Esie settled back against a stone, seemingly conveniently placed just for that in her work area. We were up at her garden home. It hadn’t taken her long after we returned from the trial to show up at Mishtaw’s place and insist that I join her for practice to make up for lost time. Mishtaw hadn’t been thrilled to let her take me away, just as she was suspicious about Esie’s motivations for all of my new poisoner training, but she also couldn’t refuse given who Esie represented. I had my own suspicions about Esie and the Lady of Calm Waters, but it was also true I was determined to learn what I could from them for now. Losing their goodwill would only hinder me.
So we sat by the fire pit in her work area, surrounded by her collection of dangerous plants, checking over woolrot root to make sure it was fit for use and then dicing it up into tiny pieces so it could used in recipes later. But that was easy work and it was simple enough to talk while doing it.
“Have you recovered well? I heard the storm pummeled you quite badly,” Esie asked.
“I earned both of the boons.” I cut my next bit of root more harshly than necessary. “It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
Esie smiled. “Glad to hear it. I found the storm strenuous myself, but it’s amazing what we can experience when we put our minds to it.”
That was likely as direct as she was going to be while we were in the Seedling Palace. We might be at her second home, but there could still be prying eyes and ears. Perhaps we could have talked in the shadow paths or traveled to a random shadow somewhere, but Esie never presented it as an option. I wasn’t sure if she preferred to have the cover of us doing a legitimate activity since she already indicated that others wouldn’t be happy about me using the storm as I had, or if, despite her competency with everything else, she had trouble with shadow walking.
Either way, I could speak sideways about what I had heard in the storm since there wasn’t that much to share. My mind was more settled than it had been immediately following the trial and I’d decided to share everything. Esie and her mistress might have their own agendas, but as it was I wasn’t going to learn what they were without more information, nor could I affect anything I learned about on my own. Not as a seedling.
So I’d give them the little I had from the storm and see what they did with it. Depending on their reactions I might learn if the wish maker really might have taken advantage of my impairment or if the goddess really hadn’t been in a sharing mood. However, I would keep what I saw during the dark vision trial to myself still. They hadn’t earned those yet.
I cut more root. “Indeed. I was determined to withstand the storm for as long as possible, so I cast my mind about for a source of strength. I found a wealth of prayer and praise for the goddess, but it was odd, because at the core of it I felt weakness.”
Esie peered past the dark root she was holding up to meet my gaze. “Weakness?”
“It was a tough trial. Perhaps my dedication to the goddess wasn’t as strong as it should’ve been, as the presence I felt was diminished. After that I turned my mind to the endless strength of the ocean. Pictured myself withstanding the storm as standing the path of the depth’s armies.”
“Such a strong imagination. I could barely even think when I was earning my boon.” She sighed lightly. “Perhaps I should also try that next time I’m in a storm.”
I shrugged one shoulder. “It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve faced. Though feeling the goddess’s eye and hearing Her words certainly renewed my dedication to Her.”
Esie went unnaturally still. “She spoke to you?”
“It was what allowed me to focus enough to start imagining things, before the winds tossed me out of the storm.”
I kept my tone as light as I could, but her sudden stillness set me on edge. I wasn’t sure why that detail would rattle her enough for her to drop her air of ease, when I wasn’t sure how else I would’ve been able to hear the little bits I did. It was the same thing that had happened when I had my first visions, and only a tiny part of the goddess’s actual attention. Which was miraculous in and of itself, but I wasn’t sure how else I could have heard anything across territories or into the ocean’s depths.
“Was your own time in the storm silent?” I asked.
She chuckled and it was like nothing had happened. “Oh, I wouldn’t say silent. There was plenty of wind and rain to rattle my ears, but I wasn’t graced with the goddess’s voice.” Esie paused to think. “No, in my case, the storm seemed to act as an amplifier for the boon I’d earned and that allowed me achieve greater results.”
“What was your boon?”
“Something useful. Yours?”
I considered repeating her answer, but that would only make it apparent that I wasn’t completely comfortable with her. I didn’t need her asking herself what else I might be hiding from her if I refused to tell her that, even if her elusive answers raised that question for me.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
So I gave her a half answer. “I’ll be able to wind whisper where the air is weak. So it might come in handy if there’s ever another situation like the one on the shore.”
Esie looked confused for a moment before her expression cleared. “The Wind Snake incident. Yes, hopefully they won’t be able to replicate that in the future.”
She caught my own confused look and explained further, “People heard that the wind died or was stolen on the southern shore and that it had to do with some seaside cave, and that cave was also where a large water snake destroyed a good bit of land. Everyone got tired of explaining every detail and somewhere along the line ‘cave’ got dropped, so now we have that rather misleading title. It makes for a good drinking game though: seeing what fantastical story someone can come up with based on the name and then taking a drink for every highlight they missed from what actually happened.”
I focused on the woolrot root in front of me and kept quiet. It was weird to think others would have a drinking game based on what I went through.
Esie continued on, “From the versions I’ve heard you’ve killed that snake with everything from a lucky bit of lightning to getting it to choke on a boulder, though most people like the original, where you stab it from inside its mouth.”
I paled. “What?”
She shifted to a more comfortable spot. “People love retelling that part. That a seedling managed to kill the snake and save the day. Makes the whole thing seem even more mythlike. Really, sometimes the storyteller has to take an extra drink if they get that part wrong. Most don’t know your name, but they’ll add in other things for bonus points: the nickname Little Diver, that mark on your chin, things like that.”
I just looked at her in horror.
I’d enjoyed my time under Mishtaw’s mentorship and the fact that it meant we were away from the Seedling Palace more often than not. I didn’t have to worry about Jin or the other whisper women or dealing the infamy I’d gained. I could ignore all that in favor of focusing on my training.
But now I was going to join a sect and I doubted I’d be able to just disappear to another part of the goddess’s territory. Not without at least some other seedlings and a whisper woman or two join me. I wouldn’t be able to escape it, especially if they were connecting the different stories together.
If they remembered my trial mark then it wouldn’t be long before my journey through Flickermark was connected to the snake tale, if it wasn’t already. Maybe that would be connected to other things, like when I attacked that whisper woman I shouldn’t have or the corpse gorger dying after we went on the statue or even my most recent stunt with the storm. That’d all likely lead to the knowledge of my blessing being spread even further, perhaps with the accusations of being life ridden to go with it.
I didn’t need a drinking game about my exploits.
But it also wasn’t something I could stop, especially if it was as common as Esie made it sound, going strong years after my time on the shore. Trying to stomp it out would only draw more attention to me.
I lifted my chin and met her gaze. “Do you think it’ll go away?”
She shook her head regretfully. “No…it’s one of my favorites.”
“I’ll take on another favor.”
Esie raised her eyebrows. “A personal one? I couldn’t speak for the Lady of Calm Waters in this.”
I glared at her. We both knew the Lady of Calm Waters likely had little to do with any drinking games. “If I need to.”
She tapped her chin and smiled. “Well, I’ll see what I can do. Perhaps everyone will be interested in a bit of shadow hop now that it’s not being done to death.”
We focused back on our work with the roots. No doubt Esie was figuring out all the angles she could use what I had told her while I had my own new bits of information to sort through. It hadn’t escaped my notice that Esie had turned the conversation before I could question her too much about the differences in our experiences with the storm of storms or her reaction to what I told her. It’d be interesting to see what moves Esie and the Lady of Calm Waters made next.
Overall, though, most things with them were outside my sphere of influence. I’d learn what I could, but it’d be better for now to focus on the things I could control. The goddess’s actions in the inner valleys would mitigate people believing Deamar’s complaints that his life being ruined was all my fault, if anyone was even listening to him, but that didn’t mean that the people who didn’t like me wouldn’t find out about the Dawn Crawler’s decree and still try to tie us together to hinder me. I’d either need to accept my own firestarter before that happened or somehow get him attached to someone else.
Other than that there was still the matter of settling on the sect I wanted to join, and gaining all my boons had helped push me towards some over others. I could see myself having some affinity with all of them except for the Caretakers sect. I had no desire to be tied down to one place and the whisper women at Flickermark’s Grove hadn’t exactly been welcoming.
But I knew my interest was weighted towards three of the others: the Scales, Peacekeepers, and Hundred Eyes. They all felt like a way to make a new start, though some obviously came with extra difficulty. My time on the shore could help me with the Peacekeepers, though Jin would likely take the opportunity to ruin me whenever she could. Her supporter, Yule, in Hundred Eyes would likely do the same along with the second-in-command. But both of those options seemed like they’d make good use of the skills I’d gained while not rendering my blessing useless. Joining the Scales sect seemed like it could be a better use of my more mental talents while not having the same baggage as the other two. Still, I was somewhat drawn to the challenge the others presented.
I could always be an unusual member of a Sect as well, like Esie and Mishtaw and Nine Claws. Make my own place in it. I just wasn’t certain what that place would be yet. Others might have plenty of stories to tell about me, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted my truth to be. Maybe I could be the hero girl killing water snakes or the life ridden danger Jin wanted to purge from the Seedling Palace, but accepting those titles didn’t sit right.
Maybe I could just keeping doing what needs to be done and go from there. Then what picking a sect just became a matter of deciding which one I could do the most in rather than who might like me the most or which one would be the most interesting.
I inspected and chopped roots as I thought about my options until we ran out, which didn’t take long once we were more focused on the task than talking. Esie let me go with another smile and told me to tell Mishtaw she could come chat whenever she wanted. I told her, but I wasn’t sure she ever took Esie up on the offer. Otherwise, I’d have listened in if I could.