38.5 Military Gift

General Summary

Day 568

Night finds Kaide and me collapsed on a bed together as she tells me about Thistle. The young mystic uses divination to look at the sea floor and records what her vision shows her on paper. It's a remarkable use of her magic in a new environment.   Before we sleep, Kaide asks if we might request a ship to take us South. It would be easy enough to simply command them (or to have me ask and acknowledge that they would never refuse me) but we want to ask.  

Day 569

When I wake in the morning (afternoon, really) everyone has already left for the day and I find Qing Chen doing apprentice drills with Magdalena watching. He is so clearly struggling and I have to hide a smile as Magdalena remarks to me that he's not hopeless, at least. Kaide points out that this is Magdalena being kind and gentle and so Qing Chen really ought to appreciate it.   After a quick meal our teacher collects all of us up and takes out into the sea for something quite overdue - helping Kaide further rebuild her physical form. Atop a rock outcropping surrounded by the saltwater we join our magic under Magdalena's direction. It ought to be easy - the ritual is supposed to strengthen Kaide's form and necessarily weaken the connection she has to me. Instead, she fights it. She's not willing to reduce our connection to gain the strength she needs. I had expected Magdalena to be annoyed with this but she looks incredibly pleased that Kaide is doing it her own way. When we finish and I can look at my sister clearly again I see her eyes have deepened and I see a forest in them as well as the waves that have always been present. She is the junction of Osyr and elves, like how I am both elf and fae.   With her newfound strength we set to work on the next apprentice project: Magdalena wants to see Kaide work some larger elemental magic with the earth and fire that she has been neglecting. Under Kaide's direction as senior apprentice, Qing Chen and I help her transform the large outcrop into a defensible fortress that sits high and sturdy upon the jutting spire from the water. When we finally take a break we notice that Magdalena has left and returned with a barge full of fine sand to decorate the otherwise plain and utilitarian military asset we've created. Another few hours pass with us glazing the entire exterior using the sand (which Magdalena assures me was acquired fairly, and that the boat was paid for and taken consensually).   When we are finally finished we have a strong and beautiful fortress and Magdalena approves our work easily, telling Kaide that this would make a suitable gift to the Navy in order to ask them to sail us South. It is so sweet to see Kaide's face at this realization that Magdalena had thought of it as well, and wants to help in her own way. That night we bring our family, Raethien, and Thistle to dine with us in the newly established fortress and take some delight in telling the young Commander that the asset is now his.   It is sweet to see him attempt a refusal and be reprimanded quite smartly by both me and Kaide.  

Never turn down a military asset from someone you trust.   And just accept gifts from people who are more powerful than you. It just makes sense.

   

Day 570

The next day we depart from the Lost Cove aboard a ship captained by Raethien himself. Kaide is delighted as the shore disappears and she seems off in her own world.   This leaves me with more time to myself, and being aboard a ship is nostalgic for me and Trillium as well even if we don't remember the details of our shared memories. We find ourselves watching over the railings together and existing in quiet silence until she asks for advice about the dragon voices that she has been hearing in her head. It sounds like they are just on the other side of a door from her, and they are furious and violent. Whatever needs to happen in order to assuage them, she doesn't know if she'll be allowed to wait until she's ready.   I let the curtain slip a little to tell her that Uncle Red thought she should try to reason with this spirits, but that I think reasoning with furious and violent spirits is not a good idea. Instead, it will be a fight of some kind and she will need to prepare herself as much as she can, with all of her family's help. Above all I tell her that this is not a thing to drift through. In this, the river cannot guide her.  

I clung to the river because it was all I had. Now I will have to be the river and sweep away the things in my path when I need to.