#location.triviascove

[engineerzuleima]

who? @sakkarathekeeper where? trivia’s cove when? during the  road so far

Zuleima touches down on Trivia’s Cove on Cloudy’s back, humming distractingly as she pats the wyvern’s snout affectionately before dismounting. Working through the different flaps on Cloudy’s mouth, she frees the bag she had secured back in Eterna and nods a goodbye to the wyvern before turning and heading deeper into the woods, her humming turning progressively louder as she approaches Sakkara’s above. Sneaking on the Dúnedain is amusing enough, but she has learned to only do so at odd intervals, or the famous Sakkara of the Serpents would begin to expect the attempts. 

That would be far too boring.

So humming to make herself known when she didn’t feel like sneaking on the other it was. 

Making it to the Keeper’s humble abode, Zuleima rattled her knuckles against the frame just hard enough to be heard but hard enough to bring the structure down. Though, with the rackety feel of the entire abode sometimes she wondered how long it would last. 

“Do we need to do the dance of you pretending not to be home, scales?” She muses out loud, head tilted as she listens for the Dúnedain’s heartbeat. “I can hear you.”

[engineerzuleima]

Zuleima takes a moment to press her lips together, to consider a possible retort, but then she sighs. Druids do not lie, so the situation truly must be as much of a surprise to Sakkara as it is for her. It’s not reassuring, considering why she wanted Sakkara’s advice in the first place, but— Even now, she feels a great deal more confident about the little creature’s future than she would have felt if she wasn’t basking in Sakkara's presence. 

“I—.” The words stick to her throat as Sakkara looks at her, and she gives a quick cough to clear her throat before continuing on as if nothing had happened. As if the compliment hadn’t sent her unbeating heart fluttering. “I believe so, yes. Although I am not fluent in draconic, so I haven’t been able to check.”

Subconsciously, she had been aware that she is now an essential figure for the little dragon, but to have it confirmed has her blinking in surprise and glancing down. 

“That might be an issue,” she says slowly. “Considering I am not particularly maternal, or a good influence.”

Sakkara is very rarely left speechless, or stammering. But in the moment she is somehow both, her mouth trying to form words and no sound coming out as she stares at the dragon. Then she sets her gaze back on Zuleima. "Well, you'll need to excuse me. Even as old as my soul is, I have never heard of a dragon willingly giving up their offspring to a stranger." And if Zuleima had made friends with the parent dragon, Sakkara surely would have been told.

Upon letting her explanation sink in, the Keeper puts a hand to her heart and seems to soften in understanding. "You are a miracle," she said, looking at the dragon hatchling. But she gazes back up at Zuleima a moment after. "The little one is too." She seems to be finally at ease, believing the strigoi without question, and coming forward to greet the child. "Hello, little one..." She speaks in draconic, "I'm sorry I was so startled... You are welcomed here." She notes the clear bond between the two. "He is male, yes? It is clear he is imprinted. You are his mother now, Zuleima." She gives her a heavy look, hoping she understands the gravity of that.

"You may very well be the biggest influence in the powerful, immortal creature he will grow into."

[engineerzuleima]

“Now that is flattery I hear,” Zuleima muses, turning in the air and letting her hair fan underneath her, a smile of her own matching the druid’s. If there were blood still rushing through her veins, she is sure that she would be blushing at the compliment, as she had been prone to the condition back when she was alive. As it is, all she is left with is the feeling of unbearable fondness that she unmistakably feels whenever she spends too much time with the druid. “Few are those that would call me gentle of all things, and when they do they rarely mean it fully.”

Overtly sharp and critical, not very likely to compromise. Many terms can be used to describe her, but rarely can gentle be found amidst the bunch. 

“I am the present, Sakkara,” she refutes ever so gently. As a strigoi, she is a walking corpse, an expiration date hanging over her. There is no future for her but the one she doomed herself in her youth, and yet there is not a time where she regrets it. “We are to build the future together, hand in hand. Not any other way.”

The two women had been on the earth for over 2 centuries, yet neither looked over 30. And though Zuleima had walked this earth a little over a decade longer than Sakkara, the Keeper still had hundreds of years to count among other lives, other weary end-of-the-worlds that she had seen. In that sense, she felt quite alone, quite old and out-of-place. Some days it was difficult to hope for the best, to strengthen her tired heart when it was much easier to be resigned to the worst. When she spoke to Zuleima, she remembered what it was like to hope far more ardently. It gave her strength. Sakkara wanted deeply to hope, she wanted to have the sort of heart she'd had in other lives and wanted to continue to have - a heart that cared for as many people as possible and fought for them. But it wavered in this final life.

She was brought back to a semblance of who she wanted to be when she heard Zuleima speak with such hope and with charity. Sakkara smiled softly. She gazed at the strigoi with the sort of softness that was rarely seen in her eyes, especially since losing Zephyr to the Dark One's influence. "I am always surprised how gentle you are. How the brightest innovator of our age could still care so much for preservation and the simpler things." She took in a deep breath. "I am the past, Zu. You are the future," she murmured. "I am the one who is always meant to be there for you." Her smile widened a bit. "And I am proud of that."

[engineerzuleima]

“Disappointing, but not entirely surprising,” Zuleima admits, suddenly all too weary as she thinks of what it’s to come. War is inevitable, she feels it looming in the horizon, the smell of gunpowder tickling her senses just as the smell of petrichor before the rain. There is nothing she can do to stop it, despite her years of experience. Instead, all that is left for her to do is to ensure that her people are ready, and so are the weapons that they will be using. “I must, if I want to lower the casualty rate and ensure the safety of the majority.”

People would die, she knows, no matter what she does, they will die. They always do. But perhaps her work will save one more person that could have been saved, perhaps the end of the war will not leave Eterna in smoking ruins, but her work will stand strong against any attack. 

Perhaps. 

“ ‘tis not heavier than yours,” she points quietly as she begins to hover and crosses her legs, remaining high enough to keep meeting the druid’s eyes. “It’s a burden we choose to bear, and if it means the tides are turned in our favor, I will wear it gladly. Do you need help with yours? You only need to ask.”

"They certainly will not," Sakkara assured, darkly. The Keeper did not want to think of how the stars warned of a terrible future ahead, but she couldn't help but think of it now. Zuleima, as someone who would stand firmly beside the Queen, would forever be intertwined with the fate of this Queendon. She instead shut her notebook and sighed, looking up at the strigoi. "... Will you be preparing for the day?" She wondered about what weapons someone well-versed in the ingenuity of Veilcrest technology could come up with. She knew they would be grand, she knew that pain was unavoidable. "It is you and those close around you who will help decide the fate of us all, you know."

She looked sympathetic, and also sad. Zuleima was an intellectual woman but she was also vivacious, creative and so full of life and hope. She had a good heart to accompany the great mind. As much as Sakkara wished that she could pull her away from all the responsibilities she made for herself, the Keeper knew that was not her place. Like Sakkara, Zuleima knew where she belonged. "That is a heavy burden to bare."

[engineerzuleima]

To be truly understood, beyond the common niceties and digging into your very essence, is far more difficult than most would consider. Ephemeral and fleeting as mortal life is, people desperately cling to notions such as love and companionship, throwing themselves headfirst into failed courtship upon failed courtship until they found the right one. Zuleima is far too methodical to use that method, her time spent on her work even before she had left Eterna. It’s not surprising, then, that despite her ample experience in pleasures of the flesh born from the typical hedonism of Veilcrest, she had never known love well enough to identify when the seeds are planted or when they bloom. 

For now, she merely enjoys her time with Sakkara, not knowing the name of the warmth on her chest when she looks at the druid. 

“Alright, alright,” she sighs dramatically, straightening up as her hands fall on Sakkara's shoulders and she squeezes affectionately before stepping back and wandering around the room, eyes flickering around curiously until they inevitably fall back upon Sakkara once she speaks. “I doubt that the Queen will trust them either. Theirs are the hands that broke the world, and they don’t seem ready to negotiate. And with the Iskaran refugees receding in our lands… Well, I don’t believe the Aetheran’s will leave well enough alone.”

Sakkara was not particularly affectionate, nor was she opposed to affection. She had been used to Zuleima's for a while now, comforted by mere touch because it meant someone had not grown weary of her, nor been daunted by the eccentric ways of Keeper. In fact, Sakkara had never really been able to get rid of the dhampir. She had tried, at least in the very beginning when she had nothing to teach or to tell Zuleima.

The druid had never truly loved in her past lives - not romantically. There were children and there were students, mothers and father's that she had loved. And friends. Lovers had always been fleeting, nothing to burn a mark in her soul. For someone so old and wise, Sakkara did not foresee any lasting consequence to the tranquility of the Engineer's company. How could nature and technology ever find themselves on common ground?

"I am determined to understand on my own," she replied with a tiny grin. As much as technology confused her and held little place in her life, Zuleima had instilled in her a never-before-seen interest in learning. When speaking of Aetheron, all amusement faded away from Sakkara's expression. "For every magical creature that they liberated, 10 more have been killed or found worse fates. The Aetherons... one could never truly trust them. Not even before their fall and resurgence."

[engineerzuleima]

The relief sweeps through her frame as Sakkara admits to a degree of knowledge higher than hers. Reading about dragons and learning their language is all well and good, but first hand experience would likely help a great deal when it comes to raising a dragon from infancy. Of course, that relief gets thrown out the window when it becomes clear that Sakkara had seen the hatchling and immediately decided that she had stolen it. Zuleima stares at Sakkara with a deadpan and raised brow. The message is clear. A simple ‘Really, Sakkara?’ hanging between them as she lets the silence drag for a long moment before sighing. 

“I did not steal a dragon’s hatchling, Sakkara really,” she sighs as she reaches down to run a finger over the head of the bronze dragon to soothe him now that he has begun fussing a little bit. “A dragon god gave him to me after we formed part of a ritual to purify them.” She pauses, considering. “Which sounds unrealistic, I am aware, but Fharzai can attest to the whole thing.”

Sakkara blinked at the sudden question and the relieved look on Zuleima's face. Was she in trouble? The druid frowned, her brows now furrowing as she nodded. "Yes... At least, a bit more than the average person." She wasn't particularly acquainted with draconic creature, as they were rare and faraway, but she'd seen them throughout her lives and learned. It was an odd question though. Sakkara never would have expected Zuleima to bring up dragons, despite the wyvern that she loved.

"Why do-" It was at that moment that the Keeper noticed movement within the sling that Zuleima was wearing. Her eyes settled on a small, scaly head peaking out and draconic eyes. Sakkara's own widened and she took a step back. "Tell me you did not steal a dragon's hatchling-" She couldn't imagine that the strigoi wouldn't have had a valid reason but it was still insane. How did she even manage to find it? Even if Zuleima hadn't taken the child, which was more likely that she didn't, then someone insane had to have passed it to her, right? "Who gave that to you?"

[engineerzuleima]

There are plenty of oddities that came from her impromptu journey into Xul’Nithar, including the discovery of an entirely new race, but perhaps the biggest oddity was the one she was currently cradling to her chest in a baby sling of all things. Zuleima had considered letting the hatchingling fly next to Cloudy as she headed for Trivia’s Cove, but a quick moment to think about it had made her decide against it. She didn’t know enough about hatchinglings to know if he could fly the entire way through, and she didn’t want to risk it. In fact, there was a great deal she didn’t know about dragons, and that had prompted her trip to the Cove in the first place. 

Surely a druid would know more than her, right? Nature was Sakkara’s domain, not hers!

It’s a relief to see Sakkara waiting, and her relief only grows when she admits that if she had been any earlier Zuleima would have missed her. “Thank the Gods you are here, then,” she sighs in relief as she jumps off Cloudy while keeping a hand on the sling to make sure the hatchling is not jostled. The movement is enough to wake him from his nap though, and she can see him peeking from the top of the sling from the corner of her eyes. “I am in dire need of your help. You know about dragons, right? That is definitively a druid thing, right?”

Date: After the DnD quest with dragon god Location: Trivia's Cove Characters: @engineerzuleima & @sakkarathekeeper Notes: a BABY

Sakkara had not introduced Zuleima to Anivia, if only because she had been so busy. From a Neptunalia competition to the research needed to find any trace of the phoenixes, she had not been home often, and this was not a rare occurrence with Sakkara. The Keeper did not tell people where she went and often times she'd wound up sleeping in inns or on branches as a bird, far away from Trivia's Cove. She hadn't even had a moment to sit and spend time with her favorite strigoi, and she didn't expect Zuleima that day either. Sakkara had just only recently come home a few minutes ago. She had just set a tea to boil and set down her things. She was considering a flight to Eterna tomorrow, a chance to see both Mor and Zuleima, but her thoughts were interrupted by the beat of familiar wings.

Sakkara smiled and hurried out of the tent. Anivia was far away, unseen as she hunted for fresh food after the long journey. The Keeper was alone, save for two dragon flies that fluttered all around her as she watched Zuleima and Cloudy land. "Had you come just a little earlier, I would not have been here. Fate has given you good timing," she said with a smile. Sakkara then looked over at the wyvern. "Rest your wings, Cloudy," she said affectionately. "I will have a few uncooked steaks to give you today, if you'd like."