<div class="floatleft">(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c2/5a/5b/c25a5b9d4712a0ffad833f263d4d9023.jpg)   </div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Aesa Wyrmborn</span>(https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=237173.msg11677350#msg11677350)<br/>Dragon-Blooded Elven Arcanist 1 (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=560159)<br/><hr/><br/>Aesa made her way politely through the crowd, greeted by a few strange looks.  Her ears were hidden, but her features were not quite human, even if her skin was a glowing olive rather than a color more common to elves.  But even her flame-red eyes weren't enough to make her stand out much in the gathering menagerie.  She slipped when greeting Kendra, exclaiming softly at how she'd grown - she'd been only a girl when they last met - but the dwarf's gruff voice and odd speech distracted everyone who might have otherwise taken notice when she acted the doting aunt to a woman who looked several years her senior.<br/><br/>And what a voice, too!  Was his mouth full of stones?  She'd overheard, in her youth, strange tales of the mountain dwellers; none of them were good, and a few were positively indecent.  Still...her practiced eyes flickered over his gear and noted the style and similarities to her own belt buckle, a trinket Lorrimor had once sent her from his journeys.  "A humble thing, but made by a master smith and a true scholar; I shall have to arrange for you to meet.  He would understand better all your talk of alloys and etchings, I think."  The callouses on those hands were familiar.<em> It seems you got your wish after all</em>.<br/><br/>Her finger traced over the buckle's repeating pattern of a hammer; she'd assumed it was merely an affectation, but now that she saw the gruff dwarf's pendant she wondered if it were something more significant.  She liked the short fellow more for it; and if her relatives had derided dwarves, well, she liked him more for that as well.  Aesa nodded to Quentan in polite greeting, then sent a subtle swirl of lingering magic his way: the mud dropped from his boots, a few tangles of beard fell into place as though brushed, and his lovely metalwork seemed to gleam as if it were polished on a bright summer day.  Vainly, she wondered what he might make of her own work: her sword was plain, utilitarian, and utterly Oberin's craft, but she was littered with other metalwork.  Buttons, buckles, clasps, and rivets were shaped and etched with careful artistry.  The influence of her elven ancestry was strong, but each pattern and design broke from graceful, eternal repetition into chaos, roughness, or extraneous influences - even some dwarvish - that would drive any craftsman from her homeland into a fit.<br/><br/>Unlike the smith, she instantly distrusted the hissing creature shrouded in robes.  It was obviously inhuman, much as it seemed to play at it, and she disliked anything that felt so acutely the need to hide - her own tucked ears notwithstanding.  Still, the name played at her memory and its respect seemed real enough.  The crowd seemed impressed by the mention of the university; what a bookish mob of acquaintances the old professor had accumulated!<br/><br/>She would hold off any judgment for now, as Lorrimor would wish, and not glare at the hissing thing or the condescending, purebred elf even a little bit, although the latter looked far too much like the vile boy who'd lived next to mother and killed animals for fun.<br/><br/>Aesa volunteered to serve as pallbearer when the duty was offered, surprised to be given the chance.  Perhaps she misunderstood human customs, but the role was usually considered an honor; she had fashioned enough rings, tie pins and other bric a brac as gifts to gather that.  It had always seemed like a great bother for a small act of service: surely a casket wasn't so heavy when carried by so many?  She'd only handled empty ones, nailing the gilt fittings into place, but an old man was no great burden.  "Yes...yes, of course.  I would be honored."  She slipped forward, touched the handle of the casket reverently and whispered a greeting to her old friend, then made ready to travel.<br/>