Rope the South wind; Canvas the Stars

[coldsong]

There is an ocean in the Nexus--at least one, maybe many--that comes and goes. It has been seen frozen over in the winter, laced with sand and amusements in the summer. Sometimes it's within sight of the Plaza, but more often one has to seek it out in the Wilds, tracking it by the cry of the gulls.

Today, it's close enough to smell the salt-spray.

No one is called, no one is compelled to wander closer, but should the adventurous depart the main Plaza and follow a pebbled path through long grass and winding trees, they will come to a place where the ground rises into a gentle dune, then drops into an expanse of sand and rock sketching out a sort of cove. Indigo water laps the shore there, low waves splashing froth onto the shore. And in the water there is something that could be called a ship, if a ship could be made of ice and bone; if a ship could be strange and hard to look at, if it could stretch up so tall toward the sky it seemed eldritch and unbalanced.

The prow is sharp as a blade, and when the wind sings in the ropes, the noise is high and sweet, like siren song.

Loki is on the shore, and his children are with him. Agnarr and Una are playing in the sand together, the elder stacking rocks and building castles for the younger to knock down. Sigrid and Eindrid, though, are on the Ship itself. A casual observer can see the form of Loki up there with them, guiding them gently as they explore, but he is also below, seated on a heap of driftwood to observe his other two children. Bilocating.

He glances up and nods at whoever wanders close, polite, if protective of the kids.

"Do you believe in birthright?" he asks. "Something beyond the gift of existence itself, to which a person is entitled just by entering the world?"


((ooc: Just to warn, my tags will be VERY slow!))

Comments

[coldsong]

Loki smiles. He fully expected to see skekSa, and was hoping she would arrive. While he can pilot vessels of air or space, and has been known to sail small ships, he's frankly been hoping for her assistance in teaching his children some sailing and navigational skills.

"This is Naglfar," he tells her. "The ship of nails. It was designed by Eindrid and Sigrid's mother, and built by her and their father, with a little help from me at the end. It belongs to them, not me, but I hold it in trust for them."

"It's not a birthright so much as a gift, I think...but the sea is in their blood, and most especially in Ein's."

"UrSan?" He repeats, and cranes his neck a little to get a look at the water. Part of him is a bit nervous about a stranger, other half or not, but none of the children is about to go swimming, themselves, so there should be no need to fret. "Do they stay in the water always?"

[silverseamariner]

"Nagifar," skekSa says, practicing the word, an alien language to her. "I will help in any way I'm called on. Your family has my favor and are friends of the Sifa clan, whether in the end I'm a Lord or a Captain. We have different vessels in Thra. I sail a living ship, and the Sifa use coral for their ships sometimes. So I would have experience if you ever need a teacher."

Honestly, she enjoys teaching - she's mentored plenty in her time, and she would be honored to be chosen to teach the children how to sail Nagifar. She's intrigued by this ship of nails herself.

The Mariner nods. "When urSan and I were one, I suspect we were an oceanographer or mariner of some kind, though those memories are very dim. I suspect we inherited those things from SaSan, though split between us."

"No, not always," she explains, "but the Swimmer is closer to the water than I. She's decent, but tends to be a little...cryptic, as Mystics tend to be. The only thing to fear from her is her riddles. They're never straightforward, Mystics, though between us she plays it up to mess with me. I don't know if you've met one, though I suspect skekGra took his Mystic with him."

[coldsong]

"This is a ship built by the will of the dead," Loki tells her, and looks up at the hulking shape. It's beautiful, in a stark, striking way, like the limbs of trees in the winter, against a stormy sky. "Specifically, I think, by the love of the dead for the living they have left behind. It took my energy to pilot it, before, but I'm hoping we'll come up with other methods, with some experimentation."

"You see the ice, where it forms wings and sails around the prow? That is my influence, but I think in time Eindrid will find his own magic and use that."

He laughs a little at the mention of Mystics being cryptic. "UrGoh is gentle, but he strikes me as a bit of a subtle troll," he says. "I wouldn't be surprised if your Swimmer is similar."

"Would you like to come aboard the ship? I wanted to show it to you, specifically, for your opinion. And Sigrid and Eindrid are amenable."

[silverseamariner]

"My people are terribly afraid of death," skekSa says, then flashes a smile. "The castle-dwellers in particular are obsessed with it. The Emperor would have my feathers plucked if he knew I boarded such a vessel - I'm sure it would be a bad omen for him - but I don't particularly care what he thinks anymore." Easy to say with no Emperor in the Nexus, but it's a step forward all the same.

A Mystic's head, wet and hair tangled like seaweed, emerges from the water to watch them. urSan doesn't speak, yet, but is watchful and deliberate in her movements as much as her words.

skekSa nods briefly in her direction. She isn't as close to her Mystic as skekGra is, but their relationship is more complex than being enemies the way most of the other pairs were, and things hadn't always been that way. urVa was closer to his Skeksis once, when both were younger and before skekMal devoted himself entirely to the hunt.

"I would be honored to board," skekSa agrees, and moves to step onto the ship. "I'm pleased to see that the children are doing well."

[coldsong]

"Death is less fearsome than loss, I think," Loki tells her. "But both death and loss mean change. Perhaps that is what your Emperor truly fears. People who are excessively comfortable dislike the idea of losing that comfort."

"He should be...disrupted." So says the god of chaos. "But that is not my place unless someone from your world asks for it to be."

And if they did, he would help them fight their emperor, if only for skekGra's sake, but it's probably best if he doesn't get involved in a battle again anytime soon.

He looks over at the Swimmer as her head emerges, and gives her a little bow. He's reminded of a sea otter at a glance, and that is less alarming than many forms a stranger could appear in.

"Una, Agnarr," he calls. "Stay within earshot, please. I will return in a moment."

The plank that leads up to the ship is thin and delicate looking, but neither the weight of a Frost Giant nor a skeksis will make it so much as sway. Balance is required, but they will reach the deck safely. At which point, the two Lokis dissolve into one another, and Eindrid, placed gently on the deck on his own two feet, crows excitedly and comes running to meet his giant avian friend.

[silverseamariner]

"A skeksis or an urRu has never died of old age. But we do die, and they haven't aged gracefully. I wonder if their experiments with the Crystal have to do with it - skekGra, skekMal, and I never got close to it, and we're nowhere near as withered as the others. I think skekSo is afraid that skeksis rule will end. Time will stop him, if nothing else."

She's not surprised that the Swimmer is keeping her distance. urSan likes keeping herself a bit of a mystery, and skekSa likes her for that. She's still more proactive than the typical Mystic and resisted the retreat to their hidden valley. She, too, helps the Sifa clan, though in a more secretive way.

The Mariner nods grimly. "There are whispers of dissatisfaction, that the Emperor and his minions are doing something unseemly. I've thought of asking Deethra exactly what's going on. I stay out of Court affairs for my own safety and that of the Sifa, but I will not tolerate it if he's harming my clan."

She snorts. She used to respect skekTek the Scientist for his intelligence and ingenuity, and had a feeling that skekSo was cruel to him, but if he's behind this she won't forgive him.

"Ah, if it isn't Sailor Eindrid." skekSa trills deep in her throat, an almost musical sound, somewhere between a songbird and a velociraptor. "It's been a while, lad. Your father brought me here to show you his ship."