[Lifeblood] I will grant that we weren't expecting the first session to be quiet...
...but it was still significantly more full of excitement than we had thought.
Dear Daddy,
I'm just back from our trip to the sea. You'll be glad to hear nobody drowned! Even when the sailing lesson turned into a bit of a race. Arjan and I couldn't catch Illaria because she was too far ahead, but we beat Rosamund and Magus Jenna.
She smiled at the memory of the first day of their excursion, the day when it had still looked like it was all going to be madcap adventures and sailing races. She was still sure in her own mind that if Illaria's and Dashiel's boats hadn't had such a lead, she and Arjan would have caught them all. Their boat might have been heavier (no 'might' about it, said her treacherously honest recall, given the way the little dinghy had settled in the water as Arjan stepped into it), but with Arjan feeding her Air and protecting the boat from her Fire they had raced along faster than she had ever sailed before, both laughing with the sheer joy of it.
Well, that and at the smoke and flames trailing them, but she'd best not mention that.
Oh, Rosamund's really nice, by the way. She's got much stronger fire magic than me, but she finds it hard to keep it controlled. I tried to help her but we burned dinner instead. Fortunately there were plenty of fish we could have instead!
Probably best not to mention that those fish had been killed by Rosamund's experiments with Vincent, searing water into steam right down to the sea bed. Daddy didn't really like hearing about Fire magic, not after those five terrible days of watching Uncle Madrossi and Fallon keep her second magical expression from burning her to death.
But there were plenty of more innocent moments she'd shared with Rosamund. Like stepping out on the balcony that first morning...
---
Yawning and sleepy-eyed, Talisee stumbled out onto the balcony to check whether the weather was going to allow them the really good sailing day she yearned for. The horizon was clear, still all violets and blues as the sun rose behind them, and there was a stiff breeze in her face; perfect.
The shadow of the Borreal summer house stretched out across much of the bay, though it spared a tide-pool close to the house that had probably been enlarged and improved for any early risers who wanted to bathe...
...oh.
After some time, Tally became aware that Rosamund was also standing on the balcony. She wasn't sure how long she'd been there, because she didn't seem to be moving either. Or breathing.
"Nice... view, isn't it," she managed as she watched Dashiel rise up from the water, half-naked and glistening, to grab a similarly not-attired Vincent and drag him under.
"Lovely," Rosamund agreed, her voice oddly choked.
Arjan got out of the pool and started to practice martial arts along the beach, the slanting dawn light picking out every line of his impressive musculature. On the balcony, the two girls breathed silently in unison.
After a moment Vincent glanced up at the balcony, and then also got out of the water. Nonchalantly he wandered to a heavy-looking rock and lifted it with smooth grace, obviously struck by the need to stretch his muscles a little.
Arjan also glanced up at the balcony, and then followed suit with an inconveniently-placed log of driftwood.
"Oh dear," Tally observed. "They're getting themselves all sweaty."
"How terrible," Rosamund agreed.
The silence that followed was broken only by the gentle tinkle of the breakfast bell. Arjan and Vincent ceased their important heavy-object-lifting, and the three boys jogged in to get changed.
The two girls let out their breath in a single sigh of disappointment.
"Do you think they'll do that every morning?" Rosamund asked.
"I really hope so," Tally replied. "Do you think there's anything we can do to encourage them?"
And then they both dissolved into giggles, before running down to breakfast pink and refreshed.
---
Yeah, maybe she wouldn't mention that.
After the race we went along the coast in one of the Naval ships and Dashiel let me hold the tiller. It was an amazing feeling, almost as good as linking up with Arjan to cheat in the racing.
Though it wasn't their link in the racing that she was really thinking about.
---
Illaria was biting her own hand so hard it had gone white. Tally tried to press together the gaping wound in her abdomen, the blood running over her fingers, mixed with water from the sudden, unnatural current that Nix had used to draw her back to them. Rosamund was still flaring fires along the beach, trying to drive the Menmayari force back towards their boats. Vincent and Amerei were trying to do something too. But right now Tally's world was the wound.
It was too like another wound, the rent flesh of someone else she had cared about, the dreams she still had of the blood pulsing over her hands as her mother died. Her flame stuttered and burned without sealing, once and again.
Within her she could feel Arjan's magic, steady and strong, calm, supporting her and Illaria both without judgement or impatience. He had at least stopped the blood, giving her the moment she needed to breathe deep and focus.
Beneath her blazing fingers, the lips of Illaria's wound finally began to sear together.
Oh, and Illaria taught me a trick that lets you breathe underwater. It was amazing, walking along the bottom of the sea seeing everything that's there! Apparently you can't go very deep like that, but it's really beautiful. I'll show you when I come home, if you like.
She wondered if her father could see the sea people; whether any of them would come. Maybe. After all, Pi had liked her, even though she didn't have that strange, shifting magic that Illaria seemed to. It had been a moment of wonder, before Pi had told them about the warships.
She couldn't tell Daddy about the warships. She had made a promise.
But Daddy's main trade was with Menmayar. Maybe he already knew all about the trouble, but if he didn't...
By the way, you probably already know this but there's a rumour that there's going to be trouble with Menmayar.
And the navy. The suborned navy that the traitor Lord Borreal had taken with him when his treachery was discovered. Daddy couldn't know about that, and she couldn't tell him.
Poor Dashiel; she was fairly certain that he hadn't known, any more than Illaria really had. She wondered how many others were miserably following their families or loved ones into treachery and exile for a cause they didn't believe in.
Are all our ships safely home?
All my love,
Tally