Wash Maids

Log Info

• Title: Wash Maids
• Emitter: Kira
• Characters: Kira, Cryosanthia
• Place: A10: Temple of Althea
• Time: Saturday, May 16, 2020, 3:36 PM
• Summary: Kira is cleaning linens in the Temple of Althea when Cryosanthia seeks her out. Their meeting is difficult at first, from the previous days occurrences. Cryo apologizes for coming apart, explains she knows Kira has suffered also, and that she is at her wits end. She and Faran tried extensively to reach Zeke, and he would not say why. He was unresponsive to offers of food, tea, dancing, logical arguments. Appearing both present and back in the Tower. Cryo explained that Zeke asked after her, worried she escaped, and that the paladin might be the only one who could reach him. The two agreed that linens can wait and will be handled by others. Kira went to prepare food and Cryo returned to her room.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--<* A10: Temple of Althea *>=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

The term 'marble temple' only holds up insofar as the temple's outer edifice is concerned. Twin statues of Althea, each of them bearing gently glowing blue staves, provide welcome either side of the entrance, a door which has never been closed in recent memory. A place of community and warmth, a sense of warmth and welcome quickly overtakes most visitors upon entry.

Serrielite and Angorite devotees guard the outside entrances, while blue star-robed Hearthguard wander just inside, performing and guiding various charitable tasks. One can even see a smaller, more discrete entrance if one looks, from whence comes and go the Mourners of Vardama, carrying their somber burdens.

Designed to be open and welcoming, the place is a bustle of family and community-centered activity. A great, central oven serves the double duties of fireplace and food preparation on a grand scale that makes the temple a favorite for gatherings. Althean worshippers and Hearthguards alike tirelessly bake and cook for the less fortunate, while younger Hearthguards sit on comfortably cushioned divans with worshippers and petitioners, dispensing advice and Althea's kind words. Wreaths of herbs hang from the ceilings, giving a pleasant scent, while a pool fed by a small artificial waterfall provides fresh water for bathing wounds or blessing of children and worshippers. A procession of doors and halls lead off to various rooms. While many lead to places such as rooms, offices, and libraries for the Hearthguard, there is also a well-known hospice, as well as the transient bunks, and even counseling rooms for when a family member nears their end. This last area is overseen by Hearthguard and Mourner alike, in respectful accordance with local customs.

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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  Appearing, in Order  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Kira         5'0"     120 Lb     Human             Female    A young blonde woman wearing simple robes and an eye patch.
Cryosanthia  6'9"     267 Lb     Sith-Makar        Female    A dashingly tall, elegant white-scaled lizard woman.
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The Healer's Halls are as active as ever, moreso, even, with regards to the plague and its too many victims. There are various lines or tending areas, from those seeking healing, those requiring alms or food, and the bunking area for the transient, displaced, or otherwise without a warm, dry place to sleep.

With the day's bread baked and much distributed to those outside the temple across the city, Kira is tending the bunkrooms. While guests are fed and active, the bedlinens are addressed. New ones are applied, and she steps into the hall with a large bundle of linens due for washing.

It is in the hallway that a whitescale sith finds her. Cryosanthia, wearing her winter wizard robes of white with glacial highlights. The clothes look great, the sith herself looks drained with a cheery attitude on top. She has her pack of things as well, going everywhere with it now, like a schoolgirl or an advanced hobo. She tentatively approaches, bows.

"Peace on your Nest, Sentinel. This one wanted to apologize. Are you in need of assistance?" She looks at the linens, "This one can wash those, if that is their fate."

Kira startles at the address, though maybe due to the bundle blocking much of what little peripheral vision she has left. Maybe she should carry it on the other side... "Oh!" she dips her head in place of a curtsey at the moment. "Peace on your nest, Cryosanthia." At least Kira is smiling! Though any familiar would probably realize that it's more polite and painted on than her usual. "Thank you, but ... I was just taking these to the washroom... You could join me, if you like?" The last is tentative, but is followed with a more firm, "You don't have anything to apologize for."

"This one does. I lost control and was rough questionning you. I know you've suffered, and Serrendine, I was not expecting her. I asked Faran, because I needed her support. I did not think she would bring her mother, which is obvious, after all they've been through she wouldn't leave her, but I was thinking only of my needs." Cryo says, moving to walk alongside the paladin. Her eyes linger on the smile, but she's perhaps not familiar enough with Kira or at reading softskin expressions to tell.

"And I'm still upset, at myself, at my Home for not listening, at the Demon, at the men for abandonning us, at Malik for what he said after, at Her, at being unable to save everyone. I know you must feel the same, and I know how the Mistress gets in your head, and... I'm sorry."

Kira's smile dims to almost naught as they walk down the side passage to the laundry room. It is stark and utilitarian compared to the bright, warm halls. Lots of floor basins, tubs, water, and washboards. She's silent until she is able to deposit the linens in a large bin with others to be washed. Only then does she turn to the sith.

"I understand. You're worried for Zeke. That's no reason to apologize, being worried for him is every reason be upset." She pauses a moment. "I worry for him, too. Very much. Maybe too much... and I think all I do is remind him of... that place. What happened. I ... don't even know what I could do for Faran, or her mother... other than stay away. Maybe that is best for all of them."

The whitescale follows along. She doesn't have a smile as sith-makar smiles are something of an acquired taste and she impassively observes both Kira and the linens. She keeps looking at them once they're dumped in the basket. She holds up her hands, "Is... there a reason to not use prestidigitation on them to clean? Ooze residue? I could do them now if not?" Now she smiles, somewhat hopefully.

Cryo also adds, "I was inconsiderate of your feelings, thinking only of myself. I know you've been through a tremendous amount. I wish I could hug and make it better. I don't know what to do. It's becoming increasingly obvious the gods expect me to be more competent than I am. Everything I involve others in seems to end in pain for them. I didn't mean to hurt you, and I'm not smart enough to not."

She shaking her head from side to side, "With Zeke, I don't know. He was worried you didn't escape. He cares. He might eat for you, he won't for me. Ignores food and tea, even when I offer to chew it up like for a youngling. There's nothing I can do. Then. Now. Ever." Her hands clench tightly, she stares at the wall, then she raises her gloved hands towards the linens. "I can wash linens, that's all I'm good for. Can I wash these?"

Kira's face contorts in pain. Sympathic mostly, though she can understand it possibly better than most. "Cryo... You are worth much more than that, and you didn't do this. Any of it. You ... are welcome to help with the wash, if you like."

Her expression softens some. "We don't use much magic for it. It is simple, honest work. I was hoping it might take my mind off of ...things." So how could she deny that option to someone else when she was going to try it? "I ...wish I could hug and make everything better, too."

If Cryo does want to help, and Kira needs to get them done, they may as well start? Kira gestures to one bin while she starts pulling items out of the other, putting them in the floorbasin with water. "If you think it might help... what would you have me do? I don't want to make him go ... hollow... again." she doesn't even know what to call it, but it terrifies her.

Cryosanthia nods. Washing them without her gloves is fine too. She takes them off and slips them in a pocket, then goes to the indicated bin and pulls a sheet into the floorbasin. She pushes it down, getting bubbles of cloth that have to be shoved under as well, then slooshes it about and squeezes the fabric in her hands. "Tell him you're safe. Tell him he's free. Ask him why he won't eat. He's acting like it's... a betrayal. He seems to believe She will come through the door at any moment."

Head down, focused on the sheet, Cryo lets it soak and grabs another and bundles it in. "Is there soap? Do you wake up thinking you're still there, expecting her voice? That it's all another elaborate game? Sometimes I see a corner, or a bottle and think 'No! That's the illusion slipping! I'm still there. The Mistress will punish me!' I keep going out to see things I know she'd never imagine..."

Splash, slosh. Cryo switches back to the first sheet, squeezing it as a bundle then folding it to wring it, "Is there a rinse basin? Going... hollow... is a sith-makar thing. A reptile reaction... a waking sleep, it's hard to explain. You're there and not there."

Kira takes up one of the other dunked sheets and scrubs it against itself briefly. She pauses to hand Cryo a bar of plain, lightly-scented soap. Suitable for clothes, linens, bodies, hair... all but the soul, perhaps. Though maybe that's where the mostly mindless task of scrubbing helps.

"I'm sorry that I can't tell you why he fears eating, only that he refused to, for me, before." Even if it's not the scrubbing and sloshing, the distraction does sem to help. "I wake to screaming, sometimes. I don't know if it's mine, or theirs. She didn't ... play so many games, with me. I wished she had. I think that's why she didn't."

She points to the basin on the other side of her (she's scrubbing out of the same one with Cryo). "When they're all done, we can rinse them together."

"Ah, ok." Cryosanthia says, taking the bar of soap and sniffing it before putting it to use. It slips a little in her grip, and her scales have a way of shaving furrows in it, but she's being careful. "She did just about everything with me, to me, over the... decades. Made me take notes. Draw organs. Poke holes... time how long the fluids would take to drain. Determine what size hole would close... wouldn't..."

That sheet is getting an awfully good scrubbing. And wringing, especially the wringing. "It's funny, I had a month without knowing what I did for most of my life so far. Eighty years. Now they are back, this huge, impossible, impenetrable chunk of memories. It would be overwhelming except for those weeks after, without them. Where I was myself and not what I was... there."

The whitescale wrings the sheet out, gets another into the water with some splashing. sighing, "Maybe Zeke needs to forget so he can remember himself. This one still has no idea what or why. This one hopes the screaming stops. Tell yourself each day, this one is free, this one escaped, this one endured. It is over!"

"Her only game was ...the one," Kira notes flatly as she scrubs, switches, and scrubs more. "Choosing. I'm not sure how long it was... but I rarely slept, or ate. Zeke didn't at all, from what I could tell. So it couldn't have been years. Days? Weeks?" She sighs. "It was nothing compared to what you endured, what he did. I shouldn't be bothered by it. You are both much stronger than any of us."

"You were gone eight-day, here. We had no idea you were in the tower. Thought you still with the Demon. Merek too, he has not reappeared. Time is different there, but I think it was much closer. I left, and it was two weeks to the Fernwood, then four more to remember and he was taken, then the day after you were. So perhaps a month and a half to almost three he endured alone, perhaps a year, if time was twice, four times as fast." Cryosanthia speculates, rising from her crouch to dig around in a bin. This sheet she examines for stains first, ensuring those get some soap, then it is dunked under.

The whitescale sighs, "I have no idea why. Why? Haunts me. I feel there must be some sense. I want it to make sense. I fear the answer is She is a god-child, pulling legs off spiders because She can, swatting away wasps, us, when they bother Her. No more sense or purpose to her than a hatchling playing with their food. She did it because she could, and you screamed over something unique no one else had. The Demon joked he would have treated me better and I am so sorry he took you to her. I would not have left you, Zeke would not have, know that. You did not deserve this suffering."

Kira stares at the water, scrubbing absently. She may or may not be getting anything clean... or the same spot very much so. "I don't know if Merek survived that long... The demon kept him. When he sent me through the next portal, almost right away, he had changed to his true form. He still held him and started to ..."

Right. Scrubbing. Her hands move again some. "It was my choice. I tried to save him... and I couldn't. Just like all the others."

Kira adds, "Even Zeke. He made it. He's here... but ...is he?" She finally turns to look at Cryosanthia. She's not reptile, but her look is rather ...hollow. "Is he really safe? Saved? Or did I fail him, too?"

Cryo returns the look, crouched, hands in the water holding a sheet, leaning forward in a way that only works because she's counterbalanced by a long, heavy tail. Sith are hard to read and she's no exception, she looks like she's about to pounce prey. The whitescale drops her sheet in the water then hugs the paladin tightly, wet arms and wet hands soaking her clothes. She growls, her words strange with the humming in her throat, which is a little like purring and threatening at the same time. "You are out. You saved him. Zeke's body is here we will find his mind. You are safe."

She sits back, hands on Kira's shoulders, staring into her eyes. "You did everything you could. You used your clothes, your own hair! I owe you so much. He wouldn't even be in the shape he is in without you. You saved him, you. Do not forget. I... am still unhappy there were so many left behind. I tell myself it took everything we had to get out the few we could, our only other options were to pledge ourselves to that Demon and beg for the mercy it doesn't possess."

Kira doesn't seem to mind the wet of the hug at all. She just sighs into it, leans into it. Cryo's presence or person can be comforting to more than just cihuaas. When Cryo straightens up, Kira has both a small smile, and tears. "I could get to him. So I did. I had to... but..." she stops and just sighs, then nods.

Since they're talking of Zeke, she can focus on him. Again. "What should I do, to get him to eat? What does he even like to eat?" In some ways, she feels connected to him, and now is almost embarassed that she doesn't know simple things about him.

Cryo crouches, leaning back on her tail to have some extra support and keep her in a dynamic position. She reaches into the bin for a sheet, pulls it halfway out, then answers. "Meat, and fruit. Sith prefer those. By meat I include fish and fowl. Breads and root vegetables, less so. We do not chew much, so food that is heavily cooked, shredded, tenderized is easier to digest. In Am'shere there are many species of reptiles we eat, but... diseases can jump easily, and cannibalism is... a worry. Outside of Am'shere sith are reluctant to eat meat that is not recognizably beef, pork, goat, horse, sheep, the human food animals."

She hesitates, "Pork is... not eaten in Am'shere. Similar reasons. Zeke, loves tea. Meal wise I have mosly been with him when he eats at the Temple of Daeus. There has been no time for special meals since I escaped the tower. The food he's most likely to... recognize, is whatever the Mistress offered him. I suspect that would be greatly unappealing, she's conditionned him somehow. Spicy chicken perhaps, the bones crunch nicely, and fruits."

Kira listens, now focused on Cryo's words rather than the wash. Both are needed tasks, but she is biased in Zeke's favor. She nods several times, making mental notes at each point... though one word makes her blink and turns her face both curious and sour. "Cannibalism?!" Then she believes she answers her own question a moment later with, "Oh... lizards. I wouldn't feed him, or anyone lizard..."

Cryosanthia grins, which shows off a lot of teeth, all pointy and nothing useful for grinding. She shakes her head a little, "We call many scaled kin, but not all. Most lizards are to us like the monkeys and apes for you. No... there is what you would define as cannibalism. Sith who eat Sith-makar, Ko-jodakh, Nar-sektoth, Kobolds and would even eat dragons, believing it strengthens them, makes them more like dragons. It drives them insane, fills them with disease, breaks their mind. They are the Forgotten."

Cryo looks down at the water, squeezes her hands, her tail curls closer, "Zeke said he would not be a Forgotten. I saw no sith there, I have no idea what she might feed him. That she would punish him, punish us... I can believe that. He seems to think if he eats now, he will become one. Perhaps he believes all flesh is sith. Perhaps fruit and broth is all he can manage now. This one does not know."

Kira blinks again, inhaling in a quiet gasp with this information. It's not something she knew of, nor would have considered. Then again, it's probably not something the sith-makar would really advertise, either. "Would she know this? Maybe that is ..." She doesn't need to get the thought out as Cryo seems to wonder (or know?) the same. This is just as well, as she didn't really want to finish that thought anyhow.

"I can bring him plenty of fruit... and stewed beef. I am not much of a cook, but I can prepare some simple meals."

"This one would not encourage you to eat lizard at any rate. We prefer fish, lurk in rivers can catch them as they swim. More elaborate meals are prepared with what the hunters bring in." Cryo says, brushing at her knees, "This one has no ideas what were in Her mind, it's why I pushed so hard on you, Zeke, to try and guess what she did. The treatment is worse when the cause is unknown. Stewed beef would be appreciated, and fruit, those sound lovely."

The sheet gets some vigorous attention, soap, swishing, ringing, more swishing and soap. Cryo works off some energy, "This one has worse ideas. Borrowing Mikilos's comfort ring, either forcing it on Zeke or secretly wearing it myself and pretending to starve also. The first would address the symptoms but not the cause, the second..." The whitescale shakes her head, "... it would be too cruel. Not as cruel as pretending to be Salina and ordering him to eat. Which, in his state, he might also believe." She looks at her left hand, the snowflake mark, that will never be washed away and plunges her hands underwater.

Kira now returns her attention to the washing as well, pulling out perhaps the last sheet to dunk and scrub. The wringing is made easier by her wanting to do so with her hands, anyhow, as she tries to help with planning. "I want him well, but..." of course neither of them want him to suffer "we'll just need to keep trying until we find something that works!"

Hopeful emphasis. A vow? Though it is also timed with her lifting wet, washed linens into the clean water to rinse them. "Has he not eaten anything at all?"

Cryosanthia wrings out her sheet, squeezing the soapy water from the binding wrinkles. She has to do it in stages, section by section until she's completed the entire length. It's passed over to the rinse basin. "He has not. He made it to prayers, the day after, and collapsed. He's been in the room, is too weak to move now. Says he knows where he is, but acts as if She will come through the door. Believes it is her door."

Her voice rises, "This one would drag him, to forests, to a stream, to a mudbank, or prayers. Something he recognizes with his mind or his body, but he refuses and this one cannot... cannot force..." She's shaking her head, staring, "Why won't he eat. I've begged him, cast a spell, he will not pray for them. Says he is not in the Temple, not rested, right after he awakens and agrees he has left the tower. This one thinks he says only what I want to hear. He thinks I'm illusion, does not recognize Faran, barely Seldan. Acedia he thought a wolf! You're the only one he's asked for and seems to believe IS."

Now it is Kira's turn to offer the sith a hug. She's not as massive, strong, or balanced (without a tail), but she does her best. Linens be damned! Well... unrinsed?

"I know. I know..." Then she blinks. "I didn't know that he asked for me. I'm sorry. I only saw pain or sadness or hollow when I touched him, or he saw me..." One more thing to feel guilty of, but maybe it's a positive guilt this time?

"I should get him food made, now. He needs to be eating sooner, not later." Which is much better than pointing out that he can't not eat forever.

The lizard woman leans heavily into the hug, holding tight. Cold, wet arms, she's shaking and it's clear she's got a good front up but there's a lot of hidden damage. A lot of things slapped together in the hopes they'll hold one more day. Her voice warbles again, sith calls mixing in with her words, "Yes. Food. Anything. I will finish and fold these."

Cryo squeezes very tight, "This one thinks he saw your suffering, and was saddened to be the cause. He knew She was using him to hurt you. He's a healer, this would... you know... how you would, you have. I'm sorry, so sorry, to have to ask after all he's been through. He needs you. Someone to heal him. Someone smarter than me."

She releases her embrace enough to stare into Kira's eyes. Her own seem black, her pupils so wide they've taken over. "Please. Be smarter than me. Heal him."

Kira is both determined and terrified to meet her gaze. Cryo is right in that she knows. Enough. Too much. Her skin has never been as thick as the sith's, though, not even figuratively. She nods. "I will-" Before, that might have been it, but now it must be, "-do all that I can."

Then she shakes her head, belatedly, at her talking of the laundry. She even makes a light laugh at the comparative absurdity. "It will get rinsed. There are other Hearthguards and Sentinels. Zeke needs you. You can go to him while I cook?"

Slowly Cryo's pupils return to slits, passing through a phase where they look incredibly cute to their typical expressionless, gem-like quality. Much better, no longer a look of death or terror on her face, only regular reptile reflections. She smiles, nodding, "Ok. This one will go him."

"This one wants to help you also, to talk, to console, however I can. I can only do so much, triage the worst, but you should talk with someone who understands... in the temple there must be someone who would know the words. Remember, you are free, you did what you could."

The whitescale rises up and puts her gloves on, left one first, to cover her mark and then brushes at her clothes. She makes a curtsey, "You honour me with your generousity. I will also see what I can do to help with Serrendine. That is... another puzzle. Soon."

"Thank you," Kira assures her and shows her gratitude, both at once. She returns the curtsey, though her renewed motivation flickers at mention of Serrendin. When Cryo mentions that it is another, for another time, however, Kira nods. One thing at a time; she needs to focus on what is immediately at hand. "I will bring the food, as soon as it is ready." Then she is off, to get that started, so that it can be ready as early as possible.