“Are you steady?” asked Henna. She placed a hand on Deedee’s shoulder.
“Steady?” said Deedee. “That’s an interesting way to put it. No, but I will be soon.” They had just stepped off a cargo ship after having spent several days at sea. Deedee’s new friend didn’t seem to be having the same adaptive struggle.
“Your legs have yet to find the ground,” said Henna. Deedee laughed.
“And yours have already found them,” said Deedee. “You said this was your first time at sea?” Henna looked out at the rocking ocean waters.
“Branches in the wind and wood on the sea are not so different…” Henna said, speaking into the salty breeze. This practically confirmed Deedee’s suspicion that Henna was originally a tribal wood elf, she suspected as much due to Henna’s unique, rather crass, accent… though there was a small possibility that Henna came from a faraway place and that she simply enjoyed jumping around in the trees. Deedee giggled at the thought.
“It seems I’ve found my land legs,” said Deedee. “Come then.” She would ask about Henna’s origin at a later time.
The two elves walked side by side through bustling streets, every manner of humankin going about the busy day. Deedee was classically beautiful, obviously high born, tall, slender, and light-skinned, with bright yellow hair, blue eyes, and sharp features. She moved with graceful elven confidence and people naturally parted as she walked. Henna moved with a different kind of grace, like water wrapping around rocks, casually moving between people who had no intention of getting out of her way, the people parting for Deedee often stepping directly in Henna’s path.
Deedee didn’t suspect this rude behavior was intentional. Henna wasn’t being missed because she was human height. She was short for an elf but still tall enough to be seen. It wasn’t her brown skin or her wild attire. People on Capital Isle didn’t typically discriminate over such petty things. Perhaps it was her tattoos… Deedee had found them strangely difficult to look at. Not that they weren’t pleasing to the eye. On the contrary, they were beautiful, yet for reasons unknown to Deedee, it took a bit of effort to keep her eyes from pulling away when she tried to look at them. This gave Deedee cause to want to examine them as carefully as she could, and she had been trying to when convenience presented itself. She had made a particular effort to examine the pattern around Henna’s wrist while they had dined just yesterday. The two walked for some time.
“And here it is,” said Deedee. They approached a single-story stone building. It was box-like save for a few small circular additions, the additions with pointed rooftops. There weren’t a lot of windows.
“This is your school?” Henna asked, some surprise in her voice. “It’s rather small.”
“This is my study,” said Deedee. “We’ve been in the school since we landed.” Henna looked around, wide-eyed.
“All of this is the school? The city in whole?” Henna asked, her speech slipping into a thicker accent than normal.
“Not the whole city, but most of it, yes,” said Deedee. “We used to have signs that would show where the school grounds started, but we’ve been expanding so fast that we stopped using them.” Deedee opened the door to her study and stepped inside. Henna stopped abruptly at the door. “You can come in,” said Deedee. Henna frowned, stepped inside, but kept the door propped open with her foot. She looked straight at a large glass case full of raw uncut diamonds behind blue-tinted glass. She pointed towards the display.
“This is not safe,” Henna said. Deedee stopped and smiled. It would seem that Henna didn’t understand the details of Diamond Madness. This made Deedee even more curious about Henna’s tattoos. Was she making them without understanding how Diamond Magic works at all? It could mean that she was simply taught a method that worked while keeping her sane.
“I assure you it is quite safe,” said Deedee, and she gestured towards a simple, cushy, chair. “You can sit here if you like.”
“I will not,” said Henna and she eyed Deedee with suspicion. Henna’s accent was thick, crass, and her speech was a bit broken. “Not with this diamond exposed.”
“Henna. It’s quite alright,” Deedee said and she stepped towards her. “I’ve been studying Diamond Magic for a long time. I know all about Diamond Madness and how to avoid it.”
“How many years?” asked Henna, clearly not convinced.
“Oh… let me think,” said Deedee. She looked at the ceiling and rubbed her fingers against her palm. How long ago was it that she started studying? It was several years after Palzo saved her home city from that flash flood… when he parted the waters and saved all the people Deedee knew… Was it really that long ago?
“I think about ninety years if my memory serves,” Deedee said.
“Ninety,” said Henna. “That is a long time, yes…” She looked Deedee in the eyes and frowned. “Maybe you have been crazy since the beginning.” Deedee laughed. Henna gave no sign that she wasn’t being serious.
“You know, I probably have been crazy,” Deedee said in a sing-songy tone. “but not because of Diamond Madness.” She smiled at Henna and reached for her hand.
“Why then?” asked Henna, and she allowed herself to be guided to the chair in the room. The door shut behind her.
“Boys,” said Deedee. “and later men.”
“Yes they are a problem,” said Henna, still not smiling, still not giving any sign that she wasn’t serious. She eyed the rest of the room.
The study was tidy, every book put away, save for one on a small stand next to a comfortable-looking chair in the corner. Deedee spent a lot of time reading in that chair. There was a rack of wands hung up neatly on the wall, staves set inside a fancy-looking stand. The room did not reflect the mind of a mad person. Henna looked more relaxed. She was no longer primed to fight or flee. Deedee pulled up a chair for herself and sat directly in front of Henna.
“It’s the light that causes it,” said Deedee, looking into Henna’s eyes. “It’s any light that goes through or that shines from them, any light that isn’t blue.”
“Any light… that is not blue…” Henna repeated, and she looked again at the blue-tinted glass of the raw diamonds on display.
“Mhmmm! Yes,” said Deedee. “You can dilute it into glass, like with this here,” Deedee raised her hand towards an orb on display to her right. It began to glow a bright blue. “or you can put a filter over it, like this display. Whatever the method, so long as the light passing through is blue, your mind is safe. You still don’t want to touch them while they’re shining. We don’t know for sure if that’s safe yet, and I don’t like using filters except for storage, away from sunlight in case the filter fails.” Henna appeared to be lost in thought, like she was trying to remember something important.
“May I?” asked Deedee and she placed her hand loosely around Henna’s wrist. Henna looked a little puzzled by the request. Perhaps she didn’t quite understand what Deedee was asking, but she nodded her approval anyway. Deedee pulled Henna’s hand to her knee so that she could better see Henna’s wrist and arm and she began running two of her fingers over Henna’s tattoos. “How did you..?” Deedee gave Henna a puzzled frown. “These are completely different than the other day.” Henna looked at Deedee and shook her head.
“They are not different,” said Henna. “I only moved them.”
“You… moved them?” asked Deedee, raising an eyebrow.
“This one you are touching is new and the other is here now,” said Henna, and she used her free hand to pat her outer thigh. It was true. The pattern that Deedee had made an effort to remember was now on Henna’s outer thigh. It wrapped around her leg as it had previously wrapped around her wrist. “This is where I usually make them,” she said, and she tapped the wrist Deedee was holding, “sometimes here…” and she placed her hand over her heart, on her chest, “and I move them when they are done.”
“That’s fascinating!” said Deedee, elated. “Can you show how you move them?” Henna pulled her hand away from Deedee’s lap and sat up straight.
“No I cannot,” said Henna, looking away. Deedee blinked.
“I don’t mean right now. I just mean, you know, sometime… someday?” said Deedee, her voice higher and softer than normal. Henna shook her head again.
“No,” said Henna, still not looking at Deedee. “This is something I cannot share with you. Do not ask me.”
Deedee felt a little like she had just been slapped. Her face went red. This was the entire reason she tracked this girl down! She had heard a rumor about an elf girl with magical tattoos and she had wanted to learn everything she could about them once she confirmed the rumor as true… Maybe she could offer her something in trade…
“There’s a lot I can share with you, Henna. You’re clearly a very gifted person,” said Deedee. Henna smiled at Deedee. This was the first time Deedee had seen her smile and she realized she was really quite pretty, in her own unique way. Perhaps she had been too distracted to notice until now.
“Thank you,” said Henna, and she continued to smile at Deedee.
(Thank you… what?) thought Deedee. Did this mean she was willing to trade, knowledge for knowledge? Deedee didn’t think so. Maybe Henna was simply reacting to the compliment.
“Would you be willing to trade with me?” asked Deedee, speaking slow and clear. Henna tilted her head.
“What trade are you wanting?” asked Henna.
“I want to trade knowledge with you,” said Deedee. “I charge a lot for teaching people, Henna. For you, I can teach you anything you want to know about Diamond Magic and Wizardry. In exchange, I’d like to know more about your tattoos.”
“Trading knowledge…” said Henna, and she looked at the floor as if she were thinking hard. She looked back at Deedee and stood. Deedee instinctively rose with her. “I can teach you the bow,” she said. “You can teach me about the city and its people. Come, let’s leave this place. Is there a range in your school for shooting?”
Deedee had no interest in learning how to use a bow… and now it was clear that Henna had no interest in sharing anything about her tattoos… Still, Deedee decided to play along. She had a feeling in her gut that Henna was a person worth knowing. She couldn’t have been more right. A few nights later, Henna would save her life.