The night is a strange thing, hiding much, and revealing in equal measure. A tug pulled me from my sleep with the sound of crashing waves. I wasn’t even fully awake before I found myself ankle-deep in the ocean. A sleepy smile floated across my lips as I felt the churning energies rolling against me.

I found myself in motion once more before my conscious mind could catch up. Dancing in and out of the surf before my mores and hesitations could keep me from swaying in the twinkle of moonlight. My pale skin illuminated, as I wore little more than the wraps girding my hips, and a band across my chest. I couldn’t quite bring myself to care though as I felt that tug once more. Pushing me up away from the surging surf, tugging me back to crash through the waves.

This time I let the water soak my skin, my garments, surely a scandalous show to anyone watching. The moon seemed to shine brighter still this evening, as I felt it’s pull on me…on the water. My eyes fluttering wide in realization as I rode the receding tides out, as my vessel churned with moonlit energies. I could feel the influence that heavenly body had on my much more terrestrial one. I could feel it tugging at the swirl of watery chi inside of me.

At first I warred with it, trying to pull more of the water’s energy to myself. Trying to take back control, trying to seize what I felt was mine. The firmer though I tried to grasp at the energies formerly so freely offered all around, the faster they slipped through my fingers. My breathing became harsh, panicked, my lips parched, my throat aching. I released my grip with a gasp, finding instead, a light filling my vessel.

Blinking in surprise, I remembered an early lesson offered to those who were aspected as I was. We were trained in multiple weapons, in softer disciplines, and taught to take advantages where they came, and to mitigate the disadvantages of our cultivation all the same. Water fills, flows, takes the shape of the vessel that holds it… But no vessel can contain it forever, for even the heavens themselves crave the taste, lifting it away in the noonday sun and the evening chill alike. Spirits and gods scattering watery chi, sipping from it, and offering it anew.

Taking to heart this lesson, I released my mental grip. I relaxed my churning vessel, trying to find that simple joy in motion I had when I first stepped into the moonlight. I found my breathing came easier, I could stumble along the foamy edge of the surf, but never lose my balance. The water crashed over me, soaking me, and then lifting easily from my skin. The very energies inside me seemed to sparkle and grow still, even as the waves calmed themselves on the shore.

Finally, my energies spent and refilled, my vessel pooling and twinkling serenely with that gentle light, I collapsed to the sand. Crossing my legs and trying to center myself once more. That had been strange, illuminating, and I felt…Not quite as whole as I was when I filled myself with the storm…But not aching for more either. Maybe this too was part of my Path, my Way. Maybe the waters held more to them than was even hinted at in the paltry instruction I’d received in the village and army.

Looking around me, I found many of the village’s vessels were nestled serenely on the sand, a low point of the ocean having carried them to the earth once more. I lifted my gaze to the moon, and I gasped, seeing a shadowy halo all around it, rippling mirror-like. Almost like a great iris was looking back at me. I shivered, casting my gaze lower, trying to shy away from it’s attention, but my eyes alighted instead upon something in the water. A massive ship, squared, bulky, three masts and dark sails rippling brazenly in the wind.

My eyes widened and I gathered my legs underneath me, ready to bolt back towards the village. But firm hands, wizened but powerful gripped my shoulders. “Hush child…I see it too.” I glanced back up at Elder Siu as her eyes glowed with the moonlight, her expression stern, but her eyes…Mirroring the reflection of the moon above. Inverted light and darkness, I could feel the same energies inside her, reflected in me. She chuckled, settling a blanket over my shoulders. “You should see your own.”

I blinked, wondering, but she tossed me a sheathed blade. Pulling the blade from it’s covering, I stared at my own reflection. Hair long and wild, features a mix of soft and sharp, and my eyes…Glowing like the moon’s gaze. Unable to turn away from the sight, my lips parted in shock, only the elder’s voice drew me from my daze.

“You can see the ship as well…But, well there is much yet to explain. Come.” her fingers beckoned, and I rose to my feet, sheathing the blade, and clutching the blanket to me once more to preserve my modesty. She started a slow, unhurried walk back towards her residence, “There was a reason beyond simple hospitality or convenience that I had you stay with me this night…And yet a different reason I followed you to the seaside.”

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Her steps seemed to tap out a quiet rhythm, enticing me to follow in her footsteps, curious to the nature of her motions, her actions, her words. “When you came to us, I sensed the slightest trickle of energies similar but different than my own. Last night, I saw you as you were in the storm, felt your approach, then, I saw the ship far out to sea.” I blinked, opening my mouth, but she simply raised two fingers.

“Quiet child, please listen first…Understand first, and only then be understood. I saw the ship…And then you came to me this day.” She slipped off the roadway, onto a rockier path, and I followed. “When I felt the call of the Diviner, and heard the sounds of your movements, I knew I had to follow. Though, either you are less modest than you appear, or you yourself are not aware of your own nature…”

She shook her head as docks, houses, and buildings fell away from us, leading us away from torchlight and civilization, up a small hill to the east. “I felt the way the Diviner tugged at you, saw you dance, struggle, and finally accept her tithings.” She pursed her lips, glancing back, “You are like me, and not…Your ways are strange, yet familiar…at least in one aspect.”

The moon illuminated a small stone bench that she settled on before gesturing out to the ocean view all around. “I do not know what your homeland teaches, but to us, it is well known that the Diviner has scattered many children throughout the world. That she offers us warnings, chidings, tidings, and more. In exchange though, she takes, in equal measure to what she gives in turn.”

She holds up a hand against the protest just burgeoning on the edge of my pursed lips. “It may feel less, may feel strange, but what she gave you in turn for your comfort, your…energies that you have grown used to. It is equal, always to the tithes given.” She points to where I had seen the ship before. “The ship you saw, it is not yet here. It is not lying in wait along the waves, but it is coming. Soon in fact.” She glanced over to me, patting the bench, “Don’t hover, sit child, let us talk, for I’m afraid you haven’t been truly taught about the abilities you now possess.”

Settling onto the bench, I shivered in the chill night air, then gasped in surprise as she placed a gentle hand on my exposed lower back. I stiffened at first, then slowly relaxed, as warmth radiated from her hand, suffusing my body, even as she hummed a low tune under her breath. Seemingly satisfied, she nodded, and continued.

“I get the sense that your abilities are tied to the ocean, waters perhaps, following a tradition of some sort. But you appear young yet, maybe untrained in the ways in which to properly use them, or the full context that entails.” She raised her fingers, and between them glistened flowing silver threads, “My powers, follow the weave, at first, I thought that I could simply guide fabrics easier than others. I thought my affinity was for plants, life, or something of those lines. But in my practice, my studies, my craft, I found patterns showing up.”

She chuckles ruefully, “Those patterns strangely enough, were not in beauty, shape, or texture…But in people. I found…That I could see certain patterns in the nature of people, events, and things to come. One night though…I tried warning someone about a potential partner, and the danger I sensed in them. I went to offer them a garment I had made, tried to secret them away from them in the night. But as she stepped into the moonlight…The garment, well it was taken.”

I tried to hide my blush even as a she laughed quietly, “Well you can imagine she was none-too-happy with me, but the tidings were strange enough that we both fled together in the night.” She shook her head then, “We had quite a few adventures together but well…Suffice to say, that we ended up separated, and I landed here.” She nodded at my surprised face, “Yes yes, I too am not a native of this island…Or of your own land. But before we get too side-tracked…Ask your questions now child.”

“What was that? The moon…It looked…Like it was looking back at me.” My first sentence tumbled out of my lips, then I slowed, uncertain as I stated my suspicions. “Hmm, maybe she was, I have heard them called many things, but I refer to her as the Diviner…Many arts use the moon, mirrors, and even pools of water to tell the future. And all fall under her Domain.” she replied, nodding along.

“Before tonight I’ve never…But it felt so joyous at first, then terrifying, and then simply…” She rubbed my back once more, taking her time before replying, “Then you are truly young indeed, and new to the ways of this world. Before tonight, maybe you never caught her eye, maybe you had yet to step into your power…Or…Maybe it’s because you met me.” She sighs, “And now I’m to show you, before you fall into the power of others who would simply take advantage.”

“But I’m tied to water and you’re…” She held up her hand, “I cannot teach you the other arts, for you are right and you walk a different path than I. But I do know of the ways of the Diviner, and I can feel your ties to the moon and it’s tidings. If I am responsible for putting you into her sight, then I would be remiss not to teach you the powers and dangers of the path before you….Should you let me light your way that is.”

I swallowed once, worrying at my lip with my teeth. Then I nodded, kneeling before her on the bench to offer a bow, “Please Elder…Teach this one.” “So be it.”