Alone and Unafraid (April, 122PW)

[Camulous Smithson]

Camulous answered the Gur'yeon first with a slap of his hand on her shoulder piece. He spoke with an oddly blithe temperament while being entirely serious. "Yes you will, because a guardsman thinks not of luxury, but of fortitude." Quotes like that would be unfamiliar to her, though not to Ree. For Camulous to recite quotes from the Tome of War carried with it the implication that he was training a recruit, and a young one at that. They were lines usually reserved for teenagers. Mei Li was going to hear a lot more of it where she was going. "You work for these people now, to protect them and protect the city, and you ask for nothing in return - not even their gratitude. Any material recompense you get is supplementary. Your reward is intangible."

Camulous' simplicity was showing through in that he did not, apparently, think to temper his words so that the Gur'yeon could understand them more easily. He was speaking from a book he carried in his head. Words said so many times their exact meaning was tied with the very way they were said. Generations before gave the same lectures, again and again, and piled on with them the weight of history.

The city was, compared to anything the Gur'yeon had seen, huge. Due to the relatively flat landscape they could see much of it from the apex of the bridge. Laid out roughly like a grid around Main Street, it looked and functioned like a machine within which lived thousands of organisms.

Directly south of them, the downtown district was alive like a magnification of the small market square in Shim. Instead of small stalls there were hundreds of buildings in various sizes and configurations. Instead of a few dozen people, there were hundreds. Horses trotted between those milling about the street.

On the eastern side of the street was a water tower covered in pipes and gnomish machinery designed to pull the water from the river. Beyond that, the elliptical shape of a huge theatre. Still further, the crammed together hovels of the shanty town looked like a brown sore on the landscape clinging to a skeleton of winding paths.

To the west loomed the potential for heavy industry in the form of a rigid collection of square buildings. Another sign of gnomish handiwork, the water wheel, provided electricity for it all.

The white dome of justice hall peeked above it all, directly ahead of them and behind many buildings. Competing for scale, not far from it, the old boxy stonework of the guard headquarters stood watch over the shanty town.

As they entered the city and mixed with the people, the captain took Metarie's hand in a subtle gesture. Many failed to notice him without his armor, but they did notice Mei Li. The pair of guardsmen watching traffic from the bridge sized her up curiously, but left her alone. They knew who Camulous was.

He addressed Metarie quietly. "I'm going to show Quindo to the headquarters, let her get acquainted, and fill out those forms. You can come, if you want..."

[Metarie]

Metarie gave Camulous a long look. She wanted to go with them, but what would she do besides be in the way. She wanted to spend as much time with him as she could. There was always something interrupting their time together.

But...

A regretful smile curved her lips as she shook her head. Metarie looked away and toward the direction of her house.

"I'd just be in the way. I'll head home. If you wanted to stop by after we could have dinner..." Looking back to the pair of them she inclined her head and upper body in a slight bow to Quindo, while placing her right hand over her heart.

"Welcome to Marn, Quindo Mei Li. I hope you find it to your liking. May your ways be green and sweet until we meet again."

She straightened and moved to Camulous, placing a hand on his shoulder and busking a kiss against his cheek.

[Mei Li]

Mei Li gave a deep bow, bending at the waist with both hands at her sides in acknowledgment to Metarie's departure. She turned back to study the city, and in part to give the elf and the captain privacy as they exchanged their more intimate farewells. Her mind was quiet as she accepted the scene before her. There was no use in lamenting her exile, nothing gained in wallowing in self-pity. The Qindo warrior had fancied herself as an ambassador of her people throughout the journey to Marn. She had spent days convincing herself that there was some reason for her ailment, that her Maker had laid this path for her to travel.

Still... the foreign land, the strange people, the customs that were so different from her own...

"I ready to serve, Captain," Mei Li told Camulous in her quiet, self-assured tone betraying no apprehension or uncertainty.

Metarie, Alyson, and Camulous continue here: http://www.tharshaddin.com/rp/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2400