Teatime Talk

Lupecyll-Atlon home, late morning.

The misty summer morning that had greeted Alexandria at the start of the day is slowly giving way to noontime and the afternoon hours to follow, a sort of lazy Eliday that sees the minutes almost taking the time to stop and admire the flowers.

That's what Cor'lana is doing this morning as she sits outside in the garden, dressed in a lavender-colored and short-sleeved cotton dress that goes down to the knees. She sits at a table for two, although the second chair is empty at the moment with the Atlon half of the household out on errands. Pothy takes up a good portion of the table with himself and his bowl of what appears to be honey-roasted nuts as Cor'lana takes a sip of a dark red-colored tea from her teacup.

The calm and quiet is disturbed a little as Pothy croaks at Cor'lana--followed by him holding a shelled nut in his beak for Cor'lana to take. "Okay, okay, I'll share snacks with you, Pothy," Cor'lana says with a snicker. "We have a rare moment of peace, after all. The pixies are off collecting morning dew while they can, and Telamon's..."

Her violet eyes go over to the fenceline. The door's wide open. "Left the gate open. Let's go close that," she says as she sets her teacup down on the table and rises up to go close the gate her fiance forgot in his morning daze.

As Cor'lana moves toward the gate, she might well notice a hard-to-miss figure making its way toward her home with purposeful, if slow and steady steps. Zeke hard to miss, though this is more true now than it had been in recent years. His silver-gleaming armor is matched by white vestments of a clerical nature, and in sharp contrast to his very dark blue scales. Though either of these things could be forgiven for being overlooked at least initially due to his remarkable crystal limbs. Both arm and leg of his left side are a resplendent and lovely crystal, and he does nothing to hide them. If anything he seems to wear the limbs comfortably; as a part of himself.

Zeke notes the elvish woman as she comes to her gate and he lifts his flesh-and-blood claw in greeting before hastening slightly so that she will realize that he is coming to see her. "Peasssce on your nessst." He greets politely, his voice carrying well in spite of not being particularly loud.

Cor'lana pauses mid-step as she hears the greeting and realizes it's for her. She turns to look more fully at Zeke, and her violet eyes widen in surprise. "Oh!" she says. "You're the fellow from the market. I don't know if I ever caught your name--my pixie friend was being... far too rambunctious for anyone's good health."

She smiles bashfully. "She's off collecting morning dew for one reason or another, so she won't harass you today, at least. Were you looking for someone in particular?"

Meanwhile, Pothy sees that Cor'lana's not coming back to the table immediately, so he takes flight and lands on the fence. "Hi," he says in Cor'lana's voice to the blue-scaled sith-makar. Then he preens his creamy-white feathers. One has to look good, after all.

Zeke blinks at this description of himself, then shifts his tail back and forth with amusement shining in his green eyes. "Yessss. Thisss one remembersss. Thisss one isss looking for you." He had not of course put together that the woman living in Seldan's house was the self-same one that he'd met in the market once, but it's not surprising in a place as small as Alexandria that they meet again. He nods politely to Pothy. "Peassce on your nessst."

There is briefly, a rather considering look in Zeke's eyes as he looks at Pothy, something that's hard to read, but when the bird speaks the consideration vanishes and the sith-makar offers a slight bow to Cor'lana. "Thisss one isss called Zeke, and thisss one would be pleassed to get to know you better."

There is a moment of surprise that settles on Cor'lana's features, not just her eyes, as Zeke bows and introduces himself. But it's followed by a wry smile, albeit tinged with more of that bashful look. "Well," she says, "I'm hoping you're not here because of the rumors I'm some sort of seductress. I might have been Lady Sandy's apprentice, and I might be known for my usage of enchantment magic while on assignments for the Explorer's Guild, but I /am/ happily betrothed and am looking to keep it that way."

"Snacks?" Pothy crows from his spot on the fence. He flaps back to the table in the garden and looks expectantly at both Zeke and Cor'lana. These nuts aren't going to eat themselves!

Cor'lana snickers at both herself and Pothy. "A poor joke on my part, I apologize. I highly doubt you're here for that, anyway," she says. "You may call me Cor'lana, and I am told I need more friends, so I'm not opposed to making more. I have some hibiscus-pomegranate tea I can share, and my raven friend, Pothy, likes to share his snacks. Come in and close the gate behind you." She turns to follow Pothy to the table, taking her seat again.

Again the bluescale sith-makar blinks at Cor'lana, a flicker of surprise flashing across his features as he follows her into her yard and at her request closes the gate behind him. "Tea sssoundsss lovely, but thisss one hasss not come becausssse of... Rumorsss. Thisss one findss them to be unreliable at besst." He makes his way slowly but inevitably to her table, eyeing the seat across from her and eventually settling slowly into it. Mindful of his tail of course. One must be careful when sitting when one has a tail.

Once settled he looks at the woman across from himself with a interested expression. "You are lacking in friendsss? Isss thisss becaussse of the rumorsss?"

Cor'lana sees Zeke's settlement into the chair and presses her lips together in a worried expression--until he seems like he's comfortable enough. "My apologies about the chair," she says. "I bought this set knowing it'd be frequented mostly by us fleshy folk who bruise far too easily and without lovely tails. Perhaps that'll be solved with my next visit to the market... Pothy, could you fetch another teacup?"

Pothy looks up from the middle of building a small mountain of honey-roasted nuts for Cor'lana to pick from. He gives her a nod before he takes flight into the house through the open kitchen window, and he returns shortly with a teacup that is not a match to Cor'lana's own, but seems far more sith-makar friendly compared to the little, dainty thing that Cor'lana's teacup happens to be.

She pours a generous cup into it before holding it out to Zeke. "I'm sure the rumors don't help when I try to make new friends," Cor'lana says, "but mostly, it's my own lack of experience with having them. I had... a very difficult life before coming to Alexandria. Pothy was my only friend for a very long time." She reaches out and pets Pothy on his fluffy little head, which gets a happy raven croak from him.

Zeke offers a careful flick of the tail in question. In truth, to accommodate the tail he had turned the chair around and sat it in perhaps a bit less optimally than a softskin might have, but allowances he hoped would be made. Indeed she seems not to mind. "Pleassse. It isss no problem. The People are adaptable." Here he gives her a friendly look that he hopes translates cross-species.

He thanks her for the cup when it arrives, and also Pothy for retrieving it, and seems happy to have some tea in hand. He tries it and nods in approval of its flavor. A refreshing drink for these summer days indeed. "Thisss one iss grateful for your hossspitality, and that of... Pothy." He is silent while she speaks of her childhood in part, and nods in understanding. "It isss difficult sssome-timesss to know how to interact with people yesss? There are many sstrange cusstomss among the sssoft-sskinsss. And if you do not know them..."

He spreads his claws delicately and shakes his head. "It isss hard to be alone. To have no-one to rely on... Though a good friend can make the burden easssier yesss?" Here he gives Pothy a fond look.

Cor'lana brightens at Zeke's solution for the chair and his remarks on friendship. "It's... very difficult, yes," she replies. "My mother taught me how to talk to people in a way that would allow me to mask my true feelings if I had to, which is how I managed to get through most of my early social interactions in this city. I never thought that over a year later, I'd actually have friends and even be betrothed to the most wonderful and understanding man who is... like me and unlike me in so many ways."

She looks to Pothy and adjusts how she pets him, now opting to stroke his throat feathers gently. This really makes him happy, judging by the rapid tail-wagging like an excited dog as she pets him. "Pothy has been with me through the worst in particular. I am ever-grateful to him. He is the bravest and brightest bird that will ever be and has ever been," she says, and there's a very serious weight to those words. "Betrothed?" This word sits in Zeke's mind for a moment as he tries to find the correllary between it and his native tongue. After a moment he brightens and nods. "You are about to take a mate! Thissss one asssumess your firssst? Congratulationsss ssseem in order then." He lifts his glass in salute to her, and considers further. "Thisss one did not bring a proper mating-gift. But thisss one can do ssso another time?"

Her words about Pothy seem to draw the sith-makar's attention to the bird, but he doesn't seem to know what to make of Pothy really. "He doesss ssseem unique. Thisss one hass never ssseen hissss ssspeciesss before. Hisss white feathersss are quite pleasssing to the eye."

"My first and only mate, yes," Cor'lana beams happily. "I have no plans nor desires to ever have another--especially given that Telamon is the only flesh-and-blood person I've ever had feelings for. All of the other ones I've ever had crushes on were... fictional people in the pages that kept me company as a teenager." The confession is delivered with another bashful smile at her own expense.

"Weirdo," Pothy playfully says in Cor'lana's voice. He's quickly shut up with an offer of a honey-roasted nut from that mountain of nuts he was trying to build for Cor'lana to eat. Pothy's silence can be bought, it turns out.

"And please, don't feel obligated to bring anything," Cor'lana says. "I am not in the habit of demanding or expecting gifts. It took a while to even get used to the notion of birthday presents from friends. Pothy would bring me little things as presents on my birthdays, and my mother would give me new books to read, but that was it. He is a special bird, however, as you noticed--he is my familiar. I inherited him from my mother, who inherited him from her father, and so on and so forth. A white raven who has faithfully served the inheritor of arcane power in my mother's bloodline for a very long time."

She grins. "He really only knows things about food, however. If we were to go inside the house, you'd hear his true voice, and he can talk at length about all sorts of recipes and foods, but not much else."

"Ahhhh. Cihuaa." There's a sudden darkness in his eyes, a sadness that is a deep well, but he merely nods and shakes his head at her. "If you are taking a Cihuaa, that isss a ssseriousss thing, and thisss one would be quite remisss if thisss one did not offer sssome kind of... token."

He looks at Pothy again, not seeming to mind the bird calling him a 'weirdo'. After all, compared to the soft-skins that he assumes that Pothy usually associates with, he probably is. "Ssso he isss a raven? Thisss one did not know that they could have white feathersss. If he hasss ssserved your family for sssome time... thisss one takess it that he iss older than he ssseemsss yesss?" Here his eyes darken slightly again. Another memory touched upon. "Perhapsss he hass more to sspeak of, but keepsss it clossse. Sssome thingsss are not ssso easssy to talk about, and asss one agesss the passt can ssseem ass pressent as the day that one iss currently living." A soft swish of his tail.

Cor'lana pauses for a moment in her merriment as she considers Zeke's words--and then she frowns, looking at Zeke in a way that suggests a quiet sort of bewilderment and pain. "Well... Yes, there is that," she replies, and she renews her scratches at Pothy's throat feathers, attempting to distract the raven. "You're very wise if you can tell that from looking at him, Zeke, but yes. He's had to deal with pain both past and much more recent. I've kept him close and have fed him his weight a few hundred times over in snacks as a result. I've had my own share of troubles, too."

Pothy takes the petting well, but he also doesn't seem quite as enthusiastically happy as before. His tail is not wagging as happily. His blue eyes seem a little... less happy, somehow, for the direction in topic.

"He is old and yet young," Cor'lana says. "He sounds like a child, and can act like a child, but he has seen and dealt with many things. I call him my little brother in light of that, as I was raised by his side, and he's never objected to that."

That gets Pothy's tail feathers wagging more genuinely again.

Zeke chuckles with amusement, lifting a claw to wave off Cor'lana's near-complement. "Thisss one isss merely old alssso. Wisssdom comesss with age, but living... it comesss with itsss painsss." He lifts his tea cup, taking a sip so as to both hide his expression, and also to give Cor'lana a moment with her familiar. "He ssseemsss a unique bird indeed, and musst have done much to earn sssuch high regard from you. That you name him... kin isss much."

Zeke gazes about her garden a moment, falling to silence that is comfortable as he enjoys the pleasant scenery. "Thisss one hasss lived, and ssseen much." His eyes fall to Pothy. "If your familiar ever hasss need of sssome-one to talk to, who hasss perhapsss sseen much alssso, thiss one isss at the ssservice of both of you."

Pothy looks at Zeke for a long moment, and then he whistles to Cor'lana. Cor'lana nods and looks to Zeke as she says, "He'd be amenable to that. And... I would, too. I try not to burden others with my problems, but then again, I'm also the type of person who sees someone's quiet suffering and I feel compelled to act and offer my own friendship," she says. "It's easier to help other people with their problems than it is your own--or at least, that's always been the case for me."

Then Pothy looks at Cor'lana again. "Eat," he commands her in the voice of an older woman. She gives him a snicker as she pushes a couple of the shelled honey-roasted peanuts that he's arranged in a pile on the table for her into her mouth and does, indeed, eat. "These /are/ good, Pothy," she remarks. "No wonder why you like them."

"It isss important to remember, that sssharing isss not a burden to friendss, or perhapsss... that if it isss, it isss a burden that isss sshared and ssso less in the ssharing of it." He seems to ponder this and then gives her a little quick swish of his tail. Sith amusement. "It isss indeed easssier to help another, than to help the ssself, ssso thisss one will leave you with a thought to ponder."

Here he sets his cup down and looks at Cor'lana seriously. "If one doess not help onesss sself, can they help another? If one isss in pain, be it physssical, or mental, can they offer their bessst sself to thosse in need?" He moves his crystal claw and it shines in the light. Casting rainbows on the table that they share. "Thisss one hass been a healer for a long time, and knowsss well the difficulty of healing the ssself. But if you can not do ssuch _for_ your-sself, then do it for thossse that love you."

He looks at Pothy here briefly, and then Cor'lana again. "There are thossse who will offer you the sssilence you need to sspeak, and the wisssdom you need to hear - when you are ready for it."

Cor'lana pauses in thought for a moment, crunching on more nuts. She ruminates on Zeke's words, and of course her eyes move to the rainbow created on the table by Zeke's crystal shine. That's the sort of unexpected beauty that some find in their lives--the rainbow hidden within the claw, if someone is given to that perspective, has come to life right here in the late morning light.

"A counter-point," Cor'lana says. "If one waits until they're 'healed'--if someone is ever truly healed, as I've found my own healing to be nonlinear in improvement--to help others, then we are beholden to those few, if any, who are healed or unbroken to recover. If a cleric is wounded and others need their aid, they still try to heal others /and/ themselves, yes, if there are no others that are guaranteed to help?"

She pauses for a moment again, before realization flashes in her violet eyes as she looks back at the rainbow. "No, wait--I see. That /is/ what you are saying, in a sense, isn't it? My effort is laudable, but it would be better if I worked on my own self, too. And... I have been. Perhaps not in ways that other people fully understand, but I've been trying. I write poetry, a lot to do with all that I've endured."

Cor'lana smiles fully at Zeke. "Perhaps I'll show you some of them another time," she says. "I am... admittedly a little self-conscious of them. I've been attending poetry readings in the Theatre District and have read a couple of ones that don't make me so nervous to read, to dip my toes in those uncertain waters, so to speak."

"Yesss." Say's Zeke, relieved that Cor'lana understood him at last. "We mussst all of usss work together, to fix ourssselvess and one-another." His tail shifts back and forth. Not unlike Pothy's pleased wagging earlier. Albiet with a bit more restraint. He huffs in amusement as well. "Thisss one isss alssso... not healed, but trying."

Here he glances aside, making little of his admission and focusing once more on his tea. "It isss good that you are doing what you can to heal. Thisss one would be pleasssed to be a part of it - when you are comfortable with sssuch. There isss no russsh."

"My Grandfather once told me that wounds of the heart and the soul are not so easy to heal compared to physical ones," Cor'lana replies with a compassionate expression to Zeke's admission. "They may hurt again even after so long without hurting at any given moment. I've tried not to feel down on myself about hurting again when it does happen because of that."

Cor'lana picks up her teacup again and says with a wider grin, "And there is very little that a good cup of tea can't help. Not heal, per se, except perhaps a head cold or a case of insomnia, but help." And she drinks to that notion. Even Pothy nods his head to that sentiment, although it looks more like a funny little bob.

"A wissse man this 'grandfather'." Zeke nods to Cor'lana's words. "Thissss one sssome-timesss wissshess... But thingsss are asss they are." He shakes his head.

It's easy then to swish his tail in amusement at her next words and let his own pass. "Thisss one findsss tea very helpful in the healing processs." He says this in all seriousness of course (he is a healer), but not without amusement as well. His eyes are warm and comfortable, and it might be then that Cor'lana realizes that he's been a bit tense this whole time. "Well, thisss one ssshould not take up too much of your time. It hasss been mosst pleassant to meet you more formally Cor'lana. Thissss one wissshesss you well with your cihuaa, and all the happiness that they might bring into your life."

Cor'lana smiles genuinely to see the warmth in his eyes and words. If she did recognize the tenseness in Zeke's form, she's not letting it be known. Then again, it can be hard for softskins to glean such things from a sith-makar, can it not? "Please come around again, Zeke," she says. "I'd love to have more tea with you, and perhaps you can meet Telamon next time as well. I promise he is lovelier to look at than I am, and a wonderful conversationalist as well." The self-deprecation is a good-natured joke, judging by her smile, but there's a hint of something that suggests it's an opinion of herself she does hold to be true to some degree.

Pothy adds in, "Snacks," as though he is promising Zeke more snacks to be shared at this later date, too. His tail wags up and down happily. Finally, another friend with a tail, it seems he's saying.

"Yes, Pothy, there will be snacks for all of us to share, too," Cor'lana promises. "Peace on your nest, Zeke."

-End