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I Just Want A Quiet Life... (SilverDragonsBlood)

Started by Eckhart_Von_Musel, September 29, 2017, 05:33:50 AM

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Eckhart_Von_Musel

@SilverDragonsBlood

*sigh*

Chrysanthemum Lynnette washed her hands in the basin outside of the house. There had, unfortunately, been a miscarriage. After finishing, Chrys stood up, took a swig from her flask, and went to go comfort the mother. It wasn't much, but it was all she could do.

Ten minutes was all the the free time Chrys could spare the woman. Not only did she have a schedule to keep, but she had also used the last of her goldenseal root- she'd need to get more before her next appointment. After saying her goodbyes, Chrys left the house and began to head in the direction of Blue Orchid. Taza usually gave the Friends discounts- though Chrys wasn't sure how true it'd be in her case. Still, it was worth a shot.

Of course, this is Zantaric. One doesn't simply walk to the store without something going wrong.

As Chrys walked, she noticed that two men had begun to follow her. Their pace matched hers, and even as she sped up they were always five steps behind her. Exasperated, she ducked into an alleyway, hoping to lose them.

Big mistake.

This alleyway was dead end. Sighing, Chrys turned around to face her pursuers. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes were cold. "I have places I need to be today. What do you want?"

"Hey, hey." one of the men said. "Danny, did you hear that? The lady has places to be, Danny."

Danny stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Places to be, huh? Well Horace, I suppose we'd better make this quick. I don't want to come off as rude, after all."

Taking a step forward, Danny threw a punch at Chrys's stomach. The midwife was unprepared for the blow and collapsed., dropping her handbag and flask to the ground. "D... damn you..." she muttered, looking up at her assailants with contempt.

"Ha!" laughed Horace. "Lady, do you know where we are? We're all damned here." The man picked up Chrys's bag. "Now, we'll be taking this and leaving. We don't want to inconvenience you any more today, ain't that right Danny?"

The two men laughed as they left, leaving Chrys alone with nothing but her flask and her sour expression.

Celegwen

Zymeria looked into the cracked mirror that hung on a slight angle in her bedroom. Her reflection stared back at her, a bland emotion that somehow triggered pain inside the girl. Bunching her raven waves into a thick ponytail, she held it up and assessed the look without tying it. She dropped it again with a sigh. Changing her hairstyle wasn't going to change who she was.

No use dwelling on it, though she obviously still would. Meri pulled on her boots, wrapped her cloak around her, and slid on her black glove. She only had the one; she only needed the one. Her cursed being was only accessible from her left hand.

Walking out of the house, she looked at the sky. It seemed strange that a place as dampened in society as Zantaric would have sunny skies.

Meri heard the hoarse laughed of someone who obviously didn't sincerely find anything funny. She moved to the side, her back against a building in wait for some evidence of who the man was.

"We're all damned here," she heard the man say from the alleyway. And if that wasn't true, nothing was. Zantaric was a haven for the damned and cursed. The man exited the alley, followed by another. They were both large, much larger than Meri. One of them carried a handbag, and he wasn't the type to accessorize.

Meri sighed. She took a quick look around, scanning for any onlookers. Nobody.

She walked briskly behind the two men, removing her glove. She took her dagger out of her thigh sheath and threw it with perfect precision, planting it into the back of one of the men's throats. He started choking, as blood squirted from front and back of his neck.

The other man, the one carrying the handbag, whipped around angrily. Meri extended her left hand towards him. Her eyes were consumed by blackness, and five twisting smoke streams emerged from her fingers. The smoke surrounded the man, whose anger was quickly replaced by fear. She watched with an emotionless expression as the man began to turn ghostly white, his eyes taking on a grey film...his heart stopping.

Meri walked over, her eyes no longer completely black, and pulled the dagger out of the one man's neck. She wiped the blood on his clothing, then put her black glove on again. She picked up the handbag and glanced back in the direction they had come.

She walked into the alleyway and saw a woman crouched on the ground with a flask in front of her. Probably could've use a drink at that moment. Meri approached slowly; she wasn't sure what the woman was capable of, and one could never be too careful in Zantaric.

"I think this was yours?" She said quietly, holding the bag out with her right hand a little too tight on the hilt of her dagger.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Grimacing, Chrys tried to push herself up off the ground. No matter what she did, there was always something preventing her from living the peaceful life she desired. At times it seemed that fate itself had sided against her- a possibility Chrys refused to accept. She would have the life she wanted- she just had to overcome the setbacks.

Looking up, Chrys saw a teenage girl enter the alleyway. She was wearing an elegant black dress, which at one point in time Chrys would have considered very bizarre- but having to deal with the Von Musel brat on a daily basis had desensitized her to it. The girl was also carrying Chrys's bag, which was concerning. "She's going to try and sell it back to me." she thought, eye twitching. "Just wait."

To Chrys's surprise, the girl simply handed the bag back to her. Eyes narrowed, Chrys gingerly reached out and grabbed it from her. "Yes... Yes it is..." she said slowly, unsure if what this girls game was. She cautiously picked up her flask and stood back up, eyes never leaving the girl. "I suppose you're going to ask for money now?" she asked, completely deadpan. "Is that how this works?"

"There is no chance in hell this woman isn't aiming for something."

Celegwen

It wasn't surprising that the woman would assume Zymeria wanted something in return. The people that inhabited Zantaric weren't exactly the most generous, so why would she assume Meri went out of her way to do a favor for a stranger?

"No catch," Meri said simply, taking a step back.

The girl looked at the woman, who cautiously stood up with her flask and bag. Zymeria was accustomed to not being trusted. Part of her really wished she could pack up her few belongs and go stay with Abri on his farm. He had always been her rock, the one who could make everything dark shine again. She belonged in Zantaric, though. That was where her gift would be most useful.

"I don't want your money," she said. "I've had things taken from me." Meri stopped briefly, thinking about the first fourteen years that she would never be able to remember. "Only those deserving of it should have things taken, and I don't see innate darkness in you. I choose to believe those two brutes didn't have any reason to steal."

Wouldn't expect any trust from people here, Meri thought to herself with a slight shrug.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Chrys gave the girl a confused look. "... That's very kind of you." she said finally. "You didn't have to." Chrys made a motion as if she was about to leave, then stopped herself. "She can't really be that naive, can she?" she thought to herself. "I suppose I could spare a minute to get to know her. Just a minute."

Giving the teenager a sympathetic smile, Chrys tried to be neighborly- something she was not used to at all. "...My name is Chrysanthemum. Are you new in town?"

"That would explain her being a goodie two-shoes, at least."

Celegwen

Meri shook her head. "My name's Zymeria. I go by Meri. I've been here for a little over four years." She shrugged. "I'm actually a midwife, if you can believe it."

She tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. She really expected the woman to just up and leave when she got her bag back. When Chrys didn't, especially when she spoke to Meri, that was an interesting turn of events.

"And I know I didn't have to," she said, rubbing her left arm. "In all honesty, I don't know why I did. Either way, you got your bag back, right?"

The woman held a reasonably skeptical look in her eye, which mirrored the one Meri wore. She couldn't figure out why Chrys didn't leave immediately. Meri would have, so she couldn't help being suspicious of what the other woman was thinking.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Chrys raised her eyebrows when Meri stated her profession. "A coincidence? Certainly an odd one if so..." She clutched her bag a bit tighter. "I should test her, she could be trying to trick me."

Chrys smiled. "But I'm a midwife too! I was just heading to Blue Orchid to buy more goldenseal when those two thugs stole my bag." Chrys feigned relaxation as she spoke. "It's always so nice when I meet somebody else in the field." She tilted her head slightly. "Now, are you classically trained? Or was it something you picked up from your parents?"

Celegwen

After hanging around with her Time Master brother, she knew there was no such thing as coincidences - only fate, destiny, and all of that crap that she still didn't believe in. Meri shook her head. "Neither, actually," she said.

Why am I being honest? What the hell do I owe her?

"Actually, I never knew my parents," she continued. "I am incapable of birthing a child of my own, so I turned to caring for others' children. Coming here, there was just so much death that I felt it was better to bring life into the world, rather than always end-" Meri stopped quickly, realizing she almost let her power slip. "- rather than always watch it end." The girl's heart skipped a beat. Her power was one thing she always hid to anyone who wasn't on the receiving end of it.

Have to watch myself more carefully than that.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Chrys's eyes narrowed. "This is wrong. Nobody just comes out and says 'I'm infertile'." She swallowed. "This has got to be one of that bitch Hildegarde's friends. She always wants me watched, and since I've gotten good at avoiding Sarah she must have hired this new girl to do it instead."

"And I know exactly how to prove it."

Chrys smiled at the girl. "But that's why I came here! The infant mortality rate here is absurd, so midwifes are in high demand." Chrys's smile became a grin. "Say, would you like to come to Blue Orchid with me? I get a discount there, I'd be happy to help you restock on anything you need. It's the least I could do."

"Taza's kid should be back from his errands by now- if this teenage brat works for Von Musel, he'll probably recognize her and say hi. That's all the proof I'd need."


Celegwen

Meri felt a sudden wave of discomfort pass over her. She rested her hand on her dagger; an action that had become something of a safety net for her. Her black eyes searched Chrys for obvious deception, but all she had was a small hint of a grin.

That's not evidence, she thought.

Though she did have somewhere to be, the offer to go with Chrys was really difficult to pass up. It wasn't like supplies, especially for their field of work, were cheap. If the woman had the ability to lessened the price, Meri just might have to push her other errands back. She thought about the little shop down the street holding her ink for her, but she might have to figure something else out. Career comes first.

Why should I trust her? For all I know, this woman could be walking me into a damned robbery! She shook her head briefly, as if trying to make the thoughts fall out. No, I'm done thinking the worst of people - for now.

"Thank you," she said. "I'd really appreciate it."

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Chrys's eyes lit up as the girl violently shook her head. "Hah! I knew it. You know that it'd give you away, so you don't want to go." The woman let out a satisfied hum. "I bet you thought this would be easy."

Then Meri did something Chrys didn't expect- she said yes. Forcing herself to keep smiling, Chrys clapped her hands together. "Perfect!" she exclaimed, walking past the teenager and out of the alley. "Why are you doing this to me? What's your game?" she though angrily. Motioning for the girl to follow, she continued to fake being upbeat. "Come on, it's only a few minutes down the road!"

Assuming Zymeria followed, Chrys would attempt to slip her up once more as they walked. "So you never knew your parents? You must have been awfully young when you first came here."

Celegwen

Something about Chrys' reaction just felt a little too excited. Of course she was making quick assumptions about the woman, but Meri would never expect someone she barely knew to appear so eager to have company.

She's so interested in me, Meri thought, walking alongside Chrys on the road. Why does she want to know so much? Polite conversation isn't exactly customary here. What does she want?

Meri shrugged slightly. "Actually, no. I came here when I was fifteen. My brother raised me." Don't lie! No one will want to trust you! It was a lie, but she really couldn't say what her life was before she was fourteen. "I was in Connlaoth before coming here." At least that much was true.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Chrys's eyes narrowed on the road ahead of her. "In-ter-est-ing." she said, putting an emphasis on each syllable. "Connlaoth is a long way away from here." Chrys frowned. "Then again, Von Musel came all the way from Hyoite. It's not that unusual. Still..."

Chrys looked at Meri with curiously. "Forgive me if I'm being rude, but... You don't look particularly Connlaothian. Were you born there?"

Celegwen

"No," Meri said simply. And that was all she was going to say. There were many things that she was willing to touch upon in the little memory she had of her past, but she stopped when it came to what she couldn't remember. It was a sore spot for her, as she knew she would never fully remember, so she refused to even politely humor the question.

There was a moment of slightly awkward silence, then Zymeria looked at Chrys with a raised eyebrow. "You've taken particular interest in me," she said, concealing the suspicion behind her words well, "and I am truly flattered, but I know nothing of you. What brought you here?"

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Chrys raised an eyebrow. "I see. So she didn't think her supposed back story all the way through. She's clearly-"

Her thoughts were interrupted when Meri suddenly asked about her. Chrys's eyes seemed to glaze over a bit, and when she spoke it was in an odd, monotonous tone. "Ever since I was younger I wanted to leave the world a better place than I found it. My mother was a midwife, so I got a head start learning the trade. After I graduated from school I came here- life expectancy for infants in this city is incredibly low. I want to change that."

A few moments passed where nothing was said. Finally, Chrys pointed to a nearby building. "That's it, the one at the end of the street."

Celegwen

It seemed Chrys wasn't exactly accustomed to talking about herself.

On top of her tone being strangely separated from her words, Meri highly doubted someone as guarded and innately suspicious as Chrys was would so easily give up her story. Meri might have quickly, but she made sure to always keep part of herself guarded. Chrys was completely detached from her answer.

That didn't make any sense.

Still, Meri decided not to push it. If Chrys wanted to stick with that story, it was her own decision. When Chrys pointed out the building at the end of the street, Meri relaxed, glad it wasn't too far a walk.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

The sound of wind chimes could be heard as the two women entered Blue Orchid, and they were soon assaulted by the overwhelming scent of flowers. Potted plants in a wide range of colors sat on every surface that could hold them, and sunlight flooded from the windows in the ceiling. Jars of herbs and spices lined the shelves at the back of the room. Chrys coughed softly. "Hello?"

"Oh!" exclaimed a small voice behind one of the shelves. A small, grubby looking boy walked out carrying a pot of white mushrooms. "Welcome to Blue Orchid, home to all the colors of- ah!" The boy let out a timid squeak upon seeing the two women. "Taza! She's here!"

Chrys smiled at the boy, eyes gentle. "Hello Randal." she said sweetly. "Do you have goldenseal in-"

*ahem*

Chrys watched in disappointment as the shop's owner, Taza Faah, stepped out from the back room. "Randal." the dark skinned woman said sternly. "Can you go check on the merchandise in the basement please?"

Randal nodded quickly, setting down the pot he'd been holding. "Yes! I can do that!" he said as he hastily left the room.

As the boys footsteps disappeared down the stairs, Taza crossed her arms. "Now, what was it you wanted?" she asked, eying Meri suspiciously. "Goldenseal?"

Celegwen

The sound of the wind chimes was a welcome one for Meri, who related the chimes to her brother. He always had wind chimes on his farm, saying that they were to inspired peace in his heart. She smiled softly, wanting to remain in the memory.

The boy with the mushrooms, Randal, seemed innocent enough. He was young, but children of his age could easily be more meddlesome than they originally appear. The way he reacted upon seeing Chrys, though... How he was so willing, almost eager, to leave the room made Meri a little uncomfortable. Chrys had regarded him with affection, but it felt like Randal just wanted to leave.

Then, another woman entered the room. This must be Taza, Meri thought to herself. It was clear that the woman was weary of strangers, and rightfully so, but her strangely unwelcoming eye might not be the best for new business. "Jasper," Meri said simply. "If you have it." She was accustomed to the way people looked at her, so Taza's suspicious gaze was nothing unfamiliar. It certainly wasn't going to stop her from saying what she had come for.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Taza nodded slowly, never taking hers eyes off of Meri. "Alright. It's on the top shelf, let me get it for you."

To say that Chrys was confused would be an understatement. "I was sure Taza would be friendly, but..." She tilted her head slightly. "She's treating her like she treats me... Was I wrong about her?"

"So." Taza's voice snapped Chrys out of her thoughts. She had returned with a small potted shrub.  "Making friends I see." She motioned towards Meri. "That's new."

Chrys narrowed her eyes. "I'm allowed to socialize."

Taza raised an eyebrow. "Never said you couldn't. It was just an observation." She handed the pot to Meri. "Here you go dear. Unfortunately I don't have any of the leaves or flowers in stock, just the plant itself. That's 30 silver, unless there was anything else you needed?"

Celegwen

Meri paid close attention to the manner in which Taza and Chrys regarded each other. It was interesting. They must have some kind of history, though most likely not the most familiar.

She nodded, walking towards Taza. "Thank you," she said with a small smile. "All I needed was the plant. Flowers and leaves are just decoration." The girl pulled out her coin purse.

The other women's quick back and forth exchange interested Meri, as she enjoyed watching the dynamics between others: it helped her to understand people better.

"I take it Chrys isn't one for company?" She asked Taza, while silently counting the coins in her mind. "I'd think she was the center of attention." Her comment was completely sarcastic, but she used it to possibly get a little more information about the woman she had met.

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