sugar berry

[imeanforever]

Near a stream that pours off a high cliff and then snakes away is a garden, carefully tended, and a house, built of wood and stone and transmuted pearl. Fairies weed the plants. One is fixing the roof. A berrybush, hair atangle with spidery branches, is painting gold stripes onto her purple arms.

Comments

[infinitely_stranger]

"Yes."

[imeanforever]

Promise sighs enviously.

[infinitely_stranger]

"I sometimes try to find a way to describe them, but while I can sort of serviceably produce harmonic maps that will let a sorcerer who has practice reading them get to know an area somewhat faster, portraying the aesthetics remains beyond me."

[imeanforever]

"I'd like a map of where I put my tree. If that wouldn't put you out," she hastens to add. "I know how to read maps, although I assume yours are more detailed."

[infinitely_stranger]

"It won't be much trouble, assuming I can borrow writing materials since I did not bring any myself."

[imeanforever]

"I have some paper and ink, yes."

[infinitely_stranger]

"Yes."

[imeanforever]

"Did you look in my bag?"

[infinitely_stranger]

"No. The pages rustle. And distend the surface of the bag in a way noticeably unlike local fruits."

[imeanforever]

"Oh."

[infinitely_stranger]

"I tend to notice things."

[imeanforever]

"I'd assume so. Seeing harmonics is an enormous leg up but couldn't make you the best sorcerer in the Queenscourt by itself."

[infinitely_stranger]

"I also like sorcery, which is not to be discounted as an advantage. But having a lot of attention to spare and not sparing much of it is a significant factor."

[imeanforever]

"I like sorcery too."

[infinitely_stranger]

"It is both useful and enjoyable."

[imeanforever]

"I don't know why more fairies don't pick it up."

[infinitely_stranger]

"I have tended to assume they find it difficult."

[imeanforever]

"I don't think many even try long enough to find that out."

[infinitely_stranger]

"Interests vary. I am at a loss to explain why, but I have certainly observed it."

[imeanforever]

"I suppose some people might avoid learning useful skills so that they're less appealing to would-be masters."

[infinitely_stranger]

"Perhaps."

[imeanforever]

Now she's quiet again.

[infinitely_stranger]

And so is Arcane.

[imeanforever]

Time passes.

Probably Arcane eventually sleeps again.

[infinitely_stranger]

That does happen, yes. Pretty regularly over the course of their journey.

It takes them seven days to reach the jeweled seas, and Arcane is asleep at the time, so their approach is slow. First the blue-green shine is visible on the horizon; then the shores of glittering gem-sand creep into view, and the water.

They are coming up almost exactly on the border between the Sapphire Sea and the Emerald Sea; to their left the sand is blue, and to the right it is green, and in between it mixes. The colour of the water obeys a similar gradient. In fact, from this height, it almost looks like a huge liquid sapphire and a huge liquid emerald lazily fighting over the contested territory between them. Streaks of colour ride shifting currents from one side to the other, then diffuse peacefully until no trace of them remains.