Subject: [Dagger] [PORC]The Sea Voyage
Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 20:15:16 -0400
From: jdavis109@juno.com (JAMES R DAVIS)
To: dagrfall@ods.com

Alexis took a keen interest in anything I mentioned relating to Sovere.
She told me that she was something of a scholar, dabbling in ancient
texts that dealt with magic and anatomy.  Mea assigned Alexis (here on
known as Alex) the quarters across the way from my and Catris'.

Mea set the ship to voyage across the Iliac Bay.  I told her of my
intention to ask Morgiah about the SLE's activities on Tamriel.  Alex was
always hanging at my cloak strings.  Always had some question or other as
we sailed.  I could see the admiration in her eyes for us, having broke
the charms that held her.  Though she was quite proficient in the blade,
she wanted to learn the Sidhe Bladesong technique.  She was rather
dismayed when I punched holes in her sword, but went along with it.  I
felt something for this woman, something completely alien to me.  True
enough, her form was appealing to the male eye, but it was not that
feeling.  I racked my brain throughout the voyage trying to place a name
for my emotions toward her.

Paternal instinct.

I soon came to realize that I was using her as compensation for my
inability to have children.  (The Sidhe reproduce by combining their
magic.  The balance must be equal, or the stronger magic destroys the
child.  The power imbued on me by the Goddess prevents me from
reproducing in such a manner.  I could have a child with Catris through
the same manner the other races use, but I could never put her through
such pain.)  I took her under my wing and saw her more as my daughter
than anything else.  My emotions may also have been due to the fact that
she was tied to my life-force.

Granted, two thousand years ago, I would have probably been after like a
lupe on an innocent, but I was much too old to lusting after mortals,
even though I appear the same as when I was twenty-five.  In a few
thousand more years though....  Sorry.  My mind has a tendency to wander.
I taught her as best I could the ancient blade-song techniques, but my
teachings were limited.  I had no access to bladesong swords, made by
dwarven forgers.

She did not seem to mind, but I wanted to teach her more.  We finally
slid into port Wayrest.  Knowing that I should be better dressed, I went
to my quarters.  Appareling myself in a similiar fashion to that I used
in Sentinel, I came out of my quarters, this time not overly anxious to
climb the palace.  I went up to the deck and summoned Midnight, allowing
him to graze on the grass just off the pier.  I went back down into the
crew quarters to get everyone else, ready for the trip to Wayrest.

Before getting Catris, I asked Alex a question that had been playing
across my mind.  I knocked quietly on her door and entered after she bid
me enter.  I walked in and slumped down in one of the goose-down chairs
(Mea has impeccable taste in such matters).  She came across the room
from the closet and asked what was wrong.  I took her hand and asked "All
this time, you have never told me of your parents.  How are they?"

A single tear rolled down her cheek.  Her hand quickly brushed it away.
"They.... they... they were killed in a redguard raid on my village." she
answered.  "I see." I said as I placed a comforting arm around her
shoulders.  We talked for a time, me being nothing more than a
compassionate listener.  Although I had many life-times of experience to
draw on, I had never lossed a relative.  I even passed through life
losing only two friends.  She wove a tale as tragic as I had ever heard.
She went from a life of abuse at the hands of her father's relative to a
life of abuse by people in general. After a time, Mea popped her head in
the door and said ..............................................

~Lord Jemalas Tamislane of Thornwood, Ruler of Kalisis
JDavis109@juno.com

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