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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 6:21 am
Seqi The healers were busy, but Seqi was desperate, and so the lioness with the coloration of a Spanish cow reluctantly made her way to the den of one very creepy priestess. She was not happy about it. When she got to Nadezhda's den Seqineq hesitated, hoping that Nadja wouldn't be there at all, and she could either deal with her mostly silent thrall or simply go home and try the healers again tomorrow. But waiting until tomorrow would be less than ideal. After all, the longer one waits with these sorts of things, the more likely it is that the undesirable will come to pass. Every lioness knows that. "Nadja, are you in there?" she called at last, cringing at the sound of her voice breaking the silence surrounding her friend's den. "I need you." Nadja Nadja was in her den but she was pretty exhausted. She'd had an unexpectedly active evening the night before and she felt like death warmed over. Kind of looked like it too, when she reluctantly rolled onto her feet and stumbled out of the den, cursing Laz under her breath for not being there, even though she had sent him away when she returned home last night. "I sincerely hope that you or someone you love is dying," she grumbled at Seqineq, squinting against the pale, weak sunlight. Even that was too much for her to comfortably bear. "Either way, please come inside. It's too bright out here." She slunk back into her den, leaving Seqi the choice of following or leaving, but she was in no fit state to do the playing nice thing. The potion she'd mixed herself last night packed quite a kick, but it should do the job. Unfortunately, the only way to know for certain was to wait and see, as every lioness knew.
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 7:32 am
Seqi "Good morning to you, too," Seqi muttered as she followed the priestess into her den. She had been visiting Nadja there for some time, so she knew her way about the public portions, but today was different. This wasn't a social visit. She had need of Nadja's skills as an herbalist and apothecary, and that was a portion of the priestess's den that only Nadja and her silent thrall Laz were permitted to enter. "It looks as though you had quite a night last night. Did you get any sleep at all?" In Seqi's experience, Nadja took pretty good care of herself, aside from the testing concoctions bit, and now that she had Laz she didn't have to self-test. Like many who cared about Nadja, Seqi had been glad of that. But it made it all the more unusual that Nadja would look so worn out now. There had to be a good reason. "You're not self-testing again, are you?" "Stormlords! Have you finally given in to Turisas? Is he as good as he claims he is? This is so exciting!" Nadja It was only a few hours before noon, but it was still much too early for Nadja to deal with Seqi being exuberant. Seqi being exuberant and curious was most definitely too much to be borne. She fixed her friend with an icy stare. "You said you needed me. Why?" She ignored the questions about what she had been up to last night, and with whom. Not that Seqi was entirely wrong. There had been a male involved, but it hadn't been Turisas. As for whether he was any good, well...not really, to be honest. But he had been a god, and that made up for a great deal. "I assumed no one's dying because you're acting too normally for someone to be dying, but now that I think about it, you were very mellow when your parents died. So I suppose I have to ask: nobody is actually dying while you interrogate me about my nocturnal activities, right?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 7:50 am
Seqi Seqi shook her head and made herself comfortable while Nadja moved around the den and made half-hearted attempts to arrange her fur. From where Seqi sat, it wasn't doing much good. Whatever Nadja had done last night and was refusing to talk about, it must have been very interesting. For the time being though, she would contain her curiosity. "No one's dying," she assured Nadja. "Believe me, you are the last person I would see if I wanted to stop someone from dying." Put that way, Seqi was reminded rather unpleasantly that she was here to ask Nadja to help her prevent someone from living. It wasn't the first time she had sought out aid of this nature, but it was the first time she had come to Nadja for the actual mixture. Nadja had taught her how to recognize a false potion a long time ago, when they were both cubs practically, but this was different. "I'm actually here because I went out with someone last night and things got a little out of hand and, well, I don't want to be a mother yet." Nadja Nadja eventually reached the same conclusion about her fur that Seqi had. It was hopeless until she took the time to sit down and groom properly, which she could not do while Seqi was here, unfortunately. Nadja hated to look disheveled. Particularly when she apparently looked disheveled in a "got some" kind of way. The remark about not coming to Nadja to stop someone from dying prompted her to point out, "I'm a priestess, too, remember. I can intercede with the gods." Part of her reminder was muffled by an inopportunely-timed yawn. Her attention narrowed and focused when Seqi described the purpose for her visit. She did not look at her friend because she knew what her eyes looked like when she was ready to commit violence, and she kept her voice low and level, but her next words did not contain a hint of mirth. Indeed, everything about her implied a willingness to charge into battle in a distinctly unpleasant way. "Were you forced?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 8:16 am
Seqi It wasn't until Nadja spoke that Seqi figured out what was going through the priestess's head and making her go so still and angry. When she figured it out she was horrified, and a little flattered that Najda cared, but mostly horrified by what Nadja might do because she cared. "Was I forced? Gods, no! It wasn't like that at all. You can stand down." She tried not to look at Nadja like she thought she was crazy. She knew how much Nadja hated that. Except when she went out of her way to seem crazy. Nadja was strange. "I just want a preventative. I'd go to a healer, but they're all pretty busy delivering cubs and treating reavers. If you're going to be weird about it, though, I'll wait until the healers are less busy. I should still be all right, time-wise." Nadja Nadja was a little embarrassed by her overreaction, but one of her duties as a priestess was the protection of lionesses who were forced, and so it wasn't impossible that Seqi would come to her for that reason. Highly improbable, but not impossible. Besides, it was better that she cared than that she was indifferent. "It's fine," she said shortly. "It's better that you take care of it early." For the first time she wondered how many times Seqi had sought this particular service from a healer. It was true that her friend didn't have the same reasons to keep her liaisons secret that Nadja had, but they never really talked about that part of their sex lives. The men, certainly, but not this. She had pre-made doses of the potion at the ready in her workshop, and she went to fetch a few days' worth, glad that it gave her an excuse to be nowhere near Seqi for a few moments. Briefly alone, Nadja found herself regarding her friend with scorn for being so careless with her body, but she made the uncharacteristic decision to hold her tongue with the exception of a single catty remark as she gave her the potion, "You know the drill, I'm sure."
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 8:29 am
Seqi The abruptness of Nadja's tone and that last remark startled Seqi. She had definitely seen Nadja like this before, snippy and brusque - it was almost like the priestess's default mode - but when Nadja turned it on her it was still a surprise, and she looked at her in hurt askance. Nadja's expression gave away nothing. "Right. Thanks, Nadja. I appreciate it." She thought about apologizing, but she didn't know what she would be apologizing for and it didn't seem right that she should have to apologize when she didn't even know what she had done. Probably she hadn't done anything and Nadja was just being bitchy. It wouldn't be the first time. "I really hope your day gets better," she added as she headed out, a peace offering of sorts, but also a way of calling attention to the fact that Nadja was being bitchy. Nadja Looking at Seqi's face Nadja supposed it was possible she had been unnecessarily harsh with that last comment, but it bothered her that Seqi could be so careless while she, Nadja, had to be so careful. She reminded herself that the father of her cubs was a god and managed a smile at the last minute. "Thank you," she said with the sort of serenity that comes from smugness rather than actual calm. "Yours, too." After all, a day that began with a trip to see Nadja to ask for a pregnancy preventative probably wasn't all that great of a day. She watched Seqi awkwardly cradling the containers of preventative tucked up to her chest as she walked away, smirking at the ridiculous sight, and then retreated back into her den to try to sleep some more. Fertility potions could be as unpleasant in their side effects as sterility ones.
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