37.4 If Not Here

General Summary

Day 552

Over dinner with Cestrum and Chrysilla we met a half dozen other pairs of elves and spirit folk. Some of them are romantic partners but others are like siblings or especially intimate friends. All of them feel happy, stable, and still connected to the Empress either directly or via their partner bond.   Chrysilla tells us the story of the first bond between one of her people (Qilin) and an elf who had gotten lost in the mountains. She met a Qilin and the two of them managed to survive the mountains together before returning to the Qilin's home where she was accepted. Qilin are quite picky about partners and especially riders, and since then they have been seeking and aiding elves. Many partnerships have blossomed between the spirit folk and elves in part because elves are able to dream and thus connect in the Dreaming and deepen the bond. Qilin, she tells us, live cyclically between waking and dreaming without ever really sleeping. For people who live so vibrantly in the Dreaming it makes sense that they need partners who can join them there and live as well.   Over time the Golden Micro Empire formed and the Emperor offered security and safety for all elves if the bonded spirit folk and riders would join and support his Empire. The conversation over dinner is generally positive but still wary of the Empire - the Emperor will only live so long and there is no saying what will happen to the Empire after that.   According to Chrysilla the spirit folk live at least as long as elves with some elders living into their second millennia. Their belief is that death leads to yet another dream in which bonded partners will still find one another. Jaeril nods at this - everything is a repeating wheel, a cycle in which we live and remanifest. When a connection is strong enough of course people will find one another again. I have to laugh at this as I muss up her hair and consequently explain to our dinner party that she and Liliales are my family from another life.   I also mention Yneir and ask if anyone here knows of the golden crows (or rather, of the crow spirit folk and their chosen golden ones). They are familiar, and wonder whether Yneir still has her crow form if she is no longer 'a golden crow' after tugging at fate the way she has. I will have to ask her when we reconnect and head South. One of the Qilin is also kind enough to show me their spirit form - a scaled and maned hooved creature with antlers. I notice immediately that the vision is not actually an illusion but a manifestation of the Dreaming brought into this world, something that the Qilin says is difficult but that another dreamer might also be able to do. Beneath the table I try to conjure a Celestial leaf from the Dreaming and fail, but I can see what is going wrong. I try again and call up a blurry, watery vision of Thalien and hold it for as long as I'm able.   Chrysilla smiles at this and suggests that perhaps I should visit their village and maybe find a partner for myself there since I am such an accomplished dreamer. It is such a strange insinuation and I'm awkward in accepting the invitation but trying to brush aside the possibility of seeking out a partner. Not that I am opposed, but the idea of it being suggested in such an abstract way feels so strange. At least when Tide laughed about taking me on as a rider if he were much younger it was him suggesting it, not someone else. Besides...family tends to just find me.  

Days 553 - 556

We depart Orienahj and continue coastward. When we're just 2 days away from the Crystal Spires the magic of the area intensifies and gets deeper and richer, like other old magic I've found on this side. It all flows towards the coast, drawn by something that I hope is friendly in the place we are headed.   I take this opportunity to explain the Crystal Spires to Qing Chen and what I hope to find there.  

Day 557

The first glimpse of the settlement comes at dusk as the sun is painting the river - a spiralling fluted tower surrounded by small pillars adorned with pearls holding both offensive and defensive magic. My heart catches in my throat as five Osyr emerge from the building and make their presence known at the docks, taking to the water in a rowboat to greet us. Four armoured guards row and keep their tridents raised as the fifth, a man in deep blue robes, calls out to us in ancient elvish to ask about the fae we are with.   I respond in Osyr that we are friends and that I was last here just before the waking began. We are here to see Ava, if he is available. At this the robed man smiles and the weapons are lowered; we return to shore together and he introduces himself as Hexanchus. Kaide recognizes him a storm chaser by his robes and the two of them share a moment of conversation about how she knows such things, but she keeps her story largely to herself.   As we are brought deeper into this small outpost I note military bases and administrative but little in the way of daily life. After settling down with food (a mild seafood chowder and distinctly salty bread that Kaide tells me is familiar, though her tongue finds it strange now) he introduces us to four younger Osyr in apprentice robes.   We are the first group to actually be welcomed into the city as all others have been either disrespectful or hostile and have been chased off. As more Osyr wake they will expand their reach into the shallows of the ocean and further North to where their territory once covered, which I hope will not antagonize the area around Haven. Apparently "only" 10,000 Osyr have woken so far and they have over 40,000 still asleep and scheduled to wake in batches of 10,000 going forward. The funnel of magic is being used to sustain the sleeping Osyr as it was the most magically powerful who woke first and were able to construct such a solution. It makes me smile to hear Hexanchus describe this with some annoyance, saying that this has actually been quite a problem as they need fisherfolk and more practical community members rather than mages and lords.   Over our meal I give as thorough explanation as I can of the events since the city went to sleep - it's almost amazing how easily such explanations come to mind now that I've encountered so many ancient people who need their memory filled in. I tell our new friend about the end of the war, the Barrier, and the refugee elves. I tell him about the Outlands and reassure him that the Empress approves of what I'm doing and that she has named me our Imperator. At this, he bows and apologizes for his informality but I wave it off and we laugh together. I had not realized that this was a title ancient people would recognize.   The rest of our meal passes in conversation about the Unfreezing Sea, demons, and the Barrier itself. Apparently the storm was not felt by the demons who live there and Hexanchus is surprised that anything could have shielded an area from the aftereffects of the Storm's avatar. Privately, Kaide remarks that it was likely the work of another Immortal and that it could be either the Master or Magdalena's teacher, who manages the Adjudicators. I am hopeful that it was Kaie. I would prefer not to tangle with the Master again anytime soon.