56.1 Grounding Force

General Summary

Day 1109

We return to Dreamfall deep in the night with only Taproot joining us. As I leap into the air with her aboard, I feel the presence of the Empress come with us — it was Taproot’s connection to Kaide that sustained this entire community until I visited and refreshed it.   As the Grove rushes towards us, Taproot cries out in surprise,  

The trees are so small! And they’re all the same.

  Landing on the ziggurat, I explain to her that our trees hold all songs, not just songs of one cycle. And people here don’t choose their next cycle like the Returned do. There is a lot for Taproot to adjust to. For now, she’ll settle in with Starfield.    

Day 1110

The next morning is leisurely until Liliales comes to me for some advice — he thinks Qishali is struggling with how different it is here.   His theory is that she was used to being alone and making her own way in the South. It was a big change when she invited Liliales into her one-person group, but the shift of coming to Dreamfall with him has been too big to adjust to. She probably feels like she is visiting his home, whereas in the South, they were both outsiders together.   He knows that it will take time to help her settle in but he wants to help, and right now she feels prickly and withdrawn. He says he’s tried giving her space, leaving her alone, spending more time with Cantha and Detoura. I think that Qishali would probably find some things in common with Safaeili, Elnora, Taproot…eventually Miriam. But I should talk to her first and see if I can smooth down any of that prickliness.   I find her at the top of the ziggurat, moping about. Fortunately, she opens up to me.  

You are so much more than just fae…is Liliales going to be like that?

  She is in this contemplative, worried mood that Liliales is going to be ‘just fae’ and that there will be ‘no chance’. It seems that they both want kids and she’s afraid it’s not possible. Cantha said she’d never heard of a fae and spirit having children. I point out, quite rightfully, I think, that Cantha is quite young and not used to making impossible things happen.   But it seems that the real problem is deeper.   In the Dreaming, it felt like the two of them against the world . They always had a next step or a goal. For a long time, getting here was the goal. And now they’re here and she feels like the next adventures (marriage, children, house) are ones that she hasn’t prepared for. It is not quite what Liliales was guessing, but it is pretty close.   Evidently they have also been fighting over the house that they’re looking to build. Some of it is about the kids (she doesn’t want extra rooms for children they won’t have, she doesn’t want to clean unused rooms), but moreover it seems that she feels guilty that he’s doing so much to make things good for her and she’s not doing anything for him.   Her second tail flicks the air and grows into the second jade lightning fox, crossed arms and glaring at Qishali sitting on the ground.  

If you don’t tell her, she won’t help you!

  The original Qishali sighs deeply as I wait for her to speak.   She had an idea — she’s lost and she needs help with something that… has something to do with why she doesn’t feel worthy of Liliales. She says there has never been a Twin-Tailed Lightning Fox Empress ever, so no one knows how to even make that happen. She thinks that if she’s an empress, she’ll feel worthy of Liliales.   It is a charmingly childish notion. And complicated — just like I’m happy to make sure the two of them can have children if they want, I’m happy to help Qishali become spirit empress if that is what she wants. But it is never as simple as that.   I tell her about how people will spend their whole lives chasing the perfection of having fixed just that one last thing, sure that after the fix, everything will feel better. And of course it never is. I am certain that Qishali can become an Empress but it will not, in itself, make her feel worthy.   We don’t settle on a particular course of action aside from me promising to tell Liliales to just ease off the reassurance a bit. His fiancée is someone used to uncertainty, and his eagerness to reassure her that everything will be fine is agitating her.   Tomorrow, we’ll gather up a few people to help her pick a dress that she likes.   Just as we part ways with a hug, I hear the faint commotion of drums and horns in the distance. As I emerge from the Grove, I see an enormous procession of humans (of course) led by my junior brother and someone I haven’t seen in many months — Ricken!   With a laugh, Amytri tells me that he tried to keep the fanfare away but they followed him out of Solace. Ricken points out that he was not hiding nearly as well as he thought. But it is suitable for Solace to have sent a royal wedding gift to our young couple — carriages of books that Liliales and Qishali will find interesting: sound, light, magic, lightning.   And still more books for me, all freshly copied. I think Solace must be determined to never risk losing their knowledge again, having lived through the winter. Seeing Ricken again after so much time is wonderful as well. He feels like the dragon magic has integrated into him instead of just swarming around him.   Now that Black Tourmaline is awake again, I expect that he should be on his way to visit her in Deldrin, and I get to witness a little squabble between him and Amytri over it. Amytri evidently told him to go whenever he feels it’s right, and Ricken has been waiting to be ordered to go.   Fortunately, the two of them conclude that he’ll head to Deldrin next.   Ensconced in my little cottage, Amytri also shows me the result of all the work he has been doing. The scaled up letter boxes have become dragon boxes, each one capable of carrying 1 kilogram for a thousand kilometres. The two numbers are proportionate, so a little wooden dragon could carry half a kilogram for two thousand kilometres. And of course, Amytri has drafted a text on the proper handling of a nationwide postal service with hubs and last-kilometre couriers. It’s work that will connect the entirety of the Outlands and eventually the Empire as well.