Seifer put an arm around Lea's waist, if she allowed it, to help steady her to the rhythm of the horse as they rode, kicking up sand with the motion of the horses hooves. Truth be told, a faster gait would have been smoother, but he didn't want to risk her falling when she seemed so uncomfortable as it was.
"I begin to think the Lady -is- a riddle." He chuckled, not able to follow where her words went wandering. "There are those who would have missed me, but none that knew where to go looking. Robert, er, King Pendryg takes a particular pleasure in reminding me that it was...very foolish of me.
I love the world but she would just as much love me if I returned to the earth as if I were breathing and out and wandering. But you've told me very little of yourself, Lady. What makes you sound so wounded?"

"All of us riddles? I don't think so much. I think some people lay themselves out quite simply, like Robert. He's a strong soul, but he doesn't hide his thoughts well. You just have to watch his eyes, and the corner of his mouth. He tries very hard to keep a straight face when he's angry but he always scowls a little. It makes him look like a thunder cloud." He offered, jokingly, letting her pluck at his sleeve as she adjusted to the position of his arm and the horse.
"You look neither old nor scarred, but then, looks can be very deceptive when there's magic involved." How true -that- was. he was older than he looked, but not as old as Robert, who could have been his grandfather many times over. Her? Who could tell. "Surely you're no demon, for people to cast you aside that way?"

Seifer twitched backward at her sudden movement before their eyes met, giving a slightly closer glimpse of his own faintly haunted gaze. The soul scars of an old soldier, he tore his gaze away a beat later as the edges of the town walls loomed into view.
"Maybe so, I think all of us wonder at one time or another why we are on this earth." He knew Pen had, he'd walked past the kings room a few times and heard the throws of a nightmare, and watched him stare darkly at the tattoos he wore like a shameful scar. "...Frightened people don't like to take chances. Thats the way the world works, but then again, it also offers a chance for new beginnings. The tree that can't take root in one soil might find another very hospitable. This world, they call it Redeem you know?" He offered, clearing his throat.
He'd never been outcast, but he'd doubted himself. When he'd had no memory at all of who he'd been, when he knew nothing of his past, he'd doubted quite a lot, and when he'd finally remembered, there'd been new pain that almost made him wish, sometimes, that he could forget again.

"Peace, I hope." He looked more thoughtful at this debate on the world beyond this one. "Though it's hard to find someone to ask. I don't think even Death herself knows. She's too occupied with what lies on this side of the door. But...I think perhaps you will. I think this place might yet do exactly what it promises."


((Sorry so short, running a little behind this morning))

[[it's ok ^^; it happens to the best of us heh *snugs* btw, your avatar's lookin' perdy heheh ]]

Lea shook her head. "I believe we all have our own beliefs to attend to on the matter. It depends on whom we pay homage to as Great Gods above us, and just what we hold in our hearts as near and dear to our souls. It is, in part, something for each of us to ask ourselves, and in part to ask our chosen Patrons. And altogether above it all, it remains largely that we must have faith and understand that somethings have a need to be left unanswered." The woman let it go at that, instead turning to smile warmly at the ranger, with a soft rose blushing her cheeks.

"I thank you kindly for your faith, my good ranger. Truly, you have no idea how it warms my heart. May I make it true and justly placed."

"I'm glad to do you some service then Lady." He answered truthfully. "Though I should ask before we get too far, if you had any particular requirements about where you stay." He asked, peering over her shoulder to search her face for a response.
It was an odd conversation they were having, two strangers that had just met, but maybe not so odd given that he'd become much more intimately connected to the subject of life and death than he'd been, once upon a time, being the counterpart to the Death Guardian. It was an odd pair of shoes to fill, given that in the old world, he'd served the previous two guardians of Life, and disagreed often with the last.
Their views on death had been far different. Still were. The old guardian had thought of death as an evil, but then, the old guardian had never been so close to what had happened in the wars, never seen souls and bodies so tortured they begged for Maya's 'gift'. Death and Life were like so many other forces in the world, neither existed without the other, and the last life guardian of Para had been a idiot child with an man's body, incapable of understanding that even for his table, things died, even if it was nothing more than a fruit, a leaf, a fish.
"If you're a vegetarian, we might have slightly more difficult time finding a menu to accommodate you." He admitted. "I can name few in Seagate that don't enjoy at the least a good fish or rabbit stew."

"Ah, now thats a relief." He admitted, laughing. "The last man I served, before Robert, he would only eat fish for meat, and there are situations where it becomes damned hard to keep food provided to someone so damned demanding." He shook his head, remembering the boy, and the struggle, early on, to feed people when it was a fight just to get away to bring down a deer, and then more of a fight to clean it, cook it, and serve it to those who actually accepted the idea that life encompassed death to continue.
"Would an inn, suit, Lady? I know a few good ones, I'm sure we can manage to have you put up in an part of town where you'll be safe. Have you coin, or do you require assistance?"

"More than." Seifer blinked in surprise, perhaps not having expected her to have so much gold, when smaller coins were the most frequently traded coin of the realm, when she had neither horse nor carriage, or even a pony.
"Perhaps we should see about getting that split for smaller coins. We do as much as we can, but there will be dishonesty still in the city. It's unavoidable." Perhaps he shouldn't have been so surprised, he pondered, given the expense of her clothing, however. It was unusual for someone who had the money to do otherwise to be on foot and alone on the strand. "Certainly you'll have a bit more privacy than in the castle." He admitted, half joking. "A bit more noise, but a bit more privacy. People haven't said as much, but they're looking to see the King marry. He's...reluctant. He lost his wife in childbirth, but that was before things...changed."

"Silver or copper would be better, unless you would like a much better inn than the one I'm thinking of, or at least a higher priced one. But I haven't stayed at any of those to know if they're worth the exorbitant amount of coin the charge." He admitted. "But I know good ones for cheaper."
Loss was, indeed, a powerful force. He'd felt it, still felt it at times, though not as close at hand as the King had.

"The world...changed. I'm somewhat at a loss for how to explain it. I guess....not enough order was kept in the world, things were going too wrong. The Life guardian then had...no respect for death, he pulled people back constantly, and resurrected himself repeatedly. I think he sought a utopia, someplace free from death but... Such a thing isn't natural, And I think not right. I think thats why things changed."

"This world then and now has guardians, men and women who protect the balance of the world, and the world itself, by holding sway over the elements and some aspects of this world." He answered. "Formerly, the Life guardian was always an Ambronian, an winged sort of elf that existed here once. The closest that remains of them is the Forest guardian, who, Lady, will cheerfully flirt with any woman I've ever seen him meet." He explained with a wry chuckle as they approached the city gates, nodded to by the guards that knew them. "There are, that I know of, Life, Death, Destruction, Water, Earth, Metal, Fire, Forest, Wind, and I think perhaps light, which makes me think there must also needs be a guardian of Darkness, since all the others have their match, or someone to limit their power, and otherwise I think balance would be compromised, but again, unlike the old world, I think if you meet most of these men and women you will not know it. Would you speak of it if you could stop storms and turn the tides? If you could bring or stop death in it's tracks or part the earth with a wave of your hand? Or would you want peace, and not to be asked to breach the way the world works, just that once, as a favor."
He frowned, though not at you as he made his way through the winding streets, many shops advertised not by name but by colorful painted clapboard signs that advertised their wares and intent. The universal language of the picture.
"Immortality is a cruel fate to put on someone's shoulders." He agreed. "Although I once never thought I would, I have met a handful of people who once shouldered that burden. I think that too has changed, though there are a people in the eastern mountains who believe in the return of the soul, but not so much in the immortality of the body. They travel little though, so I haven't met one to discuss it with them."

"Am I bitter then? I don't think I would trade anything I have for immortality." He shook his head slightly, wondering silently what she would have thought if she knew what he was, and what the king was. Would she be horrified or would she, instead, have asked them for favors? That was the doubt, the damnation in being what they were, since as powerful as the Guardians were, they were fragile. Mortal. They could bleed and die, love and loose, celebrate and grieve, and gods knew he had done his share of grieving.
"Perhaps some are though. Although some like the forest guardian may find it difficult to avoid having it be noticeable that they're different, though I suppose this place is as forgiving as any. I think perhaps we're a little more patient than we used to be. There may be a hundred different races, I don't know for sure, but we only have one world to live in, for all our differences. We'd best find something else to quibble over than the shape of our ears or how many feet your neighbor has."

"I wouldn't so much call that immortality, since if only the soul goes on, your body could be alive or dead, and there's no way to know that the soul would care, but thats a question I doubt that even death herself would answer."
Her interest, the way she hung on his words, was curious, and he wondered what secret she was hiding so carefully. Clearly she was more than she seemed, but he couldn't say exactly what it was that she was hiding.
"There. Up ahead. The Red Seal."
He indicated the inn with a nod of his head, and the painted sign of an red painted Seal with a tankard in it's mouth, diving through carved waves. "Thats where we're going."

"I've always found it pleasant enough, if you can abide by the owners wife's singing. She's a bit off key, but he thinks she's quite the nightingale." He explained, with a chuckle. "But then again, he's a Selkie himself, and I wouldn't put much toward their sense of tone. She's pretty enough though." He shrugged as they stopped in front of the in, the horse snuffling at the ground for trace of something interesting as a stable hand peered out, then approached, mutely.
Seifer regarded him with an curious, equally muted wariness as the small, dark man took the horses's reins as Seifer slid off, offering you an arm to dismount, the stable hand whispering soft nonsense to the horse that seemed to reassure it, the behavior of horse and man sort of politely dismissive, as though it was the horse that had arrived to be a guest, and you were only incidental to it's presence.

"Truly." Seifer agreed, the corner of his mouth turned up in amusement at her sense of awe, though his own was perked by the womans 'invisible steps'. She was not the wind guardian, not that he was aware... The impish girl who was, he could imagine getting into trouble quite often, but as far as he knew, she lived. "Have you ever met one before?" He asked, as the silent stablehand paused for several beats to stare at the both of you, startled, half hidden behind the horse.
"M'lady." He offered, taking you up on the jest as he offered you his arm to take, to lead you like a proper escort into the bustling tavern.

The stablehand lowered his gaze again with a faint sound, and moved to patiently lead the large horse away, muttering promises of grooming and a comfortable stall. A strange man that one was, hard to tell if he were dull wited, or simply enormously disinterested in anything other than the animals.