What Every Woman Needs (OPEN)

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Séanait fingered the mail reverently, feeling the fine rings and the smooth bumps of rivets. It was truly a work of art, every link riveted and tempered. And it was so fine! Mail back home had an internal diameter of just under 2/5ths of an inch, while this mail was more like a 1/4 of an inch. The links were also thinner than back home but, if what Séanait was being told was true, it didn't matter because the mail was made from steel. Not just steel, though. The hauberk had been hardened and tempered, just like a sword.

The proliferation of steel and advanced smithing techniques still amazed Séanait, even after a few weeks here in Nova. Here, swords could be had for as little as two days wages. Secondhand swords of dubious quality, mind, but swords nonetheless. Even a good sword barely cost more than a month's wages, and had a blade so much harder than she was used to that Séanait couldn't quantify the difference.

Holding the mail up to the light, Séanait marvelled at how tiny the gaps between the rings were, while an eager merchant watched her like a hawk does it's prey. Biting her lip, Séanait struggled with herself. She didn't exactly need the mail shirt, but she had more money than she knew what to do with at the moment, and she'd always wanted a hauberk of her own.

"How much for this again?" She asked, knowing full well the answer.

"Fifty gold, my lady, but worth every copper. You mark my words, there's nothing that's going to get through that there mail."

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A whistle sounded from behind the woman looking at the expensive mail. The sound came from a busty red head not too far off.

”I never liked the weight of mail, I’m more of a leather girl myself”

The red head had a deep shade of red hair; almost black with a red sheen. Her tumbled in soft waves down her back. It was braided in small places with a blood red feather sticking out here and there. She had pale ivory skin; immaculate besides for the ugly scar that raced up on side of her face in a flame like pattern. Large blue green eyes looked on at the mail in amusement; she recognized the woman from the barracks as well as the ball.

”Long time no see”

Aria wore simple loose fitting black pants that were much too big for her and a off white linen shirt that was also oversized. Obviously the clothes were meant for someone much bigger then herself. Her pants were tucked into high wool lined boots, and around her shoulders a thick wool shawl. It was an odd fashion choice but Aria didn’t really care about looks.

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Séanait grinned and waved at the beautiful redhead. She hadn't expected to see the woman again, and wasn't exactly disappointed to see her again. Well, except for the clothing. Aria would have looked better in tighter clothing, and the massively oversized clothing suggested that it belonged to a man. Ah well, she hadn't really expected anything like that anyway, not without drinks.

"Aria, was it? You're looking a little bit more confident than the last time we spoke."

Hefting the hauberk in one hand, Séanait held it out to the redhead with a raised eyebrow. The mail didn't seem particularly heavy to her, and she didn't have much faith in leather armour, for good reasons.

"As for this, it can't be more than twenty pounds. Call it twenty six with a good gambeson. You'd need more leather than that to save yourself from one of my arrows."

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Aria chuckled, yes she was much more confident, back in an element that she knew. Aria could deal with the crowds in the city, after all most people ignored you. Also worse came to worse one could always slip away. This girl however seemed at ease in most situations, whether it be a royal function or shopping on the streets.

"Yes, I'm afraid social parties never end up going well for me... It's always an embarrassment one way or another...really honestly I can't believe I fainted on the king of all people. I no longer feel bad for drugging the noble that bumped me into him to begin with."

She smiled at the other woman.

"Also you're correct my name is Aria, I'm afraid I don't quite remember your's, was it Shy?"

As the mail was handed to her she picked it up with ease, Aria while tiny was stinger then she looked from years of activity. She use to practice hand stands and other acrobatics on her old war horse Brair. She continued these exercises to keep her limbs limber.

"I know from experience that wearing any sort of weight for a long treck can seem tiring; and if you spotted me quick enough to get an arrow in me the. I obviously wasn't careful enough. I'm not really in the line of fire type of girl... I was raised from the cradle to take the cheap shot and get away while I could. There is no shame in running like a bitch when you can live to cause trouble another day"

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Ah, so that's what had...wait, Aria had drugged a noble? One who'd apparently bumped her into the King? Had she done it before or after he'd bumped into her. Before, from what she seemed to be saying. So, had he bumped her into the King because she'd drugged him, or had it just been freak coincidence? A slow smile crossed Séanait's face as she came to the obvious conclusion: the gods here had an ironic sense of humour. She didn't say anything about her conclusion, though. That wouldn't be entirely polite.

"Séanait," She said, pronouncing it 'Shai-nait', "But everyone calls me Shy."

It was something of a surprise than Aria managed the mail so well, and so Séanait gave the woman another quick look over, noticing muscle tone that she'd overlooked before. The woman obviously was more than a beautiful half-face. Her story must be very interesting indeed.

"Heh, don't I know it. We once had to carry two weeks rations with us on the march, and that first week was pure agony. I don't think we did better than fifteen miles a day until we forded the Abhainn Bhréan, and that was nine days into the march.

"But as for running," Séanait shook her head solemnly, "There's plenty of shame in that. You stand fast, hold your ground, stick with the men around you. If even one man runs, your entire battle line can be overrun and thousands slaughtered. It's much better to stand and die with honour than flee and get cut down like a coward. The gods hate a coward, but love a brave man. Of course, good armour helps make a man brave.

"Of course," Séanait said with a sudden wolfish grin, "There's nothing wrong with ambushing people or cutting their throats while they sleep."

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As the two women talked, Kail was at a near by at a shop. He had taken hide of the of the juvinile skull dragon. And was getting it turned into armor at a shop as well as some boots. Some of the other hide that was more supple was getting turned into a whip. The gloves though he was turning into a knuckle weapon with the dragon claws. Hopefully though he hoped that it would be done soon and be usable stuff. As he got done, he walks down the stalls and sees Aria and Shy "Hello ladies, how is everything" he said to the two of them. As he did not catch the last bits of the conversation with the two. He was dressed somewhat warm for the day since it was winter.

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”I have no clue where that is….would you happen to be fated?”

Aria shrugged while she understood the need to stand by friends to fight for them.

”I suppose it’s different when you’re in a group; then again I’m rarely ever in a situation where I do have a group with me as for the gods…have you ever asked them? Really I honestly think it would depend on the god….”

She chuckled at the comment about good armor that would help things she supposed. But if she ever took up to much armor it would hamper her movements. But THEN the woman got where she was coming from. However she wasn’t to much of a fan about slitting throats, Garrett had shown her once before it was a fairly messy process…..her rats were so much more efficient. Cleaned up afterwards to. Aria looked over when they were addressed, she smiled as she recognized blondie.

”Hey Blondie; just running amuck. Yourself?”

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For a moment, Séanait wished that she wasn't Fated, if only to be able tot ell Aria that she was from the same world. People who had heard of every place in their world were either liars or much older than Aria appeared. The look on her face would have been priceless but, alas, she was indeed Fated.

"Sadly, yes. I don't suppose you know if gods in this world can be killed?"

The discussion began to branch into theology as Aria asked if she'd ever actually asked the gods if they loved the brave man and hated the coward. She could only shrug that that. There had never exactly been any chance for her, to do so. But that didn't mean that they didn't make their will known.

"The gods of my world are more subtle than those of your world. They speak through gestures to all but a lucky few. How do we know that the gods favour the brave? Because they have the great fortune that cowards do not."

A familiar voice greeted Séanait and Aria and Séanait turned to see Kail walking towards them. She smiled at him and gave a small shrug, as if to indicate that nothing important was happening.

"Oh, nothing much. I'm just deciding whether or not to buy this mail."

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"Getting some dragon hide turned into some armor and a few other things" said Kail as he then stopped and viewed on what was going on. He then looks over at Shy as she was debating on getting a piece of armor. After that fight with the skull dragon, he knew that Shy's armor was not in the best condtion. "Eh go for it, I mean that small skull dragon did a number on all of us. I'm at least going to get a bit better protection then the knives I have" he said and was thinking about getting some swords or even a pole arm like what Shy had. He was not sure what to use though but would use the knives for now. "Anyway....I'm going to pick up a few things for dinner. Any requests Shy before I do the shopping" he said looking at her.

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Aria looked at her oddly when she asked if the gods in this world could be killed….really it depended on the gods. But that really wasn’t something to be shouting about in the middle of the streets. Really the main ones couldn’t be completely killed….They always came back….if one was killed they’d just pop up again and explaining that and how the hell she knew that would get way too complicated. Then It also depended if the god was a demi god or not, and then there was this whole complicated icky process that would be the closest thing to killing a god…

”From what I understand no they can’t be killed; at least I don’t think so; but that’s an odd question to ask. Why on earth would you want to kill a god?”

Aria shrugged when she went on to explain about subtly; technically Nova’s gods eventually did the same thing….She wasn’t use to this amount of god hood just up in everyone’s faces. Hell from what was known in her time the gods forsaken Nova and disappeared…while in reality they were just hiding out among the mortals; with the worse choice in aliases. When Kail came up and discussed something about getting dragon hide turned into armor, Aria raised an eyebrow.

”Where did you get the hide to make the armor? That’s certainly not common leather to get your hands on.”

Aria tilted her head to the side when Kail mentioned knives.

”I find knives to be fairly useful; are you proficient in any other weaponry? I have a staff I need to learn how to use….wait Shy your …miltarish looking. Do you know anything about staff fighting? I need a teacher, if not I’m heading up to the guard to bug that captain of yours.”

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Why on earth would Séanait want to kill a god? It certainly didn't have anything to do with being kidnapped and brought into a different world. Oh no, not at all.

"Let's just say that I've got a desire to pay them back with their own coin, and interest besides."

She nodded at Kail's comment that he needed better protection than just his knives. As much as she didn't approve of his choice of armour - she had put a spear into the creature's chest, after all - it was good to see him acknowledge the need for it. She'd wait until it failed him at some critical junction, which, given his style of fighting, would probably soon. If Séanait knew how ironic her thoughts would seem to an outsider, she didn't show it.

"If you want, I can help with that. The weapons here aren't much different from back home."

Séanait had dabbled with staffs once or twice, but hadn't fought with them much. They were pretty similar to spears, though, just without the point.

"Not much, but I know a lot about spear fighting. The two are much the same, so I can probably teach you enough to get you out of trouble. Or into it, I suppose, depending on what you'll do once you can use one well enough."

She thought a moment when Kail asked her if she wanted anything while she was shopping.

"Not really, we could use a cask of cider, but I'll get that myself, save you having to carry that and whatever you're buying for dinner."

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Myself, Séanait, Ilta, and Claire took a job awhile back to see what was attacking the livestock in the farmlands. Much to our dismay we ended up fighting a juvenile black dragon. The four of us took the thing down. And I ended up dealing the final blow to the beast. So since I don't have much to work off of. I asked for the dragon's skin scales and stuff. We have the dragon's head mounted above the fireplace" said Kail answering Aria's question on how he got the stuff. "More then likely I will want a sword. Its something similar to my knives but I want to adept in all forms of weaponry. I want to try and be well rounded" he said on weapon choices. Since he may not have his normal weapons and arms in some kind of situation.

"I don't mind, I need the exercise anyway. But if your going to pick it on your way home that's fine by me" he said and saw a weapon vendor and looked through some of his wares.

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”Want to kick Fates ass to? Well….I call first punch”

Aria couldn’t help but scrunch up her nose slightly when Kail went on to describe the slaughter of a dragon…a young one at that….Aria had raised four baby dragons from hatch day….perhaps a motherly love made her heart go out to that dragon that was slaughtered. That and the fact she could turn into one…. So Aria kept her face in a mask of cool indifference. Kail seemed to be pretty proud of the accomplishment. So she didn’t say anything that would take away from that. Aria turned her interest in something else.

”You two live together? Barracks to crowded?”

Aria’s expression turned to eagerness when Shy said she could help with staff work.

”GREAT I’ll take you up on that; I’ll meet you up by the training yards and terrorize your captain while I’m at he could use a little riling.”

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Séanait gave Aria another wolfish grin and a grim chuckle. If she ever found a way to hurt the god who'd kidnapped her, she wasn't going to wait on anyone, she was going to go in for the kill. If Aria wanted the first punch, she'd have to be very quick, since Séanait didn't intend to be that gentle. She very much intended to go for the throat before making her "request" of the god.

As Kail described the death of the black dragon, Séanait noticed that Aria didn't seem particularly approving. Her face had gone blank and indifferent, so it was hard to tell just how much she disapproved of the act, but the signs were there that Aria didn't like what they'd done. Interesting. Ilta hadn't been all that fond of the idea either, but she apparently had some kinship with dragons. Did Aria? She didn't look it, but looks could be deceiving. Séanait decided to avoid the subject in future, or else keep any talk brief and to the point, just in case it offended the pretty young redhead.

When Aria changed the subject to living arrangements, Séanait went with her.

"Nah, not crowded. The house is just more comfortable and I've gotten used to Kail and Ilta."

The topic shifted to weapons training and Séanait shook her head at Kail thinking that swords were like knives. She didn't have much experience with either, using a weapon somewhere between them, but she'd been in a knife fight and seen some thegns training with swords back home. The techniques were completely different.

"Swords are very different to knives, Kail. Different reach, different blade, different handling characteristics. You try to use a sword like and knife and you'll get cut up. Use a knife like a sword and you'll get killed."

She pulled her sleeve up to reveal scarred forearm. The she pulled up her other sleeve to show more scars. She'd gotten into a drunken knife fight once, and had tried to use her langseax as though she had a shield. It had been pure luck and the skill of the seamstress that she'd survived.

"Trust me on this."

Then Aria was gushing about training with a staff and terrorising Garrett. Séanait lifted an eyebrow at that, reconsidering the over large clothing Aria was wearing.

"You know the captain?"