Thanking The Winds

by **Kamilla** on December 2nd, 2019, 12:48 am

52nd of Fall, 519AV

Several chimes had passed and Kamilla remained frozen in place on her bed, clutching an annoyed Yennefer tightly to her chest while the yowlwing grew more and more restless. Before her, a rock the size of a small cauldron sat on the ground, surrounded by splats of blood and beneath it, the crushed remains of a snake corpse turned golem gone wrong. The Konti had narrowly avoided getting bitten by the rabid and possibly venomous golem before putting an end to it, yet still found herself unable to move.

"Kam…" The talking flower broke through her stupor, "... are you okay?"

The Konti let out a heavy sigh, releasing Yennefer from her clutches and allowing the cat to hop off the bed where she began to curiously circle the crushed snake. "Yen! Don't go near that thing… I'm serious!" The cat seemed to understand her warning tone, meowing and plopping itself down a top the small boulder in response. Kamilla sighed yet again, annoyed that she'd brought such danger into her own home. "Yes, I'm okay Roo." She finally answered.

Falling back onto her bed for a few ticks longer, Kamilla finally managed to push herself back onto her feet. She'd wanted to do something to acknowledge the lives of her mother and grandmother for raising her and giving her the tools she needed to survive, although she'd quite nearly lost her life to one of those tools. Regardless, cleaning up the crushed corpse of the failed golem from the floor of her home took priority, "I guess my mom and gran will have to wait a bit longer… not that I had any ideas on what to do anyway…"

Turning back to the task at hand, Kamilla finally noticed where Yennefer had decided to seat herself, a top the bloodied rock. "Yennefer, get off of there! That's basically it's tombstone." The words sparked an idea in her, "Of course!" She'd never gotten a chance to properly mourn or even acknowledge the deaths of her mother and gran. While giving them tombstones seemed a bit unreasonable since she didn't have their bodies, she decided to create a small standing stone for each of them instead.

It seemed there was at least some good contained within the golem's failure…

Now eager to get to work before the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, Kamilla jumped to action, first chasing Yennefer off and away from the rock and then scooping the rock up with her reimancy… she refused to go anywhere near it or the snake corpse.

Once the boulder had been carefully guided to her cliffside patio and launched into the jungle, Kamilla returned to do the same for the corps. This time she produced two separate balls of res, the first splitting into three ring segments which encircled the snake's corpse at different location before having their outer layers turned to stone. From their, Kamilla used the magnetic effect of her res on the stone rings to direct and discard the corpse in much the same way she'd done with the blood covered rock.

The second ball of res was put into action next, half turning into a small contained vortex of water that swept along the floor picking up blood and bits of flesh as it passed over them until the floor eas clean and the ball of water was a very deep shade of red. It too was frozen and discarded into the nearby jungle.

Returning to the site of the incident, Kamilla found herself satisfied with her work, hands on her hips as she smiled to herself. With that done she could finally see to the most pressing matter of the day, commemorating the lives of her mother and gran.

"I know exactly what I'm going to do for them…" She began, making her way toward the patio.

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by **Kamilla** on December 2nd, 2019, 1:42 am

"Wait! I want to see what you're going to do!"

The Konti had barely taken two steps when the talking purple flower began yelling and flapping it's two leaves in protest about being left behind. Often times, despite its unsuspected intelligence, Kamilla felt as if raising Roo was similar to raising a child. While the plant may have lacked a regular humanoid body and many of the needs that came along with such a form, it still required attention and mental stimulation, though she supposed she had little knowledge of what it actually took to raise a child, nor did she have any desire to find out within the near future. Children were the last thing on her mind.

Making her way over to the talking pot plant and lifting it off the counter, Kamilla made her way back toward the balcony, placing Roo gently on the ground near the left corner of the east facing ledge. She intended to put the standing stones there son that they'd be both visible from anywhere in her home, while also being out of the way of most activity.

The Konti mage has already decided that she wanted the standing stones to have an aesthetically pleasing design, but as she started out over the ocean and into the sunset, she was at a loss for both words and ideas. As she'd said earlier that day, the sunsets in Syka were truly beautiful and she wished that she could have spent just one day watching it with her mother and grandmother.

It was that thought that granted her the extra inspiration she'd needed as she returned her attention to the standing stones, an odd sensation beginning to rise from inside her.

Kamilla took a deep breath, focusing on the well of energy within herself for what us have been the fourth time that day. Slowly but surely, she began to coax the energy forwards, guiding it out of the skin of both her webbed palms where they began to form two equally sized balls. She'd given it some thought, and while in her later life, she'd considered her grandmother to be the real role model, Kamilla found herself equally grateful for her mother and the lessons she'd learned from her.

The first ball of res floated forwards, hovering over the wait high stone boundary wall at the edge of the cliffside patio, where it began to twist, contort and elongate into the form of small stone pillar. The res was then transmuted into a dark, glossy grayish stone.

Kamilla then put her focus on creating a second standing stone, identical to the first, beside it, to the right of the first. It was a simple process for the expert reimancer and hardly took any time at all to complete.

Now, with both standing stones created, Kamilla sent two more, much smaller, balls of res floating toward the upper quarters of each stone, the lavender substance sinking into each before transmuting the stone there to air, a subtle hiss escaping the now partially hollow standing stones which were instantly penetrated by the brilliant rays of light cast by the setting sun.

The image of the two standing stones, contrasted against the beautiful backdrop of the Sykan sunset caused a well of bottled emotions to rise within the temporary Konti, Kamilla barely managing to hold the almost overwhelming feeling back as she made her way back inside her cave to retrieve her dagger before returning for the final piece of the memorials.

Using the very top of the steel blade, Kamilla carefully carved a single initial into each of the standing stones near to their base. On the first, left, she carved the letter 'M' and on the second, right, she carved the letter 'C', before taking a step back, the lump in her throat growing rapidly.

"What are those marks for? You know I can't read."

Roo's voice somewhat helped her resolve, the distraction making it slightly easier to ignore the storm of emotions she was currently feeling. "That one is an 'M' for 'Minerva'… my mother… and that one is a 'C' for 'Circe'
… my gran." Saying their names did not help as her emotions reached her eyes, transparent tears welling up and beginning to partially obscure her vision.

The moment, while already overwhelming, felt as if it needed something, there was a silence in the air that felt almost as if it needed to be filled by something… words.

"Mom… Gran… It's been seven years since I left Sunberth, seven years since you died died and seven years since I've been alone… I'd be lying if I said it's been easy, or that I didn't long for your company or guidance, even if I'd never said it out loud…" The words were unplanned but they came to her without much thought. "... but, even though you were by around me physically, I've realised that I've never truly been without the two of you…"

Kamilla was glad that Roo hadn't yet interrupted her and ruined the moment and grateful that it hadn't yet commented from the tears pouring from her lavender eyes.

"It may have taken me a while to see it, but mom, the skill you taught me, sewing, it's what kept me fed and sheltered all these years, without it I don't know how I would have survived, thank you… and gran, you gave me the strength and power I needed to defend myself and keep on moving through life.. I couldn't tell.tell you how many times your reimancy has saved my life. So thank you for that too… I, uh…" She paused, choking on her own words, annoyed at her emotional state, but she knew she needed to get it out.

"I miss you both… even if I haven't said it even once till now, it's true. I'm sorry that we never got to exchange last words and I am grateful to the both of you for the gifts you gave me. Because of them, I finally seemed to have found a place and some people that remove the feeling of being alone that's haunted me since your deaths. I only wish I could spend one last sunset with the two of you…"

It felt silly, she'd never prayed to a God in her life, yet here she was talking to the idea of two people who were long gone. She felt at peace, something that had been unsaid for so long had finally been released and the burden lifted. And for that too, she was grateful.

No more words were spoken for the rest of that sunset as Kamilla simply watched the sunlight fade, lavender eyes focused on the rays shining through the two standing stones. Yennefer joining the duo and taking her spot m Kamilla's lap at some point during the serene moment. It seemed that after seven years, her guilt had finally been dealt with.

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