A Royal Commission

[Sivan]

"Actually," he considered thoughtfully, "as the search for a proper spirit is a separate endeavor until the time comes where there is a form for them to inhabit, I might start that immediately. I will do my best to vet likely candidates and only introduce you to those I think might be best suited for this sort of a situation. I don't know if it is unique to me as a summoner, but the spirits that I work with over longer periods of time... Well, they seem to grow. Not only or always in power, although they do that sometimes, but certainly in mental complexity."

Another reason to check on Hilana: to see whether Sviras was growing in partnership with her; and Athalia: to see whether his relatively short amount of time with Kalor continued his trajectory while abiding with her. He had never anticipated being so occupied with concerns in so many different places. He had just longed for one place where he could feel at home.

"My thought is: if I find a spirit you like early and I can afford you more time to grow familiar as the body is being constructed, then I might be able to mediate some growth whereby it grows in a beneficial direction. I don't like forcing my will on them, even those who barely have what we would consider a mind. But I think guiding the development of a personality to make its life among elves happier... That respects its free will while also getting the job done."

As for the rest, "I could certainly build the skeleton of a winged horse and breathe artificial life into it. I would have to give schematics to another maker, either here or another one if you prefer, to create the softer parts. While I probably could manage it, I would not feel confident that it was the best work you could receive, nor would it be on par with the rest of the work."

[Akantha SolEilran]

The Princess listened thoughtfully as Sivan spoke about the plans with regards to finding a spirit. She thought that that was a splendid idea, if the smile on her face was anything to go by. She was nodding along, connecting his words to what she could see and had seen on him with Semblance. She had been able to tell when they had first met that he had considerable ability as a Summoner, with the way the local elemental spirits had been hanging onto him and clinging... this would work well.

She understood that until a spirit had formed a compact with a summoner, the most they knew was their own nature. But through extended contact and effort, they could grow and learn more. "I agree with you. I think that that would be an excellent idea, considering the complexities of the engagements involved in my day-to-day," Akantha nodded. The more mature the spirit became, the more capable they would be. And perhaps they could learn more tasks. Kalor had been learning the rudiments of speech when she had last visited Sivan to check up on that project, and that meant that surely hers would too.

If her brother got a bit singed because he didn't know when to stop, well, he would learn.

When he continued about needing someone else to cover the rest of it, she nodded. "I've seen some good work from Masters Len'Verad and Val'Aturi here in Tavárinoikos, but as you say this is less... fabric and plush and more clockwork. To that end, I recommend you reach out to Maker Kinryn Len'Aldris. He has a shop in the Agora, Dancing Needles, on Vathi Street. While he is a tailor by trade, he does specialize in fine detail work with a lot of moving pieces, including plush work. He's made a few for me before. If anything, because I know Accountant Val'Hession is particular, perhaps the fabric could be supplied from here for him to work with... but I would leave the details to you." She knew that he had a working relationship with Filaurel Len'Alen, but it didn't hurt for him to increase his own personal network. While the credentials from Tavárinoikos would open many doors, invoking Akantha's name couldn't hurt, either.

Besides, with the number of events and outfits Rhydian required, Filaurel was going to be kept very busy indeed.

"There is no rose without a thorn."

[Sivan]

If Sivan was waiting for the other slipper to drop when the princess was around, it was only because things went far more smoothly than he had any right to hope. She was demanding of excellence, but he was already more demanding of himself than anyone else. When she was rigorous in her critiques, he took it as the help he required to ensure the end product was exactly what she wanted rather than as some deficiency in his skill or work ethic.

As they changed directions toward the equine experiment, he flipped the page in his notebook and wrote down the names. If he took notes for two separate projects on the same page, he could separate them later, but it required more effort. Here, at least, he would have the names of possible collaborators specific to the collaboration.

Kinryn Len'Aldris, he wrote. If they didn't work out, he would ask if she had another preference before sticking to the makers he knew at Tavárinoikos. Agora, Dancing Needles, Vathi Street.

"Mm," was his eloquent response, though he was taking thoughtful notes.

"When would you like to see initial plans and, perhaps, meet a potential spirit?"

Sivan himself was quite busy, but the workshop would help him make client deadlines. And there ought to be plenty of stock back in Kalzasi that he wouldn't need to run home to fill the storage with high-traffic goods and respond to special requests. Timon kept looking at him funny when he was leaving for Silfanore, but he and Torin had agreed that new apprenticeships would only be good for business in the long run.

Of course, Timon was now a partner so Sivan was trying even more than he had before to treat his requests and suggestions with respect. He would just figure out what he was going to do if Tavárinoikos or even just a select few clients in Silfanore wanted to engage his services when he completed his artificing apprenticeship.

[Akantha SolEilran]

Whether he suspected it or not, she had a very lengthy list if for some reason things did not work with Kinryn. There were a lot of Makers that Akantha had visited and commissioned things from, and sometimes bought off of the shelf or shelf. The princess was a firm believer in the thought that supporting the arts led to a stronger, more vibrant community and culture, and Sol'Valen's culture as a whole was decidedly important to her. But at the same time, she did want to quietly bring together some who might never thought of collaborating with each other previously. It was good to foster an air of cooperation amongst Makers, no matter how far ranged their specialties might be. One never knew when it might come in handy.

It was also a small part of her plan of integrating Sivan (and Torin) into the community. The better the ties they developed, the more business they might get, which meant the more time they would spend here, and then they would hopefully one day leave the northern backwater behind. Sol'Valen took care of its makers. She just needed to keep them in Silfanore, rather than letting Prince Salmakis poach them to Inokova... But turnabout was fair play: she had a few she was working on quietly convincing to relocate.

At his asking when she would like to see plans and meet a potential spirit, Akantha looked thoughtful. She was clearly working through her social calendar in her head, looking for a suitable date and keeping in mind the complexities of her requests and Sivan's studies and workload. She knew that his project with Kalor had taken quite a bit of time, and she wasn't asking for something that could only walk; she wanted something that could fly. Even if he had made flying automata before. A month might be smart, but that also set her straight into the middle of the last minute plans for her father's nuptials.

"Perhaps the first week of Searing?" she offered. "I would imagine that you have plenty on your plate as it is, and the end of the season is going to be decidedly time-consuming on my part... but if you found a promising spirit sooner, you could always send a note to Eilranoikos and I could make arrangements."

"There is no rose without a thorn."

[Sivan]

The princess' suggestion made his shoulders relax; he hadn't even realized they were tense. That would certainly give him time to make some significant progress that he could share without unduly taxing him given all the other things he had up in the air, trying to juggle. Sometimes scheduling everything was the real magic that happened at Tavárinoikos.

Sivan smiled.

"Excellent," he said. "I will send written updates every fortnight to keep you apprised of my progress. If anything seems amiss, please let me know and I can change course. I will block off the seventh of Searing to ensure you have time to recover from the revels. Whenever you decide works best for you, I can make myself available."

With that decided, it was up to her whether she had more input to give him now. He made no move to hurry her along and hurry her out, but it was his assumption that her time was far more valuable and in demand than his own.

Perhaps the masters at the workshop did not built him up as much as they did their apprentices of purer blood. Perhaps there was lingering resentment that he had been the one chosen to accompany the great Tavári'nar on his last walkabout. In any case, it might nettle the princess, though he did seem more sensitive than unctuous.

The stylus remained poised over page, ready to take down dictation of her will, but he was silent.

Were she not a princess, he might have made a friendly inquiry into the state of the wedding planning, but she was a princess and while he had met Prince Rhydian on several occasions, he knew he was not their intimate. The last thing he wanted to do was overstep, making himself or the workshop look bad.

That would be akin to the faux pas by that fleet-footed fool last fall.

[Akantha SolEilran]

While Akantha could definitely expect Makers to prioritize her requests, the princess preferred not to stress them out unduly if it wasn’t an emergency. Whole outfits and ensembles were requested and made sometimes a season before she wanted it, and sometimes even when there wasn’t any particular event. Her massive closets were organized in such a way as to denote what had been worn when and where, and what had yet to make a public appearance. It was better to save the rush orders for a genuine need… like a few weeks from start to finish.

Still, that seemed to work for him, so it worked for Akantha. "Excellent. I look forward to them... I always like to see mock-ups and sketches." He didn't need to know that she had a fairly massive library of those that she regularly perused when she wanted to find something or look back over the course of a Maker's progression... and these sketches, if he provided her with any, would likely be the beginning of their own file, for Sivan Len'Myren.

The details were largely left up to him. She would give general ideas on size, she trusted him to know enough about her from being in this city, and the fact that his business partner had put together an item for someone who was decidedly fashion-forward, to have some ideas about what she would like in terms of style. If he went wrong, she could correct him from his submitted notes.

He may have not wanted to seem forward or too intimate, but clearly, she had no such problem with questions that were on this side of personal. Then again, she was of a higher social rank than he. "I noticed that you have Animus... and your Rune arrangements are very traditional. Are you classically trained?" She had definitely been looking at him.

"There is no rose without a thorn."

[Sivan]

"Oh," he said as he considered how to answer that. "Variably trained, I should say."

After another brief pause to collect his thoughts, he explained. "I was six when I was initiated in the Rune of Semblance." His hand came up to brush the back of his head. Underneath golden hair was a Rune, which she could surely sense if she had scanned him at all.

There were many magical traditions that one could call "traditional" in Sol'Valen. His runes aligned with the vertices of his aura naturally lay. Semblance at the anterior "third eye," for example. Were he to take the Rune of Mesmer, it would be inscribed on the back of his neck.

"Not long after that, my mother was recalled to Dalquor. She was a diplomat here and her relationship with my father did not survive her career, I suppose, though they both had different versions of the story. In Dalquor, I was not considered Dratori enough, much as I was not considered Hytori enough in Silfanore. I showed a talent for spiritwalking, which led to training as a summoner. It wasn't until I was a young adult and returned to Silfanore that a more classical training ensued. I relearned much of what I had learned. That seems to be a cycle for me. I started an apprenticeship at Tavárinoikos, and then Master Tavári'nar took me abroad. I learned alchemy from his friend in Kalzasi, and then returned to Tavárinoikos to learn it all over again.

"I suppose I am nothing if not thorough."

His smile was soft, but it was most likely an attempt at humor.

Sivan was a careful man; that made him good at his work, if not the most exciting conversationalist. But the Princess lived at court and had a surfeit of interesting conversationalists when that was what she desired.

"The story of my Animus might possibly be interesting to Your Majesty, and the placement of the Rune follows the classical lineage in which I was first initiated, though my teachers have been spirits more than people."

[Akantha SolEilran]

"That's quite impressive, to have received the Rune at the age of six," Akantha sounded rather approving. She was older than that she had gotten hers, though her parents had wanted her to enjoy her childhood and be prepared for it before she was given the primary Rune of her maternal family. The fact that she knew where his Runes has been inscribed upon him definitely insinuated that she had peeped them during their previous encounters, or someone else had and had thus informed her. Then again, she was a princess, and she was allowed.

"It is good to be thorough though. So many teachers have different ways of doing things, and I think it's quite helpful to develop as broad and well-developed a foundation as possible," the princess was agreeable. Her own were - her mother, her Val'Melua aunts and uncles, Ionsōra. But Sivan's upbringing was quite different, and his many of his own abilities, training, and education were very cohesive with a rather natural progressive flow. They were similar enough in age, but he had acquired more Runes than she, not to mention his training in multiple world magics as well. When it came to these disciplines, having a variety of teachers certainly lent itself to gathering more and more knowledge and methods.

He had the disadvantage of being a mixed blood. Perhaps he felt he had something to prove to everyone that it didn't matter as much as others might have thought it did. Even she had to admit that he was something. And that was also why she was here - she knew he had talent, and she was wanted him to make her something. Or a couple somethings.

She may have had plenty of people to talk to at Court about whatever subject she wished, but she found herself intrigued by the hybrid. He was a bit awkward, sure, but she didn't mind and in many ways she was used to that. Despite the fact he was a mixed blood with a Dratori mother - sigh - she found him engaging and her interest was piqued. "I would in fact enjoy hearing that," she smiled at him. Even now, there were so many spirits here and around him, and the idea of their teaching him such things... "The ancient ones have much to teach us, and you are fortunate to be able to learn from them."

"There is no rose without a thorn."

[Sivan]

The halfbreed demurred over her compliment, but tried to accept it with a graceful, grateful nod.

"There are esoteric meanings to the placements of my runes," he added. "I don't know whether I believe in them, but there might be a sort of sacred geometry to it all. I would have to seek out some obscure scrivening texts to know for certain." But he smiled at the thought; seeking out obscure texts was enjoyable for Sivan.

When she did express interest in his Animus story, he gathered his thoughts for a moment and related it in brief.

"There was a break-in at my home, hm, in Ash of 121. In Frost, Laurevere Val'Istra came to Kalzasi in order to oversee his family's business interests and, hm, I believe my father must have been working for their family when he died because Laurevere—ah, Lord Val'Istra—did me the favor of carrying those dark tidings to me. In any case, he decided to move into my neighborhood while in Kalzasi and I felt compelled to warn him of the break-in. His response was to start teaching me swordcraft."

A bemused, grateful smile was all he had to add to that for context.

"In any case, the following year, I was outside the city, collecting reagents and sparring with a friend—the variable terrain was another element to work into my training—and a, hm, I suppose I would call her a druid, she came out of the trees and offered me the Rune. It was strange to be sure. Apparently, the wild spirits in and around Kalzasi spoke well of me and, ah, perhaps they wanted me better able to defend myself.

"The druid was strange, but so was my initiation from what I understand. There was a hair from a wolf, but she also invoked a spirit of Wolf," he said, the capitalization all but evident in the weight he put upon the word, "and, well, that first transformation under her guidance and that of the Spirit was total. They took me away to experience the forest as a wolf for a short while. My friend and my aidolon awaited my return and, when I did return, in my normal form, they helped me home. I was quite exhausted."

Half a smile remained. That initiation had sat well with his Dratori blood, though it was perhaps a bit primal for the Hytori. All the same, it did seem unique from what he understood.

"I don't actually remember the Rune being inscribed, but it is there upon my back now."

[Akantha SolEilran]

Akantha listened with interest to Sivan’s tale. The fact that break-ins were apparently common enough in that city only helped convince her that the place had problems, and Sivan would be far better off here. For a place that had the demigod of justice dwelling within it, she had concerns. Perhaps more needed to venture into the Warrens. Perhaps she was simply expecting far too much of younger settlements that may not have been so magically forward as Sol’Valen. Even the alienage did not have that level of criminal activity here; it was not tolerated.

Where Sivan’s Rune of Animus was on his back, her own was located on her naval. As was Ionsōra’s, and her teacher before her, and her teacher before her. That was their core of power, where transformation and growth blossomed. If Akantha took on a student someday, and she likely would, they would receive the Rune there in honouring the lineage that had come before them. Her own initiation had been quite different - she had transformed into an osprey once Ionsōra conveyed the Rune to her. She had definitely attempted to fly and mostly glided a short distance, though her efforts had been gently buffeted by an Elementalist to allow her to get the motion down. It had been different from when she had acquired her mountain lion totem, where she had been able to run and jump and climb.

“That must have been an incredible experience. Do you enjoy the wolf more than your other totems? I do wonder how it would work to try to take on a totem of an elemental spirit, or if that is even possible,” she mused. If it were possible, then she would need the aid of a good Summoner, and there was one right in front of her. There were others she could work with if Sivan was uncomfortable with the concept, but considering he had learned Animus as well as Summoning, he was well-suited when it came to finding a way to blend the two. "My teacher only smiled when I mentioned it, and there's nothing she doesn't know about Animus..."

After some more light discussion, Akantha thanked Sivan for his time and would take her leave of Tavárinoikos with the other’s promise of update letters and a new meeting in Searing. She would perhaps see him before then, but for now, there was enough to do with preparations and coordinating a great many Makers…

"There is no rose without a thorn."