Tick, Tock, Splash

[Alegretto]

The Essyrni marketplace buzzed with activity as merchants and peddlers made loud calls out to passerby to come take a look. People of all nationalities and positions flowed in and out through the mass of people scurrying about the stalls and vendors. It was a half hour to noon, and everyone was doing their best to sell or buy few more things before it was time for everyone to head inside.

Rahib brushed past someone with a muttered apology and kept on his way, heading towards the stall he always went to on this particular day. The best mango vendor in the market was always set up about now and the clockmaker wanted to get a few before he sold out. He usually left his workshop earlier to attend to this duty, but he had been distracted today by a project. He could have sent a servant to do it, he had three to choose from, but for some reason none of them ever brought back the right mangos. This was definitely a case of needing to do it yourself for it to be done right.

He arrived at the place and settled in the back of the line, waiting for the five people in front of him to pass in turn. When he finally got to the front, he pulled some coins out of his purse and put them on the table. The young merchant smiled at the sight of the clockmaker. "Coming again toady? Just like clockwork Rahib."

Rahib smiled at the little joke. It wasn't all that funny, and he heard it every time he came here, but the regularity of it pleased him, indeed just like clockwork. Rahib liked things to be regular. "If I ever don't show up, Taisir, you should call the city guards because something has happened to me," the clockmaker finished their customary dialogue.

The young man chuckled as he handed over the fruit and took Rahib's coin off the table. His mangos obtained, Rahib turned to go, but he bumped into somebody behind him.

((OOC: Is this enough lead-in for you or would you like something else? Oh, and @Cambie :P))

[Winters-Feather]

Issen walked down the market street, her hips swaying as she walked. She had a basket full of food and a jug of wine balanced on her hip. For the past two weeks, she had been boarding with Taisir and his family, who happened to be relatives of the nomads she had met on her previous journey. He had told her she could stay until she could find another place, as his house was already cramped.  When she was working, Issen had been searching for a new place, but with no such luck.

Still, Issen got room, board, and a small coin for it, which she was proud of. She had realized using her ancient treasures as money was impractical and drew attention she did not want. Besides, she had much to learn from the new Essyrn, including Common, and once she had earned and learned enough, she would buy passage to Adela...

That was what she had been thinking about when she carried Taisir's lunch. Bumping into Rahib jolted her out of her daydream.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, fumbling with the basket.
Thankfully, she did not drop it. Issen smiled bashfully as she readjusted her veil to help protect  from the sunlight.

"I'm sorry!," she said in Common with grave concern.   Her voice was heavily accented, impossible to place. She quickly walked over to Taisir and presented him with his lunch. She glanced over at Rahib with concern.
"Is he a friend?" she asked.

[Alegretto]

Rahib was almost knocked over when the girl ran into him (he never considered that he might be the one who ran into her) but he recovered himself. He replied with a mumbled "No problem," to the girl's apology, but she had obviously moved past her concern for him. He watched Taisir and Issen talk and heard the girl's question.

Rahib watched as Taisir looked at Issen, then to Rahib, then back to Issen again. "Um, well..." the boy seemed to  think about it for a moment. The young man clearly didn't know how to answer the question.

Fortunately for the young man, Rahib decided to answer. I am a regular customer of Taisir's stall and an acquaintance of his." Answer given, Rahib pulled out his miniaturized timepiece. He was shocked to discover that there were only ten minutes left until noon. Where had the time gone?

It would take him fifteen at least to get back to his workshop. "I'm sorry but I must cut this meeting short. I really must be going if I am to have any hope of getting back to my home before noon."

Rahib made as if to leave, but Taisir called out to him. "Wait, Rahib. You're not going to make it you know. Why don't you come stay at my house for the next few hours? It shouldn't be too crowded around this time of day."

Rahib looked at Taisir, then at his timepiece, than back to the young man. "I do believe that I'll have to take you up on that offer." Rahib didn't want to be out on the streets at noontime. The muggers and cutpurse knew that it was the perfect hour to strike an unweary target.

[Winters-Feather]

" Acquaintance... means friend?" Issen asked Taisir.
She had picked up the word recently from foreign merchants who used it often.
"It can," he said.
Issen smiled to Rahib.
"My name's Issen. It is nice to meet you- oh!"

Her eyes brightened at the sight of the time piece. She wanted to ask about it, but Rahib seemed to be worried about the oncoming noon time. She nodded, eagerly.
"I can take him," she told Taisir.
Issen boldly took Rahib's arm.
"Come with me," the young woman confidently said with a smile.  "What was that box you pulled out just now?"

[Alegretto]

Rahib was so surprised by the Issen's actions that he had no chance to object to her grabbing him and he let himself be pulled along. "Um..." he tried to collect his thoughts. "It's a small clock. It's similar to the larger ones you see, but on a much smaller scale."

He stumbled after Issen a few more steps before pulling his arm from her grasp. "There's no need to pull, I can follow you just fine." He took a few more paces before he spoke again. "Um, my name is Rahib. I mean, Taisir already said it, but it would be impolite of me to refrain from introducing myself."

He paused again, taking a moment to phrase his question before he asked, "So what is your relation to Taisir? An acquaintance like me? An employee? Relative? Of course you don't have to answer if you don't want, I don't mean to pry..."

[Winters-Feather]

Issen solemnly listened, as a student would to their professor. She marvelled over Rahib's words , though blushed and took a step away as he freed himself from her grasp.
"I am sorry," she responded. "No, no, it's fine. It's, ah. I'm, how do you say.... Acquaintance? And employee. For now. His family told me to go to him when I traveled to the city to start on my own.  He is nice."

Taisir's home was a low roofed building, one story tall, with faded yellow walls.  Issen fumbled with the door's lock before opening it for Rahib.
"Come on in," she instructed. "You can tell me more about those clocks over tea!"

[Alegretto]

Rahib followed the girl into the building. He looked around, wondering when the last time was that he had visited the house of another for anything except business.

Rahib pulled out his timepiece, a small cylindrical clock with a miniaturized face, and walked over to what he surmised was the kitchen table. He pulled out a seat and put the piece of machinery down in front of him. "So Issen, what did you want to know about clocks? Oh, and what kinds of tea are available?"

The girl had hit upon one of the very few topics that could actually make Rahib slightly talkative, and tea did sound appealing right about now, so he was quite ready to have a discussion with her, a rarity for him since he usually barely spoke to anyone if he could help it.

[Winters-Feather]

"Mint, black, chamomile, and ginger," Issen recited from memory. "We also have sugar and some milk. Please, sit," she insisted, waving towards the cushions in the living area. She had never had to make tea in her life until now- to prepare it was work, especially with draining and and preparation, but Issen was getting quite good at it.
"And, to answer your question, hardly anything," Issen continued, eagerly. "I've never seen one before."
She went by Rahib's side to inspect the piece he put on the table.
"Those sticks move," she observed, pointing to the clock's hands. "How? And- oh.  Your tea! Which would you prefer?"

[Alegretto]

Rahib watched Issen as she fluttered about the kitchen. When she told him to sit, he followed her gesturing to the cushions and realized that perhaps this table wasn't the best place to set up. He was about to relocate when the girl was suddenly at his side. He started, slightly, surprised at how close she was. He gulped a bit, but he pressed on, starting to give the girl an explanation.

"Well the hands, these sticks, move bec-" he was beginning to answer when she cut him off with her question about the tea. "Oh, uh," he had to think back to what she had said earlier. "Ginger, thank you."

[Winters-Feather]

"Huh? Oh, alright," Issen replied.
She had been so absorbed in the explanation that she had forgotten about her own question! She made her way into the kitchen, her thoughts on the mechanisms. Lost in her thoughts as she made tea, she hummed to herself, singing softly now and then in Essyrn's ancient language. She was careless like that in front of her host - he thought it was just another language from the desert, so it didn't blow her cover.

She came back a few minutes later with two ginger teas in hand.
"So," Issen said, excited to learn more. "Hands?"

[Alegretto]

Rahib sat there, actually slightly bemused by Issen. Which was odd, because Rahib didn't find many things bemusing. He'd never met another girl so intensely interested in clockwork, and he couldn't place the girl's accent for the life of him.

He got even more perplexed when she started singing, and his confusion showed on his face as she walked back to the table. "Um, oh right hands. So the way this works..."

Rahib spent then next twenty minutes giving Issen and in-depth explanation of how the hands move and drinking ginger tea, though the whole time he really wanted to ask just what she had been singing in the kitchen.

[Winters-Feather]

OOC: Issen not Taiyou ! :P

IC:

Issen sat down by Rahib and listened intensely to his explanation, fascinated by how everything moved together so smoothly.
So this is what the technology of this world is like, she thought, excited.
"Oh, that's wonderful!" she exclaimed. "Tell me. Do they have these in Adela and Serendipity?" she asked, excited.
Issen smiled sheepishly.
"I'm trying to earn enough to travel, you see," she explained proudly.
She left out the part she was just barely making enough to survive in Essyrn, let alone leave.

[Alegretto]

((OOC: Blast it! Sorry, fixing it XD))

Issen's question caught Rahib off guard. "Oh, um, well, uh, I actually don't know," he managed to get out. Admitting that he didn't know was painful for him, and he resolved to speak to some merchants he knew as soon as he could so he could acquire this knowledge. It just wasn't something that he'd ever thought about before, but now that he had, there was no way he could go without getting the information. After all, how could he be a master of clockwork if he didn't know something relating to his craft.

To steer the conversation away from the gap in his knowledge, Rahib asked Issen a question. "But anyway, why do you want to leave Essyrn? Our country is so clearly superior to all the others, what need is there to go anywhere else?" he asked in all seriousness.

Rahib paused for a moment, thinking. "You are from Essyrn, right? I mean, I can't place your accent, and I didn't know the language you were singing in when you were in the kitchen, but where else could you be from?"

[Winters-Feather]

OOC: It's cool! i do it sometimes
IC:

"Excuse me?" Issen repeated with a nervous smile.
"W-well yes, I'm from Essyrn. It's a different dialect," she continued slowly, her heart pounding.
"Oh," she moaned as she clutched her chest, grimacing. It had been a few months, but she still wasn't quite used to all the complications of having a heart quite yet again.
"I'm sorry," Issen continued, embarrassed for her health.
"And... do you really think our land is so superior?" she asked with a grin.
Issen sat up straighter and crooked her head in curiosity. She smiled wistfully as her gaze turned towards beyond her guest, to a place she only dreamed of.
"I don't know. I've been here... forever and it would be wonderful to see different and new places," she said with a sigh, a heavy weight on her shoulders.

[Alegretto]

When she reported that she was from Essyrn, Rahib smiled. He was a firm believer in his country over all others, like most people who were born in the desert city. His grin faded, however, when she clutched at her chest. "Um, are you alright," he asker her with concern. He didn't have a lot of experience with medical problems, but he was pretty sure that grabbing at the area around heart wasn't a good sign.

She only apologized, however, and Rahib was forced to take that as a sign that she was okay. Hopefully. Odd, he wasn't usually concerned for the well-being of others, but the idea of Issen being hurt was somehow distasteful to him.

When she asked him if he thought Essyrn was better, he looked at her oddly. Even more so when she talked about having been here forever. "You don't look a day over..." he thought about this for a moment, "twenty," he finished, confident (or at least hopeful) that the estimate wouldn't offend. "That hardly seems like forever, and of course Essyrn is superior! There's a reason we're the oldest surviving nation you know."

[Winters-Feather]

"No," Issen responded quietly with a knowing grin. "Twenty years is not."
She arched her brow at Rahib's words.
"Are we really?" she asked, in earnest.  Issen bit her lip before speaking again.
"You know, this city is so wary of magic," she couldn't help saying, her eyes sparkling from the memory of her journey.
"But Essyrn, its legends, its history... it was built on it. The desert is mysterious and powerful. That's what I think."
She gave a wry smile.
"But perhaps that is why the city is precisely the way it is."

[Alegretto]

Rahib looked at Issen with an odd look on his face. Her words didn't sound like the musing of a twenty-something girl at all. They seemed much deeper somehow, more meaningful.

"I guess Essyrn does have it's contradictions," Rahib said carefully, "but it gives it character." he finished confidently. "Like you said, our history is rich and long, and of course some eccentricities may appear over time, but our age is exactly why we are superior to other nations, just like elders are superior to those younger than them. It's really just a natural phenomenon."

[Winters-Feather]

Issen had to grin at that last statement. She entertained the thought of being the most superior being in Essyrn, for if age was all that was a factor, she would surely be a top contender!
"Indeed Essyrn has character," she said with a chuckle. "But even so, I've always imagined the splendors beyond Essyrn's borders, having only heard stories. I'd like to discover the world's character."

She looked at the clock Rahib had made. It was truly a wonderful invention.  A new idea suddenly struck the woman. She shyly touched the watch, though there was a bold light in her eye.
"You told me so much about these inventions, but I'd like to see more of your work. Would it inconvenience you if I accompanied you back to your shop today?" she asked. "I'd love to see it."

[Alegretto]

Under most circumstances, anyone coming into Rahib's workshop would bother him. Oddly enough, that wasn't the way the clockmaker felt when Issen asked. "Um, no I don't think it would be a bother at all," he told her hastily, completely unaware of the discrepancy between his actions now and his normal modus operandi.

"Um, but it's still going to be a while yet before I head back. In the meantime, how about I finish my explanation of how this works," he said gesturing to the timepiece. And true to his word, Rahib immediately launched into an in-depth explanation of clockwork, and miniaturized clockwork in particular. If no one stopped him, he could easily fill the three hours of the noontime break with his explanation.

[Winters-Feather]

Issen smiled, delighted by Rahib's answer.
"Wonderful," she said, excited to see such new and interesting things. She nodded dutifully at his request to return to the lesson. She listened whole heartedly, writing notes into her mind. The length of the lecture did not bother her- in fact, she wouldn't notice the time passing, either, so used to to lonely desert days. It was so strange that, having been so removed from time for so long, that such devices would interest her, but it was so.

Three hours passed this way. Issen only looked up from their work when the door was knocked by a runner. Startled, Issen rose to her feet, knocking her half dranked tea cup over. However, it did not spill on her. Like a reflex, Issen accidentally used her powers to allow the tea to remain in the cup until it shattered on the floor; so small a detail that would be usually unsuspecting.
"I'm so sorry!" Issen told Rahib as she rushed to the door.
"Please, leave it. I'll clean it soon. Hello?"
She opened the door to find a Runner, who came to bear a message for Taisir.