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The Heartwood
Dawnview Vale
Dawnview Castle
Hasday, the Eighteenth Day of Tiger

Lyric and Reena

The Castle's towers were narrow, and the rooms set aside for guests were stacked one atop each other — an actual necessity if each was to have a window facing Her sunrise.

Thus, there came a time when Keiko, Lyric, Bekkah, and Cesare would say their goodnights in the hall. Cesare first, Bekkah second, and Lyric and Keiko at the top of the third stair — Lyric staying and Keiko being taken up the next set of stairs.

The room was simple and elegant, and on the table was a crystal lamp, casting its delicate illumination across the room. It made it clear that Lyric was not alone. Leaning against the wall on the other side of the room, next to the fancy window, was Linnell Allaine's bodyguard. The first thing she did was hold up a hand, a simple request for the minstrel to hold for a moment. That moment would make it clear that the Dayalan was not in armor, her sword was at her side but both scabbarded and peace-bonded.

There was no threat in this room.

"Hoi. Minstrel. I want to ask you a question."

She smiled and tilted her head.

"First, you are really, really bad at hiding things, aren't you? So reserved, so silent, so obviously deep in thought and being so very careful that not speaking a word was worse than screaming out at the top of your lungs. So not only are you hiding something, but you are hiding something big.

"Second, you don't know the difference between Court, the battlefield, a market square, or a dinner table. You might think you do and you may complain that you have known all of them all your life, but really? Think about it. You are in Dawnview Castle. You were brought here in the company of Kisa Allaine and Daxia Yurisdotter, and you got past Eleni Allaine.

"Fail one of those checks, and perhaps you could still be a danger to this Family. But all three? That chance becomes as low as a worm beneath a rock in the sand that's been stepped on.

"But you still can't discern the difference between a Court and a friendly gathering in front of a hearth. If you were to ask me, I'd say someone ought to drag you down to the First Light Tavern and get you so soused that you'll be dancing on the tables and not remembering it come the next day. Which makes me conclude...

"...you don't really understand Family."

Bringing her hand up, Reena rustled it through her hair.

"I have three brothers, two sisters, and more nieces and nephews than there are stars in the sky. Fine, not really, but you get all of us together for a Midsummer's, and it sure feels that way. I know how to walk with a kid hanging on each leg, and that is no easy feat. I've never had to not fight for the biggest piece of meat. Most of my life, I shared a bed with my sisters, and I've woken up buried beneath younger relations and their cloth animals more times than you can think. I can't walk five shops in the keep town without being attacked by a sudden hug, and they know to duck if they've surprised me. Is it my fault my various and sundry relations have learned how to sneak up on me? Linny just laughs and says I'm the absolute worst bodyguard in the history of the Allaines.

"And yet...

"And yet it is far too easy to be in a crowded court, a market square when her light is highest in the sky and still be the only one in your world. So I was wondering...

"What's it like growing up alone?"

Lyric, a Minstrel on the Spot

'Court Intrigues' would be nothing new to Léirigh'Amhránaí. But an intrigue that is anything but the Court? And maybe not an intrigue either? Dama Linnell's Bodyguard, Reena, had to offer her 'credentials' as far as her ability to 'read' people in a Court and a Family gifted with those who saw everything. Gift or Curse? It mattered little right now, that was a trifle of whimsy to ponder another time.

Lyric paused a half step as she entered and then let that foot fall and continued into her room. She said nothing to interrupt until Reena had made her point and asked her question. It seemed perfectly fitting, and yet a little disappointing at the same time. But then again, was it really Reena's place to do more than advise her Dama? And that meant all of this was to find some way to make Lyric open up and reveal something from which Reena could draw insight.

When the question came, Lyric had already begun the process of loosing laces and ties in her riding gear. Her duffel had been dutifully delivered to the room and the bed looked quite inviting. This was her appointed room, and Reena had invited herself inside to wait for the Minstrel to retire. Lyric smiled and nodded.

"If that is truly the question you want to ask, then I will answer it simply. Growing up alone, living most of my life alone... usually meant that when I retired to chambers or even a proffered room, I didn't find someone waiting for me there."

Lyric shrugged, the smile returning, and enjoyed the moment.

"The Quiet, Reena," she added with more serious intent. "Or is it more appropriate to call you Dama as well, out of respect for your position here in this Court?"

She removed the riding leathers to reveal that she wore nothing else under them. Lyric was not shy nor was she modest.

"But you only ask that question with the intent of getting me to speak more freely, since you set your hook earlier in your preamble... A secret. A big secret. Maybe you want me to answer one simple question about family while you hope I am off balance in wondering what you might already know, and maybe reveal something more interesting."

"I, on the other hand, might inquire of you if Dama Linnell and you work together in this fashion when curiosity is left unsated... But No, that would be rude and impolite of me as a guest. So I won't ask that question... Instead let us address your true interest..."

"Three tests to get to this place, deep within the Vale. If I had failed one, just one and I would be considered a danger... But I didn't. I passed them all. So those three people must understand who I am. They must all know the answer to the question you really want to ask. Or they believe it doesn't matter. Or maybe it matters but doesn't change anything."

"Maybe I kept my words within myself because any secret that I may or may not possess was now at the discretion of the young Khorall to decide whether or not it would be shared? And, if so, at what time as she best saw fit. That being said, friend Reena, you will need to ask Khorall Kisa, and if she wishes me to add more words then I will abide by her wisdom."

With nothing more than a simple shift, the length of a camisole that barely covered what should rightly have been covered, not that Lyric seemed to care, she crossed the room to the door again. She was making an invitation to end the conversation, but trying to be respectful about it. While she wasn't going to answer the question directly, she wanted Reena to understand something about her, and reveal an aspect of her truth, her secret, a consequence of growing up and living alone... for endless risings and settings of a blood red sun.

The Heartwood
Dawnview Vale
Dawnview Castle
Hasday, the Eighteenth Day of Tiger

Lyric and Reena

"Huh?"

The reaction that Lyric received to her words was mostly confusion, mixed with hints of quiet exasperation and a touch of frustration.

"What does any of that have to do with growing up on your lonesome?"

Her head tilted as she crossed her arms.

"Ask Kisa? How will she know what it was like for you? Would she know what it's like, even for herself? Of course not. While bookish and reclusive, even Kisa grew up in a full court with her sister and foster brother and then Daxia.

"Now you may have taken it wrong, but everything else was to just clear it away. Those are questions that have already been answered, da? They were a herd of slinks and would drag us all sorts of places we don't need or want to go."

The Dayalan too a deep, deep breath.

"It is a simple question.

"Are you going to answer it or not?"

Lyric, a frustrated Minstrel

There was a number said to her at Snowgate Keep. A number of years, the amount of time that had passed since the Shattering War ended, or something like that. Maybe it was the time passed since the beginning of the Shattering War. Lyric was tired and didn't remember the exact words used. It was a tense moment wherein she was taking a great risk to reveal her true self. Beginning or end, it was still a big number to the humans. Shattering war? Her people didn't even call it that. How long had this War lasted? It was a number and it could have been any number. As much as Lyric wanted to hear the number she knew it would not make sense to her because she did not have perspective nor context.

But, by their human sense of the passage of time, her companions and her new friends believed it to be a very long time.

Reena had 'chosen' to hear only the words she wanted to hear so that she could deny that Lyric had given her the best answer she could within the confines of a room with just the two of them present. Frustrating, but Reena didn't know the truth and probably couldn't remotely guess the truth. And, the reaction she received from those in Snowgate, whose sworn duty was to protect members of the royal family of Dawnview, certainly created a tense moment. Lyric didn't want to repeat that in this room.

Only now, in this moment, did the weight of those years place their burden firmly upon her shoulders. She bowed her head to hide her facial expression because it was probably a rudeness not fitting a welcomed Guest of the Khorall. No, that was sarcasm and a thought of exasperation that she dismissed quickly.

Lyric exhaled slowly and nodded, a gesture for her own self as she reconciled her desire to be alone with that of the fact there was no simple answer to give this woman when it was just the two of them present. She walked back to the clothing had had just removed, evaluating the minimum amount she would need to put back on in order to be leave her room and not generate gossip.

Lyric had started with the breeches.

"It is not a 'Simple Question' Reena. But you do not know why it isn't simple. So, I can't fault you for that. But I am a little unnerved that you were in the room offered to me for rest and privacy... waiting for me... as though this were a common practice in Dawnview. I don't know, maybe it is. I am unfamiliar with that though. But, then again, I am unfamiliar with a lot of things that others might take for granted. That is beside the point though... or maybe not... Actually it is probably the whole point. Anyway, you were here, waiting, to ask a question you think is simple... and, without knowing the answer to your question and any other questions that would surely follow given that answer, that you didn't know... Can you not see how I might have perceived you as a risk to my own safety? It is possible, right?"

She waved off any answer to her rhetorical questions as she shimmied herself back into the tight riding leathers.

"So... No, Reena. I will not answer your 'Simple Question'... at this moment."

Lyric tightened the leather strops that snugged the breeches.

"You don't know me and I don't know you. There is no trust established between us. A friend might have leave to wait upon a companion's arrival in a place of rest and sanctuary... but we are not friends. That is not an insult either. We are not enemies. I have enemies. I know the difference."

She then took up a strip of cloth to serve as a belt and banded the shirt about her waist loosely.

"So... as I said, in order for me to tell you about my childhood, I must first consult with Khorall Kisa. Why? Because it is complicated... not simple."

"Not for her permission, though that is a fair effort on my part given this realm is under her governance, but rather to allow her to prepare for the reaction that this... 'Simple Answer'... will create."

Still barefoot, even on the cool stone flooring, Lyric gestured for the door.

"So let us find OUR friend Kisa, and WE will seek her wisdom on this 'Simple Question'... Please lead the way."

The Heartwood
Dawnview Vale
Dawnview Castle
Hasday, the Eighteenth Day of Tiger

Lyric, Reena, and eventually Kisa

"Ah."

The Captain of the Dawnview Castle Guard nodded slowly as she listened quite carefully to Lyric's answer. For, in a way, this was an answer, just as telling as if Lyric had spoken directly to the question at hand. In an ordered world, every cause had an effect. And if that was indeed the way of the world, then from an effect one could then divine the nature of the cause. Here, in Dawnview Vale, not only was that understood, but it was actually practiced by the Noble Family as a matter of course. Reena might not be an Allaine, but she had obviously spent a great deal of time in their company.

Even the chaos of Lyric's own small Village followed that simple principle; indeed, it was perfectly reflected in the oaths and bindings that held her people together.

"If that's the manner you prefer, then so be it. A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed, but now that you insist, your desire is mine to fulfill."

There was a slight change in the timbre of her voice, something any minstrel would readily notice. It had changed from light conversation to something more proper. Perhaps a bit muffled, as if Lyric may have shut a door she hadn't expected to.

Captain Reena led the way from her room through the corridors. They held a pragmatic aesthetic, but the skill and craftmanship betrayed by the Castle's detailing were as fine, or even finer than any courtly building Lyric had seen before. It was also not a short walk, but fairly long, spent in silence, and one with many, many stairs. It seemed not only was Kisa's room in a different tower but one very high in the tower too.

Upon reaching an upper landing, a landing wide enough to hold a few chairs for folks to wait and diamond-paned windows overlooking the Vale, the Captain did not even pause. She walked right up to a beautiful wood door, rapped upon it, didn't wait for an answer, and then opened it.

It seemed that, indeed, the Captain of the Castle did have the right to enter any room of the Castle at her whim, even the Khorall's.

What they found, however, was something that was far from expected. Yes, the Khorall was present. But she was not stirring from the bed, nor was she, as she waited for Daxia's return, reading a book by lamp and moonlight. The room was large and finely furnished. There was a large, empty and still made canopy bed, several chairs and tables for study and entertaining visitors, and beautiful stained glass lancet windows on both the east and west sides, with hinged panes on each side to let in a cool breeze. The odd thing was that all the furniture was crowded along the perimeter of the room.

"Mind your step."

It was definitely Kisa who spoke up. The young woman was sitting about three-quarters of the way out from the center of the room, with several partially filled, cloth bags at her side. Working its way out from the room's center was an incredible sight. Uncountable stone tiles — double bluff tiles — were set out in an intricate spiral pattern, one after another after another. It was not just a simple spiral either — there were branches in its weaving, places where the tiles were set atop each other to create a bridge so individual paths could cross, stacks of tiles creating small towers and whorls here and there that looked like circles of ancient standing stones. Kisa didn't even look up as she very carefully set out tile after tile as if determined to fill the entire room with the small painted tablets.

"Oh, this can't be good..."

While Kisa's words were, on the surface, dark, they were spoken lightly and warmly — as if it was the beginning of something known and family-familiar.

"Hoi. Yon minstrel wants to question you about what happens if she answers my question."

Kisa looked up and blinked. It was an ut-oh kind of blink.

"I asked her what it's like growing up alone?"

Looking between Lyric and Reena, Kisa went a little wide-eyed. Not in shock, but perhaps in a bit of incomprehension. Then she leaned back, placed her hands behind her so she could brace herself as she studied the two who had interrupted her favorite game. Her eyes returned to their normal size and then narrowed. Lyric had seen this before when Kisa was sorting out matters. Just like the tiles on the floor, she was tracing the patterns back from the here and now to their source.

"GAH!"

Sitting forward again, she placed her head in both hands. Then she freed one hand, raising it and popping a single finger upwards.

"First. Reena! You'd ask a black slink why it's black or ask a ruff why it likes to bury bones. I have no idea how Mother puts up with your simple-minded curiosity!"

Then she'd raise another finger.

"Second. Lyric. Our captain might be the best swordswoman in the Vale, but she is, indeed, the most annoying and truly honest simple-minded person between here and either sea. She has not asked you to betray any secrets, to give out any bits or pieces of your personal history.

"If she asked what it's like, she meant just that.

"How it affects you.

"How it feels.

"And that's all.

"Simple-minded."

Lyric, an unconvinced Minstrel

Lyric addressed the Khorall, a new relatively new friend of hers, in a familiar fashion, as that seemed the custom.

"Kisa, while Reena's question might indeed be a simple one to her, it is not a simple one for me. And speaking of complicated things," she added with a glance at a room filled with tiles in a pattern that Lyric could only imagine were representative of a universal concept that came with her Gift. "It was not my intent to disturb you this late."

"I would certainly answer the question were it yourself or Eleni, or any of my travelling companions asking. They understand the context that makes the question complicated for me in particular. How I feel and how it affects me are inextricably woven around Who I am. I am not a simple person. I am a complicated person and my feelings can not be simply expressed in a word or three or even three sentences. My feelings about loneliness could take me an entire evening or maybe three to convey. I mean this as no insult or slight to Reena nor anyone."

She looked to Reena. "There's was no way for you to know that your question was not a simple one to me. If I sounded rude, then allow my honesty in stating that I was unprepared to find you waiting in the room I was offered as a private sanctuary of rest serve as a word of regret. If it is custom in Dawnview vale then I am sadly ignorant. Forgive me of that and my less than hospitable response."

To Kisa again, "I placed a burden upon everyone with whom I travel. When I travelled with you as your guest to the seat from which you govern, that burden was even more weighty upon your shoulders. And so here I am. I simply needed guidance because I truly didn't want to be rude and tell Reena that I would not answer her question because I didn't believe it appropriate to explain more fully without making sure you were informed and that you understood and were prepared. By the same measure it would be rude to be more forthcoming without seeking your wisdom on the matter first. I remember the reaction I received from most of those bearing arms when we gathered on the balcony at Snowgate Keep."

The Heartwood
Dawnview Vale
Dawnview Castle
Hasday, the Eighteenth Day of Tiger

Lyric, Kisa, and Reena

"First, you are not disturbing. Having traveled so long with us, do you truly believe I would not wait for Daxia's return from the temple? And this..."

The Khorall of Dawnview indicated the array of tiles with a straightforward sweep of her hand.

"This I find relaxing. Playful. Enjoyable. For no better reason than to hear the clitter clack of the tiles that will soon come forth. Well, once Daxia returns that is. To share. It has been an enjoyment of mine since before my Mother, her best friend, and the Vale's best teacher all conspired against me. It is something you need to get used to when dealing with Dayalans, Lyric. The very best of them, at their best, are always some manner of busybodies."

Reena didn't seem too disturbed about such a pronouncement, perhaps she even flashed a momentary smile.

"And yes, it is a custom. Nin, more like a tradition, a right, and sometimes a duty. There is no room in this Keep, or any Vale Keep, manor or household that is forbidden to my Mother or the one who looks out for her. I suspect it is now as true for me as it is for Eleni and Slink. I also suspect that if Reena was waiting for you, someone else is now having a conversation with my Mother. On the other hand..."

Kisa quirked a brow.

"If Reena had any ill intent, just as Her light rises and sets every day, you would not have seen the inside of the room."

Kisa took a breath and returned to her careful stacking.

"Now, if you wish, I could attempt to channel Daxia. I have known her for a very long time, and while I may not get her voice right or maintain her warrior look, we are both scholars at heart, and if I close my eyes, I can hear exactly what she would say."

With a small but sincere smile, Kisa did precisely that; she closed her eyes.

"She'd say something like oh, for Her sake, Lyric, just answer the question! You're complicated, so are we, and we have that much in common. Also, you're being silly."

Raising her head, Kisa smiled a bit more.

"As for me, you do not need my permission. You are also not a burden. If I didn't trust you, you would not be in my castle. Reena knows that. She also knows that I trust her, especially if Mother is under the same roof. Yes, I too remember the balcony, but I also recall no blood being spilled and you leaving Snowgate with the blessing of a young Khorall. That said, if you genuinely believe her presence and subsequent question improper, your silence would be a proper answer. It is your choice to make, Lyric.

"Not mine nor anyone else's."

Lyric, a Minstrel

"I have known other Minstrels and any number who might be so bold as to call themselves Bards. I have long believed it best to watch and observe, rather than to interact and alter the events that might shape an age. But, even with all of that considered a truth, I have found that almost all Minstrels like to be the center of attention at some level. I suppose that might be a way to define Silly." And lyric shrugged.

"I didn't come here seeking permission foremost, although it would be a courtesy to seek it when abiding as a guest in the Castle and keep of it's ruler. I came for advice or counsel... and you have offered it freely. And, even offered it on behalf of Daxia as well. I came to make sure you were prepared. And should the moment come for you to topple these tiles, that you are not surprised by how dramatic a 'complicated' Minstrel can be when the things she says or does cause... ripples."

Lyric turned her attention back to Reena.

"I will answer your question... for, as the Khorall mentioned, HER sake."

There, in the presence of Kisa and all her waiting tiles, Lyric assumed the role of storyteller.

"That I grew up alone is true. That I lived most of my life in a relative state of seclusion is also true. But for me to tell you what it was like is not easy to answer. I can better tell you how it felt than I can tell you what it was like. I remember my childhood only in glimpses and snatches of moments, fragments stolen from an abyss of lost thoughts and memories, buried under the murky mire of many other remembrances as equally lost and exiled to the darkness of my own dreams, weighed down by the unending passage of time that I had no means to measure."

"I always felt lonely. Even among gatherings of my Clann and of my Court. I studied music and became well skilled in all the ways of technical understanding and application... and yet I had to learn how to find the emotion of it entirely on my own."

"I was among the last generation of children to be born to my people. I am now and always will be a child to my elders, and all of my people are my elders. This is a state of being that i had voice in the making, and the repercussions may well have been unintended, but not without consequence. I do believe I was born before one stone was ever stacked upon another stone and then another and finally called Dawnview Castle."

"I am Fae."

The Heartwood
Dawnview Vale
Dawnview Castle
Hasday, the Eighteenth Day of Tiger

Lyric, Kisa, and Reena

"You do realize that's even better, da? How it feels. As an old writer once said, ‘facts... they are the enemy of truth.’ What it feels like is..."

The Dayalan bodyguard's shoulders rose and fell.

"...more important that historical tidbits."

That may have been a bit unexpected. It wasn’t as though Dawnview's Captain didn’t listen intently to every word, rubbing the back of her neck to help untangle some of the unfamiliar situations behind the minstrel's words. On the other hand, perhaps it should have been expected — Reena was, in truth, more interested in the answer to her question than what species of person Lyric was.

"Court and clans and still alone?

"I have always wondered if it was even possible... to be among many people and yet still feel alone. Perhaps it is the exact opposite feeling I have, having that comfortable feeling that I'm not alone even when there is no one else in the keep but me.

"When I grew up, it seemed like forever, always sharing a room, always sharing a bed, always arguing over who cut the pie and then who chooses the first slice. But even for me, it feels like a forever — or perhaps, more importantly, an always. Perhaps there is a difference, a difference between ‘forever’ and ‘always.’

"It doesn't take long for something to become the way of the world, does it now?

"There's a difference between feeling crowded and feeling you are in good company. I suspect there is a difference between solitude and being alone then.

"There's a choice there. Like I told Kisa a long while ago, there's a difference between being a scholar and being a hermit.

"You make a choice and then you own it, da?"

Kisa nodded solemnly.

"Being a hermit means closing the door on a bothersome Dayalan bodyguard. Being a scholar means I can throw a book at her and tell her to leave me be."

Reena simply crossed her arms at that.

"As for the rest, that's an awfully long time to be alone. You might want to consider changing that."

She then leaned on the door frame, a safe distance from Kisa's tiles.

"Fae.

"Huh."

Her shoulders rose and fell again.

"Well.

"You gotta admit it's a little late for me to be complaining about that. The horse not only has been let out of the barn but its visiting friends down in Corliss by now. You are here and still wearing your head, and that means you got past Daxia, Eleni, and most importantly, Dandelion Koromov.

Reena tilted her head.

"To be alone in a clan and Court. That's given me something to really think about now. Something to mull over for quite a while; to keep me sharp and not sleepy on the night's watch.

"Which I should start.

"After I find someone's mother and drag her out of whichever room she has decided to visit."

And with that, Reena took her leave, shutting the door behind her. Kisa just shook her head.

"We learned long ago, it's so much easier to just answer her questions, no matter how odd they are."

Returning to her tiles, Kisa smiled.

"I'm waiting for my Knight. There's no reason for you to stay up; morning comes early here. In fact, morning in Dawnview actually is earlier than anywhere else on the mainland."

Lyric

"Hmmm," came the sound though she never opened her mouth. The Minstrel stood there, watching the door, and considering the interaction that just took place. At the sound of Kisa's voice and turned her head to regard the Khorall amidst her hundred if not thousands of tiles. Seemed more a game of skill, dexterity, and precision than an actual means to divination. But Lyric knew nothing of it and thus her opinion of it was meaningless.

"Then Kisa, by your leave, I will retire to my room for the night. I will be up as early as any here..." She swept her two hands about her her face and down her body, following the natural curves, as if she were framing her physical appearance.

"This requires magic, and magic requires rest..."

(seems as good as spot as any to close this one)