Tag: Khaeris x 51

Khaeris pulled her knees up to her chest and lay her cheek on them, still smiling. Her ears flickered with the popping snaps of the fire and the rush of the wind through the nearby canyon; but she was more interested in the voices around her.  Night didn't hush things here, sound raced over sands.

She couldn't understand what the vulpera families were saying between themselves, but the mixed company was a mish-mash of different races and languages. The accents soothed her and the laughter made her smile. Someone a few wagons away was singing a lullaby, she found herself humming along. Voices from strangers floated around her like water, lapping at her mind and retreating in seductive waves. She could drown in this, with no fear, numb...

He probably thought it was lost. No, just stolen. Borrowed. She was in the habit of taking them when he was gone, and she had been quite conscious of packing this one for her trip. It was soft and crisply white. The buttons were neat and tight, though she had to roll up the cuffs and hadn't bothered to button it fully. It didn't smell like him--it smelled like fresh laundry and had that slight dusty smell that came from months in a drawer. But he always looked so nice in them. It made her smile to wear it and think of him. So she drank a lazy cup of tea in her rented bed and his shirt.

The desert was full of life, if you knew where to look. Khaeris didn't, not yet, but she was learning. After only a day in Vol'dun she was enraptured with the place. The Vulpera had been welcoming and warm to her, and she was beyond delighted with the robust alchemical studies their culture utilized. She had stayed the day in the town on the main caravan roads. Their wagons were different than her people's, but the feel of them was the same. She instantly felt more at home there than she had anywhere else in years.

She pulled her braid over her shoulder and peered through the little curtain of the wagon she had rented. The rapidly cooling breeze was refreshing over her warmed skin. The smell of the cooking food from the fires teased...

She frowned down at the little device in her lap. She was using it more lately, but it still managed to defy her frequently. And it never helped when she was drunk. Which she was. She blew out her breath and puffed her cheeks as she tried to pull two thoughts together.

They bounced apart like magnets.

Her eyes narrowed and she pressed her fingertip against the screen. There was a small rumble from it, but it flashed and went dark again.  She pressed the trasmit button and waited for it to give her the code input screen, but it didn't. She tried each again two more times. She considered throwing it.

It was no use. The device was locked. She was frozen out of her own device! How rude. ... She'd tried too many times. She had wanted to...

She'd been sending so many messages. Pictures. Quips. Tiny connections she was desperate for, even as she left them all behind.

Khaeris knew it was a ruse parading as levity. She was running, but her problems would follow her. Confrontation was inevitable and disastrous. Still, with every step, the trip was already lightening her heart.

It had felt a bit like a rebirth, coming back to this time. She had been gone for over six months. Vanished. Poof. As good as dead. It hadn't been hell, but her time away certainly hadn't been heaven. She had not been sure it was going to be a purgatory, even with the insistence everyone had tried to reassure her with in the months prior to her correction. But here she was, given the second chance to live in her second chance time.

Habitually, lost in thought, Khaeris ran a fingertip at a small imperfection on her upper arm. There was no scar--just a small injection and then it was done. But there was a slight rise in the subcutaneous tissues. The small tracker was there. Pollux had, apparently, been carrying it with him constantly, in...

The seashore was sacred now. She didn't keep many sentimental objects when it came down to it; she could get rid of most of her belongings and feel fine about it, with the exception of a very few items. But places? Places were sacred and kept close to her heart.

Her toes dug into the beach and her sandals dangled from her fingers as she walked along the familiar shore. She wouldn't go far, Pollux was on his long board. But the meandering alone-together felt nice an Khaeris smiled to herself.

She knew no matter what happened, this particular stretch of beach and shore was theirs. Not in any possessive way, but in a memorable way. They'd spent hours here shooting, getting swimming lessons in for her, and generally just being together....

She woke up with a gasp, shivering even under the heavy blankets. It was dark in her room. Moonlight came in through the gauzy curtains her aunt favored, painting all the edges of everything silver and white. Without color, the room looked flat. But it wasn't the deep, dark, heavy cold she'd been dreaming of moments prior. She sat up and tried to catch her breath, but the images kept come back. Her imagination ran her through everything again.

Water. They'd been under the lake. They'd heard explosive note of the impact, the crack of the ice, the panicked screams of the draft animals, and the ironically cheerful burbling of the air out of the vardo as it sunk quickly into the frigid water. The cold would have stolen their breath as they...

She had never stayed somewhere with a basement. Or rather, it was really a root cellar, snug under the farm house. There were big folding doors that lay near the ground and opened outward. The lock had been easy to break, but the doors still closed tight together to seal out rain, snow, critters, and ... other things.

She looked around as her eyes adjusted. The room had dirt walls and there were the thread-thin roots that pushed at them. It seemed fitting that  she would bury herself down here to avoid the disaster overhead.

She had nothing but the clothes on her back and one alarmingly flat rucksack that had once been stuffed full. Supplies were running low. Until she'd found this haven anyway. Her heart was beating from a whole...

He never said the words. Not out loud. But before he'd done his jump, his eyes had dared her. He didn't believe she'd do it. She'd failed before. He wouldn't have judged her if she couldn't do it. But she'd been working so hard to try.

Khaeris looked at him, she could see him still, but it was very far down. He was treading water and looking up at her. He was still beaming with the rush. Her toes curled around the edge of the cliff and gripped at the stone. The humidity was thick and the water below was doubtless cool and refreshing for him.

Goosebumps appeared up and down her limbs. She reached up to shake out her hair, feeling the way sweat had curled it over her neck. Her fingers tugged at the suit around her legs. She looked...

The night sky was still  overcast, but even so, a few stars pushed through the haze as the rain waned. Khaeris looked up, catching the last few drops on her cheeks. She couldn't help smiling, feeling them slide down and drop onto her damp dress. Coming out of the barn and back into the open air was refreshing. The barn had been cozy and warm with all the folks inside, sweet with the scent of hay, that musty smell of lofts and stalls. Outside though... Outside, the fresh scent of rain swept away the cobwebs from her spirit. The breeze was chilly and she got gooseflesh on her arms where her dress didn't cover. The susurrus of the voices still in the barn and the shuffling of feet and jackets being pulled on was comforting.

They had all...

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Another week set. The gelatin capsules were swept into a small wax paper envelope and sealed. The flicking motion of her wrist with the counting stick were practiced and controlled. Khaeris never moved without the fascinating blend of precision and languid grace. People often got lost watching her move, just as she was lost in this steady count-capture-seal work fixture.

These little capsules had a tangy spiced smell and Khaeris enjoyed it. Filling the capsules had taken an hour, now filing them away to be sent to the client would take a few minutes more.

Other paper bags with prescriptions and requests were lined up on the basket on her desk. The cipher she used to label them was something her...

Khaeris squatted in the Eversong grass, leaning forward to better study something in the bush in front of her. Her head cocked and she took a breath. Had it moved? No. It was surely too far along for that. Her imagination. The protective casing was dark, though she could faintly see the shape folded inside. It was becoming clearer by the minute.

It would free itself soon. Oblong and alien. It was caged but nearly ready to 

She wasn't smiling. She was alone, except for the butterfly-to-be. She was fascinated. She had seen this process before, but she was always enraptured by it. It seemed at once defiant and hopeful.

Khaeris glanced back over her shoulder. The Scar was as desolate as it had been since it had cut it's course through the...

The dwarven woman had been the latest. Giving her that half-glance with the half-recognition squint. After this many years, you'd think she'd have gotten used to it by now. But she hadn't. It still sent a slight shiver up her spine and questions she'd spent the last few years trying to avoid would come flashing through. 

"No, I'm sorry, I don't think we've met." Her smile was easy and warm, dimpled with a hint of sheepishness. 'But you probably know the other one. I'm the lookalike. I'm the one that doesn't belong. I'm not who you think I am, I am not who you wanted.'

The dwarven woman had returned the smile, the bewilderment clear on her expression. Khaeris was sure it would have been nice to have met her.

It was supposed to be a good week.

She had returned from wandering and camping in the Eversong woods, haven taken her ram and her sunfur panda for her only company. She’d danced between trees, walked barefoot down deer runs, fished for her supper, woven flower crowns from weeds, and laughed with a crab on the beach. She’d only left a note for the clinic and tacked up a notice at her booth. She had needed it. Needed the time wandering, as only a Traveler could.

It had all been so freeing. It was supposed to help. A reset. Surely she’d feel herself after that.

She’d come back renewed and happy, dimples fairly permanent with her smile and remembering the Tournament of Ages just in time to make it to the Wonderlight Ball. So she ...