Staring down at the elven girl, she let out a sigh. “Fuck. I really hope I didn’t do this to you.” Raising her hands to her face, Tessa pulled down at her face's skin. “But no one else comes down here, everyone else is too afraid of what might be down here in the sewers to find their way down here…except for me, and I guess now you.”

Raising her left hand, Tessa began pulling at her hair as she looked up to the bloody spot on the wall overhead. “Would I have done this while I was drunk? Could I have felt threatened?”

Looking over the elven girl, she saw no weapons, nothing that might have warranted a response from her. “Fuck, I don’t know!” Exhaling audibly, she reached out, shaking the girl. "Hey, hey! C'mon you can't really be sleeping here of all places now can you?! Wake up!" Not seeing a response, she tried nudging her once more, having no more luck than the first attempt in rousing her. "Adishesha...fuck...fuck!”

Groaning, she couldn’t avoid the feeling of guilt she now felt that she might have harmed some innocent girl while she was drunk. ”Damn me for a fool, but I can't just leave her like this…can I?"

After a long moment of mulling over the possibilities in her head, she came no closer to an answer on what she should do in this situation.

Should she leave her here where she found her? “I guess I could, but what might happen to her if I did?”

She pondered very briefly, bringing her up the nearest ladder by herself to Dusa's. ”Nah, that won’t work…I am not that strong, I'd need help.”

The last thing that came to mind, was something she normally wouldn’t even fathom entertaining the idea of. Should she bring her back into her own home and risk her last hidden safe haven to the knowledge of some stranger? “Can I really take that risk?”

There it was again, that voice ringing in her head that she couldn’t tell if it was her own or someone else speaking into her mind. “Could you really live with yourself if you have actually caused her harm…this possibly innocent girl and just abandoned her to some unknown fate, injured as she is?”

Looking up where she could have sworn she heard the voice coming from, Tessa let out a deep sigh, beginning to feel resigned to the choice she must make. As much as she hated it, there was only one real option amongst the lot passing through

Tessa's mind on what she had to do. "Fuck. Adishesha, I really am an idiot. But what choice do I have?"

Sighing to herself, Tessa slid her arm in under the elven woman's left armpit and lifted her awkwardly using the sewers wall for support before dragging her the short distance back towards her home.

Nudging the shimmering curtain away from the wall, she slid under it heading towards her makeshift bed positioning the elven woman against the pillows as comfortably as she could.

Tessa began inspecting her face where the hair was matted against her cheek. Not seeing an open wound there she assumed the bloody hair had fallen across her face from the wound along her scalp. Raising her hands to the wound on her scalp, she was relieved to see that the bleeding had stopped.

She reached out for one of the cleaner shirts she had along with a canteen of water from her stash. Pouring some of it out onto the shirt's sleeve, she began dabbing at the blood along her scalp to get a better look at the wound.

As she applied pressure to the scalp the woman's eyes opened as she jolted backwards with a gasp. She skittered herself backwards against the wall staring at Tessa with a frightened expression on her face.

Tessa stayed where she was frozen in place, both hands in the air holding the shirt in one hand and the canteen in the other.

The woman raised her hand holding it over top of the throbbing wound as her gaze fell upon Tessa. "W-who are you? W-what's going on, w-why have you brought me here?"

Lowering her hands, Tessa let out a sigh before speaking. "Look, I mean you no harm." She felt a little guilty from saying those words when she really didn't know if she caused her harm in the first place.

Not hearing a response from the woman, she continued with as calm a tone as she could muster. "My name is Tessa. While I can't answer why you have the injury on your head or why you were down in the sewers. I can at least say that you are in my home because I found you unconscious outside of it and didn't want to leave you there like that." She thought it better to leave out the fact she wasn't sure if she had caused the injury in the first place. "I gave you my name, what's yours?"

Shaking visibly, she began to lower her hand from her head. Her eyes lowered to her hand where fresh blood could be seen on her fingertips. "I..." Pausing, she had a look of confusion grow across her face as her ears wilted. "I-I d-don't know, I can't remember anything past waking up here with you. W-why can't I remember anything?" Her eyes rose upwards, locking themselves back onto Tessa as tears began to fill them.

Seeing the fresh blood along her fingers, Tessa tilted her head as her voice took on a worried yet still curious tone. "You can't even remember your own name?"

The woman looked deep in thought for a moment. A look of pain shot across her eyes before she shook her head faintly. "N-no...I can't"

Moving the canteen of water over into her other hand, Tessa ran her fingers through her hair. "Ah fuck..." Staring at the frightened woman with her back to the wall, she couldn’t help but wonder just how Dusa dealt with people like this day in, day out. All Tessa knew was she sure as hell wasn’t used to dealing with other people on a normal basis, let alone like this.

Letting out another sigh, she opened her mouth and tried her best to sound reassuring and calm despite the turmoil she felt growing within. "Look, as far as I can tell you must have hit your head against the sewer wall." She paused, making motions with her hands. "Or...or maybe someone or something might have smacked you against the wall and that might be why you are having trouble remembering? It will probably go away on its own.”

The frightened look held within the elven woman's eyes grew as she spoke despite her attempts to reassure her. Fresh blood began to make its way down the elven woman's face down the already matted hair on her left cheek.

Setting the canteen and shirt down onto the nearest pile of clothes, she raised her hands. “Look, I mean you no harm. I really am not going to hurt you, I just want to help…but you are still bleeding. So please, let me take a look at your head, okay?"

Hiccing, the woman’s arms rose up crossed in front of her chest. Her eyes kept flicking around the room looking for an escape route. “H-how can I know w-what you are saying is true? T-that I can a-actually trust you?”

Staring up at the ceiling for a moment, Tessa let out a deep sigh. “I really don’t know how to reassure you that I mean you no harm, I am not really a people person after all. Please, sit back on the pillows and let me examine your wound.”

She tried once more to mimic the kind of look Dusa always gave her when attempting to reassure her that things would be okay. She couldn’t help but wonder why she was even bothering so hard at trying to placate the girl. Was it just due to the guilt she felt, or was it something else?

There was a vulnerable look to the woman’s eyes, her ears still wilting downwards. She gave a faint nod before cautiously moving back to where she had been moments before atop the pillows. "O-okay..."

Picking back up the shirt and canteen, she gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry, this is probably going to sting a little." After pouring more water onto her shirt’s sleeve, Tessa lifted it up and dabbed along the trail of blood up into her scalp.

Much to Tessa’s surprise the woman stayed relatively still while she was cleaning her scalp. The wound was not as large as she had feared it might be, but there was most definitely a bruise beginning to grow around it. “So…is there something you might like to be called until you can remember your own name?”

Shifting around uneasily, she looked up at Tessa sideways balling her hands into fists against her lap. "N-no, nothing really comes to mind."

Moving her hand and the shirt sleeve down to the woman’s cheek, Tessa cleaned the blood off of her face and hair before folding the shirt and using it as a makeshift compress against the gash atop the woman’s head. "Well, if you can't think of one I could try to think up one for you."

Holding her own arms tightly around herself, the woman winced as the cloth was held against her throbbing scalp. "I g-guess so?” Looking off to the side, she was quiet for a moment. ”I m-mean I wouldn't even know where to start on what to call myself."

“We will get to that…” Lifting the shirt off of the wound, Tessa could see it was still bleeding faintly after the pressure was removed.  "But first, how is your pain tolerance?"

She looked up at Tessa still sniffling from the pain and confusion she felt. "I r-really don't know, b-but it hurts pretty bad right now?"

Humming, a thought came to Tessa’s mind on how to dress the wound. "Alright, I have an idea."

"W-what is the idea?" Her hand went back over top of the wound protectively.

"Well, normally a cut like this should be stitched." Seeing her wince at the word stitched, Tessa held up a finger. "Don't worry, we won't be doing that. Truth be told, I don't feel really comfortable sewing someone's scalp back together. Instead I will use strands of your own hair and knot them over the area to keep the skin together so it can heal naturally on its own. Hopefully, without any added bumps to your scalp afterwards."

Lowering her hand reluctantly, the woman slid it down against her lap. "I k-kinda prefer the sound of the second idea more, it sounds a lot less painful."

Bending in, Tessa took a look along the exposed cut and looked for strands of hair on either side she could use for the bindings. "It should be, you just will have to be mindful of the area when brushing your hair so as not to tear the hair bindings out."

Flinching at the area being touched, she did her best to stay still. "I t-think I can work with that...it's not like I have a brush anyway. At least, I don't think I do?"

Freeing two strands of the woman’s hair, Tessa made the first knot down against her scalp before moving onto the next. "If you don't have one we will figure it out later, a friend of mine should be able to help with getting you set up with the things you need to survive."

Tensing up visibly. Her eyes followed Tessa as she slowly worked on sealing her head’s wound. "T-the way you're saying that makes it sound like the area we are in is a dangerous place to live."

Being careful with her fingers, Tessa slid one set of hair strands after another into knots.  The bleeding slowed as she made her way over it slowly. "It can be, but most places these days are with how many artificers are running around the city lately looking for artifacts."

The woman made a funny face looking confused. "Uhm, I can sorta understand it being dangerous, wherever we are..."

Continuing on with the hair stitches, Tessa didn't stop her work to answer. "It's just called the city, I don't know why either. It's just always been called that, I call it Celavon though.”

The woman’s elven ears flicked curiously. “Why do you call it that if no one else does?”

Tessa paused for a moment shrugging before resuming her work on the hair sutures. “If you asked me why though I couldn’t tell you what that is either. It just came to mind one day and it makes more sense than just calling it the city even if only I and my friend Dusa call it Celavon."

 Her ears flicked curiously as the woman spoke again "I get that...sort of. But just what are artifacts and artificers?"

Hanging her head forwards, she felt stupid for already forgetting. "Shit...right. No memory, duh Tessa. Artificers are people who use Artifacts and artifacts well...hmm. Artifacts are like magic devices that when you touch them might unlock magical abilities within you or transform you into like a kitsune, or a cat, or into water, or grow snakes for hair, or potentially something creepy and possibly painful too. You never really know what will happen, just that people suggest you only touch ones you feel drawn to or there will likely be repercussions."

Ears wilting once more, the woman looked at Tessa intently. "Repercussions? Like what?"

"Like the dying kind..." Finishing with the hair sutures, Tessa slipped the folded wet shirt back over top of the wound holding it in place hoping the bleeding would stop.

The woman looked confused, making a quizzical face. "Well that sounds dumb, why would people ever want to risk that?"

Tessa shrugged, focused on keeping an eye on the wound as she spoke. "Mostly to survive honestly. People like me and you who have nothing special about us tend to be no match for someone that can shoot quills out of their body, or turn others to stone, or control the blood in someone's body to the point their heart stops and they die."

The woman raised a finger towards Tessa. "Now that...is freaking scary as hell.” Her ears began to flick wildly as she thought. “If you put it that way I guess it does make sense why people take that kind of risk then if it's to protect themselves."

Nodding rapidly, Tessa had a serious look on her face agreeing with the woman as she pulled away the compress, happy that the bleeding had finally stopped. "Pretty well yeah, of course its fucking scary. It’s why I live down here in the sewers so I don’t have to risk running into artificers more often than I have to."

Blinking, the woman eyed Tessa curiously. "But wait, you said people like us. Does that mean you don't have an artifact?"

Shrugging, Tessa shook her head. "Nope. Can't say as I do."

Tilting her head, the woman spoke with an inquisitive tone to her voice. "Is that just because you've never found one?"

Looking up at her, Tessa wrinkled her nose. "Eh, it's not so much that really. I have seen them, and at least one I've felt drawn to." Turning her head away, Tessa sat down and came to rest her elbows on her knees as she looked to the floor. "But I guess you could say I just never wanted, nor needed to have an artifact thus far. So why bother getting one?"

Swaying her head back and forth, the woman couldn’t help herself in asking out of curiosity. "But wouldn't it make your life better, or at the least, easier if you had one?"

Twirling a finger along her knee, Tessa was confused why she felt comfortable talking about all of this to some random girl when she didn’t even feel comfortable talking to Dusa about it. "Nah, not necessarily. It could heavily alter how I live just as easily as it could make my life better. Honestly? I think that I am just fine with how I live right now without one."