47.5 What Use is Might

General Summary

Hope: Day 3

Before we part, Liva gives me a list of places to visit in order to experience the diversity of the city. To her credit, it is a balanced and ‘fair’ outlook on the city. It doesn’t hide the things that one might be tempted to hide.   One of the places she sends me is a place where I can learn about the local sword culture - I don’t see many straight swords. My own sword in this life is exactly the sort I had back home - short, straight, with a gentle curve at the tip and a guard over my knuckles. Swordplay here is fluid and shifting, clearly accustomed to fighting on loose sand and in the air rather than solid ground and tall obstacles.   There is also a strong culture of poetry in almost a martial way. I can’t help but think that dwarves would fit in here, and probably introduce a necessary selflessness into the culture. Liva may not want a culture of martyrdom, but it has some benefits. It would not take any convincing to have an army of dwarves ready to march and defend their home.   Lastly, I finish the night with dinner at a restaurant owned by two elder snakes who have decorated their business in a theme that I imagine Liva wanted me to see. The murals and mosaic on the walls depict the togetherness of how the city was built, and how the people have come together. Winged serpents and elephants working together in early construction; a couple watching the sunset - a snake and a bird. The people depicted are diverse.   I am a few drinks into my meal when a tall, dark, and unmistakable figure enters the establishment. He grins and joins me at my table, acting for all the world like an enthusiastic teenager.   “Did Auntie send you?” Void asks, with an enormous, shit-eating grin. My jaw nearly drops to see him so...happy. I welcome him to the table with a familiarity that a normal person would surely find strange, but he doesn't seem concerned. Apparently he is here to meet his brother...No Moon.   It is almost funny to feel the shock spill over me - I knew we were long, long before the Pruning. Of course I knew that, but No Moon? My heart pounds. Coming back to the present, I let him know that his Aunt did send me, though indirectly. I hope Asphodeloideae is watching this and laughing.   Void orders more drinks for us (I need them, truly) and tells me very conversationally that his Aunt worries about him and that he's glad she sent me. Given who she is dating (Cereus?? I nearly choke on my drink), perhaps she knew ahead of time that he would be here. He and No Moon are meeting up here to see if they can help address whatever is causing trouble in the area. No Moon will arrive late tonight, he thinks, though his health and safety may depend on how well yesterday went.   My heart sinks for a moment, fearing that perhaps I have happened upon the world just a few days before No Moon meets his death. But no - yesterday he was finally making a move on the 'girl' he's had a crush on for a century or so.   I nod knowingly - Starfire? I think it will go well.   Again, Void seems nonplussed by my casual knowledge of things that are surely not 'secrets' but not common information. Though he does assure me that whatever rumours I've heard about the three of them are certainly not true. It's remarkable how chatty and happy to share things he is...I listen to him chatter about his affection for Auntie Asphodeloideae and how if it wasn't for her, he and his sister wouldn't have survived. A sister? A twin? Her name is Oblivion, though he warns me that there isn't much point talking about her unless I can remember her name a week from now. I smile at this and begin constructing a mnemonic to do my best to remember. When he tells me that it's usually easier to remember when there's a good reason for it, I pin Oblivion to all of my hopes for Trillium's extended family, my hope that Void will become a close friend of my family, and a little bit of my fear and curiosity for Trenali.   Anyway, Auntie is apparently quite a schemer when it comes to doing good, though I'm thinking more and more that 'scheming' is just built in to being Treeborn. Void agrees, and wishes that more of them would still talk to his mother. She remains distant, and apparently Darkness camped out in her library for a very long time to pull her out of her shell. I am...certainly nervous about ever meeting her. Though perhaps Void having made friends again will encourage her to be friendlier too.   As Void chatters, I get lost in the realization that between this happy, energetic dragon-fae and the brooding man I know is...death. First Starfire, then No Moon, then the Pruning, and then many dragons as well. It is no wonder he has changed. And this realization brings a wave of anxiety and confusion over me about who I am and what I'm doing.   I don't know if this is a dreamspace where things "don't count" or if Auntie has woven some strange time magic (perhaps with Cereus' help, I wonder) and I am transported as truthfully into the past as I was when I saved Ikshafael with Mistress. I figure that in the span of time between now and when I fully exist, the things I might allude to will probably be fine. And I have had perhaps one too many drinks to be truly evasive and still connect with this young Void the way I desperately want to.   So I volunteer something strange about myself - I used to be Day and Night, then Leaf and Vine, and now Drifting Seeds, and who knows what that has done to my lifespan...I could be around forever. He raises a glass, excited that I’m weird too. Apparently Starfire will be fascinated by this and he sees an opportunity to not be the weirdest one in the group. And he says if I'm going to live forever, it’s good that I’m making friends who will be around for a long time. I pat his hand - he’s so right.   Usually he is seen as more dragon, and fae don't think of him as one of them. I ask if he shifts forms and he says no, but is very curious about whether I can shift between my own cycles. I can't right now, obviously, but it does make me wonder if the Heiassa-who-is-an-elf could also shift into a Leaf and Vine form...   Starfire apparently says he’s hopeless with magic. But books are Oblivion’s thing and he doesn’t want to compete or take that away from her. If they have to face something together, he’ll keep her safe while she obliterates something.My eyes mist over as I think of Doraal at my back as I plunge into the fray - I miss my little brother and I say so. Void pats my hand sympathetically.  

I hope I get to meet him.

  And then the door is flung open, and there is No Moon. He is the size of a troll but looks, in all honesty, like a night-black fae with pointed ears and wings. His dark hair is neatly tied back and he looks just like a more put-together version of Void - clearly half siblings and the affection is clear as he and Starfire join us.   Starfire herself (dwarfed beneath No Moon's arm) is slender, tall, and radiantly adorned in a white crystalline gown. She glitters like the heart of a star with platinum silvery hair that moves of its own accord like a flame. She moves gracefully, almost like a snake. Joining us at the table, she takes my hand, tells me she’s glad to not be the only woman around.   When Void tells her that I'm a strange cycle-shifting fae, her eyes light up and she takes up a small notebook, ready to flood me with questions but promising to respect anything I don't want to tell her.  

Who are your parents?

  For all that I have resolved to tell the simple truth as much as possible, I blanche. There is no possible truthful answer I can give here that makes any sense. Thankfully No Moon calls her off and says we should discuss this privately and just drink and enjoy ourselves for now. He notes, to my gratitude, that if I was Dusk then I really will need to sleep at some point.   I tell them what I can of the city and my read on it in preparation for the work we (there is so quickly and obviously a 'we' present - I'm so happy) might do. I explain the strife on the council and how no one seems to trust Dakirim's judgment even though he is the one responsible for war. No Moon points out that people are often afraid of their generals - they command armies and are thus at risk for overtaking their kings. I shake my head mildly, thinking of the Dread Lords back home, but it is not a useful thing to point out. He's right, in this case.   No Moon intends to intervene enough to prevent crisis and allow for a discussion. If they can’t listen to each other, how could they listen to an opponent? But some amount of crisis might be necessary to force leadership into actually working together. Starfire seems confident that we can allow enough of a crisis to cause that without endangering the regular people of the city. They need to come out of this situation stronger than they entered it because we won’t be here the next time.    

When the world approaches crisis and the people in power start to truly contend, the people who support unity and togetherness are the ones who will lose. We need to teach these people not to be consumed by the search for power. They need to gain power to protect people. What use is might if you provide no shelter to anyone?

    Some amount of strategic discussion follows, but soon we are all too deep in our cups for anything but teasing and stories. It should feel strange to be here with my dragon sister's long-dead parents and my elf-dragon niece's big brother (this is the relationship I have approximately assigned to them) but it quickly feels as normal and welcoming as if I were with Starfield and Trillium themselves.   Starfire has apparently been dropping hints to No Moon for 50 years and he’s finally picked them up. She teases him, but he points out that he didn’t want to lose her friendship. She says he could take after Void a bit more - acting instead of sitting back and considering it. Both she and Void seem to be a little more immediately action-oriented than him.   No Moon seems dangerously close to being philosophical and Void cajoles him into getting drunker faster, given that the two of us are already woozy. I tell them I drank elephants under the table and I haven't succeeded with a dragon yet, but I *try* every time there’s an opportunity. I bet I could out-drink Hue...or maybe Wraith.   As our collective soberness decreases, No Moon says it would be nice to travel with me and have another fae around for Void. The dragon-fae waves it off - he has his mom and sister, and he has No Moon and Starfire. At this, No Moon points out that maybe Asphodeloideae sent me as a potential mate for Void, and both of us choke on our drinks a little. Starfire is quick to point out that surely if Asphodeloideae wanted to play matchmaker, she would have sent someone in their love cycle rather than hope? For my part, I can't articulate exactly why the idea is so absurd so I mutter something incoherent about preferring women...at which No Moon puts a protective arm over Starfire and we all laugh.   With the rest of the night, we swap stories over still more drinks. I tell them honest stories from my own time, and create or 'forget' names enough that it makes sense for me to be telling them all about Starfield and Trilium. I try to soak in every detail of this night, cementing it in my memory so that I can cast illusions from it back in my own time. I desperately want to be able to show Starfield her parents in this moment - probably the first moment when their family in its final form began.   And I want Void to know I knew him like this. If this time is real, and he remembers encountering a strange shifting fae named Heiassa in the thousands of years before we met...I want him to know I remember it too.