Brighter Days Come [Aurin]

[Destyn]

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Searing 52
125 Steel

Destyn quite enjoyed the relative seclusion of Torin's valley. It made for an interesting ecosystem, being remote and sequestered from the many creatures that would have had trouble reaching its interior. Destyn's growing baby tree was already subtly changing that ecosystem and the Fae was interested in observing how as it transpired. Since the relocation of the sapling, he'd made the valley his primary residence. Of course he would exploit his Amulet of Wandering to pay visits to loved ones abroad from time to time, but he didn't like to be far from his charge for long since Hin'tai'oth and company had arrived in Sivan's garden to emphasise the importance of the Ecithian transplant. He had help, now, but he still deemed himself the sole parent to a plant he'd sown from the seed Destiny had placed in Destyn's hands. He had planted it in a place tended by cultivating spirits and seen to a nourishing life-source even during the Eclipse that shadowed the world. He would see it tower over him one day and, gods willing, would be laid to rest at its roots to feed it in death when he could no longer provide for it in life.

He was seated upon a hillock overlooking the open plot of land from which the fledgling trunk now rose and smiled as he basked in the same sunlight that bathed his charge. The sound of footsteps in the grass shifted his attention from flora to fauna, if folk could be deemed such. He'd expected to see a more regular pilgrim to the vicinity of the tree than the red-haired man who now approached. He knitted his brow and tilted his head, curiously.

"Oh, it is you!" He gave himself a quick panoramic scan of the area in search of Torin, for rarely had he seen this one without him. "Are you looking for, um... for Torin? He is not, you know, here right now."

[Aurin]

Aurin had always been a shoe made for the city, but he had also walked his sorry arse from one city to the next before when he was down on his luck. Most days now, though, it seemed as though he had made Vhexur his bitch; of course, that only made him wonder when the other shoe would drop.

Arry, at least, was safe from Aurin's eventual destruction—or, perhaps, self-destruction—and now most of his people would likely thrive without him. That was a comfort; it was also lonely.

As he walked in heavier boots toward the far side of the valley, he tried to soak up the peace of it. Instead, he spent the time in a prolonged fantasy whereby he swanned into Solunarium and did something monumentally stupid whereby he ended up impaled on some Sentinel's sword, but at least Arry's would be the last face he saw.

Who would be waiting for him when his eyes saw their last, he didn't know. Most of the people who had gone before him to meet the Grimlord had plenty of reason to hate him. At least they weren't indifferent.

As he was not so comfortable in the wild, his arcane eye was wide open and so he sensed Destyn's presence ahead before his eyes saw him. He tried to dredge up one of his sharp, serrated smirks, but all he managed was a tired smile.

"H'lo, Destyn. No, he's in the city. Siv needed a ride to the valley to talk to Kala about a rabbit...?" He shrugged. If he didn't find peace here, movement made him feel like more of a moving target where Vhexur's aim was concerned.

"Just thought I'd check on your tree while I was twiddling my thumbs. I guess you have it well in hand, though." Hazel eyes glanced past him, taking in the young tree that had caused so much hoopla.

[Destyn]

Destyn's wings made a slight chittering sound as they flitted rapidly for a few seconds as he rose from his seat on the hillock and skipped down to greet Aurin.

"Ah, this makes sense to me for there are, you know, many of rabbitses hereabouts." He gestured broadly, smiling to himself at the news of Sivan's arrival. That would be a nice treat, if he lingered long enough to socialise.

"Yes, it is, you know, important work, but also it is ummm... Cad é an focal coitianta? Monotone-ness? Yes, I think it is full with monotone-ness." He wrinkled his nose. "I have heard the saying in Common that when something is, you know, dull it is like watching grass grow. Trees are bigger than grass but take, you know, longer to grow and that is what I am doing and the saying is right. But it is not terrible because I take breaks and get snacks. Do you want me to forage for you anything? I know which berries are safe and if you are not one of those squeamish humans, there are juicy bugs about this time of year..." He'd made enough well-meaning offers of bug-based fare and been rejected to have come to terms with the fact that they were an acquired taste and not part of the culturally acceptable cuisine in most major civilisations. But this was one of his many issues with civilisations- They focused on so many bad things and neglected so many good things.

He stepped up to Aurin and tilted his head as he looked at him.

"What happened to the other human that used to come around and visit with Torin? The one with the kind eyes and the dark hair and that played music all of the time? I do not ever see him no more. You I see also less, but... him not even in Kalzasi."

[Aurin]

Aurin nodded. Torin's valley was all bunnies and rainbows, but the man's childhood had been sharp so Aurin could hardly begrudge him a place where even the wolf and her litter were his friends. Perhaps that was why Aurin would on occasion personally transport building supplies and ensure that the villagers were well when Torin was in one of his creative binges and he forgot to eat and sleep if he wasn't reminded.

It was a big, cursed rabbit, apparently, but he left that to Siv and Kala. They made him uncomfortable if he was honest.

He nodded. "I don't speak Fae, but I've heard that one before." As for foraging, "Hm, sure. I'll try whatever you're having."

In his experience growing up, there had been quite a few roasted, fried, or steamed insects, as well as baked goods made from ground mealworm larvae. There were a few vendors in Kalzasi that sold edible insects, although they tended to cook them or otherwise prepare them as well. But Aurin got around; he could be an adventurous eater, and if he told himself he was doing it on a dare, he wouldn't back down.

Aurin would follow Destyn in his foraging if it seemed he wanted the company; otherwise, he would pop a squat and study the storied sapling.

"Huh? Oh. Finn went south with Arry. Settled in a desert oasis. They got married. He probably doesn't visit Torin because Arry doesn't like Torin. That's my fault. Mostly. I'll tell him your tree needs a lullaby or something next time I see him if you want." After a beat, he had a thought.

"Hey, if you're worried about your little tree, I can set wardings around it. Make it so nobody can get to it except you. And, well, me. Don't mind doing it if it'll give you some peace of mind."

[Destyn]

"Great! I will then be, you know, back!" Destyn beamed as he crouched and then leapt into the air, catching himself with lightning fast wings that thundered as they sent gales of wind to scatter the dirt beneath him. He rose higher and made for the tree line, vanishing under the canopy as the sound of his wingbeats faded to less than the ambient noises of this flat patch of valley that was occupied by little more than grass, the Ecithian sapling and, for the moment, Aurin.

The distant hum of rapid wingbeats heralded his return sometime later and he alighted before Aurin, producing a pack into which he'd placed berries and creepies and crawlies. He opened it up in offering and sat down beside Torin's friend.

"Oh. I do not know Arry, but if he does not like Torin then he is probably not very nice." At the offer, Destyn shook his head.

"No, I can make my own lullabyes for the tree. I did not know him well, I only thought of him because I also do not know you well. I am friends with Torin and Sivan, but they have other friends that I do not know. You and that one are alike in this. Maybe you are also alike in other ways, but I do not know because I do not, you know, know you both." He shrugged.

"There are others who tend to the tree, so I would not wish to ward against them, but thank you for the, you know, offering. Is this to barter? The food is a gift. I do not need anything in return." He smiled warmly and reached his hand into the bag and pulled out a handful of his squirming trailmix recipe and stuffed the whole handful into his mouth, which puffed out like a chipmunk's as he chewed.

[Aurin]

Aurin was close to the sapling, surveilling it, when Destyn returned. Given how protective the fae seemed, he was not so near as to be able to reach out and touch it, nor to accidentally fall over and kill it. When Destyn sat, he did too, near enough to continue sembling the tree with ease and share in the foraged repast.

"Thanks," he said. And, "Oh, Finn's all right. A little too religious these days for my taste, but to each their own."

The ne'er-do-well nodded. He didn't need any explanations, really, but he listened to them.

"Not barter exactly, but you're Torin's friend so... you know... happy to help." Most of Torin's friends were good people, though, and they would feel obliged to return kindnesses, so there was a sense in which help might be unavoidably transactional, but he wasn't trying to squeeze anything out of the fae today.

He supposed he was already helping protect the tree. His wards did screen the valley from some things, though Sivan had wrangled a deal with a local gritaeri, which was probably more protection in the end. Now he could sense the passage of that creature here. Its attention was occasionally on this sapling.

It was not until he was thoughtfully chewing through his snack, some of which squirmed against his tongue, that he sensed what else was here interred: the dead. He paused, glanced sidelong at the fae, and then swallowed.

After a beat, "I didn't realize what else you had planted here. I don't know your people's ways. If I offend at all, it is out of ignorance, not malice."

If he was going to piss on someone's grave, it was going to be a decision, not a stumble. He didn't really know what else to say, though. His own dead weren't his own blood. He didn't even rightly know if his parents yet lived. If Galeas was alive, well, he was no longer Galeas. And Ava, he relied upon her narcissism more than anything to keep her from tracking him down.

[Destyn]

Destyn did not seem put off by Aurin's proximity to the sapling upon his return, proceeding to lay out his foraged offerings without a comment or so much as a scowl.

"I am religious. Look!" He sent a surge of Dawnfire into the Emblem gifted him by Arcas and displayed it proudly, but not at length. It faded with his attention to the topic of religion.

"Oh, very well, then. That is nice to, you know, offer." One of the few times Destyn was not rambling during a social encounter was when his mouth was otherwise engaged, and currently he was filling himself to surfeit on what he'd collected during his little jaunt into the woods. He paused, tilting his head to Aurin as he offered an apology that bemused the fae.

"What else have I planted here?" The grass whispered and his eyes widened, "Oh! You mean the dead? That is more fertilising, you know, than planting. Their souls are no longer using their bodies, so I wanted for their bodies to serve the earth as they did in life. They were my kin, and now they nourish my baby tree. That is all." He shrugged one shoulder and popped a cicada into his mouth, crunching its shell between his teeth with a sound so satisfying it set his eyes rolling back.

"Yummers." He gulped it down, and his eyes rolled back into place to look at Aurin. "So you are friends, also, with Sivan? You said that you brought him here and that is why, I think, you are here? I am used to seeing you in the city and not the valley."

[Aurin]

A ruddy eyebrow rose as Destyn's flesh lit up. He hadn't known Torin's friend had made Talon Novalys his personal lord and savior, but he had the self-control not to mutter 'that fuckin' guy.' To Aurin's mind, the princeling was loud, and a hypocrite, but he understood the value of cozying up to someone in power in a place one called home. In another set of circumstances, he might have attempted it himself, though he did rather enjoy being the one who pointed out the errors.

Of course, Aurin had sort of fucked his way into a personal relationship with a deity, but Eshar made no demands of him and they preferred to live as a mortal and keep matters secret, which suited Aurin just fine. Even Torin's Star Lady kept her light under wraps.

"Ohh," he said, and sampled one of the insects he recognized so the experience wouldn't be entirely new.

After swallowing, "Are there, ah, Fae burial traditions? You'll have to let me know if I do something offensive. I can be offensive, but I try to only do so on purpose." As for the rest, "I'm friendly with Siv, but I don't know if we're actually friends. But he mentioned wanting to show the Lady something here so I offered. I come around sometimes to check on things for Torin... Not as much now as when he was in Silfanore, but it's a habit now.

"Sort of hoping he moves out here and just pops back into his forge in the city when he's needed. He seems happier out here..."

That said, he eyed the offerings and paired a berry with another sort of insect.

[Destyn]

"Yes! Prince Talon saved me from the fate that claimed them." The fae said, gesturing toward the ground surrounding the tree. "When I discovered he was a, you know, god, I decided to worship him. He has helped me a few times since, as well, and I prayed for him when he was missing. I hope that helped him get free, but I do not know how such things work, for I am not a god nor, um... cleric devoted to such things." It seemed there was a limit to Destyn's gratitude, and becoming a theologian was a bridge too far.

"Um, yes?" Destyn seemed perplexed by Aurin's query about the burial traditions of his species. "But we are not, you know, one big... um... mommalip." He malapropped, but continued apace:

"We are many different tribes in several different courts with different ways between us. But you have not done anything that offends me. They are not in their bodies anymore, and their bodies nourish the baby tree. I do not, um... like to talk about this, though, because it makes me sad. The memories are, um... they hurt, so maybe we can talk of other things instead." He suggested, not unkindly.

"Yes! He should move out here because it is better here. That is why he is happier here! I wish, also, that Sivan and Laurevere would spend more time here, but now that they go to the, you know, Elflands, our clan is scattered. I mislike this, but my baby tree needs me more than they do, so I must stay here and see them when they come and now I talk to you, because I am lonely. But you have brought Sivan, so maybe I will see him after he is done with the, you know, rabbit or whatever."

[Aurin]

Aurin nodded slowly to that. A transactional relationship, that he could understand. He had risked himself to save the Menagerie and all the Myshalarai within it, which some would see as out of character, but most people only knew the character of Aurin Kavafis. Sometimes Aurin wasn't sure he knew the man behind the character himself. Suffice it to say, Eshar, being one of the Myshalarai, benefited from his persistence and apparent death wish and now they did things for him, told him things he ought to know, and such.

They had tried to heal him of what the Mists had wrought, but both of them remained marked. He didn't like to think about the Mists, though, so he shoved that thought back in the box with the others of its ilk.

Aurin, only half-assedly educated, missed the malapropism, but gathered what was intended by the following context. He nodded, happy to ignore the dead and feelings surrounding them. The fox-faced con artist was a past master at emotional suppression. As long as he treated the sapling with respect, he wouldn't be desecrating a grave. That was easy.

"Aye, trying to get him to focus on finishing his house here in the vale. Build him a more permanent portal between here and his forge for when he has to be there to speak to clients or whatever. Hells, Siv could probably finagle a way to transport his tower here. Plenty of room for one more crazy wizard, and he wouldn't even crowd your tree." He considered. "Can't bore a hole through those elfish wards, but I could build something near the border with Auris. Then it's just a hop across the border into Vallanar, customs, and a portal to Silfanore for Laurevere and the boys when they want to study there or whatever."

He didn't know if Destyn knew about Kala's big secret. Aurin actually couldn't share given the oath he had sworn to keep it secret. He didn't want to be an impediment to Torin's upward mobility. But he liked the idea of Torin being here most of the time with the nominal oversight of a young goddess with not so many followers to spread herself thin protecting.

"What else are you getting up to?" he asked. "Other than taking care of your tree. Any news from around the world?"

It didn't hurt to ask. Aurin never knew where the next valuable secret would come from.