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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 1:40 pm
Kara’s legs dangled over the edge of the deck, toes just barely dipping into the water. She stared out over the ocean, watching each ripple and wave. Mother and Father had gone off for a walk, leaving Ataya and her in the care of their uncles for the time being. Ata was currently sitting out on the deck as well. Though farther down, closer to the library, and his nose stuck in a book. He liked his books as much as she liked the water. She glanced down at him, fingers moving to play with the stone that sat around her neck now. Kara closed her eyes and took a deep breath before moving her gaze back out to the ocean.
She should be excited and looking forward to choosing her clan. However, Kara was nervous and filled with worry. She had known, for a while, she would choose peisio and she was sure everyone else expected it of her as well. She had always loved the water, felt at home when swimming. What if, though, she didn’t make a good peisio? She was decent at magic but didn’t excel at it as her brother did. She rubbed her arms as she thought about it all. She’d only confided in her brother about her doubts and that was just yesterday.
When the door opened behind her, Kara jumped, nearly toppling forward, and into the water, at her surprise. Her head jerked around and relaxed as Lithian closed the door behind him. “Uncle Lithian…” A small smile curled up the corners of her lips, replacing the frown she was sure had just been there moments before. “I…” Her bottom lip disappeared between her teeth as she debated. “Can we talk…?”
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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 2:33 pm
Ataya peeked up over the edge of his book at his sister’s squeak and scramble, gaze flitting from her up to Lithian briefly before turning back to the pages below. In the doorway, Lithian blinked, startled, and moved immediately to steady her, stilling only once assured that she seemed to have caught herself. Upon hearing the question, he tilted his head — momentarily confused — but afterwards, quickly caught on and smiled, expression gentle.
“Of course,” he said. “Here? Or would you prefer to walk with me for a moment? You’ve nothing to be nervous of, you know…though I understand your anxiety very well.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 2:41 pm
At Lithian’s question Kara bit her lip and glanced towards Ataya. She’d already talked to her brother about it but just the same she wanted privacy — time alone with someone who’d picked the peisio clan themselves. She took a deep breath and forced a small smile to her face and pushed herself up from the deck.
“Walk, please?” Once they'd left the deck, and was out of Ataya’s hearing range, Kara paused and turned to Lithian. “You were...nervous too?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 12:43 pm
“I was,” Lithian admitted, smiling as he walked beside her. “None in my family had chosen peisio before me. Both of my parents were gaili, all of my elder siblings — and I did have a lot — had chosen other clans, and I knew, privately, that my mother had hopes that I might take such a path, though I — like you — had known for quite some time what I would choose. My family knew, too, I think. I wasn’t as set on peisio, though, you know…for a good while, I could have chosen ysali. All I was certain on was that no matter what, I wanted to be a healer…”
Lithian glanced down, eyeing the girl at his side. Araceli’s daughter. Ten years old, and about to choose her clan when it seemed to him only yesterday that he had been eleven years old himself, standing under the stars with her mother on the ship bound for Eowyn for the first time.
“You will make a magnificent healer, Kara,” he said at length, “…and a powerful force to be reckoned with, in whatever manner you should choose to use your magic. There is nothing to be afraid of on this day. All those who bear dovaa blood are born with a strand of magic that is not yet complete, waiting for and wanting an imprint from one of Magesc’s natural elements. When you choose your clan, it becomes part of every breath you take, part of your magic, and part of your innate energy…you will be all the happier for it, I am sure.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 1:15 pm
Kara flushed at Lithian’s comment, gaze darting out over the ocean so as to not look her uncle in the eyes. She hoped that he was right — that she would do well in whatever way she choose to use her magic. Healing was only half of what she wanted to do. She had seen her uncle fight, the power that he wielded over water was amazing to her and she wanted that as well. Healing was just a bonus that came along with the power over water. She planned on honing both, that much was a given but she wanted to be just as good of a battler as she would be a healer. Maybe she should start reading more books, as Ataya did.
Kara’s lip disappeared between her teeth as her next thought invaded her subconscious. Would it hurt? She’d never talked to Mother about this. Though, perhaps, she should have. Now, though, Lithian was her source. He was here and he had picked the clan Kara was going to pick. What better source was there than him? Her gaze flit back to him before she spoke again. “Did it...hurt? Could you feel a change?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 5:33 pm
“I does not hurt,” Lithian said. “You will feel it, though. It’s…” He considered for a moment, trying to find words adequate to describe the sensation so many years in the past now. “It is unlike anything you’ve ever felt before, but similar to the sensation of someone else’s beneficial magic flowing through you, or gathering magic within yourself before casting a spell, except that the power comes from the outside and is pouring in. It encompasses, and becomes a part of you, but it is a natural part of your process and wants to be part of you as much as your body wants to feel the merge. It’s…exhilarating. Not painful.”
After some more brief, casual conversation between the two of them, they eventually returned back to the house. When her parents returned, preparations for the final ‘ceremony’ of sorts were made, and by the time the sun was edging towards the horizon, the full group of them were out at the ocean’s edge: Detraeus and Araceli on the one hand with Ataya at their side, Lithian and Casseth on the other, and Akara with her orb, preparing to face the ocean.
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2014 6:55 pm
Kara hesitated, toes curling into the sand as she looked out over the ocean. This was it — there would be no turning back once she cracked the orb. Her fingers tightened around the peisio orb as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She couldn’t back out. Not now, with everyone watch her. The water rushed over her feet, startling her out of her own mind. She moved, walking out into the ocean, up to her knees, and stopped. In front of her stood a rock, tall enough to come up to her waist with an edge made just right, so that she could crack the orb open on it.
Kara glanced down at the orb, fingers smoothing over the surface. Uncle Lithian had said the magic wanted to be part of her — wanted to merge with her body and become one. She glanced back towards her family, gaze falling on each adult before settling on her brother — her twin and best friend. She smiled at him before turning back around and bringing the orb up, hovering and hesitation a moment before bringing it down hard enough to cause it to crack.
It didn’t take long for the cracks to spread and the orb to break apart. As the magic seeped out of the orb Kara watched as it slowly reached out for her. Her heart gave a small leap, as if it were trying to escape from her throat, and she clenched her eyes shut, fully expecting something wholly unpleasant, despite Lithian’s reassurance. What she felt, however, was the complete opposite. As the magic coursed over her she felt at peace — and whole. As if she had been missing a vital part of herself and had finally found it. She supposed, in a way, that’s what it was. She hadn’t been complete and breaking the orb and absorbing the powers inside it filled her.
Kara felt the power ripple through her, felt the physical changes that Lithian had talked about. Unknown to her her scales changed from a pearly white, replaced by the vivid greens and blues of the ocean and her hair started to change, the blue of the ocean creeping up onto the tips of her hair, traveling about halfway up it’s length before stopping and fading into the purple, natural color. Last, but not least, her horns took on more blue color. As the magic from the orb slowly faded, Kara’s eyes flit open, gaze instantly locking onto the ocean. She could feel it, the ocean spoke to her. Kara turned back to her family, huge grin on her face. She had done it and it hadn’t hurt one bit. Her other worries were temporarily shoved aside and forgotten as she took off running through the water.
Ara smiled, watching as Kara basically threw herself at her father, arms snaking around his neck and holding tight. “I did it, daddy!”
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