Seeking Maksur

It's a lovely day really. Puffy white clouds drift through the clear blue sky. The sun shines down on piles of snow. It's cold, but warmer than it has been in recent days. It is after all, still winter, even if the days of winter are running out. Wandering the temple square is a somewhat petite-looking sith-makar who is blue of scale and stopping those passing by. She - for her voice suggests a female - is very polite to those she stops, but also insistent. "Have you seen a blue-scale like this one?"

To those that slow she offers a glimpse of a roughly drawn image that she holds clutched in her claws. "Can you help this one?"

An armored figured, warmly wrapped against the cold in a blue, gray, and gold knitted scarf that covers nose and mouth and holds in place a warm-looking, dark blue traveler's cloak, slows in his descent from the hills leading towards the remote Temple of Vardama to study the drawing presented. Only a pair of blue eyes show beneath the warm wrappings, and he turns them on the makari woman. "Know you the name of the one you seek, and for what purpose so you seek him?

The words that the makari woman speaks is enough to slow the pace of the armored woman that passes by, her white cloak announcing her as a Sunguard wrapped carefully around her form. When she turns her steel-grey eyes towards the blue-scaled sith, her hand briefly touches the hilt of the immaculate longsword on her sword-belt, and her eyes close. "Yeah," she murmurs quietly, and her hand drops away from the sword before she walks up to beside the armored man.

"I got the same questions as him," Andelena says. Her eyes are set into a slight squint as she assesses this woman. Maybe she already knows something about this.

The sith woman shifts her tail in pleasure, happy it seems that someone has stopped to talk to her. She shows the picture (which is a fair representation of Zeke's face), and looks at the pair. "His name is Maksurwarayuslih. He is this one's hatchling. This one is trying to send him a message. It is very important that we see one another again. This one is worried about him. He is missing his limbs. On his left side. If you know where he is, can you carry a message for this one?"

GAME: Seldan rolls sense motive: (8)+19: 27
GAME: Andelena rolls Sense Motive: (16)+12: 28

Seldan's eyes narrow at the makari female, in what could be wary or thoughtful, or perhaps both. "I see. I am certain that if such a one is to be found in Alexandria, locating them should be a simple matter, for not many such are likely to be found outside of Am'shere. Alexandria would be a harsh place for one such. Still, I shall bear it in mind, if you will share with me your message. I am unfamiliar with the tongue of the people, and thus I must ask for it in Trade."

Andelena continues to stare at this woman with a careful regard, even after she looks at the drawing on the paper. "What makes you think he's here?" she asks. "Like the fella next to me said. This isn't exactly a good place for the makari to live, especially not in this season." She makes no promises yet about bringing messages.

"Thisss one can not be _sure_ he is here, but this one has heard from other of the People that he is recently returned to the city." She answers Andelena first in the hopes that the woman will carry her message as well if she has enough information. She looks at Seldan brightly. "Just tell him that his mother is in Mictlan and wishes to see him very much. That is all. Encourage him to see his mother who misses him." She sniffs a little.

"You are then the nest-mother of the one you seek? Very well." Seldan's blue eyes remain narrowed, but he bows formally. "I shall bear the message in mind." The use of the term _fella_ garners the Sunguard a sharp look from him, but he only inclines his head to the one in front of him. "Might I have the honor of your name?"

There's a subtle shift in Andelena's face. Her nostrils flare just a little, and she draws in a small breath, like she's about to sigh--but she doesn't. "Yeah. In the event I meet this guy, I could relay the message if I've got a name." She won't. But this woman doesn't have to know.

"Nonantziné! This one is Nonantziné!" She offers her claw to Seldan politely, revealing that she must know human customs fairly well for a sith. Since hand-clasping is not really sith custom. "This one is grateful that you might aid this one! This one is so sad without my Maksur. He should not be in this big, dangerous city, not all alone." The sith woman offers her claw to Andelena second and her tail shifts happily back and forth behind her.

Eyebrows beneath the hood raise, but Seldan takes the claw and shakes it gently for him, which is still quite firm. He waits for the formality to complete, then turns to Andelena, and bows formally to her as well. "Forgive me Sunguard, and brightest of days. It is perhaps happy circumstances that has led me to find you here. I am in need of the Draco Solis' guidance. Perhaps you could spare me the time to speak privately?"

Andelena shakes the claw, although she doesn't seem to reciprocate the gratitude that Nonantziné expresses. She is, however, grateful when Seldan turns to her and spares her from having to dignify the out-of-sorts mother with much of a response. "Yes, of course," she replies. "Come with me and we can talk in the Temple."

She offers Nonantziné a nod and turns to walk into the Temple, walking with him at a somewhat brisk pace to put the makari woman behind her.

As the pair walk away, the sith woman seems happy to let them go, returning to her mission to question those passing by as to the location of her son. More than a few slow to talk to her, and she explains the situation to them, requesting that they pass on her message. Seldan and Andelena are forgotten, but not done talking. They head toward the temple.

"Peace upon your nest, Nonantzine, and I pray that you will forgive my indiscretion in a swift departure, but my business is of some urgency." Seldan bows again to Nonantzine, and turns to follow Andelena.

He waits until they are inside the Temple doors, and the mighty portal has closed behind them, to remove the scarf and doff his hood. Dark hair becomes bright, and the hood becomes a red velvet hat with silver arcane stitching over the brim in his hand, but it's Seldan. "Sunguard, that sith-makar is a liar, and an evil one at that," he begins.

"No _shit_," Andelena replies with a huff as she shakes her head, letting the tension she was building up inside of her body ooze out of her in one vehement word--something she visibly regrets a split-second later as she looks up at Seldan and his blue eyes. "Sorry. Good to see you again, Seldan, and... apologies I didn't ask about your injuries earlier in the dream, but--gods' sake, I've had it up to _here_ with awful parents, specifically awful mothers. I can deal with mine, but Zeke's? I don't care how many limbs that woman's got, she's a _snake_."

She looks grim as she says, "Zeke told me that woman's been looking for him. And sure enough, here she is, prowling around. He told me she was off in Mictlan, though, so I guess now she's caught word he's here in Alexandria."

The expletive only earns Andelena a small smile from Seldan's lips, and an exhale of breath as Andelena is already aware of what he had wished to convey. "Then we must warn him, immediately. He has spoken of her but little to me, but what I have gleaned suggests that she is as you say. I sensed enough evil upon on her that while she is not herself a fiend, she may be harboring or influenced by one. Worry not for me, Zeke is a fine healer, indeed, and saw swiftly to the matter. They, and the one who made them, are no more."

Something in his expression, though, shifts curiously at her words. Surprise, perhaps?

The very notion that Zeke's mother is influenced by a fiend makes Andelena flinch, but she recovers quickly, her expression turning back into that determined, if sober, look. "I didn't think I'd be _that_ right about my mother and his being cut from the same cloth. I don't think I've hated being right more in my life than I do right now."

She sighs, but then she notices the expression on Seldan's face, and she offers him a smile. "Too bad, I'm gonna worry anyway," she says. "Look, I may be pretty damn dumb sometimes--but I figured it out later when I wasn't quite so occupied with my sword. I'm _grateful_, but I'm allowed as a Sunguard and as a person to be worried about the people who show up to defend others."

The smile turns into a more knowing grin. "Besides. I'm an older sister. I _still_ worry about my baby brother and he's a grown-ass man now. Even if I'm taller than him."

Seldan pushes an unruly lock of hair back into his hairline, a thing that is only just long enough to cause trouble, and exhales, again with that small smile. "You are most kind to ask after my welfare, Sunguard Andelena, and yet in truth am I of little consequence to those of this city." The ghost-of-a-smile melts away into steady sobriety. "Not all parents are fine role models to their children. None are perfect. What matters is that they try, and that they put what is right by their children above their own desires. Those who do not do so-" His eyes lower, and close, deep hurt and regret writing itself unbidden into the features.

When he looks up, though, it is gone, and the steadiness remains. "We must learn this woman's true intentions towards Zeke."

"Little consequence? Not from where I'm standing," Andelena replies, still smiling at Seldan. "There are people in this city who care about you. I'm not going to pretend for a minute there's adoring crowds after you like you're the hottest piece of ass in Alexandria, but there are people who know you and worry for you. Myself included."

Then her expression sours, turning into a more neutral one that sits on her face in a rather sober manner. "Believe me. I know. Thrown out of the family because I wanted to marry a man that I loved and not some old man that my mother wanted me to marry so my brothers could marry his wealthy daughters. And... you don't have to tell me a damn thing, Seldan, because I'm not the prying type, but I caught your accent from a mile away when I first met you. You know a thing or two about Myrrish nobility--and judging from what you said, you know all about the shit they do to their kids. Like I do."

She shakes her head. "And while this _snake_ isn't nobility, it feels like the same rotten core. I'm with you on investigating, though, because my gut instinct's not exactly enough to go off of."

A low chuckle escapes Seldan at that, even if it is a short-lived. "The Crimson Pen suffices the masses," he answers wryly. The plushies do not even bear mentioning, and so he does not. "My family is of the court, not nobility, and yet is it close enough that - it is as you say." He shakes his head and looks away, a slow breath drawn in and released. "Evil is evil, no matter its trappings. Come, we must warn Zeke, and see what he may be willing to say."

-End