35.3 Something to Follow

General Summary

Day 525

After speaking with Teysheval my family spreads out through the yet-unnamed village to learn what we can. I get the sense that the people here trust their military leader but there is a sense of unease in the civilians. They’re not used to living like this and for all his good leadership, Teysheval is not equipped to be overseeing a civilian settlement. The people are nervous over all sorts of potential dangers and about the possibility of yet another long winter.   The growing sense of discontent and unhappiness at living in a military fort isn’t good for people’s souls here and there is no one who can inspire them the way they need to be inspired.  

Day 526

The next day Liliales brings me someone interesting - a young dark-skinned elven boy who immediately sets my skin tingling as I sense his magic. The aura of the Collective rolls off of him like smoke downhill and it prickles at my presence. But Liliales wouldn’t bring me someone dangerous and the young elf looks very calm and confident as he addresses me, despite admitting that the Collective has had him pointed at my destruction for his entire life.  

Matriarch, I have been looking for you.

  He address me as though he is part of my family…and in a way maybe he is. He tells me that his aunt is Zadiyah and he has grown up in war tents before they were separated. His mother had been captured by the Collective early in the war and he thinks that he is their attempt at creating an ‘artificial elf’. Back home he could hear their voices in his dreams but since he crossed over it has been blocked by the Barrier. The last he heard from them was about a year ago, just a thin whisper. I imagine this was when I was attacked in Deldrin.   Looking closer at his magic I am reassured that this is the truth. The Collective magic clings to him but it is not his; his own personal magic feels deep and familiar in a way that is reminiscent of Hella. Whatever the Collective did to him must have awakened his personal talents significantly. He’s so young that he hasn’t sworn oaths yet which is presumably why the Collective managed to touch him at all…maybe I’d be able to free him of it if he takes oaths with the other young elves while I am here.   He’s so young…but so self-assured as well. I wonder if this is the same self-confidence that developed in my youth traipsing around with a group of competent adults. While he hasn’t taken a name yet, he tells us that he would like to be Brindewyn (Brin), a remarkably light-themed name for an elf: Shining Wind Arrow’.   And he knows that Zadiyah is on this side of the Barrier as well, having been hoping to find either me or her so that he could find me through her. Now, though, he says he doesn’t want to return to her until he has something more to show for what he has accomplished, something more for her to be proud of. It’s such a dwarven sentiment…I wonder if he picked that up anywhere or came to it by himself.   Later I will investigate this tangled magic and see if I can give him any relief from it. I am not keen on the idea of an elven sleeper agent potentially under the Collective’s control if one can pass through the Barrier.   For now I rely on everything he has learned from being raised by Zadiyah and her unique magic. His awareness of the people in the settlement is sharp; he has noticed that it feels stifled. Everyone wants this place to become something but there is no greater vision to guide them, no single idea to believe in. This, of course, is the opportunity that I have while I am here. The area itself feels promising and Brin shows me why - a kind-faced buried statue of an elf radiating a sense of safety and protection. Apparently there are several statues buried around the village, similar to the ones in the Weaver's Village. While I continue to meet the promising youth and other members of the village Kaide goes to investigate the rest of these statues.   Brin introduces me to a fellow Academy graduate by the name of Niifti. He is working at mending a net that shimmers with illusion magic and I rapidly get the impression that he is a perceptive and knowledgeable man, someone who could be a leader if he was called to it. But he has not, and so he has puttered about this place getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of his fellows without actioning any of it or pushing anyone to be better. He sees the lack of heart and soul here, sees Teyshavel's functional leadership, and also sees underutilized highly skilled people at loose ends. They have a clerk who is being wasted. Niifti and Lavari, another graduate, have been working on illusory magic together and keeping mostly to themselves.   But Niifti is tired and tells me that the last time he led people he lost some and hasn't been able to to take up such a position again. I tell him to think about it, even suggesting a small council the way the humans do it. Our people are well-suited to councils in ways the humans are not. I hope that before I leave he will have agreed to be my Watchkeeper here.   He also sends me to speak with Pristile, another sign that he knows this place well enough to be responsible for it. The young woman is sitting alone by a brook a short ways from the village proper, strumming at a small harp. I recognize her as the woman who played at our celebration last night - silvery hair and remarkably pale blue eyes along with a palpable aura of sadness. She is anxious and as timid as a scared animal when we approach and volunteers that she is cursed with ill fortune and it is best to steer clear of her.   The negative fate magic does cling to her...more than nearly anyone I've seen before. She and Trillium are similar in that way, though Trillium maintained more of her personal spirit and fire despite her curse. Pristile is...well, she is what would happen if you truly believe that your presence can only ever hurt people.   Over the next few hours I convince her to play music with me and spend the time probing at her magic until I think I understand what she is doing. Like Lyssa she has no trained sense of her abilities, just a natural talent for her particular magic. And it is her deep misfortune that her magic coaxes problems and worries out of others and lets them bond to her. My lack of aptitude for fate makes me poorly-suited to offer her any proper education but I certainly have ideas about how to shape her music to release the ill fortune into the air instead of consuming it. I instruct her to head East to Mudbank and seek out Needle in the hopes of learning from them - maybe the first elf to study under a troll in millennia. She and Brin will travel there after I have left.