Rath Bad-az
The Rath Bad-az continues its circuit around the western half of Umbar's inner walls. The street is paved with aged and weathered marble flagstones and is in a terrible state of disrepair. The surrounding area resembles a shanty-town-small one room hovels and dilapidated buildings are the lot of the poor of Umbar. The Rath Bad-az passes through the poorest part of the city-that which is commonly known as the thieves quarter.
The day sky is clear with only slight wisps of clouds overhead. The late morning spring air is hot and dry around you. The moon is last quarter.
Oddly, it seems that S'aria wants to take Farielle to the worst part of town first, excitement brimming on the young Priestess' features. Walking side-by-side the pair make an odd couple as they move down the sandy streets of umbar, dark-featured Easterling Priestess, a pendant of the eye dangling from her neck besides the fair Gondorian lady, as pale as the snow in in her distant lands. S'aria's dark clothing stands quite the contrast to the dirty grays and browns of this part of town, and the beggars who look upon her from the side of the streets gaze upon the girl some with reverence and others with fear. It seems, judging from the words of greeting S'aria gives to some of them, that she is familiar with this particular area.
"Batsai should be around here somewhere... he is very cute. I think you will like him a lot. I am sure if it were not for him being deaf he would serve a lady of high standing in Umbar. They pay a very high price for good-looking manservants," S'aria says as she approaches the lodging building, glancing over the assembled beggars here, seeming to be looking for someone. "I ever taught him a few words in Logathig, my native tongue. He seems pretty smart too... He asked about you when I first met him, the deaf beggars here must have some kind of sign-language they use."
The two guards are walking with hands on swords, looking around warily - and decidedly uncomfortably. Not, quite likely, with their abilities, but with the inherent possibilities for problems in a place like this. They pay less attention to the women, and more to scanning continually around.
Farielle is covered from head to foot in pale green. Her dress reaches from neck to ankles and covers her arms as well; and her head is wrapped in a sort of loose burnoose of the same fabric, drawn up to shield all her face save her eyes. She sounds a little confused as she asks, "But... if he is deaf how did he ask for me? And how did he know I was here /to/ ask for me? And... how did you teach him any words, if he can't hear you?"
Her maid, Hikalla, walks close behind her, her eyes wide and nervous - and disapproving. This is not an area of town fit for a lady!
"Several in my clan were deaf. They learn to read lips... though I guess I could have helped him the Haradrim, I kinda wanted a chance to practice my native tongue for once," admits the Easterling, admittedly less covered than Farielle, though she does have a black cloak which she occasionally shields her arms behind. "You are the talk of the town, my lady. Some who must know the beggar sign-language must have communicated it to him. And as for asking about you... it took quite a while of me guessing what he was asking me with his strange signing, but I figured it out after a while. He has eyes like you... so he had something to point to," explains the Easterling, realizing that some of this might be confusing. "I admit... I have some questions myself, but he is deaf so... one can only inquire so much. The Almsgivers from the Church could not give me any new information on him, he was probably very recently cast out of whatever home he was raised in."
"I ... see," Farielle answers, letting the subject drop, though she still sounds very perplexed.
"My lady," the maid says, "How long do you intend to stay here? It isn't /proper/."
The Gondorian girl looks around, stepping carefully over something better remaining unknown. "It isn't very ... clean down here," she admits, and looks to S'aria for an answer, before pointing up an alley. "What is up that way?"
"Well... if I had known you wanted to come out to today, I would have run ahead and checked if he was here," admits the young Priestess. She hardly seems to notice the squalor, it is not much worse than the conditions in the villages of Nurn afterall. Approaching the base of the lodging building, she moves to knock on one of the small wooden apartments. "I hope he is not out begging again... Half the reason I got him a home here was so he would not have to do that," demurs the girl as she knocks. Her dark eyes flicker down towards the Alley, "Probably a drug den or two... maybe a prostitution house. The city guards neglect this part of town so its the perfect place if it is out of the way." She snickers as she sees one of the beggars looking fondly at the maid, "Ohh. I think he likes you... he seems to want to marry up in life!", she teases the snobby woman.
Leena sniffs, and says nothing; but she gives the hapless beggar a glare.
"Must he beg to live?" Farielle looks at the apartment that S'aria is knocking at, and then up at the building as a whole. "Do many people live here? If they don't beg, what do they do?" Prostitution... she eyes the alley intently, as if making a note to herself to avoid it.
In the shadows behind the guards one now emerges, hesitating to step forward. It is Alkhaszor, and in the livery of Alphros's knights, he is certainly recognizable.
The Gondorian holds out a copper penny to the beggar who has been bothering Leena, and says, in recognizable if halting, Haradaic, "Leave alone her." She does not see Alkhaszor, though the guard nearest him does and nods once, before returning to his vigilant watch.
"As many as we can fit, the rooms around about the size of a closet and sometimes house three people. It is run by the Church for those who convert or who are converts that have fallen down on their luck," explains the dark-haired girl, a frown lacing onto her features. "We have other such places but the poor parts of town spread for miles and miles... The Den is on the opposite side of town, it is a more... dangerous kind of slum, reminds me more of my home. I have made some friends there so it is fairly safe for me to go... It is rather fun. Though I think you would half to bring a legion of guards to get there unharmed," S'aria says with a sad smile on her face. She turns to face Farielle and her entourage, "I apologize, naughty Batsai is not here. Unless you would like a tour of the slum districts, perhaps we should go somewhere where your guards would feel more at ease?"
Returning the nod to the guard, Alkhaszor draws up his hood, shadowing his face. He puts a finger to his lips-also directing his gaze toward S'aria as he does so. And then he flits from shadow to shadow to follow and listen.
The beggar snatches the coin and lets loose a babble of ingratiating Haradaic of which Farielle can understand nothing. He creeps closer to her, pawing at her skirt; the girl's eyes widen, though she doesn't cringe away, only shakes her head. Tariq - the other guard - steps forwards and says something roughly, and the beggar scuttles back.
Farielle gives Tariq a small smile which the guard returns jauntily, and nods to S'aria. "Yes... I think they would be happier. Leena certainly!"
"They sometimes try that on me... Usually a glare scares them away. But then again I am a Priestess so I suppose they have something more to fear than just physical harm," speaks S'aria with a chuckle before she, indeed, gives the beggar a stern glare, fire in her eyes. Then she she steps forward, her dark locks tailing out behind her as she moves. There is a certain confidence about the girl in these areas, betraying her lack of any snobbish upbringing. She remains a step ahead of Farielle, her fingers weaving together at the curve of her back, her eyes meet Alkhaszor's briefly in some shadowy corner, and he is given a dip of her head before she at last turns to Farielle. "Where would you like to go, my lady? I suppose we could head in the direction of the waterfront."
Farielle's face stiffens at S'aria's comment. "No," she says, her voice flattening. "I have been there. Somewhere else."
A bit of a frown forms on the Easterling's face as she glances over her shoulder to Farielle, wrinkling her nose in frustration at the other girl. "Well, where else would you like to go? There are several marketplaces in the city... there is the shrine of heroes, the other towers, the Dark Citadel, the Oasis? Do you have a particular inclination, my lady?", she asks, as polite and cordial as ever.
"The other towers," Farielle says after a moment of thought. "Where is Farside?"
"Lady Azradi's tower? Well, let us hope we do not run into Lady Farside herself, or I am sure I will get another lecture again," notes the Acolyte with a wry chuckle as she begins to walk towards the direction of Farside tower. She turns to incline her yellow-hued features towards Farielle, "Have you met Lord Alphros' sister yet? She is a rather... blustry sort of woman. I suppose the proper euphemism is that she has a very short-fuse."
"I have met Lady Azradi," Farielle says, her voice neutral. "She gave me some paints." There is a glint in her eyes - untranslatable. "I have not seen her for some time however."
"Paints? Well, she does claim to be decended from Gondorian royalty, like her brother... maybe that's why she was so much nicer to you than me," demurs the young Priestess, a bit of a shiver passing through her body as her dark eyes cloud with the memory. "Anyway, what do you know about the political structure of Umbar, my lady? Has anyone sat down and explained it to you?", asks the girl as she guides the other woman down the road towards the tower.
"There are five towers and each is ruled by a lord or lady. The city is ruled by a counsel made of those five," Farielle recites dutifully as they walk. The less poor the city becomes, the happier Leena - and the guards - become.
"Right. Well I see you know your stuff then," speaks the Easterling Priestess with a snicker as she guides Farielle through the streets of Umbar. Farielle is followed by two guards and her maid, S'aria leads her, a few steps ahead. "Well, its more like each tower is a 'fief' since the tower lords constantly bicker. Each tower roughly corresponds to a geographic area of Harad, over which the tower lord lays claim," explains the Priestess. "Besides the towers... the harbor master is quite strong and then the high Priestess of the dark citadel, my superior: Mara... who is incidentally also an Easterling."
A ragged, thin man is sitting by the road here, his begging bowl chipped and empty. Batsai raises his hooded head as S'aria approaches and smiles dumbly.
"I see," says Farielle, her tone not actively unfriendly, but not exactly encouraging either. She glances up, sees the beggar, and lets her eyes slide expressionlessly away from him as she reaches into her pouch for the coin she gives to all such she passes.
"Batsai!", exclaims S'aria about as exhuberently as could be, lifting a hand high into the air to wave to the deaf man, a smile lighting up her entering face. She turns back to her companions, a youthful brightness in her expression. "Here he is! The silly oaf must have eaten all the bread the Church dropped by his place too quickly..." And then she bounds over to the begger, her black hair whipping out behind her like the shadowy tail fo a coment. One hand fumbles in her satchel, quickly producing a piece of warm bread fresh from the bakery, while the other hand pats his head, even as she chides him saying: "You bad boy! We went all the way to your house looking for you." Despite the fact that she has already announced that he is deaf.
Farielle holds out a penny, putting a mechanical looking smile on her face, and looking worriedly at S'aria's back as the priestess speaks to the beggar. After a moment, she asks, "This is who you were talking about?"
Two lovely ladies. The beggar beams, bread in one hand, coin in another, looking sheepish as he is berated.
S'aria steps back, smiling from ear to ear, finally giving poor Batsai some space. She has not had a chance to show off her 'pet' before really. "Yep. I met him at the Desert Gate...", she says turning halfway between Farielle and the beggar man. "Isn't he just adorable? Its such a shame that a man like him is deaf. I bet some horibble Haradrim kicked him out of their home because they gave up trying to communicate to him." She then turns back to Batsai, pointing to his eyes, and then to Farielle's, before she holds her hands out towards the other woman as if 'presenting her'. Looking slightly embarassed at her miming, S'aria explains to her companions with a blushing face, "As I said... he went through alot of trouble to ask about you before."
The older guard's head turns at S'aria's words. "Asking about her?" he says in an ominous rumble, and stares at the beggar suspiciously. But before the priestess can reply, he seems to have decided there is no danger. "Probably all that fool coin she keeps handing out," he grunts and turns away - back to watching the streets and buildings and crowds around them.
Adorable. Farielle's face can hardly get any stiffer. "He looks awfully dirty," she says dubiously. "Do - do you think he was a servant somewhere then?"
The deaf beggar appears to listen meekly, nodding as he and the pale lady are introduced. He grovels befittingly, dirty forehead to the ground - though Gondorian blood, somehow, has found its mark upon him, with grey eyes and beardlessness on an otherwise unkempt complexion.
Bum says, "Kill the goody-two-shoes Gondorians!"
S'aria blinks, looking over Batsai for a moment. "Well I guess he is... but he smells nicer than me Father did when I last saw him. Guess I am more used to dirty faces than you are," she says before she gives Batsai an approving smile as he shows his respects, her hands folding behind her back. She answers Farielle quietly, "Must be. Maybe a mix between a Haradim and a Gondorian slave? I have no idea... Thats one of the reasons I like him. He seems like he would have a lot of stories to tell if only you could ask him," she says with a hint of melancholy in her voice. She turns to glare at the bum, "Now, now... none of that. The Lady Farielle is a guest in this city of Lord Alphros. And therefore is here with the approval of the Dark Lord himself," she warns him ominously.
Farielle watches the beggar, not much in her expression except a sort of unease. Finally, hesitantly, never looking away from him, she holds out the copper coin. S'aria's final words being a snap of anger to her blue-grey eyes, but she bites back the words she might say. When she can speak and sound reasonably unemotional again, she says, "You like him because he looks like he could tell stories?" This seems to bring a fleeting glint of amusement.
Batsai takes the coin, plopping it delightedly into his begging bowl. Yet the Look he gives the Bum under his hood is sharp as a knife, burning cold with killing intent.
The beggar giggles soundlessly and draws up his knees to his chest.
S'aria looks back to Farielle, suprised at the anger in her eyes for a moment before realization sets in. Yet instead of dwelling on it, she presses on, her lips curving up into a smirk, continue to speak in Westron. "Doesn't he just look like he has a story to tell? Like..." She scrunches her mouth to one side, dark eyes brimming with thought. "Like maybe his father was a Gondorian nobleman, and his mother a beautiful traveling merchant from the Haradwaith. They met in chance at the border and it was love at first sight! And they begot a brilliant child as testament to the forbidden union." Her voice rises as she reaches the climate of her story, "But happiness was not to be! For the wicked witch set forth from the forest, and cursed their union for being impure... And father, mother and child were all struck with the curse of silence so that never would they be able to tell of their story, and forced to wander the world as beggars." Her eyes gleam with amusement as the girl finishes her tale, "I love stories. To tell the truth one of the reasons I wanted to befriend you early on is so you could tell me about Gondor. I used to get the urge to just want to run away and go travel to see all the world has to offer... still do sometimes."
Farielle's gaze is at last wrenched away from the beggar, whom she has been watching with a sort of fascination; to stare open-mouthed at S'aria. Though, since her scarf covers most of her face, her expression is invisible. "I can see that you do," she says a little faintly. "If you wanted to hear tales of Gondor, you never said so..."
Behind S'aria's back, Batsai is very, very quiet; almost as if he were holding his breath, restraining himself from moving. His bandaged hands are fists.
Oblivious to Batsai at the moment, S'aria has her back to the man, her hands folded atop the silky black locks atop her head. "I think I got distracted with... other things involving you," speaks the young Priestess before her eyes widen with interest. "I... would love to hear about it sometime, if you want to tell me. I guess I thought asking you directly would seem... invasive," she says with a shrug of her shoulders. She turns back to Batsai, glancing to him briefly, "Do you want to see some place else, Lady Farielle? We should not spend too much time outside due to the sun..."
The older girl stares at S'aria for a moment as if she cannot believe what she has just heard. Then she shakes her head a little, and says, "You were showing me where Farside tower is."
The beggar stares after them a moment, then retreats into the shadows, only the begging-bowl and his pitiful rag-bound feet visible.
A slight crimson blush colors S'aria's features as she lifts a hand to give Batsai a playful wave goodnight, "May the Eye watch over you, Batsai," she says as her other hand extends from her chest, palm extending upwards in a gesture of blessing. With a final smile for the departing beggar, she turns to head up the road towards Farside. "So... do you want to tell me about Gondor as we go? Or should I continue lecturing you on Umbar?", asks the Easterling girl with a bemused smirk.
"Neither," Farielle answers evenly. She hides her eyes for a moment, by fussing with her headcloth; Leena comes forward to arrange it neatly for her. "Which way is Farside? And..." She stops and looks around, then points. "We came that way, yes? From Seaward?"
A flicker of disappointment shines in S'aria's eyes but she does not protest. Her lips press together in thought for a moment as she nods, "Yes. As I understand it we are almost in the middle of the lower city. So to the north and east is desert tower, while to the north and west is Seaward. Farsede is south-east of Seaward if my memory serves correctly," remarks S'aria as she heads up the road, in an attempt to find the Farside tower.
"I see," is the Gondorian's reply as she walks in the indicated direction, paying careful attention to the roads and buildings. "Everything is in a circle. This is the lower city, you said... what is in the upper city?"
S'aria lingers besides Farielle as they approach the looming monolith of Farside tower, the dark-haired youth folding her hands behind her back. Her eyes flicker with surprise, "Oh? You have not been there yet? It is the best part of the city! All the most elegant and cultured buildings are there," says the Easterling with a hurried nod. "The upper-city has The Oasis, which is the best club in tower. The library, all the governmental buildings, and the finest shops and marketplaces!"
"No." Farielle looks up at the tower, the pale purple color gleaming in the sunlight. "I have not." Amestris' father works here; Nisrin lives here now and presumably Yildirim...
"It's off-limits to Gondorians," says Leena, with a faint hint of satisfaction in her voice. Farielle gives no sign of having heard her, but she turns away from the tower. "I am getting hot," she says, unemotionally. "And I think it is lunchtime." That she is not hungry, she doesn't mention; but picks the direction she believes to be correct to return to Seaward.
"No, no! Fari... its the other way!", calls S'aria with surpise as the Gondorian woman heads off in the wrong direction. The dainty Priestess quickly catches with with Farielle and reaches to grab her sleep to tug her in the right direction. She gives an annoyed glance in Lenne's direction but leaves it at that, frowning a little bit as she holds a hand up to the sun above. "I think the sun is starting to get to me anyway... they will never let me dance at the oasis if I get scorched," she says as she walks with the group back towards their home.
Silently, Farielle lets herself be turned; though she pauses a moment to look around, a slight frown drawing her eyebrows together as she memorizes which way is right. "It is getting hotter and hotter," she says impassively - an innocuous subject. "It must be dreadful in the summer."
"I hate to ponder it... I will have to dress up like you sooner and later. And then what good are my youthful good looks if I cannot show them off?", speaks the Priestess with equal parts amusement and apprehension at the thought of a summer in the dreadful city. "We used to go to mountain springs during the summer months back in Nurn, I guess they probably go frolick in the ocean spray to cool down here," suggest S'aria, a bead of sweat already forming at the edge of her dark brows