When The Moons And Mirrors Rise

Chapter 37

"Leyin! Hello! Are you going back to Rithesanlyr?" Captain Nebula called.
"Yep. Also look, guess who I found! This is Mystelyia, she's an Enchanted, and we lived together in Faertarnikr for a while back before our wyvern-stars left." Nebula came running over to us with her arms full of rope.
"I'm taking her to the TenthTide Shores?"
"If that's ok with you," Mystelyia said.
"It absolutely is. Come up, the tide is starting to go out," she answered, turning and leading us to where we would sleep. "Sahe-kel, can you put that rope in its crate?"

We put our things down and headed back up to the spot Ris had found Leyin in the first time we went on the Vagabond. The Enchanteds still had the ink flowers on their legs from yesterday that they'd drawn while Ris did one last practice with Smaravod. She was gentle after spending a few days together, and I was disappointed that we couldn't stay longer and get to know her better.

"What's your plan, now that you've told all the rulers to send the Enchanted to the TenthTide Shores?" Nebula signed.
"We're going back to Rithesanlyr, where I'll help Lucarih'thën before dealing with the Cursed. Apparently they're all gathering near Orsilnon, which is weird but I guess it's useful. After that, I'll go to the TenthTide Shores -- it's probably not the best way to do things but it's how my plan has ended up. Or maybe I can send Mystelyia with a message to the merfolk to help the Enchanted talk to their wyvern-stars while I'm helping the Cursed."
"I can take a message to them. Probably write it down though," Mystelyia said, and Ris nodded.
"Mystelyia, are you going to Eltrin and taking a boat from there to the TenthTide Shores? You'll waste a week doing that. I'm sure I can work something out with a ship that's heading out there when we pass into Eltrin Bay, I'll make some kind of deal and they'll take you. Now, what's happening with Leyin, are you sending her with Mystelyia?"
"No, I'm staying with Ris. Kestrel should be able to link me with Ëtacihruðuhl."
"Good," Nebula said. "How are you, Ink?"
"Crow good, excited that nearing end of quest. Quest is going spectacularly."
"Excellent."

"Not sleeping?" I asked Leyin, coming up onto the deck. Everyone else was asleep, including Lulu who wasn't very comfortable on open waters. Leyin signed 'no', still watching the sky. There were only a few clouds, and the silver starlight seemed to sing sweet lullabies over us.
"In like a month, you'll be able to hear my voice for the first time." That wasn't quite true: Ris had managed to link with her for a bit while we were on our way to rescue Sseersee, Hail, and Iiyarrahn.
"Oh yeah. Are you excited?"
"I don't know." Leyin sighed. "I haven't heard my voice out loud in sixty-three years. And I'm only just realising I'll be able to hear it again soon. I guess I'm a bit excited. But it also reminds me how long..." She looked out to the horizon.
"Yeah, I get it. Change is hard. I haven't experienced what you have, but when Ris and I were preparing to leave Orsilnon, we were excited to leave and also scared of what might happen if we did. But here we are, and so much has gone well, and we found friends." I smiled at her, opening my arms as an offer of a hug. She burrowed into me, and I became her blanket, and the stars watched over us all. At least she had Mystelyia from the start of the GlassShatter Age, I thought, and she has us now and she won't lose us.

No. 'At least' is not ok. 'At least' is the bare minimum, the basics. When Ëtacihruðuhl left her, he left her without magic or a voice, and without certainty. The GlassShatter Age began in 1200 AE, and the wyvern-stars returned to the stars in 1386 AE. Leyin was fifteen at the time, so by the time Ëtacihruðuhl left, she'd lived for two hundred and one years -- but didn't look like she'd aged. I looked upwards, glaring at the universe. How could the wyvern-stars give her longevity and not provide for her in any other way? She had barely anything; she only had a handful of friends and even then she felt uncertain about us because death had left her abandoned again and again. Wyvern-stars!, you can't do that to anyone! Now we have to fix your messes. You're the most powerful beings we know of, so why do we have to help you? No more 'at least', no more 'well now she has you'. She's scared to lose us because you took her certainty when she took you in. Yes, she has us, but that doesn't make it ok, and it doesn't erase the two and a half centuries of trauma she bears.
"I'm so sorry, Leyin. None of this should have happened. You don't deserve this."

"Take her to the TenthTide Shores so the merfolk can link her with her wyvern-star, and look after her well," Captain Nebula said, handing the captain of the Sternula three guilns.
"Ah, right. I will," he said, still looking baffled at how she'd managed to swindle him into taking Mystelyia. "You right there?" Mystelyia nodded, and jumped across the gap between the Vagabond and the Sternula.
"You'll be alright." Nebula gave her a quick hug before leaping back over to us.
"Come back to Rithesanlyr afterwards!" said Leyin.

There were only a couple more days until we'd be back in Eltrin. Was Rithesanlyr home, at all, even a little bit, Ris wondered? She'd grown up there, it was familiar. She and I looked north-east to where Orsilnon was, far beyond what our eyes could see, and I remembered my night in the hills at Volyia with the Night Order. I remembered looking towards the horizon and seeing only what pain had been caused because of who Ris was. There were so few good memories, except for the time we'd spent in the forest -- there were so few good memories except for the ones we'd made away from the people who excluded and shunned her. Rithesanlyr wasn't home, our friends were. We had them now, and we would surely always have them. I wondered if Volyia felt like home to Kestrel, and if Kenshalty Abbey felt like home to Lulu. Ink didn't seem to have a home, and he certainly didn't have a murder when he found us. The closest thing to home Leyin had was the Vagabond. Still, we are each other's homes now.