Among the Graves

[Saruna]

Saruna stared at the grave. "He was. . .trampled. He was very familiar with the forest, you see, as he collected wood from there for his carvings. Yet somehow, one day, he did not come out. When a search party went in later they found him much deeper within the woods than he usually went. He had been trampled by something that had hooves. It was. . . a very unpleasant end. It was not what either of us had hoped for. I am still not convinced some animal merely decided to track over him. But. . .at least we had his body to bury."

She turned grim.

"We never had my father's body to bury. Not after Marn's officials took him away from us."

[Derin Edala]

"I'm sorry to hear that." What kind of idiot wandered off into a forest full of animals they couldn't handle anyway? Of course, she'd made similar mistakes... human capabilities were just so easy to overestimate. "Wait a minute, Marn's officials?" Even Derin's shaky grasp on communication couldn't miss the venom in her tone. "What did..." the question was half asked before it occurred to her that prying might be seen as rude. "Um, I... is he buried here, too?"

[Saruna]

There was a silence only a little awkward by Saruna's realization of what she had said. She tightened her shawl about her shoulders.

"No. The officials never returned him to us. We never had any idea what happened to him. I still do not."

[Derin Edala]

Oh, right. Derin reminded herself to pay more attention to the conversation at hand. "I see." So, she should be very very careful not to get caught then. This place seemed to be even more dangerous than she previously thought; if it was common for the officials to not reveal what they did to their victims' remains then it was practically impossible for her to put any contingency plans in place in case of capture.

For a moment, Derin considered simply walking away. There'd be other leads, was this worth the risk? But... her hostess had good reason to dislike the government, it would seem, so... maybe she was safe enough.

"You know, I... have my own interest in this graveyard. It was one of the things that drew me to the town, in fact. It's... it's good that your husband can rest in peace."

[Saruna]

Saruna wasn't paying a tremendous amount of attention to Derin, her mind having slipped away to events far in their past. She was brooding over them, though a crooked half smile deepened the wrinkles around her mouth. Had she been concentrating instead on Derin's words, she might have found them odd. As it was, she merely glanced at Derin out of politeness before her eyes settled back on her family plot, and the carelessly scattered flowers she'd tossed to her husband's head stone.

Almost dreamily, she asked: "You came here for the graveyard? Is that so?"

She did not reply to the words Derin had spoken about him resting in peace. She did not think his ending was terribly peaceful, considering he'd been trampled. But at least she had his body.

And standing there, having a half-hearted conversation with a young woman she didn't know the first thing about, she felt the first tremblings of a very fine rage begin to take root.

[Derin Edala]

"Well... I..." How much was safe to tell? Would her story be good enough? Derin forced herself to calm down. "I'm looking for something, you might say. Someone. But I need to find some help first." That Mako kid would have been perfect -- he had magic, Derin was sure of it. Well, perhaps she could convince him to join her another time. "But it is nothing of immediate importance." She gazed around at the markers of the dead surrounding her. "So many... this place is very old, isn't it?"

[Saruna]

Saruna gazed steadily at the headstone. "Very old." She said absentmindedly, lifting her eyes to squint over the rows of old grave markers, some with lettering that had faded with age. Not that she could see them.

"Perhaps it is not immediately important. . .but what is it you wish to find? Might I be able to help?" She turned her back on the graveyard, and looked to Derin instead.

[Derin Edala]

"Probably not. It... sort of concerns magic." Derin hesitated, searching her companion's face for an adverse reaction before continuing. "Or magical detection, really. See, I... I told you about my bracelet, right? A gift from my mother. It carries a mild protection charm. She gave it to me before she left, and now I'm... looking for her." Her eyes swept over the graveyard once more. "I don't have much to go by, but I believe that when I find her, close proximity should cause fluctuations in the magic of the bracelet. Unfortunately I can't sense magic at all, and even professionals say that there's not really that much in it to feel, so..."

[Saruna]

Saruna grew a little misty at the implication of parent-child bonding. It wasn't that she had a bad relationship with her children, it really wasn't, but time and distance had severed what had once been a joyful (if extremely frustrating at times) motherhood. And certainly she knew through years of neglect that they would not spend much time looking for her. So it did something funny to her heart to hear that this daughter was looking for a lost mother.

The rest of it about the magic part went a little above her head. Saruna knew fair little about magic, and its possibilities, but for the small exception that Marn was not for magic. And if Marn was not for magic, well, she had no lost love for Marn.

"That sounds charming, dear." Saruna scrounged up a beaming smile for Derin. "But, you see, it might be a little difficult for a. . .magical dilemma. But I'm sure we can figure something out, surely." Saruna took a step away from the graveyard, as if to signal she was ready to leave if Derin was.

[Derin Edala]

Struggling to resist the wide smile of relief that was attempting to take over her face, Derin bowed deeply (she wasn't sure if such mannerisms were normal in the area, but in Derin's experience a bow was almost never poorly recieved) and followed the woman out of the graveyard. An ally! She knew she'd been right about her! Maybe her people skills were improving... or maybe it was just blind luck. Derin thought that she was due some good luck.

"I understand that it might be difficult, but... this isn't something I can let go," she said. "Even if it's dangerous, or takes a lot of time. I... made a promise to myself, and... well, it's just something that I have to do.

"But of more immediate worry is a currency problem... if it will take a long time to find a magic-user with any safety, I'll need to sell these gems of mine. You said there's no real demand in Shim, but I'm... reluctant... to remove my heirloom to get into Marn. Do you know of a trader who might be enticed out of Marn, perhaps? Or one here, who might take my gems for resale in Marn?"

[Saruna]

Saruna accepted Derin's bow with an awkward bob of her head and an unsure smile. She directed the both of them to walking back into the belly of Shim with sure, slow steps that wouldn't take them anywhere fast just yet. She was thinking as she was walking, hands playing with the fringes of her shawl.

"Most of the city folk don't like to come into this little town. There's rumors, sometimes. . ." She most pointedly did not look towards the old manor that most learned, sooner or later, to pretend wasn't really there. It was, perhaps, the equivalent of the monster under the bed, and Saruna did not take many chances.

"But I do trade about from time to time, selling what crafts I may. It could be some of the merchants I deal with might know of someone to recommend. Let's see, Tigo would have the best knowledge of other merchants in the area but it's a little early for him. If you would like me to go now, I could always talk to Hanser. He's a grumpy old coot, but he's friendly enough in the morning if you bake him some goodies. What do you say?"

[Derin Edala]

Derin considered this. "That sounds like a good idea," she said. If even finding a cooperative magic-user was going to be difficult, she might have to stay in the village for quite a while. One way or another, she'd need money. And probably a job, which might be hard to find in a small town... embroidery and the ability to speak and write a few outlandish languages probably weren't going to be in much demand.

The part of her mind that was always goal-oriented had become hooked on something else that the woman had said, though. "Rumours? What sort of rumours?"

[Saruna]

Saruna directed them to walking back out of the graveyard, though she intended to take her time. She was more weary now then she had been when she had first left her house near dawn, and the day still had over half its strength to play out before she could take her rest. Though, maybe she could take a nap when the sun reached its peak. Oh, did that ever sound lovely.

And then, Derin asked her question.

There was no geas that demanded the villagers not talk about that place, but Saruna had grown to be a cautious woman. And, there was the fact of the matter that you really didn't want to earn the attention of whatever took ownership of that place. It was said that if you spoke too loudly, or too often of it that you would be taken away, never to be seen again.

Saruna shivered. "Well. . ." Her voice was quieter than it had been since she'd first talked to Derin, and she crowded a little closer to the other, "There is talk of some thing that lives up in the old manor. Tss, don't look towards it while we speak. They say there is evil about that place, an evil so strong it keeps other forms of danger away." Saruna straightened a little, tucking her shawl about herself and making a small religious sign with her fingers before she curled those neatly into the fringe of her shawl.

She shook her head, compressing her lips into a thin line that said much more about how nervous the subject made her.

[Derin Edala]

"Evil?" That could be either a very good or very bad sign. Derin made a mental note to look into the situation further, although probably not with this woman... it seemed to make her nervous. The woman's comments didn't worry Derin unduly, although they probably should have -- she'd been so accustomed to knowing that nearly anything that people described as 'evil' was harmless to her or, at the very least, something she knew how to fight, but that didn't apply any more. She had to keep remembering that.

But her thoughts were already sailing ahead... perhaps she could enlist the help of a magically talented stranger, one who was unlikely to share Marn's paranoia of magic? No, they'd be too unpredictable. Find some rebels, perhaps? No, they'd be impossible to track down, association would be dangerous and she had nothing to offer them. In either case, though, she could easily enact the ever-present "plan B" afterward... although that in itself was risky if she intended to stick around town for any length of time.

Well, something would surely come up. Eventually. She continued to follow Saruna in silence for a few minutes, before mentioning, "You suggested that we bake this man something... I'm afraid that I do not, in fact, know how to bake." Derin's idea of cooking was to mix up everything you wanted to eat and heat it until it was palatable. "Is it hard?"

[Saruna]

Whatever apprehension remained within Saruna fairly melted at Derin's confession that she did not know how to bake. It was this sort of thing that Saruna had not been able to do with her daughters, nor had she taught them the finer aspects of her finer recipes. She had missed it dearly, and her eyes sparkled even as whatever had been dragging her down seemed to lift. She walked beside Derin with a spring to her step.

"There is an order to baking that must be followed, but beyond that there is no difficulty to it." She was all smiles and reassurance as she began to detail the general applications of flour, sugar, salt, flavoring, added fruit -- details which could prove overwhelming for one who had not had much experience with cooking before. Saruna, however, was in her element, and she burbled on without pause until they reached her small cottage, whereupon she would whisk Derin inside and begin to gather the necessary ingredients in a whirlwind of activity.

Whether or not Derin got swept up in the ensuing burst of activity would depend solely on her own personality.