Eyes narrowed against the unforgiving sun, the elf frowned. She was a delicate thing – against the bustle of burly sailors and lewd whores, she looked downright out of place. Her forest green robes flowed around her as she wove her way  through the crowd, flitting from person to person with an almost unnatural grace.<br/><br/>Luna was not having a particularly good day, and being in Dairsmuid certainly didn’t help matters. She didn’t like cities; she had been raised in the Circle Tower, where solitude had been easy to come by and everyone had been encouraged to show at least<i>some</i>decency. She made a point of spending as much time as she could in the wilderness, away from the noise and smell and stress. It wasn’t as if it she didn’t<i>want</i>to like Dairsmuid; she hadn’t seen a single templar yet, and the people, for the most part, were free to do as they liked. It was the<i>sort</i>of people that had this freedom that bothered her. They were loud and unreserved, and she really wasn’t sure what to make of them or how she ought to act. For the most part, she just kept to herself, although it made finding what she was looking for harder than it ought to be.<br/><br/>She let out a breath, taking in what she could of the refreshing smell of the ocean through the stench of the city. If there was one thing Luna liked about Dairsmuid, it was the ocean. It was huge, stretching as far as they eye could see, and dotted with ships sailing to and from the port. To her, it represented the unknown, and filled her heart with a sort of childlike wonder. A curious smile tugging at her lips, she wondered what it would be like to swim in it.<span style="color: green"><i>Not as if I can do that with all these sailors about,</i></span>she thought. Well, she<i>could</i>...<br/><br/>No, she had more important things to do. Like living. Living was good. And to live, she had to have money. She shot her pocket an angry glance. She only had a few silvers left, and that wouldn’t last too long even if she ventured back toward the villages, where they were usually willing to sell their goods a bit more cheaply. She had to find some sort of job – the problem was that the jobs that Dairsmuid had to offer and the jobs she was willing to<i>do</i>were very different. A modest woman in Dairsmuid was either poor or very rich. She didn’t want to be a whore or a dancer and she doubted she had the talent for either, although, to her increasing ire, each had been suggested to her several times. She was hardly the type to be picked as hired muscle, either – it wasn’t as if she’d be any good at that without calling on her gift, though.<br/><br/><span style="color: green"><i>A fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into, Luna.</i></span>Well, she could always blast her way into some nobleman’s house and make off with something valuable, if it came to that. She rolled her eyes; she really couldn’t see herself doing<i>that</i>, either. Besides her magic – which would be best not to use if she wanted to keep her head low – she<i>was</i>fairly well-read. All she really needed was a job that would use her mind, and that wasn’t dangerous, illegal, or disgusting... in Dairsmuid, city of smugglers, thieves, and whores.<br/><br/>Yep,<i>that</i>was going to happen.<br/><br/>At some point, she had wandered onto the docks proper. Green water lapped gently at the aged wooden supports, which creaked with the shifting tide. She took a moment to marvel at the insane number of ships around her – some large, some small, but all of them proud and majestic, rising and falling every so slightly on the ocean. She’d never actually been on a ship before. She wondered exactly what good she’d be on one – she knew the stars, but she didn’t have the strength to row or move cargo about.<br/><br/><span style="color: seagreen">“What in the abyss is this?! You’ve had three hours and you haven’t moved a damn thing!”</span><br/><br/>Luna’s attention drifted idly toward the shouting. From the sound of it, it was coming from a ship about a little ways from her. She didn’t like shouting. She wanted it to stop. With a sigh, began to wander toward the commotion, more out of curiosity than anything else.<br/><br/>By the time she arrived at the gangplank, a dark-skinned man had drawn his sword, a thin, wiry thing, not at all like the swords the templars carried. From the looks of it, he was threatening another Rivaini man with it, although it seemed to two at least knew each other. They didn’t appear to be particularly upstanding citizens, but she hardly let them kill each other in front of her, either.<br/><br/><span style="color: sandybrown">“Careful Jal... we don't need to be shedding blood over this.”</span>The man at swordpoint raised his hands in surrender. She couldn’t be sure that it was over, though, not while the rapier was still drawn. She took a measured step onto the gangplank, intending to stop them with magic if she had to. She could run, then, and they’d forget their argument altogether.<br/><br/>The plank was noisier than she had thought it would be, though, and soon she found the ship’s crew watching her. She let out a sigh, brushing some of her brown hair behind an ear.<span style="color: green">“Oh, don’t let me stop you,”</span>she said.<span style="color: green">“Nothing highlights a peaceful stroll on the docks like some senseless violence. Oh, and blood. That’s good too.”</span><br/><br/>She shook her head. So much for trying to defuse the situation.<span style="color: green">“Look,”</span>she said with exasperation.<span style="color: green">“If there’s some sort of problem here, I’m sure you can work it out without sheathing your sword in his flesh – or mine, for that matter.”</span>She shrugged, hoping she wasn’t making a fool out of herself.<span style="color: green">“Maybe it’ll help if you talk to someone about it – plus, if you can work this out, you won’t have to scrub blood from the deck later.”</span><div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>