Salveran Tides Ch. 06

Chapter Six: Vi

"The people of the Weald keep to their ways, and rarely let outsiders glean any information about them for fear of exploitation. Here is what I do know - Wildlings seem to be made, not born. They can move faster and strike harder than a mortal man can. They come in all shapes and sizes, and may the Flame help us all if they ever get tired of living in the woods." - Extract from the writings of a botanist, hidden within the vaults of the Flame Church to protect the people from its heresy.

Leona dreamed as she slept, her body recovering from the exhaustion of propelling them into the storm with the Tidecaller. She saw her brother mostly, his handsome face distinct from the scar running through his eye from an encounter with a particularly vicious shark. His had been the last face she'd seen before leaving Riesla, which now felt like an eternity ago. What was he up to now? Probably keeping their mother calm after her being away for so long.

Her sibling's visage faded away as voices began shouting close to her. Leona groaned and shifted, finding the hard shaft of the Tidecaller under her fingers. She pulled the weapon close and opened her eyes, finding herself in unfamiliar surroundings for the umpteenth time that week alone. The room was steady and not rocking back and forth, which meant she was on land somewhere. Underneath her was a rough bed that seemed to be made of piled sand with a layer of plant leaves over it, atop which was a well-worn blanket. Hanging from the walls and ceiling around her were charms or decorations of some kind, made from more plants, shells, and fish bones.

Leona sat up slowly, trying not to make much noise so she could continue to eavesdrop on the argument happening in the other room. She clearly recognized Scarlet's voice, though she hadn't the slightest clue who the smooth, resonant tones of the person she was arguing with belonged to. They sounded like they were older, more wizened. Scarlet's opposite, for lack of a better word.

"Come on, admit it," Scarlet was saying. "You wouldn't have helped get us through that storm if you didn't miss me."

"That remains to be seen," the other person said. "I haven't decided whether or not to throw you back like a catch that's too small."

"Like you could if you wanted to."

"Do you really want to test my patience? Now, of all times?"

Leona stood, using the Tidecaller for balance as she walked across the room slowly to the curtain of palm fronds that served as the door. "I know exactly how much I can test that," Scarlet said. "You always relent in the end because I'm so damn charming."

"I've had peace and quiet for the past four years ever since I made the choice to release you from my charge, and I'll not-"

As Leona pushed through the curtain, the speaker stopped. Leona saw Scarlet first, the pirate dressed down with her equipment piled on a ramshackle table next to her. Standing next to her was another woman. Her skin was a deep brown, almost black like the crushing depths of the ocean. There was no hair on her head save for a single strip that followed the crown of her head before becoming a long braid that fell to the middle of her back. Two things about her struck Leona the most, however. The first was her build - she looked brawnier and more muscular than Lexaeus, her body hardened by whatever life she'd led. The second were her eyes. They were both piercing gold in color, the same hue as Scarlet's scarred right eye.

"And then there's this one," the mysterious woman said, looking Leona up and down. "How'd a lovely creature like you wind up in this one's orbit?" She inclined her head at Scarlet.

"Long story," Leona said. "And growing longer by the day. You are...?"

"My name is Vi," the woman said. "And this is my island."

"That I helped you steal, remember," Scarlet cut in.

Vi gave her a slow glare. "And that I know how to control, so mind your tongue."

"I couldn't help but overhear you talking, forgive me," Leona said, interjecting before the bickering could resume. She had questions. "Do you two know each other?"

"Unfortunately," Vi said.

"You love me," Scarlet said.

"Where are Lexaeus and Yesseil?" Leona asked.

Scarlet jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. "Out there, trying to put the ship right. It took some damage in the storm. If you hadn't passed out we probably could've navigated through it unscathed. We're stuck here for a couple days until we get the thing fixed."

"Depending on whether or not I decided to toss you back," Vi said.

"Look, you can stop with the threats, because that's not bloody happen-"

"Scarlet!" Leona snapped. "Would you stop being obstinant for five minutes? I have no idea where we are - again! - and I can't relax with you bickering. So can you please for once shut up and stop being a hassle?"

Scarlet and Vi went quiet for a long time, Leona glowering at the former while leaning on the Tidecaller. After several long heartbeats, Scarlet snorted and yanked her bandanna out of her pocket. "Fine, whatever," she said. She spun on her heel and left, tying the cloth around her hair.

Vi blinked and looked at Leona. "How in the world did you do that?"

"Beats me." Leona felt a faintness rise up in her a little, and leaned on her staff for balance. "Do you have anywhere I can-?"

"Back on the bed," Vi said, pointing behind Leona. "I'll bring you something to drink."

Leona slowly made her way back to the pile of sand and sat down, propping the Tidecaller up against the wall next to her. Vi joined her a moment later, holding a large wooden cup with steam wafting up from it. "A drought of thornweed, hibiscus, salidia leaves and Odigiana's root," Vi said. "Should make you feel better."

Leona blinked. The last two ingredients in the tea were plants used by her people, and this human had known their names. Interesting. She took the mug and took a sip. The liquid inside was thick, almost a syrup, and a tad bitter, but after just one sip her head was clearer and she felt strength returning to her limbs. "My thanks," she said. "But how did you know-"

"How to treat one of the Deep Folk?" Vi sat down next to Leona. In the dimness of the bedroom, her skin became almost obsidian in color, but her gold eyes seemed to glow with their own luminent radiance. "You'd be surprised who and what washes up on the shore of my island," she said.

"Scarlet said she...helped you get this place?"

Vi snorted. "That pup wouldn't know the first thing about this place. She never had the temerity to unlock its secrets. She's too impatient."

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't follow. You speak as if you raised her."

Vi looked towards the palm frond curtain. "In a way I did. For a little while at least."

That explained why they bickered the way they did, at least. Before Leona could pry further, Vi asked, "My question from earlier stands - how did you wind up in the company of Scarlet Rydell?" Thus, Leona related the tale of the past week to Vi, gulping down the contents of the mug as it cooled. By the time she was done with the story, she was finished with the drink, and felt as though she could swim all the way to Riesla and back with energy to spare.

"I warned Scarlet that her pursuits would get those close to her killed or harmed," Vi said when Leona was done. "But no, never listen to old Vi. She doesn't know anything."

"It definitely has been an experience being in her company," Leona said. She stared at the floor, folding her hands in her lap. "Makes me long for the comforts of home."

"And where is home? Riesla?"

Leona's head snapped up. "You know of the altaean cities?"

Vi reached over and tapped the necklace that dangled from around Leona's slender neck. "I had an encounter long ago with one of your people wearing a very similar necklace, or perhaps that exact one. A male, though I don't think I ever caught his name." The woman blinked and leaned in close, a look passing over her face. "You have similar eyes."

Leona felt a warmth creep up the back of her neck at the attractive human in her personal space. She shifted along the bed a little. "You, ah - you seem well-traveled."

"The sea deposits many things on these shores," Vi said. "Ship rations, jugs of alcohol..." She glowered at the wall. "Upstart pirates from my past."

"Did you and Scarlet not part on the best of terms?"

"Considering she stole just about everything I had that wasn't nailed down."

"Even given my limited experience with her, that sounds about right."

"She's quite easy to get a read on," Vi said. She stood up. "Matter of fact, someone should be out there keeping an eye on her and those other two."

"I'll go," Leona said, grabbing the Tidecaller.

She slipped out of the small dwelling, finding as she left that it was actually a bunker of sorts built into the side of a sandy hillock. The entrance opened right onto the beach of a tropical island not unlike the one that Leona had woken up on at the start of this whole misadventure. But where that had been a wild place, this island showed signs of Vi's habitation. The beach vegetation around the entrance to her home was clean and maintained, providing a sandy path to the entrance. Atop the hillock was a small garden of root plants and flowers, their fragrant smells collecting into a heady cloud. Beyond that was a dense jungle of palms and thick, leafy bushes.

On the shore about a hundred yards from the entrance to Vi's home was the beached cutter they had sailed through the storm on. The ship's keel was wedged in the sand, the sails furled and long mooring lines tied around the mast to a palm on shore to keep it from drifting away with the tide. Leona saw Scarlet, Lexaeus, and Yesseil all working on different areas of the ship.

Lexaeus caught sight of her as she approached and gave her a respectful nod. "Your Majesty."

Scarlet was standing near the beached bow with a piece of wood by her feet and a mallet in her teeth. She'd drawn her hair up into a ball behind her head, leaving a few stray bangs to spiral out around her brow. The top two buttons of her shirt were undone, leaving the fabric to fall open a little and expose the line of her freckled breast. "What bizzare concoction did she make you drink?"

Leona stared a few moments too long at the line of Scarlet's chest before shaking her head quickly. "Something made with plants that my people use in medicines, that she knew the names for."

"That figures." Scarlet bent over to grab the piece of wood at her feet and held it up a crack in the timbers around the bow. She adjusted it a few times until it was where she needed it. "Word of advice: always make her tell you what's in those potions of hers."

"She seems to be an expert on the matter. I saw the garden above her house. I've never seen anyone like her, human or otherwise."

Scarlet withdrew some nails from her pocket and used the mallet to hammer the plank of wood into place. "That's because she's a wildling, Princess."

"A what?"

"A wildling, and a wildling witch at that." Scarlet canted her head back. "Yesseil, need that pitch, love!"

"Almost done!" the elf called back.

"Don't change the subject, Scarlet," Leona pressed.

Scarlet sighed. "Look, all you need to know about Vi is that she's capricious, and incredibly powerful, and it's in your best interest to not ask her for anything. She has a habit of giving you what you want, but with an added dose of 'fuck you.'"

Leona frowned. "What does that even mean?"

Yesseil came to the front of the ship, holding a small cauldron of something foul-smelling by its wire handle. "Here, Scarlet."

"Thanks, love." Scarlet took the cauldron, along with a brush that Yesseil passed her. She dunked the bristles in the black gunk in the cauldron and used the brush to cake it on over the wood. "Not the prettiest job in the world, but it'll hold."

Leona scowled and stomped off. "Forget it. Don't know why I bother pressing you for information anyway."

"Where are you going?" Scarlet called after her.

"To think!" Leona answered over her shoulder. She waded into the shallows, feeling the water wrap around her dry body like a cool salve. When it was up to her chest, she dove forward, the water swallowing her up in a familiar embrace. Leona clamped her legs together and kicked hard, her body scything away from the beach. The shore didn't last long beyond the edge of the island, dropping off into a deep blue abyss only a hundred yards from shore.

After crossing the drop-off, Leona dove down deeper, feeling her ears pop and the water pressure clamp down on her body. She'd lived her entire life underwater, yet she'd spent more time out of her element than in it over the past week. Going back into the water and diving down deep felt like being back in her own dwellings at home in Riesla.

As she came close to the bottom, Leona levelled off and swam straight ahead away from the island. Her vision adjusted to filter out the water's gloom, allowing her to see the carpet of plants on the ocean floor and the fish that called them home. They flitted away from her as she passed, unused to the presence of one like her so close. She didn't blame them, she'd have done the same.

The thought of home gave her pause. She still had no idea where she was in relation to her home. The altaean capital wasn't going to be labelled on any human map, obviously, but Leona had thought she'd roamed far enough that she'd be able to reason its location on their charts. But even after seeing the map aboard the cutter, she had no idea where she was and how far she was from home. For all she knew she could be in enemy territory, with the Forsaken lurking in the depths waiting for her.

As she went further out, a current buffeted her. Leona put up her arms and attempted to force her way through it, but the harder she did, the more pushback she got. In the gloom ahead of her, she saw a rolling cloud of deepwater silt and plant matter churning like a whirlpool. But rather than sucking her in, it seemed to be pushing her away. Leona looked up towards the surface, and saw that the cloud extended all the way to the water's surface. She kicked off the bottom.

The moment she breached she was doused with salt spray. Where the underwater silt cloud hit the surface, it turned into the artificial storm cloud that shielded the island. "What kind of phenomena is this?" she muttered to herself, looking up at the wall of wind and water. She turned, seeing the island shore a fair way away. Scarlet and the others looked tiny as they climbed over their ship to fix it.

Her home was still at the forefront of her mind as Leona dove under again and swam, keeping just below the water line as she went back. She still knew deep in her gut that there were other artifacts of power out across the world like the Tidecaller. If she could find more of them, they might stand more of a chance at stopping the tide of the Forsaken. A thought struck her, despite Scarlet's earlier warning. Maybe since Vi claimed she'd had dealing with altaeans before, she might know something? It was worth a shot.

And maybe, just maybe, the strange woman might know a way to restore the gap in Leona's memory from before she'd wound up on shore tied to a tree at the mercy of Scarlet Rydell.

Leona got her feet under her as she reached shore, water dripping off her body as she hiked up the sand towards Vi's dwelling. Inside, she could hear the woman singing a song in a language Leona didn't know. Her voice was pleasant and melodic, and it reminded Leona of her mother. "Vi?" she called.

The singing stopped, and the wildling poked her head out a moment later. "Yes?"

"I have a request for you. A favor to ask."

Vi cocked her head, then beckoned Leona inside. "And what might that be?" she asked when they were both inside.

"Scarlet alluded to you being capable of a great deal through your potions and your magic. Is that true?"

Vi's eyes narrowed. "What of it?"

"I have a gap in my memory, like I told you. I have no idea how I got from being underwater searching for altaean artifacts to whatever island I was on with Scarlet. Do you think you might be able to help me fill that gap?"

Vi rubbed her chin for a moment. "Perhaps. It all depends on what caused the gap in your memory."

Leona frowned. "Meaning?"

"Meaning if something or someone struck you and knocked you unconscious, for example, a draught cannot show you what you did not see, because your eyes were closed and you did not actually see anything. This would require divination of the past, something I can do in theory, but it's difficult. There is the possibility that you were conscious for the missing portion of your memory, but the events were removed from your mind by way of a hex. This can be undone with a draught, but I don't think it's likely."

"Why's that?"

Vi's gold eyes flashed. "Because last time I checked, most altaeans stick to their innate magic and can't do anything with wildling magic. I can attempt a divination of the past for you, though it's something I haven't done in a long time. It's old magic, and will require a contribution from you."

Leona looked her square in the eye. "I need to know."

Vi held her gaze for a time, then nodded. "We shall do it tonight, then."

Later, as the moon rose to its highest point in the sky, Leona and Vi slipped out of the small dwelling and climbed up the hillock the witch's home was built into. Down on the shore, Leona made sure that there were three sleeping figures around the small campfire before turning and following Vi into the jungle.

"It took many months of work to bend this environment to my needs," Vi said. She led Leona down a narrow path that wound through the flora, the edges neatly and tidy as they butted against the sand underfoot. "I've grown quite comfortable living here."

Leona looked around at the heavy palm fronds swaying the breeze, watching the moonlight glint off the large leaves. "It's very peaceful," she said.

Vi led her along the path for a while, until they came to the other side of the island. There, the sand gave way to smooth rocks underfoot as they came to a small bay dotted with tide pools. Most were small, no more than a few feet across, but there was a particularly large one close to the water. It was the latter that Vi made her way towards, unslinging the pack she'd shouldered before leaving her home.

"Give me a moment to set things up," the witch said. She reached into the pack and withdrew an armful of wax candles. WIth them in hand, she moved around the edge of the large tide pool, placing candles every few yards by wedging the wax bases into the rock. "Step inside the boundary, right here," Vi said, pointing to a small area of smooth rock at the edge of the pool.

Leona did, and Vi finished setting up the candles. She drew a few more bottles of liquid from within her pouch and set the thing aside on the rock. "Now, a word of caution," she said. With a snap of her fingers, every candle in the circle around the tide pool lit up, bathing the area around them in soft orange glow. "Once we begin, do not leave the confines of the circle until the spell is finished. Clear?"

"How did you do that?" Leona stared at the candles in amazement.

"'Tis but a trifle. Do you understand?"

Leona nodded. "No leaving the circle. Right."

Vi rose, her hands going to the thing rope of plant fibers that held her skirt to her hips. "Now. Remove the clothes you're wearing."

Leona blinked. "E-excuse me?"

"Latent magic can cling to clothing and interfere with the forces we're about to work with," Vi said, shimmying her hips out of the grass skirt she wore. "We don't want that to happen."

Blue eyes stared enraptured at obsidian skin as the skirt fell away, revealing smooth hips and strong thighs toned by a life in the wild. Vi's back was to Leona, and the mermaid found her gaze locked on the curve of the witch's back as she shed her clothing. Her hands undid the knot along her top, allowing the other garment to fall away from her body. Vi reached up and took hold of her braid, hooking it over her shoulder. She turned to Leona, casting the swell of her breasts in the glow of the moon. "Well?"