The celebrity and the pauper

[Sintih]

Continued from here

7th of Saun, 720th Arc
Noon
Fitness Centre, Viden

Unlike the last time they'd been here, the cafeteria was more busy. Several of the tables were taken and a few of the staff were on their lunch breaks as well. But there was room for them, although not as private as the last time. It also wasn't possible for Tholian to sit separate from them to observe only, instead sharing a table with them. At least the doctor was capable of reading the room enough to have put his work away for now and simple sitting at the table with them. As before, Sintih had ordered himself one of those sugary fruit mix thingies that most people used as a boost before getting to their exercises. The lack of alcohol was understandable, considering the Videnese views on it and the fact that this was a building designed for physical perfection, basically, but he would have liked some.

Because of the lunchtime rush, it would take a little longer for their orders to arrive but Sin had nowhere to go. He was still stuck under full supervision for a few trials, especially after his first meeting with Doran and how that had turned out, and picking up classes again would be a bit of a challenge as well. He'd have to catch up with a ten-trial of classes for both his letters. Rupturing wouldn't be too difficult and Lilea had been sharing her notes, however limited they were, with him. She tried, at least. But still, catching up with Graft would be a bit of a time sink once he was allowed to do so again.

"I can't believe I actually fell asleep right after you told me about not falling asleep..." The young Yludih sighed. That was the kind of stuff Aelig thrived on. "But it was a very interesting exercise. I'll need to keep practicing. It's not like I lack time to do so, or anything." He glanced over at Tholian at that who gave him a disapproving look.

The doctor was quite serious about Sin's care, especially in the presence of professor of such skill like Doran. Ignoring Sin's quip, he turned to Doran. "Professor Thetys, I wanted to thank you for your help this trial. I think your approach could benefit Ronan. I have to admit I was a little surprised when I got your request to help, though." It was surprising to Tholian to see how different these two young men were but how close they seemed to be. It baffled Tholian, a Videnese through and through, how little respect Ronan seemed to have for anything professor Thetys had achieved. The famous professor, all but assured to be the next head of the institute of science, inventor of several near-magical concoctions and potions and influencer of the next generation of Viden's students and future professors, was so easily approached by this weak little spindle of a human who needed constant care and supervision so he wouldn't fall back into whatever pit of horrors he'd barely managed to make his way out of. The only famous things Ronan had ever done that Tholian knew of was to wake up out of a catatonic state on his own and how close he seemed to be with professor Thetys.

Sintih shifted a little in his seat, adjusting his layers of clothing a little more to keep him warmer, although it made little difference in the end. He'd tried something during the exercise, something sneaky that doctor Threer would not approve of if he knew. And now he was looking around for the results of that, for the other shoe to drop. But everyone around them were strangers, at least to Sintih, who were eating and talking with others. No other shoe yet. He picked up some bits of conversation about the weather and about exercise routines but nothing else. Maybe he'd get away with it? "Oh, Doran!" Sintih suddenly said. From the look on Tholian's face, he seemed to disapprove of the familiarity, or the sudden outburst of noise. "You mentioned exploding fire thingies last time. Flowers or something, right?" He waited for a moment for Doran to confirm and correct him. He knew whatever it was called definitely wasn't 'exploding fire thingies' and he knew Doran well enough in the past to know that he wouldn't let Sintih sit on wrong information for long. "Are they similar to those exploding arrows we worked on?"

It had been a very long time since they'd spend that trial in the lab and some backyard of the University designed for testing. A long time since they'd first started bonding over something. Something that had allowed Sintih to see past the anger he had for Doran and accept him, a little bit. Something that had resulted in where they were this trial, who they were this trial. He smiled at the thought, hiding it after a moment when he realized he was smiling for no apparent reason.

[Doran]

The cafeteria was noticeably more crowded than it had been during their last meeting a few trials earlier, the son of Ziell noticed when they entered and eventually located a table that was not occupied yet. Under normal circumstances, he would not have minded such – he had become much more sociable recently and actually begun to enjoy the company of other people. In this particular case, he would have preferred to have a bit of privacy though. There were a lot of things that Sintih and he couldn’t talk about in front of other people, at least not without consequences of some sort. Sintih was an Yludih for example, and he was a Mortalborn, and none of it was public knowledge.

He didn’t react negatively when Doctor Tholian decided to come with them and share the table with them regardless though, but smiled slightly at his colleague instead. The presence of other people was a bit of an inconvenience, but at the same time, he acknowledged that it would be a good idea to have the man there in case there was another emergency. Doctor Tholian had been treating Sintih since he had arrived in the Infirmary and was much more familiar with his medical history than he was as a consequence. Besides, a part of him actually looked forward to an exchange of knowledge of sorts.

Doran did not care particularly about the restrictions that the Videnese government had imposed on the consumption of alcohol. He did not drink alcohol when he worked or when he exercised though, and thus he had ordered another one of those exotic fruit drinks that his spark seemed to be so fond of (it had a preference for interesting and unusual tastes and textures; something that only contained one or two ingredients did not satisfy it).

“As I told you, falling asleep during meditation is quite a common occurrence”, he reminded Sintih and chuckled softly before his tone of voice grew more serious again, and he added, “I’m glad that you found that exercise interesting though. As I said, we can do this again sometime if you want to”, he told him before he turned to his mortal colleague.

“You’re welcome”, he replied when the man thanked him for his help and inclined his head fractionally. He realized that it might seem strange to the mortal that he, an esteemed professor and exceptionally skilled swordsman who was, possibly, one of the richest people in Viden, cared about someone like Sintih who seemed like his polar opposite in many ways to such an extent. It did not really matter to him what other people thought of him, but in this particular case, he decided that a brief explanation might be in order.

“I knew Ronan before he came to Viden”, he thus told Doctor Tholian with a very light smile and in a polite tone of voice. Unlike Sintih who seemed to somewhat uncomfortable and struggled to keep warm, the Mortalborn was utterly comfortable. He sat with his back straight (he never slouched, especially not when he was in the company of other people), but his posture was relaxed rather than stiff. He was not tense. There were very few things in the world that had the potential of making him feel that way these trials.

While Doctor Tholian seemed to disapprove of Sintih’s addressing him by his first name, Doran did not think much of it. In fact, a part of him actually liked the familiarity. He preferred it to what things had been like between them before, when Sintih had still looked like an Eidisi, and he had been his teacher, and they had disagreed on a lot of things.

He did raise a dark eyebrow fractionally when Sintih talked about exploding fire thingies though as he considered that term to be somewhat lacking. “Not thingies”, he corrected the young man in a tone of voice that was tinged with a hint of amusement. “They are called fire flowers. A previous research partner of mine gave them that name. You are correct, by the way. They are somewhat similar to our experiments with exploding arrows in nature and make use of some of the same principles as explosives. They contain a few additional chemicals that give them the different colors though. If you want me to, I can show them to you sometime”, he offered.

“Do you still maintain an interest in alchemy then?” he wanted to know a few moments later. There were other things he wanted to know as well – they had met twice now, but they still had several arcs to catch up on – but the presence of his colleague made him somewhat reluctant to talk; besides, it would likely be better to broach one topic at a time, anyway. He also couldn’t help but wonder if Sintih had any questions for him. Was he as curious as he was?

[Sintih]

Sin nodded as Doran waved away his falling asleep during the exercise. It had been only a brief moment but, as a Yludih, he should really be much better at this meditation thing. Most Yludih spent half of their time in Uleuda meditating or contemplating something. He'd never really gotten into it as much but there had been mandatory exercises in the beginning. But all that had been a long time ago. At least Doran thought it chuckle worthy. He smiled at that. Doran chuckling? Who would have ever imagined that? "That would be a good idea." He turned to the Tholian. "Whenever it works for you. I think it was good that you were there as well." The doctor nodded and smiled. "I'll have to check any scheduling at work but it was interesting to observe. Perhaps future developments might be interesting to record as well."

Tholian nodded at Doran after that, accepting what little information the man decided to share with him about why he was here. Tholian though it interesting for Doran to be here but if they were old friends or something, it would explain a lot. If they knew each other before then having this odd little get together between these two vastly different people made sense. "I thought as much. It's good that you found each other. I think it has helped Ronan a lot to see you here." Sintih just looked from one to the other, both highly educated professionals discussing him as if he wasn't really there. Now this felt a lot like back in the day, when Doran had entertained visiting professors back in Rynmere. For some reason they always seemed to happen when Sin was around. Actually, now that he thought about it, even with his mother before that, Sin had always been around highly educated people discussing things as if he wasn't there. "We used to work together at the university, back in Rynmere." He shared when there was a lull in the conversation. It was true, although Sin could imagine that Tholian had a vastly different picture in his head right now.

When Doran responded to his thingies remark, he smiled. The professor sounded like he was amused and disappointed at the same time, the way he stressed the thingies. Fire flowers, so he'd remembered correctly then. He nodded. "I'd like to see that. It sounds interesting. I haven't done alchemy in a very long time, though. Not since..." Since when? Since Doran had left Rynmere, basically? He'd never really picked up the habit for himself. The alchemy had never been his goal, now that he thought back on it. The learning to learn, to think, to research. Those had been his goals. It didn't really matter what the subject was, as long as he could learn how to learn it. And Doran had taught him those things, excessively. As he had shared in their previous meeting, Doran had left him with a lot of impressive skills that worked very well in the Academy but alchemy was not one of them. "Well, not since I stopped attending University." He admitted.

He didn't like that. It sounded like a failure on his end. He thought Doran wouldn't see it that way, not new Doran at least. But he still thought about it for a moment. What had he achieved since him and Doran had split up? He had definitely tried a lot of things but none of them had been successful in the end. Sintih grew silent as Tholian observed the conversation. He made a mental note of the connection there.

University was so many arcs ago now. Sintih just sat for a moment, thinking on that. "But, while I won't understand the alchemy behind it, I still know my explosions. And pretty colored explosions sounds like fun." He said, cheering himself up. There were a lot of things in the past that he could be disappointed in but that wouldn't change them. So he focused on the now, which he could affect. Meditation, physical recovery, mental recovery. Gathering enough courage to go and find her again. Plenty of things to do. Sintih and Tholian both focused past Doran to an approaching figure in full Infirmary white coming up to the table. "Doctor Threer, there's been an emergency at the Infirmary and you've been requested to return." The young nurse said. Sintih didn't recognize him at all. "Quickly." The man added.

"Ronan. Professor Thetys. My apologies." He quickly grabbed his stuff together and got up to follow the nurse. "Oh." He stopped and turned back to the table. "If you could walk Ronan back to the Infirmary afterwards, that would be appreciated." He bowed his head towards Doran quickly and then hurried off, fixing his bag and outfit in mid stride. He was replaced by a waitress who served them their drinks.

"I sure am glad I'm in no demand anywhere." Sin said, watching the doctor leave. Hopefully, whatever it was, Tholian would be able to fix it. The man was a doctor for a reason. "He was right, you know." Sintih turned back to Doran, taking a sip from his sugary drink before explaining what he meant. "Seeing you has helped me a lot." Sintih found himself a very interesting spot on the table to look at as he said that. In the short time he'd been back in touch with Doran, things had improved quite a bit but also gotten more unstable, at least when it came to the hallucinations. Their last encounter was proof of that. Perhaps, Sin thought, he had to go through them properly before they could be fixed. Face your Nulliems and all that.

[Doran]

“You had a few great ideas“, the Mortalborn remarked in a calm tone of voice when Sintih told the doctor that he had used to work together at the university in Rynmere and smiled lightly at the younger man. He had not said those words because he wanted to make his former student feel better or so that Tholian would think more highly of him – he hardly ever engaged in such behavior. He really did think that some of Sintih’s ideas, such as their experiments with phosphorescence, had had potential. He just hadn’t told him so often enough.

There were a lot of things that he should have done differently in hindsight.

“If you ever feel like continuing our old experiments or maybe learning something new, let me know”, he remarked when Sintih admitted that he had not practiced alchemy in a very long time. He could not help but wonder if the younger man had given up on alchemy because he had found arcana more interesting (which was something that he would not fault him for; he had grown rather fascinated with the subject as well recently, for obvious reasons) or because his current situation had made such impossible.

Teaching Sintih had definitely not been without difficulties, but he had been talented and picked up new things relatively quickly, and nowadays, he remembered their time together fondly, in spite of the fact that his former apprentice had frequently been hot-headed and had had a tendency to sabotage himself. A part of him actually wished for a reprieve of their previous experiments and wondered what working together with Sintih would be like now.

He did not think much of Sintih’s comment that he had stopped attending university. He certainly did not consider him to be a failure or a loser because of it as none of what had happened had really been his fault, from what he knew. For that reason, he only inclined his head slightly in order to acknowledge what he had said before he regarded the two men that he sat with for a few moments. When Sintih informed him that he still knew his explosions, he laughed.

“I’m glad”, he remarked a moment later in a more serious tone of voice. He was just about to ask Sintih another question – and address Doctor Tholian once more as well; he didn’t want him to feel left out, besides, there was something that he was actually curious about – when a man that obviously worked at the Infirmary (he recognized the uniform) approached their table. He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“There is no need to apologize, Doctor Threer”, he spoke when his colleague excused himself. “I will accompany Ronan back to the Infirmary when we are done”, he assured him and turned to face Sintih once more, a somewhat curious look on his face. “I wonder what happened”, he murmured before he grasped the glass that the waitress had just set down in front of it in order to take a few slow sips from it.

“There are certain downsides to having such a job”, he agreed when Sintih admitted that he was glad that he was not in demand anywhere. Sometimes, his work as an alchemist and a doctor left him with little free time. There was one good thing about it though; the relative lack of free time kept him from missing Llyr too much when he was not with him. In Vhalar, when his lover had been gone for entire seven-trials at a time, he had thrown himself into his research. It had constituted an excellent distraction.

(He had never been mad at Llyr for being gone for such a long time when he had returned though. He had always just been glad that he had returned to him, and all those trials that he had spent without him had ceased to matter the moment that he had seen him. Time seemed to function slightly differently where his lover was concerned.)

“I’m glad that I could help you”, he remarked, his tone of voice momentarily growing a hint softer, when Sintih told him that seeing him had helped him a lot. “And if there’s anything else that I can do for you …”, he added, but left the sentence unfinished as he didn’t know if Sintih wanted or needed any help, apart from more meditation sessions which was something that he had already agreed to.

“You told me about your plans for the future”, he continued after a short pause. “What have you done since we parted ways all those arcs ago in Rynmere though?” he wanted to know. “If you don’t mind me asking”, he added. He could not help but be curious about what his former student had been up to (He had mentioned an interest in Graft in addition to Rupturing, for example – had he acquired another spark or was that new interest of his purely theoretical?), but if Sintih did not want to talk about it, he would not pry.

[Sintih]

It was an odd offer to receive for Sintih, to work with Doran again. In the past, time spent with Doran had never been great. There were always sources of tension between the two of them. Some of it openly, most of it in Sintih's mind alone. But they'd been there. Over time they had lessened but there had never been a time when Sin had had an all out fantastic time with Doran. But new Doran was... well, new. In the three or four breaks he'd spend with him since they'd met a few trials ago, Doran had been very different. Sintih had been very different, even. That difference made it so he was here now, getting better. But Sin's alchemy experiences were tainted. He knew things weren't as bad as he remembered but all he could think about when it came to alchemy was Doran not happy, Doran complaining about Sin's work, Doran looking down on him,... Was new Doran only new outside of the lab? Would he turn back into old Doran as soon as Sintih stepped into a workshop with him? "I'm always up for learning something new." He said, giving a vague answer that always applied. Whether that new thing would be alchemy again would be a decision for later.

Once Tholian had left for work, Sin sat and sipped his drink. Doran easily took up the responsibility of making sure Sin got back to the Infirmary in one piece. He hated that. Or rather, the fact that he needed all the help. He just wanted to be able to walk normally again. It was only a ten-trial or two more before he'd be all set and could get back to his own things on his own. No more hovering nurses or wheelchairs. He looked forward to that. "He's not supposed to be on duty so probably something frostbite related." Sin shared, nodding towards the empty space where the nurse and doctor had left. "That's his focus." Sin added after another sip. The sugary drink was good, it helped to sent stronger waves of warmth with each pulse, easing things a little for the sickly Yludih.

New Doran kept coming across as more and more different from old Doran. Old Doran would have helped, if Sintih or his mother had asked for it, like she'd done all those arcs ago, but he would never have offered. "You've already done much more than you think. But I wouldn't say no to this trying-to-not-fall-asleep thing we did today. It was interesting. Although with softer mats." Another sugary sip. "Or harder ones? To prevent me from falling asleep?" He tilted his head lightly, giving himself a moment to think on the better solution, sipping absent mindedly from his drink before giving up. "Maybe in a comfortably warmed body of water?" He half murmured to himself.

His train of thought was derailed when Doran asked about the past. It had been a long time since they'd last seen each other. Nine, ten arcs perhaps. "I don't mind." He said, smiling. What hadn't he done in those arcs? "You know, the usual I guess. Fell in love." That was the first thing that came to mind and as he said it he realized that Doran was the first person he'd admitted that to. He didn't even remember telling her that. "Went to war. Tried my hand at business, owned a private army for a little while, tried my hand at politics for a bit, decided that it was better to manipulate a nobleman instead. He turned out to be a nice guy, though, so that didn't work either. Met his family instead, some of whom I actually liked. Traveled a bit." He stopped himself here and switched to signs for a moment. "Visit Viden, diplomat." He signed before pointing at himself. "And then I decided all that was a little boring so I went and survived a plague. That was..."

What was that? He could feel his asterism dimming at the thoughts that surfaced. He'd been very confident in his ability to survive the plague but it had been beyond him to even consider the fact that those around him might not. He hesitated and then decided to dim it down, to make it easier for himself and to keep from bothering Doran with all that. "Other people died." It was quite obvious from his tone and short description that those 'other people' had been very important to the young Yludih. "And then I woke up here." He shrugged at that. The fact that there was more than an arc of time between those last two points was something he kept to himself. A lot of time lost. He filled the silence with another sip from his drink. Why did these always seems to contain so little once he got started with them?

[Doran]

When Sintih told him that he was always up for learning something new, a smile flickered across the Mortalborn’s face. There had been a time when he had disliked teaching, but he enjoyed it now, and he was especially looking forward to teaching someone that was intelligent, like Sintih. He found it increasingly hard to understand the man that he had been once, the man that he had been when he had first met Sintih, the man that had gone on to fight during the battle at Treid’s Tomb because he had thought that mankind was doomed, and he was not sure if he particularly liked his former self.

It was not something that he decided to dwell on at the moment though. When Sintih claimed that Doctor Tholian had probably been called back to the Infirmary because of something that was related to frostbite, he raised a dark eyebrow questioningly before he inclined his head and remarked as it was a topic that he had some interest in himself,

“One of my most recent inventions is a potion that gives the drinker an Ellune’s resistance to cold. I mentioned my thesis on the use of racial blood in alchemy when we first met, didn’t I?” he asked, and furrowed his brow fractionally. “That potion was part of it. If I modified slightly, it could likely be used to treat frostbite rather than preventing it. I plan on giving a certain number of vials to the Infirmary soon. I wonder whether Doctor Tholian might have a use for them”, he wondered and looked at Sintih as he was interested in hearing what he thought of his creation.

“More comfortable mats, at least”, he remarked in a very dry tone of voice as the conversation turned to the matter of meditation and the mats on the floor of the training room that he had found to be lacking for the purpose of their meditation session. Sintih’s back had started to bother him after a while - at least that was the impression that he had gotten. As for conducting the exercises in warm water rather than on a mat, instead? He thought about it for a moment before he nodded and decided,

“That is something that is worth considering, although you would need a large enough bathtub or a pool of sorts so that you would be able to rest comfortably. On the other hand, there are hot springs here in Viden”, he mused. He visited them occasionally as he found them quite relaxing, especially after a trial of work in the laboratory or a few breaks of training, although swimming was not his forte and probably never would be.

When Sintih told him what he had been up to during the previous arcs, the corners of the Mortalborn’s mouth twitched for a moment as he couldn’t help but be amused by the tone of voice in which the younger man talked about his life, as if such things were commonplace.

They definitely weren’t!

“It seems as if you’ve led quite an exciting life then”, he remarked in a more serious tone of voice and took another sip from his drink, savouring the combination of flavors and textures. “A private army? Politics? A nobleman? Which noble family were you involved with, if you don’t mind me asking?” he asked and raised an eyebrow. He could not help but be curious about his former student’s various adventures.

“And a diplomat?” he continued, hoping that he had interpreted the sign that Sintih had used correctly. “I was a diplomat myself for a while – I served as the ambassador of Etzos in Rynmere before I decided to focus on academia”, he explained. He found it interesting that they had both seemed to have an interest in diplomacy.

The finer points of sign language still escaped him and probably would for a while, but he decided to switch to signs regardless for a moment as well when the conversation turned to the plague. “Survived? Did you …” He paused for a moment as he struggled to come up with the correct sign. “… suffer from it?” As he posed that question, he could not help but wonder if the plague affected Yludih differently. Could someone that was made of crystals actually get sick?

“I’m sorry for your loss”, he replied a few moments later as Sintih told him that other people had died. Those were not just empty words (people often said that they were sorry for someone’s loss without really caring). He meant what he said. From the tone of the young Yludih’s voice it was obvious that those people had been important to him. “If you’d like to tell me more about them …” he spoke, leaving the sentence unfinished again. He could not help but wonder about the losses that his former student had suffered, but he would, again, not pry, but let him decide which direction the conversation would take.

[Sintih]

Doran had always been quick to find solutions to things, something that used to bother Sintih a lot. Especially when he'd tried to give a solution which then got shot down by Doran's, often better, solution. It seemed like part of that hadn't changed yet. As soon as Doran heard about the frostbite, he was already offering a solution. Sintih nodded as Doran spoke. He'd been offered a similar potion in their last meeting, one of Doran's racial blood potions. Although his was supposed to help with endurance, not with the cold. Perhaps he needed both? "A cure for frostbite? I think Tholian would love that. Although he might be a little upset that you're getting rid of his job that way." He joked. "Maybe check with him beforehand. He might be able to help out with the research and everything, considering it's his specialization." Sintih didn't think he knew an academic in Viden who would refuse the possibility of being the co-creator of a new potion or drug that solved one of the more relevant problems of a city. Having spent some time in the Infirmary, many patients came in with cold or ice related problems, several of them with frostbite. He wondered how many limbs had been lost to that particular problem.

"Wait. What? There are hot springs in Viden? Where? Why don't I know about this?" Sintih was visibly upset by that news. Upset and disappointed in himself. Hot springs sounded amazing. Why hadn't Lilea shared that with him? Because he hadn't asked her. But still, it was her fault he didn't know about this. "Let's go there next time. I can meditate there, relax, do some hot soaking. This sounds amazing." He nodded at Doran as he gave him instructions for their next meditation session. In his enthusiasm, Sin seemed to have forgotten that Doran was supposed to be the expert on the matter and that he would decide when and where.

As he spoke about his life, he was too busy trying to list all the things he'd done to notice Doran's amusement. He shrugged as Doran called his life exciting. He didn't see it that way. It was mostly failures to him. Things he'd tried and failed at. Right in this moment, he couldn't even list one successful endeavor he'd been part of. His 'army' of five men lay shattered before the plague, his political career had been more short lived than that of a fruit fly and the nobleman who had entrusted his safety to him was... Actually, Sintih had no clue. "The Duke of Oakleigh. Although he was a Venora prior to that. I'm pretty sure he always considered himself a Venora although I never did. It was a new appointment, the locals were against it, mostly, and I saw a chance to get in his good graces offering protection. It worked for quite some time but then the plague hit and... well, it didn't go well. I think the Duke moved out of Rynmere before the travel ban." He wondered what Tristan was doing now. Probably something related to his weird art or beautiful women. Probably both. Or something with that Nulliem-blessed cat of his.

Sintih looked around quickly as Doran spoke out loud about the diplomat thing. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to them but then again, that's how spies worked, wasn't it? He quickly signed again. "Sintih diplomat. Ronan Not" He stressed the not quite hard, making it very obvious. It was a very easy sign as it was used frequently by most signers. He figured Doran would pick up on the hint. Doran shifted the conversation by talking about his own assignment as a diplomat, which caused Sin to raise his eyebrows in disbelieve. Who in their right mind would have appointed old Doran as a diplomat? He decided not to ask, as it was probably a mean thing to ask. Besides, this new Doran he had met only a few trials ago was new to him but maybe he'd been like this for a long time now. They hadn't seen each other in over nine arcs now so it was entirely possibly Doran had been new Doran for the entirety of that time.

It took him a moment to focus on Doran's signs. Getting used to other people's signs and 'dialects' of them, as well as their personal quirks always took a while. Considering Doran's lack of experience with the language only made it more difficult. So he watched the slow hand movements and took the pauses to translate for himself. He nodded as soon as Doran figured out the sign for suffer. He'd definitely suffered because of the plague. He figured signing the answer back would be too difficult for Doran and so simply spoke out loud. "I didn't suffer from it, but I did suffer because of it. Some of my..." He hesitated as he felt grief pipe up, his asterism dimming in his chest. "Some of the people I worked with didn't survive." They'd been more than people to Sintih but this sugary-drinks-serving-cafeteria wasn't the place to get emotional about it. Maybe some trial he'd feel ok with talking to someone about it.

Sintih adamantly shook his head when Doran offered to listen. "No. I don't want to talk about that right now." It wasn't very polite to do it like this but it helped to cut off the issue. He knew fully well it wasn't the best way to deal with it but having to illusionary cry and get all emotional about things would leave him more exhausted than a full break of physio and he definitely didn't want that. Not in this little cafeteria full of strangers. "Etzos, huh? How'd you end up there? Did you see any other places while you were out and about in the world?" It was an obvious redirect but one that Sintih felt necessary to steer the conversation in a different direction without telling Doran off for making him feel unwanted feelings. He quickly downed the rest of his liquid sugar, trying to drown the sad memories with light and heat.

[Doran]

“I’m not sure if it would be an actual cure, to be honest. I haven’t modified my Ellune potion yet”, Doran told Sintih in a calm tone of voice. “Even in the worst case, a modified version of the potion would likely be able to mitigate the effects of frostbite to some extent though, barring very severe cases”, he mused. He decided not to go into detail though as Sintih did not need to hear about black, mummified fingers and toes that literally fell off because their owner had been outside, in very low temperatures, for too long. Such was not an appropriate topic of discussion when one was in a cafeteria.

“I’ll definitely talk to Doctor Tholian if I decide to go ahead with my idea”, he continued in a slightly amused tone of voice (His former student’s joking had not gone unnoticed). “I do not want him to lose his job, and besides, frostbite is not my specialty.” He knew about the different degrees of frostbite and various treatment options, of course, but he did not see such cases on a regular basis. His background was in toxicology and clinical research – the latter was what he focused on nowadays as far as medicine was concerned.

“I’ll take you there, next time”, he promised Sintih when the conversation turned to the matter of the hot springs. He wanted to say more, but his former student had already moved on and told him that the nobleman that he had worked for was a Venora – or had been one prior to becoming the Duke of Oakleigh, at least – which caused him to raise an eyebrow slightly before he remarked, “I have some experience with House Venora myself. I was well acquainted with another one of its lords.”

“It seems our lives took somewhat similar directions after we parted ways”, he added – which was something that surprised him; he had not thought that they would have so many things in common – before he broke off somewhat abruptly as there was something that irritated him. The memories of his experiences with House Venora were strangely hazy. He normally did not have any problems remembering previous events.

That made him wonder why he struggled so much now for a few moments before he decided to leave the matter be, for the time being. He did not know that the Venora that he had once known, Alistair Venora, a fellow Sesser that he had last seen when he had shown up on his doorstep here in Viden, absolutely distraught, had been cursed by Vri. Those that had earned the Immortal’s ire faded from the minds of those that they interacted with.

“It’s good that your former employer managed to leave Rynmere”, he remarked. When his former student corrected him and told him that Sintih had been the diplomat and not Ronan, he inclined his head slightly. “Of course. My bad”, he replied, in sign language this time. He had not had any trouble understanding the signs that Sintih had used now, at least.

“I’m sorry”, he remarked, his tone of voice softening noticeably, when his former student talked about the people that had died a bit more. Sintih sounded so distraught that he regretted bringing the matter up. When he let him know that he didn’t want to talk about it, he inclined his head, “Of course. I understand”, he replied in an apologetic tone of voice. He did not consider him impolite for not wanting to talk about what had happened anymore.

As he had told him, he understood.

A few moments later, he turned to address the matter of his travels. There were some things that he did not want to talk about in detail, at least not in a cafeteria full of strangers. After he had stabbed the Immortal Xiur during the battle at Treid’s Tomb (which was something that had become one of his biggest regrets), Etzos had offered him protection – and much more.

There had been people that had wanted him dead, that had considered him a traitor for what he had done.

In Etzos, he had been a celebrity. There had been plays about him, people had asked him for autographs, and someone had even made Doran action figures. His celebrity status was something that he was ambivalent towards; especially since a lot of his portrayals had been inaccurate – he had enjoyed being in a position of relative power though.

Sintih knew some of it – they had talked about it during their last meeting all those arcs before; the people of Viden were unaware though, with the exception of his aunt, and he wanted to keep it that way. He preferred to be known for his inventions rather than for bloodshed.

“Someone offered me a job in Etzos, more or less”, he replied in a somewhat strange tone of voice – thinking about Etzos and the events that had led him there always filled him with mixed emotions. “I worked as an alchemist for one of the people that were in charge of the city”, he proceeded to explain. The person that he had worked for had been Lord Vuda who seemed to have disappeared without a trace a few seasons earlier.

His connection to Lord Vuda was another thing that he did not want to talk about right now, although he might share more about his life should Sintih and he ever meet in private.

“I visited Augiery, the city of the Naerikk”, he continued, speaking more normally again – that was where he had stayed for a short time after his actions on the battlefield in Oscillus and before he had left for Etzos. “I visited the island of Scalvoris. I was given the opportunity to hold a series of guest lectures at their university. And I saw the wonders of …”, he spoke, smiling slightly, before he abruptly switched to sign language once more, not because it was a secret, but to render what he said next more meaningful, so that Sintih might understand how much the next place meant to him.

He met his student’s gaze before he made a single sign, his blue eyes slightly wide – it had been cycles since he had first seen it, but it still fascinated him, almost beyond measure (in all of his centuries, he had never seen something as beautiful),

“Emea.”

[Sintih]

Typical Doran. Even while telling Sintih that he hadn't gotten started on the project yet he was already telling him about possible limitations to his potions and how he would overcome his own lack of knowledge on certain parts of its creation. It made Sintih smile, to see his old teacher still be himself like that, despite all the other changes he'd observed in the man. Aside from it being bad, Sintih knew very little about the workings of frostbite. But he knew it was bad and if Doran decided to do something about it, it would be appreciated by many and would help to expand the man's contributions even more. Maybe one day, if Sin ever got back to Rynmere, he'd bump into some guy trying to sell him one of those potions.

He was surprised to hear that Doran knew a Venora personally. He didn't think that Doran was interested in the politics of it all so his connection to the family would have been different. Perhaps a sponsor for his studies or a comrade in arms? Sintih was curious but didn't ask further. They had plenty of time to go over these details. For now it was simply them getting reacquainted with each other again. It had been a long time and they had too much that they could both share from that time to just spill it out right here in this gym-cafeteria. He didn't really see how Doran and his life had been similar but he wasn't going to argue that point. He simply hummed a little as he sipped from his drink. They continued to talk for a while but it came to a sudden halt once Sin refused to continue to talk about his past. Luckily, Doran seemed fine with sharing some of his own past to fill the silence with.

Why didn't it surprise the young Yludih that Doran got in good graces with someone very powerful in a far off city because of his alchemical skills? He tried to remember if he'd ever heard anything about Doran that didn't involve alchemy in some way. Alchemy professor in Rynmere, alchemy connection to Etzos, alchemy here in Viden. Alchemy even bound the two of them together. As Doran continued, Sintih listened intently. It sounded like he had been all over the world. Augiery? That was a very dangerous place, as far as Sintih knew. Scalvoris he knew a little about because of their university connection to Viden. Between them, Rynmere and Viden they made up the triangle of education. That and the fact that it was an island was all that Sintih knew about that. His thoughts were cut short as Doran started to smile and stopped talking, instead taking a moment to look at Sintih before forming a single sign.

It took a moment for Sintih to put it all together. An embarrassingly long moment considering he was supposed to be the one who was fluent in the language. He mimicked the sign partially, mouthing the same word Doran had mouthed as he signed. Another moment of him thinking and then: "Oh." He nodded and signed the word back at Doran. Emea. The dreamworld? Why did Doran put this in sign? Was he embarrassed about having had a nice dream once? Sintih didn't get it. Then again, he had no idea how it all worked for non-Yludih. What little he knew about it sounded incredibly convoluted and inefficient and, frankly, a waste of precious time. So, again, he formed the same sign as Doran, this time no mimic but the fully fledged sign, except his eyebrows were raised high up, turning the single sign into a big question. "Emea? Meaning What?" Sintih tilted his head slightly, applying all the ways he knew of forming a signed question to this one sentence. He couldn't have made it any more obvious that he didn't understand what Doran meant.

Knowing where this would go, if Doran picked up on it, Sintih quickly piped up, before it got out of his control. "I don't think this is a good setting for that, though. How about we go for a walk and you can tell me all about it." With that said, Sintih prepared himself to listen, nod and hum his understanding but remain quiet until the end of the lecture. It was a moment he both missed and disliked at the same time. Although, perhaps, the parts he'd disliked about it had stayed with old Doran. New Doran might just make it so that he would like miss and like it instead. And maybe, perhaps, just a little bit, it wasn't only Old Doran who had changed.

[Doran]

His mentioning Emea seemed to have surprised and confused Sintih, Doran noticed, and it suddenly occurred to him that Yludih might not experience the world of dreams like Llyr and he did. He knew that they went to that crystal city that he had seen in his former student’s memories once upon a time when they were asleep. Maybe they never went anywhere else.

Maybe they were incapable of dreaming.

He could not help but wonder; asking Sintih about it now, when they were in the company of other people, would not be a good idea though. Even using signs was not entirely without risks. For that reason, he decided to curb his curiosity and save that question for later. He did answer when Sintih asked him what he meant with Emea though.

“World of dreams”, he signed and inclined his head in order to let him know that he had understood that he was confused. Having done that, he paused slightly. There were not a lot of things that he struggled with anymore after he had been alive for such a long time; explaining the complexities and the fantastical nature of Emea with mere signs was a challenge though.

“Veil”, he signed. He didn’t waste any time on trying to figure out the signs for articles and verbs. He just wanted Sintih to understand, maybe a little, because that night when he had entered the Veil for the first time had changed everything; because it might have been the single most impactful event in his life, apart from his initiation, because he would not be the man that he was now with either of those two things. He had gone back there countless times, but he had still only seen a small fraction of that strange place.

He was not bragging about having visited Emea and seen it for what it really was; he just wished to share what he had seen.

“Place beyond dreams. Connection”, he signed and leaned a bit closer – only to stop abruptly when his former student decided that this was not a good setting for that and proposed that they go for a walk instead. He nodded curtly and finished his drink. Emea was not as touchy a topic as Sintih’s being an Yludih, his connection to Lord Vuda or Sintih’s possibly having acquired another spark, but it might be better to continue their conversation somewhere else, nevertheless.

“Let’s leave”, he agreed – this time he was speaking rather than signing - and rose to his feet. He waited a few moments for Sintih to get ready before he wheeled him out of the cafeteria. Soon, they were moving through the streets of Viden, at a relatively slow pace, talking about Emea, about a place that existed beyond dreams and connected all of them, about a fantastic city made of metal and glass (that was what the Veil looked like to him; it was different for everyone) – and whatever other topic happened to catch their interest.

Doran found that he enjoyed talking to his former student, more than he had thought that he would.

It seemed as if both of them had changed.