Conerica River

night

We took on some new travelers in Dustspawn, including this stunningly beautiful half-elven woman named Nishlaldara, but who goes by “Nish” because, as she put it, “it was easier for people to pronounce, and less work for me to spell”. I liked her instantly.

She had a cittern strapped across her back, which is what first caught my eye, and we settled down together when the caravan stopped for a lunch break. We wanted to learn each other’s styles and find some common pieces, with the hope of maybe providing some musical entertainment in the evenings. It’s the sort of thing the travelers appreciate, as there’s not much to do along the way besides walk, talk, eat, and, um, relieve oneself.

I’ll get this out of the way: she is far more talented than I am. But, she’s also got about two decades on me, so that came as no surprise.

We made camp together tonight, and were talking instruments when I got sloppy and said, “I always wanted to learn strings, but we could only focus on two families at the Conservatory. In hindsight, vocal and wind were maybe a bad pairing, since you can’t do both at the same time.”

I could feel the next question coming before she asked it. “So you’re performance trained. Where did you study?”

Yeah, I had stepped in it. Even Iskaryn tensed up at that, but there was no way out except forward. “In Kerse.”

“And what’s a formally trained student of a prodigious institution in the Kalistocracy doing walking the roads of Isger?”

The old me, the one Iskaryn was here to keep away, would have spun a story much like the one I had invented for myself in Macridi. But I was trying this thing where I didn’t blatantly lie to people who maybe mattered to me, so instead I went with a vague summary of the truth.

“I’ve made some…bad decisions in my life. I’m trying to make a better one.” For what it’s worth, she seemed to accept that. And she wasn’t even offended when I followed up with, “And what has a talented performer like yourself walking that same road?”

“I was bored with where I was, and needed a change,” was the reply, which was an even more vague non-answer than mine, but probably a fair exchange. We both knew it and left it at that. I mean, we just met, and I wasn’t going to tell her how I’d burned down my life, built a new one, burned that one down, and then set fire to the ashes. We had an unspoken agreement not to push for more, and that was fine.

“Your bird is beautiful, by the way.”

Iskaryn was sitting on my shoulder, occasionally flexing her wings. Her blue was dulled a bit by the orange cast of the firelight, but Nish had seen her properly in the day.

“If you speak Sylvan, you can tell her that yourself. Though she might object to being called ‘my bird’. It’s…a bit more complicated than that. Iskaryn’s not even a bird, exactly.”

“I don’t speak Sylvan,” Nish said, as she pulled out a small clay figure I couldn’t quite see, then cast a spell. “But I can now. For a while, at least.” Which was, admittedly, a neat trick.

“Hold out your arm,” I said in Sylvan, testing Nish’s borrowed language. When she did, Iskaryn flew over to her and settled on it.

I had guessed that Nish was a bard, and I was right. She had me figured out as one, too. While she was admiring Iskaryn up close, she said, “I didn’t even know we could form these bonds.”

“I didn’t either, to be honest. I wish I could explain it. I was…in a bad way, then. So I think it was born out of need more than anything else.”

“And has she helped you…out of that way?”

“I’m not lying my ass off to you now, or running away, either, so yeah. She has. And still is.”

That got a laugh from her, but there was also a hint of sadness beneath it, too.

It wasn’t how I wanted to end the evening, though, or how I wanted her to see me. I liked Nish. What she thought of me mattered. So I said, “Iskaryn and I are learning to play together. Or rather, I play my flute, and she accompanies with a birdsong. It’s still a little rough, but we are figuring it out.”

“Oh, that, I have got to hear! Would you be willing to play for me?”

I smiled and pulled out my flute. I selected something simple, something we had practiced a lot in the days after Alabastrine. Iskaryn surprised me, though, as she tends to do when she is showing off, by improvising a new harmony. Not that I minded. It was far from polished, and we lost the tempo at one point and more than a few notes, but Nish didn’t care. She was thrilled.

“Oh my!” she breathed. “That may be one of the most astonishing things I’ve heard. And I have heard a great deal.”

I blushed, but I didn’t retreat into it. “Thank you. We still need some practice, but as I said, we are working it out.”

I’m going to miss her when we part ways. When we reach Saringallow, Nish will head west towards Ravounel, while I’ll go north to Elidir. But that’s okay, I think. Maybe some friendships are temporary, and aren’t meant to last longer than the time we share on the road.

The important thing is that I know I can do this again, and that’s enough.