Renewal [Kala]

[Torin Kilvin]

32th Searing, 123

Since Kala had returned from the expedition that had given her wings, among other things, she hadn't treated Torin any differently than she had before she'd gone. Their relationship, from the first moments, had been friendly, even kind, each happy to support the other in whatever they might need. The smith knew that Kala was still the same person, but it felt wrong, in some way he couldn't easily define, to go to her with things he wanted or needed as he once had.

It was rather unfair of him, he knew. She hadn't asked to be transformed, hadn't asked to become something more than mortal and he knew it was probably not pleasant for her to feel him being uncomfortable. No more than it was for him to be uncomfortable. He didn't want to treat her differently, tried his best not to show how he was feeling, but, of course, she could see his aura.

Early in their acquaintance, when they had been working out the details of his contract with her House she had said that he should come to her if he ever needed things that would help him be better at his job. He had done so, several times, had learned Scrivening under her tutelage, and, even with things as they were, he wouldn't have felt as safe asking anyone else for Elementalism.

Except, he also felt guilty, like he hadn't been a very good friend for the past year. Oddly, becoming her vassal, or at least her family's, had settled some of his discomfort. He hadn't quite worked out why, but being under her leadership in one area made feeling alright about speaking to her as an subject, which made knowing that she was a goddess fit easier into him.

Whatever the reason, when he asked for an few hours of her time in the afternoon he wanted to start it off properly. So, after the greetings were finished and they were seated he said,

"I wanted to apologize, for how I've been. You're you and I shouldn't treat you any differently. I couldn't help how I felt but I'm still sorry it happened and also that it took me so long to work myself through it."

He hoped they were alright, thought they probably were considering Kaus wasn't treating him any differently either. If he had upset Kala, he imagined her twin wouldn't have ignored it.

[Kala Leukos]

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While Kala had been moonlighting in Solunarium, there had been frequent portals opened to send correspondence back and forth. She didn't entirely trust Kanedama in her absence, knowing he was at least partly infernal. He hadn't been caught in her trap yet, of course, so she hadn't confronted him for gross violations of her trust. In any case, an appointment was set up. She arrived home in the morning, made a brief appearance at the Palace to keep Tianoch from asking too many questions, and then she was home. She set aside her work when Torin was announced, and tea had been set up so she sat with him in a sitting area, pouring the tea herself. It was something Akshara herself would do for a vassal, and Kala could do no less. Hospitality was important.

His words were, however, a surprise. Their sembling was on par, though she thought he might be one of those wunderkind who surpassed all others. That was good for him, she thought, as well as for Kalzasi. She had seen so many wildly adept magi in Solunarium that she thought it would become important to ensure the same up north if only for balance. Her surprise only lasted a moment, though, and then she set the tea in front of him. There were little finger food snacks as well. She thought he would always be hungry with such a muscular frame to feed, and she found herself with a greater appetite, perhaps to feed her divine nature as well as her body.

"Dear Torin," she said warmly, "we have both been going through radical personal changes while the world around us reels from emergency to emergency. You have not been a poor friend. You have been adapting. You are here now and we are still, I think, friends, and that is what matters." She took a sip of her own tea, a varietal from Hilana of Atraxia, blended with desert ingredients. The warmth of it was more welcome here where it was cool even in summer. "I am becoming something other than Avialae, other than human, and I know that inevitably, there will be such a great difference between me and other people that... hm, it will be lonely, I think. I am savoring my mortality while it lasts. And any goddess who demands respect, let alone worship, without earning it seems... unworthy of respect and worship. So, I know our relationship will change over time, but this—" she indicated the tea service, "—with you, it's something normal to cling to."

Kala knew there were items of business to discuss and, while she didn't delve into his aura, she could tell there was something else, something important to him that he wanted to bring up, but she didn't change the subject. It would be rude, peremptory, not to allow him his responses. That was a human detail she could focus on to keep her grounded.

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[Torin Kilvin]

When her reaction was warm, and more than that, personal, the smith felt a little like crying. She had, for him, become something scary for a little while, an unknown that left him utterly unsure how to act. But this wasn't a stranger, this wasn't some creature who looked down on him with fiery eyes and judged him in ways he couldn't comprehend. Kala was his friend, who he has spent years learning from as well as teaching.

The implications of what it meant that she was still herself after the first stages of apotheosis were not things he felt capable of tackling, even in the abstract. Torin was not an overly philosophical person, even within the confines of his own life.

Gratefully he picked up the offered cup of steaming tea and wrapped his hands around it to warm them after an initial sip. The lingering cold that seemed to have overtaken the world was so worrisome in its implications that he couldn't let himself think about it. At first it had been a problem that the bigger people would handle, but as it continued on, dragging over months that became seasons, he was worried.

In the worst case he and his people could retreat to the valley, close off any portals and survive between their various magics aiding in growing food. But, what if it never went away, what is this was just how it was now and only those with access to powerful mages could still eat? The thought was horrifying beyond thinking about, so he didn't think about it.

He felt sad for Kala, that she was having to accept moving into spheres of existence into which her friends and family could not go. He hoped she could keep Kaus, somehow, with her, it just didn't make sense in his head that the twins would exist without each other.

"Well," He tried, offering his small, friendly smile, "You've got a long time, a lifetime, before then, right?" They were of an age and while Kala had been trained for maturity at a much younger age than Torin had been, the years were still the same. "I'm a little late, getting my head around it, but I'm here now. You won't have to face it alone, so many people love you. You have time to figure everything out."

He sipped again at the tea, it wasn't anything he'd tried before, which was not unusual for his visits to Cintamani Pavilion. The twins introduced him to new foods, among other things, regularly, though it probably wasn't specifically their intention. When he had swallowed he mused,

"Since I got Semblance things have felt different. I think a part of me was waiting for it, reaching for it. But it's like seeing everything twice now, and maybe being a goddess is sort of like that, only even more so."

There were many people who considered those with cardinal runes, particularly those who mastered them, apart from other mortals. Not gods, but a step between the mundane and the divine. With Semblance, he could see why that was so. He would never see the world the same way he had before, it really was like gaining a whole new set of senses. A lot of the time he knew things that he wouldn't have been able to explain how he knew them unless he took time to unpack all that his second set of senses was telling him. With his Semblance on nearly all of the time he knew where people were within a wide arch around himself, no mundane person would be able to sneak up on him and he knew what most of them were thinking in a very surface way. Going back to how he'd been before would feel like going blind, losing his hearing, his sense of smell, all of it.

Though he did not share with Kala the intimate relationship that he did with Aurin, nor the working (and intimate) relationship he did with Sivan, he was trying to leave his aura open to her so she might pick up on some of the thoughts without him stumbling over his tongue trying to explain them. The smith had depth to him, sometimes great depth, but he was not one to speak of them easily.

[Kala Leukos]

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"As long as I can avoid the Gelerian Imperium and volcanos," she allowed with a smile. The first had felled Arcas, at least for a time. The second had trapped the Divine Twins for an even longer time. "Secrecy still seems to be the wisest course of action, though I am glad I can entrust my secrets with you and the rest of my people." There was more she wanted to say on the subject of her people, but she was willing to let Torin take the lead with the conversation for now.

"Ah, yes. It is rather like the Rune of Semblance opening us up to the world—on another level. More powerful, I suppose, but also... more different than just an order of magnitude. There's a little girl praying to me in Starfall just now. Her voice rises within me like a bubble in water. I can feel the stars in the sky—invisible because of the sunlight, but still there. I can sense the Aetherium... how it lines up with our world, but also... doesn't at all. My mind is learning to understand things that I cannot even articulate yet. And I wish I could share it. The sharing would make it easier to understand, less frightening—sometimes it is frightening. But I think if it was taken away, I would feel empty... I would not simply return to the Kala I was."

She sighed, not unhappy. Perhaps her brain just needed more air to keep up with things.

"Because you are a bannerman of my House," she continued, rounding back to previous thoughts unshared, "I will tell you that I am trying to decide how to handle House affairs. Some might expect me to seize control from my mother, or demand to inherit it before Aquilios. But I think instead that my mother and I will make a covenant that I will renew when Aquilios ascends and those that follow. That I will always watch over Starfall and its people, but I will only ever step in to take control if House Leukos otherwise dies out. So hopefully Aquilios will be a father and I needn't worry about the succession." Kala smiled.

"But there is something you want to ask me, I think?"

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[Torin Kilvin]

Torin listened with all of himself, taking in the words and also what was projected. It all made sense, to him, even the parts he knew he would never truly understand. The new kinds of sensation, the new senses, building on the ones they were born with, then the ones runes gave them, now, for Kala, another set. It was less frightening, less alien when he could wrap himself around at least the concepts. Nodding he said,

"I think, if I hadn't had you and Aurin and Sivan, who already understood the things I would experience with Semblance, it would have been a much scarier, much lonelier experience. You helped prepare me."

That no one was doing that for Kala seemed like some sort of gross oversight. Maybe it was important for fledgling deities to grow into their power on their own so they wouldn't end up an extension of another god but... No. He didn't like that, it felt lazy. Parents raising their children didn't mean the children lost becoming themselves. Even bad parents were better than abandoning a child in alone in the wilds. Leaning forward a little unconsciously he added,

"I know I can't experience what you are but if I can help, if you want to test things or..." He shrugged, unable to articulate what he was thinking, "I've been studying, you know most of it, but I feel like I understand magic in a more fundamental way than Semblance or even Runeforging has taught me. It isn't the same, but if you want to talk about it, or experiment, I'd like to help."

He nodded again as she began to explain some of her plans. Being the head of her house now would seem like a step, not down, but in the wrong direction. Rules needed to change and grow with their people as the world did and a single person, however open minded, was in a way frozen in their own time.

"Leaving your House to your family, as they grow and change over time, might help you to change and grow too? Knowing each new member, watching them become, I dunno, but it would help me."

When she gentle changed the subject from herself back to him Torin felt seen and the feeling of the mutuality of their connection began to peek back out.

"I do, yeah. I want Elementalism." It wasn't a demand, just a sharing of information for them to discuss. "I feel drawn to fire, as I'm sure you know."

He didn't laugh, but there was a lighthearted self-teasing in his tone, "With Runeforging, and then Semblance, I felt like they were always a part of me, like even if I didn't get to have them I would still have reached. Elementalism feels the same but it was quieter, so I didn't really 'hear' it until I'd really filled the other two. Does that make sense?"

[Kala Leukos]

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Kala smiled, glad she had been able to help ease his passage through a difficult threshold sickness.

"It was my pleasure and my honor to help, Torin, and it has been gratifying to see how you have embraced it rather than fearing it, and how it has only made your enchantments more impressive." She had more to say on that account, but saved it for later. "I would like that. Sharing with you. I think you would understand better than most, and two master semblers can communicate many things that words cannot."

She paused. "Mother Naori helped some, but She is so far beyond anything I will ever be, I don't know that She truly understands what I am going through. She was never mortal. And I have met some of the other demigods. Some are flailing, others claim to know it all but... I don't know that I believe them. In any case, a sounding board with a good understanding of aether and a good heart... I think that would be good for me."

As for House Leukos, "Of course, I would always watch over the descendants of my family, as well as the people of Starfall, you and yours included. Perhaps they will keep me from growing so far away from my mortality that I lose empathy." She considered asking whether Torin intended to father children, but opted not to.

"Ah," she exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. "I can certainly see that for you, learning the elements. If you wish it, I will initiate you. And I will take you with me when I tour the planes to attune to the less common ones." Kala smiled, thinking it would be an adventure. "In any case, that would diversify what you could do at the runeforge as well. And someday, you will have to take the dragonshards I brought back from Atoria and create divine artefacts for me. I might even be able to lend... divine power to them?" They would certainly have to experiment with that. She trusted Torin with her prizes, the sanguinite, mnemosyte, and illumite, as well as a piece of her own power.

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[Torin Kilvin]

The information briefly distracted Torin from his purpose and, suddenly, a part of him wanted to study demigods. Before his peasant upbringing kicked in to chastise him for even having such a thought about beings so far above him he wondered what he might learn if he could compare their auras, their journeys, how they grew into their power or failed and let it destroy them.

"I'm glad She is helping." He knew that the greater goddess had taken an interest in Kala, and now that interest made more sense than ever.

The talk of descendants reminded Torin of the notion that had come to him sometime after he had been named a lord. It would now be expected by the population in general, and possibly certain people specifically, that he would marry and father heirs to continue stewardship of his land and title. He had never voiced the idea, not even to his closest, and was both unsure and uncomfortable considering it. It was silly, he knew, to continue to believe that no one could want him. What he could offer in terms of stability and resources alone was enough to more than tempt any girl he'd grown up with, and even those significantly their betters in terms of social standing. That he did not want a relationship, let alone a marriage, based on such things was a tale as old as time. He was still young, (though most of his village peers would have been married or nearing it) and putting the problem away for later was the best he could do with it for the time being.

"I was hoping that it might be you. Or Kaus if you..." He didn't know exactly how to say 'if it would be weird because you're a god now', so instead he hesitated, making an inarticulate gesture, then finished with, "Would rather not because of your changes."

That he hadn't considered that it might be different receiving a rune from a divinity than it would from another person suddenly felt like a major oversight.

"I don't know if its different." He added, feeling a little bit the fool.

"Your teaching has always been good, it fits, somehow, in my head, the way you do things. Its hard to imagine learning Elementalism from anyone else."

The reminder of the chance to work with both exceptionally powerful dragonshards as well as divine power momentarily pushed the plans for his new rune from his mind as it lit up with possibilities. Leaning closer again, his eagerness showing in every line of him he replied,

"I would love to work with you, on anything, but the chance to create artifacts for you would be... beyond an honor." Beyond it in that he was deeply honored, but also in that it would be a privilege and a joy.

[Kala Leukos]

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Kala sensed enough of his thoughts to share, "I am keeping extensive journals both for my future self and for posterity."

For a moment, she felt a chill, which was odd given an Avialae's immunity to cold. There had been someone she thought to compare and contrast herself through early divinity, but perhaps she was mistaken, perhaps hearing echoes of Nazam from the stars or similar. In any case, she made a point to keep her eyes open for any young lady who might be a good match for Torin. She knew he had solid relationships with Master Kavafis and Master Sunrunner,

"I don't know if it's different either," she admitted. "I will say that my, ah... ascension... has changed how I view magic and aether. I suppose I might eventually have powers like the old archmagi. I have told you how my awareness has incorporated new parts of the world - the Aetherium, for instance. My relationship to the elements has changed as well." Her eyes went far away as she tried to explain. "The fire of the sun - our star - is mighty, but without the natural wards of Ransera, it would melt and scorch us. There is a sort of... hm, chemical reaction within the heart of a star. Its emanations can induce radical changes in matter. This is good for creation on the stellar scale, but... again, without our natural wards, it would create too much change in our bodies, changing us, perhaps even killing us. And stars create a sort of wind that travels out through the void. Hm... yes, my power can capture these. I do not know if that is merely a quirk, or a feature of my stellar domain, nor whether it would be passed unto you. If so, I would teach you how to harness them without fear. If not, at least you will have a competent teacher in me, and in Kaus, who would likely be there to help you through whatever aftershocks you must weather."

She laughed out of nowhere.

"He said you will have to fashion yourself some sort of wings, so he can teach you how to fly with aeromancy." Kala considered. "I do have a prototype to help with maneuvering, though it wasn't as helpful as I had hoped - a student experiment, really, though I suppose it could be more fully engineered."

While she considered also showing it to Stefan Dornkirk, she wasn't sure his intellectual curiosity would outweigh his inborn distaste for the Avialae. In any case, she would have to remember where she had stowed that. What she could retrieve, she did. Walking to the cupboard, she unlocked it, then unlocked a particular drawer, and pulled out a velvet sack.

When she sat back down, she pulled three silk bags from it, then revealed three supreme dragonshards for his perusal: the gold, the pale blue, and the blood red.

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[Torin Kilvin]

Torin flushed slightly and laughed himself, though it wasn't for the same reason.

"I have several pages of drawings with theoretical schematics for working wings. Some of them I did because I wanted you to be able to fly with Kaus, though, of course, now runeforged aid isn't needed. The rest were ideas that Sivan and I were working on after speaking to our Fae friend about his wings."

Neither of the projects were at the stage when he would consider actually creating them but the ideas were all jotted down.

It was a wise idea for Kala to keep a journal but unless he had other accounts to compare he wasn't sure how much use he, personally, might get out of them other than just sating his interest. Even in that the information was more likely to inflame than relieve.

He listened to the information of what she could now sense about the star that fueled their planet but he was so woefully ignorant of the forces and concepts involved it sounded more miraculous and divine than ever. Still, energy was, in one sense, all the same, and if he could be harnessed for his work then there was potential for new discoveries.

The smith typically did not 'snoop' with his one current rune, not casting it out to discover the secrets that people kept in their homes of in their heads but when Kala walked over and unlocked the cabinet, drawing his attention there, it was impossible for him not to feel the power of the shards kept therein. When the contents were revealed to him he observed them with just his mind and his magic for a long moment before looking at her seeking permission to touch. The Illumite was like an old friend, warming to his touch, as he smiled in response. Its voice was just as warm and golden, flooding through him as he 'listened' to its song.

"What will you be?" He murmured, too quietly to hear without enhancement. Getting to know a dragonshard wasn't a luxury he always had any longer, but the ones he owned, the ones that he kept rather than buying for a specific purpose he often would sit with, touching or just feeling them out with his mind and his rune. They told him when they knew what they wanted to be, it wasn't in schematics or even descriptions, it was just feelings that were up to him to work with until he found the shapes they made.

[Kala Leukos]

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"Well... once I master alchemy and the draconic language, I ought to be able to decipher Garel's grimoire, and then I could make you Avialae if you so desired." Kala smiled. She was going to focus first on Avialae women, but the Necromancer had made it seem brief and easy once one knew the secret.

"But I would be interested in seeing those schematics. I am still learning to fly as effortlessly as Kaus. There are some small instinctual cues, but I did first practice in the privacy of Starfall, and I was quite ungainly." She laughed at herself.

While he was communing with the Atorian dragonshards, she closed her hands into small fists. Through her left hand, she pulled aether into herself. Once it was hers, she began to change it, a weave of mostly Earth with a fair amount of Fire. As she did her internal alchemy, the finished product began to coalesce in her right hand.

When Torin finally did look up, her face was drawn and wan. It took some doing, and she hadn't normally tried to do it so fast. She smiled to assure him that she was well.

"While it isn't... easy... I have been able to make fabled asterium much the same as I used to make lodestones." She opened her right hand and passed it to him. The star shard was structurally sound, but only minimally charged. "If you let it bathe in starlight, it will charge faster. Or... I presume you could channel aether into it and then sit back while it claims it, converts it into its own special energetic signature. Again, I don't know if your attunement to Earth will follow mine..."

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