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[indent][indent][indent][indent][color=#808080]The sea here possessed none of the vitality he understood. In the land of his birth, water followed a strict and sensible order. Rivers carved precise paths through parched soil, canals stitched a geometric pattern across farmlands, and wells were deep, contained circles of vitality. Storms, when they came, spent their final fury on the dunes, their violence muted by infinite sand. But this place, the Bramble Weave, held a different kind of water. It stretched to the horizon, a dull and immense expanse like tarnished silver held in the jaws of the mountains. It did not move with current or tide, but with a deep, laboured rhythm. The reflections of the mountains fractured and swam with each rise and fall, a dizzying smear of dark pigment across a shifting pane.[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan’s gaze clung to those broken images, refusing to look at the land itself. The mountains were not a vista but an aggression. They dominated every point of the compass, their razor-edged summits sheathed in ice, their sides dropping away into darkness that seemed to swallow the light. During their voyage, he had called them magnificent, a lie he’d offered Saphira to calm her nerves. Now, enclosed within the vast weave of water and stone, he saw the truth: they were the unbroken walls of a giant’s crypt, offering no promise of exit.[/color]

[color=#808080]His knuckles ached, bone-white against the ship’s rail. He hadn’t meant to grip it so hard. The wood was slick with chill spray, its texture a wrongness his very sinews recognized even as his mind fought for serenity. A memory surfaced, unbidden, that had taken place years in the past on a patrol through a southern Wyrmway gorge. There had been one sharp crack as if the world was breaking its spine, and then the sky had suddenly turned to falling stone and dust. [/color]

[color=#808080]They had dug with their hands until their fingers were raw, pulling three men from the tomb of rubble. A fourth was never recovered, becoming one with the stone, a permanent spectre in the gorge.[/color]

[color=#808080]To Raelan, stone that reached this high and leaned this close offered no security. It was a colossal hand, frozen in the act of closing into a fist. The thought coiled tightly around his lungs, a constricting pressure. His breathing grew quick and shallow, useless. Without thought, he pulled one hand from the rail and pressed it against his neck, his thumb seeking the frantic beat of his pulse, as if to prove his body still functioned. 

He commanded himself to inhale[/color]

[color=#808080] Instead of oxygen, Raelan heard the sound of his lieutenant’s voice, ragged as they called the roll. The endless silence that had followed the final name on that list. [/color]

[color=#808080]Another inadequate gasp. [/color]

[color=#808080]A heavy, cold sensation rooted itself at the base of his neck.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Raelan.” [/color]

[color=#808080]The voice was a grounded rumble, cutting through the wind and the noise in his own mind. It was meant only for him. Calis. [/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan did not turn at once, though the sound of his name was a line thrown to a drowning man. He knew Calis stood behind him, hands resting at the small of his back, the very image of a man content to wait. The captain understood the value of standing watch without intrusion, offering the dignity of self-recovery rather than the shame of a public rescue. So, his presence was neither a prod nor a pity; it was simply an anchor, waiting for the storm within Raelan to pass. And slowly it did. [/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan’s hand fell from his throat. [/color][color=#2f5e58]“I am steady,”[/color][color=#808080] he managed, trusting his lungs more and finally turning his head to his companion. [/color]

[color=#808080]Calis nodded once. A soldier’s acknowledgment. A mentor’s acceptance.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“In that case,” [/color][color=#808080]he said, his voice barely rising above the lap of water against the hull, [/color][color=#ffffff]“welcome to Thornvale, my lord.”[/color]

[color=#808080]A bright, clear chime sliced through the damp air, followed by another. Then three more in a rapid sequence. A signal.[/color]

[color=#808080]Calis turned, his focus narrowing toward the shore. [/color][color=#ffffff]“The harbour watch has marked our arrival,” [/color][color=#808080]he observed. [/color][color=#ffffff]“Or more likely, our colours.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan followed his gaze. Ahead, the oppressive wall of mountains finally relented, revealing the valley they guarded. It was a sudden burst of life crammed into the stone crevice with tiered rooftops that climbed the lower slopes and stone arches that spanned a milky, fast-moving river, along with banners of every hue fluttering against the grey rock. The fortress known as the Black Citadel remained hidden around a bend, but its influence was felt in the orderly lines of the settlement and the fortified gates built into the cliffs.[/color]

[color=#808080]Yet what truly seized Raelan's focus was the docks they drifted closer and closer to.[/color]

[color=#808080]Masts bristled along the shore like a forest of pale spears, some flying simple trade flags, others bearing more ostentatious crests. The narrow band of white stone and sand between the river and the town was alive with movement. From this distance, he could see only colour and gesture, but the impression was unmistakable, with a festival’s swarm of bodies filling every scrap of space the water would allow.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“The Summer Solstice,”[/color][color=#808080] Calis explained, anticipating Raelan’s unspoken question. [/color][color=#ffffff]“You were on the southern frontier during the last celebration. The valley keeps to the traditional observances.”[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“By throwing themselves into a mountain river?”[/color][color=#808080] Raelan muttered mostly to himself, his forehead creasing in confusion. Now, Raelan Al’Seren did not traffic in mystery when information was so readily available. He was the sort to study a place before he set foot in it, if not out of curiosity then out of necessity. And yet, none of the reports he’d consumed, none of the conversations with merchants, envoys, diplomats, or even those pompous scholars at the Ninefold academies had ever mentioned [i]this[/i].[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“This seems… impractical,”[/color][color=#808080] he added, which for Raelan was the closest he came to [/color][i][color=#808080]what in all seven hells are they doing?[/color][/i]

[color=#ffffff]“They call it the Cleansing,” [/color][color=#808080]Calis replied. [/color][color=#ffffff]“ Or so I've heard from travellers. It seems to be this ritual where the regrets of the past year are carried off by the current, and the new one is greeted with the shock of the Weave. Though...could be that they just dip in because it's hot.” [/color][color=#808080]He gestured loosely toward the boisterous crowd.[/color][color=#ffffff] “Either way, it is a practice that ignores station, so even the highborn are known to participate.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan blinked.[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“Nobles,”[/color][color=#808080] he repeated slowly, as though confirming the concept still meant the same thing in these mountains. [/color][color=#2f5e58]“Voluntarily.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Voluntarily,” [/color][color=#808080]Calis confirmed, his expression perfectly neutral.[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan moistened his lips, considering the improbable scene.[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“…I did not expect that,” [/color][color=#808080]he admitted.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“No,” [/color][color=#808080]Calis replied softly. [/color][color=#ffffff]“Nor did I, when first I saw it.”[/color]

[color=#808080]As they drew nearer, the picture became clearer. Dozens of figures, from the smallest child to bearded elders, were yielding to the river’s invitation. They stepped into the churning shallows, footwear abandoned in careless mounds on the stones. The shrieks of playing children pierced the air. Soldiers, their uniforms modified for the day, stood with trousers rolled high, their stern demeanours softened by involuntary grins. Wealthy merchants and soot-stained labourers shared the same shocking chill, their knees knocking in unison. Even those dressed in fine fabrics had hiked their garments, their pale ankles exposed to the current with a collective disregard for decorum.[/color]

[color=#808080]The scene struck Raelan with a force that was both intellectual and visceral. Where he came from, water was usually locked away and divided. It practically marked the boundary between classes, where deep, cool wells were for the great houses, allotted channels for sworn farmers, and tepid, shared ponds for the rest. This lavish, public communion with something so precious felt brazen, almost indecent. Yet he found himself transfixed, unable to look away as the very architecture of status collapsed before him. Every face, regardless of its owner’s station, appeared transformed by the same breathless shock and subsequent, giddy delight.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“No one seems to be in distress,” [/color][color=#808080]Calis noted mildly.[/color][color=#ffffff] “That should ease your mind.”[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“My concerns were never about drowning,”[/color][color=#808080] Raelan answered, the deflection automatic.[/color]

[color=#808080]Calis did not press. He merely let out a low, knowing hum that conveyed his doubt, then turned his attention to the mechanics of docking: the shouted commands, the creak of hemp lines, and the rustle of great sails being secured as their ship coasted toward the quay.[/color]

[color=#808080]Their craft, a narrow-hulled cutter built for speed over cargo, turned gracefully toward an extended pier that had been kept clear. Raelan witnessed the exact instant when their identity penetrated the crowd’s consciousness. As a fresh gust billowed the banner of House Al’Seren—a black field emblazoned with a golden sun being dragged beneath a dune—a wave of recognition visibly passed through the onlookers.[/color]

[color=#808080]The merriment didn’t stop, but it quieted and hardened into watchfulness. Mothers and fathers pulled playing children back from the water’s edge. Guards stationed along the docks shed their festive languor, their spines straightening into formality. A single figure, cloaked in navy and silver, broke from the crowd and moved with urgent purpose, his path a dark streak against the pale stone as he headed for the stairways leading up to the now visible fortress—a messenger, ensuring the Citadel would know of their landing before the mooring lines were even fastened.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“It begins,”[/color][color=#808080] Calis said beside him. [/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“‘It’?”[/color][color=#808080] Raelan asked.[/color]

[color=#808080]Calis’s lips quirked in a dry half-smile.[color=#ffffff] “Whatever purpose your father believes you are here to fulfill.”[/color]

Raelan didn’t respond, at least not aloud. The words lodged somewhere between his chest and spine, heavy enough that he felt their weight more than their meaning. Purpose. He had spent the entire crossing trying to unravel what shape that purpose might take—political negotiation, resource appeal, alliance mending—yet standing here, seeing Thornvale alive as a breathing body, the question quickly changed.

Their arrival wasn’t merely noticed. It was actively being interpreted.
Every stare from the shore carried meaning he couldn’t yet read.[/color]

[color=#808080]A heavy rope struck the pier with a solid impact, jerking Raelan’s attention back to the moment. Dockworkers swiftly coiled and fastened the line, and the ship let out a long, wooden groan as it came to rest, as if exhaling after a long journey. Raelan’s fingers had only just relaxed their grip on the rail when the boarding ramp was lowered with a decisive clatter. In the very next breath, Saphira bolted past him. One hand was pressed firmly to her lips, the other arm windmilling for balance as she moved with the desperate speed of a prisoner sprinting for an open gate.[/color]

[i][color=#a34261]“Solid ground,” [/color][/i][color=#808080]she gasped, the words tearing from her throat like a curse and a benediction fused. [/color][color=#a34261]“Unmoving, blessed land.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Miren followed hard on her heels with the resigned patience of someone who had been shadowing her for the entirety of the crossing, ready to catch her should she headbutt the mast or collapse dramatically against a coil of rope. All the while, she kept her body angled protectively between Saphira and the sailors hauling the final mooring lines taut. They hit the gangplank without hesitation, Saphira gripping the rail as if expecting gravity to betray her again. The moment her boots found unmoving stone, her entire posture shifted: her shoulders dropped, her spine loosened, and her eyes closed in a look of relief.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“Thank every steadfast god,” [/color][color=#808080]she breathed out, then twisted to glare at the ship behind her, adding with venom, [/color][color=#a34261]“and curse all ships to the deepest hells.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Miren leaned close, muttering words meant for Saphira alone, perhaps a reminder to breathe or a caution against voicing such sentiments too loudly. Saphira didn’t kneel to kiss the pier, though the impulse seemed to flicker across her face. Instead, she bent at the waist, bracing her hands on her knees as she gathered herself.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“That,”[/color][color=#808080] she announced to no one and everyone,[/color][color=#a34261] “was the worst experience of my life, and I will never forgive the sea.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Calis let out a choked sound that was, for him, equivalent to a roar of laughter while Raelan gave an understanding nod.[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“And [i]that[/i],”[/color][color=#808080] he said, watching as Saphira straightened, inhaled sharply, and began braiding her hair with the ferocity of someone trying to regain their self-possession, [/color][color=#2f5e58]“is one of the two reasons my Father sent me.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Calis’s brows rose a fraction.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Ah. Your strategy is to complete any negotiations before she attempts to gnaw on the princely heir, I take it?”[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“My strategy,” [/color][color=#808080]Raelan corrected, his tone flat and certain,[/color][color=#2f5e58] “is to help my father complete them before she attempts to gnaw on [i]anyone[/i].”[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan made his way down the gangplank with measured assurance, a man keenly aware that a single moment could define an entire mission, and that his sister possessed a talent for creating memorable, if not always prudent, first impressions. Ahead of him, Saphira secured the end of her braid with a final motion, and as she straightened, she was once again the picture of rigid composure. Only a faint ashen hue beneath her tan and the bright spots of colour high on her cheekbones betrayed the violent sickness that had held her in its grip just moments before.[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“You lived. My compliments,” [/color][color=#808080]he said softly as he reached her side, the words meant for her ears alone.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“By the narrowest of margins,”[/color][color=#808080] Saphira replied through a tight smile, though her usual razor-edged lilt had fully returned to her words. [/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“Oh come now, you couldn’t drown in a puddle if it tried,”[/color][color=#808080] he replied. [/color][color=#2f5e58]“We both know spite alone would keep you afloat.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Her answering glare could have soured milk, but she said nothing as Calis approached. His features were arranged in a placid mask, but the keen intelligence in his eyes missed nothing.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Lady Saphira,” [/color][color=#808080]he greeted with a polite incline of his head.[/color][color=#ffffff] “Your debut has certainly drawn a crowd.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Saphira’s spine elongated. Any remaining trace of her physical distress vanished, consumed by the idea of being observed and assessed.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“As it should,” [/color][color=#808080]she responded, her voice now carrying a confident timbre.[/color]

[color=#808080]It was then that Miren leaned in, her words a breath against Saphira’s ear.[/color]
[color=#ffffff]“Your earring,”[/color][color=#808080] she whispered. [/color][color=#ffffff]“The right one is facing the wrong way.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Saphira’s hand flew up to correct the gemstone with unconscious grace before she spoke once more.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“Shall we proceed?”[/color][color=#808080] she asked, her tone cool and clear. She presented her hand, palm upturned, a silent command for her brother’s arm. Raelan provided it without comment, ready to lead their party toward the town. Yet he had taken only a half-step when he realized her attention was not on the path ahead, but had been captured by the shimmering line where the river met the shore, studying the rhythmic way the water whispered over and receded from the smooth, pale rocks. [/color]

[color=#808080]Saphira’s expression changed into a dangerous one, and Raelan knew that expression. Saints preserve him, he[/color][color=#808080][i] knew[/i][/color][color=#808080] it.[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“Oh, no,” [/color][color=#808080]he breathes, the words barely audible.[/color][color=#2f5e58] “You’re plotting.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Saphira didn’t look at him. [/color][color=#a34261]“I am considering.”[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“I fail to see how that is any better.”[/color]

[color=#808080]With two purposeful strides, she drew him toward the riverbank. She let go of his arm and crossed her own, her posture shifting into that of a tactician surveying a map or a scholar pondering a difficult theorem.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“If this kingdom reveres water,”[/color][color=#808080] she mused, [/color][color=#a34261]“would it not be prudent to… acknowledge it? A symbolic gesture of some kind?”[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan stared at her profile.[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“You wish to baptize yourself in front of half the harbour?”[/color]

[color=#a34261]“Don't be absurd,” [/color][color=#808080]she hissed back.[/color][color=#a34261] “Just my toes, I'm thinking. Or ankle. Possibly knee if the symbolism is exceptional.”[/color]

[color=#808080]He closed his eyes for a long moment. [/color][color=#2f5e58] “You’re inches away from licking the riverbank.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Her gaze cut towards him, and her eyes narrowed.[/color][color=#a34261] “I am not licking anything. I am merely contemplating diplomacy. There is a distinction.”[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“A very small one.”[/color]

[color=#a34261]“A cultivated one.”[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“It is not necessary.”[/color]

[color=#a34261]“It feels necessary. Besides, I am older and believe it to be a great idea. So there.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan ran a hand across his face.[/color][color=#2f5e58] “Fine. If you insist on doing the ridiculous, at least let me escort you so you don’t fall in and begin our political assignment by drowning in five inches of water.”[/color]

[color=#a34261]“I cannot drown, or have you forgotten already?” [/color][color=#808080]Saphira answered with a haughty exhale that seemed to chill the air between them before once more placing her hand on his sleeve. Together, they left the firm planks of the dock for the water-worn stones leading down to the river. The temperature dropped noticeably with each step, the sun’s feeble warmth succumbing to the penetrating cold that radiated from the rushing water. Around them, the lively bankside scene resumed, playing out in intimate glimpses Raelan slowly took in: children shrieking in the shallows, a man with russet hair sitting with water wading up to his calves, groups conversing on the rocks. Raelan noted it all with a detached curiosity—these were not his people, and this particular vibrancy was not of his world. Still...a habit was a habit.[/color]

[color=#808080]Saphira, for her part, appeared to see only obstacles.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“This will do,” [/color][color=#808080]she announced, selecting a relatively flat stone at a prudent distance from the nearest onlookers. She gathered her [url=https://i.pinimg.com/736x/15/d5/8a/15d58a648d588c65d087221182f12778.jpg]skirt[/url] in one hand with a motion so practiced it seemed second nature.[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan steadied her with the lightest pressure of his arm. [/color][color=#2f5e58]“You know,” [/color][color=#808080]he stated, [/color][color=#2f5e58]“there are less dramatic ways to demonstrate goodwill.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Saphira paid him no mind, bending to work open the fastenings of her boot. She pulled it off, then carefully rolled down the fine stocking underneath, exposing a foot marked with faint red lines from the tight weave.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“This is not drama,”[/color][color=#808080] she said. [/color][color=#a34261]“This is adaptation.”[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“And where does one draw the line for you?”[/color]

[color=#a34261]“In drama, you suffer for effect,”[/color][color=#808080] she explained, straightening briefly to look at him.[/color][color=#a34261] “In adaptation, you suffer for survival.”[/color][color=#808080] Her mouth quirked. [/color][color=#a34261]“I much prefer the latter.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Without further discussion, she raised her bare foot and lowered it into the current. The cold was an immediate, biting agony. It lanced up her leg and locked her joints, forcing a silent intake of breath. Her eyes flew open wide.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“…by the burning suns,” [/color][color=#808080]she whispered, voice strangled and thin. [/color][color=#a34261]“That is not water. That is liquid winter.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan stifled a laugh.[/color][color=#2f5e58] “Winter is not a liquid.”[/color]

[color=#a34261]“It is here,” [/color][color=#808080]she insisted, her fingers clamping onto his sleeve. Small, frantic waves radiated from where her foot breached the surface, betraying the tremor she was otherwise suppressing. [/color][color=#a34261]“It freezes the very marrow.”[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“And yet the local youth appear to thrive in it,” [/color][color=#808080]Raelan observed, nodding toward a burly man farther out who was cheerfully tossing a shrieking child into a deeper pool amid shouts of encouragement. [/color][color=#2f5e58]“With, it seems, great enthusiasm.”[/color]

[color=#a34261]“They are accustomed to it,” [/color][color=#808080]Saphira observed, her attention lingering on the splashing figures. Or perhaps, Raelan noted, her attention had settled more specifically. He followed her line of sight back to the man with the child, observing his easy strength and uninhibited laughter. Raelan looked away before his study became obvious, gently steering his sister’s focus with a chastising comment about the impropriety of such fixed attention.[/color]

[color=#808080]Another small wavelet crept higher around Saphira’s foot. This time, she did not flinch, though a telltale rigidity touched the line of her jaw. She exhaled, long and slow, letting her shoulders ease by a fraction. The Weave muttered around her, its current licking at skin that had only ever known desert wells and oases.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“This place venerates its river,” [/color][color=#808080]she murmured, her voice introspective. [/color][color=#a34261]“They build their lives upon it. The Weave, the Bay… I’d wager every other landmark borrows its name. If we are to find our place within these stone walls, I would prefer to know what binds them.”[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“The water,” [/color][color=#808080]Raelan supplied.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“The water,” [/color][color=#808080]she agreed.[/color][color=#a34261] “And the collective trust of the people who live by its grace.”[/color]

[color=#808080]With deliberate care, as if negotiating with a living thing, she withdrew her foot and placed it back upon the sun-warmed stone. She tended to her stocking and boot with the same fastidious attention she gave her jewels. When she rose, any sign of discomfort had been schooled into complete neutrality. To any observer, she might as well have been a traveller pausing to appreciate the view.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“Let me be perfectly clear before our return,”[/color][color=#808080] Saphira said in a confidential tone, her gaze lifting to the fortress looming above the town, [/color][color=#a34261]“this little interlude never occurred.”[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“What interlude would that be?” [/color][color=#808080]Raelan played along.[/color]

[color=#a34261]“A moment of weakness,” [/color][color=#808080]she replied crisply. Then, after a heartbeat, she conceded, [/color][color=#a34261]“And a moment of information.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan inclined his head, accepting the compromise. [/color][color=#2f5e58]“I will remember the latter and forget the former then.”[/color]

[color=#a34261]“And[/color][color=#a34261][i] that[/i][/color][color=#a34261],”[/color][color=#808080] Saphira said, looping her arm through his once more as they turned back toward the quay where the rest of the family now waited, [/color][color=#a34261]“is why Father sent you.”[/color]

[color=#808080]Raelan’s mind drifted back to the oppressive cliffs of the Vise, to stone that threatened to entomb and water that could both give life and snuff it out. He considered his sister’s act of testing the very element that had been her tormentor, and her unwavering resolve to confront a land so foreign it seemed designed to repel their very nature.[/color]

[color=#2f5e58]“No,” [/color][color=#808080]Raelan corrected, his voice soft yet firm. [/color][color=#2f5e58]“That is precisely why he sent [i]us[/i].”[/color][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/9qIY4OK.jpeg[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/9qIY4OK.jpeg[/img][sub][color=9b9b9b][b][i]Location: The Docks (Present Day)  
Interactions: [color=#ffffff]Calis[/color], [color=#a34261]Saphira[/color] 
Mentions: [color=#C97A2B]Kaelan[/color], [color=#42557d]Declan[/color], [color=#b5c7eb]Lei[/color] [/i][/b][/color]
[color=#2f5e58][b]#2f5e58[/b][/color][color=2e2c2c]...[/color]|[color=2e2c2c]...[/color][url=https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2f/49/af/2f49afca41964fbbe090840236585b32.jpg][color=9b9b9b][b]outfit[/b][/color][/url][/sub][/center]