The Truth Was Seldom Told So Sweetly.

Re: The Truth Was Seldom Told So Sweetly.

Postby Altias_Bromn » Sat Dec 08, 2012 5:03 am

Did it hurt her? Did his words sting? Did she note the tense in which the word had been given? He hoped that she had, but not that it had hurt her, never that. Does he notice that her face turned away as he passed, that it hides in shadow? Of course he did, for he had looked back even as she looked away. Still the words needed to be said in such a way, that she would no longer wonder, or worry, if she did such things at all.

Her manner seemed less ill at ease then it had before, though still almost foreign to him. He took time to notice all that had changed about her, and all that remained the same. Did that tangle of necklaces, of trinkets, of memories, still rest at her throat beneath the heavy twist of scarves? This brought a small glimmer of a smile to his lips before he sipped at the brandy, leaning back in his chair, legs stretched out before him.

He listened as she spoke of Dhrin, and how he had died. And the manner of magick, for it must have been such, that destroyed him. Lamai would be consulted at some later date of this being who had helped her, there were thanks to be given. At her hand, the healer, the lady of light, had been the one to strike him down. It seemed somehow wrong. But there was talk of a brother. This too would be for much later, when her healing had been done, and perhaps his own. Now it made some sort of sense, this question of souls.

His hand would lazily gesture to the chair again. If she wished to talk she would sit, as civilized people do.

"I have not spoken to Lamai, she is in mourning, as you have said. I do not wish to disturb her. She will find me when the time is right, for her."

Then there is a slightly raised eyebrow as she continues, to tell about how the body had fallen away beneath her hands. A nod then, and another almost dismissive gesture with the brandy glass.

"You were there then, when this deed was done. It was Dhrin who killed her brother..."

What other answer was there? Why else would the healer turn killer? Even when the Order had been at it's strongest Lamai had not seen fit to end Dhrin. No, this was much more personal.

"Souls."

He nods and agrees with her simple word.

"A very deep subject, are you sure you care to spend that sort of time with me? Tell me Ariane, what is it you want to know about souls? Do I believe in them? Do I know what happens to them when the body dies? Do I even believe they continue when the body is in the ground? There are so many things you could ask me. What is it then that you really want to know, about souls?"
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Re: The Truth Was Seldom Told So Sweetly.

Postby Carnath-Emory » Sat Dec 08, 2012 6:20 am

Does he hurt her?

"That is as it should be," she's answered him, and quietly at that, for the strain of her relationship with Lamai Carver has persisted for whole years - but that does not preclude an ability to understand what it is for the small healer to grieve. That is at is should be: that the girl is allowed the time which she requires, the undisturbed quiet which she may or may not. "Do you leave soon to join her there?" The bags down below, after all; the bag with its trinkets and bits of elegant, glittering glass. Precious things. Things with which to journey when the journey is to be long.

"I was there," she answers him, after a time; with the glass in her hand, and these are words peppered with intermittent sips from what is likely very good brandy indeed. She has no taste for the stuff herself, but Calomel would know; would undoubtedly approve, and of the pretty decanter as well. "It was the tavern's own lawn, mn? Where once they threw bodies," and the symmetry of this somehow pleases. "A friend's heartbreak drew me there, and when Dhrin claimed responsibility for the murder of Lamai's brother, we none of us hesitated. Not this time. His hand still held the knife, after all - you know?" A glance for his eyes; the brandy's soft warmth. "Until he gave it to us. And then I lifted his chin so that she might open his throat."

Such savage satisfaction oughtn't be spoken so quietly.

"I would not ask this thing," she begins after a time, "if I did not wish to hear your thoughts upon it; if they are long, they are long. What I wish to know is all of these things. I know - a little; things of which Lamai has told me herself, things of which her friend has told me." Aleksei River: an enigma wrapped in a mystery bound in a bloodsoaked cloak. "I am not sure what I make of such notions - but then, you know this very well," and it is the brief, tight smile all over again; something like a concession, when her eyes find his again. Fingertips upon the chair's backrest: they draw mindless patterns there, some constant, tactile wandering across the fine wood. "But this has become of importance to me, and so if you are willing to speak of it I am grateful to hear."
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Re: The Truth Was Seldom Told So Sweetly.

Postby Altias_Bromn » Sun Dec 09, 2012 3:51 am

Does he leave soon to join her? Well that was a bit of a trick now wasn't it? That had been the plan, certainly. Though here, when did things ever go according to plan? There was a gentle shake of his head, another drink from that glass that was perhaps longer than it needed to be.

"I had planned to go back within the evening, but things are changing. I wanted to heal there...you saw what happened..."

She had been there when the walls inside his mind had collapsed. She had seen his body crumple to the floor and seen him cry like a child in the middle of the tavern. She had seen weakness in him like she had never seen before, despite everything they had faced together. It was, in fact, a bit of a miracle that she was speaking to him at all, after that performance. He was silent for a time, allowing her to continue, this was not about them, it was not even about him.

As she described the way Dhrin died, there is a thin smile for his lips. He knew how it felt to have the man's blood run freely over you. To believe with all that you are that the threat is passed and the nightmare is over. He could see her, Dhrin's chin in her hand, the blade in Lamai's, the red weeping that would have sprung from the knife's trail. Oh how he wished he could have been there.

"Ended with his own blade. That is almost poetic."

As she went on, he nodded, and did not smile. What stood before him was a women whose very belief was being questioned. He believed that what she truly wanted to know was a very simple thing. Was Dhrin really dead this time? Well he had no answer for that, certainly, but he did have theory. It would be time to speak of belief, and what it could mean about a soul who deserved more than any other, to burn.

"Then sit, Ariane. Sit as you would when you visit any of those your seek council with. Please do not pace my room, watch me so carefully. If you trust me enough to ask me of these things, then trust me enough to sit in my home. We both know I can not, and have not, ever gotten the better of you."

Refilling his glass, he offers the bottle, hovering toward the middle of the table to also refill hers. This would be a long night, she would need the warmth.

"I believe in souls. You never did. Tell me what has changed so that I might better understand what you want to know."
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Re: The Truth Was Seldom Told So Sweetly.

Postby Carnath-Emory » Sun Dec 09, 2012 4:57 am

Things are changing.

"But I am." It is the response of a woman who has spoken so many words; who has listened through several of his own as well, sometimes a slouch against the back of this chair and sometimes a straightening thing, careful with its eyes and solemn about the mouth. Who has added hardly anything at all now, except that a man has bid her to sit and in such terms that she cannot leave it unanswered. "I am sitting as I would were I to visit the Governor with one question or another, I am sitting as I would were I to speak with the former Governor. With anyone at all, for I've had a month confined to my home and often to my bed and now that I am done with that, I will stand when I please upon legs that do not punish me for it."

An elbow against the chair's backrest, though; a narrow lean of the body to offer her glass to his bottle, and to sip at it a second time afterwards. "This - " and she's around the chair's edge then, to settle herself properly upon its seat: one leg across the other's knee, some thin set to her mouth as she watches the man. "What does this change? What does this signify? Only that I am a thing obedient to - what, to etiquette," and it's some thin sound from her then, something that might have been laughter if there'd been no glass lifting to smother it. It is a necessary drink. I have never gotten the better of you, he says, and this is not precisely true. But it was years ago, that moment - which involved weapons bared and a thread caught about her throat; which occurred for particular, peculiar reasons, all very much related to long-ago memory: the stung accusation of hurting eyes...

"Belief," she begins slowly now, "is not for me and never will be; you know this." Hajmat had whispered the words to her ears a lifetime ago; steel wire drawn against granite, and words which had her a-tremble with pride. "Do not mistake me. This question is a - theoretical. Do you see? What I want to know - is everything that you know. Start where you wish. I'll sort it after." It is a boneless lounging in this chair then; it is grey eyes set even upon his own, a now-and-again sip from that glass. And, after a time: "She is very good for healing, I think. That Lamai. We will not keep you from her for so long."
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Re: The Truth Was Seldom Told So Sweetly.

Postby Altias_Bromn » Sun Dec 09, 2012 5:36 am

Obedient

She says this word and it is almost enough to draw laughter from his lips. She was many things, this one, but obedient? Not for him, not for anyone, so far as he knew. Ariane did as she wished and that was no secret. He only wanted her to sit so that it might be an easy thing as it had been before. It was clear this was not to happen. There is a refill for her glass and he considers for a few moments.

He wanted to ask. Ask her about the injuries, how it had happened, why, but such was not his place anymore. He was once a friend, perhaps he had been more, but now...he was a stranger. A source of information, nothing more.

"This changes nothing. I only asked because I thought it would be some time that we would be talking, but if all you require is answers, then please...Stand if it pleases you."

There is a dismissive gesture with his hand, the brandy sloshing, catching the light and sparkling like a bit of dark amber. He meets her gaze and wanted to offer a smile, an apology for a long ago slight, but it seemed unimportant now, with so much more to regret than a show of his asinine ego. Still he does not look away from the storm of her gaze, instead he is leaning forward, elbows on the fine carved table.

"Then some things, at least, do not change. What does anyone know about souls? I know what I believe, I know what I have been told, but I do not know anything. If you wish answers that are without opinion, or belief, then I am not your man. What I can tell you is that I believe that the soul continues, that the energy of what we are now continues after we die."

She speaks then of Lamai, and how she is a good healer. Well he knew this, had known it for years, but now she had other troubles. Things she must heal within herself. It was unfair of him to expect her to be able to put all that aside and deal with the mewling of a broken man. It would wait, until she was ready.

"Lamai will find me when she is ready. Until that time I have work to do here. The beginning of that work is to help you find the knowledge you seek. What I think you want to know is do I believe that Dhrin is really dead. Is he truly gone from this world, never to trouble us again. Is that what you are asking me?"

The truth? He did not think so, but if what she had told him was true he had no body to return to, so how could he be anything but dead?
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Re: The Truth Was Seldom Told So Sweetly.

Postby Carnath-Emory » Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:28 am

"What I want for is any answers at all. Your, mn - perspective. It is as - " And she's unfolding from that seat already; is to her feet and towards one of his windows, there to draw back the heavy drapes just sufficient to admit a thin wash of morning sunshine and allow herself a glimpse of the street below. "This." A glance back across one shoulder; a tilt of her chin towards that half-glimpsed landscape, all cobblestones and hooves and the to-and-fro passage of Myrken industry. "Stand two artists before this sight; have them draw for you the thing which they see. And each sketch will be different from the other," as she turns now, resting a hip against the windowsill; a comfortable lean.

"Different eyes for the same sight, mn? So it is with this as well. I have what Lamai has told me; I have that Aleksei's opinion, as well - do you know that one? His way of seeing this thing. And now I would have yours. Be it opinion, belief; be it - fairytales and fancies. What comes of that - energy, once the meat of the body has died? What comes of it should that body - " and he precedes her; the nod is small, immediate. " - should that body be utterly gone? Thadius Dhrin is a part of it, and his part is not the most important but it is surely the most immediate."

As he leans, all business of a sudden, elbows rested light upon that table. As she watches, the glass cradled in her palms, and does not drink again of its warming brandy, not quite at all.
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Re: The Truth Was Seldom Told So Sweetly.

Postby Altias_Bromn » Wed Dec 12, 2012 11:58 am

As Ariane explains what it is she wants, and the way in which she describes it, he could not help but smile. She was a different woman entirely, and it was good. Something had happened in his absence and perhaps it was for the best. She had grown, becomes such a richly faceted creature. Words he would never say to her of course. She would find such things from him offensive, at best.

The brandy was brought to his lips once more as he considered what she has said. He allowed the liquid to warm his tongue, his throat, as he nodded softly. She did not ask much now did she? Only to know his very heart on such a temperamental issue. The soul was something that was highly debated, and rarely agreed upon.

"It seems to me, you have already asked those who have far more knowledge than I. Lamai, you know she knows so much about so many things. And that Aleksei fellow certainly seems to be educated about a great many things. I wonder why you would seek my council in something like this."

As he had suspected, she feared that his soul survived even when the body had not. It was a moment when he wished he could tell her anything else. Wished he could claim to know that he would never trouble them again, never return to this place in any form and that it was finally, and truly, over. These were words he could not speak.

"It is my belief, Ariane, that the soul remains. The body simple has no bearing on it. Once the heart stops, the last breath drawn, the soul is free. Now do I know where it goes? Is there some final resting place where good people go, and one where bad people are tortured for eternity? I do not believe it to be so. I know I have seen my mother. I have seen Nathaniel. I know that they have spoken to me since they have left their shells. Do they come back? Will they live again? I do not think so, no."

"Thadius...who can really say, hmmm? He was a powerful thing. We both know that, perhaps better than any. His body is gone, and this is good. That face shall trouble us no longer, save in our nightmares. Is his soul gone? Banished from this place when he was relieved of his life? No. I do not believe it was. I can not believe that he simply ceased to be."
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Re: The Truth Was Seldom Told So Sweetly.

Postby Carnath-Emory » Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:21 am

She doesn't ask so much.

Only to know his opinion of a matter which is close to his heart and distant from hers - ordinarily. Only to solve a problem which by its very nature is anathema to her godless self. What's dead is meat, she'd told him so long ago. Meat upon a slab, upon a filthy table in a cold, dark hut; it does not care that you speak, it does not know how to be anything but cold beneath your hands. Because it is meat -

Perhaps the many lives of Thadius Dhrin had begun to erode at her certainty.

Whatever the case, his careful words have quieted her. If there were questions, she's been patient with them; one thing after another has stirred her attention but never quite roused her voice, and even when this became difficult there was a curl of fingertips across her lips to silence them, a wave of the other hand to indicate that he must continue until there is no more.

"I asked you," she begins - then, and only then, "for that you are familiar in these things. In your own ways, your own traditions." A quiet glance, back across one narrow shoulder; she's half-framed in winter sunshine and an edge of rich drapes, but the watch of her eyes is steadfast. "As is Lamai, mn? As is Aleksei, and others besides. Even others that I do not care to approach with questions. I - mm." A jerk of her chin towards the window. "If I consult five fine huntsmen tomorrow on the best way to butcher a deer, what I will learn is five ways to butcher a deer. It is for - different perspective. You know?"

The smile is small, a self-consciousness contradicted by the hard lines of her shoulders, spine.

"I would see this thing in every way. And yours is not Lamai's, I think, any more than that Aleksei's is. They are not always able to agree - did you know that? Not on these matters. To seat them at a table and bid them speak is - " And a moment is lost when the laughter overwhelms her words; a shake of the head, a slow breath to regather herself. "No. You spoke of these things. Long ago and several times; many times. So. I ask you. That one question and now another one: if his soul were banished, might it be retrieved? And stitched into a different body; sewn even into his own, were it still here for the having. Could that be done? Is this how he returned to us over and again for such years?"

It is not a small question, and it is so awkwardly phrased. And perhaps he will imagine that she's not capable of worse than this until, after a pause in which she sips so cautiously from her glass:

"'Nightmares', you say. Did - you dream of him?"
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