Reflection, Imitation, Experience [Kavala]

[Cayenne]

“There you go,” Calla clapped her hands quietly with delight, cheering for the younger Konti, ever mindful that they were still in Riverfall’s library. “That was the answer. He was bald,” she grinned, her eyes dancing. “Not one hair on his head could get wet, because he had none.” Her own smile turned wistful as Kavala talked about the loss of her mother, squeezing her shoulders gently. She was sure that her own daughter missed her, too. She knew that she certainly missed her. There was a special bond between children and the ones who had borne them, and when that bond was broken, there was nothing at all that could replace it. “You learned a lot from them, though, I can tell. They inspire you, and they walk with you, even though they ride on the grasslands. I can see it, clear as day,” she linked her fingers in her lap over the book, and listened to Kavala’s riddle.

She leaned back a bit, a thoughtful look on her face as she repeated the riddle back to her. “Mmmn. I know that the center of the rose is a bud, and that there are many causes of sorrow... metaphorically, a bud applies there,and in happiness... but that connection is lost the references to danger and the sun. But a common link between the beginning of ‘sorrow’... ‘the end of ‘sickness’... the middle of ‘roses’... in ‘risk’, ‘sun’, and ‘darkness’... and yet... not in ‘danger’... ahhh. I’m overthinking it, aren’t I?” Calla chuckled, tossing her hair, the beads and shells clinking. “The common factor amongst all of those is the letter ‘s’, is it not?”

“I have something for you,” Calla told her once she was able to stop laughing, slowly stroking the cover of the book. As her fingers traced the old, worn leather, tiny rays of light seemed to spill between her slender fingers, and Kavala might have realized that the light came from the book - the more she touched it, the more the smooth black leather cover seemed to peel away like the skin of an overripe grape, revealing silver underneath it. What sort of book was this? Of course, there were many rare and wondrous treasures in the world - was this one of them? “It’s something near and dear to me.” She lifted her hand from the back of book on her lap, leaving the little trails of silver showing, and reached and laid her hand over Kavala’s. She felt a thrill race from their connected hands, jolting up her arm to her shoulder to her spine. Something was happening there, and the older Konti did not break the touch, even as something seemed to be etching itself in her skin on the back of her hand, that went deeper than just that skin, but the muscles and bones and Djed underneath...!

“You show an aptitude for learning, a desire to know, to seek answers, no matter where that path and knowledge may lay. You understand that there is a value to learning - that if we are to ever move forward, we must first understand the past. There is knowledge everywhere, Kavala, all around us... and not just within these books. The Ukalas, the Chavena, it holds so much more than what is written down on the pages and scrolls in here. There’s knowledge in this bench, you know. Where the wood came from. How old that tree was. What type of tree it was. Touch it. Open your mind to it,” Calla’s eyes were almost glowing now, a luminescent violent. Sparks of silver danced and flashed. She finally lifted her hand from Kavala’s, and emblazoned on the back was a glowing, golden Lormar mark - it resembled two circles and interconnected on two parallel lines. “Lykata,” ‘Calla’ breathed, smiling at her, adjusting herself slightly, shifting away just enough for Kavala to be able to put her hand on the bench. Oak, the wood would sing at her when she touched it. After a few more moments, she felt it again, in her heart and head, as new words came. They made no sense at first. Kelomald Okelo. A name, perhaps...?

“This bench was made by Kelomald Okelo, an Akalak carpenter in his 87th year,” the woman beside her smiled. “The wood itself came from the northern border where Cyphrus meets Sylira, can you believe that? A mighty white oak tree, that 403 years old when it was finally felled by lightning during a summer storm on the 70th day of Summer in the year of 450 AV.” The Konti that wasn’t a Konti, clearly, beside her was thoughtful, reflective, as she told her this. “Everything around us, Kavala, has a history, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem. Do you know how many people pass by this bench and never once think about it? Hundreds, slowly adding up over time to thousands. And they never think to wonder how things came to be. Or why. If you want to understand the future, you must look to the past.” She angled her head, smiling at the woman beside her. “We find these things through the Chavena... a wondrous, complex repository of information that has been built up through time immemorial. It is not the Ukalas, but surrounds them nonetheless. It is here where we can find knowledge that is not completely lost... just hidden from the eyes of those who never thought to find it.”

[Kavala]

Kavala smiled in relief. She hadn't been sure her guess was the right one because in stating the man's hair did not get wet, it implied deceptively that he actually had hair. Guessing that he was bald was definitely a calculated risk. But riddles were funny things, designed to mislead, trick and deceive. Hrm... maybe her next stallion prospect she'd name Riddle just in honor of this moment.

Kavala smiled at Calla.

"I knew you wouldn't have any problem with that one! It's great though. Unless people visualize the riddle written out, its hard to understand what it involves. But you got it right away. Congratulations." Kavala said, impressed. She thought it would take longer, but then again she was no riddlemaster like Calla seemed to be. The Nakivak must be right. She did spend a great deal of time in the library when she wasn't breeding for the Akalak or doing her own siden work like Kavala had.

Kavala wasn't expecting a gift, nor was she expecting the other konti to touch her. The trails of silver reminded her of dancing light across water as her hand was taken and the shock of it raced up and down her limbs. She started to pull away on instinct, but then forced herself to sit still. Her eyes went wide and Healer listened, really listened.

It was soon clear to her that the Konti was no Konti at all but something else entirely. Divine. Eyris. As soon as the mark was visible and the word Lykata was uttered, Kavala could hardly believe what was happening. But as her hand was released and it seemingly moved to the oak of its own accord, Kavala's mind exploded with images. She saw the man, a very intense Akalak carpenter working on it. As Eyris spoke, she could feel back even further where the tree had grown and though she didn't recognize the lay of the land, if she'd revisted the place in reality she could have said for certain it originated there. She could feel the presence of the White Oak and its hulk after the lightening strike. She was mesmerized in the sensation and wanted to know, to feel, to understand everything. It would be an easy world to get lost in.

Reluctantly she pulled her hand away, staring at the mark and now staring at the Goddess.

"I knew of some of this, but not... not this. Not that everything knows where it came from and what it was or what it will become. Gods how beautiful and awful at the same time. The bench remembers... it knows..." The Konti spoke, almost beneath her breath.

Kavala could not have been more surprised if Calla had turned into a frog like in children's stories of morphing gone bad. She shook her head, still shocked. "How amazing... how utterly amazing... thank you!" She took a deep breath, rubbed her free hand across the mark on her opposite one, and smiled.

"What a tremendous gift and responsibility. I know you for who you really are now, though I understand too moreso that you are in everything and everyone. Thank you Eyris. I will use this gift, this ability, reverently and give you thanks daily for its presence in my life. I want to be.... I want to make a difference in the world. Not just by being a breeder for the Akalak, but by other means as well. This... this will go a great distance to allow me to do that. Thank you... thank you so very much." She said softly almost at a loss for words now that the obvious had been said.

[Cayenne]

The Konti that was not a Konti, but Eyris, smiled at her as she read the bench. That same bright wisdom that had been in Calla’s eyes was still there. Their air was intimate, as they had been before. “Everything does. Everything has a life, a spirit, a name. There is Djed in everything, my dear. And that Djed has its connections. Those connections are for us to discover and learn and link. In many ways, it’s like the Web that your family uses throughout Cyphrus. Everything is interconnected, and so many strands can be traced to so many things.”

When she lifted her hand from Kavala’s, listening to her, she nodded and smiled, beginning to stroke that book once again. “I borrowed the form of someone with whom you would have had a connection with. She is a dear friend of mine. A Konti, too, you know. She is on her way to Mura, now, as we speak, by boat, traveling with her patron to see her daughter. But when she comes back, as she will, I am sure that you and she will have much to discuss.” So Calla, the quirky, riddle-loving Calla, was in fact a real person, a real Nakivak, and someone that Eyris knew as well... and now Kavala knew her, too, even without truly meeting her. When she got back... they could meet up, maybe, and discuss the project.

“But she will take her time on that trip. I am sure that you have a great many questions... and answers are out there, to be found. Your idea, the repository of Nakivak knowledge and experiences. intrigues me... I would like to help you get started on it. Here.” She placed the glowing silver book in Kavala’s lap. “To everyone else, it is simply a leatherbound book. But write in it. Leave a space. Check again later. Perhaps an answer will come to you from Calla.” Eyris placed Kavala’s hand on it. “She will help you with this project, and I am sure that you two will become good friends. Everyone needs sisters and solidarity, even here. Know that you’re never alone. No woman is an island, no matter how separate that bangle may make you.”

“Some say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” she rose, then, and cupped the Konti’s cheek, leaning in to kiss her forehead, her eyes twinkling. “They have no idea.” With that, she was gone, leaving Kavala holding the surprisingly light book, its glow dimming slightly now that Eyris was no longer present, but silvery nonetheless. The pages were crisp and light, smooth and just begging to be written in. And it was all hers... though she had better, perhaps, get writing.

This was a great thread, and I very much enjoyed writing it with you. Congratulations and well-done! I hereby award the following: Kavala Research: 2 XP Philosophy: 5 XP Observation: 5 XP Rhetoric: 5 XP Lore: The Ukalas - What They Are Lore: The Ukalas - Divine Connections Lore: The Three Methods of Learning: Reflection, Imitation, and Experience Lore: The Joys of Fresh Baked Puns Lore: The Harvest of the Symenestra Lore: Difficulties of Symenestra Pregnancy Lore: Eyris Lore: Lykata Gnosis: Lykata - First Mark Special Contact: Calla - A Kontinese Nakivak on her second contract who is thrice-marked by Eyris. Artifact: The Repository: One-half of a pair of special silver books created by Eyris, the other of which belongs to Calla. It will never run out of pages, and can be written in from either book. What is written in one will appear in the other. To its owner, it glows silver. To everyone else, it is simply a leather-bound book. Trista Research: 1 XP Lore: The Layout of the Riverfall Library