Solo Stop and Go

[Avela]

24th of Spring, 518 AV

It had been an odd few days, even for Alvadas.

Not long after the ending of the Festival of Illusions, the city's perspective had shifted, leading to a very confusing day where sizes changed without warning and distances meant nothing. Avela had spent the first half of that day exploring the changes to the city and testing the extent of the illusion, and the second half of that day lying in her bed with a headache and a wet cloth over her eyes. The consequence of that was that she didn't get any work done, and with orders piling up, Avela had spent the next two days creating candles, working as hard as she could to finish up her last few orders and deliver them. She'd spent her evenings reading her mother's journal by candlelight, trying to stay close to her goal of translating the entire journal by the end of the season.

Two days of intensive work had left her back on track, so on the 24th, Avela decided to celebrate and take it easy. The city's illusions had moved back to their regular level of intensity, and the streets were the same familiar madness, with a handful of notable changes.

One of them, and the one that Avela was most happy about, was a change in the city's food. Everything seemed tastier, brighter, and more interesting, and the odors wafting from some of the restaurants and food stalls enticed and repulsed her in equal measure. At the end of the day, Avela had caved and bought a pastry that claimed to be a blend of honey and lavender. Although Avela was familiar with the scent from her candlemaking, she hadn't expected to ever eat it in a pastry.

It turned out to be good. Surprisingly good. Possibly even track down the recipe, 'new favorite food' good. Not that Avela had ever baked anything in her life, but there was a first time for everything.

She finished off the last of her pastry, casting a glance around to see if anyone was watching her before licking some of the glaze off her fingers. She was just passing by Ionu's Stand, and the puppet show had captured most of the crowd's attention. Avela smiled as she caught sight of it, remembering the days when she would take Kairen to see the puppet show, back when Nerea was too small to leave the house. Kairen would likely not be interested in the festivities anymore, with how hard he tried to seem 'adult', but Avela couldn't help but feel a pang of nostalgia.

Her siblings were growing up so fast. She felt like it wasn't long before they would outpace her, leaving her behind.

The Konti turned away from the Stand, not wanting to get caught watching for too long without paying, and that was when she caught sight of him. A young boy with a scruff of dark hair, standing in an alley away from the puppet show. He was talking in low tones with a dark-skinned Isurian boy that Avela didn't recognize, but she would have known that boy anywhere.

Kairen.

Avela stood, frozen in place, as her little brother looked around, scanning the street with a suspicious glance, before running deeper into the alley. He looked like he was hiding something under his coat, although Avela could not begin to guess what it was.

She gave the crowd around her only one hesitant glance before moving through it, after him.

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~Avela~

[Avela]

The alley opened into a wide thoroughfare, paved with white stones and with impressively beautiful columns and statues lining the middle of the road. Most of the statues were of people, some handsome and heroic, others grotesquely deformed, but all impressive pieces of art in their own way. Avela, however, barely noticed any of that. Her eyes were on Kairen. She nearly bumped into a gaggle of newcomers that had stopped to admire one of the statues, so focused was she on keeping her little brother in sight.

Kairen, at least, didn't seem to have noticed her. There were enough people around that Avela could stay a few feet behind her brother, hidden in the crowd, but she was still afraid that at any moment, Kairen would turn around and notice her. Once, he did look back, scanning the street behind him, and Avela had been forced to duck, heart-pounding, behind the statue of a young woman with her arms spread. Her billowing stone robes hid Avela from view, and the Konti let out a short breath, swallowing down her nerves as she looked back out into the street.

Kairen was moving again, hurrying with his head down. He was scanning the edges of the road, peering down dark alleys as if he was looking for something. His behavior worried Avela. She didn't know what he could possibly be looking for, but it couldn't be anything good - no child who didn't think they were doing something that could get them in trouble behaved that way.

Avela stepped out from behind the statue, moving through the crowd. Kairen took a left turn, and Avela hurried to catch up with him, afraid that she would lose him in one of Alvadas's illusions.

"Ionu, don't let me lose him..." she muttered under her breath, saying a quick prayer to the city as she peered down the road that Kairen had taken. The wide, sunlit thoroughfare had vanished, turning instead into a winding, cobblestone path lined with iron lanterns. The path led up to a familiar, unassuming stone building - the entrance to the Bizarre.

Kairen put his head down suddenly and broke into a run, racing for the entrance. Avela realized with a touch of alarm that he must have noticed he was being followed, even if he might not have seen her specifically. For a moment, the urge was strong to just run up to him, grab him, and pull him home, but she knew what would happen if she did. Kairen would deny that he had been up to anything, probably yell at her for spying on him and ruining his fun, and he would only be more careful around her in the future.

The best thing to do was follow him without him seeing her at all. Avela quickened her pace, half-walking, half-running as she moved through the crowd, fighting to keep him in sight.

Once she burst in through the entrance of the Bizarre, she almost wept. The interior of the Bizarre was as loud, intense, and chaotic as it always was, which, she realized, was what Kairen had likely been counting on. Her brother was entirely too clever for his own good. She clenched her hands into fists, swallowing her frustration, forcing herself to scan the crowd.

He has to be here somewhere. I have to find him. Ionu, Avalis, someone, please, oh please let me find him.

There. A flash of bright yellow out of the corner of her eye. Kairen was streaking away from her, ducking past vendors and shoppers, trying to lose himself in the crowd. Avela took off after him.

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"Common" "Kontinese"
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~Avela~

[Avela]

Kairen was smaller than she was and quicker. He managed to cut through the crowd with a lot more ease than Avela was able to. She managed to keep up with him, but only by moving frantically through the crowd, trying her best to squeeze through people and generally making a huge fool of herself. She knew as she ran that she was drawing attention to herself, but she didn't know how to avoid doing it and still keep her brother in her sight. Still, the thought occurred to her that all he had to do was turn around, and he would know her instantly. She wasn't exactly inconspicuous, with the scales on her face and that huge shock of silver hair.

It was the hair that was the problem, she thought, desperately looking from left to right for a way to solve the problem. If she could hide herself, it would be so much easier.

There!

She caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye, a garment on display at a used clothing store up ahead. Catching sight of the price, Avela quickly started digging in her pocket, counting out the coins by feel. She didn't dare stop for too long, not with her trying to keep Kairen in sight, but as she drew up close to the store, she slapped the payment down and grabbed the cloak in her hand.

"I'll take this one, thank you!" she said to the bemused shopkeeper, pulling the cloak off the rack and sliding it around her shoulders as quickly as she could. It was a dark-blue linen cloak, embroidered with a pattern that resembled stars and crescent moons. It was also slightly too big for her, which was perfect, since it would cover more of her. It had clearly been patched in places, but Avela couldn't care less about that now. She tied it in place, pulling the hood up to hide her hair.

Kairen was still moving, although he had paused up ahead, looking both ways as if searching for something. Avela took the pause as an opportunity to catch her breath - it was coming hard. Surely Kai would have to stop soon. Not even he could run around the city all day.

For one heart-stopping moment, he looked back at her. Avela kept her head down and her scaled hands inside the sleeves of her cloak, pretending to be interested in a display of flowers. The disguise must have fooled Kairen, because his eyes moved right past her before he kept moving.

He'd doubled back, heading towards the entrance to the Bizarre. He had slowed down now, as if confident that he had lost his pursuer. Avela let out a breath of relief as she moved to follow him.

PurchasesLinen Cloak, dyed dark blue, embroidered with moon and stars design (Used, Good condition, slightly too big for her) = 2 GM, 5 SM

Template by Sevaan
"Common" "Kontinese"
(•̀o•́)ง

~Avela~

[Avela]

Inside her decorated cloak, it was sweltering, but Avela didn't lower her hood, not wanting to risk her brother catching a glimpse of her. Surrounded by the citizens of Alvadas in their bright colors, the moon and the stars on her dark blue cloak blended right into the crowd. When Kairen left the Bizarre, he didn't notice her. Avela kept a few paces behind him anyway, her heart pounding. She kept imagining her brother turning around and seeing her there. With the cloak on, she didn't look like his sister, but it wasn't exactly an inconspicuous cloak itself.

Anyone smart would be suspicious if they noticed someone following them, and Kairen was many things, but Avela had to admit that he was almost frustratingly clever.

So she followed him, and kept her distance.

The winding road outside of the Bizarre had been replaced by a garden path, a gravel path that cut between flowering hedges interspersed with trees. Avela kept in the shadow of those trees, making sure to keep at least one or two other pedestrians between her and Kairen. Thankfully, at least, it seemed that Kairen was tired of looking over his shoulder, or that he was confident that he had shaken his pursuit.

For the remainder of the walk, he didn't look up, keeping whatever he was holding clutched close to himself.

As Avela watched him, she couldn't help but notice that he looked tired, ragged, as if all of this was exhausting him. And it only made her fear and worry worse, to see that expression on her little brother's face. She wanted nothing more than to go out there and help him somehow, to pick him up the way she had when he was a much smaller child, to dust him off and tell him that everything would be alright. But she knew it wouldn't be well received, that it wouldn't actually change anything, so she didn't. Instead, she clenched her fists, feeling the pressure of her fingers in the palm of her hand, and kept walking.

Kairen rounded a corner. Avela rounded the same corner and blinked, because Kairen was gone.

She stood there for a moment, unsure as to what she was--or wasn't seeing, but her brother failed to materialize. The street, as far as she could see, was a dead end, a stone road leading towards a high stone wall. Not even Kairen could have climbed that wall so quickly, without her seeing him.

A sinking feeling came over her as she stood there, looking out at the deserted courtyard. It wasn't that uncommon in Alvadas for the streets to change, from person to person. It was highly possible that her brother had not turned onto the same street that she had. But why? After letting her keep track of him for so long, why had the city changed its mind now.

It was tempting to say that it was all random, that there was no reason why the city did what it did, but Avela remembered the words a man in a fox mask had once said to her, at a masquerade a lifetime ago. Maybe there was a reason, a method to the madness. Maybe the city knew exactly what it was doing, at any time. Maybe the city was...was just an extension of Ionu's will.

In any case, it was clear that Avela wasn't going to be following her brother any farther. She stood there for a few moments longer, and when Kairen failed to materialize, let out the breath she was holding and turned around.

It was only as she walked away that she caught sight of it, out of the corner of her eye. It gave her chills, although she couldn't have explained why.

In the shadow of one of the buildings bordering the courtyard, so inconspicuous that she had almost missed it.

A ladder set into the wall, leading down into nothingness.

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~Avela~

[Avela]

That night, Avela sat cross-legged on the floor of her cottage, her usual candlemaking paraphernalia pushed to the side to make room for her. She'd lit a candle with a calming scent, vanilla, to help her keep her focus, letting the candle burn into a holder not far from her as she pulled a deck of cards from her desk drawer. They were fortune-telling cards, old and creased in places, a deck that Avela had had for years. They weren't as pretty as some of the cards that Avela had seen other fortune-tellers use on the streets, but they had only ever been meant for her personal use.

She said a little prayer to Avalis and Ionu to point her in the right direction, then drew in a breath, carefully shuffling the cards. Fortune-telling wasn't something that Avela did often, unless she was very bored. It was usually something she only did when there was a question she needed answered, or when there was something keeping her up at night.

She didn't even pretend to know what to do with complicated patterns and arrangements. Instead, she drew three cards, setting them face-down on the floor in front of her. Only three. One for the situation as it stood, one for the course of action that she needed to take, and one for the most likely outcome. She wasn't sure that she would gain anything useful from this - her previous attempts at fortune-telling had often led her down wrong paths, usually because of the way she interpreted them. But it was better than nothing.

She flipped over her first card, frowning at the image depicted on its face. A tower in flames. It was burning, falling down. She touched it with one hand, feeling a chill run through her as she tried to find an explanation.

The situation as it stood. It felt like change...like something was breaking. Or ending.

Shivering at the ominous interpretation, Avela reached for the second card. The path that she needed to take to alter things. Fix things. The face of the card on the other side showed a man on a boat, carrying swords. Something about the man's face...Avela wasn't sure what it meant. He looked resigned to the situation. Unhappy, but resigned.

Sacrifice, she thought, looking at the cards. A necessary sacrifice, and a necessary transition. An acceptance of change.

The third card waited in front of her, face down. Avela held her breath before reaching out, turning it.

It was a wheel, marked on all spokes, looking as though it could be spun at any moment. Avela stared at the card for several long moments, heart pounding, trying to get a read on it at all. No matter how hard she tried, though, she couldn't make sense of it. The only thing she knew was that the cards gave her a bad feeling.

Stomach churning, she set the three cards back into the deck, putting the whole thing away.

When she blew out the candle, it felt as though her cottage was that much darker.

Template by Sevaan
"Common" "Kontinese"
(•̀o•́)ง

~Avela~

[Madeira Dusk]

Grades Awarded!

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Avela

Skills

• Observation: 5xp
• Stealth: 3xp
• Investigation: 4xp
• Tracking: 4xp
• Running: 1xp
• Disguise: 2xp
• Fortune Telling: 1xp

Lores

• Kairen: up to something
• Lavender-flavored pastries are delicious!
• Location: Ionu's Stand
• Lore of liar's body language
• Location: ladder into the Underground

Awards & Retribution

Cloak: -2gm, 5sm

Notes
I'm totally invested in Kai's story now. Why was he in the Underground? What was under his cloak? Will Avela get the answers she deserves?!

Tune in next week to continue the epic saga!