I Know You're There (Vala)

[Fois]

1st of Spring, 511 AV Fois was walking along the bookshelves, examining the spines of the books with his seemingly casual look. He didn’t visit the Enclave often, or rather, he rarely ever did. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he went there. Fois remembered he had spent some time in the Enclave reading for the classes or having bendi assigned there as a Yasi, or sometimes looking for information about birds and falconry on his own free time. Other than that Fois wasn’t much of the reader, spending his free time thinking freely and unrestricted instead. Thus, during the past few years visits to the library were limited to odd occasions like this one. Fois stopped and crouched to better see the books on the lower shelves. While sitting on his heels, he took the books from the shelves one by one, read the names on the cover and sometimes opened them, turned a few pages skimming through the text to see if that was what he was looking for. The Endal wasn’t searching for any particular book, but some particular information, or a small detail, to be more precise. As he went through the books, Fois tried to backtrack through the sequence of the events, or more accurately, points in a conversation that led him to where he was now. It seemed it had started with him and Seleer discussing the ideas and tactics of aerial hunting and ways how it might be best to shoot a bow while riding an eagle. Granted the discussion was mostly in a form of critique of Fois’s skills. Then the conversation somehow shifted to the bows and arrows. Something about the importance of skill versus the equipment. The skill was then dropped from the discussion entirely and verbal evaluation of Endal’s equipment ensued. Soon the bow was left alone, too, and the focus shifted to Fois’s dagger and its back-story. It was another opportunity to share some laughs about the “Isurian steel” dagger, but then the jokes led to the area that hadn’t been explored before. By the time Fois was having a meal in the Communal Kitchens, they were debating about the Isurian steel crafts in general and making of them specifically. Endal’s position was that while the key resource was rare and found only in Sultros, but as long as the craftsman is skilled enough and taught properly of the techniques, anyone can produce an item made of Isurian steel. Seleer argued that the ability to craft anything from Isurian steel is unique to the Isur. So here now Fois was at the Enclave, searching for something that would help to decide which one of them was right. ”Were you serious when you said that you were going to the Enclave?” the Wind Eagle intruded Endal’s mind. ”I am already there, so that would be a ‘yes’,” Fois answered calmly. It appeared that he had finally found the book that offered a possibility to solve the dispute. It didn’t look like an old book, but possibly just because it hadn’t been read a lot. The first glance and a quick inspection of a few random pages suggested that the book was mostly about history and variety of blacksmithing, rather than detailed instructions, lessons and tips like the rest were. ”You seem very eager to lose the debate,” Seleer intervened again. ”And you seem very reluctant to win,” Fois offered a simple reply. Fois stood up with the book in hand and turned around to find a comfortable place to sit for a read. A couple of young Yasi were sitting at a table nearby with several opened books in front of them. They weren’t reading though, instead looking at the Endal and whispering something to each other. When Fois looked at them, their whispering stopped. He motioned with his hand for the Yasi to find another place. Smiles quickly disappeared from their small faces; they hastily gathered the books and with a slight but polite nod abandoned the spot. Fois went there and sat at the now empty table. He then opened the book, which was fortunately not too thick, and began his reading.

[Vala]

Oh my goddess. Oh my goddess! Oh... my... GODDESS! This was unbelievable. This was absolutely un-frikin-believable. Fois was in the Enclave; Val wondered if it was all just in her head, wondering if not only was she all alone on her birthday but her arch nemesis was actually going to make her feel horrible at work. After a season of working in the dusty stacks, she had yet to see the smug Endal. Wait. Vala thought to herself. What would an Endal need with books. Not that Endal were stupid, but theirs was a life of hunting, not of learning, that privilege was left to the few Avora. There were several possibilities - 1. He was here to finish the job he has started last season, and finally kill her. 2. He was going to tell Kirna that she tortured Dek and get her fired. The more reasonable purpose of being in a library to, you know, maybe read a book, didn’t even breach her paranoid thoughts. Vala took several deep breaths, trying not to hyperventilate. Was it fear beating in Vala’s heart? No. It was excitement. This was the enclave; this was her territory. She knew she was still too weak to do any damage to the Endal, but this was her chance to gain the upper hand. She looked down at her work - cataloguing, endless, mind numbing cataloguing. She had already written out over thirty lines of fairly legible notes, after days of practice Vala was proud to boast an visible level of improvement in her calligraphy. She was about thirty more lines away of finishing the materials record book... that is until she had to work on the next book. Vala quickly scribbled another two lines with her nearly dull quill, she was still too inexperienced to dress (sharpen) it herself, then blowing on the ink to speed up the drying, before closing the book with a satisfying snap. If she waited too long he would get away! He had yet to notice her, well at least he pretended like he didn't recognize her. This was perfect,except for the giant ink smudge nose on her nose, cruelly reflected in the glass paper weight by Vala's quills and ink pot. She tried to wipe it away with the back of her hand but she just made it worse, smearing it across her right cheek. Whatever. It was better for camouflaging in the shadows anyway. She tied up her hair into a sleek ponytail, letting the thin braid with her favorite, well only, bead hang by her ink stained cheek, pulled on her black katinu, flipped up her face covering hood, cleaned off her quills, and capped her ink pots before rushing after Fois. Well - Endal with a tacky blue earing - to Vala He had gone to the right, staying on the main floor. Vala stuck close to the stacks, catching Fois turn a corner. Vala snuck into two rows parallel to Fois’, watching him through the tops of the books in the shelves. She watched him greedily as he pulled out books, looking at their covers and quickly flipping through the content. He was browsing the blacksmithing shelf - Vala only remembered because it was very close to her favorite section: the glass blowing shelf. It took him some time to finally find what he was looking for, Vala too far away to read the title, but that didn’t really matter, or did it? Why would and Endal need a book on blacksmithing? Falcons or archery, sure, but blacksmithing? Vala’s paranoia continued to grow in to a stomach twisting monster, feeding on ‘randomness’ of Fois’ actions. A couple Yasi, daily patrons, were milling about at their favorite table. It was surprising they had left the Endal in peace, without any hesitation. Was he really that intimidating? If she didn’t hate his guts, Vala might have actually felt a bit of respect for Fois then; they were always whispering too loudly and leaving a mess - a librarian’s nightmare. It was hard for a chiet to garner proper respect - very self esteem crushing. Vala made herself a comfortable nest in one of her designated stalking niches; this wasn't the first time she was on a intelligence mission. It helped pass the time on the slow days in the Enclave. From her spot Vala could see Fois’ profile quite well. She was probably only five yards away from where he sat. Vala sat on a ratty, old cushion that Kirna said no one would miss. The other four of the set were situated strategically around the library in other hidden niches. The already small girl pulled her legs to her chest and under her katinu, making herself even smaller. She looked like a little black egg, but most people never noticed the darker shadow that blended so well into the other shadows on the wall in the dimly lit room. If anyone ever did notice her, they would shake their head in disbelief as they walked away, assuming that the shadows were just playing tricks on their eyes instead of inspecting a dark corner that looked haunted by a shapeless, sapphire eyed demon. Boredom was just as painful as any other physical wound, to Vala. To keep herself entertained as she hawkishly watched Fois banally flipped through his book, she assessed his figure and mannerisms. The first time they had met it was late, it was dark, and for the most part, she had been unconscious. Now she had all the time in the world to burn his true image into her memory. No longer would he be a distorted shadow haunting her nightmares. Not that staring at Fois was hard, or troublesome, or unenjoyable (not that she would ever admit to actually admiring his masculine jaw, muscular build, and stoic profile). Vala hissed, noiselessly, in annoyance.

[Fois]

Fois opened the cover of the book and rested his head on the left hand that he formed into a fist. He hadn’t read a word yet, but already it seemed as a tiring process. Fois quickly ran with his fingers through the first page. The foreword was a thank-you to Izurdin followed by some sort of short prayer to him. This didn’t interest the Fois, so he just flipped the page. The story got more interesting from there on. An indeed it seemed as more of a story book, than a text book, which was the thing that caught Endal’s attention in the first place. If he was determined to do some reading, he might as well keep himself entertained. Somewhat. ”As we are approaching the forge, we can hear the increasingly loud sounds of hammers hitting metal. Thus we know that the building we are nearing to is in fact what we were looking for. We come close to the door, knock on them as it is only appropriate, and then enter the forge. Already with the first steps inside we can feel the warmth wrapping us as a coat and dispelling all the chills that were biting us outside. For this we have a hearth to thank. All the proper forges are equipped with one, since heating up the metal is an essential step in blacksmithing. The particular hearth that has just welcomed us is built out of stone bricks and ha-“ Fois suddenly looked up. There was no one in front of him except for the two Yasi he had previously sent away, who were now sitting a few tables further down the Enclave and were still whispering and giggling. They didn’t bother him at all, and, in fact, he couldn’t hear them and just assumed they were whispering and giggling from what he saw. What prompted him to pause was the feeling that someone was there by the table watching him. There was no one, so Fois just stretched his neck a little bit and went back to reading. The story went ahead describing the inside of the forge and the various tools found inside it. The narrator soon stopped his role as a sole guide and introduced a new character – a big, muscled, bearded blacksmith named Vintarn, who was now telling “us” about what it was that the blacksmiths did. Fois started skimming again, since although it was a rather easy read, it failed to keep his attention, especially when the topic in general wasn’t of great interest to him and he had very particular objective. Some pages later Endal started reading slower again. He had now let his left arm rest on the table, moving his head towards the right one. His hand started playing with the single braid he had, as if desperately trying to get some fun during a rather boring task. ”Now we need to take a few steps back as Vintarn takes out the heated iron from the hearth. It is now of a light orange colour, indicating that it is very hot, and we wouldn’t want to get burned now, would we? The strong blacksmith puts it down on the anvil and starts hitting the end with a hammer, beginning to bend it into shape. It is a tiring process, however, made possible by the fact tha-“ Fois raised his head from the book again. There was still no one near the table. That was a bit strange, because was sure someone was watching him. It was a stupid feeling, made even stupider by the fact that there was nobody to watch him. Endal turned his head a little to look over his shoulder, but again there wasn’t anything that would justify his sudden, uncharacteristic paranoia. As he was turning his head back, his eyes stopped for a brief moment at one corner that was buried by shadows several feet away, but didn’t linger there too long. Again, Fois started flipping through the pages looking for something to grab his interest. Quite a few chimes passed, but eventually some words stood out of the text signalling him that the information might be relevant. ”Vintarn was a great blacksmith and he had made many great items that are renowned for their quality. With his skill he could probably craft anything out of metal of any kind, with the sole obvious exception of Isurian steel. This type of metal is famous for its properties and quality, but only the blacksmiths of Isur can shape it, since the process requires the use of their unique mighty hand. Othe-“ That was probably it. Granted it was only one sentence in a book that was probably more suited to the Yasi, but it was the only thing he had found so far and Fois wasn’t sure if he wanted to do any more research. In all honesty, he had a feeling that Seleer might have been right even before coming to the Enclave. And speaking of feelings, Fois still had another one. He turned his head to the shadowy corner again. There was something there. Someone? No one? Nothing? No, definitely something. Perhaps even someone. Of course Endal could’ve just walked over there and see for himself, instead he took an approach that required less walking. He turned to the right, towards the dark corner, dropping his right arm over the back of the chair. ”You want something?” he asked in an unfriendly and slightly annoyed sounding voice. It was clearly addressed to a person that was presumably there and had been watching Fois for some time. His gaze was piercing through the shadows in the area as if he could see that someone hiding there. Endal imagined he was looking straight into the watcher’s eyes, wherever they might have actually been. Fois knew he would feel stupid if it turned out that he was just talking to the wall. He kind of already felt a little bit silly. On the plus side, however, there wasn’t anyone to see him act this way, apart for the two Yasi who were busier with their chitchat. ”Just come out of there already,” Fois issued a command to nobody.

[Vala]

How the hell did he know? Was he bluffing? He could be bluffing... What if he wasn’t? What could he do to her? She wasn’t doing anything wrong! He had no right to tell her what to do… Vala wouldn’t be ordered by some stupid Endal when he had no right. She had every right to sit in whatever dark nook she wanted to. She would stand her ground! Taking shallower breaths, Vala tried to sink deeper into the shadows, closing her eyes to keep the bright blue orbs from flashing in the dim light. If she ignored his calls, maybe he would just walk on and she could continue stalking him. The nearby yasi looked at the dark corner where Vala sat, seeing nothing. One, the older girl, leaned in towards her friend and whispered. “You’re right, he is cute…” The other girl whispered back, after Fois called out again. “Yeah… but he sounds a little crazy.” They looked at each other, back to the dark corner, and then back at each other. They nodded in unison. “Crazy to cute ratio?” The one asked. The first girl sniggered. “Too much crazy for that much cute, even for an Endal.” The girls bent their heads together, giggling gleefully, before packing up their stuff and walking away to a quieter table, but not before one last look back at Fois and another quick giggle fit. Their exodus left Fois and Vala alone in the secluded corner of the enclave.

[Fois]

Fois was still sitting there, not moving his eyes away from the dark corner. He was expecting someone to reply or come out, but nothing happened. Now Endal knew that he was indeed just talking to a wall. The two Yasi came to the same conclusion and abandoned the Enclave giggling. Fois followed them with his eyes for a while and then returned his gaze back to the shadows. He still couldn’t see anything, but now after he had spent some time persuading himself that someone had been watching, he couldn’t bring himself to admit he had been wrong. For some reason it felt obvious to the Endal that he was not alone, be it with a real person or thing, or just a figment of his own imagination. Perhaps it was just a trick of light that drew his attention in the first place. After his call was left not replied, Fois finally turned his gaze away back at the book and sat straight. He went over the passage that explained to him why he lost the little silly debate to Seleer and closed the book. Fois kept his right hand on the cover and rested his chin on the left one. He started pushing the book around the table as if playing with it. Fois pushed it as far away as he could, then all the way to the left, back at him, to the right, then away again. Slowly the movement transformed from a square to a circle, sometimes orbiting fast and sometimes slow. Little simple games like this provided him disproportional amount of entertainment especially while he was thinking. Fois glanced at the shadowy corner, which invaded his thoughts again, then at the book again. He nodded to himself and mumbled: ”Alright.” If he decided to go with the stupid approach, he might as well go all the way. Fois grabbed the book by the spine, turned to the shady corner and threw the book towards it. It flew fast, spinning in the air, soon to be buried in the shadows.

[Vala]

Like a true shade, she should have slunk out of the nook and found another hiding spot. Sure she called his bluff, but by staying put she gave him the opportunity to call her out as well. And call her out he did. With the strength of a fit Endal paired with impeccable aim (blind, stinking luck), it was surprising that Fois didn’t knock Vala out… again. Instead he just gave her a pretty good welt on the forehead. “By the love of Priskil and all things glass!” She yelped, quite loudly. As one who refrained from any and all curse words, Vala was severely limited in her choice of expletives, especially when under stress. One hand shot up to hold her throbbing forehead, and with the other she clasped her mouth shut. I’m sorry for using your name in vain Priskil! She tried to apologize while not gasping in pain. She forced herself to breathe, her lungs heaving in short, shallow rises. The book was bloody heavy. Vala let go of her mouth, while still clutching her aching head, and picked up the book. Her forehead felt warm, from the rush of blood; it was probably a bright red by now, but the swelling had yet to begin. She stood up, legs a little stiff from being cramped up in the nook. And with the purposeful steps of a woman enraged, Vala quickly covered the distance between the her and Fois. The hood of her katinu fell back from the rush of her movement, revealing her long crimson, disheveled locks. By the time she reached Fois she was quite a sight. Still too small to loom, even with the Endal sitting down, Vala still managed to look fairly frightful. Gone was the coy smiling, the bright, sapphire eyed, and the rosy cheeked maiden. Now, a disheveled, flustered, and quite vindictive Assistant Librarian stood before Fois. She may be a chiet, two castes below him, but in this corner of the volcano, she had power, maybe even power over him. This wasn’t the revenge she was looking for, nor was this how she wanted to see him again, but she was too red-eyed to care if this was the perfect time to spring or not – he threw a book at her! “What do you think you are doing, sir? Throwing books about?” Vala looked down at the book in her hands; she was too enraged to focus and read the title; she figured it looked expensive enough. “What do you think you are doing throwing expensive and carefully maintained books! This belongs to the city! Not to you! Who do you think you are? This is a library not a weapons range! I-i-I” Vala sputtered angrily, unable to continue with coherent speech.

[Fois]

A short, high pitched girly squeal announced that Fois had hit the target he wasn‘t sure existed. He watched a figure of a girl emerge out of the dark and quickly approach him. Endal could clearly see the place on her head that came into contact with the book, since she now had a red, strangely shaped spot on her forehead that in combination with her crimson hair made her head look particularly red. This rather amusing look, her aggressive, furious attitude and expression, and short stature made for a bit of a comical appearance in Fois‘s eyes. Girl‘s enraged manner wasn‘t that much frightening to Endal, neither for what she might, nor for what she could do, but it did suggest that she may do something stupid. With that thought Fois kind of recognized her. She was that Chiet he had had that unpleasantly confusing and annoying experience a while ago. And from what he remembered, she was prone to doing stupid things, for which she sort of paid. He had forgotten her name, as it held less and less importance over time, but that was hardly a problem, since Endal didn‘t plan to address her. Fois leaned back in the chair in a relaxed fashion when the Chiet arrived to his table. He raised his right eyebrow when she was scolding him. The girl obviously had a point and he knew that his course of actions wasn’t the best he could’ve taken, but then again, Fois had given her a chance to come out of the hiding peacefully and she ignored him. Her rambling helped Endal recall that she had told him she worked at the Enclave or was connected to it in some way. Again, a fact hardly of any importance to him. The girl was as threatening as nature and circumstances allowed her to be, but that was hardly enough. Endal was wondering how come they managed to meet in such peculiar circumstances again. He knew that he should probably expect a circus to ensue if he acted as foolishly as he did the previous time, so he set out to avoid that. Fois's lips formed into a somewhat contemptuous smile, though it was not explicit enough to be called a taunt. ”I-“ ”Well? How long are going to be hiding in there? Have you lost already or what?” Seleer interrupted Fois. Endal moved his gaze away from the Chiet and was now looking over her shoulder, though at nothing in particular. ”I finished my reading and-“ ”And?” the eagle sounded impatient. Fois exhaled slightly. ”You were right. Isurian steel is Isur-only.” ”Because of the hand, right?” ”Right,” Fois had to admit a total defeat. ”The fact that I’m always right, should’ve been your clue not to argue with me,” Seleer was happy with the result. ”The fact that you’re often wrong confused me.” ”Oh, what a sore looser you are, Fois. I’ll leave you to weep, while I’ll go celebrate.” Endal turned back at the Chiet. Seleer’s intrusion made Fois forget what he wanted to say. He glanced at the book in the girl’s hands and then back at her. ”The book seems fine. No need to go on acting all angry and silly like that, Chiet. Now that you were such a good girl and brought it back all the way here, why don’t you go and put it back into its place? It’s you job isn’t it?”

[Vala]

This was not the regular rage that constantly threatened to raze Vala's fleeting sanity. It was more a petulant or wounded animal's, seething fury. Fois sat there, with his smug, Endal exclusive, smirk. He was obviously enjoying her flustered state – as well as the growing bump on, what was once her perfect, forehead. This was so not fair. Nothing ever was for the chiet. He had already scared her, bruised her, and basically mauled her last season, only to torment her once more when she was doing absolutely nothing wrong – at work, no less! His blue eyes glazed over, stopping in the middle of a word. Probably off to speak to his eagle; the one thing that gave him all the power over the wretched Chiet. His preoccupation, within his mind, gave Vala a few seconds to recover, just a little. She was being childish, she was being rash. Her control had slipped and it accomplished nothing. All in all, she had only managed making herself look like a fool. She needed to get away; she couldn’t breathe. And he was back, well his consciousness was. Poison daggers flew from his mouth, in the form of words, cutting Vala to the quick, shattering her already fragile husk of self worth. She needed to get away, now, before she just let herself curl up and recede into a catatonic state. Her head was throbbing, but the physical pain wasn’t enough to consume her thoughts, not enough to distract her from the sadness and self pity bubbling within. She clutched the tome against her chest, a physical barrier between her and the soul sucking demon before her. Her bottom lip quivered pitifully, she couldn’t hold it in anymore; she still tried her hardest though. Work, she would go do work; she would bury her nose in a book, engulf herself in inane facts, forget about the world and her pointless life. She needed something, anything, to distract her. Vala hadn’t expected to get caught, at least not so quickly. She didn’t even bother to try and fight anymore. He had won, he had broken her. She couldn’t handle this today. She turned around and began to slink away, to put the blasted book away. Vala didn’t even really know where she was going, her vision too blurry from tears; she was just trying to get as far away from Fois as possible. Any other day Vala might have managed to maintain control. Any other day Vala probably wouldn’t have followed Fois to try and exact an unfeasible revenge. It just hurt too much. Today was different. Today was Vala’s birthday.

[Fois]

Fois watched the whatever pride and fury the girl had crumble before his eyes. It seemed as if a mask was slowly slipping down her face. The Chiet had shown him many faces during their encounter in winter, but the Endal hadn’t seen this one. His words had hit the target, another one he didn’t know had existed. Fois wasn’t sure whether what he had said came out so sharp and apparently hurting because of the incident they had had, or simply because the girl was a Chiet. Frankly, he didn’t know what the girl expected him to say after she told him off. An apology? That would’ve been ridiculous. The Chiet gave up immediately without any sign of that boldness Fois remembered her for. Lesson learned, perhaps? He watched her turn around and move away from him. Defeated, like the last time, yet differently. ”You’re walking the wrong way,” Fois called her. There weren’t any disdain in his voice that might have been heard earlier. Rather, it sounded like someone mildly annoyed for having to tell his child how to do something properly over and over again. ”I took this book from over there,” Endal gestured with his head towards the shelf on his left. Fois adjusted himself in the chair to sit more comfortably. He raised his left leg and rested the ankle on his right knee, at the same time placing his left hand on his left one, and threw his right arm over the back of the chair. Endal gently leaned back in his seat while slowly puffing out his chest. He knew that if he let her go now, he will have same questions he had last time, and some new ones on top of that. Those were not very important questions, not important to warrant Endal seeking out the Chiet to ask them, anyway. Fois couldn’t even imagine how he would go about doing that. However, now that opportunity had presented itself, he might as well exploit it. ”Why were you watching me while hiding there in the corner?” Again, his voice didn’t sound neither threatening, nor demanding. It might have been because Fois was compensating for the unintentionally aggressive way he had acted now, or maybe because he felt comfortable of how the relationship between them was established today. Contrary to that winter night, now he wasn’t ashamed to call himself an Endal.

[Vala]

He never missed a dig. By now, Vala figured it was to be expected from the Endal; she was too tired to care. She turned around, to where he gestured with his head and began to shuffle over in the right direction. He said something. The first thing that popped up into her head: tactless. She was sure he recognized her, from last winter, from the look his eye. She wanted to skirt the topic; she was lucky to have gotten away the first time. She had to respond though: he had asked her a question. She couldn’t run away like she had that one night, no, this time she would be calm and get through it… without bruises. She turned around, keeping her head down, book held in front of her as a shield. “I’m sorry,” her voice listless, her eyes deadpan, “I did not mean to make you feel uncomfortable, sir. I was acting irrationally.” Vala began to shiver, just slight shakes. Her thin voice evaporating into the dusty air of the hushed library. Most people got a little party or even a pastry of sorts on the day of their birth; Vala swallowed the bitter bile that threatened to choke her. OOC : That was far too short for how long it took me to get that out… I truly apologize. I have no idea what happened… I promise not to hold you up this long ever again ^.^;;;