Day 710
Our time at the floating academy comes to a close, with the more academic among us having made sure that we'll be mentioned in admiration for years to come. I would not be surprised if every paper coming out of this floating campus in the next half decade has at least one of us mentioned, given how many research circles we poke our noses into.
Half a dozen masters try to give up on their own courses to acknowledge either me or Ausha as their master and follow us permanently - obviously an untenable situation! But it is one that has exactly the longterm effect I'm after - if Arch Dean Jin Hao hears anything of me, it will be from another Master who nearly went back to apprenticehood after encountering me and my senior sister.
Days 711 - 717
In the next several days as we travel, accompanied by Aestien and Master Lo, my letter box sees a flurry of activity from Kadia and Void.
The logistics of responding to both of them are complicated, as sending over 35 dragon-demons to Lone Mountain Keep is no small feat. Another pang hits as I recall that Rosalia will not be there to greet them, and that the Keep is being served by Zadiyah, supported by Lael, Linai, Gederick, and many of the former Severed. I can send Alrudian and Crag to help them grow accustomed to dragons, at least. Hopefully Ava can have the gates between Lone Mountain Keep, Deldrin, and the Crystal Spires repaired - that would make a huge difference in letting people travel more easily to where they are needed.
The thought of Wildfire ignites such frenzied hope in me that for a moment I'm wildly speculating at how to restore him entirely - Magdalena offers me 'forbidden' magic that would let Alwen destroy thousands of Collective soldiers to channel the physical healing he needs. I can send medicine from my own stores, and we could package up magic in gem circle nets to let Kadia, Hella, and Alwen borrow our collective expertise.
But when Ausha examines the renderings of the collar, she warns that the bracelet alone is not a very powerful artefact. Given the bones missing from Wildfire's body, the odds are that there is another control item still at large, which could take him over even if we heal him entirely.
Even if a dragon restores a lost bone by regenerating it, the magical nature of the original bone and its connection to the dragon won't be broken unless the original bone is either shattered or cleansed by a gifting ritual.
At once, I am afraid of the physical and emotional toll that Wildfire's corpse could exact if he were to be taken over just when we accept him as healed and safe. I'm loathe to leave him unmended, but the clearest path forward is to keep him dormant and secure until we can investigate the control magic that might still hold him. If we were to wake his spirit now, it could join the fight against the control just like the dragon spirits Trillium had imprisoned...but at such a distance with such poor communication, I don't want to risk it.
In time, there are a few avenues to free him:
- Destroying or cleansing the bone artefacts
- Qishali suggests using her own spirit-splitting technique to draw out the part of him trapped within his memory
- Liliales thinks we could construct a series of memory-dreams that would let him walk through experiences to emerge
- Whatever else I can think of, when I'm not focused on holding him safely in stasis.
And so we dedicate time to solving both the collar-bracelet (Ausha and Starfield) and the work of strengthening his refuge-memory so that it keeps him shielded (Liliales, Qishali, and I). Even Qing Chen is able to help, after Ausha coaxes him out of his sadness at not actively designing magic.
Little brother, you're hundreds of years early to solve this problem snd yet you have studied Zephyr runes more than anyone other than teacher - your job is to make sure we understand what has been put in place and we count on you for it. Each of our strengths is needed, don't diminish your own contribution.
Cross-referencing Kadia's information with Void's is frustrating as well, since he is so certain that Wildfire is truly dead. But I trust Kadia's ability to recognize a real spirit, and the odds of some End fae having overtaken his body in the last few centuries is vanishingly small. It took Oolee well over a thousand years to bring Starfield even close to a state of subservience.
The last week of travel has largely been calm and lonely after the storm has died down. Freezing fog surrounds us on the water and boats are all bejewelled with magical lights at dawn and dusk. It's beautiful and warm - a welcome change from the frigid air. After four days, the fog clears and it is simply beautiful and crisp early winter weather.
Aside from responding to letters, Liliales and Ausha continue sparring and training together. It is a welcome change from the magical academia for both of them, and keeps us in good spirits getting to watch and comment.
Working through thoughts about the Ingans' influence over the Collective finally prompts me to ask Magdalena a question I've been mulling over for a while - if Zephyr are beings of air and Osyr are beings of water, are the Ingan beings of earth or of fire? Both? Surely the world can't be so tidy as to have great races for the four elements (particularly as I've been studying the eight dragonic elements).
An element is just a relatively pure concept on which your mind can hang less pure concepts to aid in the flow and structuring of energy patterns. Remember: None of this stuff is real, the only real magic is that you exist, everything else is just useful ways to think about things.
Which is about as satisfying an answer as I've ever been able to get out of her. But she points out that beings like the Heart of Song and Kaie came into being without any design or intention, at least as far as anyone knows. Any other living creatures are, to some degree, designed.
The rest of life... the endless variation of life and magic recombining to give birth to new races that aren't hand crafted by some cruel designer. Mother made Treeborn.... things like humans happened because Teacher and The Eldest made magic to birth new races suited to their environment.... absentee parents letting the experiment run on automatic... I don't know if it's more or less cruel.
The world is big right? Imagine the whole world and there are less than a dozen people... and for a long time, they haven't even found each other yet. And then, someone decides 'there should be more things' but they don't know how to make more things like themselves so they make messy imperfect ... whatever we are. And some of us can't even survive, and some of us kill each other just by being around each other, and none of us can escape what we were made to be except by fighting so very hard...
It is an informal lesson in creation that takes a turn for the depressing, as Magdalena clears away sad, angry tears.
It's a long time ago. Trying to make sense of those days and the things that were done, whatever patterns they may have liked for whatever reasons they had... don't get caught up in it. The answers don't bring much comfort.
This is why I never planted a tree...
And so the lesson is set aside in favour of a very long hug.
Not like chaos doesn't give us marvels sometimes. like you and Ausha. Some people are treasures that make the rest worth it.
It is not until later in the night that I curl up with Starfield and probe at her own understanding of The Beginning that she alluded to after we healed Magdalena and Cereus. After all, she is only a few generations removed from beings like the Heart and Kaie - her father was No Moon, and he was born directly from Darkness and Sky.
Starfield's answers, mostly from stories told to her by Grandpa Darkness and Grandma Sky, are clearer but no less messy that Magdalena's explanation.
According to Grandma Sky, 'Chaos' was a great magic working by all of the Ancient Ones to create new life. But over time, the great magic is running out of energy.... that's why the 'lesser races' are so much weaker than the ones created earlier, though I think it might not be 'running out of energy' as much as it's using the same amount of energy to create much more life.
The Ancient Ones all had to work together to create life - the Heart of Song and the Eldest created Treeborn, and the Storm and Kaie created the Dragon Rulers. The Master and Eternum created 'Axiols' to be a natural predator for the mighty Treeborn and Dragons - and it sounds like The Beast is the last remaining Axiol. Evidently the Dragons and Treeborn effectively wiped them out, but not before many of the children of the Dragon Rulers had been killed.
Zephyr, Osyr, Ingans, trolls, dwarves, Carthians, humans, and all of the other lesser races - all children of the working called 'Chaos' - not strictly designed or created so much as randomly coming into being and being swept up in the tide of life. Trolls, at least, were nurtured by the Eldest and grew under their influence.
There's a story that Grandfather Darkness swears is true and Grandmother Sky says is nonsense... that Dragons had to be given Love by the Heart of Song before the 2nd generation could be born, and that Love was purchased with a unique magic bestowed on Treeborn.
I personally believe that it's the destiny of children to be more than the sum of their parents, different from them in unpredictable and wonderful ways... Treeborn and Dragons could become greater and different over time without needing to be given anything.
It's a comedic and maddening conversation, leading to an ever-growing illusory 'family tree' hovering in the air before us. I have to conclude that Magdalena is correct - the answers don't bring any comfort. It is just an academic exercise in seeing how things came to be. Maybe it is more a lesson in things to avoid, for those of us looking to create new things.
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