Private Tales Take the risk or lose the chance

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie sighed guiltily and looked back down at the book on her lap. Before she could turn her mind fully back to her lessons however, Varys tempted her away with yet another story of his life. She collected the little tales like tiny pearls, stringing them together to try and create the story that had made him him. This one she found herself particularly drawn into with the stories of the theatre. How ironic it was he had briefly lived the life she had only ever dreamed of.

"I had an audition or two when I was younger," she said in an unusually shy manner, leaning back against the seat and bringing her heels up to her backside, the book squashed between her thighs and chest. "My tutor thought I had real promise, especially in the ballet," she had loved the dance as a girl. Had worn her shoes to ribbons repeatedly. "When we lived in the forests it was part of what I really loved about sneaking into town. Coming up with a persona, a whole character. I would plan out our backstories, costumes, even accents. It's just so much fun to escape as another person. You have to watch it, from the audience this time. It's like magic how they draw you in."

 

[Varys]

Varys probably should have gently redirected Lottie back to the book she'd wanted so desperately to learn from only a scant few days earlier, but it was difficult to spurn that infectious enthusiasm that always seemed to exude from her, and he couldn't bring himself to interrupt her. Truthfully, Varys hadn't ever had much interest in theatre, let alone ballet, but the way she described it, so romanticized and poetic, the elf wondered if maybe he'd missed the point of it before.

Yes. He'd like to give it a second chance. With her.

"Okay then." Varys smiled, keeping his eyes forward towards the lights ahead of them. "You've convinced me, but you have to pick which show we're seeing. You're the connoisseur of the two of us, after all." He couldn't help but wonder if Lottie would have ended up an actress or performance artist in another life, one where she hadn't been preyed upon so cruelly by fate. She certainly had a flair for the dramatic, after all.

Maybe, he thought to himself, she could try again when all of this business was said and done. He'd like to give her that chance, that freedom... However long it took him.

"We're coming up on the stone." Varys nodded his head forward. "If you're tired or hungry, now's the time to speak up. After we cross through, I'm aiming to make as much distance as possible before I stop again."

Lottie Beaufort

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie had settled back down to her book though her mind kept drifting to what type of play she would take Varys to first when he called that the stone was up ahead. It was so easy to lose track of time on their journeys which was still a surprise to her. In the past she had always annoyed her sisters with her impatience to simply be wherever they were heading. Jouney's had always dragged on for what had felt like weeks when they had taken hours.

"I'm always hungry," she pointed out as they trundled into town. It was almost as busy as Oban on a market day with carts heaving to and fro, groups of travellers walking or riding about the town buying suppliers or haggling for a bed for the night. Her eyes darted everywhere with delight as she drunk it all in. "But... if we are wrong and it was someone looking for us, this would be the next place I tried something. Maybe it's safer if we just pass through." Their luck had already been tested today with their escape. Twisting in her seat she rummaged in the bag she'd propped just behind the drivers bench.

"I think I have snacks in here..."

 

[Varys]

Varys let out a small sigh, and settled back into his seat. He'd been trying to take his mind off of the possibility that they were still in danger, but he couldn't pretend that Lot didn't have a point. They'd gotten so carried away talking about the future, it'd been far too easy to forget about the now.

"Mm.. S'pose you're right." There was some begrudgement in his tone, but he hid it with a crack of the reins over his words. "We wasted plenty of time back in town, may as well try to make up ground."

Actually navigating the little town was a bit tricky; Settlements near portal stones had a habit of getting congested with travellers, and there was a sales pitch every five steps calling at you from all sides. Beds, drinks, food, whores, useless bits and bobs, if you spit in the air it would land on something with a price tag.

Despite their desire to move along they wound up in what amounted to a queue for the stone, a neat line of travelers waiting for passage. They were forced to a standstill, inching forward every minute.

"Should've figured this would be a busy stone." Varys rolled his head back and groaned. "No reason to think it would have been any less crowded in the years since I've last been here. Least this time I have good company."

Lottie Beaufort

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

In contrast, Lottie enjoyed every second of the slow crawl through town. She joked with the traders they went past and even dropped a coin into one sooty looking boys hand who was selling limp looking flowers on the side of the road. She had turned it into a small crown of sorts, adorned with a few of her own illusionary flowers, and had just set it on her head when Varys groaned.

"So it's always like this?" for some reason she got a small bit of joy out of the idea this town was always bustling and full of life. She wondered if she had lived here how many pockets she could have picked, and how many fat coin purses she could have made off with. Back home there were no queues like this for lucky thieves to take advantage of. "I've never been through a Portal Stone before... do you have to like... I don't know. Chant something witchy or spill some blood or something?"

 

[Varys]

"During the hot months, yeah." Varys nodded, still looking ahead to see when he could move forward. "Didn't use to be this way, though. You did have to have some knowledge about magic, enough to get the stones to work for you. For a lot of the more remote portal stones, you still do."

Varys still had nightmares about being stuck on the Isles of Sheketh during his first life's apprenticeship, with no clue as to how to activate the Sheketh Stone. If his Master hadn't caught wind of his misadventure, he'd have died on that island, he was certain.

"Eventually the trade companies got together and decided to place attendants to the more oft-used Stones like this one. The attendants know how to activate the stones for people who otherwise couldn't use them, and that allows for a much larger flow of traffic between the major cities of Liadain and Epressa."

It was a convenience, but one born out of nothing but greed. Still, nothing much he could do about it, even if the purist in him balked at the idea of using portal stones like any other ordinary means of travel. As they meandered forward, Varys smiled over at Lottie, happy at least to see her so glowing and curious. It was easy to forget how sheltered she'd been.

"These cities are even newer additions though, founded by those same traders. You wanna set up shop, they'll give you a loan to get started so long as they get a cut of the profits." He cocked a brow, smirking. "I can see it now... Lottie's Books, the last bastion of free thinking before you hit Dalriada."

Lottie Beaufort

 

[Lottie Beaufort]

Lottie couldn't help but snort a laugh at the thought.

"I would make a terrible book seller. I wouldn't want anyone to take them, would probably make up excuses about them not being for sale," she could just imagine the small illusions she could make, of books flying at people's heads to scare them away, or snapping forwards them along the floor with teeth and eyes all of their own. The wickedness made her grin.

They managed to move forward another few wagon paces and Lottie returned to the elven book in her lap. By the time they were three wagons back she had managed to just about say in passable elvish the sentence Varys had requested of her to win her ticket to the theatre. It wasn't particularly pretty but he had only winced a little, so Lottie took it as a win and discarded the book in favour of standing up in the seat to watch how the portal stone worked.

Her new vantage point allowed her to see the guards but not exactly what they did on the stone. If she screwed her eyes up she could just make out them touching some sort of symbol and then the wagon who had been waiting vanished into a brilliant light. Lottie blew out a low whistle.

"Does it make you sick? Travelling this way?"