Illusion of Beauty
Ch. 7
He pulled out two goblets and a bottle of wine he had since before the Red Moutnain erupted. "Here you go; this should ease your mind a bit." Drevis offered, with what he hoped was a tone of nonchalance.
"Oh, thank-you." Leann replied/ With that, the duo made their way over to the table and chairs on the other side of the room. They sat down opposite of each other and slowly sipped their wine. Each studied the other, looking for a cue to break the silence. Leann was the first to crack, after having about half of her goblet.
"This wine is delicious; I've never had anything quite like it. Where did you procure it?" Leann inquired, silently hoping it was somewhere local, so she could purchase a bottle for herself.
At this, Drevis let out a hearty laugh. "I'm afraid I do not know where one could still come across this wine." He paused for effect, then continued, "I purchased this wine back in Morrowind, right before the events of the Red Year took place. Needles to say, since most of Morrowind was destroyed, it is safe to assume that most of this particular brand of wine was also destroyed."
"If it is so rare, then why drink it now; why not save it?" Leann asked, curiosity peaked.
"Because my Nord friend, I wanted to save it for a special occasion." He supplied with a wink.
Leann flushed, 'Why does he have to always be so damn flirty! And why do I keep reacting like this?!' "I you've been saving it for over 200 years, why use it now? I hardly think drinking with me is a worth reason." She stated with a puzzled look.
"Well, I think sneaking past the Dragonborn with a beautiful woman who so happens to be Dibella's Champion is a pretty unique experience." Drevis stated simply.
Leann sighed, "When you put it like that, I suppose it has been a pretty incredible day." Leann conceded, then another thought struck her. "Wait! If you bought this befoe the Red Mountain, then you have to be over 200 years old!" She exclaimed.
Drevis laughed loudly at her deduction. 'Leave it to humans to get rield up about the true age of an elf' "What about my age surprises you? It is common knowledge that elves age much slower than humans, or is it because I have dashing good looks for my age?"
"Actually, yes. I knew that elves age much slower than humans; I just didn't know the difference was that drastic." Leann explained. "You don't look a day over thirty, so a couple years over 200 is quite a surprise." Leann finished with a coy look.
This took Drevis by surprise. He didn't expect her to be so blunt abut her thoughts on this topic. 'Maybe she's been relaxed enough by the wine for me to find out about her relationship with the Dragonborn.'
"I suppose I can understand were that could be surprising." He conceded. "Speaking of surprising revelations today, I was shocked that the Dragonborn was looking for you; normally, he keeps to himself." 'Please let her take the bait.' He thought.
"Really? Valdemar has been pestering me all week, asking me a ton of questions; I just assumed he was like that with everyone." Leann answered, clearly thinking about her interactions with him.
"That still doesn't really explain why he was searching for you though." Drevis pushed.
"Beats me." Leann shrugged "I ran into him on my way back to my room and noticed that he was badly injured, so I took him back to my room to heal him. He had one if not the worst injury I've ever seen! It took me over an hour to bring him back from the edge off death; I worry what his life is like, since he thought the injury wasn't a big deal," Leann shuddered at the memory of his rended abdomen. "He probably just wants to thank me or something; I've kind of been blowing him off since healing him haha." She gave a halfhearted laugh.
This confused Drevis even more. 'For such limited interaction, Valdemar really seems interested in his new Illusion student. Leann seems to be pretty apathetic towards him, unless she's lying, but she didn't seem to be lying. She also didn't seem to over think her answer so it probably was truthful.' Drevis thought, trying to reason away his negative, prior conclusions.
"Oh, ok, I was just curious is all." He said, trying to end the subject.
"You and me both!" Leann agreed with a laugh.
At this point, Leann broke her attention away from her teacher and started looking around his room again. She was gazing over at his night stand, and she saw a familiar instrument.
"Divines! Is that an ocarina?" Leann exclaimed, getting up to walk over and examine it, "It is! I've never seen one outside the temple before! Do you play?" She asked wide-eyed.
"No, I don't I'm afraid. I tried when I was younger, but I had absolutely no talent for music." Drevis laughed, then asked, "Do you know how to play?"
"Of course I do! I wouldn't be a good representation of Dibella if I wasn't a musician." Leann said with a smirk. "May I?" She gestured at the little ocarina.
"Yes, please do; I've never actually heard anyone play one before." Drevis handed her the ancient instrument.
"That's probably because hey're ancient; very few people even make them, let alone practice playing them." Leann said, like she was giving him a history lesson. She proceeded to play a sweet melody with the potato shaped instrument.
Drevis was amazed at what he was hearing. The few times he tried to make some noise with it; it would sound either shrill or airy, nothing like what she was doing with it. When she finished, he decided to speak up.
"That was beautiful! I had no idea that as ocarina could sound like that!" He exclaimed, clearly impressed. "How did you learn to play?"
"I taught myself when I was a child. I found one of these in the temple and just tinkered until I figured it out." Leann said nonchalantly. "When I was older, I learned more about their history and found out how rare they are."
"That's even more impressive then. Do you have your ocarina here?" Drevis asked.
"No, I left it at the temple. Technically speaking, it was an artifact, so I couldn't take it with me." Leann sullenly answered.
Drevis could see the disappointment on her face, and decided he hated when she radiated that emotion. "How about you have this one then since I can't play it. It should get used for its intended purpose after all." Drevis said with a smile.
"Oh no! I couldn't possibly accept such a priceless piece of history!" Leann rejected, clearly flabbergasted at the prospect of someone giving away such a priceless treasure.
"I insist.." Drevis replied firmly. "It has been collecting dust for years in my possession, and I think it's time it had a new owner. My only request is that you play for me again." He smile and held the ocarina out for her to take
Leann stared at hi for a moment before reaching for the instrument. "Thank- you so much, Drevis. Really, this is the nicest gesture anyone has ever offered me. I'll be sure to play it often and take great care of it." Leann took the offered instrument and spoke with great sincerity.
"You are very welcome, and I hope you enjoy it." Drevis said with his usual smile.
With that, Leann looked out of the window to see that the sun had left the sky. had left the sky. 'I can't believe that it's already night! Time just flew by with him.'
"It looks like it's gotten pretty late now, so I should probably head back to my room. Thank- you again for allowing me to stay with you for the day; I had a wonderful time." Leann smiled 'I've been smiling a lot today.' Leann noted.
"Of course, Leann, I enjoyed your company today as well. You can stop by whenever you want, and have a good night." Drevis paused, "Oh, and before I forget, your private lessons will begin next week, so how about you meet me in the library mid day, this day next week?"
"Or course, see you then!" Leann called as she walked out of his room.
As Leann was walking back to her room, she had many thought swimming through her head. The loudest of which was about how Drevis is the kindest man she's ever met.
I'm doing an end note for once! Some insight as to why I chose to implement the ocarina into my Skyrim fic, when what most people relate an ocarina to is The Legend of Zelda. Ocarinas have actually been around for thousands of years, dating back to somewhere in the ballpark of 2,000 B.C. (don't quote me on that). I figured since Skyrim is like a medieval ancient civilization love child, it would fit nicely in within the world. They were originally used as a children's wind instrument, hence why Leann found it interesting as a child. They can be made out of many different materials such as, ceramic clay, bone, metal, or wood, and they normally have between four and 12 holes for the different notes. Though they are easy to learn how to play, a lot of people have issues learning how to make the proper sound out of them, because they are breath pressure sensitive (think like a really easy version of a flute or clarinet). If you don't breath properly, you will get either a shrill note that varies in pitch (which sounds god awful) or an airy sound. Needless to say, if you don't have some natural musical inclination, it is difficult to teach yourself without any instruction. Now, I know all of this good stuff, because I've been playing the ocarina for over 15 years. You can thank my obsession with Zelda as a small child for that.
I also wanted to focus on as many of the aspects of Dibella as I could in this story, and she is the patron goddess of the arts as well as all of the sexy things. I figured if I was going to play off Leann as the mortal representation of Dibella, I needed her to be good at one of the arts, and music and performing is so much more fun to incorporate than painting :P
