Chapter 311: What the Medium Gives
Eira knelt on the flat stone at the pocket’s edge, her sleeves pushed back. She checked the water at the mouth, the middle and the outflow, holding her hand beneath the surface at each place before moving to the next.
The princess rested against the submerged root. Her head turned as Eira came back along the bank, and the fingers of one hand loosened into a soft gold shape against the bark.
Eira sat in her usual place and drew her. Ren waited above the cleared approach until she finished and set the paper aside.
"It’s holding," she said. "Bring it down."
He took the case from the dry recess beside the root, bringing the two procedure sheets with it. Eira laid them open on the stone. He set the case within her reach, then went round to the pocket’s mouth and crouched where the princess could see him.
She looked up when he settled there.
Eira opened the case and lifted out the jar. The supplier’s seal was still intact. She worked it loose, removed the lid and set it beside the sheets.
Ren could see the grains now: fine and dark red, as the vault’s record had described them. Eira held the jar upright while she checked the introduction step once more.
"Ready?" she asked.
He nodded.
From where she knelt, she could reach the water beside the princess without leaning across her. Eira tipped the jar just far enough to let a little of the medium slip over the lip, then straightened it.
The grains sank near the root. The princess followed Eira’s hand back to the stone, watched her set the jar down, then turned toward Ren again.
— • —
They waited.
Loom kept the water turning slowly across the shallow end. Beneath the princess, the Worldroot’s roots remained in place, maintaining the support that had held her steady through the preparations. Wick’s light fell over the pocket from the bank.
Eira checked the warmth where she had introduced the medium.
"Same as before," she said.
Ren rested his hands on his knees. The princess looked at them for a while before returning her gaze to his face.
Eira followed the procedure through the next portion, leaving time between additions to watch the princess and check the water. The warmth held. She could reach everything from the stone; neither of them needed to lift the princess or shift the root beneath her.
There was little for Ren to do. He watched the red and blue moving beneath her gold, then the small light in her chest whenever she turned far enough for him to see it. So far, she looked much as she had when he arrived.
He shifted his weight off one heel. Her head came up at the movement.
"Still here," he told her.
Eira set the jar down again. There was less in it now. She looked from the princess to the open sheet, checked the water and waited before reaching for it again.
Ren noticed the fingers first.
They had separated against the root, each with a narrow edge of gold. He watched for the edges to soften, as they had during Eira’s first drawing. Eira lifted the jar and introduced another portion. When she set it back on the stone, the fingers were still distinct.
"Look at her hand," he said.
"I see it."
The princess turned her wrist until the palm faced up. She looked down at it, keeping it turned while her fingers opened a little farther.
Ren could see the bark through the gaps between them.
Eira continued at the same pace. By the time she tipped the last of the medium into the water, the hand had held through another check. She put the empty jar beside its lid and left it there.
"Longer than the last visit," she said.
The princess moved her head toward Ren, and the light in her chest became visible again. It was still small. Along one side, though, a short edge stood clear against the surrounding gold. He had to wait for her to turn back before he could see it a second time.
It was still there.
He asked the System silently to check her development.
[HEARTFLAME: INCOMPLETE. STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT: CONFIRMED.]
[MATURATION: ADVANCED.]
The princess lifted her hand from the root and held it toward him, palm up. She watched his face and waited.
Ren leaned forward until he could put a finger within her reach.
Her fingers closed around it.
— • —
She released him when she turned toward Wick. Ren drew his hand back, and Eira took up her paper.
From the same place on the stone, she drew the fingers and the turned wrist. The princess held them in the light while Eira worked. Once, Eira paused with her hand above the page, watching, before adding a line.
She laid the drawing beside the one from before the administration.
Ren looked down at them. On the first, the fingers ran together at the edges. On the second, there were gaps between them, and the wrist held the palm at an angle. The rest of the arm remained lightly drawn.
Eira added a note beneath the second drawing.
"I’ll compare it again at the next visit," she said. "See how much she keeps."
She gathered both pages with her earlier drawings, then turned to the procedure sheet. In its margin she recorded that the full measure had been introduced gradually and that the warmth had held throughout.
Ren brought the case closer while she replaced the jar’s lid. She fitted the empty jar inside, closed the case and carried it back to the recess. The folded procedure sheets went beside it. She kept the drawings with her.
At the pocket, the princess’s arm began to soften. Her fingers kept their edges a little longer before they too loosened against the root. Her head stayed turned toward Wick.
Eira watched until the hand had settled, then went up the path with her notes.
— • —
Ren stayed by the water and took out his copy of the supplier’s habitat record.
He found the nesting observations. One site had sheltered water warmed from below, beneath a stone overhang. In another entry, beside the notes on depth and the ground beneath the water, the observer had recorded that the young were kept clear of the current.
He looked across the pocket.
Loom’s flow passed through the shallow end. That would have to continue during any later treatment, along with the support from the roots. A nesting place beside the princess would need shelter from it.
He read the entry again, including the date. It described a nest someone had found. Preparing similar conditions would give him something to offer a nurturer, but he would still have to learn what that creature needed and whether it would stay.
Beyond the roots, the bank curved round into water he had never checked as closely as the pocket. He knew the warmth held where the princess rested. Farther along, he had yet to test it or trace where Loom’s current reached.
There might be room there without disturbing her, if the depth and footing were suitable.
He would check the ground beside the pocket for a sheltered nesting place, clear of Loom’s current.