Ask Me No Questions

Temple of Daeus, evening.

Within the room that sees her fiance resting, Andelena sits quietly on a stool, another book taken from the Temple's library in her hands and open to a page on some sort of holy text. But her steel-grey eyes keep wandering off the edge of the pages and look over at her sleeping fiance, to the point where eventually, she just closes the book, puts it down on the table next to her, and looks at him for a moment longer...

"Damn," she says, quietly. "I need a hobby."

She looks at Dolan a moment longer, a smile quirking on her face, and she looks back over to her discarded book. "Wedding rites ain't gonna read themselves," she says to herself as she picks it back up again.

Outside can be heard the faint announcement of Zeke's presence, and the short conversation that he has with the guards just outside the door before he's allowed entry into the room. He pokes his head in and sighs with relief when he spots the pair. "Andelena, may thisss one ssspeak to you out-ssside?" He opens the door a little bit and reveals that there's a cleric at his side. A semi-familiar figure from around the temple. "Thisss one hass brought sssome-one to sssit at Dolan'sss ssside a moment in casse he wakesss up."

It looks like the wedding rites will have to wait a little longer to be read. Andelena puts down the book again, raising a brow at Zeke's request. "Sure, Sunguard. Everything okay?" she asks quietly as she stands up from her stool and walks over to the door to join Zeke outside.

GAME: Andelena rolls Sense Motive: (5)+11: 16

Zeke leads her down the hall, leaving the cleric and the two guardsmen behind a fair bit and standing in the hall. If they keep their voices down, no one will be the wiser as to their conversation. "Thisss one needssss a day... perhapsss two? There are clericsss here, to keep watch when you can not. Thisss one will return assss quickly ass thisss one isss able." He is very still, very poised, but to Andelena he is an unreadable book of sith-makar.

Andelena readily nods to that request, her expression open and receptive. "Of course, Sunguard Zeke," she replies, her voice quiet enough to maintain the privacy of their conversation. "You've done more than enough, and /you/ were the one to tell me that I needed to take a break--I'd be a big damn idiot if I told you no on that. A day or two off is more than fine."

She pauses a moment before she asks, "Where are you headed in the meantime? 'Somewhere' is an okay answer by itself, because it really isn't any of my damn business, although I'm kind of hoping for you, it's a nice warm bath where people scrub all the dirt off your scales. Least you deserve. Just curious."

GAME: Zeke rolls Bluff: (16)+5: 21

"Sssome-where?" Zeke half-inquires, then nods. "Yesss. Thisss one intendsss to go sssome-where." There's a mildly distant expression in his green eyes, his tail-tip flicking behind him. He shakes his head a little and looks at Andelena very seriously. "You are scertain you will be good? If you require thisss one, you may leave a message for Sseldan at the Temple of Eluna; he will know where to find thisss one."

"Yeah, I'll..." Andelena raises a brow as she sees the expression in his eyes. "I'll be fine, really. I know how to reach Seldan; I talked with him a bit last night, actually, when I ran into him."

There's a lingering look in her eyes, something that suggests she knows something's up--but what, exactly, might not want to be brought out into the open.

Zeke's gaze locks with hers. "You ssspoke to Ssseldan? What did you discusss..." His tail lashes a little behind him. "Sssome-thing isss an acceptable anssswer; it iss none of thisss oness buissssnesss." He doesn't sound as amused as he might have in other circumstances.

"We spoke about sentient weapons and... about the situation with Kol," Andelena says, the pause almost instinctive at this point since the rules of discussion in the room were put into place. 'Something' is not the answer he's getting right now. "I asked him to teach me what he can. Because Bry might be recovering, but I want that monster gone if I can get him. And I know that, right now, I can't--not without help and not without aid."

She smiles a little in that Andie-way of hers. "It was a good talk," she says. "Seldan's a good man."

"He isss." Zeke's voice is soft and he looks suddenly very guilty, his eyes sliding to the side and his posture uncomfortable. "Thisss one... reliesss on him too much. Every-one doesss. But who doesss Sseldan go to when he needssss aid?"

He murmurs this last part and shakes his head. "Thisss onesss kin isss with-out hisss people. He issss alone. For all that he will lay hiss life down if asssked he isss apart from all." Zeke looks at Andelena. "Have care there, thisss one assksss becausse he will not, that you do not asssk too much of him."

Andelena lets the words sink in, nodding deeply after a moment. "I get it," she says. "No, I... I honestly don't think I could ask /too/ much of him if I could."

She has a bashful smile for a moment as she admits, "He reminds me a lot of my baby brother. They're the same height. Blue eyes. Upper-class accents. If he dyed his hair my color, I'd probably mistake him for Seb from behind or in a crowd from a distance.--But anyway, no, I know what you mean. 'Who guards the guardsmen' and all."

She offers Zeke a smaller smile than before. "If it helps, he told me last night: 'We are each of us but one, but none of us are alone.' He isn't truly alone by his own words.

"Even ssso." Zeke says, ducking his head. "Thisss one reliesss on him too much." He starts to turn and stops himself. "Thisss one hass changed thisss onesss mind. If you need thisss one, leave a messsage in Mictlan. Tell thisss onesss kin, if you sssee him... that thisss one hasss gone camping. Thisss one will return. A day. Perhapsss two." There's something in his voice that isn't usually there, something in his eyes unfamiliar to those that know him as a healer.

He gives her a half bow and turns.

There's another pause in Andelena as she observes him for a moment, her steel-grey eyes sort of choosing whether to ask the prying question or whether to let him turn and be on his. There are meanings behind such requests, not all pleasant, and...

And there is the simple fact that some things are not her place to intervene in. Some wounds that are not openly shared, even by a healer to another. Not yet.

So she gives a nod, her eyes on him as he turns. "I will," she says. "Please be well, Sunguard Zeke. Brightest of days." /Please be well/ has a certain weight to it that it wouldn't normally have from her mouth, but it's there. Caring. Compassion. If needed and if wanted.

"Peasssce on your nessst." The sith-makar replies in kind, his voice terse and his body tense as he makes his way out of the temple. He doesn't turn back. Doesn't offer explanations that he doesn't know are wanted. He is gone all too quickly, and leaves nothing but questions in his wake.

-End