Notes on the Aether (Rae judging)

[Trouvere]

OOC: even the weather obeys Keldar's wish!

 

[Solange]

[sblock=Keldar]Rapture pulls Keldar under a tree for shelter from the oncoming rain, "If only I had been so lucky. As a little girl I remember being kept in a room while strangers came in and..." she shudders.

"When I was older, I was chosen to cater to a more sophisticated crowd as a courtisan. It was painfully taught to me the manner in which I was expected to act. Master watched me almost always. I am glad he did not choose me for his own, as those he did I never saw again. I know I was worth a lot to him, and I don't think many of the true noblewomen liked me, but they politely tolerated me."

"One older man began to buy my services regularly, and claimed to love me. He managed to buy me from Master. I changed my name as he suggested, for the name master gave me wasn't fitting of a noble woman. He tried to woo me to marry him. It was not my place as a slave, and I did not love him, but to him that did not matter. He was in his waining years, and he promised me my freedom once he died, as all he wanted was happiness, and that was what he said I gave him. I finally relented and he drew up the papers."

"I was nervous, but the wedding was lovely, and Lord Troy was a gentleman though out it all. On that day I became Lady Helen Menelaus, wife of Lord Troy Menelaus." She takes a signet ring out of her pocket and dons it, looking at it for a moment before she takes it back off. "But it wouldn't last long, as I went to join him for our wedding night, I found him lying in bed in a pool of blood, his own dagger in his chest, that I had grabbed as I slipped to run to him. Then I heard one of Master's enforcers say something about being His again. I'd been set up, and would be sold back into slavery for the crime, so I ran."

Rapture appears visibly shaken, but not nearly so much as last night. "I've never told anyone that story before. I've never known who I could trust. The Freefolk took me in and never asked, so I never told, and I've been Rapture again ever since."

"I know little of Master, other than he is one of the bigger underground slave lords in Rheim. I never knew his to be anything other than Master, nor do I hope to ever know him again."

"Lord Troy was a sweet man, and I did care for him, for he was so nice to be, but I never loved him like he truly deserved. I hope Zephos has lead him back to his first wife, for what he had told me of her she did love him, and he loved her. You remind me of him a little, though a little sillier."

Rapture sighs, as if a big weight has been lifted from her. "It feels good to talk about such things somehow, thank you Keldar."[/sblock]

 

[Trouvere]

[sblock=Rapture]Keldar listens in silence, his jaw clenched tight. As the rain falls ever harder, he steps from the shelter of the tree and looks up into the sky. In a short moment, his face is wet, and it is no longer possible to tell that there are tears among the raindrops. He shivers and comes back to Rapture's side. As her story ends, he unclasps his cloak and draws her inside it. His arms are trembling. He rests his cheek against hers, so that his mouth is close to her ear.

"I swear I shall say not one word to anyone," he murmurs. "I think you must be the bravest, strongest person I will ever know. I saw your ring last night, lying atop your pack, tied up for safe-keeping. You carry it with you everywhere? Perhaps you loved your husband more than you realise. Rapture - or.... In your heart, are you Rapture or Helen? If you ask it of me, I will go to Rheim, I will find this Master, and I will kill him. I will kill him."[/sblock]

 

[Solange]

[sblock=Keldar]Rapture smiles, "He offered me my freedom, and treated me better than anyone had ever done before, so I carry the ring as a reminder of that. As for Master... perhaps when I am stronger, I will face him again. But not now, nor would I have you risk yourself for me. But someday, I will free his slaves."

"Rapture is the name I have known all my life, and despite the horror I went though, it is me. I was ready to become Helen. In fact, it wasn't far off from a dream come true to become Helen, but poor Lord Troy..."

Rapture wipes away a tear and laughs at herself "Strong huh? Look at me, just a basket case. Not a widowed lady of the court."[/sblock]

 

[Trouvere]

[sblock=Rapture]Keldar suddenly steps away. "Oh, gods, the things I have said and sung! Now I understand the flash of your anger as we walked back to Orussus. And last night, when I declared you would marry me! I am ashamed. So often I must have unknowingly mocked you."

Deliberately he looks into her eyes. "There is one more thing," he says. "Rapture, did you in truth say 'if this is what you wish of me, m'lord'? When I followed you to your room, if I had been a different man, and had answered 'yes, this is what I wish of you, and this, and this,' would you have become mine? Because if you would acquiesce to my commands, then I would give a last one now: do not ever follow an order of mine! I do not want the temptation. I am a man, and you are very beautiful, and I cannot help but desire you, but I do not want you to play the courtesan with me. Rather, I would be the lowly singer who yearns for his noble lady, until she grants him mercy of her free will, or if she does not, until he dies. But I do not think I shall sing again, for a while."[/sblock]

 

[Solange]

[sblock=Keldar]"You knew not what you did, tis not your fault," she says. "As for obaying your wish... I have not been with anyone since I ran away, and... I really don't know. My soul yearns for freedom, yet I still don't feel free. Not yet. My old ways still bind me at times, be they those of a servant, or those of a courtly lady."

"Sing your songs, for to not would not be you. I have no wish to take away your freedom. However, I do appreciate your new found discretion."

Rapture smiles and holds Keldar's hand, "As for your favor, I'm not sure I am quite ready to give myself to someone. I desire to love, pure and true, and that may come hard for me, if at all. But I can promise that I won't spurn you needlessly. You're a kind man Keldar, and you deserve all the love Valessa may bless you with, and I can't promise you that it will be me."

Rapture gives Keldar a soft kiss, and then snuggles into his shoulder. "I've opened up to you more than I ever thought I might. I'm glad I met you. Perhaps you could tell me more about how the mysterious Keldar came to be where he is right now?"[/sblock]

OOC: Don't hold back on our part, we're having fun RPing, but we can retcon some of that while we continue (At least, I don't want to feel like we're keeping the other 3 waiting while we do our little RP spiel)

 

[Trouvere]

[sblock=Rapture]"Dear Rapture," says Keldar, "if you will take my hand and nestle close to me at times, and now and then kiss me without the need for tears first, that will be enough to content me." He puts an arm about her waist. "Still, I curse your mail shirt!"

"I will sing when the mood takes me, or when it will annoy Galwynn the most, and if my songs are complaints that a lady will not reward me, then you will know that you are the inspiration, but not the cause of the sorrow in the song, for I will not press you further. Or at least, I will try not to. You must frown at me and glare when I overstep my place."

"The weather is getting worse. You can see lightning in the sky far off towards Orussus, and here we are sheltering beneath a tree. Another reason for you not to wear your armour! I wonder whether Cassandra is excited. Come with me - I want to see if there is a smith or a tool or weapon maker who can sell me some sharp pieces of metal to throw. You don't mind the rain?"

Keldar lifts the hood of his cloak. "I am not so mysterious. Every word I say is true! No, really. Well... perhaps most of the words I say. While we walk, I will tell you how I was lost."

"Keldar Warbray is my real name. I have no other. I am 21 or perhaps 22 years old. I have lost count. I don't remember much of my childhood, just fragments. I had parents, and a brother and two sisters, and a grandmother, though her teeth were completely ordinary. I think my father was a lord. I am not sure. Later on, I told myself he was the king of Warbrayvia, but no one I have asked has ever heard of such a place. I remember a great house, and people who bowed to him and doffed their hats, and endless fields.

"When I was ten, my father said that we would go on a long journey. That was the first I heard of Orussus. We had an enclosed carriage, large enough to sleep in. We travelled for many, many days. Weeks. When we could, we slept in inns, otherwise in the carriage. We came to a wild lonely place where there were no people. It was near the great sea. I know now that it was between Gotian and Ravensdale. Yet I could swear that as we set out on our journey, in the evenings the sun was in our eyes, so that we came from the east. It makes no sense to me that we would have been there. Perhaps we visited another city first that I do not remember.

"That day, a fog rolled in from the sea. You couldn't see six feet in front of your face. At some point, we lost the road. It was near evening, and we found a place to camp to wait for better weather. My brother and I, we argued and fought. I don't remember what about, some foolish childish squabble that wouldn't have mattered in an hour. But my father shouted at us, and I ran away, into the fog. I found myself among trees. I hid, and sulked. I could hear them calling my name, but the sound was distant and dull, and I could not tell from which direction it came. I panicked. The fog was everywhere. I ran, I ran for miles, and suddenly, there was no ground beneath my feet. I fell. A long way, but I landed luckily, on a pile of sandy stones, and though I passed out, I was not seriously hurt. I had run the wrong direction, towards the sea, and had fallen from a cliff.

"When I opened my eyes, it was still dark, and I was bitterly cold. I stumbled blindly from that place further along the shore and lay in the shelter of a dune. In the morning, my head felt better. I could hear voices, speaking a strange tongue. I crept closer to see. Beneath me was a narrow bay, enclosed on one side by the cliff from which I had fallen. There were rocks in the water, and on these, and on the beach, there were a dozen people, with tails. I mean, instead of legs, the tails of fish, and they moved on land as a seal does. Others swam in the sea, glinting in the light. Their belongings were scattered over the shore.

"I could not help it. I stood up and called to them. They gave cries of alarm, and most dove into the water and were gone. But several lifted white crossbows and took aim at me. Again I ran. Two bolts stuck in the sand near me, but I was not hit.

"I found my way inland, and came to the campsite. My family were gone. The ashes of our fire were completely cold. The tracks of the carriage were dry and cracked. I understood then that I had lain at the foot of the cliff for a long time, several days, and that my family had given me up for lost. Perhaps I should have run after them, but I was a ten year old boy, alone, with no food, no water, and it was uncertain that I could outpace the carriage, or even that I would meet other travellers. I lacked the courage. So I did what any small child would do. I went back to find the only other people I knew of.

"For a week, I watched them from hiding, and they did not know I was there. At night, they all went into the sea to sleep beneath the water. They could breathe it like fish. Then I would creep down to the beach and look for their leavings. I ate fish heads and spiny things and scrapings from shelled creatures and other things. I found a stream of fresh water. I was lucky that it was summer and if I stayed dry, I was warm enough, if I burrowed into the dry sand."

"I think before long, they realised I was there, scavenging like a rat from their midden. I must have left footprints, though I tried not to. But after their first fright, they no longer took me to be a danger. They found it amusing to pretend they did not know I was there, and they began to leave food out for me. I listened to their talk, and realised that at times, they would speak words of Common, and slowly I began to pick up their own language.

"In autumn, as the weather grew more cold, I walked down to the beach among them, and said in their tongue, 'I am your friend' and they laughed and took me in.

"Later, they told me that they had been driven from their deepwater home - they build beneath the waves, you know - by some unknown danger that frightened away the fish and threatened them, and they had moved to shallower waters nearer the shore. But they had clashed with human fishermen, and had swum eastwards hundreds of miles to this isolated bay. In a way, they were as dispossessed and desperate as I was.

"So began my years with the merfolk."

Keldar falls silent.[/sblock]OOC: yes, sorry, guys. But Keldar and Rapture did have some stuff to work through. Bless them.
OOC 2: Rae, could Keldar find javelins or darts in Grenton? If so, he'd like to buy 2 javelins or 4 darts, either/or.

 

[Solange]

[sblock]Rapture smiles as she walks, "A true fish story eh? I'm sorry for your family, but you at least knew them for some time, so you can hold their memories in your heart." She squeezes Keldar's hand in reassurance.

"So were you really a merfolk bandit at one point?"[/sblock]

 

[Trouvere]

[sblock=Rapture]"For a time. You have to remember, by then, half the life I could remember had been spent with them. I wonder now whether the merfolk stayed for my sake. They surely could have gone back to deep water. Each day, they had to swim further out to spear fish, and the seagulls grew wary and did not come within crossbow range. So we grew hungry. I had no skill as a huntsman on land or water, though I wandered through the woods and hills gathering plants. And so, one day when I had wandered inland to the road, and I came across travellers, well... the idea came to me, that I could help my merfolk family. But the song was true. I did not hurt anyone.

"As for my real family, I do not forget. But as far as I know, they are alive and well, and believe me to be dead. I do not know where to find them. For when I was sixteen, at last I left, and I walked the two hundred miles to Ravensdale, and the hundred miles to Allimon - and then I must have passed through Grenton, though I do not know it - and I came to Orussus. I asked wherever I went of the Warbrays, but their journey was six years past, and none remembered them.

"And later I tried to find them again, but that is a tale for another time. Rapture... Do you suppose your parents are alive? If you were born into slavery, perhaps your mother was also a slave. Have you thought ever of finding her?"[/sblock]

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

OOC 2: Rae, could Keldar find javelins or darts in Grenton? If so, he'd like to buy 2 javelins or 4 darts, either/or.

OOC: Yes.