Name: Kaillashann Maethlamae
Age: 114
gender: male
height: 6'3"
weight: 165lbs
Race: Elf
Physical Appearance: The Maethlamae's have always been known for their fair complexions and Shann is no exception. He wears his bright red hair, which is more of an orange color, long. His skin is on the pale side with freckles on his shoulders and down his arms. His has the same dark green eyes that everyone in his family shares. Though he may be 114 years old, he looks pretty good for his age. He has lived a fairly easy life and so his age doesn't show as much as it would had he spent more of his life off the island.
Shann has always taken a liking to darker colored clothing but he has found that people tend to feel at least slightly uncomfortable around people dressed in black. They expect the worst of these people and will often keep a closer eye on their possessions when these people dressed in black are around. So Shann has learned that the best way to not be suspected of ill intent is to dress in a way that blends in with everyone else.
He wears simple clothing in neutral shades, mostly browns and grays. A shirt, pants, maybe a lightweight cloak to keep the sun off his back but nothing too flashy or eye catching. He has a tendency to wear shirts that cover his arms as he doesn't want to be recognized by an old scar that he has on his left forearm from a dog bite.
Possessions: Like Zain, Shann wears a simple belt but the knives that hang from his belt are of a better quality then Zain's sword. He takes pride in his knives and makes sure that they are in good working order should he need them.
Next to his knives, his other prized possession is whatever bottle of alcohol that he has on hand. He is not picky as to what exactly is within the bottle, even if it is the cheap stuff. Drinking has started to evolve beyond something he does just for the pleasure of drinking and has started to become something that he needs to do.
Among his lesser prized possessions, Shann carries with him a diary that used to belong to his older sister, a pack of playing cards, and a dozen or so hand-rolled cigarettes.
Personality: Shann is a more complex person than he might appear to be at first glance. Sure he might prefer an easy life to actually working hard to get what he has, he is not above lying or stealing or cheating to get what he wants, he will even take advantage of a young kid to make a profit but he also has his touching moments.
He has always and will always be loyal to his family. A part of him feels guilty for not being able to help his sister in her time of need and out of a sense of responsibility he has taken it upon himself to raise his nephew in the only way he knows.
Though he isn't above going against the law for his own benefit, he still has a sense of morals. He doesn't feel it is right to steal from anyone who is worse off than himself and murder is just wrong unless it can not be avoided or if family is in danger. He doesn't really fall for that whole honor among thieves thing but neither does he care to take the time or effort to turn them in to the proper authority. Basically as long as somebody doesn't bother him or his family, he doesn't feel the need to step in and get involved.
Strengths/Good Qualities: Shann is 114 years old and over that time he has gotten a lot of practice at being able to lie to people. For him it has become more then just hiding the truth and more of an instinct. On occasion he can catch himself telling a lie even when one was not needed. It has become so ingrained into his daily life that he often does it without even noticing that he is doing it.
Along with lying, he has picked up the handy little habits of picking pockets and stealing just about anything that isn't nailed to the floor. Actually he mostly just goes for small little trinkets, jewelery and whatever he can easily stash in his own pocket. He knows better then to all out rob somebody because he is more likely to be caught that way and because he doesn't want to be identified, mugging is out of the question.
His deadliest weapons are not his knives but rather his charm and nice smile. He may lie and steal but it is always done with a smile on his face. He'll flatter you in compliments and nice words as he plans to steal your wallet the second you aren't looking, only to return to smiling at you once he has it secured within his own pocket.
Probably the only thing he ever really took advantage of from his early years were the helpful skills of learning how to read and write in many different languages. His father had worked for some important person in Thysaer eindral Maelaesaer and saw the importance in teaching his son how to communicate with the rest of the people of Pal Tahrenor. Shann though found other reasons as to how this could work to his advantage, he learned that such skills gave him the advantage when forging documents.
Weaknesses/Bad Qualities: He may carry knives from his belt but they are more for show then anything. If he has to use them he can, he just really isn't all that skilled with them. Usually they just hang from his belt and when they are not doing that, they are being flung at a nearby wall in which case it is more up to luck if they are to stick or bounce back.
Shann is a terrible flirt, not to say that he is bad at it but rather he just doesn't know when to stop. Once he starts, he often doesn't cut it out until he either talks the girl into sharing a bed with him or her husband comes along and decides to punch him in the face.
He doesn't like to tell anyone but Shann has a fear of dogs. It didn't help any when he was bitten by his brother-in-law's dog during an argument several years ago. He hides the scar because he hates to remember the event and if asked about it, be quickly tries to change the subject. Since Zain decided to adopt a puppy, Shann has been trying to deal with his fear but he still feels uncomfortable around the creature.
As a young lad Shann picked up a habit of drinking. At first is was somewhat of a social thing, he was new to the big city and was looking for a way to fit in with some of the other boys his own age. Some 90 years later, it is a habit he still has. It has developed beyond a few drinks with friends, nights where he would drink until he past out, and the point where he would start the day out with a drink. It has gotten to the point where he doesn't always drink because he wants to drink but because he needs to drink. He doesn't care what it is just as long as it is something that will take the edge off and help him to feel himself. No longer will the weak stuff of his homeland cut it anymore but luckily for him, as he travels East, he gets to experience the stronger drinks of humans.
Character History: The Maethlamae women have always played a strong part in maintaining the sacred stream that feeds off of a runoff of the Sol Jhajaer os Tyl Pasaeli. Its waters have been seen as a blessing form Baresi longer then anyone really cares to remember.
So when the Caedaes os si Maes (Keeper of the Stream) for the village of Bolandri shira si sharaes bore a son, she didn't really know what to do with him. He couldn't be trained to care for the healing waters that protected the village and would have to make his own life.
After nearly twenty years of trying and failing to learn a profession from many of the various tradesmen around the village, Shann's father decided to take him to the far away city of Thysaer eindral Maelaesaer where you could learn in the ways of a trader like his father. He studied many long hours in the old libraries trying to learn the various languages of the world, to better his trading relations with those that wished to import and export from the lush lands of Darleone.
He tried to make the trading business work for him but eventually it lost its initial luster to that of spending his time in bars and wooing women. As he saw it, he was making the most of his life and enjoying his youth. His father on the other hand was not happy with his choices and after giving him too many chances to turn his life around, he had to fire him as an employee and let his son try to learn from his own mistakes.
Like any young man, Shann didn't see this as a learning experience as much as he saw it as his father getting off his back and letting him do his own thing. He was his own man and could make his own decisions, these included staying up all night, drinking until he past out and waking up each morning with a different woman in his bed.
The "Good Life" as he put it, didn't last as long as he thought it would, he quickly ran out of money and found it much harder to get a decent drink or talk a woman into bed if he couldn't pay for it.
Stealing wasn't something that he thought of on his own. Shann had always been one to follow a set of rules or what he believed to be right but as his new found friends had put it, he was living by his father's way of doing things even though he wasn't working for his father anymore. They convinced him that if he were to simply take what he needs to get by and nothing more, that he wasn't necessarily doing wrong as much as he was finding his own way to support himself.
Mugging wasn't really his thing as he quickly learned that he couldn't stand looking a frightened person in the face. Something in him knew that it was wrong, he felt bad doing it and convinced himself that there must be another way.
Pickpocketing was more to his liking but it took time to develop the necessary skill to both pull off the act and trying to get away without being noticed. It wasn't something he was good at at first but after a few quick payoffs, he was hooked as to a way to fund his new lifestyle.
The drinking and partying continued, along with the stealing and Shann learned a great many things from his friends as to how to get what he wanted without having to work for it. Like work though, eventually he got a little bored with the continual flow of things. His life was becoming to routine for his tastes and he wanted to shake things up a bit.
So he left Thysaer eindral Maelaesaerand making his way North to the harbor city of Aelali sai Aesydae. Along the way, he made a stop back home to visit with his family. Since he had left the trading business, he hadn't visited with them in over forty years.
During his visit he learned that his older sister, Keallanari had taken over his mother's position at the stream and was training one of their younger sisters to do the same. Though he wouldn't voice his opinion, a small part of him felt jealous of the strong family bond that they shared in the service of Baresi.
For the two years that he stayed with them, he tried to reconnect with his family but it was his pursuit of the good life that eventually drove him onward. When he finally reached Aelali sai Aesydae, he didn't waste much time returning to the life of the petty thief and soon he got to know others in a similar trade.
During one such night of drinking at a dockside tavern, he was propositioned to try his hand at forging documents for a merchant who wished to export some of his goods to the people of Eyropa without having to go through all the legal procedures. Shann drew on some of the knowledge of language that he had acquired and wrote up what he thought would be a decently falsified letter of approval. The merchant was well pleased with his work and before long he and others such as himself were coming to Shann whenever they needed cargo of one type or another either brought in or off the island without passing through inspection.
This new line of work proved to bring in even more money then simple pickpocketing and as a plus, he didn't have to look for the equally shady character to pawn off his stolen goods so as not to draw attention to himself for trying to constantly buy his drinks or a nights stay at an inn with jewelery. He was still living from one job to the next, never really brave enough to pull off some sort of big job that would let him live comfortably for a while but he managed to get by.
He saved what little money he could and bought himself a tiny little hole-in-the-wall place that was barely big enough to house a bed but it was his place and he loved it. From his house, which was really too small to even be considered a house, he went about the business of trying to better his forging skills during the day. He never invited any of his buyers back to his house, that business was to take place in dark alleys, crowded taverns, and at the docks in the early hours of the day.
In his own way, Shann was happy with the life that he had made for himself. He had a place to live and a somewhat steady way of bringing in income, and even a few friends, the only thing he really lacked in his life was family. He had never considered making one of his own, he thought that it was too risky a thing with the life that he had picked. In part, he missed the family that he had always felt like he didn't really belong in.
Nearing 100 years of age, he travel back to his childhood home to visit the family he hadn't seen in ages. This time he found that his parents were no longer among the living members of the village and that his older sister had married a woodsman of one of the northern villages, who was moving into his parent's cottage.
Shann would not have cared much about this news except for the fact that he had not been informed of it. With the death of his father, he was suppose to take responsibility for the family, being the only living male. Instead, his sister's new husband was taking his place and they immediately got off to a bad start.
The two of them fought amongst each other until finally Keallanari couldn't take it any longer and asked him to leave. Reluctantly he left the village to return to his little home in Aelali sai Aesydae but that was not the last time that he would return.
Over the next few years, he made many such trips back and forth to his long ago birthplace and each time he was sent away after causing fights. He just couldn't find any reason as to why he should get along with his brother-in-law and so he dwelled on all the reasons why he should hate the man.
On one such visit, he thought to convince his sister as to why she should leave her husband. He went to the edge of the stream as he knew that she would be down there preparing for the biannual pilgrimage. When he got there, he was surprised to learn that she was not alone. From his place within the trees, he could not clearly make out this other figure except for his dark clothing and large stature that indicated him as being male. The way this man leaned over his sister, running his fingers through her hair as she sat on the bank with her feet dangling in the water made Shann think that the two of them must surely be close.
He didn't really think his sister would be the type to have an affair but if anything, he wanted to congratulate her form it. Something didn't feel right though. There was something about the way that the man whispered in her ear and the strange darkness that felt even darker then the rest of the night sky around them that bothered him. He couldn't place it but there was something wrong about what was going on.
He had continued to stand there staring for longer then he could remember, until the man turned away from Keallanari and disappeared into the trees. Shann remembers seeing a set of cold, dark eyes from under the man's hood but that was the last he saw of this man.
When he was alone with his sister, he ran to her side to find her in a state of confusion. She claimed that she didn't know who the man was that she had been with and even stranger, she had seemed to lose track of the hours. From what she spoke of, she acted as if she had been only left her cottage to go to the stream only a few short hours ago not nearly the day before.
Shann knew how superstitious the villagers were and so at first he had been reluctant to tell the tale of what he had seen but with his sister missing so long, the villagers had grown suspicious of where she had disappeared to. So finally he was talked into giving up what he knew. His story was met with both shock and disbelief, the disbelief coming mostly from her husband.
Always the cleaver one, Keallanari thought to spin the story in a good way. She brought up the fact that the pilgrimage was upon them and it was long thought that a mysterious stranger showing up at such a time would mean good luck for the village. He would bring with him new life, new fortune and a good year for their crops.
Shann highly doubted this. There was something about the look in those eyes that had told a very different story but he didn't want to call his sister out for her lies.
Luckily for her, her lies seemed to have a bit of truth to them as before long, Keallanari found herself with child. Shann couldn't have been happier for her except for the fact that he wished that she could have been with a man more deserving of her, that would in turn make a better father.
He traveled back and forth from Aelali sai Aesydae to the village wanting both to be a part of his sister's life and his own. Often times when he was away at the harbor town for months or even a year at a time, working hard on whatever smuggling job he had set up, he couldn't help but want to return to the woods.
He wasn't around when the boys were born and had to learn of their differences by way of letter. Though his sister had tried to keep the message light and friendly in her way, he could still sense that there was something wrong. There was something she wasn't telling him.
He had been very busy with work as he had started to make a name for himself in the underground workings of Darleone and so Shann was unable to make another trip out to visit until the boys were already a few years old. His sister's letters had stopped coming and he worried that whatever it was that she had not told him, was getting worse.
When he arrived, he found two little boys that looked very much like their father. They had dark hair and slightly tanned skin and both were slightly on the plump side at that age. He was shocked to see one of them was talking to himself in a way that seemed beyond what a normal child would do and the other seemed incapable of forming connections with other people.
Shann went about blaming his brother-in-law for what had to be some sort of flaw in the children that came from his family. He got so caught up in trying to pin this on him that he didn't realize that his sister wasn't rushing in to break up the fighting like she usually did. When his brother-in-law oddly retreated into the house instead of fighting in the front yard, he should have sensed that something was wrong. He followed the man into the house and when he noticed that something was defiantly different about the place, he inquired as to the whereabouts of his sister.
As it turned out, the reason for the letters had stopped coming was because his sister had disappeared. Nobody, not even her husband knew where she had gone. He had tried to explain to Shann that she had become obsessed with trying to find a way to help her children when she had learned that they exhibited signs that they were not like other children. He thought that maybe she had gone to one of the large port cities to learn of some sort of cure after the healing spring water had not worked on them.
Shann had his own theories as to what had happened. Voicing said opinions only managed to get him in yet another fight with his brother-in-law and without his sister their to get involved, the two of them continued yelling at each other into the night. At some point their were punches involved, Shann can't remember who throw the fist punch but the other man's dog got involved and tore a good piece of skin from his forearm. Shann left the cottage swearing at his brother-in-law and whatever he had done to his sister.
From that point on Shann remained in Aelali sai Aesydae until several years later when he received word that his brother-in-law had killed himself. At first, he told himself that he wasn't going to return to the village but some small part of his conscious told him that he had to go back.
So he returned to the village but more to see what he could learn of his sister's disappearance then anything else. He was sure that somebody would take in her children and that he could leave the family house to one of his three younger sisters.
Things changed when the village elders choose to get rid of the boys. Throwing them out of the village like they were would surely mean death for a couple of children who didn't yet know how to survive in the world. So Shann came up with an idea to save them, even though he had yet to think of what he was going to do with them afterwords.
(( The rest of the history is continued in Zain's history. ))
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Name: Kurzainous Blackthorne
Age: 17
gender: male
height: 5'8"
weight: 145 lbs
Race: Elf
Physical Appearance: Somewhat more then his brother, Zain looks a lot like a younger version of his father. He wears his dark blue-black hair cut short so as not to get in his face and bother him. His skin also takes after his father's side of the family as it can tan a bit without burning leaving him with a nice healthy color instead of the almost sickly pale color that some of his mother's family has. Having had somebody to care for him, Zain lacks the malnourished look that his brother carries around. He is in no way overweight for his size but neither is he underweight, probably the best way to describe him is to say that he has a decent amount of skin and muscle to hide his bones but not enough to make him appear all that muscular.
From a distance there is a chance that he could be mistaken for his brother, though the two haven't been seen in the same place in many years. Time apart has changed them and other then the color of their hair and their dark green eyes, the two boys look almost nothing alike.
Zain's choice of clothing are a bit on the simple side. He wears a loose fitting long-sleeved white linen shirt, open in the front. A tan leather vest covers the shirt but it does very little other then to help make him look slightly more muscular in the chest as well as provide a small amount of warmth. A very plain pair of brown pants and a pair of travel-worn leather boots completes his outfit.
Possessions: Zain carries a short sword from a leather belt around his waist. The weapon isn't anything special, in fact it isn't even that great of a sword to begin with but he likes to carry it around because it makes him feel like more of a man and when alone he has something to practice.
Around his neck he wears an old pendent made of gold with engravings that can be traced back through the Blackthorne family for several generations. The pendent is shaped somewhat like a bird with a small oval green gem for an eye and the engravings are a brief family history but it is written in a language that has been almost completely forgotten by the younger generations besides the fact that the thing has worn throughout the years wearing away at the words that were once carefully placed within it.
During his travels Zain happened to pick up a furry companion. Maybe it was because the little puppy reminded him somewhat of his father's faithful friend that he just couldn't send the thing away. He grew attached to the dog much as he did to the family dog when he was a young child and he had to include it on his journey.
Thanmorion is a cream colored dog (Saarloos Wolfhond) with gray patches on top of his head and back that looks to have been breed with a wolf. He has long legs, golden eyes, medium-sized erect ears, and a large heart to round him out. He is extremely devoted to his master and is hardly outside of arms reach.
Personality: Zain has always been a quiet one. When he has something that needs to be said, he will say it but he would rather get straight to the point then to spend an unnecessary amount of time talking about what is unimportant. A good deal of the time he relies on non-verbal communication to get a point across. He lacks the social skills to survive most interactions and he leaves such things up to his uncle to deal with.
He often gets frustrated with himself and other people because he is an introvert and has trouble dealing with people. When he gets overwhelmed, he tends to get grumpy and has a hard time trying to control his emotions. When the outside world becomes to much for him to deal with, he tends to shut out others and withdraw as much as he can from any sort of human contact.
Strengths/Good Qualities: Zain has always has a sort of connection to animals. He finds them far less complicated then elves or humans or other such beings. Animals express who they are in simple ways, using non-verbal communication much like he does so he can understand them without too much thought put into it. Being around them, he is able to relax and concentrate more on his own inner thoughts then what he should we looking and listening to if he were with another person.
Though he is withdrawn, Zain tends to be observant of his surroundings. Part of why he gets overwhelmed is because he tries too hard to take in too much information at once. He tends to notice the things that others overlook like the number of times a man smiles when talking to a woman he is trying to flirt with, how someone tends to look away when they are lying, how a tavern wench wipes her nose before touching his food.
If it were left up to him he wouldn't consider his ability to notice that which most people ignore except that his uncle has tried to teach him the finer art of using such a thing to their advantage. With this little ability of his they have found that they fair quite a bit better at cards then the average guy. Sure it takes a lot out of him to try to remember each persons card as well as everything else that is going on around him but it is something that he has been working on since he was old enough to convince the others at the table that he was not a child and could gamble as well as any man. He shares a secret glance with his uncle when he knows that the cards are stacked in their favor and avoids such looks when they aren't doing so well.
Something else that his uncle has taught him is to use his fits to his advantage. He can't always control them but he has learned how to fake them during the right occasion to make the occasional drunk girl at a tavern or oh-so-friendly farm girl feel sorry for him and possibly invite him back to her place so that she can make sure that he is going to be okay. He doesn't really feel comfortable with lying to these girls but as Shann says "Pity sex is better then no sex and at the end of the day at least you're gettin' some."
Weaknesses/Bad Qualities: Zain has always been a bit of an introvert. This doesn't mean that he is simply shy but that he has a hard time dealing with people and being around too many people at once or being forced into social situations. During such times he feels nervous, uncomfortable and it feels as if his energy is quickly being drained out of his body. The longer he is in an unfamiliar environment, the more he tends to withdraw from it. Sometimes he will go for hours without speaking a word and will instead focus on his inner thoughts and feelings while he is trying to sort through everything that seems to be pressing in on him.
He clings to his dog as a form of therapy, when the world is too much for him to deal with he will often times sit in a corner curled up with his furry friend.
Some might say that he is good with animals because he can communicate with them but it is nothing more then some sort of unspoken understanding they have. He has no magical ability over them in anyway and can not make an animal, even his own dog do anything that he doesn't want to do of his own free will.
Zain can be a bit moody at times and depending on how comfortable he is with his surroundings, he can appear to be anything between a temperamental teenager or an out of control child. In some cases he has been known to fall into a violent fit. Though it doesn't happen all that often, when it does he seems to lose all self control and will throw himself to the floor where he will scream, flail about, bang his head against the ground and act much as a toddler would when throwing a tantrum. If such behavior does occur, Shann tries his best to restrain the boy to keep him from hurting himself, which is who he tends to hurt the most in such times.
Character History: For how much it pains him, Zain likes to dwell on his childhood as little as possible. He doesn't like to remember the years he spent living in his parents little cottage deep within the forested interior of Darleone Island. Sure there were many good memories back in the early years but they only seem to lead to the much more unpleasant memories that were the cause of him leaving the little village he called home.
He doesn't like to remember the looks his father would get as he tried to shelter his sons within the house to try to protect them from the what the others said. Zain was too young at the time to understand, he didn't know why the villagers whispered under their breath when he and his brother played outdoors. They didn't know that they were any different than the other children.
At the time Zain had been far more social than in later years, he still had trouble dealing with crowds and unfamiliar situations but he was a happy kid most of the time. He tried to make friends from some of the other kids in the village but they seemed to be frightened off by his occasional fits, those that weren't scared away only lasted until his brother started talking to the demons that only he could hear or see, then they too were gone. So he had to make do with only his brother and the family dog for companionship.
It wasn't really until after his mother's disappearance that he started to realized that something wasn't right. Rumors could no longer be held at the door. He heard talk of his mother drowning herself in the spring that she so lovingly cared for or that his father had beheaded her with his axe or that she was possessed by the same evil that had tainted her sons. He had tried to ask his father about these things but it only made him angrier.
Uncle Shann started to come around more often around that time, he fought with Zain's dad most of the time. Though they tried to keep most of the fighting out of sight, they couldn't keep the yelling from being heard from the other room. The boys were confused as to what all went on but one day after the yelling had gone on for hours, Shann left the house swearing quite a lot and holding one of his arms as if it were injured.
After that, Zain didn't see his uncle again at least not until after his father died. He showed up at the funeral but refused to say anything. He just stood there and watched the proceedings.
For the next several days Zain and his brother had to go before the village elders and listen to them argue about what to do with the boys. It looked like nobody wanted to take them in, the villagers were all too frightened that whatever evil had caused the boys to exhibit such strange behavior and had killed both of their parents would surely befall them as well. After several days of heated debate, it was decided that they could not stay within the village, nobody wanted them to curse them any further.
So the boys were separated, dragged out to the woods and left to either fend for themselves or die. The villagers were too superstitious to invoke the wrath of whatever evil had played a part in tainting their village to kill the boys themselves, no that was something that the gods would have to do themselves.
Luckily for Zain, he wasn't taken out into the woods and let for dead as he was suppose to be. The cloaked figure that was suppose to insure that he was taken far enough away from the village that he would not return was not just some random villager, it was his uncle Shann. Shann had thought to play the good guy for once in his life and to save the boys before they were killed. So he had disguised himself and lead Zain far out into the woods, when they were far enough away from the village not to draw unwanted attention, he told the boy that he was there to take them away to a better life, they only had to find Talion first.
For nearly a week they searched the woods but no sign of Zain's brother showed up. He tried to push his uncle to continue the search but Shann finally convinced the boy that the longer they spent circling the woods surrounding the village, the more they risked being found and possibly killed. The chances that Talion had fallen to whatever fate had taken his mother were high and if they didn't get a move on, chances were that Shann and Zain risked falling to that same fate.
Reluctantly they left the woods, following the river from the Sol Jhajaer os Tyl Pasaeli to the city of Aelali sai Aesydae. Years before Shann had made a life for himself in the far away harbor town and thought to include the boy in someway. Unfortunately he hadn't known much about the boys condition that only seemed to get worse the farther they traveled from the village.
By the time they had reached the harbor Zain was a complete mess. When he wasn't whimpering about like a injured animal, the boy would break out in random bursts of anger or frustration where he would cause a scene and draw lots of otherwise unwanted attention.
Shann had always dealt in the shadier form of business and found that he couldn't continue such work while caring for the lad. He was left with either abandoning the only part of his dear sister that was left or to give up his chosen lifestyle and become a more responsible person. Well Shann decided to go for more of a middle ground, he couldn't fully give up what he thought was a perfect life but he also couldn't leave the boy.
With time he learned how to deal with living with an introvert and how to make a profit off of it. When he had learned that the boy was skilled at picking up on the subtle little things that most people missed, he set about trying to find a way to use it to their advantage. Playing cards for one became far easier to win when the boy could tell him that the odds were stacked in his favor. It took time for them to get good at it though, in the early years the two had trouble communicating with one another and often times the other men at the card table were able to pick up on something fishy going on. After being caught or accused of cheating a few too many times, Shann realized that it was time for them to leave Aelali sai Aesydae.
The sailed eastward to Eyropa and again turned to making a living off what they could earn from gambling and what Shann was able to lift out of the pockets of the panicked observers of one of Zain's fits or whatever they could carry away from the house of whatever foolish girl had invited them home. Zain wasn't exactly proud of this lifestyle but it was all he had. Shann was the only friend and family member he had so he did what he was told and helped to bring in what money they could.
During their travels, Zain happened to befriend a stay dog. Shann was against him keeping it but after seeing how the boy bonded with the creature he couldn't make him get rid of it, as much as he hated dogs. So they kept the dog. When Shann could not help the boy through fits, the dog always seemed to be there to comfort the him. Zain was able to pull himself out of even the worst of his fits with the help of the animal.
So the three of them continued onward, making their way from one village to the next making what little bishani they could in order to survive.