Arreyis

Devouring Light

Ayrie shot to her feet when he stood and growled, unsure what he might do. She had heard so many stories of what her mother had gone through with her father before she had arrived at the monastery. The level of anger fuming away from the mayor frightened her, but also made her angry.

"I didn't choose this place, believe you me. I was sent here by my elders, who you might know control most everything I do." She stopped, not wanting to sound like a child yelling back at a parent. "I'm not here to change anything, only to offer some light to people who may ask for it. I am not the brainwashed ninny you seem to think I am, and I am not here to harm anyone."

Ayrie immediately regretted yelling at him in this place and blushed bright red as she stared at him wide eyed. Her breath coming in gasps. Unable to think of anything else to do she left her things and ran from him, heading down the path to her building.

It was hard enough being away from home, but being alone and surrounded by strangers, one of whom hated what she stood for, made things much harder. By the time she was half way down the block she was fighting tears.

Devouring Light

As far as the priest goes, I'm not picky. We could just use him as an npc and both post as him when we need to? I'm really enjoying where this is going so far.

Devouring Light

She smiled at him when he mentioned a spa treatment, it sounded lovely. Ayrie's smile faded quickly when he mentioned the other priests. His words scared her, and the concealed rage in his eyes was more frightening. "Mayor... I'll do what I can, but please, these are good men. My friends. They won't hurt anyone, they're coming more to provide me assistance and..."

She tried to muster some courage to say more in their defense, but couldn't think of anything that might assuage him. "If they don't listen I will send them home the first day, I do have the luxury of choosing my companions here. They won't allow me to stay here alone though, not for long and not without reason. If you send them a message... No, then they would simply become more skeptical of this place. I will do my best, but I cannot make guarantees. I'm a mid-level priestess at best, and there are many above me who do not think I am even ready to be away from the monastery."

Devouring Light

Ayrie swallowed a large bite of meat pie and nearly choked. Coughing and sputtering she managed to say, "Good. *cough* Well *cough* yes. The pump for the cystern is busted, and I'm waiting on the elders to get here with the money to hire someone to fix it. I don't mind using a bath house, though, I'm used to sharing a bath room anyway at the monastery."

She looked at him, wondering how he could look so unruffled after playing with the children. She brushed the crumbs from her hands and off her clothes, suddenly feeling unkempt in her travel clothing.

Devouring Light

When the sun was nearly up, Ayrie left and walked to the temple, retracing her steps from the night before. She brought the sack with her, though she didn't quite need food yet. They'd given her what she felt was enough to feed an entire troupe of people, and she had only eaten a small portion of it last night. The remainder was stored in a small chest enchanted to stay cold, a gift she'd been given by the cook before she left the monastery.

As she approached she heard children laughing, and saw the mayor playing the jungle gym to their tiny mountain climbers. Ayrie smiled, someone who seemed so hard was suddenly shown to have a soft side. She walked over to the food givers and handed them the sack, explaining that she wouldn't need more food yet, but didn't want to keep the sack from someone else who might need it. She took a turn handing out food, watching the mayor play with the children as she did. A few people introduced themselves to her, and she met one of the high priests, a man named Markus. He told her where she could find a bath, and handed her a chit that gave her access to a towel and soap.

"Thank you, Father Markus." she said, reverting to her teachings from home for a moment.

"See, that's how I know you are new here. Just call me Markus, proper titles are reserved for royalty, which we do not have, and the Lord Gluttony himself." he smiled at her, and patted her shoulder before moving on to help someone else.

The line of people there for food was dwindling as the sun made it's full appearance, and Ayrie sat down to eat a delicious fresh meat pie one of the priests had given her.

Devouring Light

So I'm writing in between cooking and taking care of house stuff, lol. My responses will be faster after dinner and online school stuff.

Devouring Light

Ayrie woke with a start, peircing blue eyes seared into her vision. She couldn't remember much of the dream, but it was enough that her heart was racing.

'Damn... Haven't had one of those in a long time. Well, I'm not going to be able to sleep more, so I might as well get up.' She looked at the window and saw that the sky was the dark purple of pre-dawn. She heard a skittering in the corner of the room and spun to see what had caused the noise, but in the darkness of the unlit room she couldn't see whatever it was. 'Probably a mouse.'

She stretched and lay back on the bed, staring into the rafters. 'Today I must find the cystern and figure out the water. I need a good wash before this festival.'

She got up and dressed, using what was left of her fresh water to give herself a quick wash. Since she would be working for the day, she decided to wear her travel clothing, thinking if she might run into things that would ruin her clothes she would prefer it be something she never wore. Peering in through the trap into the cystern she saw that it was about half full of water, but the pump to bring it up was rusted and the handled had broken off.

'Looks like I'll have to wait for the elders to get here with some money, there's no way I can fix this.' she thought. 'I'm sure there's a bath house somewhere in town, I suppose I'll go and ask someone at the temple.'

She stood, and whirled around as she heard another skitter behind her. She still couldn't see anything, but this time it sounded like whatever did it was much larger than a mouse. She walked to the area she thought it had come from, but there was nothing there.

'Lack of sleep and nerves.' she thought, 'There's nothing in here with me.'

She settled down in the windowsill to watch the sun rise and wait for a decent hour to go to the temple.

Devouring Light

Right. Maybe a situation where she finds him and he starts teaching her just enough to keep her occupied but not enough to be able to figure much out.

I feel like she is inherently curious but afraid to push too hard. So she might pester Asran for his name and stuff, but she won't push so hard that he gets annoyed with her.

Devouring Light

Ok. Yeah, I kinda just throw NPC's in when I need her to interact with stuff like with the guy handing out food. Do you think one of the High Priests of his temple would search her out? Maybe offer to teach her some elemental magic? I've kinda got this idea that she doesn't know much about it, otherwise she would have sniffed Asran out as Gluttony already.

Devouring Light

After eating her modest dinner, Ayrie lay down a small bed in one of the back rooms and thought about her encounter with the Mayor for some time. She hadn't yet rehung the rune, thinking it best to wait and see if it was even needed before risking anyone's wrath. Besides, he had told her the rules, and she had yet to see anyone who really looked menacing enough to warrant a protection of that magnitude on her little home.

'What was that shock about? I can tell he is a dark magic user, and I know that I use the light, but I've never felt that before from anything.' Her schooling in the ways of elemental magic was sorely lacking, by the time she was born the priests had lost most of their teachers and none who were left had been able to teach her much about the ways of magic. Only that she was a light user and it meant she had an old soul. It was so long ago she didn't even remember the teacher's name, only that they were trying to help her gain some semblance of control over her power before it killed someone, namely her. From that point she just used her magic the same way the other elements did, but it had never felt quite right.

She looked at the scrap of parchment that her elders had sent with her. It contained instructions for setting up a small building for them to reside in, and a timeframe for the other two priests to arrive. They were both old men, and she had been sent strictly to get things ready for them. A few days behind, they would probably arrive the day after the festival.

She fell asleep thinking about the mayor, and was plagued by fitful dreams most of the night.