#odyssey

Art stirs - he had dozed off, or dazed off, there for a few moments. He looks at the position of the sun in the sky. "Were we really up there for that long?"

"Hours!"

"I want to know how Niamh got the one about Fornax, though..."

Art glances around, and ensures that no one is close enough to hear. He gestures for Thistle to lean in.

She does so.

"I figured - they had to have one. With no sidhe or hardly any other people welcome, and being so unwilling to go into debt... but they MUST have one, you know??"

Squint.

"OH"

There's the lightbulb.

"She's so young, but so important..." He glances after where Niamh had left.

"There was a need." She nods.

"And that kid... yeah. Yeah. Okay."

"I knew it was a bit of a risk, but like, they have a code? So, she knew the answer, or could know it, but couldn't say it... was that a dirty trick?" He looks a little worried.

"She didn't seem mad. Omario did."

"But, well, he has anger issues. The blowhard."

"Well, I admit I am glad he didn't get my Name."

"Me too."

"I am not certain what his angle is. Somehow, the loving family man guise does not seem to fit."

"He doesn't have an heir. He got Janice's skin, but has no legacy."

"He's so phenomenally unpleasant a personality that prestige, power, and a skin ain't enough to nab him a partner."

"I thought they said that the skins had to be passed down by gender lines. Mother to daughter, or aunt, and so forth. If they were not so terribly secretive, it might make more sense."

"Well, then who got Janice's skin?"

"They might prefer gender lines, but..." She shrugs. "And there's a reason he wanted to keep Janice's letters from reaching their mom."

"The benefit of the doubt might say that he was protecting her from... heartache, or similar. However, I tend to feel that he has waived the right to that consideration. Maybe he is just a jerk."

"Jerk is polite."

"Jerked chicken." He says, recalling Gladiola's earlier comment, with a hint of a smile.

"He's an overweening egoist. A self-centered, prestige hungr-..." She cuts off with a snort-cackle. "Jerked chicken!"

"Bukaw!" More chortling.

They get a few side-eyes, curious, from people who linger around, but that doesn't stop Art from laughing along.

Citrine jingles with laughter, joining in the merriment!

As he wipes a trace of laughter-tears from his eyes, Art catches his breath. "Do you think we could convince anyone to clue us in a bit more? You've won two challenges. That should give you some consideration, I would hope."

"Well, a couple seem pretty friendly. Aoife ain't afraid of Omario, that's for sure. OH, you'll have to meet Dayana and Grog!"

"Niamh likes you. She was worried you'd be upset with her. Or maybe she just wanted to still be able to play with Citrine."

Chime? Hearing her name, she buzzes into Art's face.

"Try to stop Citrine from playing."

"And... Niamh probably felt like she had to do it. I don't think her taking on the role as champion means she's against us. Maybe not for us, either. Maybe just believing that it's gonna be fate, either way."

"How can I be mad at her for that?"

"She IS still a kid in there. Right? Little kid logic. They worry about things. Heck, -I- worry about things too." A grin.

"Still can't believe they don't have a proper library. I mean, they could. Maybe we can send some books down. Copies of things, at least."

"She is still a kid, I've seen it. She's... both? Old and young, both."

"But, well, duality is a whole thing... seal and man, fae and mortal, land and sea, and.. and dammit, ain't that the crux of this problem?"

"Not allowing duality?"

"There's a fix."

"They've closed a lot of doors to try to keep everything safe, but they're not letting anything good in either. There is being strong, and then there is being brittle. Something has to bend, or it might break."

She nods!

"And the thing is - they think that they've made... stasis? That they don't have to change? But they don't see that they have changed. The world around them does, and within - there's new souls, new generations, so change has happened, but it's not seen."

"And... no machine, no matter how perfectly engineered, can run forever without adjustment."

"And even something as simple as a rock, years of the tides rolling over it will change it."

"It ain't even change is good or bad - change is inevitable."

"Right." Art muses.