28.6 Lunch and Magic Theory

Day 449

We return to Amytri's tower and get swept up to a light lunch and promises of interesting magical conversation. While Kaide retires to save herself for the nightlife, Kadia, Hella, and I listen attentively to what Amytri has been working on.   He reveals a carved model of a dragon and tells us that just like his bird-based letterboxes can carry notes, this dragon-based system can transport larger parcels. While it might be the basis of an exceptionally energy-hungry and limited shipping system he intends to use it to set up a postal service. Currently he can power it with bottled distillate from the aurora over the Unfreezing Sea but the dragons are consequently bound to operating around the Sea. It could manage 1-2 deliveries per week but he hasn't yet unlocked a way for it to operate further and tie together places like Deldrin, Lone Mountain Keep. Like a network, Kadia things we could use Solace as a hub for now and then we would be able to tie new hubs onto the graph later on as needed. I to expand the network we'll need to separate the energy source from the geographical anchor. Kadia thinks perhaps boxes carved from the wood of her forest could serve as an anchor there and I'm sure renewed study of the Sending magic in the library of Deldrin would yield some components to add to this study.    As for the Sea itself, Amytri has had dwarven ironworkers creating thin-hulled metal ships that can traverse the water. Some elementalists have also been working on small skiffs made of ice for personal travel propelled by kite. It's a solution that could only ever work for exceptionally skilled wind and water mages and I can't imagine it has any practical use beyond showing off a bit.   The conversation ebbs and flows until Amytri mentions that it has been a long time since he got a proper lesson from our teacher. He's pleased and impressed to hear that I managed to get her to take a letter bird with her but nods with understanding when I explain the strange little fae family we are forming.   I ask after his knowledge of human magic and he says Magdalena told him it was grafted on by the people that humans see as gods ("people" she specifically said). While she said he could tinker with it, she warned him not to investigate the people who gave humans their gift. He seems alright with this but muses as to whether he is even human anymore.   Kadia notes that our experience of our race seems cultural - she is still Osyr in a human body, I will always be an elf, and Amytri is human so long as he thinks of himself that way. I wonder if Kaide is hearing this and what she thinks. Her letter to Magdalena painted her so much more as elf than Osyr and I think she is right that she is growing into an elf.   Kadia and Hella, our mixed race pair, express that one of the things they fear about returning to the Empire is that they might be either blended or separated. Despite what other elves have told them of the Empress, it is hard for Kadia to see her as something other than the fearsome leader I know she once was. It is very important to me that both of them understand that even if the Empress is the terrifying Empress of old that Kadia remembers, their first responsibility is to their own happiness.  

We will do what the Empress wishes, as her servants.

  Kadia says this quietly and I respond with much more vigour.  

No. You will do what you want and feel is right, as members of my family.

  I feel the same fury and anguish in my heart as when I told the Empress of old to get out of my way and let me do my work. It is like my vision of the future has split into the one I know is true - that the Empress is kind and loving and would never erase this sisterhood, and the one in which it is my job to protect them from someone who does want to do that to them.   I am more than happy to send two of my people back into the Empire with instructions to tell the Empress that if she doesn't like what they're doing, she can take it up with me.   The conversation shifts again, this time to Amytri's family. Drakken has gone scavenging in the aftermath of the storm for wanderers who might cling to him and ruins that he might plunder. I note that perhaps it is time to destroy Afan...I won't ever forget the way that magic is structured and Tira has my notes on it. It's a part of history I wouldn't mind setting aside for now. But Amytri has other thoughts on his mind.  

I wonder if maybe it's time for me to clean up the mess. I'd have to get him away from his people but he's never beat his old an in a fair fight. I've been tinkering with a way to just destroy his mind...but I'm only 30% sure it would work without killing him. I can't help wondering if I could let him start over maybe he would choose differently.

  Between knowledge of the unweaving magic practiced by Tom (maybe Bran understood it) and the rituals Kaide and I have used to lock up our own memories I am positive that we will be able to help Amytri when he needs it. I'll give him copies of all my notes on sequestering memories, though he'll need to modify them to work on an unwilling target.   The rest of our lunch conversation is lighter, thankfully.   I share my notes on the dimensional storage space I'm working on. Amytri laughs to see that I'm accomplishing this by growing a storage space - something unthinkable to his methods of the arcane. Of course I am eager to see what he comes up with (and when...considering he has the luxury of scholarly kingship while I'm traipsing around through the wilderness).   And Kadia...Kadia has been working on something particular as well. The island in the Sea where she was growing trees is a place where she is cultivating a specific energy. The ice-hungry trees on the shores act as a filter for the magic of the Unfreezing Sea and should lead to a more pure natural core of energy at the centre after the wind and ice magic has been stripped out by the trees.   On this island she wants to create a proper environment for a school. Solace's university system is still so based on specialists and departments and the environment doesn't serve them properly. Osyr and elvish academies are placed in locations where the energy around them encourages the learning and the natural growth of the students. It might be tempting to make the Unfreezing Sea a place where wind and ice elementalists can study but this island can be a place where all magic thrives. More importantly, it can be a place for humans, elves, dwarves, fae, anyone who is ready to study.  

It belongs to our shared legacy.

  Growing the trees will be a project of decades and we must build the environment first, then the infrastructure, and finally select the right students and teachers. We'll start it right. For now, someone will need to keep fuelling the tree growth when Kadia and Hella cross the Barrier. They intend to spend time there learning and doing as the Empress bids but Hella wants to fight against the Collective as well. I caution them to take the time to learn their enemy and heed the other military leaders but I know they will do me proud. I'm still filled with a thrill of fear about Hella facing the Collective for the first time without me beside her. I can see her between Mistress and Doraal and I know they'll keep her safe.   As we retire from lunch for a nap on Amytri's recommendation I pull Hella and Kadia aside.   Regardless of what might happen across the mountains I want them to reflect on what they want. Just like Kaide, I tell them to think beyond what they have been offered. They are so sweet, arguing a little in a sisterly way about how they know they would never want to be separated but that logistically it would probably be wise to have some privacy sometimes. Kadia in particular points out that one day Hella will inevitably take an interest in someone and Kadia might not like them in the same way.   I send them off to rest with laughter. It is a delightfully mundane reason for wanting to be able to walk separately sometimes.