Topic: The Adventures of Kith, the Cat, and the Khatun
Subject: Little Terror
19th Day, Iteran, 427 E.R., Oryndal, Ertain
“Why are we always the ones who have to drag her back?” The black-haired Lover of Fortune grunted under the weight and hassle of their passed out companion.
“I don’t know, Nicola, maybe because we’re the ones who found her? Or because we always overestimate her tolerance for this stuff?” Nigel, Nicola’s black-haired brother, adjusted the young blond woman’s arm around his shoulder as they hoisted the unconscious Lover up the stone steps, to the small temple of Shinara in Oryndal.
“I think she sneaks more when we’re not looking,” Nicola suggested, both twins holding the girl at a distance for a moment as their friend’s stomach gave a sickly rumble. When all that came of it was a rancid burp, they continued down the corridor, waving down the first Spinning Star priest they came by.
“We found her!” Nicola called, “And she still had two unopened bottles on her!” Both twins grinned as they held out the bottles of wine in their free hands.
“Technically they were on the ground around her,” Nigel corrected, “among the other empty bottles. But she was just laying there in an alley so it’s a little surprising they were still there!”
“What luck.” The priest took in what the Lovers of Fortune twins recounted, as well as the wasted figure of their orphaned friend, dark streams of wine and refuse stained down the front of her shirt, and sighed, “Either the Scarlet Mistress despises this girl, or is doing all she can to keep her upright.”
Nigel shrugged, “We’re pretty sure she’s dying, so it’s probably that first option.”
“Excuse me?”
“Yeah, we found her in a pile of vomit. There was also some blood, but there was also a broken bottle or two, so it could have been from that,” Nicola added, her voice lacking the urgency she had felt earlier, now that they were safe inside the temple, “She also won’t respond to us or anything. So are you able to help?”
“I suppose.”
Nigel grinned at his sister, over the top of the blond Lover’s drooping head, “Guess this means Fortune’s Smile still does have some love for her.”
The priest harrumphed, unconvinced as he began a low incantation and flurry of gestures, which ended with him carefully placing his hands on the young woman’s shoulders, safe from the puke. “There, that should keep her alive for now. I haven’t gotten rid of the poison she’s put into herself, but I’ve given her some time. There’s a new one training with the healers, take her off to them, maybe give the new girl something to learn.”
“Thank you!” The twins chorused, and continued from the main room of the temple, down another hallway.
“See?” Nicola taunted her brother, becoming more tired with every step under the weight of their friend, “I told you the Mistress loves her. No matter how many times she tests her limits, the cards keep falling in her favor. The truest Lover of all of us.”
“You think this is favor?” Nigel laughed, “Maybe. All the rest of us simply tempt beasts, test our acrobatic skills, sometimes rescue damsels in distress if we’re up for it,” he nodded to the girl they carried, whom the twins and two others had saved two years earlier in Davnor, “but she puts glass to her throat every chance she gets, and the Mistress keeps pulling it away. Or at least mending her wounds, sending us on after her.”
“She’s been through a lot, Nigel.” Nicola retorted as they approached the door.
“And we’ve been through a lot for her, Nicola.” He knocked.
“What are you trying to s-”
The door swung open and a short, young, blond girl greeted them with a big smile, “Hello, I-oh!” She quickly eyed the other woman in their arms and stepped back, holding the door open, “Please, come in, put her in any bed.”
The twins skittered over to the closest bed and gently laid their friend down, pushing her onto her side once they were free. In doing so, for the first time since they found her, the young woman let out a sickly groan, smacked her dry lips, and tried to bury her face in the pillow.
The black-haired twins stood and stretched in unison, happy to be free of the weight. “We found her in an alleyway again!” Nicola announced as the young girl in her acolyte robes approached them.
“‘Again’?”
“Yes, and with two bottles to spare!” Nigel said, and the two held up a bottle of wine each once again.
“This happens fairly often?”
The twins looked at each other and nodded, stowing the bottles back in their packs, Nicola saying, “Fairly often, yes. She has trouble sleeping,” she offered, as way of explanation.
“This is one solution I suppose.”
“She was really bad this time, but we got her healing so she should survive if she doesn’t choke on her sick.” Nigel added, “Sometimes you clerics do your restoration stuff on her, sometimes you just leave her to wallow in her choices.”
Nicola reached over the bed to shove her brother, “But this time the priest said there was a new person he wanted to have that spell shown off to.”
The young woman smiled absently at the sentiment, as she looked the unconscious girl over, “That’s probably me then, I arrived a few days ago, from a village you’d never find on a map, down in Coria. I think I’ve read of the spell you’re speaking of, but I haven’t had the chance to see it in person yet,” her eyes glittered at the chance of learning something new, “I’ll go find a teacher.”
Nigel watched the girl scamper off, “She looks barely twelve. Should we be subjecting her to this little terror at so vulnerable an age?”
“They must learn someday, Nigel,” Nicola sighed, dramatically, "And anyway, she looked to be more fourteen than twelve.”
“Oh dear, your little sister again?” A Dwarven Shinara priestess swept into the room, shooing Nicola away from the bed so that she could move closer. She tsked and shook her head, “Honestly I would rather leave her to learn her lesson again, but this is proof that it doesn’t matter, and our new little addition here would do well to study this incantation--especially with this one around.”
Her protégé nodded eagerly, already prepared to memorize the gestures and incantations the priestess would enact, watching as the older woman sprinkled diamond dust over the younger one.
The priestess turned to her acolyte, “Have you introduced yourself, girl?”
“Oh, right!” she turned to the black-haired girl and held out her hand, “I’m Serah Clemens, one of Shinara’s Spinning Stars.”
Nicola couldn’t help but smile back at the young girl’s earnestness, despite the Stars being relatively bland compared to the luck mistress’ other sects. She was new though, both here and in life, it seemed. There was still time for the clergy to widdle down her flagrant edges.
She took her hand, “I’m Nicola, and that bonehead over there is my twin brother, Nigel.”
Nigel gave her a wave from the other side of the small bed.
Serah returned the wave before looking down at the blond woman who Priestess Germaine had called their little sister, despite their looking nothing alike, “And she’s your…?”
Nicola chuckled, “No, not really our sister. We rescued her a couple years ago from a bad situation, and she was so grateful she took our last name. She didn’t have one at the time anyway, so,” she shrugged, and pointed at their unconscious friend, “That is Tara Ikhari, a Lover of Fortune, wine, and horrific headaches.”
“Alright now girl, watch close,” the priestess demanded, beginning the motions and recitation of the restorative chant.
Serah leaned in, taking little notice of their patient now as she followed the older woman’s hands and the sound of her voice. The priestess pressed her splayed hands into the young woman’s back. The diamond dust atop her sizzled briefly and burst out into a thin layer of glittering light blue cinders that fell like a blanket over the woman, and dissipated.
“Incredible,” the girl whispered, more to herself than to anyone else in the room, “the movements and chant are very similar to another restoration spell I observed back in Willow’s Gully, but what you just performed was much more gran--”
The unconscious girl suddenly sucked in a strong, deep breath and rolled onto her back. That and the following sighs were the healthiest sounds she had made since the twins had found her. Soon her brown eyes opened and she sat up, a smile spreading sheepishly across her face as she took in her audience.
With more energy than seemed possible for a woman who just moments before had been on death’s door, Tara grasped one of the priestess’ ancient hands in both of hers, “Thank you so much, Germaine! For the hundredth time, thank you! I can’t exactly remember what happened or how I got here, but I do recall watching a rat stealing a piece of bread from my hand, so I imagine I was in a very poor spot a moment ago.” Her exuberance over such a story perplexed only the clerics.
The priestess snatched her hand away from the ungodly pep of the pretty young woman and stood up, “I am getting very tired of wasting our resources on your death wishes, Miss Ikhari.”
“I don’t have a d-”
“You are just lucky Serah has joined the Stars recently and needed to observe the Greater Restoration ritual.”
Serah grinned, “It was fantastic.”
Tara leaned around the priestess to look at her, “Great timi--Fortune have it, how old are you? Ten?” She looked back at Germaine, “Should you really be subjecting a ten-year-old to all of this?” She gestured to herself in a large, sweeping motion.
“She is not ten,” the priestess rubbed the bridge of her nose.
“More like twelve,” Nigel offered behind Tara.
“More like fourteen,” Nicola snapped back.
“I’m thirteen, actually,” Serah corrected, “and I’ve seen much worse than a reckless alcoholic.”
Tara’s eyebrows shot up at the statement as the priestess snickered beside her, and the smile on her lovely face grew, though very little of it met her eyes, “Either way, thank you for your timing and your kind words, Serah.” She threw her legs over the side of the bed and hopped to her feet beside Nigel, "Shall we off, then? See what the day has in store for us?"
Nigel poked her in the side, "It's night still, you cretin."
“Night?” Tara balked, “Night? You couldn’t leave me until the morning?”
Nicola shook her head at her friend, “We were trying to keep you alive, terror.”
“As is our way,” Nigel added with a smirk.
Tara glared back and forth at the both of them, then at the bottles glistening out of the tops of their packs. Her eyes immediately matched their glisten, “Oh, there were some left!”
The twins both groaned and the young acolyte’s jaw dropped, “Really? After all of this? All of the trouble you’ve put your friends through, you want more?”
Yes. Tara smiled sweetly at the girl, “Not at the moment, perhaps. Would you like some for yourself, darli-”
“That is quite enough!” the Dwarven priestess finally interjected, “The three of you may leave now so that we might get some work done.” She looked to the beautiful, destructive young Lover of Fortune before her, “Should you end up here again for this, you are on your own. I’ve half a mind to let you rot, at the pace you’re going.”
Tara shrugged, “Fortune favors who it favors, Germaine, and so far I’ve been quite lucky.”
“Yes, well, even the Scarlet Mistress grows bored of old songs, and the charm of you Lovers wears off quick.”
“I shall take that into consideration,” Tara replied, wanting instead to tell her she’d rather rot tempting her fate in the streets with a drink, than of the boredom within the stale life of a Spinning Star. Instead, she walked away from Nigel, around the bed, past Nicola and Serah, and gave the priestess a warm hug that the Dwarven woman had truly not expected nor wanted, “Thank you for the kindness you’ve shown me today.”
“Alright, alright, get off,” the priestess simultaneously pushed her away and patted herself down.
“And you, little one,” Tara said, opening her arms to the new Spinning Star, “good luck on your journey here.”
“No, Tara, stop,” Germaine pulled Serah away from the trickster, “Check your pockets girl, and be careful around this one.”
The twins laughed and made their way to the door, Tara backing away after them, shock washed dramatically across her face, “You try to show a little gratitude….”
The priestess shooed her away, “Show us some gratitude and bring us more of the diamond dust we continue to waste on you.”
Tara looked thoughtful for a moment, as though considering the thought, then bowed to the duo and shut the door on them. She grinned at her friends, “I owe you-”
“Millions, Tara,” Nigel laughed, “we will add it to your tab.”
“So gracious.”
“So tired, I think,” Nicola replied, rolling her shoulders and they wandered down the hallway, “we carried you for some time, you know.”
Tara thought back to her actual last memories before the world had tornadoed into blackness; she thought back to those moments of bliss from being free of the other memories that never let her be, and pushed them away. “Hmmm, near Falloes’ temple, I presume? I apologize for the long walk, I will try to find someplace closer next time.” She shrugged, “But it is Braiden High, after all, and those generous priests never think to check on the liquid donations they receive.”
The twins did little to hide their looks of surprise, nor their subsequent snickers of approval, “You truly are a terror,” Nigel said, shoving her shoulder, and Tara chuckled in response.
“There’s still a lot of the night left, what would you two like to do with it?” Nicola asked as they reached the main hall of the temple.
“I know what this one wants to do,” Nigel teased, already forming the arguments he would make, should Tara so much as glimpse at his wine again.
“I don’t know,” she replied instead, “perhaps find someone to help drive those thoughts away, as it seems drink is out of the question for the rest of the night.”
“Oh, the two of us aren’t distraction enough?” Nicola replied teasingly.
Tara grinned, “Alas, none of us seem to be the others’ type.”
“A tragedy, to be sure,” Nigel sighed heavily, “I suppose you’ll just have to find another unwitting heart to break.”
“It isn’t my fault the gods saw fit to make me so beautiful,” Tara said, “And I’d hate to disappoint them by wasting it.”
“How right you are, you terror,” Nicola laughed, “Go make the gods proud!”
“There’s only one that still talks to me,” Tara laughed back, “but she seems fairly happy with my work so far.” She broke off from them then, heading down a side street along the northern side of the temple while they continued forward, “Thank you again, twinnies, I will see you tomorrow!”
“Hopefully!” Nigel called back, and watched as she disappeared around the corner.
As soon as she was out of their sight, Tara sprinted forward, turning again around the next corner and bounding over the short stone wall that surrounded Shinara’s temple, leaping for the wall. She was not much of a climber, at least not in comparison to the Ikhari twins, but she was able to make the flat roof of the temple soon enough, collapsing in a huff onto her back once she did so.
The sky was clear and bright with stars; cool, but warming as Iteran ushered in the summertime. There had been a child at her orphanage, older than Tara and bright, who could name all of the constellations throughout the year. He would point them out to Tara, as she had been the only one interested, and soon she could pick them out with him. It had been one of her only comforts in the decade that followed her departure from that place. She had been moved around a lot, traveled a lot, was given to a lot of different people, but if she could only see the sky.… She didn’t even need a lot of it. With just a sliver of the night in her line of sight, she could preoccupy her horrified mind by finding ways to determine which part of the sky she was seeing, what part of the year it must be, and what system of stars she was likely glimpsing in that moment.
Tara sat up and pulled both of the twins’ bottles of wine from her pack. Everyone had thought she had meant to torment the priestess and her protégé with her antics. It was a distraction of sorts, but not for what they had assumed. She chuckled softly to herself, thinking once again how surprisingly little people understood the power of lying with your eyes. The sticky fingers she had had for as long as she could remember, the acting she had learned in adolescence, the charm she was still working on. It truly didn’t hurt that people found her so easy to look at. At least, it didn’t so much hurt anymore.
She opened the first bottle and took a swig of the thin red wine, eager to tempt the fates, wondering when the twins would find her once more; and eventually, as her constellations began to fade in the morning light, sleep finally found her.
Tara woke up far earlier than she would have liked. Commotion rang up from the front of the temple. She rolled away from it but there was no escape. Instead, she pushed herself up onto her knees, and promptly threw up. As this was not uncommon, she took her time, praying this would be a morning in which her headache would leave her swiftly. Eventually, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve and stumbled to the other side of the roof.
She could see the crowd that had formed before she even looked over the edge, and it quickly dawned on her what a large excited crowd like this before Shinara’s temple could only mean, even before she saw their crimson robes: the Laughing Maidens were here.
Posted on 2020-02-19 at 19:45:32.
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What game do you own the 
Return to Charadun - Q&A
The Morphing Game
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at least, if Kith could get to her concentrate long enough to swipe something other than a pastry 
