In which there is a letter

There's a tall cloaked sith-makar hurrying out of the temple of Daeus. His blue scales look glimmering and almost black in the darkness of the failing light. He stops at the bottom of the stairs to the temple and looks behind himself as though harried; chased from the temple. The sith looks down, at his right claw which is still clenched around a letter and then away. Far more slowly he makes his way to a bench, his tail wandering low to the ground until he finds his seat and then it takes to flicking behind him in a way that is clearly agitated even to those that aren't sith themselves.

"All I'm saying is, if they're gonna switch bills on you, then maybe there's laws or something in the Guild that says when it's okay to punch a clerk." Picking roasted spiced meat and veggies out of a wax paper cone with a tiny, sharp stick, a pair of twin humans amble through the Temple District. The one who spoke, is as dark of hair as her sister is fair, and moves with a much more pronounced sullen slouch.

"Cos when a clerk tricks us into sewer-crawling, it's time to punch a clerk."

"Well... Me punching him wouldn't be all that effective." The golden haired twin, who walks like she's somehow managing to be glamorous in what look like some rather hand-me-down robes that are at odds with a new, wide-brimed hat, picks a piece of red pepper and pops it in her mouth. "I mean," she continues after swallowing, "He *definitely* switched the bills. The one we were supposed to get went to a couple other girls, and I'm *pretty sure* that clerk is dating both of them." The less slouchy twin shrugs, and waves her toothpick around in the air in front of her.

"Maybe I can learn to turn him into a newt, or something."

The blue-scaled sith's tail ceases to stop flicking as the two women come within earshot. Their conversation causes him to tilt his head to the side, but lacking a desire to evesdrop he drops his head down and focuses on what he holds in his hand. The envelope has little claw marks in it where holding it too tightly had creased the paper, but he had not been so careless as to tear it. He huffs out a breath and unfolds the letter which is laid on top of the envelope. It seems to take him only a few seconds to read it. The time it takes the twins to cross the space between them and the bench.

Quickly Zeke folds the letter back up, neat even with only the one hand to fold and unfold with, and tucks it back beside the envelope. Then he rises to his feet slowly and carefully to hide his artificial limbs, and as he walks by the pair of women shoves the letter in his pocket. Only the letter doesn't reach its destination. Instead it flutters to the ground with the sith none the wiser to its loss.

"Yeah, you're better off with a good open-hand slap," opines the dark twin. "Mebbe it won't hurt so much, but you can't beat an open hand for a smack what carries."

She seems about to go on, when her visible eye catches the sight of a crumpled letter hitting the ground, and almost before she knows what she's even doing, the letter is snatched up before the cone of food can finish the upward half of its arc, tossed to the bright twin.

"Oi," she calls after Zeke, waving the letter without the faintest bit of apparent curiosity as to its contents. "Dropped your letter, Ser!"

"A slap is mostly just for psycholofical purposes, but it could work," the golden twin acknowledges. "I--" Delilah's eyes and the brands on her arm flare a brilliant blue, and she traces a couple lines in the air; an invisible hand catches the cone of veggies, with Delilah's flesh and blood hand snatching up a single piece of pork that fell out before it can hit the floor. She used magic to catch the food? Yes, because of course she did. She pops the piece of pork in her mouth and falls back in beside Donna, letting her spell carry the cone for now. "Good catch," she comments. "Yes, Ser; your envelope?"

The darkly cloaked sith stops in his steps a few hurried steps away from the women and turns. With his cowl up it's hard to get a good look at his features, but his tail droops behind him. Carefully he takes back his few steps more slowly than he'd taken them away. Then a bit more than an arm's length from them he stops and nods his head low to them. It's an odd behavior for a sith-makar, but he does it like he's done it a thousand times before this one. "Peasssce on your nesssssts." His nervousness comes out in his voice, thickening his accent.

"Thisss one isss not ssssir. Thisss one isss Zeke, and will be thanking you for catching it." He lifts his claw to turn back his hood politely, showing off six long horns arching over his head. Hesitantly, and with great uncertainty he holds his right claw out for the letter and its envelope.

"Peace on your nest," the dark twin echoes without even the hint of unfamiliarity most smoothskins stumble over the greeting with, and then added to with a more respectful nod. "Looked important," she says, by way of explanation, as she passes letter and envelope into the open hand.

Here she pauses, brow furrowing for a moment. "Looks upsetting, too. Mahuika'd have our hides if we didn't stop to make sure one of th'People're okay."

Delilah plucks the hand off her head, and swings it around to hold it behind her, dangling it from her fingers by the brim. "Peace on your nest," she echoes Donna, and bobs her head likewise. "And yes, looked both important, and a mite troubling. We haven't met, but we'll always help one of the people who's in trouble." She pauses, brow furrowed. "It is good to make your acquaintance Zeke; this is my sister Donna, and I am Delilah."

The moment that the letter is in hand Zeke's hand withdraws. Perhaps quicker than is polite, but he holds the letter as if it is important to him, carefully, but tightly. Then when it is mentioned he glances down at it and tucks it - more carefully and more accurately - into his pocket. Once there he soothes his robe down and brings his cloak more tightly around his form. "It sssseemsss that you know the People well." He is embarrassed and nervous those familiar with the sith could tell this easily by the nictating of his eyes briefly and the slightest flicker of his tail behind him. A tail still held low. Something that makes him feel sad as well then.

He nods at the introduction, to each of them in turn. "Donna; Delilah. Let thissss one asssure you that thisss one isss well. The letter issss..." Zeke trails off and his eyes flicker again. Blinking twice this time. He tries not to show how much the letter is affecting him, but it's also clear that he's not used to hiding this bredth of emotion. "Yesss. Upsssetting."

"Wanna talk about it?" Donna asks, and if the question is generally out of character for her, at least she also seems surprised by the act. "I mean," she says, attempting to recover, "'s just, y'know. Was a Sith what kept us from just bein' dead runaways. So... we help you out, we're doin' right by her, get me?"

Delilah bobs her head quickly. "You don't have to, of course," she points out. "But, Donna's telling it right; if it weren't for Mahuika there'd be a couple of skeletons in the woods with arrows sticking out of 'em, instead of the two of us." She pauses, fiddling with the brim of her hat. "So if we *can* help, at all, we'd be happy to."

Zeke's tail flicks and he glances away from the two women. Scans the open, empty temple district and allows his shoulders to sag somewhat. "It would be good to ssshare wordsss. Thissss one can not find kin, and thisss one..." He trails off again, agitated but showing it mostly in the way his tail keeps flicking uncomfortably. "You say that you were raisssed by one of the People? Thissss Mahuika?" He is more than merely curious and that's clear.

"'Trained,' better word for't. We were old enough to know better, 'n young enough not to give a shit, when we scarpered." Donna lifta a shoulder, tilting the floating paper cone and rummaging about for a bit of charred tomato, which gets popped into her mouth. "But Mahuika, she helped us out when she didn't have to. Made sure my sister'n'I had a handle on our magic. Pointed us here. So... figure she's the one we want to do right by."

Delilah bobs her head quickly. "We were ready to depend only on each other, just two sisters against the world. It felt like fair odds, until the odds decided they had something to say about it. We owe a lot to Mahuika and I don't know if we can ever pay her back, but if we can help you, that might be a start." She picks a piece of onion and green pepper out of the cone, pops them in her mouth, then produces a clean toothpick and offers it to Zeke. "We'd very much like to help, and if we can help by listening, we will. ...And we can share a bite, if you'd like?"

Zeke relaxes subtly, the flick of his tail slowing and his shoulders unhunching by millimeters. "Thissss Mahuika, sssshe sssoundsss good. Ssshe helped you find your way." He nods once, absentmindedly to this sith who is not here. Touches the letter in his pocket. "Thisss one hasss heard good word that hunterss from Am'shere are to arrive ssshortly. To offer aid. Thisss issss very good indeed. Yet... thisss one recieved a letter sssaying that... the one that gave thissss one life will be arriving with them."

In spite of his admission that his closest of kin is shortly to arrive, he seems anything but happy about the news

The wince thrown by Donna is easy to read, even to an eye that finds smoothskin features difficult to translate. "Wow, yeah... We could tell you a few stories about moms we ain't lookin' forward to seeing. How long's it been?"

Delilah holds the toothpick out a moment longer, before leaving it rested at the top of the cone. She pops a bit of pork in her mouth, just before Zeke speaks, and her brow furrows. "Yes, we know all about bad moms," she agrees. "Are you going to be required to see her?"

Zeke's tail gives a short hopeful swish. Understanding... that was not something he had expected. His shoulders slowly ease into a restful position and he has to consider Donna's question for a long time finally rolling his right shoulder. "Over a hundred yearsss sssince thisss one lassst sssaw her." A very long time indeed. Even among sith-makar. "Thisss one feelssss... obligation. Sssshe sssendsss letterss when ssshe knowsss where thisss one isss. Thisss one issss..."

There's a word there unspoken and it makes Zeke's eyes nictate suddenly with discomfort, with the unwillingness to say it. "Thisss one ssshould not feel thisss obligation to the one that gave thisss one life, but it isss there. Thissss one isss not required to sssee her, but one doess not know if it can be avoided if thisss one ssstays."

At this, Donna blows out a long, slow breath. "Wish I could help there, Zeke," she says quietly, tugging the cone out of the floating hand's grasp, and wandering to a nearby low wall. Hopping up, she starts digging through the remaining contents, until she finds a particularly blackened and shriveled-looking mushroom, which is popped into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

"Your mom sends you letters. Sounds like she wants t'see you. ...I wouldn't know about that," she says, after a bit of hesitant silence. "Only one of us mom's likely to talk to's Delilah, an' even then she'd probably be leanin' on that 'I'm your mother, I gave you life, love and respect me no matter how much of a selfish t--' Ahem. 'Twit I am.'"

Donna, deep-seated mother issues? *Perish the thought.*

"But, like, D and I... we know there's people with normal parents out there. Even seen a few. So, like, we *get* that moms're supposed to be good folk."

"It sure would've been nice to *experience* a mom who was good," Delilah points out. She watches the cone of delicious food retreat along with Donna, and contemplates the distance briefly. She hands her toothpick off to her mage hand, and lets it float over to spear something at random out of the cone.

"Mom didn't want twins, see. She wanted a daughter of prodigious magical talent. Instead she got Donna and I, and let's just say we don't live up to expectations." She shrugs lightly, and pops the piece of onion the toothpick returns with into her mouth. 

"You're not required to see your mother, and you're not required to want to either, I'm sure. ...But... one thing I would consider, she might have changed a lot in a hundred years? But even if she has... that still doesn't mean you have to see her."

Zeke lets out a little huff of breath, almost - almost thumps his tail. Not quite, but it's clearly amusement that just crawled up from his belly to slide back down his tail. "Who would have thought that the one who gave thisss one life would have ssso much in common with a sssoftssskin... mother? Mother." He huffs again, a little hum in the back of his throat even as he says the word which is not terribly familiar to him. "Yesss, thissss one wasss told 'One gave you life; love and ressspect!' Even well past the age of chosssing!"

Now the desire to thump his tail is almost too much to resist, but he does - barely. It moves though as though he might even now. He nods. "Thisss one underssstandsss. Thisss one knowsss what it isss like to have the one that gave life wish for sssomething other than what you were made. Perhapssss... enough time hasss passsed for her to underssstand. Perhapssss with kin, thisss one can fasssce her. Thisss one isss no longer alone." He nods again to the two women. "Thisss one isss thanking you again for your wordsss."

"Anytime," Donna calls, rolling her eyes when Delilah chooses to magic herself some food rather than walking her be-robed ass over like a normal person. Hopping off the wall, she mooches back to rejoin her sister, taking the third toothpick, and spearing a bit of everything from the cone to hand over. "For the road, yeah? Don't ever wanna do anythin' you're nervous about on an empty stomach."

Delilah flashes her most winning, most innocent smile to Donna, and then plucks a remaining mushroom from the cone like a normal person, after Donna has finished loading up a few morsels for Zeke. "Definitely," she agrees. "Eat something, just so you're stomach isn't growling at you, yeah?" She bobs her head, adopting a more serious expression. "And, good luck, yes? I'm not a pious girl and I don't hardly ever pray or anything, but I'll say something for you tonight. ...Can't hurt, afterall."

-End