A night out

As Alexis left her burrow, night had thrown its dark curtain over the city. Which suited her fine, it would help to conceal her features. Communication, it would appear, wasn’t going to be an issue anymore.

As much as these things happening to her continued to scare the shit out of her, she would readily admit - she did appreciate this particular ‘gift’. It was a cage in itself not to be able to understand the people around oneself. She had been trying to pick up some of local languages when she had the chance for exactly that reason.
Alexis wondered if this boon was limited to Ozainae? Or was there actually a chance she could understand Odon or the Odsiers’ language as well?
Maybe she would even find out one day.

For here and now, however, it meant no less than that she could move a whole lot more freely. She should enjoy that while she could.

With that in mind, when she neared the central plaza, Alexis decided this was not where she would spent this night. The place brimmed with religious zeal and the weight of ages. But she had been buried in times gone by and long lost secrets of faith for days now.
It was time to return to the present for a change, and to things more simple, if only for a few hours.

Holy or not. This was a city inhabited by people of all kinds, and she knew most people could not live on faith alone. There had to be places to enjoy the mundane. To enjoy being alive, here and now.

Alexis wandered around the edge of the plaza, where numerous believers seemed to have more or less set up camp in expectation of something. It had to have something to do with the Wandering. The ceremony was likely at an important stage. No matter. Not now.

Looking into the numerous streets and alleys leading to and fro the temple, she found one rather well maintained, and, more importantly, well travelled. She took a chance and joined the folks that wandered north.

As she let herself be led away from the parts of the city she had come to know so far, she could see that this was where the residents lived, as in lived, day to day, not just singing praises to the Twins.

The houses were well maintained and felt inhabited, flowers here, some laundry there, a toy forgotten for the night, to be retrieved the next day. And much less pomposity.
She liked it.

Music in the air caught her attention. It lacked the gravity of religious hymns. Instead it carried a sense of levity, something that with a slightly different rhyme and rhythm could have been easily heard in a tavern of Ostiarium or anywhere else, really. The kind of music that wanted nothing but supply to a good, fun night.

Alexis could see a lot of lights up ahead, and could hear the telltale sounds of a crowd enjoying their night out in town. It seemed she had found her way to where the people of Gra‘akast went to have a good time.