Give the dead their due (Open)

Elyria wasn't the usual place for someone like Solomon to visit. And he wasn't even here for work this time, though he had had a job to do. His friend Mez-Finn had been a Redcap, or Dunter as was their species proper name, which meant his body needed to return to his clan for burial. Funny thing is Roche had been the Redcap's battle-partner. The Others had a special name for it, though the thief would be damned if he could remember it. It was something like a marriage, or maybe more like becoming Blood-brothers. Anyways, Roche had fallen in same battle as Mez-Finn, watching his partner's back. In the Clan's eyes it meant he deserved the same respect as Mez-Finn and so a human was going to be buried on Redcap land for the first time.

Solomon was there because he had been in the same fight, apparently that was another tradition of the Redcaps. He didn't quite get the importance of it being someone from the same battle that brought the body home, but Mez had been a friend so now Styx was in a land where they didn't much like his kind. Humans that is and the fact that he was a slum-dog criminal didn't help the matter. The interrogation at the border had been long and draining affair, but the fact that he actually had a legitimate reason for coming to Elyria meant he finally got in... barely.

The funeral was in two days, right now the bodies were only accessible to direct blood-ties. In the meantime Solomon was being put up in the clan guest house. Redcaps held the sanctity of one's home in great respect and only very close friends and direct blood relatives were usually allowed in the home of a Redcap. So the Clan had a building for guests that had a reason to be there, but didn't have any ties strong enough to the Clan to be allowed into the home of another. It was also the closest thing to a hotel that the Clan had on it's land. If you weren't welcomed by the Clan, you weren't staying on their land.

Styx stood on the balcony just outside the second story common room looking down at the small town that was the Clan hold. The hold was in The Grove as the Redcaps here supplemented their income when they weren't fighting in battle by herding and hunting animals for the rest of Elyria. It was getting close to sunset and he was bored. He technically could go where he wanted in the hold, barring a few areas only Clansmen could enter. But he honestly wasn't sure where he would go if he did. He didn't know anyone over here, nor any of the places he might like to visit. Mez had been alright, but the eye that some Redcaps had been giving him made him feel that maybe he wasn't as welcomed as he thought.

Actually it might have just been the fact that he had destroyed a good number of buildings and still hadn't gotten the one that killed Mez and Roche. For the Redcaps it had been a 'Respectable effort', so some of them might just be wanting a good scrap and were thinking Styx would be a challenge.

Sighing softly to himself, Styx moved back into the common room and plopped down onto a comfortable cushion. There were a number of them on the floor, what the Redcaps used instead of chairs. On the floor near the cushion he had chosen was a book with a page marked in about its middle. Solomon had spent most of the day reading it, besides the time he had spent walking around town. The second of three books that discussed the differences of how Humans and Others view the world and how they really weren't that far apart. Fascinating set of books, too bad the outrage at some of the books suggestions had seen few made and a numbered burned by people that didn't like the ideas in them. He had already finished the first one on the trip down and hopefully he would have the third for the trip back, but if things stayed the way they were he might soon be out of reading material.

Having finished with her business in Elyria a day ahead of schedule, Goldie had decided to drop by her adopted people, the Redcaps. While she could easily have demanded that one of the Redcap families offer her their hospitality seeing as she had been declared a Redcap some years ago, she preferred not to insult them further then she already had. She was simply here to remind them that she, and the Guard, were watching them and that she was not just going to forget about them. She took her position amongst the clan seriously, offering her help whenever she stayed with them. The young ones had taken quite a liking to her, much to their parents dismay, and she had to trick them into chasing a chicken just to get the small herd off her tail. While strangers were an oddity in the guest house, Neona gave no notion that Solomon's presence was startling to her.

She'd been in the village most of the morning, so she'd heard the story of the human who'd brought their fallen comrade home. He'd earned himself much honor in the eyes of the Redcaps, and Neona had yet to decide if it was a blessing, or a curse for the man. Goldie had dressed down for her visit with the redcaps, as they were a warrior race they would never have been impressed by finery and jewelry as the other races could be. A simple pair of jeans, sturdy boots and a flowing floral top made up her outfit. She had chosen to clue her adopted people into her secret the year before, earning herself far more respect as a warrior then she ever had as a diplomat. The clan had taken to calling her their word for 'wolf', while she disliked the name, as anyone who knew their language might be able to figure out her secret, she couldn't seem to discourage them from using it and had finally just given up.

Finding herself with some spare time was odd for Goldie, her job kept her so busy she rarely had time to think, let alone indulge in some much needed down time. Crossing the room, Neona would give Solomon a warm and friendly smile should he look up, heading to the window seat beyond him. Setting her large blue bag on the ground, she sat down on the seat, the sun glinting off her golden curls as she bent forward to retrieve her sketch book from her bag. A silver chain with a gold crystal hanging from it fell free from her top during this movement, and she made no motion to hide it again. Even in Elyria, there were few who remembered the old traditions of the Elves, like the crystals that linked siblings and warned them if anything should happen to the other. Neona's sister, Blue wore a matching crystal, though her's was the color of her namesake instead of gold.

Neona had no need to disturb Solomon from his reading, and she was off duty so she didn't honestly care about his lifestyle. Should he approach her, she would treat him with just as much respect and friendliness as she did anyone. Flipping her sketch pad open to the unfinished work of Celestis, the floating city she'd finally had the chance to visit the month before, Neona began to fill in the shading with her pencil. A case of them sat open on the seat next to her, in all the colors of the rainbow.

Styx looked up and blinked as a woman entered the common room. He hadn't known that there had been any other visitors staying here or what the other guest could be here for. She smiled at Styx as she passed by in a friendly manner and he nodded to her in return with a faintly surprised smile of his own. She wasn't dressed in anything too fancy or a uniform, but it looked like she might have some elven blood in her. The thief couldn't help but think of another girl he had met in recent times who also had some elven blood and that caused his smile to widen a bit. Still he was a bit curious about who this woman was and what she was doing here.

The stranger sat down by the window and started digging through her bag. Solomon looked over as she pulled out a large pad of paper and a case of what looked like might be pencils from his current angle. The thief watched for a moment as she flipped the pad of paper open and began putting the pencil to paper, the movement telling Styx that she was apparently drawing something. He turned back to his book, but now his mind was swirling with questions of who this woman was, why she was here, and what was it that she was drawing.

After a minute or two, Solomon marked his page and closed his book. Standing slowly, the thief stretched and walked over to Neona. "Excuse me please, but I'm sort of surprised to see someone else staying here. I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Solomon Grendel." He offered his hand to Neona. Now that he was this close to her and looking at her face, she seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. "I was also a little curious about what you were drawing over here and was wondering if I could see."

He glanced at the chair with the pencils, then decided he would wait till she could say if he could join her. After all she could tell him to buzz off for all he knew. But she didn't seem like the type to do that. He just wished he knew where he had seen her from. It had to be that, she just seemed too familiar for that not to be the case. It bugged him if he was forgetting where he had seen her before because it wasn't like him to forget a detail like that.

With her heightened hearing, Neona was perfectly aware that the male had gotten up from his chair to walk over to her, though she acted as if she didn't know until he spoke to her. Turning her golden gaze up to the man, that warm smile would cross her face once more. "It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Grendel. It seems I already know you though, the villagers haven't been able to stop talking about you. They'll probably be telling stories of this for months to come, they don't get much excitement anymore." Leaning forward, she scooped up the box of pencils so that he could join her, motioning for him to sit down. "I'm Neona Tiran, currently off duty diplomatic liaison. I stop by the village on my trips back and forth to Elyria. The Clan adopted me some years back and feel it's only right that I don't let them forget it."

Setting down her pencil, she wrapped her lithe Elven fingers around her sketch pad and turned it so that he could see the image. Her work was very detailed, easily showing him a perfect drawing of the floating city of Celestis above the lake they'd crashed into during Enlightenment. She'd even drawn in the airships, the boats, the Avian citizens and even fish swimming in the lake. This was just a black and white sketch, though she was planning on creating a full color painting of it when she had the time. "This is the Avian city of Celestis, it's absolutely enchanting, I can only imagine what it's people feel like flying above it." Once he was done looking at it, she would return it to her lap and pick up her pencil once more to continue the shading of the forest on the mountain in the background.

"That was a very honorable thing you did, bringing that Redcap home. Most humans would never have cared about a member of another species. You have earned much honor with the clan, I wouldn't be surprised if they granted you honorary citizenship for this." Neona said absently though she didn't look up from her work. "What made you do such a thing?"

Styx grinned as Neona called him 'Mr. Grendel', he couldn't remember the last time he had been called Mr. No wait, thats not true. The last time he had gotten dragged into an interrogation room they called him Mr. Grendel, when they weren't calling him other choice name. What he couldn't remember was the last time he had been called Mr. where the person was actually being polite and respectful as Neona was being now.

"Please Ms. Tiran, since it is just a chance meeting call me Solomon. Never was one to big on formalities." He knew he wasn't calling her by her first name there, but since she was trying to be courteous he might as well extend the same to her. He could wait to see if she would allow him to call her by her first name as well. But now at least he knew where he had seen her. Or at least he had seen a picture of her. This was Blue's sister and he had seen a couple of photos of her when he had first looked for information on the Inventor when breaking into her lab. Well he might as well talk and try to make a good impression at least.

Joining her at the window side, he nodded his thanks to the diplomat as he took the seat she had cleared for him. He then let out a low approving whistle at the drawing she was doing, noting what she said about the subject. "You got talent I'd say, what you've got so far is beautiful. Never been there, might have to visit it once just to see it." He then tilted his head to the side for a moment in thought. "Though if immigrations is anything like it was for me coming here I don't think they'd let me in for the simple reason of 'I want to see it.' They almost didn't let me come here except the Clan representative promised to keep an eye on me." He chuckled a little and leaned back in his chair.

When Neona mentioned that it was an honorable thing for him to do this for a member of another species and Styx snorted. "Species got nothing to do with it, Mez-Finn and Roche were friends. If this is Mez's peoples way fine, I don't mind bringing a friend home. Though I know a few of the older Redcaps are grumbling about Roche being buried here despite the fact he was Mez's partner." At least all they were doing was grumbling, at least with Redcaps it seemed they were a little more open to the concept of interacting with humans. The ones grumbling were more complaining about the fact that Roche never did a term in the Clan's militia after going through the trials to be Mez's battle partner and was still going to be buried as a warrior.

"Now as for being granted honorary citizenship, well actually I don't know anything about that. I know a few of them were talking and using both my name and street name, but they seemed to shut up pretty quick when they realized I was there." The thief hadn't known that the Redcaps had been talking about the fact he had already earned a 'Name' in his culture and whether people should use his given name which most humans seemed to do or his earned name which Redcaps did except with close friends and relatives. Another thing he was ignorant of in most regards.

Neona wrinkled her nose as he called her Ms. Tiran, The Divine knew she got enough of that at work. "Please, call me Goldie. I'm not on duty at the moment and I get quite tired of hearing my formal name all the time." The reason for her nickname was quite obvious with her ethereal gold eyes, a product of her Elven blood reacting to the Werewolf gene when it was activated. She had no idea that Solomon had met her sister, let alone broken into her lab. If she had, Solomon would most likely be seeing a much different version of Goldie...most likely with more fur and teeth.

"Thank you, I appreciate it. I don't often have time to work on my drawings but thankfully I have a good memory and don't need my subject in front of me to draw them. At the current moment you're probably right, the Avians are a very guarded people, and with good reason after all. The war was hard on them, and they have only just recently begun proper renovations to the city in the hopes to get it airborne once more." She would wait until he leaned back before reclaiming her pad of paper and continuing her drawing while he continued speaking.

His next words had her almost grinning, his stance on inter-species relations was exactly what a member of the Terran Guard liked to hear. There was no hate in his voice for the Redcaps, simply because they weren't human. "The older Redcaps are traditionalists, you should have seen them when I first came here to try and negotiate a peace treaty with them so they'd stop assaulting travelers on the road to Elyria. When I managed to out smart them with their own laws and practically name myself a Redcap I thought they were going to explode they were so angry." She giggled at the memory for a moment.

"You aren't an Honorary Citizen yet, therefor you are not privy to Clan politics and such. And you won't be until they have decided you're one of them. Honestly, your stance on the species gives me hope for Terra's future. I'll vote for you when the time comes. I've proved myself quite a few times to the Clan, they respect me and my opinion." She glanced up at him over her drawing, her golden eyes flashing in the sunlight for a moment.