54.1 Somehow Related

General Summary

Day 1095

The swearing of oaths and announcement of Deldrin’s inclusion into the Empire is uneventful, with potential disruption from the Candlemaker’s church having been headed off by Liliales. It is late at night when the ceremony finishes and I am wide awake, basking in the glow of midnight and success.   Before long, Bran comes to find me with a pack slung over his shoulder. Something in his eye reminds me for a split-second of Thalien…mischievous…certain that I’ll say yes to whatever he’s about to suggest.  

 It’s been a long time since we were travelling together. Do you want to slip away before the sun rises?

  It has been a long time indeed. I have grown accustomed to my travelling party of over a dozen people on dragon back. This next step involves a freedom I’ve been missing, and I take only a few minutes to say goodbye to Lyssa and Ausha before Bran and I take flight. The ache in my heart at leaving the two of them (especially Ausha) is buried deep beneath the rush of night air and the great expanse of my wings. Even in the dark, I can see the outline of my shadow fly across Deldrin as it dims the stars.   We have plenty of time to reach the Grotto and meet up with Magdalena, but our mood takes us far East, to where the old town of Whitewater once stood.  

Day 1096

We arrive at just as dawn is breaking, and the sight would be wholly tragic if it weren’t for the thriving city of New Whitewater, just a short journey further East. The forest is quickly reclaiming itself. Trees and roots creep through weathered and destroyed wooden walls, their demise hastened by the hard winter.   Bran walks about with an air of detached affection and fond memories for the place that was home.  

How long has it been since you went home? To the village where you were born?

    Decades, at least — after I nearly lost Mistress and Doraal, I didn’t go home at all. With just the two of us, Bran’s tone turns reflective. He has been thinking about trolls and their sense of place, whether place is important to him. He’s been thinking about kids again, and wondering about the hidden forge we found near Lone Mountain Keep — would it be a good home? He has this wistful, far-seeing tone and I jostle him out of it easily. He’s too romantic for his own good, fantasizing aimlessly about setting up a home in the mine, in the Capital near Alder, in other far-flung places he hardly knows anything about. There is plenty of time to see all these places before he starts dreaming about setting up shop.  

I think it’s hard because I’m trying to think about it instead of seeing. I need to try things…and maybe get it wrong.

  And he’s seen things about Hella (he looks at me in surprise when I ask if she’s going to meet some mysterious blue-haired woman and sail across the sea with her). He says that Hella is frozen, like she’s under a layer of ice in a lake. Kadia is looking after her, but the magic holding her there smells like demons. Once, this would have sent rage and immediacy coursing through my veins. Now? Now they’re far away, under the care of my elder sister and everyone else on that side of the Barrier. If it’s something that needs me, someone will send word. But more likely than not, they’ll find their own way out of it.   Hella and Kadia will never quite be like Ausha and I because they’ll never manifest separately. And Bran thinks the two of them need a sword…and staff. Something they can both use — he and I can make it together like we did last time with forged in that strange, secret mine.   The others on the far side of the Barrier are shining brightly as well, particularly Tira. I will have at least one new Hand when we reconvene, and many new Dread Lords.  

Day 1097

We camp under the stars and rouse late in the afternoon with enough time to collect my years-old glass ring from Thalien’s grave. It doesn’t belong there anymore. As we look at the humble mound of earth, Bran swears that he’s going to bring Thalien back here to see the grave and yell at him. But of course, I tell him there are so many more fruitful ways to get back at him. Now that Thalien has given up on seeing Fate, Bran can take over his endless jokes and quips about things just ‘needing to be that way’.  

Day 1098

When we reach the Grotto, we are greeted mid-air by Hue…who could balance on my claw and still have space. We execute a flawless transfer of my passenger so that I can dive straight into the Grotto lake as we enter. The banks flood as I splash down, and the water is just as nurturing and wonderful as I remember.   When I emerge in my humanoid form, soaking wet, Ipthina is approaching with a new fae. Her wings are soft blue-lavender and she feels like she is only half in the waking world. Something about being soaking wet, refreshed, and far from my family makes me feel so…small town girl. I wave hello as though I’ve known her my whole life and we immediately set to bickering about whether we are sisters, cousins, aunt and niece (and in which direction).   It’s Artemisia, of course, and she has been waiting for me. It is as surreal an experience as always, meeting one of the Treeborn. Evidently she has been keeping an eye on us this whole time, but hiding from Bran whenever he is in the Dreaming. She has been camped other for a few months waiting to help me fetch ‘something’ from the Dreaming, and Magdalena either hasn’t arrived yet or is here and hiding until she doesn’t have to be alone with her sister.   The conversation is both straightforward and incomprehensible. Artemisia does feel dreamy, half-lost in tangents and strange ideas. She offers me a box and says that it is “for when dawn is the moon,” and asks if I know what it means. It’s for Dawn, I assume, and she’s currently Midnight so I imagine I’m just going to play messenger for it. She seems pleased to have found where this gift is meant to go, and happily hands it off to me.   By this time, Wayin has heard and is barrelling towards us. My little dusk tree skitters down my arm and springs to its full size in greeting to the other spirit. The two of them laugh and admire one another as we all bundle into hugs and welcome. His childish excitement is infectious and I cycle through all of my fae forms to show what I’ve been up to.   Artemisia gasps when I cycle through Hope and Compassion — she recognizes me as Myriad Cycles.  

I thought you were a legend! Someone’s fever dream!

  We all stay up very late as I tell Wayin stories about our travels and all the trees I’ve seen. Then, I leave him and the dusk tree together while Ipthina and I go about the Grotto to plant some of my many new seeds. Bran asks if he can gather any fallen branches and if it’s appropriate to collect them or if he should leave them be. Ipthina says he’s very considerate for a human — one of the few good ones she has met.   Just as we settle down to camp, Artemisia shows up carrying several waterfowl and clearly in her Nightmare manifestation. She gives Bran a glance.  

Is the snack available?

  I roll my eyes and tell her he’s spoken for, and she sighs petulantly. A few minutes later, she drifts off to the boundary of the Grotto and returns, looking sleepy and helpless, with Magdalena and Qing Chen.  

I’ve put her in catnap mode. She is much easier to deal with when she’s like this. Heiassa, if you have a spare dream flower, you can just put her to sleep and it will make it much easier to fetch Thalien.

  Qing Chen and Magdalena also tell us about Hella - a demon lord specializing in compulsion got ahold of her and managed to affect her. But her body has two people in it, and Kadia destroyed him.