[Outside Zeltiva] Words on the Waters

[Hadrian]

40th Summer, 512 A.V. They had been in Zeltiva only nine days and still he had not gone to his bequest, the hidden lair of his ancestor, but that would bide and the affairs of the University were more pressing. All the same, his walks to clear his mind today expanded beyond the city streets and out onto the bay over patches of sand, around beached kelp, and over rocky tidepools. He was closer now to his bequest than he had been since he had given the remains of his ancestor proper burial, but this was the closest he would go for now. When he found a bit of sandy beach secluded from the rest by falls of boulders, he knew he could make his obeisance to the Lord of the Seas. Article by article, he removed his clothing, folding everything neatly in his hands. Kneeling in the dry sand, the bundle began to glow green as his res surrounded it, slowly coalescing into stone as he removed his hands. The rock he had created would prevent any sort of clothes-stealing prank, though he supposed he could always walk naked through the streets wearing illusory garb, but part of him needed that cloth armor to feel safe. Naked in the sun, he was not the same man who had left Zeltiva two years prior. There was an inverted triangle on his back, a Lormar symbol on his hand, his hair was shot through with blue and his eyes had lightened and brightened until he looked like an awkward, Vantha-colored thing. He could thank the storm, Avanthal, and the Iceglaze blood in him for that. But as he stepped down into the surf, murmuring old prayers in Nader-canoch, his body enveloped in a sheath of blue light that gradually manifested. The watery res surrounded him as he stepped into the sea until the tide at its lowest point was at his waist, and the swells came up under his armpits and made him sway on his feet. He prayed to Laviku, and also to Makutsi, asking that the former hold his secrets and the latter be sure to water the crops of Syliras, that his family might prosper. In Zeltiva, hunger was a frequent enemy.

[Nienem Glass]

Glass flicked his tail, propelling himself through the water at quite a decent speed. He was in the deeper waters, farther out in the Zeltivan bay, and on occasion the dark shadow of a ship's hull would darken the water above him. He sighed, a stream of bubbles rising from his mouth. He followed them toward the surface, angling his wings so that he corkscrewed through the water. Breaching the surface, Glass put his wings to a rather different use, soaring up and up and up until the entirety of Zeltiva was splayed out beneath him. He saw several people on the beach, mostly fishermen and the odd couple who found walks along the seaside romantic. Here and there, there were people walking alone, those out for walks or a swim in the cool waters of the bay. There was one in particular who caught his eyes though. He appeared to be standing naked in the surf, allowing the water to wash over him. This was, as far as Glass could tell, not normal human behavior. Normally, if they went in the water like this, humans went swimming. Not really swimming of course, it was more of an uncoordinated thrashing about in the water, but they seemed to enjoy it. This one wasn't though. He was just standing there, letting the water wash over him. A stray thought wandered through Glass' head. I wonder if he's drowning? he thought. He'd heard about that happening to humans sometimes, where they got so tired they just couldn't swim any more and they just sank to the bottom and died. He didn't really understand it too well, so he decided to just keep flying around for a while until he was sure the man was in trouble.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian was a pale blue flame upon the water now, shining in his secluded spot with blue res and fair skin, swaying with the tide and letting it lull him into a meditative state, for he could pray to Laviku all he wanted, but only in the stillness of meditation was he likely to hear a reply. But even in his light trance, he prayed: "Hear, Laviku, ruler of the sea profound, whose liquid grasp begirts the solid ground; Who, at the bottom of the stormy main, dark and deep-bosomed, holds your watery reign; Your awful hand the brazen trident bears, and ocean's utmost bound, your will reveres: You I invoke, whose steeds the foam divide, from whose dark locks the briny waters glide; Whose voice loud founding through the roaring deep, drives all its billows, in a raging heap; When fiercely riding through the boiling sea, your hoarse command the trembling waves obey. Earth shaking, kelp-haired God, the liquid plains Lhex to you ordains, It is yours, cerulean spirit, to survey well pleased the monsters of the ocean play, Confirm Semele's basis, and with Zulrav's prosperous gales waft ships along, and swell the spacious sails; Add gentle Peace, and fair-haired Health beside, and pour abundance in a blameless tide." Water had been his first element, and the second, Earth. His consciousness sunk below the waves and into the sand beneath his feet, squishing up between his toes, and down deeper. Yellow res, hidden from view, grew downward like roots from the soles of his feet. He began to feel as though even the waves couldn't knock him down with impunity if he was strong in connection with Semele. "O Goddess, Earth, of Gods and men the source, endowed with fertile, all destroying force; All-mother, bounding, whose prolific powers, produce a store of beauteous fruits and flowers, All-various maid, the eternal world's strong base immortal, blessed, crowned with every grace; From whose wide womb, as from an endless root, fruits, many-formed, mature and grateful shoot. Deep bosomed, blessed, pleased with grassy plains, sweet to the smell, and with prolific rains. All flowery spirit, center of the world, around your orb, the beauteous stars are hurled With rapid whirl, eternal and divine, whose frames with matchless skill and wisdom shine. Come, blessed Semele, listen to my prayer, and make increase of fruits your constant care; With fertile Seasons in your train, draw near, and with propitious mind your suppliant hear." Finally he raised his arms to the sky, blue and green bands of res twining down his arms, around his fingers, to splay out into the sky, held by his will until it reached that limit, and then drifting upon the breezes to dissipate in offering. He couldn't discern the exact relationship between Sea and Storm and Rain, but assumed that there was some accord between Laviku and Zulrav and Makutsi. Someday perhaps he would meet a Raindancer and could persuade them to teach him, to get the goddess' attention. It was unlikely he would ever go thirsty being a hydromancer, but one day Syliras might need rain for its crops, else his father's business might suffer. But Zulrav, well, Hadrian had seen a stormwarden in action on the trip from Sunberth, the winds answering his call, flying them along without surcease, making record speed. "O Zulrav... I call the mighty, holy, splendid light, aerial, dreadful-sounding, fiery-bright; Flaming, aerial-light, with angry voice, lightning through lucid clouds with horrid noise. Untamed, to whom resentments dire belong, pure, holy power, storm-father, great and strong: Come, and benevolent these rites attend, and grant my days a peaceful, blessed end." When he was done, his body connected with three of the elements, he bid his time patiently, creating a silence within him, but none spoke, and eventually the glow of his reimancy faded in the bright sunlight, and he stood shivering in the cold surf. Of course, he knew they were not obliged to answer him, but he was trying to form connections between himself and the divine, seeking the deeper wisdom of the powers he had developed with time and study and practice. He sighed and reached over his shoulder to touch the spot where Ionu had marked him, then rubbed the back of his left hand across his cheek as if in intimacy with Eyris' mark. A few of the gods had deigned to touch him, and they too were honored.

[Nienem Glass]

OOCSorry for the wait, finals were killing me! High in the air, Glass looked down on the man standing in the water. He began to shine with a blue glow, almost like one of the colored candles Glass had seen from time to time at novelty shops. He wondered if the man was somehow on fire, or if he was using magic. He'd heard there was a type of magic that let you control fire, but he'd heard nothing about it being blue. Glass swooped closer, his ears picking up a sound out of place among the crashing of the waves and the screeching of the gulls. It would appear that the man was talking. As he grew closer, now hovering only 30 or 40 feet above him, he caught the occasional strand of what sounded like poetry. It had a very nice meter, though the rhyme scheme was odd. Still, he wasn't really one to judge, he'd never been too good at poetry. The way Glass saw it, words that weren't set to music were like an Akvatari without wings; they did the job well enough, and they were mostly alright from time to time, but they weren't quite perfect. For a moment or two, Glass toyed with the notion of striking up a tune to match the man's words, but discarded it almost immediately. It was obvious that the man was undergoing some sort of ritual or rite, and he almost definitely wouldn't appreciate it if someone interrupted him. So, for now at least, Glass simply watched and listened. It seemed he was changing tact with his verses. He had paused for a moment, and when he spoke again, his words had a different feel to them. They no longer felt like they had before, speaking of the ocean and the sea. Now they spoke of a more base thing, of the very earth itself, of its strengths, its powers, and asking for its blessing. It was...interesting to say the least. Then he did it again, changing tact until he was talking of the air and the sky. As he spoke, twisting bands of gas twined round his arms and eventually dispersing into the air around him. Nienem was beginning to form a vague idea that maybe the man's words had power, shaping the world around him. It was a completely incorrect assumption of course, but as a wordsmith, no one knew the power of words better than him. Glass realized that, while listening to the man, he had begun to drift closer and closer, and now he was hovering only 10 or so feet above the man's head. He appeared to be done with his ritual, so he allowed himself to drift down until he landed with a small splash in the water in front of the man. "Hello..." he began, then stopped abruptly. He had been about to ask the man about the blue glow and all the rest, but realized that it might be considered spying or something equally impolite and he didn't want to upset this man. He looked fairly capable, and Glass bet that glow wasn't just for show.

[Hadrian]

In the stillness following his prayerful ritual, he tried to hold onto the peaceful feeling, but it wasn't too long before he was worrying at the fact that these gods would not come to him, mark him that he might use the power for good. Zeltiva needed a guardian, someone who could calm the sea and storm, bolster up the earth around it. Hadrian could work wonders in three elements, but the gods did not bless those abilities, did not augment them with their grace. Only Ionu and Eyris had made contact with him, and even Eyris had blocked his memory of the same for nearly two years. But a sense of curiosity tickled the edge of his aura, which was blazing far and wide after the ritual, and he glanced up to see the Akvatari, eyes finding him immediately, watching him as he dove into the water with the customary elegance of the race. Was this his answer from the gods, this scion of sea and sky? He daren't hope, but the coincidence would kill him. "Hello," he said calmly, seemingly not worried that he was naked under the water. In the grand scheme of things, bodies were a wonder, but the fear of exposing it seemed silly. He wondered if this was some relative of Rochlas, his old teacher.

[Nienem Glass]

"So..." Glass said, hesitating for a moment before blurting out "What was that, and how did you do it?" He wondered if the man was a god in disguise. He'd heard a story or two about gods who did things like that since he'd got here, of gods who had disguised themselves as mortals and interacted with them for fun. He supposed being a god could grow terribly boring, not having to worry about getting food or shelter of anything else. Glass supposed that if it was a god in disguise he'd likely offend it beyond all repair and cause the death of hundreds with a casual remark. That was just the way things seemed to go for him at the moment. "Was it...your voice that did that?" he asked, still a little cautious "That conjured the blue flame and the magic gas?". He was not at all sure how that had happened, and he wasn't really sure he wanted to know. It seemed an interesting (if somewhat odd) skill to have though, and if it lied within the range of his abilities, he might try it. It was likely as not that he'd be totally unable to do a thing with it though, and probably look like a fool in the bargain, and that was assuming that the stranger even agreed to try to help him in the first place. "Ah, introductions before questions!" he said, tapping himself on the forehead "My name is Nienem Glass, you can call me Glass. I hail from the beautiful isle of Abura, and I came here looking for a god to worship or a cause to join. If you've either, I'd love to hear about them"

[Hadrian]

"In part," he admitted. He didn't need his voice to create res anymore, to control it. Back in the beginning, incantations had helped him focus, but he was mostly beyond that now unless he was attempting something that skirted the edges of his ability. Then, "I am Hadrian Aelius." A less man might have asked if Nienem Glass was related to Professor Rochlas, with whom he had spoken at length about Akvatari culture, but he was more urbane and cosmopolitan than that, even if he was still awkward. He put his anthropological studies to work, knowing such a question would be offensive. No, not all Akvatari are related. Well, perhaps as a species, but not with regard to familial groupings, such as they were on Abura. There was a golden Lormar symbol on the back of his left hand that proclaimed Eyris' good graces if one knew what to look for and on his back, over his left shoulder, there was an inverted triangle that marked Ionu's blessing, but Glass could not see that. But Hadrian nodded his understanding. There were so many things about themselves that remained a mystery, it was not uncommon that they looked for a cause to which they could belong. "I can tell you about the gods, I suppose, but I would not presume to tell you who you ought to worship, nor to which cause align yourself."

[Nienem Glass]

Glass' eyes gleamed at Hadrian's answer. So I was right... he thought, a spark of curiosity entering his head before being extinguished by the morose tide of his melancholy. Even if I was, there is doubtlessly more to it than that he reasoned, struggling to justify his overwhelming apathy and more to it than I could ever understand. He wondered if there were other realms of magic to communicate with others, to make them feel the way that you did. Glass often felt that many of the troubles of the world could be solved, or even avoided altogether, if everyone simply thought the way that the Akvatari did. He'd heard tales of such atrocities committed in the city; theft, threats, even violence! Glass was sure that if they'd simply all relax, everything would surely work itself out. But such a branch of magic, even if it existed-which was unlikely-was almost definitely impossible to use on more than one person at a time, or that it could only be used by humans. Glass did, however, draw hope from Hadrian's response. He didn't seem too eager to force anyone he could into his own cause for his own purposes. Surely with such people populating the world, not all could be wrong? "Thank you for your neutrality. Would you care to tell me of your own Gods and Causes, and of what they mean to you and others? That way, I might be able to choose them myself based on their own merits and not simply one man's opinion." Glass mentally smacked himself. He always seemed to wax verbose when he was nervous.

[Hadrian]

"Well," he said thoughtfully, the seemed resolved to speak and so he did, "today I was honoring elemental gods, for I have been trained in elemental magic. Normally I keep that fact to myself, so I hope you will keep it to yourself, but I have mastered Water, Earth, and Air. Thus I sang to Laviku, god of the sea, Semele, goddess of the earth, and Zulrav, god of storms. I was thinking that I should begin to sing to Makutsi soon, as well, she the goddess of rain. When I master Fire, I will sing to Ivak too, though he is out of favor with many since the Valterrian. "But I suppose you would not share that bias since your people arose out of the Valterrian. Or, from what I understand, no other race encountered you until after the Valterrian. If that is true, then your race owes their existence to Ivak, whether he created you of a purpose or you are the consequence of the destruction, the same way pine forests repopulate themselves when forest fires open pine cones, releasing their seeds into the ash and soil. "Destruction leads to new growth. There's a lesson in that. Perhaps you ought to get to know Ivak, then. Your possible progenitor, though the gods of water and air might interest you too since you swim and fly. There are so many gods..." He lifted his left hand, tapping on the golden Lormar symbol. "Eyris, goddess of wisdom gave me this. I struggle daily to prove my worth, to turn my knowledge into true wisdom."

[Arcane]

Rewards and Treasure! Experience Points +5 Composition +1 Meditation +1 Reimancy Lores Introspection of the Divine Connection with One's Gods Prayer to Laviku Prayer to Semele Prayer to Zulrav Nienem Glass the Aktavari Comments Composition was for the wonderful poetry in the form of the prayers