Drawing the curtains

[Maeve]

As Caipra respectfully answered her simple yet somewhat unsettling question without too much puzzlement about where the question itself came from, her dark brown eyes gently went surfing back and forth between the wise woman’s features and the busy morning lanes around them. All the while listening to the other sorceress, profoundly glad to hear she had been doing fine during the past year, she began walking away from the guards’ quarters a little, judging that if Ziad had wanted them out of the way it would be silly to simply step outside and remain standing by the entrance.

Caipra casually joined her side and Maeve was immensely relieved when she didn’t ask her the same how-have-you-been question in return. 1. Because she wouldn’t have known what to say. 2. Because to comply to reason number 1 she most likely would’ve ended up lying to her. And she didn’t want to do that. In fact, right now, what she wanted more than anything was to shrivel inside the simplicity of a trifle conversation in which the main subject matter wasn’t her.

As her feet absent-mindedly guided her to a little intersection corner, the last part of Caipra’s answer caught her attention. She came to a halt and turned to her friend, a puzzled and concerned frown slightly wrinkling her brow. “What do you mean? What happened?”

[Caipra]

Caipra was waiting for that question. Maeve had to be aware of the new laws in Basra, to avoid any other accident.
"It happened that Omar had suddenly decided that magic was too dangerous to be tolerated in his city. So he banned it."
The old sorceress didn't mentionned that Rumina was the source of this new law. It was probably the last name the red-head wanted to hear at the moment.

As she talked, she saw Kadeem and Amir leaving the guard's place. Caipra felt suddenly reassured. Everything seemed fine, or Ziad would have probably called her again. She looked toward Maeve again and added.
"I need you to be aware of that. If anything should happen that imply magic, I'm not sure I could do anything to help."
She smiled at the young sorceress and turned away once again, hearing someone coming.
"Ah, the other guard is here, Ziad shouldn't be long now."
Indeed, the chief's guard left the place a few moment after.

[Maeve]

The frown on her forehead deepened. Magic laws? Even if she hadn’t really known what kind of explanation to expect from Caipra, she definitely hadn’t seen this one coming. Basra, the haven for magicians! The city where the white arts (and a bit of the dark ones as well) were intimately entwined with the daily life of most of its inhabitants! Where market stalls were filled with herbs and potions and books and many other things on the subject! If magic had been banned like Caipra just claimed it was, then it meant that the nature itself of the city had drastically changed! How could that be? What on earth had happened?

As she let the information sink in quietly, Ziad’s hostile reaction when she had fallen at his feet from out of nowhere suddenly finding a new echo in her memory, Caipra paused and her eyes went resting on two men that were coming out of the guards’ quarters. She followed her gaze and she immediately recognized them as the prisoners in the cell, the ones on which the wise sorceress had performed a forgetting spell. Had she done so because they had seen her use magic?

Caipra turned to her again, this time with a warning. Apparently, the citizens of Basra were not very fond of sorceresses anymore and it would be best not to arise any suspicions. Thank God she hadn’t popped out in the middle of the market place then! What would’ve happened if she had? Would she have been killed on the spot? She doubted Omar would decree such radical laws but still the thought crossed her mind.

As interrogations slowly cropped up in her head, Caipra turned her attention to the street once again, her eyes this time coming to rest upon a guard heading towards the headquarters. It was probably the one Ziad was waiting for, meaning they’d get moving to the tavern soon.

As she brooded over everything Caipra had just revealed to her, her brown eyes went dancing back to the street and its blooming activities. Her gaze lingered aimlessly for a moment until she turned to the other sorceress. “What happens when someone is found guilty of practicing magic?” She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know, but she asked the question anyway.

[Ziad]

When the morning guard arrived, Ziad exchanged a few words with him, giving a short report of the shift before he left. The man was about his age, but lower in rank than he was, he would not demand a detailed report from his superior, nothing that went beyond what Ziad had just told him and what he would also find in the written accounts of the night he had handed over to the other man.

He had stepped out of the guard´s quarter on the other side of the building where Caipra and the red head could not immediately see him. Not because he was intent on creeping up on them, but because he knew there was a stall that sold ginger and honey bread and he often went past that on his way home after a long night´s work. He bought some honey bread from the short, dark haired woman behind the stall who already knew him and gave her her usual hopeful charming smile, then walked around the building and spotted the two women together, heads together, backs to him.

He caught Maeve´s question and took a bite of the bread, unaware that just out of habit he was not causing a lot of noise with his steps at all. "It depends." he answered. "on the gravity of the accusation."

[Maeve]

When Ziad’s voice answered her from behind, she turned around to face him right away, eyeing him closely as she wondered just where he had come from and, more to the point, why he had chosen to creep up on them like that. Well, whatever his reason was, his intrusion in the conversation was bold and indiscreet, and coupled with what little trust she already had for him despite his seemingly good intentions and the fact that Caipra was friend with him, it nevertheless made her feel caged again, as if he considered her to be some sort of mischievous child who might pull off a naughty trick at any moment and who thus had to be carefully watched over. However, she knew she couldn’t really blame him for his mistrustfulness, what with all these new magic laws, but still she didn’t approve of his indecorous approach.

Hence, she threw him a wary glance. Casting her dark brown eyes on the piece of bread he was holding and then back at him directly, her reply went straight to the subject at hand, but it was also livened up with a short but effective remark, both serious and slightly amused. “Would you care to elaborate? If you’re done being unnecessarily sneaky…”

[Ziad]

He tossed her a slightly crooked smile, bowing his head a little. "I wasn´t being sneaky," he said. "I usually leave the building from that side, and my experience tells me that mostly those think me to be sneaky that have something to hide." But he shook his head, dismissing that thought and showing he meant no offence.

"Well, I could give you a long introduction into the law of this place of course, but the best thing for anyone to do is not practice magic of any kind, because it is punishable here, the severeness of the punishment may differ from case to case according to how much harm has been caused."

[Maeve]

She held his gaze, sending him a smirk of her own as he needled her about hiding something from him. Which she wasn’t. Except for the fact that she was a sorceress. But since she had dropped at his feet unceremoniously from out of nowhere, she figured he already had his doubts about her magical background. And if not, then telling him she was a sorceress wouldn’t really be a smart thing to do at the moment, considering the conversation they were having.

As he nodded his head affably to show her his good intentions despite his prickly remark, and even if she could’ve latched on to it and snapped something back at him, she allowed him to conclude their little sidetrack taunt and listened to him as he continued on. There was simply no point in needling him any more than she had. What really interested her were those new magic laws and everything they implied.

His short insight on the relativity of the cases’ outcomes wasn’t all too helpful, and she wondered which level of impairment he classified appearing-out-of-thin-air into. But that was a trifle piece of information compared to what really gnawed at her mind. “Okay…But there’s something I still don’t understand. Basra’s always been bursting at the seams with magical activities. What happened? Where did these new politics come from?”

As far as she was concerned, that was the ultimate missing piece of the puzzle.

[Mala]

Siltenly did she watch them; silently did she follow their conversation. No spoken word did go unheard by her, and the more she got to know, the deeper her frown became.

Just how much had this world changed in her absence when magic could be banned so easily? Just how lost must poeple have become when they feared it now. Moreso, when this happened in a city like Basra.
Magic was part of this world, she knew, it could not be banned - or just forgotten about. But if, against all odds, poeple really did so one day then they would lose part of their own identity. Because even though not all humans had access to the powers of light and of dark, all of them were influenced by them. And to not know about these hidden wonders anymore... How could those living aim for that? How could they possibly want to close their eyes and forget? How could this world change so much?

All this time Mala's gaze lay calmly on the two sorceresses infront of her. While her thoughts echoed in her head, she never left their site and with worry washing over here for a moment, she, too, wondered what had caused that change and made the poeple of this city deny what this world consisted of. And even if only a little bit, but she feared what would happen if they found out about the true nature of these women - for she was aware that, in her shapeless existance, she would not be able to help either of them...

[Caipra]

Caipra was listening to Maeve and Ziad talking without saying anything. but the situation was becoming complicated. Maeve was really disturbed by this new law, as the old sorceress was herself when she heard it for the first time. She perfectly remembered that moment.
It happened one day after the Nomad had left Basra, a year ago. the guards had spread the news very quickly, by putting posters all around the city. When Caipra had seen one of them, she immediatly went to the castle, as many other curious habitants. Omar had made a speech, not long, but very precise, saying that magic was something evil and dangerous and that he was doing this only to protect his kingdom.
Unfortunately, Caipra knew there was no way she could convice him of the contrary.
Soon, lots of people left the city, mostly by fear. But Caipra decided to stay. Because it was her home. Because she had nowhere else to go. And because she felt that someday, things will change again, and she'd be here for that.

All this happened because of Rumina of course. There was nothing or noone more evil than her and her dead father.
She just had to say her name to Maeve, and the redhead would understand everything immediatly. But it was not the right time. Not today, because only one name could bring all the bad memories back in an instant, and she refused that.

She promised herself to explain her everything later, but for now, she simply said, before Ziad could answer.
"Oh you know, some regrettable accident that happened and scared the Caliph. I'm sure he will realize soon that he made a mistake. Everyone needs a bit of good magic in his life. Am I wrong?" she asked Ziad with a smirk.

[Ziad]

Ziad listened to that, nearly inclined to give a small snort at what the old woman said towards the end. He suppressed a small rolling of his eyes but gave a small disapproving grunt nonetheless. "Trust the caliph´s guards to judge on what and what not is an accident, will you?" he commented, a small tint of jest in his tone, but seriousness mingled in it nonetheless. He did not full heartedly support this new law, if it were so, there would be at least one more woman behind bars right now (and only because he was not entirely sure about the readhed, yet), but that didn´t mean he had not seen the necessity to get a better kind of control on these kinds of powers.

[Caipra]

"I fully trust the caliphs guards. they proved to be very effective more than once." Caipra simply answered with a smile.
And then, just because she thought they had enough wait, she just added.
"Maybe we could go to see Kriss now. Something tells me that she'll be glad to see us."

Indeed, she hadn't seen the tavern's owner since she had found the guard and the old lady in the stockage room, and now, bringing Maeve to the tavern was not going to fix everything.
But she didn't have a choice.

[Maeve]

Trying to connect the dots in this whole magical-political matter, she listened to the exchange between Caipra and Ziad attentively. And it didn’t take long before the regrettable accident rang a bell.

Rumina.

As she limited her memories of the incident down to just the essentials, the witch’s evil attempt at stealing the obelisk about a year ago was the only plausible explanation to her at the moment. After all, as she recalled, her disguised intrusion in the castle had almost lead Basra and Bagdad to war, so it was no wonder the caliph might have set up these new rules back then.

But perhaps something completely unrelated had happened afterwards as well. She didn’t know. And the pieces of information she was getting from her two interlocutors were rather vague and nebulous, so everything was still pretty fuzzy to her.

Nevertheless, as Caipra pressed on so they could head for the tavern, she figured the whole matter would be clearly explained later, probably when Ziad wouldn’t be around anymore, and so she simply gave a small nod to the wise woman, and she waited for her to lead the way.

[Ziad]

Ziad, of course, was unaware of Maeve´s contemplation, of her enmity with Rumina, of everything that had come to pass between them, of everything that had been happening around her and how magic was intertwined with the red head´s life.

He gave a soft smile at Caipra´s suggestion as they rounded a corner that instant. The tavern was down the road and he sensed that it would be polite to bid his farewell now. "I shall take my leave then," he said, giving a small bow to the two women. "if there is anything, you know where to find me, but I shall hope that you won´t get into trouble of any kind."
And with that he turned and left.

[Mala]

Mala was well ware of all the knowledge that none of them spoke out; noticed that in between the lines there lay more truth than was obvious. Yet all of them seemed to hold secrets that the others didn't know about. For a moment the spirit felt confused at how this Caipra and Ziad seemed to keep something from Maeve, but as she sensed the redhead accepted that for now, she, too, decided to let it go.

There was a deliberate tone to the elder woman's voice as she spoke of the tavern once again, and Mala couldn't help but eye Caipra for a moment. Out of all the ones that were around her, her feelings were the hardest to receive. The mighty aura that surrounded her seemed like a veil, where only remnants of her anticipation and her sudden worry were able to shimmer through.

Mala's thoughts however were detracted from the lady in an instant when unexpectedly Ziad bid his farewell. He bowed slightly and left, not missing to offer his help if it was needed again. Maea looked at him in silence for a moment, before she slightly bowed her head to him. She knew he would not see her shape, or recognize her actions, but nervetheless she felt she owed this gesture of respect and thanks to him. This man had helped when she wasn't able to, and this she would not forget about.

[Caipra]

Caipra bowed as well with a smile, as Ziad was leaving.
Then the two women continued their walk in silence.
As they were getting closer to the tavern, The old sorceress started to perceive again the strong aura of Bryn. she seemed to be awake, which meant that the rest of the crew was surely awake too.
Her attention was suddenly diverted when she felt another aura moving toward them. When she recognized its owner, she couldn't help but take a quick look to the sky, before watching Maeve from the corner of her eye.
Did she feel it too?