why me?

[small_magics]

Isibel spends her last day on the island flying, and then she rejoins her expedition, and packs, and sleeps, and in the dawnlight she gets back on the boat to sail back to the Elven Lands.

She is kept quite occupied with small magics to keep the ship operating smoothly, and also with notebooking - writing quite small, as she brought more than enough notebooks for three weeks but then unexpectedly used many of them to draw and write with the demon and has only half of one left for several days at sea.

They land on the shore of the Elven Lands on schedule, and disembark.

Comments

[pythbox]

"Um, okay," says Liselen. "But it was very unicorn, I don't think it'll make sense to you either. Unless you know what touching a clear well with your horn feels like. And I don't think you do."

[small_magics]

"I don't," admits Isibel. "It is very puzzling indeed that something so specific to unicorns would be included in a message intended for me and my Bondmates."

[pythbox]

"Yes, well, the message is getting sent by unicorn," says Liselen. "There's probably something I'm missing. I was probably supposed to interpret that part to mean something, like I did with the rest. Maybe it means everything will be fine after you and your co-Bonded do what you're supposed to," he says doubtfully. "But that sounds really redundant too, and I don't think the Wild Magic usually sends redundant messages. Especially not by unicorn."

[small_magics]

"Perhaps I could help you translate if I knew more about what it feels like to touch a clear well with one's horn," Isibel says. "Though I do not know to what extent it would admit description."

[pythbox]

"It feels like... it feels right," he says. "Good. Purifying water feels good too, but differently. When the water's already pure, it's like... I don't know." He swishes his tail. "It's just nice. Are those berries any good, can I have one?"

[small_magics]

"Perhaps the pure water represents something," suggests Isibel. "I have not finished the berries to my satisfaction, but they will not harm you if you would like a taste now."

[pythbox]

Liselen nibbles up a berry.

"Tasty!" he declares. "Maybe you're right. But I don't know what it represents."

[small_magics]

"Something that is - already pure, I suppose, or that might be expected to become impure but will not," Isibel speculates. "I am not familiar with whether it is likely to be a person, or a place, or an object..."

[pythbox]

"I don't really know," says Liselen. "The idea is, by the time I really need to know it, I'm supposed to have figured it out somehow."

[small_magics]

Isibel thinks. She tastes one of her berries, then tries her spell again.

Then she says, "My Bonded's other Bondmate is a benign demon. Perhaps it has to do with him."

[pythbox]

Liselen prances sideways in surprise.

Then he says, "Wait, he's Tialle's Demon?!"

[small_magics]

"Yes. Unless she had associations with more than one of them."

[pythbox]

"There wasn't more than one of them that she liked," he says. "Oh, everything makes so much more sense now."

[small_magics]

"The new sense that your message makes would be good hearing."

[pythbox]

"Well, obviously it's supposed to tell me that he's really for sure not Tainted," he says, flicking his tail, "so I can vouch for him like Gramps did for Vestakia. Except less comfortably, because unless Tialle was way wrong about some stuff, he's still... um, you know... that other thing that makes unicorns twitchy."

[small_magics]

"That is good to know," Isibel says. "...The part about him not being Tainted."

[pythbox]

"Yep," says Liselen. "Uh-huh. Definitely."

[small_magics]

"If there are other parts to the message that you have not related, I would help you with them if I can."

[pythbox]

He shakes his head. "Nope. Now that I know what it means, 'your Bonded isn't Tainted' is definitely the last one."

[small_magics]

"All right. He isn't Tainted. We must work together to defeat the threat. Thank you for telling me."

[pythbox]

"You're welcome!" says Liselen. "Good luck! Will I distract you too much if I stay here while you do magic to this bush?"

[small_magics]

"Not overmuch, no." Isibel does some more magic to the bush.

[pythbox]

Liselen watches. There isn't very much to see, but he seems content anyway.

[small_magics]

Eventually Isibel is done with her berries. She cuts a branch to bring back to her teacher, and picks a few to eat. "You're welcome to the remainder," she tells Liselen.

[pythbox]

"Thanks!"

Nom nom nom.