07.01f: The Seventh Winter (Table of the Giant)

[Veyska]

"Would that the truth in a deck of cards were the riddle that troubled me. 'Twould be much simpler. Shuffling cards is a simple act. Not everything shuffles so easily and untroublingly."

[Joshua]

"Well, what would you like?" Morgana asks. "Responsibility can be a pain, but you have power. That helps."

[Veyska]

"'Tis power itself that troubles me. If I were wiser, I think it would be my power I feared but for all that I have lived many of my kind's lifetimes, longer than humans even, I still feel young and unwise..."

[Joshua]

"Honey, don't take this the wrong way..." The ogre smiles at Asai, for once letting the lines of old pain and torment showing through. Her eyes speaking of the cruelty she faced from many who she was trying to help, and tiny scars from old wounds, physical and emotional, becoming plain for just a moment. "Experience comes from doing. It comes from the mistakes we make. From the wounds. Skill, that comes with practice; Wisdom, that can come from contemplation; but Experience, that comes from pain."

And with that moment passed, her face returns to being supportive and smiles. "You don't have to lose the rest of you, it simply becomes tempered. For me, I have to say it's well worth the effort."

She looks around the room and points out Eretria, focussing on a sketch of some kind. "Look over there... I suspect she's attempting to spy on our guest. She also faced Tir-Na Nog'th during the daytime. I'm not sure I want to, but there's a lot to be said for the attempt."

[Joshua]

"Dworkin is not that high above our own abilities. No, our guest is not scary as an individual. The fact he represents a fifth or similar court, that's where the issue lies. And we have no idea if it's larger or older than ours."

[Veyska]

"I'm not afraid of doing so much as having done to me. The world might not be as physically big anymore but it got a lot vaster when Dworkin absconded with me." Asai shrugs. "If true, your knowledge of Dworkin's guest narrows the answers to his riddle down, but now it is the application of the lever and not it's size that matters. Cleverness can overcome a lot of disadvantages and so can knowledge of the home terrain or of the game at hand and I fear I am likely bested at both. As for there being more of his ilk, analogues to ourselves, I suppose a general mistrust of Big Folk remains a good thing to cultivate." One corner of her mouth twitches upwards. "Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say Not-Quite-So-Large Folk. Truth be told, your size feels closer to normal for me than all these humans. It will require far more than even a decade or two to fully overcome lifetimes of habit."

[Joshua]

"The only way to avoid being done to, it to do first. If you're concerned the guest, then talk to him. I'm sure a group of us could kill him, but as I said, I don't think that's a good idea, let alone that I've spent my life getting away from the stereotype of ogre." Morgana nods. "You are the first person to say I feel 'normal'. You know, I bet whatever conversation Dworkin is having will work better with a foil. Although Dworkin can be his own foil at times... To be honest, Dworkin scares me more than Odin. I suspect he scares Odin and wherever Odin is from."

[Veyska]

"My kind, back where I came from, were predators but we were not the apex predators. I lost one of my littermates to a great hawk when I was young, and every so often one of the dogs that roamed the palace would managed to catch one of us. Perhaps it is from that that I have learned to fear the unfamiliar threats more than the known ones. It is like living in a storm-wracked area - fear becomes acceptance and respect for the dangers. Those who always fear go elsewhere or do not survive, and those who do not respect fall prey to their own arrogance."

[Joshua]

"My kind wasn't in too much danger form others. Two of my sisters had their skulls bashed in by my eldest brother before he was killed by my mother for such actions. One of my brothers was beaten to death by the others during a particularly long game of rock-ball." She shivers. "It was not a good time. Although, perhaps it is one reason I don't mind the eccentricities of Dworkin as much. He's crazy, but not violent. I doubt our guest feels the same way. Odin probably got the impression that Dworkin was trying to get us to interfere somehow."

Morgana shrugs. "A guest wouldn't dare do anything while in Amber. Perhaps if he was fleeing, but he won't lash out unless he's cornered." She starts to say something more, but bites it back.

[Veyska]

((We seem to be falling behind on courses and I can't really think of much to post so...))

Any response Asai might have had to Morgana's abrupt silence is postponed by the arrival of the third course, to which she applies herself with astonishing enthusiasm for so simple a dish. After several bites, she breaks the silence, "Would you believe I'd never had grilled fruits of any kind until arriving here? I'd read of such dishes in travelogues and the likes, but it never seems to have caught on at the university. Even baked fruits were uncommon; the arrival of something that was a reasonable analogue to an apple pie was greeted with great consternation at a festival one year. Pickled fruits and fruits imbued with almost painfully hot spices yes, but rarely cooked fruits..."