1013. Eudaimonia, 7
(Selya)
We’ve reached the cliff sides overlooking the sea, a while back already.
I pull my line and the fish I caught. It’s a big one. Yummy.
Our journey is in a kind of a halt. We’re looking for a boat we could use, to sail across this sea. The old world’s crumbling ruins and cities still hold many. Some not sunk or washed ashore yet. We would eventually find something around here.
So we took the time searching, and possibly then repairing. A little like last time upstream.
Although now I too can help and even cook sometimes.
My head feels more clear and calm than it’s ever been.
Even though when I close my eyes, I can connect to the other sea of lights. It’s as easy as flipping a swith to me nearly.
I prepared the fish into filets for later.
The weather is nice. I like feeling the wind against my face.
I take a nap by the room with the best sight overlooking the city and sea, windows wide open.
I shut my eyes and I wander. My body is still, my soul travels gently in my flow of T.I.
I don’t collapse. I feel steady enough, not to fear the void inside all things.
I check as if pulling gently onto invisible lines how things are doing.
The endless line connecting me to Melenna is fine. She’s sleeping peacefully as she should be. The source is calm and steady.
Long and far, far away beyond the lenticular distortion of the source’s horizon of events, the lord of nightmares is still okay.
I can feel the distance growing steadily, but I can’t estimate it anymore, nor how much it accelerates. Her pull of power is as gently and steady as ever. I never a heard a word from her ever since.
And not so far away, I detect the occasional tremors of existence from the identities that shine, which I can recognise.
Nokarlık in her kingdom out there most likely. She doesn’t shine the same nor much, but now I know a little better. And Rose somewhere far in the orient, more easily recognizable.
And Temee a blink away from me.
I brush her hair as she walks. I see her shape stopping. She felt something and looks around. I focus a little more and I whisper closer to her ear.
S - Lunch will be ready when you arrive.
T - Uh... Okay.
I didn’t hear her, she’s miles away. But I read the reply from her thoughts.
I pull back my awareness mostly back to my body. I have a last glance or two toward the southern sun before I return fully.
I shiver.
It’s mostly obscured by the volume and shape of the Earth itself, so it’s looking through all the crust, mantle and outer core. I have a glance at something hidden behind most of the world, but still a little detectable in this other domain of space.
The other eye... It’s abstract, and very far. But eventually we will need to have a look and get closer.
Something like a severed Tamźródlo apparently lies wide open in Antarctica, leaving the continent most likely worse than the rest of the world. Bathed in too bright a flux for anything to survive. Well, maybe.
All I really saw is the eclipsed glow and its corona. It always is there and noticeable when you look closely in that general direction. I don’t know more yet, and that is a question for a later day.
I painfully learnt not to get lost in the abyss of the source I’m meant to protect. It wasn’t to rush into investigating the other one and what it might be. But like the sun always shine, even when it’s hidden behind the volume of the planet, this is the same. The southern sun, albeit hidden on this hemisphere, always shine as well.
I wake up. I open my eyes to the room I was in, and I can forget this again.
I stretch. I sigh, and I smile.
Outside, I gaze at the road from which Temee will appear in an hour or so. Plenty of time to work. I stretch my fingers and gather what I have available to do more magic into the kitchen.
~
Temee returns from her investigation on her side. She can wash her hands and sit right away. It’s late lunch time. I kept it light since she usually eats more at dawn and dusk than this afternoon time.
I eat. I enjoy the sensations as usual. Temee looks happy too, munching slowly on her salad, and eventually giggles. I look at her. What made her laugh?
T - You’re doing it again.
I check my reflection in a mirror beside me. Colourful glows are silently bubbling and sparkling around my head. That’s what happens when I think a lot or feel emotional sometimes.
I refocus myself. All the weird lights vanish instantly.
I look apologetic but Temee is amused and repeats I shouldn’t be.
T - If anything, that’s the cutest side-effect of T.I. I’ve ever seen.
She likes it when I look like a fairy.
I open my hand on the table and focus.
Flows like warmth rise, and I manipulate them freely. What happens occasionally when I don’t focus, now I do willingly. I make glows pop and flow around, like something of colourful smokes and slow fireworks. It’s flowery shapes that expand and scatter.
Maybe it’s not as charming when it’s done voluntarily, but she still likes the lights show.
Little arborescent shapes are flowering in shifting colours above the table as if a bouquet was growing quietly.
T - You’re getting better at this.
S - I feel so too. I’m learning. It’s funny how there’s always apparently room to grow, isn’t it?
She nods a little sideways. It’s easy to remind her of moments of her life she painfully had to cope and survive.
The show of whimsical glows ends. She relaxes.
T - Anyway, I might have found one. Almost ready to sail.
S - Really?
I jumped.
T - Yes. It’s on a fishing pier that was likely used even after the fall for a while. It wasn’t abandoned for so long.
I can’t wait. It shows.
T - You want us to go check it today?
S - Yes!
I want to sail like she did. I want to know. And I want to go faster into my journey across the world with Temee.
I want to see more places. I want...
I refocus. Temee bursts out in sudden laughter. I’m embarrassed.
T - I can’t read these things like you do, but you sure wear your mood openly!
She’s laughing a lot. I’m feeling my face getting flushed in embarrassment. It’s warm. It itches and tickles.
You... You!
I think more. Too much. I don’t want to overdo anything.
Ah this is so frustrating!
S - Grah!
I just roared or growled. I’m a mixture of shy, shared amusement, confusion and frustration.
Temee stood up and ruffles my hair kindly. She wipes her eyes from the amusement and holds herself tall.
T - Alright. Let’s pack up and we can go. We’ll be able to reach it before the night if we walk fast.
I agree, and thus we do.
~
Bags. Fishing lines. Better shoes found around. We hop on bikes we had also found in the city. For the relatively clear roads, and the slope going down from here, it’s good fun.
I like the speed and feeling the wind by my ears. It tastes sweeter in my mouth too when I breathe.
We abandon the bicycles when they’re no longer practical. We enter the city side that was partially collapsed into the sea. This harsh Cliffside has some path downs toward the reefs and open waters.
A few piers have been built down below, they are visible. People who survived lived around here. This city had no shades for us neither when we arrived despite its size.
Now they’re gone, but we thank them for what they left behind.
Nightfall catches up with us before we reach the place Temee had found, so we end up lighting torches. The air turns cold, but we don’t mind.
I cling a little to her. Not too much.
We reach not the boat, but the house from the likely previous and last owner.
There’s electricity inside and the lights work. A collection of batteries and solar panels most likely?
I discover a house that reminds me of Mirabella.
Cosy. Full. Filled with tools and stuff, orderly and rather clean.
The mood is very humane and warm.
Only one ben in the room though. The person who used to live here might have been alone.
I jump on my chosen side. Temee hesitates to sleep beside or elsewhere.
S - Come on, I don’t fart too much.
She makes an embarrassed smile and eventually comes to sleep on the other half.
I’m eager to see the boat tomorrow; but for now I close my eyes, and begin to fall asleep while stargazing outside.
~
