1st of Cylus, 719
“And what would you have me do?” Cirrina hissed, raising herself up with a heated glare. Her teacher shrugged noncommittally in that way of his that always made her want to wrench his arms from his sockets to beat him with. “That is not an answer.”
“Is there any answer I could give that would please you?” He replied with a laugh, “I fear there isn’t, the best way for you to decide what you will do is to go in the city. The people here are different. You may even find you fit in so long as you watch yourself.”
“I fit in where I am now.” The words ground out but there was a slump in her posture that spoke of defeat. Arguing with Marin was like arguing with stone and she’d have better luck with the stone. Only when her legs twitched, tentacle slapping him in his leg but still he did not turn away from his readings, papers shifting in his hands. She longed to knock them loose and watch the ink bleed into the water but it would not change his answer. Annoyance built, her tentacle flicking him harder in the leg, “What did you even come all the way here for?”
Marin smiled, “You worry far too much about what I am doing—“
“Because I don’t trust you.”
“When you should be concerned with what you will do for the remainder of the season. Cylus is no season to skulk around in, people might think you’re up to no good.”
Cirrina let her head fall back with a growl, “Then what should I be up to?”
“I’m ever so glad you asked.”
This time the mer had no qualms raising an arm to shove him into the frigid waters to freeze him and feast on his raw marrow but he caught her hands easily, a gentle push back in her mind. Like a false sending is what all his Empathy magic felt like but it worked in prodding her acquiesce without drowning him.
“I hate when you do that.”
“And I hate when you attempt to drown me, now change and get dressed. You can stay with me for the night, I’ve rented a room.”
Cirrina mocked the human as he climbed away, recalling how many times she’d been how Empathy users were from Calilious, and how Calilious hadn’t even needed magic to warp her mind. Her eyes narrowed, she’d get him back for the slight. But none of these thoughts stopped her from slipping on the jacket he left of slipping up the ladder after him, gem firmly under her tongue.
--—--
The minute they were in the city, the mer let her mind focus on herself. Her teacher may joke it was easy for her to do but he was not wrong, it was a simple meditation trick in some aspects. Like dipping a finger into a pool of her and actually knowing she was in it, also simple, as a disciple of Attunement she was always tuned into herself. But it was a different matter entirely to feel herself, to run imaginary fingers over the notes that made her, well, her. Again she could imagine a pool of herself, filled to the brim with unharmonious notes, each note her and familiar. What she needed to be was unfamiliar. So she took that image of a finger in the water of notes and twirled it until the sound the made was a far cry from their normal thrum under her skin but still all her. As she did this, her gaze never left her mentors back though her mind was far gone. Only when she felt the change, the pull from inside that always tasted of her own salty magic did she turn and dart away. Dark clothes, dark days, it was easy to slip away in the frigid forest of Desnind.
He’d wanted her to keep busy and she would.
He’d wanted her to keep out of trouble…and she would, however grudgingly but for now she’d try some delicacies of the city. If one of those delicacies happened to be a person, well, that wasn’t her fault at all.
With a wide smile Cirrina slowed her walk, slipping in line beside what look like a procession of glowing jellyfish wandering with purpose. She rolled the gem around in her mouth, curious but unwilling to remove it just yet for fear she would drop it before she could shove it in her bindings. Instead she hummed softly, weaving the ether from inside into the notes of her so her own frequency pushed out, until she felt as if the notes were all around her, dancing with the lights. But there was too many, far too many notes for her to reach so she settled on the glowing lights.
They sounded of murmurs. Tiny, sing-song in her head as her feet followed the path the parade lead absently. The notes were strange, far unlike her own, but she felt something like change within their song. As if there were two parts of the creature. Far gentler than she’d ever investigated her teacher, the mer tried to pull more notes to investigate, throughly absorbed in what she was doing and not where she was going.