16.2 Flags Flown

General Summary

Day 183

Early in the morning I’m awoken by Alder and escorted to see Twilight. The first challenge of the day will be to fetch flags for our clans to begin the festival. The race must be run with hands empty and open - any sort of grabbing is forbidden but other physical contact is permitted.   Twilight assures Alder that shadow-stepping will be allowed and encouraged. If he doesn’t use all his skills it will be an insult to our new friends.   To prepare, Alder is painted with traditional runes of the Tuskan. He selects a few from among the symbols Twilight offers: Swiftness and striking quick like a snake or lightning. We share a smile thinking of Lyssa.   Alder and his Tuskan competitor take off from the start line and make their way towards our flag. Eventually they return, limping and battered but carrying the flags and laughing. Apparently there was an accident along the way but they recovered and returned together. The enormous Tuskan laughs and calls Alder ‘Jabnah’ (‘sneaky one,’ Twilight translates) in good humour.   As we meet with the Tuskans in various games and challenges of strength and skill, I am introduced to the ‘elders’ who still travel with the tribe. The true elders remain at another gathering site so that they can be more sedentary.   And I pass much of the day in conversation with Twilight, speaking about how she’s come to know the Tuskans as family and the complexity of not teaching them things that will destroy who they are as people. Here, I think, is a special elvish ability. Knowing that there are elements of this culture that are important and need to not be erased simply by another culture’s careless sharing. She tells me that over time they have come to understand the importance of shade for her and go out of their way to set up her tent first on hot, bright days.   I wonder how possible it would be for more elves to join her here. I promise that if I find any wanderers closer to here than any other safe spot I will send them towards her.   And she considers whether she will teach the Tuskan anything about the Empress. Will it help them understand her better or will it be an imposition of a faith they don’t share? I counsel her to share if it makes her happy and they seem interested. There can be sharing without teaching or imposition.   Before we prepare to leave she warns us of several things in the Endless Sands ahead:

• A lake that turns people to stone near the centre of the Desolation
• Burrowing lizards that spit corrosive venom
• Large birds that eat carrion
• Trees with thorns like knives that hold water in their flesh

  Before we leave she asks if she might join my house and serve under me. I name her my ambassador to the Tuskan people and have just the barest ghost of a vision of elvish ambassadors to all the nations we’ve heard of.