Suddenly, Teatime

There comes a point where discomfort becomes too much to bear. And a point where ignorance becomes a source of near-limitless discomfort. When a gentlemanly and inexplicably Scottish wizard is far too uncomfortable to continue on the path he is embarked in, there is only one solution to such overwhelming emotional distress.

He makes tea. Pulling Ranth into an inn almost without a word, abruptly and without warning, he kindled a flame right in the center of the table with a sharp gesture. Casting a spell in such a way, without a circle or an incantation or even moment's focus took it out of him. But he was in no mood to lollygag. With another swift wave of the hand, a teakettle he'd kept stashed in his room (as he does every room he every stays in) landed neatly onto the fire and began to boil.

"Would you mind if we had a word?" Stupid! At this point, having hauled in into the room, of course she minds! Bloody hell, how could someone going into his fifties, with not one but two magical educations, be a complete and utter rotbrained fool? He tried to recover.

"I'm very inept, socially. And seeing all these people again makes me wonder who we all are." Did that make any sense?

"I meant... who are we? I'm sure I know you, but I'm not sure I ever did." Gah, why was he so awkward? He busied himself searching his bags for biscuits or something to have with the rapidly boiling tea. This was mostly to hide the blush on his face with frantic action. He'd been meaning to talk to her for so long... and now that it was happening, he was completely unable to make sense. He dropped the entire tea set. All this manic flailing had to make him look completely mad in front of her. She didn't even like mages when they were sane, why was he acting this way? He caught the precious china with telepathy. Because his mum had given it to him! It was worth any expenditure of magical energy, and now, he fell into a chair slightly more exhausted than he should be. He finished setting the china by hand.

"Let's start with, how have you been?"

Walking calmly in behind Edan Ranth started to remove some of her gear from her person, a quiver of arrows stuffed way too full, her pack which was stuffed full of various sellable items, and healing provisions. A smile touched her lips as she unslung her bow and rested it against the tables edge before tossing her jacket onto the chair next to where she would be sitting. Edan was fumbling for something, a flame appearing in the tables center though leaving it unburned.

She was used to the sudden tea settings that Edan would preform, she assumed they helped calm him down --- Ah right Tea! Shaking her head as he asked one of the many...stupid questions he would ask. She let him ramble on as she went to digging through her pack pockets searching for something. Tea, it was always tea with Edan she didn't understand it, she didn't drink the stuff before meeting Edan, now once in awhile she found herself sitting by her camp fire boiling water in an old beat up kettle she had.

Inept? That was by far an understatement. Her eyes flashed up to him a moment, a tell-tale smirk on her face. "Edan breath love, you're rambling." Ranth never had a problem knowing people, they didn't stay in her life long enough most of the time. She felt she knew Edan, but she knew he didn't know her quiet as well as he thought he did...or didn't as it seemed right now. How was who she was something she was able to explain? Shaking her head she pulled out a pouch made of Lunatic fur and tossed it at him. The smell of dry tea leaves wafting through the slightly open top. "I was in the tree again recently, took some time to get some of the herbs for tea."

He was fumbling looking frantically, through his belongings, and the unavoidable happened - he started dropping things. Ranth's hand snapped out and snagged one of the cups as it started to fall, though her hand flashed back to her side of the table as she noticed the cups just floating calmly in the air. She hadn't been around Edan for far too long now, she needed to get used to being around mages again. It would take some work, but she felt Edan was going to be the least of her worries.

"I've been...I've been fine, been hunting alot trying to get a few things together, looking around mostly. Ran into some new monsters...prodding at them with some arrows and whatnot. You know - the usual stuff for me."

"You were at Yggdrasil? I can never go there without thinking of you. It's such an unnatural place... nae meant for mortal kind."

Edan shook his head. Everything that had been boiling inside him was coming out. Rather like his tea kettle... he turned the magefire down, taking the time to carefully speak words of incantation, giving him greater control over the flames.

"Let's start with what you are. You're human, right? From Morroc? Grew up a street thief on one of their wretched slum neighborhoods?" Edan hated Morroc, hated every last sandy inch of it for some reason he couldn't remember. He had a feeling it was important. Something bad had happened there, or something.

"Or are you from Mt. Mjolnir? You took me up there once... to spend the night in an enormous purple flower." They'd watched the stars and talked about... something... He couldn't seem to recall that, either. He knew he was letting his desperation show, but he'd need to be a lot calmer to mind. He took the furry pouch Ranth had given him and began to steep the fragrant herbs she'd found.

"Please. help me tae set the story straight." He walked over and, gently, by hand, took the cup she'd caught and filled it. Blew on it until he judged it wouldn't burn. Handed it back.

Ranth looked uneasy all of a sudden biting her lip she sighed "Let's start with the easy one, I'm not from Morroc, or from Mt. Mjolnir" She was searching for words now as she traced a crescent shaped scar on her hand. Running her hands through her hair she sighed and looked around the room quietly. "I was born in the Yggdrasil tree. " Born or created? Even she wasn't entirely sure on that one... She had a connection with the tree that she couldn't really explain, to herself or anyone else - though she had sort of pieced it together over the years.

"I've...been human before, I've been..." She trailed off trying to think of past lives. "What were they called...a Celestial? I had feathered wings..." Tilting her head to the side she frowned slightly "I think that was it." Taking the tea from him she held the cup in both her hands allowing the heat to sink into her flesh, a slight pinching sensation told her the cup was too warm and she should put it down but she ignored it.

"I've been an elf, and I've been a cat..." She shook her head and tried to move on past this portion of the conversation. "I don't...age, and I don't die and I don't get sick." Chewing her lip she sighed "I am born at the age you see me as now, and born isn't even a proper term...I wake up in the tree...different each time, if I spend too much time away from the tree I become weak"

Taking a sip from the cup she winced slightly at the heat"Eventually the damage I've done is too much and I need to stay there...years at a time - in a sense that would be when I die I guess. I die and I am recreated." She shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal - knowing that she would be committed or called a loony if Edan hadn't seen her before years ago, as something not...herself. "My name, Amaranth is from a flower - which is said to never die. When I learned of the flower I took it's name. The flower does die in reality, though when it wilts it looks the same as it were when it was alive. I...thought it oddly fitting."

"When I am reborn, I am fresh and clean - these scars you probably remember me with are gone each time I am...well new." She frowned trying to remember how he knew her. "This one, I got with you, when we were fighting the sand monsters in Louyang when one speared me." She pointed to a large scar running up her left side - she had only just barley managed to avoid that one with him. "When I was a celestial, I got the same scar by running and tripping forward onto a branch that was sticking out of the ground. The When I was an elf, I got it from an Orc's arrow."

She let him absorb that for a few minutes before sighing softly "I...I staged my death in Prontera with that assassin. I needed to go back to the tree, for...well" She shrugged slightly hoping he'd understand "I didn't...know how to explain this" A sweeping gesture at herself "At the time, and it...seemed better then me leaving you at the time...just up and leaving I mean." She sat back, waiting for him to respond though her eyes were peering into the tea cup she held, her ears were flat against her hair a clear sign of worry.

Edan tried not to choke. He failed. He coughed tea all over himself, somehow loosing his glasses, and once again looking idiotic in front of Ranth. He took a moment to wipe himself clean. Calm, ritualistic actions like this were a key to keeping one's cool. Just as a mage focuses power though the routine of spells, the same way every time, emotions could be controlled by the same calm, repetitive action.

"I didnae ken that what I said would prove so apt. You're... not really mortal, are you?" He paused to consider.

"It explains a lot... I hope it doesn't come across as creepy, but... I didnae give up on you. I almost lost it a few times wondering... I scryed for you, many times. I found... empty desert, coffins, the Tree, it never made much sense to me. But you weren't really dead, then. You left, because you had to."

He looked down, some of the old sorrow sapping his manic energy.

"You could have told me. I would have understood." There was another question, one he hadn't brought himself to ask. Why she never explained... was it something about him? Didn't she want to?

Ranth watched Edan quietly, as he went through his episode. She was expecting worse really, maybe a few spells thrown at her, though it was Edan - he'd never really used magic against her. As he finally composed himself Ranth shook her head slightly "I don't...know what I am, to say I'm immortal isn't true either, because I do die..sort of"

She nodded, she had known Edan was looking for her, she had heard things through various grape vines. He looked sad all of a sudden, and Ranth sighed. "I wasn't even sure how to explain it, to even start - and you can't say you would have understood because you wouldn't have - you were looking for ways to make me live longer remember?" Standing she moved to sit next to him and hugged him softly "There was a reason I didn't want you to spend so much time on the research, because it wouldn't have worked anyway"

There was a sense of familiarity in the gesture that hung over Edan like a lead blanket. Like he'd been transported into the past, a vivid, real deja vu. He sank into the hugs affectionately, before realizing he wasn't supposed to.

"I should be angry, you know. If you'd told me the truth, I would have been hurt, but not like your death did. I haven't been the same since. I should really be angry." But he wasn't. No stirrings of magical fury, no tightening of fists or pounding of the heart.

"I just feel exhausted. Maybe it's because you answered the riddle I've been after all this time." He picked up a biscuit and began to gnaw at it. He hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, but it wasn't until now that he remembered. Now that he'd started eating, he was starving. He tried to hide how badly he wanted the sugary biscuit he was eating, because he remember Ranth had always hated his bad habits.

"Maybe I should be happy, though, because from what you tell me, it's not because you didnae like me that you left. That's what... that man told me... after I tried to kill him." He'd proven impossible to kill. Edan had blown flames right into his face, and not stopped until the man's knife found him. Somehow, that rogue had escaped. Should I still hate him?, Edan wondered? He'd been a nasty piece of work, in truth. But innocent of that crime at least.

"You tell me, I dinnae ken." He was eating so many cookies all the cookies damnit why.

****You May Disregard this post if you wish****

*bursting on to the scene like an albino wiener dog, Karos appears suddenly crashing into a table in the middle of the room from nowhere, spouting drunken profanity and kunai*
'Meggaspleee, fuggin' poo heads e'rywar, argrabble!' At this point he passes out violently on the floor and lays there drooling asleep/

*a kunai dislodges itself from the ceiling and thunks down into the floorboards in the general vicinity of the two having tea*

She hadn't answered yet, and Edan's mouth remained full of biscuits and questions. He forced himself to calm down and pour himself another cup of tea, his hands twitching with impatience. This was years he needed to catch up on, and it couldn't all happen at once, no matter how badly he wanted it to. Still, he didn't think he had time to waste on things that weren't important. He forced himself to swallow a huge lump of tea biscuits and, predictably, coughed and choked for a moment or so before speaking. A few crumbs landed on her, and he brushed them off her chest before realizing how familiar and inappropriate the gesture was after so long.

"Actually. Never mind that man. You're back now, and... So what am I tae you?" There. Straight to the heart of the matter. He felt cold. A part of him was still clamoring to yell at her, to take out the pains of the last decade now. In some ways, what she'd done had changed him. He wasn't sure how forigiving he should be. Even as he thought this, he knew his face was broadcasting his discomfort and anger, and he lowered his face down towards the cup to hide it. First he was calm, then frustrated, then... Ach, I'm bubbling like me damn kettle...

Ranth just cocked her head to the side as Edan brushed the crumbs off her, a bemused look graced her normally stoic face. She listened again to him talk, took in the familiar tone of his voice. Paid attention to all the familiar body language he carried after so many years, then she remembered that he really hadn't aged, though she hadn't really either though in a different sense she guessed.

Fluffing her jacket over her she pulled her hood up over her ears and leaned her head back against the chair, closing her eyes slightly. "You are..." A slight pause, and then she sighed. "You're...I don't know Edan. I don't know how any of it works, I don't know why I am here. Why I am like this. I don't know what to do if this happens again, if I vanish on you again - I don't know how long it is really that I need to stay away from the tree, I don't know how long each cycle is. I don't want to put you through something like that again." She shook her head exasperated and looked down at her hands the hood falling over her face. "I just don't know Edan."

He ached to comfort her. Even through the shell of bitterness the years had given him, he was becoming the idealistic, somewhat naive wizard who'd married a girl of another race. He wondered if that boy was wiser than the elf he'd become.

"Look at me... They tell me I'm grumpy, irritable. A grouch, like a human elder. Coulda been being a watchman. I dinnae think we saw eye to eye on that, but I love upholding the law. Probably was missing you. But here I am, a lot like I was before. I think just knowing that I didn't fail you helps. I thought trying to kill that man instead of rushing to your side was the worst mistake I ever made. Ach, I'm just glad I ge to apologize to your face."
He stopped rambling to notice he was drinking out of an empty cup, having completely forgotten to refill.

"I guess what I want tae say is, I know you won't stay with me. You were always leaving the city to stare at the stars in giant flowers in the mountains, and I was always obsessing over learning that spell or catching that rogue. Maybe you were a ranger in some other life of yours, I don't know how it all works. It's funny, all I wanted was to be sure you wouldn't die early, and I got my wish. So... I feel better now. Ach, I'm so bloody nervous I keep spilling on myself!" A wave and an indistinct muttering and the several stains he had collected vanished.

"I'm done mourning. I'm going tae try and make something o' myself. Maybe you'll leave, and I won't see you again. Maybe you'll come and visit me. One day, who knows, maybe we can try again...." He swallowed. "But knowing you're out there makes me happier, ye ken?"

He felt like a cloud was lifting, a burden was removed, or some equally inspiring metaphor for the feeling in his spirit that came with revealing his feelings to the woman who'd so dominated his thoughts these last decades.