An Unexpected Reunion [ A Log ]

[Arman Asinius]

x- it was just after nine at night. the doctor had been off for most of the day, giving his heroic aid to some distant plant which was most likely in some distant time. but that was alright with catherine, because she had been spending a lot of time in the water lately. whenever she was in the water, the mermaid form and the cool of the water eased the churning of her stomach that had still yet to cease. her and the baby - who wasn't so much a baby these days and more a toddler just over two and a half years old - had been in the pool for four hours before the very energetic boy had finally tired himself out. he was now laying on the side of the pool on a towel on his stomach, naked as a jaybird and snoring happily. catherine was currently in the shallow end, sitting on the second to last stair. her tail was stretched out in front of her, catherine swishing it back and forth as her head rested against the railing. her bikini top was a deep blue, and her hair was down, peppered with small sapphires and rubies. it floated gracefully on the surface of the water behind her, a sheen as if it was lit by moonlight -x


-- Lit not by the moon, but enshrouded in the shadow just inside the door to the indoor pool and just beside a shaft of moonlight stood Arman. He blended well with the darkness, in dark gray calfskin boots and like gray pinstriped slacks, a black silk dress shirt and gray evening coat. His hair was long and fell about his shoulders in sable locks. Standing still and in silence, he watched her; his gaze was piercing, and yet touched her not, looking forth from listless solid black eyes, framed in stark contrast against a recherche bronze complexion and blush red lips. While she swam, and while she settled her son he watched her. Then he took two silent steps forward out of shadow and into light, and from the silence a sound came: a note. With the voice of one of the Choir, though tainted always by an ever-present, sharp, subtle hiss, Arman sang. It was an old song to an old melody, and its sound was the rolling sea. "It was Friday morn when we set sail, and we were not so far from the land, when our captain, he spied a mermaid so fair, with a comb and a glass in her hand." Only the slightest pause, and he took another two steps toward Catherine, and sang part of the chorus when he stopped. "Oh, the ocean waves do roll, and the stormy winds do blow. We old sailors are skipping at the top, while the landlubbers lie down below, below, below, oh, the landlubbers lie down below." And then he smiled, only the slightest curve of his lips, but warm almost as though to thaw the chill of his void gaze. "Catherine." --


x- she shrieked. only a mermaid could make a shriek of fear sound so pleasing to the ears, even if catherine certainly didn't mean to make a pleasing sound. with the pool usually empty besides her she obviously wasn't expecting anyone but her husband, and that certainly wasn't her husband singing. she couldn't help her instinct, which was to lunge forward in the water and beat her tail once hard to get her to the side of the pool where the baby was sleeping. to be close enough to protect him, if she needed to. who the heck in the inn would she need to protect the baby from? motherly instincts were just that - reflexed without logic. it was when she was at the side of the pool where the baby just stirred a little and sighed in his sleep at the sound of the singing that catherine calmed down enough to turn to see who it was, and she looked...well...she looked very very confused. "L ... lucius?" it was said uncertainly. like she was making that guess at his name. it had been a very long time since she'd seen him last. "what...?" are you doing here, probably would have been the rest of the question if her confusion didn't make her lose her words and trail off. -x

-- Her instincts served her well enough, considering. And for all the commotion, the Fallen stood with impeccable composure and sung the while. The smile on his lips grew; perhaps unnoticed, perhaps not. It was a subtle thing, as most things about him were want to be. "Arman. It is time again that I use it, but call me as you will, Catherine." Walking forward again, he crossed the water, walking above it though his feet seemed confused between smoke and substance, and he seemed to glide rather than walk. When he made it to the side where Catherine sat with her child, some several feet away still along the side, he sat down; one leg outstretched, the other bent, and one arm behind him to hold him up. It was the picture of easy repose, and he retained perfect posture still. "What am I doing here," he finally asked for her, with his voice of damnation set to gentle music, honey-sweet acid dripping from his lips. "My latest work has me too often in an intolerable environment. It is almost an embarrassment, to play along such as I have cause to do. It demeans me, should such a thing be possible." There was nothing in his tone to suggest that such a possibility in fact existed. "So I am here, where such a pretense is unnecessary, and where there are yet those with whom I would speak, and visit. Some, such as yourself, Catherine. How are you?" --

x- lucius - no, arman - was a strange sort of person, and while catherine didn't remember everything about their conversations she did know that he wasn't a normal sort of person in the least. but then she reminded herself as he walked towards her on the water that there were a lot of people in this area of rhy'din who were not the usual sort of people and what was usual anyway? he had never mistreated her, that was the important thing, so she relaxed about protecting the baby. her webbed fingers stroked down her son's bare back lightly, and then she petted lightly through his hair. the baby sighed again, murmuring something that wasn't recognizable from his dreams. "if it wasn't a chlorinated pool, i would have just let him sleep underwater..." catherine said that softly as she smiled down at her son. "i've been a bit sick lately, but it's staring to get better arman thank you for asking." it felt strange calling him arman when he'd been lucius to her, but she was doing it to be polite since that was the name he was going by now. her sickness was twofold - her blood sugar levels not being stable, and morning sickness. she was three months pregnant, if arman could sense that sort of thing. "intolerable environment?'" -

-- "Sick," he queried, lifting a brow into a coolly inquisitive arch. "How words do change, for not changing themselves at all. Sick." It was a knowing smile then, not given to her, but reflecting his own mood and thoughts. "I do hope you fare well, maiden of the sea. Please - Lucius suits me as well as the name that I have taken; it was mine at birth. You honor me by it." Her discomfort was as easy to discern as was the cause for her morning sickness, but Arman was one for manners above much. "Intolerable, yes," he went on, and with a nod. "I must feign as though to have not those abilities of birth and gift as I have, all for the bother of some mage long dead; commendable, for its nature. That stands without mention of the clothes everyone wears. Visible proof enough it should be that tailors and style were born of necessity and not of whim, but that seems too difficult a lesson for those who live there to grasp. Narrow vision shows only that upon which the gaze is cast." Arman sniffed in disdain and mild irritation. "And yet," he said, an acid smile on his lips, "it is for a whim that I wear blinders myself." He did not laugh; it was not the place or time, nor was the company right for such a beautiful horror. "Do you enjoy your environment, Catherine?" --

- "oh i'll be fine it's just the pregnancy, morning sickness and that stuff..." catherine said that sheepishly with a bit of a shy grimace, stealing a brief glance at him before looking back at her son, sinking down in the water a bit as she watched him sleep. "what kind of place would ask you to lie?" catherine seemed shocked to hear that such a place even existed. "my environment?" she asked the second question with a bit of confusion. "this environment you mean here?" asked uncertainly as she looked around this room that housed the indoor pool. "well...well it's a pool. and it's not that i don't like pools, i used to spend so very much time in pools when i was racing and training and all of that but really since, well you know, since things changed," or she changed rather, blossomed into the mermaid that he was speaking to at the moment, "i really do prefer fresh or saltwater really but i was feeling very ill earlier so i knew i wouldn't be able to walk to the waterfall so this had to do...." and all of that was probably not even the answer to the question he was actually asking! -x

-- So rare a thing, but a genuine smile of true gladness, impressed and pleased, found his face. "Sharp eyes, to see so well in the dark. The place does not ask me to lie, but is a thief and seeks to rob all who enter into it. Should you enter within its boundaries, any clothes and articles not made by hand would cease to exist, and any powers arcane or supernatural, should they be not inherent and involved with the self, are blunted, if not altogether robbed. It is a place where people who would be heroes go to find what they bring with them, though they know it not one. And one, one knows too little indeed of what he brings with him; it is to the repair of that ignorance that I have set myself to task. And a tool I can wield him not, and stand him but so long." A wry chuckle, dry and twisted sounded from his chest, from some place deep within him, and the laugh was devoured quickly by the hiss that snaked with and around it. "You are a cool drink, a respite." And then he laughed again, this time softly, the hiss subdued, and it was for her that he laughed; the prelude to an offer. "May I take you to the falls? If they will do you good, then I assure you that I do not mind. A better environment, though I was asking after your home." --

x- "oh." all of what he said about the land and the robbing of powers and the ignorance, and that was all catherine had to say in reply. she wasn't quite sure she got the full of his meaning, but she had a general sense of the point he was trying to make. "well. i may not like sharing what i am with everyone that i meet, but i certainly wouldn't give up being as i should be in the water for any land or person or anything." there was a slight indignance to how she said that, a bit of her redheaded spunk showing. as for his offer, she was tempted but there was a very telling glance at her son, "i shouldn't move the baby...if he wakes up he'll be up for hours, and then his sleep schedule gets all strange and we're really trying to make sure he sleeps properly and doesn't pick up his father's habit of not sleeping..." catherine pushed away from the edge of the pool, rolling onto her stomach and swishing her tail with slow smooth grace to swim back and forth around the general area arman was in, skimming over the top of the water with her hair flowing behind her. "my home is lovely, though tick took it with him to check on a distant planet at the moment, but we also have a room here at this inn which is where we stay when he's out on a mission..." -x

-- The redheaded spunk was met with an appreciative smirk, her explanation with a nod, and the elucidation upon her living arrangements with a smile. It was a soft smile, perfectly drawn over his lips; charm. "Yes, of course. Your home is considerably more ... portable than most, and in its own way can be anyplace, at any time. I suppose that sort of thing has its uses." Arman stood then, dusted off his pants (there was nothing on them), and bent his head in a nod rather akin to a bow. "Catherine, I am going now; I will look for you again soon, so please expect me. I hope you look forward to our next meeting as much as do I. And never, never give up being as you should be. That, is death." His pontification held a bitter note, and brought with it its own hiss. The smile that followed purposefully, and elegantly deliquesced the edge. With no more than that, turned back towards the door, and disappeared into the shadow before ever getting that far. --