Taking Inventory 3

Sure enough, upon finding his clothes he put the undershirt on backwards. The tightness around his neck was the only signal that he had indeed put it on backward, but it was an easy fix because he hadn't yet put on the other layers.

Just as he struggled his pants on, he could hear the sound of someone approaching. No, that was inaccurate. He couldn't hear anything out of the norm. There were pulses of split that could be felt he recognized to be in the cadence of footsteps.

A distant, quiet creaking was actually something he could hear. Heavy breaths were next, though equally distant to the groaning wood.

"Mister Strauss, are you alright?" A voice that could only belong to the Arboreal Maiden originated from somewhere above and behind him, the same direction of the labored breaths. There must have been someone else there.

Don decided to turn and greet the new arrival, unpresentable as he may be at the moment. Given their angle, he had to keep his eyes closed, but they should be close enough to make out with his new sense of split. There were two figures there, no doubt about it, but one of them was extremely faint.

"Why are you dressed? Did you not understand that was included when I said not to move?" She didn't seem angry, nor did she seem to be accusing him of anything, but Don felt like he had done something terribly wrong all the same. The Arboreal Maiden had made it very clear that he wasn't to move.

"I wanted to make myself somewhat presentable if I could, Diana's orders and all. Who is this?" A lie that contained a morsel of truth, and an intentionally vague question. He wouldn't get any points in a professional setting, but at the very least it wasn't informal. At least he didn't think it was informal. Considering he was dazed and on the backfoot, he thought it was a satisfactory response.

"This is Grand Elder Firche, the Merchant. He will be helping you two to secure the materials required for you to rebuild." Don 'watched' the two of them step off of something.

"Really? Great! Um, I don't have a list or anything like that on hand at the moment, so we'll have to talk with ARC. In the meantime, nice to meet you." Don, somewhat clumsily, extended a hand towards the brighter of the two silhouettes. He had come to the conclusion that this was Firche owing to the direction the Arboreal Maiden's voice came from and her previous mention that the Great Csillacra had difficulties finding her. "My name is Donovan Strauss."

He had completely forgotten that this Grand Elder could not understand him.

"Shake his hand Merchant, it is a sort of greeting amongst their kind."

"It is a pleasure to greet you in turn, Sir Strauss. As introduced, I am one of the Sanctum's Grand Elders, the Merchant. Firche is my given name, but I insist that you only call me Merchant as you would address the Scholar or the Captain. It is a cultural preference, one I am sure you will soon come to understand, but I will not scold you for using Grand Elder Firche."

Aside from not being able to see and the shaking of Don's hand side to side as opposed to up and down, Don had quite a favorable first impression.

"Pleasantries aside for the moment, have the Skwiven been treating you well in my absence? Are your eyes still sensitive from the procedure?"

"About that." Don was incredibly anxious about a certain event in the recent past. "I asked, more like signaled for, something to drink to the Skwiven who greeted me after I woke up. It brought me a clear orange liquid which I drank a full cup of. I think the jug is over there somewhere." He gestured vaguely to where he thought it might be.

Don couldn't see it, but she had gone to take a whiff of it from the source. "What effects are you experiencing?"

"I'm dizzy, my vision is a little fuzzy, and I feel like I might vomit from the nausea, but least I'm not in pain any more."

"Pain... might you be referring to the exposure of your new senses?"

"I imagine so."

"Just how much did you drink?"

"A full cup, I finished it fairly quick too."

This information elicited a sigh from the Great Csillacra's steward. "You weren't supposed to drink that much. At most, you should have only had a sip. Maybe I should have warned you." She glanced toward the Skwiven, who for all she could tell was blissfully unaware of the mistake it made. "On second thought, I think this might be for the better. I will pour you another cup."

"I believe such an action to be beyond your station, my lady." The Merchant seemed to be something of a stickler for convention.

"This is a duty bestowed upon me by the Great Csillacra, Merchant. I will perform this task to completion and I will not be accepting further criticism or interruption from anyone, yourself included Merchant." This was the first time either person had heard outright hostility in her voice.

"I understand my lady." At her scathing rebuke of his objection, he could only accept there was nothing he could do about it.

"Why are you giving me more of this stuff if I'm already suffering from it?" Don disregarded their interaction, taking it as a dispute he had no part in.

"In time you will understand, but for now just understanding it will help with the sensitivity should be enough. Your 'eyes' are fresh, so to speak, and you are currently in a place with an extremely high concentration of split." After handing him the now full cup, she poked the areas which had been hurting previously. Suddenly a 'light' emanated from the tips of her fingers, culminating in a stinging sensation. "As you might be able to tell, you aren't yet at the level where I can tell you what you are looking at."

At her request, Don downed the next cup. He did it a little slower than previously, just a precaution, but it didn't take long.

A wave of dizziness crashed into him, weightlessness included, but there wasn't any burning in his eyes. Furthermore, the picture from his sense of split became noticeably clearer. There was still a great deal of fuzz, but he could now make out more details.