Log Date: 6/3/96, 6/9/96 Log Cast: Rayek, Ekuar, Tilia, Mender, Ktai Log Intro: Tensions remain between Rayek and Tilia, as the airwalker awaits the arrival of Mender.... ---------- Near the Palace, Tilia watches the sun by the Palace doors, sitting back on her legs like she were genuflecting to some greater god. Ekuar steps out of a cave high above and comes down to the open floor of the Pass. Ekuar has arrived. Rayek, up on a level stretch of rock overlooking the Palace, hangs there floating, spear in his hands, working methodically through a series of feints and thrusts. Near the Palace, Tilia is still doing her thing. Ekuar taps his way out of the little cave, following the faint path scraped by the regular passage of his feet when he retreats to the coolness inside. He blinks about in the brightness and notices Rayek practicing; he watches the athletic prowess with fond pride. Youngblood leans against the wall of the palace, noticing nothing, chewing thoughtfully on his lip. Rayek's lean brown form glows in the desert-heated air, not only with a glimmer of magic, but also with a sheen of sweat on his brow, his bare limbs. Ekuar props himself on his staff and waves cheerfully up at his hovering student. "How's the air up there, eh?" Rayek draws the spear around to rest in his hands, then lands, neatly. An uneasy glance down the hill towards the Palace signals the airwalker has noticed who is out today, as he says quietly to Ekuar, "Hot." Ekuar nods agreeably, squinting as he glances up at the sky. "Makes me wish I shared your lovely coloring, my boy. Eh! Spent so long away from the daystar, I always seem to keep the shade of cave-fish." Ekuar mops his pale brow. Near the Palace, Tilia opens an eye, slow, unfocused darkness as sounds of otherworldly creatures floats over her ears. Rayek doesn't quite smile, as he looks down at the ancient. "I would tell you to sit in the sun a bit each day, but there is barely any of you to make browner, and I wouldn't want you to shrivel..." The words should be teasing, but Rayek's gaze keeps flicking down to Tilia, by the Palace wall. Youngblood glances towards Rayek and Ekuar, and smiles faintly. Ekuar beams at Rayek. "I'll just wear my hat, then. Eh..." his forehead wrinkles vaguely. "...if I can remember where I put it. Hm." He frowns slightly, absently, at the lapse in his often-scattered thoughts... or is the frown also triggered by the obvious unease in Rayek's glances toward Tilia? Near the Palace, Tilia's eye fades lighter again, as she closes the darkness from the world and keeping it inside. Her hands rest limp on either side of her, her head back against the wall, and but for the slight motion in her face and gentle breathing she could be just another Goback casualty desperately far from home. Rayek stares down at the slumped little elf, and the brown skin at the corners of his eyes tightens, as his eyes narrow. "It's in the cave, Ekuar," he says, absently, gaze still focused down the hill. Ekuar follows Rayek's gaze and says mildly, "The Palace always casts such a lovely cool shadow." He glances gently at Rayek's preoccupied face. "Come, maybe we could go-- eh-- sit there for a while. Rest in the Home's welcoming shade. Hm?" Brown eyes are large and hopeful. Rayek's entire frame tenses, though he does look down at Ekuar's entreating features, and he growls out reluctantly, "If... you wish..." Ekuar tucks his staff against his body and reaches out familiarly to Rayek, thin fingers lightly resting on his arm. "Oh, please. I do wish. The Palace's stone is so wonderful to sit with. So old! So good to know and to touch. Even outside, the Palace is still the Palace." Rayek's arm might be stone itself, tense as it is under the oldster's gentle digits, but he allows the smaller elf to lead him down the hill and into the Palace's shadow. Not once does he speak, though. Ekuar approaches the huge stone structure. Ekuar has left. Near the Palace, Ekuar has arrived. Near the Palace, A small insect alights briefly above Tilia's eyebrow, finding its bearings in a short-lived world, and presses its wings on again to the air-currents. Palace(#500Jae) You see before you a tall stone structure, taller by far than any elf or human or troll. There is something odd about its appearance -- it almost seems to blend in with its surroundings, at least if you are not close to it. But the closer you get, the more it seems to *tug* at you, and show to you its battered towers and spires. The nearest wall sports a long, winding ripple that might once have been a mighty crack, and the nearest visible entryway, a doorway at least as tall as two elves, sports a pair of heavy, ornate doors. Contents: Ekuar Tilia Traveling Tent(#6955ALe) Obvious exits: Doorway You approach the huge battered stone structure. Rayek, spear still clenched in his other hand, pauses at last on the fringe of that glimmering shade. His face has turned as stony as his arm, and he goes no further. Ekuar hobbles toward the Palace, eyes virtually caressing the well-loved walls and spires as he regards them. There's a likely-looking spot against the wall, but as Rayek halts, so does he. He looks up, coaxing. "Brownskin..." Tilia's closer eye opens with deliberation, and her dark eye slides toward the two shapes, so near. For a long moment, she considers them. Rayek, with Tilia well within earshot now, and her gaze on him, does not appear to notice Ekuar's cajoling. "Rest... here if you wish," he finally mutters gruffly to the latter. "I will... bring the waterskin." Rayek's amber gaze stays on the Go-Back, though. Ekuar patpats at the darkskinned arm and glances eagerly at a nice cool spot against the sweeping Palace wall. "Some water would-- eh-- go down well. I'll lean my old bones over there." There is a hushing of sounds in the mind, conversations off in some astral distance crowding together in their silence, then fading back away. Rayek gives the barest of nods to his aged mentor, then turns, as if to move away up the hill again. But he pauses again, casts a narrow-eyed glance over his shoulder towards Tilia. "Thank you," he says, voice rough-edged, "for not blocking my send to Savah." Tilia shows sign of distraction, disorientation, blinking rapidly, squinting even in the shade. There's a way of speaking, she remembers, and tries it out. "Why should I have," comes the reply on a soft breath of voice. Ekuar totters over to the smooth wall and settles against it, leaning his slender back to the stone with a comfortable wriggle, stretching his legs out before him. His staff rests nearby. As he rests his head against the powerful structure, he absently strokes the stone with his hand... not shaping, simply touching for the pleasure of it. Both Rayek's shoulders stiffen, on either side of his fall of ebon hair and the feathers that are bound in those strands. He is silent for several heartbeats, considering replies, before he finally delivers one in a tone as stiff as his carriage: "To teach me humility, perhaps?" Tilia starts to say something, her tense form coming easily to her, then looks away, words unsaid hot in the late afternoon air. Ekuar's gaze rests on Rayek, taking in the exchange between his student and the GoBack. Although he has little place in the conversation, he offers, "I'm glad you called for help, Brownskin. The pretty Glider needed-- eh-- something, despite her wish for no healers." "Hopefully... Mender will be able to provide it," Rayek growls, then strides off out the shade. He does not bother to float, as he heads up the hill... You move away from the huge stone structure, stepping around the rubble that litters its immediate vicinity. Wide Pass Through World's Spine Mountains This wide pass is nearly an entire days' ride from one side to the other, from what you can tell. The sun is still hard and heavy here, but the looming presence of the mountains to either side seem to lessen the drain of the barren waste. Contents: Palace(#500Jae) Obvious exits: Northwest South Near the Palace, Tilia looks about her person, frowning, having not counted on this. Near the Palace, Ekuar watches Rayek as he goes... his eyes are thoughtful. One gaunt finger traces delicately along the stone wall, and there is the faintest sparkle of power there, leaving an almost imperceptible line gently drawn into the stone where his hand passes. Rayek stalks, as if placing his feet in something unpleasant, up the rocky slope to the cave that has been serving as his sleeping place for moons now. Only when he reaches the mouth of the cave does he lift a hand, reaching into the shadows up there, to summon out a waterskin... no. Two. They float to his waiting grasp, before he turns to stalk back down towards the pair in the shade. Palace(#500Jae) You see before you a tall stone structure, taller by far than any elf or human or troll. There is something odd about its appearance -- it almost seems to blend in with its surroundings, at least if you are not close to it. But the closer you get, the more it seems to *tug* at you, and show to you its battered towers and spires. The nearest wall sports a long, winding ripple that might once have been a mighty crack, and the nearest visible entryway, a doorway at least as tall as two elves, sports a pair of heavy, ornate doors. Contents: Ekuar Tilia Traveling Tent(#6955ALe) Obvious exits: Doorway You approach the huge battered stone structure. Tilia glances up at the stomping blackhair. Ekuar perks up. "A cool drink. Eh, just the thing. Would you bring it here?" He pats the stone, and the sparkle of power fades from his fingertips. "It's so nice here, a good resting spot..." Rayek pauses again, on the outer edge of the Palace's shadow, face set and grim. He lifts the hand with the waterskins, and the first floats over to Ekuar. Watching the floating skin, Ekuar does not show the delight he usually feels at Rayek's powers. Instead, his face falls slightly, and he remains quiet. Rayek turns without a word, and floats the second skin to land, within arm's reach, of the Go-Back. At last he turns back, to move off towards the cave once more. You move away from the huge stone structure, stepping around the rubble that litters its immediate vicinity. Wide Pass Through World's Spine Mountains Contents: Palace(#500Jae) Obvious exits: Northwest South Ekuar locksends ** Won't you come sit with me, dear one? ** Rayek says over his shoulder as he goes, "I will have to replenish our water supply." You locksend ** I... am not welcome there, Ekuar. ** to Ekuar. Rayek pauses a moment, head lowering, though he does not glance back at the other two elves. Near the Palace, Tilia does not let the water fall from the air, put puts it down gently, and leans back again against the wall. You sense in a locksend, Ekuar sends firmly, gently, ** You are welcome with -me-, my dear. And the Palace welcomes you. Even the GoBack could not begrudge you a nice rest against the stone of our race's Home. ** A wordless caress, the curling of mind-self around you in an embrace. ** Do not exile yourself, Brownskin, when there is no need... ** Near the Palace, Tilia says quietly toward Ekuar, turning her head so that her hair catches against the rough stone wall, "Does he never try to understand?" In the moment he pause, Rayek is clearly sending -- this close to the Palace, sends from the airwalker cannot help but be dimly perceived, to any elf who can hear sendings at all, as a breath of a ripple in the magic-infused air. His sending, though, snaps off when his head snaps around, just enough for him to glare back with one amber eye. "You were plain enough with your dagger, Tilia -- you named me liar, user, abuser, and abandoner. What's to understand?" Near the Palace, Tilia leans back against the wall, leaning on her legs, much as she was before. Her eyes are on Rayek, but her answer, if there is one, is silent. Near the Palace, Ekuar gives a mild, apologetic shrug. "You must admit, warrior, you haven't always been clear with your reasons... I''ve tried and tried, but-- eh!-- I'm unable to understand it, myself." Rayek turns around again, the better to look at Tilia fully. His gaze has turned positively thunderous, but as if he's allowing himself to unleash anger only in that heated stare, he states almost tonelessly, "Against all my hope Leetah has forgiven me -- and you, as much as she, have the right to demand apology of me. You have it." Near the Palace, Tilia looks up slowly, understanding the thunder and the anger, a mirror to it all. "Not to me, /Rayek./ Only one requires your appology. Only you can find the one. Only you can appologize." Near the Palace, Ekuar slowly leans and retrieves his staff, using it to lever himself upright. He gives one last pat to the Palace stone with a loving hand, slings the waterskin over his thin back, and begins to hobble away from the structure. "The shade is nice," he says, almost to himself, nodding amiably at Tilia as he goes. "But without you, Brownskin, it's never truly restful." Near the Palace, Ekuar has left. Ekuar moves away from the huge stone structure nearby. Ekuar has arrived. "If I have not lost the ability to find the High One," Rayek tells Tilia, without inflection, "and if She will hear me... I will make my apologies to Her, as well." With that, he turns away once more, finishing, "Perhaps then, I will accept my own apology." Ekuar's staff scrapes quietly as he makes his way back toward the little cave, his eyes resting until the last moment on Rayek. Ekuar slips into a cave up the mountainside. Ekuar has left. Near the Palace, Tilia snorts. Nuff said. [Tensions remain between Rayek and Tilia, as at last, Mender answers Rayek's sending call....] Near the Palace, Tilia carefully pushes open the door from inside the Palace and joins you. Near the Palace, Tilia has arrived. Mender crawls out of his small tent and stretches his arms out tightly to wake himself up. He blinks around at the light of the desert and finds himself gazing rather longly at the palace Up on the hillside, Rayek's lean figure crouches, not in immediate sight, but plain enough to any who look up in that direction. Near the Palace, Tilia sits herself down against the Palace and works on some leatherworking. Rayek spies the figure of Mender, below, and nods to himself in something that might be satisfaction. He floats up... then spies the smaller figure nearer to the Palace, and a scowl crosses his face. After a moment, he glides down towards the golden-haired healer, calling, "Mender." Mender lets out a breath after stretching himself out and begins to walk over to the Palace, then blinks and looks over to the voice, taken in a bit of surprise. "Oh... Rayek." Near the Palace, Tilia looks up, then back to her leatherworking without apperant concern. Rayek lands, gracefully, but with a certain tension, his attention directed away from the Palace's shimmering form. "Thank you for coming," he says lowly, pitching his voice to carry no farther than it has to. Mender Slender as a whip, with leanly defined muscles, this young elf moves with lupine grace. He is richly tanned, but palely, hinting that while he might be a desert-dweller, he is not a Sun Villager by birth. His hair is a pale, bleached blond, wavy and tumbled; it hangs loosely about his angular features and down to his shoulders in back. Slanted and wideset, his eyes are a warm shade of grey, like the sky during a gentle rain. Over his sparse desert-dweller's garb, he has thrown on a deep turquoise-hued hooded cloak, trimmed in gold stitchery. Whenever this cloak swirls out of the way, his green and blue paneled loincloth and the teal clearstone ornaments on his golden belt, collar, and armband can be seen. On his feet he wears light boots of blue, green, and gold, open at the toe and heel. Mender takes a step toward you and nods, a glint of concern in his eyes. "I am needed." He tilts his head softly. "But I'm not exactly sure why." Rayek, looking rather more crudely clad than the last time the young wolf-blooded healer saw him, gives a short, sharp gesture up the hillside. "There is an elf, a floater; her magic is burned out of her head." His mouth quirks. "You were the closest I could reach, who has seen such a thing before." Mender looks at you for a moment. Rayek(#3218PBOUXace) Lean, angular lines and bold shades define the frame and form of this elf. Deep golden-brown skin clearly marks him as one born under a hot Daystar, and is set off against near-waistlength, uncompromisingly straight hair, black as a starless night sky; eyes of a molten shade of amber dominate his aquiline features. He moves with a hunter's sharp, smooth grace, but there is an added fluidity to his motion and stance, making him seem to float even when he is at rest. Pride, too, is always present in his speech, sending, and carriage, suggesting a supreme awareness of any impact he is about to make on his surroundings - and assurance that this impact will be naturally worthy of notice. For those that know this elf personally, his current garb might well strike them as surprisingly crude. He is clad only in roughly tanned breeches, furred boots, and a vest laced about his torso, all in varying shades of undyed brown. His hair is caught back from his face in a long and flowing tail, and worked into the thong holding his hair is a pair of vivid, bright red feathers. Around his neck he wears a silver necklace, in the shape of a wolf's head. Mender thinks for a quick moment while studying you, then nods thoughtfully. "A glider..." he frowns softly in thought. "What happened?" Near the Palace, Tilia looks up again from her unhurried task, keeping the object (a boot, soft and small, by the looks of it) half-worked in her hand. Rayek keeps his back to the Palace and the elf working there; a short glance at Mender suggests he's aware of the latter's scrutiny, but then Rayek's amber gaze proceeds up the hillside. "Ktai said that she attempted to 'go out', sensing her daughter in peril. But she does not have that skill, and it hurt her gravely to try it." Mender frowns softly, looking both worried and slightly discusted at the same time. "Why would anyone try to do something that they can't do..." he shakes his head softly and then looks back, a glint of realization in his eyes. "Does she -want- to be helped?" Rayek gives a brief, but eloquent shrug. "She consented to my call to Sorrow's End, and to wait for your arrival. She is not fit to travel elsewhere." Rayek gesutres up the hill, once more. "She rests, in a cave, out of the Daystar's heat." Near the Palace, Tilia seems to give a thought some realization and returns to her work, carefully making each tie complete, snug, overlapping the worked leather. Mender blinks in confusion at that. "Why not in the Palace? Surely that would be able to help her." "She said," replies Rayek, his voice and face inexplicably tautening, "that she prefers to be outside. Will you look her over, healer?" Mender nods, without hesitation. "Of course! Should we go to her?" Ktai steps out of a cave high above and comes down to the open floor of the Pass. Ktai has arrived. A tall elf in yellow silk staggers out of a small cave and peers about. Rayek begins to float up, and pauses. "Ktai," he says lowly to Mender. "It is she who needs your aid." Near the Palace, Tilia, satisfied with the small boot, puts it aside and begins without any moment's hesitation or scanning of the distant faces to pick up some roughly cut leather. With the tip of her metal knife she begins to perforate it with holes. Mender turns his head to look over, silently examining the figure, and nods. The tall elf notices the gathering, and begins to slowly walk towards the Palace. Rayek calls, "Ktai. The healer has come." Ktai's lips move, but anything she may have said is too quiet to have been heard. Ktai nears finally, coming to a wavering halt near the Palace steps. Rayek turns, but with evident reluctance, to face the tall elf and the Palace's glimmering walls. She sits, a bit too quickly, on a step. Rayek, perhaps oddly, makes no move to approach the Palace himself, but instead mutters to Mender, "She does not have much strength to stand." Near the Palace, Tilia looks up, now, at the one sitting so close. Ktai flushes a pale pink. "I'm trying..." Her voice is feeble and whispery, and she notices Tilia's glance. "I'm sorry... I'll move..." Ktai stands, but only takes two of three steps before sitting unceremoniously on the sand. Ktai says "Then again... maybe I'll just sit here until I wake up." Near the Palace, Tilia says finally, speaking to the glider, "Only by your own choice." Once more Rayek's angular features tighten. He turns slightly away, and eyes Mender, perhaps sending. Ktai, now on the sand, just shakes her head. "It's all right. One elf cannot have a choice while another does not have a choice." You locksend ** Go to her. Aid her. Please. ** to Mender. Near the Palace, Tilia nods. "If you say," she replies darkly and looks down again to her leatherworking, poking holes with increased vigor. Ktai opens her palm and stares at her pebbles. Mender looks with gently narrowed eyes at Ktai then nods briefly at Rayek. He pads over to Ktai. Ktai looks up slowly and looks at Mender with a neutral expression. Mender locksends ** What is her name? ** Rayek turns away from the Palace entirely, with one last look at Mender. You locksend ** Ktai. ** to Mender. Rayek, with that, floats up the hillside, and eventually lights on a craggy boulder, brooding, out of earshot and immediate line of sight. [End log.]