vision

[calescent]

Kiri's up early the next morning, restless with various low-level simmering concerns, and wanders out of her room.

Comments

[salt_of_the]

Meanwhile:

"What kinda seafood are you going to make?"

[free_flowing]

"There's a river. I fish in it. I have fish. My plans are not yet any more detailed than that."

[salt_of_the]

"Are you going to fish by magic? That sounds awesome."

[free_flowing]

"I do fish by magic! Do you wanna see me fish by magic? It's actually not much to look at, just me with a net on a pole scooping mysteriously dying fish out of the water."

[salt_of_the]

"I wanna see anyway."

[free_flowing]

"Okay, sure."

He fetches his net on a pole, and a basket to contain the assassinated fish; he dons appropriate footwear; he leads her out to a part of his property that adjoins the river.

[salt_of_the]

"Are there trout in here? Trout's my favorite."

[free_flowing]

"There are trout! We can have trout," he says. He sits on the riverbank with his feet dangling in the water, plonks his basket down beside him, and...

...scoops a mysteriously dying trout into the basket.

[salt_of_the]

Patience pokes the basketed trout. Yep, that's dead.

"I wonder if I can get all the bones out. Probably not as neatly as Ekador, but I bet I could peel the meat off them."

[free_flowing]

"Ooh. Go for it!" says Loel. "Maybe when we get to the kitchen, though. This basket's only clean enough for the outsides of fish."

He scoops another mysteriously dying trout.

[salt_of_the]

"Yeah, it can wait. How many trouts are you going to catch?"

[free_flowing]

"Enough to feed everybody," he says. "I'd rather have leftovers than insufficient trouts, but it's not like I need to stock up, I can come back here and get more anytime I want."

[salt_of_the]

"I miiiight be hungry enough to eat one entire trout."

[free_flowing]

"Then you get one entire trout. You can even pick which one," he says cheerfully.

[salt_of_the]

"Ooh. I will wait until you have caught enough to decide."

[free_flowing]

He beams at her.

Mysteriously dying trout! Mysteriously dying trout! More mysteriously dying trout!

[salt_of_the]

"How exactly are you doing that, anyway?"

[free_flowing]

"...It's kind of creepy, but I'll tell you if you want!"

[salt_of_the]

"Yeah, tell me!"

[free_flowing]

"So, when we breathe we're getting something from the air, and when fish breathe they're getting something from the water. But it's the same something, and where it ends up is the blood. I just... pull it all back out of them, and they basically drown."

He scoops a sixth mysteriously dying trout into the basket, eyes it, decides it is a little small, and turns his attention back to the water to await a seventh.

[salt_of_the]

"Ooh, huh. And you can just sense that?"

[free_flowing]

"Yeah. Well - sorta. I kinda found it out when I tried to drown myself back in Thiyec," he sighs, and then he scoops a final fish.

[salt_of_the]

"You did what now?"

[free_flowing]

"Yeah. Turns out I don't actually need to breathe when I'm underwater," he says. "I don't even do it like a fish, I just pull the whatever-it-is straight into my blood through my skin."

He gets up, collecting the basket along the way.

[salt_of_the]

"Okay, so, that's good, but you were trying to drown yourself, like, choking dying drown, before you found that out?" Patience asks, getting up to follow him.