General Summary
Day 476
When we land in Dreamfall we are instantly absorbed in the bustle of the Grove but when I slip off to the quiet of my cottage I find an unexpected guest waiting.
Uncle Red is leaning casually against the door and smiles when he sees me, holding out a return message from Mistress. For a moment I'm confused - he was supposed to stay and help her! But he points out that his 'little demon' would take no excuses for him not carrying a letter back to me. So for now...he's a glorified messenger for three messages after which he will have to stay on the other side of the Barrier for a while.
The gap in the Barrier he has been using will attract the attention of Adjudicators if he's not cautious.
But he's here for a few hours - I can ask him about Trillium. Namely he tells me that he remembers her when the rest of us don't because Treeborn in general resist being altered. Their status as part living creature and part conceptual embodiment protects them from being caught up in someone else's magical working; Ancient immortals are even more resistant. The magic worked around Trillium was never perfect but now the crack will continue to grow if we're not careful.
It is hard to keep back frantic tears as I explain the circumstances under which she called the spirits that threaten to drive her mad. He understands the gravity of the situation, of course.
He suggests that I help her break it open intentionally, piece by piece. I know enough about spirit calling to help her channel the dragon spirits one by one and let her negotiate and bargain for peace with each one, settling their anger and trying to resolve their conflicts so she can release them one at a time. I think I could do this with elvish spirits, certainly; Mistress and I have called particular spirits time and time again by using the same runes and patterns. Dragons are a little more complicated, I would think.
It's a good idea, better than any I have. Magdalena can help me target a single spirit at a time (and perhaps this will help explain why I've insisted in bringing family along with me on the journey I told her I'd undertake alone). The other option is that I send Trillium across the Barrier and he and Mistress can go through the same process with her. But...being near Mistress and Doraal would surely making it harder for her to win free of her son's ancestral spirits.
Both options have risks and benefits. But the choice is easy - I want her with me. And I don't want her and the rest of my family to reunite and have her ripped away by madness. I can shield them from that.
Uncle leaves me scrambling to write a response for Mistress and goes out to meet Trillium, finally. Their meeting is nourishing - he takes in her tattoos proudly and addresses her as Sprout despite her happy protests. I leave the two of them working while I write (not as much as I'd like, but I do what I can).
When he returns he looks a little bemused. The Barrier is apparently blocking nearly all of her tattoos from helping her - she can only call ancestors who were born on this side of the Barrier. My mind races - those would be ancient elves. He's already writing down a recipe for pigments I can use to help her - all made of parts of the Grove trees. He thinks I can help her strengthen her connection to Leaf and Vine so that she can call truly ancient ancestors, the original elves and the fae of leaf and vine before them. He hopes she can find an ancestor who lived in Avan'Nal if not a true rider who could give her the knowledge she needs to bargain with dragons.
It's tricky...she'll need to skills and awareness to negotiate without entirely knowing why. I'm afraid to tell her what she needs to know to make sense of it. Even telling her that she has channelled dragon spirits is frightening - she's a smart girl. If Void had told me that she had called dragon ancestors I would have made the logical jump that either she is descended from dragons (something I can dismiss easily - I know most of her ancestors because I've helped Mistress channel half of them for centuries)...or she painted with the blood of dragons.
That might be enough. I told her the vision I had of the Divine Sword of Order slaughtering that silver dragon and she knows they're hunting her too. Perhaps we'll be able to dance around precisely how she called these ancestors. These are thoughts for later. For now I press the letter into Grandmaster's hands and hug him close - he tells me he received the song I sent him and I burst into tears.
I promise to send for him if Trillium succumbs to the spirits. And then he's gone.
I feel dazed when I finally let the others in. Lyssa and Alder take over the kitchen and we all tease Andstella over dinner for not having chosen a title yet. It's hard to find one that suits her - princess, queen, chancellor, defender, keeper.
But the night develops into the Dreaming and finally I can introduce Andstella and Kaide to Nal, who doesn't quite have title suggestions from history but is delighted to show us around her Grove and let us see how all of the humans-turned-fae are developing. Their wings are sprouting, much like mine was quite recently. They are all learning how to connect to trees properly with songs.
What's more - I finally ask if Thalien might be allowed to join their community. I explain that elves don't have a tradition of the dead having a community of their own and so he has been wandering for several years, interacting with the waking world at the seams. Nal says he is welcome to join them and I feel such an intense sense of relief at this. I don't intend to fail but if I do I will still have a place for him, perhaps one that many of us will join one day.
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