PM to join [Sanctuary Beach] Sea Glass (Dust)

[Kavala]

Timestamp: 51st of Fall, 512 AV

When the Bluevein River flooded, it always had repercussions on the beach. Oddities washed ashore, sometimes precious metals and gemstones, but more often than naught what washed up was glass. Kavala loved sea glass. It was something that was hard for her to reproduce as a reimancer too because of all high water sorting the gravels of the beach and ejecting the unwanted debris ashore. Sea glass to Kavala was magical because she could lay a piece in her palm, invoke her Lakata mark, and get a glimpse of who or what held the bottle last, who perhaps blew it, or what made them special. With the glass, they also each individually became keys to the chavi of the people that had owned them and that made them incredibly rare. Kavala loved finding kelly green, brown and white, glass, but more rare was cornflower blue, red, and especially orange. It was surprising who made glass. What was even more surprising was why they made it.

So with Tasival by her side, bumbling along hopping, skipping and occasionally releasing her hand to run on his own, Kavala adjusted her vision, pooled res around her eyes, and invoked her auristics, trying to attune to the aura glass gave off to help her look for those pieces hidden just beneath the sand or tangled in seaweed.

The Konti carried a small mesh bag strapped to the belt at her waist. She was barefoot, wearing a scarf dress, and wrapped in a wool cloak. Tasival was dressed in a childs tunic, sandals, and a warm cloak that was already getting wet at the hem. Kav would have put him in more clothing, but her son was too eager to shed out of it and swim, so she'd be carrying not only her exhausted son, but his wet clothing as well by the end of the day.

She felt a little strange as she bent, spotted a glow in the sand and unearthed a brown shard of well tumbled glass. Into her bag it went, and she moved on heading to the next glow. Kavala had nothing to do today, and for the next ten while she 'rested' at Serrif's request. It felt strange, not having any responsibilities and a bit lazy on her part. She'd even promised to see a third marked healer up at Godiva's later in the ten day period to get some of the 'addiction' removed that she felt she didn't have to begin with.

But they were worried, her staff, and so she'd do what she could to ease their minds because The Sanctuary had enough stress without the mistress of the place adding too it. And so Kavala walked with Tasival, on the beach below The Sanctuary, two miles north of Riverfall, and collected Sea Glass until Tasi showed signs of being tired. Then Kavala found a good spot to light a little bonfire, spread out her blanket so Tasi could nap, and spread out her sea glass to look it over and see what exactly she'd found.

[Dust]

In the first few days since her arrival, Dust had explored much of the city -- of Riverfall. She had then proceeded to turn her attention beyond it, to the roads and the woods, the cliffs and the shoreline. She enjoyed the beach in particular, perhaps because the woods held only a small candle up to those she had been raised in. The shore, however -- it was at once new and different, yet also ever the same, reminiscent of coastlines she had experienced in the past. The specifics differed, from the hues of sand to the breeds of birds; but sand was still sand, many of the birds were familiar, and rolling waves appeared to be the same half the world around -- except when a flood submerged the beach, and half the city into the bargain. That had been quite a sight! And now, with the waters receded, the sands were accessible once again. More than that, the entire beach was changed, different in ways which made the seascape a novelty all over again. Dust delighted in it. She scampered over boulders and poked at every pile of flood-tossed debris she encountered, sometimes picking it apart and scattering the pieces, other times simply trying to peer into the dark heart and find anything interesting it might hide. Usually, they were nothing more than sticks and seaweed, but every one had potential until it was proven otherwise. She played keep-away with the lapping waves, scooped up shells and stones and smoothed shards of glass with equal glee, chased after plovers and pipers and gulls. Sometimes, as the birds flew away and left her grinning after them on the sands, the Kelvic contemplated shifting and playing the game properly -- but each time, she decided it wasn't worth the effort. Not when there was so much else here to do. After going all afternoon without seeing another person on the beach, Dust was quite surprised to come around the turn of a rocky outcrop and find company. At first, she pulled back, blue eyes peering cautiously out and the rest of her profile -- she thought -- hidden from view. Fire licked up from a neat pile of driftwood next to a woman and... a sleeping child? Dust focused on the woman, who herself seemed to be occupied with small things scattered on the blanket. Curiosity piqued, towards both the woman herself and her purpose, she soon decided to approach. The young woman stepped out from behind the outcrop and walked down the beach in a straight line for the blanket and bonfire, left hand curled loosely around her latest, and now forgotten, collection of nifty trinkets. She wore shirt, trousers, and boots, having left both hat and cloak with her pack; despite this, she didn't seem to mind the cool air. As she got closer, Dust's approach became more diffident, finally ending with a couple of sidewise steps and a tilt of her head as she peered at the pair -- and all the scattered glass. "Hi! What're you doing?"

[Kavala]

If Kavala had been paying much attention at all, her natural Konti gift would have alerted her to the presence of the Kelvic due to the overwhelming amount of curiosity coming off the girl. Emotions were easy for the Konti to read, but only in animals and kelvics. People were harder still - strange in their behavior and often misjudged by the healer. Instead, Kavala was busy focused on a piece of warm brown glass cupped in the palm of her hand, the mark on its top shimmering with djed as she invoked the Lykata the mark allowed her. It was burning brightly now, as she peeked into the life of the sea glass, wondering what it had been.

A man gifting a woman with a large amber jar filled with glass balls - marbles. He'd claimed each marble was a moment he thought of her and the woman had been charmed. She loved glass marbles and would string them together in twisted wire creations that sold well at the bazaar in the warrens. She'd died old, keeping the jar with her always and filled with marbles as well. He always kept her in a steady supply as the volume dropped lower and her sales soared. She'd married him eventually and kept the jar. They'd buried her at sea when she'd finally passed away, having known children, grandchildren and great grand children. The jar was sent to Laviku with her, so she'd never be without the physical reminder of his love.

At the sound of the voice and the strange sideways steps, Kavala looked up, met the girls eyes and smiled. The glow from her hand faded. She returned the greeting gently. "Hello there." The creature's curiosity washing over her. Kevlic. Definitely kelvic. "Come join me and I'll show you." Kavala said, opening her palm and showing the girl the bit of sea glass tinted warm like honey. Kavala passed the glass to the girl and quietly began to recite what she knew of it.

"I'm Kavala, by the way. I live up there, in the stone fortress on the rocks. I come down here after storms to pick up glass. I enjoy it incredibly because Eyris has marked me and I can see what each piece of glass once was. That one.... in your hand. It held a jar full of marbles - lovely glass ones of all shapes and sizes - that a man gifted her with. He said the most sweetest thing. There must have been a thousand marbles in the jar, maybe more, for it was huge... and he said... "Each one represents me thinking of you." She fell in love with him, married him, and they lived a long happy life. The sea got the jar when they buried her in it. They sent her jar of marbles with her so she would always have a reminder of how much he thought of her and loved her." Kavala said, smiling slightly.

She gestured to the stash she had in the mesh bag, some of which were laid out on the driftwood piece she was sitting on.

"Each one has a story. I like seeing them. I like looking into other people's lives. It puts my own into perspective. " She answered, reaching up and tucking a stray strand of translucent white hair behind her ear. The wind had picked up a bit causing Kavala to add a few more pieces of driftwood tot he fire and stir it up with a long stick.

"And what about you? What brings you to the beach today? Are you hungry? I brought a little picnic for when my son Tasival wakes up. We've more than enough to share." Kavala said, looking thoughtful and curious herself about the kelvic out on the beach alone.

[Dust]

The woman was quiet, focused, concentrating. And... glowing? The Kelvic tipped her head the other way, blue-gray eyes going wide as she studied the woman's hand more closely. Her surprise as she noticed it might have grown into concern, except for the woman's amiable greeting. Dust smiled back, a broad and cheerful expression, the phrase I'll show you promptly tossing any apprehension right out of her head. It helped, of course, that Kavala herself came across as anything but menacing. She knelt down on the blanket, heedless of the sand which fell from the folds of her clothing to litter the nearby surface. She did have the presence of mind to sit nearer Kavala than the sleeping boy. Taking the shard of tumbled glass in her right hand, Dust examined it intently; she turned it over in her hands, held it up to the sky, and finally folded her fingers tightly around it, avid gaze returning to the Konti woman as she related the tale of the glass. Dust remained completely silent throughout the story, practically drinking in the words. At the end, she uncurled her fingers to regard the amber shard again, thinking about the tale Kavala told while the other woman tended to the fire. "That's a very nice story," she remarked, blinking once and lifting her gaze. "I'll have to remember it!" She made no move to return the glass to Kavala; after all, if Dust was keeping the story, she ought to keep the glass it belonged to, also. This made perfect sense. In fact... She opened her left hand, spilling two shell fragments, a polished blue stone, and a shard of wan green glass onto the blanket. Plucking the glass back up, she held it out to Kavala. "Maybe this one has a story too?" the Kelvic asked hopefully. "I'm listening to stories," Dust declared as her reason for being on the beach. Though after a beat, she relented; it wasn't her sole reason for being here, just the one she liked best, now that it existed. "I came to see what the water left. And because the beach is different now; it's fun to look through everything new." She pursed her lips, pausing for a moment's thought. "Though basically everything here's new," Dust admitted, shrugging slightly and smiling up at Kavala. The mention of food sharpened the Kelvic's interest again. "I would like that," she replied, bobbing her head in agreement. "Lunch was a long time ago." At least by subjective definition. Dust then glanced down at the sleeping boy, a perplexed frown gradually creasing her brow. "Why is he blue, when you're not?" She failed to draw the parallel between her parents' Kelvic forms and her own, all unalike.

[Kavala]

Kavala remained very relaxed around the kelvic. There was a friendly curiosity emanating from her with no malice and no aggression. She wasn't the slight bit nervous about the stranger being within reach of Tasival like she would have been had the kelvic been an akalak or even a human. Kelvics were far more honest, far more who they were, than most any of the other races on Mizahar.

Kavala just wondered what sort of kelvic she was. Animals were naturally curious, so that gave her no clue. She tried to guess by how the woman moved, but many creatures could fit into the criteria the woman displayed. Kavala doubted the woman was a predator, though it was still possible. The Konti would ask, but not now. First she'd feed the girl, look at her glass for her, and spend some time getting to know her.

"Thank you. It's the best kind of story, at least in my opinion. It's a true one." Kavala said, looking out to sea. "So many stories are made up to scare us or get us to do things we might otherwise not do. The stories these pieces of glass tell us are true stories, and usually just simple. Like perhaps one day we'll have pieces out there that know us, and nothing will be associated with them except maybe this conversation. If I were to throw one of these shards back out, it would remember that once a Konti and a white-haired kelvic had a conversation on a beach over a......" Kavala dug into her bag, pulled out two wrapped up meatrolls and handed one to the kelvic. "... a leftover meatroll." She grinned, and then retrieved a pair of shiny apples and a pear. She set the pear aside and gestured to Tasival. "It's his favorite so I'll save this one for him. We can have the apples though. He's blue because his father is an Akalak." She said simply. "They tend to create children that look like them. I bet you look like one or both of your parents as well." She added.

Then she took the piece of glass Dust offered and closed her hand around it. The mark, two strange looping squares, flared with power and Kavala looked deep into the past of the shard.

The girl wrote a letter. The bottle stood on the table beside it. She wrote long and diligently, tracing out her words carefully in a writing that Kavala could not understand. Then she rolled up the letter when it was sanded dry and slipped it into the bottle. She corked it tightly and carried it with her, exiting the house by the beach and running down to the waves that lapped the beach outside her home. She ran north down the beach to a rocky outcropping and clambered on, making her way further out until she was on the very point of the rocks. With a heave she tossed the bottle outwards, giving it to the sea, that took the offering gladly. The she cried, yelling something, and watched the bottle until it was out of sight. Kavala could feel her sadness, and the emotion coming through the Lykata mark. She missed someone. She wanted them home. Her father, Kavala thought. She missed her father.

"This one is very sad." The Konti sad soberly. "It used to be a bottle that a little girl wrote a message on. It was in a language I do not think I've ever seen so I couldn't read it. But she was soo sad. She missed someone very badly. She corked the message up in the bottle and threw it to the sea. It's carried its message ever since. I could write out the words but I doubt you and I could understand them. She loved the person she missed dearly. I think it was her father." Kavala said, handing the glass shard back.

"They all have stories. That's why I come down here and collect them after storms. I like to hear the stories they have to tell. Some of them, like your bottle shard, has been waiting a long long time to tell someone about its message. Can you imagine? Holding onto a message... a purpose... that long?" She asked.

Kavala bit into her meat roll which had cheese and a bit of onion on the inside as well. The pastry surrounding it was flaky. She'd made them herself and used the recipe often now since it was easy and fed a great many people. She studied Dust carefully and then decided she must be new to the city.

"Do you have a name?" She asked carefully.

[Dust]

The Kelvic rearranged herself to sit cross-legged on the blanket, settling in comfortably with the clear intent to stay a while. Good company, entertainment, food -- what more could she ask for? "Konti," she echoed, lingering over the syllables as if committing the association to memory. Dust craned her head in an attempt to peer into the bag as Kavala dug through it, mostly out of habit and reflex. "You're a Konti? I haven't seen one before. That's why you have scales? I thought you might be a fish!" Dust bobbed her head as Kavala set the pear aside, agreeing that it should go to the boy. Accepting her portion required she set the amber shard down -- which the Kelvic did, after a moment of consideration on exactly where to put it. She then accepted her meatroll politely, and the apple with equal appreciation, clearly omnivorous in her tastes. Dust set the bright red fruit next to the glass shard, saving it for after, and took a moment to figure out how the meatroll's wrapping came apart. That critical achievement made, she paused, looking back to Kavala. "Do you really think they'll remember us? We haven't been here that long. Not like the woman with the marble jar, she had that for years." She took a bite of the meatroll, chewing it thoroughly and swallowing before she spoke again, replying on the subject of parents. "Well... not really. I mostly just look like myself," Dust remarked, reaching up and ruffling her own short white hair. She said no more on the subject, instead falling silent as Kavala's hand began to glow again. Taking another bite, her gaze flicked back and forth between the Konti's face and hand, waiting for her to finish and relate the story. When Kavala had, Dust accepted the shard from her, setting it down to keep the other company. "I don't think I've missed anything that much. I missed home for a while, but there's so much to see and do, it didn't last very long." She shook her head at the suggestion of writing out words. "I don't read. So I wouldn't know either." The Kelvic's statement was breezily given, devoid of any regret or rue; illiteracy was simply a fact of her life, one she'd never yet seen a need to change. And she shook her head again in negation as Kavala continued; Dust couldn't imagine holding on to anything for that long. For a lifetime -- a human lifetime, even, where it took longer than she'd already been alive just for them to grow up. As Kavala studied her, the Kelvic took the time to eat the remainder of her own meatroll, unabashedly licking from her fingers the juices which had leaked out. "Of course!" she declared, having spent her life in the company of people with names. She cast a grin at Kavala. "I'm Dust!"

[Kavala]

Kavala chuckled. "It might remember, sure, but it will be a fainter memory. Like just a glimpse of us, sitting like this talking on the beach, left on all the pieces of sea glass we have with us. You'd have to be sharp to see it, to read it, but then again I suspect your eyes don't miss much." She said, deciding the kelvic was older, possibly having traveled a while.

"I think you are special. The kelvics, I mean. You don't follow the rules that all the rest of the races follow. My son's father is blue, thus he is blue. That's one of the rules, but your kind is freer than that." Kavala said, looking thoughtful. "I'm a healer of animals and kelvics. I live up on that cliff behind the stone walls there. My people have scales because we are of the Sea as well as the Land. Laviku is our father and we wear our scales to remind us of that." Kavala said with a smile, twisting her arm so the light caught and played off the iridescent swirls of scales running up her arm.

It disturbed Kavala that Dust couldn't read. She wasn't bothered that the girl didn't read, but more that the girl hadn't thought to learn or felt she needed it. "I have a whole library of books up on the cliff. And there are rooms and rooms of books in the city at the Valkalah Instutude Library. They are filled with stories like the one I told you, about the past, about people's thoughts, about incredible magic and hardship and The Gods. Anything you've ever been curious about someone has put in a book. It would be worth your time to learn to read." Kavala said. "If you learned to read you could learn to write and then you could write down your thoughts so that later someone would know who Dust is and what she saw and did during her life." Kavala pointed out sensibly.

"I could teach you." She added. "It's easy." Kavala sat up with a glance at her son to make sure he was still sleeping and brushed the sand at the edge of the blanket into smoothness. She then traced Dust's name in it.

"That's your name. Anyone who walked along here after we've gone and before the wind erases it will know you've been here." She said. "It's a good strong name. Short, uncomplicated, and easy to remember. I like it." Kavala added, glancing towards the ocean and then the sun. She took a bite of her meat pie and began to chew thoughtfully.

"I like your kind far better than humans. You never complicate things. Do you mind me asking? I can't quite decide what kind of kelvic you are. You aren't a predator are you? You thoughts are so sharp, like I can almost read them. But I can't place an animal like that." She added, her brow furrowed.

[Dust]

Dust admired the scales as the light played across them, nodding to show she had heard and recorded her words. "You called it a fortress before. Is it your fortress?" As opposed to one she just lives in. "Do other Konti live there?" Full of questions, the Kelvic is; but the woman's given every indication of being indulgent of her curiosity. She would take advantage of that while it lasted. Her head tipped again as Kavala described the benefits of reading -- as she connected reading to stories, a leap of logic that simply hadn't occurred to Dust before. Now that it was mentioned... it really seemed fairly obvious. She blinked and mused over this for a moment, introspective. "I like listening to stories," she finally replied. "The way people say them. Sitting here." Then another thought occurred to her. "Would books talk to me like the glass talks to you?" That could be interesting... Dust's contemplation of this, however, was cut short when Kavala started drawing in the sand. She leaned over to look at the lines, the letters, which the woman asserted described her. She took careful note of them as a group, though their individual meanings remained obscure. Still, the Kelvic felt tickled to learn another new thing. She sat back in her place and nodded to the Konti as Kavala ate more of her roll. Dust picked up her apple and was about to start in on it when the woman spoke up again. "Oh! I can do better than that," she declared. "I can show you!" She didn't wait for Kavala to say yea or nay, but dropped the apple unceremoniously and tugged her shirt off over her head. It too was dropped out of the way so the Kelvic could shift. Soft light gathered, and dissipated, leaving a puddle of brown cotton with a distinctively large and heavy-billed bird standing on top of it. It could only be a raven -- but a raven with feathers as pale as Dust's human hair, its eyes the same grayish-blue hue. The bird shook her feet free and stepped cautiously away from her clothes, tilting her head and peering up at Kavala with one bright eye. Dust pranced across the blanket, leaving little shapeless dimples in her wake. At the far side, she craned her head around to look at the Konti, then chortled with evident good humor and turned all the way around to prance right back. When she returned to 'her' edge of the blanket, the raven cocked her head and peered down at the letters drawn in the sand. She hopped into the middle of the first letter and thought about how she had seen Kavala write. The bird carefully balanced herself, then reached out with one foot and dragged her claws through the sand in smaller, shakier, unpracticed imitation of just that first letter. Tipping her head the other way, Dust studied it critically, then -- eminently pleased with herself -- turned and hopped back onto the blanket to rejoin her companion.

[Kavala]

Kavala watched the transformation with a bit of awe. She'd seen many kelvics transform, but it never got less beautiful, less inspiring, and less surprising. Kavala leaned back, watching the white raven hop about on her blanket.

"You know, this is going to sound so stupid, but you kelvics are one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I don't know why, but everything at all about you fascinates me. To be able to shed your skin and be something completely different must be the ultimate form of freedom." The Konti said softly, looking thoughtful. She reached out gently, not to startle the bird, and laid the back of her pointer finger against the raven's chest, stroking it lightly, hand curled into a fist against her palm.

"There is so much pain and suffering in the world. There are so many things we have to fight daily. But each time I see one of you, I am so reassured that there are other things in the world as well, beautiful things, worth protecting." The Konti said softly and brushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes that suddenly blew in front of her face.

Tasival shifted, sat up, and pointed. "Raven. White Raven?" He said in a voice that was filled with discovery. Then he rolled over, sat up, and used his mother to climb to his feet. He took a step towards the Dust, but was distracted when Kavala offered him a slice of pear - the one she'd held in reserve for him. He immediately brought it too his mouth, bit down, taking a bit of it, then held it out to the Raven. "Share." He stated simply, and Kavala laughed gently. "She's eaten, Tasi. But I bet she'll let you give her one of the caramel sweets we brought if you eat all your lunch." The Konti pointed out, looking thoughtfully out to sea for a moment. Kavala looked sad, truly sad, for an instant, then turned back to the Raven.

"I live up on the cliff. In a place called The Sanctuary. There are a few other Kelvics there. A dog, a cat, an eagle... we are healers of animals and kelvics. In fact, I handle all the kelvic births in Riverfall. If you are just passing through, Dust, you are welcome to stay with us for a while. I completely understand that your kind often don't carry money, so we don't charge kelvics for our services. We just ask if you can, you help out with chores along with everyone else. We eat breakfast on the run, but dinner is a gathering around the twentith bell. I know you'd be very welcome and somewhat safer there than you would be in town. It's not that Riverfall is dangerous, its just that kelvics don't have citizenship there and sometimes they are treated as pets." Kavala said, being honest with the newcomer.

Tasival leaned against his mom, taking slices of pears from her, nibbling on them thoughtfully until she handed him some dried jerky and then a waterskin to have a drink. The Konti was a very attentive mother and any observer could tell she loved her son dearly.

[Dust]

The raven tipped her head at Kavala, remaining politely still as she reached out to touch the bird's white plumage. She gave every impression of listening intently to the Konti's words -- impressions of posture and emotion alike -- right up until the little boy showed signs of wakefulness. As he pulled himself up, and stepped towards Dust, she studied him in turn. She would have taken the offered pear, not one to turn down food, but Kavala forestalled the gift. Dust didn't mind that either -- she had eaten the meatroll already, and there was an apple still waiting for her attention besides. Dust bobbed her head in Kavala's direction, voicing a soft croak which seemed to signify agreement. She would go visit. She wanted to see this fortress on the cliff, and the other Kelvics, and find out if there were other Konti there, that question having gone unanswered. She might find out if the books talked like glass. And she definitely wasn't anybody's pet, a descriptor which Dust noted well. But at the moment, she was distracted from expressing her opinion of that particular custom of Riverfall. There was this boy, you see... Dust eyed Tasival contemplatively, then turned and stalked around Kavala, taking slow and exaggerated steps, bobbing a bit with each one. She wasn't sneaking -- for one, from his vantage the boy had a rather better view around his mother than the raven herself did -- just taking the long way around. She stopped near the boy's feet, then stretched out one wing and lightly tickled the vanes of her primaries against his ankle in a brief sweep. The raven then half-hopped and half-fluttered backwards, peering at the two to gauge their reaction.