(no subject)

[scots_wolf]

Teja and Urquhart are playing chess again, slowly and grimly, but with much less tension than the last time.

Urquhart's nose is still somewhat swollen and discoloured.

Teja would not pass judgement on that; he is far too dignified to smirk at the man's suffering.

Instead, he takes a knight with his bishop, calmly.


[[OOC: Please say in your tag which of them you want, or you might get both. Thanks!]]

Comments

[ash-imperfect.livejournal.com]

"That would be because I am French," he answers for the first part, "and my name is not." It's not his original name, not the name he was born with, but he does not remember it now. He's been 'Asher' for so long that he wouldn't know to answer to anything else.

[ostro_goth]

Teja moves his knight forwards, into a spot that is no longer defended by Urquhart's queen.

"The history of any man may be as long and complicated as yours, Urquhart," Teja says. "Surely, you will have learned that in this place, each man's, woman's, child's or other being's tale is at least as strange as one's own? Even the baker women that come here are embroiled with vampires or wolf-men."

Urquhart is smiling at the board, and at the two men facing him, as if assessing a crowd for the right path to strike at his aim.

[ash-imperfect.livejournal.com]

"I have not met any bakers," Asher murmurs, "but it seems that most of those who come through here are far from ordinary." His looks alone made him stand out in his own time, but now it is his gift - and even that is not so special here.

He eyes Urquart suspiciously, not trusting that smile.

[scots_wolf]

"Your name is biblical," Urquhart says. "Hebrew. When I was studying in Paris, in the 1240s, I didn't have much to do with any French Jews. It was considered very risqué to have dealings with any rabbinical or Talmudic scholars. Of course we did, as they had access to sources and books we good little Christian students couldn't get at, through the infidels in Spain."

"I knew a Jewish woman from that place and time, when I was new in this place," Teja says. "She was studying to be a healer. She was truly honourable and strong-willed. Had I known her while I was alive, I would have asked her to marry me after but an hour's talking."

Urquhart gives him a very strange look.

[ash-imperfect.livejournal.com]

Asher nods. "The son of Jacob," he murmurs. He knew the meaning of his name, knew that he had hated it at first. But he didn't know his own name, and so Asher had become his, bit by bit.

He didn't find Teja's words particularly strange - but then, he was used to people declaring their love for him after only moments. Belle Morte's legacy.

[ostro_goth]

"Yes, that one," Urquhart says.

"Does it matter where the name is from?" Teja says, sensing that Asher has little connection to all the cultural blather Urquhart had been throwing at him.

He reaches up to lightly touch Asher's hand; and that only partially serves to confuse Urquhart.