There is a river.
It is a wide river, and deep, but not a violent one, not here. There is a single island in the center, with the water running placidly past its shores. On either bank, sparse trees hold the banks from crumbling in.
It is early morning. A single bird sounds its call. All is peaceful.
In the shallows near the island, some of the water stops moving, and more and more of it does so until over the course of about half a minute there is a person there instead of water. She's surrounded by placid little wobbles of it, and she's got wings of it, but she looks just like a local human, amethyst hair and ivory skin with faint lavender streaks up her arms and legs. She sits up out of the water and takes a breath and smiles at the world.
A woman with dark green hair, light blue skin and a distinctly rounded abdomen wakes up on the island, sees her, and breaks the peace by screaming.
...Water blinks at her. Rubs her ear.
She ducks out of sight.
...huh. Okay. Water stretches out her wings and ducks underwater and looks around.
The water is clear and has fish and water plants.
The woman peers out from behind her hiding place.
Water comes up for a breath and looks at her.
"Who are you? How did you find me?"
"I'm Water. I didn't find you," says Water.
"Then why are you here?"
"I haven't left yet."
"...But why did you come here."
"I didn't."
"You were not here. Then you were. What changed."
"I existed!"
"What are you?"
"Water."
"I'm a water spirit. You're not."
"I'm an elemental."
"What's an elemental?"
"Like me."
"Are elementals magicians?"
"I don't think so."
"Alright, then. Do you have a name, besides the kind of elemental that you are?"
"No."
"Do you want one?"
"Not really."
"Huh. Okay."
Smile.
"So what do you think of my river?"
"Is that this one?"
"Yeah."
"I love it!"
"Good! It's a good river."
"It is full of moving water."
"Rivers generally are."
"Oh good!"
"Some of them have more or less, or have it moving faster or slower."
Nod, nod.
She reaches into the water, picks a piece of seaweed, and holds it up. "Sometimes rivers have plants growing in them. This kind is edible." She eats it.
Water picks some and tastes it.
It tastes like seaweed.
"Yum!"
"You can eat fish, too. They taste better cooked, though."
"Why?"
"I think it's because our tongues mostly work like humans' and they can get hurt if they eat animals raw."
"What's a human?"
"...They're...like us, but they can do less things. Well. Like spirits, I don't know about elementals."
"Oh."
"They have to stay physical all the time and most of them can't do magic. You look like the kind that can."
"I can do magic. I think I have to stay physical all the time."
"Oh, that's inconvenient. People who are physical have to eat and sleep."
"I think I don't have to. But I like eating. Maybe I like sleeping." Seaweed nom.
"It's convenient if you don't have to. Spirits don't die of it, I don't think, but it gets really unpleasant if we don't. Sleep can be fun, it's just annoying to have to. You're pretty different from spirits and humans both."
"Okay."
"It's annoying. I have to stay physical for I think another three months."
"Why?"
She gestures at her stomach. "I'm pregnant. If I stop being physical the baby dies."
"Oh! But later you won't be pregnant?"
"Yeah, pregnancy lasts nine months."
Nod, nod. "Why are you pregnant?"
"...Because the kind of human who can do magic are often not very nice."
"And one of them made you be pregnant?"
"Yeah. I got away now, so I could stop, but--I don't want to kill the baby."
Nod.
"Magicians kidnap spirits to use our magic. Sometimes they do other stuff to us too."
"Oh." Water frowns. "What do they want magic for?"
"They can use it to do things they want to do. My baby is going to be a magician but I'm going to raise her better than to kidnap people."
"It's a girl baby?"
"Yeah." She pokes her stomach. "There's water in there, between me and her, and I'm a water spirit, so I can--feel the shape--she displaces in it."
Water squints, then nods.
She beams. "Humans and spirits both start as babies. I guess elementals don't, if you just started and you aren't."
"I'm not!" agrees Water. "And I did just start."
"I'm sure you would have been a very cute baby if you were," she assures her.
Water giggles.
She giggles too.
"My name's Mileda, by the way."
"Hi Mileda!"
"Hi! I'm glad you started here, I like you."
"I like you too!"
"I'm glad."
Water flips her hair and giggles.
She smiles.
"Do you know if you like any things besides me and water?"
"I like seaweed!"
"Seaweed is good! Do you want to see if you like fish?"
"Yeah!"
A quasi-spherical blob of water rises into the air, containing three fish. She grabs them out of the water, which reshapes itself into a blade and slits their throats with it, then starts peeling the skin off and the inedible viscera out.
Water supervises in fascination.
She swims to the far shore, fishbubble following her, and gets some sticks from the trees and starts a fire, then spears the edible fish-bits over it.
Water flies over and lands and reaches for the fire and pulls back with a soft "eep".
"Oh, yeah, fire hurts if you touch it."
Solemn nod. "Does it hurt the fish?"
"...The fish are dead."
"Yes."
"The fire will turn raw fish into cooked fish. If you put your hand in the fire it will cook your hand, and then it will stop being alive. The fish are already dead so it's okay for them to be cooked."
"Okay, that makes sense."
"If I cooked my hand then when I stopped being physical and started again the new hand wouldn't be cooked, but it would still be painful before I fixed it."
"I can't do that thing at all. I'd better not cook my hands."
"I can probably heal you if you do but it's still better not to."
"Yes."
She checks on the fish. They are not done yet. She turns them over so they cook evenly.
Water watches and puts her halo away. Except for the wings she looks quite human like that. Also naked, not that a film of water was doing much.
"What's the difference between when you do and don't have that thing up?"
"My halo? When it's up then there's water around me and when it's not there isn't."
"Halo?"
"It's called a halo."
"Huh. Do you know if elementals of things other than water have them?"
"I think elementals have halos."
"What other kinds of elementals are there?"
"I don't know."
"Okay." She checks on the fish again. They are cooked. She puts out the fire. "Don't touch these for a little while, they're going to be painfully hot to start with."
"Okay."
She waits a little longer, touches one, and says, "Okay, now they're safe."
Water picks one up and takes a bite. "Fish! Is good!"
"I know."
Om nom nom nom fish.
Om nom fish!
"Do you want to see something secret?" she asks, once the fish has all been nommed.
"Ooh, secret? From who?"
"Well, it's secret from magicians, and it's secret from other spirits, and it's secret from other humans because they'd tell magicians, but if you won't tell then it doesn't need to be secret from you."
"Okay, I won't tell any of those people."
"When I got away from the baby's father, I stole books. They're a secret from magicians because they'd steal them back and hurt me for taking them, and they're a secret from other spirits because it's bad enough I'm making there be another magician in the world without teaching her from their books of magic. It's not just books of magic, though, there's stories and stuff too."
"I won't tell," repeats Water.
"Thank you. Do you know how to read? Do you want to see them?"
"I do know how to read! I would like to."
"Okay!"
She leads her to a small clearing a little ways away in the woods, and pulls a mat of woven plant matter off a hole in the ground. In the hole is a box, and in the box there are books.
Water pulls out a random book and opens it.
This book is about magic theory!
Water reads it!
All magic ultimately derives from spirits! Magicians are humans who are descended from spirits. Spirits come in different kinds, each associated with a natural phenomenon, ranging from broad categories like "water" to narrow ones like specific plants. Magicians have magical power derived from each phenomenon they have a spirit ancestor of; the more spirit blood they have for a category, the more of its power they have. Magicians use magic by defining an effect they want and then binding it to one or more phenomena to power it. The more the phenomenon or combination of phenomena suits the spell, and the more carefully the magician does their own detail work in defining the effect, the less power the spell requires. Magicians who don't have enough power to fuel a spell they want can bind spirits and steal their power for fuel (the pages actually describing how to do this have been torn out).
"This book is ripped."
"Where?"
"Here."
"Oh. There. Yes. I took those pages out."
"Oh." She reads on.
There follows a great deal of discussion on what power sources are suitable for what effects and how.
What kind of effects?
Healing, wards, various combat applications, cleaning a fouled water source, increasing crop yields, repelling various subsets of wild animal, attracting various subsets of wild animal, miscellaneous matter manipulation...
Gosh. Water sits there and reads the entire book, then puts it back.
"Do you want to read one with stories next?"
"Sure!"
She finds one that has stories and hands it to her.
Water reads that one.
It is a book of short stories about the coming-of-age of the youngest daughter of a pair of farmers.
Water has to ask a lot of questions about this. For example, she does not know what a farmer is.
"Farmers are humans who grow food for other humans."
"Why do they do that?"
"Because humans need to eat food to survive, and it's more efficient if some humans grow a lot of food so the rest of them can do other things."
"Oh." Read read.
The book mentions people who are not farmers! There is the weaver, who buys the wool from their sheep; there is the cobbler, from whom on one occasion shoes are purchased for one of the protagonist's brothers; there is the baker, there is the smith, there is the midwife...
Water keeps asking about things she does not know.
Mileda usually knows the answers!
Useful! Eventually she finishes the book.
"Do you want to read another or should I put them away?"
"I think I want to sleep now and see if I like it."
"Okay." She starts putting the books away. "There's a good spot to sleep on the island, wanna see?"
"What makes somewhere good to sleep?"
"It's comfortable to lie down on and out of view so people don't bother you while you're trying to sleep and it's shaded so you can sleep there even when it's day."
"I would like to see."
She finishes putting the books away and goes back to the river and swims to the island.
Swim swim swim.
She shows her the spot. It's a small dip in the earth, covered in moss and under the shade of a broad-leaved tree, just large enough for one adult to comfortably lie down in.
"This is a good place!" agrees Water, and she curls up in it.
Mileda smiles at her and then swims back out of the river and goes foraging.
Water naps, then sits up and peers at plants.
There are a variety of plants!
This will keep her occupied for a long while. She tastes one of the plants.
It is not especially tasty.
Oh well. Wander wander peer peer.
Mileda comes back with two seaweed-wrapped bundles.
"Hi! I think I will sleep sometimes."
"Okay. I brought food, if you want to eat again."
"I tasted a different plant but seaweed is better." She takes a package and bites it.
The package is seaweed-wrapped fish stuffed with a variety of edible forest plants like wild garlic and ground acorns.
"Oh there's not-seaweed in it! This is so tasty!"
"Thanks!"
"You're welcome! ...what did I do?"
"You complimented my cooking."
"Oh. I did do that." Nom nom nom.
Nom. "I've never cooked for anyone but myself before."
"Yes you have," Water says, pointing at the food. "...unless you made this in the future. Can you do that?"
"I mean before today," she clarified. "You're the first not-me person I've cooked for."
"Oh! Well, you are the first person who has cooked anything for me."
"I'm the only person you've met!"
"That too!"
"People don't come here much. If you want to meet any people who are not me you'll have to go to other places or wait three months."
"...in three months I can meet the baby," surmises Water.
"That's right!"
Water giggles. "I like it here! I might fly around but I will probably come back."
"That makes sense. I would leave sometimes if being found weren't dangerous."
"What would happen to you?"
"Another magician could catch me and they'd take my baby away. Or another spirit could decide to kill the baby so there would be one less magician in the world."
"What would magicians do with her?"
"Raise her to think she shouldn't love me and kidnapping spirits is okay."
"Why?"
"Because most magicians seem to either not know or not care that spirits are people. They think of us as--animate forces of nature."
"...and magicians are not supposed to love those?"
"Magicians are--if a magician captured an elemental and decided they loved it as they would a pet, that would be alright. They'd teach her she shouldn't love me as her mother, because mothers are people."
"What's a pet?"
"A pet is an animal that a human keeps for company."
"If I kept an animal for company what would it be?"
"Oh, it would still be a pet, it's just it's mostly humans who keep animals for company, that's why I said it like that."
"Oh. Are animals good company?"
"I guess they must be. The magician who captured me didn't have a pet."
"How did you get away?"
"I convinced him I wasn't going to try to escape so he wouldn't be as careful about making sure I couldn't."
"But then you did escape."
"Yeah."
"When was that?"
"It was four months ago."
"Nobody has found you, I guess you picked a good place to hide."
"We-ell...nobody knows to look for me. The only one who knew he had me was him, and...I didn't really leave him in a condition to follow."
Water finishes her food. "What do you mean?"
"He tried to stop me. I hurt him. Badly. I don't know if he's still alive or not."
"Oh."
She shrugs uncomfortably.
"If he's alive, the book said magicians can heal."
"Yeah. I don't know if he has enough power to heal himself, though, without me."
"And if he's dead he can't do anything."
"Yeah."
"You look upset."
"...I don't like thinking about him very much."
"Oh."
"He was very not nice to me."
Nod.
Shrug.
"Anyway. I don't think I'll ever see him again, and that's what matters."
Nod nod. "Do other spirits never run away with their babies and raise them to be nice?"
"Mostly when magicians make spirits have babies with them it's woman magicians and man spirits. It's a lot easier to make a spirit have sex with you, and then gestate the baby yourself, than to make a spirit have sex with you and then stay corporeal for the next nine months."
"Oh."
"I don't think I'm literally the only one who's ever done this, but if it happens it's pretty rare."
"Will other spirits always want to kill her?"
"When she's an adult they'll be more likely to run than to want to kill her. And the fact that she hasn't hurt me will give her more--credibility."
Headtilt.
"When she's small she couldn't do anything to me even if she wanted to, so if I say she wouldn't hurt anyone I don't have any evidence to back it up."
"And spirits will think she would hurt you when she grows up?"
"Yeah."
"But they're wrong?"
"It's--less that they think she definitely will as that they think it's not worth the risk. And I disagree."
"Why?"
"Why do they think that or why do I disagree?"
"Both."
"They think that because magicians raised by other magicians pretty much always kidnap spirits, and it can get really really bad. I disagree because she's my baby."
"Why does that make it different?"
"Because I love her."
"And that makes it so she won't hurt anyone?"
"It means I won't hurt her because she might hurt someone."
"Oh."
"Besides, the other magicians are raised by other magicians. I really do think she'll be fine."
"How did magicians start to be like that?"
"I don't know. It was a very long time ago, and I didn't exist yet."
"Neither did I!"
"You did not! I'm older than you, though."
"Yes. Am I older than the baby?"
"Yeah."
"Even though I started existing yesterday, and she was already there?"
"She exists, but she hasn't been born yet. Babies' ages are usually counted from when they're born, not when they're conceived."
"Oh."
"That's how it mostly works for people who start as babies."
"Did you?"
"Yeah. Spirits make babies differently when the baby's going to be a spirit too but we still start as babies."
"Differently how?"
"Human babies happen when a man and a woman have a certain kind of sex, and then the woman carries the unborn baby for nine months. Spirit babies happen when two or more spirits incorporeally commingle in a certain way, and then they sort of jointly carry the baby for about a month before it's ready to separate."
"They have to go around together?"
"They mostly stay in one place. I'm told it's a very strange experience."
"Why do they do it?"
"Because they want a child?"
"Why do they want that?"
"Some people find raising children very rewarding."
"What happens if they try it and they are not those people?"
"...People can usually guess ahead of time if they will be. But that does happen occasionally. It doesn't usually go very well for the kid."
"Oh."
"It usually doesn't happen."
Nod. "Do you think you will find having a baby rewarding?"
"Yes. If I didn't I wouldn't have kept her."
Nod.
"I already love her. I don't think I'm likely to stop."
"Is that why it is rewarding?"
"Mhm."
"Okay!"
"Babies are also really really cute."
"Oooh."
"You seem to have started knowing a lot of things, do you know what babies look like?"
"No. I might recognize one if I saw one."
"Okay. Pity I can't do illusions. If you leave you might see a baby somewhere."
"I might!"
"They are very small."
"How small?"
She raises a blob of water out of the river the approximate size of a baby.
"That's pretty small but it's not the smallest thing."
"That's true."
"They don't stay that size, right?"
Giggle. "No, they get bigger."
"How?"
"...They...grow? I'm not sure exactly what the mechanics are. It's very slow, you can't see it happening just by looking at them for a little while."
"Ooh."
"If you stay here most of the time you will get to see it."
"That sounds fun."
"I think so!"
"I will probably be here most of the time."
"I'm glad. It's nice to have company."
"And I won't kill your baby!" nods Water.
"That is an important feature of company!"
"Is anyone else going to be here?"
"Besides you and me and the baby? Probably not for a while. Unless another elemental starts nearby, I guess."
"I wonder if that is likely."
"I have no idea. I think it would be nice to meet more elementals, then I could learn more things about you."
Nod nod.
"I'd never heard of elementals before I met you. It wouldn't surprise me if you're rare."
"Maybe! I don't know."
"And there was nothing about you in any of the magician's books..."
"There wasn't? I didn't read them all."
"He had other books besides the ones I managed to steal."
"And you read them all?"
"Well, maybe not all of them. Most, though."
Nod.
"I want to know more but it's not safe to talk to most people, it's annoying," she sighs.
"I could go talk to people."
"True."
"Maybe I should do that."
"Maybe. It would be slightly a pity to wait three months to meet another person."
"Would it?"
"Well, maybe. I was a baby when I was less than three months old, I don't remember it."
"Babies don't remember things?"
"Grownups don't remember things from when they were babies."
"Why?"
"...I don't know."
"When does it happen?"
"Starting to remember?"
"Forgetting things from being a baby."
"Oh. I don't know."
"When does starting to remember happen?"
"It sort of--fades in gradually. My earliest memory has me as a three-year-old in it."
"What did you do?"
"It was the first time I ever went corporeal."
"What is being not corporeal like?"
"...It's very different. You can sense things in every direction at once, and you can speak mind-to-mind with any spirits occupying overlapping space."
"I can sense water in every direction at once."
"Yeah, me too, but sensing everything else while being incorporeal is different. It's a different sense."
"Ooh."
"It's more like seeing, in a way, but it's not quite like that either..."
Nod.
"I wish I could show you."
"Oh well."
"Oh well. At least you can sense water."
"Yes. Should I go talk to people now?"
"If you want to. There's no hurry."
"Okay."
Mileda gets some more seaweed and eats it.
Water is satisfied with her meal. She inspects plants and bugs.
There are a lot of both of those. One of the bugs takes exception to her inspection and stings her.
"Ow!"
"Are you okay?"
"A bug stung me."
"Oh. They do that sometimes. Do you want me to heal it?"
"Yes please." She's already handled the venom but there's still a puncture.
Mileda swims over and heals the puncture. "Huh," she says when she observes the lack of venom.
"What?"
"The venom's gone."
"Oh, I did that part."
"I didn't know you could do that!"
"Oh! I can."
"What else can you do?"
"I can fly, and I can eat things, and I can sleep, and I can put my halo out, and I can move water around, and I can make it rain, and I can read, and I can swim, and I can talk, and I can sense water, and I can put my halo in again, and I can fix it if somebody hasn't drunk enough water, and I can see -"
"I was curious about magic stuff," she clarifies. "Like moving water around and making it rain and fixing it if someone hasn't drunk enough water."
"Oh. I can do those."
"That's neat. I can't make it rain."
"Oh! Do you want it to rain?"
"Not especially, right now, but it might be useful for hiding, in the future."
"You can hide in rain?"
"Clouds make it harder to see me from above."
"Oh. Yes."
"Lots of spirits fly."
"Can you?"
"Only if I'm incorporeal."
"Oh. Are you visible when you're incorporeal?"
"To other spirits and magicians yes, to nonmagical humans no. I don't know about elementals."
"I don't either."
"Well, I guess we'll find out in three months."
"Because then you won't have to be substantial any more."
"Exactly!"
Giggle.
"I'm really looking forward to it, I am tired of being physical all the time."
"What's wrong with it?"
"It's...restricting, in some ways. Remember when I said I could only fly while incorporeal?"
"Yes. Do you love flying very much?"
"I don't do it all the time but not being able to is annoying. And my options aren't just 'incorporeal' and 'biological'; I can be water. Except that's not safe for the baby either."
"Oh, being water sounds fun. I think I can't do that."
"It is fun," she sighs.
"Can you do it to me?"
"...I don't think so..."
"Aw."
"Maybe the baby will be able to, when she's old enough to do magic."
"Oooooh."
"I'm trying to decide what to name her, want to help?"
"...I have no ideas."
"I guess that makes sense. I'm leaning towards Kareta, at the moment."
"Ka-re-ta," nods Water.
"It's a pretty name. If she were going to be a spirit I'd wait until I knew what she was going to be a spirit of before I named her but she's not."
"Why would that make her be named something else?"
"Well, if she was going to be a plant spirit I would probably want to name her after a flower, for example."
"Oh. Why are you named what you are named?"
"I'm not sure. I didn't have much cause to think about baby names until I was pregnant, and then...it wasn't worth it to try to find my parents to ask them."
"Because they are also spirits?"
"And because I don't know exactly where they are and I would have to risk being found by other spirits and magicians to try to find out."
"Oh. Why don't you know where they are?"
"Because my mother is a wind spirit and my father is a rain spirit and they both travel a lot."
"Can rain spirits make it rain?"
"Yeah."
"But you can't. Why?"
"I'm not a rain spirit."
"But rain is made of water."
"I mean...I probably could make it rain if I really wanted to, but I'd have to go insubstantial to get high enough to mess with clouds, and I don't really know what I'm doing enough that it wouldn't be obviously artificial."
"Oh. What if you practiced a lot?"
"Maybe...I'd still have to be insubstantial, though, so it would have to wait a few months at least."
Nod. "I think I could make it rain from here but it would be easier if I flew."
"That makes sense."
"I think there wouldn't be a rain elemental."
"Do you know why you think that?"
"Because I can do rain, so why would there be one for rain?"
"Spirits can get really specific."
"Oh."
"I don't know whether elementals can or not, though."
"I don't either. Maybe a rain elemental will come by."
"Maybe."
"What all kinds of spirits are there?"
"Lots. Wind water rain earth stone--different kinds of stone--plant--different kinds of plants--lightning ice snow river, um, fire, more kinds of weather, I think light, um..."
"Wow."
"Yeah, that's not even close to all of them, either."
"Are there more of some kinds?"
"I don't know if there are more that are general--like water--than specific--like rivers or rain--but there's going to be more that are general than there are of any given specific thing."
"Do air and rain parents always have water babies?"
"No. They're a lot more likely to than, say, fire and earth parents, but theoretically I could have been anything."
"Ooh."
"If I ever have a spirit baby waiting to see what it turns out to be will be fun."
"Are you likely to do that?"
"Not anytime soon, at least."
"It would need another spirit. And you are hiding."
"Yeah."
"I think elementals can't have babies."
"That would make sense, since you didn't start as one."
Nod.
"You do seem to have the relevant bits, though, or at least the externally visible ones."
"I do?"
"Remember how I said human babies happen when a man and a woman have the right kind of sex?"
"Yes."
She gestures at her hips. "You seem to have the parts involved with the right kind of sex. And breasts, which are used for feeding babies."
"Oh. Babies eat them?" Water asks dubiously, prodding one of her breasts.
"No." She takes off her own shirt. "See the nipple? Babies suck on that. When a woman gets pregnant her breasts start producing a fluid called milk that's good for babies."
"Oh. Huh."
She puts her shirt back on. "You'll see in three months."
Nod.
Something occurs to her. "Do you want clothes?"
"Maybe? I hadn't thought about it."
"Spirits don't always wear clothes but humans do."
"I don't know what elementals usually do."
"I don't either."
"What are they for?"
"Sometimes they are for keeping warm. Sometimes they are just for hiding the parts of your body involved with sex."
"I'm not cold. I think if I was cold my halo would fix it. Why do they hide those?"
"I don't know."
"Why do you wear clothes?"
"The fact that humans almost always cover their sex bits means that nudity is inherently sexual to them, and I don't know if my daughter's ever going to want to live in human society but if she does I don't want her to have habits that make it more difficult."
"Oh. I will wear clothes if you want."
"It would make things slightly more convenient. And it would make things significantly more convenient for you, if you decide to visit humans."
Nod. "I would need some clothes."
"I will make you clothes."
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome!" She swims to the shore and walks into the forest.
Water amuses herself but leaves the stinging kind of bug alone.
Mileda comes back about an hour later with most of the useful parts of a dead-and-disassembled deer buoyed on top of some water.
"What's that?"
"It's a deer."
"Why?"
"The skin is good for making clothes with."
"Ooh."
"I left the skin curing in the forest, though, it smells kind of bad."
"Why does it smell bad?"
"Because the curing involves rubbing it down with its own brains."
"And brains smell bad?"
"Well, I think so. I don't know if the opinion is universal."
Nod.
"And, like with fish, the flesh can be cooked and eaten."
"Ooh. Is it tasty?"
"I think so!"
"I want to try it."
"I'll start it roasting."
Water grins.
She grins back and sets up a spit and starts the venison roasting, turning the handle with her hydrokinesis. "It'll probably take a while," she admits.
"That's okay."
"Good." She lies down and stretches and starts singing.
Oooooooh.
It's not a terribly long song. She starts another when she finishes it.
That is also good.
"You like it when I sing?" she asks, after she's finished the second song.
"Yes!"
"I can teach you songs if you want, and then you can sing them!"
"Ooh!"
"Do you want to learn one of the ones I just sang first, or a different one?"
"Whichever."
She sings the first one again slower.
Water tentatively tries to sing a little of it.
Mileda gives her constructive criticism.
Water improves!
Oh good! Once she has mostly mastered the one song she moves on to the second.
Yay!
Mileda knows a lot of songs. They can mostly keep doing this until the venison's cooked.
That is delightful.
And then Water can try venison!
Venison is delicious!
"I'm glad you like it!"
"Being alive is great."
"I know."
Water giggles and nibbles venison.
When they're done eating Mileda freezes some water into a box of ice and puts the remaining venison in it.
"Why did you do that?"
"Because meat spoils if you don't keep it cold."
"Why?"
"...I don't know."
"Oh well."
"Oh well."
Water pokes the ice. She extends her halo and pulls off a blob and freezes it and licks it.
Giggle.
"What?"
"It's nice watching you try things! Do you like ice?"
"Yes! It's cold. And organized."
"It is both of those things."
She eats her entire ice. Nom nom.
Giggle.
"There's a thing humans make sometimes out of sugar and shaved ice and other stuff. It's tasty, but I don't have sugar here to make it with."
"Where does sugar come from?"
"Certain plants that don't grow here."
"Why don't they grow here?"
"Because they don't grow well in these conditions or haven't happened to spread here."
"Maybe if I go visit humans they will give me some."
"Humans often don't give things away but you could probably trade magic for it, if there was magic they wanted done that you could. Like making it rain if there was a drought or something."
"Yes, I could do that."
"Farmers are likely to want that!"
"How do I find farmers?"
"Do you think you could tell land that has been cultivated by humans from wilderness?"
"I don't know!"
"Well, if you see a mostly-rectangular place where there's lots of only the same plant growing, it's probably a field, and if there's a human living near it they're probably a farmer."
"Ooh. Why rectangular?"
"I think it's easier to plant crops that way but I'm not sure. You could ask a farmer, if you meet one."
Nod nod.
"Mind, a given farmer isn't necessarily going to have sugar."
"Oh."
"Not every human has every thing humans have."
"Are there just a lot of human things?"
"Yeah."
"Are there a lot of humans?"
"Yeah."
"Are there more than there are spirits?"
"I'm not sure but I think so."
"Why do you think so?"
"Humans have babies a lot more often than spirits."
"Do they like them more?"
"I don't know. But humans really like having sex, and it doesn't occur to most of them that they can just have kinds other than the one that results in babies."
"Which kind is it?"
"The kind where a man's penis goes into a woman's vagina."
"Okay. I will be careful in case elementals are like humans."
"That's probably a good idea. If you were a spirit you could just stop being corporeal for a bit right after before a baby has a chance to happen but you can't do that."
"I can't."
"Oh well. If you want to have sex with someone there's other stuff you can do."
"I don't know if I like it or not, so I should probably find out at some point, like with sleeping."
"That makes sense. Oh, in case it wasn't obvious, if you're going to have sex you should make sure it's not somewhere other people can see. Having sex somewhere random people are likely to find you is considered rude; people mostly don't like stumbling across sexual scenes they didn't ask for."
"Huh. Why?"
"I think mostly cultural baggage."
"Okay."
"...And if someone tries to have sex with you and you don't want to, don't be afraid to do anything you have to to make them stop."
Water blinks.
"People making you have sex with them when you don't want to is called rape and it's really unpleasant."
"Oh. What if I only sorta don't feel like it?"
"It can still be unpleasant, although often less so."
Nod.
"If you're lucky it won't come up."
"I don't know if I'm lucky."
"I don't think luck is a persistent trait a person has."
"Oh."
"It's kind of hard to tell for sure."
"Why?"
"Mm...because luck is supposed to be random chance, and it's hard to tell the difference between someone randomly having a bunch of good things happen to them and having a trait such that good things are more likely to happen to them."
"Hmmm."
Shrug. "If luckiness is a trait, I hope you have it."
"I hope so too, it would come in handy."
"It really would!"
"I guess if a bad thing happens, and then only good things happen for a long time, or if good things happen, but then a bad thing happens once, that means that people aren't just lucky."
"Not necessarily. Even people who think people are just lucky don't think that bad things never happen to lucky people."
"Oh. Just less?"
"Yeah."
"How often is normal?"
"I don't know."
"Oh."
"It depends on nonrandom factors."
"Like what?"
"What resources you have access to, whether people decide to be good or bad to you..."
"Resources?"
"Like if you have better or worse access to food."
"Oh. I think I don't actually need food. I do like it though, you're being very nice to me."
"I like you. And it's better if people are nice to each other."
"I like you too!"
"Good!"
Giggle.
"It's nice having someone around."
"Is it?"
"Well, I think so."
"Oh good."
"I guess you don't have anything to compare it to."
"I don't. I think I wouldn't have minded particularly if there had been no one around but I like that you were around."
"I'm glad too."
Grin.
Hug?
Hug! Wet wings are in the hug.
Mileda is a water spirit and wet wings do not bother her at allll.
Good.
So good. So hug.
Water has no idea how long it is normal to hug people.
Mileda lets go after an only slightly weird amount of time.
Water giggles.
"Hugs are a reason it's nice to have other people around."
"They're good!"
"They really are."
"I'm going to fly around," announces Water, spreading her wings.
"Have fun!"
"I will!"
She goes and flies around.
Mileda naps.
Water flies larger and larger circles around the island to see what there is nearby.
There is forest for a few miles on one side of the river and several more on the other. On the side with more forest, there is a small farming village on the other side.
Ooooooh, rectangles.
She goes back to the island.
Mileda is still asleep.
Water plays with the river, making it fountain in various ways.
Mileda eventually wakes and grins at the fountaining river. "Pretty!"
"Thank you!"
Mileda splashes up a complementary fountain.
Ooooh, tandem fountaining!
"This is fun! I've never been able to do this with someone else before."
"You don't know any other water spirits?"
"I've met some, but not in a context that was super conducive for tandem fountaining."
"Oh?"
Shrug. "It was nothing bad, it just sort of didn't happen."
Nod.
Her fountain splashes Mileda.
Well in that case Mileda will have to splash her back, won't she.
Eeeeeeee!!!
Splashfight?
Splashfight!!!!!!
Eeee!
Eventually it starts to get dark out.
"Ohhhh. Stars."
"Yeah," she says, yawning.
"You yawned."
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because I'm tired."
"Oh. Are you going to sleep?"
"Mhm."
"In that place you showed me or somewhere else?"
"In that place I showed you."
"Okay. I'm going to look at stars."
"Have fun. Goodnight."
"Goodnight!"
She sleeps.
Water watches stars.
In the morning she lies there cuddled into the soft moss for a little while before sitting up and yawning and stretching.
Water is in the river chasing fish.
"Good morning!"
"Hi! Fish are slippery."
"That is true!"
"I caught one but I let it go."
Nod. "I am going to have venison for breakfast."
"Okay."
She gets deer meat out of the ice box and adds more ice to replace what melted and wraps the meat in seaweed and eats it.
Water chases fish and then starts collecting pretty river rocks.
The river has many pretty rocks to collect.
That will occupy her for a while. Then she picks some seaweed and eats it. Then she takes a nap.
Mileda goes and checks on the deer hide.
Water makes towers of rocks. When they won't stay on their own she sticks them together with ice.
"I'm going to go unearth the book box for a while, do you want to come?"
"Sure. Why is it hidden?"
"So animals don't get into it and damage the books."
"Why would they do that?"
"They wouldn't see a reason not to."
"Oh. And animals can't talk, so you couldn't tell them."
"Yeah."
Water wants to read more stories.
There are more stories!
Oh good!
Mileda reads a book about magic theory.
Water will sit here reading as long as Mileda does.
Mileda will read until about lunchtime, at which point she puts the books away and gathers seaweed and eats that and cold venison.
"Can I have some?"
"Of course!"
Water has some. Nom.
Nom.
More splashfight, after lunch?
Oooh!
Mileda has a biiit of a home-field advantage, having known the river longer.
That's okay, being splashed is fun too.
Water goes on like this for a few weeks until she decides to go bother a farmer.
Mileda gives her the recently-complete deerskin outfit and wishes her well.
Water wears deerskin! And she flies to the rectangles.
There are people in one of the rectangles cutting plants.
She lands near them. "Hi!"
"...Hi," one of them says.
"I'm Water."
"That's a funny name."
"What's your name?"
"Keveres."
"Is that not a funny name? What makes names funny?"
"Keveres is a perfectly ordinary name."
"Why?"
"Because people name their kids that," he huffs. Whether the huffing is due to the physical exertion of cutting hay or frustration at her is ambiguous.
"Oh. What is this plant?"
"Clover."
"Is it tasty?"
He looks at her like she started growing seaweed out of her ears. "No."
"Why are you growing it?"
"T'feed the animals," he says, in a tone of voice intended to communicate that this is supposed to be obvious.
"What animals?"
"Sheep. Cows. Horses."
"Why do you feed them?"
"...Look, why are you even here?"
"I'm curious about you."
"Well, we're really busy getting the hay in right now, and I don't really have time to answer idiot questions from cityfolk who don't know one end of a cow from the other. Even magician cityfolk."
"I'm not a cityfolk."
"I don't have time to answer questions from simpletons, either."
"Oh. Maybe you could tell me which end of a cow is which so I won't be a simpleton?"
--That actually gets him to laugh.
...Water giggles along.
"Look, we really are busy right now. Come back in the evening when the sun starts going down and maybe I'll have a little time for you."
"Okay." She flies around till then.
He can be found sitting on a stump whittling something and watching the sunset.
"Hi! What are you doing?"
"...Woodcarving."
"Why?"
He gives her a puzzled look.
"...what? Is this about cows again, should I learn about cows first?"
"Where are you from? You say you ain't cityfolk, but I can't figure how anyone who ain't cityfolk wouldn't know the things you don't know."
"A river."
"What?"
"I'm from a river."
"...Your mama was some kind of crazy hermit or something who lived by a river?"
"I don't have a mama."
"...Okay." He does not look like his confusion has been much resolved.
"I'm an elemental," she says.
He blinks. "What's that?"
"Like me. I don't know any others."
"You look like a magician."
"I'm not a magician. I've never met one."
"Is an elemental a kind of nature spirit?"
"I know a water spirit. We're not the same kind of thing but we can do some of the same stuff."
"Huh."
"Yeah. I don't know if there are more elementals."
"That's strange. So what were your questions again, I've forgotten them."
"You were going to show me the ends of a cow maybe, and I was asking about clover. I also want to know if you have sugar."
"I don't know if you actually need to be told the front end from the back end of a cow, it's pretty obvious. Sometimes we have a little sugar but we don't right now."
"I've never seen a cow."
"They're big animals with a head and a rear just like anything else."
"I've seen bugs, and fish. And a dead deer."
"Could you tell the front end from the back end of the deer?"
"It was very dead, I'm not sure."
He glances at her outfit. "That where you got the clothes?"
"Yes, the water spirit I know made them for me."
"Huh. Didn't know nature spirits did clothes."
"She wears clothes too."
"Huh. Never heard of a nature spirit wearing clothes before," he says thoughtfully.
"I only know one."
"How long've you been around?"
"A couple weeks."
"And that's why you don't know anything?"
"Yeah."
"Huh."
"It must be different being a baby first."
"I suppose so," he shakes his head.
"When do you have sugar?"
"When the trade caravans come through in the spring and fall, if we have a little extra sometimes we'll buy some."
"Is it spring or fall now?"
"No, it's summer."
"Oh. Extra what?"
"Money, or crops to trade for it."
"What's money?"
He considers this. "Little discs of metal that you can trade for things," he says finally.
"Oh. Where do you get it?"
"Trading other things for them."
"Huh. Do you want it to rain? My water spirit friend said you might want it to rain."
"...That would be good. If it wasn't too much rain."
"How much rain is too much?"
He names a figure.
"I don't know if I can do that much before I get tired anyway."
"It makes you tired?"
"Doing magic? Kinda yeah."
"And the rain doesn't just keep going once you put it there?"
"I guess it depends on whether it would rain anyway at that point."
"Huh."
"I don't know, I've never actually done it."
"Then how do you know you can?" he asks, interested despite himself.
"It just seems like a thing I can do, like walking and talking and flying."
"Huh." He considers this, then sheathes the knife and puts it and the piece of wood in a pocket, stands up, dusts the wood shavings off himself, and starts walking toward a wooden building.
"Where are you going?"
"That's the barn," he says, pointing, "it has cows in it."
"Ooh, can I see?"
"Yep."
She follows him.
He opens the door and leads her inside. There are several cows and two horses in stalls.
"Oooh! Which ones are cows?"
He points at the cows. "And those other ones are horses."
Nod nod. "Why is it important to distinguish their ends?"
He snorts. "It's just a way of commenting on how little practical knowledge city slickers have."
"Oh. Why are they like that?"
"Who knows?"
"I thought maybe you would."
"I don't."
"Oh well."
He pets one of the horses' noses.
"Oooh, can I do that?"
He smiles. "Sure."
Pet pet.
The horse whickers softly.
"Eeee it made a sound!"
"They do that."
Pet pet pet.
The horse nuzzles at her hand inquisitively.
Water giggles.
"She wants to know if you've got a treat for her," he explains.
"Oh. I don't."
"Do you want to give her one?"
"I would need to have one."
He produces a small fruit from a pocket and hands it to her.
"She eats these?"
"When they're available."
Water holds one out for the horse.
The horse eats it out of her hand with a happy whuffing noise.
Water is so charmed!
"Beautiful girl, isn't she," the farmer says affectionately.
"Yes." Pet pet.
The horse appreciates the pettings.
Oh good!
"It's getting late, and I should get to sleep," the farmer says eventually.
"Okay. Sleep well."
"...I need you to get out of the barn so I can lock it up for the night," he clarifies.
"Oh, okay." She walks out.
He closes and locks the doors. "Good night."
"Good night!" And she flies back to the island.
Mileda is not quite asleep yet.
"How was your trip?"
"I met a farmer. He might want it to rain. He showed me which end of a cow is which and let me pet a horse."
...She giggles. "Did he really literally show you which end of a cow is which?"
"He said city slickers don't know that, and then he showed me cows. And horses."
"Ah. That's an exaggeration."
"Oh. He also didn't know why city slickers were like that."
"People who live on farms and people who live in cities have different skillsets. Most things to do with cows are not very useful if you live in a city."
"What things are?"
"Depends on the person. People in cities specialize a lot."
"Specialize?"
"Like, you'll have potters and cobblers and scribes and bookbinders and they all need to know very different things."
"Ooh. And not about cows."
"Right."
"He thought I was a simpleton."
"...Why?"
"Because I didn't know stuff."
"Well. That wasn't very nice of him, but I guess if he thought you were an adult human who'd been around for a few decades..."
"Yes, he thought I was a magician. I explained I am not."
"Did you tell him what you really are instead? How did he react?"
"I told him. He's never heard of elementals before either."
"I'm glad he didn't react badly."
Nod.
Hug.
Hug.
"I'm going to turn in now. Good night."
"Good night."
She goes to sleep.
Water burrows in river mud until she's good and stuck, and sleeps there.
Elsewhere, in a neighboring kingdom, a young queen is poring over tax records in the palace garden.
A person, with chestnut hair and amber-colored translucent wings that move like honey suspended in air, comes into existence at the edge of a greenhouse. He blinks at the garden and the greenhouse and the queen.
She looks up. "Hello."
"Hello."
"Who are you, and why are you here?"
"I'm Amber. I don't have anywhere else to be."
"And how did you get here?"
"I don't know, it just seems to have happened."
"Are you alright? Do you think someone might have sent you here?"
"I'm fine. I don't think so but I don't know how it works."
"How what works?"
"Anything. Being places. Existing."
She considers him.
"What are you?"
"Amber."
"Didn't you say that was your name?"
"Yes."
"...Are you a magician, a spirit, or something else?"
"I'm an elemental."
"What's an elemental?"
"A kind of person, I guess."
"Well, that much is evident. Where were you before you were here?"
"...no?"
"...You just started existing?"
"Yes, that."
"I see. Do you know if that's something elementals usually do, spring fully-formed from nothingness?"
"I don't know. Maybe. I seem to have done," he says.
"This is very strange."
"Is it? I wouldn't know."
"It is! I've never heard of elementals before."
"Oh. Huh."
"I know a lot about magicians and spirits. I would have expected to have heard about elementals."
"I don't know why you haven't then."
"It's peculiar. I'll start inquiring about it. What are elementals like?"
"I don't really know anything about other elementals."
"Well, what about you?"
"I don't know very much about me yet either! What do you want to know?"
"Well, what can you do? Besides spontaneously start existing."
"I can fly... and see... and talk... and stand... and tell where plants are... and break stuff... and breathe... and walk..."
"Tell where plants are?"
"Yes. There are a lot here."
"There are! Do you just tell by looking, or is it magic?"
"Oh, either."
"What magic things can you do?"
"Glass things and wood things."
"Huh. And sensing life is a wood thing?"
"Just plants. You I have to just look at."
"What else is a wood thing?"
"I can do stuff to plants."
"What are glass things?"
"I can break stuff and see better and do stuff to glass."
"What kind of stuff?"
"I think most stuff."
"I'm not sure if there are any kinds of spirits who can do things to glass."
"I'm not a spirit."
"Yes, it's just interesting to see where you and they differ in capabilities."
"Oh."
"...Incidentally, would you like some clothes?"
"I don't really mind being naked."
"Most humans would probably be more comfortable around you if you at least wore shorts."
"Oh. I probably wouldn't really mind that either. But I don't have any."
"I could fix that."
"Okay."
She wind-whispers for a servant to come bring a pair of shorts in roughly the elemental's size. A few minutes later a young woman comes out of the palace holding the relevant garment.
"How do they work?"
"...You put your legs through here," the servant says helpfully, pointing.
Amber attempts this and falls over and then completes the process from the ground.
The servant giggles.
Amber sits up. "Is that better?"
"Much."
"Oh good."
"What do you want to do for the forseeable future?"
"Oh, I don't know yet."
"Would you like to try things and see if you can find out?"
"That sounds sensible!"
"I pride myself on being sensible! Can you read?"
"Yes."
"I'm glad to hear it. I have an extensive library; you could try books while I explain the situation to the cooks, and when they're ready you can try food."
"That sounds great!"
She smiles and leads him to the library.
And he takes a book at random and starts reading it.
And Erymeia alerts the cooks and a handful of other staff who should be preparing Things To Try and goes off to try to figure out what's up with elementals and then yells at her counselors for a while when she discovers that this has been going on for two weeks and no one told her.
Amber delightedly reads about the history of poetic form.
Erymea drops by again after a few hours have passed.
He has moved on to a book about citrus hybrids.
"So what do you think of reading?"
"I think it might depend on the book."
"Well, you're not wrong. What have you been reading?"
"I read that one," point, "and started the one about fish but didn't finish it, and now this one."
"Do you like this one?"
"It's the best one so far."
"I'm glad to hear it. Do you want to try food?"
"Yes."
"Before or after finishing that book?"
"Oh. I'm not sure. Whichever."
"Well, the food might be tastier while it's still hot, so why don't we go there now? There are bookmarks so you don't lose your place in the book," she points to a tidy pile of short ribbons on a nearby table.
"Okay. How do they work?"
She picks up one and a book and demonstrates. "You slide it between the pages like this, see, so you can find the ones you're currently reading."
He beribbons his page.
And she takes him to try food! The cooks have prepared a large number of small amounts of a variety of dishes so he can try as many things as possible.
He tastes things! He likes most of them.
Oh good.
"I found out more about elementals."
"Oh. What did you find out?"
"Elementals have been appearing for a few weeks now. Elementals have halos and wings, and generally look like people in the area they start in. There are different kinds, although we're not sure what they all are yet. Elementals generally prefer to be called by the kind of elemental they are rather than acquiring a personal name."
"Oh, yes, I have a halo." He does. It's beads of amber like his wings springing up all over his skin. He puts it back in again after and resumes tasting things. "I think I don't look like you."
"True. You look somewhat like the librarians, though."
Amber looks at the librarians. "I look more like them than like you."
"My father is from the south. People look more like me than like them and you in the south."
"Oh."
"Interestingly, elementals only look like humans and not human-formed spirits, and there are some who look like magicians but they can't do human magic."
"What do spirits and magicians look like?"
"Spirits look like humans but with different colors. Magicians have a little bit of spirit color," she says, twisting a lock of her snow-white hair between two fingers.
"Are you a magician?"
"Yes. White isn't a usual color for human hair."
"Why not?"
"...Because people look like their parents, and the only available parents with white hair are spirits or magicians."
"Oh. I don't really understand parents."
"What do you know about them?"
"I know the words for them. A mother is a female parent and a father is a male parent."
"True. Alright, so the basic way that parents work is that a man and a woman can create a child together, and when they do they are that child's parents."
"Okay. Do people do that a lot?"
"Hm--do you mean does any one person do it frequently, or just does it happen in general frequently?"
"The second thing."
"Yes."
"Huh."
"There would be much less people around if we didn't."
"I don't really want to do that. I guess I'm different."
"Well, you're not human. And not all humans want to, anyway."
"Oh, okay."
"Sometimes they do anyway. It doesn't always end well."
"What do you mean?"
"Parents are supposed to love their children. Sometimes they don't."
"Why are they supposed to?"
"...Children do better with affection."
"Oh."
"And children mostly love their parents, and aren't emotionally mature enough to react well to unreciprocated love."
"Why do they love their parents?"
"Instinct."
"Oh."
Shrug. "Most parents love their children, anyway."
"Good."
"Yes."
Foods foods foods.
It's endearing watching him try things for the first time!
When he's done she asks, "Do you want to go back to the library, or try something else?"
"What else?"
"Oh, lots of things--looking at art, interacting with animals, learning a skill..."
"Ooooh."
"I'm actually fairly busy, but I could have someone act as a guide of sorts to existing."
"That would be nice!"
She wind-whispers for the servant who brought the shorts, who shows up fairly shortly thereafter.
"Hi!"
"Hello," she says, bowing slightly.
...Amber bows back, puzzled.
The servant, who has apparently been filled in on the general situation if not the specific details, explains, "It's a gesture of respect."
"Oh. Why?"
"...Weight of custom, I suppose. I couldn't begin to guess where it started."
"Oh."
"So! What do you want to do first?"
"I want to see art."
"Okay!" She leads him out of the dining room and to a gallery.
Ooooh.
It has so many arts! Paintings and sculptures and delicate vases and mosaics and all kinds of things, really.
He will be occupied for quite a long time looking at the arts.
The servant sits down and keeps an eye on him and when it becomes clear that this is going to take a while she takes some crocheting out of her pocket and starts working on it.
"Ooh, what are you doing?" asks Amber, who is not even facing her.
...Weird, but he's a strange kind of magic. She takes it in stride. "I'm crocheting a rose."
"Why?" He turns around.
"Because roses are pretty."
"What's crocheting?"
"It's when you take a hook like this and use it to turn yarn into bits of fabric."
"Ooh." He watches.
She continues crocheting.
"I want to try that."
"Okay. Um, I don't have a spare hook on me, we'll have to go back to my rooms."
"Okay."
She puts yarn and hook back into her pocket and leads him to her rooms. There she gets out another hook and asks what color of yarn he'd like to start with.
"Yellow."
She gives him the hook and a ball of yellow yarn and shows him the basics of crochet.
And he merrily crochets.
Once he has gotten the basics down she offers to show him how to read a pattern and do something more interesting than rectangles.
Oooooh. He will do this shawly thing.
She keeps an eye on him and corrects him a few times when he's made a mistake.
He fixes these and goes on diligently through the pattern.
He has not finished yet when, "It's getting towards dinnertime. Do you want to eat again?"
"I'm not hungry yet."
"Okay. Let me know when you are?"
"Okay." Crochet crochet.
She retrieves some snacks from a drawer and eats them.
Crochet crochet crochet!
She finishes eating and picks up her own project again. Eventually it recognizably resembles a rose.
"That's nice."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Shawl shawl shawl.
"That's really good for a first project."
"Thank you!"
She finishes her rose.
The shawl is taking a while. Shawl shawl shawl.
"...It's getting late," she eventually says.
He looks up. "Yes, I suppose so."
"I need to sleep."
"Okay."
She studies him for a moment, then grabs a nightgown out of a drawer, goes into the water closet to change, comes out, and says, "I'm going to need to turn out the lights, is that going to bother you?"
"I think I won't be able to see my shawl."
"Do you need to sleep?"
"I don't think so. At least not now."
"Well, I do. Do you remember the way back to the library?"
"Yes."
"Maybe you should spend the night there."
"Will the lights stay on?"
"Yeah, the library's open all night."
"Okay." He takes his yarn and shawl and hook and goes there.
The library is still open, as promised, but much quieter than when he was here earlier.
That's okay. He finishes his shawl and then reads books.
There is such a wide variety of books!
There is!
He eventually does sleep in a library chair.
In the morning she goes looking for him there.
He is dozing.
She gets a book and sits down nearby.
Eventually he wakes up. "Hi! I tried sleep. It's okay."
"Hi! Humans need to sleep."
"Why?"
"We get too tired to function if we don't."
"Oh dear."
"It doesn't usually come up."
"Because you sleep a lot?"
"It doesn't seem like a lot to us."
"Oh."
"I can see why it would seem that way to someone who didn't have to sleep at all, though."
"Yes. Well, I guess I don't know how long you were asleep, you woke up before I did."
"About eight hours."
"I think I slept less than that."
She nods. "What do you want to do now?"
"I finished my shawl. I'm going to read more books."
"It's a nice shawl."
"Thank you!" He is wearing it around his neck.
"That's not the usual way to wear a shawl, do you want to see what is?"
"Sure."
She removes the shawl from around his neck and settles it over his shoulders.
"I have wings," he points out. They do sort of bunch it up.
"...That is true," she says, studying him. "I admit that shawls were not designed for people with wings."
He puts it scarfwise again.
"It still looks nice like that, anyway," she offers after a moment.
"Thanks!"
"You're welcome!"
He picks up his book again.
She picks up hers. Companionable reading: is a thing.
It is. Amber likes it.
Good. Eventually she puts her book down and mentions she's going to lunch.
"Can I have lunch too?"
"Yeah, definitely."
So he goes with her to lunch.
Lunch is held in a dining hall larger, less fancy and with more tables than the one from yesterday. There are fewer kinds of food available but larger portion sizes.
And Amber knows some things about which food is good now.
Then the two of them can eat some tasty lunch! Some of the other servants are curious and stop by their table.
"Hi!"
"Hi. Do you know everyone's talking about you?"
"I didn't know! Why?"
"You're new and different."
"I am! When I am old will people stop talking about me?"
"It probably won't take that long. You're new around here is the point."
"If I go somewhere else people will talk about me there and not here?"
"Depends on where you go, probably, although leaving won't make the talk here stop immediately."
Nod. "What are people saying?"
"Oh, lots of things," he says, waving a hand, "many of them silly."
"Like what?"
"Ludicrous speculation about your abilities, ludicrous speculation about your origins..."
"I started existing out in the garden by the greenhouse," Amber says. "I can do glass things and wood things and crochet."
"Crochet?"
He takes off his shawl-scarf and holds it up. "Crochet!"
"Huh. So, uh, is that just normal crocheting, or...?"
"I taught him. He doesn't have magic crochet powers," the servant who's been showing him around says.
"Oh, no, I don't have magical crochet powers," agrees Amber. "I guess I could if there were yarn made of plants."
"...There is, actually. Cotton."
"Oh. I could do stuff with that."
"Neat. I'll find you some cotton yarn."
Grin.
She grins back and finishes off her lunch.
Lunch nom nom.
"Do you want to go back to the library or help me look for cotton yarn?"
"I don't know where to find cotton yarn."
"If I bring you where there is yarn, will you be able to sense the ones that are cotton?"
"Oh, I guess so."
"But I can find them the long way if you'd rather go back to the library."
"I'll go with you."
She leads him to a room full of bins of yarn.
He looks for plant yarns.
There are some! A few different kinds, even.
He collects them all up and picks some out.
"Oh, that one's linen, and that one's hemp, I forgot about those," she diagnoses.
"I could do magic with them too," says Amber.
"What magic can you do with them?"
He separates off an inch of some blue cotton without scissors and loops it in on itself neatly so it's an unbroken ring.
"Oh, cool. You could do--fabric chainmail--like that."
"What's chainmail?"
"...I don't know how to explain chainmail. Let's go find someone who can explain chainmail."
"Okay."
She puts the plant yarns in a bag and brings it with and goes to find an armorer, who explains chainmail.
And Amber starts making fabric chainmail.
Both the armorer and the servant girl think this is really cool.
Yay!
Servant girl starts crocheting a hat.
Amber makes himself a backless shirt of fabric chainmail in varying ring sizes and patterns. He can pretty easily fix if it he doesn't like it.
"Pretty," she says admiringly.
"Thanks!"
"It goes well with the scarf."
"What makes it do that?"
"The colors look nice together."
"Oh. I wasn't thinking about that, I guess it's a coincidence."
She nods.
"Is that something people are supposed to think about with their clothes?"
"Yeah."
"Ooh." He adds streaks of yellow to the shirt.
"...Nice."
Amber grins.
"I wonder what other neat stuff you can do."
"What else would be neat?"
"Lots of stuff, the trick is being creative."
"Oh."
"Like, I wouldn't have thought of chainmail fabric being a thing before you did the little loopy thing."
"Well, maybe I will think of more good things to do."
"That would be fun."
Nod nod.
"Wood or glass chainmail would be interesting but would probably chip."
"Glass would. I don't know if wood would."
"I don't know if it would chip but it would probably have some kind of breakage problem."
"Maybe."
"And it probably wouldn't be as pretty as glass."
"Glass is very pretty," agrees Amber.
"Especially stained glass."
"I could stain glass."
"Ooh."
"Is there glass I should stain?"
"We could ask someone!"
"Who would know?"
"Probably a majordomo or something."
"What's a majordomo?"
"They're in charge of making sure everything in the palace runs smoothly."
"And they know about stained glass?"
"They know which windows we could try staining."
"Okay. Where would one be?"
"I'm not sure, but we can ask."
"This is complicated. Who knows where majordomos are?"
"There should actually only be one. But whoever saw him recently."
"Oh. Who's that?"
"I don't know, but I know how to look."
"Show me?"
She nods and walks purposefully out of the room. She finds someone who looks like they're paying attention and asks if they've seen the majordomo. When this fails, she goes to another area of the palace and tries again until it works.
Amber tags along.
And eventually they find him and are directed to a stainable window.
Awesome. First he makes it clearer, since there were little flaws in the glass.
"Oh, wow, I didn't even realize."
"Realize what?"
"That it could get clearer."
"Oh. Most things could. Even air."
"Even air?"
"It's full of dust. You can't see it?"
"Well, sometimes."
"When?"
"If there's bright sunlight streaming through a window in a dusty room."
"Wow."
"Is that strange to you?"
"I guess I never thought about how well you could see."
"How well can you see?"
"...enough to know about dust all the time, I guess? How do you measure that?"
"Good question."
He stains the perfected glass. Red and blue and purple.
"Oh, that's interesting."
"It is?"
"It's not what normal stained glass looks like."
"What does normal stained glass look like?'
"The colors come in smaller pieces than that."
"Why?"
"Sometimes they make pictures."
"Ooh. I don't know if I'd be good at that."
"Do you want to see normal stained glass?"
"Yes."
"Okay!"
She leads him to a part of the palace with stained glass windows, both pictured and abstract.
"Oooh. It has things that aren't glass between the glass."
"Yeah, it does."
"Why?"
"To hold the pieces together."
"Why not just use one piece of glass that's the size of the window?"
"That would be harder to color.'
"How?"
"...It's easier to make glass be all one color than a lot of colors, but once you've got a lot of little one-color glasses you can put them together into a big multicolored thing."
"Ohhhhhh."
"Most people can't directly tint the glass."
Nod. "What do they do to make it be colors, then?"
"I don't know. Maybe there's a book about it in the library."
"Ooh."
There are, it transpires, books on glassworking in the library. Glassmakers tint glass by adding certain substances while creating it.
Huh. Okay.
Or by adding a sort of gravel of tinted glass to clear glass! This is called "frit."
"Gosh, I guess if you can't do magic to glass you have to make stuff up."
"Some people can do magic to glass but there aren't that many magicians."
"Do they do it the same as me?"
"I don't think so, but I'm not a magician. You could ask Her Majesty later maybe. Or one of Her Majesty's siblings."
"What's a sibling?"
"...It means they have the same parents."
"Oh."
"It's an important relationship."
"Important how?"
"Peoples' siblings matter to them."
"Why?"
"Well, they grow up together."
"What is growing up like?"
"...Nontrivial to explain."
"Oh."
"Sorry. It's just--complicated."
"It sounds it!"
"People are complicated."
Nod, nod.
"You don't seem very complicated but you haven't existed for very long."
"Would existing longer make me more complicated?"
"I guess we'll find out."
"Guess so!"
"And meanwhile you can learn things."
"Learning things is great."
"It would be really inconvenient otherwise."
"Yes, if it were awful people would try to avoid it."
"And you need it more than most people."
"I think I would be fine if I weren't trying to live among people. I suppose even then I'd learn things incidentally."
"That's true," she admits. "I guess I hadn't thought of that. Being around people just seems so obvious."
"I like it!" he says. "I don't think I would have known to miss it if I weren't though."
"I'm glad. Of both those things."
"Does it matter how it would have been if I were by myself?"
"It might, if other elementals are like that and are by themselves."
"I don't know how alike elementals are."
"I don't either. But you might be."
"We might," he nods.
"I guess we'll find out."
"How?"
"Meet elementals who've been around for a while without meeting people?"
"Oh. Are we going to do that?"
"Well, someone will."
"Will they tell us about it?"
"I'm sure the Queen will have someone ask them about it, and then we can find out from whatever she has written up about it."
Nod.
"What do you want to do next?"
"I'm not sure. Are there more windows I could color?"
"Yeah, a few," she says, and leads him there.
He colors them! In one he represents part of the garden beyond.
"Nice."
He beams.
"I would never have thought of doing that."
"I got the idea from the rose you crocheted."
She beams at him.
He giggles.
She runs her fingers over the glass admiringly.
"I might redo them, if these are the only windows I'm supposed to do."
"What about glass stuff that isn't windows?"
"I could do that too. Is there some I should turn colors?"
"Probably more of it than of windows."
"Do we need to ask the majordomo again?"
"Nah."
"Where do we go?"
"We could start with my room, I have some clear glass stuff."
"Okay."
She leads him to her room. She has some clear glass drinking vessels.
He turns them pretty colors!
She beams at him.
He beams right back. "I think I like this even more than crochet or chain mail."
"Oh, cool."
"If I run out of glass things is there a way to get more?"
"Maybe you could make glass."
"I think I would need sand." He lets a little halo out, picks off a bit of amber from his hand. "This isn't glass. Maybe there are elementals with glass halos. I can do stuff with this too though." He starts sculpting it a bit.
"You can probably get sand!"
"How?"
"Go to a beach?"
"Where's a beach?"
"West of here."
"Which way is west?"
She points.
"Maybe I will go later and get sand."
"Sure. Maybe check how far it is, first, I don't actually know off the top of my head."
"Oh, yes, so I know how far I will have to fly."
"It's so cool that you can fly," she sighs.
"...I probably can't carry you," he muses.
"...How strong are you?"
"How do I measure that?"
"Pick heavy things up?"
"What heavy things should I pick up?"
"Uh, I don't have anything really heavy...pick up that chair?"
He picks up the chair. "This is heavy."
"If you think it's heavy you're probably not stronger than a human," she sighs, a little regretful.
Nod.
"Oh well. ...Can you move glass around, or just do stuff to it?"
"I think I could move it but it would be harder."
"How much harder?"
"...a lot? I couldn't do it for very long."
"Huh, okay. Spirits can move stuff around a lot."
"They don't get tired?"
"I don't think so."
"Huh."
"I've never really talked to one."
"Why not?"
"Most of them avoid humans."
"Why?"
"...Because most magicians don't treat them well."
Frown. "Why?"
"Most magicians don't see spirits as people. Not Her Majesty, though, she's trying to fix it."
"Why does that mean magicians don't treat them well?"
"Spirits have more magic than magicians. Magicians kidnap and imprison spirits so they can steal their magic."
"Oh. Will magicians want to kidnap me for my magic?"
"No. I don't know if they can do it to elementals in general, but no one's going to want to piss off Her Majesty by coming after you."
"Oh. Good."
"Maybe we should check, though? You don't have to actually hurt a spirit to use their magic, if you're okay with it maybe one of Her Majesty's siblings could check."
"...what if it turns out they can though?"
"Then I guess you'll be down a little bit of magic but they're not gonna kidnap you over it and it doesn't even permanently hurt spirits and then Her Majesty will know she has to figure out how to make people not kidnap elementals."
"Would it be like... making me a little tireder, or making it so I have less when I'm not tired?"
"...I don't know. But we could ask first."
"Will they know? Since I'm not a spirit."
"If it works at all it probably works like with spirits?"
"Hmmm."
"You don't have to, obviously. Maybe they can check without actually doing it, that would be best, but I don't really know anything about magic."
"We can ask, I guess."
"Yeah. Do you want to go now?"
"Okay."
She goes to the wing of the palace where the princes and princess live and knocks on the princess's door.
A twelve-year-old princess opens the door. "Hello?"
"Hi. How much have you heard about the, um, elemental stuff?"
"Some. Erymeia's right wound up no one told her sooner, why?"
"This is Amber, the elemental that prompted her finding out. We want to know if you can check whether you can tap him like a spirit without actually doing it."
"...Huh. I can try," she says, looking at Amber for confirmation.
"What if you do it by accident?"
"It's not really the kind of thing you can do by accident."
"Okay..."
"...So the way magic works is, for magicians anyway, you define an effect you want and a power source you want to fuel it with, and you can't do that if there isn't any of that power around, and then casting the spell is a whole different thing."
"Huh. Okay. You can check if you could do that with me."
She looks at him for a minute, and then shakes her head. "Nope. Nothing there I can work with."
"Oh. Okay."
"Well, that makes things simpler," the servant girl says.
"Yes."
"I'm glad I could help," the princess says.
"Thank you!" says Amber.
"Are you just sort of wandering around learning random stuff?"
"Yes."
"What things have you learned?"
"Crochet and chain mail and I read some books and stained some glass."
"Stained some glass?"
"I turned it colors."
"Huh. Okay. Chainmail's cool."
"I made this, and this," he says, pointing out his clothes.
"Ooh, neat."
"Thank you. I can turn plant things colors too."
"And the shirt's a plant thing?"
"Yes, it's made of a plant yarn."
"Which one?"
"Cotton."
"Huh, okay."
"Are there any other things you should check to see if I'm like a spirit?"
"I can't think of any."
"Okay. Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"I think I will go read more books."
"Have fun."
"I will." He goes to the library and reads more books.