Tales of a Synsuous Nature #7 - An Encounter with an Asura, Part 5
Synsuous wakes up, feeling groggy. She also feels very alarmed. 'Why?', she wonders to herself, 'The wedding! I am late for the wedding! ‘Why did I have to drink so much!?!' She throws her clothes on in a hurry and rushes to the wedding.
When she gets there, she bursts in through the door! “Am I too late?’ she cries out? Several people glare at her and Gleana tells her to be quiet. She nods, unhappily and complies with the request. Aelfred is giving a speech, but she is too upset to pay him any mind. 'Stupid girl!', she mutters to herself, 'Why did you have to drink so much?'
When Aelfred finishes his speech, people clap, and Synsuous follows along. Someone asks if anyone else has anything to say. 'I have a poem I wrote!', she shouts. No one seems to pay any attention to her at all. Finally, after a few minutes, Verris motions to her and asks for the poems. She hands Verris and Cailleach each a rolled up scroll that has been fastened with a red and black ribbon saying,
'These are a gift,
Straight from my brain.
Please write them down,
No copies remain.
Save them, cherish them,
Scribe them *you* must.
That on which I wrote them,
I crumpled to dust.'
She smiles, curtsies and then backs away from the couple. Her only purpose for being here complete, she quickly becomes bored. She is about to leave when two Charr enter! She likes Charr! She rushes up to one of them, 'I like Charr! Can I play Jump the Tail?'
When the Charr indicates that she may not, she decides to leave. There is some commotion going on because of the presence of the Charr, but that does not interest her in the least. Just then, she bumps into Sentryna, who is heading out the door as well. 'Hi, Sentryna, are you leaving too?', she asks, 'Can I join you?' Sentryna smiles and nods, and the two head off. The two don't wander too far, but sit and engage in idle conversation. She suddenly realizes that Lady Claudea was at the wedding and she had several questions for her. She tells this to Sentryna and sets out in search of Lady Claudea.
When she finds her, she is granted an audience and explains that she doesn't really know how to be a lady and is hopeful that Lady Claudea could find someone to train her. Lady Claudea says that she will and that they can talk about it on Sunday over dinner. Synsuous is dismissed and goes back to Sentryna to tell her the news.
Neither one of them have really explored the house of their new family, so they decide to do that. Once inside, Synsuous sprints for the stairs, yelling, 'I bet I can beat you to the top!' over her shoulder. She runs around the corner and right into a young woman holding a cane! “I'm sorry I ran into you! I should know better than to run up the stairs”, she says as she helps the woman up. “I'm Synsuous! Who are you? Why do you have a cane?” She replies, 'The middle of a stair case is hardly a suitable place for introductions, now is it?' Synsuous apologizes and all three head up the stairs.
Once they are upstairs, the woman says, 'I am Lilly Nakamura, but you can call me Lilly. And I have a cane because I am blind.' Synsuous draws a deep breath and releases a barrage of questions, 'Blind? I have never met anyone who is blind. Where you born that way? Have you ever seen colors? How do you get around? How does the cane help? Can't your vision be fixed?’ Lilly laughs at the girl's questions, 'One at a time, please!’ She shifts uncomfortably from one foot to the next and Synsuous says, 'Would you like to sit down? Can I guide you?' Lilly indicates that this is acceptable and Synsuous leads Lilly to a chair where she sits down and the three begin talking. Hours go by in the blink of an eye and you would think that they had known each other for years if you just happened to walk by.
'I am so happy!’, Synsuous exclaims. 'I have never had any friends before and now I make new ones every day!' 'No friends? How could you not have any friends?' Sentryna asks. 'My father never let me leave the house and when he left, he would lock me in a trunk. Sometimes for days.' Both Lilly and Sentryna look concerned. 'He locked you in a trunk? For days?', is Lilly's incredulous response.
'He...he was very mean to me and...that's not all!', Synsuous cries out and explodes into tears. Both women try to calm her, 'What do you mean? What did he do?' are their questions.
Synsuous lets out a wail of anguish, 'He..he..hemurderedmymotherandrapedme!' Her body is now wracked with the intensity of her sobbing. 'Wha-t? Raped?' Lilly and Sentryna are stunned. 'And then I killed him and now I am a bad person! That is why bad things happen to me! That is why I have tumors now! I deserve to die!'
Lilly and Sentryna are very distressed and spend several hours calming Synsuous down and trying to convince her that she is not a bad person. She doesn't really believe them, but she likes them and she feels bad for burdening them with her problems, so after a while she appears to be placated. When she decides that they must believe her, she hugs them both and tells them that she is very tired from this traumatic revelation needs to sleep. She heads to her room and tries to sleep, but her mind is whirling and sleep refuses to visit her.
She gets dressed and sneaks outside. Not too far away is a fountain and another girl is playing in it. 'Can I play with you?', she asks. The girl ignores her, so she decides to continue wandering.
A couple of feet away, she spots a Charr and an Asura talking. She cowers behind the Charr and screams at the Asura, 'Go away you vile little critter! Go away!' The Asura, Portable Apocalypse, looks at her and says, 'Why should I go away? Why are you hiding?'
'You are evil! An Asura gave me tumors and now I will die! All Asura are evil!' Synsuous doesn't even notice her friend Seneca standing on the other side of the fountain.
'Evil? We are not evil. Gave you tumors? How? Are you sure it was an Asura?' Portable Apocalypse appears to be bewildered.
'His name was...Torvv. I was bleeding to death in the Busted Flagon and he tried to save me but his strange device, which he called a Necro Ray, kept blowing up. He said it would fix me or turn me into a zombie! Then someone healed me and Torvv shot me with a Ray Gun and he said I have tumors and I will die! Evil! He was evil and all Asura are evil!'
Portable Apocalypse says, 'Torvv...Torvv...that name does sound familiar, but there is nothing that he could have done that can't be fixed with a Super Elixir medicinal field.' He aims a strange device at Synsuous and pulls the trigger. She is bathed in a glowing light.
'Am...am I better? Are the tumors gone now?'
'Yes', she replies, 'the tumors are gone now. How-'
Synsuous interrupts her, 'I can never repay you for saving my life!', She kneels at the Asura's feet. 'I...I will name my first child after you, if I ever have a child. Portable Poma will be her name. Or his name, if it is a boy.' Synsuous' face suddenly lights up! 'You saved my life! I belong to you now!'
'Portable!?! My name is Calypso. What? Belong to you? Don't be ridiculous. You are a sentient, autonomous being. How did you get these tumors? Why were you in the Busted Flagon? How *old* are you?'
'I was experimented on by an Asura, I told you that! I sing there! I sing in the taverns so I can eat. Me! Sing! I am 16! I am afraid to go into taverns by myself now. Bad things happen to me there.'
'Bad things? What kind of bad things?'
Synsuous thinks for a minute, 'I have been in this city for three weeks and I have been shot twice, almost bled to death once, been stabbed four times, experimented on twice, been flung the entire length of the Busted Flagon by a Charr and just yesterday, I was punched by a Charr. All in or around taverns!'
'Punched by a Charr? Why would a Charr punch a little girl?'
'He did not like my singing, that is what he said.' I did not liked being punched to the floor, so I stabbed him in the foot and called him a vile kitten! I said that I hoped his foot fell off!
'Punched you. Because he did not like your singing? That is not a reason to punch someone.'
'That is what I thought, so I stabbed him in the foot!'
'I hope his experience hasn't turned you against all char.'
'No, I like Charr! I hug them and play Jump the Tail!', Synsuous exclaims.
'I hope you don't just run up and start hugging random Charr and jumping on their tails! Some of them have quite a temper!'
'I always ask! They let me', she giggles, 'They are furry, like bears! I like bears!'
'Well, I would recommend that you don't go around hugging bears. They might attack you.'
'I always ask first! Well, except outside of the city, in the woods. Who would I ask? Bears can't talk, you know!'
'And the bears don't attack you?'
'No, silly! I sing to them and they let me hug them! ♪Bear, bear! Silly little bear! I will give you a hug if you stand right there!' She giggles again, 'They always stay and I hug them!'
Synsuous ponders for a moment...'I wonder if it will work on *you*?
♪Short little Asura who saved my life! Stay right there and I will be your wife!♪'
'Wife? Don't be absurd! I am a female and I am 59 years old.'
'It didn't work!?! Perhaps I need a new song...♪I had tumors and you sent them away! Marry me, marry me, now I say!♪'
'What is wrong with you? Why do you want me to marry you all of a sudden?'
'You saved my life! I belong to you now! If...if you will not marry me, then I must displease you...Am I ugly then?'
'No, you are not ugly, but I will not marry you simply because I removed a few tumors.'
'Then if you will not marry me, I will be your slave. What would you have me do, master?'
'Master!?! Uhm... How about we go into the Maiden's Whisper over there? That is NOT and order, merely a suggestion!'
'As you wish, master! Lead and I will follow!'
Calypso enters the tavern and Synsuous follows. 'Can I get you a drink, master?'
'No! And stop calling me master! My name is Calypso!'
Just then, Synsuous' friend, Nexxa, walks in.
'Yes, Calypso. Should I rub your feet or sing a song for you? I am yours to command!'
'No! I don't want to command you! You are a person! Why don't you listen to me?'
'I am listening to you, Calypso. I belong to you and I will do as you say.'
'Belong to whom? What is going on here!?’, Nexxa exclaims.
'Calypso. I belong to Calypso. She saved me and I belong to her now.'
'Saved you? And you belong to her now? If I recall correctly, I saved your life once or twice, but you never claimed to belong to me.' Nexxa casts a spell on Synsuous that would show if her mind was being influenced by magic or an Asura device.
'Yes, you did save me, but..I had tumors and I was going to die a horrible death and Calypso saved me and now I belong to her!'
'I do not own this girl!', Calypso exclaims.
'Tumors? How did you get tumors? Who told you this?' Nexxa asks, completely confused.
'An Asura! He experimented on me and gave me tumors. Because I am a bad person and I deserved to die! But Calypso saved me!'
'Deserve to die? Why in the world would you say such a thing? You are the nicest girl I have ever met? What would cause you to think that you deserved to die?', Nexxa is still quite puzzled.
Synsuous breaks into tears again. 'I...myfathermurderedmymotherandrapedmeandIkilledh imandthatmakesmeabadperson!'
Nexxa takes a few moments to decipher Synsuous' distressed lament...'Your father murdered your mother and raped you and you killed him. That does not make you a bad person. Many, including myself, would consider you a heroine. Now, come with me. We need to have a talk.'
'Wait!', Calypso exclaims. 'She still thinks that she is my slave. We *must* fix this before you can go! How do we do this?'
'Well', Nexxa muses, 'she seems to obey any direct orders you give her, so I would suggest that you command her to be free.'
Calypso looks at Synsuous, 'You are free! You are not my slave. Do you understand?'
'Synsuous looks at Calypso and then at Nexxa, 'But she saved my life? How can I ever repay her?'
Nexxa says,’ You must simply owe her. If she ever needs help or calls upon you, you should help her.'
Synsuous kneels in front of Calypso, 'I can never repay you. If you ever need me, I will do anything you desire. I...I will trouble you no more.'
'Stop kneeling! And you are not any trouble; you are simply a confused, wounded girl. Now, go with your friend, she will help you.', Calypso replies.
With a final 'Thank you!', Synsuous takes Nexxa's hand and leaves the Maiden's Whisper.