LordDiomedes

LadyMiho

Six years before the start of the game.

WidowsWave

Diomedes sits at the writing desk, staring at it. Finally, he pulls out a pen, a pot of ink and a piece of paper.

"If Corradina says this is the best way to do it." he murmurs to himself. "Then how can I disappoint her? And I suspect she's taught her just as well, if not more so. Or Uncle Julian did instead of Corradina."

He writes,

'Cousin Miho.

It has come to my attention that, like myself, you find enjoyment from, and have some skill in sailing. I am unfamiliar with the waters of Amber, and would like to correct that lacunae in my education thus far. I thought that a sailing venture, together, would provide some opportunity for us to get to know each other.

I await your reply.'

Diomedes.

Diomedes seals the letter with sealing wax, pressed with the signet ring carved in the double eagle emblem that is now his own. And gives the letter to a servant to deliver it to Gerard's daughter for her answer.

Miho has not been back in Amber for long. Her first time back since her Pattern walk, she came in on a horse laden with new objects found in Shadow which she has brought back for her room. New books. New clothes. A small rug which sits next to her bed, where her feet fall in the morning. Soft slippers.

She is wrapped in a comfortable silk robe when she answers the door, and she takes the note with a murmured thanks. She asks the page to wait, then closes the door and sits at the writing desk she has had since she was nine years old, first in her tiny cabin on Gerard's ship, and now here. It is little more than a wooden box, with a foldout front that sits upon a table and holds her stationary, pen, and wax & seal, but it is dear to her.

"Cousin Diomedes,

It is with pleasure that I receive your invitation. I have a small sailing craft, still in drydock here in Amber as I have just returned. I would be happy to have your aid in launching her, and in return I would be pleased to show you some of Amber's waters. Perhaps another time we could explore further with a larger craft.

I will meet you at the docks shortly before lunch and will arrange a meal.

Your cousin. Miho."

She reaches into the writing desk, withdrawing three small sealing stamps, and a single wax stick of dark blue. She considers the stamps carefully, then selects one and stamps a seagull in flight into the blob of dark wax.

Drawing her silk robe close around her, she returns to the door, and asks that the page convey her message back to Diomedes.

Diomedes looks over the folded piece of paper, finger tracing along the image in the sealing wax. With care, he opens the piece of paper, preserving the image of the seagull as much as possible.

After reading the note, he smiles and puts it away in the desk for safekeeping. After dressing in relatively waterproof clothes for sailing, he heads down toward the docks, leaving early so as to make one simple stop along the way to the rendevous.

Once there, Diomedes runs his free hand through his red hair, and looks around for Miho and her vessel.

He spots the sailcraft first, a sleek, light boat that looks fast and long. Miho stands up, balanced neatly between the top of the cabin and one rail, as she unfurls the main sail and hoists it up. It flutters in the breeze as she anchors the rope and looks around, pushing scattered strands of long black hair back from her face. It does not appear that her dark almond eyes spot Diomedes.

Diomedes does not precisely sneak up on the boat that Miho mans, but he does walk slowly and casually, taking in every inch of the ship. If any passers by looked at his face, they would see a look of satisfaction and a nod of the head as he visually inspects the craft.

Once he draws closer, he raises his free hand in the direction of the boat, to add inches to his short medium height.

"Miho!" he calls, his voice carrying on the wind like a targeted ensorcellment toward her.

She turns, and lightly jumps down from her perch. "Diomedes," she greets him, voice carrying but low across the water. "Come aboard." She motions to where the boat meets the dock, and waits there for him to approach, and to give him a hand moving from the stability of land to the gentle rocking motion of the boat upon the water.

Diomedes reaches for her hand, easily stepping onto the rocking boat. He places a hand against the side of the boat, steadying himself.

"I did not know you sailed," she says, as he steps on. "It is good to meet another who loves the sea."

"Thank you for inviting me aboard." Diomedes says with a smile once he releases the hand.

Miho executes something between a nod and a bow, sweetly polite.

"Tis good to find someone who loves the wine-dark sea." "Your father Gerard told me of your own love, see?" "While my father does not enjoy the waters full" "In Epirus far, we nearly learn to swim ere walk.""

He shakes his head and grins.

"I never was trained as a classical style orator. But I did bring a present." He displays what he has been holding in his left hand, an ornate and beautiful glass bottle.

"Sake, to the lips its named." Diomedes explains. "I did not know if you imbibed it, but I thought you might find the green glass bottle favorable for decorative purposes anyhow."

"I have not had sake, but I remember it from my childhood," Miho says, "or that which my mind translates to mean the similar name. My mother preferred it chilled, and kept a bottle to sip a small glass once in a while. Once when I was very young, my father told me he preferred it hot, and warmed a cup to drink. I have glasses in the cabin." She reaches for the glass bottle, a smile of thanks upon her lips.

Diomedes hands her the bottle gently and smiles.

"It is lovely, and I give you thanks." Another nod, this one deeper. She steps back, towards a hatch which is a low entrance into the cabin which ducks down slightly into the belly of the small craft. "Let me set it safely, and once we are along our way, we may taste of it and share in the joy." She steps down, heading into the small cabin, then pauses and looks back from the shadows. Dark almond eyes peer out, face cast in patterns of darkness and light from the small windows. "Would you like to enter? There is not much to see... this craft is meant for speed and sail, and not to live, but there is some in here for time upon the water."

"I'd like to see it all. There are many cultures, not mine or yours, which live upon the sea for weeks in boats as intimate as this one." he says, regarding Miho from her position in the shadows. His green eyes capture the scene for a long moment before responding.

"Not that I would propose such a thing. I've not the training." Diomedes grins, stepping inside to see the interior of the cabin."

"I love to sail in this, but for a long voyage I would prefer more depth of ship beneath my feet, and more height of rigging," Miho admits. The cabin itself is a tiny thing, with room for two low chairs, a small table between. A cabinet running from floor to ceiling, with carefully latched doors. A slender mat upon the floor, fixed by tethers to the walls, with a net that runs along its length so that if someone were to sleep there in turbulence, they would not find themself rolling about the cabin.

"The Larger ship you mentioned for sometime." Diomedes agrees, as his eyes take in the small cabin.

Miho opens the cabinet and settles the sake carefully inside, where it cannot roll and break. Diomedes might note the lantern and candles within the cabinet as well, and some food, plates, water... all supplies for an afternoon, carefully wrapped and packaged.

"We may either eat here, or on deck," she says, as she motions him to exit the cabin once more. "If the wind is fierce, indoors may suffice, or else cast our lunch upon the breeze."

As they head back to the deck, Miho climbs once more to deal with the sails. The boat rocks upon the water, wind already catching, anxious to be off. "If you would remove our bindings from the dock, and stay your head down, I will handle the sail and ensure we pass out of the bay without incident."

"An agreed division of labour." Diomedes says with a nod, and moves to the dockside of the boat and begins to unfasten the ropes that hold the ship together. After Miho clears the sail past his head for the first time, the bindings now clear, he turns to regard her.

The ship begins to move out, and Miho lightly steps to direct the sail, settling it with small motions so that the slip out of dock, heading for open water.

"What's her name, by the way?" Diomedes asks Miho, patting the side of the ship.

"Widow's Wave." She secures the sail and settles back on the side where she can easily reach it to tack to keep the wind as they move. She looks back over at Dio, her hair swirling around her face in the wind as the craft slices quickly through the waves. "You grew up on water?"

Diomedes smiles, gazing at Miho not with the burning eye of his father's artist gaze, or the scientific narrowing of the eyes of Aunt Fiona, but a more pleasant and less hostile appraisal and framing of her against background.

"Galata sits on the seacoast, there isn't a point in the city more than a mile from the water." Diomedes explains, letting the spray give his eyes a brief grey cast along with the rest of his face.

Miho nods, listening. She kicks her boots off, letting them land on the deck, and draws her feet up so that bare soles cling to the side of the boat more comfortably than the boots did.

"I remember Mother bringing me to the water, every day, teaching me to swim, putting me on a boat not much larger than this. Mom loved the Sea. Father loved Mom, even if the sea was not his element. I'm not sure." Diomedes grins. "any of my cousins, or uncles, can believe my tales of seeing Brand on a ship. But even after Mother's thread was cut by Atropos, my travels with Father often had us near seacoasts."

"You, though, seem to be half Nymph, though, the smooth way you handle Widow's Wave." Diomedes adds with a tone of admiration. After a moment, he changes register and speaks with eyes half closed.

"Daughter of Gerard but Amphitrite's pupil prized. As home upon the water as stars in the skies."

She smiles then. "I take that as a complement, and in the manner given, even if the words sound odd to me. The water was my home after my mother died, and my father swept me aboard to be with him. I grew up with the water to rock me to sleep and strange creatures to sing me lullabyes. There were times when I did not know when I might set foot on land again, and a time when I thought I would be ill if the land would not rock as my ship did when I tried to sleep."

Diomedes grins. "And most men, and women, are the obverse, wondering if upon any sea journey, the motion of the boat will allow them to eat, drink, sleep and do all the things that they do without illness."

"But Gerard, and clearly so, Gerard's daughter could not be one of these. As all of the line of Clarissa cannot help but learn some magic, no matter what other talents are primary." Diomedes grins.

"The journeys within Epirus are usually short." Diomedes admits. "The last night I spent upon the water was my last journeys to and from there." he says. "The brightness of sun awashing the deck by day, the soft silver of moon and stars glowing upon the night. You and I agree that these are things to be treasured." Diomedes smiles.

Miho nods. "It is a pity I only brought lunch, or we could stay until the stars are in the sky and the moon rises over Kolvir. But I fear we would grow hungry by that time, and wishes ourselves home."

The sight of the dock is receding in the distance, the open waters stretching ahead of them. Miho glances out, then adjusts the sail slightly.

"Amber's harbor is large, deep and well sheltered." Diomedes says. "Its more difficult to see that on a trans-shadow sailing ship, but down here, on Widow's Wave, we're a lot closer to the surface of things, you might say." Diomedes says.

"Point of Stars" he points at headland to their left and head, gazing at the curve sloping up to a small hillock with a smile on his face.

Miho follows the gesture with her eyes. "It is a place you like," she says. "Did you wish to stop? We could anchor there, and eat."

"If you don't have a better place." Diomedes says with a smile. "There is a nice spot near the tip. It provides a good view of the harbor, city, and Kolvir on one end, and the endless, boundless ocean on the other."

"Besides, I'm getting ideas for a backdrop." he says with a smile.

Miho tacks and the boat shifts, sailing for the point. "A backdrop?" she asks, as she maneuvers the small craft in close (but not close enough to hit the reef), and then drops weight overboard for an anchor.

Diomedes nods but waits for Miho to expertly put the boat into anchorage before continuing. He ducks his head and watches in a fascinated fashion as Miho guides the boat with superlative skill.

"I could not have done better." Diomedes says. "Anyway, I was thinking. I'm not an artist anywhere near as competent, skilled or talented as Dad, or my Aunt, or Rosalind are. But I do draw and paint."

He looks at Miho and then looks away, a little shyly.

"I'd like to draw you."

Diomedes then heads into the interior of the boat to retrieve the lunches.

Miho jumps lightly down to the deck, and looks into the small cabin as Diomedes gathers up the stored items. She slips past him to collect the wine and two glasses. "I would be honored to have you cast my image in paint," she says quietly. "But if you would do so... I find I would have a favor of you."

Diomedes flattens himself against the cabin, giving his cousin room to retrieve the wine and glasses. Once she is free and back on deck, he gives an unhesitating nod and smile.

"Well worth the cost of same." Diomedes says. "I need the practice, and there are far less intriguing subjects. One gets tired of archetypal bowls of fruit."

He walks to the edge of the boat and gently steps onto the shore, setting down lunch and then offering a hand to Miho.

Miho takes his hand steps out lightly. She looks for a good picnic places, and takes the glasses and wine there. "I am glad. The favor is a simple one... would you cast a second image of me, to gift my father with?"

Diomedes smiles. "Gladly. The only question I have is if you want a duplicate of the image that I intend to make, or a second, new one?"

She smiles then, soft and sweet. "Thank you. I trust you to choose the image that might please my father best in my absence."

He waits for her reply, looking about as she does for a spot. "There." he points to a knob on the point. "Its a flat outcropping of whatever Kolvir and the rest of this range is made out of. Nice and smooth and I think it will suit us. What do you think, cousin?"

Diomedes pauses and waits for Miho's acquiescence, or counteroffer of a spot to picnic.

Miho nods. "It suits." She makes her way there, easily moving over other rocks along the way.

"I don't think anyone in Amber or the Golden Circle really has done a serious study of geology, aside from arcane applications." he muses with a smile. "It wasn't even really a subject of study in Langwith."

Miho sits upon the outcropping, settling the two glasses and then pouring wine. She thinks about his words with a faint frown, and then nods. "The study of rocks and land is outside my interest," she admits. "I would far rather study the water and the creatures of that. Although at some time, my interests must lie upon the land if I wish to travel well. For there are indeed places of all rock and no water."

"They are connected, though, and that's why it interests me. I am no fan of the desert, either." Diomedes says with a smile. "Water is one of the main things that make rocks, and break them down."

"And our common point." Diomedes says, as he begins to set out the food that Miho has prepared for the two of them on a flat part of the exposed rock.

Miho smiles, as Diomedes unwraps two loaves of bread, then some sliced meats. A package of fruit follows, and cheese, and then two small bowls of something like pudding - it most certainly looks sweet.

Diomedes looks over the simple but good looking fare and makes a small sound of approval.

She sips at the wine. "When do you wish me to sit for your art?" She sits with her feet tucked under her, pushing her hair back over her shoulder and out of her face. "And while i sit, we should talk. Perhaps of a trip." She smiles then. "Where would you like to see the most, of places found by water? OR simply traveling without knowing where to go?"

"Near the edge, so that I can get a view of the Deep Blue Sea in the same frame." Diomedes says, taking a sip of the wine. "Water is as much your element as mine, or even more so. Ideally, one day, I'd like to take you out into Shadow and build a set, so to speak, but this will nicely do for now."

His eyes intently study Miho as she sits there.

Her gaze back is frank and carries a small smile to tilt her lips.

"But to answer your question, in part, there is still a lot for me to see out there. When I went to find my sword, I purposefully kept off of the water so as not to limit myself, but when I do travel in Shadow, I prefer to do it that way."

"I've only seen a fraction of shadow, but I'd like to see more cultures like my own, which have a strong tie to the Sea. Not necessarily in the sense of Rebma, mind you, but someplace where the natural beauty of the water meets the natural beauty of the land."

"And now you should answer the question." Diomedes says with a grin, as he begins forming a sandwich of the meats and bread.

"When I go out, I often simply sail, adding and taking away as whim chooses," Miho says. "It would be interesting to find cultures strongly impactedby the sea, or those who choose to have an impact upon it. We will begin with that desire, and from there move by whim, perhaps."

"I've never shifted shadow in tandem with someone." Diomedes replies. "Neither on land nor by the wine dark sea." He takes a bite of his constructed sandwich. "I think it would be more than just a pleasant experiment, it might be educational."

His eyes brighten somewhat. "What we might learn of shifting shadow, and of what two people might do, who share a love of the water and walk worlds in metaconcert."

"It will be good to travel with another," Miho agrees.

"Wonderful." Diomedes says with a smile. "Then we will arrange matters, find time and do it. We can be a quite disparate family sometimes, keeping us connected is something that is a worthwhile goal."

"Heck, if you believe and accept the idea that what we do is reflected throughout shadow, convivial relations between us, for a start, will have a salutary influence throughout shadow."

"You can tell Dad and Theia had charge of my esoteric education, eh?" Diomedes asks with a grin.

Miho shakes her head, expression quietly bemused. "My education in the esoteric is lacking, I fear. To me, it is simple and concrete, what I can have and hold, what I can see, taste, and observe. If I go, I will make waves, and those waves will affect what goes on around me."

"Most of our generation prefers the concrete to the esoteric." Diomedes admits. "And even my interest is not as devoted and intense as my Father, and Aunt Fiona might like. I sometimes spend too much time in the real world."

"I suspect you grounding may be the better for it," Miho says. "After all, what use are the esoteric without ability to know the world in which it must be applied?"

"I do like your metaphor." Diomedes adds. "Current, wave and flow are imagery that I do use in my sorcery. I think people would be surprised if it was otherwise."

"I only have visited it twice, but I understand the sorceresses of the City Under the Sea have similar thoughts. Have you been there, yet?" Diomedes asks Miho.

She shakes her head. "I have not. I prefer to be above the waves... to me, to be below, speaks of death and burial."

Diomedes considers this and then nods. "A place of endings, of lives on the sea coming to their final rest."

Miho nods.

"I visited a shadow once, where creatures beyond life and death come from its depths, onto the land. I battled such a thing, and thereby reduced the death within its waves by ending its undead existence. Rebma is not like that, though, fortunately."

"What is the oddest place you've visited so far?" Diomedes asks her. "How far out have you gone?"

"Not very far yet at all," Miho admits. "I am still new to the Shadows on my own, and before it was where the Fleet sailed, with Gerard at its helm."

Diomedes nods. "I took a long journey out, during one of my trips after walking the Pattern, but I've not yet gone anywhere near as far as our elder cousins, or our parents, aunts and uncles."

"It does reminds me of something, my fellow cousin of the sea. On one of those trips, I heard a popular song of the shadow, and it talked about 'sailing across the sun'. I'm not sure what that means, but the snatch of lyric stuck with me."

"I do not think I am ready to go far from Amber," Miho admits. She is smiling after Diomedes' words. "But that image... I know what it would mean to me, as the image of the sun lies across the water... one chases it, always, because as the ship moves, so does the sun because it is so far away. Perhaps there is a place where one can sail into the image."

"Perhaps, one day, when we take our trip in shadow, we might sail far enough to find such a place. Together." Diomedes turns slightly red and looks away. After a moment, he wordlessly rises to his feet, his food finished. He takes a step or two back and looks at Miho, his eyes flickering from her, to the backdrop in front of which she is seated.

Miho glances up, the sun behind her giving gentle halo effect about her hair. "What would you have of me, to pose for you?" she asks.

"Just remain still." Diomedes says. "You are perfect right there, right like that." he says. He pulls out a small pad of paper and a pencil from inside his clothes. "Perfect" he says again, in a murmur.

Miho smiles, perhaps shy, definitely pleased at the complement.

"I can't paint you here very well without my supplies, but I can capture the essence all the same." he says, as he begins to apply pencil to paper. His eyes flicker between paper and subject as his hand moves rapidly. When his eyes do light upon Miho, there is a fierce intensity, as if trying to capture all of Miho in a few seconds' look each time.

"And once I do that, I will create a painting based on the drawing. Two paintings, since I have promised you one for your father."

"I thank you." She sits quietly, watching Dio as he watches her.

Diomedes spends a couple of minutes just drawing. Its after two minutes of pencil to paper, and Miho's quiet sitting that he finally laughs, still drawing.

"You know, aside from, say, a bowl of fruit, you are the quietest and stillest subject I've had the pleasure to draw." Diomedes. "You're far more interesting than a bowl of fruit, though. I know the reason why its practiced so much, but its far duller than, say, this.."

"I've learned to be still and quiet aboard my father's ship," Miho tells him. "When I was a child, and he first brought me on, they were skeptical. A child, and a girl child, aboard the vessel? But it was my father, after all, and they weren't likely to naysay such as him. But I realized, quickly, that they were happier when they could simply forget I was there. And so I made my first ways into the ship by silence, and being forgotten. And then after that, I made my friends, and my space among the crew."

Diomedes listens, as he continues to draw. Finally, he stops putting pencil to paper for the moment and holds it on the paper, and looks up at Miho.

"You were silent and still, until you didn't need to be. And thus have become very good at it. Very good indeed."

"Would you like to see this?" Diomedes offers.

Miho nods, suddenly smiling. "Very much so." She stands and comes over to join him, looking down at the paper.

The figure that Dio has drawn is spartan and simple, but in an austere way that might remind Miho of shadows similar to her birthplace. An economy of pencil strokes has been used to depict Miho, just as she was, with the sea very prominently displayed in the background. Indeed, with the style of drawing, it is clear to Miho that this drawing very clearly shows Miho as a part of the sea, and the sea as a part of her.

"What do you think?" Diomedes asks, solicitously but quietly, after giving her a minute to look it over.

"I love it," Miho says. She looks at it for a long moment, looking past it then at the sea. "I can see your love of the water."

Diomedes doesn't speak for a moment, not wishing to disturb Miho's contemplation of the sea behind them. Finally, he nods.

"In that, at the very least, I have found a kindred spirit." Diomedes says softly. "And I will finish both paintings in that vein."

"I thank you for that. My father will be thrilled to have the image," Miho says, pleasure gently evident.

"Good." Diomedes says, with a bright smile. "In any event, it will make for a tangible memory of our day today."

"It will," Miho agrees.

Diomedes smiles softly. "Until then, we still have the rest of our time, and a delightful sailing trip back to the docks." he points out. "A fine end to a fine plan."

"And a fine day." Miho smiles.