The Campfire

[Kaybrie]

The clear night air was chilling along the road from the Gates of the Sunderer, a soft breeze in the atmorphere seemed to churn around the smouldering embers of a dieing campfire. The moist soil and unkept grass had been flattened out and dried a good ways around, and a stack of books, littered with patches of paper and torn notes, with the ground sounding a small tiefling girl similarily littered with the heavy texts. The girl was obviously of infernal heritage, the skin across her back and forarms was scaley and tinted a murky blue. She was small and thin, though well poised and surprisingly healthy looking for a grayish-blue woman. Her robes were midnight black with white highlights and a faint magical aura eminating from it. Otherwise she did not appear to carry any sort of staff or weapon, unless the overly sized book was counted thus.

She had laid out across her lap a heavy tome with notes criss-crossing across the page in a large variety of colours, written over one another with little distinction visible where one letter ended and another began. Her quill worked ceaselessly to document her thoughts, a look of frustration clear upon her face. Her lips mouthed an endless accompanying stream of words as her eyes glances back and forth between the heavy tome where her quill worked and a much smaller black book she held with ease in her left hand. After a long period she finally dropped her quill and produced a scroll from her heavy robes and slowly pulled it out to length, quietly reading it over.

[Jai_V]

Nights like these, the world really seems like even more of a magical place then it truly is. Nothing but cool air and clarity to greet the guests of world beyond the walls. As Shar and Selune fought endlessly for dominance, the Gentleman Thief Cazen crept quietly through the high grass, avoiding those little mistakes that give away the careless sneak.

He didn't expect to encounter anyone else, aside from maybe the rare animal or perhaps a stray goblin. But there she was: a book-worm tiefling. "Well," he thought to himself, "That judgement may be a bit rash. After all, she could just really enjoy looking at the pictures." He fought down a chuckle and continued forward.

"Excuse me, Miss..." he said with a soft smile and a happy lilt, "You got your Anderson Act papers? Wouldn't want any Legionnaires to get uppity and necessitate something illegal, like a beating."

[Kaybrie]

Her eyes continued to scan across the scroll infront of her face as she carefully examined every detail that was laid out before her. Even as Cazen spoke she seemed completely ignorant of his presence until after a few moments when she snapped the scroll closed and slowly stood up, brushing herself off. "The Anderson Act you say? I've never heard of it, though when I arive at the capital I'll be certain to inquire about altered laws since my departure." She pulled out a wide brimmed hat and dusted it off, a small landslide of scrolls dumping out of her robes as she did so.

Muttering an draconic curse she knelt down and began to collect up the wide array of scrolls, seeming to possess far too many for them all to be magical. "If you're looking for company you'll have to get your own wood to heat the fire." She said placently as she tucked away her parchments.

[Jai_V]

A book-worm, a klutz, a tiefling, and a recently returned Sundrenite. "And a foul mouth," he thinks, as he translates the oath spoken. Quite a lot of adjectives to commit to one person. He eyes the dying fire and gave a submissive nod to the tiefling. "I'll see what I can do." The search was not long, but it was difficult to find good wood for the fire, considering how often it rains in the valley.

He gathered at the very least another hour's worth of wood for the fire not far from the camp site and set to stripping some of the more moist bark from them. "Oh, by way of an introduction, name's Cazen." He says it carefully, as if it may offend someone. His attention never leaves the deed at hand, nor the blade wielded.

"Never can be too careful..." he thinks.

[Kaybrie]

The girls thoughts remained largely her own as she gathered up her books and swept a sack up over the stack of books, tightening the top rope with a quick jerk. She nodded to herself smugly, checking over the area around her quickly before setting down infront of the dieing fire once again. By the time he returned the absent-minded girl was again deep in study, her eyes continuing to flicker across the page with an intense 'concentration face'.

"I'm called Kyoko often enough, not sure of the meaning behind the name." She says as though having rehersed the line many times past. "So I have assertained by your willingness to gather wood that you are in fact not one of the ruffians that beats my kind senseless simply for living. Or is there an underlying motive?" Though clearly on some level an accusation her voice dosn't stumble over the words in the least.

[Jai_V]

He shrugs at Kyoko. "I've met more then one tiefling in my life, but that's enough to know most of the stories we're told as children are the tales of ignorant, over-zealous peasants." He takes the last piece of wood and begins the careful process of removing the unnecessary parts. He remembers that excellent tiefling thief he met before, and then Nocte and Zack, who he met here in Sundren.

"Besides, seems like a lot of trouble to go through. I mean, beating someone senseless usually entails that part about them fighting back, and while I've had myself a pretty good scrap or two in my day, I prefer to talk my way out of trouble." He smirks, seemingly remembering something as the blade slides along the wood. "Or into trouble, as it were."

[Kaybrie]

Her eyes having found there way up to look upon him and examine him more closely for a few moments as she laid out her black book open across the heavier tome. "You do not strike me as the diplomatic sort, travelling out here alone with no escourt. . ." At the latter part of the sentence she takes a moment to gaze about her surroundings before returning her vision to rest upon Cazen. "Either way, I find your attitude somewhat refreshing from the hog-wash that has fed my ears for the past year of travelling... Strangely this land of helmites is one of the most understanding of my racial backgrounds that I have ever known, if not for the wide array of. . . exceptions I may have once even been willing to call this place home." She rubs a hand across her face and pulls out a file and begins to gently slide it across her nails. "Then I suppose my next question would have to be, why are you out here? A silver tongue is best served in the cities, rather then on the roads."

[Jai_V]

"Most of the time, I'd agree. In fact, I prefer to be in Sundren City." He looks off to the side a moment. "The fact is, sometimes I have to get away and give myself the opportunity to refocus and orient on a purpose. Or, at the very least, a direction." He eyes the nail-file before looking to the tiefling's face for the first time. "Lately, it seems I find myself doing this more often."

Cazen leans back just a bit, yawning and stretching. In that moment, he comes to a silent revelation and it occurs to him to ask: "But what brings you here? I would think the Library or maybe even the University would be a more...ideal location to peruse quaint and curious scroll-bound lore."

[Kaybrie]

"My legs are tired, so I stopped to rest, and since I don't like wasting time when I don't need sleep, I chose to continue my studies." She closes her eyes and slowly blinks, as the firelight becomes increasingly prevailent the dark rings under her eyes from fatigue become increasingly prevailant. She nods slightly to nothing in particular and takes a deep breath. "That aside I've broken the library appart within Sundrens capital, torn every page worth reading from the belly of their texts and digested them all in full." She purses her lips. "I wish to gain more extensive access to some more specific orders libraries. . . Some that may be of use to an accomplished magician such as myself." She slowly looks up, analyzing him again, though she dosn't speak anything further.

[Jai_V]

By appearence, he's young, as humans count years. Probably in his mid-twenties. He has a very smooth face, immaculately groomed and unburdened by even the scars of a razor nick. He wears a fine attire of black that gives him the mien of an assassin or other generally shifty character. His eyes are a deep blue and seem to hold the weight of more years then he has been physically burdened with. All other posture, bearing, and mannerisms would mark him as someone who is very flippant, with an almost lackadaisical regard for the world, in general.

He completes his task and sheathes the dagger somewhere on his body. Piling the last piece of wood neatly with the others he gathered, Cazen stretched out, fully, using his courier bag as somewhat of a pillow to incline his head toward Kyoko. "I see. So you're more into scholarly pursuits then the practical application aspects of the mystic arts?"

[Kaybrie]

"For the time being, yes. . . I beleive a fundemental understanding of our world and the multiverse surrounding us is crucial to further understanding the weave itself." She purses her lips then slowly exhales, pulling out a pipe and sticking it between her teeth. "My master was elven, so I often am critisized by other wizards for doing too little with the time I have. Breakthoughs in the higher end of magic is what many human wizards pursue and thus push every second of their lives aiming for more power, as with more power comes some level of understanding..." She opens her eyes and takes a deep breath. "But, being careless like that only carries its inherent risks. . . Ones that I'm not willing to take."

[Jai_V]

He shakes his head. "I can't even begin to understand the intricacies of all this hocus pocus you and your type throws around..." he offers his winsome smile, "but I do know a thing or two about risk. Those not willing to take risk will find very little reward for their middling effort." Cazen reaches into his courier bag and removes a vial of some dried herbs, uncorks it, and drops a couple of pinches into the fire. The air becomes fragrant with some not-unpleasant scents. "I don't know how long the lifespans of your kind, but I do know that we humans are not only promised nothing like other races, but given very little in the way of time. Many a man or woman, Wizard or no, has made rash decisions in the pursuit of some measure of immortality. That's what drives humanity...not the pursuit of knowledge, but ultimately the pursuit of the opportunity to cheat death."

He shrugs at Kyoko. "Then again, I'm just a Gentleman Thief."

[Kaybrie]

She smiles and shrugs. "I feel as though my soul will rest easy in death, some god I have paid tribute to will likely take me into their embrace, and thus I have no fear of it . . . Feel no need to 'extend' it." She takes a deep breath stares down upon the campfire intensely for a few moments, before she reaches into one of her pockets and produces a pair of tindertwigs. "I can understand a humans drive, but it is the goals of the individual that displace the flock. She tosses one of the tindertwigs into the campfire and it bursts within, creating a short flare resulting from the chemical reaction. She then holds the butt end of the other into the fire then plants it into the ground, watching it burn slowly. "Anyways, philosophy isn't my strongest academic, I prefer application and process, you were saying something about an Anderson act. . . You mean registering tieflings, why? Such a law seems trivial, taking into considering the nature of my kin."

[Jai_V]

He shrugs. "Don't ask me. I'm no fan of unnecessary Laws, myself." He seems to think on this a moment. "Of course, I do see an awful lot've laws as unnecessary." Cazen lays back, once again, gaining some measure of comfort. "My guess is the people of Sundren are so damned terrified of their own shadow, they need this Anderson Act as a crutch to give them a false sense of security and control. If you look me up in the Anderson Act, I'm listed as Terry Waters." He chuckles, remembering how naively Derge Helmslate swallowed up that lie like a parched man guzzling water.

[Kaybrie]

"You are blooded as well?" Her eyes stare into his with a neutral expression. "There was no related announcement?" Kyoko asked, perking a brow, turning a page absent mindedly in her book. "And yet you are not he, I cannot begin to imagine the purpose in this act other then perhaps to force upon others the opinions of the few. . . Any whom do register are more likely. . ." She pauses to stare at him pointively. "The honest individuals whom do wish to reside within the laws of the land, and thus they will have a big list of individuals to ignore? But then that would lead to the dishonest individuals registering as well, so in the end you have a big list of names. . ." She smirks and lets her eyes fall back down to her book. "Inform me if I am borring you with non-sensical dialog, I have a strong tendancy to think with my mouth." She smirks. "And in more then one situation it has got me into trouble."