The oldest profession
Inner Caverns, High Reaches Weyr(#270RJs)
Within the labyrinth of interconnected chambers that make up the inner caverns, this large, long cavern serves both as a crossroads and a comfortable place for weyrfolk to sit, talk, and keep a nosy eye out for who's going where. Colorful, seasonal tapestries add warmth to the smooth walls and reduce echoes, while large niches house clusters of chairs, and a waist-high stone shelf along one wall provides a perch for drinks or work for residents on the go. Worn brass hooks often hold jackets or other outerwear with workboots stationed beneath, the transitory nature of the cavern lending itself to being treated as a sort of communal foyer where snowy or muddy gear can be kept outside of living quarters. Smaller, higher niches at regular intervals hold glowbaskets kept fresh during the daytime and allowed to dim somewhat at night.
The largest tunnels lead to the main living cavern, to the bowl and to the Weyr entrance, but it's still easy for the uninitiated to get lost within this maze.
Contents:
Zev
Obvious exits:
Living Cavern Nighthearth Kitchen Residential Hallway Infirmary Bathing Pools Bowl Weyr Entrance
Between breakfast and lunch, Rhaelyn makes her way purposefully down the crafter hallway, peering at this door and that and even knocking on one at random before getting correct directions to the woodcrafter's shop. She knocks and fixes her dress and hair with a few quick sweeps of her hands while waiting for the answer.
There is a short delay before Zev answers the door, a sturdy leather apron over his normal clothes and a few curls of wood clinging to the hair on his forearms from his recent labors. "Oh, hello there Rhaelyn, come on in." He steps back to reveal the sizeable cavern that makes up the woodshop of the weyr, places for stacks of lumber for ready use on the walls as well as several projects in process in various spots. There is a pile of wood shavings around the pedal driven lathe over to one side and a stack of chair legs being shaped and rounded, about a dozen on either side of the process. "What can I do for you?" He waves her on in as he heads back to the lathe, starting the leg he's working on again spinning so he can work and talk at the same time, the pedal powered tool and the lathe chisel only making a soft scraping noise as he works, not impeding conversation.
Rhaelyn has a smile for the woodsmith, a flicker of lashes with an expression that is partly coy but also bold as she meets his eyes upon the door opening. "Well hello there. I thought I would see just where you work." She steps into the room upon the offer and takes a moment gazing around the room at the various strange and wonderful items both finished and unfinished. His question remains unanswered for a length of time, distracted by a footboard of a bed full of skillful engravings.
Zev works on the one leg, smoothly cleaning up the leg and setting it aside and getting the next rough cut leg and putting the mounting braces on either side. "Nice looking bed, isn't it? Headed up to High Reaches Hold, comission for the young heir." He comments then creates the initial fountain of shavings from the new leg.
Rhaelyn's gaze hardens at this news. Raw jealousy, as though she were cheated out of this very bed. The look is fixed on the headboard as though she could make the wood burst into flame with the heat of her look. "I see. How very -lucky- for the heir." Her voice dripping an unexpected vemon.
Zev chuckles a bit, "I don't know about lucky... there were quite a few marks passed over to move that bed up to the top of the work list. No discounts for him here." He takes out a rag and brushes off the shavings and gets a bit of sanding board and cleans up the current leg with efficient strokes with the lathe spinning again.
"Likely he has so many marks he has to hire someone to count them for him." Or so Rhaelyn dreams now that she is grasping the power behind the almighty mark. She turns away from the bed in digust but the jealousy is slow to fade from her cruel eyes. "I wonder...what sort of discount could a person like -me- be entitled to."
Zev takes a moment to look over at Rhaelyn for a long moment, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Well, I do have a personal allotment of lumber to work with. And what I work on outside of my quota to the weyr is my own choice, so there would have to be some encouragement to give up some of the marks I could be making." He lets his eyes wander just a tiny bit as he hints at what it might take, "An attractive young woman like you... I suspect you could use some of your feminine charms to get a sizeable discount..."
Rhaelyn regards Zev's suggestion with an icy stare for a moment, even if she is posing just so to make the best use of her better charms. Skinny as she is and sickly, she can still try to lure in an unsuspecting man. "Is that right? And just what sort of sweet little charms would get me the best discount?" Blunt as ever but frosty around the edges.
Zev smiles a little more, frost is one thing far different from disguist, so he goes ahead and puts a suggestion out there, "Well, if you wanted something made relatively soon... of good woods and detailed work. You could help me make sure that the bed for that holder is suitably sturdy before it's sent to him."
Rhaelyn's nose crinkles up, "How would /I/ know if the bed is suitably sturdy or not?" She gives Zev a searching look, not putting the pieces together that he might be talking of something that involves her being on her back. Ah, the oldest of occupations.
Zev smiles as he extrapolates a little bit, setting aside his current chair leg and standing up, brushing off his arms so that he's cleaned up. "Oh, I'd be in the bed with you helping you test out the sturdiness of the bed."
Rhaelyn doesn't smile back, not even cold or mocking. The exile just looks at Zev as though he's lost his fool-mind. Her eyes drift towards the footboard of the bed and then back to Zev, "You've got to be kidding me." Dry voice crackling with a shadow of anger, her flirting falling dead away. She turns to go, taking several steps towards the door.
Zev takes a couple of steps after her, "No... sorry, you're not from the weyr and I just forgot how that might shock you. Been a while now since I've been around someone with constrained feelings about such things." He's saying the words, but in truth theirs no contrition, he saw an opportunity and took it like the hound he is.
Rhaelyn scowls over her shoulder at Zev, "You'd have to give me the bed, and an oath to marry me and a roof over my head to do such a thing. The -nerve- of you. I hardly know you. You think I'm just some little toss-away?"
Zev shakes his head, "Shells no, not some little toss-away... but things like that are a bit more relaxed in a weyr. I guess I should have thought about it 'fore suggesting it." He then adds, with a glance to a chest of drawers that's nearly done, the drawers with fancy carved knobs and scrollwork facade. "And that bed is spoken for, but a fine dresser like that might be a project I've been working on to make some marks at some point."
"Things are much different where I'm from." Like the skill of tricking husbands into marriage and such. "The rules here are different. Obviously." She spares the dresser a look and while it is very lovely she gives it a little sniff, "Truth be told, I have about as much use for that as for the bed. I have no room to put things, I have. Nothing."
Zev considers that for a long moment, "Well, you have a cot in the hall now?" He turns and steps back into the depths of the workroom for a moment, returning with a small wooden chest the kind some residents in the common barracks have. Though this one is clearly a step up from the plain ones, as it has a rich stain, decorative edging, and it has a latch mechanism where most of the others are not lockable. "No one should have absolutely nothing... let me give you this as partial apology." He sets it down on a worktable and does something with the latch, pushing at it with four fingers and then the top pops open, letting him swing it open with the faint scent of the aromatic wood that lines the chest wafts out.
"I have a cot in a crowded room with not a sketch of privacy. Thank goodness it's with people I know not a crowd of strangers." Rhaelyn balances between continuing her satisfying storm-off and eyeing the trunk that's brought forward. "Really?" Guarded now, she narrows her eyes at Zev, "And what will you expect from me in turn? As you clearly are used to women paying with a different token than marks."
Zev smiles as he steps a little to the side so that she can get to the trunk without having to get too close to him. "I would think a little bit of space to call your own inside this trunk might be worth a great deal... but if you'll accept my apology, it is yours as a gift..." Then he adds, "How you choose to accept my apology and gift, well, that might give me ideas on giving you other gifts in the future."
Rhaelyn isn't sure if she should view Zev as a friend or as someone to distrust and watch her back against. "I see." Picking her words carefully, she asks, "Just what do you feel is an acceptably nice apology reception?" She bends to breath in the scent of the lovely little trunk, even reaching out to smooth a hand over the polished outside of the lid.
Zev smiles as he watches her hands and eyes on the trunk. "A smile might be sufficient, though probably not quite the reception that would bring about a future gift. One of the best thing of the posted crafters is that we often trade items should we need something made by another. With the latest need for necessities... I know a jewelcrafter that has a few nice little things to trade."
Rhaelyn's lips do work into a smile, but it's not for Zev in particular but for the word 'Jewelcrafter'. She asks quietly, "What sort of skill does one need for that job?" Explaining quietly, "I have much need to find myself a decent job." If only to cover how she's getting all these gifts if nothing else.
Zev thinks, "It's an apprenticeship of eight or so turns, maybe more to work with the fine jewels. It seems very precise and intricate work. However there are some crafters that might need some help. Perhaps not a full job, but a few candlemarks now and then. I could use someone myself, though it's more brawn for moving large works and timbers."
Rhaelyn gives her head a shake at the offer to work with the timber, "Oh no. One of my fellow exiles has been assigned to the wood-skill trade though." She looks disapointed in regards to the length of time mastering fine gems would take, "That just won't do." And so she's stuck. Still fondling the lif of the box she watches Zev, her thoughts very far away.
Zev nods a bit, "Although... I could see if she needs someone with delicate fingers to help with the polishing and cleaning of her work. People often bring things to her to be cleaned... It's work she doesn't like to do, but doesn't require mighty thews to accomplish either." He smiles a bit at Rhaelyn, "Would you like for me to suggest to her you might be suitable for that?"
Rhaelyn answers honestly, very quiet. "I don't know. I..had this idea that I would talk to the weyrharper about becoming an apprentice. Because we were not allowed to on the island. It was...something passed down to the children of harpers not to others. I thought I might want to do that, but I don't know that the weyr will think that is a good use of my time. I need something...that will help me...." she strokes fingers over the edge of the box again, back and forth. "I want....things."
Zev takes a single step closer, "They might.. but harpers aren't a craft that gets a lot in the way of things. Not compared to some others." He reaches out a hand and puts it on the lid not far from hers, "However, I can get things... and it's not things I want."
Rhaelyn doesn't act as though she notices how close Zev's hand is to hers, or how close he's coming to her. "What sorts of things?" And then, some of her humor returning, "You are trying to get me to work for you? I am not strong enough to be of much help."
Zev chuckles a bit, "Well, I could use a little help around here. It would give you a reason to come by often... and to explain some of the things you have..." He just inches closer, "Besides the jewelrycrafter, there is a weaver that will get things for me from time to time. And I do have an indirect contact with one of the cooks for special treats."
Rhaelyn doesn't move away, but now she's watching to see just what Zev is going to do. "And just why would you do all of this for me? I mean, I don't have any special skills." Not with wood or with men's...wood. There's a little lift of her chin, challenge in her eyes, "It sure does sound like a deal that I could learn to live with. If you disclose all that you expect of me." A pause and then, "In detail."
Zev moves his hand just a little closer to hers, not touching, but the space between them on that lid is miniscule now. "Are you going to storm out once I start explaining, in detail? I'm not going to pull any punches here in what I'd want for all these goodies you're going to be getting from me..."
Rhaelyn blushes and she takes a sudden step back. She gives Zev another look, unreadable and makes a dash for the door.