Path of Exiles- Wine and Talking (Second Night in Astor)

[redcoat]

Migration from the Enjin platform

[opius]

The Red Coat:
+It was time- time to face everything and have it out with Tali, to truly clear the air between them and move on from the near constant spats. It wasn't good for them, it wasn't good for the group- and twelve days on the road with a company walking on eggshells around them was just a recipe for disaster.

In one hand, she held a medium sized tray, loaded with food. Meat, cheese, some fruit, and half a load of bread would be- should be- enough to keep them from getting too terribly intoxicated. There were some things she wasn't ready to say, and some things she wasn't ready to hear, and her talk with Alistair had brought it much too close to the surface to risk drunkenly blurting it out.

In the other hand, she'd carefully balanced the bottle of Giftmouth and two glasses. It wasn't a huge bottle, but Tali was a bit of a lightweight when it came to booze, and her own tolerance had been lacking considerably.

Hands full, she lightly kicked the door with the toe of her boot to 'knock'. "Tali- malia ten' yulna?" She didn't know if he'd want a drink after the previous day's spat, but it was as good an opening line as any.+

Taliesin:
:: Taliesin didn't respond out loud. There was no sound coming from the room in general. It was 30 seconds before the door quietly swung open. "Uma ..." He came out from behind the door his expression going from defeated to the strong Mareki expression he learned to put forth. He made a broad gesture motioning her to come into the room.

On the edge of the bed was half of the Mareki garb, bunched up in a ball. He had pants and the sleeveless shirt on as the bare minimum to be able to entertain other company if necessary.

" You look like you've had a busy day." He waited for her to fully enter the room before he closed the door::

The Red Coat:
+Sae had almost given up- but she wanted to get everything cleared before they hit the road, and... bravery. She was supposed to be brave.

"It was productive- ran some errands, priced out possibly getting a wagon. Gave thanks to Talos, and apologized to Alistair for seeing him naked." She said dispassionately, moving into the sitting area of the room. She spotted the balled up Mareki clothing- including his second class sash- but didn't mention it, instead turning and setting down the food, popping open the wine and pouring two glasses.

"The only thing left on my list is to try and clear the air between us." She said, sipping from one of the wine glasses and sitting on the edge of his bed, her fingers touching the fine silk of his discarded sash. "It seemed like we were getting better after we arrived in Astor, but that doesn't seem the case anymore."+

Taliesin:
::Taliesin latched the door and almost glided across the floor in silence, taking a seat after she had already began pouring the glasses. "Yes. In most other cultures seeing each other naked is more intimate." He reached out for a glass but stopped at her statement.

It was difficult for him to keep up one facade after another when he had just started to let it go. The glass of wine lay cradled in his upturned right hand, stem between the ring and middle fingers. As he thought his answer through the glass tipped in a slow circle causing the liquid to swish among the crystalline walls. He was silent for almost a minute when the motion stopped and the glass was returned to a resting state outside of his grasp.

"I made a deal with a deity - The father of our people. The one who lays the path that the Alurani follow." He reached back and withdrew the ivy wrapped blade from his scabbard, a soft mist playing at the edges. He gently placed it in between them. "Emboldened in not needing to hide I took up the quest in earnest. Especially after hearing information that you kept locked away." He stood and lifted the sash from her grasp.With a twist the back was revealed. Unlike the immaculate repairs his had an obvious repair along the edge - a repair he started to work loose. "You know - no one would tell me anything when I returned, right? Just that you were betrothed, you killed him for a grave misdeed, and that you were in recovery."

He sat back down fiddling with the seam slowly as not to actually tear the fabric any further.::

The Red Coat:
+Sae frowned deeply. "It's not... I didn't mean to keep it locked away, but I thought the Kel Mar gossip circles would have blessed everyone within a twenty league radius of the story, and... I trust you not to over react to what I did, but Alistair? Konane? Betrothed means something different to them entirely. They aren't hardened like we are. When they hear 'Sae butchered her fiance in fit of rage', they are going to get very different ideas about... everything."

Sighing deeply, she rested her head on his shoulder as he sat down next to her.

"I wish there was more to tell you. After I failed to take my final oaths to be a cleric, my mother arranged my marriage to Elta Faylin, the eldest of the Faylins' heirs and a family in slightly better standing than ours. The match was agreeable enough. Elta was... alright. Upstanding Mareki youth and all that. But... the family seemed a little too clean, and something about them made my hair stand on end. He was a bit too protective of his own time. You know how shit I am at leaving things alone. So, when they were away from the house at a Guildmasters' meeting, I broke into their house for a closer peek. And found... absolutely nothing of interest." Sae frowned, draining the glass of wine and fiddling with the empty glass.

"I found the secret staircase in his father's study completely by accident. I went down, I found an altar devoted to Ruin, and a ledger confirming Elta's devotion... things get a bit fuzzy around the edges after that. I am told that I rather brutally dispatched Elta at the Guildmasters' Hall before I was tackled by several guards and dragged to the prisons. I was in prison for a time, and the ledger they found on me was evidence enough to clear my name eventually. I've no sense of time. My mother was eager to try and marry me off to someone else, but no one really wants a daughter in law known for butchering fiances. That was about when you came back, I think. Less than a month later my father had word to Kaladin and we were leaving for the Black Tower. And that's the whole story- literally everything I remember." She finished and lifted her head off his shoulder, pouring herself another glass of wine.+

Taliesin:
::Taliesin stopped working the thread loose when Sae's head hit his shoulder. Silence kept him well while she laid her story out before him. Had she been taller his head would have fallen against hers, but as it was he would have to move for that. The story didn't give him pause or any concern. Every detail she offered simply helped him paint a more vivid picture.

He returned to freeing the black thread from the back of the sash as her head lifted. Once the last loop was moved he opened the seam and pulled free a wax coated envelope.

"The rumor mill was dead silent." He offered as he carefully broke the seal on the envelope. "That is why I had no patience yesterday. When I returned I was given the most basic of answers and was all but kept from speaking with you." He withdrew a smoothed yet heavily crinkled letter from the envelope. He placed it beside her and then dropped the envelope atop the sash beside her. The offered glass of wine was lifted again and he drank. At first it was the smallest sip to taste. With the nectar upon his lips he swirled the wine and the glass and tipped it back to allow it slide down his throat smoothly.

"My pact with Silvanus has two tenets. The first is that I work to unite all the elves for the coming conflict. The second that I fight Ruin." The now emptied glass was placed on the tray of food. He had forgotten to eat today. This realization led him to pick several pieces of cheese and meat from the tray. "And for those two acts of devotion he will give me power to aide my people and gain revenge on those to blame." He sat back down beside her. "So add those together with the silent wall at my return and the sudden revelations at the Wayward Mariner and you can see that I was more than eager to know more details."

A piece of cheese was the first food he popped in his mouth. It was an interesting blend akin to cheddar. This was paired with some sort of meat the consistency of salami but with a more earthy flavor. He altered back and forth from cheese to meat and back again for the remaining handful.

He went silent to allow his words to rest and to offer Sae the chance to reply or to read the letter he left for her.::

The Red Coat:
+Sae nodded. "And my story, hopefully, explains a little why I was nervous when Alistair dropped the bomb that you served someone I did not know. I'd.... I'd handle things differently, now. But sometimes I fly into a rage and I cannot seem to reason my way out of it." She frowned a little, picking up the letter and holding it for a moment- assuming that if he was going to stop her from reading it, he would.

"I'm probably not a great offering for Sylvanus's plan to unite the tribes; it was made clear at my tribunal that I'm a pretty shitty Mareki, especially when compared to my siblings. But my oath is yours, always, Tali."

And with that, she put her half empty glass to the side and read the letter.+

Taliesin:
:: The letter was in a hand that would be quite familiar to Sae. This letter had to be years old at this point

"Sin, you've been told all you need to know. You've always been a good Mareki soldier, but know that Erevan's name is not highborn enough for you to be in consideration - even with your standing, even if all potential suitors refuse. Without proof of true lineage there is nothing. I have my suspicions which out of respect I will keep silent. You will find no answers beyond those you have and you do not want more attention on you. - Wrath"

While she read he had poured himself another glass of wine and moved to sit on the bed again. ::

The Red Coat:
+Sae wasn't a reader, and so it took her a minute to review the letter and take in all of it's implications. The first one- Tali and Ratha still wrote to each other, using cute nicknames. Well, how about that.

In the second read through, she got that Tali was asking Ratha, informally, about someone's hand. Arranged marriages were more common than not among Mareki, and it was also common to reach out to the family informally before formal arrangements could be made. Mothers, older sisters and the like were...

Oh.

OH.

Sae blinked a couple times, looking at the letter with new eyes, before looking back up again at Tali.

"You... you were asking for my hand? But... but why?" Her face was flushed bright red.+

Taliesin:
::As Sae read he watched her eyes. When she got to the bottom of the letter he took a deep sip of the second glass of wine he had poured. He watched her for a reaction, forgetting for a short time that she needed multiple read throughs to pick up on everything. Once he saw her reaction he turned his whole body. His right leg tucked under the left as he faced her completely.

"I lost my chance when you were chosen to be of the Talos clergy. I then gained and lost my chance when I came back and heard." He moved the glass of wine to his left hand and rummaged through the pile of Mareki clothes. He jumped as if something bit him. With resolve he withdrew the Mareki hair brooch from the mess of fabric. "I once knew a little girl that had the Mareki passion that I was taught quickly to exemplify. But she didn't have it to hide."

He held out the brooch in his upturned hand, resting across his fingers to allow light to streak across the symbol of Talos. "It was a thing of beauty like she was. And I felt that if I never returned home I could at least work to better the tribe from within with her." His eyes lifted from the brooch to see her reaction. He took the long way around to answer her question, and the wine had indeed helped some. It only worked to loosen his lips and embolden the words he pieced together before going into trance each night. ::




The Red Coat:
+Sae blinked, watching him talk in confused, stunned silence. This was not what she expected- never in a million years. Never in two million years. Her icy eyes narrowed at him in confusion.

"I.... Tali." She sighed and shook her head, taking the brooch and pinning it onto her sash with one hand- as the other remained holding his.

"My mother has not managed, in all the time I have been alive, to stop me from doing what I want to do. From my pet skunk to learning dwarvish, from getting tattoos to carousing with whoever I damn well please at the docks.

If you think she could stop me from the one thing I have wanted since I was eight and I saw you standing over Elladan with his nose broken in two places, then you've underestimated me completely." She sighed and leaned into his side, the way she'd done a hundred times before.

"I mean, I have documented proof via tribunal transcripts that I am considered an all around failure of a Mareki, and we both know me going to the Black Tower was an unofficial exile, so I'm not sure how I fit into you and Sylvanus' grand plans for uniting the tribes. But my place is beside you. Always."

Speeches done and given, she drained her wine glass and set it to one side.

"Damn. Now I've lied to Alistair."+

Taliesin:
::Taliesin gave Sae a look with a tilt to his head. This look was given many a time in the past when she was clearly not including something in her thought process. "You forget that your mother has the power and reach to get things taken care of. Sure she couldn't stop you from carousing, but you didn't fight against the betrothal."

He finished his second glass of wine down to the last drop and laid the glass on its side. "You're the ideal of the original Mareki. You are bound by honor and recognize, as your father, that not all fights are honorable. If the Mareki still had greater honor you would have had different official documents."

"And exile? Wasn't it your father who had helped you get to the Black Tower with Kala- wait... lied to Alistair? What do you mean now you lied to Alistair?"::

The Red Coat:
+Sae shrugged her shoulders. "My mother's grip ends at the borders of Illyria, and last I checked, we aren't in Illyria. I didn't fight against the betrothal to Elta, because you seemed to have made it clear enough that I was just a little girl with an unrequited crush, and I was trying to grow up and beyond it."

Carefully pushing his clothing pile off of the bed, she grabbed a pillow and stretched out, looking up at his serious looks with an eye roll.

"It's a soft exile. My father knew it was best to get me away from Kel Mar, my mother, and society. He knew a Marini who was a gunslinger, and that would take me far away. I don't know, will never know what Kaladin saw in me that first meeting, but he did agree to it. " She waved off the thought. Whether or not her exile was in her head or not didn't really matter.

"And I lied to Alistair, because less than an hour ago I let him know that we are not, in fact, romantically involved as you had no interest in me in that way."+

Taliesin:
::Taliesin shook his head at her accompanied with an eye roll. "Of course my goal in life and quest for The Monarch of the Glade requires that I return to Illyria. "

He ate a few more pieces of cheese and then moved the food and wine off the bed. "A soft exile is not an exile. Perhaps a chance at getting out from beneath your mother's thumb and to be the best Mareki rather than a Naithrani pawn." He twisted his body, cracking his back. "And as far as Alistair - you've not said we are romantically involved aside from asking me why. And we weren't at the time ... so even if it is true now, it wasn't then. So you didn't lie."::