42.5 Is That All?

General Summary

Day 687

I wake, still glowing from my eventful night in the Dreaming. Qishali is waiting for me in the kitchen, where we sit down for brunch and a 'stiff, wakeful tea'. I imagine we'll need our resolve for our first day of construction.
She specifically wants to spend time with me both to get to know me better and ask me to help her learn a hobby. As a spirit in the South, she's had to learn so much about survival and staying alive that she's never had the opportunity nor the inclination to learn something artful - the most it could do is make her more valuable to someone else's extraction of her essence. But now she has family, and Liliales, and feels ready to learn something more leisurely.
We settle down to observe construction from a distance while the two of us talk about music, magic, and family. Qishali, it turns out, actually does not parents, so the process of developing a relationship with me as her mother-in-law is curious. Powerful spirits can have humanoid children, but Qishali herself was born from a lightning strike and has spent her entire life staying safe - family is new but she adapts so quickly to the idea and what I have to share.
With some music students, I would help them choose and instrument and then give technical advice...and with others I might hand them an instrument and tell them to just feel it in their heart. With Qishali, I show her illusions of many instruments and how they make sound - then watch her form her own unique instrument out of lightning itself.

Meanwhile, Magdalena is clearly acting the part of 'big sister' to Cereus. She has clearly had much more experience without magic than him, and he is struggling with not being the subject matter expert when it comes to boat-building. It is extremely fun to watch her chide and prod him into being manual labour under Ausha's direction.

Days 688 - 698

We pass ten days constructing the ship, and I split my time between teaching, bonding with Qishali, and making a dedicated study of Heart Magic. I spend time in the branches of the origin tree, studying.
I find myself in a separate dream space, still in the origin tree, surrounded by stumps. A few other trees stand tall - a Celestial tree, a Seasonal tree, a tree covered in red thorns, and one stump that has new growth emerging from it. I look out at the landscape of razed origin trees - for that is what I must be looking at.

You're here a bit early.

A tiny, tiny fae greets me - less than a foot tall in brilliant colours with sparkling energy in her wings. I know from looking at her, but I ask anyway - she's the Heart, the one who planted the first origin tree.

You seem...well and coherent.
Only because I'm talking to you. It's not time yet!
Could you be more specific?
Who are you?
Heiassa Duumn'ael - those names are who I am.
Elf?
Yes.
Fae?
Yes.
Leaf and vine.
Yes.
Is that all?
There's never an end to what a person is.

She leads me to a burned, hacked stump with roots that spiral around it in a single direction. It is large, but more slender than any other Grove trees I have seen.

Sing to it - then go find it.

So I sing my song of leaf and vine, and a tiny shoot emerges with a single leaf.

Close enough! Now go find it - it's downstream.

I hardly even know what to ask her, though I'm sure there are hundreds of questions I could offer. Instead, I simply point out that she hasn't spoken to anyone else...at this she nods. She's been waiting for me.

You're not ready yet. Not ready to hear the song yet. But you will be. After all, it's you!

And then I wake back into the dim light of the cavern. I have the strong, immediate impulse that I can't tell any of the Treeborn that I spoke with their mother...but maybe I can trust them not to pry when I ask mysterious questions. After all, Magdalena knows that knowledge often has a price.
I drift down to Magdalena in a haze to ask if there are any other origin trees along the river other than Temira's. The stump I saw was Asphodeloideae's - the gentle Treeborn who founded the Grotto. Her cycle was opposite to Temira's - Fae of Drifting Seeds, who cycled through Love, Joy, Compassion, and Hope. Their mission was to wander and carry those gifts everywhere they went, which meant that there were very few who remained at home to protect their Grove. Magdalena says this is why Asphodeloideae still wanders, carrying her gifts.
When I tell her that we'll need to visit, she tries to warn me of what was done to the tree, repeatedly, until I wave out an illusion of the scorched and ruined stump I saw in the dreamspace. She is surprised, but not shocked. And wisely, perhaps, she doesn't ask.

There was a time, if you had lost your family, that I might have brought you to Temira's Grove. You would have fit there. But this is a good fit for you now - you're the right person to help it. I might even sing a song myself, thanks to you.

The rest of the day passes in calm manual labour - planing planks of dusk wood down to fit into the ship. Later that night, I tell Ausha everything. It's not something I want to share with the Treeborn, heartbroken as they are, but I can hardly hide anything from Ausha.
And there is a special frustration to what I can share with her - the general dissatisfaction on being already on my journey to revive lost Groves, only to have the Heart emerge to pat me on the back and point me towards the next one. I still don't understand why the Heart has been waiting for me, rather than reconnecting with her other children.
Ausha rightfully points out that I'm magically unique: Two kinds of fae. I can connect with trees that aren't mine, something that even Teacher can't do. The Heart of Song must be able to connect to all trees...so perhaps that is what she sees in me and why I am the one she has been waiting for.
In the meantime, Qing Chen has been interviewing spirits about how they blend with elements. It has somewhat led to him wondering if his Exalted Ones really gifted demons with their ability to interbreed, or if they simply took it from spirits and grafted it onto demons. It's good that he's questioning, at least.
Days later, the ship is ready and Cereus asks to speak with me before we set out.

I owe you multiple apologies. Magdalena has let me know just how amazing of a person I've derailed by letting things get out of hand. But I owe you more than an apology.

He has been talking to Magdalena about how he could make it up to me. His suggestion is that he collect some signators for me, so that when the Groves are restored, I will be able to bring down the Barrier more easily. It's a much more attractive offer from him than from Zeesoo. And he also says that he will speak well of Magdalena to their siblings in the hopes that they realize who she really is now.
He makes a gift of a small glass orb of time magic, one that will give me a month of time to heal, learn, think, adapt, plan. If I smash it, a small area around me will freeze in time and give me a precious additional 30 days to do whatever needs to be done. It can't undo anything, but it might be enough to change the course of something already in motion. It's a precious gift.

Campaign

Morning Glory

Protagonists

Report Date

11 Dec 2022

Primary Location

Origin Tree of Day and Night