#nolahn

The men (and few women) that tromped and shouted above the multiple decks made her feel uneasy, caused her to shrink in closer to herself, clinging to the rough, dirty linens of the loaned clothes. She was tense and in an unfamiliar environment still, merely waiting for the one person she did know to return.

That man, Nolahn, he’d called himself. On some little rare whim, she’d reached out and took his hand and let him steal her away from the sweet halls of Surau’nar. He’d lead her far from golden fields and instead off to distant docks in the middle of the night, washing the mending herbs along her bleeding tongue and urging her onto a ship.

He’d come back every day, told her that they’d dock soon in another port, promised that he’d at least help her so that she could go wherever she needed. Every time he came to talk, she rarely said anything. Perhaps a nod or two of her head, yet there was never any motion of upset from him as she kept her silence.

What her thoughts strayed to now was his suggestions to her… things he told her she should do to make sure she could be absolutely safe from what she now ran from. Cut her hair, if not dye it. Change her clothes and try to speak more common or orcish instead of thalassian. Maybe even, for a short time, looking into cheap enchantments to help her out.

It seemed odd.

She was not used to the idea of changing something like that. Her hair, perhaps, was fine… speaking in another language, she could do…

Yet, to change her name? Why did it bother her so much?

She bit at her raw, dry lip. Her gaze glanced to the side, where she’d rested a gemmed hairpiece. Looking over the gold weaved into the shape of the all too familiar rose, the gems inlaid to make it sparkle and shine, even in the tiniest of lighting. As it did often times as of late, she felt that pang of guilt. This was wrong, and she knew it. She should’ve done as she was told and just stayed there… just gone through the motions… not caused the trouble.

Yet she didn’t. She’d ran away, ruined an evening that meant so very much for all of their futures. She knew damned well what would await her had she just turned and went back now.

A disappointment.

She never listened well enough. She’d have made things into a mess for some petty reason, and she’d have to be punished for it. She was scared of the punishment almost as much as she was scared of the simple act of turning away from it all. The more she went one way, the worse the other would get, and she knew that much.

She thought over it again and again, her mind a swirl of things that upset her and made her feel as sick as the waves under the ship did. What point was there in even thinking about going back by now? What was the point of keeping things that labeled her as this failure she was to her family. If anything, wouldn’t it help them if she’d just do that?

Why was it so hard for her?

Her fingers curled around the hairpiece, feeling the sharp metal biting slowly into her palm, her brows knit in frustration. She didn’t know what to do, and no one told her specifically what she should. It was confusing to her, and she hated it.

Taliorinth let out a long breath, glancing around the room she’d been stuck in. Dark as it was, it was at least becoming familiar to her. The hard bed under her was like a small island of safety to her, a space she’d occupied since the moment she’d come on board. Shifting to sit more upright, she held herself steady on the edge of the thin mattress. After the moment of dizziness faded away, she finally pulled herself to her feet, stumbling only slightly before she could focus on where she wanted to go.

Perhaps only a few steps away was a rusted mirror, small in nature, but enough for what she wanted. When she made her way there, she could hardly recognize who stared back out at her.

Her long, well cared for curls that so often were held back in the fanciful pins were now short and messily falling along her cheeks. The soft, clean ivory skin now had dirt along it, blending in with the soft freckles that she was so used to seeing. There was a flush on her face now that was a stark difference to the lack of coloring elsewhere thanks to the sickness that had come with boarding the ship. The few times she was out in the burning sun had certainly taken it’s toll, leaving a certain heat under her skin she disliked greatly.

She was different. Someone she couldn’t recognize. She wasn’t a lady who did as was told, nor the sister that she had been…. Not even the daughter that she should have lived up to be. What was she, then, if nothing else?

A runaway?

One of these pirates she now was with?

Taliorinth Rosespear.

That’s who she had been, yet looking into the mirror at her reflection, she knew it wasn’t who she was now. She’d taken Nohlan’s advice and she’d changed everything, and with that, she became something more. Only one thing was left that she hadn’t changed...

She focused on herself in the mirror, red lined blue eyes looking back through.

“Taliori.” she said for a moment, “Taliori. My name is Taliori.”

Her voice was quiet, like a whisper in the room… yet it held more weight than anything she’d said in the past few days.

“My name is Taliori.”

She said it again, erasing the fanciful thalassian from herself, ripping away the name of a rose that was so hard grown into her.

That wasn’t who she was anymore.

“My name is Taliori.”