Zou visits the Drunken Rat Tavern

[Jaspenellar]

Lo'en watched Aura's shy smile to the bartender, wondering if she had used that same inocuous smile on the man being dragged to the street, to the infirmary. She felt no shame of the thought- the half-elf had witnessed one or two other incidents in her travels where a nubile, naive young female did not understand how easily a smile or wink, however innocent, could be mistaken for other feelings.

Grey eyes turning downward, away from the others, she shook her head to herself, muttering, "There goes that opportunity for work." She was sure the drunk had seen her approaching shortly before his demise, and if the bartender was correct in his assessment, she wouldn't want to stick around to face the consequences.

Noting Zou's offer, cut short by the bartender's somewhat ominous warning, Lo'en did not deign to give Aura her name. She wondered if it would be profitable to remain with these or continue her search for employment, now that the excitement had left. A part of her wanted to leave the city, but the more stubborn part, probably akin to her careless part, told her she would only face scorn from the feather head Justin if she "fled" after not even a full day in Marn. She remained in her spot while she thought on this, only one ear on the conversation around her.

[Ra'Nali]

How rude Caiomhe was being almost went unnoticed by Ra'Nali. He was very used to people being rude to him, and he figured that the sudden change from vaguely polite to vaguely rude was do to his manner of speaking. It's incredibly hard to be polite when leaving out as many words as one can get away with, and while he didn't mean to come off as it, almost everyone considered him a bit rude. However, she was still showing some interest in him, which was more than most anyone.

"Nothing they can do about blood in lungs." came the raspy whisper once more, with a light cough at the end. It was true, he could not take anything that would keep him from coughing, because that would make him drown on his own blood. It just seemed like the walls of his lungs were made to let blood in.

"Why the interest?" knowing how rough his voice was, it sounded as if he was offended by it. He wasn't, and would have shrugged to show just simple curiosity, but it was not like she would see it. So instead he added with some pain. "Sorry, can't talk well." Hopefully that would be sufficient to ease the harshness of how the question came out.

He gave a nod to the new person who came to the table, one person to speak to was enough for him though, if asked he'd give a name, but right now he was focused on the first civil conversation he had with anyone since childhood.

[Zou]

As Aura introduced herself, Zou's brain chemistry underwent a change most anomalous, a change he had never felt before. It put him ill-at-ease, made him feel weak and somehow naked. Though not a trace of these sensations troubled the composition of his benign countenance, a slight trembling of his hand as he gave the woman a subtle bow suggested that it was more than their recent altercation that set his mind askew.

As a result of this remarkable shift in the bowels of his heart and mind, he paid little heed to the worried overtures of the tavern staff, undoubtedly seeming as disinterested in their concern as the debonair Aura Thesin.

"And I am charmed, Aura. My name is Zou, I work as a mentor here in Marn. You are new here, am I correct?"

Again, Zou observed all the pleasantries with a natural ease and an air of class, pulling out a chair for Aura and making sure that she was comfortable before retaking his own seat. "Hello again, friends. I would like you all to meet Aura, whose brutal arts, as you have undoubtedly observed, belie her gentle air, and humble her would-be rescuer to be more epicene in his future speculations." These words were accompanied by a slight reddening of his bronzed, rough cheeks, and a demure lowering of his wild mane in deference to her virtue.

[Caiomhe Feryn]

Caiomhe didn’t know what was so special about the new woman. True, she’d heard the gasps of pain and felt the air stirred by the fight brush against her sensitive skin, but she hadn’t seen any of it, of course. She thought to try a smile at Aura and then decided against it, due to the fact that she didn’t know where exactly the girl was. She settled for a swift nod, and then turned her attention back to Ra’Nali.

“Blood en thae lungs? And yer healers here can do nae aboot it? This really es a backwards town, then. Any healer frum my lands could do sumthin’ aboot blood en the lungs.” Caiomhe sat back with a slight huff, folding her arms and pretending like she could see the flickering fire.

How could the healers not help this man, Cai wondered. It wasn’t that she felt any affection for him or pity for his condition, but a sort of morbid curiosity drove her to carry on with the stilted conversation. She brushed a slight wisp of hair out of her eyes and leaned forward a bit, not truly looking at Ra’Nali.

She didn’t really know very much about this city, Cai mused as she waited for an answer. She’d supposed that it was like most other cities, at least in terms of rules and regulations, but that was proving to be an uninformed supposition. The laws regarding everything that she thought about were different here, and she didn’t really know if that was something great or not. It didn’t seem like it was wonderful, especially since Ra’Nali was sick and obviously not getting better, though it seemed like a bit of something illegal here (magic) would clear it right up.

Cai drew in a breath and let it out slowly, something less than a sigh. She leaned her head into her hand and then used her free hand to pick up her wine gently, cradling the stem of the glass in her pale fingers. She sipped at the dark red liquid, holding it on her tongue and then swallowing the mouthful delicately, enjoying the rich taste.

One thing that she was strangely grateful for about losing her sight was gaining all these other senses. It wasn’t normal, at least for a human, what she could pick up through her ears and her skin, the richness of a simple glass of wine, and the heady, slightly acrid scent of it lingering on the air.

Pulling her too-easily-distracted mind out of its musings, she looked up slightly at Ra’Nali. “But somehae, I donnae think that yer healers in this town…” she trailed off, not entirely sure how to word what she was thinking at still at least keep up a façade of pleasantness and politeness. “Yer healers ere very different frum what’n I knoow.” There. A polite way to say that from what she’d seen, the healers that were ‘official’ were useless.

[Jaspenellar]

Lo'en remained standing, not taking a seat with the others quite yet. She took off her cap, scratching her head as she wondered at the last time she took a real bath. The half-elf didn't typically worry about personal cleanliness since she only had her own sensibility to offend, but abruptly, she was feeling very grimy from her days on the road. Glancing around the tavern, she frowned. For the most part, every patron was clean, as if having bathed in the last day at least. She'd seen this in the larger towns she had passed through- people who could afford occupations in which their hands weren't dirtied by farm work or hard labour generally lived a cleaner lifestyle. But even those towns didn't have the mass this single tavern had- and to think, there were several others along this street, just as full with clean people. The scale of population and closeness of other people began to tug at her consciousness. Not exactly feeling comfortable, Lo'en wondered how long she would stay in the city.

The half-elf replaced her cap with its absurdly long feather back on her head, hoping it would hold the slightly dirty, unkempt hair back from her face. She turned toward Zou, marking his continued politeness. Grey eyes flicked back toward the bar and then towards the door, wondering how long they were planning on staying. Perhaps they could have another show of martial prowess when the man's "friends" came looking for them. Not sure if she could trust her own, practically non-existent skills against multiple opponents, and definately not willing to risk her life for a misplaced faith in the naive girl's abilities, regardless of the earlier demonstration, Lo'en considered removing herself from the tavern. The gentlemanly Zou might have gotten his nose bitten off by a goat, for all she cared. Curiousity and lucky never went hand-in-hand more than once or twice in a day.

[Aura Thesin]

Despite Zou's thought that Aura was unconcerned, she was. It showed in her distractedness as she nodded politely to those at the table, including the blind woman whom Aura had yet to notice wouldn't be able to see her nod.

She smiled and nodded at Zou as he asked if she was new to the area, though she didn't volunteer any further information. She was silently berating herself, her brow slightly furrowed as she thought back over what had happened, and how she could have avoided the situation.

She absently sat in the chair pulled out by Zou, and only when Zou was resettled in his own seat did she pull herself out of her reverie and look to her new companions. Her mind had barely followed the twisting words Zou had uttered moments before, and her own tan cheeks darkened with a hint of a blush at the mention of her prowess.

"Glad to meet you," she said, a small smile on her face. "I can only join you for a short time, as the bartender has given me some advice regarding the fellow with whom I had the altercation, and the possibility of his bringing friends back to sort me out. I do thank you both," she looked first to Lo'en, then to Zou, avoiding looking at the odd bit where his nose ... was?, "and I would certainly like to stay longer. However, I believe I have tainted my arrival to this area irreversibly."

Aura smiled at each in turn, pausing on Caiohme a moment. There was something odd about the way she was looking around...

The tavern door opened, and Aura turned back to look, her eyes wide for a moment. She let out a light sigh as she saw that it was only a drunken couple stumbling through the doorway, laughing at something only the pair knew about.

She turned her head back to her new companions and offered them an embarrassed smile. "You'll have to forgive me if I seem a bit jumpy."

[Ra'Nali]

A tiny. crooked smile spread across his pale lips, she was extremly less that impressed by Marn's healer's not being able to aliviate his ailment. He could not help but wonder if she would feel awkward if he told her he was a healer, but he figured on the other hand she would not feel anything about it at all, considering she aired a bit on the rude side.

"No, our healer's can't." taking a shallow breath, "I'm government sanctioned..." he paused cough, holding out his finger on his right hand to indicate wait a moment. Quickly relizing how futile of a gesture this was if infact the woman was blind like he thought, he slowly restracted it.

"Magic healer, can stop bleeding as long as touching lungs, not after" his mind grumbled about how he hated talking so broken, but it was hard to get even that many words out. Every word sent a sharp pain from his vocal chords and up his throat, and the longer he talked, the worse it got, he had already reached his comfterable speaking quota for today.

"Your healer, can you..." His voice cracked cauing him to cough heavly. "Can't talk" he choked out painfully. He hoped he got his point across about wanting any help she could give. This lead him to wonder on payment, the most obvious was her eyes. Surely if her blindness was caused by injury it was long ago, so it would take quite a long time to for her vision to be back to being comparable to her old vision, maybe over 6 months, and that was assuming her blindness was injury caused. If not...well he made quite a decent salary, and had little needs, he could probably buy whatever help she could after if it worked, that is.

[Zou]

Zou was being most careful around Aura now, and hung on her every word and movement.

"You'll have to forgive me if I seem a bit jumpy."

He must have seemed almost (though not quite) anxious to reassure her otherwise. "Not at all, madam. I, for one, have marked a distinct surge in the evening's tempo, and therefore would not deign to judge the rhythms of another. Especially not one so fierce and controlled as yourself."

What was it about her? He felt as though he was losing his connection with his horns, those two nexuses of his soul that allowed him to kiss the rain, those two fervoured nuclei that married him to that ephemeral, gentle spirit of bliss, and allowed him to walk with her, and even guide her. "Do not leave me, Saj" he muttered inaudibly. Or perhaps it was not so inaudibly. He had been drinking much more than was his wont, and his senses were alight with the transformative.

Zou suddenly stood up, for the second time in a handful of minutes, and excused himself hastily. He swayed and wobbled as he all but dashed for the door. As he burst outside, he was appalled to find the skies clear and cold, with not a trace of moisture. He fell to his knees, finding himself in the kind of stupor one finds oneself in when a serious event occurs, and one no longer wishes to be drunk. What was happening to him?

[Caiomhe Feryn]

Govenment sanctioned? What the hell was a government sanction? Cai got the sneaking suspision that she wouldn't really care even if she did find out what it was, and so she dismissed the thought to the back of her mind for now. She raised an eyebrow at the man, or at least in his general direction, though she probably appeared to be eyeing somewhere about six inches left of his nose.

She sighed a touch as she answered his coughs and his questions, refraining (barely) from making some very rude comments. Cai typically felt perfectly entitled to make fun of someone elses' problems, her own lack of sight being usually far worse, but he sounded pretty bad, so she stifled her first response and instead said, in as polite of a tone as she could get, "Yer a healer? Et donnae be a'seemin' tae me..." she shut up, going down a rude trail and wanting to stop.

It didn't do to insult people that you could possibly get things from. Cai'd learned that long ago, in the first few times that she'd met with healers in search of a cure for her sight, or lack thereof. Insulting people never got her far--flattery did a lot better, but she didn't want to take that approach this time.

He was coughing up his lungs, which was painful. Cai could at least stop the coughing and pretend to effect a cure while he possibly did something for her eyes... she could stop the coughing with a few teas and brews that she'd been taught, and then she could come up with something to actually cure him. She'd only consider the second for now, at least until he showed results with his healing.

And that was provided that he actually thought that she could help. She hadn't actually told anyone that she was blind--though it wasn't really all that hard to pick up on. Staring randomly at points on the wall for untold minutes tended to show quite easily that she was lacking in the sight department.

She decided to say it flat out. "Look... I em blind, iff'n ye nae could tell. I be a'wantin' me seein' back more than enythin'. Ye say yer a healer yersel', though ye must admit that es hard fer me tae be a'believin' that. I donnae know how ye could help mesel', nae other healer has been able tae." Cai fell silent then, not offering up any form of payment for his possible healing of her eyes.

[Jaspenellar]

Moving her gaze between the blind woman and the coughing man, Lo'en found herself growing slightly bored with the communication between the two, having nothing to offer in ways of help, were she so inclined to offer, which she wasn't. Her indecision to leave was quickly losing its wavering fickleness when Zou promptly bolted from the tavern, leaving in his wake that faint, indefinite goat-like scent that only one who had been raised with them could recognize. Confused, and curiosity piqued again, the half-elf smoothly scooped up her travel bag, bow, and gave the seated company a tip of her hat in one motion.

"Well, ladies, gent, 'm hopin ya 'njoy th'rest o'the evenin'," she grinned amiably as she ambled out of the tavern, not quite on the heels of Zou, but close enough so to make it obvious she was trailing him.

The evening air felt clustered, close with the various buildings and their inhabitants but it was more breathable than in the crowded tavern. Lo'en stopped in front of the door as it closed behind her, looking about for Zou, not truly expecting to see him with the haste in which he had departed. So, imaginably, she was surprised to see him not far at all, on his knees to one side. Curious but not sure how to intrude, she started whistling a tuneless song to herself, rocking back and forth on her feet.

[Aura Thesin]

Aura listened and smiled politely as Zou spoke, following the nuances of his speech with little difficulty. She guessed that a mentor might tend to the wordy, using words unnecessary to getting his point across. However, she leaned that way too, as she had been taught much by the monks in her short stay at the monastery.

A twinge of homesickness hit her, at the same time Zou suddenly raced towards the exit. A frown replaced her slightly sad smile as a second patron practically raced from the tavern within the last half hour. Maybe there was something wrong with the soup.

As Lo'en followed Zou out, Aura also decided she had better go as well. In the least, she owed it to the man who had helped save her from unimaginable things, and she did still need to follow the bartender's advice.

With a quick nod and a brief "Nice to meet you all. I'm going to see to Zou as well", Aura threaded her way through the mingling crowd and out the door into the clear night air. There she found Lo'en just outside the door, whistling something or other, and just past her was Zou, on his knees.

Aura rushed over to him, brushing past Lo'en, placing a hand briefly on the other woman's shoulder, if allowed, to let her know she was there.

"Let me see if there's anything I can do for him."

Aura suspected it might just be drunkenness that caused Zou to need the fresh outside air, but she ran through possible herb combinations in her head just in case.

She settled gracefully to her knees next to Zou, heedless of the dirty paving stones, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

[Ra'Nali]

No clear answer to his question, instead, she had just turned his question back at him. He smiled though, she was trying not to be rude, cutting herself off like she did, which meant she was seriously interested. Now was the hard part, now he had to talk again. But what to say? If she had sight, he could simply pull out his knife, cut himself, heal it, and thus settle any doubts she had about his healing abilities, doing this without showing her would be difficult.

Ra'Nali coughed a little, before managing, nothing more than a whisper, "I heal through touch. Touching lungs is hard, and they go back to bleeding, made that way." Pausing for a moment, stifling a cough, wishing he had some water. "Your eyes made to see, injured yes? Over time can heal, through touch, just don't expect...big increases.." Now his cough could not be kept back, leaning to the side and arcing over, he hacked into his hand, some blood speckling it. Leaning back up, a tiny bit of blood running down his face, though he didn't care, not with her not seeing.

"In month. Decent sight in 5-ish, maybe longer, maybe shorter" He finally finished. Best he could do to sell his offer under the circumstances. There was still this issue with proving he could heal, would she allow him to cut her? Maybe she would cut herself? Maybe she could tell if he just put his energy into her eyes, there was a distinctively unpleasant feeling involved with his healing, but he doubted the first few sessions would do much of anything except excite the area, but maybe something would become sharper, or she would notice something new.

"Small injuries...can heal quick, if proof needed." He sighed mentally, his speech was so bad right now, it hurt to much to talk, and it was getting worst, he needed a few hours of silence to rest his vocal chords. Folding his arms Ra'Nali gazed at the blind woman with the potential to fix him, a bit hopeful, a bit wary, chances are, he told himself, my solution to her problem is too long term for her to take it.

[Zou]

His thinking had been much too frenzied to mark the presence of Lo'en behind him, but when Aura suddenly touched his shoulder, an emptiness struck him that he could not ignore had he been clothed in paradise itself. He closed his eyes, stooping even lower, legs askew beneath his crumpled frame. "Please, madam..." He gently pushed away Aura's hand, and instantly felt better. "You... you affect me in a way that I can scarce describe. It empties my soul, and shrivels my heart. You drive me from my senses with despair. I fear there is something in your chemistry that actively attacks me somehow. It grieves me to say it, for there is nothing about you that I dislike. Quite the opposite, in fact, I find you charming and pleasant to be around. I have no explanation for it. I am sorry."

Zou stood up and took a few steps away from her, noticing Lo'en for the first time. He nodded cordially. "Perhaps I have in my home some lore that could explain this phenomenon. Having distanced myself from it, I must look at the matter scientifically. And of course, I could use your help."

Zou gathered himself up, standing straight and effecting once more his usual gentlemanly bearing. "To that effect, would you care for an evening meal? You, too, are invited, Lo'en."

Having successfully calmed his mind, the markhor shifter seemed once more swathed in suavity and civility. His smile was genuine and relaxed, and his heart was calm.

[Caiomhe Feryn]

If Cai was able to blink and feel like she actually did something, she would have blinked. Several times. But, as she wasn't able to blink and tell that she'd done anything of the sort, she settled for a flat look. It wasn't actually that much different than her normal expression of blasé indifference, so she 'looked' instead into the candle fire on the table, seemingly ignoring Ra'Nali.

She eventually spoke after noting that the others had retreated outside for some reason. Realizing that she hadn't been paying much attention to them, she knew that she should feel bad, as good manners (and her mother) had taught her. She sighed a bit, an 'oh well' gesture that rippled her shoulders under her greenish-grey robe, dislodging the fabric that she had brushed back on the sleeves. She shoved it above her elbows again, slightly irritated.

She ran a finger over her pale skin, brushing the nail of her ringfinger down the length of her forearm. All she'd really caught of the coughing man's little monologue was that there was something about cutting people. Cai didn't think so. Especially since she had no idea what he was really talking about. Fragmented sentances wreaked havoc with her poor language skills, and when he was talking about something that she didn't really understand anyway... Maybe what was wrong with his lungs was covering up madness of the mind. That sounded about right.

She sighed again and shook her head slightly at Ra'Nali. "Look, ser... I donnae really know what'n ye just said. As ye can likely tell, and iff'n ye cannae ye ere more blind than meself, me grasp o' this language esnae good. Iff'n ye use little words, an' form simple sentances... et'd be very kind o ye."

She sat back in her seat and gave him what she vaugely remembered as the correct facial expression for being, as they called it in this language, 'frank.' She didn't really know who Frank was or what his problem was with his face, but it worked. "Dumb et down. All'n I had a'gottn from that was that ye ere wishful o' cuttin' someone o'er five months, ere one, I donnae know. Proof? What es the proof ye be a'speakin o'?"

[Jaspenellar]

Lo'en stiffened as Aura put her hand on her shoulder. Having travelled mostly alone for the last five years, human contact was abnormal and unfamiliar, and being ill at ease in this fighter's presence did not help. Her long pointed ears moved slightly downward, visibly, not unlike a horse or dog flicking their ears back with annoyance. Fortunately the hand did not linger there as the girl moved on toward Zou. The half-elf remained slightly apart from the two, wondering to herself if every person in the city insisted on invading personal space. Perhaps she had just been apart from society for too long, she mused to herself, her grey eyes watching the tall, lanky man's reaction to the girl. A peculiar image struck her mind's eye as she observed the noseless one's state- young kids, or even old senile goats, often froze in the face of realizing they had wandered too far from the others, legs splayed out awkwardly as the animal realized they were lost and became paralyzed with fear. Something in the way Zou cringed at Aura's presence seemed uncannily familiar to the former goatherd, surprising and confounding her.

His words only confirmed what she visually guessed-

It empties my soul, and shrivels my heart. You drive me from my senses with despair.

The half-elf listened to the blunt, cutting words and then as he followed in his more gentlemanly manner. As he reattained his composure and invited her to his home, Lo'en pondered the wisdom of wandering into the night to some man's house. Well, for all his bizarre appearance, he seemed honest and forthright, something about his manners seemed to go beyond the aim to charm women into his bed. Either he was very good at hiding his seediness, or he really was a harmless old man. The mention of a meal perked her ears, and Lo'en, having scarcely enough for a room at an inn, let alone a meal, decided to take him up on the offer. Besides, there was the whole curiosity to sate, why this noseless scholar seemed to harken her thoughts back to her goatherding days.

Realizing she'd been standing there rather mute besides her whistling, which had been cut short with Aura's arrival, Lo'en nodded briefly. "Well, I will not turn down such a gracious invitation to one... such as yourself." She had paused, deciding to keep her tongue in check for once, figuring she could ask her questions in the privacy of his home, perhaps at the risk of being kicked out. On that thought, she made a mental note to ask her questions after the meal had filled her belly, a rare occassion of the half-elf thinking through her words before speaking them.