the sea witch. [kalen] [silver crown SL]

The Sea
They get a call from a gruff-voiced Haoa early the following morning. It's just past dawn when the phone rings, and he arranges to meet at his place because, as it happens, he has his own boat and diving gear and trusts himself to navigate better than he trusts a couple of basically-unknown tourists. The request isn't especially impolite, but it is direct. It's evident from his tone that he still has mixed feelings about the trip, but he doesn't try to back out.

By the time Kalen and Kiara arrive to meet him, it's later in the morning and the sun is high and bright in the sky. Haoa is already out checking his boat, so it's Jake who greets them and walks them down to the dock that stretches out past the beach behind their house. Haoa greets them with a nod, but doesn't make much attempt at small talk. Jake seems happy enough to fill in for him though, asking the mages how they've liked the island so far and if they had a chance to visit any of the parks. He makes an effort for Haoa's sake not to let his bubbling enthusiasm get the best of him, but it's pretty clear that his feelings about the trip are markedly less ambivalent than his grandfather's. There's a bright, flashing charismatic smile that keeps appearing on his face whenever Haoa isn't looking.

Haoa's boat is older and less flashy than the one that Kalen rented, but it's in good shape and it gets them out where they need to go. Haoa keeps good time as they dart out over the lapping waves, heading away from shore and into the blue horizon. He only asks them once for the coordinates. After that, he seems content to sit at the helm and drive the boat, keeping his thoughts to himself.

At one point, a school of spinner dolphins breach the surface near the boat and start to swim along beside them, hopping elegantly through the waves. Jake leans out and runs a hand over one of the dorsal fins, which gets a brief smile from Haoa.

By the time they reach their destination, the dolphins have drifted away. (This isn't their territory and they know it.) Haoa drops the sea anchor and begins to pull on his wetsuit. Jake doesn't bother with a suit, instead pulling the straps of his oxygen tank over his bare shoulders. He does grab a mask and flippers though. There's a certain deliberation to the way Haoa prepares himself to dive. Like he's about to go off to battle. He's the last of them to finish readying his equipment, but when he's finished he doesn't speak. Just steps out and drops into the sea.

Kiara[Life 2, Turning on the Auto Defrost/Warm for Ms Woolfe. Coincidental, Base Diff 5, -1 (Taking her Time), -1 (Focus)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (5, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

KiaraKiara doesn't wear a suit, either.

She peels a breezy cotton beach dress over her shoulders and carefully casts it to one side with a pair of sunglasses. Beneath there's another set of swimwear; a simple white two piece - if she has any notions of modesty around the men she's out on the water with, they are buried deep. She tucks the end of her pendant into the join of the bikini top between her breasts, adjusts the weight of the tank over her shoulders and reaches for a mask and a set of flippers.

It's when she's carefully seated on the edge of the boat, pulling on the first flipper that she seems to grow a little distracted - her eyes closing beneath the bright glare as the sun bounced off the surface of the water. She lifts her chin and lets out a low, steady breath. Her fingers flexing at her sides.

It's only Kalen that will have a sense of it - what the pagan is actually doing while she looks as if she's calming herself for the dive. The bloom of Kiara's magick twisting and thriving; crawling and twining around the air itself, it's as if reality gave a little pulse when she works, the earth witch. Out here, on the water - it's a sudden reminder of the solidity of the land; the smell of the earth after the rain; the crisp air of a forest.

She carefully rises when she's ready and allows her gear to be checked over, tying her dark hair back from her face and watching intently as Haoa simply drops into the water - she exchanges a brief little glance Jake's way and her hand presses the younger man's arm in a vaguely comforting gesture before she sets her mask in place - and drops down into the water in his wake.

There isn't the shock of it, the way there might have been, it feels pleasantly warm against Kiara's skin; like bathwater that had slightly cooled. She waits there for a moment for the others to join them before diving down under the water; taking a moment to adjust to the weight of the diving gear on her back.

KalenKalen is, by the morning, much less moody.  Once again it is more of a casual coffee-on-the-way kind of Kalen.  He brings something with him this time in addition to all of the gear, in a small white box like jewelry comes in.  If Kiara asks, he will show it to her, a pendant made of a real orchid; if not, the first she sees of it is when Kalen offers it to Jake on the way to the dock.  He had meant to give Ali'ikai something, some other gift to have and remember; but, probably, she would rather have it from Jake.  Kalen is not so attached to the actual act of handing over the gift as to neglect to realise that.

Haoa is greeted with a nod, and Kalen too tries not to look excited at the prospect of returning to the sea witch.  Still, by the time there are dolphins swimming alongside the boat, Jake's bright smiles are met with answering ones more often than not.  Kalen is, for all his enchantment with them, clearly a little too unsure to reach out in an attempt to touch the dolphins.

Kalen puts on scuba gear, not with the deliberate care that Haoa does and not with the casual ease Jake does, but with at least a sense of familiarity.  He's done this often enough before.  Soon, if the world can keep itself from threatening to end a few more minutes longer than usual, he will be doing this with Grace.  For fun.  With tropical fish in place of sharks.  Grace will be delighted.  Kalen will...be delighted that Grace is delighted, but let us be reasonable - Kalen will miss the sharks and the artifacts and the quests.  There are some things he has never really learned to do.  Vacation is, unquestionably, one of them.

He follows Haoa into the ocean with as much grace and as minimal a splash as he can manage.  Scuba gear, however, is only so graceful outside of the water.

The SeaWhat must this feel like for Haoa? Descending into the ocean to visit a woman he hasn't seen in... what, fifty years? A woman who once gave birth to him; raised him (in part.) A woman who no longer much resembles the person she used to be. Does he have an inkling of what he will find when they reach the trench?

If so, he doesn't speak of it. And now that they're in the water, conversation is moot. One by one, the four divers drop into the sea. It's different, swimming like this. More encumbered. More human. The tanks on their backs are a reminder that the ocean will forever be something of an alien landscape for them. They are visitors here, in more ways than one.

They make their way down through the clear water, descending into the depths at a measured pace. Jake is the strongest swimmer of the group, but every time he starts to kick out ahead he slows to wait for his grandfather to catch up. Haoa, for his age, does not slow them down too much. He has been diving since before any of the rest of them were born. This is instinct for him.

Later, he will be very tired. But right now his kicks are strong.

This time, nothing is there to interrupt their journey. The sharks (were they the Rokea that Haoa referred to?) are nowhere in sight. So by the time they reach the dark shadow veiling the trench there is no reason not to simply press on ahead.

Haoa though - sees it and stops, treading water slowly as he gazes down into the abyssal blackness. Then Jake swims up next to him and puts a hand out to grasp his shoulder comfortingly. It's the only way they have of speaking, but it says what needs to be said. (I am here. Whatever happens. You are not alone.)

He took the pendant from Kalen earlier with a brief flicker of appreciation. It hangs about his neck now, floating in the dark blue water.

After a few beats, Haoa gives a purposeful kick and heads down into the trench. Jake follows him.

And just like before, once they breach the veil the landscape comes alive around them, lit up with all that bioluminescent sea life. Corals and plants and jellyfish and algae. It makes the two men go still and look around with amazement.

KiaraUnlike the first time they'd ventured down here, Kiara now takes the time to take in the beauty of the world around them; her progress is slower and far more measured as they kick down toward the yawning black trench; the Verbena situates herself toward the back of their little party and she slows down as they near the point where the sharks had first appeared.

They seem disinclined to show themselves and the brunette can't say in all honesty that she's let down by their absence.

She waits, once they reach the trench, for Jake and Haoa to swim down first, then, with a brief turn toward Kalen, Kiara follows them down. Unsurprisingly, the two men marvel once they encounter the vibrancy of life inside the trench; a jellyfish drifts by the Verbena and she deftly maneuvers herself out of the path of its tendrils. She isn't feeling the chill of the depths against her bare skin this time so it doesn't take long for the brunette to begin to move down, through the colorful coral, kicking out toward the place where the sharks had led them before.

It won't be the last time Kiara feels a tiny wedge of uncertainty, she feels it stirring again now they're here. Now they've brought Haoa to see his mother.

They have no idea what sort of creature the sea witch really was - whether she would honor such an agreement (and whether they'd brought Haoa into a situation that posed real danger to him and his grandson). She swims to a point and waits, the Verbena; her pendant suspended above her head, the crystal winking conspiratorially.

KalenKalen is content to return.  If he has any doubts about the magical sharks or the sea witch, they do not show.  He stays back a little as they enter the trench, with Kiara.  He and Kiara may have started this coming here, but this reunion is far from about them.  This meeting.

Kalen watches for Ali'ikai.  Watches Jake's eyes in the hope that they, like the eyes of someone that he adores but cannot show these things to, will light up with wonder and joy at the sight of something incredible.  It may not be the same.  But Kalen loves that look regardless.  It is, after all, why he is taking Grace to Australia.  Why he loves teaching new Mages.

And so he waits and he watches.  Just those things.  For now.

The Sea[Mind 3, doo be doo]

Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (1, 5, 6, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )

The SeaIf Kalen is hoping for wonder, he will see it in Jake's eyes. More than that - there is something like dawning belief as he swims through the coral gardens, reaching out to touch (very gently) the schools of darting reef fish that move through the water around him. Were it not for the complicated and bittersweet nature of this reunion, he would likely be over the moon right now.

This place is not a place that could exist without magick. Ali'ikai's resonance has seeped into every pore of stone and every grain of sand. Beneath them the wreckage sits, broken and decayed but teeming with new life. As the four divers draw closer, something moves inside of it, uncoiling in the shadows of the ship's interior. Haoa notices and stops still. Nearby, Jake glances over and mimics him, watching the wreckage with rapt attention.

The witch appears more slowly this time, her motions careful and hesitant. They are in her domain. She could, if she wished, probably kill them all with a push of her Will. But to look at her now is to look upon someone brought low by guilt and fear. She glides up through an opening in the wreck, the luminous green stripes on her sides adding to the glow of the landscape. She looks the same as Kalen and Kiara remember, though likely not the same as Haoa does. Her long tail undulates gently in the water as she swims out to greet them. When she gets close she stops, leaving about ten feet of space between herself and her Haoa. Her dark hair fans out around her face, and as she looks at him her stripes glow brighter, lighting up the details of her undersea features. Her black eyes look both sad and wondrous.

And this is all that Haoa can take before he gives a sudden, ungraceful turn in the water and begins to swim away.

Ali'ikai looks startled for a moment, and Kalen and Kiara will feel the bloom of her magick like an echo passing them on the tide. This time it doesn't reach out to them - only to Haoa. Whatever it is they have to say to each other, it is only for them to know.

There's a sound, too, when she does this. A long, mournful cry that resonates across the trench like a whale call. Ali'ikai follows her son, but though she could easily catch him she keeps a respectful distance. Somewhere about halfway to the top of the trench Haoa stops and goes still. Ali'ikai approaches behind him carefully. From a distance, they resemble two disparately formed shadows treading water in the cool glow of the bioluminescence.

Jake watches this with a combination of total shock and dawning concern. After a moment he starts to swim toward his grandfather, then seems to think better of it and stops. Bubbles escape into the water as he exhales hard.

Haoa swims away again. Then stops. Ali'ikai follows.

Finally he turns to look at her, and they stay like that for a while.

After an almost interminably long moment, Ali'ikai swims forward and wraps herself around her son, holding him with her arms and her tail. As though she would, if she had a choice, never let him go.

When they're done, the two swim back toward the group near the wreckage. Jake kicks out to meet them and Ali'ikai reaches out, touches him gently on the shoulder (mindful of his soft skin and her sharp claws) and opens her mouth to utter this sweet, bubbling laugh. She makes another one of those eerie whale sounds, and Jake, true to form, just surges forward and wraps his arms around her.

Like she might be possibly the coolest thing he's ever seen in his life.

Only then does the witch turn to Kalen and Kiara, reaching out with her mind to touch their thoughts.

I didn't think you could do it. Thank you.

She pulls away from her family momentarily to swim toward the mages. When she reaches them, she unties the strip of leather around her neck and offers the stone out for them to take.

KiaraSome very complicated and personal expression passes across Kiara's features as she watches the reunion unfolding before them. She moves respectfully away from the small gathering and observes it from a distance. They are beneath the water and her face is concealed by a mask and for that the Verbena will perhaps be forever grateful.

She can experience the things she does and nobody will see fit to question her about it (or glimpse it easily).

Haoa and Ali'ikai work out their problems enough that they swim back toward the wreckage where Kiara and Kalen are waiting. Jake embraces his grandmother and a small cluster of bubbles trickle out from the Verbena's direction. Hard to know what causes them but when the sea witch turns to face them eventually, the brunette does swim forward to greet her.

There's a beat after Ali'ikai touches their minds with her thoughts and then a slight inclination of the Verbena's head: We weren't sure we could, either. She gestures toward Jake and Haoa. They want to be part of your world, however that works out. I'm sure it won't be easy but you have the chance to make it happen now. 

Don't take it for granted, seems to be the Verbena's underlying opinion, a flicker of that same indecipherable emotion playing there on her face; shadowing her thoughts, if for a moment. Kiara accepts the strip of leather and the stone carefully, curling her fingers around it and studying it for a moment before she looks back to the sea witch with her gleaming scales and dark, wild hair.

Thank you. I promise we'll take good care of it.

What will you do now?

KalenKalen is relatively still in the water, moving only enough to hold his position in the current.  Whatever his reaction, muffled by the water and obscured by a mask, they are his own.  He trails Kiara out to Ali'ikai.

The sea witch thanks them, offers out the stone, and Kiara takes it.  There is a part of Kalen that wants to hold it and see if it responds to him as it did to Ali'ikai.  Mostly, he is just as glad Kiara reached out for it first.

Oh, the conversations they will have soon enough.  But not now.  Now they are beneath the sea, for at least another moment, in a magical landscape.

And so he focuses on this moment and this place and this wonder.

He cannot know what Kiara is saying to Ali'ikai.  All he offers is, 'Of course.'  But that is flooded with warmth and wonder.  Transformed into something else by the manner in which they must speak.

The SeaThere is a resonant hum that sounds in their minds when Kiara says she promises they'll take good care of it. It does not so much feel like doubt or disbelief as it does contemplation. The last time the two of them spoke with Ali'ikai, she didn't give the impression that she had much faith in their ability to care for the artifact they'd acquired. Perhaps being reunited with her family has put her in better spirits, because she does not offer such ominous or condescending claims now.

Kiara wants to know what she plans to do now, and the wash of Ali'ikai's thoughts shifts to a note of uncertainty. She turns to look back at Jake and Haoa.

I don't know.

It is an honest and human answer. When she turns back, she looks first at Kalen, then Kiara. And she offers this final piece of advice: Be careful, when finding lost things, that they are not meant to stay lost. And if they are not... then use them wisely. Either way, this will change you I think.

When she's through, Jake swims up to them in a rush of suddenly remembered excitement.

Elliott got this. He gave it to me to give to you. I think he meant for me to leave him out of the story but... I can't do that. One gets the impression that if Jake were capable of smiling at that moment, he would be. He reaches back to slip the orchid pendant off of his neck. Ali'ikai regards it for a moment curiously as Jake hands it across to her. Pops loves orchids. Maybe you can think of him when you wear it.

Oh. Ali'ikai's voice registers softly with surprise. After a beat, she takes the offered necklace and slips it on carefully. She'll need to make it tighter to keep it from floating free as she swims, but from the look on her face, she's pleased with the gift. Thank you.

We have to go, Haoa interjects quietly. Or we'll run out of air before we get back.

Yes. I know. Ali'ikai turns back to her son. You're welcome here, you know. Anytime you wish to visit. Both of you.

Haoa doesn't answer, but he nods as he turns around. Jake takes a moment longer, pausing to give his great grandmother one last lingering embrace. This place is amazing. You better believe I'm coming back.

A bright wash of warmth radiates across the mental link.

And then, with reluctance, the two divers kick their legs and begin to make their ascent back to the surface.

The Sea[Edit: Be careful, when finding lost things, that they are not meant to stay lost. And if they are not... then use them wisely. Either way, this will change you I think. (should be in italics)]

KiaraThis will change you, I think.

It's not altogether a new thought, that whatever the outcome of these quests to restore the crown to its former glory, it will come at a cost. One that may well be more than any of them can begin to guess. The Verbena had already felt it - the power of the crown, the cost that it had wrung out of its former owner. The potential in it to cause great suffering and misery for the sake of absolute power.

There's a certain way the Verbena holds the stone that reads of that same sense.

A tentativeness, an awareness of it. She watches as Jake swims up and offers over Kalen's gift with a flurry of excitement. Kiara's body turns slightly to witness her companion and she reaches out with her free hand and closes her fingers around Kalen's forearm, gently squeezing down. The gesture could amount for so many things she cannot say aloud but the sense is one of pleasure. At the sight of Ali-ikai accepting her gift, of her appreciation for it.

Of the thoughtfulness inherent in Kalen to think to bring it.

Before they depart, the Verbena turns to the sea witch one last time. She doesn't venture to 'speak' her thoughts but she has a sense that Ali'ikai will feel them anyway. The hope in the brunette for this reunion to be the beginning of a better time for her family, the uncertainty of what lay ahead of them, the desire to return, at some point, when there wasn't some urgency to the visit.

And perhaps, somewhere, a kind of gratitude too, for her willingness to assist them despite her reluctance. Despite the misgivings in their quest. Eventually, after a long pause, Kiara kicks off and begins to follow her family upward, leaving the majesty of Ali'iaki's domain behind as she rises toward the trench's opening.

KalenAli'ikai gives them a warning, and Kalen nods.  He is hoping that they will not be so greatly changed, but only because he is hoping they can unmake the crown.  If some power remains in the stones, perhaps they can share those.  But the crown...the more he considers it the more he wants it gone from the world.  Perhaps they can sense that over their link.  Perhaps not.

Kalen does not say anything in response to Jake's excited presentation of the necklace.  He had not known, when he bought the necklace for Ali'ikai that Haoa loved orchids, he had simply meant to give her a part of a different world down here to her.  To give her something she would otherwise not see.  Of course, fate weaves around him and through him and he does not any longer really feel surprise.

But he is undeniably pleased when Jake manages to tie Haoa into the gift.  It is not like an unfamiliar gleam of sunlight in oceanic depths that is Jake's warmth.  And pleased too, when Ali'ikai accepts it.  His fingertips graze lightly over Kiara's hand on his arm.

And then it is time to go.  He gives Ali'ikai a last lingering glance, surrounded by a landscape sustained by her magic.  He would smile, hopeful and warm and a little regretful because he wants to stay here.  Explore this place.  Hold glowing sea urchins on his palm.  Coax out the story of the wreckage.

Instead he lets Ali'ikai taste that hope and longing and warmth, and then he turns, with the others, to head back to the world from which they came.