44.3 On The Menu

General Summary

Day 751

  I retire for the evening and am settling down when Vaneili ushers Yneir to my room for a late night conversation. Apparently what Yneir wants is 'not on the menu' and she's worked up the courage (with Vaneili's encouragement) to come ask for help.   She has been thinking about what she would make herself into if she were recreating her core - she could let go of the destructiveness of her Golden Crow flames, but she wants to keep fire of some kind. She wants to be Bran's flame, close to hearth and forge and able to help and support him. If she were a spirit, she would form a pact with him easily, but that is not an option for her. She wants help doing something involving binding - not quite a spirit pact but maybe something else.   It is strange hearing her speak with such confidence about their relationship - in my mind it has been hardly any time since Bran was flinching at the sight of her. But having not been present for the development of their closeness...all I can do is support them.   I hear the sound of flapping robes approaching quickly, just before Jin Hao crashes through the glass - bloody and wounded. Immediately following him is a tall, dark-haired figure in gear that is very clearly assassin-like. Yneir speaks up immediately - Shao Yang? He is her...big brother, and he claims that her father wants her to come home.   The magic I send out to fix him in place is severed as though a knife has been taken to it, and he claims that he's not here to cause trouble. He and Ying Ling (Yneir pales) have come to recover her, and leave quietly. As he and Yneir argue quietly, I take the opportunity to investigate his magic and find that he feels almost like he is part blade himself - a spirit blade. Clearly, he is a crow, and he feels somewhat like Andstella in her midnight qualities. He's simple - very sharp. And I enjoy the process of dulling that sharpness using the inverted metallic elementalism that Wraith taught me.   We have a brief scuffle in which he glares at me for getting involved, I trip him and force him back into a humanoid form after he tries to dissipate into feathers. His intent was clearly to wind up behind Yneir, but he ends up snatching at Vaneili instead. Yneir calls up a ball of her own magic and threatens him - to his credit, he releases Vaneili.   I can sense his compatriot down the hallway, being held at bay by Bran and Hao Rili. At this point, the excitement is starting to tire me and I use my sword for the first time in many, many moons. It only takes four of the six bolts of light I summon and Shao Yang is intimately acquainted with the idea of death. At this, Ying Ling finally bursts in and immediately goes to his aid while I sit down and dig in my purse for tea.  

It's a family matter.

  I nearly laugh at this. Yneir rightfully points out that she's part of my family. Her threats to these two are all about giving them 'death dates', which I infer is some crow fate magic that involves blood (how exciting) and could extend even further to her siblings' relatives if necessary. She tells them to just leave, tell her father that she's dying, and never return.  

Tell him that another 50 years of my magic isn't even possible, and that if he sends anyone else, I'll send them back in urns.

  The pair of them go to depart and I escort them off the premises to impart a few more threats and, very optimistically, a hint that they might find happier skies up North among my people. Ying Ling, at least, seems to seriously consider this as an option as their father is not kind to people who have failed.   When I return to my guest room, Jin Hao has been patched up and Hou Rili is apologizing for not hiding the place better. Bran has scooped up Yneir and decreed that the three of them will need to cuddle up and relax after such a scare.   And with all of that settled, Ausha manifests to finish the rest of the tea. As we decompress, conversation turns to where we go next - the Grove, the stump of Drifting Seeds, and then the trolls' forest. And we'll need to do some crafting along the way - Ausha will use the taproot from Hou Rili to create her own pool of energy so that we don't put one another at risk by sharing the same lifeblood between our two bodies. And I will gather lotuses to send back to Kaide to help Wildfire.  

Day 752

The next morning, Yneir explains some of the things her siblings said the night before.   In her tribe, she gave her father 50 years of good luck and invisibility to hide from others who touch destiny. Now, her father is looking for more protection for their tribe and she is not willing to give it. Realistically, she thinks one of her family probably killed her mother to make her easier to control. Her father, apparently, is threatening due to his personality and the three spirit treasures he holds. He will probably send many people before he bothers to move himself.   I make the barest suggestion that anyone else who comes after her might just be able to find a new path, and Yneir is unconvinced. The people in her family have been raised to value needless cruelty and suffering and while she knows people can change, she thinks they are largely complicit in their own nastiness.   Still, she acquiesces to my gentle insistence that people are worth saving.  

Days 753 - 754

We spend the next several days in practical magicwork to produce the thing Yneir wants. Bran accepts the bond, and Yneir reshapes herself into something new: A metallic fire bird. She is a forge spirit, and it suits her beautifully.