Re: Surreal Islands Expedition IC

**Mizu** Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:15 pm

Avalyn gave Sili a toothy grin as she began to divulge her experiences to the eager Sabite. “Now that you mention it, I have been to Kyria,” The Tyrican began, shifting her imposing weight to better brace herself against the rocking of the waves. “Your people were not the most welcoming sort, as far as I can recall. Perhaps that was thanks to the size of both me and my sword. But I found interesting parallels between your kin and my Adrilan kin…”

Sili listened intently as Avalyn told her story, however, she couldn’t help but feel slightly annoyed that it had taken Avalyn so long to remember a place as - as she saw it - completely grand as Kyria. Though, it was more than likely her own bias guiding that thought.

The human interrupted herself for the sake of a brief, good-humored chuckle, before continuing, touching on her own homeland - a place Sili had never been. The Sabite couldn’t help but take special note of how the woman spoke so ill of her homeland’s nobility - a concept Sili had a difficult time wrapping her head around. This was because, in Kyria, it was generally believed that since the nobility earned their positions through personal ability and divine favor, they therefore possessed the right to be prideful, among other things. God favored them as symbols of the nation’s great power and piety, and who could possibly argue with God? Though Sili could not easily empathize with the contempt that colored the human’s tone, she decided to quietly pretend she understood - all the while mentally noting this as further evidence that humans generally resented their superiors, a commonly held academic belief in Sabia. Her fingers itched with the desire to scribble something down in her journal, but she continued to listen instead.

“Oh, speaking of which,” Avalyn began in reference to the earlier jab at Tyrica’s nobility. “The priesthood in Silverdale would call you heretics and faithless if they knew about some of your social customs. Though I know not if the Adrilans are less… Liberal? About their relationships than you, or if they simply are skilled enough at arms to scare the Tyrican Priesthood from calling a crusade on them.”

Cocking her head slightly in bewilderment, as Sili was apt to do, she gave Avalyn a quizzical stare. She had some theories, but she wasn’t quite sure what the woman was referring to.

“All in all though,” Avalyn finished. “Kyria was a fairly civilized country, and it seemed less restricted by faith and culture than Tyrica. That is a good thing.”

The Sabite smiled at the human, clutching the pendant around her neck and holding it intimately to her breast. “We are not restricted by faith, my human friend. Rather, we are guided by it...” She released the pendant as her hand returned to her side. The trinket was of tarnished silver, and refused to shine in the morning sun - it was sorely in need of polishing. “Nevermind that, however,” she said, dismissively. “What do you mean by your comments of our customs and relationships?”

The Sabite was just able to voice the question, before the rattling and clunking of a heavy suit of steel reached her ears. Sili didn’t have to look to tell that the armored giant had begun to stir, but she turned her head regardless. Sure enough, the Adrilan was making his way, almost clumsily, about the ship on his way toward the duo, clutching at whatever solid surface he could in order to guide his way.

“Pardon the intrusion, fair maidens,” greeted Sigismund, as he reached them, his manners unflinching as ever. “I seek not to eavesdrop upon your conversation, but I find the wobbling of the ship to be a greatly comforting experience and I thought that the time is ripe for us to exchange a proper greeting, now that the sand is gone from our sleepy eyes.” He gave a jovial laugh from the greatest depths of his belly, and, though he looked ready only moments before to topple over at the slightest irregularity in the ship’s sway, he now stood comfortably, perfectly adapted, and even daring enough to risk leaning over the deck to indulge in a little sea gazing for a short, admittedly tense moment.

Sili found the man to be quite endearing, not unlike a rhesglif, the cute, furry pets that were widely loved back home. She wouldn’t tell him this, however, as she feared it might damage the man’s pride. Still, she couldn’t help but humorously reflect upon this.

“Of course, should you find my company undesirable then I shall take my leave,” the knight offered as he spared those before him the stress of watching his balancing act over the railing. “Do pardon me once more.”

Sili smiled politely, and, respectfully inclining her head to him, she gave her greetings in return. “Hello... Sir Sigismund, was it? By all means, you are welcome to stay - the Tyrican and I were merely familiarizing ourselves with each other. I was happily surprised to learn of the impressive extent of this woman’s travels.”

Because the knight’s eyes were not visible, his size mattered little, as Sili felt significantly less of the anxiety that had plagued her before during her conversation with Avalyn. Such things made her feel lamentably foolish, and she often regretted the conversational customs that had been drilled into her since birth.

**Berserker** Sun Aug 14, 2016 9:32 am

Avalyn opened her mouth to respond to Sili's question, though Sigismund's approach made her hold her tongue. Even for her, entirely removed from the Tyrican hierarchy as she were and thus a little more open-minded than the average peasant, Kyrian society seemed to so openly accept and tolerate the sort of enjoyment Avalyn usually only learnt of in poorly ciphered personal letters from man to woman, so that she was in fact shocked when she first learnt of it. Speaking of Kyrian customs to a knight, who by reputation were far more virtuous and moral than a lowly adventurer such as herself, did not seem to be the right way to let Sigismund make up an opinion of sabites. Such things went better unmentioned, she thought, and rather turned towards Sigismund, allowing him to interrupt the conversation and bring it to topics that had a lower likelihood of leaving Avalyn flustered and embarrassed.

"Had I problems with your presence, sir knight, I would have stayed ashore. I fear I may have offended young William, but I came not hither to make enemies." Stroking hair away from her face, she looked the knight over. "You do not seem so intent on travelling light. Were you to fall overboard, you would sink like a stone, yet you keep your armour firmly on. I do not intend to pry into your past, as you are not the only such warrior in the world, but if it pleases you, I would like to hear why." Despite this being a quite obvious turn away from Kyrian customs, Avalyn hoped it would not offend Sili overly much. There would be much time to talk along the way, and easily time to talk further of her travels. Now was a good time to do introductions, however, and she tried to get a conversation running between the three of them by going straight for a topic that might also interest Sili.

**Karthusin** Mon Aug 29, 2016 12:07 am

A voice called out from above, one of the lookouts sounding concerned: "Mist is starting to settle in, captain. Nothing's really provoked it.." And this became apparent before Sigismund could even go about addressing the question he was asked. The Knight turned his head to look around, only to notice the unusual mist effectively reduce his vision to the ship alone. Infact, it was so thick that they could scarcely see the flow of the sea through the canopy.

The captain replied: "Keep your eyes out crew. Take the harpoons and be ready for anything. If any of you wizards can cast light, then now would be a good time." He remained on his post. "Deploy full sail." He ordered the ship crew, who went about this within the course of a few seconds, deploying the rest of the sails, increasing the speed of the ship at the cost of control. "You lot might ask why I'm speeding up instead of going on at a simpler pace - answer is that mist is rarely a good thing on this part of the sea. More so than any regular hazard, this tends to carry bad creatures with it. I trust my lookout to keep an eye out for rocks, otherwise we want to be out of here as fast as possible."

The Adrilan Knight walked away from the edge: "Friends, I do propose that we, perhaps, take shelter inside. If what I hear of the beasts at sea is true, they have tendrils that can snatch us straight out of the boat and, I believe I am correct in my assumption, that none of us are particularly eager to become sea monster food. The Knight did not sound afraid, that much was obvious or he was hiding it very well. This appeared to be his form of thinking rationally and rational was his suggestion indeed.

The sea, however, appeared to be calm. No big waves could be felt, the ship felt surprisingly balanced even at full sail. The captain did nothing to slow it down, evidently intent on losing the mist quickly and, thus far, it appeared that things were going in his direction.

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