Onions and Ale

Sidonie watched as he rose, his height still above her own which was generous for a woman. Her chin lifted slightly, it was a move meant to show that she still listened but also that she wasn't intimidated by him nor that swishing tail that curled now at his ankles where he leaned against the railing. Her head canted to the side, her lips pricked with a crooked smile and followed with the slow shake of her head. The moonlight caught the silver of her hair in a faint halo, her eyes intelligently gauging him as he explained his position.

"You could call it survival, or stupidity. Maybe it is different for men, or tiefling, or tiefling men in general...to throw all caution into the wind and tarry forward without regard for one's own safety." she sounded a little aloof, but inside she grinned. She was renowned for her absently wandering into problems she shouldn't, this...being one of them. "I would imagine that gold alone could be a reason, but I somehow doubt that money alone was a motivator for you." Her hand lifted to touch her chin in thought, somewhat mocking the stroking of his chin beard.

"Alright then, how did you escape? You said you passed out after...after..." she gulped a little, sickened a bit by the thought of the exploding and gore covered horse. "the horse incident...and where did you go when you passed out, why there...what spell could even do as you said..you aren't..." her already pale skin blanched further at the thought. No, she didn't get the vibe that he was a necromancer, that would negate the healing she sensed in him...but what if...indeed.

Amnon seemed somewhat amused again, his lashes hooding his gaze in a subtle way, a shimmering orb of humor in his eyes. "Would you call yourself stupid first for accepting a Tiefling's invitation into his very own room?" Though he meant no harm with it, he found it somewhat comical to point out. "You seek a motivation that is not there, Sidonie. Really, not everything is as complex as the tale I just told you. When you're a drifter like me, you don't have a home to inhabit during the winter. Lathander knows I haven't a clue about how to mend clothing, much less make garments for winter, so really that was my only motivation at the time. Winter is something that is a yearly worry, even if the summer months are long and warm. Survival of the fittest, so to speak. Where people have beds and fires to turn to, people like me do not. Especially if you come across an inn with little to no resources. What happens if their rooms are full? What happens if you stumble across a town with a food shortage? What happens when the people you stay with are all ill? Given, I cannot be ill really, not in that way, but it is unpleasant nonetheless and resources are important to those who are sick."

The amusement faded somewhat.

"Not all stories have resolutions. When a master bard tells you about a struggling knight, do they include, after the tragedy, that they found a nice warm bed, a warm meal, and a happily ever after for a few years, at least? Not that I have heard."

He pushed off the railing and stepped back inside, filling the doorway while retaining a casual demeanor. "I mean no disrespect, Assimar, but I do not feel comfortable enough with you yet to tell you further than that. I hope you understand. As you said before, we are born to hate and to kill one another, and though I have no intention of doing so, forgive me if I do not immediately trust you. I have never not had trouble with the Assimar. Where one goes, more come. Whether or not it is intentional. At least, that is my luck with things. Perhaps we can turn the tide toward lighter conversation or..."

Amnon stepped beyond her chair, looking at the bathtub he'd have to have drained soon.

"You can let me retire for the night and we carry on with our lives without so much as a word about it. You can carry my story, tell it how you desire, but let us agree not to put each other's lives in jeopardy. As much as it is strange to say, I actually like you Sidonie and I'd hate to know that you were slain by association with me."

Sidonie pursed her lips as he spoke, she didn't like the way he was talking to her particularly. It wasn't that he was being rude, he was being honest. Her hands folded below the ample curve of her breasts and she watched as he passed her back to the doorway. Certainly, not all stories have endings, certainly not good ones...she wasn't looking for an ending, but an understanding. He gave her only half of his truth and as he made it clear, she wouldn't know all as he didn't quite trust her yet. His admission that he liked her gave rise to a tiny smile that she hid with a slight twitch of her head and the cascading of the inky black stretch of hair that fell over her face.

Once she had gained a bit of aloof appearing control, she brushed the hair from her face before continuing on. "I could let you sleep, I suppose. Of course, there is nothing fun in sleep except for dreams that never come to pass." she paused, her hip shifting a bit as she switched feet. "If you are up for more chatter of the banal and bland, I am sure we can find some little tidbits to talk about, perhaps the weather...one knows how grand the weather discussion could be, oh oh...or perhaps we could divulge our deepest secrets about fabrics...I just love a good damask!" she was chiding him now, with pure intent.

"You don't strike me as one, Amnon, to indulge in conversations on the mundane..not in the slightest." she took a step forward, then another until she was to press by him, pausing to look up at his golden gaze. "Of course, we could discuss the ingredients of an apple pie...if that is your thing" her sarcasm was purposeful. She loved to draw out of people what moved them, and found in those interactions the most wonderful things about others. They could be bad or good things, but things that they hid, things that they didn't think mattered to anyone else, things they never thought anyone would understand. "So apple pies then?"

Amnon couldn't help but let a slight smile touch his lips again as it had when he'd opened the door to find her both gaping and surprised.

Stooping over the tub, he removed a gauntlet and dipped his hand in the water to his wrist. It took a fraction of a second, but what happened next was both strange and sudden... The water evaporated with the sound of a stoke of wind as if it had dipped in and lurched out of the room followed by a heavy, steamy hiss and a fog that unfurled and evaporated, leaving the object bone dry and cool as if no one had bathed within it. After that, he replaced his gauntlet and turned to find Sid very close to him. He had listened as she spoke and did not wash away the amusement though did meet her mythril gaze framed by a halo of silver.

"How bland," he replied. "You are right on that account. I could care less about the weather, what material may be best, or how best to bake an apple pie. Lucky for you I am not some stooped housewife with a petticoat and frock. Or bloomers."

His smile widened and he would clasp his hands behind his back. "Other than drab topics about things we are neither interested in, what suits your fancy Sidonie? Something not cryptic or deep. I'd be open to other curiosities if Tiefling's pick your fancy that much. And perhaps some ale. Think they deliver?" He was referring to what lie below them. "Though I'm not too keen on drinking in public, I'd fetch us something if you'd like to share a quarter cask." A slightly devilish, mischievous smile touched his lips. "Unfortunately for me, I have to drink twofold what a normal man would drink. Body heat and such."

Sidone marveled at his little trick with the bathtub, wishing she could do just the same out of simple practicality. When he turned to look at her she was pleased to see the humor in his eyes, to see that her jabs didn't anger him but rather he seemed cordial and open to conversations beyond the mundane, which she could have with any scullery maid if she so desired.

"Ale would be a fine start and I am certain that I need only a quarter of what you do, being dainty and all" she grinned at him, batting her lashes as she made the jest. She was far from dainty, though not a large woman by any means. Tall yes, and curves where a well fed woman should have them and she was quite fine with that. "Sweets would be another thing..yes...those as well. But don't bother with leaving, it is easy enough to have things brought up." she commented and strode to the window in a billow of skirts, swishing as she went.

Sid leaned over the balcony a bit, whistled two sharp blasts and a shorter third and within moments one of the night men poked his head out from below. "Send up a quarter cask of your best ale and a tray of sweets from tonight's dinner." the response was a quick nod and retort "As the lady wishes". Before she could pull her head back fully she saw the fluffy gray head of Markos pop outwards, craning his head to look up at where she stood. The scowl on his face was clear, but she simply smiled at him and blew a tiny kiss "Sleep well old man" she whispered.

She turned back to him with a satisfied grin, she had been a patron here through the years, long enough that she knew of the little tricks and used them generously when she visited. "That is how it is done here...unless you want discrete, though nothing is such here. For that...there is a special inn.." she stopped there, not wanting to sound like a complete harlot, but a bard learns things and she had learned plenty.

Amnon's brow simply lofted and he took it that Sid was a regular when the response from one of the workers was quick and compliant. The whisper and the blown kiss was curious as well but he decided not to inquire and simply tilted his head when she turned around and grinned at him. She seemed in a better mood than what she had arrived in, and though that pleased him, he thought that curious as well.

Toward her mention of a special inn, that brow lofted higher and the entertainment he garnered from that was more visible than before. "If I were interested in such services, I do not believe we would have met tonight. As further oddness would have it, I am not a sexual fiend like other Tiefling. Though, not any more or less immune than any man, I suppose."

Unclasping his hands behind his back, he would wander to the two chairs they had once sat within and adjusted them so that they were further inside the room, a bit farther from the balcony. Color him paranoid but Amnon had no intention of being an easy target should someone get the idea to launch an arrow in the window. Though highly unlikely, it was one of his little quirks. The very same that as when he was in a building, his back was already toward the wall; mind already working over every possible escape route. A quirk, to note, that was hardly used. After the table was cleared of the tea pot and after he had put things in an order that was neat and acceptable to him, he would remove his gauntlets and drop them on the foot of his bed, rolling up his sleeves to his elbows to reveal various scars up and down his arms.

He sat in his chair again thereafter, crossing his legs as he had before while leveling his golden daze upon the fair, effervescent creature that kept him company.

Amnon realized it had been a very long time since he had entertained female company.

Sid watched as he rearranged the chairs, but didn't question it, though she did fancy sitting on the balcony and enjoying the cool ocean breeze. She was glad to see he seemed to be more at ease, or at least enough to let the smile stay on his lips longer than a moment or two. As he pulled the gauntlets off, she noticed the scaring of his arms - those with the most scars, have the best stories - thought and slid into the chair by him.

"I know a great many things that a woman should not, not that I employ them, I simply know them. After all, as a bard, one needs to know their surroundings and as a female - doubly so." She tucked one foot beneath her rear and as usually tugged down her skirt to cover her legs. "As for your proclivities for or against..copulation...that is of your concern and none of mine" giving him a little wink so that he knew she was not offended, not in the slightest.

"Now then, the intricacies of being a tiefling and why you would entertain one, or better yet, why would I entertain you with my company. A good place to start, don't you agree?" she asked.

Her attention was drawn to the soft knock at the door and quick retreat of footsteps. "Food...drink..let us be merry then shall we?" she chimed, her voice melodic as she fairly sung the words. If it was sweet, it was her pleasure. Rising from the chair she made it to the door in a few short but graceful leaps, like a doe bouncing across a field, and tugged the door open. A cart sat beyond laden with all things needed for a good long converse on the state of anything. Grunting she pushed it inside, the wheel sticking between two boards for a moment and requiring a little more effort.

Indeed the staff had provided what she had asked for and more. She knew it would be more, it always was when she asked. It was one of the silent privileges of being who she was in the world and it happened that the owner of this fine inn was also a relative. The small keg lay upon its side centered on the cart, tapped and ready with two mugs beside it. On the opposite side were two dishes. One was burdened with chocolates, cakes and tarts, sweets of delectable selection and surely more than enough for them to share. The other was arranged with sliced cured meats and cheeses, crackers of cracked wheat and grains and a loaf of crusty bread with a slab of butter beside it.

Amnon watched the Assimarian with a certain sense of curiosity and noted the wink which followed her response on the matter. When she sat down then, and then spoke, he tilted his head and watched her as he idly stroked his beard. "You entertain me? It is you who is my room and you who accepted the invitation. So perhaps, let's discuss your inquiries about whatever intricacies you think Tieflings have and why we might entertain one another? Racial differences or dire curiosity aside. What fascinates you so about my kind?"

When the knock resounded and when Sid only affirmed his desire, he would wonder why she was suddenly chiming and loping with energy that had not been there moments before.

The thoughts drifted away when their boon was revealed to them, however. The quarter keg and the copious amounts of food piled onto the cart. Should it be required of him, Amnon would draw the cart between their chairs and fill up a mug each, extending one to Sid before sitting back down and sampling what they had been given. A simple ale and much like what he'd been given before.

After downing a heavy swig, he settled in for the interesting conversation that would most certainly follow, his interested golden hues observing her gaze, her lips, the way her hair fell about her face. It was not admiring her, per say, but committing her image to memory. Though, she'd be hard to miss with her unusually silver hair, softly glowing skin, and mythril hues.

Sid would allow him to move the cart before them, taking the offered ale and more than a few bits of cheese and meat, each wedged between crackers. She wondered why they had forgotten plates, but it mattered little. Again settling herself in the chair, she placed her little bounty in the pool created by her skirt between her legs and began to nibble between sips of ale.

"Right, semantics and all that." she waved one cracker wielding hand before popping it into her mouth and chewing thoughtfully. "Here is the thing, I am a bard..but you know that. And part of being a bard is learning stories...but you know that too. And I am an Aasimar..which you also know...so this all begs the question of this - if I am all of these things and my natural proclivity is to learn new stories, what other possible interest could I have in a tiefling that could split me in two without so much as a thought?" As the words left her mouth and another cracker entered it, she choked. It did not come out as intended and quickly she gulped down ale to cover the little faux pas that she hoped he would miss. "As it were, I find the race fascinating, I know all about mine and that we are supposed to be these perfect little angel helpers, good and pure and all that horse crap." Sid babbled on quickly, not leaving a moment beyond the gulp to let him ruminate on her choice of words. "But the tiefling..they are of this darkness we can not speak of, this fire that burns the soul...this blah blah blah..bad people..ad nauseum. But why...is it their birth, is it some magical event in your life that molds you to evil?" she shook her head a moment, "I don't mean that you are evil, but your race. I don't understand the why. I can't see that a child born would simply be evil, or hateful, or...dangerous..something had to happen, but that is not something that most know, or live long enough to express anyway".

Pausing her rambling so that he could respond and in the interum she folded a bit of meat with a slice of cheese and wedged it between crackers and munched on it thoughtfully. She hoped that she was getting her question across, she knew full well that she had a habit of winding on until her beginning was lost on the way to the end.

When they both settled in for the conversation, Amnon would watch her idly as she settled in and began chewing on some crackers before she chose to answer. Luckily for her, her little faux pas went unnoticed as his mind had not actually entered that facet. He was naturally not perverted thus he would loft a brow when she choked, thinking that perhaps she had inhaled or been a little to vigorous in her enjoyment. Though she did make a point and the interest in the topic would show on his features after the faux pas passed.

"It is where we come from. Not our birth nor magical event, it is how a particular Tiefling is born. Though we are 'humans' per say, and merely have infernal lineage, there are those of us like myself who enter this world through other means; the general consensus simply through a normal birth. However... that is a topic for another time. Tieflings are evil simply because it is a natural inclination. Much like it is for a deer to wander peacefully or a bird to fly south for the winter. I imagine it is similar to the Assimarian. When you are born, generally speaking, it is a natural inclination to do and be good because of from whence their bloodlines came. Not so mysterious, I think."

Amnon paused with thought and took a drink of ale before proceeding.

"A child is only 'innocent' by standard. Small, innocent, and defenseless but I hardly believe that the be the case for your race, or mine."

Crossing his legs and resting his elbow on the arm of the chair, Amnon would rest his chin in his palm and observe her; waiting for her response. In the mean time, he would sip his ale.

Her gaze snapped upwards as he explained, her cheeks stuffed with cheese and meat as she chewed and thought of his words. Here, this is where she had a problem with the argument and she mulled over how she would respond without raising his ire. Sid swallowed and took another sip of her ale to wash it down, glancing for a moment towards the pile of sweets just waiting for her to dive into, but that would wait - the night was young and so much was yet to be spoken.

"I wouldn't say that all Aasimar are born good...or even stay good. I can't imagine it is as simple as...birth and not an event, not grooming, not something outside of the pure and innocent birth." she shrugged a little and began to gather up the crumbs that settled in her lap. "Of course I could be wrong and often am...but for you...do you really think you were born evil?" Sid didn't look up, the question hung for a moment before she continued on. "I was born an Aasimar...and more...but I am not good, I am not pure, I do not follow the tenets set forth by my..lineage."

Rising from the seat she moved over to the balcony and sprinkled the crumb to the ground below. "With your reasoning...lineage being the answer, then all tiefling would be evil and all aasimar would be good...I don't buy it," she commented from the balcony as she returned. Leaning against the doorframe she regarded him in silence.

This was not supposed to be an argument but she felt it heading in that direction, and he had stirred that interest in diving deeper by that one little statement about his coming into this world. What could he mean by it - other means - it was so, so, innocuous. While she puzzled it out, she looked serene and not bothered by the conversation, but interested deeply. Already she had found him to be vastly different than other tiefling she had observed and wanted to know more, so much more.

The conversation seemed like it would turn into a debate, and instead of it feeling like an argument to Amnon, it felt like a breath of fresh air. Because of so, his lips pulled up into an attractive smile; his golden hues taking in Sid's appearance as she countered.

"I apologize for not explaining myself clearly enough. I do not mean that being born reasons out toward your alignment, but your lineage may affect how you think and feel about things. Hence my relation to geese flying south for the winter. When we step back and look back at things on a large scale, one can reasonably say from experience that about 75 to 80 percent of our kindred race are aligned like one would expect. Assimar angelic beings who do good and Tiefling demonic beings that do bad. Cliche and reputation exist because they have a foundation of truth. The racial members that fall in the 20 to 25 percent exist opposite of what is expected of them, and less than one percent, us."

Amnon downed a pint of ale and tossed a sweet treat in his mouth, chewing over the solidity of his response.

"I was born under taboo circumstances," he replied. "But one cannot group our races into straightforward categories. There are too many elements that shape a person to be who they are, it just so happens that most of our people heed the call of their ancestors. That's all really."

Sidonie regarded him in silence for a moment, his words truthful but still seeming a bit too enigmatic for her opinion. It wasn't that she disagreed, but she felt strongly that there had to be more than lineage to make a person be as they are, tiefling and aasimar aside. Pushing herself off the doorframe she meandered over to the cart and selected a few treats, a chocolate covered cake of some sort and one that looked to have jam and nuts in it before settling back into the chair.

"So you were born under taboo and you are different than the vast majority, putting you in the proverbial one percent of the tiefling population. How does that change you though? I mean, if lineage were such a strong pull, wouldn't that override your inclination to be or do good kind things?" she paused a moment, popping the jam tart in her mouth and chewing thoughtfully. After swallowing the entirely delicious treat, the smooth sugary texture of the jam coating her throat, the nutty taste lingering as though she had just experienced a sandwich that wasn't and it was perfect. A tiny little moan of pleasure proceeded her speaking once more, "I, for example, do not believe in all this do-gooding for the sake of the Angels or religion. I do good as it seems just and right, because it pleases me to see others benefit from it, not for my own ego. For many aasimar, that is the whole of their existence, to do good...but always for the Angels, always for the religion, always for their own gratification. "

Sid shook her head sadly, her lips tugging into the faintest of frowns. It was true, she thought wryly, many of her kind didn't do good for the sake of it, but for their own means. She wondered if that were the case with the tiefling as well, as they too followed guides and religion, though vastly different than her own.

"Is that the same on your side?" she asked after a moment, now nibbling on the chocolate cake delicately, savoring the richness as if she were trying to drown of the hint of sadness with it.