Elementally Bound: Part 11
----- Diplomacy -----
Valandra was completely out of sorts, and not just due to her lack of wardrobe. Seeing this many people-certainly living people-put her in an uneasy state. It was the complete opposite of the cold, dead, necrotic crows she was used to. Here, vacationers laughed and chased each other around the lagoon, Char and Norn drank under a tented feast on the beachfront, and a crowd further down could be heard playing music and singing.
Ember's stomach growled and she groaned. "By the gods, I'm hungry!" Had it been under different circumstances, she would have enjoyed the festivities, even took a passing interest in the skimmers she'd seen racing around the lagoon. But, her stomach had other ideas, and loudly let her know. She salivated over the smells in the air. "We gotta get some food!"
"Um… Yeah, we do. But, I wonder… How exactly are we to pay for such? I used the last coin I held purchasing the jerky from the sailor on the beach, and emptied our stomachs of that earlier."
"Ugh! Don't remind me," Ember groaned. "Maybe we can start a line of credit or something."
Valandra rolled her sapphires. "You would just love this, yes? Me being indebted to you." She looked around at the haggling merchants and customers, then raised an eyebrow at a thought. "Perhaps we should simply lay waste to these vendors; take what we require?"
Her monotone was sincere and Ember couldn't tell if this was meant as a joke or a possibility. She shook her head. "That wouldn't get us very far. There's a lot of people here, and we probably don't want to draw attention to ourselves like that."
"Perhaps your right," she said, leaning into Ember's argument as the reason, but the ice queen looked around at the peaceful vacationers longingly. "Slaughtering these people for our own nourishment would most decidedly not be subtle."
"Well come on, then, miss dark ice queen."
The two meandered through the crowds, inspecting various meals and meats offered by vendors. Fruit was considered, but sustenance for their empty stomachs point them both to an Asuran merchant grilling fish in a corner of the bazar.
Valandra curled her lip. "If I never see another Asura again," she mumbled.
Ember approached him, bent down to his level, and asked in the most sincere way she knew if they could have something. Valandra folded her arms at the humiliating display. The Asura simply laughed.
"Do you expect me to just hand out food to every half-naked bookah that approaches me? You are the fourth today to claim to be some kinda noble person that can 'pay me back when they get home.' Are all humans so clueless as to societal norms. There's a monetary system for a reason, you know! Show me gold or festival coin and we'll talk. Otherwise, move out of the way and make room for customers that actually pay!"
Valandra chuckled. "Are all your kind so ill-tempered?"
The Asura looked at the towering Valandra with a haughty expression. "Are all your kind so slow?"
Embers narrowed eyes flashed red and her head began to smoke. "Listen here you little shit. Either take credit for this or I torch all of your product." Her hand burst into flame.
Valandra rolled her eyes and sighed. There had been very few times in her life when Valandra needed to be diplomatic. Under the tutelage of Joko, one learned to simply take what you want. Whether it be the excitement and hustle of the bazar, or something else entirely, it was fortunate this happened to be one of those times; the ice queen was in a negotiating mood.
She reached over calmly and collectedly doused Ember's flames with a light spray. "Such things get us nowhere… Remember?"
Ember wrinkled her nose, cradled her smoking hand, bitterly tasting her own words.
"While we are standing here, there is a line forming behind us and I have seen several of your would-be patrons now go elsewhere. Just give us food and this 'bookah' and her hot-tempered companion will be on their way. Or, perhaps I should let her show you how to cook all your food at once?"
The Asura held up his hands, exhausted by their threats. "Fine! There's plenty of fish in the sea. I can restock quicker than…"
Neither woman paid attention. They each gathered sack-loads of food, not stopping to ask the merchant anything more. Silently they slipped away, spoils in tow and found a secluded corner to devour their loot.
"That was unusual for me," Valandra said, half-stretching as she sat on a bench. "Diplomacy… Is not really my strong suit. While I may be cool headed and calculating…" She paused when Ember snickered at the pun and rolled her eyes.
Ember took out a piece of meat, cooked it in her hand, then ate the piping fish. "You know," she said, her mouth full, "Demitra would have sided with me; she sided with me in Amnoon."
Valandra retrieved a piece of fish as well, stared at it with an unappetizing frown, clearly not excited to eat the raw meat. "What do you mean Demi sided with you?"
"When in Amnoon, the banker tried to keep our stuff. I came at him the same way I was about to threaten the merchant, and Demitra totally had my back. She didn't… contradict me." Ember tossed a small chuck of meat in the air, sprayed a cone of flame over it, then caught it in her mouth.
Valandra raised an eyebrow at the woman's actions. "Here. Be useful." She shoved her slab of meat to Ember, then watched as the woman cooked it with a breath of fire.
"See? You do need me!"
"Yes; I solely need you to cook my food. I could cook my own food if I had your powers. Well, if I had more power than whatever this little spark is." She snapped a finger to make a very tiny flame appear, which quickly dispersed.
Ember giggled, finishing another piece of fish and winked at the woman. "You also think I'm cute."
Valandra sighed. "Look… what happened in the tent…" She clearly had difficulty finding the words.
"Yeah, yeah. It was the suit's fault. I know."
"Yeah, the suit…" Valandra stared at her fish, then took a bite and was pleasantly surprised at the taste.
Ember smirked. "Normally, I'd offer to season it, but… you know: given that I'm almost naked, I have very little pouches to store such things." She stared at the woman for a hint of a smile at the joke. When none came, Ember sympathetically sighed. "Look… You know I'm just teasing you, right?" She said softly.
"It's just… I haven't done that in such a long time. Well, at least not willingly… not since… Demi."
Ember wanted to reach out to her, but didn't want to provoke the woman. Instead she simply scooted closer on the adjacent bench. "I… I'm sorry for these horrible things… I wish such horrible things wouldn't happen to people like us. But, I mean… Okay, so it was the suits. So what? It was… I mean, at least I thought it was pretty… intense." Her head inadvertantly caught fire.
Valandra looked up and chuckled. "You want me to douse that too?"
"No… No thanks, I got it," Ember blushed, tried to wave the flame away, when a sudden stream of water landed on her. "Hey!" Ember squealed. The ice queen was standing, holding her finger like a water gun, laughing the entire time. "S-Sto…p," Ember tried to battle the downpour, eventually laughing herself. Giving up the futility of fighting the stream, she sprung from the bench, leaped at Valandra, and began to deploy a countermeasure: tickling.
Ember giggled and ran after her. "Oh no you don’t! Not when I've just found your weakness!"
The two chased each other up the ramps of the cliff's gorge, giggling and laughing as they passed other vacationers. Valandra ran until she came to an embankment, stumbled down into a small pool below with laughter and for the first time in a while, joy. Ember followed behind, teasing the woman, finally pouncing on her like a predator.
"Ah!" Valandra pulled herself from Ember's ticklish grip, retreated back into the pond's waterfall. She grinned. "You wouldn't dare step in here!"
"Hey! That's cheating!" Ember grumbled.
Valandra stuck out her tongue, her icy blue eyes squinting a taunting, alluring gaze.
Ember looked the woman up and down as the water cascaded off her form. She was beautiful in a sensually commanding way, and she blushed at the sight. She took in a big gulp, and with a wince, stepped into the waterfall. The ice queen was frozen in shock and Ember took advantage. She latched her arms around the woman. "Gotcha!" she said playfully.
With a thin seductive smile, Valandra pulled the woman close; their bodies steamed as they touched. "And what if I just decide to freeze this waterfall with you in it?"
Looking into the woman's eyes was like staring into crystals and Ember melted under their gaze. She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to the ice queen's, who returned it.
The couple stood, locked in embrace. They could have been frozen in the waterfall; the moment lasted a lifetime.
Valandra pulled back slightly, and smiled now plump thick lips. Her skin turned to a deeper caramel, her blue eyes turned to emerald, and her hair grew to become auburn locks. Her features rearranged themselves to morph into Demitra. The water suddenly shifted, turning into a waterfall made of sand; the pool in which they stood was a mound of sand.
Demitra's voice called out to Ember, her voice very barely audible. She brought her hand to her own throat, revealing shackles upon her wrists. She tried again to speak, yet the only word Ember could ascertain was, 'close'.
In Valandra's eyes it was Ember who changed into her ex; the only word spoken was in Elonian. She shook her head in disbelief and bewilderment. "D-Demi?"
Ember gasped. "Demitra!" She reached out, grasping at the woman, desperate to believe. "Close? Close to what? Tell me!"
Suddenly both women became their respective selves. Ember blinked in confusion. She would have cried had she not been so shocked.
"Did you… Did you see this too? Demitra?" Valandra was holding her head, glancing around, trying to regain her bearings. "She… She was here. Did you see?"
Ember nodded slowly. "I did… S-she said something… something about being close? Was she close? Were we close? I… I don't know what she meant; that's all I heard: close."
Valandra shook her head. "I had… difficulties understanding her too. There… There appeared to be sand-lots of sand. Elona perhaps? I… I am uncertain." She wandered away from Ember, absently trying to put the puzzle together.
"What did she say?" Ember prodded, following alongside the woman, insistently.
"The only word I could hear was something in Elonian; the word for 'trapped'," she said, her voice almost a reverent whisper.
Ember forced her hand into Valandra's to give it a squeeze. "Look… Let's… Let's just do this together, okay? Let's just find what you sensed. Somehow she's tied to all this… somehow." Her voice was purposefully confident, even though Ember's own reassuring smile was transparent.
Valandra looked down at their folded hands. In this moment of playful fun, whether the spirit of this place, the festival, or even something to do with the accident, she'd found something within she never realized she missed. Leaving this spot meant the moment would be over, and part of her, the part usually encased in ice, didn't want it to end. The other wanted nothing more than to rid herself of the feeling and rid herself of Ember. Valandra's actions landed somewhere in between. Her fingertips stayed with Ember's for the last possible second, as she slowly walked ahead.
"So where do we go?" Ember asked anxiously.
"Above us; the summit of this cliff." Her brow furrowed as she walked under the lanterns hanging from the cave ceiling.
"Don't like the décor?" Ember teased, not understanding the woman's expression.
Valandra frowned. "What I wish is to have a solid plan. Following visions, following a path I feel as though I do not control… It's like being back in Joko's bone palace. I was only allowed to come on this excursion because the god-king believed it to be to his benefit. Otherwise, I was consistently under his decrepit thumb… among other things," her voice trailed off.
Ember raised an eyebrow, then came to understand, inadvertantly letting out a disgusted, "Ew." She covered her mouth. Social graces and subtlety were never her strong suit and she hadn't meant to be rude. "I mean… Hey, listen: You're not his anymore! Right? I mean, this is how we do it; this is how we beat that monster. We save Demitra, and we go after that walking jerky!"
A chuckle came from the ice queen. "You've… been thinking of that joke all afternoon, haven't you?"
"N-No!" Ember scoffed, her cheeks were red indicating the opposite: the pun did, in fact, take her most of the day.
The two continued ascending the maze-like path to the top of the cliff, casually exchanging banter. On more than one occasion, Ember got on Valandra's nerves; on more than one occasion the ice queen threatened to freeze the woman in various ways.
"Are we close?" Ember asked as they reached the summit. It was the fifth time she'd asked.
Valandra looked around, as if trying to feel which way the wind blew. "It's… It's odd, actually. I spent so long tracking down the source of the fire power you hold; however, this pull is something much more… direct." She shook her head a bit. "We are close though. It feels as though the source is… somewhere under the tent ahead."
Without a word, Ember was on the move to the goal. Valandra's caution landed on deaf ears: the woman charged forth with little hesitation. Yet, upon arriving under the tent, she stood baffled. Before her lay an assortment of goods, and various merchants picking up wares to stow for the day. Ember tilted her head at the site. It was much like the bazar they'd just left, except objects now sat in place of foods from the beach below them. "What the hell? Is it one of the merchants?"
Valandra glided up beside her, looked around then zeroed in on a table with various goods. "I know this is going to sound strange, but… I think the pull is from…" She leaned close to Ember, keeping her voice low. "I think it is a some-'thing' not a some-'one'."
Ember groaned. "Oh it better not be another lamp!"
"A lamp? What do you mean?" Valandra skimmed the items, found a lamp and approached.
"Yeah! We went to this cave and there was a lamp there… It's that place I was telling you about on the boat; Demitra and I were there, and these things popped out of the lamps. Here; observe!" Ember snatched the lamp and vigorously began rubbing it.
Valandra blinked. She didn't know whether to laugh or if Ember was, indeed, being sincere.
The merchant, an Asura, finished with a customer then hurried over to the women. "Put that down!" he exclaimed, irritation already in his nasally voice.
Ember handed over the lantern unceremoniously, ignoring the Asura, continued perusing the table. "Well, it was worth a try, I guess. Just pick up stuff and rub it."
"R-Rub stuff?" the merchant interjected. "You shall not!"
Red eyes flashed at the Asura. "I'll torch you if you try to stop me! You have something we need, rat. I'm not above burning you and just taking it!" Ember threatened.
Valandra sighed an icy breath. "Quiet, fire-head. That got us nowhere before, remember?"
Ember scoffed. "Then you go use your newfound diplomatic powers." She continued madly rubbing various objects.
The Asura continued complaining. "You can't possibly even afford anything I sell; you obviously don't know value when you see it! Damned bookah cretons!"
"Oh, of course it had to be an Asura," Valandra said under her breath. She crouched down, stared at the Asura behind reflective azure eyes. "You say we do not know value? Nothing I see here is worth the value you claim. My… friend here… can tell. It's why she's inspecting the merchandise. So why don't you show off that which you find most valuable here, and we'll be the judge. Who knows? You may even make a cool profit. Despite our appearance, our bank accounts are quite full."
The little Asura glanced to Ember, then back to Valandra. "Well, fine. But tell her to stop touching everything! She's getting bookah-prints all over everything! It'll tarnish the shine!" He wobbled past Ember, snatching the latest test object from her. Then he waved an assistant over, who he shouted some orders at. The young Asura came with a chest she could barely hold. Runes covered its surface, nullification sigils etched on it to ward off thievery.
Ember almost bit her lip. A nod from Valandra echoed the words 'stay cool-headed' to her. "Let us see then, so we know you're not cheating us."
"I'll show you, but you should know: I've spared no expense with the protection of this item. Your rubbing little bookah flame hands won't touch it unless I give you the unlock rune!"
"Just open it already!" Valandra said, tired of the delays, tired of the banter, tired of Asuran merchants and their snarky attitudes.
The merchant grinned at the woman's impatience; it could only mean the simpletons were desperate for the power the object possessed, and that translated into profit. He traced something unseen on the back of the chest. A white light came from each engraving upon the box as the chest top slowly creaked open. Both women leaned forward in unison, peering into the box.
Inside was an indigo-lined velvet sheet, indented in the middle. The gossamer lining surrounded two intricate fingerless gloves, affixed to golden blades running alongside their length, attached with leather straps.
Valandra cocked her head to the side, trying to make sense of it. "This? Just gloves?"
"Oh, these are not simple bracers; they contain powers beyond anything you've seen! And they can be yours for only 4,600 festival tokens!"
Ember stared at the gloves, instantly recognizing them, could barely bring herself to speak. When she did, it was barely audible. "D-Demitra's gloves…"
Valandra hadn't heard, continued arguing with the merchant. "Festival tokens? Are you serious? And for these? Do you really expect us to… Powers beyond…" She began to laugh.
The Asura bared his teeth. "Yes, festival tokens! It's the universal currency accepted here! And the price just went up to 5,000! And, that's still practically a steal!"
"Ember, can you believe this? This skritt is taking us for fools!" She glanced over to Ember; the seriousness on her face made Valandra abruptly stop laughing.
The Asura snapped the lid shut. "Or, perhaps you'd just like to rub some more generic wares?"
Ember shook a flaming fist. "Those belonged to someone dear to me, you thief!"
"Ah, yes! But I'll be a rich thief, at that! I'll have enough to buy my way into the Eternal Alchemy!" The Asura was beside himself with glee.
The flaming fist turned into a fireball, ready to launch. "And now it just became free!"
The merchant's eyes twitched, but he didn't move. "Burn me up and you'll never be able to rub these! Now, go! I'm sure there are various chores around here you can do to earn some festival tokens. Come back when you have the proper amount. Otherwise, you should vacate my presence and stay gone!"
Valandra laid a cold firm hand on Ember's fuming shoulder. "Come. He's right; if we kill him, it gets us nothing. Diplomacy, right?"
Ember growled, extinguished her hand, then tromped away.
"Wise choice," the Asura said.
Valandra spun around, her eyes a torrent of ice and lightning. She slammed her fist onto the table, instantly freezing everything upon it; the table snapped in two.
"My things!" the merchant cried. "Look what you've…"
The ice queen grabbed him by the scruff of his vest, dangled him in the air. "The rune. Open the chest now!" She growled.
A frost began to form over the merchant. "N-No… Don't…"
Valandra brought another hand, placed it on his head. "Open it now, or I shove an ice spike through your skull."
The Asura struggled to stay conscious as the frost began to encase him, but a stabbing sensation at his cranium snapped him awake. "Y-Yes… F-Fine! Just… don't… kill me." He managed to trace the rune on the box, which unlocked itself. Valandra dropped the Asura, who landed with a thud, shivering, freezing, unable to move. She turned to join Ember, their prize in hand.
To Be Continued...
