vision

[calescent]

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

Comments

[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.

[free_flowing]

"...Sort of? It's complicated. I was trying to see what happened. The idea being that I'd come out either dead or really knowing I was prime."

[salt_of_the]

"...I'm not getting it."

[free_flowing]

"Yeah. I know. I'm not sure it's something that people who aren't me can get," he says. "Even Kiri had a lot of trouble. It's just - I really, really didn't want to come back, when she showed up in Thiyec to get me. I would've liked drowning better. And, mm... failing to drown was the only thing I could think of that might help change my mind. I dunno if I can explain why, exactly. I just needed a really big push."

[salt_of_the]

"I'm glad you're okay."

[free_flowing]

"Thanks," he says, smiling. "Me too."

[salt_of_the]

"I wonder if Kiri would've even told me if you'd drowned."

[free_flowing]

"No idea."

[salt_of_the]

"I guess I'd have to ask her. What are you gonna do to the trout?"

[free_flowing]

"Things," he says, mysteriously. "Tasty things."