Among the Graves

[Saruna]

Gradual alarm tightened Gustel's stance, and tension grew like vines between them. "If you're not a farmwife, then what are you?"

[Derin Edala]

Derin shrugged in reply. "Somebody who doesn't wish you any particular harm. But I will defend myself if necessary, and I've promised to defend Saruna as well.

"Eight hundred bishani, and the promise to come to the defence of you or your sister one time if called upon. That's my offer. Take it or... well, I recommend you take it." She looped her thumb through her belt, the needle hidden underneath it nicking her thumb as she brushed past it, and held Gustel's gaze steadily.

[Saruna]

"Done." He said, without offering his hand to shake on it. He smiled a little then, and arranged himself comfortably on his bed. "If you're done interrogating me and pretending to be something you're not, I'd like to get some sleep. Go away."

[Derin Edala]

Derin had expected him to demand his money immediately, but it made no difference to her. She shrugged and went to the kitchen to find Saruna.

"I think," she said, "that our problem is solved. I'll give Gustel his money tomorrow before work and he'll probably leave. I left him to sleep, but I can go back and kick him out if you prefer." She considered going back an killing the man in his sleep, just to make sure... but that would cause a lot more problems than it would solve.

[Saruna]

Saruna had the inkling when she left the room that putting the kettle on would not be enough to keep her out of that room. It was not that she was disgruntled with Derin's request -- she knew when she was being gotten rid of -- but that she was grateful for it, and didn't want to waste it be returning before she should. Returning, and hearing something she didn't want to hear. It was cowardly of her, she knew, but what place did she have in something like that?

She had been naive, she decided as she poked halfheartedly at the coals she had reignited with well worn flint. She had thought that getting information about her father would be an easy enough affair. She was determined, after all, so what might stand in her way? What would be so difficult about revealing the treachery of Marn's secrets? And yet, the small part of the whole picture she'd seen in the room she'd put Gustel had sickened her deep in her gut, and saddened her beyond measure. Was it truly the only way? She'd thought to trust Gustel but he was not worthy.

Sicker, her gut grew, as she wondered at Derin's veracity. Her head bowed, and her brow wrinkled. It pained her deeply. More than it should. She'd put herself in a situation where she blindly followed what she wanted to be and not what was truly there. Yet what else did she have? Even if Derin wasn't who she said she was, she had treated Saruna with kindness and care. It had only been a few days. But that had been the most human interaction Saruna had had in years. No, she could not let Derin go, not even if she wasn't who she said she was. Everyone had to do things they might not be proud of. Saruna was not one to judge.

"I think," Derin said, "that our problem is solved. I'll give Gustel his money tomorrow before work and he'll probably leave. I left him to sleep, but I can go back and kick him out if you prefer."

Derin's voice was not altogether surprising, since Saruna had heard her footfalls, but it was welcome. She was ready. She turned and smiled at the younger woman, feeling her treacherous mother's heart open up to the stray she'd picked up. "I trust your judgement, dear. Here, have some tea before you sleep tonight. You deserve it."

[Derin Edala]

Derin smiled and took the tea. She had passed the test. Brilliant.

The late night would compromise her efficiency at work the next day, but it was only one day. Her major concern with the way she was pushing her body was susceptibility to illness. It would be frustrating to lose her body to illness now; unless she wanted to show up on Saruna's doorstep as a stranger and explain very dangerous secrets, she would lose a lot of what she had built up.

"So, what now?" She sipped the tea. "Do you have another way to approach the mystery of your father?"

[Saruna]

Saruna exhaled a puff of air at Derin's question, and tried to quell the glum look that threatened to overtake her features. "I fear it is but a fancy, one I will not attain." She coddled her own cup of tea and considered the bitterness that rose at such an admission.

She was very much afraid, and angry, that she would never find out what happened to her father. She felt it a betrayal of his hard work, and the brave, foolish fear in his eyes when they'd dragged him away. She struggled to control her expression.

"But that's neither here nor there, my dear. It has been a long night, and best we'd both get some sleep."

[Derin Edala]

Derin nodded. Saruna was right; she did have to get up early the next day.

Derin slept lightly, despite her weariness. This had to work. It could be extremely dangerous if it didn't.

She got up slightly before sunrise and went to wake Gustel. "Here." She held out a bag of bishani, but pulled it back when he reached for it. "Before you touch this, there's something you should know. You might want to take a look at the back of your hand.

"See, I do have certain unusual abilities. For example, if two people form a contract and I can get some of their blood... well, let's just say that there's a completely dormant spell that will be activated if you take this money. It's completely harmless, inactive; unless either of us breach the terms of the contract. If that happens, the spell will activate, and that person... well, people have been known to survive, but not often. And it certainly isn't fun. So now that that's out of the way... do we have a deal?" She offered the bag again. Hopefully, that would convince him to stick to the deal, and she could just go to work in peace.

[Saruna]

Gustel didn't take kindly to being woken, as evidenced by his narrow-eyed glare at Derin that only served to darken when she spoke. He didn't immediately reach for it after that, instead tipping his head to the side and sneering. "Sure do like sneaking into a man's rooms in the middle of the night." He said, and pulled himself up so he was sitting, slumped forward. "I don't remember agreeing to some backwater curse last night. What in the Changer's hairy ballsacks are you? Witch? Priest? Delusional madwoman?"

[Derin Edala]

"Pick one," Derin shrugged. "I just felt it fair to warn you of the consequences. If you're so unsure of your own ability to keep a bargain that it's even relevant then I guess that's your problem." She put the bag of money on a shelf and turned to leave. "If you want to back out, don't take it. But I should remind you that I will do what I have to to defend myself." Without another word, she left.

Her day working in the kitchen was uneventful, but she couldn't help being worried about Gustel. Had she pushed him too hard? Among sensible people, such a curse was a natural precaution and would be accepted without comment, but it was becoming more and more apparent that she wasn't among sensible people. At least he hadn't seemed to have seen through her deception.

She wasn't entirely happy about her side of the bargain either, but it had been necessary. Owing a favour to somebody she barely knew and didn't trust or like was not a good state of affairs. The agreement had been too vague. It was too easy for Gustel to use it against her. That hadn't occurred to her when she'd proposed the terms, but she'd seen a certain level of... vindictiveness in people she'd encountered in recent years, a willingness to carry challenges beyond where they ended, to hurt people out of resentment. She'd need to learn to be more careful if she wanted to survive.

Derin returned to Saruna's house early in the afternoon, day's pay clutched in her hand, not entirely sure what she was going to find when she got there.

[Saruna]

Gustel's features had tightened in suspicion and uneasiness as Derin left. There was only so much a man could do. But Saruna woke not long after that, though Derin had left before she could break fast with her, so instead Saruna shared a morning meal with Gustel and then put him to work. She was a fair taskmaster, though she did give him the share of heavier work and made no apologies for it. They both knew, in an uncomfortable silence, that the charade was over. Still, it wasn't that Saruna was treating him any worse for it, but the easygoing trust and camaradarie she had shared with him was gone.

What Derin would find was a very clean house. Gustel was still scrubbing the interior of the oven with a horse-hair brush and lye soap and hot water. He did not hear her enter. Saruna, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found, having abandoned Gustel to his many tasks while she relaxed in her workroom, doing what soothed her best and trying to forget the whole mess.

They'd decided together that Gustel should leave the next day, to give his employer no cause for suspicion should Gustel return too soon, before it was customary for such work to be completed. As well, it would give Gustel time to come up with ample backstory for how he'd convinced them it was all right for him to leave.

[Derin Edala]

Derin's only greeting to Gustel when she got home was a short nod and a query of Saruna's whereabouts.

The place wasn't crawling with guards. That was a good sign, right? She hated not being able to predict these people's behaviour properly. It made reducing danger almost impossible. Still, she had made remarkable progress since she'd arrived. And to think she'd almost skipped this town!

She needed more information before she could do anything, but... even what she'd achieved had been so dangerous. It was only chance that she'd stumbled on an answer so quickly. She couldn't go poking around the graveyard with magical people any more, it was far, far too dangerous. But what could she do? Leave? Her deal with Gustel tied her here now. And she wasn't going to abandon such a promising lead like that.

No. She knew what she had to do.

She headed out to Saruna's workroom. There were a few things that they needed to discuss. First things first, though. "How are you going? Did Gustel hurt or threaten you at all while I was gone? Did he contact anyone?"

[Saruna]

Saruna flinched when the door opened, surprised at the interruption. She'd gotten so engrossed with her work that she hadn't noticed the time passing. She looked tired, faint, as though something tugged at her harder than any lack of sleep might. As if she'd been the one to do all of the cleaning by herself, hard as it might be for her to physically do. Derin's words only served to enhance this as wrinkles scored themselves deeper around her mouth and eyes. They weren't wrinkles brought about by smiling, either.

"No, child, why would he. . ." Not worth completing that line of thought. She stood from her wheel and moved to the dyes, using one of her sticks to stir the yellow. She was reluctant to engage in conversation with Derin. There was only one thing really to talk about. Everything else would wait. That was the case with emergencies and important matters, but avoiding it was not an option all the same. "Is something on your mind? I know you are not here to ask after my weaving." Her words were dry and slightly humorous, as her expression was not.

[Derin Edala]

Derin actually did find weaving to be an interesting topic, but it would have to wait. "Just a little worried. Gustel is a difficult person to read and... I hope we can trust him to keep a bargain." Derin's experience with people who used spies was that they were very, very powerful. They had to be, or they'd lose control. She smiled faintly to herself (hadn't the story of her life been a series of people losing control of her?) but the expression faded almost immediately. "Do we have a backup plan for if he does turn on us?" She consciously avoided brushing her silver bracelet as she spoke. That was a habit that she was going to have to train herself out of, unless she wanted to scream her weakness at all passers-by.

"And on an... almost unrelated topic, I had a business proposition for you. I was wondering if a room in your house was available for me to rent for an indefinite length of time." She was working, after all; what else would she spend her money on? And she needed somewhere to stay.

What was there to do now? Wait. After so much work, she didn't want to abandon such a promising lead now that she had found it. And yet it was far too dangerous to follow it up; the site was in the middle of a populated area, an area where the population was strongly against magic. Even among normal humans such a thing would be dangerous for someone like her; drawing attention to herself here would be suicide. So she would wait. Towns die, humans move on. She'd keep her head down for a few generations, be a helpful and unassuming townsperson, take a new body when she had to and draw no suspicion. And eventually, either the town would die or the government would, and she would have the opportunity to go home. Until then she would protect the graveyard and learn what she could. What was time to her? Let them have their ridiculous anti-magical culture. It would change. Things always did.

"I've found where my mother is buried now; I can stop questing and settle down with her as I vowed. But I do need somewhere to stay."

[Saruna]

Dismay toppled Saruna's expression before she could get ahold of herself. Gustel's possible betrayal (well, second betrayal) was a difficult pill to swallow for a woman who had passed the years thinking people were basically good and it was she who was not worthy of them -- not the other way around.

It deepened a little when Derin spoke of paying rent like a common stranger, and she couldn't help but be stung by the manner in which Derin brought it up. Saruna was on the verge of telling Derin just what she thought of that idea, when she abruptly remembered what it was like to be a proud young woman. She sighed instead, and lowered her head.

"Gustel will do what he will do; short of leaving the city in fear of what may happen I do not think there is much for us to prepare for. But Derin. . .if you wish to stay you do not need to pay me coin. I will accept your assistance with weaving or housework; I am not in need of rent money." She stared at her dye, stirring it a touch more vigorously than was strictly necessary.