#three actually also worked GUYS i left my silk at the seamstress for the sleeping hat

[ashmp3]

my friends liking selfies from my other friends it puts smile on my face. I smiled two times today #spreadpositivity

[fireintheforest]

Outside

“Have you thought of cutting your hair?” Amara asked, admiring the mother-of-pearl bracelet that Saufinril had given her. Saufinril, some steps away from her, was spreading the oil on his wet hair and raking it with his fingers, down to the tips. He turned slightly to her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I guess it’s just so long, you know? Doesn’t it bother you?”

“Not at all.” Saufinril replied, grabbing a comb to spread the product more evenly, “It took one a long time to get here, one might as well keep it around for a while.”

“Is it usual for Altmer to have such a long hair?”

“Some do, as long as it’s tied back.”

“But you don’t tie it back when in the Den. Or sometimes out of it.”

“Mmm true.”

“What does Lillandril say about that?”

Saufinril’s voice changed to a deeper, grumpier one as he moved his hand in a theatrical manner, “ ‘Pah! You call that hair? Don’t tell one that’s what the Empire calls nowadays ‘fashionable’, looking like a lunatic with those locks out to get mingled. To call that hair. Hmph! Should one wish to, one could make tresses that shone like gold in the sunset. Pah!’ “ his voice changed to his usual pitch and tone as he turned his head to the side to comb it, “You know, the usual.”

Amara stopped looking at her bracelet to give Saufinril a look. “That sounded nothing like Lillandril.”

“One thinks one did a good job.” Saufinril put the comb down as Amara stood up, “So what happened here while one was gone?”

“Y’mean, the weeks you left or the days you slept?” “One didn’t sleep that long!”

Amara gave Saufinril an arched eyebrow as she tied her hair up. “My friend”, she began, “You came from that trip, did a round of greetings and small talks, then soaked in that bathtub for long enough that we thought you had drowned, then slept one whole day. I kept my eye on you these days, past that façade of you working at the Den like nothing happened, and I have not seen you eat more than once a day since you came back. Not to mention, this is the first day you’re going out since returning. So…” she arched both eyebrows again. Saufinril sighed and asked, “…both. Tell one.”

“Well,” Amara linked her arm with Saufinril’s as they both left his room and went down the hallway, then down the stairs, “My sister got me the second part of ‘Tales of Farida’, but Muraz has it now. My comb finally is done. Samin and Huuhna got in yet another fight for Mineron-”

“Really?”

“Yes really. It was so stupid. Especially because,” she looked around and then leaned closer to Saufinril, who neared her as well, almost bending completely to catch her whisper, “because he got Elisi pregnant.” She nodded at Saufinril’s wide eyes, “She told me herself.”

“Can we not do something about this guy?”

“You know not, he’s such a frequent client.” They went on to the exit, “Even if everyone rolls his eyes about this dumb love triangle.”

“It’s not even a love triangle, it’s the stupidest mess in Valenwood and for what? he’s a jerk.”

“Mhm.” Amara agreed as Saufinril opened the door for her. Both stepped out, heading to the market. Amara inhaled deeply and exhaled, a smile forming on her face.

“See? Isn’t it nice to be outside and socialize instead of mope around the room and not eat?”

“Get a life.” Saufinril teased, lightly bumping his shoulder with Amara’s as a smile peeked through, “One has eaten.”

“Oh? When was the last time?”

“When one…you know-”

“I mean a full meal, not some-some slices of cheese or bread and fish. An actual meal. And not just once a day.”

“…”

“I thought so. Let’s go left, I have a skirt to pick up.”

They made a detour to the seamstress alley, where Amara entered a store and made a beeline to the salesmer, who greeted her usual customer excitedly while Saufinril lingered outside. When it became clear to him that ‘picking up a skirt’ was code for ‘picking up a skirt and ordering twelve more’, he got in the shop to where Amara was comparing silks for pants and tapped her back gently.

“One is going to look around, probably to the Upper Level.”

“Sure. Oh! We can meet by this-there’s a new tavern I want to check. It’s by Dennaris’s shop, you can’t miss it. See you there, let’s see, three hours before sundown?”

“See you there, then.”

With the rendez-vous point assured, Saufinril stepped back out to the street and headed to the Upper Level, passing so many Bosmer chattering with their quick, bird-like tongue. And though the Bosmer that walked alongside stayed the same, the shape and size of stores and quality and quantity of the products changed until he recognized the Great Trunk Artisans Court. With the products put in display and merchants and businesspeople working on luring the customers, some bartering, others filling the sales, and most of them surrounded by people looking at what to buy, Saufinril felt for the first time a sense of ease. He quietly feasted in the tranquility of being the closest he could be to his Caste back in the Isles right now. That aside, he had to start looking. He had a vague idea of what he was looking for, but maybe when he saw it he’d know. He still had some coin left, and he knew a couple of points in this city where he could go get jobs to save up and return to Cyrodiil. Speaking of which, Dar-Shur was probably back, he could go and get the means necessary to send him a message now that he was in the commerce cour-

A swift force to his left side twisted his arm back and made him step to the side and look back to see who he had run into. The person he’d collided with, an Imperial man, also seemed to have felt the impact. ‘Man’ was employed to represent his race, however, since it seemed this human wasn’t older than 23. He had fiery red, almost orange hair, a pale face full of freckles and a deep-set scowl on his face.

“Hey! What’s your damn problem?!” he yelled, hands balling into fists. Yeah, he didn’t have the time to deal with this. Saufinril showed him his palms in a vague gesture of apology and turned, resuming his walk. That is, until he felt someone grab his arm and turn him by force back around. It was the ginger Imperial.

“I made you a question, freak! Who do you think you are?” Saufinril yanked his arm back, “Do you even know who I am??”

“Calm down, there was no big incident. It was an accident.” Saufinril replied coldly

“No big incident?? You ran into me, you asshole! On purpose!”

“How do you know it was on purpose? The street is full of people, you could’ve run into anyone at this point.”

“Anyone?” he pushed Saufinril, “You’re trying to piss me off!” No, you’re trying to piss ME off. Saufinril thought with gritted teeth as a crowd started to form around them.

“You think you’re so clever? Huh? So brave? I can’t hear you, wuss! Come to my face and apologize to me! You dirty knife ear!”

“One said,” Saufinril hissed, stepping closer to the Imperial as he immediately took three steps back and the two men that were accompanying him stepped forward, as if intervening. Saufinril either didn’t see them or didn’t care, “it was an accident. And one will not apologize to some whoreson! Now, is there anything else you want to talk about?” he asked sarcastically. The Imperial, at first, had seemed genuinely surprised that this Altmer had stepped towards him and used a hostile tone, but it was replaced back with the scowl. “You-” he took his hand to his sword, cueing Saufinril to summon magic to his hands.

“Step back, let’s not cause a scene in public.” One of the men that had been walking with the ginger interceded, stepping between the two. He had crows feet and a black beard with silver in it peeking here and there, and was evidently trying to calm down the heated tempers.

“How is one causing a scene, when he started it?” Saufinril snapped. In the back of his mind the weight of guilt settled on his stomach for talking back to someone that was just trying to fix this situation, but honestly he’d been holding back the indignation for too many weeks for him to swallow it back right now. The man seemed unbothered, as if Saufinril had asked that in the most polite of manners.

“I know. I know.” He said in a lower tone than before, then regained his previous volume and said, “We will get on our way. I suggest you do the same.”

He was still in public, and this man was obviously, as nice as he could be, on the redhead asshole’s side. And with Thalmor and city guards walking around here and there, yeah. This was the wisest choice. Besides he still had to get the present and meet Amara at the tavern, and she seemed really excited to get Saufinril to be outside. He wasn’t going to ruin her excitement to get him out with a fight. He took a deep breath to cool down, turning around once again to continue his way-

THUCK! Something hard hit him on the back of his head, yanking out an exclamation. When he turned around to see, the most obvious rock he’d ever seen was sitting nicely in front of him, as if waiting for Saufinril to notice. He just had to look up to see the ginger’s smug grin despite the bearded man’s scowl and the other man (one with tawny skin and a shaved head) look at Saufinril as if he were expecting a confrontation.

You know what? He waited for Amara, she can wait for him.

He immediately summoned the shield spell he needed on the left hand and the fire spell on his right. Both the tawny-skinned man and the one with the black beard drew out their swords as the ginger man stepped back, crossing his arms and keeping his smug smile. That’s alright. One quick firebolt, straight to his fucking face-

A strong hand grabbed his right one, as a stern voice with a familiar accent barked, “What is going on here?” And just like that, both of Saufinril’s spells disappeared, caused by the very blocking spell that the Thalmor agent holding him was using. The men sheathed their swords back and the ginger fuck was now openly giggling. A mix of loathing and dejection filled Saufinril as he shyly turned to look at the pair of yellow eyes that was glaring at him.

“It was…nothing.” He said. The Thalmor agent’s cold gaze remained on Saufinril.

“You were disturbing public peace.” He hissed, “Do you know the punishment for this?”

“Nothing else to watch, move.” The Thalmor agent’s partner, an especially tall mer for an Altmer, ordered, making the crowd disperse. She turned to Saufinril with displeasure, “You, move along! This is your first and final warning. You get caught again and we’re taking you to the Embassy to process you. Is that clear?”

“But-but-but one-”

“See how he was handled?” he could hear his ginger foe bragged as he walked away with his bodyguards, “I wasn’t even scared! You just have to show them who’s the boss.”

“Don’t stammer! Is that clear?” she snapped. Saufinril took another deep breath.

“Yes, serah.” He replied. Only then did the tall agent’s partner release him, adding a harsh “Don’t think this incident’s been forgotten.” Saufinril took two steps back, gave a brief head bow, then turned and continued walking. The indignation will die, he figured, when he puts his focus on his task at hand. It took him several hours and a visit to eight merchants but he finally found a white veined marble ink pot with quality ink in it, exactly (if not better than) what he was looking for. Thanking the merchant profusely after the purchase (after visiting eight merchants, the ninth with just what you need is just godsent), he headed at once to Dennaris’s shop. Amara said it was a new tavern, hard to miss. What he could see from this shop was the shadow puppet theatre that was playing an outdoors show, filled to the brim with children that were encouraging the protagonist and his Imga companion, some individuals and couples walking around…at last he saw the tavern, with open holes in the wall to allow for more ventilation. In a table by said windows, Amara had sat down and was waiting. Saufinril entered and headed at once where she was, making her perk up.

“There you are!”

“Have you been waiting long?”

“No, I just arrived. How’d it go? I got so many new things. Are you hungry?”

“Eh. You’re not going to believe what happened to one earlier…”