After nightfall

[Ziad]

Ziad looked up, giving her a bright and fully friendly, unfaked smile. "That´s very kind of you, lady de Valnor." he said. "My name you know and I am of less noble birth than to go with a family name such as you. If referring to a full name at all, you might say my name is Ziad ibn Nazeer, but my mother´s tradition was a different one where children were often just numbered or their father´s names repeated so I like to call myself by my first name only."

He reached out, grasping her hand firmly to shake it as if they had just met.

[Kriss]

Kriss smiled once he shook her hand. It was funny to meet someone she had already known. Somehow, this moment seemed to be much better than their first meeting.

His name sounded funny for her like all the others names over here. Singwald had taught her Arabic and some Celtic dialect when she had been a girl, saying that you never know what the life can bring you, as if he had predicted some of the cases. That is why Kriss had accommodated in Basra without any particular problems. Still some words seemed to be funny for her.

"On the north the second part of the name is very important. Especialy for a man. It in some way distinguishes you among others. This may be a nickname associated with your features or the name of your homeland or simply the name after your father if you are a boy. Like Aniel Shaigansson." she explained.

[Ziad]

Ziad smiled a bit at this. "Well, it is similiar to how it is here, then." he said. "because the second name shows your heritage. My father´s name is Nazeer, ´ibn´ means ´son of´" He leant back comfortably. "Some men pride themselves with making that like a long chain to show their ancestors. I could also call myself Ziad ibn Nazeer ibn Alim."

[Kriss]

Kriss flashed him a genuine smile. "It won't be very practical. It would take you plenty of time to sign something."

[Ziad]

"Oh well, this is not about practical." Ziad corrected her with a light shake of his head and a smile. "it´s about dignity and pride. Honoring your fathers. And when you sign you can still sign with your name only."

[Kriss]

Kriss slightly nodded at his words. "If I didn't regard it that way, do you think I would use such a long, full name?" She said raising her eyebrows and putting a smile on her face.

[Ziad]

She was trying to be flirty with him Ziad guessed, by saying such things, by showing interest and, especially that, by not having insulted him over the whole evening so far. Still, he was not quite sure what she was referring to. "What do you mean?" he asked, taking a sip of his wine, somewhat amused.

[Kriss]

He was alert. In all her words, he saw the second overtone. He wanted to see it. Even if there was not one in what she had said.

"Just that I would never call myself or my son with two-place name, if it wasn't be about dignity, pride or honoring your fathers, as you said." She explained with neutral tone and she also took a sip of the wine.

[Ziad]

"Ah." Ziad said with a small smile at the clarification. He leant back comfortably in his seat, finished with dinner for now. "Well, this is how people are different. And how their cultures differ. And the countries they come from."

[Kriss]

Kriss also finished her dinner when one of her worker walked in with another bottle of wine and took away the tableware. The archer looked at the bottle of wine beverage, formulating in her mind quite a risky plan. Risky, because she could not know for how long the situation was going to be under her control. There was only a hope that she as a woman from the north could drink more than the Arab soldier...

She raised her glass and smiled at him, "So, Ziad ibn Nazeer, to the similarities and differences between us."

[Ziad]

He was not too sure how much he had drunk at this point, nearly two glasses he guesed, but he had been drinking slowly, he had been eating while he drank and as a guard one was used to alcoholic beverages, he thought with an inward smirk, so that was not enough to make him lose it, even though he could feel it tingle slightly at some far away corner of his mind.

Ziad raised his glass in return, toasting towards the young woman. When he was about to take another sip of wine, his eyes casually strayed down her arm - and noticed the bruises. They were not extremely obvious, but they were there. Small bruises that looked too deliberate to be from something like bumping an arm into a table. His hand hesitated, but only shortly, only too short to notice as he hoped when his eyes returned to hers.

What was she on about, he wondered, new scepticism welling up in his mind. Something was off about her. The strange behaviour she had shown towards him so far, that other woman he had not seen in the city ever before, her evasive answers about that one night where she had returned to her place after dumping her boy with him, wet like a drowned rat. Something was wrong, his experience of years be damned if not. He decided to be more careful on the wine but not letting her notice it. Maybe this little bird would sing to him a little more when tipsy.

"To the similarities and differences," he echoed with a smile before he drank. "Whichever you might find more significant so far," he added when placing down the glass.

[Kriss]

"Let's say that I find both of them interesting." She said putting back the galss on the table. Actually, it was true. Kriss found him an interesting guy. All in all, more than all her drunk guests could be.

She leant back on her chair and softly crossed her legs. It was nice to feel like a real woman again. Numerous loathful comments from the drunkards were not motivating enough to attire herself. Somehow, subconsciously she was glad that Kahlan had made her change her image a bit for this evening.

[Ziad]

Ziad smirked slightly at that. "These are two different things," he said. "Significance and interest."

His relaxed posture as he leant back, draping one arm back across where he was sitting, did not betray his momentary mistrust. He was eager to give her the feeling that he was not supsicous of her at all, that he was just a man enjoying the company of a woman he barely knew but possibly found enticing. That put most people at rest, and when people were calm they tended to lower their caution. He did not look at her arm again, but did not avoid it too much either, knowing that might make her wonder.

Lull her, he thought to himself. Wait till she´s tipsy, then make her drunk, then see she is asleep. That will give you proper chances to have a look around.

[Kriss]

"Well, okay..." Kriss started with unsteady voice, "I find you as someone totally different then me. It's not only about our cultures, religions or the families and places where we were born but what goes after that. You have a completely different personality as I could notice so far. You are sedate, calm, smart, always have a good riposte..."
She smirked at him in that moment and then continued, "You are responsible, live in a peaceful way. Everything seems to have its place in your life once in mine, everything seems to create a big mess. You walk through your life and I'm running through mine, without really knowing the destination. I first do then think about it. Things that happens in my life are devoid of any chronology. I cannot find my place on earth, I don't know where I belong and perhaps,subconsciously I don't wanna know. I'm like a volcano, unbridled energy ready to erupt in every moment. I talk a lot. I'm a mother but my son is doing whatever he wish and sometimes I really cannot control it. I do not control many other things in my life, actually. Even if there are some similarity between us, we ARE differernt. We are like two opposites but the opposites usually attract each other. That's why I regard you as someone really interesting..."
She stopped and bit her tongue. Without knowing whether the cause of her confessions was the alcohol or internal need to throw everything that bothers her.

Somehow, she was even glad she had said it. The only surprsing thing was that she said to him, to Ziad. But don't the opposites attract each other?

[Ziad]

Ziad listened intently, smiling slightly but biting down a somewhat broader grin. He wasn´t sure whether the young woman spoke like this because of the wine or because she was merely as like that - her moods changing faster than the tides. He had to find out, he thought. He didn´t know enough about her to be able to read her like that and truth be told, that made him feel a bit insecure, a feeling that he was neither too familiar with nor too fond of. She was a strange woman, he thought to himself. Strange, yes. But also interesting.

He let a finger trail along the rim of his glass which he was holding between his hands right now, casually leant back and studying her, seemingly somewhat in thought or considering her words. "because I am dfferent from you?" he asked with a soft smile. Part of that smile was show. part of him had already slipped into a habit of showing a charming behaviour, one he knew many women would appreciate, to lull her in. To see where it would get him if she got to a point where he could wrap her around his finger. He was not seeking the cheap oportunity of a drunkard sailor to have his way with a woman, he was seeking for information. And inside him, there was a silent battle going on about whether or not that was fair. He ended that battle quickly. Fair was what was right. And this girl seemed to have a few skelletons hidden in her closet.

"Well," he continued, taking a sip of the wine before placing the glass back on the table. "but isn´t that what makes people interesting, exactly as you say? Seeing things with another that are new and unknown to oneself?"