Cast Aside
----
Talos and Casiama approached the imposing, white-haired man standing before the dangling, suffocated corpses of two of the local peasantry, their weight immobile in the chill, faint breeze. The soaring stone towers of Imperia -- the capital of mankind -- stretched on the horizon, as if rising in defiance to the flat farmland surrounding them.
"Sigi. We ought to stop meeting like this," Talos said, a smirk still forming on his face even before the grotesque sight. The man turned around with wide eyes, still in disbelief of the sight behind him.
"Talos. Are you a sight for sore eyes," Sigismund replied, offering his right hand in greeting. Talos took it by the forearm in response, Sigismund's eyes drifting towards the elf, her being radiating with delicate beauty in the dusty village.
"Sigi, may I present Casiama the Fourth of Tor Valliya," Talos introduced with a slight bow and flourish of his palm, somewhat giddy he had finally found someone to introduce Casiama formally to.
On the reverse, Talos would show Sigismund no such respect. As per tradition. "Cass, this is Sigi."
"Sigismund is fine," he replied, taking the pretty woman's offered hand with a bow and hovering his lips over it for just an instant. She raised an eyebrow in response to the curious formality. "A pleasure to meet you, Casiama."
"It's all mine, Sigismund. And 'Cass' is fine for me," the lithe elf replied with a giggle and nod, her hand being returned to her. "Talos has told me much of you."
"Mostly true, I hope?" he chortled, the charming elf giggling once more in response. Talos made his way towards the corpses before them, investigating.
"Mostly, I imagine," Casiama answered huskily in jest.
"Two more. We're on the right path," Talos muttered under his breath, just barely audible to his two companions.
"I'm sorry, Talos. Did I hear you right? This grizzly sight is merely another step on a trail?"
Talos nodded, sullenly. He explained the situation of his missing pupil, of the string of suicides along the road from Skymarch. He held up his crude drawing of a girl to Sigismund in vain hope.
"Oh no," Sigismund replied, turning his head away from his old captain. "We uh... we were acquainted, yes. Back in Oak's Crossing on the solstice." Talos' brows perked up at the answer.
"And you're not swinging here, instead? Sigi, do you feel strange at all? Feeling a sudden urge to strangulate yourself from a tree branch?" The white-haired man shook his head seriously.
"I can hardly believe your story, Talos. The meeting was pleasant. Fun, even." Sigismund smiled at the reminder, prompting that it was Talos' turn to shake his own head.
"No. No, no, no, Sigi, nothing's fun to you. You didn't-"
"She came on hard, Talos. It all happened so fast."
Casiama's eyes were shifting between the two men as they rapidly conversed, inquisitively wondering what the 'it' was they spoke of.
"Did you at least get a destination from her? What she was doing? Anything?!" Talos questioned with haste, not yet coming to terms with the woman his young Rayya had become.
"Talos, I-I didn't even get her name..."
Talos turned around then, angry at his old friend for an action he couldn't be held responsible for. Any man would have done the same. Sigismund stepped forward, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"We'll find her, alright? Just like old times," Sigismund said reassuringly to his former captain. It didn't quite feel the same to Talos.
--
Rayya looked over the dangling wooded sign of the building before her, her tan skirt blowing gently in the breeze. The sign read "Rebecca's Alchemical Supplies", next to a picture of a boiling pot with stars floating from it. The bustling market of Imperia lived half a million raucous lives around her as she entered.
"Good morning, young sorceress," the woman that must be Rebecca greeted her. "How many I be of assistance to you?"
Rayya smiled sweetly, realizing that Rebecca must have worked with with many sorceresses to have the immediate assumption. Perhaps she would have what she was looking for.
"Hi! Rebecca, I presume?" Rayya asked, tilting her head just enough to look innocent.
"That's me. How are you this fine day?" A brief, shared smile.
"Good enough, thanks," Rayya shot back. Her eyes danced over the many flasks and vials of the shop, as if aware of their properties. "I'm looking for something
very
specific. A potion, long-lasting, that would make a man fall for a sorceress like me," Rayya explained, cheeks reddened by the request that sounded far more silly out loud.
"A young woman such as yourself shouldn't have need for a potion for that," Rebecca answered with a smile, stating the obvious. Rayya lost her own smile as she stepped towards the alchemist, placing both hands on the wooded counter-top.
"It's for a special type of man. One that doesn't see things as they are. Of what they could be."
"Perhaps an ocular stimulant?" Rebecca chortled out with just a pinch of nervousness. Rayya started to lose her cool and drilled through the alchemist's thin eyes with a sharp squint.
"Do you have something or not?" Rayya asked tersely.
Rebecca shook her head. "Dear, the love you seek doesn't come from a potion or out of any bottle. It can only be made truthfully... Naturally."
Rayya pursed her lips at the statement. The woman behind the counter was actively disrespecting her request with words unsaid. She thought Rayya weak, too weak to admit to non-reciprocal love.
No. She was
insulting
her, feeling falsely secure in her own thoughts.
"Oh yeah,
Rebecca
?" Rayya challenged, her anger rising through her chest at the woman's insolence.
"You know what else would be natural, for a
hag
such as yourself?"
--
Alanna swayed through the busy, paved city streets of the Imperial capital, twisting around a deliciously-smelling food cart here and a sprinting street-kid there. The enchantress smiled, the abundant sights and sounds of Imperia making her feel just small enough to go unnoticed as the men and women around her went about their day. Alanna shut her eyes in appreciation of the marvels of humanity, then opened them once more as she remembered her mission.
Three imp hearts, two hand-fulls of saffron, and the flower of a jade amaryllis
. Alanna knew the Imperial capital would have all of that and more, what with it being the center of trade for all the known world and all.
She had offered her help enthusiastically to the old alchemist back in Catriona, which would grant her a reason to travel to the human metropolis. Alanna looked forward to the food and poetry readings she would enjoy this night. She just needed to solve the simple problem of locating those ingredients, first.
Travel to Imperia from the College of Catriona had been a simple task for her, due to Alanna's connections at the college. One of her closest friends there was a transmutation and teleportation sorceress, after all, who was capable of sending the girl here on a moment's notice. Alanna assumed the return trip would be just as simple, although she had a full six days still until her friend would be capable of bringing her back.
So many of her friends had told her not to come. Alanna was now a distinct rarity amongst the Catrionan sorceresses, nay, all humanity, but not because of her magical abilities.
Half of the population had no hope of ever casting magic, as the spark only fell on women. And only one in three-hundred women would ever show any natural magical inclination, according to the ancient studies on the topic, studies which had found no correlation in who received said spark.
Less than a quarter of those gifted would ever be formally trained to become a sorceress, allowing them to cast more intricate magic than a simple fireball or a distracting whisper on stone.
And only about one in two-hundred sorceresses could ever get pregnant. Alanna now held her tummy with one hand as she walked, although she didn't require the support just yet. It was a pleasant reminder of her uniqueness, yet a somewhat unpleasant one of her connection to a man that had cast her aside.
Alanna had insisted on going to the capital, of course, already feeling cooped up after two months in Catriona. Perhaps the travels to the Badlands, Solais, and the Borderland forests had already changed her permanently. Perhaps she had a faint hope of reconnecting with a man she once knew.
She spied a sign depicting a bubbling cauldron across the way, stars dancing away from its contents. Jackpot. She approached the shop excitedly, appreciating the fact how simple it was to locate a relevant vendor in the massive city.
The door opened, a girl wearing a tan bodice and skirt far too short for her form emerging from the store. Alanna nodded to the fellow sorceress, walking up the steps past her.
"Shop's closed," the sorceress flatly, her eyes scanning the street before her.
"Oh. Darn," Alanna replied sullenly, looking down towards the wooden steps sadly. She would need to locate another relevant merchant, now. Or perhaps she could come back tomorrow?
Alanna scanned the sorceress next to her. The air of the city seemed to flow around her, as if in response to a pull Alanna couldn't yet recognize. She tried entering her, her advances being rejected like those of a peasant's to a beautiful princess.
Another enchantress! How exciting!
Rayya started to walk down the steps, either not realizing or not caring for the fact.
"Wait! Hi!" Alanna exclaimed with a wide smile with both arms stretched towards her new friend. The blonde girl in tan turned towards her, an unreadable look on her face.
