Shava House, Speaking, and Studies

Barrakas – Sypheros, 994 YK

The first week is a whirlwind tour of the Morgrave University (MU) campus with speaking engagements at some of the lecture halls there and even one evening’s “talk” at the Ten Torches Theater in the Torchlight district. This was fun, embarrassing, and a great introduction to one of my favorite places to go in Sharn on a weekend evening. It turns out that some theater students at MU put together a musical comedy based on some of the more story-like entries in our book, which apparently is closer to what my writing is like as it seemed to pull a significant portion from my additions compared to that of Gwen’s, Ren’s, or Jerrold’s. This also leads to the embarrassing portion. They took some liberties with some of the relationships and it would seem a Tabaxi and Elf love interest makes for some good scenes, comedic and… less comedic. I lived there with Gwen for a year and didn’t see as much of her skin as I did the actress that played her in the show. Oh, and they didn’t even have an actual Tabaxi play me. It was a Changeling. Don’t get me wrong, he was good, but I figured a place as big as Sharn would have at least one Tabaxi actor willing to take the part. Anyway, after the show, they brought Prof. Gwen, Jerrold, and me (Prof. Ren decided to pass on going) on stage to do some Q&A with the playwrights about our time there. Again, a little embarrassing since there were a few too many questions about Gwen and me specifically and not quite as many about the “Shadow Elves” which differed dramatically from the talks at the university. Still, it was a great night and I met some people that became friends, including Jhanni and Sid, the playwrights, Sim, the actor that played me, and Katarissa, the Elf who played Gwen (and yes, she goes by Kat). More about that group later.

After the short-lived speaking tour, I delved into my studies. I still had some of the basics left to complete and took some history and archaeology but went heavy into anthropology proper. Even here there wasn’t a whole lot to learn about the modern Dhakaani and most people didn’t even believe that they had returned. They thought that they were just another part of Lhesh Haruuc Shaarat’kor’s revolt and subsequent forming of the nation of Darguun. Oh well. My days were filled with classes and study and my evenings were filled with academic discussions at Shava House. The discussions were a nice respite in a way since I was the only one there who’d actually be born and raised on Xen’drik. It meant a lot of questions for me, but I could just answer based on my actual experience. I wasn’t forced to think through and figure out what and how to answer. This was the basis for my weekdays. Weekends were another thing altogether.

There are a lot of fantastic places around MU for food and entertainment and on the weekends, I took advantage as much as I could. When they weren’t working, Jhanni, Sid, Sim, and Kat would join me. Sim was the one who usually couldn’t make it as he was a regular actor at the Ten Torches, but the rest of us were students and were lucky enough to have weekend evenings mostly free. Jhanni worked a weekend day shift at a coffee house near the University and we’d often hang there. Sid, Kat, and I were unemployed. Sid’s dad was a Khoravar merchant who had ties to House Orien and his mom did some form of engineering with the lightning rail network. Apparently, she wasn’t too happy about his going into theater, but they still sent him his monthly stipend. Kat was born on Aerenal and was here on some kind of exchange program with Breland. She was actually a Political Science major and that was kinda a surprise since she was very good actress. I, of course, was here on a scholarship based on my work with the Umbragen book. So, we had some free time on the weekends and took advantage trying to see as much of the city as we possibly could.

Weeks went by and the four of us really became quite a clique. It expanded here and there but we remained a pretty good core four. Sid met a Khoravar guy who waited tables at the Diamond Theater (also in Lower Menthis) and he was around for a while. Jhanni never managed a steady relationship so there were a series of guys who came and went there. Then there was Kat and me. It turned out that Kat really did like cats and cat-like people. After a few months, we started dating and stayed a couple until I ended up leaving Sharn two years later. We had our ups and downs but what relationship doesn’t? We still correspond and I know she’s since returned to Aerenal. I really hope I get a chance to go there someday, but my new work, which I will refer to as “adventuring,” keeps me busy enough not to dwell on her too much.