Beautiful artwork made by Randompeephere <3
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Naomi struggles to keep up as Nisha drags her along through the cobblestone streets of Ecrin. Lively music sounds from each tavern they pass on their way to the massive plaza of the city. Colorful shops and market stands line the wide stone clearing. In the center of the plaza is a large well with clotheslines holding various damp apparel to dry out in the sun.
Many people pass them by, wearing loose garments and tunics, just walking and talking while minding their own business and going about their day.
Nisha leads Naomi over to the well and lets go of her wrist, smiling down into the water breathlessly. Naomi bends over to catch her breath as well and peers up at the cat girl. Nisha turns back around and leans against the stone foundation of the well.
She chuckles. "Damn, it's been a while since I've run like that just for the hell of it. Usually, it comes hand in hand with some monster or group of Latyrs looking to murder me. That was fun!" She smiles bright and tilts her head at Naomi. "You okay?"
Naomi nods and stands up straight, still breathing heavily. "Yeah... I'm great! Just maybe we could take it a bit slower next time. P.E. was never my strong suit back in school."
Nisha grins and nods. "I'm just going to assume what you said makes sense where you're from. Anyway, whaddya think? Of Ecrin, I mean," she asks.
Naomi shrugs and looks around. "It's beautiful. It's hard to believe this has always been here and I just didn't know about it," she chuckles.
Nisha smiles and pushes off from the well. "C'mon. I'll show you the best tavern in town. Oh and don't mind the, um, annoyances we're sure to get when we enter. They'll go away eventually." She waves Naomi to follow as she begins walking towards a large stone and wooden building with cheery music coming through the half-opened windows.
Naomi follows and eyes the building curiously. "What do you mean?" she asks. Nisha sighs.
"You'll see. Oh, and if you talk to the bartender, just compliment him on his hat and you'll get a free drink. Trust me, it works every time." She walks up to the door and pulls it open, motioning Naomi through. "Ladies first." She winks.
Naomi rolls her eyes with a grin and walks through and Nisha shuts the door behind her as she follows, joining her at her side.
Right away, there is a fit of drunken cackling from their right. Naomi looks over to see two men who are clearly beyond shitfaced eyeing Nisha with both disgust and amusement.
"Oi, look who it is, de washed-up pussy cat. Decided to come down from yer daddy's care to slum it with us common folk, huh?" one of the men slurs.
Nisha cocks a brow at Naomi and chuckles. "Told ya," she sighs and looks at the men with her arms crossed.
"Hey, I may be a pussy, but at least it's better than being a dick. How's that goin' for you, by the way? Not great from what I can tell." She grins.
The other man scoffs and hiccups. "You shut yer mouth, filthy cat. We don't want you on our continent! Run back to Narvadin where you belong!" he spats.
Nisha rolls her eyes. "Is that the best you can do? I promised my friend there would be annoyances, but so far all I'm getting are some half-assed slurs that I could get from common Latyrs. Come on, guys. You can do better than that."
Naomi looks to the men with a smirk. "Maybe they're too far into their cups to think of anything clever. If they were even able to before they started."
Nisha laughs and pats her on the shoulder. "See, you get it. Come on, let's grab a seat." She turns and starts walking towards a table with Naomi following.
They sit down and Nisha throws her gaze back to the bar counter. Behind it is a man wearing a black apron and a stained white shirt as well as black trousers. On his head is a large blue tri-corner hat with a mess of colorful feathers sticking out from all directions.
"Gnoce! I see you've gotten more feathers since last I was here. Lookin' good!" She winks back at him and he smiles winningly.
"Ah! Om'ralan, Nisha. Good to see ya. And thank you for noticing! Just got a new shipment in from Conarita with many tropical breeds, which means more color for me! Har!" he laughs and begins pouring out a drink from a keg into a flagon and carries it over, setting it in front of her.
Nisha chuckles and takes a drink. She coughs and leans back, shaking her head as her face scrunches up. "Damn, Gnoce. Your brew's gotten stronger. Not that I'm complaining. Keep it up!" she says and takes another drink, resulting in another cough.
Gnoce pats her on the back and nods. "Will do. Enjoy your drink! On the house for the only one who seems to appreciate beauty these days," he says and walks back over to the counter.
Naomi stares at Nisha in question. "Do you actually like his hat?" she asks.
Nisha laughs and sets her flagon down. "Hell no! That thing's uglier than deep-fried Orc ass. But hey, for a free drink, who am I to complain?" She shrugs and takes another drink.
Naomi eyes the flagon. "I didn't think you were old enough to drink. You look pretty young to me," she says and leans forward on the table.
Nisha chuckles and nods. "That's because I am. Gnoce is probably the only barkeep in Aramora who will serve me drinks without question because I compliment his hat. This stuff tastes like troll piss, but after a few drinks, you won't even care. I'd say it's worth it."
Naomi studies her face. "How old are you, then?" she asks.
Nisha smirks and narrows her eyes on her. "Careful there. You know a woman never tells her age."
Naomi scoffs. "That's a big lie, I tell people my age." She grins. Nisha shrugs and takes another drink.
"Probably for legal purposes. Go on, you get three guesses."
Naomi grumbles and stares at her harder. "Hm... twenty?" she says.
Nisha laughs and shakes her head. "Damn, I wish. But no," she chuckles.
She leans forward on the table as well and stares at Naomi with a smirk as she keeps thinking. "So less than twenty... eighteen? Nineteen?" Naomi asks.
Nisha holds up a finger and shakes her head. "Hey, that was two more guesses. You've used up all three," she winks.
Naomi groans and lays her head on the table. "Can't you tell me?" she mumbles. Nisha sighs and shrugs.
"Fine, only 'cause I like you." She takes another drink and sets the flagon down.
She smiles at Naomi. "Seventeen," she says.
Naomi perks up and stares at her again. "Wait, really? You're not even an adult yet?" she questions.
Nisha sighs and nods. "Shocked, I see," she chuckles. Naomi nods slowly.
"Yeah... kinda." She smiles and leans back in her chair.
Nisha cracks her neck to the side and sets her flagon down as she crosses her arms. "It's 'cause I'm so 'put together', right?" she asks.
Naomi shrugs. "I guess so. You seem strangely mature for your age," she says. Nisha nods her head slowly and sighs.
"Yeah, well, that's what this world'll do to ya if ya let it. It takes those who are down on their luck and uses their misfortune to shape them into whatever it wants, leaving you a completely different person in the end. At least, that's what those misfortunate people want you to believe." She takes a small drink.
Naomi looks at her sideways. "What do you mean?" she asks. Nisha nods towards the two drunk men again.
"Take the drunken idiots, for example. I'm sure they were normal people at one point or another. But like everyone, they probably had something bad happen to them and instead of facing it, they decided to throw their lives away to get wasted in whatever bar they could find next. But you can never tell that to them, no. Because they'll just say that it wasn't their fault. That 'fate' is to blame for the shithole their lives became,"
"But that's everyone's excuse. And if everyone always just blames 'fate' for every shitty thing that happens and for everything they do because of it, then no one is held accountable for the mistakes they make. What most people need to realize is that we are all flawed, and there is no greater power forcing our hand. We are just people. But it seems everyone would much rather be puppets to a master that doesn't exist, so that way it's not their fault when something goes wrong," she explains.
Naomi glances back at the men and then looks back at her. "But aren't there times when it actually isn't the person's fault? Like when someone they know... dies. That is out of their control."
Nisha sighs. "Yes, it's true that you can't always stop certain things from happening. But what people don't seem to get is that no one is forcing them to react to those things in such a negative way. If someone you love dies, it's natural to grieve for a time. You bounce back eventually. But it's in that grief that most people sit back and let 'fate' guide their hand, which leads them to make poor choices. Then they let 'fate' make every choice for them for the rest of their lives, so they aren't responsible for what they do. And it's idiocy like that that makes the world such a harsh place to live in."
Naomi stares at her curiously. "What about you? Why are you the way you are?" she asks. Nisha shrugs.
"I am the way I am because of the choices I made in life. I accept the bad things that've happened to me and move on. And I don't let people guided by 'fate' get in my way of living the life I want. And it's my choice to live today as if I'll die tomorrow, that way I am who I am and I don't have any regrets," she explains.
Naomi nods. "I think I understand. You seem to have your whole life figured out already," she chuckles.
Nisha smiles and shrugs again. "I actually don't. And that's what makes it fun," she says and leans back, stretching her arms over her head.
"Now, I think that's enough philosophical talk for one lifetime. Sorry, most people don't ask me about my perspective and I guess I got a bit excited. We should head out. There's a place I want to show you before we head back to the temple." She pushes the chair out behind her as she stands up and downs the rest of her drink.
Naomi gets up as well and steadies Nisha by holding her shoulder when she stumbles a little. "Sure you're good to walk?" she asks.
Nisha laughs and brushes her hand off. "Pfft! I ain't no lightweight. I'm only a little tipsy, I'll be fine. C'mon, let's hurry. I wanna get there before sunset." She grabs Naomi's hand again and rushes out the door of the tavern.
Nisha leads Naomi to the front of a massive stone church with towering wooden doors. They stare up at it in awe. At the top of the church is a tall bell tower that looks like it hasn't been used for a long time, but the church itself is still active.
Naomi looks to Nisha curiously. "What is this place?" she asks. Nisha grins.
"This is the church of Mazenya. My favorite place in all of Ecrin to hang out."
The Tus'Felnis smiles bright at the building and Naomi eyes her quizzically. "Your favorite place is a church? You don't seem like the religious type to me," she questions.
Nisha laughs. "Trust me, I'm not. I just find their religious practices... entertaining," she chuckles.
Naomi cocks a brow. "What do you mean?"
Before Nisha can answer, one of the purple stained-glass windows beside the door shatters and a large rat flies through, skidding on the cobblestone pavement of the street and scurrying off into a bush.
From the broken window, a man pokes his head out. "And stay out, you fucking knobhead!" he bellows and looks down to see Nisha and Naomi.
He smiles cheerfully and waves. "Oh! Hello Nashi, I didn't see you there!" He leaves the window and rushes over to open the door for them.
He stands in the entrance. "Welcome back! And you brought a friend! I didn't know you had any of those!" he chuckles.
Nisha sighs and rolls her eyes. "Again, Shon, it's Nisha. And this is Naomi. She's new and I'm just showing her around," she says with a grin.
Shon waves them inside and they enter the church. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Namoni! You both may stay as long as you like! The church of Mazenya is welcome to all. Well, aside from the rats... oh, and pigeons... filthy flying rats... too hard to reach," he grumbles.
Naomi glances from Nisha to him with uncertainty. "Um, thank you?" she says. Shon nods and turns into the church.
Nisha sighs. "Don't mind Shon Jon, he's just your local friendly lunatic, here to spread merriment among drunkards and nightmares among small children."
As Naomi and Nisha walk in as well, Naomi looks up towards the back of the massive room at the wall of stained glass that shows an image of a woman cloaked in black with long black hair, riding on the back of a massive duck while holding a dagger.
She looks back to Nisha, who is staring at her with a grin. "Don't ask me why she's worshipped so greatly in Aramora, she just is," Nisha says.
Naomi looks back up to the glass image. "Who even is she? Is she some kinda goddess?" she asks. Nisha shrugs.
"I've got no clue. And honestly, I don't think these priests know much either. All I know is that they are obsessed with their hilarious 'rituals' in honor of her."
Naomi looks back at her. "What rituals?" she asks.
Nisha's grin widens and she looks around the floor of the church until she spots a rat. Naomi watches as Nisha charges at the rat with determination and swiftly picks it up. She leans back and drops it right as she throws her foot forward and kicks it hard enough to send it flying through another window.
As the window shatters, Shon Jon and all the other priests in the church give a round of applause with monotone chanting of nonsensical gibberish.
She turns back to Naomi with a prideful smile. "They could do that all day and never get bored. I'm no priest, but if I were, this would be the only religion I could get behind. Drop kicking rats sure as hell beats prayers and holy verses in my opinion," she chuckles.
"Now, come on. I want to show you my favorite place in Ecrin, but it's a bit of a climb. Hope you don't mind heights?" she says.
Naomi shakes her head. "I'm fine with heights, don't worry. So, where are we going?" she asks.
Nisha waves her to follow. "This way."
Nisha leads her over to the back corner of the church, by the large stage beneath the stained-glass image of Mazenya. She grabs a wooden board that's blocking a small crawl space beneath the stage and lifts it up and lets Naomi crawl through before she follows.
She takes the lead and crawls through the dark space until they reach the wall. There is a small stack of discarded crates piled in the corner that Nisha pushes out of the way. Behind them is a small gap in the wood that she easily squeezes through. Naomi follows her into a narrow closed-off room with a broken spiral staircase leading high up above them.
Nisha jumps up and grabs a metal pole that's sticking out of the wall and uses it to pull herself up to a few broken steps. Naomi readies herself and copies her, joining her once she makes it up.
They repeat this until they reach the top of the broken staircase. Above them is an old trap door that Nisha pushes up on, opening it and pulling herself up. She turns around and reaches down to grab Naomi's hand, helping her up.
Naomi looks around to see that they are at the top of the bell tower. From here, they can see for miles over the coast of Ecrin all the way to New Cresthill, and to the left, they can see the Divine Temple atop the hill towering subliminally over the land. And to top it all off, the start of the sunset begins painting the sky orange and blue.
Nisha shuts the trap door and looks around as well. "Here we are. The best view in all of Ecrin," she smiles and starts walking over to the edge of the belfry and leaning forward on the rail.
Naomi joins her at her side and places her hands on the stone railing. "Holy shit... this is beautiful," she chuckles.
Nisha nods. "Yeah... I like to come here whenever I need to get away from Athemar and the Order and just think. Nothing can touch me up here. It's like my own little world," she says solemnly and looks to Naomi.
She studies the Tus'Felnis curiously. "Why did you bring me here?" Naomi asks. Nisha looks away again and sighs.
"I heard you talking to Athemar earlier about how you don't know if you want to stay in Aramora or not. I know the feeling all too well. I figured you could use some time to think, and maybe talk about it with someone less, well, 'Athemar'," she says.
Naomi looks over the city again. "Do you not trust Athemar?" she asks. Nisha shrugs.
"Maybe I do. Maybe I don't. It honestly doesn't matter. I've got no reason to feel one way or the other, which is how I tend to feel about most people. If they do something good, I'll appreciate it, and if they do something to purposely cause harm to others, I won't like it. No need to complicate things by labeling the way I feel about people into two categories of trust or mistrust. It's easier to take things at face value, at least it is for me."
Naomi nods. "I see... but don't you work for him? Do you never question what he has you do?" she asks. Nisha shakes her head.
"No, not really. He knows my limits and only asks me to do the tasks he knows I won't be bothered by. The only person in the Dev'al Ordon, or maybe in all of Aramora I think I can actually say I 'trust' is Magister Holloway, my adoptive father," she says.
Naomi looks back at her and stares at the side of her face. "A Magister of the High Order adopted you? I thought you said you're a mercenary he hired," she asks.
Nisha nods. "I am. He took me in two years ago after I had been left with nothing and made me useful by having me run tasks for him and the Order, and I was fine with it because he paid me to do it. The Order needed help and I needed the numis, so it worked out," she explains.
Naomi's eyes glance to the cat ears on top of Nisha's head before looking back at the side of her face again. "What... happened to your real parents?" she asks carefully.
Nisha chuckles and takes a deep breath. "They died in a shipwreck. I was born on the Orinas Sea to a family of pirates who had fled from Narvadin after the Orcs began invading our homeland and enslaving the Tus'Felnis. After the shipwreck, I somehow managed to survive and washed up on the shores of Aramora," she starts.
"I was found by some fisherman who didn't know what to do with me, so he brought me to the church of Maze. Shon Jon told him the Dev'al Ordon would know what to do with me, but they almost turned me away for being a Tus'Felnis. Magister Holloway said I could stay with him and he would help me fit in. I was so grateful that I offered to be a mercenary for him with the skills I learned from being a pirate. And now here I am, the washed-up mercenary of the Dev'al Ordon. Probably the only Tus'Felnis who has, or ever will be allowed within the Divine Temple," she explains and looks to Naomi.
She smiles. "But enough about me. I wanna know more about you. What was your life like in Eutria? I don't actually know all that much about it aside from the bare minimum I've been told by Athemar," she asks and twitches her ears.
Naomi sighs. "It was nothing special compared to you and this continent. I lost my dad in a burning building caused by a Hex raid..." She looks down.
Nisha tilts her head. "What's a 'Hex'?" she asks.
"They're like humans, only the Imperium, our government, ran weird experiments to make them like those 'superheroes' you read about in books and comics. They have these unique abilities and most use them to push around those who don't have them; the normal humans like me and my friends, and my dad..." she sighs again.
"After he died... my mom just... changed. I rarely saw her sober, if I saw her at all. Most days she was just sitting around bars, trying to forget. I kept going to school and using that to distract myself. My friends helped me out in that time. But just recently... my... my mom died in a car accident because she was driving drunk... I wanted an escape. I guess I found it." She looks out over the city again.
Nisha nods slowly and looks down. "So, you want to stay so you can escape from it all, huh?" she asks. Naomi shrugs.
"I guess so... but my friends are waiting for me back home. I can't just leave them because I'm too afraid to go back to a world that's falling apart. I don't know what to do." She slumps forward in defeat.
Nisha glances at her. "Yes, you do. You just don't want to admit it because you think it makes you selfish. There's nothing you have to do. There's only what you choose to do. If you want to stay in Aramora, then do it. Live the life you want and not the life that others expect you to live. Do that, and you'll have no regrets. Live today as if you'll die tomorrow. That way you can make sure that you'll die happy. At least that's my plan, and it's served me well so far." She smiles knowingly.
Naomi looks back at her and returns the smile with a small one of her own. Nisha sighs.
"Just something to think about. You've still got plenty of time before you have to choose what you want to do, so be sure to think about it carefully with the time you have. Athemar's expecting you and your group to head out on this quest by tomorrow afternoon, so take tonight to rest so you can start tomorrow with a clear head. I hope you'll realize what it is you want out of this." She pushes off from the rail and stretches, her tail swishes in the dust.
Naomi turns and faces her. "Are you not coming with us to find these fragments?" she asks. Nisha shakes her head.
"Nope. I've gotta head to Arkala to start digging up information on whoever this man is that will be coming to Aramora in search of the rift. I have to leave tonight if I wanna get there within the next few days," she sighs and watches as Naomi's face shifts to slight disappointment.
Nisha smiles. "Once you and the others are done in Balmoral, maybe you can head to Arkala next. We can grab a drink and catch up again. This was fun," she offers.
Naomi smiles back and nods. "That sounds great," she says.
Nisha chuckles. "Perfect. So, it's a date." She winks with a cheeky grin. Naomi rolls her eyes and looks away.
Nisha yawns and looks around at the sky to see the sun has set further and the orange glow has deepened. She nods to herself.
"Right then. I've gotta start getting ready, and you need to rest for tomorrow. This is probably the last time I'll see you before you reach Arkala, so I'll just say this now: it's your life to do with as you want. Don't let anyone stop you from choosing what that is. Not even your friends, and definitely not 'fate'. All I know is that Athemar is putting a lot of faith in you to save Aramora, but make sure you're helping for the right reasons. Don't always just do as you're told. Do as you want." She turns and walks back over to the trap door, pulling it open.
She glances back at Naomi with a smile. "Whatever you choose... just be sure you're happy. No one can control that but you."
Naomi watches Nisha slip through the trap door and out of sight. She sighs and turns around to look over the city one last time before she has to head back to the Temple.
"Live today as if I'll die tomorrow..."