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.

the son. [kalen] [silver crown SL]

Kiara
[Int + Investigation. Oh right, you can LOOK PEOPLE UP without resorting to magick.]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Kalen[Int+Investigation]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

The SeaTurns out it doesn't take much effort to locate someone on an island as small as Moloka'i. And Haoa, as it happens, is not an unknown figure on the island. Typing his name into Google reveals a handful of articles about the local preserves that mention him by name. Over his long career, Haoa Ka'ana'ana has fought hard to preserve the natural landscape of the island, making more than a few enemies among the corporation that owns Moloka'i Ranch. He was one of the instrumental voices involved in shutting down the ranch's attempt to branch out into the hospitality and tourism industry (for better or worse.)

These days, of course, he's retired. After some digging, Kiara is able to find a listed address and phone number under his name. The house is on the island's East coast, near the Moloka'i Forest Reserve.

They could call ahead, or they could drive out and surprise him. Either way, they know their destination.

KiaraIt had been evening by the time they found their way back to the shore and Kiara's entire body had ached relentlessly. She'd worked to push back the worst of her muscles protests so they could begin their search for Ali'ikai's son on Moloka'i that night.

The Verbena settled back against a myriad of pillows in their rented accommodation with a laptop open on the bed before her; dark hair pinned up in the warmth of the evening air and an open window letting in the sights and sounds of the island at dusk. All said, it takes Kiara until the following day to unearth an address and number for Haoa Ka'ana'ana. She scribbles it down on a notepad, the Verbena and then rises and stretches out her muscles, padding to the window to take in the slanting rays of the sun, the way it dapples when it hits the water.

When (if) Kalen leaves and returns while the brunette does her digging, he comes back to find Kiara in a vibrant sundress; her shoulders bare and sun-kissed; the swirling pattern of greens and reds and blues somehow only working to highlight the Verbena's presence, the way she feels like a heady reminder of the world around them; the verdant wilderness of the island itself.

Her dark hair damp and tied back from her face in a haphazard knot.

"I think I've tracked our guy down." She taps her pen against the paper. "I've got an address and a number." Kiara's brows lift. "Feel like going on a field trip?"

KalenKalen is quiet on the way back to shore, attention caught in places that are not here and not now.  There is a mythic stone to get, a man to find, a mythic crown to perhaps unmake, and a witch at the bottom of the sea about to trade with them the only thing she has left of her mother.  He cannot do for her what he wants to do; still, he knows who can.  And, as she has acquiesced to so many of his requests already, he expects that this one she will also.  For now, though, he finds something else for Ali'ikai.  In case he cannot come back here with what he plans to.

Kiara is working and Kalen lets her work.  Opens a bottle of wine and offers to bring her a glass and then disappears again, out onto the lanai with some wine and a book of poems.  Again, he spends the night out there with the starlight on the sea.

When he gets dressed in the morning he is less dramatic than Kiara; almost always less dramatic than Kiara when it comes to how they look.  Blue jeans and a white shirt and a knotted bracelet with dark cord framing pale, shimmering pearls.  He is only fractionally less pale from his time in the sun.

"Of course," he says.  "Coffee on the way?"

The SeaFeel like going on a field trip?

Of course. Coffee on the way?

Whether coffee is part of their plan or no, Kalen and Kiara take their rented vehicle and head out to the East end of the island. The drive is pleasant and calm. The island today is as picturesque as ever, warm and bright and teeming with both local and imported flora. If they ride with the windows down, they'll hear the sound of local birds calling to each other on the beach. There are people as well, of course. Locals sitting in fold-out chairs on the decks of their small homes or walking along the side of the road. Many of them smile and wave when Kiara and Kalen pass by.

The island is small enough that finding Haoa's address on a map is a relatively simple affair. And sure enough, when they arrive at their destination - a small but pretty 2-bedroom beach house, the name on the mailbox reads: Ka'ana'ana.

There is one car (an old Jeep) and one scooter in the driveway.

KiaraKiara rests an arm on the window on the drive over, a pair of over-sized sunglasses obscuring much of the brunette's features from the locals, though her smile is pleasant enough where it's canted in their direction as they pass here and there.

Her glasses reflecting the scattering of homes and vibrant, tropical plant life as they wind their way across the island toward their destination, her hair drying rapidly into a wavy mass as the breeze played in the loose strands left liberated at the nape of her neck, a few escaping her knot to stir in wild abandonment around her face.

Her familiar silver necklace gleaming in the sunshine where it rested, the pendant tucked beneath the vee of her dress. There were take away coffee cups stowed in the holder (it had, apparently, been part of the plan after all) and for much of the drive over, she's seemingly content to watch the landscape passing by them, idly commenting here and there on some landmark, or pointing out a particularly gorgeous vantage point of the water.

When they pull up outside of the beach house, the Verbena is the first to climb out, carefully closing her door and lifting a hand to squint into the distance. She cuts Kalen a look across the car that may have passed for how do we want to approach this before she slings her bag over a shoulder and begins to approach, carefully reaching out with her senses to get a feel for the who (and what) might be present.

It couldn't hurt to be prepared, even if Haoa was (in theory) entirely human.

Kiara[Life 1/Mind 1: Knock knock, anyone home? Base Diff 4, Coincidental, -1 for Foci]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (1, 9, 9) ( success x 2 )

Kiara[Adding in Corr 1 and extending. Get your perceptions on, Ms Woolfe.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (2, 2, 2) ( fail )

Kiara[Kiara, you do this to me EVERY TIME. Just ... be cool. Kalen's judging you.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (2, 6, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

The SeaThere are two human patterns inside the house. One is likely Haoa: male and elderly, somewhere close to 80 years old. The other is young and also male, around 19-21. The older man is somewhere in the back of the house, sleeping. The younger one is moving about in one of the rooms. From her mind scan, Kiara can tell that he's in a good mood, and possibly listening to music.

There are a number of plants inside, as well as an old parrot who is presently consuming its breakfast. Other than that? Nothing tremendously surprising or worrisome.

KalenKalen is certainly not oblivious to the fact that they are on a beautiful tropical island.  He is not oblivious to the fact that Kiara is gorgeous, perhaps even more so here framed by life and the sea spray and the tropical sun.  Even so, he is less evidently pleased with this place; particularly for someone who has seen him reach out to a sea witch with an awed kind of wonder.

He drives them to get coffee and past people who smile and who wave; eventually, by the time they have reached the home of Haoa Ka'ana'ana, he is smiling back.  Less wide, less open; but Kalen is not overly prone to expressing welcome or joy in such a fashion.  (For that you have to watch his eyes.)  The way that people exchange leis though, that fascinates him.  The meaning of Aloha.  Not that superficial 'hello, goodbye, I love you' explanation for the tourists.  The real one.

"I think I am at a loss here," Kalen says softly to Kiara.  "I cannot imagine what it would be like if my mother wanted me to come and see her at the bottom of the sea.  My mother, after all, couldn't be bothered to want to see me when it would have been so easy as walking into the next room.  This is...not a thing I understand at all."  There is, perhaps, some regret there.  Not so much sorrow.  Kalen is well beyond mourning his loss of a mother.

KiaraKiara does something ... vaguely odd, en route to the house's mailbox. Or, perhaps, odd was a relative descriptor but certainly very singular to the sort of Awakened she was. She drops down to her haunches as if she were studying something she'd noticed underfoot and reaches into her bag, closer approach (and the familiar sensation of casting in the air) revealed she was tracing along the ground with a small piece of chalk, her other hand curled around the pendant and her face tipped up and slightly to the side as if she were listening attentively to something.

The shape she's drawn was the rough approximation of a pentagram; she pushes herself to her feet after a beat and carefully runs the toe of a sandal through the figure; obliterating it and tucking the chalk away. Her sunglasses are lifted up.

"I can sense two men inside. One of them feels ... older, maybe in his eighties or nineties. That must be Haoa. There's another person, too. Younger." She casts a curious look toward the house. "Maybe a son." A moment, then, as Kalen offers his thoughts. Kiara's expression isn't easily read for a beat as she studies his face. "Well, she did say he knew what she was, so maybe it won't be a total shock. To him, at least."

Kiara's eyes returned to the door.

"Family never tends to be easy. Even without the complication of an ocean." A tiny quirk of the Verbena's mouth as she starts forward, again. She knocks on the door and takes a minute to unpin her hair; shaking it loose and tousling it into a wild display that falls around her bare shoulders; her sunglasses are tucked into the vee of her dress.

She spares a sidelong glance at Kalen and a single eyebrow notches up, just a touch.

KalenKalen's head cocks just slightly to one side as Kiara explains the people she senses inside.  "Were you planning to tell them both?"  There is a brief, faint smile.  "Though, I suppose, I am hardly the very model of discretion in all moments."

There is no real response to the assertion that family is complicated even without oceans for a few seconds.  And then, quietly, "at the very least complicated means this should be interesting."

Even so, Kiara may get the feeling that behind the calm enough tones and steady enough presence that Kalen might rather be trying to handle a sea witch and some dire sharks than an elderly man and his...son?  Grandson?  Housekeeper?

The SeaIt takes a moment for someone to answer the door. Inside the house, there's a muted thump (as though something dropped, or someone ran into something) and Kiara, with her senses active, will sense a brief flash of pain coming from the young man inside. Nothing serious - just a stubbed toe.

It gives Kalen and Kiara a moment to discuss the complicated nature of family. And to decide whether they intend to deliver their message to Haoa alone. Then the latch in the door turns, and the two of them find themselves gazing up at a very fit and very tall young man. His hair is dark and wavy, his skin boasting a deep tan, but unlike his (great?) grandmother, his eyes are blue. There's a little moment of surprise when the young man regards them. He doesn't seem displeased, just uncertain of who they are. His eyes dance over Kalen briefly before landing with a significantly longer beat of fixed attention on Kiara.

"Hey. Something I can help you with?"

The man is shirtless and barefoot and wearing a pair of red board shorts. There are earbuds hanging around his neck. A tinny echo of loud music seeps into the air, emanating from the tiny speakers.

Kiara"Not unless we don't have a choice," Kiara murmurs back before the door opens and her attention (and a rather deliberate, toothy smile) are focused on the bare chested young man who greets them with what she can only assume is the typical response of someone when a pair of strangers turned up on their doorstep apropos of nothing.

In the climate, the Verbena has foregone much of her usual dramatic make up save for a faint application of mascara and blush on her cheekbones, her dark eyes seem to radiate a keen interest in the young man. She doesn't go as far as to drop her eyes over his body, but she does take a minute to deliberately push the heavy fall over her hair over a shoulder.

"Hi, we're hoping so. Is this the home of Haoa Ka'ana'ana?"

There's a certain way Kiara pronounces the name that speaks of uncertainty with it, a tentative flutter of apology that curls the edges of her mouth as if in clear recognition she'd made a mess of his relation's name. "We're not selling anything," she rushes to add, the Verbena, before the young man can (potentially) protest (or close the door on them).

"We were just hoping to speak with him." She exchanges a look with Kalen, gesturing between them before she offers a hand out. "I'm Kiara and this is my friend, Elliott."

KalenAnd the young man is more obviously not oblivious to Kiara.  Kalen breathes out softly.  Just this once, it might be nice to let go of a situation long enough to see how someone else approaches it.  And it is hardly as though Kiara cannot speak.

He offers the young man a quick smile.  "Hey," he says.  Beyond that though, at least for now, he lets the young man settle his attention on Kiara and leaves the speaking to her.

The SeaKiara makes an effort to assure the young man that they aren't there to sell him anything, though judging by the fairly rapt attention Kiara is receiving from him, he might very well be just as happy to stand there and listen to her try to pitch him something. He nods amiably when she asks if she has the right house. "Yeah yeah." If she botches the pronunciation at all, he doesn't bother correcting her. "Oh, sure. Um, are you friends of his?"

He tosses his head back and bellows across the house. "Hey Pops, wake up! You've got visitors!" Nearby, the parrot echoes the sound with a brief, raucous cry. In the back of the house, Kiara can sense the old man stir and rouse himself into groggy wakefulness.

"I'm Jake. Nice to meet you." Jake grins and offers a hand to Kalen, then Kiara. Once introductions are through, he steps away from the door and makes a lazy gesture toward the living room. "Come in if you want. He'll just be a minute."

When they step inside, they'll catch a brief glimpse of the parrot - a Blue and Gold Macaw - sitting in a cage near a window in the kitchen before Jake ushers them into the living area. There's an old sofa in the room, its fabric decorated in a faded floral motif. There's also a TV set that looks as though it might have come out of the 1980's. A number of the surfaces in the room are decorated with potted orchids. Someone (likely not Jake, though one never knows) has taken very good care of them.

Kiara
Given what she did professionally it's probably not entirely surprising that Kiara found it easy enough to slip into conversation with the young man at the door (even if she rather intentionally avoided any direct answer to the question of how they knew the older gentleman).

Certainly, there was an element of intent to the way she shifted the heavy fall of her hair over a shoulder and made sure she held Jake's eyes for a lingering moment when he offered a hand but it was subdued - her engaging smiles, the appreciation in her dark eyes when he invites them inside.

"Thank you, Jake. We'd like that."

Kiara's hand brushes Kalen's arm when she sights the parrot, she casts him this brief, curling little smile before passing on into the living area, her eyes roving over the sofa, the smattering of orchids around the space. They draw her over to one almost unerringly, the Verbena and Kiara's fingers lightly brush the edges of one, turning an appreciative look over a shoulder toward the young man.

"These are beautiful. Are they yours?"

KalenKalen shakes Jake's hand, which involves less shaking from Kalen and more a single, firm squeeze.  There is, again, a brief smile.  He does not try to guide Jake's reactions to them, does not try to detract from Kiara, but his pale eyes are alert.  Interested.

The parrot gets his attention for a few seconds, and then the orchids get another smile.  Not because he thinks about smiling, but because those orchids remind him of other orchids which remind him of the taste of sea spray and the sound of Neruda being read aloud.  His fingertips trace lightly over not one of the delicate flowers but along the curve of one of the thick green leaves.  Kiara has already commented on the orchids.  And what would he say, anyway?  That orchids could mean love and beauty and refinement?

He stays silent instead and watches Jake and Kiara interact.

[But we have habits.  (Almost certainly) unnecessary Perception + Empathy on Jake.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8) ( success x 5 )

The SeaThe orchids attract both Kiara and Kalen's attention. And who could blame them? The flowers really are beautiful. Jake follows them into the living room at an easy gait. His gaze dances a moment over Kalen as he pauses to note the macaw in the kitchen, and there's a brief grin of amusement. "That's Icarus. We tried to teach him to talk but mostly he just shrieks a lot."

The music is still blaring out of his earbuds, which Jake finally seems to realize because he fishes his cell phone out of the pocket of his board shorts to turn the sound off. That settled, he shoves the phone and the earbuds back into his pocket. He's in the midst of this when Kiara asks him about the orchids, at which point he gives a low, hearty laugh and shakes his head. "Nah, I'd probably kill them. Pops takes care of all the houseplants. They're kind of his babies."

"Just an old man's hobby," another voice joins the conversation as Haoa steps out into the living room to join them. He's dressed in a pair of cargo shorts and a white tank, barefoot with slightly ruffled white hair. His skin boasts a dark tan, and he smiles when he spots Kalen and Kiara, though his eyes still have a bit of sleepiness around the edges. He's in pretty good shape, all things considered, for a man his age. There are weathered lines on his face and a bit of extra weight on his mid-section, but aside from an apparent tendency to nap in the middle of the day, he doesn't seem to be in poor health.

"You two look like you aren't from around here. What can I help you with?"

KiaraThe brunette straightens as another voice joins in the conversation about the orchids.

There's a smile tinged with real warmth directed Haoa's way and, as she throws the flowers one last, lingering glance, affection, too. "I know somebody who'd appreciate your hobby. He grows some of his own." She touches the edge of a flower and then brushes her hands down the sides of her dress, it flows around the Verbena's body as she moves, the vibrant colors shifting with the material in such a way as it almost feels alive.

"We're not." Kiara concedes with a little glance at her companion, fine dark brows rising in tandem, the female's dark eyes ghost over to Jake and then return to Haoa. She seems to be deliberating, the Verbena, on the best manner to proceed, her expression betraying a hint of consideration, her voice tipping into trepidation at points. "We're actually here on behalf of your mother. She asked us to come and find you as a sort of ... favor." Kiara pauses, throwing out another glance at Kalen.

She seems to weigh up what else to offer before her dark eyes return to Haoa.

Softer: "She'd like to see you again."

Kiara[Perception + Empathy on Haoa: that's quite the news to unload on a guy when he's just woken up, Kiara.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 3 )

KalenKalen's eyes track to Haoa when he comes into the room.  Takes in his age but his relative lack of frailty.  What would it be like to love and then watch as everyone you loved in the span of your first lifetime died?  He thinks of the sea witch with her sharks and the way Marcellus adopted him and-

Here, Holliday.  Now.

Haoa gets a brief smile and Kalen does not, lulled into something like tranquility by Jake's warmth and the orchids and the way Haoa slips into their conversation, have to summon warmth for it.  He means that smile.  If Kiara is paying much attention to him for those few seconds she catches a glimpse of what, in another world, Kalen might have been more than for these fleeting moments.

There is a little flicker of surprise across his features.  Concern.  Empathy.

"I know this must be unexpected," he says quietly.  It is, almost, an apology.

[And one more Perception+Empathy]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 6, 6, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 5 )

The Sea"Ah. Whoever he is, he has good taste." Haoa offers Kiara a wink as he makes his way over to an old recliner. There's a little sigh as he lowers himself into it. Once he's settled, he gestures toward the couch. "You can sit if you like." Whether either of them do or not, it doesn't seem to matter to the old man too much.  He covers his mouth as a slow yawn catches him, but as Kiara goes on to explain why they're there... something in his demeanor changes.

He lowers his hand and looks at her, dark eyes sharpening into something closer to alertness. For a long, awkward moment, he doesn't say anything at all.

Jake, meanwhile, leans the tall weight of his frame against the wall in a pose that might have approximated something a bit photo-shoot worthy were it not for the fact that he looks rather a bit unsure of what to do with his hands. First he starts to fold them across his chest, then he thinks better of it and drops them, shifting his weight on his feet and trying to look nonchalant. It takes a moment for him to react to Kiara's news, but when the reality of what she's just said hits him, he looks up suddenly. "Wait, I thought Grandma Ali'ikai was dead?"

"Not dead," Haoa admits coldly. "But she may as well be." It's a surprisingly turn in demeanor for a man who moments ago seemed quite happy to welcome perfect strangers into his home, even though they'd interrupted his nap. Family trouble can bring that out in people though.

"I'm sorry she asked this of you. I don't know how you know her. Perhaps you're Kahuna too. But it doesn't matter. She made her choice years ago. If she wanted to see me she could have come here herself. We aren't her family anymore. The fish and the Rokea are her family."

The SeaAt first glance Haoa appears to be about as open and easy to read as his grandson. He's a bit sleepy, but pleased enough to welcome company into his home - even when it takes the form of strangers. The set of his shoulders is relaxed when he sits down. But that changes when Kiara tells him why they came. When she mentions his mother and her request.

Then suddenly all of that easy warmth just folds in and locks itself away.

He is, at that moment, possessed of a very old and very bitter resentment. Anger and sadness seeps into his voice and his eyes. He is pretty clearly resistant to the idea of visiting his mother. Though perhaps not as disconnected from her as he would like them to believe. (It's hard to get over that kind of rejection.)

KiaraKiara Woolfe would be the last person on earth to argue against the idea that family (and in particular parents) were not complicated areas to navigate. Her own familial issues were not small - and they didn't even press into the aspects of her life beyond the entirely mundane. She hadn't spoken to her mother in over a year and it had been far longer since she'd stood in a room with her father for anything other than brief, uncomfortable moments.

Resentment and anger were fine bedfellows and they bred together a deep and dark gulf.

She does sit, the Verbena, crosses her legs on the edge of her sofa and folds her hands in her lap; her dark eyes slipping from Haoa to his Grandson. She studies Jake for a long moment before returning her eyes to the older man. "We're not Kahuna and we don't know your mother well. In fact, we only met her yesterday but I do believe she's sincere in wanting to see you."

There's a beat.

"I think she has things she'd like to tell you. I have no idea what happened between you, but - " Kiara's eyes shift back to Jake for a moment, she leans forward. " - it might be one of the last chances you get to see each other. Whatever she did, whatever she chose, she doesn't seem to have forgotten you.

Maybe that should count for something."

KalenKalen drifts over toward the couch.  Hesitates.

For a moment he tries to imagine what it would be like to expect to have waffles on Christmas morning again.  He tries to remember what maple syrup tastes like.

And...there.  That is what that loss feels like, when it is not safely shut away and slumbering.  You have to be quick to catch that flicker through his eyes, but it does.  Sharp and hot and unwelcome.

Kalen takes a careful breath and resolves to ask Alexander over for waffles.  It does not, entirely, banish that particular sense of loss into its customary slumber.

"I don't know about what choices she may or may not have made before.  Perhaps she was wrong, or perhaps they were more complicated than they seemed.  Perhaps they were exactly what you think they were.  Those things are done now.  They cannot be undone.  I don't whether or not they can or should be forgiven.

"The only thing I can tell you, is that she does consider you her family.  Them too, perhaps.  But she loves you and she wants to see you."

The SeaHaoa gives a quiet laugh when Kiara mentions that they've only just met Ali'ikai. There isn't much warmth in it, but there is a note of slightly absurd humor. "I can only imagine the circumstances that might cause someone to run into an old witch who lives at the bottom of the ocean."

"Oh come on, Pops. That's just an old story."

Haoa turns his dark eyes to regard his grandson. "It isn't a story, Jake."

Jake lifts an eyebrow and looks for a moment like he's about to argue, but then he breaks into a sudden laugh and says, "Well then hell, I'd like to go see her."

Haoa gives him a sharper look that borders on anger, but whatever it is he's thinking, he keeps it to himself. Instead he shifts his attention back to Kalen and Kiara on the sofa. "She always loved me when it suited her. When I made her feel less alone. Then she'd disappear again. She may have left for good after I got married but she was never really there before that either. Once when I was ten she disappeared for an entire year. Never told me why. There comes a point when you have to let people go. She was never meant to be a mother. She's always had bigger worries."

He takes a long breath, exhaling into a sigh. "I'm sorry you came out here for nothing."

KiaraHe can only imagine the circumstances that might cause someone to run into an old witch who lived at the bottom of the ocean. There's a tiny twitch at the edge of the Verbena's mouth, she dips her chin. "The truth is, Ali'iaki was given something by her own mother. A small stone. We came to find it."

Kiara gestures between herself and Kalen, catching his eye for a moment before glancing back to Haoa. "The stone is part of a crown, something that was, for a long time, hidden away by our people." Kiara pauses, her eyes drifting to Jake. "Our hope is to restore all the missing stones to it. I suppose you could call it a historical pilgrimage." A touch of a smile surfaces. "Ali'iaki's price was finding you. Was - bringing you to see her."

Kiara leans forward again, eyes searching Haoa's face for signs he understood, for some hint that despite everything, what she was saying was reaching beyond the years of hurt and neglect. "The stone clearly means a lot to her. She's willing to give it up for the sake of seeing you again."

She sits back, the pagan, her brows drawing together.

"I don't get the impression it's something she's doing lightly. Whatever her failings as a parent." The brunette casts a look of scrutiny the younger man's way, then. As if she were turning over another possible avenue. "I'm sure she'd like to meet you, too."

KalenKalen sighs.  "You don't have to go," he says quietly.  "We've told you what you should know about your mother.  What you do with that knowledge is not our place to tell you.

"Officially, that's really all I came here for."  He swallows and for a few seconds his lips press together.  "Personally, I would consider it.  She may have been a terrible mother, but at she cares about that.  You may not have this chance again.  Just be very sure, whatever you do, just be very sure.  We can leave a contact number and give you a day or two."

And then he looks away from them for a few seconds.  Steps away from the couch.

His attention drifts back to the orchids, first one and then another and then another.  All the distinct variation between varieties.  The tiny variations between the blooms on each plant.  But, he does not, at least not yet, abandon Kiara to try to finish this on her own.

The SeaI'm sure she'd like to meet you too.

Jake tosses a hopeful glance towards his grandfather, who doesn't offer any response to either confirm or deny that claim. Haoa listens to what Kiara has to say - about the stone; the crown - and a deep furrow makes its way onto his brow. She and Kalen can see him thinking. Processing. Can see the way his mind wants to discard the information.

Kalen adds, afterward, that he doesn't have to go, to which Haoa gives an abrupt little grunt (which might mean something to the effect of: you're damn right I don't.) He's a stubborn creature, this man. He had to be, to accomplish the things he's done in his life.

He mutters something in his native language, standing up from his seat with a distracted glance out the window.

"Hey Pops, you okay?" The tone in Jake's voice drops to one of gentle concern.

"I'm fine. Just... give me a moment." Haoa waves off his grandson and turns to make his way to the back entrance of the house. Jake starts to follow, then hesitates, watching him go. There's a light slap of metal as the screen door opens and shuts.

"Uh... sorry about that." Jake turns back to Kalen and Kiara, offering them an embarrassed smile. "He gets like that sometimes. Don't leave yet, okay? Just... let me talk to him."

And with that, Jake jogs out to join his grandfather on the deck.

Their voices reach a low murmur. Then go silent.

Finally, about five minutes later, Jake walks back in.

"He'll come. He just needs some time alone right now. Is tomorrow morning okay?"

KiaraWhen Jake jogs out after his grandfather, Kiara watches the younger man go with a trace of concern; she gets to her feet in the absence of both men and begins a slow circuit of the living room, her fingers idly pulling at the pendent around her neck, dragging the chain to and fro, a vaguely distracted frown etching across her mouth.

"If he doesn't want to go, maybe we can convince Jake to come in his stead." She offers after a pause, glancing in the direction both men had departed in, she can feel both of their presences, as well the soft rise and fall of discussion. The brunette's eyes betray her concern, as she adds with a tiny frustrated flourish of a hand: "Of course, even if he does come, the question remains how we get him down to her. I feel like almost anything is going to be a risk."

She adds, lowly: "I hope we're doing the right thing."

When Jake returns, Kiara's back is to the room, her attention on the window; she turns at the sound of footsteps and her expression, when Jake offers that Haoa has agreed but needs time, reads a flicker of both surprise and gratitude. "Tomorrow is fine. We can give you our number where we're staying if anything changes and come and collect him in the morning."

A pause, she offers Jake a brighter smile. "Thank you, for talking to him."

Kalen"Between the two of us," Kalen says quietly.  "I imagine there will be only so much risk.  We'll have to be careful, but if nothing else we can try to have her swim up to us.  I would hope that that much she would do."

He comes to join Kiara at the window.  Close enough to touch, though he does not reach out for her.  "Here?  Or in bringing this thing back together at all?"  There is, for a second, a quick smile.  It does not, quite reach his eyes.

"Here at least, I like our odds."

Kiara agrees to the time for them and thanks Jake.  Kalen just gives him a little nod and another of those there-and-gone-again smiles.  This one slightly more real.  "See you tomorrow."

The Sea"Yeah." Jake accepts Kiara's gratitude with a nod. "If it's okay, I'd like to come too. To keep an eye on him. And... I mean... I'm still half convinced you guys are trying to pull some elaborate practical joke, but I love to dive and if my great grandmother has somehow managed to survive all these years in the ocean, then I definitely want to meet her." There's an edge of excitement in the young man's grin, despite everything. And who could blame him, really?

He steps into the kitchen for a moment and grabs a pad of post-it notes and a pen out of a drawer. "Here you go. Elliott and Kiara, right?" He offers the pad and pen across to Kiara. There's a beat while he waits for her to jot down their phone number, then he asks, in an only slightly awkward voice, "So... are you two like... together?"

KiaraThe Verbena's handwriting is as large and bold as much of Kiara was, flourished with loops and underscored when she's done with a sharp line drawn beneath the information. She's holding the pad and pen back out to Jake when he asks if she's with Kalen.

Her eyebrows shoot up and the brunette cants an assessing look over at Kalen for a beat, her mouth curving up in a smile that verged into something crooked. Her voice was threaded through and warm with amusement and clear affection as she answered: "Oh. No. We're just friends. My boyfriend couldn't come with us." She adds the latter with a tiny hesitation, as if the title for Ian were still new and a little uncertain.

There's also a twinge of gentle sympathy in it, as there had to be when you had to find the kindest form of extinguishing hope.

She offers a smile and then adjusts her bag against her shoulder. "So I guess we'll see you both tomorrow?"

KalenKalen does not seem terribly surprised by the new title.  He does, after all, know that Kiara has been into Ian's home.  Ian does not take many people home.  It is enough that his eyes track to Kiara, but beyond that, his only real response is a tiny congratulatory smile.

Under other circumstances, perhaps Kalen would have said something more playful.  About Kiara, about Ian, about Jake.  But not even at Kiara's assessing look can he be bothered with that.

The SeaThere is a very brief moment when Kiara can see a spark of hope forming in Jake's eyes. Then Kiara says: my boyfriend couldn't come with us, and that spark fades into something like low-key disappointment. He doesn't let it kill his mood though. Just smiles a little and nods. "That's a shame. That he couldn't come, I mean."

(That's not really what he means.)

He takes the notepad and the pen back from Kiara and taps the pen against the wall. "Yeah. I'll have him call when he's up. See you guys tomorrow."

As the two of them leave, Jake leans out to hold the screen door, offering one last lingering smile in their wake.

the sea. [kalen] [silver crown SL]

The Sea
The flight from Denver to Maui is a long one. There's a stop at LAX where Kalen and Kiara change planes before heading out across the ocean. It's late by the time they leave LA. Ian was there about a week ago (not the airport, but the city) and Grace is either there now or some time close to now, which would be an interesting coincidence if everyone involved was aware of these convergences. Sometimes the threads of people's lives intersect in unexpected ways.

The plane leaves LA and takes them overnight across the dark expanse of the Pacific. By the time they arrive in Kahului it's morning and the weather is lush and bright and beautiful. The atmosphere in Maui is welcoming and pleasant. Kiara and Kalen are hardly the only tourists, but they are likely the only ones there with their particular destination in mind. They take a car to Kapalua and maybe they stop and enjoy some of the sights on the way. Or maybe they don't. Either way, a ferry takes them across the channel to the island of Moloka'i, where they end up renting a 2 bedroom beach house in Maunaloa, on the West coast of the island.

Depending on how much of a hurry they're in, they might rest after that. Explore the island. Relax on the beach. Moloka'i isn't as populous as the larger islands and a good portion of it is owned by a large cattle ranch that also leases some of its land to pineapple farmers. The lower West side of the island is dry and in generally poor condition due to overgrazing and mismanagement, but the island's nature preserves, many of them at higher elevation, are some of the most beautiful in the world. Once there was a leper colony here. That part of the island is now devoted to the Kalaupapa National Historical Park.

So perhaps it's the following day when they leave to set out on their planned excursion. Kalen rents some scuba gear, despite their likely plans not to actually use it (lest they have to explain themselves to Sleepers,) and the two of them acquire a boat (a small cruiser) before heading out North into the sea.

They have the spot that Sasha marked out on the map - the navigational coordinates of the place they plan to make their dive. The journey takes them out past the shallow reefs and into deeper water. It's afternoon by the time they finally arrive.

Thankfully, the weather is calm. It's sunny with no sign of storms and no warnings on the forecast. When they cut the boat's engine and drop anchor, the waves lap gently against the hull, rocking the cruiser softly.

There's no one else here. Not now, anyway. Moloka'i's coast is still faintly visible on the horizon. Otherwise, it's just them and the ocean.

No way of knowing what's beneath them though. Not until they breach the surface and begin their descent.

KalenKalen has learned to swim since his Seeking.  Has taken scuba diving lessons to spite years of terror.  But, until now, he has never seen the ocean.  Pools.  Ponds.  But never the ocean.  And so, enchanted, he spends that first night out on the lanai, watching moonlight and starlight and eventually wakes up to sunlight on the water.

They pack the boat.  Diving gear they don't really need and a first aid kit they don't really need and a camera that Kalen plans to use more on another trip.  A little cooler with food and ridiculous things like likikoi juice because of course you have to get fresh fruit juice in Hawai'i. There are wetsuits, but in all honesty Kalen isn't sure what he expects Kiara will want to wear into the water.

He's met Kiara.  If she dives naked into the sea he wouldn't bat an eyelash.

And so, eventually, they reach the place that they plan to enter the water and Kalen glances at the now distant coastline and then the water underneath them.  He dove into water with secrets once before.

That wasn't real water.

That water was more real than this.

Kalen perches at the edge of the boat a second, glances at Kiara, raises one eyebrow just slightly, and then drops over the side of the boat into the water.

KiaraShe takes to the climate almost immediately, Kiara. Switches out her slightly heavier traveling clothes for lighter, breezier wraps and kaftans. Buys a straw beach hat with wide brims from a local and spends a few hours in the crystal clear waters.

Drapes herself across a reclining chair in a tropical print bikini with an over-sized pair of sunglasses and simply - drinks in the atmosphere. The warmth of the sun, the gently lapping water. She hadn't been lying when she'd said she could use the change in scenery - for all that they're here for a purpose - the brunette seems to willingly allow the location to seep into her skin; to lull her into a relaxed state. More than once while they make their preparations Kalen will catch her standing on the balcony, staring out into the horizon or holding her phone up to capture moments.

Every so often she taps something out, sends off messages. There's more than a few candids of him, too. Glimpses of Kalen with the backdrop of gorgeous skylines and oceanic views. The day they venture out on the boat, the brunette's skin is already glowing for her time in the tropical sun; her dark hair loose and half damp, drying into wild disarray around her shoulders. She's wearing a different bikini to the one she'd languished on the beach in, this one a very pale sky blue.

(There's a silver chain around the female's neck with a pendant hung from it she seems determined never to remove).

Kalen is first into the water, all said. Kiara's standing with a hand over her eyes, shielding them and watching the horizon - she cuts him this brief bright smile, all white teeth and typical Kiara charm as he drops into the water and water splashes up in his wake. She's a time on the boat - removing her hat and glasses; pulling her dark hair over a shoulder and moving to stand on the edge most point of the boat.

She looks down into the water and then raises her chin, eyes closing, face tipped back up to the heavens.

Stands there for several moments, her necklace glinting in the sunshine before her eyes open and she blinks slowly, lowers her attention to the water and plunges into the depths in a neat little arc.

[Starting some casting, woo. Life 3, Vulgar af. Base Diff 7, -1 (Taking Time), -1 (Focus), -1 (Dropping a Quint like it's a hot beat), probably extending and Let's add WP.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (2, 7, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

KalenOnce in the water, Kalen reaches out and steadies himself against the side of boat, closes his eyes, and stays perfectly silent for a moment.  And then, eyes still closed, he starts murmuring in the language of Creation.  This is not the whisper he uses when there are people to overhear, just an awed kind of quiet.

Given another decade, he will not be over the wonder of Enochian.  Given another century, he will not be over the wonder of Enochian.

Or, almost certainly, the ocean.

[Life 3: Gills! | D=5 (Base 7-1 instrument-1 time) | WP]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (4, 4, 7) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Kalen[Extend - D=6 for extends| WP]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 7) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

The Sea[Kiara and Kalen each take 1 paradox and save it for a rainy day]

KiaraShe surfaces a few feet from Kalen and treads water, the brunette.

Water spiking her eyelashes and running in rivulets over her skin. The water is almost clear enough here that if they were closer to the shore they'd be able to glimpse down and see the sandy bottom - even out further from the shore, it's amazingly blue and the Verbena spends a not inconsiderable amount of time once she's in it peering downward while Kalen begins to prepare himself for the descent.

She can feel her own magick working, the strange tingling sensation of her body shifting; of airways opening up and tiny changes manifesting inside her skin and it's when breathing begins to change - pulling air into her lungs becomes a challenge that she dives beneath the surface; dragging in a lungful of water and holding her position there just beneath the surface.

When Kalen is ready, he finds the Verbena waiting for him - her hair fluttering out around her face beneath the surface like a dark, rippling flag. She smiles at him in a cascade of bubbles and offers a thumbs up gesture, followed by rather emphatic pointing downward.

Let's do it.

She kicks out and begins to swim.

The SeaThey work their effects differently, each of them focusing through their own particular belief and ritual. It takes a few minutes, but as the waves continue to rock gently against the boat and Kalen continues to speak in that divine language, the shape of their patterns begin to change. It itches at first - when the gills first open up on their necks. Then their lungs stop working the way they usually do and Kalen, whose head is still above the waterline, will have to plunge beneath the surface in order to breathe.

Movement - that's how gills work. They'll find that out quickly if they don't already know. Kiara is already waiting by the time Kalen finishes his effect. She gives him a signal and they begin their dive.

The water is clear and very blue on the surface. So far their visibility is good. There's a school of little silver fish not far away, moving in synchronized patterns through the water. When the sun hits them, their scales glint brightly. The temperature of the water is warm enough still that Kiara won't feel cold in her bikini. The two of them descend into the depths, kicking with measured strokes of their feet as the ocean moves through their newly-fashioned gills. Are they wearing masks? Flippers? If no, the going will be both slower and murkier.

But they do make their way down. And gradually the bright, warm waters become a little darker and a little colder.

Kalen has felt this sensation before - this deep-diving, though he's never been swimming in a real ocean before now. The thing they're looking for - it's down there somewhere. Do they search for it? Cast out their senses for its mythic resonance?

They're about two thirds of the way to the ocean floor when it starts to look like there might be something dark and cavernous waiting beneath them. Hard to tell from this distance, but they can see fish and rocks and sand and then they can see this patch of blackness where the floor drops off into what might be a trench.

Kiara[Per + Alertness, Diff 7]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (4, 5, 5, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )

Kiara[Per + Awareness, Diff 6]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 7, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Kalen[Per+Alert]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (3, 3, 5, 7, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 4 ) [Doubling Tens]

Kalen[Per+Aware]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 3, 5, 6, 8) ( success x 2 ) [Doubling Tens]

The SeaThere - in the distance. Not down but out. Above and to her right. Kiara can make out the movement of some large ocean creature drifting through the water. Its body is long and agile and about the size and shape of a shark. At one point, the light strikes its side and she can just make out faint tiger-stripes on its skin.

She can feel something, too. More than one something, actually. The probable-shark doesn't register to her senses the way a normal animal should. There's something... more, there. Stronger, more potent. Primal the way that Ian is primal but... definitely not feline. It feels dangerous. It kicks at her instincts in a way that sends cold shivers down her spine.

There are more of them out there. Not visible but... she can feel them.

And then: below. She can't sense the stone yet but she can definitely sense something else. It feels fluid, abyssal, primeval.

Like some monster from the deep.

KalenThe waters are colder and darker as they head further below the surface.  No guides this time.

Movement catches Kalen's attention and he can sense the sharks once he sees them.  He swims closer to Kiara, touches her to get her attention, and then points out to her each of the sharks.  Two above them, one below them.

And then he watches Kiara.  They cannot, not really, speak.  But then, perhaps, they do not need to.

He seems to keep watch at the edges of his vision for the sharks, but Kalen doesn't react to danger in ways that reassure most people.  Assesses risks as perfectly acceptable that other people would rather he not take.  Even now, after he remembers what the certainty that will die feels like, he assesses much the same way.

KiaraIts not the first time the brunette has been diving but it is the first time she's ventured so far down without the aid of anything but magick to keep herself breathing. She feels at once liberated and vulnerable in nothing but a swimsuit; her legs kicking out powerfully behind her as she descends further and further. She was an agile enough swimmer, Kiara, that she manages to propel herself downward, pushing through the water with relative ease.

But eventually, she can feel the faint ache settling into her muscles. Her progress slows and she's adopting a far more cautious speed at about the point she feels the movement - catches sight of what arrests her progress; her arms slowly moving through the water. This far down, nothing feels completely as it should - the world is muted; sound travels differently; colors are strangely lovely and alien much like the landscape around them.

Much like the creatures she can sense slowly circling near them.

She nods when Kalen touches her; points the creatures out. She takes a moment, the Verbena, to monitor the she could glimpse above them, the flash and gleam of light playing over the stripes down its body. Then she looks below, toward the inky black depths. There too, she feels something. Not danger per say (though perhaps in its own way) but something older. Endless and ancient.

She points toward it then takes the crystal on its chain where it hangs, suspended in the water around her neck, taps it and then downward: there's something that way. They cannot speak down here, but the Verbena splays her palm out flat and carefully walks her fingers across it. Points above and below and then raises a finger to her lips to suggest quiet.

Can we sneak past them? Seems to be the suggestion.

Kiara[That should read 'the creature she could glimpse', I apparently edited a word out.]

The SeaCan they sneak past them?

They could try. But as the two attempt to communicate through the only real means they possess, the sharks drift closer. As they move, Kiara will inevitably be able to spot at least one of the ones she missed. It's smaller than the tiger shark by about five feet, with solid, darker grey skin and a pale belly. (A Galapagos shark, specifically, though it's probable that neither Kalen nor Kiara know enough shark taxonomy to name it.) The third one keeps its distance, skating down over the ocean floor to disappear into the trench.

There's a point where the other two separate from each other - when the smaller shark cuts through the water and moves to circle around Kalen and Kiara's backs. It's unnerving how fast it moves. How quickly it traverses the fluid depths, compared to Kalen and Kiara's still-mostly-human bodies, which are so much less attuned to their current environment.

The tiger shark propels itself in this sudden charge then - cutting through the water to slice a path across their field of vision. Too close for comfort.

Clearly, they are already noticed.

KalenKalen expects that the sharks will not be so easily evaded and, as one shark circles around behind them and the tiger shark slices a path through the water in front of them, it becomes clear that that is true.  Until their display of tactics, Kalen is not sure whether the sharks were aware of what was under water here or if, perhaps, something very old and powerful had simply bred resonantly primal sharks.  But this...this is the kind of behavior of dedicated guardians and not sharks.

Would the sharks offer them riddles?  If they are here, these creatures, the stone must not be far.

Right this second, the sharks are not attacking them.  The sharks are fast.  Faster than he is.  Faster than Kiara.  But they are not bleeding.  Not from teeth and not from the sharp abrasion of shark skin.

There is only so much time, but there is time, and Kalen can only assume that the sharks gave them that.

And so he does not attempt to grow enchanted claws.  Does not prepare to direct the currents around them with his will.

Instead, for a few seconds, he lets his eyes drift half closed and drifts in the water.  He is as likely to feel as to see the sharks coming anyway.  And he looks for something that is where they are but not when they are.

Kalen[Time 2/Entropy 2/Prime 1: Find a moment | D=3 (5-2 for Oracular Ability)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (3, 6, 8) ( success x 3 )

KiaraThey aren't being attacked - yet.

Still, it feels wiser by the moment to remain where they are; swimming in place in the depths as the sharks begin to navigate around them; closing ranks. They feel differently to regular sharks, perhaps a little savvier, wiser in their approach. They don't go in for the kill yet but there's a threatening energy to it - to the way they dart and charge.

The crown had its own guardian - these were no looming dragon with blighting ferocity and a sweeping, mighty tail capable of toppling mountains but they were guardians none the less - the brunette's sense of it grows as they close in nearer with each passing moment.

Beside her, Kalen begins to work and the Verbena twists to keep a vantage on the circling creatures as he does. She doesn't work her own magick just yet, the pagan, though her fingers do flex at her sides as if the contemplation of it were right there, on the (literal) tips of her fingers. One decent slice of sharpened claws and there would be blood in the water.

It occurs to the Verbena at some point (perhaps as her fingers twitch and her focus narrows) that blood being spilled would be the most risky endeavor they could attempt - she's seen enough documentaries to remember what a feeding frenzy looks like.

The SeaPerhaps their instincts are right - perhaps these sharks are guardians, of a sort. Close up, their black eyes seem to search Kalen and Kiara's faces with cold interest. It's difficult to read their intentions. Sharks do not display emotions the way that mammals do. But as of yet they do not draw in for an attack. Instead they circle, slowing their speed to a more patient glide, their muscular bodies flowing smoothly in the dim depths.

Only once, the tiger shark breaks formation and cuts close enough that his tail will nick the edge of Kiara's shoulder if she doesn't duck out of its way fast enough.

It seems more restless than its companion. More eager for some kind of activity.

KalenThere is, there, the sense of water moving.  But water moves.  Currents drift and eddy.  Sand drifts.  Kelp.  Schools of fish.  The memories of blood.

And Kalen drifts with those things, lets himself glance off of moments and drift and catch again somewhere else.

Absent some pressing reason to redirect his attention, Kalen does not.  He lets all of his attachments to the present slide.  Untethers from now and Kiara and sharks and danger to see some other time.

[Continued effect | Now D=4 | WP]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (3, 4, 7) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

KiaraOne of the sharks nearly grazes her shoulder and the Verbena's response is, perhaps, achingly human. She flinches, swimming frantically downward a few inches while Kalen drifts peacefully, miles (and perhaps years) away. A mouthful of bubbles escape the brunette's lips and she swims back up a little and adopts a pose that must, in a very primal, animal sense - read as defensiveness to the circling creatures.

Protection of the other with her, as Kiara's senses stretch out; it's not as easy as it might have been, what the Verbena attempts to do - to seek out the twists and turns of fate; to etch out a way forward. To find and negotiate a path beyond the sharks and their gliding presence. She pushes at the very base patterns around them, the witch.

Seeking out the sensation she'd felt earlier, that ancient stirring down beneath them.

[Just a little Entropy 2/Prime 1, tickling the fates and probabilities and trying to pinpoint that resonance from below. No Focus on her so I'm guessing +3?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN8 (2, 2, 5) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

The SeaKiara attempts to seek out the stirring of fate's threads, but without her necessary instruments (and with the distraction of the circling sharks) the task is difficult. There's a brief flicker - this faint pull coming from inside the trench. But it fades a second later.

The SeaRight around the time that Kalen resurfaces from his vision, the third shark reappears. Its odd, T-shaped head breaches the shadowy veil over the surface of the trench and begins to ascend up to meet them.

Hammerheads typically keep to the ocean's floor. They don't often mix ranks with tiger sharks and galapagos sharks, but then, none of these sharks have been behaving the way that ordinary animals would behave.

(Because they are not ordinary animals.)

The tiger shark notices Kiara's instinctive response to its feint, but it doesn't press the attack. If it wanted to, it could hurt her. Could possibly even kill her if it was fast enough. But it doesn't. Neither does its companion.

When the hammerhead reaches them, it slides past the other two as though in some kind of silent communication. Then it turns and begins to descend once more. The other two stops for a moment, turn and glide past Kalen and Kiara's shoulders in this calm, deliberate fashion. They begin to follow the hammerhead into the trench, but if the mages neglect to follow them, they will stop, turn back, circle them once more and continue again toward the trench.

As though to say: follow.

They are being invited in.

KalenKalen's eyes open.  Refocus on the sharks.  Search out Kiara.

Kiara is Working.  But the sharks, the sharks are communicating with him now in the basic way that Kiara not more than a moment or two ago.  Follow, they say with their bodies.  With their circling.

And what else has Kalen ever done but follow that kind of call?  Though vast mindscape waters and into entanglements with vampires and soon enough other entanglements with the Technocracy perhaps.  Into searches for mythic artifacts he has no desire to even touch.  And yet....

There is a part of him that cannot help but dive.  Seek out lost artifacts and lost hopes and forgotten dreams and other pathways.  There are things that should be found and brought, shimmering and gleaming, up into the light.

There are monsters, too.  But they will have to risk those along the way.  He doubts, at the moment, that these sharks must be monsters.  Hopes that what they will find as they dive deeper and deeper will be the kind of thing to bring back to the world.

Kalen starts, but then, if Kiara continues Working, waits.  Waits until her attention comes back to the immediate moment and watches the sharks and wills them to wait.  He cannot tell them to wait.  So he just looks into their alien eyes and hopes that they will wait.  If they come close to Kiara he will raise his hand in the water as though to bar their way.  Not that he could bar their way.  Kalen does not, though, attempt to actually touch the sharks.

They are immense and they are magic and they are dangerous; but, in this moment, he is is not such terrified as mesmerised.  Here are great creatures touched by magic.  Here they are, beneath the sea.

It is almost as breathtaking as the end of the world.  (He disregards, in his wonder, the ways in which his breath might be taken.)

KiaraIt's next to impossible for the female to do what she wishes.

Frustratingly slow and challenging, beneath the water, with her heart beating a wild staccato rhythm as the sharks swim around them and Kalen's attention captured elsewhere - for a second, there's a flicker, a sense of that same sharper presence but she cannot hold it - it sparks like a flame stirred by a lighter but doesn't quite hold - there's no kindling for it - or at least, not enough.

Not in Kiara, not right now.

She could persist, press harder at her Will, scour the strands of fate for clarity but Kalen is beginning to move and so are the sharks; gliding past them, not, as instinct had first dictated to her, with the intention of harm but rather one of guidance. She meets Kalen's eyes and there's this tiny nod before she kicks off, begins to swim after the creatures.

Gliding through the water downward toward the trench; toward the sense of something darker; ancient and endless and eternal.

The Sea[Doo-be-doo, magick things. Diff 6 -1 (instrument) -1 (slow-like)]

Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (7, 7, 9, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 7 ) [WP]

The SeaThey follow the sharks into the trench. At first there's a drifting chill - it hits them right when they're about to swim into the blackness and Kiara, in her bikini, will feel it down into her marrow. Then they pass through the inky shroud and... it feels like piercing a veil.

Because they are. And what's beneath it is not, as it seemed, pitch darkness. Nor is it frigid cold. Instead the mages find themselves staring down at the wreckage of some old sailing vessel, the trench around it lit by hundreds of points of bioluminescence. The rock walls are lined with sea life: waving kelp and corals and glowing sponges, arranged in lovely patterns like some kind of undersea garden. The wreckage itself is equally alive, coated in algae and barnacles. All around them, tiny glowing jellyfish float and undulate. Schools of brightly colored tropical fish dart and play around the corals.

There's a burst of warmth coming from a crack at the bottom of the trench. It keeps the water here survivable for the delicate life that make up the trench's ecosystem.

Once inside the trench, the sharks swim out to the wreckage to meet their third companion - the hammerhead. All three of them circle lazily as they watch Kalen and Kiara, waiting.

That's when it hits them: the voice. It ripples out through the sea in a powerful psychic wave, touching Kalen and Kiara's minds. They feel it even as they hear it - the resonance of it is deep and ancient. The same resonance that Kiara felt earlier. The same one that Kalen sensed in his vision, only now it is much stronger, and there's an older, more primeval note to it.

The sound of it is low and female.

Who are you, and why have you come here?

KalenWho is he?

Two years ago, one year ago, perhaps even six months ago he would have given his proper Hermetic introduction.  But now....?

For a few seconds, Kalen hesitates.  Who is he?  Why is he here?  Which version of himself did he come here as?  He has been many people and he may still be all of them, but what does that mean?

Silence.  For the space that would be a breath.  For a few more heartbeats.  And he has something approaching an answer.  It is not a formal Hermetic introduction.  It is not about power that he will take and judge and wield.  Whatever it is, he would see it protected.  Whatever it is there are other people he trusts to know better what to do with it and he trusts them to do it.  Maybe to let him be part of it.

And then it occurs to him that even if he had found a name, he has no idea how to speak underwater.

And then that there is already a voice inside his head, so that probably doesn't matter.  It may, in fact, make his answer make more sense, rather than less sense.  Probably whatever Mage or being or force of nature or embodied concept that is speaking knows what he just thought.

For the moment, he waits to see if that is true.  His eyes wander the fantastic underwater landscape and then linger, briefly, on Kiara.

KiaraThe chill almost stops the Verbena in her tracks.

Almost.

She feels it, right down to the depths of her soul, that cold. It's all-encompassing, she'd be letting out a low hiss of discomfort but for the fact she's underwater so all that happens is a tiny stream of bubbles rush out of her gills.

The sharks begin their slow, lazy circuit anew and then there's a voice, inside their minds, brushing against their thoughts and the Verbena's descent slows and then, at least for the moment, halts. Kiara's long hair winding around her throat like a slow, undulating serpent.

Kalen hesitates and looks to her and the Verbena, after a momentary pause which may have been consideration allows her thoughts to surface, allows this ancient presence to feel them as they flit across her mind: we're travelers, we've come seeking something that was lost a long time ago.

The SeaThere's a brief hum that registers across both of their minds. Considering, and lightly amused.

If you're looking for something that was lost, there are many things here for you to choose from.

The woman's (creature's?) presence shifts in their minds, flowing through their thoughts as easily as the sharks traverse the sea.

If you do not know who you are, Malihini, then you have bigger problems than lost history. Unless the two are connected.

Somewhere in the wreckage, something moves. There's a flicker of something dark and something glowing-green showing through the cracks in the old, rotted vessel before she finally makes her appearance. And she is... both human and inhuman. Some kind of mermaid, perhaps, for in place of her legs there is instead a long, fish-like tail. But there are no scales and her skin is black and webbed, her hands ending in hooked claws. Twin stripes of glowing green mark her sides from her shoulders to the tip of her tail. Her face... looks as though it had been human once. Now her eyes are as black as the sharks' and her nose is flattened and gills line the sides of her neck. Black hair cascades around her as she moves, knotted here and there with bits of shells and stones and flotsam.

There is a stone hung about her neck on a strip of leather - a deep blue gem that glows faintly in the bioluminescence of the trench. It vibrates with a familiar mythic energy.

The woman gives a powerful sweep of her long tail and begins to rise toward them. As she moves, the sharks follow.

Is it not customary to give names where you're from?

They're hiding something. This second voice is new - not of the woman but, seemingly, one of the sharks. The sensation of it is deep and rough and masculine.

(They are all linked together, you see.)

Maybe they are. Maybe they're just scared. A third voice - gentle and feminine.

Kalen'Some of us,' he thinks, and tries to focus on that thought clearly.  'Have had a lot of Names.  None of which we expect you to know.  But, if you would like a name, use Elliott.'  And that is, to him, Elliott Chandler, rather than another, earlier Elliot, which in any case is spelled differently.  This new Elliott is not afraid of water and knows that in all the limitless potential for the world there is hope.  He likes that Elliott more than any of the other people he has been, who have seen death and disaster but have never really been able to see more than brief glimpses of hope.

Perhaps that hope will be what gets this Elliott killed.  Better that than a simples misstep on the battlefield.  A miscalculation of skill or terrain.  Can she see that understanding?  Can they?  If he tells her what they want, will she give them a riddle?  A quest?  A trial?

He doubts she will just offer it to them.  What could they have to trade?  Down here he expects currency is relative.  Would she like the memory of sunlight?  The taste of lilikoi?  Something more vital?

Again, he tries to focus on specific words.  'You came here with something.  I would assume to guard it.  We are here to find it.'  To find it, he says.  And that is exactly what he means.  Perhaps they will want to take it.  Perhaps it will be better left here with her.  Them.  He is not interested in the crown's power and he is only interested in making the crown whole because he suspects whole it could be, in the right hands, safer than it is sundered.

KiaraIt would perhaps take an Awakened with a far higher degree of belief in their own skill not to have at least a glimmer of fear down here, in the depths.

Perhaps the Verbena's pride did not extend so far for she certainly displays if not an abundance of it at least a respectable degree of hesitation. Of wariness, when that figure slips out of the wreckage and appears. There's caution but also - clearly, the way Kiara's dark eyes widen and she cranes forward just so - curiosity; wonderment.

There were Goddesses of the pagan's beliefs that must have appeared so - otherworldly and ethereal, some mixture of myth and majesty.  Is it not customary, she begins and Kiara's focus flits over the necklace around the creature's neck; the gem humming quietly with energy. My name is Kiara, what do they call you? Her fingers slip to the fine chain around her own neck, down here the silver glints and the crystal seems almost translucent; a finely crafted (perhaps alien, to these creatures) token of her own.

Her eyes slip over the circling sharks: We are searching for something specific, though.

The brunette has no idea how deeply this creature can plumb her thoughts, if her attention on the gem was noted, if her own consideration of her own charm was likewise filed away. There is the sense, in the Verbana's thoughts, flicking through like the pages of a book stirred by the wind of words, of thoughts.

Protection. Crown. Gemstone. Guardian.

The SeaAli'ikai Ka'ana'ana. Or, if you prefer, the Keeper of the Wreck.

The sea witch (let us call her what she is) goes still as she comes to a stop near the pair, floating above the wreckage with a sea of tiny jellyfish undulating in the water around them. There is something otherworldly about this place (the ocean often seems otherworldly to those who dwell on land.) About the black-skinned, black-eyed mer-woman and her shark allies.

I have not seen any human visitors for a very long time. There's a note of longing in her voice that she can't quite keep contained (or perhaps she simply doesn't try.)

They're searching for something specific. A stone. Something the witch brought with her when she came here. Likely she does pick up something of their more subjective thoughts, because she swims back a little, putting a hand up to clutch the stone around her neck. Her head gives a curious tilt, hair billowing around her face.

When she does this, the tiger shark makes a tight circle around Kalen and Kiara, watching them with its dark eyes. They're like all the other dirtwalkers. They just want to steal what isn't theirs. Send them away.

Enough, Dawn Strike. I can fight my own battles. The witch puts out a hand and pushes the shark out of her field of vision. He gives this rumble of dissent across the mental link, but otherwise does as requested. Then Ali'ikai, as she said her name was, looks between Kiara and Kalen with a long, measured gaze.

My mother gave me this stone. She was Kopa Loei before me. She never told me where she got it, but it's useful and it's the only thing I have left of her. You seem to think it holds some importance. Tell me why.

KalenAmong the things that Kalen understands is loneliness.  He has met so many remarkable people and among the most remarkable of them are generally the most lonely.  And then there is, of course, his loneliness.  Although that is lessened now.  So many of the best friends he has ever had he has because he will, when it suits him, reach out to people.

Under other circumstance he will pull away and lash out at anyone who gets close, but those circumstances are not here.  They are not now.

He swims toward the sea witch slowly, cautiously.  She, Kalen is relatively sure, means him no harm.  Not, at least, in this moment.  With some of the distance between them closed he stops and extends one hand out toward her.  'Would you like to see?'

If she says yes, whether she comes to take his hand or not, he shows her.  At least the part he knows.

Focuses on finding the map in the puzzle spheres, moment by moment.  Not just the first moment but the hiking and the sunlight and the trees and sheer wonder of a talking fox and then the puzzle.  Of asking Henry what the map unlocked.  The taste of blood and exhaustion and the knowledge of what Henry would do with the crown.  The memory of the crown at the chantry, mythic and ancient and humming with power.  The way it had quickened against his skin like a pulse when he reached out toward it.  The missing spaces for the stones.

And he lets her feel what he has not discussed thus far with anyone in any detail, his apprehension about what the crown could do for the world weighing against what it might cost.  And, ultimately, the knowledge that nothing could remain buried forever.  That, some day, someone would take the circlet and the stones and wield them.  All that he, or they, can shape is who might do so.

And then he watches the sea witch. Focused.  Intent.  Not on any of his memories but on how she responds.

KiaraWe don't want to steal anything.

The Verbena sounded, as much as was possible given their current whereabouts and the fact it was an objection of mind rather than speech, rather indignant on this particular front. Her eyes following the tiger shark for a lingering beat as it circled around them. That's not why we've come. We're not here to take anything without consent.

There is a moment where Kiara's expression seems to register some flicker of unease when Kalen swims forward and offers out his hand but ultimately, she cannot control his thoughts, no matter how desperately she might have wished to encourage a degree of caution on what he revealed, on how much and how he shared with this sea witch all the reasoning why they'd come so far in search of something so small.

She cannot know what exactly he shows her, but after a moment, the pagan's voice reaches out again.

Her thoughts sliding into place carefully, turning and locking into formation like an artifact set into motion. The stone that your mother gave you once belonged to a circlet, a crown that was forged a long time ago by some of our kind. It had great power but it was also the cause of great suffering. 

For many years it was lost. Taken and put somewhere far out of reach. We sought the crown, took it from this place to keep it safe but the crown was incomplete. The stones had been removed and scattered, we believe, in different locations. There's a key difference here, a deviation in the way Kalen and Kiara's feelings and beliefs strayed toward the crown and its legacy. Kiara's allows a sense of deep regret and empathy for an unknown face; a female that swims to the surface of her thoughts and memories.

We believe perhaps somebody gave it to your mother to keep safe.

Glints there and then fades, replaced with a certainty that none could ever be trusted to wield such a thing. That totality of power led only to the corruption of a soul. There's a sense in the brunette's mind that to find the crown, to take the stone, is to the eventual removal of it from all hands.

The tools of Gods were never forged for the hands of men.
 
The SeaKalen swims forward and extends his hand. There's a moment where it looks as though the tiger shark (Dawn Strike, the sea witch called him) might go for him. The other two sharks circle in closer. Their thoughts in that moment are not words so much as a clear, distinct impression: protective, wary. They may not be overtly aggressive but if Kalen attempts harm, they will attack. Sharks are not known for their willingness to hesitate.

Ali'ikai watches him with dark, fathomless eyes. After a moment, she does reach out her hand to take his. If Kalen isn't careful, he may graze himself on her claws, but she is delicate when she touches him, skirting her leathery fingers over his skin. Touching her is like touching a sea mammal - a dolphin or an orca.

She doesn't need to take his hand to see what he offers her, but she does - because this is part of his ritual. Kiara, too, offers up bits of their story. The crown. Leah. Tells the woman her intentions.

(If the sharks are offended at her rebuttal of Dawn Strike's claims, they make no particular show of it. Their concerns are more instinctive.)

Slowly, Ali'ikai releases Kalen's hand. She makes a gesture with her long tail, the dark fins spreading out and rippling like silk in the water. It propels her forward, past Kalen toward Kiara, who she regards with calm scrutiny.

This is why you came here? To piece together an artifact that by your own admission has been the cause of great suffering. And you think that you have the right to make that choice? To be the custodians of this crown? Her voice rises in a resonant laugh, evidence of her dark amusement sketched onto her alien features. The curl of a lip that reveals a little flash of needle-sharp teeth. The hubris of children.

Whatever it is you think you're doing, it's going to end badly. A new voice cuts in, cold and soft and faintly masculine. Possibly the hammerhead, for at that moment it swims close to Kalen and eyes him with one of it's wide, odd eyes.

Mm, perhaps, the witch offers, turning her head to glance back at Kalen. I have long-ago stopped caring for the goings-on of land-dwellers. This is my home. This is the world that matters to me. Start a war if you wish. Get yourselves killed. Perhaps the world will be better for it. But this... she touches the stone around her neck and it gives this faint little pulse of recognition. This matters to me. I will not hand it over on the faith of some noble ideal.

For a moment it seems as though that might be all she has to say. This... slightly callous dismissal. But then she says, almost hesitantly, I would trade it though. If you can give me something in return.

I have a son. I have not seen him in... a long time. He is getting old, I think. I should like to see him one more time, at least. To say goodbye. If you bring him here, I will give you the stone.

The Sea[Edit: This matters to me. I will not hand it over on the faith of some noble ideal. (should be in italics)]

KalenKalen is careful of those claws, but there is no sense of hesitancy about the contact.  Marvels at the sense of her skin and the closeness of something that he did not know could exist only moments before.

If there is any part of him that is wounded by what she says, there is no sign of that.  Instead, despite the fact that she is dismissing them to their wars, he smiles faintly.

And he listens.  There is a sudden spark of interest in his eyes as she talks about the crown.  He and she and the sharks, they know this ends badly.  And Kiara.  Unless.....

There is a second where he looks toward Kiara and his eyes are wide and they are full of wonder but they are, also, full of a sudden new kind of intensity.  Whatever it is that he is thinking, whatever has captured his attention, he cannot, not in this moment tell her.

His attention returns to settle on Ali'kai. 'Itself,' he focuses on asking her.  'Itself, what does it do?'  There is something behind that sudden spark of interest in the stone, the realisation that perhaps the stones will have power enough they might unmake the crown.  He would, for all its possible wonder, prefer it gone from the world.

KiaraYou think you have the right?

The Verbena is scrutinized and she looks across at the sea witch with dark, solemn eyes. Her hair is no less a wild thing for the fact she's beneath the waves, rather it spills and twists and weaves around her shoulders and face like it would were she in the Umbral Realms. An extension of the pagan's very essence, in its own manner.

No, maybe we don't. But if it isn't us who come to try and take it, it'll be others. And believe me, they won't ask. They don't respect the earth or the sea. They don't care whose home they have to invade. It will become yours to care about. Intentional, that surge of anger, that flicker-flash of dead and dying earth; dusty remains poured through her fingers.

A set of black eyes staring through her as a figure approached.

Kalen turns his attention on her with a look of keen focus and it takes Kiara a moment to drag her own away from Ali'kai to return the look but when she does, there seems to be a long pause before she turns back to face the circling sharks, the otherworldly beauty of the creature before her. The Verbena's eyes dip, briefly, to the stone and her brows constrict.

Where would we find him?

The SeaThe witch doesn't provide much visible reaction to Kiara's ominous warnings, but the sharks?

Oh, she gets their attention. In that moment, Kalen is all-but-forgotten as the three oceanic predators turn quick in the water and look at her. They answer her in unison:

If dirtwalkers harm us, we will kill every. last. one. until the sea turns red with their blood.

Dawn Strike turns with a whip-lash motion to put some space between them, swimming out further into the trench. As he does so, his body shifts and changes, growing larger and larger... until he resembles some bygone megalodon. A massive shark, larger than a great white. Large enough to easily swallow Kalen or Kiara whole.

We, he adds with a gravely growl, are not afraid of you.

Ali'ikai watches this display quietly. This time, she doesn't attempt to interrupt. She knows better. She does, however, lift her hand in some silent gesture of peace. We don't wish for war. We fight when we must. And we will, if it comes to that. The sea has outlasted many battles. She looks back at Dawn Strike warily. Don't be so quick to dismiss the Kahuna, my friend. We can be a tricky lot.

The other two sharks circle back to join their companion, their long bodies moving with graceful energy. They seem... agitated. There's a flicker-spike of it across the mental link.

Ali'ikai turns back to Kalen. The stone holds Mana. It is a vessel. I forget what the white wizards call it.

(A periapt.)

To Kiara she says: He lives on Moloka'i. At least, he did. His name is Haoa Ka'ana'ana. He worked for the parks service years ago. Perhaps he still does. He knows... what I am. But he isn't one of us. And he has not seen me as I am now. She glances back at the sharks. I think perhaps you should go.

To her credit, there is a hint of regret in her voice.

KalenKalen watches the sharks.  His eyes do widen when Dawn Strike grows to the size of some dire shark; but, understand this, in that first instant it is not fear.  It is amazement.  After a second it is amazement tempered with caution and he does keep half an eye on the sharks, but he still seems not so much wary of them as simply aware.

Kalen cannot understand why anyone should be afraid of anyone in this moment.  There may be things here worth dying for, but they are not things for which he sees any need for it to come to that.  He is, he knows, in all honesty, terrible at being a Hermetic.

'We will go,' he conveys to Ali'kai.  'And we will, at least, try to find him.'  Though he would have done that for her, stone or no stone.  He can no more ignore that request than he can artifacts.

KiaraThe brunette watches Dawn Strike with wariness throughout this transformation.

There isn't amazement or wonderment in the moment, not in Kiara. Some instinctive fear perhaps, for whatever her thoughts or opinions, there could be no denying that the shark had the capacity to snap her and Kalen in half in the blink of an eye if he so deigned. But it's not wonder - regret, perhaps. Consideration.

A flicker of unease at the certainty he possesses. She knows better, you understand, than to believe that only the invader's blood would stain the ocean red should the day ever come. There's a reason why the female doesn't put trust in demonstrations of bravado. Still - she doesn't comment on it, her eyes betray her feelings though, when they return to the sea witch. The line of consternation persists between her brows.

We'll find your son.

There doesn't seem to be room for a question of it, in the Verbena. She studies Ali'kai a moment longer and then with a small nod, turns toward Kalen and touches his wrist, gesturing upward.

Time to go.

The SeaAn agreement is reached, though perhaps a bit tenuously. And with their agreement, Ali'ikai backs away and bows her head.

When Kalen and Kiara move to swim free of the trench, the sharks do not follow them.

It takes some time to get back to the surface. First they pass through that dark veil and into the colder water, kicking steadily upwards with each measured stroke. Gradually the water becomes clearer as they ascend towards the light.

By the time they breach the surface, the sun has dipped lower in the sky. It's somewhere around late afternoon and luckily the waves are still mild. After they allow their bodies to shift back to their natural forms, they're able to climb back into the boat with little trouble.

By the time they get back to shore, it's evening. The exertion of their underwater trek has taken a toll on their bodies and both Kalen and Kiara will feel hungry upon their return. But they have a name, and at least a rough idea of where to begin their search.

The Sea[END SCENE 1]