Quiet descended on their location as the two settled back into their respective positions in the water. The baths had been crafted with a bench seat about one meter down into the water and gently sloped downwards before a gentle step provided a spot for the feet to settle. Curved pockets in the sides of the pool were carved to give the bather a relaxed place in which to soak. Additionally, flattened wood blocks with carefully rounded edges were laid next to the reclining pockets, whose use Ulric saw was to be placed under the arms so that you could rest your limbs atop the water while reclining nearly completely, the wood was plenty buoyant enough to support the weight of a limb. The result was a magnificently restful experience. So restful Ulric thought he might drift away.
"It is not rude to let your eyes roam a woman or man's body to whom you are attracted." Geyrt spoke, shattering again Ulric's calm.
He was damned. Sentenced to a life time bereft of peace. A prisoner of this hateful creature who would see his torment well and truly delivered. Even after they had settled the majority of their differences this monster would never relent in her pursuit of his suffering. It was the beast's nature to punish mercilessly all attempts at repose.
Ulric's eyes snapped open to glare at his Shadow. Had that been a faint smile? Surely not, the steam in the room was clouding his vision. Wiping his eyes to clear them Ulric turned to find her relaxing with a smooth neutral expression, emerald flecked with bronze transfixing him with her even gaze.
"What?" Ulric asked trying to return his thoughts from the fog of near sleep.
"Like now, you are allowed to look upon a woman's body, it is considered a compliment, mostly, unless the staring is gratuitous." She continued raising an eyebrow.
He realized that he was, in fact, gratuitously staring. Ye gods they floated. He ripped his eyes away to focus only on her face. Honestly, he'd thought he was basically over that. For her part she was completely unphased. That slight lift of her eyebrow being the only indication she'd even noticed.
"It is not an insult, as many Otherkin seem to believe. If the one being observed is not interested they will make this known. Some do so by purposefully turning their gaze away, others do it by using this hand gesture." Geyrt explained, one hand making a flicking motion from her eyes towards the floor as if shedding the offending gaze.
Ulric very carefully did not allow his eyes to follow her hand downwards.
"In all of this there is no hostility or ill feeling. But if they signal their disinterest and you continue to look then they will have cause to lay a challenge to you. If it is a married woman or man their spouse will be able to join them in this challenge so it is not a wise thing to offend married folk. Discrete glances are expected and none would bother to even think of them. It is well that you have not been overly encouraged by those looks that you have received, sometimes Otherkin overreact to a mere appreciative glance, as if promises were made." The amazon said, relaxing again into the water.
Ulric thought about her statements carefully, trying to internalize these important "ground rules" to Elf social conventions. At least it sort of made sense so far. No one had yet been insulted, it would appear in his casual examinations. He'd assumed their returned consideration was the sheer novelty of a Human in a place where they had not been seen in many years, if the Iriels weren't exaggerating. They did very little in the way of making mountains out of mole hills did the Elves, their humor was more inclined towards downplaying and understatement.
Sort of like the people who had immigrated from the Britanno-European Compact, when ocean current shifts had turned their part of the world into a glacier. Collapse had been largely kickstarted by those ocean current shifts and he'd grown used to that kind of humor in his old neighborhood. He was pulled from his recollection when his Shadow continued her discussion having noticed that he'd checked out.
"You do this well, mostly, a glance and nothing more. In fairness, the times you fail are mostly acceptable as well. Mother Shor is…impressive. And she makes herself a spectacle on purpose, to distract those who negotiate with the court and to test the their concentration. She also causes many to underestimate her, by flaunting she may set the unwary to think her body is all there is to her."
Geyrt frowned pointedly, "If I must explain to you that this is a mistake I would be disappointed in you Glade Chief, Shor is the most deep thinking of my Father's wives, it was why he sealed their alliance through marriage. Well," she scoffed, "Most of the reason."
It appears she had noticed her father's smug glances towards Ulric as well. He wondered if it made things better or worse for himself that all of these people sort of made him nervous. Like walking across a frozen lake when you didn't quite know how thick the ice was. Beautiful the lake might be, but a guy could get killed if he weren't ultimately careful where he put his feet.
"Anyway! If one invites gazes they cannot claim insult when they receive them. I have witnessed this bizarre thing in some of the Otherkin frequented places within Orlethrem, particularly amongst the trading villages along the Zelas. A human man dressed with pants cut to show his legs and a short coat pretends offense when you mention the curve of his rump. It makes no sense." She finished.
As he digested that Ulric turned his attention to the rest of the room. Pools littered with beautiful people and all of them without a stitch. And none of them looking the slightest shy about it. Maybe it was like those nudist colonies he'd heard about. When the sight of bare skin was normalized it lost much of its allure. The forbidden fruit lay on the table, not so tempting as half hidden in the leaves. An interesting concept. He had to admit, he had detected some gazes on his own body, particularly when he'd approached the pool. There was nothing malicious about any of it. You existed and so you were noticed. Some looks were more approving than others. No big deal. He couldn't tell if his perspective had been warped by the frankly bigger concerns, like being eaten alive, that Varda provided aplenty.
Well, when in Rome. He turned his attention back to Geyrt, making sure he kept a respectful focus.
"Thank you for this lesson. The baths are a lovely experience and it feels good to know I'm not going to upset anybody if a ten out of ten waltzes through and my concentration lapses while I ogle them for a second. " He said sincere in his gratitude.
Let his eyes roam again through the bath, across its stones, its immaculately carved wood, and, of course, the artwork that was the people that occupied it.
"I spoke of it with your brother while we awaited his recovery, but your people are all far more...healthy, more absent of deficiency and physically beautiful than those of my old world. The Watcher said that my old world had no Watcher of its own and therefore there was none to guide the growth and evolution of its life. It spoke of something called the Progenitor code, I think it was talking about DNA, the genetic code, and my world's life forms were all more unoptimized thanks to the inherent randomization of genetic variance and evolutionary processes. I'm not going to lie to you, you people are all built better, like the very pinnacle of attractiveness and fitness compared to my old life. Even the Humans I had to kill back in the glade were stronger and more free from flaw than anybody I'd ever met in my old life." Ulric explained, noting that her attention was rapt when he mentioned the Watcher.
"Who is this watcher you mention? This is not the first time I think I have heard you mention it." Geyrt asked.
"It's the thing that brought me here. The thing that remade me, I guess. Looked like an impossibly pretty Human but, I dunno, alien. Too perfect, too...ummm...I don't know how to explain it. It was Impossible. Anyway it spoke to me for a minute before it abandoned me to the wild on the Plateau."
"The Eternal Gaze. You spoke to the Eternal Gaze, the being that observes all of creation." Geyrt said, not quite disbelieving.
"Yeah," Ulric nodded, "I think it did say something along those lines. So...a god?" Ulric asked.
The Elf shook her head gently, sending ripples of steaming water as her hair disturbed the surface, "No, Ulric Glade Chief, not a god. There are many ascended creatures, beings of vast power, implacable will, and who interact with the world at a level deeper than the more ephemeral mortals such as the Aes'r, the Valin, Svartalfin, and Jormun. Even elementals are not so interwoven into the fabric of Varda as the gods. No, the gods are mysterious but they are very much involved in the affairs of the world and its peoples, they can be spoken to and, occasionally, when circumstances are right, can be heard in return. The Eternal Gaze says nothing, sees all, and its only intervention is in the cult of its Soul Inquisitors, who root out the practice of Soul mutilation using the power to see Souls and their connection to the Akashic record at will. It could undo Varda if it wished but it only uses its power to observe the unfolding of Fate. I had not though it possible to speak with the Eternal Gaze."
She appeared relatively unsure what to think about that. Well, she wasn't the only one. Ulric didn't exactly buy what the existence had told him either. Not that it had said anything false but even a dim light like Ulric knew when he hadn't been told the whole truth. Maybe his brain would have exploded if it had tried to tell him how things really were.
Huh. Well, that was interesting. Here he'd been sort of convinced the Watcher was maybe capital G god. Maybe not, but not real damned far off from it. But there were little g gods aplenty. He wondered how that came about? He bookmarked that thought for later. For now, it was something of a load off his back, knowing that he wasn't going to get himself in trouble with the Elves, their social conventions were, more or less, normal. Kind of. Maybe a little more direct and less forgiving of outright insults. Maybe a lot more potentially murdery, he'd have to wait and see.
He truly had been concerned that there were cultural landmines to step on with a Human in the Elven baths. And, now that he'd experienced the wonder that was this room full of thermally ideal water and relaxing heat soaked stones, he did not want to be forced to forego their luxury simply because he was too awkward to navigate Elf social norms about nudity. He'd also apparently gotten the hazing out of their systems so he could expect more peace in the future. If only he didn't have Geyrt waiting for him to close his eyes before she ambushed him with a non sequitur. It was on purpose, he was sure of it.
Speaking of the woman she had a slight tilt to her head. Now she seemed curious.
"You have done this thing again, using words in a way that does not have meaning. What does it mean to count to ten and then again, I have heard you say this before?" She asked.
Now he chuckled a little. Reminded of the endless number of gaps in their experiences. Briefly, his thoughts spilled backwards to recall some of the talks he'd had with his few friends over beers trying to lay out the precise specifications for each number in the system. They had never been able to fully define the grand scale though they had tried many nights, including attempting to fit themselves into it. If Ulric recalled he'd rated a seven out of ten but only if he kept his mouth shut, that dropped him to a six.
"The phrase is an idiom, a very specific linguistic usage that does not have a strict definition in the Akashic species language because it relies on the conditions or information held only by a certain social group for its meaning. I am afraid that my language in my old life was heavily idiomatic which means it's basically nonsense to you. And there's nothing I can do about it, these usages are hard wired into my brain. If I stopped using them I would sound like a textbook." Ulric explained.
He had heard Elven idioms although not as many as he would expect. Then again, perhaps that was why he wasn't able to follow certain parts of conversations, they were using words he wasn't expecting in places he wasn't expecting and it disrupted his limited comprehension. His hosts had done a remarkable favor to him by speaking human, rather than Elvish. He decided that he would have to make a better effort to reciprocate. No time like the present.
"Let me explain, as I can. This way of saying is to rank persons of attractiveness on a scale of one being…ugly and uninteresting to a ten a flawless beauty. Then a ten out of ten is a peerless one to your senses. This is a…crudely objective…way to refer to others but it is mostly a way to very shortly summarize one's thoughts on their attractiveness." Ulric said slowly, working his way through is poor Elvish.
Geyrt seemed a little surprised. She leaned forward from her relaxed recline making Ulric's life harder. He was determined to get used to her though. Her graceful features, and almond shaped eyes, glittering emeralds inset with bronze shards, held his eyes as effectively as a vice.
"You speak better than I remember. You have practiced? It is well you have done this, many would use this as a way to speak around you. As your Shadow I must advise that you do not spread intentionally your ability to speak our tongue. Your perceived inability to understand Elvish could be a tool, allowing you to listen where others think they will not be overheard. Fear not that you go misunderstood should you use your native language, most of the seasoned Hunters and warriors of Iriel have lived long enough at duties along the borders to have learned Human well enough to get by." She advised doing her duty to see to his interests.
Ulric kept his voice low.
"I only recently started to get a feel for your language. Like a song I had to hear a hundred times to recognize its melody. Once that I did it was much easier to follow. But when you use your own odd phrases I cannot grasp you. Likewise if you speak too quickly I cannot grasp you. Slow like this is ok."
She nodded before settling back into her resting position.
"It is good enough. We will work on this. Then to be ten out of ten is to be attractive in the utmost yes?" The intense woman asked casually.
"This is so." Ulric confirmed.
"And you find me to be this ten out of ten?" She asked point blank.
"This is so." He reaffirmed without detail.
"Good. Then at least you are not blind…You are a seven." His Shadow declared a rare smile finding its way to her face as she closed her eyes and relaxed.
What could he say to that? Nothing Ulric decided. Nothing was best and he also settled back to soak.
Quiet descended on their location as the two settled back into their respective positions in the water. The baths had been crafted with a bench seat about one meter down into the water and gently sloped downwards before a gentle step provided a spot for the feet to settle. Curved pockets in the sides of the pool were carved to give the bather a relaxed place in which to soak. Additionally, flattened wood blocks with carefully rounded edges were laid next to the reclining pockets, whose use Ulric saw was to be placed under the arms so that you could rest your limbs atop the water while reclining nearly completely, the wood was plenty buoyant enough to support the weight of a limb. The result was a magnificently restful experience. So restful Ulric thought he might drift away.
"It is not rude to let your eyes roam a woman or man's body to whom you are attracted." Geyrt spoke, shattering again Ulric's calm.
He was damned. Sentenced to a life time bereft of peace. A prisoner of this hateful creature who would see his torment well and truly delivered. Even after they had settled the majority of their differences this monster would never relent in her pursuit of his suffering. It was the beast's nature to punish mercilessly all attempts at repose.
Ulric's eyes snapped open to glare at his Shadow. Had that been a faint smile? Surely not, the steam in the room was clouding his vision. Wiping his eyes to clear them Ulric turned to find her relaxing with a smooth neutral expression, emerald flecked with bronze transfixing him with her even gaze.
"What?" Ulric asked trying to return his thoughts from the fog of near sleep.
"Like now, you are allowed to look upon a woman's body, it is considered a compliment, mostly, unless the staring is gratuitous." She continued raising an eyebrow.
He realized that he was, in fact, gratuitously staring. Ye gods they floated. He ripped his eyes away to focus only on her face. Honestly, he'd thought he was basically over that. For her part she was completely unphased. That slight lift of her eyebrow being the only indication she'd even noticed.
"It is not an insult, as many Otherkin seem to believe. If the one being observed is not interested they will make this known. Some do so by purposefully turning their gaze away, others do it by using this hand gesture." Geyrt explained, one hand making a flicking motion from her eyes towards the floor as if shedding the offending gaze.
Ulric very carefully did not allow his eyes to follow her hand downwards.
"In all of this there is no hostility or ill feeling. But if they signal their disinterest and you continue to look then they will have cause to lay a challenge to you. If it is a married woman or man their spouse will be able to join them in this challenge so it is not a wise thing to offend married folk. Discrete glances are expected and none would bother to even think of them. It is well that you have not been overly encouraged by those looks that you have received, sometimes Otherkin overreact to a mere appreciative glance, as if promises were made." The amazon said, relaxing again into the water.
Ulric thought about her statements carefully, trying to internalize these important "ground rules" to Elf social conventions. At least it sort of made sense so far. No one had yet been insulted, it would appear in his casual examinations. He'd assumed their returned consideration was the sheer novelty of a Human in a place where they had not been seen in many years, if the Iriels weren't exaggerating. They did very little in the way of making mountains out of mole hills did the Elves, their humor was more inclined towards downplaying and understatement.
Sort of like the people who had immigrated from the Britanno-European Compact, when ocean current shifts had turned their part of the world into a glacier. Collapse had been largely kickstarted by those ocean current shifts and he'd grown used to that kind of humor in his old neighborhood. He was pulled from his recollection when his Shadow continued her discussion having noticed that he'd checked out.
"You do this well, mostly, a glance and nothing more. In fairness, the times you fail are mostly acceptable as well. Mother Shor is…impressive. And she makes herself a spectacle on purpose, to distract those who negotiate with the court and to test the their concentration. She also causes many to underestimate her, by flaunting she may set the unwary to think her body is all there is to her."
Geyrt frowned pointedly, "If I must explain to you that this is a mistake I would be disappointed in you Glade Chief, Shor is the most deep thinking of my Father's wives, it was why he sealed their alliance through marriage. Well," she scoffed, "Most of the reason."
It appears she had noticed her father's smug glances towards Ulric as well. He wondered if it made things better or worse for himself that all of these people sort of made him nervous. Like walking across a frozen lake when you didn't quite know how thick the ice was. Beautiful the lake might be, but a guy could get killed if he weren't ultimately careful where he put his feet.
"Anyway! If one invites gazes they cannot claim insult when they receive them. I have witnessed this bizarre thing in some of the Otherkin frequented places within Orlethrem, particularly amongst the trading villages along the Zelas. A human man dressed with pants cut to show his legs and a short coat pretends offense when you mention the curve of his rump. It makes no sense." She finished.
As he digested that Ulric turned his attention to the rest of the room. Pools littered with beautiful people and all of them without a stitch. And none of them looking the slightest shy about it. Maybe it was like those nudist colonies he'd heard about. When the sight of bare skin was normalized it lost much of its allure. The forbidden fruit lay on the table, not so tempting as half hidden in the leaves. An interesting concept. He had to admit, he had detected some gazes on his own body, particularly when he'd approached the pool. There was nothing malicious about any of it. You existed and so you were noticed. Some looks were more approving than others. No big deal. He couldn't tell if his perspective had been warped by the frankly bigger concerns, like being eaten alive, that Varda provided aplenty.
Well, when in Rome. He turned his attention back to Geyrt, making sure he kept a respectful focus.
"Thank you for this lesson. The baths are a lovely experience and it feels good to know I'm not going to upset anybody if a ten out of ten waltzes through and my concentration lapses while I ogle them for a second. " He said sincere in his gratitude.
Let his eyes roam again through the bath, across its stones, its immaculately carved wood, and, of course, the artwork that was the people that occupied it.
"I spoke of it with your brother while we awaited his recovery, but your people are all far more...healthy, more absent of deficiency and physically beautiful than those of my old world. The Watcher said that my old world had no Watcher of its own and therefore there was none to guide the growth and evolution of its life. It spoke of something called the Progenitor code, I think it was talking about DNA, the genetic code, and my world's life forms were all more unoptimized thanks to the inherent randomization of genetic variance and evolutionary processes. I'm not going to lie to you, you people are all built better, like the very pinnacle of attractiveness and fitness compared to my old life. Even the Humans I had to kill back in the glade were stronger and more free from flaw than anybody I'd ever met in my old life." Ulric explained, noting that her attention was rapt when he mentioned the Watcher.
"Who is this watcher you mention? This is not the first time I think I have heard you mention it." Geyrt asked.
"It's the thing that brought me here. The thing that remade me, I guess. Looked like an impossibly pretty Human but, I dunno, alien. Too perfect, too...ummm...I don't know how to explain it. It was Impossible. Anyway it spoke to me for a minute before it abandoned me to the wild on the Plateau."
"The Eternal Gaze. You spoke to the Eternal Gaze, the being that observes all of creation." Geyrt said, not quite disbelieving.
"Yeah," Ulric nodded, "I think it did say something along those lines. So...a god?" Ulric asked.
The Elf shook her head gently, sending ripples of steaming water as her hair disturbed the surface, "No, Ulric Glade Chief, not a god. There are many ascended creatures, beings of vast power, implacable will, and who interact with the world at a level deeper than the more ephemeral mortals such as the Aes'r, the Valin, Svartalfin, and Jormun. Even elementals are not so interwoven into the fabric of Varda as the gods. No, the gods are mysterious but they are very much involved in the affairs of the world and its peoples, they can be spoken to and, occasionally, when circumstances are right, can be heard in return. The Eternal Gaze says nothing, sees all, and its only intervention is in the cult of its Soul Inquisitors, who root out the practice of Soul mutilation using the power to see Souls and their connection to the Akashic record at will. It could undo Varda if it wished but it only uses its power to observe the unfolding of Fate. I had not though it possible to speak with the Eternal Gaze."
She appeared relatively unsure what to think about that. Well, she wasn't the only one. Ulric didn't exactly buy what the existence had told him either. Not that it had said anything false but even a dim light like Ulric knew when he hadn't been told the whole truth. Maybe his brain would have exploded if it had tried to tell him how things really were.
Huh. Well, that was interesting. Here he'd been sort of convinced the Watcher was maybe capital G god. Maybe not, but not real damned far off from it. But there were little g gods aplenty. He wondered how that came about? He bookmarked that thought for later. For now, it was something of a load off his back, knowing that he wasn't going to get himself in trouble with the Elves, their social conventions were, more or less, normal. Kind of. Maybe a little more direct and less forgiving of outright insults. Maybe a lot more potentially murdery, he'd have to wait and see.
He truly had been concerned that there were cultural landmines to step on with a Human in the Elven baths. And, now that he'd experienced the wonder that was this room full of thermally ideal water and relaxing heat soaked stones, he did not want to be forced to forego their luxury simply because he was too awkward to navigate Elf social norms about nudity. He'd also apparently gotten the hazing out of their systems so he could expect more peace in the future. If only he didn't have Geyrt waiting for him to close his eyes before she ambushed him with a non sequitur. It was on purpose, he was sure of it.
Speaking of the woman she had a slight tilt to her head. Now she seemed curious.
"You have done this thing again, using words in a way that does not have meaning. What does it mean to count to ten and then again, I have heard you say this before?" She asked.
Now he chuckled a little. Reminded of the endless number of gaps in their experiences. Briefly, his thoughts spilled backwards to recall some of the talks he'd had with his few friends over beers trying to lay out the precise specifications for each number in the system. They had never been able to fully define the grand scale though they had tried many nights, including attempting to fit themselves into it. If Ulric recalled he'd rated a seven out of ten but only if he kept his mouth shut, that dropped him to a six.
"The phrase is an idiom, a very specific linguistic usage that does not have a strict definition in the Akashic species language because it relies on the conditions or information held only by a certain social group for its meaning. I am afraid that my language in my old life was heavily idiomatic which means it's basically nonsense to you. And there's nothing I can do about it, these usages are hard wired into my brain. If I stopped using them I would sound like a textbook." Ulric explained.
He had heard Elven idioms although not as many as he would expect. Then again, perhaps that was why he wasn't able to follow certain parts of conversations, they were using words he wasn't expecting in places he wasn't expecting and it disrupted his limited comprehension. His hosts had done a remarkable favor to him by speaking human, rather than Elvish. He decided that he would have to make a better effort to reciprocate. No time like the present.
"Let me explain, as I can. This way of saying is to rank persons of attractiveness on a scale of one being…ugly and uninteresting to a ten a flawless beauty. Then a ten out of ten is a peerless one to your senses. This is a…crudely objective…way to refer to others but it is mostly a way to very shortly summarize one's thoughts on their attractiveness." Ulric said slowly, working his way through is poor Elvish.
Geyrt seemed a little surprised. She leaned forward from her relaxed recline making Ulric's life harder. He was determined to get used to her though. Her graceful features, and almond shaped eyes, glittering emeralds inset with bronze shards, held his eyes as effectively as a vice.
"You speak better than I remember. You have practiced? It is well you have done this, many would use this as a way to speak around you. As your Shadow I must advise that you do not spread intentionally your ability to speak our tongue. Your perceived inability to understand Elvish could be a tool, allowing you to listen where others think they will not be overheard. Fear not that you go misunderstood should you use your native language, most of the seasoned Hunters and warriors of Iriel have lived long enough at duties along the borders to have learned Human well enough to get by." She advised doing her duty to see to his interests.
Ulric kept his voice low.
"I only recently started to get a feel for your language. Like a song I had to hear a hundred times to recognize its melody. Once that I did it was much easier to follow. But when you use your own odd phrases I cannot grasp you. Likewise if you speak too quickly I cannot grasp you. Slow like this is ok."
She nodded before settling back into her resting position.
"It is good enough. We will work on this. Then to be ten out of ten is to be attractive in the utmost yes?" The intense woman asked casually.
"This is so." Ulric confirmed.
"And you find me to be this ten out of ten?" She asked point blank.
"This is so." He reaffirmed without detail.
"Good. Then at least you are not blind…You are a seven." His Shadow declared a rare smile finding its way to her face as she closed her eyes and relaxed.
What could he say to that? Nothing Ulric decided. Nothing was best and he also settled back to soak.
