Whatever Happened to Ruslan Venasyr? [Pharaoh]

[Aurin]

"Good of you," he said, his smile warming. He found himself warming to Vadim as well. A kindness done to the boy who had grown into a man Aurin loved, well, that was like a kindness done to him or better. "Thanks."

His eyebrows both shot up, though, as he was applying the mustard to his sandwich.

"Arkady was my granddad, aye. But I never heard of a golden queen or a desert throne." He frowned thoughtfully. "Mum said Ruslan was a traveler in his youth, but she also said he was full of colorful yarns, so..." The confused look gave way to something else. "Perhaps there was something to it. Would be nice to think so... rather than that he was a sad old drunk." He frowned, then looked up with a bit of sadness in his gaze. While he had never met the man, he had been better to Arry than Aurin's own father had been to him. He wished there were happier things to uncover for his young friend. "Never knew him as an adult, but he was good with young kids."

He sighed and bit into his sandwich. Perhaps it would be read as nostalgia, or a bit of grief somewhat removed by time. He swallowed his bite, then smiled ruefully at Vadim.

"Sorry, I won't become another maudlin customer. Promise." He nodded to the sandwich. "S'good."

While Aurin didn't know the entirety of Ransera, the only desert throne that made any sense was Solunarium. He knew there was a strange elven realm there, though he had never gotten farther than their port and he didn't know if they had a queen or a king or a Grand High Poobah. He had been focused on other things than politics at the time. It would certainly make Arry more the snob if he thought he was a prince among elves, but if that were even true, it was more likely a target on his back than anything else. Perhaps Ruslan had been a bit of a hero for his son after all.

[Pharaoh]

“Ahh…” Vadim seemed disappointed with Arkady’s answer, but he wouldn’t say as much. Whether through marriage or whatever, Ruslan Venasyr was kin to this man. It would have felt rude to express disappointment about the man’s probable lies. Especially when they weren’t malicious… probably just self-aggrandising flights of fancy for a sad, lonely man.

“Ruslan?” He thought back. “Aye, he seemed pretty good with the kid. He always had really interesting toys. Little clockwork contraptions that looked like they’d been crafted out of whatever scrap a body could find on the street. He’d just sit in the corner and play by himself for hours… never bothered a soul.

“The only time I saw Ole Rus get cross with him, were when he lost some necklace. I’d never seen him like that. He were railing and raging like he had the fear of Wraeden in him. Sayin’ he couldn’t afford the resources to replace it and that without it they were doomed. Wee Arvine were in tears- wailing his apologies. I tried to calm Rus down, but he was having none of it until I found the necklace between some loose floorboards.” He wrinkled his nose,

“It were nowt but a little wooden disc on a piece of yarn. It were engraved with some sorta symbol, but it looked like owt a body could buy for a schilling at any market stall. Nothing even a petty pickpocket would trouble himself to nick… No idea why he went so wild over it… I might have heard it were a gift from the mum?”

The description would ring bells for Aurin. Arry still wore the necklace to this day, but it was so unremarkable it almost begged one to ignore it. Could he even recall what was engraved upon the little amulet? Vadim certainly couldn’t.

[Aurin]

Aurin frowned. He knew the little bauble, one of the few things Arry had brought with him to Kalzasi.

"Aye, he wears it still. Makes sense it were a gift from his mum." He rubbed at the back of his head thoughtfully, then took another bite of his sandwich. A closer look at the thing would be necessary when he returned to Kalzasi, and not just with his eyes.

"Perhaps it was magical," he said with a grin after he swallowed his bite. "Ensorcelled to look plain and simple, when really, it's worth more than a bar of gold. Would make more sense why Ruslan would get so upset about it, eh?" It all seemed so unlikely, but given her strange way of reaching out to Arry while he was undergoing his initiation in Masquerade and the other strange stories Arry had shared, perhaps it wasn't so unlikely after all.

"Thanks... I know Antiris is mostly bad memories for Arry, but some of this might ease his mind a bit. Vadim, was it?" That was what his sister had called him anyway. And Arry had mentioned the deceased Kolyov, who would seem to have been their father. "I'll let you know if he comes into his kingdom anytime soon." He grinned, then laughed. "After a Kalzasi Frost, I wouldn't mind a bit of desert warmth, eh?"

[Pharaoh]

"I'm not surprised he held onto it after how emphatic Rus was. He smacked the wee 'un, and he were crushed. I suppose now it's as much a souvenir of his dad as his mum..." Vadim trailed off, considering the possibility of enchantment.

"Don't see much in the way of magic hereabouts, but aye... That would make sense. Some of those toys Rus made for the lad seemed to have a mind of their own. Might be he had a mite of the Craft in him... Them what does around here tend to be cagey." He glanced thoughtfully to the corner where Arvine used to play, sipping his ale as he did so.

"Mm." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Aye, Vadim Kolyov." He offered the same hand for a shake, though the back still glistened with the remnants of the foam he'd swept from his lips.

"Well, I'm sure he won't want to be reminded of that incident, but... I played with him a time or two when he were small and we were slow. He showed me how to work his wee contraption... a little chariot, it were... With clockwork lizards pullin' it across the floorboards. I wonder if he still has any of those- I bet they'd be worth a pretty penny." He shrugged mildly.

"Anyway..." He chuckled at the notion of the little urchin inheriting anything as grand as that. "He'd be the first lad out of this neighbourhood to do so well for himself, if he did. So, um..." Vadim cleared his throat and looked the blonde man up and down once more.

"Dunno how long you're in town or whether you've got a place to lay yer head, but we've got a couple of guest rooms upstairs. Nothin' fancy, but two gold avens'll get you a night and me sister's famous Full Antiran brekkie come morning. Not to be missed for the few tourists we serve." He suggested playfully.

[Aurin]

That was an interesting thought. Arry's mother was quite clearly a powerful mage, but was it possible his father had been one as well? If only Arry and Torin got along, he could have Arry describe his father's toys in greater detail and perhaps Torin would recognize whether there was magic afoot or it was merely clever clockwork. In either case, he would ask Arry about those toys when he returned.

When the man offered his name and his hand, Aurin felt the inexplicable urge to lick the foam from him. It probably lent a quirk to his smile and a sparkle to his eye when he shook the man's hand, a bit firm, a touch lingering.

"Arkady Petrou," he said, giving him the full name of the alias. "I'll ask him if he brought any of the toys with him to Kalzasi."

But he was fairly sure he hadn't. The boy hadn't had a spare change of clothes when he swooned on Aurin's doorstep.

"Oh, well. A day or two unless something keeps me longer." He spoke slowly, possibly hinting at things. "If the brekkie's as good as the sandwich, I suppose I might as well lodge here. Best view I've had since I got here." He wondered if Vadim was on the menu, or his sister, or both. He smiled like he knew something. He knew a lot of things, but just now he was only hazarding guesses at what might be in store for him in Antiris. He didn't know if Vadim had any more intelligence for him, but he would be a passing lovely way to spend some time while he looked up any other leads in the city, both on behalf of Arvine Venasyr and on behalf of Portions for Foxes.

He was getting a lock on Kalzasi, but he did wonder if he couldn't connect with the rest of Karnor.

[Pharaoh]

Vadim noted the lingering touch, the fixed gaze and the wry little smile the stranger adopted as complement to their exchange of names and hand shakes. Interesting, he thought, making no strides to shirk or resist the ostensible interest.

"As good and better!" Vadim lauded, "Especially if you like sausage." He heard that, as it came out, and given the undertones of flirtation that seemed to be burgeoning, he blushed despite his olive complexion. "Eh... Best sausage for blocks, it is." He wasn't really lending to the ambiguity with that addendum, but he really had meant the breakfast links...

He knitted his brow in confusion, turning to face the soot-stained window and regard the translucent semblance of a view, before realising that Arkady's observation had likely been a compliment for him, rather than their environs.

"Ah..." He cast his eyes down toward the bar, a bit bashful at this sort of attention. There were a few lasses who came in that fancied him, but not much in the way of blokes. He'd only dabbled a bit when he was younger, and hadn't particularly missed it. But there was something about this fellow that stirred enough interest that, perhaps, he might revisit those teenage fancies now that he was nearly thirty.

"I'll, um..." He stood upright, "I'll have Viorica tidy up a room for you, then." He turned and opened the door into the kitchen, lowering his voice to confer with his sister for a few moments before both of them emerged. Viorica, for her part, wore a knowing smirk when she looked Arkady up and down on her way to the narrow, crooked staircase toward the rear of the taproom.

"So... do you have any other business in the city, apart from nosing about for your elfy mate?"

[Aurin]

"Mouth is already watering," he promised. Aurin—rather, Arkady—smirked. Perhaps he hadn't made a go of it as a courtesan at the Velvet Cabaret, but if he could make a seasoned bartender blush, then he still had that weapon in his arsenal. Ava had taught him well, though he banished thought of her lest it twist his insides to the point where he couldn't have fun with the charmer.

"Thanks, mate," he said, washing down the last of his sandwich with ale, dusting his hands off over the remains and pushing it away so he could get more comfortable. When Viorica gave him that look, he gave her one right back, ribald as anything—and inviting. Given an inch, he would take a mile. He remembered what it took to survive in places like this, in worse places, as well. When Vadim tried to regain his cool, Arkady relented and didn't push so hard as to turn him off.

"Half-elfy," he corrected. He rubbed at the golden stubble on his chin. "Ahh, probably poke around to get a sense for how business works in Antiris. I suppose even if we don't relocate, 'twould be smart to figure out how to expand out of Kalzasi. Even if everything calms down with Zaichaer, having a foot in the door here would make relocating easier down the line. Don't know that Kalzasi and Zaichaer will ever kiss and make up properly. So far away I don't rightly know why they bicker so much."

He finished his ale and then held it up.

"Please, sir, may I have some more? And why d'you ask? Have a day off and want to take me sightseeing?" He grinned. For all that it was back to teasing, this time, he was gentle.

[Pharaoh]

"I-... Oh! Heh..." Though it is impossible to perfectly transliterate the serious of sounds that Vadim emitted in response to the notion of his barguest's latest flirt, that is the best approximation. He attempted to cover his own awkwardness by swallowing down a bit of beer, but that only made matters worse when he choked a bit - lifting his fist to cover his mouth and turning away. He held up the opposing hand and raised his index finger, apologetically, before pouring himself a cup of water from a pitcher and following up the swig of ale with that.

"Sorry. Aye." He waved off the gratitude. "Think nothing of it."

Having regained some modicum of his composure, he shrugged at Arkady's correction.

"I... probably shouldn't give up an old regular's secrets to a bloke I just met, but..." He was dead and Arkady was dead sexy. "That weren't Ruslan's kin, that were his charge." He frowned slightly, immediately regretting the revelation.

"If you're Arvine's kinsman, I trust you'll keep this to yourself if it ain't helpful for him to ken, but one of the reasons Ole Rus drank so much was because he were miserable about being stuck here tendin' to the kid. Now, I don't know owt about desert kingdoms or anything of the like, but I do know Ruslan weren't Antiran. And wherever he were from ain't someplace he had designs to leave. The way he talked at the end of a bottle, it were like..." He thought back, remembering the older man's craggy face- tinged with blotches of pink endemic to them who drank to surfeit night after night.

"...like he were some sort of thrall to the lad's mum. Tasked with carin' for him, not out of love, but out of duty. Don't get me wrong, now... He cared about the kid- maybe he did even love him, but this weren't the life he signed up for and he resented his lot enough to drink his life away." Knitting his brow, he downed the rest of his ale. He shook his head, and sighed.

"So, you being a relation, I take it you already knew that or I just blew your mind, but whatever the case I can't proper confirm a word of it. Some blokes like to put on accents and make up stories when they drink... Try to be better or more interesting. Gods know I don't blame anyone stuck in his slum for findin' ways to escape..." He took Arkady's tankard and held it under the tap for a refill.

"What's a day off?" He chuckled, "I were just curious whether me guest might need concierge service, is all." He offered a playfully servile bow as he handed the fresh drink back across the bar.

[Aurin]

There were several things he could have said about dying that might have had to do with choking or... well, choking and other things, but he didn't want Vadim dead, but perhaps a little death shared. Arkady behaved. He was rewarded with more information, nodding slowly because he hadn't been there when Arry was conceived, birthed, and all. He didn't know his parentage except for what he had been told. It was entirely possible he was entirely elven; he certainly favored his mother's race. It might take an elf to say whether he was mixed or not.

It would have been easy to write all this off as a bit of exaggeration, but the gift Arry's mother had bequested him was, in fact, magical coercion. If Ruslan Venasyr had been his father in name only, then he could be the progeny of elven nobility. If he had been sent away, it was probably for his own protection, though the old drunk hadn't been much protection in the end.

Thankfully, he hadn't laid the glamour on too thick. He didn't look like Arry's brother, but like there could be a blood connection. Vadim had almost caught him out.

"I'll have to think on it, then, whether Arry would want to know or not." He frowned a little. "Might explain why he didn't bring him to Kalzasi himself... Anyway, what was that you were saying about concierge service?"

If Vadim was busy, all the better. Arkady would have to sleep sometime, and then Aurin would reemerge. There would still be time to play, and banter while the man worked. He had already been a solid source of information, though he would seek others to corroborate or complicate matters because he wanted as full a picture as possible. While he had been paranoid for years now, Arry's mother actually did track him down from time to time to get her claws in. At some point, he would have to face her, though the man didn't like that idea one bit.

"Mm, thank you," he said, sipping the freshly poured ale. "Seems you know how to keep a man happy."

[Pharaoh]

"Understood..." Vadim frowned, feeling a bit guilty at having broken the unspoken covenant of confidence that existed between barkeep and patron. It was rather like a priest giving up his parishioner's confession, he felt, but Ruslan was several years dead and there was a chance this information could help his ward discover that he wasn't just an orphan. He wished the kid well and hoped he was thriving despite having come out of this corner of Antiris. So few people made it out alive, let alone thrived in a new setting. He couldn't think of a single example, at the moment...

"Well..." Vadim smirked slightly at the reference to his joke about concierge service, "In this uniquely inhospitable part of the city, we here at the Grey Raven do our best to provide the best possible customer service... Particularly for dashing visitors from abroad." He bit his lip, hoping he hadn't overstepped by pushing his end of the flirtation beyond the borders of ambiguity into actual acknowledgement of attraction... Or at least acknowledgement of aesthetic appreciation.

"I'll be doing last call around midnight, but if there's owt you need..." He tilted his head, "Or owt you want after that, just knock on my door. It's the one with the Grey Raven painted on the door. Not the magpie, that's me sister..." Though she'd probably have appreciated a visit from the handsome stranger as much as he would but, as she often noted, he had the advantage of working front-of-house. She, he countered, had the mystique of one only seen in glimpses, but still...

"Anyway. Just putting it out there, innit..." And Arkady would make of that what he would.

End