A Rousing Game (EE 1)

[Maester Oswell]

A Maester he may well be, but Oswell tried to at least spend some time with his nose out of his ponderous tomes and musty scrolls.

Most often that time was spent gathering herbs in the woods with his mule, but tonight it meant a few mugs of wine and a few games of dice with some of the locals. Oswell had been holding his own, maybe even slightly ahead, but the other players didn't mind too much since he tended to funnel his winnings into buying more drinks for the table.

[Alessia]

Entering the establishment the young woman without a home held her bag over her shoulder. Finding now an appropriate time to secure herself a proper place to stay, a warm bed and a meal. Though she wasn't quite ready to settle in just yet. Walking over to those gathered at the table she took a seat that a man much further down on his luck than the others recently vacated. Sword at her hip, she slid into the seat and rested her bag at her feet.

Looking about those gathered she raised a brow and with a charming smile asked, "Room for for one more?"

[Maester Oswell]

Giving the newcomer the once over, Oswell nods welcomingly.

"Of course," he replies fairly deadpan, his attention obviously held by the woman's exotic weaponry. "We're only playing for small stakes if that's fine with you. We don't all have connections to the land of the Iron Bank you know."

He jests, jamming his elbow into the ribs of the nearest player as they both burst into raucous laughter.

"I'm Maester Oswell in service to House Dunn. This is Barrett, Percy, Dantis and Vernin."

[Alessia]

"Thank you for allowing me to join you this evening, gentlemen," she said with a brief nod to all of those gathered about table.

Resting her hand on the hilt of her blade she twirled it a little as it hung down to her side. Gaining a charmed smile she responded, "Then you know a Braavosi blade when you see it? I can't say I'm surprised, Maester, but to find someone like you here now that is quite surprising."

[Maester Oswell]

"Aye, well beneath whatever trappings we may cover ourselves with," he gestures to his chain and Alessia's blade, "we are all still men underneath with all the failings and faults that entails."

"I saw quite a few blades like that in Lys, although I never made it far enough north to reach Braavos itself."

[Alessia]

"Men do have quite a number of failings," she agreed albeit with a clever smirk she reserved for herself.

"I've only passed underneath the Titan twice in my life, and I've only been a few other places," she said, looking about for a barmaid or anyone to get her a drink in hand. "So, Maester, you traveled out to Lys in search of knowledge to stuff into your books and tomes?"

[Maester Oswell]

Squeezing the dice in one hand, Oswell bowed to the hooting of the table to get on with it and slammed them down on the pitted, wooden surface. They did not love him this time and he tossed a copper penny into the growing kitty before passing the dice to the next player.

"Lys, Volantis and Tyrosh." He confirmed as his resume of travel. "Fortunately for those of us on this side of the Narrow Sea many of the more virulent diseases and poisons are kept from our shore by its waters."

With a smile, Oswell slid the communal pitcher of ale over to Alessia, but her predecessor had apparently taken his cup with him.

[Alessia]

A problem with a solution. Dantis received the dice next but when he turned back to play he found Alessia's hand on his shoulder with a charming smile. "I want to make a personal bet, small and fun alright? If you lose this toss you are going to find someone to fetch me a cup, do you accept?"

Dantis, like many, liked making pretty people happy. With the agreement, he tossed his dice and promptly lost his bet. Now they were in Alessia's hand and the man was off to flag down a barmaid or something.

Back to Oswell she palmed the dice and moved them about deftly in her hands as she spoke, "Chasing diseases?" she shrugged, "There have been worse reasons to travel across the Narrow Sea I am sure."

Tossing the dice she followed the flow of the game, though if she were honest she didn't completely know the rules quite yet. Just a watchful eye and a bit of a brain.

[Maester Oswell]

"Chasing cures rather than diseases if we're splitting hairs." Oswell corrected with a wave of the hand.

"But I'm sure that's not the sort of conversation likely to engender an evening of fun and good will. So what brings such a uniquely trained individual as yourself to Ashford?" Oswell enquires in a polite conversational tone.

[Alessia]

"I think I passed through here once," she said, glancing about the tavern as if to try and remember this place. "When I was much younger, of course. Anyway," she said, turning just to hear that Dantis had flagged down a barmaid to bring her a cup. Taking it from the young woman she offered her a charming smile just like before.

"I hear that it is the young lady Ashford's name day celebration, and I came to celebrate the young lady."

[Maester Oswell]

"Then your timing is impeccable." Oswell relies as he lifts his cup in toast.

"To Lady Ashlyn." He calls loud enough to penetrate the din of the taproom.

[Alessia]

Alessia raises her cup, freshly filled from the pitcher, toasting without raising her voice, "To Lady Ashlyn."

Wearing a light smile as she absorbed the moment with people all around and in good spirits.

[Maester Oswell]

"No house colors?" He questions Alessia as the ruckus from the impromptu toast dies down, and after the now sizable pot in the middle claims another couple of his coppers.

[Alessia]

"You expect differently?" she asks, raising a brow as she rested a free hand on the hilt of her blade. A subtle reminder of the type of woman she chose to be.

[Maester Oswell]

Oswell shrugs non committedly. "Expectations are dangerous," he replies with mirth in his voice.

"But if you wear that blade, one would be a fool not to assume you know how to use it and such a difficult blade implies a skilled operator. An operator who could possibly of great value to a Westerosi house, if they only understood the value that stood before them."

[Alessia]

Alessia smiled, "Unfortunately, I do not think there are many Westerosi Lords who share your worldliness or Knowledge, Maester. Now I am just a bit too much for any of them to handle, someday I'll be even better. I find it that Wisemen and Women are too often ignored when it really matters."

[Maester Oswell]

"The young always think they know best." He responds with a hint of cynicism and snark in his voice.

"So your independence is then part desire for freedom and part of you being too much of an unknown quality? It does seem to suit you though."

[Alessia]

"I would be dishonest if I were to claim I am anything but content with who and what I am," she confirmed, a light smirk on her expression.

[Maester Oswell]

"Ha." Exclaimed the Maester. "Then you're even wiser than this old coot. Be comfortable in who and what you are and fuck anybody who says different. Took me a lot more years than you to learn that one."

[Alessia]

Alessia nearly choked on her laughter, catching and collecting herself, "I didn't expect such language from a Maester!" she said with a light, more controlled, chuckle.

[Maester Oswell]

"Oh no. Gambling, drinking and cursing. You think they're gonna throw me out of the club?" He joked with a generous swig of his own cup of ale accompanied by a slap on his back from Barrett.

"I am who I am, and if that's not good enough for them then I guess they can take back this." He says as he hefts his silver and steel maester's chain. "But they can't take away this." He concludes tapping at his temple.

"People are always trying to take away what others have, but it's much harder to take away what they are."

[Alessia]

Alessia smiled wide, a thin strip of white revealed between her lips. Leaning forward she held onto her cup as she looked to Oswell. Eyes focusing more on the old man.

"How did you become a Maester?" she asked with a charm to that smile of hers.

[Maester Oswell]

"Construction." He answered honestly. "Ever since I was old enough to remember I was fascinated by stories of Bran the Builder and the works he managed to construct. Worked on a few projects at home until my father sent me to assist in the building of Summerhall when I was fifteen."

"There was a Maester there called Melaquin. After seven years working on the construction and receiving his tutelage, when he returned to the Citadel, I went with him. Earned my first link a few years later."

He drained the last of his cup and rest it on the table. "Not as thrilling a story as those the knights'll tell ya, but it's true. So I've been studying architecture and medicine since me youngest days. Ever since the accident."

[Alessia]

"Not as exciting, that is true," she admitted freely, resting her left hand on her right wrist. With lightness to her smile she teased a little, "Though, Maester, you seem to forget you didn't tell me of any accident."

[Maester Oswell]

A slight inclination of his head conceded the point to Alessia. "Too true."

With a little effort, he managed to retreat his chair from the table, before wheeling it around to where Alessia could get a look at the contraption.

"I was almost ten when it happened. Remember that fascination with construction I was telling you about? Well a fire had swept through one of my father's more remote holdings and I rode out to see them pull down some of the more structurally unsound buildings. And...well...I got a little too close, when one of the walls toppled the wrong way."

"Shattered some bones in my spine just above my waist. No motion or feeling in anything below there ever since." His tone is very clinical and cold. He's clearly accepted the injury and the path it has set him on a long time ago.