Random 81

Sebastian nodded at Garren and then looked at Brice, smiling faintly. "Yes, we're really letting you go." He reached out for his satchel, which he promptly began to empty, confident that Auker might have one to replace his. Everything, from his journals, strange coins and assorted souveniers got dumped on the table. Including one little trinket meant to scare off chickens. He handed the satchel over. "There. Pack some lunch with you if you want to. I doubt Auker would mind."

Brice looked confused until he remembered Sebastian had offered him stolen goods earlier. While he packed those up (which required dislodging one dragon), Sylvie stared at the collection of stuff on the table.

"You lugged all that along with you yesterday?"

Ayu-Asra landed on the table and picked at some of the coins. Garren tried to look not too curious.

"I did," Sebastian affirmed, eyeing the dragon before turning his attention fully to Sylvie. "They're memories. I don't want to lose them," he said, absent-mindedly taking one of the hexagonal coins and tossing it into near the fire. It was the shiniest of the lot.

Having done that, he glanced at Brice. He didn't quite smile, but his tone was warm as he said: "Take care. Fortuna willing, we won't meet again."

Ayu-Asra shot after the coin before it even hit the ground. His two heads fought for who could pick it up.

"Thank you." Brice straightened up, looking a little lost and confused, and exchanged a nod with Garren.

Sylvie smiled and reminded him to take his cloak.

He left the kitchen still half expecting a trick. By the end of the street he wondered how long it would take him to get over that feeling completely. Sunlight glinting off mud and puddles made him squint, but maybe the fresh air would help clear his head. He had one or two vague ideas what to do next.

Back in the kitchen, Sylvie was lost in thought contemplating her own diary when Garren said, "I'm curious. May I ask for how long you've known each other?"

Sylvie tried to calculate and went, "um", looking at Sebastian.

"Take care," Sebastian repeated softly just before the door closed and Brice disappeared from his life... for now, but hopefully forever. But then -- Garren asked something. A proper question, Sebastian admitted to himself once he got over the sight of Brice leaving in such a dejected manner. His eyes flashed at Garren, Sylvie and back.

"That's a very good question. Less than two weeks, all told. We've met a few times before, but this is the longest period of time we've been in contact. It's been... I suppose a few years since we first met." After a blink, he smiled, glanced at the dragon and then at Sylvie. He couldn't help it. He reached for her hand.

She took and squeezed it. "I'd have thought one year, or less? Oh, well. Two weeks... It feels much longer." Sylvie shook her head, smiling. She was just a little nervous underneath.

"Are you sure you haven't fallen for him?" Garren asked wrily.

"Oh, I've fallen pretty badly, just not completely." Which was too bad, really. A bit too late she wondered if she should have said that out loud.

At first he was going to comment on the problems of different worlds and how day, night, weeks, months and years passed, but in the end Sebastian looked utterly flabbergasted at Sylvie's comment. Why was it that this woman could knock him off his rails? Confusion turned into something else, almost immediately. "I hope that'll change to completely, seeing as I might have already done that," he said calmly, containing his smile but not the glint in his eyes. "As for time, it depends. I've been... to places where time flows differently."

"We'll have to have a long talk the next time we're not worrying about clergy and revenge and whatnot." She sighed a little sadly.

Garren rubbed his nose, not sure if he should be amused, or worried for Sylvie. He looked up at Sebastian's last words.

"I think we've agreed on something like that more than a few times," he replied, and regarded Garren again. No, Sebastian hadn't forgotten the scholar was still there. He considered for a moment. "Well, best we wait for the cavalry arrive, I suppose," Sebastian finally said, eyeing the things on the table. Most if not all of his personal property was there.

"If we have time to pass, would you tell me about those places where time flows differently?" There were stories, of course, of people dancing with the fairies and upon arriving home finding they had been away for years, but nothing you could be sure was not made up. And while there still was the chance whatever Sebastian said would be a tall tale, if it wasn't, someone obviously not fully human seemed a more likely source of information.

Sebastian made an amused sound and regarded Garren, taking his the book, the one where he kept all his pressed plants and sketches of animals from other worlds. Leafing through it he stole a sideways glance at Sylvie, then considered. "I don't see why not, but before I go off rattling, I'd like to give you a few things to think about," he said, gently rubbing the tip of his ear with a finger tip.

"I assume you know something about astronomy. I admit to only having little knowledge, and that learned from some... very eccentric types. The point I need to make is that days can be longer or shorter on different planetary bodies, yes?" He shrugged, eyeing Garren.

"Planets? I hadn't considered the idea of planets having days," Garren answered. It wasn't really his field.

"Well, if you talk to an expert maybe they might be able to confirm that tidbit. As a warning, now, you might not believe what I'm about to say, but you asked," Sebastian said, gently prying one of the plants from the book and placing it in front of Garren. It decidedly looked like nothing that appeared on Garren's world and still exuded a slightly camphor-ish scent though it had been between paper for at least a year. Some day I'm going to have to figure out some sort of internal clock, Sebastian thought.

"In any case," he continued, lifting his gaze from the plant to Garren as he began toying with one of the coins -- this one square with a hole in the centre, made of a gold and copper mixture. "That's how it is. There are other horizons. Worlds, I mean, and calling me a foreigner --" he wasn't sure if Sylvie wanted to advertise her own situation, so he left her out of it "-- might be a bit of an understatement. I've seen plenty of places ever since I left home, but not out of my own volition.

"So, that's the foundation. I've seen places with harsh, blue suns, barely warm red ones. Deserts, tundra chill broken only by volcanoes. Most places I've been to have similar deities as the ones I got used to back home, times past. Magic differs in places, as do sciences. Some places, though..." he shook his head.

Sylvie was slouching, one elbow propped on the table and her head resting in her hand, and listening.

Garren looked closely at the pressed plant, whose narrow, spiral-would leaves were deep blue with turquoise veins. The world, this one world had not been explored completely, and many, of the things he'd said could be true for other continents. Gods were known by different names. The suns, now, that sounded stranger.

"Some places?" he prompted.

"Hostile to humans or breeds like me. Too cold or too hot, sometimes both. One place... water was actually used as currency." Sebastian's eyes unfocussed for a moment. "That or the native life. And some places actually defy logic. Once, I was exiled from one place to another where time just didn't work the way it ought to have, even if said world revolved around a sun. The colours were too bright and everything, absolutely everything was too large aside from the exiles trying to eke out a living. Dogs, or something like dogs, thrice the size. Squirrels, too, or something akin to them, and giant lizards as tall as the trees here. But time? Time was odd. By my reckoning, I spent roughly twenty-eight days there, but once I found the way back to where I'd been thrown out of... it had been a year. And that, if anything, defies logic."

Sylvie's face had lost any expression while Sebastian explained that example of differing timeflows. She had closed her eyes and started taking deep breaths to fight the panic that idea caused. I've been away, what? Four years? Six?

"It does not sound stranger to me than a different sun," Garren answered. He gave Sylvie a puzzled look. He couldn't see her face well. It seemed like she was trying to fall asleep sitting up, but she looked too tense.

"Ah, but you admit it's a little strange, anyway," Sebastian answered in turn. He blinked a few times, then followed his look at Sylvie. Thoughts began forming again, thankfully only a few at the same time now. "Sylvie?" he asked softly.

"Sorry," she answered tiredly. "Feels like I'm coming apart at the seams." She rubbed her eyes. "Did I drink something of Auker's special medicine and didn't notice?"

Sebastian blinked, then glanced at the cups of tea suspiciously, then caught hold of his senses. "You never know. She might have wet her tea in alcohol just for the hell of it," he finally said, eyes squinted at her, examining. Whatever he was thinking, he was saving it for later. "You didn't sleep too well, anyway."

She snorted and sat up straight, pulling herself together at least outwardly. More or less. She did move a little closer to Sebastian, until their legs touched. "Or maybe I'm drunk with relief." With a nod to Garren, she said, "Don't mind me."

"You've heard this before?"

"Not in all details, but yes." She looked away from Garren, Ayu-Asra providing a pretext. He had apparently had planned to add the shiny coin to "his" hoard, only that Brice had carried it off.

After a moment, and with a hint of a shrug, Garren turned to Sebastian again. "How do you get from one world to another?"