Sailing Ether Tides

Sailing Ether Tides

Ch: 51 Not Today, Son

Flash and Barry had a lovely time; chatting and being silly, goofing on each other as boys will… Back at the inn, when they finished unloading, Barry took Flash to the public baths for a wash; to get the scent of dried monster and small animal hides out of his sensitive nostrils.

Lindsey found herself grateful for that, since she was experiencing his sense of smell through their bond and it was pretty miserable.

The young nurse… or former nurse found herself in Amy’s tidy little room upstairs to confer with her new girlfriends…

“How’d it go?” Maya asked, looking hopeful, but not overly so.

With a great, gasping sigh, she flopped down on Amy’s fluffy, pillowy soft bed and rolled around in the marvelous covers for a few moments.

“I’d be over the moon, If he treated me like he does my horse…” She moaned. “But I see and hear everything Flash does… so it’s really confusing and super weird!”

“Oh…” Amy mumbled happily, as a new familiar bond holder herself. “Right! And ‘cause he’s one of us, Eponna is already all over him. That’s gotta be complicated, feelings wise.”

“He’s rubbing Flash’s ears… in the bath… right now and it feels… so good.” She moaned pitifully.

“And you see through his eyes?” Maya asked, intrigued by this new magic her friends possessed.

“Yes, and Flash has a very wide range of vision…” She mumbled, her face so bright red it was almost glowing. “There’s a red haired giant in there with the biggest…”

“That’s my uncle Tallum, he’s the sweetest guy… but yeah.” Amy mumbled awkwardly. “My family has a lot of experience with… complicated familiars, we can work on some mental techniques and animus cultivation to help in the meantime.”

“Really? Because this is a lot to deal with. I’m pretty confused and dizzy a lot of the time.” She murmured, nearly lost in the fluffy princess bed.

“I think my pops is already working on something for that, so just try and stay relaxed.” Amy soothed her. “My Shiro is a spirit, so he’s less… immediately jarring. The ghosts are a little annoying though.”

“G-G-Ghosts?” She stammered from the chenille fastness of Pillowfort Amy, bulwark against boys, bed of the Pirate Princess.

“Oh, yeah. But we’ve always been pretty haunted anyway. It’s a family tradition.” Amy sighed sadly. “Another Ward family tradition is being absolutely socially inept.”

The beautiful, dusky skinned Pirate sighed and shook out her long, silken black hair. “He took you on a walk in the market… to buy stinky monster hides and loose pelts?”

When Lindsey nodded, Amy’s eyes flashed with anger and disappointment. “I’d like to apologize for that…” Under her breath, Amy muttered softly to herself; and her younger brother out in the stables, grifting the guests.

“I thought you took care of… the date problem.”

“I gave him half a bronze mark in loose change…” Harry muttered in wide wonder, while he groomed a sweet tempered mare.

“Even a complete goof couldn’t screw up with… Tell me he didn’t take her buying monster parts.”

“He totally took her out to buy monster parts.” Amy whispered through her vocal gifts, directly into her brother’s ear.

“Gods above and below…” He muttered in horror. “Don’t worry, we can fix this!”

“Nope, I’m taking command. Stand down, soldier.” Amy spoke crisply, for an eldritch whisper across the plane of shadows and the shadiest parts of the magical spectrum.

“This is a battle of the sexes, don’t get caught in the crossfire.”

“Too late, far too late.” The youngest Ward boy whispered to the horsie he was brushing down, since no one else was listening.

#

Gary deliberately isolated himself from most of the goings on in the household for a few hours. He needed all his efforts directed towards creating a magical item to damp down or suppress some of the sensory input from the familiar bond. That would make their transition into their new life much easier… for both of them.

The difficulty came in crafting the thing; divine bonds, especially familiar bonds were devilishly tricky. He spun his project around and around, seeking any imperfections or irregularities. Satisfied, he began pouring over the surface, checking each tiny rune and magical glyph.

The spellwork on the outer surfaces were for durability, corrosion resistance, impact and interference shielding and a nifty charm designed to prevent loss or theft.

The real meat and potatoes of the work was on the inner circumference, where the slim silver bangle would touch her skin.

Soft music began, as the shadowy forest realm that haunted his restless dreams manifested around the craftsman at his work. A soft piano line tinkled and sang sweetly for a few timeless moments, as his world narrowed to encompass only the tiny band of silver on his bench.

An intricate tangle of sutras, spells and charms wove over the inner surface, tangled together in an eye watering mixture of alphabets, from modern english, to cuneiform and pictographs from all over human history. No sane mage could or would be able to decipher his mad tangle of alien languages and scripts, at least not without his very odd gift and background.

A slightly harsh, longing voice began to croon plaintively from the shadows all around, as guitars swelled and rose among drums and bass that called to him, from the edges of reality.

The dark side's coming now, nothing is real…

Gary, an orphaned, homeless, crippled teenager from another world had spent his lonely, furtive childhood in the local library, wherever he’d found himself. In the library, he was at peace, out of the weather and surrounded by books. The siren call of a place that was warm and dry all winter and cool all summer was irresistible, even if he had to be quiet…

He’d never been too avid a reader, but eventually he’d plowed through much of the great literature of the past, just to avoid drawing attention. Readers became invisible in the quiet, tranquil library, while idle loungers invariably drew hostile attention… something a kid hiding from the state system couldn’t afford. Invisibility had been his watchword; keep quiet, stick to shady, lonely corners and avoid any attention.

For two years he’d lived on his own, since escaping juvie and vanishing into the streets of northern California. Without warning one evening, he’d been forcibly shoved through the veil while heading home from his unreported, under the table job.

He’d fallen down dead on earth, or so he gathered, as his soul was drawn away to finally arrive here, on the ancient, spirit haunted realm of faery; with a head full of music… and books that were in languages he could suddenly speak and read.

A fortunate crack in his broken, damaged soul allowed him access, subconsciously at first, to all the information crammed in his head; from every encyclopedia, dictionary, and book he’d ever read, or even flipped through. All the documentaries, boring classes in school and every dull tv program he had to sit through in the dayroom in juvie were suddenly valuable resources.

On this world of magic, where literacy was nearly a lost art outside the nobility; script, sutras and cryptic runes carried the weight of the ages, pressing down on the human races’ shared memories, gaining an outsized metaphysical gravity all their own.

Magic is the essence of sentient Wills and Minds, churning their thoughts and desires into the planet’s magical fields, influencing and being influenced by the endless, teeming generations of mortal lives; human and others, that had sprawled across the ancient realm of the fae.

Here written words, especially if they were foreign to the reader, carried weight and potency that could move mountains, if they were impressively mysterious and cryptic enough… As a huge nerd and borderline complete goofball with a dramatic, overwrought, chuni streak, Gary was an ideal mad wizard… or he had been.

Aint' nothing's gonna save ya from a love that's blind

Slip through the dark side and cross that line…

On the dark side, oh yeah

His natural craftyness and background as an artisan, combined with his innate brokenness; to spill fragments of his living soul into the works of his hands, creating a magic unseen in the realm in countless generations.

Now, only fragments of his odd and distressing power to touch the hearts and minds of others remained… And his vast store of human music, poetry and languages from another freaking world and time.

When he strung out his Will and desires in the near endless ancient scripts his translation gift had opened to him, he’d discovered his own brand of magical engineering.

Sometimes it was intentional, designed and devised to a strict and rational plan… Other times he just got lost in the music and magic. When that happened, the results could be odd.

Surrounded by the shadow forest that was a dim reflection of what he had been, a faint trickle of power lingered just within reach. Like a thirsty man in the desert, the allure of that spring of cool, fast flowing magic carried him away.

He became lost in thoughts of flying behind Kree’s eyes; experiencing the joy of natural flight, as he touched Eponna’s bond and began manipulating the energies of her free spirited, joyous magic.

He felt really on, this evening… more in the zone than he’d been in years and it was intoxicating.

With music out of reach, his crafts and Kree’s headlong flights through the starlit woods had become his creative outlets, easing the pain of his new existence…

He kept working his silver bangle, inscribing the words and secrets of a time and place so alien to this world, slowly filling up the available space, long after he’d finished the task he’d set out on.

With a sharp tinkle of shattering glass, the silver bangle dropped from his hand, falling to the table where it landed with a loud, bell-like ringing sound.

A grunt of displeasure sounded in the soft, lingering music of the outro to ‘On The Dark Side’, almost lost in the fading song. The last notes drifted away, as he tried to collect his dropped project… and couldn’t.

He simply couldn’t pick up or move the thing, not even a little. It was some weird combo of too small and slick to grip, too heavy to pick up and resistant to his touch.

He took a deep, calming breath; taking air in slowly, over a slow four count, holding it for four more long seconds. He began expelling his breath slowly, taking a full measure and leaving his lungs empty at the end of the cycle for the same count, before repeating. The ‘square breath’ was a basic technique for balancing one’s aura, Will and Mind for intense magical workings.

He exhaled one long, sacred breath into his workshop and reached out a single finger to inquire, rather than manipulate the object.

The Shadowmounted’s Bangle, Enchanted jewelry. You are incompatible with this work of craft.

This band will allow the familiar and her bonded rider to proactively and consciously regulate the bond’s sensory inputs and outputs.

This object has been touched by the divine.

All further details occult.

“Huh…” He mumbled. “Weird.” With that, he draped a clean linen cloth over the immobile bracelet and headed for the stairs, as reality reasserted its hold on the workshop.

In a far back corner, unseen by all, an interstellar cellar spider spun wildly in its web, before vanishing with a faint crackling sound and a short lived shower of pretty, eldritch sparkles.

#

“Master Ward…” Lindsey said very carefully to her unpredictable and deeply troubling host.

“Just Gary, I’m an apprentice Adventurer; otherwise, I’m just Gary.” He murmured happily. “What’s up?”

“Err… What is my familiar doing in your house?” She asked calmly. “Shush, Flash, I didn’t ask you, silly horse.”

“It’s fine, He’s wearing slippers.” The strange man said cheerfully, while pointing to the fluffy, leather soled slippers her horse was wearing. Four matching horse slippers adorned his hooves. Slippers in the shape of a plush human head… her human head, captured in charming embroidery and fluffy dyed fur.

“That’s a whole other thing… Master Wa… Gary.” She mumbled awkwardly, as he tried to carry on, leading her horse to the door to his forbidden workshop.

“It’s fine, he just needs to help me with something, downstairs.” Barry’s dad sang in his odd, lyric accent.

Amy swept in and took her by the hand with a kiss on her cheek. “Don’t worry. Eponna’s got a huge crush on my dad. She’s still super mad he can’t Contract her.”

With that enigmatic declaration, she hauled her tall, lanky new friend over to the bar so they could continue hanging out, while Amy, Harry and Rio worked on dinner together.

“Yeah, buddy, just in time. It’s steak night; snake steak, I think. That monster viper was enormous!” He told the frisking, slipper clad colt, as they headed downstairs into the mysterious ‘Lab’.

#

Flash bumbled back up a few minutes later, alone. He slid the workshop door open unaided somehow and closed it after himself in a manner that remained unclear, before trotting directly up to Lindsey in his silly slippers, his head held high in triumph.

“Slow down, goofus, you’re not making any sense, talking with your mouth full… what is that?.” Lindsey turned to her new friends and shrugged. “He said something about how he’s carrying a gift from ‘Shadowmounted’ or some such foolishness.”

“Oh, that’s my pops. Eponna’s children all call him that… She really likes him, she’s forever giving him weird and wordy names like ‘the rider in darkness’ and stuff like that.: She shrugged. “So, whatcha got, Flash?” Amy demanded of the tall skinny familiar, shooting him between the eyes with a cheerful wink.

He leaned his head over the bar and dropped a slim silver bangle onto the smooth, polished oak.

The thing landed with terrible weight and the resounding, dulcet chime of a single enormous silver bell being struck… and then muted.

They all leaned closer, peering at the simple little ornament without touching it. The thing seemed absurdly massive in some inexplicable way; just looking at it made the idea of moving such a weighty thing nearly impossible.

“It’s a bracelet?” Lindsey finally asked. “I couldn’t accept a thing like this…”

“You’ve left the familiar world you know, Lindsey.” Her host’s soft, lyric accent spoke behind her. While she was stammering and holding her hands up in denial, a huge, leathery paw reached out and clasped her tiny wrist.

“You’ve taken a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist.” He announced in a strange, stentorian tone that suggested he was quoting scripture, followed by a foolish giggle of mirth, while his kids all moaned softly in fond mockery and false distress.

“Nope, no Knight rider references… weirdo.” Amy said firmly, while picking up the bangle without any trouble and slipping it over her new friend’s captured wrist.

“No complaints.” The giant murmured gently from behind her, seeming terribly large; despite the smile on his familiar face, that was so much like Barry’s.

“Your goddess had me make this for you, she says it’s yours and neither one of us get to argue with her.” The huge man shrugged and smiled again.

“There’s only a few gods who can boss me around…”

The small group looked down at the unimpressive, if valuable little circle of wrought silver on her slim wrist; staring in silence for a moment.

“You should learn how to use that before dinner. The way you smell, hear, see and taste everything Flash does; he gets the same from you.” Barry’s dad murmured.

The big man grinned and turned to walk off, still speaking cheerfully in his singsong way.

“He’d rather skip the grilled snake we’re having tonight. Though, he does enjoy a nice salad.” That startled Lindsey and made her feel a bit guilty for enjoying seconds of the groundworm sausages at lunch.

“Now that’s settled, I’m off for a pre-dinner walk in the…”

Gary fell silent for a moment as he stepped into the place where they would change footwear when coming in or going out.

“Hey! Those were new sandals!” He cried from the foyer.

#

“You should probably just ignore most of what he says…” Amy sighed as she leaned on her new friend and clung to the bigger girl’s arm, conveniently preventing her from taking her new jewelry off.

“If he didn’t give you a card with all its properties spelled out, that means it’s probably already attuned to your bond with Flash.”

“I don’t know what that means.” She mumbled awkwardly, still appalled by an actual silver ornament, on her wrist, even if it was plain and unornamented… Or was it? The soft, matte finish of the bangle seemed to be more intricately and prettily inscribed than she’d first suspected.

Peering closer, she found a mind bendingly complex and incomprehensible network of tiny symbols and markings; wrapped around, over and through each other in an impossible tangle that was surely…

Between two heartbeats, a cluster of small glowing images shimmered into view around the silver band, floating above it in a fixed relative position to the bangle, no matter how her hand moved.

Celestial bodies that were familiar to her, from the jewel strung night sky slowly gathering outside dangled like charms from her bracelet.

She touched the tiny, radiant sun, captured and hovering a scant inch from her wrist; it was gently warm on her fingertips and felt soft, almost squishy. The glowing orb would rotate, it turned with ease in two directions, while remaining absolutely fixed in any other dimension.

As she turned it to the right, her disorienting, if manageable double vision faded slightly. Flash sat up and twitched all over in pleasure; as if he also felt an improvement in the uncomfortable dual sight they were experiencing.

Rotating it the other way, her own sight dimmed and her perception through his eyes sharpened significantly.

With a little experimentation, she found the trick of it, splitting their visual inputs apart and sending her slow churning headache off to bed at last.

The softly glowing, yellow orb of Beast’s moon dialed their sense of taste and smell the same way, letting her manage the inputs. She could do without the taste of his hay, though grain with molasses was delightful, since the horses all received toasted, rolled grains. Both humans and equines were happier with cooked oats, barley and corn rather than the standard grain rations most stables provided.

The softly gleaming polestar managed their hearing, while the evening star handled tactile sensations. The Madman’s moon seemed to do little beyond dimming all of their senses entirely, when rotated in the one direction it would turn.

Lost in the wonder of the beautiful, functional thing; Lindsey never noticed the others watching her, as she played with the imaginary objects on her wrist. It took only a few seconds to completely distance herself from the sight and sound of a large man who was scolding her familiar, in a tone that was equal parts frustrated, exhausted and amused.

“...I don’t go around pooping on Eponna’s shrines, do I? This is getting pretty messed up! Even in my house? You should be ashamed!”

The strange scene faded from her mind, bringing sweet peace and quiet to her suddenly very noisy and busy head.

#

At dinner, she watched her host and hostess almost as much as she paid attention to her own companions at the ‘Muffin’s table’ by the bar. Their giant parents shared an intimate little round table in the corner, sitting across from each other, but leaning close to whisper and giggle together, as if alone in an empty room.

She wound up pressed between Maya and Barry on a long bench that should have been hard and uncomfortable, but seemed strangely… comfy. Compact and muscular, Maya seemed determined to keep her pushed up against Barry, even if that meant the two were constantly bumping elbows and mixing up their cutlery. Flash ‘helped’ by constantly nuzzling or snuffling in the hair of one or the other, causing constant wiggling, giggles and confusion in both of them.

“Hah! That’s an indirect kiss! Score one for me!” Maya crowed, when Lindsey found Barry’s fork between her lips, carrying a steaming morsel of delicious serpent glazed with soy and brown sugar.

Amy pulled a slightly sour face, as she produced a small notepad from her bodice and made the required notation.

“What was that, sister Amy?” Lindsey demanded a moment later, once her mouth was empty and she’d returned Barry’s fork. “Sorry, Barry.” She whispered as she passed the implement back.

“Oh… that. Maya, Becky and I have a running bet, that’s all.” She answered sweetly. “Don’t trouble yourself over our foolishness. We’re just silly girls.”

Lindsey failed to follow up or protest that awful behavior, since Barry had promptly loaded Lindsey’s soiled fork with fresh garden vegetable salad and made things even steven, while blushing deliciously and looking her in the eyes.

“You suck, Maya…” Amy sighed, with her notebook in hand.

That brought a naughty giggle to the girl’s lips, as she and her horsie accomplice pushed her victims back onto each other with more vigor.

#

Evening brought an awkward moment, as her hosts kept sliding closer and closer together in their private corner, making the room seem uncomfortably… full. The two grownups were cooing and giggling in some really awkward ways, like a newly married couple at spring festival.

“That’s our cue, kids.” Becky said quietly, when she stopped by their table, her husband’s hand clenched in hers. Sir Kermal followed along behind her, docile and happy to be dragged around by his beautiful, diminutive wife.

“Lin, when Gary and Shai get like this… well it’s better if we give them some space and privacy.” The high priestess of Knowledge whispered through a smile of radiant pleasure.

“It’s nice to see…” The fond and loving sound of her voice seemed to warm the whole room as she spoke. “It’s not so nice to share a roof with.”

“Moonrise cruise?” Amy offered. “Out on the lake, where it’ll be nice and quiet?”

That brought a swift consensus from the girls, while the four triplets retired to Rio’s cottage again.

Briefly, Lindsey wondered where she would sleep. Her quarters at the temple were in the sacred cloister, only acolytes of the blessed Healer could enter, by sacred law. Likewise she no longer had quarters assigned at the small, crowded orphanage on the hill… The thought of staying in Barry’s room again was sweetly tempting, but she felt weird taking over his personal space.

Flash was an additional complication; As glad as she was to have his senses muted in her mind, she disliked the idea of him sleeping in the stable alone just as much as the idea of being parted from her bumbling, foolish horsie was intolerable.

“Come on, Lindsey, let’s go… we’re boat camping on the lake… girl’s night!” Amy’s strong, dark hand clamped down on her wrist and dragged her out the door and down to the long pier on the riverside, below the house. Flash trotted along serenely, careless of his mistress’ abduction by Maya and Amy.

They trooped down the dock and onto the long riverboat moored there, her blue paint work and shining silver embellishments shining in the bright moonlight.

On the gangway, she balked.

“I have Flash with me…”

Amy stared back at her in bland surprise. “Uh, huh? Yeah?” She asked patiently. “Let’s keep it moving, our captain’s coming, everybody aboard.”

The dock shook as if under the hooves of a massive destrier… When She glanced back, a dark brown warhorse of truly terrifying size walked gently down the dock, wearing slippers not unlike Flash’s and a sassy little black, tricorn hat pinned in her mane…

In the face of a warhorse, wearing slippers depicting the features of a handsome, square jawed blonde man and an elegant hat, Lindsey gave in to the madness. She stepped off the gangway and let the enormous creature pass by.

“Annie! We’re all ready!” Amy sang, as the horse stepped aboard and into her fond embrace. “We haven’t had any time together since you got home, love!”

The boat shifted subtly, as she drifted slowly away from the dock and onto the waters of the lake. Rather than heading to the helm, Amy turned to the hatch that led below.

“Admiral…” Lindsey began, unsure of the protocol once they were ‘sailing’. “Shouldn’t you be driving the boat?”

“Nope, the captain wanted to take the helm, she’s been landlocked for a little while.” She nodded to the steersman’s station, where the horse had the tiller tucked through her halter.

“Relax, she’s the best steershorse in the duchy.”

The three girls and Flash curled up in the spacious, well appointed lounge while Shiro stalked the rigging, terrorizing the night flying insects above the lake. The boat swayed and rocked ever so gently as she cut the glassy surface of the lake, following the guidance of the bold captain at the helm.

“I love staying aboard Moonrise under sail.” Amy sighed, cuddled close into Lindsey, Flash and Maya, all in a pile underneath Shiro’s tiny, purring form.

#