recreatable | open post.

Ugh. Carpentry, tailoring, cooking—all things he is unfortunately bad at. There'd been no need to learn tailoring and cooking in his childhood, and it's not like he had anyone to impress out on the Continent. His carpentry skills are highly questionable, too, although he likes to think the hut he built isn't so bad for someone with absolutely no prior experience.

The point is— as a sensitive musician type, he truly does not belong among Alethi men.

He should tell her to go to sleep now, but he doesn't. "The Ardentia are the bald men," he says, because unfortunately he knows very little about them besides that. "The ones who read." What makes them different from other men, he's not yet sure. "Who are the stormwardens?"

A snort of laughter slips out of her — half-muffled, half-amused. Not at his expense, exactly, though she doesn't bother clarifying that. She's simply delighted by how efficiently he's reduced the entire Ardentia to being bald.

"Bald men and women," she corrects, gently but automatically. "It's the priesthood, and women can join it as readily as men. Once they do, they’re treated as something closer to genderless." A pause. "For instance, women in the Ardentia aren't required to cover their safehands. Men read and write."

The explanation settles into the dark between them, offered without ceremony — a bite-sized lecture. Even at this hour.

"As for stormwardens," she continues after a moment. "They claim to predict highstorms. Mostly charlatans. Their methods aren't especially sophisticated — and they're fond of attaching themselves to other kinds of nonsense. Like Digitology. The idea that you can determine someone's personality by the width of their fingers."

She lifts her hand into the dark, palm up. A vague, waggling shape in the barely-any-light.

"In case you were wondering," she says lightly, "it has yet to prove illuminating."

Hm. Verso holds his hand up in front of his face, squinting in the dark. He does believe you can tell things about someone from their fingers. For example, his are littered with calluses from repetitive piano-playing. Maybe not enough to tell his whole personality, but— there might be some small amount of truth in the pseudoscience.

"What would I be?" he asks, although he realizes the question is perhaps unclear. "If I were from here."

A nice little thought experiment. He likes to play with this sort of idea, pretend at being real.

"From Alethkar?"

She clarifies. Because here is a broad category. If he was Shin or Azish or even Thaylen he might have followed some similar path — musicianship. And while it's not impossible to imagine a man picking up an instrument (especially a two-handed one) the sort of man who might make his living that way would have much, much darker eyes. In fact...

"A brightlord of at least the sixth dahn, I suspect," she answers. Her guess is based on what she's been able to glean about his family status. Leisure enough to pursue hobbies. Landed lighteyes, the likes of which doesn't require a livelihood to keep a roof over their head or food in their belly.

But that's still a very abstract, impersonal guess. Jasnah pauses, considering the pure light tone of his eyes — higher dahn even than sixth, maybe.

"Highprince of Revels," she concludes with a smile.

'Brightlord of the sixth dahn' sounds very fancy. Lumière hadn't had nobility, although he supposes if it had, he would have fallen under that category. The Dessendres had been undoubtedly the wealthiest family around, although it's not something he ever thought about when he still lived there. It had only been once he lost that lifestyle that he realized it was notable to begin with.

"That's not real," he accuses. Highprince of anything sounds fake. So— fantastical. Of course, he loves fantastical. "...Is it real?"

A huffed laugh— "That would've been fun." Although he has the feeling she'd have no interest in him at all if he weren't from another world. Sometimes he wonders if she doesn't just put up with him for the information she can glean. "Would the queen deign to come to my parties?"

It is real. Alright, so there hasn't been an Alethi Highprince of Revels since the brief stint of peace before her father was killed — but there had indeed been one. Nowadays, there are only Highprinces of War, of Information, of Commerce, of Works. But once there had been real appetite for art and delight.

She smiles in the dark at his incredulity. Or maybe she smiles at his incredulity because of the dark — the way it cloaks and hides that loosening of her composure. Still, it lingers in her voice even if she never answers his question about whether or not the position exists.

"Parties? No, I'm afraid not. I'd show my face for the bare minimum required and then retire."

At least she's honest about it.

"But any concerts organized and commissioned by the Highprince of Revels would be a different story.

Yes. That would have been fun. To have nothing to do all day but plan concerts and listen to music—no fighting, no sleeping on rickety floors with grass poking through. It's the life he'd once imagined leading back before the Fracture, and one he can't imagine leading now. All the same, he smiles and says, "Then I guess I should start organizing some concerts."

The conversation is probably at a close, but he feels somewhat reluctant to let it go, even knowing that he should. She needs her rest. Whether he enjoys this late night chat or not is irrelevant.

"...Try to get some sleep," he finally says, although not without some hesitation. "Maybe tomorrow we can take another walk."

She recognizes his offer for what it is, now. A bribe. Like cajoling his sister along with the promise of books. As if Jasnah couldn't or wouldn't find a way to take another walk without his auspices. Storms, doesn't he realize she could just as easily ask Jochi!

(But then again, she wouldn't do that to Jochi. Wouldn't risk being recognized in his company. Wouldn't risk the disruption to his personal, private life.)

Jasnah doesn't answer. Not for a long, long pause. But her breathing doesn't slow and the slight, wakeful tension doesn't leave her limbs. She's there, just there, behind him. And the words required to ask for what what she wants roll on the tip of her tongue, balling inside her cheek. It's both harder and easier to ask after his stories about Alicia.

Eventually, long after she should have already been trying in earnest to shut her eyes, she asks: "—Would you hum again?"

Like he did on the ship.

Satisfaction tugs on the corner of his mouth, pulling his smile wider. So many smiles today, here in the dark, that Jasnah will never know anything about. "Yeah," he says, feeling flattered and fluttery. Merde, this is really pathetic of him. Twitterpated over some woman who'll never feel the same. Even if she did, it would be doomed before it began; his priority is Jasnah, but Jasnah's priority is Roshar. "I don't have anywhere else to be."

He doesn't lie down. Doesn't pretend he's going to sleep like he usually does. She'll know he's awake by the humming, anyway. It's a soft sound, his voice low in the quiet of the night.

His voice is just enough. Like a story being told softly, without urgency — something to hook her attention, with a shape to follow, so she doesn't wander back toward worry and memory and fear when the room grows too quiet. She lies curled behind him in a loose c-shape, close enough that she can imagine she feels the vibration of his humming through the divan where it meets his spine. It reminds her of the tones she hears when soulcasting. Pure, ancient, resonant. The reminder is comforting. Grounding.

Still. Sleep is slow in coming.

She's already dozed through much of the afternoon and half the night besides; the familiar, sharp exhaustion isn't there to drag her under. At first, it takes discipline simply to listen. Not to fidget. Not to speak. To swallow the other questions, the other requests, the thousand small impulses to reach outward for procrastination rather than inward for rest.

Does Ivory hear it too? Listen. Find your way back.

It's the last coherent thought she has before sleep finally takes her. Her breathing lengthens, her jaw slackens, and she takes up just a little more space without meaning to. She steals an extra hour or two from the jaws of routine and reality.

Verso can tell she only sleeps for a small amount of time by the change in her breathing, but he doesn't acknowledge her waking before the sun rises. Once it does, he follows Jochi out and down the stairs, conversing pleasantly with him—mostly about Jasnah, a little bit about pastries—before returning yet again with breakfast. A brioche this time, something he's very familiar with.

"Tired of pastries yet?" he asks as he sets a slice wrapped in paper down on the end table, although it's a rhetorical question. Of course she is. Even he is by now, and he went nearly 7 decades without good food.

So, instead of waiting on a response, he follows up with, "Where do you want to go today?" On the promised walk.

In the brief stretch of morning solitude — the time Verso spends downstairs — Jasnah allows herself a few small liberties. She attends to minor grooming: a change of clothes, careful and unhurried; washing her face. And, most importantly, she draws the end-table drawer a little farther open to check on Ivory's condition.

Still unresponsive, if unconscious is even the right word for a being composed entirely of thought. But he can't be entirely gone given the once-again thin sip of stormlight she manages to draw from the spheres tucked beside him brings a welcome jolt. If she had to guess, whatever she's taken in thus far has shaved hours — perhaps even days — off what would otherwise be a far slower recovery.

When Verso returns upstairs, she's seated upright at the end table, loose hair spilling over her freshly changed blouse. The spanreed waits in front of her. After all, she'd resolved to return to correspondence in the morning. She clicks her tongue and nudges the pen and its paper aside when he sets down the brioche. The plate promptly claims an outsized portion of the table's limited space.

She is so, so tired of pastries. But it feels churlish to say as much. Food is food, and she does understand how precarious that can be. After months stranded in Shadesmar, where the only edible things had been the contents of strange tin cans ferried along absurd, off-world trade routes. Still. Storms, what she wouldn't give for a spiced curry.

Dutiful — to Jochi's craft, if not her own appetite — she tears into the brioche.

"You tell me," she says, mild but pointed. "Given how often you've been out exploring in the evenings, you may actually be more familiar with the city than I am."

He wouldn't say 'exploring'. More aimlessly wandering and trying to get some air, but that sounds a lot less interesting and a bit more pathetic than exploring, so— sure. Verso doesn't argue with her on that point.

Perching on the far edge of the divan, trying not to take up too much of the room she needs to stretch out, he says, "You know, I used to be something of a professional tour guide."

Ha. It's barely sarcastic. He was a guide and a babysitter, and for very little return on investment.

"We could go looking for a place that doesn't serve pastries for lunch."

One barely-restrained grumble of agreement. Yes, please. Jasnah nods and voices the thing she previously thought but didn't say aloud: "I'd kill for a curry."

A bit dramatic, sure. But her stomach even rumbles at the thought. She sniffs and tries to silence it with a mouthful of brioche. Chewing, thinking, swallowing. It doesn't quite satisfy. Jochi's baking is plenty good, and it's miles better than porridge made from tasteless soulcast grain, but she misses meat skewers and peppered chicken and roasted vegetables and curries hot enough to make you sweat. Not that she expects she'll be served the latter in Thaylen City. But as she chews another bite, she watches Verso and wonders — if they found a good curry house — he'd swap dishes with her.

"...What do you like?" She asks, a little awkward about it until she hones her quest with a follow-up. "To eat. Do you have a favourite dish?"

She braces herself. Will this be like asking a favourite colour all over again? Maybe she can get ahead of the discomfort by simply stating her curiosity like this.

It's a totally normal question, Jasnah, chill out. He doesn't so much as bat an eye at it—he would have asked the same, if he were in her position.

However, it's a bit of a difficult question to answer. What he likes to eat and what he actually eats are two different things; while he'd enjoyed fine dining in Lumière, there's not much in the way of sustenance on the Continent. After all, he's the only inhabitant of it who eats at all.

"I used to love coq au vin," he starts. God, it's been a long time since he had that one. "...But the Continent is mostly a lot of mushrooms."

Which he hated starting out, by the way. He's grown accustomed to them by necessity, but they still kind of suck, especially because he's an awful cook. Can't be good at everything.

Sheepishly: "I got poisoned a lot before I grew a tolerance to them."

Mushrooms? Weird. Jasnah hasn't tried many herself — rather challenging to cultivate much on a planet without decent soil to allow for fungus systems to thrive. Although some varietals have made their way to Alethi tables from Shinovar. Distant, foreign delicacies. And desperate bridge crews foraging fungi from the damp, dark chasms.

Her eyes narrow. But this time, it might be more with concern than disbelief.

"Even with your — curse?" She still uses the term he once introduced it by. Even if, to her, it hardly seems like one. "It doesn't deal with poisons?"

Raw deal, really.

"—Well," he says, shrugging, "it doesn't deal with anything, exactly." Not while it's happening. Only in the aftermath. "Flattered as I am that you think so, I'm not invulnerable. I still die, it just... doesn't take."

For example, if she does use him as a human landing pad when they go flying, he'll still splat on the ground. He'll just get better.

"So, I still, uh"—there's no pretty way to describe vomiting yourself to death, huh—"felt the effects of poisonous mushrooms until I ate enough of them."

Cognitive Shadow — she thinks, not for the first time. Likely not for the last. Like the Heralds, but without the torture session on Braize. It isn't healing at all, really. How...

"...How awful." For him, that is. Dying, returning, dying, returning. Sympathy — rare and brief — lingers in her look.

"We'll find something much better than mushrooms," she resolves.

Honestly, he's a little surprised that she doesn't ask to see it. Scientifically, it must be interesting. Watching a person die and then restitch themselves from the cellular layer. He's never really been in a lucid enough state during those moments to pay attention. The adrenaline rush of dying kind of supersedes analytical thought.

"I've never had curry," he muses idly, like they weren't just discussing his Promethean existence. "What does it taste like?"

Jasnah is of two minds. First — yes, absolutely, she would love to see this anomaly in action. Second, however? She's utterly disinterested in watching death for its own sake. What she really wants — needs — is some organic threat to kill him so she can watch the aftermath without guilt. Shrug emoji!!!

"Never?" Oh, hmm. She sits back, thoughtful. "Vegetables and meat in a seasoned sauce. Sometimes spiced, sometimes sweet. The taste can vary — it's quite dependent on what's available in the kitchens."

Oh, it's been a long time since he had meat. The Continent is hardly overflowing with edible creatures—one might consider eating the Nevrons, but they're even more poisonous than the mushrooms, and they taste awful besides. Ugh, the leathery skin of a Bourgeon? He'll pass.

The rest, though... sweet, he can do. Spicy, less so.

He grimaces a little, sheepish. "I'm not sure I'm cut out for all the spices they put in men's food here." Please, he's as Caucasian as a person can be. "In Lumière, our primary spice was butter."

...Jasnah's expression splits with a grateful, eager smile. There is no reproach nor judgement for his spice tolerance — or lack thereof. In fact, she recognizes it for the opportunity it truly is: an ideal solution to the problem of worrying and fussing over finding a curry house only to be served something she doesn't actually want to eat. Under other circumstances, she might have insisted on a spiced curry — but now, here, like this? She'd do well not to draw too much attention.

"That's — perfect, actually."

Completely ignorant to Jasnah's reasons for excitement: "What, butter? Yeah, it's pretty good."

"No," she answers — sharp and corrective, but no less pleased. Reaching out, she even dares to tap the back of her fingers against his arm.

"You'll swap with me, won't you?" The brioche? Entirely forgotten. Even the spanreed, which she'd been keeping a careful eye on even since he'd returned, stands ignored while she talks him through this admittedly very simple plot. "Wherever we go, whatever they serve, you and I should swap bowls."

Storms, she must be bored out of her skull if a little bit of restaurant table sleight of hand provides this much excitement.

It doesn't matter what she's asking. Jasnah could be proposing that he jump into an active volcano for her amusement, and he'd say yes, so long as she did so with her fingers brushing against his arm, that delighted lilt in her tone. Despite being perched on the edge of the seat so as not to take up her personal space, he leans involuntarily toward her, pulled inexorably toward her orbit.

Pragmatically, he can see this for what it is. Physical attraction, compounded by the intimacy of close quarters and how well they get along. An idle yearning spurred on by the safety of wanting what he can never have. There is no world in which a romance between them is anything but a chimerical daydream. All the same, it's difficult to look away when her eyes are bright with delight and her dark hair is tumbling over her shoulder.

"A cloak-and-dagger operation," he teases, corner of his mouth twitching up. "Very devious."

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