Solo Meditation of Motion

[Eleret]

Spring 1, 513 AV Eleret sat in her rented room this morning, perched on the edge of a borrowed bed rather than at home with her sister, mother, and niece. The rest of her kin, she knew, would go through this day as they had every year of the past... well, very many. On the first day of the new year, the anniversary of the Valterrian, they would make offerings to Lake and sea, to Mother and Father alike, and pass the day in solemn contemplation of past, present, and future. Away from home, she could not join them in their observances -- but she could and would make her own. Rising from the bedside, she dressed quickly, in the full complement of her clothes and cloak; it might be the first day of Spring, but the ghost of Morwen's breath still chilled the air outside. Then she took up her suvai, hanging it on her belt, and a pouch with a bare handful of mizas to go on the other side. Her carving kit and the rough-shaped piece of oak came along also, what she had previously cut into the suggestion of a leaping fish. Eleret then took her leave of the inn, shaking her head to the barmaid as she passed through the common room; on this day, she would skip breakfast, and indeed all meals altogether. It was the least of sacrifices, compared to all that had been lost over five hundred years before -- but it was a symbolic act, and had value in that right. Outside, Syna had only just crested the horizon, painting the building roofs in brilliant amber but her rays not yet penetrating down into the streets. There were few others about in the city, at least until she approached the docks; that business was as active and industrious as ever. She detoured around the yard, offering polite greetings to those she encountered along the way, until she could reach the sands of the bay. The Konti didn't stop there, but walked a ways along the shoreline, until she passed from sand to pebbled stone, and from small stones to larger boulders. She clambered over those when she couldn't go around, applying her hands to brace or bear weight as required. Eventually, she found a place where the rocks again receded from the waterline, a little cubby of gravel and tidepools tucked inside an arc of boulders. This place, Eleret decided, would serve her purpose for the day. Whereupon she promptly divested herself of all her burdens, in reverse order of how she had put them on, folding the ensemble into a neat little bundle and placing it on top of a boulder.

[Eleret]

She stopped to study the tidepools, similar and yet different from the ones she'd known on Mura. The anemones in this pool were vivid teal, if tiny, their fronds motionless in the still water. The red spines of a sea urchin, or something very like, provided stark accent from one corner of the hollow. The shellfish scattered about the pool were more sensibly closed, hunkered down to await the return of the tide. For her part, Eleret went out to meet it. The Konti stepped carefully out on the rocky beach and into the lapping waves. The water rolled up to meet her, broke past her feet, then went receding away before her; then she was out beyond where the retreating wave met with the one surging forward, and continued on into the water. She waded out until she approached the line of breakers, turning her side towards the incoming waves and watching them closely. She timed the movements of each swell, waiting -- and when she judged it right, Eleret dove under the next wave, kicking forward through the somewhat less-turbulent water underneath and out beyond the breakers. On the other side lay open sea, far calmer than the zone she had just left behind. Cleaner, too, with less sand and grit stirred up to cloud the water. The bottom dropped off quite quickly, as befit a bay home to the great ships of Zeltiva, the sun-shot green of the surface fading away into inestimable darkness. The Konti swam with no specific destination, and indeed, no specific direction; she was not here to go, but to be. Eleret kept part of her thought on the place she had entered at, not wanting to swim too far from it in any direction. But for the most part, she worked to clear her mind rather than to think about anything in particular. She immersed herself in the totality of the Bay, like and yet unlike the waters of her home. The rhythm of her swimming acted in the water as her breathing might have on land -- as a point of focus, as the counter by which she cleared away concerns and worries, one by one by one.

[Eleret]

Eleret swam, choosing a direction arbitrarily. Arms forward, pointed; spine straight; legs back. Arms back, pulling against the water; her hands sweeping out with the motion, fingers splayed to expose their webbing and move more water thereby. Her arms came together under her chest and pushed forward to their original position; she brought her knees forward and out, then kicked back, adding to her forward motion. After a while, she curled and turned, coming about to swim the other way. And as she swam, Eleret meditated upon the past. The ocean water enveloped her, familiar in its feel against her skin, the salty wash over her gills, the fluid resistance against her motions. It called to mind memories of other days spent in the water; of swimming with her mother, her sisters, her niece. Eleret brought those memories forward, dwelling upon each of them for a moment, cherishing each experience -- for they collectively made her who she was. And from those, she went on to reflect upon her family in general. Her childhood, spent in the benevolent shadow of Ne'len. Being the shadow in which Tanell later walked -- and the many occasions where her younger sister turned that relationship about, dragging Eleret into every curious thing she could find. The patient wait for her niece's arrival, and the joy of watching Na'tera come into her own identity, her near-obsession with the sea. Her seasons at University. The day that Tanell left, Called forth from Mura. The days spent in the Crystal Caverns, riding out the great storm. The long seasons afterwards, with no further letters arriving upon their doorstep. On balance, her past had been a happy one, characterized above all else by the love and warmth of her kin. Eleret spared a moment's thought in due recognition of that good fortune, then closed a mental door upon the past, letting it recede from her conscious mind. She focused on her location, estimating where she had traveled and thus where she had started at. Not quite certain of her outward distance, the Konti angled her body upwards and kicked for the surface. From above the water, she could see the breakers cresting not too far away. Rather than try to swim through them, Eleret paddled nearer until she felt a swell lift her body, then kicked forward, attempting to ride the wave in. It succeeded, inasmuch as she made it in through the breaker zone -- but then, the waves would push everything in regardless. She floundered a little as the wave broke [i]over[i] her, the water pushing her down in a way she hadn't intended. But soon enough, on the inside, she could just touch feet to sand and walk the rest of the way in. Which she did.