Day 369
Somehow I had forgotten that our returning Vanguard fae would only be gone for a few weeks and not the months that the Fae of Seasons would need. It takes me by surprise when I feel Alder's magic strengthening as he returns through his anchor point, bringing all the new Fae of Day and Night with him.
And floating straight towards me, glowing with warm gold and rose wings is Camellia, looking so much younger than before. In this moment I experience what I imagine all the others experienced when they saw me as Dusk for the first time. She's resplendent.
And this time she has woken as a knight! A dawn knight -
my dawn knight, she specifies. She had thought mahybe she would be a scoundrel but this feels right for her. Last time she was a knight she was guarding the Grove and protecting her family; she didn't do the adventuring and travelling that some knights do.
In her ancient songs she remembers living amongst elves and working to protect an elvish lord with whom she travelled. She remembers journeys and quests and now infused with that energy she is radiant: Ready to save the world and guard my back.
A ways away I see Theaceae talking with Dawn. They're
tall and brightly lit with daylight blue wings and stunning blond hair. This time they are a wildling and it will be their first time as something other than a mage, which will take some getting used to.
Elvish bonds are heavy where fae bonds are light, but intense.
As she Camellia muses about her new memories of elves she wonders if she should ask the rest of her family to join us here. Even if they don't change, they would of course be welcome. She's hesitant about asking them to join as thought she knows best. I hope she invites them...I want to meet them.
We spend the rest of the afternoon finally having tea together and talking about the future. Lyssa. We talk about Lyssa, since it's nearly all I can think about in my quiet hours as our reunion grows near.
Camella, too, is ready to join my elvish family now. We decide that once we collect Bran in Drognar we will be ready. It's funny - Bran and Hella and Alder all felt so obvious but Camellia and I have skirted around this for months longer than we needed to. Now with her ready to live centuries onwards with me, it feels right.
The rest of the evening is a celebration of our newly returned friends - music, dancing, laughter and stories. All the Vanguard fae are almost heart-breakingly young. As Fae of Seasons they were among the youngest I'd seen but now with their extended lifespans it seems unconscionable to have 5-year-olds out on their own.
One young boy, dusk in purple and crimson, is telling a story about a mother he remembers well. His mother taught him about his personal magic and illusions. He demonstrates, pulling illusory scenery out from his heart the same way I pull music. And in that moment I recognize him. I remember teaching him that very spell. He was my child, Trachi.
When I call his name the music around us goes silent and it's like it is just us in the clearing with the flickering bonfire. He drifts over to me, face open and hopeful. What are we to each other? He is not Trachi and I am not the mother he remembers but there is some indescribable thread between us that must not be ignored.
His name now is Liliales and I ask him to tell me a bit more about
this lifetime.
- His mother has always been a martial warrior of some kind and always Spring or Summer. They have been in sync up until recently and she's fierce and bold.
- His father is usually Winter or Spring and always a mystic. He is gentle and still, and has some hearth magic especially in winter.
- Liliales himself has been a wildling three times before and never a mage. I make a mental note to introduce him to Theaceae.
- His parents in this lifetime have been afraid of him and his false memories, telling him that the songs he's heard aren't real or don't make sense.
And he asks me as well:
- He remembers being something of a pacifist under my influence.
- I taught him that things often attack because they have no other choice, and that one must be careful to distinguish between those that are wicked and those that are simply frightened.
- "Are you like that too?" he asks. I'm proud to be able to say yes.
We're not strangers but we don't quite know each other.
We stay up late into the night talking, and it suits both of our dusk natures. When he finally departs from my cottage it is with the knowledge that I will continue to teach him just as I taught him before. We may not be parent and child anymore but he is a young mage and I always have plenty to share with special young mages.
Alone again in my home I find myself staring into the dying flame of the last candle of the night, thinking.
Imagine singing your last song to a tree (something I may never do, I realize) and knowing that one day your memories might find your loved ones again. What a thought, to know that in thousands of years a stranger might look at someone they've never met and recognize love again.
And how special for Liliales and I to be the first to experience this and have the opportunity to experience it free of expectations or pressures. We get to be the people who decide what this looks like for all the people who come after us. We get to be the people who say that this is precious and rare and while you don't need to adopt that relationship you must honour the thread that connects you.
I wonder what that thread would look like to Bran.
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