Mellia — Of Wyters
????, Fire Season, Season/Illusion Week
Context
1626 Fire Season/Illusion Week/Fireday/right after lunch. [[[s01:session-44|Session 44]]]
Events
Somewhat before lunch, Mellia goes looking for Nala. Mellia will try the stable first.
The stable is absent of menagerie, but a small groom says that Pointy Horse just left and you could catch him up.
Mellia asks the groom which way the Pointy Horse went.
He points towards the Temple section of the city.
Mellia thanks the groom and hurries off. Since Mellia only uses a donkey cart and that only for long trips, she hurries off on foot to the Temple of Ernalda.
It’s quite easy to find an Amazon on unicorn-back. Tiwr seems to be practicing dancing in an open bit of space.
Mellia stops at a respectful distance and calls, “Good morning!”
Nala looks around. “Oh, hi Mellia! I was just wondering whether I should try divination at all. But I can’t think of a good question. If you come with us I can get you a tisane. “
“I would love one,” Mellia replies. “Thank you! I can’t think of a good question after the answer Varanis got, except perhaps ‘which heroquest is Kallyr on?'”
“Mmm. And she isn’t technically on the earth, if she is questing.”
“Do we need to know where her body is?”
Mellia agrees, “She isn’t. I think we can only find her body if she’s dead. Otherwise it should be in the quest with the rest of her.”
“I wonder,”starts Nala, “if the wound Chalana Arroy couldn’t heal isn’t already going to be present on Irillo, and that would avoid horrible things happening to you.”
“Hmm. His kidney wound was made with The Wound Chalana Arroy Could Not Heal. I don’t remember seeing anything stuck in Irillo.”
“Yes, that is what I mean. And in the Lightbringers, Orlanth loses his companions as they are defeated one by one, Chalana Arroy by the wound. If I’m remembering correctly. I wonder if that might change the…the…” her TradeTalk fails. “Parrot? Bah. Of the quest.”
“I don’t know,” Mellia admits. “We probably get to find out. We need Irillo with us, but I probably can’t use healing magic on him at all.”
“Where is he? I got bogged down at the temple of Humakt.”
“I think Irillo is in the Temple of Chalana Arroy.”
“Let me know if you need help there. I can watch him if necessary. “My mother sent me here to help. But Ernalda doesn’t appear in many runequests, and the one she does appear in I can’t do because fertility is not a rune I have affinity with. So I really don’t know why I’m here. It’s frustrating.”
“Your mother may know something we do not. Thanks, I will let you know if Irillo needs watching. One of these days, I want to talk to you about Wyters, but this doesn’t seem like a good time.”
“What about wyters? We are pretty much there, you might as well have that brew.”
“Do you remember Jaldis? Among other things, she said that if I want my temple to outlast me, it will need a Wyter.”
“Oh, yes, I met her in Whitewall. That is a bit puzzling. Not every temple in the land has a wyter, and they’ve survived fine. You’d have to negotiate for a start with the Blue Tree wyter to have another one there, then make a pact of some sort or summonation. Of course the more people it supports the more powerful it is.”
Mellia nods, listening carefully. “Thank you. I probably need to apologize to the Blue Tree wyter for not being there to heal its people.”
“‘The wyters are spirits and don’t recognise time in the same way we do. It’s all sort of…swirly. When I talked to Huljeem ((Here Nala is suddenly very very sad, and her eyes moisten)) he’d been dead probably a thousand years and didn’t know it. His knowledge of what exists was not mine, to put it the easiest way. I mean, as more generations died more spirits got there, so abjectly he knows time is passing, but it isn’t something he actively feels or is subject to. Does that make sense?” Nala stands, gets a herbal cup for Mellia, and small ale for her and Tiwr, and comes back.
Mellia gratefully accepts the tea and sips it. “Sort of. So no apology may be needed, because the wyter may not have noticed that I’m gone?”
“I didn’t meet the wyter, so I can’t really judge its thoughts. It will know you are not on the Tula, if asked, but at the same time you are on the Tula and you have been on the Tula. My verbs are probably wrong. Because time is more like an eddy of water that humans convince themselves is a straight gravel path.”
Mellia appears slightly confused by this, but nods anyway.
Nala will notice and is immediately apologetic. “I’m sorry. What did I explain badly? The time thing? We are walking forwards next Clayday in a straight line, with the other days in between. As if it were on a map. But you cannot point to Clayday on a map. Is that any better?”
Mellia nods. “Thanks.”
“I’m sorry, I know I’m bad with words. You can’t point your finger at Clayday, either. But the Godtime has Clayday and all Clayday in it. At the same, um, time, that’s not the right word, as it has everything else.”
“It’s okay,” Mellia reassures Nala. “Maybe it would make more sense with more sleep.”
“I can take you to a room if you want a place to sleep without walking back into town.” Zinat, hearing something in what Nala says, though what is not clear, bounces a bit. “Ok, Zinat will take you back,” smiles Nala
“I think I had better be back in town, but thank you.” Mellia finishes her tisane and leaves for the White Grape.
