gloriouslygood | Open RP Post

"I like jasmine more. But if you'd like mint I can easily make some as well." It took him very little time at all to heat water. He could do it with a snap of his fingers.

"The point, Miss Sooraya, is that it would make me feel like I'm taking advantage of you. You're trapped, unfairly, and the best I can do until that bottle is broken is give you choice." He poured himself a cup of tea and sprinkled in a little bit of sugar.

"So, if you'd like to stay with me I will help you find a job. If you want to work for me, I will help you find a place to stay. Which option do you like more?" He smiled warmly at her as he sipped his tea.

"Jasmine is lovely, thank you. I can find mint tea much easier." She shook her head at the explanation, but if he felt uncomfortable doing both, then the least she could do was agree to the conditions. He was, ostensibly, helping free her.

And while she could handle a job being difficult or irritating, staying, living in a place that inspired those feelings was far less pleasant. "I would like to tay here, if you will let me," she said slowly, only moderately formal. She too was still adjusting to being back out of her bottle, and the addition of Gilmore being...well, himself was taking a few moments to get used to. "I don't take up very much room. I must be in that bottle for four hours each day."

He poured her a second cup and gently offered it to her. "Of course, that's fine. I'll help you find some work around here. I have good friends in the city who would be happy to help. And I trust them."

Shaun wasn't foolish enough to think Allura wouldn't notice what Sooraya was but he trusted the wizard wouldn't take advantage. She was one of the few people Shaun trusted explicitly.

"I will work on your bottle as much as I can without losing business. And, unfortunately, it will probably take awhile. I've never had to break this sort of enchantment before." Because it's certainly more complicated than the usual adventuring trinket.

Sooraya took the cup and held it, letting it warm her fingertips as she shook her head gently. "I will give you as much informationon the spellsas I can, but I don't know as much as I'd like," she said. "The wizard that imprisoned me was unfortuantely secretive."

She could work many types of jobs an would happily do so; metallurgy and translation were simply those she liked the best and found she had an aptitude for. "I understand it will take time, of course, and I don't want you to lose business because of this. I'll happily do what I can to make sure you don't," she said. That said even being in the position of possibly being free was exciting, and showed in the way she smiled brightly. Freedom after so long being kept enslaved was a tantalizing offer. "Who are these friends of yours, though? Are they the same ones that brought me here?"

"Most wizards are in my experience." Shaun chuckled to himself before sipping at his tea. "Oh, don't worry, you probably won't even be the biggest distraction in my life."

Vox Machina were always the biggest distraction. They would come and go taking what they needed and selling what they didn't. It's how they are.

"Not Allura. She doesn't do much adventuring these days. Her wife does though." Shaun made himself comfortable in a chair, carefully arraigning his robes. "Vox Machina are the ones that rescued you and brought you here. They're an eccentric group of adventurers and incredibly dear friends."

"Vox Machina?" she echoed, brows creased for a moment. "Voice...machine?"

It sounded interesting enough, and Sooraya settled comfortably on a floor cushion, bare feet tucked under her as she drank her tea. "I should send them my thanks for that when I see them. Or I should go find them." She sighed gently. "It doesn't feel like there are going to be any deserts near here, are there?"

Emon was not, from what she could feel of the atmosphere and the smell, near anything so dry or arid as where she and Gilmore called home. "It smells like the sea. With which I have not had...the best experiences."

"Yes, that's what they call themselves." He chuckled fondly as he thinks of the group. "And they are a noisy bunch."

He always knew when they were in his shop especially if Scanlan was with them. Though, they'd settled down some in their later years. Not adventuring as much as they used to. Missing one of their number...

Shaun sipped at his tea again and pushed the dark thoughts away. "I can help you contact them. They don't spend much time in Emon these days. And the nearest desert is in Marquet, another continent. I'm sorry, you're stuck on the coast."

And while he liked Sooraya he wasn't going to share his teleportation circle back home with her. That was... very special.

She huffed out a little laugh, mouth curving as he confirmed that she was by the water. "I should get used to it," Sooraya murmured. "Water is life. And I'm not on a boat currently."

She would very much enjoy not being seasick, though as she watched his face she cocked her head, not sure of what exactly she'd seen flicker over his expression. "You're not entirely happy when you speak about them. Are they that bad?"

"No, and you're rather far from the docks of the city as well. We can take a walk around later." The city was still recovering from Thordak even after all this time. Magic sped the rebuilding up but there were parts with obvious scars. It would be... interesting to walk around and show her the sights.

He chuckled. "I love them all very dearly but we don't meet as often as we used to. It makes an old man nostalgic."

For the old days though he wouldn't begrudge Vex and Percy their happiness and their children. Nor Keyleth the strength she had found in herself. His own longings and regrets were simply his.

"I'd like that," she answered, setting the teacup on her lap and watching his face as he spoke. But his reference to his age made her chuckle, a soft but happy enough sound. "You are not an old man," Sooraya answered. "Not older than me, I don't think."

"You are a spirit. Much longer lived than a simple human. I wouldn't dare try to guess how long you've been around." Though Shaun wouldn't mind talking to an ancient djinn just to hear the stories of times long gone and maybe even magics lost.

And it was rude to guess a woman's age anyway.

"Though, if you're willing to share how you came to be captured that might help me undo the shackles of magic that hold you." He twirled his wrist and after a moment parchment, a quill, and ink floated into the room to land neatly next to him. So he could take notes.

"It's not a terribly entertaining story, I'm sorry to say," she prefaced, "But I'll tell you, certainly." She didn't mind people knowing how she'd come to be enslaved, though no one before had ever asked, nor seemed to care overmuch about the particulars. Just the wishes.

"I used to travel with my people," she began; the story was easy enough to suss out. She had served the head of the tribe that lived around the oasis she occupied, and for quite a while it had been fine. Years, in fact. But there was one son, set to succeed his ruling mother, that chafed at the idea of having a powerful and beautiful creature like Sooraya so close, and so inaccessible. She had refused his advances one too many times, and he had cursed her to be confined in a bottle he'd kept nearby him at all times. The spells were powerful, rendering the bottle unbreakable by normal means, and tethering her to it and thereby its owner.

"He wanted power to control the neighboring people, and...did not take kindly my refusal of both that and marriage. I didn't want to be tied to anyone. I thought as long as his mother was alive she could talk him out of it, or sway enough people to keep him from acting on the desires he had. I very clearly underestimated him. He murdered her take power, and bound me to keep it."

The point of the story wasn't to be entertained. It was to figure out what he might need to do to free her. He listened politely, occasionally sipping his tea. It wasn't a tragic story more a cruel one about the typical power hungry prick not use to hearing no.

He nodded. "He's dead. My friends killed him and took your bottle. He didn't bind the spell to his own life, if what I'm saying."

So, it would take untangling the spell itself, possibly layer by layer to free her. It would be a long time, probably, since he still had his own business to run.

"Ah," she says on a sigh. "I'm not sad to learn he's dead. But...that makes unraveling those spells quite a lot more difficult." He hadn't been the kind of man to write down precisely what curses he'd used.

"Thank you for...everything you're doing, I suppose. Preemptively."

"Magic speaks more truth than the caster anyway." He would much rather figure out the spell than the disgusting man who cast it. Vox Machina had done the right thing ending him. He would have only caused more trouble left alive.

He waved a hand. "No one should be bound by magic. It should set people free and help them, not enslave."

Shaun had very strong views on the uses for magic. It was very dear and very important to him.

"Hasn't stopped centuries of people doing it up to now," she says lightly, looking down for a moment. Whether or not she felt anything in particular for the man that had captured her, it did take a moment to process the information. "I wish I could help. Unfortunately...my own magic is useless in breaking these particular bonds."

Not to say she couldn't research for him, or gather any ingredients necessary, but the actual spellcasting power would have to come from Shaun. "Thank you for telling me."

"I imagine if you could do something about your imprisonment you would've done so by now. Don't worry." Shaun didn't think she was the sort of enjoy serving a madman all these years.

He would do his best to get her free. He would also do his best not to ask her for anything. The choice would always be hers and he would not demand anything. She had choice taken away from her too many times.

"You can relax up here while I work. I'm going to go back down and get to work on helping you get established and taking a look at that bottle in more detail." He got to his feet with his tea.

"I may go exploring the city a little, if you think that's advisable," she murmured; she certainly didn't want to be in his hair all day, or just lazing around upstairs. It was nice, and she appreciated beyond measure his willingness to help free her, but she felt like she needed to be doing something to repay him.

She just didn't know what. Yet.

"Certainly. If you get lost ask anyone for directions to Gilmore's Glorious Goods and they'll get you here."

Emon was a large city but almost everyone knew of his store. They almost always knew of him as well since the fight with Thordak. Shaun Gilmore was a good man.

He brought his tea back down with him and let Sherri know he was back and ready to help if there was a picky customer.

"I should return before dark, or not long thereafter," she said, and kept her face covere as she went out; she could with very little effort look perfectly passably human, legs and all. Most of the time she barely had to think about it. Technically Sooraya didn't have a physical body, not the same way a human would, but few people knew that. Few people at all bothered to try learning much about djinni other than the rumors that spread from people unhappy that they weren't granted wishes. Or whose wishes hadn't turned out the way they wanted.

She wandered for several hours, merely exploring the city, though she did make it to the docks and the markets, collecting a good number of stares and questions along the way for her dress--it being far more suited to the desert than the coast. About an hour after sunset she came back, wisps of hair curling free of her veil and smelling like saltwater as she looked around the shop, taking in what the front of it looked like. Sooraya picked at the colorful golden bangles around her wrists as she explored, rubbing her skin where the thicker bracelets--manacles, really, but they were elegantly worked--sat and chafed.

"Shaun?"

"In the back!" He called from his workroom. "Through the beaded curtain."

Sadly, he wouldn't have much good news for Sooraya. The magic was difficult to untangle. The man who cast it was very good at his imprisonment. He needed more time to unravel the layers of magic. Possibly a lot of time.

However, he did have some good news for her. She'd have something to do while waiting for Shaun to work his magic.

She stepped through the curtain gently, stilling the swing of the bead strands with a wave of her hand. "Your shop is lovely," she says. "And the city is too. What happened here, though?"

"Thank you. I've put a lot of work into it over the years." Shaun gestured for her to sit down at another stool in the workshop. He didn't usually have many visitors back here.

"Besides selling to the lovely adventurers of Emon? Not terribly much. I did get you a position with my friend Allura to help in her library, if you'd like it." It would be very simple work but it would still be work for Sooraya if she wanted it.

"And your bottle will be more of a challenge than I thought. It'll take time, my apologies."

"You don't have to apologize," she said lightly, sitting down and unpinning her veil. "I'd very much like having something to do, and I quite like libraries."

The mention of the bottle's enchantments being difficult was, sadly, not much of a surprise. "I thought it woul take more time than...just one day."

Open RP Post

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject