[Immortal's Tongue] My Father's Eyes

[Eliza Soule]

37th Vhalar, Arc 718

For the second time in several trials, Eliza was venturing away from Scalvoris Town, and off the island itself. She'd heard about a place called Immortal's Tongue. They said it wasn't far by boat. In fact she'd been told that on a clear trial, from the edge of the harbor or from some place on high, you could see the island off in the distance. Since she'd arrived on the island, there hadn't been any clear trials until now. The ground had finally dried out after the rust colored rain had stopped, and the last of the turtles was gone. Even the small stubborn one that had been hunkering down in her back garden for over a ten trial now.

Eliza had spent the trial before, scrubbing the steps outside her small rented home, trying to remove the red stain left behind by the strangely colored water. But all the while she worked, off and on, her thoughts drifted off across the choppy waters to Immortal's Tongue. There were shrines there devoted to many of the Immortals if not most of them. Large and elaborate ones in some cases, and much humbler by comparison in others. Surely there would be a shrine of some sort for Ymiden there.

Eliza had been born more than two centuries ago, and in the scheme of things it hadn't taken her long to learn who her father was. It was sooner in fact than one of her adopted families would have liked it to be. And yet, unlike many other mortalborns who presumably knew or at least regularly reached out to them by praying or erecting small shrines, Eliza had rarely followed suit. She'd never met her father and he'd never reached out to her, so far as she could tell. So, since from her perspective, Ymiden didn't seem interested in her, she'd pretended disinterest in him. Sometimes she wasn't very good at it, if she was honest.

But they said that on Immortal's Tongue, the veil was thin, and that if you stopped and really listened, you could hear the Immortal's speaking, their voices carried on a wayward breeze.

At first, Eliza had scoffed at the idea of going. At least she should wait until the Cold Season had passed. But the more she thought about it, the more it intrigued her. If it was true what that they said, that on Immortal's Tongue the Immortals could hear you better, and be more likely to respond. There were things that she wanted to say, questions that she'd always wanted to have answered. If there was a chance that he might, then why not take the chance?

By the time she'd reduced the rust colored stain on her front steps to a pale but stubborn pink color, Eliza had made up her mind. In spite of the cold and the howling winds, she was going to Immortal's Tongue. And just a break later, after dressing as warmly as she could, packing a few essentials and gathering her bow and sword as she walked out the door, the young mortalborn boarded the ferry that would take her to Immortal's Tongue.

[Eliza Soule]

A break and a miserable boat ride later, Eliza stepped off of the ferry and onto solid ground at Immortal's Tongue. Unlike a few trials ago, when she'd traveled to Almund, she was able to fit inside and take shelter from the weather. Apparently not many people traveled to Immortal's Tongue this time of the arc, and for good reason. The benches had still been hard and damp however, and there were more than a few unwashed bodies pressed closely together. But it was still an improvement over being out on deck in the wind.

Once they disembarked, everyone went their own way, including Eliza. Except that unlike most of the others, she paused when she saw a large, wiry haired and bearded dog sitting there on the dock. He was white, or would have been if he hadn't been damp and filthy; and he was skinny too, as if he'd missed many more meals than he should have. He was just a dog. A very large hound type dog that would probably reach nearly three feet tall when he was standing. But what really captured the mortalborn's attention was the sad look in his eyes, and the way he watched each person getting off of the boat, then he looked for the next one to come behind them. He never saw who he was looking for, apparently, but refused to move from his spot as each individual weaved around him.

When it was Eliza's turn to pass by, she paused, dropped a hand to the top of his head and scratched behind his ears. "How long have you been waiting?" she asked, and he whined a little, glancing at her, then back at the boat again. According to a boatman that passed by and overheard her, the dog had been on the island at least a couple ten trials. Alone. Always sitting, looking across the water, watching people get off the boat. Sometimes the men who manned the boats would throw him scraps. A few had even tried to coax him on board and take him home with them. He always refused, and just kept watching. Abandoned. Dead owner. 'Who knew?' the sailor said with a shrug, and walked away.

It took Eliza a half break of hiking through the cold, damp woods to stop thinking about that dog. Someone at the docks had told her that they thought the shrine to Ymiden was a break's hike away or more. Off to the south, narrow trails, through the thickest part of the woods. They'd even suggested that maybe a pretty thing like her oughtn't be going off alone like she was, and had offered to go with her. But one good look at the man who'd offered, the way he was looking at her, convinced Eliza that she was better off going alone. And would be wise to take care that nobody followed her.

The hike wasn't an easy one, though once she'd entered the woods the wind wasn't quite so bad as it had been before. There were stones that littered the path, that were concealed beneath fallen leaves and were a hazard that could cause the careless to fall and twist an ankle at the least. The physical exertion though wasn't the most of it. She was hearing things, which didn't help but increase her concerns about being followed. Voices all around her. They were just whispers, like secrets being told on the wind. She'd been told that sometimes the pious could hear the Immortals conversing on the island. But Eliza wasn't pious the voices were more likely to be spirits, of the same kind she'd heard when she'd visited Almund. Like the strange red rain and the turtles, all sorts of strange things had been happening lately.

But if the voices unnerved Eliza as she traveled towards Ymiden's shrine, it was the occasional crunching of leaves somewhere behind her than made her jump more than once and look back. But when she stopped, so did the crunching. Finally after the second or third time, she pulled her pistol crossbow out from under her cloak and clutched it tight in her hand. "I know you're there!" she called out more bravely than she felt. "I've got a weapon and I know how to use it!" It was an exaggeration to say the least. One of the relations who'd once raised her would have called it a whale story. It had taken her a quarter break to figure out how to release the safety, and another quarter break to figure out how to load a bolt without it spontaneously firing itself off. But she sounded sure of herself, and that was most of what mattered.

Whoever was back there behind her, if there was anyone, wasn't answering or budging, so finally Eliza considered that maybe she was imaging it, and she turned to move on. But with her bow clutched so tightly in her hand that her knuckles beneath her leather gloves turned white, every nerve remained on high alert. It made her jumpy, so when the sound of leaves crunching again reached her ears, she spun with the pistol crossbow raised, both hands, caught sight of movement and fired. She didn't exactly mean to fire, but the trigger on the bow was a sensitive one, and she was a bundle of nerves.

She missed of course. In fact her shot went wildly careening off to the right and sunk itself deep into a nearby tree. And as soon as she realized just what she'd been firing at, and what had been following her, Eliza gulped in a lungful of air and gasped. "It's you! What are you doing out here? You scared me, and I could have killed you!"

There sat the hound that she'd seen back at the dock, looking back at her with tongue lolling out. He must have been following her all the while. But why her? Because she'd been kind and scratched behind his ears? Or because she was alone? As long as the dog couldn't talk, then he couldn't tell her. But all things considered she was grateful that he was there. She could use the company. "Well come on then," she said, putting her bow back where it belonged, and herself back on the trial. "We should be almost there by now."

[Eliza Soule]

Finally, she and the dog that followed her yards behind, reached the shrine devoted to Ymiden. Even though the man at the docks had given her very good directions, she nearly walked right past it. It wasn't much; just a number of large, flat stones stacked and arranged just so. It looked as if it had been some time since anyone else had been there. Fallen leaves littered the rocks, and a few offerings, worn and faded by the harsh weather were scattered about, anchored here or there. Maybe there was another one somewhere on the island and this one had been thrown together by some traveler or other. Something more impressive? It wasn't exactly what she'd been expecting.

"It's not much to look at, is it?" Eliza said to the dog as she entered the clearing. The dog stayed behind, just as the edge of the trees and laid down, always watching her. "So here you are," she said quietly, as if she was speaking directly to her father. Crouching down, she used her hands to clear away the leaves, brush away the scattered soil and fix the offerings back in place. "and here I am. You remember me? Or do you know me at all?" she asked. Working for a few more trills without speaking, she heard only silence. Or rather there were the same urgent whispers on the wind that she'd been hearing for trials, and not just on Immortal's Tongue. But surely, if any Immortal's ever made a personal appearance on the island, which she'd been told they did, now and again, then sure Ymiden was listening and would show himself for his own daughter?

Probably foolishly, Eliza had convinced herself that he might. Even though he'd never once done it, that she knew of, during the two centuries plus that she'd lived. It wasn't for lack of wishing. She fought the tears that threatened to fall, took a deep breath and stood up again. "Figures. I should have known better," she said, reached into the pocket of her cloak and pulled out a small bundle that she'd tied up with packaging string. A small bouquet of holly and hothouse flowers with a few brightly colored feathers fixed into the mix. She placed it on the largest of the flat stones, anchoring it down with another small stone that she picked up off the ground. It wasn't the only thing she'd thought she might leave behind. But it was the thing that she chose just then.

"It's been nice meeting you, if you're listening," she said quietly and turned back, planning to leave the clearing and the shrine behind her. When she reached the dog, and he stood up to greet her, she reached down and scratched behind his ears again. "We orphans ought to stick together, right? That's that then," she said, and started walking back down the trail. The dog followed her at a distance, just like Eliza had thought that he would. And it was easier going now, now that they were headed downhill. But no more than five bits had passed before the mortalborn narrowed her eyes, stopped in her tracks and looked back. "You know what?" she said to the dog. "That's not that." And doing an about face, she turned back on the trail with a determined set to her chin, and headed back to the shrine.

[Eliza Soule]

Just like before, the hound stopped at the edge of the clearing while Eliza kept going. He lowered himself to the ground, his long legs stretched in front of him, pricked his ears curious, tilted his head and whined softly. As for the young mortalborn, her chin had been stubbornly, defiantly set while she'd stormed back up the trail. But as she entered the clearing again, her steps became less confident and for a trill or two, she nearly lost her nerve and thought better of what she was doing. Then she took a deep breath and steeled herself. She'd come all this way after all. So far, just to turn back now and she might never be brave enough again.

"You know what," she said. "It wasn't nice meeting you because I haven't. If I ever have, you were hiding behind somebody else's face and name, and that's not the same thing. They told me that on Immortal's Tongue, that the Immortals are listening. That they can look in and see you and hear your prayers. They might just be stories," Eliza admitted, recognizing that it was probably only the dog that could hear her or was listening at all. "But if it's true or if it isn't, I've got something to say to you and I want you to know."

And if the man at the docks had given her shoddy directions and this wasn't Ymiden's shrine at all? Pausing, chewing her lip and looking up and around her as if yet again, she might lose her nerve, she added, "If I've got the wrong shrine and I'm yelling at the wrong Immortal, I'm apologize." Then she turned back to the shrine, her hands drawn into loose fists as if the gesture was helping her hold her nerve. "But you're a terrible father. I understand that you're an Immortal and you're probably very busy. You're not like other fathers who work in an office or at the docks for regular breaks, then come home for supper at the end of the trial. And you probably have very important things to do."

But over two centuries, she added, and just a card on her birth-trial was too much to ask, she said. "I've had two hundred and thirty-five of them," Eliza pointed out. "It would have been nice to know whose nose I have. Or whose eyes. I had someone to scare the monsters out from under the bed and someone to teach me to tie my shoes. And then I had to watch all of them grow old and die, all by myself. But I needed somebody's feet to dance on," she said and furiously wiped away the angry tears.

"But instead of you, it was Poppy that took me to the father and daughter dance. And I couldn't dance on his feet because he was ninety arcs old and walked with a cane...and I was still a century older than him." It wasn't nearly the same, was what Eliza meant. "It would have been nice to have somebody around that understood what it was like to watch everyone you care about grow old and die. Did you love my mother even a little bit?" she asked. Her two aunts, one who she knew had died a two times great grandmother of eight and the other who'd died a spinster, had left her a letter telling her that he'd seemed to. But it was only a letter that she'd received long after they'd passed away.

Suddenly Eliza fell silent and looked down at her feet. She'd run out of steam, said all she could think of to say and all she heard was the whispering on the wind that she was sure was ghosts and not the Immortals conversing. She wasn't pious enough to have heard them anyway. She'd never even set up a personal shrine to her father, like she'd assumed that other mortalborns must do. "I didn't do that," she admitted and looked back at the arrangement of stones. "I only watched out the window or sat on the front steps, hoping you'd come strolling up the walk at the end of a work trial."

And, she added then, she'd imagined the kind of father she'd wanted him to be, instead of the father he was. Reaching into the pocket of her cloak then, Eliza pulled out a small trinket and approached the shrine. There, beside the bundle of holly that she'd left early, she paused. "i'm sorry. I should probably stop doing that. You're the father I've got and I should probably be grateful. I've gotten to see and experience things that most people never live long enough to." Looking down at the object in her hand, she sighed. "You'll probably never get this or see it." For all she knew, she was leaving it at a shrine devoted to Xiur or worse, Aelig. "But I'm going to just leave this here. I made it for you."

The thing she put down by the bouquet of holly was a silver locket. A decent sized, oval shaped one with ivy etched into its cover. It was strung onto a green silk ribbon and though she didn't open the cover up, inside was a small portrait that she'd painted. Of herself, and on the inside of the front cover, opposite the portrait, was her name. Under her name, she'd attached two small locks of hair. One belonged to her and the other had belonged to her mother. It was part of what had been left for Eliza when her mother had given her up. That too had been a locket with a portrait, and a lock of her mother's hair. It was a section of that lock of hair, that she'd added there beside her own.

Ymiden would probably never get or see it, she knew. It was just as likely that some woodland creature would be attracted by the shine of it and drag it away to store with their nuts for the winter. Or a bird would line her nest with it in the spring. But this was Ymiden and his domains among other things were spring and rebirth. It seemed appropriate then if that's what happened. And Ymiden was about forgiveness too. Maybe she should forgive him for being a terrible father, even if he wasn't sorry. "I should get going then," she said quietly and stepped back. "Take care of yourself. "

She left the clearing without saying another word, and as she passed by him, the hound whined again, got up, turned tail and followed her back down the hill. But this time instead of remaining a stone's throw behind her, eventually he caught up and was by her side. It was an easier and quicker hike on her way back where she'd catch the ferry back to Scalvoris Town. But when she got there, to Eliza's surprise, the dog didn't stop at the edge of the dock in the place she'd first seen him. He did hesitate as if he seemed unsure and she looked at him curiously. It seemed to be a very important moment for that hound. "You're welcome to come along you know. My house isn't much but there's a nice rug by the fire to lay on. I'm a terrible cook but Smudge doesn't mind," she said, referring to her old cat.

Smudge might mind him moving in, she knew. But eventually they'd all work things out. It seemed to be enough for the hound, it appeared, and much to the surprise of the sailors who'd grown used to seeing him there, he followed her onto the ferry and stayed by her side all the way back to Scalvoris town.

Off Topic

Large dog (Irish Wolfhound type) - 75 nel. Medium sized, embossed silver locket and silk ribbon - 15 nel

[Yrmellyn Cole]

Thread Rewards

Eliza Soule

• Overview
• Points
• Loot, Renown, Injuries
• Knowledge

This highly emotional thread really pulled me in and held me in thrall all the way to the last line. If I have to choose just one thing to praise it’s got to be the story. Thanks Eliza for this long, bittersweet story about a mortalborn daughter searching in vain for contact with her immortal but ever absent father. I liked the depth you gave to the experience of being mortalborn and how the story flowed ... the hope when she started her trip to the shrine, the first meeting with the abandoned dog, the growing fear when she felt she was being followed ... her crushed hope when her father didn’t answer, the resignation, then the rage ... and finally the acceptance. As I personally think of it, the dog followed her because she was like him, abandoned. She didn’t find Ymiden, but the dog found her. Excellent writing. I’m glad I got to review it. (And the music was perfect ^^)

10

+ 5 renown each for Visiting a shrine, leaving an offering, giving a gift, taking in a stray. In total +20 renown. Dog and Locket - 100 nel

Combat: Ranged: Pistol Crossbow: Know what you're firing at
Combat: Ranged: Pistol Crossbow: Steady nerves, steady aim
Combat: Ranged: Pistol Crossbow: The importance of a light touch
Diplomacy: Best way to address an Immortal
Endurance: Hiking distances over rough terrain
Painting: Portraits in miniature

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