Random 33

Gemma muttered under her breath, "No sun for anything to be under."

Sylvie took a very deep breath at the "worry not" and nodded thanks to Riya. Hysteric laughter seemed counter-productive. It occured to her that a burden on business in this house was also a burden on the flow of gossip.

"No news at all about how the weather affects the waterside, or... anything?"

"Oh, plenty," Riya said and looked a little nervous still. "Wells are going bad, the road really bad and the... well, harvest is not liking this at all." Just then, the severity of the situation seemed to settle down and slowly slide into place inside Riya's pretty little head. Again she decided to just drink her tea and pretend that she wasn't thinking about this.

Sylvie chewed a mouthful of dry bread and frowned. I had to ask, didn't I? Damn. At the moment if you wanted fresh water all you had to do was put an empty bucket out in the open and wait a bit, but when the rain stopped...

Despite, or maybe because of, Riya's attempts at feigning detachment, Gemma added grimly, "And from what I heard there won't be any ships arriving until this is over. The river flooded the towpath, and those that don't need it can't find the fairway."

After an uncomfortable silence, Sylvie tried to change the subject. "What is Mael up to?"

"I don't know," Riya said, startling herself with the knowledge again. "He said he'd go out and talk to Loga." She didn't quite say "again", but she looked like she wanted to.

Sylvie hesitated, trying to come up with a reply that did not refer to the weather. Gemma put herself back in a brighter mood and asked her, "And what were you up to yesterday?"

"Kai introduced me to Auker, and we - Auker an I, that is - visited Montmore, who's a friend of hers, for a chat."

"Ohhh," said Riya. "I didn't know Sister Auker knew Montmore. I didn't even think they'd, you know, like each other."

Sylvie smiled, more relaxed. "They seemed to get along well enough. Why did you think they wouldn't?"

Gemma smiled in amusement; it was rare enough that their guest brought home gossip.

Riya took this information with a faintly amused look, then poked at her roll. "Oh, I don't know. Just an assumption, is all. Montmore is the very picture of polite conversation and hospitality, and Sister Auker... Sister Auker is a bit of a wild one if she isn't inside the shrine, I think you must know by now. So how did they get along?" Yes, she was curious. Very curious.

"Old-friends-like, I thought, with a lot of banter. I guess they met in some comfortable middle ground."

Well, that wasn't as interesting as it could have been, but Riya soldiered on. "That could be. Still, I wonder about that," she said and sniffed. Then she grinned. "Did you go there for an afterparty or something? Left Kai drooling on a pillow somewhere?"

Sylvie gave her a dry little laugh. "No, they just had a lot to talk about, and I walked Auker to the shrine afterwards."

Garren set the remarkably quiet Ayu-Asra in the open window, where the dragon dithered between stretching his wings under the makeshift-roof, or going back to begging for breakfast.

Riya, with her masterful gift of taking things for granted and perhaps putting a spin on words said by others, kept on grinning. "At least there's something consolingly predictable about that trip then. Auker, that is." Pause. "Wait, you were quiet at a party, too? Sylvieeee..."

... was confused. "What?"

"What do you mean they talked a lot, not you?"

"I guess I'm a bit out of practise." She shrugged lightly.

Riya was speechless and just stared at Sylvie. The girl looked quite confused -- then remembered this wasn't maybe the best idea when her mother was around.

Gemma just grinned somehwat gleefully.

Sylvie's eyes snapped to the window at the flap of wings as Ayu-Asra took off out of the window, and then turned to her food, so she hardly noticed Riya's reaction.

Once everyone was finished, Gemma for a change shooed Garren and Sylvie off to work, so they could get over with it. Ayu-Asra came through the window and kitchen like a shot and attached himself firmly to Sylvie's shoulder.

"It almost seems like you'll have to take him with you when you go out next time."

Sylvie answered with a noncommittal hum, feeling uncomfortable with having to deal with that on top of balancing two responsibilities. She owed Garren's project more attention than she could give it, but because of that idea of secrecy she could not ask to put things off.

Her abstraction didn't escape Garren. "So, those other things you are looking into, would that be working with Montmore?"

She was startled into answering, "In a way. Maybe. Um."

"I was just thinking that if you were aiming at developing your knowledge of magic, he might be, ah, unconventional enough to give you a chance." Most would be loath to break tradition that claimed women were not fit for it. "But whatever it is," Garren continued cheerfully, under the impression she did not feel like discussing it, "let's not hold you back longer than neccessary." He led her thoughts back to the plant encyclopedia with a few questions. There was less material left than Sylvie would have guessed.

"You look awful," Sebastian-Kai said very helpfully to Auker.

"No thanks to you!" Auker spat back and leaned back in her chair in front of the fireplace, rubbing her eyes. The half-elf set a bowl of soup and a small plate in front of the small table he had dragged next to the priestess's chair, then settled in front of the fireplace with a bunch of letters and a diary.

Auker didn't pay attention to what the Fox was doing, at least not until she took the bowl of soup, tasted it and noted exactly how horrible it tasted. "This... is chicken soup?"

"Yes," Sebastian said and grinned, reading a letter with squinted eyes.

"It's awful!"

"I don't like chicken," Sebastian said. "I told you I don't know what to do with it."

"The... it's horrible!" she repeated.

"I told you --"

Auker, who had heard enough, just frowned and... finally realised something was up. "What are you reading?"

"Something I stole off the Sabas," Sebastian said chipperly, taking another letter. "I tell you, Ludovic Saba is one strange man."

Auker nearly poured her soup. "You stole letters from -- when did -- how --"

"Last night," he continued, still chipper, still reading the letters. "I broke in and hid under his bed for a while. It was educational. Do you know a man named Langoll?"

"No!" Auker said angrily. "And -- you just... you shouldn't!"

"Auker, love," Sebastian said and finally turned to look at her. He was smiling. "Fortuna works in strange ways."

"I hate you," Auker said and, with a pout, ate more of the soup. It was horrible, but she wasn't going to waste a warm meal.

"That's all right," Sebastian said and glanced at the diary. "Most people do."

"I hate it that I can't even snub you. I don't understand this -- what did I do to deserve a burden like you?"

"Nothing. Someone did something, somewhere. Maybe the Sabas, maybe someone else."

"Maybe?"

The Fox shrugged and opened the diary just out of curiosity, skipping to more recent dates. "I have a personal interest in the Sabas. Nobody said I should have to simply pay attention to the matter at hand. Sylvie seems to be the key to that, right now: I am not smart enough, nor am I educated enough to understand anything but that Fortuna has given me clues. I need Sylvie's help to inter... pret... them."

Sebastian completely missed what Auker said next. He was too busy staring at the diary with a sense of puzzlement.

A part of him wanted to laugh. The rest wanted to off Ludovic Saba.

Garren had worked through all the notes and was just looking for confirmation. There were a few clarifications and corrections Sylvie had to make, which she blamed mostly on her own notes, but all in all it took barely two hours.

Sylvie decided against paying Auker a visit immediately, and instead retreated to see if she could find anything more useful to report than "I'll be able to understand them, between Jafnaden's footnotes and Caledinina's examples."

She helped prepare lunch and clean up afterwards, because it slightly eased the feeling she was imposing in Old Ivy's hospitality, now that her work for them was done, but returned to her new work afterwards. The little dragon stuck to her like a limpet most of the time.

Shortly thereafter a half-sentence in a chapter she was skimming caught her eye. After reading Caledinia's full description, which was still rather short, and the calculations of Jafnaden she had referenced, she could think of an important question to ask Sebastian.

After a disagreement with Ayu-Asra, which ended in him attaching himself to the shoulder of Sylvie's cloak, and her going, "Fine, get wet, then," she went out to look for him. Against her expectations, the dragon did not flee inside as soon as she got out of the door, but apart from the occasional puff stuck it out quietly.

Unlike the weather-beaten streets that, at places, had an inch of water, the shrine wasn't quiet. It was warm and bright inside the shrine, where Auker was actually at work despite her headache, all smile and all welcomes to a few farmers that didn't seem to know what to make of their predicament. One look at Sylvie prompted Auker to say "hello" cheerfully, twitch at the sight of Ayu-Asra and point toward the door leading to the back.

The others present gave Ayu-Asra looks of bewilderment.

Sebastian hadn't been lazy either by the looks of things. He had taken over the table, spreading the wealth of letters, the diary, the strange tin and a few hand-written notes in the local language. Presently he sat in a chair, arms crossed in front of his chest. He had his eyes closed.