C24 experience

The food was good, but Celestes company wasn't better, when I stop paying attention to the power that she can wield she's just like any other woman, she might be older than me but we're about the same in our experience of the world. I've spent years hating myself because of my power, therefore I do t interact much with others. She's spent her life being feared because of hers, and so she doesn't have much contact with others. It's been... soothing, to be beside someone who is experiencing this for the first time as well, I'm not alone when my knowledge fails me. "What shall we do now? We've eaten, I've gotten you some clothes and we've gotten our hair done," she dragged me into the shop and didn't let me leave, though I have to admit that I'm happy with the experience "didn't they say there was a traveling circus in town? Let's go see it."it's starting to get cold enough to warrant a jacket, but Celeste doesn't have one on her. since it's night she can't use the sunlight, and as such she's been burrowed under my jacket for the past few minutes. "I bet you're getting real cold huh? Let's go find a shop to sit down in, we can warm up for a little while. Well also be able to find out where the circus is."

She pulls me along, well, she's pulling my jacket and since I'm wearing it I follow, and I hear a few older ladies whispering to themselves. I'm sure Celeste has enough sense even at night to hear what they said but it was only a few comments about youthful children. Though one comment makes me wonder about Celeste planning ability, 'that young lady is pretty smart, forgetting her jacket so she can get in his arms.' If that's true the she knew it would be cold tonight. "Have you started on the sunlight scripture?" I shake my head and she nods "it's not necessary to worry about it urgently but you'll definitely benefit greatly when you start using it, I would suggest you read through it first and see if you can understand the inherent flaw, then try following its teachings. If you understand where the sunlight fails from the beginning you'll be in a much better position once it does fail. From what I know no one else has ever used the sunlight scriptures teachings, at least, no one in our history has, so if you need help just ask me." She snuggles closer and I feel her rub her arms "damn it's cold, that's a book store, maybe we can spend some time in there." She point maybe to the left, somewhere a bit further down The lane, but when the older ladies enter ahead of us she blushes and continues on, it seems she did hear what they said "it's soothing, two beings who are extremely strong in this world can walk alongside others who have no knowledge of them, and they can do so freely. I like the city like this, though I still think there are too many people out. Let's go there." This time it's my turn to pull her along, and together we enter a little coffee shop.

It seems that it shares space with a lounge and a few bookshelves. The waiter asks us to wait just a moment while he rushes from the back. It seems they don't get many clients here. "I'm sorry sir, most of our clients have stopped coming because of a problem with rodents. If it was just our store it wouldn't be so bad but they're all over this street." I raise an eyebrow, but after looking around I notice the sewers aren't far from here, they must be coming from there. I tell him that we're just looking to warm up, and maybe spend some time browsing. I also ask about the circus but he doesn't seem to know about it, maybe the rats have kept enough people away that the news hasn't traveled here. "Nicta," Celeste went to the lounge while I got us some hot cocoa and soon I hear her calling me, after we get the drinks I join her. she pulls me to the table furthest from the waiter, "somethings wrong with this place, even those old ladies knew about the circus and they don't live far from here, not to mention that they didn't say anything about the rats." I have some theories about what the rats could be but in a city it's hard to comment. "However, look at these books and tell me what you see." I look them over and then do it again, most of them are magic books but I don't notice anything out of the ordinary... why does a coffee shop offer magic books to read "there are a lot of magic books?" She nods and sits down, I cock my head and notice the waiter is staring at us oddly, as if he's confused, now that I think about it, maybe the rats aren't coming from the sewers. "Waiter, I have a question, one that I hope you don't mind answering." I sniff the air and Celeste looks at me, he comes over to us slowly and waits for me "have you kidnapped anybody using your rats?" If he isn't what I think he is he won't know what I'm talking about and will be baffled, if he is... "I don't understand what you mean good sir, but I would like for you not to speak such nonsense, it would be horrible for business if people heard you." I make a point of looking around, and he blushes. "You gave yourself away in three places. One, you keep pulling on your earlobe, someone In a skin suit usually doesn't fit exactly right, and the ears are the hardest to get right. Second you don't have an Adam's apple, which tells me that you are either a woman or not human." He goes silent and pales slightly, Celeste looks at me and I shrug "I've had a few dealings with Tessos. I've never met one that can achieve humanity, which tells me you're old, but you aren't that hard to kill. See the thing is that I'm on a date right now, I don't want to get blood on my jacket. Answer the question and I'll treat this as a non-evil spirit beast." Spirit beasts are beasts that have the ability to speak and understand human languages. The girlfriend thing might be true, but honestly I don't smell blood from him, so I don't think he's killing humans. That's why I'm willing to let him go. "...no sir, I don't kidnap humans anymore. When I was younger maybe, but now I just want to collect books and make coffee. My rats don't hurt people... well they do make the people fear this road, but they've never hurt anyone." I nod and tell him that that's all I need.

"Sir, if you don't like d my asking, what was the third thing that gave me away?" I point at the magic books, he looks at them for a moment the. Turns back to me "well not everyone has that many magic books lying around, but most of those books are about animals, and rats in particular. As the other two put me on guard, when Celie told me about the magic books I guessed what you were. However, the smell of blood was absent on you, that's what gave me pause and why I asked you the question. I'll be back sometime." I wave as we walk out, we still don't know where the circus is "out of curiosity Celeste, when do you sleep if you stay In town all night?"