After spending a few weeks on the Waterborn ship, Zae Zin Nim was beginning to understand the politics of the Water Union. She wished she didn't.
As far as she could tell, the basic principle of the Water Union was that everyone was having extramarital relationships with everyone else. They had marriages - they weren't savages - yet they seemed to take it as a given that anyone who mattered would be sleeping around, as if fidelity was a quaint idea. She was accustomed to powerful cultivators actually doing this, but they usually at least pretended. Whereas here there was a prince who knew his wife was sleeping with someone Windborn and just seemed glad that she wasn't annoying him, so he could conduct his own affairs.
Ivonailin of Tides didn't seem to participate in this, yet at times he troubled her even more. He had never once done anything inappropriate, and in fact his transportation was taking her through the Water Union much faster than she could have moved herself. Yet she knew he was interested in possessing her and slowly winding coils around her.
If only she didn't need to blend in and avoid conflict, she could have simply fought anyone in her path. Instead she needed to navigate a morass of social customs, many of them with inappropriate implications, and she found herself less than confident.
Was it suggestive of her to accept a drink from a man? Her instinct was to refuse all gifts, but some of the Waterborn exchanged gifts freely. When they went through a storm, rain-repelling umbrellas were set up and there seemed to be implications sharing those, yet they were inconsistent. Were the Waterborn men offering to shield her making as much of a claim as it sounded to her?
All of that was ultimately just an annoyance... the offers of power were not. Everyone who had a sense for her strength was eager to offer her a chance at elemental powers, and this truly seemed to have no strings attached. From what she had seen,the elemental abilities were reasonably powerful, so it might be worth pursuing. Only the risk that she might harm her future cultivation or incur a political debt led her to refuse.
In order to avoid getting into trouble or sending the wrong signals, Zae Zin Nim did her best to remain distant. If she treated everyone, male or female, with the same cool politeness then she couldn't be misconstrued as flirting with everyone.
That meant that when there was driving rain, as there was that day, she sat alone under one of the umbrellas. She was doing her best to focus on cultivation when she heard some of the young Waterborn men making suggestive remarks about a woman, which was strange enough on its own, and even stranger they seemed to be looking over the side. Zae Zin Nim didn't want to have anything to do with that, so she did her best to ignore them until she heard something else.
"-from Rosemount, you think?"
"Maybe Krysali?"
"Doesn't feel like qi to me."
Despite her plans to stay aloof, Zae Zin Nim immediately leapt to her feet and braved the gaps between umbrellas to reach the side. From there she could see who they were looking at: definitely Omilaena. Her top was soaked, making it very inappropriate, and her pants were slick with the rain. And yet Zae Zin Nim could barely think about those things, she just raised a hand to get the other woman's attention.
"Mind if I come aboard?" Omilaena called over the storm. Several of the young men shouted encouragement, so she leapt up onto the deck. "Kind of you to take in a poor woman... wait a minute - Hanelay Cloudspire, is that you?"
"What are you doing here?" Zae Zin Nim asked, as if it wasn't obvious.
"Just traveling through the Water Union."
"Come this way. We should talk." Zae Zin Nim took Omilaena's hand and pulled her away from the others, toward one of the remote umbrellas. If they stood in the correct position around the shaft, it would shield them completely.
Clearly, this only increased the amount of attention on them. But if Omilaena was finally here to take her away, it might not matter - she could flee the Waterborn court and be done with them. It was a strange feeling, but Zae Zin Nim felt a sense of relief just being in the other woman's presence.
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"Getting an entire ship of people waiting on you isn't exactly being inconspicuous," Omilaena said, but even this was only gentle mocking.
"I didn't intend it," Zae Zin Nim told her. "I don't understand this place's customs at all, so I'm sure I've made mistakes. They have so many affairs here, I'm afraid I'll proposition someone by sneezing. They probably think I'm a wanton woman."
"Well, if you're worried about that, we probably shouldn't be standing under an umbrella like this."
"What?" Zae Zin Nim started to draw away, but the rain blocked her. "What do you mean? And how do you know, have you been here before?"
"Look around." Omilaena inclined her head toward the central deck. "There are families sitting under the larger umbrellas, and people gather at the umbrellas on the sides. The isolated umbrellas that make people stand together are obviously more romantic. Look at the couple over there, holding hands around it."
Could it be such a simple pattern? Zae Zin Nim looked over the ship in frustration and found a counter-example. "No, look at those two men in the back. They're standing under a lone umbrella."
"And if they're not fucking, I'll eat a syringe. Which I can actually do, by the way."
"I see. It's... okay. We can stay here."
"Can we now?" Omilaena raised an eyebrow and Zae Zin Nim flushed.
"I don't mean anything by it! I just want them to stop bothering me." She let herself a relax a little more and sighed. "I've been trying to signal that I wasn't interested, but it isn't working. I'm sure I must be misunderstanding some of their customs."
"Or you're just a beautiful woman acting remote and lonely. That's basically all it takes."
"Be that as it may! Are you here to help me get away?"
"The good news is that you're headed in the right direction and you're only a week away from our goal," Omilaena told her. "The bad news is that I just came from there and Kai hadn't arrived yet. Given that he should be relatively familiar with the territory, I don't know what's taking him so long."
"He's... he's probably dedicating his life to helping somebody he just met."
Omilaena chuckled. "Maybe so. I don't think that getting to know the locals the way you have is a bad thing. Depending on whether or not the people at the Frontier cooperate, we may want to have them supporting us."
"They've been offering to let me take a trial to awaken elemental abilities. Most likely they'd let you as well, only... do you think that could be harmful? Or, umm, seductive somehow?"
"It's probably not flirting, but it's most likely a mistake." Omilaena's expression transformed as a new spark emerged in her eyes. "I've reached a bit of a breakthrough in my research. The local system is only one way to reach an elemental capacity, and I think, this being Deadwaste, it's not a particularly good one. Whether or not elemental abilities are good for us, we shouldn't risk ourselves on such a gamble."
Zae Zin Nim nodded to herself, glad she had made the right decision. "Kai said that he tried and was immediately told he failed."
"And it burned out something in his soul. That might have worked in his case, but it'd be a bad idea for us. They trying to throw anything else at you?"
"Nothing... ability-related."
Before they could talk further, Ivonailin moved up behind them, his powers deflecting all the water that would ordinarily have landed on his head. He took a step inward, partially shielded by the same umbrella, and Zae Zin Nim had no idea whether or not that was suggestive. His expression seemed perfectly neutral, so she let Omilaena take control.
"Welcome to my ship," he said. "I'm Ivonailin of Tides. Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
"Omilaena, and the pleasure's all mine."
"If you're a friend of Hanelay, we're glad to extend our hospitality to you. I can keep the rain off, so what do you say we give you a little tour of the ship and you can find some rooms?"
Ivonailin started to move toward Zae Zin Nim, as if he was going to take her arm and escort her with them. Zae Zin Nim had no real defenses against this, outside of slapping or murder. But before he could arrive, Omilaena stepped in, taking his arm as if he'd been offering it to her.
"I'd be grateful for the tour," she said with a bright smile. "Why don't you show me around?"
They went around the ship, speaking to the other Waterborn nobles and all the different clans. Omilaena seemed to be effortlessly charming, leading them on a little but also keeping them at a distance. Even dripping in the rain she managed a sort of grace that had nothing to do with cultivation. Zae Zin Nim wished it was possible to train such a power.
"I know you wanted to go further south," Ivonailin said, "but could I convince you to come with us to the Southern Water Palace? The accommodations would be much more generous than here, and I think the court would like to meet you."
"We're looking for an ally," Zae Zin Nim said. "But... if he wasn't south..."
"The Southern Water Palace is the most important place in leagues, and if he isn't there, we can find him. But I'd like to introduce both of you to my father. He's trying to put together a little task force, and women of your power would be very well compensated."
Diverging from the plan seemed like a bad idea, but they had already been blown far off course. If Omilaena said that Kai wasn't at the meeting location, it wouldn't hurt to hear the locals out. So Zae Zin Nim gave a slight nod when Omilaena glanced at her and otherwise let the other woman talk.
"We'd be charmed."