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Post by Necthan Seith-Nun (R) on Jul 7, 2011 0:25:28 GMT -5
Both of our cups were nearly empty and I took the proactive route and filled them both up. A true Islander could not be satisfied with just one cup. That was a particularly strong lesson that I learned one night. “Straight from Alba,” I told her. “I ordered quite a bit when I first moved here, and since have only needed to make one more request.” I smiled and lifted the newly filled cup to my lips and took a lighter sip. “You’re welcome to all that you want, truly.”
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Post by Niamh mac Igrainne on Jul 7, 2011 23:17:59 GMT -5
"Thank you, that's very gracious," I said, pleased at his offer though I did not wish to take advantage of him. "I shall have to repay your generosity somehow," I smiled as I took another long draught. It made me homesick, and I was beginning to think that when I had seen Decimus and Caelum home safely, I would go home again.
"Do you think the food at the Black Boar is really as good as home?" I asked, wondering what had kept me out of that establishment. Probably the fear that it would be nothing like home, or maybe that it would?
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Post by Necthan Seith-Nun (R) on Jul 8, 2011 14:07:24 GMT -5
I would have told her that no repayment was necessary, but I knew too the value of calling back on a favor. And there was no reason not to keep those advantageous moments handy. I wondered though, the way she took to the drink if I would have this entire bottle empty by day’s end. It also caused me to idly wonder how well she could hold it. It was a passing thought, quickly taken from me by her question about the Black Boar. “Well, it’s delecticent. What I mean by that is, it’s a good, even a delicious imitation, however that does not change the fact that it’s still an imitation, is you happen to be following me.”
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Post by Niamh mac Igrainne on Jul 8, 2011 21:55:27 GMT -5
I sighed and looked morosely into my cup. "I was afraid you would say that," I said, then looked up and smiled a bit crookedly. "I try to cook things the way I would at home, but even the game tastes different here, and there aren't the right herbs or plants... well, that and I am a terrible cook, that doesn't help." I was trying to slow down on the uisghe, so I didn't take another sip, yet I could still taste it on my tongue, a bit of home.
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Post by Necthan Seith-Nun (R) on Jul 8, 2011 23:00:22 GMT -5
I grinned. “I’m sure that you’re not terrible. I know that I’m perfectly rotten at it. When you come back from the war, safe and sound, you’ll just have to invite me over for a meal, and I’ll bring plenty of uishge and we’ll sing songs and laugh and have a wonderful time as if we were back on the Islands.” I took another sip and noticed the freeing feeling that signaled drunkenness for me. It wasn’t anything grand but I just felt heightened alivirated.
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Post by Niamh mac Igrainne on Jul 9, 2011 1:08:17 GMT -5
"Oh, you'll see, I can burn water, as my brother says." I was relaxing now, and that was thanks to the drink. I smiled, feeling that familiar infusion of warmth and pleasant fuzziness descending over me. There was a time that I could drink three times this much and barely notice, but I had hardly had any in so long it seemed that my tolerance was quite a bit lower. Well, considering how hard it was to find, that was probably a good thing.
"Do you think about going back to the Islands?" I asked, leaning into him and studying him intently. Too handsome for his own good, I'd wager, though I did not say that aloud. He reminded me of Deci that way, and I'd bet he was just alike, having girls throwing up their skirts at him at every opportunity. It made me smile to think it, and then I could not stop smiling, like a silly girl, not a woman grown.
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Post by Necthan Seith-Nun (R) on Jul 9, 2011 2:03:36 GMT -5
I chuckled at her first joke, though I was still thinking about the fact that that’s impossible and would really be quite a feat if she could. I could see that she was relaxing and that made me happy, for she had been nervous on our first meeting … That cannot be good for the mind. It needs to be open and free and flowish.
“Sometimes I do.... however I came here for a reason. There is little need for playwrights in Alba. That is my true passion, to take the stories of humanity and unfurl them, revealing their hidden greatness. I am the jeweler who takes a diamond from being a shapeless rock into a fine cut stone. I see the beauty or intricacies inside a person and that draws me to them until I must do something about it.”
I found myself leaning in as I spoke as well and I smiled. “Would you let me see that in you?”
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Post by Niamh mac Igrainne on Jul 9, 2011 2:08:25 GMT -5
I smiled as he spoke of being a playwright and what that meant, and he was right, it was something that might not be looked upon with respect in Alba nor Eire, where the sword ruled and beauty was found usually in other places. Since coming here, though, I could appreciate the arts more, though at times it was hard for me not to see everything as frivolous. It was the trap of 'civilization' I supposed, you traded one sort of life for another.
"In me?" I asked, surprised at the question, and nervous, and well, a bit flattered. I had always been guarded, it was how I survived with so many older brothers, and it was how I kept my heart safe, so the idea of letting someone see anything about me that might be more private was rather frightening, but perhaps it was the uisghe speaking when I replied. "If you think you can find something to see, you're welcome to it." It was a bit flippant, a quip and a smile, but my heart was beating faster at the idea that he just might be able to see more to me than the little sister forever following in the footprints of the men in her life.
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Post by Necthan Seith-Nun (R) on Jul 9, 2011 2:56:25 GMT -5
“In you,” I said, taking another sip of uisghe. “I won’t look too deep, for now.” I grinned and took a deep breath. I saw expanse, like the sky at night. “Oh you … you’re special indeed, Niamh. You want to discover hidden gems, new things … you long for adventure, not unlike myself. You need to make your own stories. That’s a very beautiful thing indeed. Oh yes, that’s the essence of humanity and you’ve chosen to live in that essence. It’s lovely...” I smiled fully now and searched her face, not wishing to go deeper then would be comfortable, but I did reach out for her hand.
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Post by Niamh mac Igrainne on Jul 10, 2011 20:32:46 GMT -5
I felt a strange sensation, one of nervousness and excitement and something I couldn't place. He was right, I felt it in the pit of my belly, and there was something else too, a yawning emptiness because I knew I wasn't doing what I was meant to be doing. What story had I made except one of a girl who mooned over a man who did not see her that way? What had I done in Terre d'Ange besides wander aimlessly and make love to Decimus and go to parties? Suddenly this war was not to be feared but to be taken advantage of.
"How do you know these things?" I whispered, squeezing his hand softly and feeling awed by him, by his presence and his knowledge. It was beautiful and terrifying all at once.
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Post by Necthan Seith-Nun (R) on Jul 12, 2011 23:36:45 GMT -5
The squeeze of her hand made me smile and I moved another hand to touch her face comfortingly. “I … I can see into the mind of a person and … I pick up on things. I can examine the pictures that float about, the thoughts and the things buried under the sea. I see the ships of consciousness and the fish and monsters which my travel many fathoms below.” The mind was the one ocean that I did not fear. “I hope you are not frightened of me.”
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Post by Niamh mac Igrainne on Jul 15, 2011 22:31:36 GMT -5
"A little bit," I admitted, my heart thumping in my chest. "It seems as if it is you who should be frightened, who knows what lurks beneath the surface of someone's mind? You may find more than you bargained for one day." His analogy made me long for home and the salty smell of the sea. I felt that I had come to a decision: when the war was over, I was going to see my family and walk the familiar ground of Innisclan once more. I thought of Decimus then, but he confused me more than anything else.
I drew back a bit from Necthan's touch, not because I disliked it, but because the intimacy implicit in his gaze was something I had never experienced and wasn't sure if I was able to. I finished my uisghe and breathed deeply, my cheeks flushed from the liquor and the strange turn of the conversation.
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Post by Necthan Seith-Nun (R) on Jul 15, 2011 23:55:22 GMT -5
I had never thought of it that way before. Most minds I saw into were tame, clients, and I was used to darkness in some form or another. “I will be careful then, Niamh,” I said, drawing back some myself, finishing my own cup and watching her, a half smile of happiness on my face. “I suppose you hadn’t expected all that when you sought out my simple personage did you?” I asked, the half smile slowly modulating itself into a grin.
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Post by Niamh mac Igrainne on Jul 16, 2011 0:14:39 GMT -5
I liked his smile, it was infectious, and my own spread across my face. "No, I didn't," I said, "but then, life is full of surprises, I have learned to go along with it." I leaned back again and kept smiling, the uisghe making me feel warm and relaxed, and calmer than I had in a long time.
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Post by Necthan Seith-Nun (R) on Jul 17, 2011 1:31:20 GMT -5
I could have sat there in relaxed and langorgeous silence and the simple serenity of the moment. We had both found peace, simply through talking, through seeing eye to eye, and mind to mind. Eventually though I found myself able to melt away the smile in favor of a soft response, my voice coming out like wild honey. "I know that more than anyone ... though when I think on the matter, all of life's surprises seem truly planned, partially by me and partially by some other force. It's what lets me know that there greatness, a destiny."
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Post by Niamh mac Igrainne on Jul 17, 2011 2:04:17 GMT -5
I wasn't sure I believed in that, in destiny, and if I did, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I preferred the idea of being in control of my life, not leaving it to some nameless force. Still, if there was a destiny, it wasn't like there was anything I could do about it.
"Do you believe that things are predestined?" I asked him, trying to work out my own feelings on the subject. "Or that we have no true choice in the course our lives take? I've often wondered..." I trailed off and hoped that he did not think I was being foolish.
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Post by Necthan Seith-Nun (R) on Jul 18, 2011 0:41:00 GMT -5
That was a question which could end up becoming quite the discussion if I allowed for such. However t’would be best to just give my own thoughts. “I think that there is a grand design for us, a dance ordained by greater powers. We simply must choose whether to step in it or not. However, you’d be surprised how often our wants and that plan match up, as though we ourselves were the masters of the dance. Or in other words, I haven’t the faintest notion.” I made myself grin and she kept it there. “We choose in the end. However I feel as if the steps are already known, somehow.”
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Post by Niamh mac Igrainne on Jul 19, 2011 20:11:44 GMT -5
I took his thoughts and mulled them over, but the uisghe made me feel a bit thick. "I'm not sure what I believe, truly. I have never given it much thought, but I prefer the idea of a dance that no one really knows the steps to, and we all move as we will, and somehow it all works out..." I did not know if that even made sense, I was not a wordsmith, nor ever had been, deeds were my stock and trade. "But enough of destiny, because whatever we believe, what is, is, and there is naught we can do about it."
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Post by Necthan Seith-Nun (R) on Jul 23, 2011 14:47:43 GMT -5
Her words flowed like uisghe, and while it didn’t make all that much sense, well it did in a roundabout sort of way, the flow of it all sounded very pretty. “Exactly!” I said and poured myself some more drink and then offered the bottle to her. I had no qualms about getting drunk that day now that I was already well on my way towards it. “So if we won’t speak about destiny … perhaps we can turn our attentions to something lighthearted … or you can talk. I talk far too much and I like your voice.” My words were so simply when uisghe flooded my veins.
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Post by Niamh mac Igrainne on Jul 23, 2011 15:01:50 GMT -5
I laughed softly, my cheeks heating a bit as I took the bottle from him, dispensing with the cup and drinking straight from it.
"My voice? My brother says I sound as hoarse as a crow, though of course this is the same brother that told me that my parents found me in a bear's den, so who knows..." I laughed again, warm and languid, feeling a sense of relief at letting go of all the insecurities I carried. I could see why some people succumbed to drink, though it was not all that common among my people. We of the islands knew how to handle dark times, and did not need to often escape into spirits.
"Still, if you like the sound of it, who am I to disappoint you?"
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