(Jiluria) Something's Not Right With You [Liza & Zay] (29th Board)

Setting: Jiluria
Time: 18th of July, 3709, 1pm, a cloudless and hot day.

Yuzan's luck has failed her greatly in the most recent chapter of her life - sometimes through chance and other times by her own choices. Following her brief but terrifying time in captivity under Lord Reimeghan, she broke away thanks to the follies of one of his contacts.
Since then she has been trying to make sense of what she can possibly do and where she can go. Today however, perhaps she will find respite.
It seems that Karmen's own luck will be influenced too; and not for the better. A bedraggled fugitive rat is the worst sort of company to keep during the takeover of the town by the uncompromising nation that she wishes to be no part of.

Joiners:
- Karmen (Elizaflame13)
- Yuzan (Zay)

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Of all the days to be out gathering herbs she had to choose the day where it was raining like nobody's business and making the ground all muddy! "The storm children must be out playing today. It's muddy and wet and my garden is now a quagmire. Must be fate or the gods don't like how I'm doing business." With her shirt, what little there was of it, hanging off her shoulders and the beads attached dripping water, it wasn't long till that part of her attire was sticking to her rather uncomfortably. Her open-sided skirt was less of a hassle and the cut-off leggings under them weren't really affected as badly, but wet clothes felt so incredibly strange!

Somewhere a short distance off she heard something squelching about in the fresh mudholes that had cropped up across her property and straightened. "Someone there?" A few moments of waiting and nothing happened, so she brushed it off and continued gathering her herbs, albeit sometimes fumbling with a particular gardening tool. Again her peculiar ears picked up sounds nearby and she looked around before groaning as the rain began pouring again with renewed vengeance. "For the love of all things good! Why won't it stop raining?!"

She was quite sure she had almost frozen to death. The day had been particularly warm, as Jiluria often was, but the damp in her clothes had gone nowhere for the remainder of the frantic and awful day. Her clothes were filthy and always had been, but the run of the river had made them no better, and now only added a strange smell to them as well.
Following the river that skirted around Jiluria, Yuzan had been exceptionally cautious.
With every thrum of her heart in her throat she suspected to see his sinister look peer out to her from behind the next corner of a building, the next tree, or have a hand of his rise up from the mud of the earth and grasp at her frail ankles.

Yuzan had spent much of the evening and night in fear's embrace again, finding her way into what appeared to be empty kennels for a farm, and with not a soul in sight. No sooner had she regained her strength, she moved on, but she was not so quick this time. In fact, she was at the very edge of Jiluria and realised she had no idea of what lay beyond the town. It might as well have been the town at the edge of the world for all she knew.
In her hesitance, Yuzan had circled back, avoiding any and all people that she could see from any distance. It would not matter to them who she was or anything of her story; she was utterly undesirable to all now, and detestable to others.
The natives would be loathe to have a worthless fugitive bring the Surahnians to their doors...the Surahnians would see her burn...Atoro was amongst their number, and that made her as good as dead.

To add insult to injury, it was raining. Endless rain after the warmth of the day before, it soaked her through again as she walked on, looking for her next shelter, carefully pulling her feet from the mud with every precarious step in her listless hunger and thirst.
Yuzan shivered quickly as a voice pricked at her ears, and she looked up to see a woman not far from her in unusual dress; not a Surahnian, by any stretch of the imagination.
Gods, how did you not see her?! This is dangerous.
She hugged her arms to the front of her chest, hands clasping at her sides as she did so, her hair hanging limply down over her shoulders. She did not speak at first, even when she then made eye contact with the bizarre looking woman. No use lying or hiding now, she was caught in plain view.

"Forgive me, Mrs, I did not know this land was yours." A pathetic few words if there ever were any.

The sight of the poor brunette across her property nearly forced her to drop her basket and drag her into the house, but she stopped short of doing so simply because she knew nothing of this bedraggled woman before her. "It's alright, I'm not angry, but is there something I can help you with?" Karmen was careful in how she approached her unwitting guest, because she didn't want her just taking off in some random direction in this cold in her condition. This woman was incredibly pale, and the scar on her face looked like it was in serious need of attention. Whoever did that to the girl had no intention of ever letting it heal properly. "My name is Karmen Stein, I'm an apothecary. Don't be scared. The last thing you need to worry about is me, if anything I'm likely more scared of you because I bruise like a fresh peach. Let's get you out of the rain and see if we can't mix up something to smooth out that scar on your face. Looks like someone was really out to destroy you."

Karmen's home was nothing too fancy, just filled with jars and bottles and urns all containing some kind of plant material. Some of it even glowed, which to most came off as a bit disturbing. It was enough to keep the weather out, but nothing too complex that she couldn't pack it up and leave given a short bit of notice. Perfect for a roaming spirit.

Where Yuzan had expected a ferocious set of words, followed by arm waving and finger pointing, instead the woman before her was a great deal calmer than all that. Yuzan had no illusions in her mind that other natives to this island would throw her over to the Surahnians on sight of her; nothing about her seemed respectable - she was a true criminal in every sense of the word, according to the opinion of one wretched bastard of a man, that unfortunately mattered more than anyone else but the King.
Yet, curiously, this woman gave her a name and asked if there was anything she could do, and surely she would have regretted offering this kindness had Yuzan spoken everything on her mind.
Yuzan stood rooted to the spot, shocked by this response so much that suspicion pricked at her quite quickly.
What if she knows? What if I follow her inside and then she drags me away, or kills me or...
Yuzan was silent on Karmen's last comment; in no way so foolish enough as to say just who it was that maimed her face. That would turn this woman's warm demeanor to ice in a moment.

"I'm, very..." Her jaw almost seized up for the cold and then the exhaustion that fear exacted on her, "Very cold and..." She murmured a little louder, her nails biting to her arms. "I'm homeless. I have...nothing."
Her eyes were beady and almost distant as she stared to Karmen, waiting for bitter words.

"Well you at least have a place to warm up and get out of the rain. As much as I'd like to scold you for wandering about in this weather I doubt you had much choice. Come on you skinny little thing, in the house you get. There's no shame in having nothing, means you've nothing to lose and everything to gain." Once she managed to get close enough to her guest to see what she was dealing with, her heart sank. This woman was frail, scared, freezing cold, and lucky the wound on her face hadn't gotten infected. "Surely you have a name, yes? You can tell me, don't be shy." Her voice made a smooth transition to a soft, mellow tone in hopes of easing Yuzan's nerves. "You can come inside, it's alright."

Getting this girl out of the cold was proving a challenge that Karmen wasn't sure she'd be able to handle in terms of patience. She had a bit of trouble letting people hang about while she finished their order to start with, so having a proper house guest was just as difficult or worse. In a last attempt at making her visitor feel safe, she wrapped her arms around Yuzan and hugged her tightly. "Here you are safe. I will protect you."

Yuzan was skeptical at best for the kindness shown by this stranger, although, when she was already at such a low, then it could not hurt her any more to simply go along with the lady. Briefly she wondered whether she should tell her name to Karmen, but it would mean that if anybody asked for her she would be ratted out in an instant.
But then, the mark on her face was enough to show her up.
"Yuzan." She said, wanting to say more, but instead only looking up the slightest bit, her face feeling cold and smooth like wet stone, too cold to feel much and her lips too dumb to say much.
Still, she felt herself flinch strongly inside when Karmen put her arms about her...the woman had no clue how foolish she was being...Better for Yuzan to simply take it as it came.
"You have a great goodwill." She said simply, though the feeling did not much creep into her voice at this moment.

And then without any will to resist this turn of events, Yuzan followed Karmen back to her home, wondering where the day might take her or how long it would be before she was thrown out. At least she might have enough time to eat before then, or maybe take what she needed before continuing on her way with no direction at all.

"You are welcome to stay with me as long as you like, but be warned I'm not one to stay in one place for too very long. I will be traveling north to visit my family in the coming weeks and you're welcome to join me if you so choose. Trouble is I'm not likely to return to this particular place because of these Surahnians and their ever-increasing territory boundaries. My family's tribe lies at the far end of the island near this city, Xanile." She pulled out a rudimentary map with a hand drawn legend and several routes scrawled between cities and notes along the sides: this was nothing like anything Atoro would have kept personally or let Yuzan get hold of. "Forgive my handwriting, it's a bit like how I speak; scattered and half-decent at best and horrendously egregious at its worst." Not to say she didn't know a few fancy words, but when there wasn't any other way to say something it was almost necessary.

"You'll probably get settled in here fairly quick, it's not a big place but it's cozy and keeps the cold out. If you'd like some food I'd be happy to find something for you, you're skinny as a fresh sapling." That was something that always troubled Karmen, how skinny some women chose to be, it was borderline unhealthy. Not once did it occur to Karmen that she might get into trouble for keeping Yuzan in her home, because she wasn't going to be sticking around to deal with those consequences regardless of whether or not her guest accompanied her. If Yuzan parted ways with her before she decided to leave and nobody came questioning her, that was fine. If they parted ways and someone came asking about her, she wouldn't care in the least; but she'd plead ignorance and say she had no idea which way her guest had gone after leaving. Everything was in place to make sure her safety was covered if anything went wrong.

Yuzan hardly cared for staying put in one place, if anything, that would be a certain way to choose death. In spite of all the tragedy she had come happened upon, and in spite of everything it did to tear strings of her former self away each day, death was something too fear inspiring to confront...something she would never choose.
The name of that place meant nothing to Yuzan however, and she did not much feel like asking about it for the moment, not until she had a better measure of this woman.
"I don't know..." Yuzan began, "Why you would take in a stranger. Even for a moment. That's a dangerous thing." she then added hesitantly, her face shy as she looked down for a moment, then glancing back up to try and read between the lines in Karmen's own expression. "Settled? Ma'am, I am so grateful but...what moves you to offer these things? I would never turn away...such an offer but, but it is so unusual. What would you want from me?" There had to be a catch. Yuzan was now sick of finding out a catch in everything she tried to do to get away from the worst on this island, and she always found such snares through surprises, but now she anticipated it and so she waited for it to appear.

"Why should I want something from you? Further more why would I hesitate to give you shelter? You're alone, unarmed, injured, and you look like you've not been eating well for quite some time. I'm a tad reclusive, but I've been around long enough to know who I can let into my home. Besides if I found you to be a threat, I have numerous plant-based ways of either disposing of you or making you choose to leave of your own accord. Don't take this the wrong way but what could you possibly have with you as compensation for staying with me anyhow? I rarely get company at any rate so having a random person, someone that doesn't require my services at that, show up at my door is a nice change of pace. That in itself was payment enough personally, but if you were to insist how would you go about repaying me?"

There was no real sense in asking this woman such a question, but since she seemed so adamant, Karmen decided to prove a point. Her guest might be a little less insistent on repaying her once she realized exactly what that would likely entail: indentured servitude. It looked as though she was quite familiar with such an idea and didn't like it, or she wouldn't have been ambling about in the woods with no idea where she was going. After a time she began getting back to her work with the newly gathered albeit water-logged herbs as she awaited an answer.

"Everybody wants something ma'am, and kindness given freely is a rare thing." The words sounded uncharacteristically cynical for her, but everything in her mind was filled with "Atoro" and all that the word entailed. She chose not to comment on the fact that she could be so easily be gotten rid of, preferring to think herself lucky to survive this far.

At her last question however, Yuzan realised she was not sure how to answer. She had never had an answer to begin with or ever had. When Yuzan offered to give in return for something else, it was always on another person's terms and not her own. She had nothing really to give, so she just did whatever they asked and hoped they'd think of her fondly.
In Lahruka she had wanted to have so many friends and lovers, that she always would end up following after them...trying to please them all in some vain hope they might respect her more in spite of what she did.
In spite of what she did? Well, she had offered her body to several men and then some, her eyes starlit with romance in them and searching for love in return...that didn't work either. It also appeared to not work with a Surahnian leader, so now she had her shameful decision marked on her face. That was all a lifetime away now, but she was still the same person, despite everything.

"I don't know...I just, I thought you would want something. Food is never free, and time is precious so..." She mumbled a bit, and then quickly sought to correct herself. "But whatever you want, I swear I can do!" Yuzan pursed her lips tightly, unable to keep her 'secret' to herself at all. "Just, look at me! I'm well...the Surahs, they would not deal well with you. So I thought the least I could do is something, anything." Even though this is not what I want.
It annoyed her then that already she was doing just what she harangued herself for doing, walking into what would be yet another dilemma immediately after leaving one, and all because she didn't know how to bargain.

"What they think of you is no concern of mine. Your heart is in the right place and if you're keen on repaying me somehow, then you can stay with me on the condition that you let me teach you about what I do. I'm an apothecary and have been such for half my life, even though I've never taken on an apprentice. That and it'd benefit us both in the long-run: you learn a trade so you can one day support yourself and I have a traveling companion that doubles as a student." Yuzan made careful mention of the invaders Karmen had come to avoid whenever she could, and the woman rolled her eyes.

"These invaders have no clue what kind of hornet's nest they're stirring up. If they fear magic, as I've heard they do, then they've picked the wrong island to stay on, regardless of how they came to get here. As for you, if they don't like you because of what you are then that makes you just like the rest of us here on the island. You simply need time to adjust to the environment and the unique things that inhabit it. You also need to get used to the idea that I'm one of those unique things: I'm an artificial humanoid called a homunculus. I age like a human, look like a nighie, which is a type of elf, and magic is my lifeblood. Nonetheless you're perfectly safe with me and my family up north."

The woman seemed unusually understanding. There was no denying that she made sense to Yuzan in every facet of what she said. Somehow, she made it all seem quite ideal and feasible for Yuzan. Then again, anything would be better than her time with Atoro. Apart from her strange kindness, she felt no inkling of malevolence in this lady, no sign that she might betray her or otherwise turn her into nothing but an unpaid labourer. Yet, Yuzan would have gratefully accepted that too if it meant she could be kept and fed on this strange and dangerous island.

The Lahrukans had always enjoyed the use of magic, but it was not nearly so vibrant, extensive or powerful as here. Not even a patch on the feats that could be found here, it was said.
Karmen appeared to be living proof of that and Yuzan's eyes twinkled in surprise.
"You're a...what? A, nighie, homoncul- what?" She did not need it repeating so much as explaining, none of it making sense to her. "What are those things you speak of? Ma'am, what are you as you seem...human as I might expect. Or, or did you mean otherwise? I am...confused."

She then realised she had almost completely ignored the offer extended to her while puzzling over Karmen's identity and so Yuzan jumped at the chance before it slipped by, hastily adding in her further words.
"Oh I, yes, please, let me stay with you." She would have stayed with anyone, but here it seemed she had landed on her feet. "Your generosity knows no bounds ma'am." Yuzan did not know the first thing of what being an apothecary entailed, and she was not the kind to learn a skill and truly apply herself to it, having spent most of her time in the past simply drifting along on life's course as it came to her. "I will do as I can for you, but, I have never done such a thing or...anything similar to that...truth be told...I had never worked a day in my life until I arrived here." That had been a lesson.

She found her voice had softened and her throat relaxed; Yuzan's words now slipped from her mouth easier than before.
She might still have been sodden from the rain and cold, but now indoors, she felt warmth tingle on the outside of her and kind words soothe her anxiousness.

"I'm not human, but I'm no animal either as you can see. I'm pretty much made to look human, to a point, but I'm made of magic." When hearing her visitor wasn't accustomed to working she didn't really react, simply cracked a smile and shook her head. "Regardless of how little or much you've worked prior to meeting me, my job isn't one that's physically strenuous on most days. If it was I would likely not exist the way I do." This girl in front of her wasn't young enough to still be a child, but she was younger than the person whose house she was sitting in, dripping on the rug no less. So was the owner of said house; which meant a wet rug was of no concern, it would dry. "Most of what's required for my work is knowledge of plants and poisons, which is easy to obtain if you know how to read. I take it you can read, yes?"

Only made sense that she did, if she made it this far without much trouble. "Tell about yourself; what you've done with your life and the like up till now. I'd like to have an idea of where you stand in terms of life experience." To Karmen it didn't look like there was much to her at all, minus the obvious scar on her face. It didn't take much effort for the woman, while waiting for a reply, to mix up a paste for her guest to use. It was mainly supposed to smooth out the scarred tissue and aid in healing, if only slightly since she wasn't sure if this girl before her had any kind of reactions to certain plants. That and anything stronger would have taken a good deal of time and a trip well away from her house to collect some of the items necessary. Such was life but she managed, in any case.

"Yes, in fact I can." Yuzan may have only ever done light work here and there and otherwise had been pampered, but like any other Lahrukan that lived in a city, she was expected to learn to read. Even if that reading was never applied all too much, the Lahrukan people prided themselves on this aspect of their culture, and reading of classic scripts. "The Surahs that I have escaped from, I was given their scribe work, so that should be enough." It was probably best left unsaid exactly who she was running from. It'd probably just terrify this woman to hear that she was housing the wanted for perhaps the second most important person in the new Surahnian Kingdom.

Naturally, the lady asked about how she had landed herself in this fantastic mess. It couldn't hurt to tell her something. Lying was just too exhausting now.
"You see, I might look at first like one of those blasted Surahnians, but they never have brown hair like this. Actually, I don't know how much you know of it, but they hate my nation. We've been enemies for many years now." She paused, trying to get her bearings with her timeline. "I was raised in a city called Fenatz in Lahruka. That's a country from overseas, next to Surahnia." She clarified. "My family was well off, enough that when I was going to meet my suitor, I was one of several aboard a ship, plus the attendants. But the Surahnians stole the ship and now...Well I just became a stowaway until they eventually ended here, after many weeks."

It still hurt Yuzan to even think of it, and the thought of her family left behind still ripped at her, but there was nothing to be done about that. "So since then I have had to disguise myself as one of them, not difficult, and work for a Lord." Yuzan put a strand of her hair back behind her ear, patting off some water from her scalp as she did. "He's a wretched man though and when he discovered that I was a Lahrukan, well." She gestured vaguely to the gouging marks on her face. "So tonight I thought I saw a chance to escape, as nothing was going to get better. Here I am, in spite of everything." She smiled weakly. Even though she was terribly afraid, her plan had actually worked for now and she was no longer a captive.
Still, she felt like a dead-woman walking.

"Again I have said too much, and you are very kind Ma'am. But if this unsettles you, I will understand and take my leave."

"Like I'm going to change my mind because you've pissed someone off that apparently has power. It's as I said before: any person who fears magic will never wish to cross paths or blades with me. I was created with the appearance of a nighie, which is a form of magical humanoid with pointed ears. The creature I properly "am" is called a homunculus. It would seem to me that I far more unsettle you than the other way around. Only time you'll be taking your leave is when we eventually leave this city together, you deserve to have a life as much as anyone else."

When she finally got herself settled back into her home she gestured to it broadly. "Make yourself at home, if you want food I can get something going pretty quickly. I'm sure I have something you can fit in for dry clothes somewhere." With the last statement being muttered under her breath she rummaged through a sack of clothes by her sleeping spot and found a blouse and skirt.

"Aha, this should fit for now until we can get you something properly fitted." She looked like a skinny little twig, this Yuzan, but she had such a personality that her body was easy to look past. Somehow all her past adventures and trials appeared to be nothing next to the terrors this girl had faced in her life to that point. Now she was in the home of a stranger who embodied a good deal of her worst fears; and from Karmen's standpoint she was taking it all in stride. That took an enormous amount of emotional strength and courage, which meant Yuzan had just made herself an unwavering ally.

Karmen seemed completely comfortable with the idea of defying the Surahnians. It was both admirable to Yuzan and worrying. Having dealt with them, she knew she would now never underestimate the lengths they would go to to achieve anything they were told to. They hadn't needed reasons as such, more just appealing ideas and while Yuzan was never politically minded at all, she had found her short time amongst them unnerving.
If nothing else, their presence right here was enough to set her on edge. Still, the woman seemed so convinced, though she was right about her being very unusual to Yuzan, that it set Yuzan at ease just a little bit. Out of the rain, in the warm, a friendly face and now food and clothes. She was being so kind that even if Yuzan had some suspicions, it was just all too good to turn down. The alternatives were all dreadful anyway.

The blouse and skirt were refreshingly clean to look at. Brown and white, all plain and no frills, but nothing like the slave rags she wore which were grey, rough and only a single layer to keep out the elements.
"Thank you, you are exceptional." And she meant it as she took the clothes from her. They felt crisp and clean in her hands. "And yes, I would really appreciate the food, too."
When she had made her break away from Lord Reimeghan, she hadn't expected to come across any good fortune at all, but apparently something had decided to turn in her favour today. The first time in a long time.
"So, you are going then?" She asked, as she moved away to find a spot to change in, though she'd need to wash properly the next day. Yuzan was very aware of how dirty she was, but her mind wandered to what Karmen had mentioned before. "You mentioned your family up north, where is that?" There was a lot she had to learn about the island, but if going noth was on the itinerary, then she'd gladly do it to draw distance between her and the invaders.

"You speak of these Surahnians you are running from and it makes me think of my coming of age trials: I have risked being burned to ash by an active volcano and torn to pieces by an angry dragon for the sake of two tattoos, which are on my neck and back. If I can withstand the raw destructive forces of nature then I can survive aiding you in your avoidance of these. . .people." The word "people" was used very loosely for her purposes and she shrugged at the mention of her family. “They live up toward Xanile, friendly group to be sure amongst themselves but a bit shy and introverted around outsiders.”

“Xanile is up in the Hills of Yarrow, and is the furthest settlement north on this side of the island, the only thing that sits further up in terms of large settlements is Ironshas, and beyond that is just small villages. There is one place to the far north called Sand City but I’ve never ventured that far into the desert.” She paused in her puttering about and sighed.

“There are two routes we can take to get there, but the news that has reached me lately tells me that we are taking the long way, because the shortcut takes us through Surahnian and wild dragon territory.” She pointed out the two pathways on a map that she kept then gestured to a couple of other ways and shook her head. “If we take Caspan we’ll be running close to wild dragons and still crossing a chunk of desert, not to mention going up toward Celen’s Fall is a terrible idea thanks to a new imbalance in magic. Going through Kaionar is the most unpleasant trip I’ve ever taken: it’s the underbelly of the island all manner of thieves and crime lords make their living in that city. Longest way around takes us through the capital city, Didienne, and is by far the safest until we get up to the mountains near Celen’s Fall. After we clear that we can take our journey nice and easy. If you have any ideas please voice them, a fresh set of eyes is always nice when looking at a map like this.”