Discovering the City cont.

[Alexei Romanov]

I let her lead me to a bench, looking around. This felt like a lot of places back in Ruskovia.

"This place looks interesting," I said to Keaira. "I may have to come back when I have more time. I have a dinner later, or else I think this could be a good place to spend an entire evening."

[Keaira nó Eglantine]

"Oh, its a great place to spend an evening. I mean, you can barely breathe it's so crowded, but there is good times in abundance. Not that I've ever spent an evening here of course. Evenings are meant for patrons and the worship of Naamah."

[Alexei Romanov]

I laughed at her words, turning my gaze back to her.

"I am not sure that I believe you have never spent an evening her," I said, smiling. "Your description sounds awfully knowledgeable."

I saw someone approaching with the look of asking us for our order.

"I will have to trust you to order whatever is best here, I am not used to the local drinks yet," I told her.

[Keaira nó Eglantine]

I fluttered my eyelashes outrageously. "You doubt my word, the word of an adept, sworn to the service of a goddess?" I smiled up at the innkeeper. "Two glasses of your finest Namarrese red, and a bowl of snackies."

The innkeeper nodded with a worn smile and moved on, again, only making his way through the crowd by carefully shoving his customers.

"'Snackies' consist of whatever nuts and the like they have, thrown all together. It can be dangerous, but it's usually fairly tasty. Now what about you Alexei? What can you tell me about Ruskovia?"

[Alexei Romanov]

"There are two versions of Ruskovia, the one of tourists an the own of the people who live there. Tourists have two words for Ruskovia, cold and undeveloped. The people see it differently. There is a purity in Ruskovia that you can't find anywhere else. The weather does not allow us too much extra time for artistic creation, so the creativity of the people becomes part of everything they do. There is beauty and love worked into even the most simple of objects, like a bridle or a plow," I told her, smiling wistfully with thoughts of my home. "And the people themselves… you will never find such strength of heart and soul anywhere else."

"Forgive me," I said with a chuckle. "It seems I miss my home the most when I talk about it."

[Keaira nó Eglantine]

I listened to him with all my attention, comfortable in the knowledge that I didn't have to impress him with all those little things one must do for a patron.

I smiled at his last comment. "That seems to be a common theme with those away from home. But I believe you speak the truth. The songs I have heard from your land aren't the most modern, but they had a power to them, a strength that comes from within a people. Whenever I heard the songs, it wasn't the artistic features that drew my ear, but the absolute emotion that poured out from them. It is a different sort of beauty."

[Alexei Romanov]

Before I could answer her, the man you had taken our order returned, setting the items down on the table.

I gave my thanks and handed him what I was certain was twice the price, my guess was confirmed by his smile and assurances that he would take care of any of our needs.

"I am glad to hear that at least one person away from Ruskovia can hear the truth in our music," I said, turning back to Keaira and smiling. "You should come visit my homeland some day, the music sounds even better when rolling across the snow covered fields and amplified by the open blue sky."

[Keaira nó Eglantine]

"If I visited every land that had music I admired..." I laughed. "I wish I could. I wish I lived that long."

[Alexei Romanov]

"Call it personal bias, but I suggest starting with Ruskovia, the others can wait," I said, smiling.

"Here is to you being able to live long enough to see every place where music exists," I said, holding up my wineglass.

[Keaira nó Eglantine]

I touched the rim of my glass to his before taking a sip. It was quite good, though if I had had better, I could only shudder at what he must think of it. To distract myself from such thoughts, I grabbed a small handful of snackies. "Mmm. The pistachio goes quite nicely with the wine."

[Alexei Romanov]

I took a sip of the wine, not as good as what I have had recently at the palace but not bad, and certainly better than I would have thought from the look of the place.

I took one of the nuts she suggested and ate it.

"That it quite good," I said, nodding in agreement. "Though I am finding that everything in Terra d'Ange is at the minimum 'quite good'."

"And some things are exceptional," I said, smiling as I met her gaze.

[Keaira nó Eglantine]

I knew that a highborn lady would blush and look away, but this was Night's Doorstep, and I was an adept of Eglantine. I smiled instead, taking the compliment graciously. "Tell me Alexei," I said his name in the accent of his people, "if you had to pick one moment from your stay here so far, what would be the best? I am interested in how this land and its people look in other eyes."

[Alexei Romanov]

A symphony of moans and screams, images of flesh, and the taste of the woman they all belonged to rose instantly into my mind at Keaira's question. This was not an answer I would share with anyone though.

"My first morning in your land, I woke just before the sun rose. We were traveling in a sort of caravan and were sleeping outside in the mild weather. I opened my eyes just as the night was drifting off and there was this instant of crystal perfection everywhere. The stars were still there, the sun was just rising, it was like I was watching the world being born and seeing the way that the gods had imagined it should be," I looked back into her eyes, smiling again. "That would be the moment."

[Keaira nó Eglantine]

I smiled at the picture he painted in my mind's eye. "I have had moments like that, though they are usually when I'm singing. Everything falls into place, the band is perfectly in tune with each other, and I can just loose myself. Those moments are more satisfying than any patron I have been with."

[Alexei Romanov]

My eyebrows went up in surprise.

"Perhaps you have just not had the right patrons. I enjoy music, but it is no comparison to… other things," I said, grinning. "But then again, I do not have the skill at music you must have to be an adept."

[Keaira nó Eglantine]

"It's that moment, you know. That we all search for, whether in the arms of our lover or galloping across a plain, pushing as hard as you can. It's that rush of adreneline, when you realize everything is perfect, that its all connected and working in unison. When the flute is finally in tune, the trumpet is just the right volume, the sackbut has blended with the horn. You forget about the technique, you forget about the hours of practicing you have put in, and there is only that moment. There is never a time I feel more alive." I came to myself. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to bore you."

[Alexei Romanov]

"You don't bore ," I said, smiling and taking the last drink of my wine. "Not in the least."

I glanced outside at the quality of the daylight.

"I am afraid though that I have to start back to the palace soon. I have a dinner that I am expected at, and it is not the sort of company I can keep waiting," I told her, grinning. "Is there somewhere you were headed to when I abducted you to guide me around the streets? I would like to see you safely wherever you were going, I would not like to think of any harm coming to you."

[Keaira nó Eglantine]

I kicked myself slightly. "It's all right. I should be getting back to my House, and it's still light enough that no one is going to accost me. Not that anyone picks on adepts anyway, none of us have any money." I said with a wry smile.

[Alexei Romanov]

"I would enjoy escorting you back," I said, smiling. "That is unless you don't want to be seen in the company of a heathen."

"I haven't seen the Night Court yet and it seems appropriate to be in the company of a beautiful adept the first time."

[Keaira nó Eglantine]

"If you have yet to see the Night Court, then I would love for you to accompany me." I said as we rose form the table. "And as for being a heathen... I was asked to leave from a Yeshuite temple once, for interrupting their prayers with impure thoughts. The Rebbe had no choice, though he knew I was only there to listen, and had agreed not to speak." I shook my head. "The same has happened to others, whom wished to listen to foreign vernacular songs. D'Angelines are not well loved on the international stage, in a religious or wholly secular sense."