General Summary
Day 480
Today, everyone is a little distant and separate as they prepare to leave. After boisterous celebration and tearful goodbyes last night the mood is frozen, as though we are afraid to shatter the peace we have made with our separation. Letters are finalized and passed along with instructions. I skim through each little glowing flame in my vision as they cluster into the groups that will be carried by each dragon. Haze and Onyx both spend most of their time in their humanoid forms but now they stand tall and strong, wings stretching and flexing in preparation.
The military and political assets are safely boarded and there is no guilt in my mind that I've not bothered speaking with any of them. Tira and Dendra explained what was happening and it is easier for me to divorce myself from choosing to send tactical assets home instead of people who may never see their families again.
The flames in my eyes diminish to tiny overlapping specks as the dragons recede into the distance, carrying nearly half of my family with them.
But there are still more departures. Dal is heading to Drognar for a while and when our young royals are settled he will head further North in search of the Valley of Urna'Low. Bran and Yneir are making their way to Eir and then down to the Weaver's Village to collect Vaneilli.
The last departure to be arranged is Camellia and Zadiyah, and we retire to my makeshift war room to plan their next move.
Wellspring is home to a seasonal Tree of Refuge and while I would have been willing to turn over the fortress to fae of seasons with Camellia in charge, I am not willing to do so to the fickle court they have shown themselves to be. A place of power containing only memories of war and conflict between elves and fae so near to my own Keep is not something I want, nor that Zadiyah should have to manage.
Instead I'd like elves to hold the fortress as a military asset and plant a grove outside of it, hopefully one shared by seasonal and day and night. With good, dwarven-made roads between the Keep and Wellspring we can maintain a good relationship between the two locations.
Outlying elvish villages will need to be established in the area as well; some people are just not suited to life in a military town. The ruins of Ipth will be kept uninhabitable and anyone trying to settle there will be driven off or welcomed in - the city is not placed well for anyone's purposes. It is a city that wasn't meant to survive. And Camellia plans to become a knight errant, as in some of her memories. She recalls travelling amongst the countryside protecting people, a Covenant in which powerful races swore to protect the weaker. She thinks she might remember some of those languages and will lead groups of young fae of day and night in that mission.
And I entrust the issue of Brighton to Zadiyah. I have no particular vision for how I want it handled, just that it cannot be allowed to exist in its current format. Between her, Nidrae, and Nienne I think it will take at most 5 years before it is either reformed and under our banner or simply burned to the ground as another city that should not exist.
And the final group departing is my own. Trillium, Jaeril, Liliales, and Kaide will make our way Southwest and meet with Lyssa in Deldrin and then Magdalena at the Crystal Spires. Once we are all gathered on the coast I think I would like to pay a visit to the lost Grove South of the Golden Micro Empire and see if we can revive it. 'Blood Fallen Valley' is not a promising name but we are an extremely promising group. Then further South to the lost Samsara Grove (this plan I keep to myself) and on towards the Great river.
It is a good but exhausting plan and I take the evening to recover from it.
Kaide and I finally watch Magdalena's lectures and see Zephyr for the first time - radiant and overly perfect with feathered wings and musical voices. Apparently they did that to themselves, wishing to appear more godlike and perfect. One has to wonder who worships them now that they have left the earthly world.
Certainly not Magdalena, anyway. Seeing her lecture these glittering idiots is gleeful for me, watching her jab at their high-and-mighty academic beliefs with examples of farmers and manual labour. She instructs them on reaching bloodline echoes to access skills and memories that an ancestor once had, such as the ability to grow something from nothing. She has them scour back through their generations to look for lies in their lineage: "Shameful" serfs and labourers amidst the shining academia of their families' stories.
The lectures are intense, but more than that I notice her wings. They look maliciously shredded by something...I will have to ask when she is home.
Kaide and I practice the echo magic late into the night, finding several ancestral memories within my family.
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