Day 699
We're finally headed out from the cove, but the weather has turned cold as we draw closer to winter. No snow yet, but cold, pouring rain. Everyone but Ausha hunkers inside our cozy ship.
At some point along the journey, Liliales comes to both me and Ausha for help with his fighting and untangling his magic. He's learned so much in the dream years but his ability to switch between style and integrate them has suffered. Both Ausha and I can recognize it as a young mage problem - one that wouldn't be such a problem if he were facing other apprentice fae or humans in their specialties but will set him far behind peers like Hella, or even other elves.
Both his illusion magic and dusk magic have grown stronger, and he's nearly at the point of being a 'mystic', if one were to divide magic up like that. Unfortunately for Liliales, he needs to revise some of his wizardry in order to better organize how he uses magic for fighting. He and Ausha spar under my guidance while Qishali and I sit together.
Magdalena and Qing Chen continue their lessons, with poor Qing Chen learning to capture some of the rainstorm's energy. Her answer to his questions about his Demon King seed were frustrating, though unsurprising to me. Her advice is to grow into himself so that nothing will be able to interfere with him, just like all her other students have grown and stumbled.
She and I also work together in the storm to meet and bind new spirits made of rain, cold, and wind. It's much more complex than the newborn lightning spirit I met, which has intention if not intelligence. Its intent is to cleanse, and not gently! It is meant to destroy things around it which are created - only nature should remain. It is a very difficult thing to capture, but eventually I tire it out to the point that it can be released to be less destructive to the surrounding environment.
Day 700
The storm grows so severe that we have to rescue several smaller ships and send people in to shore, though our ship remains safe despite its inhabitants being tossed about.
Finally, we encounter an enormous magical barrier stretching across the river with thousands of boats sheltering within the barrier. Even the water is calm within the bubble. As we approach, an enormous turtle surfaces to offer us shelter if we need it (though there is a charge). Up close, the barrier is faceted like his shell, and he tells us that one of his brothers will stop by for us - the barrier is very clearly maintained by multiple wizards.
His brother is much smaller, and transforms into a humanoid wizard as he comes aboard to collect the payment - 100 medium spirit crystals or equivalent energy. To my surprise, the payment is quite modest relative to our own energy but evidently it is the same charge for anyone, and the energy contributes to the barrier itself. The barrier mitigates, but doesn't entirely repulse the storm outside - now that we are inside I can feel a light breeze and some drizzle, like on a pleasant day.
He addresses us as 'senior experts' and inquires as to our fields of study, asking if any of us are barrier masters. Though the barrier magic is something I could probably figure out, it's not a specialty. He says perhaps someone will come by to help us get involved since it's always good to have more capable hands in case help is needed.
A short while later, a different enormous turtle skids towards us and transforms into a man wearing a glowing pendant (a badge of office?) and heads straight for Ausha.
It's true! I heard there was an elf here - are you a healer?
He introduces himself as Lo Jia, and tells us that one of his students is an elf suffering from a a curse. An 'Oathbreaker's' curse...though Lo Jia says it was not his fault. After some discussion (and confusion), Lo Jia brings me, Ausha, and Liliales to a barge at the centre of the barrier. Its magical energy is immense and clearly, it is a floating school mainly of turtles (all hunchbacked, even the youth) but also other spirit folk including some winged tigers. There's a long queue of people waiting to come aboard and they clearly run a business in repairing, recharging, and allowing access to their library.
Within the room where Lo Jia takes us is very familiar elf - Aestian, a member of Doraal's inner family and an immensely talented motion mage. Last I saw him was when the Collective betrayed us, and he covered our escape. I had thought him dead...and he saved all of our lives.
He was near death when he washed down the river and was taken in by one of the arch deans of the school, who healed him and told him that he would need to swear oaths to the school in order to become a student and eventually teach there, as the arch dean wanted. Aestien refused to swear certain oaths to the school unmodified, and the arch dean forcibly removed his elvish oaths so that he cold 'choose freely'. The breaking of oaths incapacitated Aestien and stripped him of much of his magic, and the arch dean set him aside. Lo Jia relays all of this to me with disgust, so my building rage is set paused for the time being.
As I sink a thread of energy into him, I'm surprised to encounter a spirit bond that he has forged with a primitive fire spirit. It must have been a strange thing to choose - an elf partnering up with fire. But the bond has strengthened him by filling some of the void left by the absence of oaths. And the spirit is not energetic and blazing - it is a nurturing flame. When I question Lo Jia, he reassures me that it was not something forced upon Aestien.
He was reluctant because it was a flame spirit...but he stopped weakening afterwards and he's slowly becoming adept in flame magic, though it seems counter-intuitive to him.
Strengthened by my magic, Aestien wakes and is, justifiably, amazed to see me. He seems so defeated, but so proud that everyone he stayed behind to protect is alive and well. As much as I want to immediately hear about what has happened to him and tell him all about Doraal and Mistress and what has happened, my immediate concern is restoring his oaths.
Liliales helps him kneel, and I wave off his request that he swear into my House so that at least he can serve 'a Dread Lord' until we can reunite with Doraal and sort things out. It's a sensible request from a member of my brother's inner family, but I know that I can restore all of his lost oaths as the Imperator. The Imperial presence that fills the room as he takes his oaths again is intense and comforting, and Lo Jia looks amazed to feel it.
It seems I didn't just find 'an elf', but exactly the right elf!
Once Aestien is restored (and already starting to look healthier), Liliales fetches tea and we settle in to stay for dinner and catch him up on everything that has happened. 'Master Lo', as Aestien addresses him, is happy to sit and listen as I run through the never-ending list of developments. Liliales comments that I always seem to get such enjoyment from updating someone with the increasingly implausible and context-heavy events we've set in motion.
- My good-natured thievery of Knotrael, which Aestien laughs at and admits that he should have moved faster on Knotrael when he had the chance, though he certainly wouldn't go up against Tira.
- The fae of day and night, including my little imperial prince.
- That Mistress is on this side, albeit no longer a Hand.
- That Doraal has taken over as Fourth Hand (at which Aestien remarks that he can't wait to tell his family, who I recall being doubtful at the prestige of a military life).
- Humans, including Hella and Bran (who Aestien remarks is very handsome).
- Thalien's passing, though we all note that he must have had a hand in keeping Aestien alive, with the luck he has had.
- My own status as Imperator, along with the Outlands.
- Lyssa's status as a Hand.
- That members of my family have been able to cross back and forth across the Barrier, and that we have open (albeit delayed) communication.
- Trillium - because Aestien asks about her as though he'd never forgotten about her and her mission. When I tell him she is well and studying with a teacher on this side, he says he'd be a poor uncle if he didn't go visit at some point.
A dinner progresses, Master Lo agrees to accompany us as far as the Fire Bird Empire and says that maybe some friends of his there will be able to help us reach the Vermilion Birds. At some point, I also think I will need to pay a visit to the arch dean who stripped Aestien of his oaths...though perhaps a firm letter will communicate whatever I have to say to him. In the meantime, I tell Master Lo that if he ever feels like teaching somewhere else, I know several schools that would love to have him. He likes being in the field but wishes he had more advanced students, and I'm sure there are plenty of Osyr graduate students who would love to learn from him.
Before the night is over, Aestien also shows us the little fire spirit he had bonded with - Livid. The small ball of flame is warm, nurturing, and smells faintly of bread when it pops into existence. Aestien, evidently, has been teaching himself how to cook in order to stay busy while he has been in decline. I am almost chortling at the thought of him joining Tira, Knotrael, and Alder.
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