Walking through the ornate castle halls, Jeya couldn't help but stare at the lavish tapestries and expensive furnishings, though he tried his best not to allow his crimson eyes to widen. No matter how many times he'd been here, he still couldn't help it--not that he'd been here many times to begin with; maybe once or twice not counting now, and always with supervision. Just like now, with a full-fledged soldier escorting him. Mere trainees couldn't just waltz around the castle premises, after all! Jeya didn't mind that. In fact, he had a feeling that if he was left to do this on his own, he'd get lost and make a complete fool of himself. He'd already done enough of that in the past few hours, having only recently recovered from that temporary, hungover feeling that accompanied a mental attack. Yeah...barfing all over the place and passing out was not really the best way to make an impression in front of your peers...
Which was why he was here! No, not to sick-up, but to get extra help if possible. He wasn't so sure if that would be possible; the Captain, his instructor in swordplay, was a busy woman, and who knew how many student came to see her for assistance in their spare time.
...Not to mention since she was a rather attractive woman beyond that armor and uniform, if he said so himself, she probably had to deal with those idiot students that would try and use that as an excuse to hit on her. Pah. Dumbasses.
No, Jeya was serious about this. He was decent with a blade on his own, but around other people he got distracted. It wasn't because he couldn't focus on a single thing--it was all the renegade emotions that he couldn't yet protect himself from. If he knew how to create the block that other Empaths seemed able to do without even thinking, he'd have no problems at all, but as it was he felt like he was falling behind. He just couldn't count on ever figuring out how to shield his mind; until that happened, if it happened, well...he'd just have to learn to deal with it, desensitize himself to it. His only consolation was that he wasn't the only Empath having these sorts of problems; according to one of his other instructors, there were indeed others, and apparently those particularly strong in the ability tended to have difficulties in the area of forming a buffer for all the emotions that bombarded them on a regular basis. Apparently, there were other students that had it even harder than he did.
It was kinda reassuring.
In any case, extra instruction might just be able to help with that. And all without the pressures of a wider audience!
"She should be here somewhere...she makes her rounds about this time," he heard the soldier comment absently beside him, not bothering to mask the fact that he was bored, as they walked the hallways, empty save for a scurrying servant or two. Well, then again, he probably did a good job of hiding the fact that he was bored from normal people...but to Jeya it was obvious. The man had only recently graduated from a trainee to a soldier, and he was probably pretty miffed that his first exciting duty thus far was to be Jeya's escort. Jeya could feel the annoyance radiating off of him in waves, even though his expression was smooth and composed.
Ah, whatever. Jeya shook his head slightly and pushed some short red and black hair behind an ear. The man could go back to his exciting life as soon as he found Tarlaka. She certainly would be hard to miss. Jeya had always found those great black wings of hers intriguing...and now they would serve as a sort of landmark to the Captain. Heeey...that was an idea. To better help him ignore the soldier, he cast his eyes tothe ground, searching for any black feathers that might have fallen to use as a clue.
But that was when voices down one of the hallways caught his ear. And one of those voices was familiar.
Turning down the relevent hallway, sure enough, there was Tarlaka, blue bangs, black wings and all. And there was someone else with her, a man who had very light skin. The soldier directed Jeya off to the side to wait respectfully for them to get to a stopping point in their exchange; after all, their business wasn't pressing, and the other man looked a noble. They could wait.
