#kaedrn

⊱ ░ 𝓐ZRA ₍ ? ₎ they say you know plants that can change the body. something that makes a person stronger. faster to recover. do you make such things…?

the witch does not answer at once ━━ not as pale hands are occupied, slowly and carefully spreading dried leaves from their stems as though each piece mattered. ( meant something... ) and perhaps they did. SHE TAKES HER TIME BECAUSE SHE IS NOT ONLY THINKING OF THE QUESTION ITSELF, but of where it may lead. as that, to her, is always far more important than whatever it is that she may gain in return [ ... ] whether it was coin or the self satisfaction of helping those in need... it mattered little when tampering with nature. ❛❛ there are plants that will make you feel stronger. and others that will quiet pain enough that a person believes themselves unbreakable. ❜❜

her palms ran against the wooden top of the table she stood over, with its rickety four legs that nevertheless remained steady beneath her gentle touch. ❛❛ but the body always keeps its own accounting. ❜❜ she'll pause then, hands stilling as a green gaze lifts to finally meet @kaedrn directly since welcoming her into her cottage. NOT FEARFUL, NOT JUDGEMENTAL... only anchored and unblinking. but no matter how cold the color of her eyes appeared ━━ drained of saturation and haunted ━━ there was a distant, quiet kindness. ❛❛ i can give you something to wake the blood, if that is what you seek. to keep you on your feet when you ought to fall... but nothing that comes without cost. ❜❜ pandora inhales a breath through her teeth as her head falls again [ ... ] fingers returning to their task whilst dark strands curtain her like spilt black ink. ❛❛ faster healing often means the body takes from somewhere else... i have seen men walk on broken legs because they did not feel them break. ❜❜

A PAUSE, BEFORE SHE ADDS ALMOST REGRETABLY.

too loud, he thought to himself with gradually rising irritation. it was perhaps somewhat silly of him to seek some peace & quiet in an inn where wine & misery reigned with a firmer hand than those of king daeron, but still. he had not expected this godforsaken place in the middle of nowhere to be suddenly overrun by a group of boisterous merrymakers so late at night. on their way to the accursed tourney, perhaps ? he could not wait for them to be on their merry way ... the last thing he needed right now was a constant reminder of the bleak fate he was trying so hard to avoid.

his discomfort must have shown, for soon he heard somebody approaching his table—if he had any luck it would just be the innkeeper ... alas, luck had always been something he sorely lacked. he did not immediately look up at the intruder, so the only thing he could be certain of was that it was a woman. a rather confident one, too, judging by her tone & the unprompted invitation she extended to a lone man at an inn.

"i do not quite fancy what hunting usually entails, my—" daeron looked up from his half-empty cup mid-sentence, only to see that she looked more like a warrior from a distant kingdom than what he was about to address her as.

"—lady," he added anyway, he was nothing if not courteous ... and perhaps a bit too cynical for his own good.