37.5 Protective

General Summary

Day 557

We retire to our guest quarters after dinner and i slip quickly into the Dreaming at Thalien's call. He has been watching the Crystal Spires ever since we woke it and nudging bad luck away from it. As we walk the empty streets together he remarks that he wishes he could see the people who live here now. More and more it is hard for me to not just blurt out ominous things about his future and its possibilities. It would be easier if he wasn't so prone to doing the same to me.   But we set aside Osyr and the future and talk about being fae, or close to fae. When he first arrived in the Celestial Grove he felt like an outsider, and still feels set apart from the Celestial fae or even the humans who are mid-transformation. He can feel his otherness fading with time passing in the grove. His dark, starry eyes have so much depth and curiosity in them as he asks what it feels like to be fae. Can I hear the trees?   It's a strange question because I could hear trees even when I was just an elf. The music in Dreamfall was faint but I could hear it and the trees recognized me. Now that I am fully fae it is much clearer and I hear the songs louder, but I don't feel all that changed. Now I have a stronger sense of which trees feel like home and which feel like someone else's family. Regardless, I have such a strong imperative to protect all of these trees. Something deep and innate within me.   Thalien tells me that trees steady the flow of fate around them, like anchor points in the weave. A tree seeks steadiness but they cannot use delicate hands, just a primal force that draws the threads in. He feels like he is getting caught in the net of the Celestial trees, which is not necessarily a bad thing. They are warm and comforting and feel sort of like me in their desire for him to be safe. But they are not trying to steal him away from me and he is ready to not walk behind me. He wants to be beside me, and perhaps the calling of these trees will help.   To us, the fruit trees of the Elvish Grove felt homey in the same way that the Empress' garden does. For me they feel like homes that have existed long before I did whereas the trees of day and night feel like a home I built for myself, or one that I found. I wonder if Thalien will find a home in the Celestial Grove - he says that Apple told him that his new eyes were a window and it would be a shame to use them to look at the world as he had before. Apparently Apple is incredibly flirtatious and I laugh to think of Thalien receiving such attention even in his afterlife.   We close our late night visit just lying together and watching the stars as I tell him about what it means to be dusk and the calm quietness of rest and of stalking prey. I tell him about being called to be an Imperator and thus a protector instead of a dagger.  

A protector has many forms and I'm going to need to be all of them. So I shouldn't get too attached to any one thing.

 

Day 558

I wake from the best sleep I have had in quite some time, but the rest of the guest chambers are empty. My family and our host Osyr have all moved out to the docks for study and play. Hexanchus and Qing Chen are playing some strategic board game and chatting like elders while the youngsters swap magic. Liliales is eagerly demonstrating his playful fae illusions while two Osyr apprentices try to imitate his work with their upper hands and take notes with their lower ones.   A ways away Trillium is sweat-soaked sparring with soldiers and swapping tips on fighting while Jaeril is accompanying the entire scene with light, energetic music.   Kaide herself is deep in the drinks with some of the older Osyr, exchanging stories about ancient times and being deep the sea. Of the three companions she has found one feels a little more reserved than the others and I resolve to keep an eye on him.   The rest of the day is for relaxation and decompressing after the journey from Deldrin and we all head down to the beach for food, playfulness in the surf, and the first elf-fae-demon-Osyr study group that the world has ever seen. The playful banter between fae and Osyr, and Osyr and our freshwater demon is charming.   As the sun sets I finally wind up beside the quiet Osyr - Triakis, and prying into his behaviour.  

You're all very strange.

  It comes out that he is simply the eldest Osyr present, and he is one who fought in the War rather than being part of the home guard. Seeing the world so new and confusing, and seeing fae and Osyr laughing together is naturally quite jarring. And he has children of his own who have not yet woken, something that stings at my heart in a familiar way.   So while we watch the others laugh and dance, Triakis and I indulge in stories of the past and present. He tells me of the War, about elves who he considered great comrades and trusted allies and friends. I tell him about Kadia and Camellia singing this place to waking together. At the very least, he says, he owes us thanks for reanimating the city.   Lives are not debts, I tell him.