Fish Out of Water

by **Avela** on January 19th, 2018, 4:03 am

46th of Winter, 517 AV

It was only a few hours after midday when Avela slipped into the Surf and Turf, letting in a gust of cold air behind her. The bouncer at the dry dock door--Shout or Yell, she could never tell the two of them apart--glowered at her. Avela flashed him a nervous smile in response, and hoped that she didn't look too much like a child sneaking out of bed. Clearly, if he was suspicious of her, it wasn't enough to stop her from entering, because he simply kicked the snow she had let in back out into the street, shutting the door behind her. Avela shook freshly fallen snow out of her hair, smiling as she walked into the bar.

"Phew," she said. "It is really coming down out there, Kay'Layza. I can't believe how much it's been snowing! And it's cold as all get out! I think I need a few more layers! Brr!"

As expected, it was too early in the day for it to be busy, and aside from a morose looking man in a bright yellow cloak who sipped a drink in a booth by the window, Avela had the place to herself. She grinned, pleased with her planning, and plopped herself down in one of the seats at the bar. The bartender, a Konti woman with long blond hair who was currently taking advantage of the lull to wipe down the counters, gave her a look.

"I really don't think I should be serving children at the bar," she said.

Avela pouted. "I'm not a child, Kay'Layza. I'm twenty-five! I'm a woman fully in the prime of my life!"

Kay'Layza gave her a look touched with some slight disbelief. She cocked her head to the side. "And?"

"And...um...I guess I'll have the gourd rinds," Avela mumbled, looking at the food menu. "And a glass of water? And I also need a favor."

"I'm not giving you a job here until you're at least thirty," Kay'Layza said, pouring Avela a glass of water. She set it down next to her, walking back into the kitchen for the gourd rinds. Avela's eyes went round.

"What? No, I don't need a job!" She imagined spending all of her evenings at the bar, waitressing for customers. Or worse, performing on those nights she'd heard about when all the women walked around naked in body paint. All the heat rose to her face. "I definitely, definitely don't need a job!"

"Then what can I help you with?" Kay'Layza asked, setting a bowl of fried gourd rinds down in front of Avela. She gave the girl a suspicious squint. "If you're trying to get me to test another 'experimental' candle..."

"No!" Avela said quickly, around a mouthful of fried gourd. She swallowed. "No, no candles either! I just...well, you speak Kontinese, don't you?" Kay'Layza gave her a look as if Avela had just asked her whether water was wet. Avela decided to hurry this along. She reached into the inside pocket of her coat, taking out a leather bound book.

"Well, um...I don't. Speak Kontinese, I mean. And this was my mother's travel journal. So I was hoping you could...read it to me?"

She set the book down on the bar top, giving Kay'Layza a hesitant look. The older Konti woman picked up the book, looking through it. Avela couldn't help but watch her face hungrily as she read, trying to pick out any emotion on the other woman's face, any look in her eye. Anything that might tell Avela more about Ayana. The Konti read a few pages, then flipped through the rest, pausing when she reached the end of the book. She looked at the last page, then looked at Avela, then looked at the page again.

"Well?" Avela asked.

"No," said Kay'Layza.

"No?" Avela repeated, crestfallen. "Why not?"

"No, I will not read this to you," Kay'Layza said. She set the book back down, sliding it over to Avela. "You're going to read this yourself."

"But my Kontinese is awful!" Avela said.

"Don't worry," said Kay'Layza. She rested her arms on the bar top and leaned over, smiling. "I'll teach you."

by **Avela** on January 23rd, 2018, 5:04 am

Avela didn't expect that she would have to do this today. Truth be told, she'd known for a while that she would have to learn the language, but she'd thought that today she could start easy. Maybe she would smile a bit, tug nervously at her hair, and Kay'Layza would take pity on her and just read the first few entries to her so that she could finally know what the journal said. Or maybe she wouldn't have been able to find the Surf and Turf, or it would have been busy and she would have been turned away, forced to find another Konti or, unfortunately, put it off for another day. But it seemed Kay'Layza was out of pity, and there would be no putting it off this time. Avela sighed and nodded, biting into another gourd rind.

"Where do you want me to start?" she asked.

Kay'Layza frowned at her, and switched to Kontinese. Though she spoke slowly, Avela had to work hard to keep up with her, some words slipping through her grasp entirely. "You know the shshsh of the language, right? Some simple words?"

Avela gave her a blank stare. It clicked after a moment that the word the older woman was trying to use was 'basics'.

"Ah, yes!" Avela said, trying her luck. "Basics I know! Basics--yes, very good basics."

Kay'Layza arched an eyebrow. Avela tried for a sheepish grin.

"We'll start there," the older Konti said, switching back to Common as she tapped at the first entry on the journal. "I'm going to do some work. Go through that and write down every word you don't know. When you finish with the first page, call me and I'll check on you, alright?"

Avela nodded. It seemed simple enough. "Alright," she said.

It wasn't simple.

Kay'Layza brought her a sheet of paper and a quill to use while she went about her other tasks, but Avela felt as stymied as she always did when she opened her mother's journal. To begin with, her mother didn't exactly write in grammatically perfect, basic Kontinese, and certainly not in the neat, evenly spaced hand that her father used when he was trying to be understood. Her mother's handwriting was somewhat close together, so that some words looked like other words, and some words didn't look like anything at all. And she was sure some of the words she was seeing on the page were slang. She definitely hadn't learned those before.

But Kay'Layza was watching, even if she didn't always seem to be watching, so Avela sighed, tangling her fingers in her silvery white hair, and went to work.

Day 1, she read, looking at the heading of the page. Mura

"Kontinese"

PurchasesFried Gourd Rinds - 2sm

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by **Avela** on January 26th, 2018, 3:39 am

My name is Ayana, daughter of Velara. That, at least, was easy to read. This is my first entry in this journal. Right now, I'm standing on the shshsh at the shshsh Harbor, waiting to board my boat. I've said my farewells to my mother and grandmother, and to my sisters and aunts. I still can't shshsh this is happening, that today, I'm truly leaving home.

Avela paused to take a break, pinching the bridge of her nose and rubbing at her eyes. She looked up from her seat that bar, but Kay'Layza was in the kitchen, still not paying attention to her. She looked down at the three words she had written on her sheet of paper, trying to figure them out from context. The second word came before the word for 'harbor' so, a location? White...the White...

Of course. The White Isle Harbor. That would make the first word...what? A jetty, maybe? A pier? She wrote down both of those words just in case, her mind going to the long docks at the Patchwork Port. If those were what those words meant, then the rest of the paragraph made sense. There was only that last word, a confusion of jumbles and letters.

I still can't shshsh this is happening, that today, I'm truly leaving home.

Still can't what? Avela thought, tugging at her hair. What can't you do, mama?

Abruptly, Avela pictured herself in that position. Saw herself standing on the pier, having just said goodbye to her mother and grandmother, her sisters--and here, Avela felt an odd thrill. Mother! Grandmother! Sisters! Aunts, and and a grandmother, and a great-grandmother, and a family Avela had never known. Maybe even cousins by this point. She knew what it was like to have family, to love family, knew what it was like to love home. If she was standing on a pier at the Patchwork Port, about to start on a journey.

'Believe', Avela wrote, in Common next to the strange word.

The word had to be 'believe'.

She went on reading, although her world was still spinning. Velara. Her grandmother's name was Velara. Had Avela been named after her? The words came faster now, as if Avela had adapted to her mother's way of writing. It was still hard. The words swam in front of her eyes, and she could feel a headache building. The only difference was that this time, this time, Avela wanted to know.

My mother bought me this journal before I left. She said she wanted me to write in it. It's a great shshsh, she said, to be made to follow a shshsh. I don't know what I'm supposed to write, so I thought I would write my feelings.

I'm scared.

Is that wrong of me to admit? A woman grown, forty-three years old, and I know in my heart that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. But I'm scared. The boat that they have me on is shshshshshshshshshsh. My grandmother paid my fare. One gold miza. Such a small thing. This whole year, I've been waiting for this day, excited for this day. Now, it scares me. But I'm ready.

Avela turned the page, barely pausing to write down the words that eluded her, continuing to read with rapt attention.

"Kontinese"

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by **Avela** on January 27th, 2018, 3:32 am

Avela rubbed idly at a spot just above her ear where she could feel a headache building, but she kept her eyes on the page. By now, she'd moved past the first page that Kay'Layza had assigned her, and was skimming her way through the rest of the Mura entry. She was taking in the words too quickly to understand them all, but for the first time, that didn't bother her. The words that she could understand were tantalizing glimpses into a world she'd thought lost to her. A world in which her mother lived.

...do not have a destination in mind, only that I'll know it when I arrive there...

...They say the boat will take me to Zeltiva. It could be there that the shshsh takes me. I won't know until I arrive, but that would be both a relief and a disappointment...

...dangerous, but I think I've come prepared...

...until the day I return.

The journal fascinated her. Avela had always thought of her mother as being brave. In fact, to hear Talien talk about it, Ayana of Mura had been the bravest woman he had ever met. In Avela's mind, she was a headstrong person, not afraid of anything, always ready for an adventure. And yet, here she was talking about being scared. Here she was, talking about having doubts.

If her mother could be afraid, if her mother could have doubts, and still do the amazing things she had done...

Well, what could Avela do?

She didn't even notice Kay'Layza's presence until the older woman cleared her throat. Avela looked up from struggling to make out the text at the very end of the entry, blinking with surprise when she realized that her free hand was scraping the bottom of the bowl of gourd rinds, looking for more. Her throat was parched--how long had she been sitting here without drinking any water?

"You look like you've made some discoveries," Kay'Layza said, in Common. Avela was thankful for the Common. Her head would have burst if she had to try to speak Kontinese on top of reading it today. "Can I see your list?"

Avela looked at her blankly, unsure of what she was asking for until she remembered the list, the whole point of the exercise. She handed the list over to Kay'Layza, nearly knocking over the glass of water as she did so. Avela caught it just in time, mopping up the few droplets that spilled with her sleeve as Kay'Layza scanned the list, muttering to herself.

"Well, you have 'pier', and 'White Isle' and 'believe'," Kay'Layza said. "But it looks like you gave up on translating halfway through." She set the list down, tapping at the fourth word with one finger. "This means 'honor'. A great honor. And this phrase..." She tapped at the last string of words Avela had written. "...I can see why this might have confused you. It means 'beautiful, shaped like a swan'. She's just describing the boat here. The boats at the White Isle Harbor are white and blue, and shaped like sea animals and birds. They're quite a sight, but nothing as colorful as Alvadas. And this..."

Kay'Layza paused, her finger resting on the fifth word on the list. She pressed her lips tightly together.

"This word..." she finally said, "means 'Call'."

"Kontinese"

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by **Avela** on January 30th, 2018, 3:57 am

"Call?" Avela asked, repeating the word. The way that Kay'Layza spoke it suggested that it had some other meaning, one that wasn't immediately obvious to her. "What does that mean?"

"It's...hard to explain," Kay'Layza said. She looked oddly troubled, although Avela couldn't figure out for the life of her why she would be. The Konti woman pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's not a concept that translates very well into Common."

"Could you...try, Layza?" Avela asked, feeling awkward. "If it's an important concept, I should understand it. I want to understand it."

It surprised her, how much she wanted to understand it. How much that was true. In the past, Avela had been content with the thought that she would never understand her Konti side, that it was always something beyond her. That she should have been happy and content just being here, in Alvadas with people that loved her. She didn't know why that was suddenly no longer enough, but she wasn't willing to let this go now that she found something that might be important to her.

Kay'Layza sighed, stepping back from the counter and folding her arms. She looked, in that instant, like she would rather be anywhere in the world but here, but she gave Avela a tight smile anyway. "I suppose I have to answer, at that," she said. "I can't just leave you hanging, can I? A Call is...it's when a Konti feels like Avalis is trying to guide her towards something."

"Do you know when you're being Called?" Avela asked.

"Most of the time, yes," Kay'Layza said. "Although sometimes, not initially. A Call can come at any time, and not everyone gets it. Most commonly, Konti are Called to leave Mura to find a mate and have a child. Although they can be Called for other reasons."

"A mate..." Avela said, thinking about her father. "Is that why my mother was Called?"

"I think so," Kay'Layza said.

"How would you know?"

"It's right here." Kay'Layza reached forward, tapping Avela's journal. At a tug from her, Avela released the book, letting her flip it to the last page. "Right here, at the end. Do you see this passage?"

Avela squinted at it. The handwriting wasn't as clear as in all of the other pages, as though her mother had written it in a hurry.

"I see it," she said.

"Do you know what it says?" asked Kay'Layza.

Avela squinted at it in thought, trying to make out the words. The Kontinese escaped her originally, but it came after a moment. When it came, Avela felt her heart drop, tears misting her eyes.

To my darling daughter, the words said, I am so very excited to meet you.

Your mother,

Ayana

"Kontinese"

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