before. Yet she seemed to remind the Inarta about somebody. After searching her memory in vain, the Ornea looked at the third person at their table. And this was odd, but she thought she had seen him too before, but he was as impossible to recall as the woman was.

Once, and she would just have dismissed the feeling of déja vu and not thought of it anymore. Twice...she was intrigued. The trio had her attention now. Maybe she had seen them at the bonfire ball in the fall? There had been so many people there that it was impossible to know. She could have left off there, but she had nothing else to do right now than eat, drink, watch people and speculate. Fantasize, would maybe some have called it, as Ornea’s vivid imagination started to come alive, fuelled by a powerful mix of Prospector’s Rush, lack of company and need of birthday entertainment.

“Who is that?” she asked the barkeep Aleah. “The elegant old man over there, with the spectacles and the white hair?”

Aleah glanced at the guest. As there were no other people at the bar counter at the moment she joined in watching people and offered some educated guesses of her own. “I don’t know really. So maybe he has arrived recently, and not been in Lhavit for so long time. He looks like a scholar if you ask me. He could be a wizard too, maybe, although I can see if from here if he wearing any visible insignia. But definitely a scholar, or somebody interested in knowledge at least, don’t you think? And he seems to be well off. Those spectacles can’t have been cheap.”

“Yes” Ornea agreed. “I think the frames are cast in silver. Looks like a masterpiece.” She was starting to feel cheery. It was due partly to the effects of the Prospector’s Rush, but mostly to the discovery that this horned barkeep, Aleah, seemed like a kindred spirit in observing people and having ideas about them.

The conversation was temporarily interrupted when another guest approached the bar counter and Aleah started to work again. Meanwhile, Ornea nibbled on her food. She finished the Prospector’s Rush and started to study the list of cocktails again. She would try a new one and order it as soon as Aleah was free again.

...

[Ornea]

...

A QUARREL BETWEEN STRANGERS

The other guest went to sit at one of the tables and Ornea resumed the conversation with the horned barkeep Aleah. “It’s my birthday” she said to the ethaefal. “I think I’ll have one Tanroa’s Gift as my next drink. Make it big.”

“One Tanroas gift” the barkeep repeated. She started to mix the ingredients and soon a new glass as unremarkable as the first one was placed on the bar counter, and the drink was poured. Ornea tasted it and nearly choked, as this drink was much stronger than she had expected. Coughing a bit she put the glass down and tried to look totally nonchalant and unaffected. Truth was, Tanroa’s Gift was a forceful brew indeed.

“What’s the ingredients of this one?” she asked the barkeep.

“Oh...some fortified wine” the ethaefal said vaguely. Some aged white liquor. Juice of a really ripe orange too, just to give it a special twist. Or so I think it was. Well. It’s always a bit hard to remember exactly what’s in this drink, to be honest. Bad memory is a common effect of the ingredients. Some use it to drench all their sorrows in a merciful ocean of forgetfulness. It's Tanroa's Gift.”

Truth was, Tanroa’s Gift consisted of various ingredients that were past their heyday and on time to use before they went too bad. That was what "fortified" meant. The recipe was a well-guarded secret specialty, for reasons. However, the Inarta didn’t know this, so she drank some more of it and tried to decide how she liked it. It sure made her feel old. She was thirty-one. Right now, with this drink affecting her, this seemed to mean nearly forty. She studied the drink with a feeling of everything having gone a bit worse after she had ordered it.

Putting the glass down for now, she ate some of her vegetables and bread and watched people again. The trio she had seen before were still sitting at the same table, and it looked like they were in the middle of an animated discussion. It could even be an argument, Ornea started to think, as she saw the white haired man’s face take on an angry expression. He was leaning slightly forward, and when his fist hit the table the glassware, pottery and cutlery on it rattled faintly.

Just a few words reached Ornea through the noise in the tavern. “...not in your contract...unnecessary risks...how could you even...I have told you...”His anger was directed towards the sleek, beautiful woman, or so it seemed. The woman just leaned back on her chair a bit, her perfect face showing nothing. The quarrel, if it had been a quarrel, ended there. The whitehaired man took his glass of wine again, and after a few ticks more, the other two followed his example.

A quarrel between strangers in a bar; this was really not Ornea’s business. So she stayed where she was and ate more onions, but she didn’t touch Tanroa’s Gift again. “I don’t think this one was right for me” she said to the barkeep. “Can I have the drink list again, please, I’m going to try something else.”

Aleah handed her the drink list. “I can recommend The Sun’s Glory” she said. “In this case the liquor is unaged ! Perhaps that suits your taste better. It tends to shed light over things and quickly make people feel uplifted in general.” She whisked the Tanroa’s Gift away and waited for Ornea to make up her mind and order something new.

Ornea studied the drinks silently, and peeked curiously over the edge of the parchment to see what was happening at That Special Table. Nothing, was the answer. The white haired man and his two companions were just eating, drinking and speaking. Whatever there had been a disagreement about seemed solved, or at least they had rested the case for tonight.

“I wonder what they were arguing about” she said to Aleah. “Have you seen the woman before? Do you know who she is? “

“I think I would have remembered her if she had been here before” said Aleah thoughtfully. “She is exceptionally beautiful. It would be impossible to forget such a lovely face.” She made a pause there and when she spoke again there was a streak of sadness in her voice. “She looks like she ought to have horns, like me. That’s what I think. But she has no horns on her head and she is eating and drinking just like all others, so it cannot be. Oh...”

Ornea wasn’t sure what to answer, so she nibbled at her bread and said nothing. And she though that Aleah was right; the woman really looked like an ethaefal without horns, a being not even mentioned in old legends. The idea was totally new and fascinating, but as Aleah had said, it could not be.

“I’ll try a Sun’s Glory then” the Inarta said finally. “What about the third one in that group, the man ? I admit he’s looking really...nondescript, but maybe you recognize him?”

The ethaefal barkeep shook her head. Her horns gleamed mysteriously in the candlelight as she started to make the new drink. Aleah was the real thing, Ornea thought suddenly. The woman at the table lacked something invisible, something intangible, something that didn’t meet the eye, but was present all the same. Aleah had this something. Ornea wasn’t able to put a name on this. It reminded her about the few other ethaefal people she had met. Hesper. And also the one named Alses, in that house, during the storm in fall. They had this special "it" too.

“No” the barkeep said, looking at the truly nondescrip looking man in the trio they were discussing. “He has the kind of looks anybody would forget the moment he’s out of sight. A face made to forget. He may have been here before. Or not. How could I know.”

LedgerOne Tanroa's Gift -1 KI

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[Kaleidoscope]

 

Ornea

Skills

• Observation: +3
• Socialisation: +3

Lores

• Lhavit Location: The Scholar's Demise
• Observation: Common Tavern Behaviour
• 31st Birthday Celebrations: At the Scholar's Demise
• Aleah: Ethaefal Bartender at the Scholar's Demise
• Properties of "Prospector's Rush" (Cocktail)
• Hesper: Proprietor of Solar Winds
• Metalsmithing: Ideas about Spectacles
• Properties of "Tanroa's Gift" (Cocktail)
• Ethaefal: Beautiful Like Nothing Else

Comments
Could you make sure your food and drink is deducted from your ledger please?

Comments: I really enjoyed this thread! I really get the feeling of Ornea's character through your writing, even if this is an old thread. I also like how normal this thread was- simply a woman going of for a drink or two on her birthday. Threads like these really resonate with me.

Apologies for the wait.

Enjoy your grade, and please don't forget to delete/edit out your grade request, and keep your ledger up to date! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to send me a PM.