RP:Shards Part 2: Sea

Part of the Lies Within Us Arc

This is a Mage's Guild RP.

Summary: Following the errant compass' trail, Karasu finds herself at Lithrydel's eastern coast, meeting Khitti where land falls away to sea and things have a habit of ending and beginning.

Pebbly Shore, Cenril

Karasu did not understand many things. She did not understand the subjects that many professions had to use that required counting many numbers. She did not understand why people were enamored with sweet foods. She did not understand her son's sudden obsession with putting rocks under his bed. Likewise, she did not understand why it was that the compass in her hands had led her to this place. Waves painted the same deep orange as the setting sun lap at Karasu's heeled boots as she looks out at the expanse. It was beautiful in a way, sure, but a shore on the edge of the Cenrilian held no explanation as to why the arrow on the heart-seeking compass had disappeared upon arrival. "You do love the sea, I suppose..." A wave pushes further, soaking Karasu's boots up to her ankles, and she quickly steps back with a frightened gasp. Once sure that she would not drown in three inches of shoreline, she lets out a disgrunted sigh. "I can't understand why, though."

Khitti || Speaking of people that were enamored with sweets, Khitti was on her way down the beach, heading towards the Tranquility while stuffing the remainder of a large slice of carrot cake in her face, fresh from her bakery. Beside her walked her son Dominic and her assistant Camina, the raven haired child’s face covered in frosting as he giggled madly without a care in the world. Both Khitti and Camina each had a hold of one of Dominic’s hands, and every now and then would lift him up a little off the ground, letting him swing a little. He laughed more, until Khitti came to a stop, crimson brows furrowed as she spotted Karasu and watched her for a moment. “Mommy?” The three and a half year old peered up at his mother with those big emerald eyes of his and Khitti could only blink at him once she tore her attention away from Karasu. “Camina,” she said finally to the darkly clad half elf, “Take Dominic home for me. Annette should be awake now. She’ll clean him up and whatnot.” Something felt off and Khitti wasn’t just going to let Karasu stand there looking the way she was. At length, Camina nodded. “Wave bye to mommy, sprout. She’ll see you later.” Dominic waved as the half elf led him along to the ship. Khitti’s attention lingered on them for a moment, before shifting back to Karasu, as her feet slowly closed the gap between the two. There were still several feet between them though when she finally came to a stop. “Karasu…?”

Karasu jolts to attention at her name being called. "Present!" She reflexively answers a touch too loudly. Seeing the familiar face, her shoulders relax. "Hey-- Khitti." She looks back at the ocean like she definitely did not get spooked. A deep violet spotted leopard tail hanging from the small of her back, however, remains fluffed out as proof otherwise. She supposed she had to explain why she was out here. Holding up the compass for her to see, she offers, "This belonged to Odhranos. It seemed to still be active under his consciousness, but it led me here of all places." The demifeline closes the lid and passes a thumb over the stone. "I think... his soul might still be out there somewhere."

Khitti couldn’t help but smirk at the girl as she tried so hard not to look startled. She said nothing about it and only listened, the smirk soon fading. Looking towards the sea, she just shrugged. “I’m not surprised. After I’d gotten my vampirism cure, died, and was reborn, I was found out there. My husband died several months ago and was brought back, and no matter how much light and dark magic I used to try to bring him back, it wasn’t enough. But, while he was gone, he saw this grotto, one that he’d found here in Cenril in the weeks after he arrived here from Catal. He’s certain it was Selene that brought him back. That she’s always been protecting him and he’s just only now realizing all the signs that had been there.” Khitti sighed, her lips twisting into a slight frown. “Maybe Odhranos’ soul is lost, like me and Brand’s was. And I don’t mean literally, as in we’ll never get it back. I mean… He’s not from Lithrydel either, yeah? I’m certain she guided Brand here from Catal and me from Dhavislaav for a reason. Maybe she brought him here too. And maybe she’s keeping an eye on him now, like she had with my husband and I, until we find him again.”

With the bustling port within sight and sound of the pebbled strand, it’s unsurprising that the shore is strewn with a smattering of flotsam and jetsam. Lengths of rope, scraps of timber, even a discarded lobster pot, the refuse piles up here and there across the water’s edge, minding its own business as the waves lap up and around it. Except for one, which sneezes, huddled in a sorry lump under a sodden sailcloth. The only sign of life from this soggy cloth-pile is the faintest of shivering, and the odd weak sniff.

Karasu looks back up at the woman of many trades. "Selene... the sea godess? Hm." She did not doubt that Her existence, but the sea was cruel and unforgiving, from what she had read. "For you to go the ends of the realm of magic for someone you love, and be rewarded, I suppose Selene really must favor you. I just hope she shows the same favor to him as well. I suppose I'll go to the library if--" The sound of the sneezing causes her to whip her head around at the detrius. Looking at Khitti, who presumably returns Karasu's confused face, then back at the pile, Karasu lightly steps towards the pile, pocketing what is in her hands. "Is someone down there?" Her expression softens as she sees how small the outline of the figure is. Kneeling down, she asks, "Can I put my hand on you? My hands are made of fire, so they're really toasty, see?" Her hand gives a soft red-violet glow as it brushes the top of the pile to warm up the shivering thing beneath.

Khitti offered the feline a faint smile in an attempt to reassure her. “It may not always seem like they’re there, but when they want you to know they are, you will.” That could… almost sound threatening if they had been talking about anything else. While she could spout wisdom like a fountain, she often had a tough time actually listening to it. Her thoughts were torn away from the vague seed of doubt that always lingered somewhere in her mind when it came to the gods and was shifted towards the sneezing entity. “Careful,” Khitti said, that one word enveloped in a stern, overprotective momma bear tone. While Karasu was eager to assist, Khitti went on the defensive, peering around before eyeing the debris, ready to act should the need arise--it could be a mermaid after all, and not all of them were pleasant like Khitti’s friend Nemona. “If they need healing, I can help.”

The figure swaddled in sails doesn’t seem to react to Karasu’s questions as she approaches, but no sooner than the warmth of her hand touches the cloth does the pile stir. Slowly at first, a swaddled hood turns around to see who is addressing it, but as soon as Karasu’s glowing palm is spotted, a horrified cry erupts from within the crumpled sail. “Yaloo ooim!!!” Stumbling, scrabbling backwards, the lump unravels itself as the person within falls across the pebbled sand, revealing a gaunt, pale, but terribly young face, which stares up at Karasu with abject terror. “Naw gurtee may!!” Two small thin hands shield the face from the gentle red heat, exposing arms that are covered in bruises and blisters, like two bracelets of angry purple-red. A pair of eyes, grey and colourless as a storm-battered sea dart about wildly, looking from Karasu to Khitti, to the beach and the city beyond, as if desperately looking for a route of escape.

Karasu had been squatting on the coarse beach to gauge the state of the mysterious thing. When they scream, she goes to stand but stumbles back, falling rear-first into a puddle of seawater. Her hands disappear under the water, but it seems to do nothing to calm the child. "Gods-- Khitti, Khitti it's bleeding, it's just a kid." When the colourless eyes look back at Karasu, there's a spark of recognition. "O..." She looks down, her eyes scanning the pebbles frantically as she tries to remember something. "Sábh..áil..teh? Sábháilteh?" Her pronounciation is as atrocious a goblin speaking elven, and she isn't even sure this is the right word or the right language, but it was worth at least a try. "You're safe now, alright?"

Khitti || A rainbowy, plasma-y looking substance formed along Khitti’s fingertips as she was quick to move to help the kid. Well. Not too quick. She didn’t want to spook him anymore. “What did you say?” Her words were for the feline while her attention remained on the child, regarding the foreign language Karasu had spoken. Carefully, she knelt down beside the kid, eyeing their wounds with a frown. The frown is brief, however, as she tried to muster a smile for them, the hand with the light magic offered to them while still keeping a distance. “It’s okay. You can touch it.” Khitti would let them poke at it if they wished before continuing. “It will heal you. I’ll let you try first if you want?” She pulled her hand back to her body, her other hand joining with its twin to pull and stretch the glob of magic like clay. “See?” The redhead stretched it out to look like a bandage, then squished it back together to its original form before offering it to the child. “Your turn.” If they took it and did as shown, she’d motion to the bruises and blisters, as if to say ‘go ahead and put it there’. It’d feel warm, like a blanket, as it tried to heal the child’s wounds.

The child seems on the verge of turning tail and running straight into the sea when Karasu’s words make him freeze. Though her pronunciation may be awry, there is enough recognisable in what she says that he recognises his native tongue. His little hands lower and the fearful eyes stare Karasu with equal measures of confusion and fear. “Sabháilte?” The phrase is muttered quietly, as if in disbelief. Those grey eyes meet the demifeline’s and something unspoken in those violet eyes seems to reach out to the young boy, causing his bottom lip to wobble. “An” -hic- “an bhfuil mé sábháilte?” His voice quavers with emotion, as large wet tears brim over his sunken cheeks. On the verge of tears, he doesn’t notice Khitti crouching beside him until she offers him a handful of healing light. Light that he immediately cowers back from. “Draíocht! Níl!” He tries to bat the glowing light away, scrunching his eyes as his feet scrabble against the loose scree. One arm flails blindly into Khitti’s hand, where the sudden healing warmth oozes into his chillen body. He squalls and flails harder, curling in on himself, sobbing violently. “Gan aon draíocht! Níl! Draíocht!” He whimpers, clutching his arms in to his chest as he lies on the cold sodden sand.

Karasu slowly moves out of the puddle and to a drier part of the beach as Khitti moves in to treat his wounds. Her brows furrow in pity as he speaks more. "I'm sorry, I don't know that many words, but..." Karasu points at the child, then at herself, then at Khitti, repeating the one word she did know. "It was a codeword in the Mage's Tower because no one else knew what it meant. It meant 'safe', like if no one was looking because one of us wanted to borrow a book we weren't allowed to check out, so I'd confirm the coast was clear from the libarian while he read it, and he'd say it if I was feeling crummy and was trying to hide from my teachers when it was safe for me to come out. I... think that this kid might be--" The child screams again and Karasu motions for Khitti to put her hands down. "Stopstopstop, I think the magic is scaring him. Or, scared of the warmth?" Karasu moves closer to the child and rests a non-magical hand on his head, gently making small circles on the bottom of his neck like she does for Berrentram when he has his bad dreams. Unsure of what else to say, she murmurs the one word over and over. "Sábháilte, sábháilte, sábháilte... He's freezing. I have water in my bag, can you make it hot while he's not looking?"

Khitti sighed with frustration. She wasn’t mad at him, so she tried not to show her aggravation as much as possible, but damn she felt useless. Khitti didn’t have this much trouble with Dominic, but Dominic was also not traumatized and thought everything was a game. Literally -everything-. Even being kidnapped. Silently, Khitti did as instructed, retrieving the water and heating the container it was in discreetly. “Stay here,” she instructed before heading south in a bit of a run, choosing not to use her shadowstepping until she was far enough away that the kid couldn’t see her do it. Khitti’d heard the things that Karasu had been saying, of course. Between the mention of a codeword at the Mage’s Tower, the compass pointing towards the sea, and this child with his strange language… well… It didn’t take much for Khitti to put things together. “I NEED TEA. -NOW-,” she shouted at literally everyone in her way on the Tranquility. “If you’re not going to help me, get the frakking hell out of my way!” It was less angry-sounding and much more urgent and concerned. She shadowstepped around crewmembers, grabbing a bit of cheesecloth and making a small pouch for some tea leaves, which she promptly shoved into a wide metal flask. Water was added, heated, and the lid screwed on before she was shadowstepping elsewhere. Dominic’s room was empty, the lights out. He must be playing with the chickens in the cargo hold again, Khitti thought to herself. She snatched up an older, blue blanket from his dresser, complete with chicken decorations on it, then left the ship as quickly as she could. She’d explain things to them later. Or to Annette and Brand’s first mate, Dozla, rather. Then Dozla could explain to the crewmembers that no, Khitti’s not doing insane stuff again and that there was no need to be alarmed. It was maybe ten to fifteen minutes before she finally returned, blanket and flask in hand while she tried to keep her lungs from exploding from all the running and shadowstepping. “Here. It’s tea. Chamomile and lavender. Someone he knew once… it was their favorite.” She also handed over the blanket, letting Karasu deal with the child. “He… seems to like you more.”

The child’s sobbing abates thanks to Karasu’s soothing tone, and before long, he unfurls himself, sitting up and facing out to sea as he wipes his face, while her hand gently rubs the back of his head. He had flinched when she first touched him, as if unused to such a gentle gesture, but as he calmed down, he leaned against her palm, weary with the cold and fatigue. “Sábháilte.” He murmurs, the tone of voice presenting it as a statement more than a question. He turns his head and looks up at Karasu. There is still hesitancy in his eyes, but it is tempered with a smidge of trust for this odd person who comforted him. “Cad is ainm duit?” He stammers out, his eyes wide and questioning. A moment of silence passes before it dawns on him that this woman might not understand him. “Umm...umm, uh...Ainm! Umm… Odhranos!” The child taps his index finger insistently against his chest. “Odhranos! Mo ainm!” The small digit is then pointed at Karasu. “Do ainm?” His line of inquiry is cut short when Khitti suddenly returns, with blanket and flask in hand. He shies back a little, but then a fragrant scent wafts through the air and his eyes widen as he noses into the air. “Cad é? Cad é?” He asks, pointing at the sweet smelling flask.

Karasu looks bewildered at Khitti's declaration. Her face flushes as she hurriedly dismisses the praise. "I-it's only because I remembered a word. I think you're better with kids than I am." She admits sheepishly as she takes one corner of the blanket. Motioning for Khitti to take the other corner, the pair of mages carefully drape the warm garment over his shoulders. "Ainm Odhranos." Karasu smiles and repeats his introduction. Her eyes flicker back to the welts and blisters across his arms, and her heart breaks all over again for him. Swallowing thickly, Karasu points at herself. "Ainm Karasu." Then at Khitti. "Ainm Khitti." Despite the language barrier, she was relieved that she could ease Odhranos' pain. Was it truly him? A memory that they could interact with? "Mm. Ainm Khitti, I think you've won him over with the tea." Her tail happily curls in and around itself, making spiral patterns in the sand and pausing every time her eyes drift back to the wounds. "You spoke so fondly of your old home's traditions, and yet they did this to you..." Karasu trails off.

Khitti offered up the flask to Odhranos then settled herself down in the sand near them after helping with the blanket, but not quite as close to the child as Karasu is. “It’s like that with a lot of other countries. Dhavislaav has a rich culture too. My bakery and my band… I wanted them so I could have a little piece of home here, to mix with my new home. But, there are bad people there that run the place and cling to other unsavory traditions because it helps them keep power. They don’t care about people like us.” That’s why she was in the Syndicate, to help get rid of people like the ones back home. “I wouldn’t be here if one person hadn’t spoken up for me. I would’ve been burned like Valrae had, instead of just banished. I don’t know anything about Odhranos’ past, but if he came here looking like this, I imagine it was about the same as mine.” She pushed back the sleeves of her cardigan, revealing scars that lined not just her arms, but the majority of her body as well. Some were from battle, some were even just from cooking, but some were much more precise, like they were put there by someone with anatomical knowledge. The redhead showed them to Odhranos, offering him a faint smile, hoping he realized that it meant they were the same. But, it didn’t last long before she turned them over slowly to reveal her tattoos--more specifically, her most recent one of strange fire-type beasts that Dominic called Pocket Dimension Creatures. A fox with a thick collar of light orange fur, a black cat with red stripes on his face, and a bright orange chicken ran around in a circle, playing with each other. She was hoping that it would make him a little happy, like it did her son.

Odhranos takes the flask from Khitti with inquisitive delight, sloshing it about as he tries to figure out how to unlock it and reveal its fragrant secrets. Eventually the top is worked off, and placed on the ground, then he sets to the little latch within. It opens with a click and a little flood of tea, which Odhranos celebrates with a dance of joy, wiggling his shoulders under the warm bechickened blanket as he pours a small cup of tea, missing the cup quite a bit and thoroughly dousing the pebbles in the process. The flask is carefully placed aside and the cup is lifted with both hands and sipped carefully. A broad grin spreads across the little boy’s face and he turns to beam gleefully at Khitti. “Blásta! Blásta, Khittee!” He sups heartily from the cup, draining it in a flash. When Khitti rolls back her sleeve, the child’s eyebrows furrow, as he recognises in her a kindred spirit. He reaches out to gently touch her skin, and in doing so, he notices that one of his own arms is a bit paler. Where it had encountered Khitti’s magic during his flailing, the marking has eased, dulling to fainter scarring. The cogs turn in his little grey eyes and he looks up to meet her gaze. “Draíocht?” He asks, then he reaches over and puts his two hands on Khitti’s forearm, scrunching his eyes in concentration. When he lifts his hands, there is no difference, so he decides to add a whoosh noise instead, grinning shyly up at Khitti. Distracted by her tattoos he turns to beam at Karasu. “Karasoo, Karasoo!” He waves excitedly for her to look. The swirling fire-colours of the animals dance in his grey-shining eyes and he whispers quietly to himself. “Draíocht…”

Karasu bites her lower lip as she looks at the scars intersecting the art on Khitti's skin. "I suppose... my upbringing wasn't really that terrible... But I prayed to the God of Truth and He showed me that it was not great either." She doubts herself as she turns her hand over to reveal her palm, calloused from years of training until blisters formed, with scar tissue visible from where spells had backfired terribly. "I think the Xalious I used to know and the Xalious we have to rebuild now are the same." Karasu gives a soft laugh as the small Odhranos adorably mispronounces their name and imitates the magic Khitti did. "Yes, magic can be used for good." She says, though the child has no way of knowing her affirmation. With the sun having dipped below the sea, deep blue remants of light are the only thing illuminating the dusk. Karasu lifts a finger for them both to see. Light glows from the tip of her finger, dim at first, but extending outward until the brightest lights make the silhouette of a butterfly. The illusion takes off, illuminating the pebbly beach where the three sit. It flutters silently around them, then perches on Odhranos' knee. "And one day, you'll do this and so much more."

Khitti smiled at Odhranos and his happiness. She actually looked like she might cry. Okay, yep. There’s a tear. And there’s another. Oh look there’s another one! Khitti quickly realized this and tried to look away, but there was really no hiding the sniffling that soon came with it. She wiped at her eyes, her attention shifting towards the sea as Karasu cast her spell. “It’s getting late. You should take him to my apartment,” she said, fumbling with her pocket to find the key. “You know how to get there right?” She was so overwhelmed by things that she couldn’t quite remember if Quintessa had taken her there or not. “Go down the street behind the bakery, there’s a back door there and the staircase just inside that. Give him whatever he wants to eat and drink. There’s plenty of savory stuff in the ice box and any of the sweets in the bakery itself.” Was this even really him? Would he just disappear in the morning? Would this just be another sad nightmare, like all the others? “You can tell Victoria to send for Quintessa if you wish and I can send someone from the ship with some herbal stuff to treat him with--” Though she’d tell the person delivering it to leave it at the door. “--if he’s not entirely comfortable with this.” By ‘this’, she meant the large pearlescent ball of healing light that she’d summoned as she spoke. “You can stretch out as long as you need and rip it into pieces. It won’t last all night, but it’ll give you time to see if he wants to go that route or not.” She didn’t know what else to say. Didn’t know what more she could do. Khitti was certain she might start crying again if she didn’t leave soon. Hopefully Annette’s hormones weren’t acting up or there might be two crying ladies on that ship.

Odhranos listens to Karasu’s words with a solemn look on his face; though he couldn’t understand her, he could understand from her tone what she was saying was serious. When she raises her finger and brings a luminescent butterfly into existence, the child gapes in wonder as it sails gracefully about his head. He sips his tea happily, wrapped up in this world of wonder, only turning to look away when Khitti starts talking to Karasu. In the dim light that the butterfly casts, he notices the tears on her cheeks. Sitting up onto his knees, sending the butterfly fluttering about his head, he reaches up with the corner of the chicken blanket to dab at the woman’s cheeks. “Sábháilte, sábháilte, sábháilte…” He murmurs, mirroring Karasu’s actions that soothed his tears before. Once he has dried up at least some of her tears, Odhranos goes back to fetch his cup and offers it to Khitti, smiling up at the woman with a grin so bright and pure, you could guide ships with it. “Sábháilte, Khittee!” He laughs, his voice ringing out like a clear bell as he throws his arms around Khitti’s neck, hugging her tightly. He turns and runs over to Karasu, throwing his arms about her too. “"Sábháilte, Karasoo!” He takes a step back and smiles at both mages, his dirty, worn face simply glowing with joy. “Slán!” He chirps cheerily, and then in the moment between one blink and the next, he is gone, leaving only a small mote of silver light behind.

Karasu stares at the spot where the child once stood, leaving only the blanket and flask behind on the shore to be lapped by the waves in the waning light of the day. Karasu touches her neck, still chilled from where the ghost had embraced her. "Slán..." Khitti's tears are mirrored by Karasu's own as she chokes back sobs. The compass is removed from her pocket and opened. As if it were called to action, the silver mote disappears into the void from which the arrow is supposed to appear. There is a dull thrum as the compass springs back to life, pointing an arrow to the southwest. Karasu closes it again, knowing her search for the Archmage was not over yet. The two women leave the pebbled shore behind for the night. There were many things she did not understand. How it was that Karasu and Khitti were able to ease the pains of the young Odhranos' soul would just have to be another one of those mysteries.