Cirellio enters Shiira, ties off his horse and gets hydrated. He wanders the city until he finds his target, a building called a ‘relic house’, which is much like a city museum.
Before long, people start flocking south to prepare for the Feast of the Eight, but a woman appears to be following him.
No matter how many turns he takes, she keeps pursuing. When he finally lets her catch up, it turns out her name is Cauinn, a mystic. A Legionnaire.
She can tell he’s a thief right away and disapproves of his lifestyle. He doesn’t think much of mystics, either.
Her black curly hair has many silver stars ornamenting it, and she uses them to illustrate what she can do. She talks about how she dreams of a sea of stars, how each star represents a soul, and that his soul shines brighter than most.
Cirellio believes she is trying to con him, but feels somewhat compelled to stay and listen, anyway. Their conversation has him wondering if mystics really can see more than a typical person, but he’s always able to come up with an alternate explanation.
After their conversation, she abruptly leaves, but not before cutting a tuft of his hair free with an ornamental dagger she had hanging around her neck, saying he can ‘have it back’ if he joins her at the feast.
The conversation leaves him with an odd feeling. He figures Cauinn was a sociopath, but meant well.
With nightfall approaching, he sheds his white robe and disappears into the shadows, out of sight of the guards.
WC: 981
Total: 5,388
Writing this, Cirellio thought of everything in terms of fate and was skeptical of nearly everything Cauinn had to say, while Cauinn herself was somewhat curious in Cirellio, but was, on the whole, unimpressed. Their dissonance created an interesting, unpredictable conversation.
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[Reply]
Comment by Latrina — October 28, 2008 @ 7:25 pm
[Reply]
Comment by packsister — October 29, 2008 @ 9:53 am
I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
@packsister: The girl who was following him wasn’t urgently following him per se. Just following at a walking pace. (And if Cirellio would have taken off running, it would have gathered a lot of attention.)
She followed him only because she was fascinated by him, but that’s not something Cirellio is ready to understand at this point, and it’s from his POV.
He also has NO IDEA why she would cut off a tuft of his hair. Neither does the reader ;) It’s quite unexpected, isn’t it? Why that happened will be revealed later, like halfway through the book.
[Reply]
Comment by cirellio — October 29, 2008 @ 11:31 am
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Comment by packsister — October 29, 2008 @ 12:53 pm
Anyway, she’s definitely pretty intrigued by Cirellio … imagine walking around and being able to tell how important people are or are going to be to the world—Cauinn can do just that. So she asks herself ‘how could a mere thief make such a big difference in this world? And will it be a good difference or a bad difference?’ Would you feel an obligation to watch these people, just to make sure they weren’t going to cause harm? Especially after you’ve seen it happen
before?
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Comment by cirellio — October 29, 2008 @ 4:12 pm
Dude, I’m digging this majorly.
[Reply]
Comment by christopher. — October 30, 2008 @ 11:49 am