39.3 First Apprentice
General Summary
Day 581
We are taking a break from Magdalena's lecture on reconstructing the spatial tunnel when I find a new letter in my letterbox. From the moment I see the handwriting I shove it back into the box and turn back to the lesson, shaking. We hardly get a few sentences in before Magdalena stops us, asks me what's going on, and tells me to go read the damn letter. I hardly blame her - the experience of seeing Mistress' writing has stirred up my magic and golden light is flickering out of my like a poorly maintained illusion.
The letter itself brings our lesson to a halt despite my best efforts. I feel like the world has softened around the edges at the thought of Mistress crossing the Barrier. Magdalena tells us that Uncle Red will likely take her to Blood Fallen Valley (so close!) and perhaps the Celestial Grove where they can study without fae being terrorized by Uncle's aura.
I resolve not to tell Trillium about this or about my meeting with Doraal until the time is right. My hope is that she can use these thoughts as fuel when she must fight her dragons.
Day 582
We see black sails on the horizon at dawn and by the evening they have arrived. It will be two days' travel to the island and we can continue to study as we travel.
I have been working on a sort of flicker magic which allows instantaneous travel within line-of-sight. It is not terribly helpful for an elf who can already shadow-step, especially because it is much more energy-intensive and quite disorienting. Still, it is a good start to the sort of movement magic required to go through a spatial tunnel.
Days 583 - 584
Over the course of our days at sea I start feeling more and more of the memories that must have been lost when Void laid his curse over Trillium. Some of them are ones she has already told me of but others are new. It contextualizes a long, peaceful period of my life when I was teaching at the academy and both Doraal and Mistress were still in the city. It makes sense in hindsight - she had been pregnant and moved the entire family into the Capital to raise our little shadow.
I recall our family dinners, painting both Mistress and Trillium as they called spirits. The role I've slipped into now is one I've always held - confidante and liaison between Trillium and her parents. A piece that remains missing is why she left for the mountains in the first place.
Day 585
After two days we reach the island, though Raethien seems truly unconvinced that there is anything of value in this area. The rest of us wait on shore as Magdalena guides the ship back out to sea and when she returns we can finally see the innumerable wards protecting the area - fog, rocks, lightning, the distant sounds of sea beasts.
The island itself has been scorched to hell and back, presumably by fire dragons who feared Rainbow's power. In the past there was an academy here as well, one that attracted many talented students.
The reconstruction begins that very day, as Magdalena shows us the dragon-sized archway of a ruined portal. We will need to collect the physical missing chunks, as well as repairing the inscriptions and magic.
Days 586 - 594
It takes eight days to repair it. In addition to the mundane work of repairing the single archway, we have to patch up and reconnect the crystalline spatial archways scattered across the island. Along the way I am able to collect smaller crystal reservoirs which store well above my person capacity for magic; I'm curious if the same thing could be accomplished using fruit or seeds.
Day 595
On the last day we finally step through the portal.
We emerge atop a great mountain and the air instantly feels richer and more magically dense than anything I've experienced before. Pure magical energy streams around the area in rainbow-hues, some of which I hardly recognize. It's overwhelming but still orderly, as though the energy is a flowing river.
Rainbow is there to greet us, and they are not at all what I imagined. They are in humanoid form and quite short, with upswept colourful hair and a smattering of iridescent scales. They are exuberant and welcoming and extraordinarily curious about Magdalena ("junior sister!") having acquired friends, and about what exactly Trillium
is. Far from a cold academic, Rainbow seems like an eternal child full of curiosity.
The chatter between the small dragon and Magdalena is quick and energetic but I pull out a few notable things:
- Rainbow is surprised to see Kaide again, having thought that she was 'lost' in some way ("Didn't something tragic happen to her?"). They quickly resolve their surprise into understanding that this Kaide is a remnant, though much more independent and sturdy than most.
- They are pleased to see that Magdalena's project of bringing back the fae of day and night has succeeded, and equally interested in examining the trees. Magdalena very firmly insists that Rainbow is not allowed near her trees anymore, since they took clippings last time and don't seem to understand the sacredness.
- In general, Rainbow seems quite surprised that Magdalena has collected a family.
Over refreshments (fresh uffa, thank goodness), we tell the story of the collected family and answer Rainbow's many questions about Trillium and her situation. I am the one who tells this story, as Trillium hardly knows her circumstances clearly. Unfortunately this has the side effect of making Rainbow refer to her as 'it' until she snaps at them and they back off.
I explain that the Divine Sword of Order slaughtered Wildfire and Shadows Dancing, and how Trillium must have used his blood to call dragon spirits to her aid. Rainbow's observation is that even if Trillium were to subdue the spirits inside her, her physical form is simply too weak to contain them indefinitely. We could forge them into items that she could wield, though it would be a constant battle for dominance. And if items were wielded by anyone else they would likely succumb to the dragon spirit's fury and want to take vengeance on Trillium herself. The thought of seven dragon-cursed items does not fill me with hope.
Rainbow's next suggestion makes me laugh internally and it is hard to prevent it from bubbling to the surface: They suggest that we just kill Trillium to release the spirits and then bring her back. I remark that I'd rather not, though it is a fair suggestion.
Rainbow's last suggestion is the one which clearly catches everyone's attention: Turn her into a dragon. It would give her the physical strength to contain the spirits. Their plan spans out over centuries as Rainbow's personal apprentice - a decade here training, then maybe moving to her own mountain and being able to host guests, 10 more years to build her own spatial tunnel and allow for guests, maybe she'd be able to leave in half a century?
I watch Trillium's face carefully as I begin to negotiate on her behalf until she interrupts. She insists that she'll need to see her parents first, and find the place where her husband and son have been buried. But after that...she agrees to take them as a Master and learn all she can from him if he will aid in her transformation. A small part of me feels the loss of her sharply even though it won't be for a few months still...Rainbow has us all agree to stay for two months to learn and recover as well.
But it's clear to me that Rainbow has the deep capacity to care for others as anyone in Trillium's life ought to. The casual remarks they make to Magdalena, teasing and protective, reassure me. They have dropped such easy comments about scattering the ashes of anyone who harms her!
On the matter of Shadows Dancing, I carefully press and whether we could retain his soul for a time. I speak lightly of possibilities to bring him back if I have a bit more time, but Magdalena catches on immediately and waves it off. His soul has been forged into a chain and we would need to separate that link from the chain if we were to bring him back by the method I'm thinking of. Rainbow catches on as well and suggests that we produce a remnant similar to Kaide. So long as Shadows Dancing has his mother as an anchor the odds of success are higher, though still complicated by the presence of other spirits who might try to kill him to take the chance at life again.
All of this theory aside, just bringing up the thought infuses Trillium with such hope. I'm sure it solidifies all of our resolve to bring him back.
Before we retire, Rainbow throws together an amulet to help Trillium contain the spirits within her. A "patch" they call it, though it is produced with seven different draconic alchemy fires and ends up being at least as powerful as my own legendary sword. In the workshop there, they formalize their newfound Master-student relationship and I see an iridescent mark shimmer into existence upon her brow before fading away, just like what Magdalena offered to Qing Chen.
