Ryanti listened to her as he loosened the little criss-crosses in his laces, desiring to tighten them up to the kind of pristine amount of tightness that he was mildly obsessed with. Despite her words that seemed to carry as much of anger and irritation as did the weight on her shoulders, there was some truth in them. That he could not deny. Yet despite the tone of her letting off some steam, it was quite observant of him to note that while it impacted the atmosphere in terms of the mood, it did not lessen his image of her in his mind nor the image of the world around him.
It made sense. It made sense as much as the noon sky was beautiful and blue, as much as the sun's rays felt warm and inviting upon his brow. The relief of the wind blew across his locks once more, causing them to settle at a slightly different place than before yet all too familiar.
The spinning of a wheel distracted him for a moment, causing him to look away from her briefly. It was a carriage that seemed to be carrying a combination of people and goods - perhaps travelers on business. A happy chocobo with a fully tummy dutifully followed the path that they would be taking soon out of the rest stop where all traffic in and out of the city's proper had to take if they were coming from the west. Ryanti knew that they would never catch up to it, so even though it was going down the same path, he would never meet it again.
He wondered whether or not the people inside were foreign, if they came from distant lands like Jaliqai did. A land he never knew, but always wanted to.
And that land could be anywhere. Anywhere but here.
It was then that he turned his head more forwardly towards her, betraying that during the entire time she was talking, he was smiling. It was a smiled blanketed in nostalgia and warming up an aura of empathy for the woman he was traveling with, as well as perhaps laughing in the grand silliness of something he most often took very seriously; his lifestyle that he would never be able to escape. The only element of himself that he had pride in, his only hope of an identity.
"Who are you means everything here. Family means everything here."
He glanced over at her briefly, at those sulfuric eyes with his own before realizing that he did indeed need his vision to tend to his boot and make sure even the knot itself looked presentable. His fingers worked so nimbly - as if he was used to manipulating and pulling strings perhaps not just with his hands.
"Power has many faces. Pure strength; pure survival provides only minimal results in the world of educated men. That it what it takes to survive day to day in the eyes of the poorest of the poor. But if you wish to rise above that, you must learn all of the faces of power; all of its personalities. My family has spent nine centuries learning just that."
His fingers, which had remained still since he began to speak, started to move again. Delicately he weaved the laced together, as if he was his own tender mother - it was very easy to tell he had learned from her - that this very tender woman at home was the same that had inherited the power of his family throughout this generation.
"Intelligence and cunning, pride and worksmanship. Knowledge. All are required in this land I know. Mastery of it leads to wealth; to power. My mother is not the epitome of a warrioress. She is a businesswoman. Her arms are as soft as the wool of her tailored suits. It is her mind that has gotten her where she is. It is her presentation that allowed her to reach a point to where she does not have to say a word to anyone. She does not need to. She has already proved herself worthy of inheriting the respect of my family's name. Respected founded upon their past deeds."
He lifted his boot further upwards as he continued, though this time he returned his glance to the woman herself, eyeing her over for a moment before smiling again. He tied the top of the laces together into a nice little thin bow, then bent it downward to add a little masculine edge to the feminine shape. "Your clothing is fashionable and rather presentable. You even have a way with makeup like the girls do in the city - even at noon time when the sun is brightest. But speaking like that to others may cause yourself to have a reputation of being... difficult to work with, and that gets in the way of your business making money."
His boot suddenly came down with a rather thunderous thump of his sole to the floor, enough for the pool of sandy dust underneath to cloud up a little bit. With one other solid tap to the floor, he was satisfied. Afterwords, he approached the woman closer with a couple of steps, flanking his shoulder to her while keeping his gaze. "Perhaps your ancestors were great people, Jaliqai. Perhaps you are too. But they are ignorant of deeds that their mothers and father did not bare witness to themselves. It does not diminish one's greatness. It merely means you have to prove yourself. But sometimes the easiest way to do that is just... relax a little bit. Enjoy the journey. Let your actions speak for you. That's something I'm still trying to learn."
With moments, his head was looking around, trying to find a bit of a distraction for him - for her - maybe for themselves as a whole. There were several things for sale here. Drinks, pieces of fruit for the road. Books...
"But don't get me wrong. I know where you're coming from."
It made sense. It made sense as much as the noon sky was beautiful and blue, as much as the sun's rays felt warm and inviting upon his brow. The relief of the wind blew across his locks once more, causing them to settle at a slightly different place than before yet all too familiar.
The spinning of a wheel distracted him for a moment, causing him to look away from her briefly. It was a carriage that seemed to be carrying a combination of people and goods - perhaps travelers on business. A happy chocobo with a fully tummy dutifully followed the path that they would be taking soon out of the rest stop where all traffic in and out of the city's proper had to take if they were coming from the west. Ryanti knew that they would never catch up to it, so even though it was going down the same path, he would never meet it again.
He wondered whether or not the people inside were foreign, if they came from distant lands like Jaliqai did. A land he never knew, but always wanted to.
And that land could be anywhere. Anywhere but here.
It was then that he turned his head more forwardly towards her, betraying that during the entire time she was talking, he was smiling. It was a smiled blanketed in nostalgia and warming up an aura of empathy for the woman he was traveling with, as well as perhaps laughing in the grand silliness of something he most often took very seriously; his lifestyle that he would never be able to escape. The only element of himself that he had pride in, his only hope of an identity.
"Who are you means everything here. Family means everything here."
He glanced over at her briefly, at those sulfuric eyes with his own before realizing that he did indeed need his vision to tend to his boot and make sure even the knot itself looked presentable. His fingers worked so nimbly - as if he was used to manipulating and pulling strings perhaps not just with his hands.
"Power has many faces. Pure strength; pure survival provides only minimal results in the world of educated men. That it what it takes to survive day to day in the eyes of the poorest of the poor. But if you wish to rise above that, you must learn all of the faces of power; all of its personalities. My family has spent nine centuries learning just that."
His fingers, which had remained still since he began to speak, started to move again. Delicately he weaved the laced together, as if he was his own tender mother - it was very easy to tell he had learned from her - that this very tender woman at home was the same that had inherited the power of his family throughout this generation.
"Intelligence and cunning, pride and worksmanship. Knowledge. All are required in this land I know. Mastery of it leads to wealth; to power. My mother is not the epitome of a warrioress. She is a businesswoman. Her arms are as soft as the wool of her tailored suits. It is her mind that has gotten her where she is. It is her presentation that allowed her to reach a point to where she does not have to say a word to anyone. She does not need to. She has already proved herself worthy of inheriting the respect of my family's name. Respected founded upon their past deeds."
He lifted his boot further upwards as he continued, though this time he returned his glance to the woman herself, eyeing her over for a moment before smiling again. He tied the top of the laces together into a nice little thin bow, then bent it downward to add a little masculine edge to the feminine shape. "Your clothing is fashionable and rather presentable. You even have a way with makeup like the girls do in the city - even at noon time when the sun is brightest. But speaking like that to others may cause yourself to have a reputation of being... difficult to work with, and that gets in the way of your business making money."
His boot suddenly came down with a rather thunderous thump of his sole to the floor, enough for the pool of sandy dust underneath to cloud up a little bit. With one other solid tap to the floor, he was satisfied. Afterwords, he approached the woman closer with a couple of steps, flanking his shoulder to her while keeping his gaze. "Perhaps your ancestors were great people, Jaliqai. Perhaps you are too. But they are ignorant of deeds that their mothers and father did not bare witness to themselves. It does not diminish one's greatness. It merely means you have to prove yourself. But sometimes the easiest way to do that is just... relax a little bit. Enjoy the journey. Let your actions speak for you. That's something I'm still trying to learn."
With moments, his head was looking around, trying to find a bit of a distraction for him - for her - maybe for themselves as a whole. There were several things for sale here. Drinks, pieces of fruit for the road. Books...
"But don't get me wrong. I know where you're coming from."
![[Image: 8wQ4Jkf.png?2]](http://i.imgur.com/8wQ4Jkf.png?2)
![[Image: orVQTe3.png?1]](http://i.imgur.com/orVQTe3.png?1)
