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rainbowfic2012-02-13 02:31 pm
kay_brooke) wrote in rainbowfic2012-02-13 02:31 pm
Snow White #5, Tyrian Purple #8
Name: kay_brooke
Story: The Myrrosta
Colors: Snow White #5 (hedge of thorns), Tyrian Purple #8 (Achilles heel)
Word Count: 1,831
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; No standard warnings apply
Summary: Edward's first day in a new land.
Edward got off the boat, his bag slung over his shoulder. The bag was the one piece of luggage he had brought with him; years of being a traveling merchant had stripped down his sense of materialism so that now all he really needed was a change of clothing. And a hat. And gloves. Gloves were very important. Edward, who traveled all over the continent even in the winter when most merchants found a place to settle down, never knew when he would ride right into a furious blizzard.
He could admit that he felt a little nostalgic about leaving his cart and his horses behind in Catah, especially the horses. He'd had the two of them for years, and they had been his constant companions on the often lonely road. He talked to them a lot. They didn't talk back, but they listened to his stories without interruption. He was going to miss them.
But an attachment to his horses wasn't going to keep him from the opportunity to explore a whole new continent.
He might have thought more about the people he left behind than he thought about his horses, but he didn't want to admit that even to himself.
Joren, the Ttarren ambassador's assistant, caught up with Edward, huffing a little. He clapped the merchant on the back. "New land, eh?"
Edward granted the short, heavy man a small smile. There was only one reason why Joren, otherwise an extremely intelligent man, wasn't the ambassador proper: he was mostly hopeless when it came to social savvy. As Edward understood it, Joren's research skills were unparalleled, which was how he had advanced even to assistant, but the man had few friends.
He had decided, on the boat trip over, to make friends with Edward.
It wasn't that Edward was against making friends, but he didn't do friends the way Joren did. The assistant was used to staying in one place, to seeing the same people every day. It was the same with his friends. Edward's friends were transient and scattered all over the continent, and there were many he had never seen again after their initial meeting. Joren's closeness made Edward's skin itch, but he put up with it because he didn't plan to stick around after reaching Maston.
That was what the ambassador didn't know. That was what no one knew. It was what would have gotten him into serious trouble with the authorities of at least two Catan governments, but here it didn't matter because they were an ocean away, the boat only made the trip once a year, and there was no way the official diplomatic expedition he had arrived with was going to spend the time following him into the wilderness of Maston.
That was, of course, if there was wilderness in Maston.
"Ever seen anything like it?" Joren asked, his voice hushed as he took in his surroundings.
Edward shook his head. "Never." And from someone who had been to every city in Catah, that was saying something.
Until now, Ttarren had been the grandest city Edward had ever seen. But it paled in comparison to the stone and marble wonder that lay before him. From the docks, the city of Korokai spread out into the mountains jutting up from the shore. Much of the city was built into the cliffs, each building face polished smooth until it shone and sparkled in the early afternoon sunslight.
"There must be quartz in the rock," Joren muttered. Edward nodded again. It looked like the whole city was set with jewels. The buildings that were not built into the cliff faces were built in marble. There was very little green; every bit of the city itself was paved, and the hills around it were barren. Joren had given a presentation on the city during the trip over, based on reports he had received from the government of the city: the land around Korokai was mostly desert, supposedly as dry as northern Partika. From what Edward could see, though, the landscape looked more like southern Okkand. The one intriguing difference he could see was far in the distance, where it looked like there was the beginnings of a forest or some kind of patch of tall plants. Strange thing to see in a desert, and even stranger was that they looked purple. Edward couldn't wait to get out there, to see whether the plants really were that strange color or if it was a trick of the hazy air.
"Come on, we're to meet Dean Schalst," said Joren, carefully pronouncing the name of the representative of the Korokai government who was supposed to see to their needs. Edward nodded and followed the assistant away from the docks.
Maston was not, like Catah, split up into separate nations or empires. It was instead a series of city-states, like Okkand of old. Edward wondered if they thus had the same diplomatic issues that had plagued Okkand in those days. The official word was that they didn't, but Edward knew better than anyone how government officials could twist their words to make one thing sound like something else entirely. As such, he had imagined the place to be rough and maybe a bit uncivilized, as it was said Okkand had once been, but Korokai at least seemed as cultured as anywhere in Kandel.
Dean Schalst met them on the other side of the docks with a retinue of servants. The officials of the expedition--Ambassador Trey, Joren, and Edward--were led into one of the free-standing marble structures while the rest were shown to another part of the city, where they would be quartered for the duration of their stay.
Dean Schalst was a tall man with a hooked nose and long dark blond hair, but there was little about him that was imposing. He stood and walked hunched over, as if he was afraid to stand at his full height, and his skin was pale and unhealthy-looking, as if he spent no time in the sun. He peered at each of them one at a time from tiny eyes set so deeply into his skull that Edward couldn't tell what color they were. To Edward, the man looked more like an insular scholar who spent his day locked in dim rooms poring over dusty manuscripts than a government official.
The marble building he led them to had one large front room that was nearly empty of furniture. There were a few marble sculptures that nearly faded into nothing against the identical marble walls. The only spot of color were pots of large yellow flowers decorating the corners of the room. "We will have meetings here," Dean Schalst told them with his scratchy voice.
"Is this an official government building?" asked Joren. He didn't seem to notice the warning look Ambassador Trey gave him.
"Pardon?" asked Schalst. The language both parties spoke was a mixture of Common and the official tongue of Korokai, each learned by the respective sides so that they could understand each other. "I do not understand the question."
Trey gave a hearty laugh. "Our Joren here fancies himself a bit of a scholar, that's all. He's very interested in the history of the city."
Schalst bared his teeth at Joren in a way that Edward thought was supposed to be a smile. "I understand. I, too, am a scholar."
I knew it, Edward thought.
"This is indeed a building owned by the government," Schalst continued. "We traditionally hold meetings with visiting diplomats here."
Joren gave a thoughtful nod and for once kept his mouth shut.
"You will be meeting with the rest of the deans tomorrow," said Schalst. He indicated the room. "Today is only an informal meeting. I am to answer any questions you may have."
Trey nodded and opened his mouth, but Edward took his chance to jump in. He didn't know if he would get another opportunity. He was technically an official, brought because of his expertise on the trade goods from all corners of Catah, but he was no nobleman nor official. He was a traveling merchant, had been all his adult life, and before that he had been as common as they came. While he had no quarrel with Ambassador Trey nor he with him, Edward knew that once Trey started talking he would be forgotten.
"I'm curious about one small thing, Dean," he said brightly. Schalst turned his slightly terrifying smile in his direction.
"I apologize. Who are you?"
"Edward," he replied, extending one hand. It was apparently a gesture Schalst didn't recognize, because he merely cocked his head at him. Trey, on the other hand, looked mortified. Edward dropped his hand quickly. Ambassador Trey didn't deserve two bumbling idiots at his side. "Official on trade affairs."
"Yes," said Trey, smoothly stepping in. "The best expert Catah has to offer on what goods we possess and how to best transport them across land. Now, I did have a few questions--"
"I believe your Edward had an inquiry first?" said Schalst, raising his thin eyebrows at the merchant.
Edward bowed his head. "Only a small one. It can wait until the ambassador is satisfied."
"If it is only a small one I would prefer to answer now, so that we may move on to larger issues," said Schalst.
Edward looked sideways at Trey, who gave him a slight affirmative gesture, looking unhappy. "I was only wondering about the plants."
"The plants?" Schalst repeated so slowly that Edward wondered if he had gotten the word wrong. "The plants in the building?"
"No, no, though they are quite beautiful. I meant the...forest. In the distance." He switched back to Common for "forest," because he didn't know the Korokai word for it. He wasn't sure they even had a word for it, being in a desert and all.
"Forest?"
"Yes, the--" Edward tried to mime what he had seen with his hands. "The purple plants. In the distance. I saw them from the docks. I was only curious what they were."
Schalst, impossibly, paled even more. "You speak of the klapa?"
"Do I?" asked Edward.
"We do not go there."
"But what are they?" Edward tried to soften the forcefulness of the question with a smile.
"We do not go there," repeated Schalst. "It is forbidden." The tone of his voice made it clear that the discussion was over.
Edward, being the curious sort, almost asked who had forbidden it, but Ambassador Trey was starting to look a little faint, and even Joren was wordlessly imploring Edward to stop talking, so he did.
Trey began his questions, and then they were led on a tour of the building, and soon Edward's transgression was forgotten. But Edward had found value in it just the same: once he managed to slip away from the expedition--perhaps in two or three weeks--he knew exactly where he was going first.
kay_brookeStory: The Myrrosta
Colors: Snow White #5 (hedge of thorns), Tyrian Purple #8 (Achilles heel)
Word Count: 1,831
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; No standard warnings apply
Summary: Edward's first day in a new land.
Edward got off the boat, his bag slung over his shoulder. The bag was the one piece of luggage he had brought with him; years of being a traveling merchant had stripped down his sense of materialism so that now all he really needed was a change of clothing. And a hat. And gloves. Gloves were very important. Edward, who traveled all over the continent even in the winter when most merchants found a place to settle down, never knew when he would ride right into a furious blizzard.
He could admit that he felt a little nostalgic about leaving his cart and his horses behind in Catah, especially the horses. He'd had the two of them for years, and they had been his constant companions on the often lonely road. He talked to them a lot. They didn't talk back, but they listened to his stories without interruption. He was going to miss them.
But an attachment to his horses wasn't going to keep him from the opportunity to explore a whole new continent.
He might have thought more about the people he left behind than he thought about his horses, but he didn't want to admit that even to himself.
Joren, the Ttarren ambassador's assistant, caught up with Edward, huffing a little. He clapped the merchant on the back. "New land, eh?"
Edward granted the short, heavy man a small smile. There was only one reason why Joren, otherwise an extremely intelligent man, wasn't the ambassador proper: he was mostly hopeless when it came to social savvy. As Edward understood it, Joren's research skills were unparalleled, which was how he had advanced even to assistant, but the man had few friends.
He had decided, on the boat trip over, to make friends with Edward.
It wasn't that Edward was against making friends, but he didn't do friends the way Joren did. The assistant was used to staying in one place, to seeing the same people every day. It was the same with his friends. Edward's friends were transient and scattered all over the continent, and there were many he had never seen again after their initial meeting. Joren's closeness made Edward's skin itch, but he put up with it because he didn't plan to stick around after reaching Maston.
That was what the ambassador didn't know. That was what no one knew. It was what would have gotten him into serious trouble with the authorities of at least two Catan governments, but here it didn't matter because they were an ocean away, the boat only made the trip once a year, and there was no way the official diplomatic expedition he had arrived with was going to spend the time following him into the wilderness of Maston.
That was, of course, if there was wilderness in Maston.
"Ever seen anything like it?" Joren asked, his voice hushed as he took in his surroundings.
Edward shook his head. "Never." And from someone who had been to every city in Catah, that was saying something.
Until now, Ttarren had been the grandest city Edward had ever seen. But it paled in comparison to the stone and marble wonder that lay before him. From the docks, the city of Korokai spread out into the mountains jutting up from the shore. Much of the city was built into the cliffs, each building face polished smooth until it shone and sparkled in the early afternoon sunslight.
"There must be quartz in the rock," Joren muttered. Edward nodded again. It looked like the whole city was set with jewels. The buildings that were not built into the cliff faces were built in marble. There was very little green; every bit of the city itself was paved, and the hills around it were barren. Joren had given a presentation on the city during the trip over, based on reports he had received from the government of the city: the land around Korokai was mostly desert, supposedly as dry as northern Partika. From what Edward could see, though, the landscape looked more like southern Okkand. The one intriguing difference he could see was far in the distance, where it looked like there was the beginnings of a forest or some kind of patch of tall plants. Strange thing to see in a desert, and even stranger was that they looked purple. Edward couldn't wait to get out there, to see whether the plants really were that strange color or if it was a trick of the hazy air.
"Come on, we're to meet Dean Schalst," said Joren, carefully pronouncing the name of the representative of the Korokai government who was supposed to see to their needs. Edward nodded and followed the assistant away from the docks.
Maston was not, like Catah, split up into separate nations or empires. It was instead a series of city-states, like Okkand of old. Edward wondered if they thus had the same diplomatic issues that had plagued Okkand in those days. The official word was that they didn't, but Edward knew better than anyone how government officials could twist their words to make one thing sound like something else entirely. As such, he had imagined the place to be rough and maybe a bit uncivilized, as it was said Okkand had once been, but Korokai at least seemed as cultured as anywhere in Kandel.
Dean Schalst met them on the other side of the docks with a retinue of servants. The officials of the expedition--Ambassador Trey, Joren, and Edward--were led into one of the free-standing marble structures while the rest were shown to another part of the city, where they would be quartered for the duration of their stay.
Dean Schalst was a tall man with a hooked nose and long dark blond hair, but there was little about him that was imposing. He stood and walked hunched over, as if he was afraid to stand at his full height, and his skin was pale and unhealthy-looking, as if he spent no time in the sun. He peered at each of them one at a time from tiny eyes set so deeply into his skull that Edward couldn't tell what color they were. To Edward, the man looked more like an insular scholar who spent his day locked in dim rooms poring over dusty manuscripts than a government official.
The marble building he led them to had one large front room that was nearly empty of furniture. There were a few marble sculptures that nearly faded into nothing against the identical marble walls. The only spot of color were pots of large yellow flowers decorating the corners of the room. "We will have meetings here," Dean Schalst told them with his scratchy voice.
"Is this an official government building?" asked Joren. He didn't seem to notice the warning look Ambassador Trey gave him.
"Pardon?" asked Schalst. The language both parties spoke was a mixture of Common and the official tongue of Korokai, each learned by the respective sides so that they could understand each other. "I do not understand the question."
Trey gave a hearty laugh. "Our Joren here fancies himself a bit of a scholar, that's all. He's very interested in the history of the city."
Schalst bared his teeth at Joren in a way that Edward thought was supposed to be a smile. "I understand. I, too, am a scholar."
I knew it, Edward thought.
"This is indeed a building owned by the government," Schalst continued. "We traditionally hold meetings with visiting diplomats here."
Joren gave a thoughtful nod and for once kept his mouth shut.
"You will be meeting with the rest of the deans tomorrow," said Schalst. He indicated the room. "Today is only an informal meeting. I am to answer any questions you may have."
Trey nodded and opened his mouth, but Edward took his chance to jump in. He didn't know if he would get another opportunity. He was technically an official, brought because of his expertise on the trade goods from all corners of Catah, but he was no nobleman nor official. He was a traveling merchant, had been all his adult life, and before that he had been as common as they came. While he had no quarrel with Ambassador Trey nor he with him, Edward knew that once Trey started talking he would be forgotten.
"I'm curious about one small thing, Dean," he said brightly. Schalst turned his slightly terrifying smile in his direction.
"I apologize. Who are you?"
"Edward," he replied, extending one hand. It was apparently a gesture Schalst didn't recognize, because he merely cocked his head at him. Trey, on the other hand, looked mortified. Edward dropped his hand quickly. Ambassador Trey didn't deserve two bumbling idiots at his side. "Official on trade affairs."
"Yes," said Trey, smoothly stepping in. "The best expert Catah has to offer on what goods we possess and how to best transport them across land. Now, I did have a few questions--"
"I believe your Edward had an inquiry first?" said Schalst, raising his thin eyebrows at the merchant.
Edward bowed his head. "Only a small one. It can wait until the ambassador is satisfied."
"If it is only a small one I would prefer to answer now, so that we may move on to larger issues," said Schalst.
Edward looked sideways at Trey, who gave him a slight affirmative gesture, looking unhappy. "I was only wondering about the plants."
"The plants?" Schalst repeated so slowly that Edward wondered if he had gotten the word wrong. "The plants in the building?"
"No, no, though they are quite beautiful. I meant the...forest. In the distance." He switched back to Common for "forest," because he didn't know the Korokai word for it. He wasn't sure they even had a word for it, being in a desert and all.
"Forest?"
"Yes, the--" Edward tried to mime what he had seen with his hands. "The purple plants. In the distance. I saw them from the docks. I was only curious what they were."
Schalst, impossibly, paled even more. "You speak of the klapa?"
"Do I?" asked Edward.
"We do not go there."
"But what are they?" Edward tried to soften the forcefulness of the question with a smile.
"We do not go there," repeated Schalst. "It is forbidden." The tone of his voice made it clear that the discussion was over.
Edward, being the curious sort, almost asked who had forbidden it, but Ambassador Trey was starting to look a little faint, and even Joren was wordlessly imploring Edward to stop talking, so he did.
Trey began his questions, and then they were led on a tour of the building, and soon Edward's transgression was forgotten. But Edward had found value in it just the same: once he managed to slip away from the expedition--perhaps in two or three weeks--he knew exactly where he was going first.
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I like how Edward's wanderlust seems to apply wherever he goes.
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I like this--the promotion of a merchant because of his expertise especially. I like your world history, too, the way you've built it. You did a really good job with that.
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