• Graded • Sixty-four Trials, Give or Take

[Eliza Soule]

The Eleventh Trial of Ymiden in the Arc 718

Ym/11/18 ~ It takes sixty-four trials to travel from Viden to Etzos by boat, depending on the weather. I know this not because I have made this particular journey before, which I have. But I also know it because there is an old woman on board who tells us so, each and every morning at breakfast. One trial gone she says, and sixty three more to go! Forty five gone and nineteen to go!

Give or take. Someone always says so. Sometimes it is the old man who calls himself a parson and seems to be drunk more than he seems to be sober. Or the middle aged spinster with the spectacles on the end of her horse like nose, who tells me she'll be governing the children of an important politician in Etzos. To hear her tell it, he must be very important indeed! She says it a lot after all.

It is better to play at sympathy, to air my own complaints when talk turns again to the length of the voyage, and appear to suffer alongside them. The old woman in particular, the one who sweats more than anyone should and is as round as she is tall, would wonder why. Then others who heard her wonder aloud might wonder too, why I do not seem bothered by our long stay at sea. Sixty four trials for any one of them must feel like a large slice of their lifetimes. For me, sixty-four trials, give or take, is barely a crumb.

Reaching up to brush away a dark strand of hair from her face, that had once again escaped its tie, Eliza closed her diary and slipped it back into the small bag that hung from her shoulder. The last time she'd written in it, her name had been Rebeccah Perriman. That was in Viden. And before that, it was Sarah Bowtell.

Nice, respectable and ordinary names. She'd learned that lesson the hard way. It didn't pay to adopt interesting or unusual names. It made people curious and caused them to ask too many questions, and she'd needed to move on before she was ready.

[Eliza Soule]

The Thirteenth Trial of Ymiden in the Arc 718

It was early morning and there'd been a terrible storm the night before. No one would have known it by the time the sun had come up, if not for the damage that had been done to the ship. It was another sweltering trial with barely there breezes that were much too lazy to move the ship along on its course. The only clouds in the sky were wispy ones that hugged the outer edges of the horizon.

It was just as well that there was very little wind to take advantage of. During the storm while lightening had cracked and split the sky all around them, the ship had been tossed around on the waves like a child's toy in a bathtub. The captain had told them all that it would take at least three trials to repair the damage. The fat woman who regularly kept a tally of their journey complained that the delay would mean sixty-seven trials at sea, rather than sixty four.

Eliza hadn't had the heart to point out to missus James, for that was the complaining woman's name, that her count had already been off by three trials at least. It was only that nobody had been impolite enough to have said so. And besides, they'd made poor time over all. The ship had spent a trial or two midway, bobbing idly up and down in a thick and heavy feeling area that the captain had called a doldrums.

Then, a ten trial or so later the vessel had been dogged along its way by some very mysterious and large, very large, sleek and living thing beneath the waves. It had rubbed and bumped the hull so soundly at times that it had knocked them off course more than once. Most of the passengers, especially the youngest and the oldest of them, had been terrified, convinced the ship would sink and they'd all drown.

Eliza had been more curious than frightened. More than two centuries gone now, meant that she'd seen and experienced a great many things. It was an unexpected opportunity to see something new, something mysterious and to not have any idea what it was.

[Eliza Soule]

The Fifteenth Trial of Ymiden in the Arc 718

Ym/15/18 ~ To-trial is my birth trial. Number two hundred and thirty five to be exact. I have not told anyone on board, and I do not plan to. Some of them might make a fuss, which I do not want, and others might even ask how old I am. It is not polite to ask a lady her age. But they'd ask anyway and I would be forced to lie, and tell them that I am twenty arcs old.

The truth is that I have not celebrated a birth-trial in over fifty arcs. I could crack a joke and say that it is because it would need to be a very large cake to accommodate two hundred and thirty five candles, a torch to light them and a very mighty wind to blow them all out.

The truth is less interesting. I might be living every woman's dream, having discovered a fountain of youth. Of sorts. But aging at a snail's pace, even for a mortalborn such as myself, is not all it is cracked up to be. I would rather not celebrate the arc-ly reminder.

Eliza had never had any delusions about sea travel. The experience in general was not the romantic adventure that you read about in storybooks or heard wandering Biqaj bards singing about. She'd done it now more times than she could count. The first few breaks of a long journey, even the first trial or two were exciting or at least pleasant if you were lucky. But the sense of optimism rarely lasted once you'd lost sight of the shore in all directions.

The accommodations if you could call them that were overcrowded. The cabins, if you were lucky enough to get or afford one, weren't much bigger than closets. The rocking never stopped, the floor under your feet below decks was always wet and it always smelled. So did everything and everyone else. And the longer you were out to see, the worse it got.

Last night it had rained. A heavy, drenching rain and Eliza had leaped from her bed, grabbed some of her clothing, a bar of soap and raced up on deck to find herself a secluded spot, away from prying eyes. She'd stripped down to her underthings and washed herself from head to toe. Then she scrubbed the clothing she'd taken off and brought with her. It was the first good all over wash she'd had in two ten trials.

She'd caught the first mate watching her from the shadows. He at least had the good manners to look away once he'd been seen, and he'd even slipped a note under her door that early trial, to say he was sorry. In spite of it, the young woman was in a high mood that morning. As the journey had worn on, she'd spent more time above deck than below it. Down there, the smell of unwashed bodies, sweat, vomit and rotted food grew worse with each passing trial. As long as she stayed out of the way, the captain didn't mind Eliza spending most of her time on deck.

There was more than a light breeze and fresh air to be grateful for. Only that morning just after breakfast, the captain had told her that he'd spotted land through the lens of his scope. Two trials so long as the weather was on their side, he said, and they'd finally make port. Eliza wasn't the impatient kind, but she could have kissed the captain when he told her that. And after all, it was also him that had made sure she was given the nicest passenger cabin that was available. But instead of a kiss, Eliza resolved to leave him a token of thanks once they dropped anchor, and she was able to finally leave the ship.

[Eliza Soule]

The Fifteenth Trial of Ymiden in the Arc 718

By the time that the sun reached its zenith in the mid-trial sky, the ship, called the Serpent's Folly, would reach port and begin unloading her cargo and passenger's. But that time was several breaks away yet, and Eliza had found the morning light up on deck to be perfect for finishing the painting that she'd begun the trial before. It was to be a gift for the captain. She wanted to thank him for being especially kind to her and generous throughout the voyage from Viden.

The mortalborn also knew how much the half Biqaj loved his ship. He spoke about it, or rather her, as if she was a woman. Sometimes, even as fondly as a man would speak about their lover. Eliza knew he was a widower and that he had no children. It made sense to her that the sailing ship would take what affections he had left.

She'd set her easel up at just the right place, where the angle of the sunlight was just so, and dappled where it showed through the sails. She had a good view of the water and the city of Etzos in the distance, where the city jutted up out of the landscape. And she had a good partial view of of the masthead's profile. A golden steed, leaping through the air...Half horse, but the other half a scaled serpent with scales, tail and fins.

Eliza had painted or drawn any number of portraits by now and she was no stranger to still life. But seascapes in particular were something very different, and they were a challenge. The trick, she knew, was about light and technique. The sea was never truly still, and a good painter could infuse a sense of movement in the scene. Even the clouds in the sky should seem to be in motion, and she'd begun with the sky the trial before, then worked at the horizon as seen around the bow of the Serpent's Folly.

That line, the horizon line where the water met the sky, she'd rendered in a convex manner...But just barely. The curvature was so slight that the eye might not register it, but the mind certainly would. Another trick she'd discovered while she painted, was that it was better to avoid hard edges. Hard edges were like a solid wall for the eye to come up against, and they destroyed the sense of movement in the piece. Those places where there was sea foam were particularly challenging in that regard. Lost and found edges were much more pleasing than hard and fast ones.

She didn't have the things she'd need to frame the finished painting. But by the time Eliza was packed and ready to go ashore, the canvas would be dried enough for her to present it to the captain. He couldn't have been more pleased, and so the same was true for her in return. The half Biqaj was a good man, and he'd been good company for the last sixty some odd trials. She couldn't honestly say however that she'd be ready to take another sea voyage anytime soon.

[Aegis]

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Thread Review

Eliza

• Skill Points - 10
• Renown - +5 for being a good passenger, artist, and public bather
• Skill Knowledges
  1. Intelligence: Gaining trust through shared experiences
  2. Writing: Using a first person narrative style
  3. Painting: Taking advantage of good lighting
  4. Painting: Choosing an interesting perspective
  5. Painting: Convex horizons in landscapes and seascapes
  6. Painting: Lost and found edges are pleasing to the eye.
• Non-Skill Knowledges
• Items and Other Rewards

IGNORE THIS

• Skill Points -
• Renown -
• Skill Knowledges
• Non-Skill Knowledges
• Items and Other Rewards

Final Notes

I particularly enjoyed this thread, especially since I got the pleasure of approving Eliza's CS. I love how curious and polite she is, with a good sensible head upon her shoulders. The bathing scene made me laugh, and I loved the description in her painting. Well done!

If you have any questions, please PM me. Also please add the provided stamp to your review request found here and please update your CS with all of this information.

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