Peck too sees Kerric's father ... and from habit moves carefully out of his line of sight, as if his friend were standing next to him and the two sought to avoid accusations of idleness and the work that might be found for them.

Alert to the Dwarf's movements, the blacksmith's son notices that Yona and the Stranger Jenette share his regard, and while their low voices do not carry to his ear, Peck fears he can guess the gist from their manner.  Torn between loyalty and what he sees as right, he chooses to look away.

Llewendan's face lights up as he follows Opluriko.  "I can," he replies.  "I haven't swum in years."  The two hurry out of the schoolhouse, rush down the street, and are soon running, side-by-side, dodging around people who aren't quick enough to dodge around them.  It's all going reasonably well until Opluriko curves around the wall of a house and nearly crashes into Anje, an old woman with a sack over her shoulder.  Anje stumbles out of the rushing T'skrang's path with a shout, bumping into the wall of the house, and losing her balance as her bad leg turns underneath her.  Her sack hits the ground with a rather unfortunate sound of ceramics breaking.

Tralistaire considers.  "I'm not sure `master' is the word I would use," he admits.  "Custodian, manipulator, sometimes ally, but it's my experience that they resist outright subjugation.  But," he allows, "Different outlooks allow different approaches, and that may very well be my own..."  He breaks off suddenly, straightening, tilting his head a bit.  His tail twitches, and then he lets out a long, steady breath.

"Food, indeed," he says, looking at Anora.  "An answer I might have given once myself."

Calisaren looks up at him, frowning.  "That's an acceptable interpretation," she allows, "But it could as well--"

"No," Tralistaire interrupts.  "No, no, that's not the symbolism of economics and you know it.  She speaks the truth of its nature, wrapped in context and hidden in simplicity.  Luckily," he smiles, "I am a consummate juggler, if," he allows, "A somewhat less accomplished Illusionist than I am Elementalist.  Give me the morning with her.  If I am mistaken, you may continue your examination," he promises.  With the Windling's shrug, he gestures to Anora, inviting her to come closer to him and Shard.

Flechette watches Ariadne, shaking her head.  "With a little luck," she says, "Within a couple weeks, we'll be able to tell him you can take care of yourself.  Not now, of course - you'd be lying.  That?  You're as likely to rip your own hand open as hurt anyone else; would've done better to bolt for the door."

Jenette's head turns slowly as she watches as Kerric's father continues down the street.  "So, just what does a man do in a town this size to earn that kind of wealth?" she asks, curiously.

With Anora at least on the way to sorting out, Kira turns her attention back to her own protege, and notices Peck shadowing in the doorway.  "Whatcha think?" she asks, walking over to him, not noticing his momentary discomfort.  "Too soon to bring me in to the shop, or better not to wait?"

Ariadne gave Flechette a sour look.
"It's not my nature to flee.
Besides you never told me to come armed. What other options do I have?"
Ariadne discarded her makeshift weapon with an annoyed motion.

In reply to Tralistaire Ten-Tails (msg # 48):

Shard, patiently folds his arms waiting for the instruction to begin.  Watching the T'skrang he raises a bushy eyebrow ...
This message was last edited by the player at 21:43, Fri 01 Nov 2013.

Peck eagerly turns to Kira, relieved at the distraction. "Marden's ..." happy is not the right word, "... accepting of you and will allow you to use the forge.  But not so sure of your teachings."

"I think I've persuaded him to hold his judgment ... at least he says he will allow you to show me ..." whatever it is I'm trying to grasp "... but he wants to keep an eye on you ... us."

The young Smith shrugs.  "He's a good man.  He cares for me and I for him."

"Sorry!" Opluriko says as she rushes past. But she sees the bag dropping and, although she doesn't have time to turn around to catch it, maybe she can catch it with her tail.

Feeling she somehow did something not quite right - a feeling she was familiar with - Anora silently rose to her feet and approached Tralistaire, giving a small nod to Shard.  One last glance at Calisaren and then her full attention rested with the T'skrang that spoke, to her, in riddles as much as the Windling.  Whatever was going on, Anora felt as if she did not see what was in front of her, so quiet observation was the course she stayed.

"I'm not really sure.  He talks with the mayor a lot, and helps run things around here.  Doesn't talk so much to me and my dad." Yona replies, still keeping her voice low.

"Maybe helping to run things pays well?  But I heard that he got a lot of money from his family too.  They've always been rich, at least that's what people say.  I heard that when his father died, they offered to pay for a big statue of him in the middle of town, but there was some sort of argument about it, and the mayor said the town didn't need a statue."

The girl shrugs, "But that was when I was still a baby, or maybe even before, so I can't say for certain."

Flechette's flail whips out as Ariadne tosses her club aside, but instead of striking at Ariadne, the leather strands wrap around the wood, plucking it out of the air and twitching it back to Flechette.  She catches it in her other hand.  "Didn't I?" she asks.  "I'd've sworn I told you to bring a dagger," she notes, resting the wood against her shoulder, while the flail hangs deceptively loose.  She shifts her stance just slightly, only moving a few inches, but it puts her decidedly between Ariadne and the doorway.

"Why don't you tell me?" she asks.  "Unarmed, outclassed, and if fleeing were suddenly to become part of your nature, now I'm in your way.  Just what are your options?"

Kira smiles.  "Sounds like a beginning I can work with," she says.  "Show me the way."  As they start walking, she asks, "So, what've you told him so far?"

Opluriko stops suddenly and jumps back, catching Anje's sack on her tail.  It's too heavy for her to hold that way, but she lets it slide down to land... relatively gently on the ground.

As Llewendan rounds the corner, he stops, offering her a steadying hand as she catches her breath.  She seems momentarily caught between yelling at Opluriko for bumping into her, or thanking her for catching the bag, and finally settles on a reproachful look at the both of them, and muttering, "Watch where y'r going, young'un," as she picks her bag up and hobbles away.

In the opposite corner from where Flechette has Ariadne, Shard and Anora both stand before Tralistaire, who smiles gently at Anora, and then nods to Shard.  "Very well, then.  I, as it happens, do indeed follow both the paths of the Elementalist, and the Illusionist - though the elements came first, and may well color my thinking on the art of illusions.  As an Elementalist, I see the world as concrete; absolute.  Water is Water, Earth is Earth, and so forth.  It's all quite reliable, I find.  Illusionists... seek the truths within, beyond, and behind.  Truths that lie hidden from easy view.  For example," he holds a hand up, the coin balanced between two fingers, "Where an Elementalist might call this a thing of Earth - a statement undeniably True - an Illusionist sees a further Truth, lurking behind the shine.  That of food," he nods to Anora, and turns his hand over, palm up; the coin is gone, revealing instead a handful of nuts.  "Or tools," he closes his hand briefly, opening it again to show a handful of small nails, "Or even friendship."  Turning his hand he holds it out towards Anora to shake, a movement unaccompanied by the scattering of nails that it should be, as they seem to have vanished.

"It was clouds that started me on the path," he continues on, conversationally, "But as I was just beginning to explain to Shard, your paths will not be mine.  Similar, perhaps, and they may cross in places, but every Adept must find their own way."

Jenette looks duly impressed.  "A statue, eh?  Interesting.  We should learn more about that.  I'm curious.  It's my humble opinion that when you get some folks significantly richer than those around them, that there is, once in a very great while, a good reason for it.  But usually, it's just because the people around them have forgotten they're equal.  That just maybe, somebody like our friend Anora needs a dinner perhaps a bit more than somebody like that needs another pair of boots."

She lets her eyes drop, watching Kerric's father round the corner and out of sight.  "Actually, the cost of those boots would've feed her family for a week, I'll bet."

Opluriko couldn't help a flash of glee spread across her face at having caught the bag with her tail, even when she could imagine the sound of shattering goods if she hadn't, but Anje's reproachment brings her back to reality. "Sorry..." she repeated again.

But when she was released as Anje hobbled away, she just turned rather than offering to help. Her excitement now a bit tempered, she picked back up at a jog instead of at a full-tilt run. When they reached the river, she picked a point she knew was clear, and dove in, swimming across.

Yona nods, thoughtfully, "It doesn't seem likely that he would just give Anora's family money for food, instead of using it to buy new boots for himself.  He is worried about how nice he looks, not about how full anybody else's belly is."

And there is a brief moment which Yona would have referred to as an epiphany, if only she knew the meaning of that word...

"Perhaps somebody could find a way to turn his boots into food, or money for food, and see that Anora's family, or another family like them, got at least some of it."

And there it was - the realisation that theft doesn't always have to be entirely selfish.  Followed swiftly by the realisation that she quite likes Anora who, after all, has never used Yona's limp or the difference in their heights as an excuse to bully her.  Perhaps I could do something to help my friend?

Secretly, of course.

"You could teach me how to do this?"

In reply to Tralistaire Ten-Tails (msg # 61):

Shard nods watching and listening sensing the comments were more for Anora than himself, he simply nods and grunts having a few thoughts about entertainment and illusions, but choose to keep the thoughts just that and didn't speak them aloud.

"Every ship must set sail from a harbor to launch on its journey.  What harbor will you have us sail from?  Where do we begin?"

Anora listened intently to everything that was being said, the smile from Tralistaire being briefly reflected with a insecure twitch of her cheeks and the corners of her mouth.  Then her gaze wandered down to the coin and the hand, with but brief flashes of her gaze flitting up to meet his.

The previously infinitesimal smile returned as the content of hand altered and changed and then, for but a moment shifted between surprised humility and joy, as the hand was offered to her.  Even as she timidly reached out her own hand her face flushed visibly even through the seemingly ever-present dirt.  Upon taking his hand she gently shook it and performed half a curtsey simultaneously.  The look on her face that for a moment turned to Shard suggested she greeted him as well.

In her mind something stirred, so deep it had yet to form into a concrete thought her mind could recognise.  A blend of promise and self-worth that sent a shiver up through her subconscious, ending up as a glimmer of hope in her eyes.  Consciously she somehow knew that even if she did not move beyond the here and now, she had gained something, something that would for ever alter her life for the better.

In reply to Flechette (msg # 58):

"Fleeing has never been part of my nature" Ariadne said defiantly.
A second or two passed in silence before she continued in a matter-of-factly manner.
"It's called a tactical retreat... Or re-deploying sources elsewhere... Or attacking in a different direction..."
Ariadne's self secure voice trailed off as she gradually became more and more distracted by her own speech.
"But in the current situation I think negotiations is the best option."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:00, Thu 28 Nov 2013.

In reply to Kira (msg # 59):

"I told him that you're not teaching magic," Peck answers, leading Kira south and west, rounding the Pavilion.

"You're not, are you ?" the young smith blurts out as a sudden worry on the score floods over him, and he turns to her with concern at what response he might get.

"I said it was a ... 'different way of looking at things', that's all.  Complementing honest craft, not replacing it.  Not a shortcut."

Llewendan dives in smoothly after Opluriko.  He's a strong swimmer, and soon, the two are across.  Climbing out, he gives a quick shake to his head and brushes his wet hair back a little.  He seems to skip straight past `bedraggled' and directly on to `glistening'.

"Now, then," he says.  "Squirrels?"

Jenette looks up at Yona and smiles.  "I can.  Something like that, at any rate.  This is a small community; no chance of turning his boots into food for anyone, I'm afraid, because too many people would recognize his boots.  But his money, before it becomes boots, could..."  She nods her head back towards the open doorway.  "Like she was saying when we left.  It can turn into anything, if you just catch it young and nurture it right."  She looks back out to the town, watching more people pass by.  "Now, I've got to say - I like your home, but it seems to me it's got quite the gap for its size.  Fixing that..."  She shakes her head, thoughtfully.

"That's a high goal to set, full of hard lessons for people who won't want to learn them, but it's a worthy one."