Strange Meetings

JP with Lorem and Omni

Soliam Farm

Gonyaul relaxed a little as he saw the Arbiter give pause. He calculated that there was ample distance now between them to evade if necessary.

Did she just call him a rabbit? He couldn’t help but smirk as his imagination reminded him of an inside joke, triggered by her nickname, from home.

He performed a customary ceremonial bow with appropriate sign language. It was a greeting of blessing. The only difference, was normally you would look down out of humility and respect; however, she was obviously too dangerous to take his eyes off her.

“Gonyaul” he replied as he raised back up.

“And you name?” He politely asked. He had heard her official title and name before, who hadn’t in Ostiarium? Gonyaul believed one wasn’t formally introduced though until you gave your name to another from your own lips.

This fellow was odd indeed. She couldn’t place his accent and it was very curious that he was not even aware of her name.

She tilted her head, considering him. She was more relaxed now that the man was speaking, especially with formalities of his own way, with which she was unfamiliar.

“Arbiter Voah Sahnsuur.” she said with a slight nod, her eyes not leaving his. “Are you… not familiar with the Pillars?” she squinted, analyzing his reaction.

Panic set in, but was abated when his prefrontal cortex grabbed hold of his reaction just in time to command himself to remain calm. Right from the start she asked a potentially self incriminating question. He was principle bound to always tell the truth. And the truth was he knew of them and his beliefs on them were obviously not going to align with the Arbiter.

He inquired, “What you think best to know of them?” He had a genuine curious look on his face wondering what she would choose to say when asked to simplify the Pillars down to its fundamental building block.

"In this circumstance, I think that if you know of the Pillars, then you ought to know of me."

She gave it a thought. She hadn't been altogether present for the last month in Ostiarium. He was either native to Arcadia, lived on the outskirts of town... or lived under a rock.

"Are you from one of the local tribes?"

Interesting. Neither one of them really answered the other’s question. He chose to respond with a question and she redirected with her response. Gonyaul decided to anchor her response, in the conversation though, in the hopes his lack of answering would go unnoticed.

“I know you.” He smiled and nodded for she literally just gave him her name and title. In addition, he had indeed heard of her and seen her before from a distance.

“and I do not know you.” He paused to think of the words while simultaneously hoping that she would cut him a little slack for obviously not being completely fluent.

He continued, “We just met.”

Her second question was much more palpable. And it was interesting. He did not have any interactions with other tribes in Arcadia yet.

“No. Came on boat.”

Gonyaul wanted to try an attempt at steering the conversation instead of letting her control it. So he went to the same question he was notorious for asking everyone.

“What your story?” He wasn’t trying to be difficult he sincerely wanted to hear it.

Was he joking? Maybe her brain was still messed up from the fever. Generally, she was able to get a good read on people but this man seemed to be all over the place. There was something innocent about him... childlike.

"You are so... odd." she said slightly shaking her head in confusion, letting her guard down. "I'm afraid if you want my 'story', you'll have to wait. I asked you a question first, what is your part in all of this?"

At this point she was getting distracted from the gathering of people.

Gonyaul nodded. That was fair. He typically got a variety of responses to that question ranging from full disclosure to harsh rejection. He would have to wait, though he could not imagine at the moment why he would ever find himself in the Arbiter's presence again after he was finally dismissed from these investigation events.

He signed thank you. He mistranslated odd to mean different. And he thought that being different than others was a compliment.

What was his part in all of this? An innocent bystander that was trying to be helpful, but got dragged into a complete mess, then thrust into harms way, and finally passed around from one guard detail to the next. He was silent as he thought about formulating his response.

“I get sap from tree with picture and bring to Cagliostro shop. Then I help Islana questions. Then show her, Jhin, and Alexis picture tree in forest. Try get clues at Kane, then man try to kill me. Guard take me to keep in chains and make me take bath. Dragged me to docks to find man and gave me to you. Now here.”

Recognizing the familiar names, she straightened up now and nodded. He knew Alexis? He seemed to be telling the truth, at least as he saw it and there was no sense of deception or hostility toward her. Voah was more confident now that the man was not part of some elaborate trick to bait her into the dark of the night. The poor guy had been passed around and not treated very well from the sound of it. She swallowed her nerves and steeled herself, relaxing her grip on her sword and looking back toward the people to make sure she hadn't lost sight of Hunter or the cultist.

Gonyaul released some tension he was still clinging onto after their conversation. He felt relief wash over him even more when her grip on the sword loosened and she felt comfortable enough to turn her attention back to the other gentleman they came with. A few moments passed and Gonyaul slowly moved closer to also get a better view. He was still mindful of his distance, just out of sword reach. The moment was simple, but it was a productive step closer to trust.

Voah watched Hunter joining the group next to the fire. “You seem nervous, Gonyaul?” the inflection was on his name, she wasn’t sure if she was saying it right.

Voah was pretty close to the pronunciation of his name. Her emphasis on the syllables was just a little off. Of course it wasn’t his actual name. His real name was Gonyaul’vaux and when you took the latter half off it just wasn’t right. But he had grown used to the truncated version.

He politely corrected her, showing how to make the accented sound and pitch changes by exaggerating the coordination of his mouth and tongue and the tone of his voice respectively.

“Gaw-nee-y’all”

He nodded to her question. “I am.”

He looked her in the eyes, his eyes were rich with empathy.

“You nervous too?”

Turning the question back at her with his doe eyes made Voah look away for a moment toward their quarry. Then she looked back with a quick cock of the eyebrow and a sort of sad smile.

“With good reason.” she said.

A normal person probably would have left her response alone. Gonyaul was too curious for that.

“What reason?”

It was an easy and honest answer…

“I would be a fool not to be nervous... in a new world beset by criminals, thieves and killers… being a target for all witches and heretics…”

She went silent for a moment then, thinking back on the ship from Sentinel Island. An ancient enemy returned to the world, magik abound, now a cult shrouded in mystery…

Something moved in the distance and Voah knew it was time to act, there was fighting between the men near the fire.

She couldn’t make out who was who anymore, the darkness had fallen and they were silhouettes in front of the fire. Before he knew it, Voah sank swiftly into the darkness toward the crowd leaving Gonyaul unceremoniously behind.

Gonyaul lost sight of her quickly after she departed towards the fire. He noticed the fighting taking place around the fire with the other man. He seemed to be winning.

Was he expected to wait? Was he supposed to follow? What he supposed to fight? He went against his better judgment and ventured closer; however, he was hoping not to engage with anyone.