Solo These Trials Faced

[Taurina]

Late Morning of the 66th of Summer 517

Hands worked quick, but gentle over newly tattooed skin. The skin was tender and raw, much of it bleeding. The hands worked to wipe away the blood and cover the area with a salve to help heal the area, it was not going well. It was as though the client’s body was rejecting the new windmarks that had been placed upon it. As if the skin had a mind of its own and thought that if it bled enough the ink would wash away. Of course the was absurd since skin did not have a mind of its own, but that was what felt like. At least, in a way.

Taurina took a long strip of bandage and began to wrap it around the client’s bleeding torso. She was not a healer by a long shot, but she had done this enough times now to know the she needed to wrap the bandage tighter rather than loose. It just could not be so tight that her client was left uncomfortable, but it could not be loose either because than it would be pointless to even use it. Taurina just did her best, working slow so that things were not messed up too terribly.

“That feel okay?” the Eth asked when she was done, “Not too tight? Loose?”

Her client, a young woman of short stature with piercing blue eyes, simply nodded and signed that all was fine. Taurina nodded in response, tying the bandage so it would not come away and cutting away the extra. She knew her client was in much pain, but there was nothing that could be done now. The woman had refused to take the painkiller tonic at the beginning of the session and continued to refuse it even now. Taurina felt bad, but this was not her fault so she knew that she need not feel so guilty. This was just the way things went sometimes.

Things had not started to look bad till maybe the middle of the session, when Taurina had been wiping away some excess ink from the skin. It was when she looked down at the clothe she used that she realized some of the dark stains were blood instead of the blue ink she had been using. It was normal for there to be plenty of blood during this process. She was repeatedly stabbing the skin with a chisel full of needles, it was expected that the body would grow irritated and protest against such things. However, the amount of blood against the size of the windmark was shocking.

The windmarks were simple really. A rendition of the woman’s pavilion’s knot inked into the space on her side just below her breast. The ribs were always a more painful spot than others, but the woman had been insistent and Taurina had been willing to take on the challenge. Maybe she should not have been. Maybe she should have left it to someone else more knowing. Especially considering that she had never worked on that area of the body alone before. The artist resisted the urge to rub her hands over her face now as she looked back on her choice.

“Apply the salve to it once a day, keep it covered. Go to the River Flower if the bleeding does not stop or if it begins to pus. It should not, but in case, they will know what to do,” Taurina instructed, hoping that her worry was not too terribly present in her voice; while also knowing that that was too much to hope for.

“I will, thank you,” the client spoke soft, genuine, as she stood up and began to gather her things.

Taurina knew that it was concern that twisted her expression as she watched the woman pick up her things. The Eth wasted no time in getting up and beginning to help her, but she could only help so much. She could not take the pain away and, in her opinion, that was the only thing that would really be of any true help.

“Thank you,” the Drykas said as she took the things that Taurina had helped her pick up, “and I love it. It will look amazing once healed. Thank you Taurina.”

The smile the woman gave was genuine and Taurina could not help but to return it. Despite feeling horribly, she was glad her client liked the windmarks. She was honestly proud of the inked knot, she knew it truly would look good once healed. She just wished that it had not come with such pain.

“You are welcome,” Taurina responded, some of her worries melting away for just a moment.

Artist and client said their goodbyes then, parting smiles being the last of their interaction for the day. Taurina watched the small woman mount her strider and continued to watch as she road into the tents beyond the Lilacwind pavilion until she melted into the distance.

Common | Pavi | 'Thoughts'

[Taurina]

The woman had come in early in the morning to get the work done. The other artists had all been occupied already; Injal with a consultation, Jarorra in the middle of a heated debate with a client over a cover up job, and Keil trying to remedy a rather botched up self-piercing job. That had left Taurina for the job or make the woman wait until someone else could take her. The Eth explained how new she was to doing things on her own and given the woman full permission to refuse work from her, saying that she would understand completely. The woman had been kind though. Kind and confident that things would be alright. More confident in Taurina’s abilities than she was herself.

The Drykas was pretty with dark brown hair and Syna-kissed skin. Taurina could tell by her full breasts and the stretched skin of her stomach that not long ago she had brought new life into the world. Though, why that new life was not with her the Eth never got the courage to ask. It did not seem polite to ask anyway. Especially not when the kind woman seemed so very sad. The happiness that radiated off of most who came to the Lilacwind pavilion had not surrounded this woman.

Taurina began to gather all of the tools she had used for the session, including all of the soft rags she had used to soak up the blood. Many of them had been soft and new, but now they would be stained. Most things within the pavilions had been stained by something. The shadow of ink, paint, or blood lingering despite the source being long washed away. The Ethaefal plunged the rags -hers along with others that had been collected in a pile- into a bath of hot, semi-clean water. There was not enough in Endrykas to waste on cleaning rags with a new batch every single wash so they used the same water for as long as they could, keeping the water hot to try and cleanse it of too many impurities.

The client’s name had been Ayla Silverleaf and she was from the Ruby clan. Taurina did not get much other information from her. Ayla had not been very forthcoming and Taurina had not wanted to ask. Even the story surrounding her recent bonding was not something she wanted to share which struck the Eth as strange. Usually, usually, clients wanted to tell that story. She was used to each coming in with excitement filling to them to the brim and the need to tell their story. Each in their own way, mind, but each getting around to it at some time during their session. Ayla had not been that way though. She had been different, odd. Taurina was not fully sure what to make of it.

Taurina stirred the pot of rags using a pole of medium length that was made of some sort of metal. She added some soap to the water, making sure that it got worked through everything. One by one, she began to remove the rags using the edge of the pole and let them to drip for a chime or two over an empty pot before she was convinced the current rag was cool enough. The Eth then took hold of the rag and wrung out every drop of water that she could before hanging it to dry. She did this process with each rag until the pot was empty and the second pot was full of dirty water that would have to -regrettably- be disposed of.

The Ethaefal moved into the chisels next. Unlike the rags, all clean water had to be used in the process of cleaning the chisels because of the nature in which they were used. It would only bring infection to the clients if things were not properly cleaned and taken care of. Taurina worried some that all of Ayla’s bleeding was caused by the chisel used not being clean enough. Of course that was silly to even think of because the chisels were kept as clean as was possible. Yet, knowing that did not keep Taurina from worrying. What if a mistake had been made? What if the chisel she had used had not been cleaned properly? Or worse, what if it had not been cleaned at all?

Irrational fears. That was something the Ethaefal was guilty of letting seep into her thoughts. Well, all fears in general really. She was a very fearful person, though she did not quite know why. Had she been this way in her previous life? Surely not. Surely she had had more of a backbone then than she did now. At least, she hoped that was the case. She hoped that all this fear was a result of her fall and not knowing herself rather than being a leftover personality trait from her past life.

Taurina let out a sigh, inhaled another breath and rubbed her hands over her face before letting out the breath in a huff through her nose. She needed to focus, move on, stop thinking so much. So she gathered the chisels and plunged them into a pot of clean, boiling water before shutting the lid closed and waiting for some chimes to pass.

Common | Pavi | 'Thoughts'

[Taurina]

Neither Injal or Jarorra had seemed overly concerned about the amount of blood that bled out from Ayla’s new windmarks. Taurina had gone to them to ask if she had done something wrong, gone too deep or torn skin somehow. Injal had come over to look, but had seen nothing that caused him to become alarmed. He had told Taurina that it was not abnormal in this area and that her client might just be more sensitive than those she had worked on previously. He had then given her the salve and bandages and told her that when she was done to make sure everything was properly taken care of. He had told her she knew what to do and not to panic before going back to his own work. Taurina was not good at that. The not panicking bit.

The Ethaefal was also not good at hiding her panic, though she had tried. She had given Ayla smiles and told her not to worry. The Drykas woman had not seemed to be the one in need of being told not to worry. Compared to Taurina, Ayla had been as calm as a puddle on a day when the wind was still. In some instances she had had to calm the Eth down instead of things being the opposite, how they were suppose to be. As if she needed another thing to feel guilty over, that was it. She disliked how she had not been able to keep herself calm and level headed.

Taurina huffed another breath as she decided plenty of chimes had passed and removed the lid from the boiling pot of water. Using a tool that had a hook like end to it, she grabbed each of the chisel out of the pot and laid them down in a row on a clean towel. There was steam coming off of each and every one of them, but that did not matter much. They were cooling and now -for the most part- they were clean. She would go over them and make sure nothing had gotten left behind, ink trapped in crevices or blood stuck anywhere, later. After everything had become cool.

This had been the first session Taurina did all by herself with no one constantly hovering over her shoulder. Earlier in the season she had done her first windmarks session where she was the one doing the artwork, but Jarorra and Injal had taken shifts watching her to make sure that she was ok on her own. Since then they had watched her do several, giving her tips and tricks along the way while keeping her from marring anyone for life with shoddy work. Everyone had been busy this day, however, and for some reason they had decided to trust her. Ayla had as well. Taurina was baffled as to why considering they had never met before.

With the rags hung to dry and the chisels cooling off, the only thing left to clean was the shallow dish used to hold the ink during the process of inking the windmarks. That had to be cleaned with clean water as well since there was a great possibility of cross contamination if anything was left unnoticed. Taurina decided to first put away the jars of ink and paint, wishing for a short break from all the boiling water and the heat used to make it rise to such temperatures. With the way the weather was, Taurina was used to sweating all day everyday by this point, but that did not mean she enjoyed the heat. In fact, she pretty much loathed it. If she could have gotten away with sleeping all through the days and only been awake during the night hours, she would have in a heartbeat.

Ayla had been calm despite the pain she must have been going through. Taurina had a feeling that even this was nothing compared to what she had gone through bringing new life into the world. Of course, she only suspected that had been the case, but she thought that she had strong evidence to support it. Still, she had not asked. Instead she had kept her mouth shut as Ayla insisted that everything was fine and that she did not need the painkiller tonic. She had been firm about that. Taurina had not known if it was an issue of pride or if she was proving something or if it was something else, but she did not ask. It was probably one of the quietest sessions she of her career even as an assistant. Not necessarily a bad thing since Taurina had been so focused on not messing up too badly.

Taurina was able to breath a little easier at the front of the pavilion, away from the burning fire and boiling water. She put the jars of ink away in their spots among all the other colors. She had used a jar of blue, black, yellow, and red for the pavilion knot. It was going to be very pretty, vibrant even, when it healed. And it would heal. Taurina was confident of that. Or, at least, she told herself she was. Everything was going to be fine… Just fine.

Taurina exhaled another long breath and told herself that again. Everything was going to be just fine. And with that, she made her way back to the center of the pavilion and returned to work cleaning her tools. All worries were pushed to the back of her mind to be forgotten unless, somehow, they later proved to be true.

Common | Pavi | 'Thoughts'

[Prophet]

Do we ever get to find out what happened to Ayla?
Why was she sad but steadfastly refused the tonic? Inquiring minds want to know.
Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Characters Name

XP

• Cleaning: +2
• Interrogation: +1
• Medicine: +2
• Observation: +2
• Organization: +1
• Tattooing: +1

Lores

• Ayla Silverleaf: A client who doesn’t have a tale to tell except her sadness
• Ayla Silverleaf: Ruby Clan
• Cleaning: Washing out rags in between uses
• Cleaning: Use boiling water to sterilize tools
• Injal Lilacwind: Has confidence in Taurina’s abilities
• Interrogation: Asking open-ended questions to gauge job performance
• Medicine: Bandages have to be the right tension
• Medicine: Giving care instructions
• Observation: Watching emotions attach and avoid certain people
• Organization: Placing items in a row
• Tattooing: Some parts of the body bleed more than others
• Taurina: Worried if her work is good enough for safety reasons
• Taurina: Everything’s going to be fine