Norani was always an attentive student. Her moms would always remark how big her eyes would get when watching something new. That brought a sour taste into the Orkhan's mouth, regret from having left, bitterness from wondering if they would comment on Juno being there right beside her learning as well. But Norani stuffed that emotion down, something quite unlike her, unlike the upbringing she was raised with, unlike the normal emotional process for nearly all Ecithians, and she watched as Astrid set to work with her unique tools.
And, of course, she had more questions. Ever the curious chatterbox, at least when not brooding on her pains.
"What is that numbing plant called?"
It was strange to watch the symbols carved into Ruvaf's flesh, but she could see that he was not in pain, not discomforted, and she continued to rub his neck, his beak, and coo to him.
'You are who you are until you decide to become someone else.'
But who was she without family, without her culture, without her friends, without anyone. Who did she even want to be?
Norani shook out the thought, working to focus through the fog of her exhaustion. She grabbed her notebook from her pack, and began writing things down. Carving hook as a tool to translate methods and meanings into symbols. Bone elemental? Norani sketched a quick picture of it in her charcoal.
"Are the symbols the same for everyone or do they differ like languages?"
Norani smiled at the dancing elementals, and she touched the wind lightly with her aether, sending a breeze to join in around them. Agst'ga. Hmm. A people who once helped this great tree and thus provided the elements to the world. In Norani's mind, that sounded like a far more noble calling than any she knew of back home in Ecith. She wrote down Acherani, language of Titans, tongue of the elements. All elementals can understand it, and in that moment, Norani had already decided she would learn it.
At the explanation of the phycaals, Norani was awed. So the spirits were the elements. Norani knew in her heart now that was why it always felt to her like the elements were alive when she worked with them. They were, they very much were.
In large letters, Ghoron, the Last Achaeri, the Last Titan. "What awful place?" Norani's scales stood up on her neck at the thought of souls being ripped away and devoured. Was this the Sundering that the old stories spoke of? But then Astrid spoke of the last titan being asleep and unreachable. The Elements and seasons were locked without this Titan's influence.
Norani could feel it in her rune, by way of her heart, that this would need fixed, that she would need to fix it. To do otherwise would be an affront to the world. There was a guilt though, for it would delay her finding Yeva. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and began to think. Part of her wanted to sacrifice anything and everything to find her dear friend again. But another part also wanted to be able to look herself and her friend in the eye. Finding Yeva was a certainty.
And if someone was expecting her, they would know that Yeva was her goal too. Maybe this would help with that.
Green eyelids slid open, a fierce Orkhan determination within her dark eyes, her aura, invisible to her, lit aflame as every fiber of her being was aligned in this choice, answering the call of the Elements. "I will find Ghoron, I will wake him up, and I will bring balance back." The exhaustion was gone and her mind was made up. She would do this. "Where is he that you cannot go? What more can you tell me of this?"
And silently, 'Please stay strong Yeva. I am coming.'
