27.2 Life-Linked

General Summary

Day 422

I am pulled from sleep by the earth shaking beneath me. I am on feet, staff in hand in an instant and Jerun is 40 ft off the ground, scanning around us. I can feel the tiniest ripples of magic coming from far to the South-East but it dissipates before I can pinpoint or understand it. I send brief notes to Bran and Andstella asking if they've felt anything where they are.   Minutes later the shaking subsides and Hue appears above us, coming to check on us. She says it is probably nothing - just an earth tremor. It has been thousands of years since something like this caused a mountain to erupt and that is the only thing she is concerned about when the earth shakes. In other times she has seen heavy rains cause earth slides high in the mountains and perhaps the winter has caused this sort of behaviour far above us. Regardless, she is unconcerned. I frantically poke at Kaide but she doesn't emerge until Hue has winged away from us.   She hugs me as she steps out into the world. In her memory there have always been such tremors along the shore, usually causing enormous waves that go against the normal tides. Ancient Osyr stories say that these tremors herald an attack from the Ancient Enemy; they're certainly not always a natural occurrence. She also recalls wizards who would cause the landslides Hue mentioned intentionally using either water or sheer earth magic.   Nowadays though, the wizardry seems weaker. In her day wizards gave each other a wide berth because of the risk of crossing staves; now there is so much more casual wizardry. Personally, I think the influence of humans and the sequestering of fae could explain this observation. The aftershocks of her war would have been enough to tamp down any truly powerful magic.   It's plenty to think about. Jerun and I both retire, leaving Kaide to keep watch (and prepare breakfast) while we sleep.  

Day 423

When we wake again, it is time to go see Wayin again! He is giddy and hopping about as we approach, stepping in and out of his tree and waving. After happily greeting me and Jerun he eagerly leads us deeper through the trees, greeting them all by name. Finally we arrive at a tree unlike any I've seen before - it is laden with fruit of all kinds! And each fruit is perfection itself - heavy and juicy with flavour.   Wayin is eager to teach us how to create such a tree and so we both lift higher into the air to collect fruits to work into a new tree. Kaide steps out of the shadows beneath the tree to make sure we're collecting enough for her as well and Wayin starts a little before realizing she's a friend. She introduces herself as a fragment and his mild confusion clears immediately.  

You're life-linked! But usually it would shorten someone's life as well...living for two takes a lot...but Heiassa, your life is like and endless spring inside you.

  He tells us that especially throughout the storm many trees life-linked with one another to survive in case one fell. Now, though, they remain linked and make each other stronger if they both survived. He says we should ask Ipthina; she knows more than he does.   With this fragment of fascinating information tucked away (Is sap like blood, Kaide and I wonder at one another) we gather up the fruit and return to Wayin's tree for a picnic of fresh fruit and sap-sweetened tea. Kaide remarks that she wishes Alder could be here with his pastries (and also to enjoy the beautiful trees). It's nice to hear her awareness of him; I'm anxious to incorporate her into my family properly.   And now the four of us turn our attention to creating a tree of our own. Wayin shows us to select one large seed and then pack the others into it, all of them split open so their lives can join together. He traces out Eldritch runic circles for light, shade, growth, water, sky, and co-operation (itself made of harmony and joy) and prepares a spot in the centre for this split-wide seed.   Then he extends one nail to sharpness and warns us that to do this particular magic you need to give part of yourself. Energy and life gathers in him and focuses right to the tip of this extremity, white and glowing. He waters each seed with spiralling drops of this energy cut from himself before wrapping up the largest one, pressing it into the earth, and infusing it with still more of his light to let it push out from the earth. It grows only a foot tall - spiral-trunked with different trees twisting together. When he steps away his eyes are hazy and he's a little woozy so he retires to a sun-warmed nook in his roots and drifts to sleep. Kaide, too, retires for the day.   I am completely electrified by this magic. In my mind I trace out the runes and adjust the blood circles I use to form bonds with my family. They're not quite the same but the parallels are clear - blood is like sap.   The rest of the day passes quietly - lunch with Hue is largely questions about world events outside of the Grotto. I return to Wayin's roots and study from my two ancient books.   That night when I slip into the Dreaming I feel a call to the South-West and find Lyssa waiting for me high in the mountains by the Celestial Grove. She is taking some personal quiet time before returning to leadership - something I know well. Here amidst the sheer white of the mountaintops she nestles against me and calls me the colour in her world. Again, she remarks that on this side of the Barrier I have come more into myself than I was even before I was waging my one-woman war on the Collective.    I tell her about Jerun and it feels so good to get to share some of this with someone. She tells me of her own plans for Drognar, Dreamfall, Whitewater, and Solace surrounding the sea where the Desolation was, and that once she has laid the groundwork for this she will go back to the Valley and see about getting airships that might fly across such a sea. Trade and communication across the sea could be done with ships if Amytri and the other mages can figure out how to send ships without freezing but for now the fae will at least be able to fly across it without tumbling from the sky. They'll be couriers, leaders of communication.   I'm so looking forward to returning to her in Dreamfall and placing that woven crown upon her head, my little Empire builder.   We lie together until she drifts off to sleep again and then I am once again yanked from the Dreaming as tremors rock the earth. This time, I am more prepared and I feel its presence before slipping back into the Dreaming and shoot off towards it. I find no signs of where it originated but the trees outside the Grotto quickly report that they did not feel much. Then as I glide high above the trees I see an elf feeling the ground beneath him before turning and waving at me. That man. That frustrating, impossible to sneak up on man!   I plummet towards Thalien, barrelling into him and laughing. It's so good to see him again and to be on the trail of something together.   He doesn't know quite what it is but it feels hot and ashy. We fly together far South, past the Keep and even the Dwarven Domain deep into the middle the Barrier Mountains. He first felt the tremor here four days ago amidst long-abandoned cliff dwellings with large ovaloid doors. Recent damage surrounds an impossibly deep pit in the centre of the ruin. The smell of sulfur is evident on the air here and I am more and more convinced of the Ingan involvement.   Next Thalien takes me to the foothills around the Wyrmwood to another set of ruins. These are similar to the Temple of Seasons by Ipth but instead of elves, these have dancing fae. All the statues of Osyr have been toppled, something I can't imagine is a coincidence. A recent fissure in the earth is the evidence of the disturbance that Thalien says took place three days go.   Then off into the mountains near the Weaver's Village to a lake high amidst the cliffs. Here, the water level has visibly receded. He felt the tremor here two days ago.   Last night the shaking came from Afan where a fresh landslide nearly covers the entrance to the cavern. The interior is undamaged.   I guide us back into the fae lands, where Thalien has trouble journeying alone. Together we continue tracing the patterns out and find ourselves far East of the Northern Grove on an island at the centre of an inland sea. This place feels like a fragment of the past I haven't yet seen - more ruins, enormous statues of dragons, and short stout buildings arranged around courtyards and fountains that feel like home. Like the lake in the mountains, the fountains' water has receded, leaving them dry even though they ought to have rainwater collected in them. This is where the tremor struck tonight...but the place is special for other reasons.   Every so often I can find worn away script engraved into stone and just barely interpret it. It's like the Auldritch fae I have been studying but I see elvish characters within it. And when I place either grammatical structure overtop it barely holds...until I incorporate what little knowledge of the Kindred language I have.   It's...it's a piece of who we were before we were truly elves. When the Fae of Leaf and Vine lost their Grove I knew they had grown closer with dragons and I thought that's how we ended up with dragons and riders. This...these are families. The plaque I've found lists several names with elvish structure for keeping old and new names together. It names two dragons: Morning Dew and Evening Mist, each tied with a delicate line to a resident of this particular house.   I need Tira and Haze here. Maybe when they've finished in the Grove I can meet them here.  

Come with me on a hunch? I have a feeling about something...

  I poke rightful fun at this. When doesn't Thalien have hunches and feelings about things? Even when he had informants and local knowledge he was still always working on hunches. He smiles and tells me that Bran doesn't have any of those informants or knowledge, he's working on magic alone and he's doing so well. For now, hopefully, I can help inform both of them.   We fly West again, back to where I shadow-stepped in tears after losing my bearings as I left my family. He guides us deeper into a ravine and we find ourselves before an enormous door - several metres high and wide. I'm sputtering, questioning who could possibly have needed a 5 metre door, when Kaide steps out of nothingness. Thalien's hand goes to his dagger but I wave him down and instead pose a challenge:  

Who is she, Thalien? See if you can figure it out!

  He stares at her as she remarks that this door is the entrance to the dwarven kingdom she told me about - the place where her friend ruled for a time. I can see the threads tangling in his head as he pieces this together: Someone ancient....another student of my teacher's?   I wink at him - yes, but what else?   It'll be a puzzle for him to think about for a while, I think. For now he tells us that this is where he expects a tremor to hit tomorrow night. If we can get here, it will turn out better. I suggest Lyssa and he nods, it would be even better with Lyssa here. Whatever is happening here is more about Kaide than either of us but all three of us together would make quite an adjustment to whatever is happening.   This time, I pull Lyssa to me and when she arrives she immediately smacks Thalien upside the head for disappearing for so long. He protests that Yneir was worth avoiding but of course we will still give him a hard time about it. Together, we make a plan to meet here tomorrow, as soon as possible. It took me four days of light travel but I think we can move faster with shadow-stepping at full-speed and Kaide's wind at our backs. I will give her the circlet sooner than expected; a lovely surprise.   And then Kaide and I will go into the mountain and try to find that blasted crown she made for her friend. I would feel much better with that magic safely with us.