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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sialia" data-source="post: 804353" data-attributes="member: 1025">"Tea, where are you? I never gave you your gift." "Same as Anice's?" she asked. "Nope, something else." "Here," she said reaching down a hand, losing her footing and landing on top of Dylrath and Anice. He sighed, "If Nolin ever hears about this, I'm never going to hear the end of it. Two oiled Aliannite priestesses in the temple in the dark trumps Arcade's dryad any day." Tea considered. The story about how High Mage Deltarion had preserved his virtue against a dryad in her glade in the spring was legendary. Dylrath's virute was not at issue, however, and she wondered what he was really up to.Anice disentangled herself and bent over to pull off her slippers and hose. Tea felt Dylrath's hand steal ever so gently over her mouth. One finger touched her lips, and then he wrapped his other arm around her waist and rolled to the left, pulling her with him. They hit a small bump as they rolled.He let her go.She stood up blinking in the sudden light.She was in Dylrath's room. More precisely, she was in Htarlyd's room. The scrying mirror that Dylrath used for his transportation was anchored in a dimesional pocket at the intersection of several planes. The mages who had built the room had constructed it of solid stone, but Dylrath's alterations had included parquet flooring, bookcases, and, at her suggestion, some potted plants. Light from the portals to the Elemental Planes of Fire, Magma and Smoke illuminated the room perpetually. She looked back through the doorway they had come through from the Temple of Alianna, and saw her own reflection, with Dylrath's behind her. "Howdy!" the reflected Dylrath said cheerfully. "Good evening, Hytarlyd," she replied. "You flatter me.""I shows 'em as I sees 'em," said the mirror. Having spent the last several hours in front of the dance practice room mirrors, Tea had a pretty good idea that her reflection, while technically accurate, was ever so slightly generous. . . well perhaps it was a trick of the diffuse lighting. Alianna's mirrors were never so forgiving."Anice is going to love the necklace," she said. "Very pretty.""I sure hope so," said Dylrath."Apart from the roach in the clasp on the back of her neck.""Not a roach.  Beetle. In Kanach Hur, those beetles are good luck.""In Anice's bedroom, bugs are very bad luck.  For the bug. Probably also for you.""Er. She's not likely to notice it for a while, right? It being on the back and all?""If she weren't heading to the baths. Which we were.""Ah, I see what you mean. No point in hurrying back then, is there? Probably too late already.""Was there something you wanted my attention for, Master Birdhouse?""Oh, that. Yes. Definitely. There's something I wanted to show you. Htarlyd, Madjar?"The mirror gave Dylrath a grin and a thumbs up gesture, and the image of Dylrath and Tea vanished, to be replaced by an image of an old man surf-fishing in turquoise waters. Oddly, the beach was in full daylight."Come on," Dylrath said, pulling her through the picture and onto a high dune above a white sand beach. He waved at the man in the surf, who waved back, and then ignored them.Tea blinked at the sudden brightness. The room had been bright after the pitch black corridor, but the warm beach was dazzling. How did Dylrath know where there was a beach with the light of noon in the middle of the night?"Now," Dylrath said to Tea,"What was the hardest thing about learning to Outgrabe?""The ground," she replied."Right," he said. "Hitting the ground definitely sucks. So I'm wondering, for the new rider, is water a better thing to land on, or sand? What's your bet?"She considered. The sand might sting as you hit it, but you weren't likely to drown in it if you knocked yourself silly. "You're thinking sand, I think, which is why you wanted the eyecovering thing to keep the sand out of your eyes, isn't it?""First try! I've tried both actually, about every kind of uncontrolled wipeout I can think of, and I'm pretty sure hitting the sand is less of a shock, as long as you're wearing something to absorb the abrasion. It's warmer anyway, and easier to brush off so you can get up and try again in a hurry.""As I recall, you taught me on a grassy slope. 'Lovely soft grass' you said. 'Spongy turf with hardly any rocks in it.'""And you still haven't forgiven me for it, right? So I've got a new trainee and I want to get it right this time. So I want your opinion.""That you could have had back at the temple.""But you haven't tried a surf wipeout yet. Or sand for that matter. I want your real, honest opinion. In an aesthetic sense. Which is more pleasant?"Tea blinked at him slowly."Least unpleasant, then.""You had better have brought me more than a good luck beetle for this.""Naturally," he said, tossing her a small box, and then a knapsack. "The stuff in the bag is on loan. The box is for you to keep."She opened the bag. Inside was a black leather helmet with silver wings on the sides and a black silk facemask for keeping the sand out of her nose and eyes. There were matching elbow, wrist and knee protectors, with black silk padding and silver bosses. There was a pair of black leather gloves. And, there was a pair of thigh high, clog-soled, black leather boots with silver bosses down the side.She opened the box and looked in, and then shut it again."I see. All right, I'll give it a try. But no promises about the wipeouts, whether I'm going to have them or where. Just getting back up on that thing today --tonight--that's as far as I go. You've been away entirely too long, and I'm out of practice. And no--" she said interrupting Dylrath before he could open his mouth, "Don't waste your breath explaining that that make's me the perfect candidate for the job. I've got the picture already."Dylrath reached behind him into apparently empty space and half disappeared into the mirror room door. A moment later the Outgrabe slid towards Tea's knees.The wooden disk bumped into her gently and hung silently in the air a foot above the sand."You've redecorated," Tea said, noting the addition of some gems to the inlay and the footstrap mounts. "Subtle, but effective." She looked up. "Who is this woman you're after, Dylrath?  You really seem to be going to some lengths to impress her. You're not trying to make it up with Tao Camber are you?""No, no.  Nothing like that. I . . ." Dylrath took off his helmet and scratched his hair. "I'm not quite sure who I'm doing it for really. . . I had this idea and it seemed to make sense at the time, but I . . . I keep losing track of it. Something is driving me Tea, and I can't quite see my way through yet, except one detail at a time. I keep thinking, if I spend some time taking care of the details, and Alianna doesn't stop me, and Calphas doesn't stop me and  . . . well, I'm giving a bunch of them plenty of notice about what I'm up to. So if it's doomed to fail, they may as well thwart me now, before I really get going. Or bless the effort if they think I should go through with it. Because once I'm in, I don't think there's any way back. And so far, so far, nada in the way of spanking. Just things falling into place, one after the other. So I guess it's a go. Or it doesn't make any difference because it isn't going to go anywhere at all. Anyway, you ready to give it a try?""Give me your -- what do you call that thing? Gambeson," she said. "And I'll need a pair of braies, dyathink?" After a moment of rummaging around in the mirror room, Dylrath popped back out and obliged. "They're Tao's old spares, but I think they should about fit."The gambeson looked good on her. What didn't? The hem was long enough to cover her bottom, mostly. The fringe hung a few inches longer than the hem, and despite what she had said about it, Dylrath thought the effect was pretty fine. Tea unwrapped her dance skirts and pulled the braes and then the boots on over her hose. She tied on the knee protectors. She pulled on the black leather gloves and wrapped the wristguards on. She put on the helmet and tied the facemask. The ends of the black silk ties fluttered down behind her black braids. She cracked her knuckles in a most unladylike way. "Lady, I'm sore after that rehearsal," she said. "And about to be moreso," Dylrath quipped. "You've got healing prayers on board, right?""Always," Tea said. And she stepped on to the Outgrabe with a practiced step, and pushed off down the slope.</blockquote>

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