More than meets the Eye

By the standards of Auranar's place, there's nothing special about Dolan and Andelena's place. At least they seem to have cleaned it in preparation for visitors? Everything is clean and neat - or just shoved out of sight, you decide which - but it's still a relatively plain apartment, without much attention paid to aesthetics or pretty things. One might say that the place is utilitarian but comfortable, with a couch and chairs around a table that is clearly secondhand, and a tiny kitchen. Both of their gear is assembled in a corner of the common area.

Dolan has poured wine for all of them, and had sat down once everyone was settled, but it seems that he's about to fall asleep. Indeed, he looked exhausted when he'd greeted Auranar at the door.

Andelena's looking similarly worse for wear, but she gave Auranar a hearty greeting hello. She's wearing Dolan's tunic and pants--or are they her tunic and pants?--/their/ tunic and pants, which probably gives Auranar an indication as to how laid back the Sunguard is when she's not on duty.

"This shit's good, Bry," Andelena comments as she takes a hearty sip of her wine, swirling it in her glass. "Where'd you get it?"

Auranar is relaxed comfortably, but looking none the worse for wear herself. She arrived of course, with a freshly baked pie of the blackberry variety offered to her hosts. The wild elf has her own glass of wine, but contrary to her hosts she is dressed in her usual manner. Which is to say, quite more formally. This time her dress is a moderate blue color without sleeves and housing many layers of skirts which she's tucked down around her in spite of their fluff. She smiles at Andelena's words and lifts her glass toward Dolan. "It _is_ nice."

Dolan, at least, is a bit better dressed than Andelena, having opted for a leather jerkin over a pale yellow shirt. "Huh?" He looks up and around, and shakes his head quickly as if to clear it. "Oh, sorry. The cask was from the Obsidian Rose. It's a winehouse off of Sage orum's Plaza, some of the wizards like to get their wine from there." He rubs a hand over his face. "Sorry. It's been a long week. How's Verna doing?"

"Yeah, how's the Mourner?" Andelena asks. She can't help but glance over at her sword in the corner--something she's been doing all night, like a cat might glance obsessively over at a hole that she's just seen a mouse crawl into. But her attention returns quickly to the conversation at hand, the wine at hand. It's okay. Everything's fine.

The thought of Verna makes Auranar smile. "She's doing well. Adjusting to things, and I think she's a bit restless? But she seems fine. Busy..." Here she trails off a little, looking concerned but she shrugs it off and looks at the pair before her. There's an expression on her face like a question waiting to be asked, but she waits for Andelena to look at her sword for - not the first - time and then finally asks. "How are you two holding up?"

It is perhaps informative that Dolan is also giving Andelena an odd look. He looks from her to the sword and back, and the beginnings of a cheeky grin start, then fade. "Okay," he answers Auranar, taking a drink of his wineglass and staring at it. It's a leggy vintage, but rich and flavorful. "Dreams came back, although I think it's just me and her. I've been trying to do some lucid dreaming to work out what it's about, but it's frustrating as all the green garden hells. Maybe attuning that second statue will help. Be nice to find out how many there are."

"Pretty damn good. Happier than I've been in a long while, even despite the, y'know, obvious," Andelena says, making a vague gesture that suggests she's talking about everything that has to do with werewolves, the Hound, fey nonsense--the works. She offers Dolan a bit of a questioning look, but a grin spreads across her face, too. "Second time'll stick, hopefully."

She reaches across the table and just puts her hand in front of Dolan for him to hold in that casual manner. "Sounds like it's gonna be wedding season for a lot of folks soon. You and Verna tyin' the knot, too?"

Auranar looks a bit inquisitive. "That's odd. Neither I nor Verna has had any nightmares that I'm aware of. I wonder why you two would be." She looks between the pair and then has the grace to look slightly embarrassed by the question that Andelena poses. "Yes. We are, though when is a bit of a question. I certainly do not wish to distract from Telamon and Cor'lana's wedding. Nor yours to Dolan. Besides.... Me and Verna have time." She ducks her head and takes another sip of the wine.

"Someone's trying to communicate with me," Dolan mutters unhappily, but he's staring at Andelena at her offhand comment, even as he hesitantly takes the hand she extended, lacing his fingers through it. "Given the way you keep looking at your sword, Andie, I'm thinking I'd be a fool to do anything else, even if I wanted to."

Andelena blinks a couple of times at Dolan's comment about the sword. "What? Oh, gods no, Bry," she says with a small laugh. "No, I'm okay. Just... Dunno how to explain it. I picked up the sword this morning and it just felt /weird/. Not in a bad way, just... It's weird. I dunno."

Her hand curls gently around Dolan's hand, and she offers him a warm smile. It's probably a little more obvious to Auranar that there's a reason why Dolan's smitten with Andelena. For all of her swearing and unladylike behavior, she looks at him with a warmth that strangely suits her profession. "Promise I'm not losing my marbles," she says, then she looks back to Auranar again. "Yeah. I've got no head for this dreaming shit. Not the way Dolan's approaching it, anyway," Andelena freely admits. She's strong in other ways.

"Someone..." Auranar looks at Dolan astutely. "But you don't know who for sure." She makes a small frown and shakes her head.

"Hard to trust a dream and be certain of who someone is inside one. Best to proceed there with caution. I don't know much about lucid dreaming however. So I'm of little aid to you there." An apologetic smile and a turn of her attention to Andelena. "Is the weapon magical?"

"Yeah." Dolan continues to eye Andelena as if she's likely to eat him if if turns his back, but lets the subject of statures and werewolves pass, instead focusing on the answer to Andelena's question.

"It's enchanted, yeah. Hits a little more accurately, cuts a little more. Nothing fancy. I picked it up at the market a while back," Andelena says, looking down at her glass of wine. "I knew it wasn't made recently--seller was just a weapons trader, so you're not exactly getting a blade straight from the smithy with those guys--but the blade looked like it was in good condition. Someone'd taken care of it, and it had what I was looking for at a decent price. And I might have been born with a silver spoon, but I spat that spoon out a long while back--so, gotta take a deal when you find one."

She gives the sword a look again. "But--like I said, sword just felt weird when I picked it up earlier. It made the hair on my neck stand up. Kind of felt like..."

Andelena pauses for a moment to find the words. "Bry, you know that feeling you get when you pray and you just feel it /work/? It's kind of like that."

Auranar glances between the pair one more time, settling on Andelena as she tries to describe the weapon. "Perhaps I might be of some aid to you?" She offers hesitantly. "I could take a look at the weapon for you with a simple spell and perhaps I could tell you something more?"

"Uh-huh," Dolan agrees, setting aside his wine glass and taking her hand in both of his, one thumb rubbing at the heel of her hand gently. He seems content to let her talk, though, and before too long has settled back into his spot on the couch and nodded off.

"Sure, yeah, go right ahead," Andelena gestures to the sword. "Anything and everything could help. Gods know I don't know my own ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to a lot of shit--weird swords weren't exactly what Bry and I studied back at the Temple when we were teenagers."

She glances over at Dolan on the couch and smiles warmly again. "Fuck, he's cute when he's sleeping," she says with a grin at Auranar, her voice dropping a little in volume. Andelena lets go of his hand and carefully gets up from the couch. "I'll carry him to bed in a while, don't worry about him. Poor guy's just exhausted."

Auranar sets her glass of wine aside and moves toward the weapon. Once she's closer she seems more cautious however, giving the weapon wide berth for a long moment before closing in on it. One might think that she dislikes weapons. Eventually however she says a few arcane words and gestures to her eyes, casting a spell that will allow her to detect the magic on the weapon and hopefully help her determine what if anything is causing the weapon to react to Andelena.

The sword seems to have something about it.

That's the first phrase that likely comes to mind. There's something magically that's difficult to decipher, but it just seems /more/ than what meets the eyes. Yes, it's enchanted to cut a little more, to swing a little more true--but there is something, like a pinprick of light, in the blade, but it's so tiny. So insignificant.

"See anything interesting?" Andelena asks, raising a brow. She walks a little closer to Auranar, as though she's hoping she can somehow tell what Auranar's getting from looking at the blade.

Auranar peers at the weapon in question and finally nods seriously. "There's definitely something there. But it looks... like a growing spark. Some items..." She hesitates and pulls back. "Some items gather magic over time. Become more powerful as they age. It could be that this weapon is on the verge of becoming something more than it usually is. So I would suggest care in dealing with it. It could lean toward the good, or it could lean toward the evil."

Andelena considers the sword and Auranar's words for a moment. "Huh," she finally says, hand raised to her chin in thought. "I didn't really know weapons did that kind of thing."

She looks to Auranar for a moment. "How many weapons out there... do that kind of thing? My guess is that it's pretty damn rare. But, hey. We have been fucking around with all kinds of high-falutin' magic and running around in other realms. Probably did something to it."

She glances back over at Dolan passed out on the couch again and grins a little. "I really ought to go put him to bed. Will you be okay getting home? I don't mind escorting you back. Ladies gotta stick out for each other."

"It's pretty rare. But it's the most likely reasoning I can think of." Auranar smiles. "As for me... I can get myself home well enough on my own. You take care of Dolan..."

She seems about to say something else for a moment, but holds her peace and makes her way to the door where her coat awaits her. She lifts a hand in farewell and heads out without having asked whatever it was that was on her mind. It'll wait for another time.

-End