amberconarizona.theiforum.com

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:11 pm Post subject:

Dancer explains how she thought the same thing at first, to the point where she thought Ashthuura was a shapeshifted Heidur for a time. Alas, Dancer has never met Ashthuura's father, although Ashthuura continually speaks highly of him. Ashthuura had said he'd been from the general environs of Amber. He had to go away to war when she was about twelve, apparently.
_________________
AmberCon Arizona Webpage
FabienBadilla.com
Desert Sky Design

Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

"Interesting mirror-symmetry there. And in the way she looks, fair where I'm dark. Shadow tends to play tricks like that... So the mystery endures for a while longer. I have some ideas for how to distinguish a person who's of Amber from one who's of the Pattern. And failing that, I suppose I can introduce her to Dworkin. Assuming that whatever Oberon did to him has left the man fit for anything..."

Heidur glances around the main courtyard before leading Dancer and Ashthuura through the final archway, and across a corner of the yard to the stables. The familiar scent of horse and leather greets them, and here the architecture hasn't changed at all. Her step quickens as she wonders whether Wind Dancer's old loose box had been 'repaired' in their absence. Whether it should keep the standard high wrought-iron doors was something that she and Dancer had a strong opinion about... but so had at least one of the more conventionally-minded stablehands. Rather than bother figuring out who kept bringing the gate back (and leaving Dancer wandering around the stables on her own, because she refused to allow herself to be shut inside), Heidur had pulled the hinges off to make her point. With any luck, she'd find the box stall in the same condition as when she'd left, but fifteen years might be pushing it a little.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 7:15 pm Post subject:

The box next to Morgenstern's occupied stall has been repaired. Various stablehands greet both Ashthuura and Heidur as appropriately as time allows, getting out of their way.

As they approach the back of the stables, there is a short moment during which Ashthuura freezes as she sees Morgenstern. Wind Dancer does not seem keen on entering the stall once she sees the gate has been repaired. Although the gate to her stall has been repaired, it has been exchanged for a lower gate, one that could be jumped, if the horse is powerful enough, or if there was more room in the stall.
_________________
AmberCon Arizona Webpage
FabienBadilla.com
Desert Sky Design

Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

Heidur nods a greeting to Morgenstern as she passes his stall, pretending for courtesy's sake that she doesn't notice Ashthuura's moment of surprise. Observing Dancer's opinion on on the gate, she shakes her head and comments, "Not good enough." It's only the work of a moment to unlatch the gate and check that the hinges on the nearer side will lift out smoothly. Kneeling to get a good grip near the bottom of the door, Heidur glances up at Ashthuura, then indicates the gate with a short jerk of her head. "These things are unwieldly. Could you take the other end?" Her tone suggests that the request is a trivial one.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:18 am Post subject:

"Uhm, alright," Ashthuura hesitates for only a moment before giving Heidur a hand. She follows Heidur's lead and her strength seems to nearly match Heidur's, though from her posture, she is not using her full strength (neither is Heidur, after all).

"Where should we set it?" she asks, blowing a lock of hair out of her face.
_________________
AmberCon Arizona Webpage
FabienBadilla.com
Desert Sky Design

Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

"For tonight we'll just lean them up against the wall, here." Heidur carries her end lightly into the stall and sets it against the blank wooden panels. She shrugs, "Dancer can scratch herself on the bars, and anyone who tries to replace them will have to take her somewhere outside when they do." It would work for a day, and that was all she really needed.

Heidur and Ashthuura make short work of the other side of the gate, then she waves over a stablehand who looks like he has a moment to spare. "Roshan! Good to see you again." He'd started to go salt and pepper around the temples now, and the smile-lines were etched more deeply around his eyes than when she'd left. "This is Ashthuura, she's responsible for Wind Dancer's care. Could you make sure that she finds everything she needs?"

Giving the two a moment for the usual nice-to-meet-you ritual, Heidur absently rights a lock of Dancer's mane that had fallen over to the wrong side. When they finish, she adds to her instructions with a smile, "Also, have someone toss a couple pints of Berstlowe's dark lager in with Dancer's feed. She's earned it." "Although I have no idea what you see in the stuff," Heidur completes the long-running joke to Wind Dancer alone.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 5:53 am Post subject:

Roshan looks at Heidur twice but discreetly hides his surprise. He quickly acquiesces to Heidur's demands, greets Ashthuura properly and she greets him back.

Dancer leans into Heidur's touch in thanks and briefly conveys a feeling of yearning for more interaction and a feeling of gratitude towards Heidur. The imagery is rushed, but still poetic, and Heidur recognizes the signs of exhaustion in Wind Dancer. And still, her equine companion shows great excitement at the reunion, more than the prospect of staying in for a night, really, especially after the current separation from River Stones.
_________________
AmberCon Arizona Webpage
FabienBadilla.com
Desert Sky Design

Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

Heidur acknolwedges Roshan's surprise with a slight widening of her eyes, as if to say 'Yes, I know what I'm doing'. The responsibility would be a familiar one to Ashthuura, and Heidur expected it to help her feel more at ease in these strange surroundings.

Scritching through Dancer's mane, Heidur replies, "Any time," with complete sincerity. "And if tonight were just a court dinner, I'd be hiding out here where the company is better." She'd done it before, and likely would again. "The lead I'm going there to look at probably won't turn into anything worth chasing.. but if it does, we might need to leave much earlier than my current plans, or we might end up tethered here until either I learn more, or Caine selects someone else to delegate his problems to." She shakes her head and collects a hoof pick from the high shelf just outside the stall, checking each of Wind Dancer's feet for stones or clumps of earth that could become troublesome. Some things she was unwilling to leave to others, especially considering that they could need to leave on short notice. "Other than the cloud creatures that were chasing you, did you find anything else of interest around the Black Road?"

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:32 am Post subject:

Wind Dancer focuses again while Roshan gives Ashthuura a rundown of the stables and introduces her to several more stablemen.

In lieu of a long explanation, Wind Dancer explains everything she has seen via images and the tone turns to the tragic, rather than the lyrical poetry of her people's "tongue".
Heidur is shown many alien races, beings out of nightmares and creatures made of things that would not be allowed to exist in the worlds of this side of Yggdrasil.

Heidur is shown the expansion and invasion of the Black Road, the hazy second-hand retelling of strange rituals witnessed by sisters of Dancer. Many villages and peoples taken over by the small factions and denizens of Chaos, joining their ranks, taken away from order with strange symbols, runes and allegiances. The end of the world as the inhabitants of the Shadow know it...

Dancer does her best to paint a fair picture, without tainting the memories with much of her own emotions, but at the end, Heidur can feel the images blurring faster in her mind as Dancer's thoughts are taken over by despair. It appears that River Stones is her second, and sole remaining foal.

...

Dancer's hooves are clean.
Ashthuura is watching the pair of them, hiding her concern behind the small talk she is having near to the stall with Roshan. They have brought feed for Wind Dancer and the special treat Heidur had requested for her has also arrived.

It is getting quite late and Heidur will likely make a very "noticeably late" entrance to the dinner feast.
_________________
AmberCon Arizona Webpage
FabienBadilla.com
Desert Sky Design

Jssra · Joined: 20 Apr 2009 Posts: 64 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA

When Dancer's tale finishes, Heidur takes a few seconds to return from the shocked reverie in which she had absorbed much of the account. While she isn't a parent, and thus unable to share the full depth of her friends' sorrow, a hug over Wind Dancer's shoulders (which Heidur has to stand on her toes to give) and a soft mental touch hopefully remind the mare that she's not alone with her troubles.

In the back of Heidur's mind, the mass of information begins to turn over. What Dancer had shown her was not war as she knew it, or even as Eric had described in his Trump conversation. More akin to a natural disaster, in the way that it seemed to touch the nature of a shadow itself, as well as the people in it. Which perhaps is what one should expect, the clear and incessant tick of Heidur's own logic tells her, when the great forces of Nature make war...

Not being among Heidur's strong points to start with, awareness of the time is slow in coming. She glances up to catch Ashthuura's gaze on her, and the look she returns suggests that Dancer should have company for a while. Heidur pulls away from the mare a little, with the comment, "Duty calls." It's clear that she's frustrated by the conflicting pull of obligations. And she adds one more, offered to Dancer unasked: "I'll do my best to get us on the road in good time."

...

Once outside, Heidur checks the position of the moons for the time, and frowns. She disliked being late in general, and the fact that it isn't a terribly rare occurance does nothing to lessen her irritation. At least the route back to her suite is shorter without the necessity of accommodating a horse's size. Along the way, she leaves instructions for a meal and a room with a simple route to the stables to be prepared for Ashthuura.

Securing the door to her rooms behind her, Heidur cleans up to the extent possible with the pitcher and wash basin at her bedside, this portion of the castle having long ago been deemed too akward for a run of more modern plumbing. That done, she digs into the back of the adjacent armoire for formal clothing. The first one to hand is a flowing white gown that clearly wouldn't accommodate human proportions. This is rejected with a wry smile; as amusing as it might be, now was not the time to show up as a "foreign dignitary" rather than herself. The next item of clothing - a floor-length robe in dark purple and pale blue geometric pattern, fastened from the front of the left shoulder with a row of spiralling wire clasps - she deems acceptable. Nobody was likely to notice she hadn't bothered to change shoes, either, unless they stepped on her feet. The nautilus shell at her throat is pinned into place on the outside of the robe, and then Heidur is back out into the hallway and moving towards the Great Hall with all the speed that her attire will allow.