Day 686
I deputize Liliales to go into the Dreaming to find whoever needs news, and promptly sleep for over 24 hours. I wake into a remarkably comfortable cottage (made of dusk wood), only moderately disoriented. Ausha and I set off to find food together and run straight into Starfield, who is eating with one hand and sketching with the other. The kitchen has a variety of hearty food, pastry, and very unique teas with a handwritten note.
For Heiassa.
They are apparently from Liliales, but it's clearly not his handwriting (nor would he use my name...). I ignore the small mystery and inspect the teas, finding leaves from both dawn and day trees, though none of dusk and night. Sensible.
Starfield has been preparing charts that lay out how we might plant our trees to link them as anchors to a ward that produce various effects - repelling hostility, suppressing violent tendencies, etc. I will have to bring these ideas to Andstella - perhaps we're overdue for a visit in the Dreaming. But the theory behind using these differentiated trees as a barrier forest and anchor to wider magic is fascinating, and we spend multiple hours on the idea. Surely many of the Groves we wake will be in need of protective forests.
Liliales and Qishali join us eventually (it is her handwriting, I realize), and report that the rest of the family has been reassured, though they'll surely still want to see me tonight. Mistress, he says, has been taken off the warpath at least. He also reports that the spirits here seem to just not be interested in the outside world, which surprises him. Qishali notes that there is an emotional ambience to the people who live here, since they are trusting and let down their barriers more. It's not a bad thing - the outside world isn't exactly welcoming and I think they're right to be happy here.
At this point, Magdalena joins us, looking like she hasn't slept at all. Evidently she has been avoiding sleep because the dreams she will have in this place will torment her with old hurts and memories. The impatient, mothering sense that I feel towards her is almost overwhelming as I tell her firmly that she needs to sleep and I will keep the dreams at bay. It is a brief argument that I win, though the process is complicated. In doing so, I glimpse the very dreams she is afraid of...burning groves, trees falling, the sense of running to save something.
Still - I'm able to put her to rest and go out to check on Cereus. He is in his tree, sketching boat designs. The three of us (Cereus, Ausha, and I) discuss for a while before selecting a design. But the question of what to do with the ship when we're finished...we thought the last boat would just be sold or abandoned but none of us want to abandon a ship made of this special wood.
Osyr, apparently, used to store ships in bottles for safekeeping when they travelled on land. We theorize about doing something similar - folding it like a paper boat, or having the pieces remember where they fit together so it can be disassembled.
While Magdalena sleeps, the rest of us start gathering materials and preparing for construction.
That night, I step into the Dreaming, where Thalien is waiting for me. Remarkably, his presence is not fuelled by anxiety for my wellbeing. He wants to tell me something else:
I'm going a bit blind to fate. And I'm good with that...it feels like a relief. I couldn't see what was happening to you - I just trusted that nothing could happen to you that would rip you away.
He says he'll wait here while I go find the others and report in. Before I can depart, Lyssa appears and barrels into me.
I haven't felt you in danger since we forged this connection. I think I'd feel it if something was truly threatening you - I'd feel you struggling against it. But this was stark, sudden, and all the more terrifying for it. What could rip you away so abruptly?
I have to sigh. It bothers me that the experience was so abrupt and scary when it truly was just a stupid magical glitch - one that
only Cereus and his fellows could have enacted. It's such a ridiculous situation, and one that was truly avoidable.
And then I'm off to find Mistress, by the fruit trees near the Weaver's Village. She is all fire and vinegar - talking about bending Cereus over her knee and spanking him for being so disgraceful with his magic. The thought of her yelling at both Cereus and Magdalena for their fight is delightful, but it is under control and even Uncle Red agrees that it's something best left to me.
We'll have some alone time together, of course, but being here with the fruit trees is a special opportunity as well. Mistress has met Plum, apparently, and Uncle Red thinks that a bond could happen because relinquishing her status as a Hand left a gap that could be filled by the tree. Other elves don't have the same gap, but if the three of us work together then it could be possible.
I explain that being fae and elf at the same time is not difficult at all - it's like seeing the world in two colours that blend. I can switch between them, or view the world through both lenses. It's a piece Uncle Red hadn't considered - that maybe Mistress could be both elf and fae instead of remaining strictly elf and bonding to a tree. They could be trees for wingless fae, not trees for elves.
At this, Plum reveals herself.
But why wingless? My friend should have wings, and have whatever she wants. Don't you agree?
Plum is refined and elegant, almost snooty and playfully dismissive of Uncle Red while being delighted with me.
Do you know how I could give her wings? You had a tree that gave you wings, so there must be a way.
It's such a straightforward, simple question. There must be a way, and if anyone knew how it would be Magdalena, the creator of elves and my tree. At the very least, I should try to get her to tell me how to make those winged cloaks. Uncle Red remarks that it's a 'lost magic' and so she absolutely must know how to do it.
I make a mental note to ask her when she is recovered. Other tree folks emerge so that we can all gather in song for a few hours, Thalien included. Seeing all the adult trees is somewhat strange for me, since Orange is so young and shy.
After sneaking some alone time with Mistress, I head off to find Bran. He's North of the trolls' forest in a tiny town mostly of trolls and dwarves, but it's clearly a winter hold for nomadic folks. Bran himself is perched atop a building, carving a small wooden bird. Our reunion is much more relaxed than with Lyssa or Mistress.
I talked to Thalien. It seems like he's seriously ready to hand off to me as a successor, since he's walking away from fate.
His feelings are all muddled up - recalling how he used to feel that he'd never be able to live up to his teacher or give me what Thalien gave me. But he overcame that, only to have Thalien re-appear and become a colleague as well as a teacher. And now they are diverging, with Bran set to continue Fatespinning as Thalien leaves it behind. He says it still feels like losing a teacher, but in a good way. It makes him wonder if maybe one day he will give up fate as well.
Yneir and Vaneilli are getting along, apparently, though they sometimes gang up on him. This new bird though, he says, seems like she'll get tangled up with Bran in a different way: Teacher and student, thankfully. I'm looking forward to seeing Bran come into his own properly as a teacher.
The bird, apparently, is his attempt at making something new. He wants to try sending people dreams of the future - premonitions. It could help him get through to people who aren't already open to Fatespinning and can't just be told things. It's a way to let people see what he can see, and maybe recognize a moment of change when it is upon them.
In this, I am both a Fatespinner and a Maker.
And after a long hug, I head back South to Thalien. He's been working on something, he tells me, with the buffalo and Liliales. My son has been keeping secrets, evidently!
The magic circle he draws is unusual, with ritual magic infused into it.
You'll need to wake up.
And when I do, Thalien is still there - translucent and ethereal. When he touches my face, I experience his presence but not a physical sensation.
It's fragile, and I can't keep it up for long. But it's possible.
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