38.2 Winged or Not

General Summary

Day 563

Late that evening our group gathers around to hear Magdalena's stories. Qing Chen offers her a gift of an inkless pen, seemingly hopeful that he will make a good impression.  

I won't play matchmaker for you, demon.

  Pulling him aside, I inform him that Magdalena and Kaide have decided that our scholarly behaviour is flirtatious on his part and that I don't care, am not convinced, and wish to focus only on our friendship and studies. He is bewildered and embarrassed and assures me that he has not been flirting with me...though there is something there that he is not telling me.    Magdalena tells us of a cult across the sea that has long worshipped her as a god even when she vanished for centuries. In recent years they were being bullied by a human lord and she happened to travel past at a time when she could intervene. Apparently I weighed on her conscience enough that she took the time to develop a more elegant solution: A plague designed to target anyone who harbours ill-will towards 'her folk' - one whose intensity increases alongside the evil intent of the person it infects. I can hardly contain my pride and delight in this!   She also tells us that some of her siblings took their fae children elsewhere, far across the sea. One day Magdalena wants to bring our family there to show us these other fae spaces, including family without wings - Trillium and Kaide.   As we have been discussing the human world on the other side of the sea conversation turns to the humans on this side and their attachment to their Six gods (five of whom are daft, one of whom is pathetically kind, she says). It is this moment I've been waiting for with Qing Chen, as she grumbles about humans who breed themselves like self-aware cattle to strengthen their bloodlines because their gifted magic doesn't combine well. To illustrate this, I tell the story of Dawn's transformation from human to fae and what it was like to see the mechanical Zephyr magic fighting with the fae roots in her.   It is too much for Qing Chen. He and Magdalena argue over the 'Exalted Ones' and how surely their gifts would allow people to blend with others, surely they didn't intend this, and how evidently they did because they are terrible people. I only let it go on for so long before intervening and pointing out to both of them that this is like a literal infant arguing with a god. The baby should know better; the god should understand that the baby can't possibly know better.   To my absolute shock Magdalena casts an evaluating eye over Qing Chen and then offers him a probationary apprenticeship for a year. From his position of bowing deeply he tries to refuse on the grounds of already having a Master until Kaide bullies him into accepting. No Master worth his salt would force a student to refuse such an opportunity. When he accepts, Magdalena works a complicated piece of magic that washes over him but that I can't quite place.   That night as Kaide and I prepare to retire she asks if we might talk about something...about the Empress' inquiry over their shared name. She has been thinking of whether she ought to fully embrace her elvish nature now that she has had the opportunity to see Osyr and accept that she isn't one anymore. She wants to select a new name for herself but doesn't know how to go about it. Fortunately I have selected multiple names for myself and am happy to be a sounding board for whatever she needs.   It occurs to me, too, that dragons choose names as well. They speak with their parents while in the egg and eventually decide who they will be.  

Day 564

Only a day after Magdalena landed, we depart from the Crystal Spires and head South along the coast. Travel is easy and I snatch more time with Qing Chen to get to the bottom of this flirting situation. Before I have the chance he comments that something in himself has changed because of the magic Magdalena worked on him. He's right and I can feel it. He used to feel very strange but now there is something familiar about him. He feels more like me, Kaide, and Amytri. I wonder what magic she worked, exactly...will it disappear in a year? He says that his perception of magic has changed and that he can see it more deeply where once he saw the breadth and mystery.   On the flirting side he simply says that demons have a nose for romance. They live in large families with many partnerships and there is often a lot of conflict due to the size. His own family has his father, his father's wife, and eleven concubines. When I press him for details on what exactly a 'concubine' is he doesn't have a clear answer - they're not chattel or unwilling but their families did give them to his father. The distinction is lost on me.   Regardless - somewhere in this story his point is that he's not flirting with me. He is interested in Kaide and is trying to figure out those feelings because he knows she would not be happy tied down to his homeland. I almost laugh at all of this; he has possibly chosen one of the only two people more dangerous than me to have a crush on. Trillium would be more dangerous, I think.   In this, at least, I can offer advice: The two of them will live for centuries. We are just embarking on a journey that will likely take a year. Take it slow.