(Untitled)

[ostro_goth]

Teja is in the bar, playing his harp, and waiting whether some that he would speak with, show themselves.

Two in particular he hopes to see; and both are women.-

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[sonofwhitecity]

Boromir is definitely not a woman, and probably not someone who Teja was expecting to see, but nonetheless there he is, bowing his head in greeting when he recognizes the Ostrogoth.

"Greetings, Teja son of Tagila. It has been some time."

[ostro_goth]

"Boromir of Gondor!" Teja says. "I have not seen you in a long, long while!"

[sonofwhitecity]

"It has." There is one of those infrequent smiles on Boromir's face, the kind that makes him look a little less grim, a little less burdened. The way he could have been if things had turned out different at Amon Hen. It's good to see Teja again, this man from another world who almost feels like a kinsman to him.

"I have been focused more... Inwards than is usual for me. I suppose it might have been the melancholy of Winter. But now I feel the need to be a part of..." There is a brief pause, and an almost amused arching of his eyebrows.

"Life, so to speak."

[ostro_goth]

"What else should we call our afterlife?" Teja says, somewhat amused. "It is a life, in many a way: - a life that fighting men like us never had!"

[sonofwhitecity]

"It may be so, Teja, but there is still much of me that cannot bring himself to think of it as such." The son of Minas Tirith would still give up this second chance of sorts for just one moment, one glimpse of the White City.

[ostro_goth]

When they first met, Teja would have thought much the same, about seeing his people again.

But in the more than two years since then, he has found new ground for his heart to take root in: friends, a forge, cats, horses, love and duty.

"Each of our tales goes on without us," Teja says. "We must begin a new tale here, a follow-up that is quite apart from the original, in our worlds."

[sonofwhitecity]

But Boromir is a Gondorian, and that means a certain tendency to dwell in the past, to mourn far beyond the reasonable that which is gone never to return. He knows the truth in Teja's statement, but his heart refuses to acknowledge it fully.

"Maybe I'm just slower in beginning."

[ostro_goth]

Ostrogoths, as a rule, did not mourn the past that much; but Teja has ever been one to be grim and broody, to dwell and mourn.

And then, he would go and fight.

"It took me over a year and a half," he says, quietly. "And I do not know that I would not throw it all away again, given the chance to return to my people in some way."

[sonofwhitecity]

And again Boromir smiles briefly. "So different yet so alike, like the shadows of two branches on the wall, are we not, Teja son of Tagila?" He lets a small sigh go, looking up at the observation window. "Even if it were only for one day, or one hour." Then he shakes his head and looks back to Teja.

"But we are here and cannot go back, and that is as should be, for the dead should not return to the living. In here, though, as you said, we get the chance at life again. Of a sort."

[ostro_goth]

"Indeed," Teja says. "And we may find things in this place we not even thought of, while alive."

Pause.

"On the day of the dead, at the beginning of winter, I at last appeared to two that were close to me when I was alive; it was a dream to me, and a drunken vision to them. They wanted my advice very urgently, and I gave it to them. But by then, I had all but given up yearning for them."

[sonofwhitecity]

Boromir nods. "I am lucky that my brother used to visit this place. It gave me great joy to see his son, for he was not married when we last parted. But I have never been able to appear to my loved ones in the way you describe." There is no envy in his tone, but maybe a smidgen of sadness.

[ostro_goth]

"None of my people ever came to this place," Teja says. "I saw their children only in dreams and visions."

[sonofwhitecity]

"I have seen a few people from Arda here. Even one of those peaceful folk I told you about, who in the end tipped the fate of the world by their unexpected courage." There is an undeniable fondness in his voice, and maybe a touch of the sadness that burdens Boromir yet. But the Gondorian shakes it off and lays a hand on Teja's shoulder. "As I said before, so close yet so different, even in the blessings this place bestows upon us."

[ostro_goth]

"Indeed," Teja says. "You spoke of a land named Rohan, did you not, when we first met?"

[sonofwhitecity]

Boromir nods. "I did. A land neighboring my own country, once a part of it. The Riddermark, its people called it, and it was a pleasant land of rolling fields and green hillocks."

[ostro_goth]

"I spoke to a lady from there, since I last saw you," Teja says. "She was here but once or twice; and it has been awhile. Some only come here briefly, and then are seen no more."