Transience was a small trade town, a stopping point between Cerenis and another major port of call. Its commerce was tailored to sailors who ran supplies along the Eastern coast of Serendipity.
Sueesi was a scion who handled accounts for a trading company with a hold in Transience. The beach, or rather, the rocks that overlooked it, were a place for her to get away from her numbers and letters and commercial intrigue.
The waves calmed her, and on a quiet morning that held peace between the calls of coastal birds, the sounds of sopping cloth cut through the swells of wind and water.
She was surprised to look away from the sand and the docks to find a strangely-clad woman with her hair in a tight bun heaving herself unto the ridge at a decent distance. A cursory survey revealed no vessels near the rocks below, nor anything headed for the docks.
Water was spilling quite rapidly from her clothes, which Sueesi made note of. That didn't seem like it would be her only trick. The seaborne stranger's mind was racing as her eyes darted over Transience. What was she seeing in the beach houses, nautical storefronts, and grounded ships? There were a few morning errand-runners milling to and from the docks, but they didn't seem to garner much attention from her.
Sueesi set aside her own thoughts to gaze into the stranger's. They were guarded. Of course she could recognize the sensations that came from a busy mind, but as she reached at the wisps of surface thoughts, they escaped her like words in a gale or sand through the fingers. She could only gather that she was assessing some aspect of the town's prospects.
"Are you an adventurer?" She called out, and the woman's sharp golden eyes snapped to her. Wariness dissolved beneath a subtle blooming smile.
She stepped forth on the jagged rock, calling back. "No, but maybe! Just a nomad." That didn't feel quite honest. Her clothes were dryer than they should've been in the early light of the sun, hardly damp or dripping at all now.
"Okay." Sueesi accepted the response. "Well, maybe I can help?" She asked, diverting her gaze from those eyes to the hilt of an impressive sword hanging from her waist. "Oh, what a pretty weapon. You're going to want to peace tie that."
"Oh. Thank you. Do you have any cord?"
"No, sorry." She told her, "There are craft shops on Lubber Lane--hobbies and war trades and all that--though no, nobody likes its name but our presiding lord. He's a funny sort of leader."
"I see." She brushed stray wet curls behind her ear. Was she impatient, or nervous, or was it something else? Her feelings were a knot too dense to make sense of in a stranger. She thought she sensed a myriad of things: fear, worry, concern, amicability, relief, exhaustion, and more that dizzied her to examine. She couldn't even be sure of that read.
"I'm Sueesi. You seem complicated." She didn't like the trouble it cost her trying to read that expression, though she knew to tamp that frustration.
"Oh, well, well met. I suppose I
am complicated. My name is Antique." Was that a joke? No. An alias? Something felt like that mononym must have been very on-the-nose, but she looked so young, and her ears were round. Sueesi was sure she was human, until skepticism grew on her. Pale skin, strange eyes, and a fake name that spoke of age? Was she a vampire?
"Aha, well, perhaps we'll have to pass you on to a collector." She thought to crack a joke, and indeed, Antique's smile parted her lips, revealing a lack of fangs.
Sueesi felt she should watch this woman and learn about her, then chided herself. She couldn't afford to be so distracted from her work and her contemplations. This new acquaintance spoke through a rolling mirth, "Well I'm not looking to stay anywhere too long. Lubber Lane for a peace tie, and where for a map?"
Letting the moments carry away her wistful disappointment, she gave her directions and watched her move on, until something struck her. "Wait! Do you have money for all that?"
Antique turned. "No, I suppose I don't, unless they'll take foreign coin. I've got..." She was digging in her beltpouch. "Oh. Nothing. Never mind, they've gone like fairy marks."
Fairy marks? The scion frowned, then dug in her own wallet, counting out pennies, shils, and glints as the woman wandered back. "Let's see, enough for a peace tie, a map or two, and maybe a room at a bunk house if you need it for the night or whatever else might keep you going.
"Just remember you've got a friend at the Ferrymaster Trading Company. You can ask for me if you ever come by. We could definitely find you work if I vouched for you."
"You would do that for me?" She asked, appreciative and ginger in taking the coins. "Thank you so much. This will be very helpful." She said. "I'll keep you in mind. Sueesi?
"In fact, here:" She reached into a pocket inside the breast of her odd attire, producing a small nautilus. She explained it like this, "I found this... Swimming at the beach." A clumsy lie to Sueesi, but it had seemed like an offhanded diversion from the truth. "It whispers, but not like other shells. I've suspected it to be a ghost, perhaps some small god, or even a deranged mage.
"It will try to frighten you, but more often than not it will converse. I think it wants to be in the hands of somebody more inclined to commune with it than study it."
Sueesi took the random artifact with a sort of dumbfounded shock and pressed it to her ear experimentally.
"She knows you're psionic." Echoed an androgynous breeze of a whisper.
Wide brown eyes found golden ones.
"What?" Asked Antique.
"How can you tell?"
Antique picked up on things quickly, and doubt was clear in her frown. "I don't think I can. It's not always very honest." Maybe she started to saying something else, but if she did, she thought better of it.
Sueesi examined the shell. "Okay, well, weird, but thank you? Yes, thank you." She looked up. "Well good luck out there. It shouldn't be hard to find me as long as you're in Transience. Do you think you'll stay long?"
The traveler had just tucked away those coins and she looked up, another little smile crossing pretty lips. "Maybe. See you if I see you?"
She looked her over one last time, thankfully sensing no hostility or malicious intent. There was, however, a dagger revealed on the other side of her waist as the wind whipped the hem of her half-robe, half-gi into the air. "Oh, you'll need a peace tie for that too."
Antique looked where she pointed, nodded, and gave thanks. That time, she sauntered off to the road that ran to the pier, heading into town.
Sueesi decided it was about time to make her way to her office and its world of ledgers and messengers.
. . .