Log cast: Rayek, Ktai
Log date: 8/5/98 
Log intro:
	The atmosphere in the Palace has grown thick with tension in these
 last few turns, for Gliders from Blue Mountain have once again been
 seen in the halls.  Tsoran's threats have set many on edge and Reon's
 erratic moodswings and Haikari's puzzling sensitivity have not helped
 it at all.  But now, they have left, giving everyone a chance to relax
 once again.
----------

Entry Hall(#8823RAF)
High-ceilinged, airy, this chamber widens out from the doorway that
 serves as its entrance from outside to an expansive room, filled with
 little more than strangely ornate walls and the occasional column,
 rising up to the ceiling far overhead. Closer inspection of the walls
 reveals patterns shaped into their surfaces, sometimes of wings, or
 flowers, or the lithe forms of elves -- and sometimes of images that
 defy description. The air is full of a subliminal shimmer that plays at
 the edge of elfin senses, a tingle that feels welcoming even in its
 eldritch oddness. Among the fanciful shapings in this wide chamber can
 be viewed a 'black spiral' of rock resting on a low column.
A long winding stairway twines its way up out of this chamber and into
 the upper heights of this place; you might be able to find other ways
 out of here, but the only other exit in immediate sight is the archway
 and doors that lead outside.
Contents:
Ktai
Obvious exits:
Corridor  Winding Stairway  Doorway<Out>  

A figure can be made out by the doorway, standing with arms folded,
 looking out through the entryway to the outside. The opened doors allow
 the slight breeze to glide through the Palace, offering circulation to
 the air within.

There is a soft sound of slippers against stone, and Ktai pauses within
 the hall to see the figure by the door. ** Rayek...? ** She sends
 softly.

"Hmm?" Hearing his name, the Airwalker turns, glancing over his shoulder
 with an arch of his brows. "Ktai?"

She smiles softly and nears him. As she draws close enough, she extends
 her hand out to lightly touch his cheek. ** You have been keeping to
 yourself again. Is something wrong? **

The touch summons a smile and Rayek lifts a hand to touch it over hers
 before answering, his shoulders lightly rising and falling. "No..
 Actually, things are uncharacteristically.. well." To emphasis, he
 gives a slight jerk of his head to indicate the outside, or what is
 visible of it from the entryway. "They're gone."

Ktai tilts her head, then nods. ** So now what? **

"I don't know." It is an honest one, frank and quietly put, but it is
 also spoken with uneasy puzzlement. "It has been a rare moment when all
 is as it should be." He pauses briefly, then smirks. "Heh. Or close to
 it."

Ktai arches a brow and looks outside in mild interest. Noting his
 preferance to speech, she too shifts to speaking voice, hers a little
 rougher from unuse. "What isn't quite right?"

The shadow of the Great Hawk, Ripplewind is finally gone from the
 clearing before the Palace, marking the departure of the Gliders Reon
 and Haikari. The aforementioned Airwalker dips his head slightly,
 nodding to himself once, then shaking his head. "Nothing. The Gliders
 are gone, even Tsoran. Tyree is growing without complication. Tilia is
 relatively unchanged, neither for better nor worse.. Nothing at all is
 wrong."

Ktai nods, again slowly. Still watching the outside, she says something
 that he might miss if he's not paying attention: "The wind blows. It is
 a good day."

"Yes, it is." Through the corners of his golden eyes, Rayek looks at
 her. "Wonder if it'll rain."

Ktai's voice is touched slightly with an unidentifiable emotion.
 "Perhaps. It would feel good."

"Very," Rayek says agreeably, reaching an arm to wind it around her
 waist, a corner of his lips quirking up slightly. He looks at her for a
 moment, then out to the sandy outside again, adding thoughtfully, "I've
 always liked the rain. There was so little of it when I was young."

Ktai steps in closer to him, leaning her head against his. "I remember
 rain. Lots of it. The roses cried."

Rayek looks to her with a blink, brows furrowing slowly. "The roses..
 cried?"

Ktai sends openly ** Kodachi... was always watering them. So they cried
 on me. **

His brows furrow deeper and a light frown appears, golden eyes studying
 her with puzzled concern. "When you were a child, then?" Rayek asks
 after a moment. "The water would fall on you?"

Ktai nods slowly. "I lived in the rosebushes. It's hard to explain, but
 my childhood was something like a dream where it didn't happen to me...
 but to another glider who looked like me..."

Rayek nods as if he understands, his eyes betraying the fact that he
 doesn't. Again, he seems to study her, head tilting slightly to one
 side. On impulse, he asks, "What happened to her? Kodachi?"

Ktai says "When you were in the Mountain... did you ever visit the Rose
 Garden?"

An elegant shake of his head in negative is all the one-time Palace
 Master offers in reply.

Ktai says "Oh." A mental image of what seems to be a red-haired elf
 captured in a rose-tinted crystal. "That... is what she looks like
 now."

Looking disturbed from behind the thin curtain of errant black hair
 fallen over his eyes, Rayek regards Ktai curiously now, his interest
 touched as well as his uncertainty. "She.. chose that? Is she dead
 inside that.. crystal?"

Ktai shakes her head. "I don't even know if she is in there. I didn't
 want to know. But I know she chose it."

"That's.. disturbing." Rayek looks away now, to focus his gaze elsewhere
 on the view outside the Palace, perhaps on one of the tents scattered
 amongst the rocks. "To be held like that.. Inside crystal. Why?"

"She wanted to be perfect forever. Like her roses." Ktai's voice holds a
 tinge of disgust.

"Perfect, eh?" Something dry touches Rayek's voice as he lifts his gaze
 up from the tents scattered about upside to move forward slightly,
 enough to see the sky and the setting sun. "An odd way to go about it."

"Odd is a good word to describe her."

"I gathered as much." Once again Rayek falls silent, almost wistfully
 so, watching the wisps of clouds as they are shaded soft orange and
 yellow, and even purple and red, as the daystar disappears beneath the
 horizon, a few lone stars daring to show their face midway through
 sundown. When he does speak again, his voice is soft, reserved. "Its a
 shame, to be so close and yet to fall so far."

Ktai purses her lips slightly. "Hmm?"

"The Gliders," he explains, but not very thoroughly. "They came so close
 to being High Ones, but fell too short."

Ktai ohs softly. "No. I don't think they came close at all. The High
 Ones loved life, embraced it in all forms. The Gliders are afraid of it
 in every form... even thier own."

In response Rayek shrugs lightly, turning his gaze from the setting sun
 to Ktai, eyebrows quirking. "Perhaps now, yet.." And again he shrugs,
 lips pursing. "They and the Underworlders.. have that in common, at
 least. Its that one flaw that keeps them from achieving their goal,
 enough to set them below anyone else in other's eyes."

Ktai gazes out, as if looking through the sun itself, not truly seeing
 that which is before her as she whispers: "Why did I have to be born of
 a race that hates itself?"

A soft, sympathetic chuckle emits as the arm encircling her waist hugs
 gently. "Who knows? Who knows. Don't ask questions that don't have any
 answers."

Ktai blinks, unaware that she had spoken that. She blushes softly, then
 hugs Rayek back. In an attempt to change teh subject, she offers: "I
 heard that you and Eveshka had a ... talk..."

"I.." His golden eyes are upon her, wanting to pursue the subject some
 more, but doesn't, instead looking back through the entryway, the
 sunset nearly over as the indigo night becomes more and more dominant.
 Instead, he nods once, answering, "... Aye, we did."

Ktai notes his pause, looking backto him. "Hmm?"

"We talked. Eveshka and I."

Ktai's voice softens some. "She misses Talyrath, I fear. I wish I knew
 how to help keep her from getting hurt when he doesn't come back. Makes
 me feel like a horrible parent..."

"'When?'" The black-haired Airwalker looks back to Ktai, eyebrows arched
 further. "You are certain he will not return?"

Ktai sighs softly. "I fear he will not. And every day she asks if I have
 seen him. I have to answer her no... and her face... the light goes out
 of her eyes..."

Rayek emits a soft sigh, his own eyes darkening to a pale orange color,
 his own arm about Ktai's waist tightening. "What happened? He just..
 disappeared?"

Ktai's voice is quiet. "Or he left. But she hasn't been as upset as I
 feared. It's like something is helping... cushion it."

Rayek stares straight ahead, pursing his lips. "Odd.." he muses, before
 he blinks twice. He turns his head sharply, cocking an eyebrow. "Wait.
 Did I tell you..?"

Ktai hmms softly, raising a brow. "Tell me what?"

"I adopted Eveshka," he puts forth bluntly, blinking at Ktai. Great Sun!
 I could have sworn I.. How could I forget something like /that/?

Ktai blinks slowly. Very.

"You... adopted... Eveshka?"

Rayek's expression is sheepish, his lips turning in a crooked smile.
 "I.. I could have sworn that I /told/ you.. I couldn't have.." His
 cheeks flush, a rosy hue shading his sun-darkened face, and the
 Airwalker quickly averts his gaze elsewhere. "I.. thought I told..
 ah.." Then he nods, quickly and briefly, reaching his free hand to comb
 back his hair from his face. "It was.. Mathyn, he.. sent to me, I..
 asked her, she.. said.. ah.."

Ktai nods slowly. "You asked me who Mathyn was... but you didn't
 explain..."

Rayek looks rightfully embarrassed now, with good cause for it. "Truly,
 Ktai, I had thought I'd told you.. maybe it was after that.."

Ktai hugs him gently.

Eren soulsends ** <Gently> I love you, Rayek. **

Rayek looks.. startled? surprised? confused? Maybe all of the above, for
 he only blinks at her at first. "You.. aren't angry?"

Ktai smiles softly. "Why would I be angry, Rayek?"

"That.. I had not told you. Kept it from you, so to speak. You might
 have.. misintrepreted it.."

Ktai smiles, tracing the line of his cheek with her finger. "Your
 blush... your actions. If you had meant to keep it from me, you would
 not react like such."

"Heh.." Still encircling her waist with one arm, Rayek raises the other
 to scratch the back of his neck, grinning crookedly. "I.. suppose so..
 ah.." He almost blurts into babbling again, but stops himself, instead
 inhaling deeply and gathering his thoughts. When he releases the
 breath, he is calm once more and serious. "You are.. all right with
 this, Ktai?"

Ktai kisses his cheek lightly. "Yes, I am."

Rayek relaxes visibly, then comments, "Good.. I.." He shakes his head.
 "I should have known better than this. Nervous.. heh."

Ktai laughs softly. "Does it make you happy?"

"Yes.. Though it is somewhat puzzling." Rayek smiles at her quietly.
 "Besides Tyree, I had not fancied myself a father for some time..
 Now.."

Ktai tilts her head. "Puzzling?"

"That parenthood should be placed into my hands twice in such a short
 while after so long a time without."

Ktai nods slowly. "Perhaps it is as the High Ones will it."

"Perhaps.." Rayek raises his gaze up towards the ceiling above, a faint
 smile curling on his lips. "And we /are/ in the home of the High Ones."

Ktai looks up as well for a moment, and smiles. "Yes, we are."

[End log.]