|
Post by Noa on May 20, 2021 16:19:24 GMT -6
"But that's what it is, isn't it? The clan doesn't want to mix their blood with whomever it is that we're meeting. They're sending you as the next best thing because..." He let the end of the sentence hang, since he didn't actually know the answer. There was a story there, but it was the kind of family politics that even valued business partners weren't filled in on, because it didn't pertain to the sort of business dealings he conducted with the clan. Sable certainly didn't fill in the gaps, and while Noa was aware that he could ask Rhys to find out the information for him, it also wasn't important enough to him to bother with.
"Well, whatever it is," he said, shrugging the shoulder that didn't have Rhys sitting on it. "They're making me go to lend it some legitimacy. As a plan I think it needs work. They're just as likely to take a look at the two of us and decide they're being had, as would be their right."
At this, Sable's expression grew darker. "Do you think it's very likely?" he said.
Noa tapped his chin with a finger. "It depends," he said. "Do you want it to go well?"
15
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 20, 2021 16:25:44 GMT -6
"I'm Clover," the Shalaya said, finally volunteering a name to go with the... her. She looked down at his offered hand, then back up at him. A moment passed, and then another. "Is there something I should be doing with this?"
Seveth made a mental note that apparently even Draconics with human sized hands didn't know much in the way of human customs... Though given everything she just said, he supposed he should have expected that, actually. "You know, nevermind!" he said. "It's not important. So, do you need me to go now?"
"Gods, yes. You don't have anything here that you need to finish up, do you?" She tried, he thought, to sound less dismissive, but she took another look around her and the expression on her face said just about everything.
"No," Seveth sighed. At least she wasn't wrong, though at this point it was a little like rubbing salt in a wound.
16
|
|
|
Post by Noa on May 20, 2021 16:58:46 GMT -6
Sable blinked, caught off guard by Noa's words. Noa sighed, rolling his eyes. "What I'm asking is if you want me to sabotage it for you. Do you like hatchlings? You shouldn't be having them if you don't like them... Though I suppose the clan might raise them for you in that case." The whole family community thing made their circumstances different than what Noa was used to dealing with. Perhaps with so much broad support, it might not matter to a hatchling whether their specific parent cared much for them or not.
But Sable shook his head. "My siblings and I owe the clan a great deal," he said. "I will serve them in this capacity if it is what they wish."
Noa's mouth drew into a thin line at those words. Sable's manner, the words he had spoken, all irritated Noa. "There's no reward for willing servitude, you know," he said. Rhys looked worriedly between them, as if trying to decide whether he ought to intervene, but Noa would have stopped him if he tried.
If he thought he could goad Sable into an argument, however, he was disappointed. Sable was no longer looking at him. "Yes," he replied. "Even so."
17
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 20, 2021 17:19:08 GMT -6
Still, even if she had chosen out of desperation, Clover had apparently chosen well. Seveth had no other obligations, and no one else he needed to report to, and he was even a full-blooded human to boot - or at least Linyü was, anyway. They left for the appointed meeting place in a hurry, and Clover stressed, over and over, the importance of good manners while they walked. Or rather, Seveth walked; Clover had that Shalaya grace of never needing to walk anywhere, since she could float wherever she wanted. He certainly wouldn't have minded having that ability for himself, if he could get it.
"... And absolutely do not speak out of turn, got it? Gods, I can't screw this up. Caelan would kill me if I did..." She wrung her little hands together, while Seveth patted her shoulder consolingly.
"I'm just there to smile and look pretty," he said. "That doesn't sound so hard."
18
|
|
|
Post by Noa on May 22, 2021 15:40:57 GMT -6
"Well, fine then," said Noa, though he was still of half a mind to sabotage it anyway, if only to satisfy his own dissatisfaction, now. They walked the rest of the way in an uncomfortable silence. Infuriatingly, Sable still had his wing extended; and Noa was not so proud that he would go out of his way to refuse the favor, when the practical consequences of pride in this case would have been unpleasant.
By the time they arrived at the designated meeting place, however, the exertion of the walk there had sapped some of the edge from Noa's ire. It was a dining establishment, the proportions of which were made for Draconic comfort rather than human. Sable murmured a few words to a server, and a much smaller set of refreshments was brought along for Noa's benefit. Noa sipped the drink with some mild interest, and an herbal taste diffused itself over his tongue.
"A dinner date," said Noa, taking in the ambiance. Carvings of exquisite detail were recessed at intervals along the wall, and the darkness of the cavern was illuminated with a mix of tastefully placed skylights and recessed lighting. "With a human as your chaperone. The clan has strange tastes."
19
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 22, 2021 21:14:54 GMT -6
Seveth hadn't been around the Canyons long enough to consider himself an expert on Draconic culture by any means, but even an outsider like him could tell that the place they arrived at was expensive. That it was a dining establishment was a little less obvious, until they made their way past the ostentatious statues lining the entrance and he saw the arrangement inside. Draconics didn't adorn themselves in the manner that humans did, but there was a certain polish and shine to the scales of the patrons here that Seveth wasn't used to seeing in the Draconics he usually met.
He glanced at Clover, and realized that her scales were polished to a high shine too - and dusted, he could see now, with some sort of powder to give them more... sparkle. A sparkling dragon, said his traitorous brain; that was something little girls the world over could only dream of.
20
|
|
|
Post by Noa on May 22, 2021 21:21:08 GMT -6
Sable made no response, which was frankly pretty disappointing. It had been more fun when Noa could still get a rise out of him, but evidently he had overplayed his hand. Now Sable had retreated behind that facade of stoicism more deeply than ever, and it wouldn't have been a surprise to Noa to find that Sable was tuning out everything he said wholesale.
He would be reliant, then, upon the other party in this engagement to provide the night's entertainments.
Two figures walked in through the door, led by a green-scaled server, and a smile spread slow and catlike over Noa's features. "Oh look," he said, "that must be your lovely lady." He had thought he might face some difficulty identifying the likely candidate, but once he laid eyes on this pair, he knew. There was a human - and more than the novelty of that, from the body language of both, it appeared they were not long acquainted. She had somehow found a human somewhere to come with her, as an accessory to this... meeting.
Clever, though he thought the effort wasted, in the end. Still, at least this promised no shortage of amusement for him, which was all he really cared about here.
21
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 22, 2021 21:31:47 GMT -6
Clover scanned the room for the other party to their meeting, her hands still wrung fretfully together. She perked up when she spotted them, and Seveth followed her gaze to a table where a tall, dark-scaled individual sat. At this distance, he couldn't quite be sure, but he thought he saw a human seated opposite the Draconic.
As they approached, he could see that the other human had spotted him first. Hair the color of honey, and sharp blue-green eyes - something fox-like about them, though maybe it had more to do with the weight of that gaze than their shape. The man's clothes were of a fine make, though worn with a carelessness that made Seveth sigh on their behalf.
"Hush," hissed Clover. To the dark Draconic, she bowed her head deeply. "My deepest apologies for the wait. My... friend ran into some trouble, you see, and..." Ah, not five minutes into the meeting and already Seveth found himself a scapegoat.
22
|
|
|
Post by Noa on May 22, 2021 21:43:01 GMT -6
Just as Noa studied the pair, he found himself studied in turn - not by the Draconic, who gave him the briefest of glances before turning her attention to Sable, but by her little human companion.
Well. Perhaps he shouldn't say 'little'. The man was only a little shorter than he was, and lithe beneath his loose-fitting clothes. Dark hair, fair skin, almond eyes - green, thought Noa, but then he blinked and they weren't.
At the periphery of his senses, something thrummed. The taste of ozone danced along his tongue, and he knew the man for an elemental. Chaos. Interesting.
The Shalaya made her apologies, which Sable accepted with a graceful tilt of the head. "No, there's no need. Please, have a seat." He rose, though Noa stayed seated; he had no desire to play by Sable's rules, for he was no fine-mannered young ward, and the part of his irritation that hadn't dissipated with the walk had hardened itself into the desire to be unpleasant. But for the moment, at least, he was occupied in studying the stranger.
"Noa," he said, offering his hand, and a smile. "And Rhys."
He expected the Faeron to chime in, but Rhys was uncharacteristically quiet, his own gaze locked on the other human as well.
23
|
|
|
Post by Linyü on May 22, 2021 21:50:20 GMT -6
The dark Draconic spoke, and Seveth's attention was briefly pulled to him. A deep, grave voice - Seveth blinked, then grinned. "Wait," he whispered to Clover. "This is a date, isn't it? You brought me as a chaperone to your date?" Though the other Draconic also had a human with him, which... made this weirder, actually, if anything. Was this some sort of...? No, nevermind, it was probably better not to think about it.
But then the other human introduced himself, and Seveth schooled his features into a more people-facing smile, taking the hand and shaking it. "Linyü," he said. "Fancy meeting a fellow human in a place like this!"
It was all he could manage before he registered the - gods and angels, how much magic did this man have on him? Seveth did his best to stifle his reaction, but he couldn't help tensing for a moment. Noa wasn't exerting any power, but even so, the... fizz of magic on contact was unmistakable, even with San's duller magical sensitivity.
24
|
|
|
Post by Noa on May 22, 2021 22:00:17 GMT -6
Noa frowned, on the verge of saying something to his own familiar, but then the other man - Linyü, as he introduced himself - was speaking, too loud to ignore. Their hands met, and Linyü flinched, but smiled gamely on as Noa let go.
Rhys was still silent, though the Faeron's tail wound tighter around Noa's neck, the way it did when Rhys was unsettled. Noa spared a glance for the Faeron, but as Rhys didn't speak, neither did Noa ask. Rhys would say something when he found the words, Noa was sure. Until then, there were, unfortunately, the barest semblances of an appearance to be kept.
He smiled, this time with deliberate air, at Linyü. The name was a little familiar, now that he thought about it. "It's good to finally meet you in person," he said. Where had he heard it again? Ah, a node, wasn't it? It was always a node. "I trust the funds found their way to you without incident?" He could see, now, why the services had been so willingly offered. An elemental had no use for any more nodes of their own. It was a fool's bargain, he thought privately, to trade away the potential for so much more power, and to marry oneself to a single element... But not everyone had the resources or the patience to cultivate a wider pool of mana to draw from.
25
|
|