hey all!
Today I deleted a word, and the word count went down by 15. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a word count?
"Haha, the Son of the Sun-it sounds the same!" Alys proceeded to laugh like it was the funniest pun she'd ever heard. Kerchen scratched the side of his face awkwardly.
"Well-it is not meant to be wordplay..." he trailed off. Alys had taken an unexpected interest in his background, and listened avidly to his tales as they walked. For all her eagerness, he wasn't sure she had quite the right reaction to Karse's religion. At least it's not negative, I suppose. As they walked down the corridor, a familiar figure glided down the hall towards them-he seemed to notice them too, as his nose immediately stuck up into the air. Alys frowned.
"Aren't you going to say hi? We're classmates you know, I see you all the time," she said, as Jedeth turned away from them. He scoffed.
"Excuse me, all I recall is you attacking me like a barbarian," he replied loftily. "Why don't you go back to the pigsty you came from, read up on some manners, and then come back to pretend to be my peer?" Jedeth folded his arms, smirking. "If you do well, maybe I'll let you run some errands for me." Before even Kerchen could comment on the rudeness of that statement, Alys flared up.
"What's wrong with you? Maybe if you stopped acting like you were better than us all the time, I wouldn't feel like clawing your eyes out in the first place!" Kerchen raised an eyebrow. She's surprisingly violent..
:This is hardly the first time they've had this argument,: Alvira commented, :You could say they've perfected their own spiel to a fine art.:
"I am better than you-who exactly do you think you are?"
"Why you-you think you're better than me? Why's that, because your head is so inflated it can't sit on your shoulders without being cushioned by five dead squirrels?" Jedeth opened his mouth angrily, but then shut it, a façade of calm and genuine condescension effusing his face.
"I'm sorry, but this is mink-oh, well of course an uncultured, vulgar brat like yourself wouldn't know that." Alys put her hands on her hips.
"Oh, well is that how it is?" She put her hand up, opening and closing it in a mock impression of a mouth. "Hey, look at me!" she simpered, "I'm wearing a different dead animal because that gives me so much more class. No need to feed that one, the only thing here that needs feeding is my excessive ego." Kerchen looked on at the posing Alys.
:To call this a fine art-Alvira, that's simply too much.: She responded with only a snigger in the back of his mind.
:You say that, but you're not that much better with Dieder.: He frowned at the comparison.
:I think we do so with good humor. This one is intended to be offensive.: Even if neither are doing a good job of it.
:You don't know that. They argue with each other so often, that if they really wanted to say hurtful things, don't you think they would have figured out how by now? Perhaps this is all posing, and they've developed a sense of camaraderie deep down.: It could be that. Maybe. More likely, however, was that neither Jedeth nor Alys knew enough about the other to make a real stab. Jedeth never deigned to learn anything about people in the lower classes, and Alys-well, was herself. Jedeth couldn't understand why Alys wasn't taking offense to being called ill-mannered, and Alys couldn't understand why pointing out that fur came from a dead animal wouldn't offend Jedeth. The situation was almost comedic. Dieder, on the other hand, could easily think of something terribly insulting to say about his being from Karse, Valdemar's longtime enemy, and Kerchen could talk about Dieder's inability to care for his mother properly-but they had never dealt such blows before, and probably never would.
"-nothing but an idiot in a dull gray uniform-"
"You're just an idiot in an outlandish circus costume-" The odd boy out decided that this conversation was going nowhere.
"Alys, do you not have an appointment? You might be late," he spoke up, stepping forward so that the two parties would take notice of him. Still seething, Alys looked askance at the setting sun. She suddenly widened her eyes, forgetting the argument entirely.
"You're right! I have to go or I'll miss him!" She ran off, leaving Kerchen with Jedeth and a cloud of dirt in her wake. The furclad noble, a boy with green eyes and impeccably groomed long, blond hair, studied him briefly. Kerchen did the same in turn-though he knew enough about the boy already. Jedeth Levalen had a bullying streak, though his never crossed a line at which the Trainee would decide to interfere. It was usually an exchange of petty words, and a few low blows during practice in weapons class, the only class they shared. In truth, Kerchen thought it was essentially a good thing-why not have some practice defending yourself from unexpected attacks? Jedeth raised an eyebrow and broke the silence.
"What are you looking at?" And, scoffing, the highborn left without another word.
:I guess it would have been really unexpected if he said something polite,": Alvira commented dryly. Yes, that would have been very unlikely. Still, Jedeth had left without a sneer, which wasn't his normal reaction to most Grays. From their occasional bouts in weaponsclass, Kerchen had the sense that Jedeth felt a sort of pity for him, but the reason why, even for all his observation, was a mystery.
Alberich let none of his bemusement show.
"What a coincidence, Weapons Second Alberich," the girl said with cheer. "What are you doing here?"
"Materials for Weaponsmaster Dethor getting," he replied, though it wasn't the perfect excuse at this time in the evening. A coincidence? Why would a Trainee be here at this hour? He was on the path to Companion's Field, but it was a bit late to be riding. The girl-Trainee Alys, he now recognized, smiled. It's her again. Why does she seem to be everywhere?
"Oh, so you're going to town! I'm heading that way too!" So she's taking her Companion. No, her Companion was nowhere in sight, and she was looking too well kept to have just finished riding. In fact, she was looking a good deal tidier than normal, as though she had been preparing to go to a party. "Since it's the same direction, let's go together!" The evil Karsite Trainee could not quite believe his ears.
I yell at her in every class. Why does she want to go with me? Not that his lectures seemed to faze her. More importantly, how was he going to decline without being suspicious?
"I on Kantor am," he began slowly. "Pace too fast will be."
"You can't go too fast in Haven! I'll keep up just fine-in fact, you said that I need to exercise more, right?" There was a lot of other things he and Dethor told her to do, so he couldn't understand why she would choose that one to heed, at this very moment. I can't get rid of her, he realized. Well, if I say I'm going to the Companion's Bell to eat first, that should be innocuous enough. Dethor had early dinners, but she shouldn't know that.
"First to Companion's Bell going I am," he said soberly. "Until then, that fine is." She nodded vigorously and began to follow him. As they approached a lamppost, he studied her more carefully.
Is it just me, or does she look older? Now that he thought about it, a few days ago she was sporting two black eyes-perhaps she was experimenting with cosmetics? If that's the case, then she had improved considerably-now if only she could improve that much in weaponry..
"Do you need to pick things up at the Companion's Bell?" she chirped, shuffling along next to him much like an eager puppy. "What do they hold besides food?" Alberich would have preferred to stay silent, but he would rather not give anyone an excuse to suspect him, even if it was just Trainee Alys.
"No, have dinner I will," he replied brusquely, hoping to quench any further discussion.
"Oh? You haven't already had dinner?" she asked with surprise. He raised an eyebrow. It was too late to ride, but it was a bit early for dinner.
She must know that I have, he realized. Otherwise she wouldn't be surprised. How had she known? Now that he thought about it, how had she managed to run into him so often? It must be on purpose. Does she suspect me? Has she been pretending to be simpleminded so that I would let my guard down? If so, then he hadn't met even Sunpriests that duplicitous.
"I see, you must be exercising so much that you need two dinners!" she exclaimed, eyes widening at her epiphany. "Do you need two lunches too? Then you'd be practically two people!" Alberich mentally crossed off 'duplicitous'.
:Kantor, do you know if she saw me with Dethor today?: Some students had taken to spying on the infamous Weapons Second in the Weaponsmaster's quarters, possibly in hopes of seeing him eat a baby or something similar. At night, it would send him on edge, especially since an assassin from Karse, as he now knew, had done the exact same thing.
:Lani says yes,: Kantor affirmed. :But don't worry, Lani trusts you. So does her Chosen.: Alberich could hear a faint snicker in his mind but decided he didn't want to know. As long as Trainee Alys wasn't trying to find an opportunity to stab him by acting innocuous, he supposed that was enough.
While he had been with worse company, he was relieved to part ways with her at the Companion's Bell. The amount of words that flew out of her mouth was astonishing, and she had a habit of asking nosy questions without realizing how sensitive they were. If it weren't for Kantor's assertion of Alys's and her Companion's approval, he might have really suspected that she was secretly interrogating him. Despite that she was chattering nonstop, he still had no idea what she had come to town for, or anything more about her except her propensity for talking.
:I see the heart of a girl is still foreign to you,: Kantor quipped.
:You give me an explanation as to why she's treating me like her best friend when the last thing I did before her Midwinter break was to hit her around the salle until she was black and blue,: Alberich snapped. Kantor was enjoying his irritation a little too much.
:If I tell you, then you wouldn't have learned anything,: Kantor said smugly. Alberich didn't bother to reply to this and concentrated on his work instead. Tonight he was Mellien Fanvareld, an otherwise trustworthy merchant who didn't mind dealing in the shadier parts of town. Mellien was a man who kept his mouth shut and would buy and sell anything so long as it makes a penny. Alberich had caught word of a growing black market, and Mellien was the best man to find out why.
He sat patiently in a corner, his wares spread out on a dull but well made cloth. A loud mouth was a loose mouth, so he kept quiet, only sometimes urging the occasional passerby. He had bought his corner of the Solid Oak tavern, so the owner paid him no mind. Of course, he kept the more potent of his merchandise on his body, as any smart seller would do-and now he simply had to wait.
A nonmaterial trade would be a bit harder to ferret out, but there hasn't been an abnormal number of abductions, so it doesn't seem likely that a slave trader has appeared. Not that it was likely in the first place. Simple prostitution was possible, but it was doubtful something so common would have stirred that much excitement in the black market. Mellien had a good chance of getting his hands on a scoop. Nevertheless, he would still need to wait for news to come by, so he settled himself in, watching Solid Oak's clientele-and spotted something interesting indeed.
:There are nobles here.: It was easy enough to tell that-they simply did not blend in. They were too skittish, too ginger-yet at the same time, many of them looked entirely at ease with the setting, as if they often frequented such places. The cluster of highborn were engrossed in a dice game with men that were truly locals of the area. Jedeth Levalen, a willowy boy with a surprisingly sturdy build whom he recognized from weapons classes, was sitting smugly at the table, watching his opponent through a pile of round painted tokens. His cohorts lingered behind him, sporting similarly condescending looks, though their mouths were covered with a coquettish hand. Alberich sent an image to Kantor, who stirred in recognition.
:Not all of them attend the weapons class, but these are certainly faces of Blues. Besides Jedeth whom you know, that is Rahlen of Poitregas house, the other boy is the second son of the Thirnends-why, even Shendelle of the Fairthelds! What is that self proclaimed flower of courtiers doing there?: That was exactly what Alberich wanted to know-though what intrigued him, possibly even more, was how Jedeth continued to win in the disreputable Solid Oak, and why his friends seemed to sneer at both the locals and their representative player.