"Dainósọ̀!"
An unfamiliar word spoken in an accent unfamiliar to the continent of Keiseio. It was rare Zaya had the chance to speak the tongue of her homeland that she had left as a girl. Many words had been forgotten over the years, replaced with the common tongue of this continent instead, but one was so ingrained in the woman who had come to the continent in search of something that it could not be simply worn away with time and habit.
Unlike the other she had not seen the morning in the same light. Though quiet she lacked the darkened introspection of longing for something, and instead practically danced through the town's streets waiting for others to rise and for the day to begin. Zaya did not linger in what she did not have and instead sought what would bring her joy. It was this openness perhaps that allowed for the corner of her eye to see the sunrise reflecting off the man's skin, or rather the scales hidden at the back of his neck.
Glee rushed through her like the sunlight illuminated hear joy as well as his subtly disguised features. She sought more, wide brown eyes scanning him for other elements of what he was, or what she had decided he was. Perhaps his feathers she believed should have been on him were hidden away for the moment, or maybe there were some hidden in his hair, or perhaps beneath his clothing.
Zaya needed a closer look and so she had insisted upon one, rushing upon the man and declaring what she believed to be his species. Dainósọ̀. Dinosaur. Or dragon as the people of this continent called them.
"I knew that I would find you," she asserted upon reaching him, her smile wide and lifting into the rest of her features, making her cheeks slightly more pink, the corners of her eyes crease and the height of her brows lift ever so slightly. "Everyone said that I was wrong, that it was rare to see one but I knew that some of you would be left," Zaya continued, unaware of the implication her words gave without the context of her determination to speak with him.
"You have been hiding," she insisted, continued naivity, a focus on her own yearnings. Surely if he had not been hiding she would have noticed before now that there was a local with scales like her Yazi had, someone who could potentially be the beast she had sought since childhood. "Cheeky man."
The threat of what he perceived in her words was not apparent in her approach, her manner, her brightness. Words like that were of his nightmares, the words of an assassin come to claim & drain him — but she was the personification of golden sunlight, her smile wide and sincere with clear eyes, crinkled at the edges, and cheeks flushed with exuberance. Despite the alarm bells going off in his head, the palpitations in his chest, the twitches in his hands hungry for his wakizashi, the need in his legs to lower him into a fighting stance, his good sense told him she was no threat.
At least, so long as she kept quiet.
He was still trepidatious, looking behind her down the coiling, empty streets to see if shadows shifted in the dawn's gentle light. Peering over his own shoulder to check for enemies waiting in abandoned stoops, behind carts, slinking out of alleyways. Everything was peaceful, calmed by the always prompt rise of the sun.
Onyx eyebrows dipped mid-forehead, and Kaladin shifted his weight to his back foot — still not facing her directly, ready to pivot, to launch into an attack if this proved some ambush. But she was radiant, and he somehow felt that he was enough as he was in her gaze — not special for what his blood might afford her, but because of who he was alone. Even those in his company that he trusted the most only stayed by his side because of what he offered them in return. Everything was an exchange, a transaction, a promise to be kept. Nagging, his mind told him this was too good to be true — and if her recognition of his truth was not rooted in something noxious, her knowing would surely lead to such an end.
He decided to play dumb.
❝ Ah. A prospective client of The Black Cabinet. Of course. ❞ Calloused fingertips rubbed at the stubble upon his jaw. ❝ You know, you could have simply made an appointment. I'm a busy man, but I make time for those in search of the miraculous. ❞ This sales pitch of his was worn and lacked the whimsical delivery he had once given it in the early even of its inception. Now that his empire had grown to such heights as to shadow all around him, he didn't need it. Business came to him, to those in his employ to wrangle.
❝ I don't hide, ❞ he rebutted, lifting his chin a notch and looking down the slope of his nose at her. There were no rebuffs on the claims of his cheekiness, though he was rarely offered opportunities to be anything but a shrewd businessman. ❝ I'm preoccupied. Filling a thousand drawers takes concerted effort. If you'll excuse me, ❞ he said, bowing his head. ❝ I'm available for appointments, but you'll need to visit my shop and make one. Good day. ❞
The scalewalker gave another quick look down the street and up it before turning on his heel to leave.
