Atharen, A Fantasy Roleplay Forum

It was cold. It wasn't a bitter kind of frost, but it was hard to find a place to actually rest that was inside, so to her, it was far too cold. What did Alyssum think this was a good idea?

Only one time prior to this had she entered Lorien within her life. Isra tended to avoid Turoth when Alyssum was a child and still trying to familiarize herself with the world. Alyssum had returned a couple of times after, but was mostly because she wanted to visit Daravin. Lorien was just a place that very rarely held her interest for long. Mostly because of the stories of the Kindred. Pervasive and ever-present, she hated it. For someone like herself, she just needed to be careful regarding the things she did while occupying the city. The last thing she wanted was to draw the attention of a Kindred to herself.

She had a feeling that would just go poorly...

It had been part of her process that by visiting during Searing it wouldn't be as terribly cold and she'd actually get a reprieve sorts from the yearly heat which plagued her. She wasn't expecting it to still be this cold. Apparently it was though.

She'd already made arrangements to stay here for the majority fo the season though. She could leave a bit early, but things would just go badly for her if she left too early. She could always hunt down a tower or a chapter house, but still... She didn't want to rely on the Scholia Arcana too much. If anything she could consider this a test. The spirit of Isra coming back to haunt her, whispering in her ear 'Okay, let's see you survive this.' When she thought about it in those terms, the challenge was almost welcomed.

Alyssum missed Isra. The woman always threw some of the most outrageous problems at Alyssum and told her to survive them, but there was always a kind of gentleness to her. Something that made Alyssum start to realize later in life that she was probably never in danger and Isra wasn't going to just let her die.

Probably.

Now there was no Isra so she was well and truly on her own, waddling through unfamiliar streets, buddled in the pelts of the creatures she'd hunted and commissioned into coats just like Isra always liked to do. She'd thought about learning how to make her own clothes so that she could add some kind of enchantment to them, but she didn't have ready access to the resources to use Runeforge and Alchemy would eventually fade given enough time. Though she supposed a temporary concoction to make her coat a little warmer was worth the effort if she could even find the resources. She was unfamiliar with any of the components in Lorien which meant even if she wanted to it was going to take some trial and error before she could actually figure out something.

It was made all the worse by her childish appearance. Few in Lorien wanted to trust her. It was hard trying to find a place she could wander into for an hour or two and warm her feet. Lorien was such an untrusting place, she hated it. Alyssum liked being brutally honest and placing her trust in complete strangers until they gave her a reason not to. Then they could wander off and die for all she cared. But she'd trust them completely until they gave her a valid reason not to! Admittedly, there was some pretty strict criteria on what kinds of things would lose her trust...

She was still more trusting than these jerkwads! Finding a job was still going to be an issue though...

If she was being realistic, it wasn't actually that cold. She'd certainly experienced colder winters living in Atinaw. The temperature was usually moderated by the proximity to water in the entire region, but in the valley following the Grimholdt mountain, there were occasionally powerful cold snaps. The reason she was so cold now probably had a lot to do with the fact she couldn't find anywhere that would let her rest, so she'd been wandering around for hours at a time while she looked for an inn or something similar. At least Brandt wasn't as bad as some places in the kingdom when it came to their beliefs. In some ways, it was worse, but it could also be better depending on who you were and your current take on the whole of Lorien.

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♅ Constantine didnt have any jobs on the agenda for the day, so he had it all to himself. Most of the time it was spent practicing his Kinetic magic, but even at his age and with his only teacher gone, he still tried what he could with it. Today though, today was going to be peaceful.

As he sat on a rooftop he saw a woman walking around, and to his eyes, she seemed lost. Well he didnt have much to do and it would be his good deed for the day, He had enough coin on him to survive so helping her out for free wouldn't hurt him financially.

The poor boy lost his foot falling into a crate of produce that had begun to go ba, but luckily for him, the smell was all he had to worry about, and somebody aches from landing on semi-soft fruit and veggies.

Catching up to the woman he focused on the flux around her, his mind visualizing the aether that encircled all living beings like invisible armor. Once he had her's in his sight, he reached out to her with Pull, hoping to get her attention. If it worked, he would simply smile and wave indicating he was the one who grabbed her, and even more so, was a mage.

He was, of course, wary of her, as he had never seen this woman before, and he had been living in Brandt all his life. If anything he was far more fascinated by getting to know her than helping her, as she was an oddity to him. Seeing the same old thing every day got boring and she was the right dose of interesting he felt would livin up his otherwise mundane daily routine.

He just hoped he wouldn't regret going out of his way to help her, what if she didnt like kids his age after all. ♅

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As Alyssum was walking, she felt a slight tugging. The sensation was admittedly a familiar one, though more gentle than what she was used to. She'd once gotten into a fight with a fairly young Black Robe (luckily outside of the towers where no one from the Arcan could complain) who was very into the whole 'self-serving' ideology. When Alyssum said young, she meant someone between 23 and 26, but still fairly new to magic. Alyssum wouldn't fight a child who hadn't had the time to develop a personality and a complex moral code, someone who had yet to full chose who they wanted to be in life. That bitch though, that little creature she had the insatiable urge to maim.

People have the freedom to decide who they want to be in life, but that wasn't going to stop the consequences when they decided to cross someone else.

The fight hadn't lasted that long because, again, the Black Robe was an apprentice at best and Alyssum... couldn't fight even if her life depended on it. At least, that's what she told everyone including herself. Just a soft, squishy little Rathari. Even though she remembered the feeling, she couldn't put a name to the actual magic. She was certain that it was magic, but she didn't know which...

The sudden pull reminded her of that fight, but it was too gentle to actually be someone dangerous or malignant. She immediately turned on her heels, eyes skimming for whatever it was who'd pulled on her like that. What she ended up coming face to face with was a child. A child? Well, child by her terms. He looked to be about 16, maybe 17 if she was being generous. Either way, he looked young enough compared to the Rathari herself. The Rathari who was 5'3 and could probably be mistaken for a child if you didn't properly catch the small maturities in her facial structure. Either way, it was still a child, which meant Alyssum's poor little heart instantly turned mushy before she was able to place her more mischevious personality on her sleeve.

"Hello?" She asked, tilting her head to the side. her expression itself was gentle and warm enough to imply her response to the tug wasn't a negative one. Her nose did wrinkle up slightly as he got closer, but not in a way that he would really take much notice of. Good Gods, did this kid go rolling around in a cabbage patch or something? He smelled like rotting produce. "Do you need anything?" She asked. She was struggling to raise her voice much more than a little below your average speaking volume. She was tired and her voice was already strained.

Upon inspecting his aura, the kid was definitely a mage. That was evident enough by the size of his aura. He also didn't seem like he wanted to approach her for any terrible reasons. She didn't see any underlying emotions she'd typically describe as malignant, but it was hard to tell at a first glance and emotions themselves were so basic that telling a person's character based on just their aura color became... difficult.

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♅ "You must not be from around here huh?" he asked, slowly approaching the woman. She didnt seem much older than he was, which was bad cause a young woman like her could get picked up by the wrong crowd, and end up in worse of state than being "cold". So out of the kindness of his heart, he figured he'd act as her escort to wherever she was heading.

"The name is Constantine....Constantine Monteliyet. It's not wise for foreigners to walk around by themselves, you become easy prey for swindlers and traffickers alike that way." he said as he got closer. He noticed her ears were that of an animal, and he couldnt remember for the life of him the name of that specific race.

She didnt seem all too different from a normal girl, besides the obvious, but he was in no place to judge so he didnt dwell on it. Instead, he bowed to her and extended a hand. "If you like I can act as a guide for you, I'm sure you could use the help of someone native to a new place?"

Indeed it was a little disheartening to be in a new land and not know anyone or have someone there to act as a guide of some sort. Most Lorians were kinda stuck up, he knew that first hand growing up. But he was not like most, as he knew how hard being different in a new place was given his pedigree.

"I'll show you all good and safe places around the city, that way you have a better grasp of the place when I'm not around, does that sound ok to you?" he inquired. He was hoping that she would agree, cause he would hate to come across her in some brothel or strung out cause the wrong influence got ahold of her. ♅

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XP: 8/8
Magic XP? No.
Injuries/Ailments: None.




XP: 8/8
Magic XP? No.
Injuries/Ailments: None.

Notes: You are both awarded full XP for collaboration due to having 3 and 2 posts respectively. However, no magic will be awarded and as no Lore's were requested, none will be given at this time. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.