"Underdog succeeding against evil power are good." Her head tilts to the side a bit, "Especially if they have a happy ending."
"They are my favorite kinds of stories." He agrees. "I believe that Master, my last one, has since passed away of natural causes. I never felt the urge to create a scene, get revenge, anything like that... but I did keep tabs, from a distance." He seems satisfied with the outcome.
"I do struggle occasionally in mixed company. It's hard for me to understand and agree with slavery after having been a slave myself, but it's still so widely accepted, it's a little, ah... taboo? To disagree with the practice." He shrugs. "I suspect I won't live to see that change, though."
He startles himself out of a thought he seems to be having. "I'm sorry, this may actually be mixed company. I hope I haven't made either of you uncomfortable. This topic is significantly heavier than I was expecting to introduce myself with." He smiles apologetically.
Nalo winces a bit at the misunderstanding, nodding in agreement with Panamax's words. She looks down at her hands, "Are you still a slave?"
"Oh, no. I ah... liberated myself." He creates a very small illusion in his hands of a flower blooming from a seed. The petal colors shift between hues and almost take on a hypnotic quality. "It's something I did to keep myself entertained while under my second Master. He kept me cooped up most of the time, so I didn't have much else to do. I built up an incredibly difficult and elaborate illusion, and... well, here I am." He smiles. "I'd be happy to tell you the whole story if you're interested in hearing it, but the long and short is, I fooled the people I needed to fool."
Nalo wrote:
"Boat travel is further, since you have to travel the entire coastland of Ghan and Dralois. It'd take about three times longer our travel from Harmuth."
Mathias taps his nose and points at Nalo. "She has the right of it. It's on the southern point of the Ison Cape in Draolis, right where the country meets up with Iscobal."
"Qi's dirigibles are a wonder," he agrees, a fond look coming over his face. "One of the things I miss most about the city."
At Nalo and Panamax's question about studies other than Qen, Mathias looks a little surprised. "Slaves weren't allowed to study anything officially," he starts, then he grins, "I did sneak into libraries as often as possible. Picked up a few things here and there about history, some fascinating things about numenera theories, a few books on government I was significantly less interested in. I tend to find people more interesting than history."
Nalo shakes her head, "Nothing so exciting. We got hired on a job that was underground, it hadn't quite felt like three days." A shrug, "Not 'til the end anyway, but I've been known to get caught up in my work."
"Mm, makes sense." His hair glints a dark red in the fire light of the camps around them. "What kind of work interests you? The group you arrived with seems full of capable folks."
He pulls a bit of bread out of his bag, and the faint smell of cinnamon wafts towards her with the motion. He offers some to her, then continues whether or not she takes a piece.
"Ah, training." He nods. "I'm an only child, so if someone so much as blinks too loudly nearby, I wake up. The coffee is basically life blood for me at this point."
"It sounded like you didn't realize three days had passed. Wild bender in Keford before heading east?" His grin is a little lopsided. Come to notice it, so is his nose, like it was broken a few times in the past and didn't quite heal straight.
"A halfway decent nights sleep will do me a world of good."
Mathias laughs. "You have more sense than I do." He takes a long sip from the thermos. "This stuff will pretty much ensure I'm awake for the entire trip. You know, to keep an eye out for kittens and puppies."
"I want a kitten!" The little boy belonging to the second family shouts.
"I want two kittens!" One of the girls fires back.
Jarris seats himself near the two families, drawing out items from his backpack. It only takes a few minutes for each child before he's crafted little wire-and-junk cats for them. They squeal with delight and set about playing all over the wagon with them.
"Neat," Ceri says through clenched teeth, a plastic smile plastered on her face. She looks increasingly uncomfortable as the children become louder.
"A pleasure to meet you all," he says, waving to everyone from the back of the wagon. His eyes don't linger long on anyone in particular before he focuses back on Nalo.
"Yes, three days." His eyebrows knit together slightly. "You seem tired. I've got an unnecessarily large thermos of coffee, if you'd like some?" He hefts up a container that is, indeed, probably too large to be lugging around if someone wanted to travel light.
Nalo wrote:
"If it weren't for Mathias, Ada might well..." with a shake of her head, "Nah, we'd still be with Ada, just would have needed a bit more shins."
He brushes the comment aside with a shake of his head and a smile. "Ada knew she could do with a few handy folks on board if she wanted to fill the wagon."
"Speaking of which... it looks like you picked up an extra from somewhere!" Ada says, leaning back from her seat at the head of the wagon and running her gaze over the group again. "It'll be fine, the kids might need to squeeze together some." She directs this last comment to the two groups of travelers with children aboard.
"We could store them with our bags," one man says with a straight face, prompting his two small daughters to protest loudly. His facade cracks when his wife hits his shoulder. He laughs and scoops the girls up into his lap. "It'll be no trouble."
