The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines decadent as being "marked by decay or decline," so...I stand by my wording!
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Goodnight.
Also, to you remember if I gave any family details about Yizan-Lei?
Also, to you remember if I gave any family details about Yizan-Lei?
Meesei took in a deep breath as they stepped of the ship and onto Thorn's docks. The salty air of the sea was still ever-present, as it had been for their entire voyage, but it also carried with it the unmistakable scent of the marsh. Not all would consider it pleasant, but for Meesei, it was a cherished part of her memories. For Kaleeth, the feeling was perhaps even stronger, and she showed it far more outwardly.
"I think you should find a place for us, yes." Meesei responded. "An inn would suffice, since we are already in the city. You might try Rukeewei's inn; I have no doubt he will give us a fair price. Myself and Sabine will go to meet with Ariel. It probably would not do well to crowd her shop all at once, without warning. Just the two of us would draw less attention than a crowd. We will meet up at the inn later."
At that point, the pack split up, with Meesei joining Sabine to head to Ariel's shop. At this time of day, Meesei expected that it would be open, as there were no holidays or other events happening that would prompt it to close. Though, even being just a normal day, Thorn was still as beautiful as Meesei remembered it. The city still had lively decorations, if more subtle than when in the middle of a festival. There was water flowing down the sides of the street from a recent rainstorm, though it looked like it had been a while since the last flood, based on the state of the buildings.
The crowds were heavy in the streets, especially near the docks, but the parts of town they were crossing felt safe overall. There was a constant guard presence at all times, with one at seemingly every corner. Most of them wielded a spear that allowed their presence to be known, even in a crowd, though they did pass by a few that were a bit more hidden. The city district that contained Ariel's shop was not the wealthiest by any means, but it did benefit from containing businesses that the city had an interest in protecting, so the quality of security was still reasonable.
As they were finally approaching the shop, Meesei was not entirely sure what to expect. It had been a while since they had written Ariel, especially given the traveling. But, there was no doubt that Sabine was excited. Meesei looked over to her, smiling as she patted her on the back. "I think I will let you take the lead. I will not ruin your reunion by getting to business too quickly."
---
All of the questions that Gallus ask did eventually lead him in the right direction. There actually seemed to be at least two people by the name of "Yizan-Lei" in the city, but as one of them was an old man who did not match the description, it was fairly obvious where they needed to go. Unfortunately, it took them to a rather decadent part of the city. Gideon, for the most part, had all of the comforts one would expect of a Cyrodilic city, but its slums were beset by decay caused by frequent flooding. Without near as many safeguards to protect them, about a third of the houses were seemingly uninhabitable, even if not all of them were actually uninhabited. The rest were small, simple wooden buildings with no more than a few rooms each. The streets themselves were unpaved and not that well-defined, often being split up by the long, branching roots of the Hist tree at the center of the district. The people they passed did not actually seem depressed or dissatisfied exactly; rather, they were suspicious of the obvious outsider that was Gallus.
The house they finally arrived at was in-tact, but otherwise no different from any of the others around it. Evidently, one of its inhabitants had seen Gallus approaching through a window, as it was only a few seconds after the first knock that the door was opened. The man who answered was an Argonian with dark brown scales and what was essentially a crown of horns on the top of his head. He looked to be somewhere around Meesei's age. "Hello, can I...help you?" He asked in heavily-accented Cyrodilic, looking at Gallus.
"I think you should find a place for us, yes." Meesei responded. "An inn would suffice, since we are already in the city. You might try Rukeewei's inn; I have no doubt he will give us a fair price. Myself and Sabine will go to meet with Ariel. It probably would not do well to crowd her shop all at once, without warning. Just the two of us would draw less attention than a crowd. We will meet up at the inn later."
At that point, the pack split up, with Meesei joining Sabine to head to Ariel's shop. At this time of day, Meesei expected that it would be open, as there were no holidays or other events happening that would prompt it to close. Though, even being just a normal day, Thorn was still as beautiful as Meesei remembered it. The city still had lively decorations, if more subtle than when in the middle of a festival. There was water flowing down the sides of the street from a recent rainstorm, though it looked like it had been a while since the last flood, based on the state of the buildings.
The crowds were heavy in the streets, especially near the docks, but the parts of town they were crossing felt safe overall. There was a constant guard presence at all times, with one at seemingly every corner. Most of them wielded a spear that allowed their presence to be known, even in a crowd, though they did pass by a few that were a bit more hidden. The city district that contained Ariel's shop was not the wealthiest by any means, but it did benefit from containing businesses that the city had an interest in protecting, so the quality of security was still reasonable.
As they were finally approaching the shop, Meesei was not entirely sure what to expect. It had been a while since they had written Ariel, especially given the traveling. But, there was no doubt that Sabine was excited. Meesei looked over to her, smiling as she patted her on the back. "I think I will let you take the lead. I will not ruin your reunion by getting to business too quickly."
---
All of the questions that Gallus ask did eventually lead him in the right direction. There actually seemed to be at least two people by the name of "Yizan-Lei" in the city, but as one of them was an old man who did not match the description, it was fairly obvious where they needed to go. Unfortunately, it took them to a rather decadent part of the city. Gideon, for the most part, had all of the comforts one would expect of a Cyrodilic city, but its slums were beset by decay caused by frequent flooding. Without near as many safeguards to protect them, about a third of the houses were seemingly uninhabitable, even if not all of them were actually uninhabited. The rest were small, simple wooden buildings with no more than a few rooms each. The streets themselves were unpaved and not that well-defined, often being split up by the long, branching roots of the Hist tree at the center of the district. The people they passed did not actually seem depressed or dissatisfied exactly; rather, they were suspicious of the obvious outsider that was Gallus.
The house they finally arrived at was in-tact, but otherwise no different from any of the others around it. Evidently, one of its inhabitants had seen Gallus approaching through a window, as it was only a few seconds after the first knock that the door was opened. The man who answered was an Argonian with dark brown scales and what was essentially a crown of horns on the top of his head. He looked to be somewhere around Meesei's age. "Hello, can I...help you?" He asked in heavily-accented Cyrodilic, looking at Gallus.
I'll just set up the scene for what he finds, then. Though, maybe not all at once tonight. Need to get to bed soon.
Just so I know, who would you like me to be in charge of for Gallus' thing? I do have things in mind for what he will find at his eventual destination.
Ssarak Dyreackthanose
---
The death of the bird made Ssarak’s next decision for him. He saw Lyn re-enter the gala and intended to speak with her, but there was first another matter that quickly presented itself to him. He felt pressure against his ward, much more than before. Fortunately, his training clued him in to the nature of this attack, being that it originated from a group of psychomancers. This was not something he could ignore.
It did not take long at all for Ssarak to react. He leaned himself up against the nearest wall and placed his concentration first in to his own defense. He reached his hand into one of his pockets and placed his hand over one of the psychomancy runes the college had supplies to each student. He did not yet need it, but if he found himself starting to be overwhelmed, he could use it to bolster his defense. He hoped it would not become necessary, as this was his first real challenge at the gala. The first chance to demonstrate to at least a part of the Djarkel court the might that the College could bring to bear.
Ssarak could have attempted a wide concentration attack against each of his opponents at once, but that was not his specialization. His expertise was in focused concentration, he felt he could overcome that particular limitation with some creativity that played to his strengths. With his expert focused ability, he could break through a weak ward quickly, and often without notice. So, he quickly surveyed his attackers as best as he could and singled out the weakest ward he could locate within the few seconds he gave himself. From there, he worked to break through as quickly as he could while still maintaining his own ward. Once he was through, he intended to maximize the effect with the least amount of magical effort as possible. The psychomancers attacking him were all across the room, but their locations would be irrelevant. He would influence his target’s psychomantic “perceptions” to direct him or her to attack the wards of one of his allies, specifically the strongest ward of an attacker that Ssarak could currently identify, all while still thinking that they were attacking Ssarak’s wards. The result of this single action would be threefold: one less opponent would be directing attacks on Ssarak’s ward, another opponent’s attacks would be weakened by the sudden attacks against their ward, and Ssarak would gain unwitting help in retaliating against his attackers. All-in-all, it would have a fairly drastic impact on the mental battle compared to the amount of effort Ssarak had to put into his trick. And the more times he could do it, the more times the effect would compound. As long as he could maintain his own ward, it would not be long before the advantage turned towards him. He would just need to think of an appropriate punishment for his opponents that was not too extreme.
---
The death of the bird made Ssarak’s next decision for him. He saw Lyn re-enter the gala and intended to speak with her, but there was first another matter that quickly presented itself to him. He felt pressure against his ward, much more than before. Fortunately, his training clued him in to the nature of this attack, being that it originated from a group of psychomancers. This was not something he could ignore.
It did not take long at all for Ssarak to react. He leaned himself up against the nearest wall and placed his concentration first in to his own defense. He reached his hand into one of his pockets and placed his hand over one of the psychomancy runes the college had supplies to each student. He did not yet need it, but if he found himself starting to be overwhelmed, he could use it to bolster his defense. He hoped it would not become necessary, as this was his first real challenge at the gala. The first chance to demonstrate to at least a part of the Djarkel court the might that the College could bring to bear.
Ssarak could have attempted a wide concentration attack against each of his opponents at once, but that was not his specialization. His expertise was in focused concentration, he felt he could overcome that particular limitation with some creativity that played to his strengths. With his expert focused ability, he could break through a weak ward quickly, and often without notice. So, he quickly surveyed his attackers as best as he could and singled out the weakest ward he could locate within the few seconds he gave himself. From there, he worked to break through as quickly as he could while still maintaining his own ward. Once he was through, he intended to maximize the effect with the least amount of magical effort as possible. The psychomancers attacking him were all across the room, but their locations would be irrelevant. He would influence his target’s psychomantic “perceptions” to direct him or her to attack the wards of one of his allies, specifically the strongest ward of an attacker that Ssarak could currently identify, all while still thinking that they were attacking Ssarak’s wards. The result of this single action would be threefold: one less opponent would be directing attacks on Ssarak’s ward, another opponent’s attacks would be weakened by the sudden attacks against their ward, and Ssarak would gain unwitting help in retaliating against his attackers. All-in-all, it would have a fairly drastic impact on the mental battle compared to the amount of effort Ssarak had to put into his trick. And the more times he could do it, the more times the effect would compound. As long as he could maintain his own ward, it would not be long before the advantage turned towards him. He would just need to think of an appropriate punishment for his opponents that was not too extreme.
Sounds fine. I'm expecting most of the future scenes until we get through a few skips will be shorter, so no need to devote anything to travel. One scene would be with Gallus in Gideon, and the other one would be Meesei and Sabine going to speak to Ariel in Thorn.
Ahnasha gave a shrug. "Well, I guess we will see in time how much his family can influence him. Quite a lot of time, granted, but time regardless. Just try to focus on the positive."
The conversation essentially ended on that note when Fendros pulled her in for a kiss. As Fendros said, it was not something that either of them really wanted to dwell on. They had a few hours before they were due to return to Cheydinhal and find the tavern. Lorag returned after about another half hour, though he did not say a single word about why he had left the temple, or what he had been doing in the city. Given the mood he was in, even Meesei did not feel that it would be prudent to ask about it at the moment. Lorag was the kind of person who needed solitude as well as conversation, at different times. Given that the wedding had gone well in all of the obvious ways, the overall mood around camp was good. Meesei took the time to fashion a rough leather binding for her black book to keep it closed unless she specifically wanted to open it, while the rest of the pack passed the time in whatever ways came to mind.
The conversation essentially ended on that note when Fendros pulled her in for a kiss. As Fendros said, it was not something that either of them really wanted to dwell on. They had a few hours before they were due to return to Cheydinhal and find the tavern. Lorag returned after about another half hour, though he did not say a single word about why he had left the temple, or what he had been doing in the city. Given the mood he was in, even Meesei did not feel that it would be prudent to ask about it at the moment. Lorag was the kind of person who needed solitude as well as conversation, at different times. Given that the wedding had gone well in all of the obvious ways, the overall mood around camp was good. Meesei took the time to fashion a rough leather binding for her black book to keep it closed unless she specifically wanted to open it, while the rest of the pack passed the time in whatever ways came to mind.
Think we should move on to something else? If so, to where? I don't have anything specific in mind for anyone to say to Calia, Llarasa, or Monderyn that they haven't already said.
Ahnasha actually gave something of a chuckle when she made a connection between two of the points that Fendros made. "Hmm, well it might not be as bad as you think. There may be other Dunmer in Cheydinhal who would agree with him, but as you just said, it would apparently be shameful for him to tell them about you. So, he either has to admit to his friends what happened so that he can talk to them about it, taking on that shame in the process, or keep the secret and still have no one to validate his opinion. From what you said, it seems he will probably choose the latter. And of course, not every Dunmer in the city may be so traditionalist. It is still primarily an Imperial city, with Dunmer influence, but many of the Dunmer families have lived there for generations. Elven generations. Think back on when you were growing up; do you really know exactly how traditional all of your family's Dunmer friends were? If it's anything like where I grew up, those kinds of conversations don't come up very often if the people involved are looking to avoid conflict." She asked.
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