Post by Celina Zabinski on Sept 14, 2022 23:11:48 GMT
Co-Written with the Flameous Glint
Glint puts two bottles of wine on the table as he and Celina sit down at the Three-Headed Dragon. He clearly knows who he's dealing with. He opens one bottle and pours each of them a full glass.
Celina smiles at the bottles, Glint seems to know her well. She happily takes one of the glasses he has poured and takes a sip.
She looks over to Glint “Thanks for accompanying me earlier. And what an eventful day huh…”. Celina takes another sip trying to work out what Glint thought of the day.
Glint gives a slow nod, twiddling his glass in his fingers. “Yeah,” he breathes out, eyes far. “Eventful and weird…” There is doubt in his eyes as he stares at the glass of wine. “Is it very presumptuous of me to think we can fix this Librarion? That it can be swayed towards good?” He trails off. It is unclear if he’s asking Celina or talking to himself, only that the thought has weighed on his mind for a while now.
Celina thinks about it for a moment “I mean it could be possible. Feed him all the ‘good’ books, maybe he’ll get a conscience? Cas right now he doesn’t have one and it could be dangerous. I mean the Libriarion has changed so much since I last saw him…”.
“Yes, you mentioned he was just a book the last you saw him…” Glint nods. “A book turned god… the world we live in,” he stares into the distance and finally takes a drink out of his glass.
“It’s was actually Faust’s book. Did you ever meet Faust? Anyway, yeah Librarion is massive now. Ha funny stuff”, Celina smiles and takes a sip of her drink. “It feels like AGES since we last spoke. How are you these days? How’s lover boy? Did he hold up ok… in the battle?”.
“Yes, he did!” Glint says with a visible relief. He looks down at the scarlet liquid in his glass with misplaced warmth. “The house was lightly charred, but nothings worse than that, thankfully. My strong beautiful orchid…” he murmurs fondly, lost in thoughts and memories.
Celina looks over to Glint. She wasn’t sure how Root faired in the fight. Hearing that Glint was alive relaxed her for a moment. “Well, glad your flower boy didn’t go up in flames”.
Seeing Glint’s genuine smile and hearing his affection, she thinks about their happy relationship and instantly reminds her of Sammy. Suddenly, she gets hit with a pang of envy at Glint’s relationship. She flashes a smile at Glint’s comment, then grabs her drink and sips it for a few moments in silence.
Moments pass, and Glint jumps, suddenly realising this is not the time or the place for fond recollections. He gives Celina a guilty look. “I’m sorry, I’m so insensitive… I… I never had the time to talk to you after the battle,” he says as the last shreds of happiness fade from his face. "After… they read out the list,” he whispers and puts a hand on hers. “How are you holding up?”
Celina accepts his hand on hers. Glint always made her feel comfortable. She sighs “Oh, you know me. I get by. This and that. Focusing on the next job. That’s important. Making new friends…”. She takes a sip of her drink with her free hand and sighs even more and says quietly “Truthful though… him gone… it really fucking sucks”. Celina stares off into the of distance focusing on something and lost for a brief moment in her whole world.
The next moment she feels Glint's hand tugging her forward, and his other arm wrapping around her shoulders. Glint cradles her upper half like a child. She hears his quiet voice above her ear. "I used to comfort my baby sister like that after breakups. Or fights with her twin brother. She always said it was so embarrassing it made her forget about her problems." He chuckles. "I'm glad you're not giving up over this. I would. But you're stronger than me." There is admiration as well as affection in his voice. "If I can do anything to help, I'm here for it."
Celina hesitates at first and sighs when she’s being hugged. She wiggles lightly but sighs loudly and eventually relaxes. She hears Glint kind words. She eventually gives into the hug, accepts it and hugs back.
“Ughh fiiine. I will admit… this isn’t… so baaad”.
She pauses for a few moments and whispers with genuine appreciation “Thank you”.
Then she sits back “Ugh, I am fine. I was… sad or whatever. Then I was angry. Like so angry after everything. Surprisingly, Derthaad came by and talked to me. He actually helped me. Don’t tell him I said that”. She reaches for her
Glint sits back in his chair and smiles into his glass. “Derthaad, huh?” He says coyly, not taking his eyes off Celina.
“Yup. Never thought I’d be actually friends with someone from the Citywatch but… meh”. Celina reaches for her drink and takes a sip. “So, tell me what’s new with you? Any gossip?”
“Well, never say never, huh? I mean if somebody told me a year ago that I would be in a committed relationship…” Glint chuckles as his fingers rise to a flower ring and a rabbit foot on a string around his neck. “Derthaad is a good person, though, watchman or not. But I won’t say I’m not glad your acquaintances have grown to include someone…” he hesitates momentarily. “on a different payroll. Guess we’re not as incurable as the society sees us!” He raises his glass and takes a very small, almost symbolic sip. “I mean… I’m almost ashamed of talking about myself. After the Fort… I‘be spoken with Velania, and Sorrel… damn, I still can’t believe how easy I had it! Not to lose any friends or loved ones in such a slaughter…”
His breathing speeds up and his gaze becomes distant and unusually affixed, as if watching a scene only he can see.
“Yeah but Derthaad is a friend… I guess. Damn yeah thats probably true. But also I have a wide variety of friends. I cater to all…”, she grins.
Hearing Velania and Sorrel’s names she immediately thinks of their losses. And then she thinks of her own loss again. Sammy. She takes a sip to try push back the sad thoughts creeping in. “Yeah… it’s tough losing people. Were you there in the battle? We’re you injured after or anything?”, Celina takes another sips and glances over cautiously to Glint. Wondering what happened to him.
Glint shakes his head, getting himself out of the spiral. For a second, his gaze is unfocused as the image of a wrecked marketplace fades and the present moment returns to him sense by sense: the rough texture of the wooden table, the light of candles, the taste of wine in his mouth, the varied smells of the evening tavern, the sound of Celina’s voice. As soon as he catches up to the moment, he averts his eyes.
“I… I’m fine. Barely got singed. Watched Silvia die… damn, I’m glad she’s back now! And, well… I melted the gith that killed her,” he says in a quieter voice, scratching at an imaginary stain on the table. “Normally I would just run and hide seeing something like that, but I just got so… angry.” The fire from his head spreads to his shoulders momentarily. He looks up at Celina with fearful eyes. “Do you think I went overboard?”
“Oh Siliva is alive? Wait how did that happen?”, Celina looks over confused and wonders if she can do the same thing for Sammy. Would it be possible to get him back? She daydreams about it for a couple of seconds.
Then snaps back to reality. Seeing Glints fear she reaches over and pats him on the shoulder reassuringly “No, Glint. You did fine. You know it’s ok to be angry. You don’t always have to hold back. Plus it’s been times of war. There’s been casualties all round”.
"Thanks," he nods. "I hope you're right. I don't know much about Silvia's resurrection. I know that some adventurers following Selune have done a solid for a celestial, maybe something to do with that?" Glint shrugs, and gives her a weak smile. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to stir bad memories. I... Ah, I saw your shop after the battle, cleared up some of the rubble around it," he says, desperate to change topic. "You would have laughed seeing me fall off a tree trying to dislodge one of the pieces of debris..."
Celina grumbles slightly thinking to herself she can’t see herself getting help from a celestial. could she trick one? she thinks about this for a few moments before shaking the idea out of her head. It sounds impossible.
She turns back to Glint. “Thank you Glint for trying with my shop. I will add it got hit pretty bad in the battle. I didn’t know what to expect. There was a lot of damage and I lost a lot of apples. Ugh… I lost a lot of good things…”. She trails off another and then snap out of her trance. She glances up “Ha, you nearly fell outside of my shop or inside it? Ha, I would love to have seen that…”. She grins.
Then pauses for a moment before swirling the drink around in her hand and taking a sip. Weighing up something in her mind and then you can see she’s made a decision. “You know Glint. I did some digging into Sammy’s death. I found out a freakin red dragon… got him. And I also found out that freakin dragon is still alive somewhere. Glint, I swear I’m gonna find that dragon and it’s gonna pay”. Celina looks angry all of a sudden.
Glint looks at her for a long time, and gives a staggered almost painful sigh. “And here I thought you were moving on with your life,” he shakes his head. “Whatever you do to that dragon it won’t ever be enough, you understand that, right?”
Celina frowns slightly “That dragon killed so many people. Sammy included. I don’t know where to find the dragon but when I do find it… I’ll be ready. I mean in a way isn’t that moving on?”
Glint wrinkles his nose. “Revenge is a definition of not moving on in my books. You’ll kill the dragon, then what?” He looks up at her sharply. “It is a genuine question: have you thought about what comes next?”
Celina snaps back “The dragon killed Sammy. Sammy, Glint… Sammy. I loved him. And that… monster… is still breathing. If there’s a chance I can kill it I will. When I’m done… I will sleep better”. Celina slumps back into her chair feeling mildly angry. She crosses her arms. She pauses for a moment then looms over to Glint “I have a question for you. If I do find the dragon and it’s location. Would you join me?”
The genasi remains quiet throughout her outburst. At the question, he huffs and looks away, shaking his head in frustration. He finishes his glass and wrinkles his nose from the taste of the wine and his distaste for the situation. He gives Celina an annoyed look, and, seeing her steely expression, sighs. “Fine! Yes, I’ll join. You don’t seem to listen to reason, so somebody needs to make sure you don’t end up killing yourself over it. We’ll torture this dragon to your heart’s content. But honestly, I doubt it will do anything for you. Talking from experience here,” he adds in a more subdued tone.
Celina uncrosses her arms “We’ll see about that. But thank you, Glint. I appreciate your help if I find anything”. Celina sighs “I might not…”. Celina can sense the slight awkward tension in the air. She reaches for her glass again and takes a sip. She looks over to make sure Glint was actually ok with Celina’s plan.
The genasi frowns in doubt. “How… are you going to find things? I assume Derthaad can help through the Watch channels?”
Celina swirls her drink around in her hand. Toying what to tell her friend. Should she tell him about the gang she joined. She takes another sip of her drink. Maybe not right now
“I know he’s one option I could try. To be fair, I was just going to go around a bunch of places and see if anyone knew anything. Put feelers out”.
Glint frowns at that, but Celina is hard to read, as always: too cheerful, too innocent-looking, and too obviously hiding something to discern when she is telling the truth and when she swerves around it with giggles and well-placed misdirection's. Glint huffs and turns his empty glass upside down, watching the last scarlet drops run down it’s walls and colour the passing candle light red.
“Alright. Be careful not get your ‘feelers’ caught in a door or something,” he says with a tired smile. “Do let me know when you find anything. I’ll be sure to come with my most terrible spells if you think that sort of thing will put your mind to peace.”
Celina can sense Glint’s frustration. But from what she can tell he’s still on her side at least. She smiles “Well that’s sounding more like it”.
Celina holds up a glass to do a cheers “To catching this fucking dragon one day and you’ll be by my side”.
Glint nods and, quickly filling his glass using his mage hand, echoes the toast.
A few days letter Glint receives a letter in the mail:
Glint puts two bottles of wine on the table as he and Celina sit down at the Three-Headed Dragon. He clearly knows who he's dealing with. He opens one bottle and pours each of them a full glass.
Celina smiles at the bottles, Glint seems to know her well. She happily takes one of the glasses he has poured and takes a sip.
She looks over to Glint “Thanks for accompanying me earlier. And what an eventful day huh…”. Celina takes another sip trying to work out what Glint thought of the day.
Glint gives a slow nod, twiddling his glass in his fingers. “Yeah,” he breathes out, eyes far. “Eventful and weird…” There is doubt in his eyes as he stares at the glass of wine. “Is it very presumptuous of me to think we can fix this Librarion? That it can be swayed towards good?” He trails off. It is unclear if he’s asking Celina or talking to himself, only that the thought has weighed on his mind for a while now.
Celina thinks about it for a moment “I mean it could be possible. Feed him all the ‘good’ books, maybe he’ll get a conscience? Cas right now he doesn’t have one and it could be dangerous. I mean the Libriarion has changed so much since I last saw him…”.
“Yes, you mentioned he was just a book the last you saw him…” Glint nods. “A book turned god… the world we live in,” he stares into the distance and finally takes a drink out of his glass.
“It’s was actually Faust’s book. Did you ever meet Faust? Anyway, yeah Librarion is massive now. Ha funny stuff”, Celina smiles and takes a sip of her drink. “It feels like AGES since we last spoke. How are you these days? How’s lover boy? Did he hold up ok… in the battle?”.
“Yes, he did!” Glint says with a visible relief. He looks down at the scarlet liquid in his glass with misplaced warmth. “The house was lightly charred, but nothings worse than that, thankfully. My strong beautiful orchid…” he murmurs fondly, lost in thoughts and memories.
Celina looks over to Glint. She wasn’t sure how Root faired in the fight. Hearing that Glint was alive relaxed her for a moment. “Well, glad your flower boy didn’t go up in flames”.
Seeing Glint’s genuine smile and hearing his affection, she thinks about their happy relationship and instantly reminds her of Sammy. Suddenly, she gets hit with a pang of envy at Glint’s relationship. She flashes a smile at Glint’s comment, then grabs her drink and sips it for a few moments in silence.
Moments pass, and Glint jumps, suddenly realising this is not the time or the place for fond recollections. He gives Celina a guilty look. “I’m sorry, I’m so insensitive… I… I never had the time to talk to you after the battle,” he says as the last shreds of happiness fade from his face. "After… they read out the list,” he whispers and puts a hand on hers. “How are you holding up?”
Celina accepts his hand on hers. Glint always made her feel comfortable. She sighs “Oh, you know me. I get by. This and that. Focusing on the next job. That’s important. Making new friends…”. She takes a sip of her drink with her free hand and sighs even more and says quietly “Truthful though… him gone… it really fucking sucks”. Celina stares off into the of distance focusing on something and lost for a brief moment in her whole world.
The next moment she feels Glint's hand tugging her forward, and his other arm wrapping around her shoulders. Glint cradles her upper half like a child. She hears his quiet voice above her ear. "I used to comfort my baby sister like that after breakups. Or fights with her twin brother. She always said it was so embarrassing it made her forget about her problems." He chuckles. "I'm glad you're not giving up over this. I would. But you're stronger than me." There is admiration as well as affection in his voice. "If I can do anything to help, I'm here for it."
Celina hesitates at first and sighs when she’s being hugged. She wiggles lightly but sighs loudly and eventually relaxes. She hears Glint kind words. She eventually gives into the hug, accepts it and hugs back.
“Ughh fiiine. I will admit… this isn’t… so baaad”.
She pauses for a few moments and whispers with genuine appreciation “Thank you”.
Then she sits back “Ugh, I am fine. I was… sad or whatever. Then I was angry. Like so angry after everything. Surprisingly, Derthaad came by and talked to me. He actually helped me. Don’t tell him I said that”. She reaches for her
Glint sits back in his chair and smiles into his glass. “Derthaad, huh?” He says coyly, not taking his eyes off Celina.
“Yup. Never thought I’d be actually friends with someone from the Citywatch but… meh”. Celina reaches for her drink and takes a sip. “So, tell me what’s new with you? Any gossip?”
“Well, never say never, huh? I mean if somebody told me a year ago that I would be in a committed relationship…” Glint chuckles as his fingers rise to a flower ring and a rabbit foot on a string around his neck. “Derthaad is a good person, though, watchman or not. But I won’t say I’m not glad your acquaintances have grown to include someone…” he hesitates momentarily. “on a different payroll. Guess we’re not as incurable as the society sees us!” He raises his glass and takes a very small, almost symbolic sip. “I mean… I’m almost ashamed of talking about myself. After the Fort… I‘be spoken with Velania, and Sorrel… damn, I still can’t believe how easy I had it! Not to lose any friends or loved ones in such a slaughter…”
His breathing speeds up and his gaze becomes distant and unusually affixed, as if watching a scene only he can see.
“Yeah but Derthaad is a friend… I guess. Damn yeah thats probably true. But also I have a wide variety of friends. I cater to all…”, she grins.
Hearing Velania and Sorrel’s names she immediately thinks of their losses. And then she thinks of her own loss again. Sammy. She takes a sip to try push back the sad thoughts creeping in. “Yeah… it’s tough losing people. Were you there in the battle? We’re you injured after or anything?”, Celina takes another sips and glances over cautiously to Glint. Wondering what happened to him.
Glint shakes his head, getting himself out of the spiral. For a second, his gaze is unfocused as the image of a wrecked marketplace fades and the present moment returns to him sense by sense: the rough texture of the wooden table, the light of candles, the taste of wine in his mouth, the varied smells of the evening tavern, the sound of Celina’s voice. As soon as he catches up to the moment, he averts his eyes.
“I… I’m fine. Barely got singed. Watched Silvia die… damn, I’m glad she’s back now! And, well… I melted the gith that killed her,” he says in a quieter voice, scratching at an imaginary stain on the table. “Normally I would just run and hide seeing something like that, but I just got so… angry.” The fire from his head spreads to his shoulders momentarily. He looks up at Celina with fearful eyes. “Do you think I went overboard?”
“Oh Siliva is alive? Wait how did that happen?”, Celina looks over confused and wonders if she can do the same thing for Sammy. Would it be possible to get him back? She daydreams about it for a couple of seconds.
Then snaps back to reality. Seeing Glints fear she reaches over and pats him on the shoulder reassuringly “No, Glint. You did fine. You know it’s ok to be angry. You don’t always have to hold back. Plus it’s been times of war. There’s been casualties all round”.
"Thanks," he nods. "I hope you're right. I don't know much about Silvia's resurrection. I know that some adventurers following Selune have done a solid for a celestial, maybe something to do with that?" Glint shrugs, and gives her a weak smile. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to stir bad memories. I... Ah, I saw your shop after the battle, cleared up some of the rubble around it," he says, desperate to change topic. "You would have laughed seeing me fall off a tree trying to dislodge one of the pieces of debris..."
Celina grumbles slightly thinking to herself she can’t see herself getting help from a celestial. could she trick one? she thinks about this for a few moments before shaking the idea out of her head. It sounds impossible.
She turns back to Glint. “Thank you Glint for trying with my shop. I will add it got hit pretty bad in the battle. I didn’t know what to expect. There was a lot of damage and I lost a lot of apples. Ugh… I lost a lot of good things…”. She trails off another and then snap out of her trance. She glances up “Ha, you nearly fell outside of my shop or inside it? Ha, I would love to have seen that…”. She grins.
Then pauses for a moment before swirling the drink around in her hand and taking a sip. Weighing up something in her mind and then you can see she’s made a decision. “You know Glint. I did some digging into Sammy’s death. I found out a freakin red dragon… got him. And I also found out that freakin dragon is still alive somewhere. Glint, I swear I’m gonna find that dragon and it’s gonna pay”. Celina looks angry all of a sudden.
Glint looks at her for a long time, and gives a staggered almost painful sigh. “And here I thought you were moving on with your life,” he shakes his head. “Whatever you do to that dragon it won’t ever be enough, you understand that, right?”
Celina frowns slightly “That dragon killed so many people. Sammy included. I don’t know where to find the dragon but when I do find it… I’ll be ready. I mean in a way isn’t that moving on?”
Glint wrinkles his nose. “Revenge is a definition of not moving on in my books. You’ll kill the dragon, then what?” He looks up at her sharply. “It is a genuine question: have you thought about what comes next?”
Celina snaps back “The dragon killed Sammy. Sammy, Glint… Sammy. I loved him. And that… monster… is still breathing. If there’s a chance I can kill it I will. When I’m done… I will sleep better”. Celina slumps back into her chair feeling mildly angry. She crosses her arms. She pauses for a moment then looms over to Glint “I have a question for you. If I do find the dragon and it’s location. Would you join me?”
The genasi remains quiet throughout her outburst. At the question, he huffs and looks away, shaking his head in frustration. He finishes his glass and wrinkles his nose from the taste of the wine and his distaste for the situation. He gives Celina an annoyed look, and, seeing her steely expression, sighs. “Fine! Yes, I’ll join. You don’t seem to listen to reason, so somebody needs to make sure you don’t end up killing yourself over it. We’ll torture this dragon to your heart’s content. But honestly, I doubt it will do anything for you. Talking from experience here,” he adds in a more subdued tone.
Celina uncrosses her arms “We’ll see about that. But thank you, Glint. I appreciate your help if I find anything”. Celina sighs “I might not…”. Celina can sense the slight awkward tension in the air. She reaches for her glass again and takes a sip. She looks over to make sure Glint was actually ok with Celina’s plan.
The genasi frowns in doubt. “How… are you going to find things? I assume Derthaad can help through the Watch channels?”
Celina swirls her drink around in her hand. Toying what to tell her friend. Should she tell him about the gang she joined. She takes another sip of her drink. Maybe not right now
“I know he’s one option I could try. To be fair, I was just going to go around a bunch of places and see if anyone knew anything. Put feelers out”.
Glint frowns at that, but Celina is hard to read, as always: too cheerful, too innocent-looking, and too obviously hiding something to discern when she is telling the truth and when she swerves around it with giggles and well-placed misdirection's. Glint huffs and turns his empty glass upside down, watching the last scarlet drops run down it’s walls and colour the passing candle light red.
“Alright. Be careful not get your ‘feelers’ caught in a door or something,” he says with a tired smile. “Do let me know when you find anything. I’ll be sure to come with my most terrible spells if you think that sort of thing will put your mind to peace.”
Celina can sense Glint’s frustration. But from what she can tell he’s still on her side at least. She smiles “Well that’s sounding more like it”.
Celina holds up a glass to do a cheers “To catching this fucking dragon one day and you’ll be by my side”.
Glint nods and, quickly filling his glass using his mage hand, echoes the toast.
A few days letter Glint receives a letter in the mail:
Dear Glint,
I found out the fucking Dragon's name I'm looking for. It goes by Talovarax the Craven and has a maimed claw.
Meet me at my shop in Port Ffirst in a few days time, I'm getting a small group for this.
Celina
I found out the fucking Dragon's name I'm looking for. It goes by Talovarax the Craven and has a maimed claw.
Meet me at my shop in Port Ffirst in a few days time, I'm getting a small group for this.
Celina