Drake had earlier noted how little Ruby had traveled of late. And even in the time before, when she set foot often upon the road under the Sky, she had been among a large caravan, and a child; at such times, danger had been far from her mind. But she was no longer a child of the Sky. While she knew the city and the stars, the road was foreign territory. And weariness began to wear on her mind, the soft beckoning of rest that was forgotten until mentioned. A soft beckoning made louder by soft music from the bard, who had no objections against returning to her last stop. Perhaps the decision could be postponed, then.
The Songbird blinked her golden eyes, and then nodded to Drake.
"I trust your judgment, Drake." Her voice was soft, her words perhaps not fully thought through. Trust was difficult, and earned. But he could have hers, at least for this. "Rest, I think, is in everyone's best interest, and you have yet to lead us astray. I'll follow where you go."
"Very well." The assassin nodded. "Leimor by day it is." Drake offered his travelling companions a reassuring smile, they were leaving the responsibility of organizing this little escapade to him, as good a decision as any, although that trust might have made their lives quite possibly easier. While he was not averse to advancing only on nightfall, they were far from the stealthiest group to reap many of its benefits.
"I will keep watch as per our arrangement then, Ruby. You two should rest until you are fit for horseback travel." It was not a command despite the no-nonsense tone in his voice, but simply what he thought best. Ruby had not been on the road for years, she was bound to tire faster than either of her company, and Mea, while certainly an experienced nomad by the looks of it, perhaps had not the best odds at a vigil. Besides, it was his job to safeguard the camp, instructions laid very clearly on his contract as a protector, and as such he would perform to his duties as was expected of him. Like it had always been.
A slow grin spread over Mea’s lips, perfect teeth barely revealed though the mirth was as cheshire as if they were fully bared. She started playing the lullaby again with Drake’s words, slowing the tempo to a crawl with her gaze intent on the rogue. Perhaps it was the challenge he posed, or his rapidly recovered demeanor, but she found herself studying his stony expression for hints of emotion that might slip through.
The lullaby seemed to elicit no response, but her grin remained as she began plucking a soft and chipper tune in the silence that followed. ”I mentioned earlier I had risen with the moon, Master Drake. Your pragmatism is as endearing as your steely gaze, but I can sleep in my saddle if need be.” A truth from her life before taverns and court halls, before the music had called her. It had served her well since her fall. ”Besides, who will make sure you don’t do anything naughty if both of the of are sleeping and oh so vulnerable?” Her grin widened a fraction as she cast a wink. Just because it hadn’t worked once didn’t mean it wouldn’t eventually.
Despite her words she set her instrument to the side after tying off what she had been playing. With a languorous stretch she leaned back against the log again, reclining back to gaze at the scattered stars through the leaves. ”Have you ever thought about how the big, empty sky, connects everyone that has ever existed? These stars are the same everywhere, I should know, I’ve been nearly everywhere myself. They move through the sky and gather the hopes, dreams, sorrows and tribulations of all of the people who look up at them, but keep their secrets like the dead.” The musician rolled onto her arm to level her obsidian gaze to Ruby, and give her guardian a respite. ”I find your fascination with them romantic. An infatuation with humanity itself, though it may seem as distant and cold as those stars. I think we share that love.”
Ruby respected Drake's decision, as promised. She did have some intent to watch the fire for a while, curled about herself. She did not mind Mea's comment of Drake's possible behavior, because she knew he was not that sort of man. She knew that sort of man intimately, and she simply knew he was not so, the same way a bird might recognize a child was not a fox.
Mea only claimed Ruby's attention when she said the word Sky, and began to ramble about connections and the sameness of the stars, and only made a fool of herself to anyone who had come to know what the Sky really was. She knew nothing of the Sky. And although Ruby had cut her tethers to that great expanse, even though the stars still drew her eyes from time to time, she had learned that there was far less to Sky than anyone seemed to believe. Her feathers ruffled under the cloak, although she did not let it show in her face or eyes except in the disappearance of any companionship she might feel for the bard. The respect she'd earned was dismissed in her thoughtless ramble.
Sirideán's voice was quiet, but had hardened edges, when she finally did speak.
"Such are the lies we tell ourselves to give us hope in the dark." She rose from her seat by the fire, stiffly, with a stony expression that did not waver as she turned to Drake. "Wake me when the stars are gone. Good night, Master Drake."
He'd more likely wake her at sunrise, as per their original agreement, but she did not address that nor did she look again to Mea as she turned back toward her hammock. She set the ogre-blade aside against the tree trunk once more and pulled herself into the bed without so much as stripping out of her cloak. She'd disappear into its folds, presumably to sleep, or simply ignore the audacity that Mea had in assuming that she knew anything of Sirideán, or the Sky.
"Suit yourself, Miss Ipomea." Drake nodded as the bard chose to stay. While he indubitably preferred the solitude of the night, having an extra pair of eyes always proved advantageous in these kinds of situation. Finishing up the final touches of his little sculpture, the assassin's expression shifted ever so slightly as he mused over his work, satisfied with the results. Drake was about to sheathe his knife back into his boot when Ruby's voice called for him. Only two of them would stay up it would seem. "Rest easy, Miss Ruby. I shall wake you by dawn."
The Blade of Twilight settled himself cozily against the boulder, a cold, minor comfort of which few would dare even consider. His hands sought the tobacco in his knapsack, meticulously spreading it over a piece of cloth before shoving them on his late wife's smoking pipe. Drake executed these tasks almost automatically, his body adopting them as naturally as one would breathing. While most would drown on despair brought by the pitch-black quiescence or distract themselves with song and banter, the sellsword felt welcomed. It was not quite as strong as when he ventured through the woods alone, but that sense of familiarity never left him when the night fell and the beasts roamed far from their nests.
It brought clarity to his mind, allowed his thoughts to wander far off without losing sight of the here and now. His whole frame, usually stoic and alert, seemed to ease ever so slightly whenever silence broke between them, only interrupted by the occasional chirp and crack.
It was not to say he would outright ignore Mea, Drake would respond with his usual brief phrases for as long as she would entertain the idea of chatter. Calm and collected words periodically leaving in a trail of smoke. Bards had a knack for telling of the pasts long gone, of incessantly prattling about these great adventurers so long removed from thought they were but caricatures of themselves - just another element of a broader fantasy. Drake was a good listener, he didn't bother hearing these embellished tales, just as he did not bother sharing a few words and thoughts over mundane subjects. Always keeping his distance and his cool, saying plenty and revealing nothing.
It would be traces of brightness from the clearing sky which would reveal themselves first to them. Drake would leave briefly, a mere hunt for a hare or two did not take long, especially since he previously scouted the riverbed in his wordless trip with Ruby earlier that day.
Ruby would awake to a few nudges of his blade's hilt,a makeshift fire being arranged for their roasted breakfast. "Good morrow, Miss Ruby."
Something of Mea’s words seemed to have struck a nerve with the Aos Gaotha woman, though Ruby was habitually polite her body language and sudden terseness was evidence enough of her displeasure. Perhaps it had been discourteous to speak of the sky with her, but if there was a misunderstanding it wouldn’t be resolved tonight. Though the smile she had worn faded Mea continued softly strumming, changing the tune to fit the track of her thoughts as she let her mind wander in what could have been considered a form of meditation.
The notes were light and soothing at first, as she stared up to the sky in the following silence. She had always loved the sky, even as a child, and envied those races that could fly, even if one of them was intent on ruling the skies and brought pain to any others who dared venture into that open expanse. Even with the regulation of the Empire and the threat of death, Mea always fancied that freedom would be easy to snatch from those greedy and oppressive hands with the infinite sky as your domain.
The notes darkened as her gaze sightlessly fell to Ruby’s sleeping form. Her fantasies as a child would only prove true if you never landed, and everything that flew must eventually land. Even dreams that started as high flying goals eventually fall to reality, and Mea’s had done the same with crashing discordance. She could understand how Ruby would find it hard to see hope in the sky she couldn’t return to, it was much the same for Mea and the courts.
As natural as she had felt in those courts, however, she felt more natural still on the open road. Her people were of nature, her upbringing to honor it. She was more in touch with those roots when her feet were on a path and her mind stretched like a great oak into the sky she couldn’t help but feed her childish dreams to. A few of those had turned to good songs that had earned her coin, but most were released silently to the beyond. The notes lightened toward the end, their soft and lilting tones fading as the silent and smoking bodyguard was granted his silence and Mea was granted true and forgotten dreams.
Whether it was the scuff of a boot, the chink of a sword in its sheathe, or some other soft sound that woke her, Mea found herself staring neatly at the butcher’s backside, situated between Ruby and Mea as he was to prod the fortuneteller with the handle of his blade and wake her. Mea sniffed and sat up from where she had been leaned over on the log, at some point in the night sliding down its face to use it as a pillow. Bits of bark and moss clung to her hair, and a streak of dirt ran from her cheekbone to her jaw as she sleepily rubbed life back into her sleepy eyes.
”We let the fire die.” Perhaps not the most eloquent observation, but she was not fully cognizant yet. The fire dying meant that… what was wrong with that? A soft rumble sounded from her belly and she suddenly brightened, more alert thanks to the hunger. ”Guess its hard tack and dried fruit for breakfast, then. Or would it be dinner and our slumber simply a nap?” The more awake she became the more her words began to flow. Out of consideration she snapped her mouth closed and rummaged through her bag to retrieve the mentioned foodstuffs. Wrapped in two white cloths, she laid the fruit and tack on the log that had already been pillow and seat, adding table to its list of functions.
She was above a city she had never seen before. Above, the stars, infinite and beautiful and clearer than they would ever be above a city of this size. Below were lights of a dull orange, not reflections of the night sky, but a mock imitation of it. Sirideán circled high above them. And she became aware of something else above the city, a presence.
She woke to the pressure of something against her side. It was not a hand, and as her golden eyes opened, she saw Drake in the yellow light of early morning. She tilted her head a little bit, then took a deep breath and nodded.
"And to you, Master Drake," she murmured, though her mouth was dry. There had been something else in her dreams, but it faded out with the exhaustion. She felt refreshed, despite it all, and she moved to tumble from her hammock on the side opposite him. She may have felt better, had she not been reminded of the night before by Mea's voice. She frowned, mostly to herself, then determined that it would be best to leave last night's issue alone, and joined her beside the new fire.
"And to you, Lady Mea. You are observant this morning."
Without really thinking about it, she reached into her pocket, and pulled free the wooden box of cards. Drake seemed to have breakfast well in hand, it was now but a matter of patience. Ruby could give him that much. The bard? That remained to be seen.