Lyria and Co. En Route to the Market - HH (Lyria’s POV-Mirrored)

Chapter 2, Interlude 3 – Getting Acquainted

Lyria was truly exhilarated to be reunited with her brother, and while she would have loved to spend some more time catching up, she was also excited to see who he would pick for their team. She watched him carefully as he interviewed candidates for a defensive adventure until he finally settled on the half-giant, Ursa Cloudwalker.

Ursa gave a simple nod to Lyria once she sat down next to her, but after that didn’t say much while they watched Kaylen make his next selection. The halfling, Alayni, on the other hand, didn’t stop chatting nearly from the moment she took a seat. She wanted to know what sorts of missions they’d both been involved in, what places they’d visited, what kinds of food they’d tried, though it turned out the curly-haired woman was probably more widely traveled than either of them.

But then shortly after Kaylen had made his third choice, a short slender girl who turned out to be a half dark elf named Vesili Tenorei who hid her features within a hood, Kaylen himself approached to speak with them. He told them that he and the guild master were going to find a healer and asked if they wanted to accompany him or meet up later, so since Lyria seemed to functionally be Kaylen’s second, she turned to get the opinions of the other three girls.

The newcomer, Vesili, ducked her head not offering an immediate opinion, while Alayni gave it a moment’s consideration, but it was Ursa who spoke up. “I need to gather my travel gear. I didn’t bring any of it when I heard they were holding trials.”

“Yeah, I’m going to need to collect my things too.” Alayni agreed. “Don’t keep it all on me when I’m in the city. Probably need to buy a new mount too, had to retire my last pony after she nearly wore herself out on my most recent mission.”

Lyria turned to Vesili. The girl looked back and forth between the three of them before protesting, “Doesn’t matter what I think if I’ve already been outvoted.”

“I haven’t said what I think yet, your opinion always matters.” Lyria assured her.

“Then let’s buy some new equipment before we go.” The half-elf agreed.

So she turned back to her brother and relayed the unanimous answer, and agreed they would meet up with him near the market district before watching him leave and finally turning back to the girls. She did have to wonder at the fact that her brother had somehow managed to choose only women for his team. It looked like he was considering a few men, but ultimately didn’t select them.

As if reading her thoughts, Ursa leaned forward slightly so she could lower her voice and ask, “Lyria. Your brother isn’t a deviant is he?”

“No, of course not!” Lyria protested, maybe a little too quickly. Her little brother may have been away for the last thirteen years, but she couldn’t imagine he’d have changed that much in that time. But what did she really know?

“I’ve handled worse than a perverted mage.” Vesili mumbled.

“He’s not a perverted mage!” Lyria insisted.

“I’m sure you’ve ‘handled’ your share of unwanted attentions.” Alayni elbowed Vesili in the side just enough throw off her gait for one step. “Though I have to ask, Lyria, would it be weird if one of your teammates actually got into a relationship with your brother?”

By that point they were all walking along the street, with the guild well out of sight behind them, but Alayni’s question still startled a sound out of Lyria that she really hoped no one back there had overheard. “What are you… Don’t tell me you’re actually into Kaylen?!”

Alayni grinned, “Wizards don’t usually do it for me, but your brother has a pretty nice body under those robes. I think I can get past the magic thing for the sake of good party ‘relations’.”

Lyria groaned. “You know what. I’m not going to forbid you from those ‘relations’ on one condition. Never, ever, tell me about them in public again.”

“Deal.” Alayni mimed turning a key between her lips and grew quiet as they continued walking.

But Lyria had noticed that Vesili looked rather uncomfortable, though it was difficult to get a good read on her when she had her hood up while they walked side-by-side. “Hey, you said you’d handled some tricky situations. Anything you’d like to talk about, or is it none of our business, because that’s perfectly fine.”

Vesili looked up at her, startled, but then shook her head, “I don’t really want to talk about that sort of thing.” She admitted, “But I’ve never had the kind of problem you were insinuating, Alayni. I’m half dark elf, afterall.”

“Wouldn’t stop some people.” Alayni said with a shrug. “You’re pretty enough, I would have thought at least someone would look past the grey skin. Though personally I don’t think that detracts from your looks.”

Vesili’s cheeks turned purple, and she ducked her head, once again hiding her face with her hood.

They were about a quarter mile further along the road before Lyria had to break the uncomfortable silence, still thinking about the odd turn their conversation had taken. “I did notice he’s become pretty handsome while he was away.” She muttered, thinking back to the moment she’d seen him again for the first time in thirteen years, before she’d realized who he was.

“He’s a bit short.” Ursa said, clearly having overheard Lyria’s comment to herself.

“Maybe to you. Think about how he looks to someone of my size.” Alayni countered.

“He’s pretty tall.” Vesili offered. “Guess that runs in the family.” She added, looking toward Lyria.

Lyria supposed that to the halfling and the half elf the two siblings would be quite tall. But Ursa just shrugged her massive shoulders. “Guess it’s a matter of perspective.” Lyria said.

It was then that Ursa stopped, and after a moment the others turned toward her to see her looking down a cross street. “I’ve been staying down near the docks, so I need to go this way to retrieve my travel equipment.” She informed them.

“Then let’s each go our own ways, and then meet back up here to go on to the market district.” Lyria suggested, and they all agreed.