The Grey Tower

A need? Not fun? Just time consuming. It was pretty hard to argue against someone who had such a diametrically opposed point of view, so he shook his head, bemused. "What are you going to do when there's no-one around to ask, mm?" That was his parting salvo as he slid the sword back into its scabbard. He stretched his arm out to retrieve his book. "Best I take it back before it bores you too much."

He placed the book back under his arm, resting his other hand on the hilt of his sword. "So, shall we walk then?"

There were two considerations to take in from that request. The first was now enthralled he was in the book's topic. Rav could tell a good sword from a bad one, but the finer points of weaponsmithing had never been of any interest before. He wasn't looking to replace either of his weapons, and had no need of a third sword. It was just something that had jumped out as a subject he didn't know much about.

The second was a matter of trust. It was not about how much he trusted Avyra - that question was almost irrelevant. It was about placing trust in her, and seeing how she reacted to that. The Shienaran just nodded, dropping the book back into his hand and once more proffering it to her to take.

"Falconry," Rav murmured. One of the new buildings replacing the Weaponry Hall was an aviary, but he'd taken very little interest in it. Training birds was something other people could do; he had his own concerns to busy his time with. There was no particular emotion that went along with the thought of Avyra training falcons. It was as if he was ensconced in the ko'di, his focus on something else entirely.

Rav was thinking of something else, if not exactly coherently. Something about kesieras stuck in his thoughts, but there was also the recollection of his first trip into the Blight and of being shot by mercenaries in a nearby street. The scar along his back seemed to be more real, as were the two puckered marks on his torso that indicated where arrowheads had pierced through his body.

"I have to go," Rav muttered absently, then in a stronger voice. "Sorry, I just realised I have something to attend to, Avyra. Enjoy the book. Maybe I'll see you in the forges at some point." He flashed a wicked grin.

When leavetakings were said and done, Ravak retraced his steps back to the jewellery store they'd just left. An old memory had set into motion a chain reaction of plans he was just starting to formalise in his head, but the first step involved getting reacquainted with a former friend, and delivering on a mental promise he'd made her long ago.