Downtime work
Over the weeks I've spent in the Grotto I have been working on the four-dimensional storage space that Magdalena suggested. The work is engaging and improves my Auldrich Fae competency to the point that I don't need to refer to the cheat sheet anymore.
The core thing that I take away is the theory to create a folded space that expands to reveal more layers that have been compressed together. The structure in the book is generic with room to combine it with whatever magic I find most sensible. I can't help but think Amytri would do something fantastically mechanical and I'm eager to see what he makes of it.
For me, I think it will be better to grow a solution. If I can combine seeds like Wayin showed me, I can grow a container from it that has the properties I need.
- The segments and cells of a citrus fruit are distinct, searchable areas for storage. I'll use a pomelo seed for its dry distinction and additional padding around the fruit itself.
- The pit of a peach has grooves and tunnels such that the surface of the seed far surpasses the volume. That's useful compression if I could reverse it.
- Similarly, a peony has seemingly infinite layers of petals emerging from a tiny bud.
- A fiddlehead fern expands and emerges from a tightly compressed curl.
- The flexibility of a willow's boughs will keep the box from being rigid and fragile.
- I'll include the modularity of an apple's ability to graft trees together in case I ever need to add more space.
- With some seeds from around the Unfreezing Sea I could add cold storage!
- With some blood magic I could make the container accessible only to me or my Sworn.
At this stage it is still all theoretical but I have the components and continue working on it as I travel. With all the components I now carry it will be increasingly important.
Day 442
On schedule, Onyx arrives in the Grotto and we get to see him and Hue spin in the air together, her petite rainbow form looping around his reflective dark bulk. He is nearly three times larger than her!
When he lands, he eagerly proffers a small chunk of the same metal from which Bran made Forge Light. His experiment has worked and he's drawn out a larger chunk of the stuff: Arcanum. It came with another piece of useful material - Sunstone. It glows when I give it some energy and while I admire the practicality of it and can see how it could be used to create shadows, part of my thinks it might be better suited to say, a setting in a certain human girl's crown. Onyx notes that if my sword can be modified, it would probably combine well with Daybreaker's magic. Despite being part of its forging I have no idea if such a thing is possible. I'll have to ask Spindle and Bran!
We spend the evening feasting and enjoying the large gathering, including a few of the spirits Kaide has befriended: Tsili and Minal.
Day 443
We are awoken at an ungodly and inappropriate hour by Onyx, excited to see the sun and get going. To help he has prepared overly steeped bitter black tea, which does not improve my mood when I take like a shot.
I don't know if this is his naturally chipper self or an artefact of being underground for thousands of years. Either way, I try to have some sympathy but it is hard to muster.
The dragons take wing with us aboard at first but the journey is long and two of us have wings. Last I flew with Haze I was just an elf but now Jerun and I can left off and let our own wings carry us, borrowing speed from the dragons. Hue is delighted to show us how to dance in the air like dragons, twisting and turning around one another like fish or birds. She remarks that we are more graceful than Onyx, who grumbles good-naturedly but seems absolutely at ease flying steadily with Kaide on his back.
Our flight takes us over several new villages being constructed and I spot three that seem to be inhabited by Kiriti! I wonder if Rhyna is in one of them or if she stayed in Drognar.
It takes nearly the entire day to make it to the ruins and when we land I am taken aback by the awe of standing there in the waking world. The energy feels dormant, like it could wake and become a thriving settlement with just the barest amount of love.
It's large enough that it might have once held several thousand elves and the accompanying dragons, though it's harder to estimate that particular number. Elves have a very consistent size. There are name plates for many families, many dragons, including some with names that only make sense with Kaide's knowledge of the many Osyr words for waves.
The sun is setting by the time we see Haze and Crag winging towards us on the horizon. I am enveloped in a hug as soon as Tira leaps off of Haze and the two of us both laugh and chide Alrudian for the formality of her bow before I sweep her up in a hug as well. She feels more grounded than she did last I saw her. I think Crag is good for her.
She is determined to be the next Frontier hero, demanding formality and respect from all the stuffy nobles in the Capital. I know she has a hard road ahead of her but privately I revel in the thought of her making her way in the Capital backed by the knowledge that anyone badmouthing the Frontier dragon rider will draw the ire of the Frontier Hand as well. It would take a special sort of fool to tangle with one of us, let alone both.
Once again, the evening settles into a campfire and meal on cushions that Tira has taken to travelling with. Having a 40m dragon to carry your baggage is helpful.
She excitedly reports on her findings at the Unfreezing Sea. It seems like it acted as a sponge for the magic of the storm. This is not unexpected but it's strange that something is keeping the sea liquid despite it's below-freezing temperature.
My theory is that the Osyr shelter we found while crossing the Desolation (
16.3 Waves Don't Reach Here) is at play. Kaide agrees that perhaps the people who first found that sea and tried to shelter there imbued it with their longing for the cool sea that they lost when the Ingans boiled it around them. The lasting effects of the Longing might be not only for the water but for the cool, freezing water that the Ingans stole. The magic keeping that Unfreezing Sea is a blend of the storm and the magic of the First Ones.
As for the Desolation itself, I still think it is the result of the siphoning magic belonging to one of the races of the Collective. I think the overwhelming magic of the storm filled whatever had been drained away and overflowed it like a dam bursting. But still - what did that race of people use its magic and potential for?
She also tells us of blue and green lights that ebb and flow high above the surface of the sea. She offers me a small vial of the magic that she's collected, and Haze remarks that he'll want to collect more and bring it to his cousin, Spray. The descendants of Ocean will be very interested in it.
Kaide and I will have to visit the sea as well. I'm not confident that we will be able to enter the water but an Osyr perspective on it will be good and I want her to see the vastness of water.
And then Andstella arrives, descending with the moon at her back. What an entrance.
She settles in against me and Jerun laughs that finally, here is a fae family member! Here he has been struggling to remember that I'm an elf with elvish family despite how much he thinks of me as fae.
She reports that the Court of Seasons has recognized our people and agreed that we ought to be family to one another. They will send us any new Vanguard members so that they can join us and cycle as they should. Andstella has agreed to reserve a portion of our Grove to Trees of Seasons so that we can all shelter there and in ten years time once our first cycle is complete we will send some of our people to defend our cousins while they sleep.
And she has agreed that we will not actively recruit fae of Seasons to be Day and Night. While any are welcome to cycle as either Seasons or Day and Night, the Court of Seasons does not want us convincing anyone to join us.
It is a better resolution than I had expected. And with my own independent determination to spread Seasons groves far and wide, it works out fine. I would like our groves to spread as well but with a ten year cycle we are in much less danger now that we have multiple trees.
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