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| Details |
| Author: | inkie |
| Summary: | On Aszera's first full day at House Fallon, Siamus takes her for a walk to the seashore; he has some questions. Aze isn't sure she has answers. |
| Rating: | M for Mature 17+ |
Lunch on the day after Aszera Sunstrike's arrival is a casual affair in the same casual, buffet vein as breakfast; there is no official summons, no Gathering, just a bounty of food arranged on the sideboard for anyone who cares to saunter in and help themselves. Members of the household enter in drifts of two or three at a time, to pile plates and sit in conversational knots around the table or even to wander off into the rest of the house again.
It is late — past midday and shading into the early part of the afternoon — and most of the house has come and gone when Siamus finds Aze in the games room. "Miss Sunstrike," he greets her. "Aszera. Have ye eaten yet?"
"Eaten?" Aze asks distractedly, her attention on a billiard table with an array of three balls. She doesn't turn to face Siamus — instead she paces around the table, considering it as if it is a puzzle to be solved. "Yeah, I had breakfast not long so long ago, I think. I thought I was one of the last through."
It was hours ago, Aze, but who's counting.
"It's luncheon now," Siamus observes, and leans in the doorway for a moment, arms folded, to contemplate her. Then he straightens to approach the billiards table. "What are ye up to here, then?"
"You said people enjoy this game, so I thought I'd learn. If I understand right, you're supposed to hit both of the other balls with the your ball," Aze lifts her cuestick from the side of the table, and leans over to line up the shot. The way the bronze silk of her dress dips at the chest may be distracting, but so might the fact that she's lining up a shot using the red ball as a cue ball. "Should I go to luncheon? I'll be at dinner, definitely. For propriety."
Siamus surveys the placement of the balls on the table. He puts his hands in his pockets and strolls around to the opposite side of the table. Perhaps it is to get a different angle on the alignment of the shot. Perhaps it is to get a different angle on the neckline of her gown.
"That's a very fetching dress," he says, which may answer that question. But then he does direct his attention to the table. "And no, ye needn't go. It's a casual arrangement, like breakfast. I'd only thought to find ye and see how y'are, and that ye might be hungry." He pauses and then adds, "Ye can't see the color of the balls, can ye?"
Aze smiles down at the table with the compliment, but then pulls up short at his question. "It's the wrong one? Fel, I had a two-thirds chance, and I still…" Aze takes in a calming breath, and considers the table again, circling around. "It would be easier if they were a different weight or shape or something, but that would ruin the game."
She pauses at another ball, this one white, now trying to line up a new shot. "If I play with you, you can tell me at the beginning which is which. And then it'd be just like one of those cup and ball trick games, keeping track of them through movement. I could eat, or wait, either way. Have you had lunch?"
"I have not. I also could eat, or wait, either way. I've an unhappy tendency not to notice meals much on the house schedule, save for dinner — which is, in part, why they're casual set-outs more than sit-downs — and they're just as used to sending something up to my office if I want it, whenever that is."
He moves around the table's edge again, this time to stand beside her and assess her angle from there. "And I would tell ye, of course, and be bloody impressed if ye kept track of it."
"Then maybe we should — I would like to feel impressive," Aze says, and strikes the cue ball solidly. It collides with the other white ball and deflects towards the red, but misses it by a hand's breadth. "After a little more practice."
She straightens and turns to Siamus. "To the dining room, then? Might as well?"
"Might as well," he agrees. "Though we needn't stay there. I'm hoping that I can persuade ye to walk down to the shore with me later." He offers her his arm.
Aze sets the cuestick against the table, grabs her leather jacket from where it is draped on a nearby chair, and steps over to take his arm. "I'd be delighted to. There's usually been a lot more sea around when I've come to you, so maybe it — she? — would appreciate the visit."
"She," agrees Siamus, entirely reasonably. In this house we gender boats and natural phenomena. "How are ye finding the place? Had a pleasant morning?" He squires her down the hall to the dining room at an ambling, conversational pace.
"Mm? Yes, pleasant. It feels a little weird being idle, but it sounded like my schedule will be busy enough soon. If not, maybe I could sneak into some of Rae's classes," Aze says, letting him lead her along. "As for today, I've just been wandering around. I talked to Lena a little at breakfast, and then we danced — she's totally into your friend, by the way — and then the billiards."
"Totally into my friend," Siamus repeats in that foreign-exchange-student way. His voice is warmly underlined by a smile. "Shine, ye mean? I'm glad to hear that, as the man's… totally into her."
"Yes, I'm referring to Mr. Shine," Aze says, with a touch of feigned elegance in her tone. Then, in her more usual voice, she adds, "They don't move fast, do they? But then, she's a little more like Yara that way. Cautious, wary of getting hurt."
That may not be Siamus's view of Mrs. Sunstrike, the married death knight and creature of nightmare.
Siamus is silent for a few moments; it may be that he is indeed contemplating the vision of the hesitant, sensitive Mrs. Sunstrike.
What he says eventually, though, is, "Aye, Shine's being careful of the lady's sensibilities. He doesn't want to startle her off." Another pause. "As he is… into her."
Aze shrugs. "From what I got her to say to me, I think he's pretty much caught her. At least, as long as he doesn't do anything stupid. Sometimes people do, though, so I guess it's never a sure thing." Aze turns her face up towards Siamus and asks, "We're friends, aren't we? It isn't just a euphemism."
Siamus gazes back down at her, a brow tilted bemusedly. "Of course we are, aye. What… would it be a euphemism for?" Is this another Youth Slang thing, Aszera? his expression asks.
"Maybe I misread it… I had the sense that when Isla said 'good friends' she meant people you were fu– " Aze swallows, and says more quietly, "Sleeping with. Like, she mentioned a… Lord Graves? Maybe I misunderstood. Anyway, I think of you as a friend, but then I thought maybe that was just a way of politely saying…."
"Ah," says Siamus, and ponders this in silence for a moment. He clears his throat. "I believe that is a… household term of art, if ye will, and it's my sister's fault. She has tended over the years to be… exasperated by my personal life, but rather than being outright indiscreet about it in society, she took to telling people that a lover of mine was an 'awfully good friend.' I believe that in explaining to the children how to discreetly handle the same subject with people outside the House, it was suggested they say only that people are 'good friends' of mine, and — per Sintha's example — they have begun using it in that… specific fashion."
He glances at Aze again. "So in a manner, it's… both a euphemism and not. It does mean, when used in that particular fashion, someone I am or have been — fucking, to be entirely indiscreet about it. But I do, in fact, count Graves a friend. And yourself." He considers her expression. "There's not meant to be anything sly about it, I don't believe, only… discreet, as I say. For society. But it isn't falsehood either. Ye recall that there tend to be assumptions in human society regarding the relationships ye have wi' the people ye sleep with. If I were to say 'Graves and Miss Sunstrike are lovers of mine,' that's the term society might use but it contains its own untruth. Y'are good friends of mine. So it's a — "
He tips his chin up and considers. "It's a vocabulary problem in human society, is how I can best put it. It sounds like a euphemism because most humans would think it is one, when in fact it's perfectly accurate. I could just say, 'Graves and Miss Sunstrike are friends of mine,' but then if people learned that I slept wi' the both of ye, they'd be shocked or appalled or whatever they're being about other people's business these days. So there's that little… inflection on the title."
He pauses. "Is that… does that make sense?"
Aze doesn't answer right away, thinking through his words, maybe, and the differences between friends and lovers.
"I think so," she says finally, as they pass into the empty dining room. "I've known different sorts, where the euphemism wouldn't make sense. Where they wouldn't be put off by despising someone, so long as they had a pleasing silhouette. I didn't take you for that sort, and I'm not either." She pauses, moving towards the remaining spread of food. "Most of my good friends, I've lost along the way. I still have friends, but… I've given you more of myself than I usually would. Most of my friends don't even know my sister's a death knight, or anything about all this," Aze touches her blindfold. "I guess part of it is how we met, and… circumstances. But I do think of you as a good friend, inflection or not, and I guess… maybe I started worrying people only saw the inflection."
Siamus lets his hand trail the small of her back lightly as she moves ahead and away from him toward the food. "You are a good friend of mine, Aszera, uninflected, and I'm glad to be one to you. The inflection is the part that may seem most novel or conspicuous to the children, because of social expectation, but I don't believe there's judgment in it and the novelty will wear off. They'll see we're friends, aye? They know we're friends already, as they know I'm friends wi' Graves and others."
"I hope so," Aze says, flashing a smile. She takes a small plate and a little sandwich, and turns back to Siamus. "Though of course, I appreciate the infl– the fucking, too. There's just a lot going on in my life right now and it's so much more complicated than it used to be."
She moves back toward him, holding the plate absently. "I've been trying to keep the right friends, for the Alliance. Which means I have even less. I'm hoping I can turn that around, eventually."
"I'd like to see that turn around for ye, aye. I'd like to help turn it around, if I can. I mean to help you find friends in the Alliance. I know you're in unfamiliar waters, aye? But still safe in the Fallon Fleet." He touches her elbow gently, guiding her toward a seat at the table. "When ye say there's a lot going on and it's complicated, are you referring to… what, exactly? All of this? Coming to the Alliance? Something else?"
There's the slightest flinch at the word safe, there and gone fast enough to be easily missed, as she lets Siamus guide her to the table and settles into her seat. "All of… this, maybe? Or since I went to Northrend… or maybe since I left Shadowmoon Valley. Or then again, maybe even since I left Quel'thalas for the first time. Just… unfamiliar waters all the way. I've been handling it, and I do appreciate your help, just… maybe sometimes I miss the simplicity of the eternal spring."
Siamus draws out the chair next to hers and settles in it. He has not himself gotten food; he does not seem aware of that fact, his attention wholly absorbed by Aze. "Ye should be a poet, Aszera," he tells her. "But what was it I said that made you uncomfortable?"
"Uncomfortable?" Aze asks, pausing to eat a bite of sandwich while she considers the question. "Nothing… important. Nothing unexpected. Your home is beautiful, and comfortable, and the people are lovely and I just… have to prove myself." She hesitates, and adds, "Like in the fleet. You've granted me safe conduct here, as there. And I trust that, just… did we ever talk much about Dalaran?"
He puts an elbow on the table, angling himself to face her, and shakes his head. "I don't recall it if we did specifically. Why?"
"I don't like it there," Aze says simply, her shoulders turning inwards slightly as she deliberately takes another bite. "It is beautiful, and comfortable, and full of people who are willing to look the other way."
Siamus knits his brow. He sits quietly contemplating Aze for a time. "I can't stand Dalaran," he says. "I find a great many people of my acquaintance hate the place for one reason or another. But what — ye say that something here reminds you of Dalaran? Beautiful and comfortable and… ye must be clearer with me, Aszera, I'm afraid. I would like to understand."
Aze breathes out in a low sigh as Siamus states his distaste for the city, relaxing back in her chair. Then she turns to him and says, "I was nearly killed there, executed — mostly because I had the wrong friends and people didn't want us there. They still don't, for that matter. But sometimes I still get… nervous… even when I know consciously the situation isn't the same."
Siamus's reaction is wordless but physical, visceral: He leans closer at once, shifting the angle at which he faces her as if to shield her from something. He wraps his hand around the back of her neck, a warm, strong grasp as if he means to pull her toward him, though he does not: his hand rests there, and he sits facing her, black-eyed.
"Executed, Aszera?" he asks in a low voice, a line between his brows. "Because of… I know they're bastards to warlocks there."
"Not because of the demon, this was back before Outland," Aze says, shaking her head. "Because the military based there didn't like the allies Sunstrider made against the Scourge. I… I was just there, guilt assigned for being sin'dorei, I guess."
He makes a soft sound of illumination. "I can see," he says at last. "I can see why ye might feel… uneasy in yourself. I'm sorry. We hadn't spoken of this before ye came, so I didn't know."
Aze smiles at him, a little wanly, the remainder of her food forgotten. "Maybe I should've. It's not something I bring up a lot. I usually just say Dalaran's not safe for sin'dorei, and leave it at that. It's my usual excuse for why I won't go there."
"I'm not saying you should have said, Aszera. Only that I didn't know. But now I do. I'm sorry it happened and I'm sorry you still feel the shadow of it." Siamus studies her face a moment longer and then sits up again. "But talking of your friends, Her Grace and I spoke last night about your dancing party, and she'll have the invitations out soon. If ye want any of them — the Aspenwoods, Silentstep, so on — to come and visit ye here outside of the party, just for a visit, that's arranged easily enough as well.
"Meantime — would ye grace me with your company for a walk down to the shore? There's a wind out, mind, so you'll want to be warm. No eternal spring for Elwynn, I'm afraid."
"It would be good to see them again," Aze says, the shadow passing, then she adds with a touch of a sly smile, "Speaking of, I don't know if it matters, but none of them are good friends of mine — they're just good friends of mine."
"As for the shore, let's do it." She stands, and a hint of warmth comes into her smile as she reaches to touch where Siamus had been holding her neck. Then she grabs her black leather jacket and pulls it on, because silk and leather are excellent insulating fabrics for an Elwynn winter. "I'll be fine, my blood runs a little hot these days."
Siamus gets to his feet as well, and laughs at her remark about her friends. "If ye'd managed to be good friends with any of the younger Aspenwoods, I confess I'd be deeply impressed. Not that I doubt your powers of seduction, mind — it's the Aspenwoods I doubt." He offers his arm again to escort her back down the hall to the front door.
Aze takes his arm with a playful grin and lets him lead on. "I admit I haven't tried. Mordecai and Colson give off very strong only thee vibes, and Cressidha I honestly don't know as well. Colson was one of the first people Sil introduced me to. Him and Ben. It was right after he'd figured out what he had on his hands, and I think he was hoping they'd be good influences. I wasn't exactly flouncing around as an ex-Illidari back then."
"Only thee," Siamus repeats and laughs. "And I admit I have tried — not Mordecai, wasn't acquainted with him prior, but the twins — it must be years ago now, and as many times as I've been turned away in my life, I don't believe I've ever been turned away more indifferently or more courteously by anyone."
Vane opens the front door and Siamus flashes him a smile as he leads Aze through it and outside.
"I like Mordecai. He was kind to me when he really didn't have to be," Aze says, as they pass out into the cold winter afternoon. She shivers, and pulls her jacket a little tighter. "He's just like that, kind. As for the other two, thanks for the warning. I won't try. Some people are just not into that sort of thing — though I guess it's good they don't get offended by the idea."
"I'm not certain I could tell if they were offended," Siamus admits dryly. He tucks Aze closer to his side. "If it's too much a chill, tell me. D'ye want my coat?" His suit coat also does not exactly look like winter wear, but he doesn't seem bothered by the chill himself.
"No, it's fine, I can handle it," Aze says, but she doesn't seem opposed to being tucked close to his side. In any case, she's stopped shivering, whether from shared warmth or careful intention. "It makes sense, you living close to the water. Whenever I think of you, I think of the sea, of ships. Of the Lady Blanche. And who knows, maybe I'll think of Her Grace now, too."
He is silent for a short distance and then observes seriously, "It's flattering to be thought of wi' the sea. I was born for her." A few more steps and he asks, carefully casual, gazing at the path ahead, "May I ask you a question?"
"Mm? Sure, of course," Aze says easily. "I'll answer if I can. Open book. That's the deal I had with Argents, and I offer the same to you and Lady Fallon."
"Thank you, Aszera," Siamus says, and is quiet again briefly. "It's about your way of… seeing people, aye? I had this notion — I don't know where I took it — that when ye look at a person ye can see… I don't know, a shape or shadow, something like ye'd have seen with… eyes, but obscured. But it's more than that, is it?"
"Not like eyes. I don't actually have eyes, and this," she raises her free hand to touch her blindfold, "blocks nothing for me. It's for you. What you have to understand is, I was… crafted… for a purpose. To hunt down and kill demons. So for me, the fel is like a blazing beacon. Demons can't hide from me. Not if they creep in the shadows, not if they pretend to be something else, not even if they hide behind a fucking wall. They just…" Aze's hand tightens on his arm,"…blaze."
Siamus nods somberly and lays his other hand over Aze's grip on his arm. "Aye," he says. "I understand. And I'm sorry — it was thoughtless of me to expect… whatever I was expecting. To make an assumption."
"Expect that I couldn't see much?" Aze asks. "I wear a fel-damned blindfold, it's a fair assumption. And it was really hard to make sense of everything at first, except for the fel. That has always been clear."
"But now," he says, "ye can see more than that? In people?" He watches her intently.
They have begun to descend the rocky switchback that leads from the cliffs down toward the gray winter beach below.
Aze makes an absent sound of agreement, minding her step on the descent. "I see…" Aze considers her words for a moment, "…what they are, I guess you might say. It's not as nosy as it sounds. Most of the time I don't know what anything means, unless it's something I've seen before. Think of it like… some people can read all sorts of details about a person when they look at them. I can do that too, just different details."
"And when ye look at me?" Siamus slows their pace a little as the January wind off the sea buffets the cliff face, gusting into them.
"I see what you are?" Aze says, curling toward him against the wind. "I mean, you do look a little different from the others. It might be the whole tidesage thing, though I don't really know exactly how that works. And this is not me trying to pry about it. You did sort of tell me to back off on the topic, and I'm not that pushy."
Siamus nods at her. "I beg your pardon for the inconsistency, but I rescind that request if I may. What… does it look like? What you see when ye look at me, that is. And different from the others how?" He pauses. "You're not pushy. Who said that?" His tone disapproves.
"Oh, fel, nobody here, not in words. It's just… it's been a complaint about me, sometimes. I usually prefer to say asks for what she wants rather than pushy, but you know, people…." Aze waves that away with her free hand, flashing a reassuring smile at Siamus. "As for you… Miss Curran asked me about that, too. I told her you were kind of like, silvery-shimmery? Should I have not told her? I can not tell people, if you want me not to."
He shakes his head. "There are three people in this house ye can tell anything as though ye were telling it to me myself, and not be betraying my confidence: Her Grace, Miss Curran, and Shine." He's silent briefly. "I fear I may… belabor it for a few moments here, as I'm trying to… understand the significance of something. Ye say 'silvery-shimmery.' And that's unusual? Has it ever been different, in the time you've known me?"
"I don't really know the significance, it's just what you look like. It might not mean anything," Aze says, pausing to consider the questions. "I would say maybe it fluctuates? There were month gaps between when I saw you, and you didn't always look exactly the same. So I guess that might be a mark against it being a tidesage thing, unless that power fluctuates with the… moon? Fuck, I don't know. You seem pretty steady now. And I thought…." Aze shakes her head. "I thought your daughter looked kind of similar. Taking after you."
"To be clear," Siamus says, "I'm not asking ye the significance yourself. I'm asking what ye see, because I'm trying to… match it to some things I know, and see if they're — related, somehow?" He studies her face. "When did it look different to ye, and different how?"
"When you called me out to the fleet," Aze says, turning to him. "You seemed… duller? Not boring. You're never boring, just you know, the… shimmer. But then it kinda got better, after the whole Plane of Water thing, so I wasn't worried."
He arches a brow. "Would ye have been worried, otherwise?" he asks. He manages to keep his tone light, but there is a soft startlement in his gaze — where Aze cannot see it — that says he is genuinely and unexpectedly touched. "Ah… that is — and ye would say the… shimmer is back to normal now? As ye remember, at least?"
"Of course I would," Aze says easily, with a quick flash of a smile. Then she considers the question carefully, possibly looking at him in that odd way of hers, that doesn't require facing any particular direction. "I think so. I don't have a perfect memory. But you seem so, to me."
"Ah," says Siamus, and turns his gaze outward toward the sea in silence for a time. As they descend from the cliff-path onto the sand of the beach itself, he says slowly, "I'm going to… confide something in ye that's not known beyond the House and the Blanche. Because what ye can see — I'm not sure what it means, but perhaps ye can help me sort something out?"
"I can try," Aze says, turning up toward him. "And I can keep a secret, if you tell me it is one, and how tight to hold it."
"It is a secret," Siamus agrees. He's still looking at the sea rather than Aze. "It shouldn't go outside the House, and it's not… discussed in the House. Only known. By some."
He leads Aze a few paces across the sand toward the ragged grey hem of the water, and stops a few feet away. "I lost my gift," he says quietly.
Aze follows him toward the water in silence, frowning in confusion. There's a long stretch before she says, "I… don't understand. Did something happen? I thought it was a thing you were born with."
"It is. Was. That is — I didn't know it could happen either. I'd never… heard of it happening. But when the Shattering happened, and the great wave came to the coast of Starmwend — " He gestures with his free hand out to the sea. "We were in its path, here."
"You were hit by the wave?" Aze asks, turning towards the sea. "I… I guess I wouldn't know the difference. Your home, the lands… I've only known them after."
"We weren't," says Siamus quietly. "Well, we lost some land. Along the cliffs. The gardens. But the house, and the family — I turned it back. The wave."
"You turned back a tidal wave," Aze says, her own voice soft. "A powerful gift. Is that when…?" Aze pauses, and then makes a kind of ah sound of realization. "That was the Cataclysm, when I was still up at Heartwood. So when I saw you in the Fleet…."
Siamus exhales. "Aye. When ye saw me, would have been — " He clears his throat. "I made… a bargain. Of some kind. Wi'the sea. I'd never… had to do that before. But that wave — it wanted a price. So the bargain I made was… that. The power. For — all of this. My family, my household. My house."
"Okay, but…" Aze turns towards him, looking at something only she can sense. "If you think it's connected, how I see you — has the sea… does it usually show mercy?"
"No," says Siamus. "That is — I can't say. It's all at Her… whim and Her will. But also, ye say that what ye saw before has returned, but I don't feel it again. I don't… feel anything's been returned. There's no — " He makes an abstract gesture in the air. "There's no music to it. I can't hear the world. Still can't. Which is why — Her Grace had hoped it might mean… a return. But as it… doesn't seem to, I don't know what it means. Whether it means anything." He shrugs wearily.
Aze rests her hand on his arm. "Maybe it means something, maybe it doesn't. I wish I could tell you it does, but I promised you truth. But if you already knew all that… do you think there's something I can do to help? I'm sure you told me for a reason, right?"
"I told ye because… you can see something. Something. I don't know what it means. But if you know what's happened wi' me, and ye can see what ye see, maybe we can… sort out an answer. Whether it means anything at all, aye?" He looks down at her. "If it changes again, or… I don't know."
"Maybe it's back in your soul, but you just can't reach it yet. Or maybe it was more like… an injury. Something broken and still healing, rather than truly gone." Aze turns towards him slowly, frowning with thought.
Siamus turns his face away, out toward the water again, as if he doesn't want her to see his expression. She probably couldn't, Siamus, but okay. When he speaks, he only sounds resigned, tired. "Aye. Maybe."
After a silence filled by the sighing of the waves, he says, "And ye see Ery the same? The silvery way?"
"I think so, but it's hard to say. I've only ever seen you holding her," Aze says, leaning a little closer to him. There's something almost yearning in her voice, but then she says in a rush, "I am pretty good with kids — Sil brought his nephew to visit me once, and that went well, and I do work in the orphanage… but I… I would understand, really, if Her Grace would want me to keep my distance from Ery and the littler ones."
Now he turns to look back down at her, his brows knit. "I don't know why she would," he says. "Any more than another guest." He studies her for a moment, and then draws his arm carefully from her grip and puts it around her instead to tuck her closer against him. "I nearly brought her with us here. She loves the seaside, my starfish. In any weather, any season. Ye should see her." The warmth in his voice is from more than just a smile. "Ye can see her, tomorrow if ye like. Ye can come out with us when I bring her for our walk."
"'Any more than another guest,'" Aze repeats, fitting against his side with no hesitation. "I'd like that, then, to join you for the walk. And maybe I can compare, now that I know what I'm looking for. And I'll keep watching you, while I'm here at least, to see if anything changes. If it gets… more… or something that might give you a hint. I don't, like, take notes on what everybody looks like, not least of which because I couldn't read them later anyway." Aze smiles briefly. "If it's born in, I guess that means there's a chance that Ery, too?"
He laughs softly at her note-taking joke and tightens his arm briefly, squeezing her. "Not a chance," he says. "A certainty. She's something of a prodigy. Her gift showed at four months." He shakes his head wonderingly, but the pride in his tone is hard to miss. "Ye can't keep the child in a bonnet."
"At four months," Aze says, clearly impressed, curling her arm around Siamus's waist as he squeezes her. "And it doesn't usually show up that early? Talented girl… and, if I'm right about her, it probably means it is connected. What I see and what you are. Which means you still are, even if you can't hear it right now."
"I've never heard of it showing that early," Siamus says. "But Ery's remarkable."
He's silent again, and he stands swaying slowly and ever-so-slightly with the rhythm of the waves, as though some part of him is being drawn by the same force that moves the water. It's barely perceptible with the wind and spray gusting along the shore, and he does not seem aware he's doing it.
Then he looks down at her again. "What musical instruments d'ye play?"
Aze sways with him, a woman much more attuned to touch and balance than many other sensual cues. Thus, she does seem aware that it's happening, though she doesn't say anything about it yet.
"Piano, first," Aze answers. "Then there was a kind of stringed instrument, lute. And honestly, I'm pretty good at taking whatever and messing around with it to see what kinds of sounds I can get it to make." She does not seem aware, at the moment, that this may not seem entirely like a musical instrument comment. "It takes time to learn an instrument well, of course, but they all follow the same kinds of rules. Like… vibrations and harmonics."
"Interesting." It doesn't sound like conversational noise; he sounds interested. "I'd not considered that. It's all physics in the end. Physics, mathematics…." After another thoughtful moment, he nods. "We've got a piano in the ballroom, and another in the music room. I did have a look in there — I recall ye were interested — and there's a piano and a harp, for certain. And a violi– no, that's Shine. Or maybe one in the music room as well?" He considers this, then shakes his head, wryly conceding defeat. "I think Ta must have studied the piano at some point, or I can't think why we'd have more than one of them."
It doesn't seem like they'd require multiple pianos even if Sintha did study the instrument, but who knows?
"They're notoriously hard to wander around with as you play," Aze says with an amused smile, still swaying with him. "One good reason to have more than one. Or, to my mind, reason to play something else as well. But yeah, all mathematics, in a way, if you get down to the heart of it. That, and beauty. Think I should ask Sintha if she wants to play sometime? I'm guessing she'll be around at some point."
"I expect she will be, aye. I don't believe she kept up with any of… music, that sort of thing, though. It wasn't her notion, naturally — well, I say 'naturally,' but ye haven't met Ta yet so that might not make sense. It will when ye meet her. But music was a thing our father thought was ladylike, and so Ta had her lessons in… piano, or flute, or… whatever it was." Those are two very different instruments, Siamus.
He squints at the water. "If I recall, she fired her tutor herself one summer when we were asea. I can't remember how old she was. I'm not sure the Admiral ever noticed she'd done it."
After a moment, he amends, "The late Admiral. My father."
Because there is a new Admiral, you see.
Aze nods. Different Admiral. "Music's not so much fun if you're doing it under duress. I didn't ever learn it to be ladylike, just to… have a way to use mathematics to shape emotions into something I could let other people feel. I guess now there's a preservation aspect to it, as well. Like Her Grace with the Lordaeronian dances, me with Thalassian songs. There are much fewer of us now that know them."
Aze pauses, focusing out on the sea, and adds, "Do you feel it at all right now? The tides? You… seem to."
He is startled; the subtle movement stops as he tilts his head at her. "Seem to…?" His dark gaze searches her expression, puzzled. "I don't — " He looks up, stands poised in silence for a moment as if listening, then looks down at her again. "I hear… what you do, I expect? The noises." With his free hand he gestures vaguely in the air by his head. "Not the music of it. The voice. Just sounds."
Aze tightens her arm around his waist and moves slightly, rocking with the quiet sound of the waves. It is a deliberate mimicry of his recent motion, and not perfectly aligned with the sea, but it is probably close enough for him to feel the sense of it.
"Maybe it takes time to return. Sometimes a voice or music can just be sounds," Aze says quietly. "To a baby. When learning a new instrument. Or after an explosion. In all cases, it takes patience, for things to come together." Aze shrugs. "Just a thought."
He stares at her. Cautiously, a little perplexed, he shifts with her into the slight movement; with his own weight, he amends their sway subtly to fall in with the waves' rhythm. Again it doesn't seem deliberate, just a reflexive adjustment, as if his balance were off and he had to shift it. "D'ye think?" he asks softly. There is a painful-looking hope in his gaze; Aze can't see it, but she might hear its shadow on his voice. "Patience," he says, and exhales and looks back at the sea. "I can be patient, aye."
The ocean turns and looks directly at the camera.
Aze tilts her head to touch his shoulder gently and smiles, a wordless gesture of comfort or support, as they sway together. "When it's needed. I trust you can."