[Road to Najmi]

[mr_gaeta]

Once they're out on a road not pockmarked with stones and potholes -- or, at least, dotted with fewer of them -- the constant jostle of the cart settles into an easy, rolling rock from side to side.

Given his usual lack of sleep the night before, it isn't terribly surprising that that's enough for Gaeta to slip into a light doze, leaning against the back wall with his bag bunched up like a pillow.

Comments

[road2najmi_npcs]

"Ah well." A faintly theatrical sigh. "Most of the folk who hear it won't know it either. But I'll always know if I play it wrong, and then I shan't sleep until I've played it right."

His fingers move on the flute's stops, absently.

[mr_gaeta]

A soft exhalation, almost resolving into soundless, wry laughter. "Now that, I know," says Gaeta.

He shifts position again as his right knee twinges, otherwise ignoring it.

[road2najmi_npcs]

"Oh?" He shifts position slightly, leaning on his pack, propped up on one elbow.

[mr_gaeta]

He shakes his head.

"It's a long story," he says. "I, ah, did a lot of detail work when I served in the military."

Among other things.

[road2najmi_npcs]

"Ahh," he says, with a nod. "And as with music, so with the soldier's work?"

Struck by a thought, not waiting for an answer, he leans forward. "Did you by chance learn any soldiers' songs, when you served? I've never been able to collect more than a few."

[mr_gaeta]

Gaeta lifts his eyebrows, slanting a swift glance in Kaya's direction.

"Nothing that's appropriate for mixed company," he says with a hint of a smirk. "Or that I think you'd understand without context."

Like the one about Starbuck that no one ever, ever sang to her face unless they wanted to be picking their teeth out of the grates.

[no_thief]

Kaya looks faintly put out by this, but doesn't protest.

[road2najmi_npcs]

Azimar heaves another sigh, and brushes back his hair with one hand.

"It's been some time since I've been able to collect any new songs," he explains sadly.

[mr_gaeta]

Gaeta's mouth quirks in apology in response to Kaya. It shifts, quite easily, to Azimar a moment later.

"I'm not much of a musician anyway. Not -- like you, I mean," he amends.

[road2najmi_npcs]

"Well." His mouth widens in an irrepressible grin. "Few are. -- But do you sing at all? Your speaking voice sounds as though you might."

[mr_gaeta]

He hesitates, the smile fading.

"Sometimes, but it's not..." He trails off, trying to pick the best words, as he settles a hand on his right knee to quiet another twinge. "Really something I do publicly."

[no_thief]

"You do sometimes," Kaya points out, sounding a little uncertain -- not of the facts, but of how he'll take her saying it.

[mr_gaeta]

He glances her way. The cart strikes a rock, jostling his hand against his leg.

"Not that often."

No annoyance; no anger. It just...is what it is, the simple fact of the matter.

[road2najmi_npcs]

Azimar moves easily with the swaying of the cart, looking curiously at Gaeta.

"Would you, though? If I asked you to teach me one of the songs of your home?"

[mr_gaeta]

If Kaya weren't there, he could shrug it off with another lie, saying, all I know are the impolite songs. His fingers work at his knee, as if anticipating a deeper hurt.

"There is one," he says, quiet, cautious. "I...can't remember where I learned it. I think it's something I heard when I was a kid."

[road2najmi_npcs]

Azimar studies him for a moment.

Then, very quietly: "I'd be honored and grateful if you'd teach it to me."

[mr_gaeta]

Gaeta's eyes slip closed. It nearly looks, for a moment, as if he's dozed off again.

And then his hand unconsciously tightens on his right leg, and he begins to sing.

"Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man
With my three wishes clutched in her hand..."

(It fills the entire cart. He may not claim to be much of a musician, but Gaeta undoubtedly sounds like one.)

"The first that she be spared the pain
That comes from a dark and laughing rain
When she finds love, may it always stay true
This I beg for the second wish I made too..."

As the song gains momentum, so does his voice, building to a sweeping crescendo on the final lines.

"But wish no more
My life you can take
To have her please just one day wake
To have her please just one day wake
To have her please...

Just one day wake."

[road2najmi_npcs]

Kaya's hunkered down in her nest of sacks again, listening, sober and attentive. She's heard the song before; very softly, too softly to be heard, she's humming along.

Before the first verse is quite through, Azimar has lifted himself from the half-reclining position, eyes widening; by the end of the second, he's sitting very straight, leaning forward, his lips parted just slightly.

When Gaeta finishes singing, he lets out a long, low breath.

[mr_gaeta]

It's no longer a phantom pain he can't do anything about, thank the gods; those disappeared when he died. But as Gaeta opens his eyes, he continues to knead what's left of his right leg.

"That's about all I know besides the soldier songs," he murmurs, meeting Azimar's gaze.

[road2najmi_npcs]

"It's beautiful," he says, soft, almost reverent. "A love song?"

[mr_gaeta]

Gaeta nods. "I'd assume so," he says. "I don't know what else it could be."

[road2najmi_npcs]

"Does it have a name?"

He's wholly unguarded in admiration, and in something else: something like yearning.

[mr_gaeta]

He rubs the back of his neck, mulling it over.

Gaeta doesn't expect any revelation to appear -- he's spent enough time trying to figure out what the song is, and where it's from, and how he knows it. But it would be nice to have answers for a change.

Eventually, though, he's forced to shake his head. "I can't remember it," he admits, rather rueful. "To be honest, I don't know anything about it, it just...popped into my head one day."

[road2najmi_npcs]

Again that small wordless sigh.

"May I?" he asks, as though asking a parent for permission to hold an infant.

[mr_gaeta]

Gaeta considers him. A beat later, a ghost of a smile appears: a touch sad, but far more accepting.

"Sure."