Re: Chapter 4: The Will of The Gods
Well, him harrassing you would be quite the hassle, so, you know, maybe he can do both at once :p
Inside the wagon...
Farren sounded groggy, and he didn't open his own eyes. "Money does not need to be popular. And these guards from Blackwood Village seem to be the ones happy to use their days off to work in more dangerous work for a few scant hours in Thirdgate, rather than enjoy a day or two of the delights of the village. I wouldn't hold out too much hope on their loyalty to heroes and the village, and how much you can undermine their loyalty to coin."
Still, Farren did smile. "I mean, let us not rule out exactly how unpleasant Geekaar appears to be to his servants, given their reaction." Then his expression sobered. "Still, fear is just as powerful as money, and for some reason this fat joke of a merchant inspires true fear. You can smell it. Well, perhaps I can." His expression at least became rueful. "A gift of the rodent person, I suppose." He absentmindedly scritched Ee-Ee behind one ear, then Brother, then finally Pain when that rodent shifted to face away from Farren. It took a few scritches for Pain to actually not be so standoffish.
[Private to Meri:
Nah, he's a just a captain. You'll note that him being hatted is not been a major comment on his appearance, for example. Trust me, when you meet The Captain - assuming you do, it's by no means certain - you'll know :D]
On the roof...
[Private to Nym: Heh, well you did roll low on your perception check, so not knowing the horse's gender from a distance seems reasonable...
]
The Whisperer looked to Nym's hand without concern, and it seemed as if the captain was the one more worried. The horse seemed to tilt its head and expand its nostrils as if sniffing the hand, and thne went back to looking to those on the roof without any concern. She did not give any strong reactions to being stroked, but the captain's surprise maybe showed more that it must be a welcome attention.
Nym's further comments distracted the captain fron the situation, and he regarded Nym with a calculating gaze for a moment. "I see, you have a touch of the ancient powers yourself. I have never encountered other changelings to know if you can trace your lineage to the feywilds and the immoprtal realms or not. You magic strikes me as wild though, you certainly have the more primal forces flowing through you."
The Captain apparently does not quite know how to answer the question of being magical, and considers it for a long moment. "Magic is no more nor less than air or water. I do not know why fish can swim with water in their lungs rather than air, and vice versa. I daresay a fish could not answer your question of what kind of water it possesses, even though a freshwater and seawater seem different, from my understanding."
He thought for a moment. "The ancient fey see the world as no more than a dream. Magic is no more than their will manifesting to overcome to mundane borders of the world they drifted in to. They too, grow bored of confines and stagnation. Some change their internal forms, some weave the shapes of the world as they see fit, some ignore the calls of the world to float above water or air as if it did not exist and had no sway over them. My companion is touched by the fey, it flows in her blood. So when does not understand distances and the fixed nature of places to each other, she can chose to ignore them when she does not wish to spend too long travelling. I too have some dash of the fey in my ancestry, stronger than other elves, awoken in my father's father's father, or my mother's mother's mother. I dislike the artifice of the world, and so I can see things as they truly are, if I have a mind to. I may have spotted your true nature if I suspected it - had you pretended to be an elf, rather than the exotic form you had chosen. And I do not abide lies when I suspect them. Is that magic? I do not feel it so. I think it is simply that humans are lazy and chose to go with the ways of the world rather than push to rise above them. And I am afraid to say the elves close to human borders seem to forget their origins, and many are as lazy in their slavish devotion to the mortal world and its limitations."
The captain seemed surprised he had actually spoken so much, and lapsed in to a silence.
Yes, I understand that the captain perhaps doesn't perhaps fully understand how fish work. :D