Tavern in the Riverlands part 2
Ok so again I'll paste some lines from the story and summarize a bit what's going on in the pics!
In the previous post, Nemerites saw Nemeeri fill up a keg by summoning water from nothing, and that's not something a Draeki should be able to do. That power belongs only to the Aspect, so of course, Nemerites is extremely puzzled and needs to know more.
The evening turns into night, and eventually, the Tavern is closed and it's time for Nemeeri to head home. She's the last one to leave and closes the door behind her, locking it. Only to turn around to a pair of eyes focused on her.
Locking the door behind her, she turned around expecting to see the view of the empty seashore, and the ancient willow trees swaying in the gentle breeze. But instead, she gasped as a pair of aquamarine eyes stared back at her, and the strikingly beautiful face of the Aspect of Water - Nemerites, greeted her. He was leaning onto the wooden wall of the tavern, arms folded loosely in front of him. He looked as if he was waiting on something…or someone.
For a moment, they just stood there in silence. She didn't know what to do or say, but each second as the silence went on, she felt more and more desperate for him to speak. He kept looking at her with a slight narrow in his eyes and a tilt of his head, like he was trying to solve some secret puzzle.
"How long have you been able to summon water like that?" He pushed himself off the wall and took a few steady steps towards her. Immediately, she realised what he meant, and that she'd made a big mistake. They'd always managed to keep their unique abilities a secret with Lethelin, but now, the Aspect of water himself had seen her do it. She began searching the depths of her mind for some believable explanation, but as she did, he blinked slowly, his face morphing into one expecting her to lie, brows rising ever so slightly. He looked almost…amused.
Sighing in defeat, she whispered. "Ever since I can remember."
He seemed to be analysing her response, holding onto his chin as if in deep thought. "Are you able to do it whenever and wherever you wish?" She nodded. "What's your first memory of it?" She tried to remember the first time she'd summoned water from nothing, but realised it would mean she'd have to tell him of Lethelin, and decided to lie instead. "I…I don't remember." Again, as if sensing her lie, he narrowed his eyes at her, glancing down at her hands. "And how does it feel?"
Being interrogated by the Aspect himself, Nemeeri knew she should answer truthfully and without question. But something in the way he was speaking to her, like he was entitled to hear her entire life story, was beginning to annoy her.
"Shouldn't you be the expert on that?" His brows rose at her tone, clearly taken back by her outburst. Nemeeri mentally cursed herself and was about to beg for forgiveness, when the Aspect chuckled, the sound pleasant and warm.
"I apologize if my questions seem intrusive. I am merely curious, since in all the ages past, I have never met a Draeki with such power." His gentle tone only made her more embarrassed of the attitude she'd given him, and she found it hard to meet his eyes again. So she occupied herself by brushing off invisible dust off her dress, instead. "…Oh?"
"Because there shouldn't be one." Her eyes shot up at him, looking for any hint of a threat in his words. But there was no sign of malice on his face, only a deep calmness, that somehow seemed to reach her as she observed him.
"Can you show me?"
For a moment, she hesitated. It felt as if she'd be breaking some sort of promise they had with Lethelin, to always have each others backs and to never reveal what they're able to do. But she'd broken that promise the moment she'd made the mistake of refilling that keg with her waters. The Aspect already knew.
So, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she held up her hand and focused on her magic. Cool sparkling waters manifested in her palm and slowly drifted up in the air, forming small shapes that didn't really resemble anything at all. Just blobs of water. Nemerites immediately leaned in, inspecting them as closely as possible from different angles, the furrow in his brow carving in deeper the longer he observed the floating droplets.
"Interesting." Just as he was about the reach out and poke one, she put down her hand and the waters dissipated into a sparkling mist. Annoyance flashed across his face for a split second, but then it was gone and replaced by the amused expression that seemed to be his favourite, at least around her. He chuckled. "I suppose I should've asked first." Nemeeri gave him a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, then dipped her head in respect and in goodbye, hoping the Aspect's curiosity had been sated by her display. The moment she made to turn away and leave however, he spoke again.
"Did you have a mentor?"
I'll summarize the last part! So the conversation moves to Nemerites offering Nemeeri his assistance in mentoring. Nemeeri and Lethelin have spend their entire lives trying to keep their abilities a secret, so they never really learned what would be considered as "basics" of bending water. Like I mentioned before, bending water is normal for a water Draeki born with the gift, but summoning water from nothing isn't.
Nemeeri has filled the keg with her water before, but to a normal Draeki watching, they'd assume/think there was a water source nearby or in the back rooms she's summoning from. But Nemerites being the Aspect - he's literally the element of water in the world, he of course sensed/saw what happened.
So long story short, he offers to mentor Nemeeri. He's incredibly curious about her abilities, and by becoming her mentor, he might be able to find the source of her unusual power. Nemeeri first is a bit sceptical, saying that she's just a Tavern worker and a painter, she has no need to learn powerful bending. To which Nemerites says; well you could do this, and summons a bunch of sea creatures shaped by his waters.
I mentioned before, Nemerites is an artist, and one of the art forms of the water Draeki is water sculpting. So using water to create different kinds of shapes, often creatures from the sea. And no one shapes water like Nemerites does, his sculptures are incredibly life like and move around. He summons a massive whale that jumps over them, and Nemeeri can see them reflected in it's surface as she looks up. He's basically showing off a bit lmao because he knows she's also an artist from the talk they had in the Tavern, and this might actually get her to be interested to learn.
Well it does, and Nemeeri realises she really has no choice but to mention Lethelin, her twin brother. This starts a whole new conversation, since Nemerites realises there's not just one Draeki with the powers that only the Aspect should have, but two. He offers to mentor him as well, and Nemeeri basically tells him she needs to talk to Lethelin about it. They eventually agree to meet in front of the Tavern next morning to talk, and she'll bring Lethe with her. Oh yea and he realises he never even asked her name. 😂
He begins to walk away, but suddenly stops and turns around.
"I don't believe I got your name."
"I don't believe you asked."
"Well…I'm asking now."
"…It's Nemeeri."
Thank you so much for reading! 💜