Following the altercation between the knights and the aevis, Kasrjin had made it to retreat to his quarters with haste. The Dravanians had been slaughtered with a furore that was pointedly unconducive to the Xaela maintaining his good health while in Coerthas, and so he'd resolved to spend the remainder of the dawn in his room if at all possible. The mind-numbing inactivity, however, eventually proved itself to provide its own brand of exhaustion, and after what seemed like years of no stimulation save for the occasional flicker from the design he'd carved onto the wall, the Au Ra had practically barrelled out of the inn with naught but his borrowed clothing and the sword in its harness, strapped to his back.
A heavy fur coat that roughly matched his proportions had been conveniently left on a coat rack in the bottom floor. The sound of fighting had driven the inhabitants to seek refuge within their homes, and so the inn had stilled with silence. Kasrjin glanced at his surroundings briefly before snatching the coat with little hesitation. Though the cold did not bother him in the slightest, it was his hope that it would mask his silhouette somewhat such that at a distance he may be mistaken for one of the Elezen. The Au Ra's scaled tail caused the rear of the coat to jut out awkwardly somewhat, but a part of him hoped no one would notice.
Kasrjin's particular need to avoid other individuals--he had neither the time, energy, or ability to sort out the misunderstandings when they inevitably arose--took him to the fortifications of the settlement. The muted gray brickwork of the walls contrasted with the landscape silvered with snow, dotted with boulders and evergreen trees. The battlements were gratefully yet confusingly empty; he could only assume that seeing as how the aevis had managed to infiltrate the settlement itself, the knights were attending to other points of entrance such that the walls no longer needed constant vigilance.
He picked a particular direction and wandered the walls. Despite being somewhat ill-fitting, the sizeable fur coat did well from shielding him from snowflakes and wind, and were the Xaela not painfully aware of how far from home he was, he might have called this walk serene. Kasrjin's movement came to an abrupt halt, however, when he spotted another silhouette standing at the edge of the crenellations, perilously close to the periphery of the parapets. It took some time for his eyesight to fully focus and recognise the figure--her hair had changed, and he hadn't exactly been able to pin down other distinguishing features--as his erstwhile guide, staring into the distance.
How exactly did one initiate conversation here? Kasrjin wished to ask Edda a great deal of questions, but something within him that may have been instinct told him that now was an inappropriate time to make such inquiries. Much of him twinged at frustration in the Western continent's circuitous and labyrinthine social practices; every person he had met here so far seemed to have the resilience of a snowflake or a drop of rain, and the boundaries and restrictions of their conversational conventions felt stifling indeed.
Faced with a lack of options, he stepped closer so as to be heard above the frigid breeze and called out to her. "Edda." It was awkwardly voiced, halfway between a command and a question, with the uncertainty of his tone being matched only by the certainty that he had likely made another inappropriate assumption.
She did not seem to be startled as a voice called out to her. Perhaps she had expected it, but from who exactly was anyone's guess. Edda turned to look over her shoulder at the sound, her brow creased in frustration. Her eyes were red and swollen, from the cold no doubt, her teeth chattering in the exposed cold of her current location. "Khadai," she managed to croak out. It had an inflection that also sounded like a question, and she did not say any more.
He tilted his head.
"...are you feeling sickness?" A part of Kasrjin knew that the query was a little superfluous, and another part genuinely thought that she might have become stricken with some manner of ailment.
"No," Edda responded matter-of-factly. She turned to face him. Despite the precarious location of which she stood, with a drop of nearly a hundred fulms below her, she did not seem at all concerned. Her lips pursed, and she looked at the Xaela searchingly, as if expecting him to say more.
Kasrjin returned her yearning expression with a puzzled one of his own. Ordinarily, he would have expected her to have turned away from him, or to ask him what he wanted. The fact that she didn't follow up with any prompt to which he might have responded made him uncomfortable. This was a...cue for him to speak? If it wasn't, he expected that he would be corrected rather testily.
"You are...distressed?" It sounded more like a question to himself than to her, as if Kasrjin were guessing the state of tomorrow's weather. And in a way, he was.
"I am perfectly fine," the Hyur replied. A sniffle. "Naturally." She looked to the battlements behind him, as if looking for someone to be with him, or putting him up to this. "What is it?" Her tone was terse, and though Kasrjin had expected it, the slight sharpness in her response disappointed him somewhat. He could only reasonably guess that he'd failed in responding to her cue appropriately.
And her response was...not helpful. The Au Ra's confusion deepened. Her demeanor was not one of contentment, and yet she insisted that it was. He shifted uncomfortably, tacitly aware that it would be exceedingly difficult for him to judge what was and wasn't an appropriate act in this situation. "...I possess queries. But you do not appear..." a pause and a struggle with vocabulary. "...at ease."
A stiff smile appeared almost reflexively on Edda's face. She reached up to wipe at her eyes with a sleeve, and took a deep breath. "What are your questions?
At least she is being straightforward. Kasrjin shifted his weight from one foot to another, arms straight down at his sides. "Are you uncomfortable with the arrangements of our agreement?" he asked rather bluntly.
"What exactly do you mean?"
Grateful that the subject of their conversation was now underway in a relatively direct manner, he crossed his arms, more to wrap the heavy sleeves of the borrowed coat around him than as a social gesture. "You do not appear interested in utilizing my abilities. Are my terms of our transaction unnecessary?"
"I am interested," Edda responded coolly. "I have been. I see no reason to rush, however." A pause. She looked hard at the man, studying his reaction closely. "And what of you? Are you dissatisfied?"
The Xaela shook his head, sending the ragged green fringes and ponytail to disturb the gentle snowfall that had begun. "No. I wished for you to bring me to this region known as Coerthas. You have done so. You are no longer obligated to me." He straightened his posture. "I would know if you intend to travel to...Ishgard, now that the requirements of your duties to me have been fulfilled. I am still pledged to your service. I would know of your destination."
Edda looked away and smirked, but it was one of clear discontent. "What a web you two have spun." She took one step forward and held it, before dropping off the ledge of the battlement. There was a carelessness in her step, and she stared up at the sky as she walked forward. "I had intended to accompany you as far as need be, to see whether or not you were worthy of my trust, and the job I had in mind. Naturally, I am not the best of guides, but the kind of protection I can afford is not one easily found." She looked to him now from a distance, her expression cold and distant.
"You - however. And Roen. This does not suit either of you, and it is now known to me that you would have me leave, that you two may continue on in peace."
A frown split Kasrjin's face. "I do not possess such intention. Do not ascribe it to me. It is true that the stern woman wished that I part company with you. That is, and was not, an appropriate request. I am compelled to fight for you. I cannot do so away from your side."
The Hyur frowned. "And were I to release you from such obligation?"
"You are not fit to do so. I refuse your generosity." It was a flat, almost immediate response. "Our agreement was established as a transaction. Until the agreed upon services have been exchange, it is not done, nor shall it be."
"And who are you to determine whether or not I am fit to do so?" Edda's voice rose in volume, and she turned to face the Au Ra fully, as if in an attempt to make herself appear bigger. "Why would you refuse me now? Roen had made it sound as if you were more than receptive to the idea."
Kasrjin's frown twisted with bewilderment. "It was the stern woman's suggestion that I refuse your generosity. I agree with the idea. To accept your services and fail to give my own is..." he pursed his lips. "...erroneous. I do not know what has been told to you through, but I was not represented accurately. You attempt to break off our agreement out of...charity. I do not accept. Nor shall I. Under the terms of our agreement, you are my charge, and I am bidden to fight for you. Do not confuse the circumstances further." His own tone rose somewhat in austerity.
"If anything, you seem to be the one who is confused." She shook her head. Discontent was clear on her face, though not necessarily directed at Kasrjin. "Roen admitted her thoughts to me, and she is not wrong - beyond this point, I am useless to you as a guide. You consider my offer to be one of charity. Do not misunderstand. I offer for your sake, that you might continue your quest unburdened."
He shook his head again. "You speak contradiction. You claim your offer is not of charity, yet you offer for my sake alone without desiring compensation. This cannot be so." His stern frown deepened with uncertainty. "For what reason do you continue to refuse the terms of our agreement, if my function is not inadequate? If my capabilities do not meet your standards, then I have erred, and mistakenly offered what I believed to be equitable terms where there were none."
The Xaela straightened his posture again. "I am bidden to fight for you. If you believe me to be incapable of fulfilling that duty, then provide your reasoning so that I may disagree with it." The careful listener might have noted the barest hint of pride in his challenge.
Edda took a step forward. "Your function is more than adequate," she said quickly. "I am not here, however, to stand in your way. I am no warrior - do you not agree? These were the terms to our agreement yes, but is it truly your wish to lug me around as dead weight?"
Kasrjin's silence was long and pronounced, and it was clear that he was deep in thought. Even with the wind picking up in speed somewhat, the occasional errant flake burying itself in his mane of hair or upon the obsidian scales, his eyes shimmered a viridian sheen. The more he thought about his explanation, the less coherent it seemed, but it also seemed to be the best option when it came to justifying his mentality. The seconds of blank air stretched into uncomfortable minutes which felt like hours.
"Very few among those with whom I am from are warriors." He spoke slowly, deliberately, as if every single word were handpicked and cleaned from the arbitrary slurry that was his vocabulary. "Yet they too possess relevant function."
"People cannot survive with soldiers alone. There must be...artisans. Healers. Leaders. Educators. Traders." He gestured towards her. "Your body cannot survive with only muscle and bone. It must have mind, heart, blood, eyes, mouth, and lungs. On their own, these things possess no value. Only when they are placed within that system are they able to function efficiently."
"You speak the truth. You are not a warrior. That does not mean that you are unneeded. It only means that you are needed. You are more necessary than I, who can only perform that with which I possess capacity for."
Another pause. "You are not as I. Therefore, I am to rely on you, for without those of differing functions, I cannot adequately perform my own."
Kasrjin shifted uncomfortably. He almost felt physically ill from speaking so many words in the foreign language in such a short amount of time. It was a veritable speech on its own, but to the Xaela it was if he'd spent a straight fortnight doing naught but reciting litanies.
He only hoped that he managed to convey his idea without ambiguity.
A heavy fur coat that roughly matched his proportions had been conveniently left on a coat rack in the bottom floor. The sound of fighting had driven the inhabitants to seek refuge within their homes, and so the inn had stilled with silence. Kasrjin glanced at his surroundings briefly before snatching the coat with little hesitation. Though the cold did not bother him in the slightest, it was his hope that it would mask his silhouette somewhat such that at a distance he may be mistaken for one of the Elezen. The Au Ra's scaled tail caused the rear of the coat to jut out awkwardly somewhat, but a part of him hoped no one would notice.
Kasrjin's particular need to avoid other individuals--he had neither the time, energy, or ability to sort out the misunderstandings when they inevitably arose--took him to the fortifications of the settlement. The muted gray brickwork of the walls contrasted with the landscape silvered with snow, dotted with boulders and evergreen trees. The battlements were gratefully yet confusingly empty; he could only assume that seeing as how the aevis had managed to infiltrate the settlement itself, the knights were attending to other points of entrance such that the walls no longer needed constant vigilance.
He picked a particular direction and wandered the walls. Despite being somewhat ill-fitting, the sizeable fur coat did well from shielding him from snowflakes and wind, and were the Xaela not painfully aware of how far from home he was, he might have called this walk serene. Kasrjin's movement came to an abrupt halt, however, when he spotted another silhouette standing at the edge of the crenellations, perilously close to the periphery of the parapets. It took some time for his eyesight to fully focus and recognise the figure--her hair had changed, and he hadn't exactly been able to pin down other distinguishing features--as his erstwhile guide, staring into the distance.
How exactly did one initiate conversation here? Kasrjin wished to ask Edda a great deal of questions, but something within him that may have been instinct told him that now was an inappropriate time to make such inquiries. Much of him twinged at frustration in the Western continent's circuitous and labyrinthine social practices; every person he had met here so far seemed to have the resilience of a snowflake or a drop of rain, and the boundaries and restrictions of their conversational conventions felt stifling indeed.
Faced with a lack of options, he stepped closer so as to be heard above the frigid breeze and called out to her. "Edda." It was awkwardly voiced, halfway between a command and a question, with the uncertainty of his tone being matched only by the certainty that he had likely made another inappropriate assumption.
She did not seem to be startled as a voice called out to her. Perhaps she had expected it, but from who exactly was anyone's guess. Edda turned to look over her shoulder at the sound, her brow creased in frustration. Her eyes were red and swollen, from the cold no doubt, her teeth chattering in the exposed cold of her current location. "Khadai," she managed to croak out. It had an inflection that also sounded like a question, and she did not say any more.
He tilted his head.
"...are you feeling sickness?" A part of Kasrjin knew that the query was a little superfluous, and another part genuinely thought that she might have become stricken with some manner of ailment.
"No," Edda responded matter-of-factly. She turned to face him. Despite the precarious location of which she stood, with a drop of nearly a hundred fulms below her, she did not seem at all concerned. Her lips pursed, and she looked at the Xaela searchingly, as if expecting him to say more.
Kasrjin returned her yearning expression with a puzzled one of his own. Ordinarily, he would have expected her to have turned away from him, or to ask him what he wanted. The fact that she didn't follow up with any prompt to which he might have responded made him uncomfortable. This was a...cue for him to speak? If it wasn't, he expected that he would be corrected rather testily.
"You are...distressed?" It sounded more like a question to himself than to her, as if Kasrjin were guessing the state of tomorrow's weather. And in a way, he was.
"I am perfectly fine," the Hyur replied. A sniffle. "Naturally." She looked to the battlements behind him, as if looking for someone to be with him, or putting him up to this. "What is it?" Her tone was terse, and though Kasrjin had expected it, the slight sharpness in her response disappointed him somewhat. He could only reasonably guess that he'd failed in responding to her cue appropriately.
And her response was...not helpful. The Au Ra's confusion deepened. Her demeanor was not one of contentment, and yet she insisted that it was. He shifted uncomfortably, tacitly aware that it would be exceedingly difficult for him to judge what was and wasn't an appropriate act in this situation. "...I possess queries. But you do not appear..." a pause and a struggle with vocabulary. "...at ease."
A stiff smile appeared almost reflexively on Edda's face. She reached up to wipe at her eyes with a sleeve, and took a deep breath. "What are your questions?
At least she is being straightforward. Kasrjin shifted his weight from one foot to another, arms straight down at his sides. "Are you uncomfortable with the arrangements of our agreement?" he asked rather bluntly.
"What exactly do you mean?"
Grateful that the subject of their conversation was now underway in a relatively direct manner, he crossed his arms, more to wrap the heavy sleeves of the borrowed coat around him than as a social gesture. "You do not appear interested in utilizing my abilities. Are my terms of our transaction unnecessary?"
"I am interested," Edda responded coolly. "I have been. I see no reason to rush, however." A pause. She looked hard at the man, studying his reaction closely. "And what of you? Are you dissatisfied?"
The Xaela shook his head, sending the ragged green fringes and ponytail to disturb the gentle snowfall that had begun. "No. I wished for you to bring me to this region known as Coerthas. You have done so. You are no longer obligated to me." He straightened his posture. "I would know if you intend to travel to...Ishgard, now that the requirements of your duties to me have been fulfilled. I am still pledged to your service. I would know of your destination."
Edda looked away and smirked, but it was one of clear discontent. "What a web you two have spun." She took one step forward and held it, before dropping off the ledge of the battlement. There was a carelessness in her step, and she stared up at the sky as she walked forward. "I had intended to accompany you as far as need be, to see whether or not you were worthy of my trust, and the job I had in mind. Naturally, I am not the best of guides, but the kind of protection I can afford is not one easily found." She looked to him now from a distance, her expression cold and distant.
"You - however. And Roen. This does not suit either of you, and it is now known to me that you would have me leave, that you two may continue on in peace."
A frown split Kasrjin's face. "I do not possess such intention. Do not ascribe it to me. It is true that the stern woman wished that I part company with you. That is, and was not, an appropriate request. I am compelled to fight for you. I cannot do so away from your side."
The Hyur frowned. "And were I to release you from such obligation?"
"You are not fit to do so. I refuse your generosity." It was a flat, almost immediate response. "Our agreement was established as a transaction. Until the agreed upon services have been exchange, it is not done, nor shall it be."
"And who are you to determine whether or not I am fit to do so?" Edda's voice rose in volume, and she turned to face the Au Ra fully, as if in an attempt to make herself appear bigger. "Why would you refuse me now? Roen had made it sound as if you were more than receptive to the idea."
Kasrjin's frown twisted with bewilderment. "It was the stern woman's suggestion that I refuse your generosity. I agree with the idea. To accept your services and fail to give my own is..." he pursed his lips. "...erroneous. I do not know what has been told to you through, but I was not represented accurately. You attempt to break off our agreement out of...charity. I do not accept. Nor shall I. Under the terms of our agreement, you are my charge, and I am bidden to fight for you. Do not confuse the circumstances further." His own tone rose somewhat in austerity.
"If anything, you seem to be the one who is confused." She shook her head. Discontent was clear on her face, though not necessarily directed at Kasrjin. "Roen admitted her thoughts to me, and she is not wrong - beyond this point, I am useless to you as a guide. You consider my offer to be one of charity. Do not misunderstand. I offer for your sake, that you might continue your quest unburdened."
He shook his head again. "You speak contradiction. You claim your offer is not of charity, yet you offer for my sake alone without desiring compensation. This cannot be so." His stern frown deepened with uncertainty. "For what reason do you continue to refuse the terms of our agreement, if my function is not inadequate? If my capabilities do not meet your standards, then I have erred, and mistakenly offered what I believed to be equitable terms where there were none."
The Xaela straightened his posture again. "I am bidden to fight for you. If you believe me to be incapable of fulfilling that duty, then provide your reasoning so that I may disagree with it." The careful listener might have noted the barest hint of pride in his challenge.
Edda took a step forward. "Your function is more than adequate," she said quickly. "I am not here, however, to stand in your way. I am no warrior - do you not agree? These were the terms to our agreement yes, but is it truly your wish to lug me around as dead weight?"
Kasrjin's silence was long and pronounced, and it was clear that he was deep in thought. Even with the wind picking up in speed somewhat, the occasional errant flake burying itself in his mane of hair or upon the obsidian scales, his eyes shimmered a viridian sheen. The more he thought about his explanation, the less coherent it seemed, but it also seemed to be the best option when it came to justifying his mentality. The seconds of blank air stretched into uncomfortable minutes which felt like hours.
"Very few among those with whom I am from are warriors." He spoke slowly, deliberately, as if every single word were handpicked and cleaned from the arbitrary slurry that was his vocabulary. "Yet they too possess relevant function."
"People cannot survive with soldiers alone. There must be...artisans. Healers. Leaders. Educators. Traders." He gestured towards her. "Your body cannot survive with only muscle and bone. It must have mind, heart, blood, eyes, mouth, and lungs. On their own, these things possess no value. Only when they are placed within that system are they able to function efficiently."
"You speak the truth. You are not a warrior. That does not mean that you are unneeded. It only means that you are needed. You are more necessary than I, who can only perform that with which I possess capacity for."
Another pause. "You are not as I. Therefore, I am to rely on you, for without those of differing functions, I cannot adequately perform my own."
Kasrjin shifted uncomfortably. He almost felt physically ill from speaking so many words in the foreign language in such a short amount of time. It was a veritable speech on its own, but to the Xaela it was if he'd spent a straight fortnight doing naught but reciting litanies.
He only hoped that he managed to convey his idea without ambiguity.
