The Fourth Day of the Kythera Expedition (Evandria)

[Norani]

Glade 88, 124

As the sun began to rise over the fourth day of the expedition, the leadership knew that today would be the beginning of the harder portions. The expedition had camped at the border of the territory that Drathera maintained some control over, upon a large sandbar in the middle of a flooded river that had only recently begun to recede. They were joined by a few of Drathera's protective scouts, and the Flood Hippos kept a safe perimeter for the encampment. There were jitters among the leadership now, worry, for it was at this point that they could begin expecting people to become injured, sick, or killed.

Norani was one of these jitters-bearers. She was tired. She hadn't slept well, but was thankful to at least not to have been plagued by the nightmares from her time within the darkness. This time she was tired because she struggled all night with how to do this so that everyone would make it home. How everyone would be safe.

And when she rose from her nest of soil and palm fronds, she was no closer to an answer.

As the expedition sat around the morning's breakfast fires, the cooks working diligently to provide today's meals, a coconut was pressed into Norani's hand, steam rising from a crack in the top of it. Ooklo was standing next to her smiling, "Drink it, you'll feel better." She sniffed at it, and it smelled.. interesting. Earthy, warm, coconutty. She looked at him, a curious look upon her face, "It's mocha. Found some wild coffee bushes two days ago and a cocoa tree somehow still alive with waters high over its trunk." Norani knew this was a drink that was popular in the city, but didn't exist in her village.

She pulled the top of the coconut off and raised it to her lips. She took a long sip, finding the mingling flavors of the cocoa, coffee, and coconut creating a wonderfully savory and sweet drink. "The coffee will make it feel like you've slept well. For a while, at least."

"Thank you."

He nodded, "Go find you one of the cartographers and take them with you today. I want one doing maps from the ground and one from the sky."

Norani peered over her coconut with her large brown eyes, taking a sip of the warmth. "Can they fly?"

The man laughed, "You're the Windwalker, surely you can give them a lift, no?" Then he did a quick mental calculation, "Maybe Gultik, but the poor guy just learned he's allergic to cassava root so I'd appreciate if you'd keep him out of the skies."

Norani lowered her drink. "Ooklo, why is this what I'm being utilized for? We know the Unknown is real now. We know it exists and that it has purpose. I..." She clenched her jaws, the muscles in her neck tightening, "I can find it again."

Ooklo's face dropped his jesting, serious. "We know. We know you can, and you will."

"So then wh-"

"Because you're not ready."

Her eyes flew wide in surprise and her mouth started to open and he raised a hand, gently, softly, stopping her.

"If you find the Unknown now, as you are, it will only be worse this time." There was a pained softness in his eyes and Norani flinched back a bit. He knew. He'd seen the memories she shared with the temple. Her shoulders started curl forward, her head started to tip down, she wanted to be small, to go unseen. To not be known that way. A firm hand tipped up her chin, pointing her face to the sky being lit by the rising sun."You survived and returned to your people. You did what everyone before you could not." He raised his face to the sky as well,"You're the best of us, and we cannot afford to lose you to rashness and impulsiveness. This is an enemy that has plagued our people since the beginning of us."

"But this doesn't make sense. If you wanted me to be ready by doing this, why don't I just fly to Kythera, see what it is like, and come home?"

Ooklo smirked, the two bringing their faces back down and looking at one another. "Because the next time you face Unknown, you truly will have the entire Commonwealth behind you. And we need to be ready too."

He gave her a curt nod. "Finish your drink, find you a cartographer, and let's get going. We might not be able to move as fast as you, but that doesn't mean it's not worth taking the journey." He turned, leaving, heading toward where his subordinates were. He paused and looked back, "And try not to drop the mapmaker. At least make the critters out here earn the right to eat us."

A small smile appeared on Norani's face as she nodded at him, watching him leave.

A few minutes later...

A gentle breeze slithered through the entire encampment, passing by the ears of every person carrying a single word in Norani's voice.

"Evandria."

Norani didn't know which one that was, but she did have a list of names and duties of every person. All the leadership did. And she watched as multiple heads turned to look at the Dragonborn woman. Norani wove around the cooking fires and people enjoying their meals, to stand before the human seeming woman. She offered a hand to help the woman to her feet.

She offered the custom of offering her forearm to be clasped in greeting. Her eyes passed over the woman's body, not seeing any sign of markings. A foreigner. "Hello, Evandria. I am Norani Windwalker." She smiled politely, "I'd like for you to join me today while I scout from above. So that you might make your maps from above while your colleagues make them from below. Would you be willing to fly with me for a while?"

[Evandria]

For the fourth time this morning, Eva watched as Gultik jumped up suddenly from his seat near the fire, placed his leaf plate on the ground, and dashed into the thick of the forest. She felt bad for the orkhan cartographer - traveling with an upset stomach was the worst. Eva had her own unpleasant experiences as she hopped between ships. Especially considering that the breakfast that day was particularly lovely - rice cooked in coconut milk, served with meat and eggs.

Eva was trying to focus on the good things.

The dragonborn knew that she was quite literally out of her element. As they traveled deeper into the forest, she yearned for a glimpse of the blue sky, but the canopy was unyielding—a green vault that wanted to swallow her whole. The towering trees surrounded her, their gnarled roots twisting like ancient serpents, threatening to grab her. Just a few years ago, Eva wouldn’t have been able to calmly sit by a campfire in the middle of a thick forest like this. As a child, Eva found all the greenery suffocating and claustrophobic ever since she got lost in it. She couldn’t quite remember what exactly had happened, but the fear had stuck to her for a long while.

By now, the young woman had gotten over it… mostly. She still missed the sea, though. Eva closed her eyes and imagined the horizon stretching endlessly instead, the sun setting in a blaze of oranges and pinks. She imagined herself standing on the shore, the wind tousling her hair, and the waves reaching out like old friends.

A voice broke through her reverie and Eva’s head immediately snapped towards the sound. The wind gently nudged her until her eyes settled on an orkhan woman with moss-green skin and forlorn eyes. She could hear people around her started whispering and before she stopped in front of the dragonborn, Eva already knew exactly who she was.

Eva grabbed the orkhan’s forearm firmly and let herself be pulled to her feet. Her eyes quickly scanned across the markings on Norani’s left arm. The action came naturally to her - the dragonborn did grow up in these lands, after all, even if she mostly kept to the waters. “Evandria. It’s an honor to meet the famous Windwalker.” It really was. Upon her arrival back at the lighthouse, her father had filled her in on everything that had happened in Ecith. The name Norani Windwalker came up a lot.

“Fly? You mean, actually flying up there?” Eva asked in surprise, her blue eyes widening slightly. She had seen the flying contraptions of the Imperium, but she guessed that was not what Norani was suggesting. The forest had stifled her, but the idea of soaring through the sky was both exhilarating and terrifying. “Uh, yes, sure. I would love to, but… I can’t really fly.”

Eva was an elementalist, but she was nowhere skilled enough to even dream about flying. Well then again, if anyone could safely make someone fly, it would no doubt be someone called the Windwalker.

[Norani]

Norani nodded politely at Eva's greetings, but she was shifting nervously. "I'm sorry, I'm not used to being famous." She never truly wished to be famous, at least not any more so than childish fantasies long since forgotten. She smiled a bit, or tried at least, "Though I suppose it doesn't matter as much here. We are a people with our lives written on our skin, and our stories shared at every meal."

She smiled brightly, however, at Evandria's acceptance and desire to fly with her. It reminded her of when she was taking Yeva from Drathera back home to her village. She was so eager to fly as well. And Norani would remember the drop off the side of the mountain, Yeva in her arms as the sun began to rise for the rest of her life as one of her happiest moments.

"Well, we are in this together then, because I've never helped anyone else to fly."

Norani held out a hand, "Come, let us get some space and then we can figure this out."

She waited for Evandria to take her hand, then Norani called upon the winds as easily as she might breathe. As they whirled around them, she could feel them showing curiosity toward Eva. Norani looked over at her, "Are you an elementalist too?" Norani felt it to be true, but still, it had to be asked. As the Windwalker took a hold of the prodding winds, she could feel something else that she'd never felt before.

Upon Evandria's body, she could feel her Rune of Elementalism, and she could feel the passive connection it had to the elements of the world around her. She'd never felt that in anyone else before. She prodded at the connection gently, and didn't see any reaction in Evandria, but she did feel the winds shift a bit. She backed off, not wishing to unintentionally offend or harm Eva.

"It's good that you're an elementalist, I think that should make this easier for us both." She squeezed Eva's hand, "Alright, we're going to jump up through the canopy. Wind will help you fly, but earth will help you make it off the ground. Concentrate, listen to the elements, feel them, feel how I ask them, how I share myself with them, and how they respond."

Norani reached out first into earth, sending aether through her bare feet loaded with a desire, a desire to be pushed. Simultaneously, she was speaking to the winds for lift and for protection, for both herself, and for Evandria. "When you feel it, give some aether to them as well."

Once Norani felt that, she smiled brightly. "Jump!"

Earth surged, pushing the Orkhan and the Dragonborn hard, having first compressed the soil enough to support their weight. A small column shot from the ground, sending them both racing toward the canopy at startling speeds. Norani orchestrated the winds to keep them on track and to carry them higher and faster, while earth settled back in, content to go back to its own machinations. Norani conjured a gust in front of them to bend the branches and leaves ahead of them, and she never let go of Evandria's hand.

And soon, they were floating, having reached the top of their trajectory, and they were on the other side of the canopy, the sun bright and warm on their skin. And just as their stomachs turned to indicate falling back to the ground, Norani stilled and hardened the winds beneath them, creating a surface in the air where there was none. They weren't flying just yet, but simply standing in the air, looking out over the lands.

"So how high would you like to fly so as to better make the maps?"

[Evandria]

Fortunately, Eva had her whole supplies and pack ready beside her. The dragonborn leaped to her feet and threw her bag over her shoulders. “Let’s do this!” The thought of being able to draw her maps in a bird’s eye view was almost as exciting as the thought of flying. It would certainly make things a thousand times easier.

“Oh,” Eva said, sounding slightly concerned now that she heard that Norani had never done it either. Perhaps a more rational individual would have backed out of the arrangement, but the dragonborn was still tempted by the fact that this might be her one chance to get a break from the forest. She was getting sick of all the green. “There’s a first time for everything I guess. Just make sure to catch me if I fall. Or drop me in the river if you have to, I’m a pretty good swimmer.”

The dragonborn blinked in surprise when Norani immediately noticed her magic. Maybe all the skilled elementalists could spot other wielders just because they were so powerful. “Yes, I am! How did you know?” The rune on her left thigh wasn’t currently visible, after all. “I am nowhere as good as you though, so I’m not sure how much I can help.”

Perhaps it was because they were trying to exert control in the same area, but Eva could swear that she felt Norani’s magic reaching into the earth. The young woman tried to mimic what the Windwalker was doing, feeling the earth gearing up for what Norani had in mind. She fed it her own aether, trying to help in what little ways she could.

Before she knew it, they were launched through the air and Eva couldn’t help but let out a startled scream as she clenched her hand harder around Norani’s. In a matter of seconds, they broke through the trees and the wide blue sky greeted them eagerly. A smile quickly bloomed on Eva’s face, even when her heart felt like it was going to explode.

She expected the drop, but it never came. The winds felt oddly sturdy underneath her feet and her intrusive thought made her kick at it once, trying to feel if it was truly holding onto her weight the way the earth could. It felt stable enough, but just in case, Eva fed a bit of her aether so that more wind gathered to what Norani had created.

Eva pursed her lips for a few moments. “Honestly, I am not sure. This is the first time I’ve done anything like this.” She scanned the ground beneath them, still clutching at Norani as if she thought she might fall off any second. She whipped her head trying to spot the mountain where Drathera sat on. “A little bit higher maybe? I think I can use the rivers to help pinpoint where we are currently.”

[Norani]

Norani smiled brightly, able to feel the elements responding to Eva's aether that she was feeding them. She'd never worked with another elementalist like this, it was an interesting experience, for more pleasant than that business in the desert with Imogen and the Dawnfire. That felt... forced, unnatural. This, on the other hand, felt as natural as the winds in her lungs and the water that flowed the rivers. Maybe elementalists were always meant to work together, both with themselves and the elements, and any of the other guardians of nature too.

"You did well! Keep feeding the elements and they will answer your call. No need to be shy, they sure aren't." She looked out over the vast jungles, seeing the winds that were invisible to most dancing and racing, seeing the rays of light moving so fast they looked to be still, seeing the many spirals of water vapor heading up to form the next clouds. "They will respond to your emotions too, it travels in the aether you feed. The more you open yourself to them, the more they will open the world to you."

At the suggestion for higher, Norani smiled. "Okay, then let's let the winds be winds then. You will only fall if you feel like you will. Probably." She pondered on this, she never really had to think about it before, she always just... did it. Felt it and did it.

"Okay wait."

She was chewing on her lip as she sought the words of how to explain this. She was not used to being in the role of a teacher, having always been the student. Except for... Kaiko. Her smile drooped at the thought of the girl, lost and likely dead. It had been over a year since they'd last seen one another. They were family, chosen one another and Norani had failed in her duty to protect her. A deep breath, she thought back to when she was teaching Kaiko about the differences between salt water and fresh. Explain a feeling.

"If you feel like you will fall, the winds will help you to do that. If you feel like you will fly, they will help you to do that too. Focus on your desire, not on the possible failure."

And with that, Norani let the winds beneath their feet return to being permeable and soft. She kept in touch with all the winds of the area, and she didn't begin to fall, so much in her natural state. She could catch Eva if she fell, and she would, but she watched, listening to the winds and how they responded to the cartographer, waiting to see what would happen.