Lost and Found II [Arvaelyn]

[Hilana Chenzira]

7 Ash, Year 122

[Closed - Arvaelyn]

“Appearances are everything, are they not?” Hilana admitted, knowing she had to watch what she said on the subject. He could talk easily and openly of such things, and she would listen and likely agree, but she had to be much more careful when discussing the Re’Hyaens, especially in public. Though considering this place had likely never had one in here before this Dominus… best not to take chances. Someone was always listening. “Perhaps they will warm up and become more comfortable with you as you get used to them and they get used to you?” It was a long shot, maybe, but it could happen. Sometimes it just took people time to get used to each other. “My great-aunt told me before I came here that ‘The world survives on pretence. Help it along’,” she added. She was sure this Elf already knew it… but it was the safest way she could commiserate with him about it and not risk getting her brain turned into mush.

As he spoke of the possibility of Finn ever being with someone else and she saw that flash in his eyes, Hilana sat quietly with her own quite wide. She could understand where he was coming from, and she resolved that it was far, far better to stay on this one’s good side. Though that was true of most; not many would ever deign to talk to her. Especially on subjects like this. “Feed them to the dragons?” She suggested helpfully. “Or is that too quick of an ending?” She understood the implications, clearly. She could imagine that if she had felt so deeply about someone, she might very likely have the same visceral reaction.

“I can understand. And it is not too much,” Hilana sought to reassure him. She had just told him about her own situation, which was a completely self-made pile of Wyvern dung that had been sprayed with acid and set on fire, and he had listened with good graces and offered support. “I am sure he will support you however you need him to. You and he belong to each other, regardless of whomever is arranged for you. Finn will understand. If that is what it takes to get you through it, why not? With luck, you may only have to bother once or twice,” she tried to encourage him. It had been a while for the Vastii, too, come to think of it. Tertium had probably been her big dry spell, what with the scrutiny and eyes and people that followed her every move… she had been suffocated, but appearances were everything. Those who her father picked out for her did nothing for her, but she also could not get away with slipping away to find someone that would. With the relative freedom she had in Solunarium, she kept contraceptive herbs and tea at the ready. She was taking no chances on such things for herself. Not right now.

Hilana grinned when he made the comment about the distinction between cake and pie. “I have seen old aunties have shouting matches over such things. They likely just needed to be able to yell, though,” her eyes were twinkling. “Like a tomato. Fruit, vegetable… I do not correct anyone about it when I hear it,” the girl laughed. “I am sure that there are recipes like that where you come from, yes? One person says it is one thing, someone else says it is another. Dessert breads, too,” she was cheerful. “Bread, cake… almost the same, sometimes,” she didn’t add anything from the table to the spiced tea, as she inhaled it. It was nicely hot, with the flavours she loved, and she had a preference as a herbalist for trying drinks before she went and added things to it.

[Arvælyn]

"It is at that..." Arvælyn conceded. In truth it was no grim realisation for Arry that appearances were paramount. It had been how he'd reinvented himself in Kalzasi and survived to the point where he might be honoured in Solunarium, taking the concept of 'fake it 'til you make it' to a whole new stratum. He had played at aloofness enough publicly to understand that it was an easy default when faced with new people or new information. He represented both for his family in Solunarium. He could hardly expect them to welcome him with warm affection and open arms- Least of all considering very few of them knew he even existed prior to his arrival. Judging from her tone, Hilana hadn't been so benefited by the notion.

"I have long survived on pretence." Arry chuckled, leaned forward and wafting a bit of the spiced tea's aroma toward his prominent, yet delicate nose. "The gods certainly blessed me with the bone-structure for it..." He noted, lifting the cup to take a sip.

"Oh, this is quite different from the last one, isn't it? Quite good, though." He glanced to the controversial pie/cake, but would wait for his provisional pædagoga to demonstrate technique before digging into that. He chuckled at her mention of execution by dragon.

"I imagine no dearth of options shall come to mind, should that fell moment chance to come..." He tilted his head, curiously. "You speak of him with such certainty for one that does not know him..." He wondered whether she was being overly deferential, due to the disparity between their stations. Perhaps one born to his position would be accustomed to such things, but he had been raised bowing and scraping to his betters, so he remained conscious of the implicit effect he had on those considered to be of lower caste.

"You needn't tell me what my ears prefer just because they're pointy..." He offered, gently, placing his cup down and leaving his hand clasped about it.

"Call it what you like," He chuckled, "As long as it tastes good. Is this another one eats with one's hands, or...?"

[Hilana Chenzira]

“Out in the sands, I found that pretence doesn’t seem to matter quite as much,” Hilana admitted. “But in the cities, where people do not need to rely on each other quite like that, it is different,” she was contemplative. “But I suppose it is a way of keeping things interesting.”

She was pleased that he liked the tea, as she sipped her own and curled her toes in her sandals. Hot as it was, she was used to it, and she found it relaxing. Her smile was bright behind the cup, though, when he took her suggestion of dragons with good humour. But as he continued, Hilana was starting to get concerned that she might have been being overly friendly and inappropriately familiar as he commented on her words, but that concern was calmed by his reassurance.

“I see the look in your eyes when you speak of him. I hear your emotions, your love for him, when you talk of him. And I think that if someone is worthy of that much love from you, then surely it is reciprocated in turn," she told him. “Maybe it is my own experience, or lack thereof with such things. But my first guardian, when he speaks of his wife, he sounds like you do when you speak of your Amatus. Sometimes when he looks at her, his eyes get a bit…far away, like she is the only one in the room, no matter how full it is. And I know how much she loves him, too. Tana would do anything for Asher, and so I imagine that your relationship with your Finn is something like that. They don’t get much time together, either, but to see them when they do…” To another Elf in this city, to be compared to a -human- was likely an insult that could result in the fastest conviction ever decided in the history of the city. But the way Hilana spoke of this Asher and his wife was with love and great regard, and clearly, it was meant to be a high compliment.

When he inquired about how to eat the cake imposter in front of him, she smiled at his words. “For this one, a fork, Dominus. If I made one for you around the fire in the Expanse, you would use your hands. But this one has the garnishes…” Hilana laughed. “I did that once as a child with one like this one, with the extra honey on it,” she admitted, picking up her own fork and neatly slicing off a piece with it before stabbing the bite-sized morsel. “It was for my fifth birthday, my first one away from my blood family… so I got extra honey on my slice. I managed to get it in my hair and everything was sticking. They ended up dunking me in the water trough to try to get it all out.” The melopita had the same sort of texture as a cheesecake, and its flavour was predominantly honey and vanilla bean.

[Arvælyn]

"I hope he loves me thus..." Arry sighed, wistfully. Even though he had the certainty of Finn's Symphony to assure him that his love was well and truly reciprocated, the elf still found ways to doubt. "I'm only beginning to acclimate to the notion that I'm worthy of so pure a soul as Finn's..." He smiled wanly, "That must sound strange to you, my being an elf and him being human, but he has such an innocence about him. I worry that he might be led astray by some wily wastrel when my back is turned, and... I do not think he recognises the breadth of wickedness that this world plays host to." He gritted his teeth and took in a deep breath before sighing it out.

He nodded at her instruction and took up his fork, to duplicate her moves to take a bite. He nodded approvingly.

"Mhm." He said, by way of appreciation, and followed up his first bite with another promptly thereafter. It wasn't like the cake he'd enjoyed with Aurin that fateful day in Antiris, but it was good all the same in its own way.

"As I said we're quite busy, but perhaps we can find an evening for the three of us to have dinner? I'm sure our staff could whip up some Vastian favourites if you let me know what is not to be missed. I'm sure Finn would be as glad as I to spend an evening talking in the Common tongue. Our minds get so exhausted churning away at all this new information and trying to translate as we go in a language that's new to us both." He took a sip of tea, and followed it up with another bite of the confection.

[Hilana Chenzira]

“I think that we always wonder if we are truly worthy of being loved by those we love. And maybe... maybe that is a good thing, Dominus. It is something to strive for...not something we settle for,” Hilana offered. “If we settle, sometimes... we lose focus. And things can fall apart. But do not let doubt shake you. The dragon moves its tail. The tail does not move the dragon.” She had to adapt Markus’ saying. It may have been one thing to be compared to a human, but to use the saying as one of her guardians had, with a dog instead of a dragon, may not have been received so well.

When he spoke of Finn being innocent in this world to wickedness, Hilana’s head tilted, and she watched him, her expression thoughtful. This was very similar, in ways, to what her Great-Aunt had told her. That the way she had come up in the sands with her pack was different from the lives of those in the cities. That niceness would get her killed, or worse. It was all well and good to look helpless and let people assume things about you, but when it came to it... sometimes those souls held within their depths the ability to get their hands dirty when it came to it. ‘Consider this a step on your journey to self-discovery...’ She left that alone for now, though. But humans were stubborn, and when they had a reason... “You never know how strong tea is until you steep it,” the girl had another bite of her melopita. “How did you and Finn meet?”

Hilana was quite clearly utterly delighted at the extended invitation, and she inclined her head to him respectfully. It was at least a change from the usual stoicism of this place, because if his present paedagoga was excited, she showed it. “I would like that very much, Dominus. Is there a day that would work best for you?” That way she could make arrangements with Vasilei in order to not be closing the shop and could hurry home and be there at an appropriate time. Besides, if he chose a date, then Finn could be warned in advance, and it meant that the two of them could at least have some time planned together that they may not have had.

[Arvælyn]

"Perhaps..." Arry considered, "It is odd to think that Finn might question his worthiness to be with me, though. I don't think he does..." Which might have been particularly strange, given the shift in power dynamic of their present situation. But Finn also had come up in a loving, stable household with a family who asserted his inherent value. As haughty and aloof as the elven Arvælyn might have come off, they treated him as they would any other guest in their home- Unimpressed with the things that had mattered most to him in the world of pretenses.

Arry smiled inwardly at the question about how he and Finn had met.

"He was busking near a marketplace where I was doing some shopping... I was impressed with his voice and had been working to improve my own, so I entreated him to help me. We went for lunch and discovered we had a Rune in common and... I suppose we liked what we heard in the Symphony of the other. It was a long time before we waxed romantic together. At first we were working on a song for me to perform. I was crushing on him the entire time, but I didn't say anything until the night of the premiere performance of the song. Caught up in the moment, I suppose..." He pursed his lips,

"It's not been without its pitfalls, but those were my fault. I can be severe... imperious. Re'hyæan blood presenting itself before I knew what that meant, I suppose..." He trailed off,

"Oh, I shall need to consult my calendar when I'm back home. If you write down your address for me, I'll have a courier send an invitation once I've had a chance to secure a date. Just let me know if there are any days that don't work for you."

[Hilana Chenzira]

It was odd in a way to hear the Golden Elf speak of such things, but Hilana found it interesting indeed. Had their positions been reversed - that Finn was the Elf and her present companion the human, it would have made instant sense to her. It made her wonder, quietly, if all Elves were a bit like them in that they had their doubts and worries and fears. Surely, because they were living beings too with their own emotions, as hidden as they were. But because one like her almost never saw it, it was easy to think the imperious Populous Ex Re’ha did not. This was indeed food for thought, but she also knew she wasn’t supposed to question such things. Maybe it was unique to this foreign-raised Hytori, but…

Hilana had another bite of her melopita as she listened to Arry’s story of how he and Finn met. A shared Rune… Symphony… that meant Mesmer. If the smile on her face was anything to go by, she was enjoying the story as he told it to her. “I imagine that that song was beautiful,” she remarked. “Did you perform it together? Have you composed more since?” But the happenstance of their meeting and becoming friends, and later more… Hilana found herself with a bit of envy over that. The way they had organically came together and then got the freedom to choose… that almost never happened here. Those who had no family, like Asher, had some agency when he had gotten married to Tana, but considering Asher’s position within her father’s business, it connected well for them. It still circled back in a number of ways to who you knew, and staying within your own caste… She released it.

“Well, that is something you come by honestly, Dominus, by your birthright,” Hilana offered. It was something everyone got used to, after all. But what he did with that knowledge and awareness of his blood was up to him. Hopefully now that he had an understanding of it, he could better anticipate those feelings. “But most couples have pitfalls here and there, I would think.” Salim had gotten away with far too fæxing much with her father’s boot on her neck, so Hilana could not talk about such things, and neither did she want to bring it up. She was free of him and that family… until her father found another one, and it would probably be just as bad. But Great-Aunt Eliana had figured she had a year before being summoned back; and what she managed in that year was going to be on her.

When he asked for her to write down her address, Hilana lowered her fork to her plate and shifted her rucksack, opening the side compartment and pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil. “Of course, Dominus.” She had wanted to be prepared while she had been looking for Khyan and his family, and in case she has needed the ability to make a note somewhere…

Matsi Chenzira Hilana
15 Vicus Stellae, Apartment 406
Margaritae Albae, Antiquine District

Or

Sweet Remedies Herbalist Shop
Port Vasta

Below that, she wrote down a few dishes that he could give to his staff as requested.

Paidakia
Choriatiki
Dolmades
Kaftiri

That had taken a bit more thinking than it should have, but she put her pencil away and set the piece of paper down where he could reach it rather than interrupt his meal. She’d put down the dishes that were often enjoyed in the small villages and towns, foods that she loved, without being too, well, too much. He had said his appetite could go exotic if it was good, but she was not going to insult them by recommending roasted scorpions. “The only day that would not work for me is the tenth, I’m afraid. I do need to work late that night, I already promised my mentor.” She was apologetic. “But otherwise, my schedule is open.”

[Arvælyn]

Arvælyn nodded,

"It is rather beautiful..." He conceded, "I only wrote the lyrics, Finn the music. We've performed it a few times, and started a few other pieces, but... You know, life gets so busy and now that we're here it's even harder. We're both learning the language, but then we're both training with different Runes... He's still performing and I'm, well... Not." It was a bit of a sore point, but one he brooked mildly. For all he'd longed for status in his life, he hadn't considered much of the duty that accompanied the privilege. He'd had no frame of reference for any of that before coming here. He only saw nobles in their leisure time, whether he'd been performing on the stage or in the back rooms- Then later, Finn's Kalzasern connections had afforded them access to a few lavish events, but there he would only see the upper classes at their most ostentatious. Dressed to the nines, and dining on haute cuisine. Now that he was more like them, he was learning that those occasions were rarer than he'd imagined.

"Of course." He smiled wanly in acknowledgement of her consolation, and took a bite of melopita as she set down the requested information. He chased the pastry with a sip of tea, and sighed contentedly.

"Noted." He said, sliding the paper to his side of the table and glancing at what had been written.

"So, what is it like in the Antiquine District?" He knitted his brow, "I've not spent any time there." It seemed strange to have been in the city for months and completely neglected one of its larger neighbourhoods, but there they were. As she replied, he folded the note up to be tucked away in his coin purse where he'd be sure to find it later.

[Hilana Chenzira]

“Life is what happens while we make other plans, isn’t it?” the girl nodded. She understood that all too well; it was certainly her experience. But surviving meant adapting, and if you got used to thinking on your feet... you would be all the better for it. But that didn’t always make for an easy life, and sometimes, who didn’t want that? “But I hope that the two of you get more time together as you get settled in more.”

She had another forkful of the cheesecake, her toes curling in her sandals as the flavours came together on her tongue. “Well, the Antiquine District is a bit of a, well, stewpot, really. It somehow all comes together, despite not being uniform. It is also called the Old City, so it isn’t always very organized or orderly... but I like that about it,” Hilana admitted. “It is eclectic, I think you could call it. You have the much older buildings along with newer ones, of all different styles through the periods of people living here. Some areas are a bit rougher, and you do need to watch yourself, but Hayima’el is a good deterrent for me, not many want to take him on if I’ve got him out. I’ve found that mostly towards the northern area, but not quite so close to where the military training grounds are. They know to watch themselves there lest they get attention, and those who live that way rarely want that,” she sipped her tea. There were areas she was not inclined to go at night, with or without her camel, but she was fortunate enough that she almost never needed to be there.

“Now, some neighbourhoods are quite nice and well-kept, especially those that are a bit closer to the Sorokyne District, like mine is. Where I live, there are a couple apartment buildings on that street, and then between them and all around them are houses. Some small and new, some big and old and having multiple generations of the family in there. And then you can turn the corner, you will find yourself in an entirely different architectural style. What is tall and smooth and sleek and painted white becomes squat, sturdy, darkened sandstone, but the building next to that could be brick or quarry-stone masonry. They are always building or renovating something somewhere in there... and it’s kind of exciting to see what comes out of it,” she told him. “If you would ever like a tour of it one day, I could bring Hayima’el and go through it with you.” She knew that he had a number of people that would surely take him, but she was happy to offer.

[Arvælyn]

"I hope so, too!" Arvælyn chuckled lightly, scratching the back of his blonde head.

He sat back, sated for the moment with the refreshments, and turned his full focus toward the Vastian woman across from him as she spoke of her neighbourhood. He smiled faintly at the description, finding something oddly comforting about the notion of a bit of chaos in a city that seemed almost oppressively orderly.

"Sounds a bit like Kalzasi." He noted. 'Eclectic' was one word that would be aptly applied to his former home as well as Hilana's present.

"Ha...yima'el?" Arry took a moment to process the sounds before attempting to repeat them for the sake of clarification. She might have mentioned the name in passing, but if she'd identified who or what that was, he must have missed that detail. Even if elements of her assessment seemed appealing- even familiar to him, the notion of a visit grew less appealing as she went on. He imagined, given the social makeup of the population, that elves like him might not be well received in harder hewn areas. He'd suffered a great deal of bigotry for his elfiness in the slum of Antiris where he'd come up, and that was merely based in the ignorance of unfamiliarity. Here they had more grounded justifications

"Well... perhaps with an escort." He conceded. "There's still so much of the city to explore in the areas I've already visited." Which tended to be safer for those of his ilk.

"I've still got to find a time to experience theatre in Solunarium. It was my discipline back in Kalzasi, so I have a special affinity for it. I'm told it is quite spectacular with the unabashed use of magic to enhance the performances... They were comparably reserved with such techniques in Kalzasi, if I've been told is true."