Mcmolly

In Search of Gaea: A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

S o l i a

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Windward Island
Port Harbor, The Sunken Shephard
@SunsetWanderer

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Solia considered the rest of the tavern as Evander asked his questions. With Bron’s speech concluded, many of the diver patrons seemed to be dispersing from the pavilion, and regathering in a march towards the docks. She waited just a few moments longer before rising herself, and letting Evander take the lead onward—partially for the slowness of her steps. Even still, it was a few moments more before she’d answer, an awkwardness that did not escape her, but was all the same unavoidable.

What could she say to him? Could she bare to this stranger the true reason for her arrival here? Admit to him that the tides had washed her ashore as thoughtlessly as driftwood? No, certainly not, but all the same it seemed unfair to mislead him.

’It isn’t the time.’ She assured herself. ’That is all.’

When she did break her silence, it was with a glance to either side. Her voice was quiet, and again she measured her words carefully.

“I believe…fate, could be thanked, in part. Fate, and the wind.”

She might have left it there, had she not immediately doubted the answer anyway. It donned on her then that no one had ever asked her why she helped people. In fact she doubted any angel or golem had been asked such a question before. No one asked ships why they sailed, nor fish why they swam, or the sun why it set. They simply did. It was nature.

That did not seem to her like a satisfactory answer either, though.

“The wind…” she began again, less tempered and more recovering. “Carries sound quite…naturally. And I believe no sound carries as swiftly or as potently as desperation. I suppose you could say I am attuned to it. I heard Windward Island’s call. I answered.”

Sufficient, perhaps, though she dared not dwell on it much longer, lest this answer became incomprehensible to her as well. She opted instead to hurry past it.

“But you—“ she went on. “A former diver, now helming the ship of a…conman, you mentioned? I find myself caught between wondering why you’ve been above the waves for so long, and what drives a northlander to be as far away from his home waters as Mother Ocean can possibly allow. You seem eager enough to dive again, so I don’t imagine you’ve any lack for skill or nerve. It is a curious thing—”

She stopped herself, realizing her eyes had turned back to the ground in contemplation of her own questions. She felt silly.

“I’m sorry, I believe I might have begun to ramble. I don’t mean to overstep with my questions. Especially after you…” She drifted, recalling that, when people were lost for direction as she was, they often coughed, or grunted. She could perhaps mimic these sounds, but without lungs they would likely have fallen flat. “After your own…generous questions.

In Search of Gaea: A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

I must have spoiled the crucial boat character that comes in later.

In Search of Gaea: A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

I think he means: “someone who looks like a ship.”

Boat OC when.

In Search of Gaea: A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

S o l i a

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Windward Island
Port Harbor, The Sunken Shephard
@SunsetWanderer

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Solia was not sure when the silent accord had been struck between them, if it had, but the gratefulness she felt for Evander’s reaction was only cemented further as he went on considering their strategy. He had, in a rather singular manner by her experience, deduced and accepted her nature at once. It was a remarkably kind gesture for a stranger, and one she hoped could be repaid with the potential rewards before them.

Her gratitude compelled her to insist on his preference for their approach, but reason reigned her in. There was in fact much for her to consider now, between the two options.

She’d seen Gullspire on her way in—a monolith in its own right, but she had spent decades traversing a spire many times its height. Not so long ago she would have leapt at the opportunity to scale Gullspire on aether wings. It would have been simple, quick. Now, however, she doubted her engine could manage to get her even a fraction of the way up, assuming she could even get off of the ground. She was not necessarily opposed to climbing, she could still climb the rock, given tools sturdy enough to support her. What concerned her was falling. With how heavy she was, reacting quick enough to any sudden problems was unlikely, and if she did fall, her body posed a terrible danger to any below her, and of course the ship itself. Supposing she took the time to separate herself from the group and climb away from the ship, they gained safety at the expense of time, and they might as well climb without her then anyway.

Despite all of this, the other option, somehow, appealed to her even less. As if in insult to Aruth’s nature, Father had designed his children to inhabit the skies, and not the oceans. True, they had plunged themselves beneath the waves to rescue sinking crews and precious cargo, and Solia could recall a sister who herself had come to prefer the water, but these were exceptions to a rule: Maelstrom’s angels belonged in the air.

And this, Solia knew, was simply an excuse. Any other time, she would have thrown herself into the sea without even a moment’s hesitation if called to do so. She could walk the bed of the ocean for days, or weeks. She had done just that when Maelstrom fell, drudged through reef and weed under the crushing silence of Mother Ocean’s forgotten depths. In a dark which drowned the light before it reached her.

Before father, when aether golems and angels were tied to their creator’s lives, the angels who passed on were buried in the deep, at the base of the island which was the Spire’s base. Solia had never seen it before she’d been cast down there. What is it that could rest at the base of Gullspire? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

But then she considered Evander, as she ought to have instead, anyway. He claimed not to have been on a dive in years, but he had experience with it. She wasn’t sure if he had any climbing, but her cursory knowledge of the Frozen Sea had her doubting there were many structures like Gullspire to practice on.

“As it stands,” she said, finally. “I...sink, much more reliably than I scale rock. It would be simplest, and I think safest for everyone if I were in the water instead. Of course I won’t impose a decision on you. If you find yourself more comfortable in a climbing harness than a diving suit as of late, I will readily accompany you in the climb.”

In Search of Gaea: A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

S o l i a

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Windward Island
Port Harbor, The Sunken Shephard
@SunsetWanderer@DruSM157

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Evander’s reaction was expected, albeit quite thankfully muted. She thought the grip lasted longer than necessary, but that was understandable. She pulled hers back first to lay back in her lap.

Silence. For a moment Solia thought all might actually be well. Then the dreaded question came. She couldn’t blame him, in fact to expect nothing from the inquisitive minds of people, in retrospect, seemed cruel. It was their want to know, and their right.

A man interrupted him, and Solia might have prayed thanks to Mother Ocean. He was mountainous in height, casting a shadow over their table that Solia welcomed. He seemed vexed, angry even, and it was a difficult impulse to reign in not asking him if he was alright. The fact that his outburst with the table of children had easily reached Evander and herself made it a bit easier. Clearly he had some connection with the fleeing boy, maybe as a mentor, maybe even familial. Regardless, it grieved her to see this man, whom she understood to be Chief Talu himself, berate the boy.

Nonetheless, he posed them questions, and she felt again that winding discomfort in preparing to answer.

And then Evander answered for her.

She’d lowered her head already, but tried to spy him from beneath her hood anyway. He didn’t seem upset, or afraid. Perhaps a bit quickened having to interject for her, but otherwise…

Solia nodded along with Evander’s answer, but readily took the opportunity to say nothing.

In Search of Gaea: A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

Alright so clearly this must be the part where Terhikki tries to tackle Talu.

In Search of Gaea: A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

S o l i a

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Windward Island
Port Harbor, The Sunken Shephard
@SunsetWanderer

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Father had a word for this—for when things went wrong. He’d muttered it in the workshop, almost every day, he’d whispered it in indignation when he’d chiseled an unintended flaw into his creations. He’d shouted it once, to her knowledge, when he stubbed his toe.

Damn.

Solia heavily considered doing nothing. Then she considered smiling again, and hoping that would suffice, but even she knew such an odd gesture would only facilitate further intrigue. In a game of social constructs, she was woefully outmatched, and intended or not, Evander had cornered her with a masterstroke.

She nodded, and shook his hand gently. “Partner.”

Throughout their conversation she hadn’t considered that it might have been construed as rude for her to have kept her head bowed away from him. It didn’t matter now, though, because as soon as their hands met she raised it.

Evander had hard eyes. Fantasy of the north had led her to expect blue, or white, or some thin color that could pierce the look of another. Instead they were earthen, and no less for it. Rather than pierce, they might have just as easily crushed, and buried. Solia felt for an instant like she was looking into the eyes of an enemy, that their battle could be won right here, right now, in a clash of gazes. Quickly, she realized better than that, but once again that nervous, inner shudder rocked through her.

She didn't know what he might learn from this contact. Simpler men had assumed her grip clammy and cold and dismissed it there, but those with keener senses knew flesh when they felt it, and when they didn't. It seemed a fair bet Evander would fall into the latter category.

She tried to plead with her eyes what she couldn’t speak aloud.

In Search of Gaea: A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

No happier paupers in the seven seas! @Fading Memory

In Search of Gaea: A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

S o l i a

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Windward Island
Port Harbor, The Sunken Shephard
@SunsetWanderer

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Solia had spent her life under scrutinous eyes—the eyes of Maelstrom’s people, the eyes of her siblings. The eyes of her father. She had weathered them proudly for decades, preened under the compliment of inspection. And yet now, and for weeks past, the eyes of strangers unsettled her. Stone was not given to quaking easily, though, and even for the disquiet within she endured Evander’s prying with utter stillness. Let him see, then. Let him know.

If indeed he had, and did, he said nothing of it. His reaction was entirely inscrutable to her, and though she was not yet fully accustomed to analyzing the full range of people's emotions, she was quite sure he was simply...tough to read. What he did offer brought her no less discomfort though—the truth. Her warm smile, having survived those tenser moments, withered then.
“You are right, it is not often. And what a terrible thing,” she said softly. Her stalwart softness returned. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Evander. My name is Solia.”

Content though she was that he had not gleaned her true nature, she did not offer her hand as she knew was customary in friendly greetings. She knew well enough to temper herself and not crush another’s hand, but others had remarked before how distinct the angel’s flesh felt. Not quite stone, yet far from flesh. Wholey unnatural.

“Indeed, I doubt the waves will be gentle with us. Though from what I’ve been told, you from the Frozen Sea are no strangers to harshness.”

A moment, if that, passed before she realized that perhaps she had conveyed that wrongly.

“Pardon. What I mean…” she stumbled, slightly. “Is that I’m sure you’ll have endured worse weather in your time. Might we have an agreement?”

In Search of Gaea: A Seafaring Fantasy Adventure

S o l i a

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Windward Island
Port Harbor, The Sunken Shephard
@SunsetWanderer

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Solia followed the flick of Evander’s eyes, to the boisterous table not further in, and found herself smiling again. These too were children, older than the ones at the docks hoisted on their parents shoulders, but clearly no less excitable.

She lingered still, perhaps too long, on the Imperial girl. The group had clearly gathered to her. Unsurprising, few though they were, the Imperials that had visited Maelstrom Spire garnered no shortage of company. She wondered if, as with then, these children had come to her in hopes of currying favor with the Empire. If so, she wished them luck. It had not worked for her home, but it may for Windward Island.

Another question from Evander drew her back. This one she could answer just as readily.

“Certainly. These people are troubled, it would appear direly so. It is nice to see such a volume of volunteers, I can only hope it will be enough.”

She thought again of the children at their table, bragging their names and lineage and hopes for glory. It troubled her in no small measure that they too planned on making their way to Gullspire. Whatever awaited them there, she doubted it would be handled easily.

“If this forwardness is inappropriate, please forgive me,” she said, pulling her attention back to Evander. “But if you have come here so that your captain may trade, perhaps you might consider lending your own hand to this expedition. You seem experienced, capable. Windward Island could doubtlessly utilize your talents.”

She remembered then that, as often as she’d seen selfless acts among people, it was fair to expect payment for work done.

“If the reward troubles you, you should know I have no intentions of collecting on it myself. I’d gladly donate my share, should there be one, and any artifacts the chief has so generously allowed the divers to keep, in exchange for your time.”