mogget_cat | To the Old Kingdom

(From here.)

The door he gallantly opened for her opened out into gently lapping waters, lit from overhead by a multitude of stars uncountable. So many together, they give off a glow stronger than the light of the full moon, singing softly of promised rest for those below. The insubstantial spirits of the dead rise from the waters, some quickly, eager for their eternal rest, and some slowly, fighting the pull even as they rise, foot by foot.

The two of them step down slightly into the water that only rises to their ankles, and Yrael closes the door behind them.

"As you can see," Yrael smiles. "I have been practicing even when not at the Milliways lake."

Despite the fact that the waters of Death aren't exactly the same as other water.

Current Mood: amused

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"We crossed the glacier mostly at night and I didn't relish the thought of FREEZING" she pointed out. "Blame your family for clothing the guard in red."

She was busy sifting through the broken bits, some of the ages past lost pieces falling to dust in her hands as she did so "Hmmm...there was a boat kind of thing near the animals? Archie and Svava like boats..." she noted.

"Actually, we did that for a reason. It made the guard easier targets than us. Distant glaciers were not taken into account." The Not'Cat Formerly Known as ~~Prince~~ Yrael leans over to pull a sack from where it was half-covered by a pile of silver coins.

"They do. I got Archie a model of a Belisaerian merchant ship, a year or so ago. What one is this?" He picks up the scale model of a ship and peers at it.

"Ha!" He grins. "I'm surprised it hasn't rotted. It's been over two hundred years since the Old Kingdom had a seagoing military force. Little need for one, when the primary threat can't cross running water."

"I love you too Highness. Really." she stated blandly. "I'd die for you and all, but you don't have to keep rubbing my nose in the fact..."

Rachel poked a finger at the ship a moment, quite lost as to types, then went back to her digging...then...paused.

It was a feeling, warmth and care against the fingertips as Rachel sifted through broken pieces...

Cherished. Loved.

She almost cried when the piece that held such associated emotion...fell to dust in her hands, leaving only a small, blood red stone that she couldn't help but cradle in the palm of her hand.

"Oh Yrael..." she breathed. "I found it..."

"But it is so much fun," he states, wistfully.

At her tone of voice when she holds the stone, though, he comes over. Seeing the stone, he smiles slightly. "Ah."

It seems that more research would have to be done on the effects of ownership has on objects. The act of owning something does seem to imbue purpose and meaning, or at least connotation, to an object.

Rachel? Really wasn't joking about the dying for him if she ever had to, living and non-living aside. That's what one did for friends and family. She did poke her tongue out at him though. "You, highness, are a spoiled brat."

And yes...connotation. Taint one could call it, despite it's warm nature. When things were cherished, not of themselves, but for other causes, and worn often...they gathered their own life about them.

Though the opposite was also true, for harsher, darker things.

"Well, that's me taken care of" she chuckled, threading the bead carefully onto a few strands of hair and knotting it. That way? She wouldn't lose it. "We still need things for you though. Hmmm..." her eyes drifted around the room "Hey, bottles!" she noted, and indeed, they were. Of a sort. Whole jewels carved into phials...she was dissapointed to find them empty.

He's still learning about what one does or does not do for friends and family. The whole issue of dying for someone never really crosses his mind in day-to-day matters. Especially since he's not part of Life to begin with.

He tugs lightly on the beaded lock of hair, grinning as he looks over the bottles. "We could head to the marketplace and see what there is to find there. A couple of handfuls of these gold derniers would be enough to buy out any merchant there."

Eight of the gemstone bottles are tucked into the bag, neatly nestled in some of the coins. He knows exactly who should get them.

"Mmm. These look interesting," Yrael says, wandering over to a pile of tangled jewelry that looks like the organizers cast aside as hopelessly entangled. He takes hold of one chain and lifts the... entire pile. He moves to shift his grip, turning it and passing it to his left hand, when his hand twitches back. "Hm? What's this?" He's looking at a rather small, clear stone hanging from a fluid-looking silver chain. With closer inspection, miniscule Charter marks could be seen flowing up and down the chain in a never-ceasing stream. "What's something like this doing down here, I wonder. It could be very useful to someone of the royal family, should some guard fall asleep at their post and make the castle suddenly vulnerable to attack from assassins."

Rachel? Was outside the Charter..but she could see energy and flow. Not the symbols...but she could see something like water laughing and trickling along the entire length that was threaded through the Gordian knot of jewelry.

"What is it?" she asked simply, reaching out a finger to poke it enough to set the gem swaying. It was pretty, she'd give it that...but she wasn't a fan of necklaces, so her judgment kinda stopped there...

While waiting for him to explain, she began to gather the deniers he'd pointed out, rescuing another abandoned bag for them.

"It is concealment. If one were wearing this, they could be in a swamp, wearing a white shirt with Here I am, come and get me! written on it, and they would still go unnoticed by those who meant them ill."

It's definitely going into the bag.

"That would have been handy to have" she admitted, poking it again for good measure before it disappeared into the depths of Yrael's bag. "As you still wore white in the swamps, sire"

Then she grinned, imagining no few people in Bar it could be gifted to who would put it to...good...use.

"We were both covered in enough mud that that did not even matter, loyal guard."

Thank goodness for that dry-cleaners at the next village, though. They worked wonders.

Rachel has plenty of time to poke the necklace, as it takes Yrael some while to untangle all the necklaces enough to slip that particular one free and put it in the bag.

Yrael looks around, thoughtfully. "We probably shouldn't linger here too long. I do not recall when they change the guards."

"Well, didn't matter except that your royal self did insist on attempting to bathe at every bit of clear water...you ended up grey." she sniffed delicately. "Better by far to stick with full mud."

Then she laughed and tied her own denier sack to a belt loop and nodded to the door "Guards still out cold of course, and there's no mind in..." her eyes unfocused slightly "About a hundred yards."

Yep, time to go!

"You know me, loyal guard, I cannot help abhorring having any speck of dirt on me for too long. And besides, the water was so fresh and cool," even Yrael can't keep from making a face at the thought.

"Let's go." He shoves a handful of the derniers into a smaller sack and puts that into the larger sack. Heading quickly through the doorway into the first treasure room, they quietly open the door (the fact that it hit the sleeping guard was a complete accident) and move down the hall.

They turn the corner into another hall at the very moment a shout goes up from behind them.

"Cleanliness, sometimes, is NOT in one's best interest." she chuckled.

And go they did, the sleeping guard being soundly chewed out by whom ever had arrived behind them. By the sounds of it, it was someone of higher rank, and there was a quieter voice trying to cut in, vainly, as if to get past the arguing guards and back to work.

It had Rachel laughing mentally, bright and merry, as she knew that the worst punishment the sleeping guard would receive would be clenaing detail.

Yrael's grinning as they head down the hall, listening to the harangue fade into the background.

"We'll have to circle back around to get to the garden. These levels of the castle are warded against anyone going into or coming out of Death. When we get back to the garden, we can walk along the edge of Death until we get down to the rest of the city."

"Well, that makes sense" Rachel admitted easily, loping through the hallways behind Yrael easily. "Wouldn't want immoral death walkers to slip right into the heart of the castle without having to see the gardens..." she teased.

"It'd be rude."

"The gardens are pretty safe, being out under the sun. I would expect that at night they are heavily patrolled."

They make it to the gardens without incident, and are once again under the open sky.

"Which would you rather do, scale the wall and sneak past the guards, or go back and wander the edge of Death until we reach the markets?"

"Well, highness, I really should council for safety and silent escape." she should all told.

"But how ever will they know how poor their defenses are if friendly forces do not point it out?"

"Perhaps we will be lucky, and the Abhorsen will be out on business, elsewhere. Perhaps still investigating my last visit to the Old Kingdom."

He grins, toothily. It was a bloody good time, all told.

"The wall, it is. Shall we be polite and leave by the door?" He smirks, wandering towards the city-side wall.

"We'll keep our fingers crossed, because I'd hate to have to face more assassins when we should be safe, highness" she laughed. Yes, she'd happily slot "Abhorsen" into "Assassin" for ease of storytelling!

"We are guests!" she chided "Of course we should be polite!"

"So would I, loyal guard."

"The assassin's guards probably will not be pleased to see us saunter free of this place where they meant to trap us."

There's a gate up ahead, with a guard on either side. Not expecting an attack from within, however, they have their backs to the approaching pair.

"No doubt" she agreed sagely. "They'll be angered and redouble their efforts to track us down once more" she sighed. "Well...I never did expect a long life of service!"

As demonstrated by the sheer fact that she reached for the door in the gate and opened it seemingly ignoring the guards as cheerfully as she would have servants. After all, brazen was a term oft applied to her.

"We will lose them among the townspeople."

"Afternoon, all," he greets the guards cheerfully as they pass, smiling at their startlement and their begun Charter Spells for immobility and binding.

"Good time for a siesta, yes?"

He politely closes the door again behind them, nudging the now-sleeping guard's foot aside with a toe. He motions to the spread of the city, smoke rising from chimneys in the early afternoon sunlight. "Belisaere."

Rachel eyed the sleeping guards, then sighed, tucking her arm in his "You take all the fun out of being chased you know" she pointed out.

"Though you would be hard to lose that easily. You simply stand out from common townspeople." so said the woman who tended to draw people's gaze regardless of where she was.

"I would rather not have them raise the alarm. It would interrupt our outing. Eventually, news of us would reach the Abhorsen."

And he does not want that to happen. He's already been caught near Belisaere once by her.

"They'd be breathing down our necks the whole time, and wouldn't even help carry our things."

"Would I be so careless a guard as to let them spread the word?" she snorted. Telepathy could so very, very subtle.

Besides, these guards had been far more prominent than the lone treasuring guards. How long until someone connected the reports of sleeping guards and locked away the treasury hmmm?

"Running is good for you"