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After an improbable morning in Ikialo Village, meeting with an unexpected kinswoman in search of snorkel masks and watching his Lord negotiate with a woodcarver and do small magics for the people of the village, their party makes good time on their journey back to the beautiful house on the beach at Navikiani.
Zerafin is carrying the bags and baskets they acquired in the village, and Cliopher has fallen to the back of the party, taking a few moments to enjoy the familiar sounds of home.
They are well down the jungle path when there is a rustling in the forest, quickly approaching. The guards have a moment to brace themselves and ready their spears, and then someone is crashing out of the underbrush coming straight towards them.
It is a woman, clearly a local, in a brightly floral purple dress. Her hair is long, and mussed from her headlong charge through the jungle and-
It is Vinyë, somehow.
She turns, and her face lights up when she sees him. “Kip!” she calls, and Cliopher has a frantic moment where he worries the guards will skewer her before he can intervene- but she comes straight towards him, and he reaches out to her in an attempt to make clear she is not a threat. Cliopher cannot imagine what his sister is possibly doing on this island, much less looking for him specifically, but there is no time for questions before she is right in front of him with worry writ clear on her face.
“There you are!” she says, taking him by the arms, neatening his hair, patting him on his shoulders and back as though making sure he is unharmed. “Kip, What have you been doing out here- you know can't just run off like that, Navalia was worried sick!”
Cliopher’s breath catches in his throat, and Vinyë looks at his face- then she freezes.
Taking a hesitant step back, she seems to suddenly notice the robed figure and handful of armed spearmen a few paces ahead of them on the path, brandishing their weapons.
“...sorry,” she says, looking very young and bowing slightly. Her hair falls down her shoulders as she does. “I apologize. I thought you were someone else.”
Which is when Cliopher realizes that his sister does not just seem very young- she is very young.
It is clearly Vinyë, but Vinyë as she would have appeared when they were much younger. Her hair is longer than she keeps it these days, and her face is familiar- he had known her at this age, and there is a sense of nostalgia to it. But there is no hint of grey at her temples, and no lines at the corners of her eyes. She is wearing her favorite purple dress that had once belonged to Navalia, the one that had been turned into quilts and keepsakes years ago.
Had they ever been so young?
“Vinyë?” Cliopher asks, stepping between her and the guards. “What has happened? You were looking for me?”
She stares at his face, looking as disconcerted as he feels. “Kip? You look like our father. What are you wearing, is that really you?”
“I was me the last time I checked,” he says, and it is only mostly a joke.
She glances at the people behind him- a well-garbed man with aristocratic features, surrounded by a small handful of well-muscled, spear-wielding guards, then turns back to Kip.
“Kip,” she says with a sigh. “What in the world have you gotten yourself involved in this time?”
It is at this moment that his Radiancy chooses to approach, gesturing at the guards to stand down. Cliopher suppresses the urge to pull Vinyë down into an obeisance- his lord has requested to stay incognito, and he would not be pleased with such formalities.
Instead Cliopher bows, as formally as he feels he can get away with. “My lord,” he says, “Allow me to introduce you to my sister, Vinyë Mdang.” She had been a few years older than this when she had met Erwin, and a few more beyond that before she had bucked tradition to take his last name. It would not do to bring unnecessary confusion to already confusing proceedings. “Vinyë, this is my lord, here on vacation. And his guards, accompanying us. We are staying at Navikiani down on the beach.”
“...A pleasure to meet you, your honor.”
“Likewise, Saya Mdang.” His Radiancy turns to Cliopher, scrupulously polite. “We were not aware you had a younger sister living on this island, Cliopher.”
“My lord, I am the youngest of three. Last I knew, my older sister Vinyë lived in Gorjo city with my family. I can think of no reason that would have brought her here, or like this.”
“Ahh,” says his Radiancy, “We begin to see the shape of the problem.” He gazes impassively at Vinyë for a moment, and by Vinyë’s shiver Cliopher suspects that his Radiancy has just used some sort of magic. “Well, we do not appear to be the ones out of place. Saya Mdang, would you be willing to accompany us back to the house so we may resolve this curious situation? It seems you have fallen party to the influence of one or more of your local gods. You shall have to tell me more of them, Cliopher, your story of Vou’a and Ani was most interesting.”
Cliopher assents, and the party resumes its meandering journey back to the house, though Commander Omo falls back to shadow Cliopher and Vinyë, though at a reasonable distance.
As soon as the main party is far enough ahead for plausible deniability, Vinyë grabs Cliopher’s arm in a vice grip. “What do you mean you're working for some noble,” she hisses, and Cliopher desperately pretends that the tremor in his Lord's shoulders ahead of them is not barely contained laughter. “There’s no way he lives anywhere near here- does your lord serve at court? ...Do you serve at court?”
“I avoid court as often as I can manage it- which is not as often as I'd like. But it is a very beautiful palace, when I can get the time away from my desk to see it.”
Vinyë gapes at him. “How do you go from statistics and history to- to whatever this is?”
“It's a long story, Vinyë. It would be hard to explain." And he certainly does not want to explain the Fall to her, here so close to the man at its epicenter. "But what about you- you were looking for me? You and Navalia? Is she- is she also here?”
“No, no, she went the other way down the path. We were walking in the Reserve, you see, and you saw some sort of bird and went charging off into the forest. We couldn’t see where you’d gone, so Navalia and I decided to split up to try and find you.”
Kip vaguely remembers this day. They had gone up the mountain for a walk, and there had been a kookaburra, with some sort of interesting shell in its beak. It had seemed only reasonable to step off the path to catch a better glimpse- and he had immediately tripped over a root and gone tumbling down the slope.
He’d been scraped up and dirty, but otherwise unharmed, and Navalia had brought him home to get cleaned up before dinner.
Vinyë had joined them there. It had never occurred to him to wonder where she had gone in the meantime. He had not known she'd also looked for him.
In this moment, in this strange intersection between right now and decades or centuries ago, Vinyë squeezes his arm and looks into his face.
“Kip, are you happy?”
He smiles. “More or less, most days. My lord is very kind, and we are doing important work.”
She frowns, but does not push further.
After a few more moments of walking, the sounds of the jungle vibrant around them, they come to a place where their meandering path is about to turn out onto the beach. There is a glimmer of light through the trees, the scent of brine on the air- and, perched in a flowering tree just off the path, is a kookaburra, a shell in its beak and a glint in its eye.
Cliopher sees Vinyë notice the bird. Then she puts up her chin and marches to the front of the party, pausing just at the point where Varro and Zerafin begin to shift their weapons to readiness. His Radiancy turns to her attentively.
“Your honor,” says Vinyë with a scowl, and Cliopher recalls with a sense of foreboding that he had not been the only outspoken one in their youth. “I hope you appreciate how much my brother cares for you. He wouldn't leave the Vangaveye-ve for just anyone, you know.”
His Radiancy nods solemnly. “We appreciate him greatly. He is dear to us for the work he does to safeguard our world, and dear to me personally. We will do everything we can to assure his safety and happiness.”
Vinyë eyes him appraisingly, then nods. “You’d better,” she says.
Kip blushes with mortification, but his Radiancy smiles. “It is always wonderful to see the care of an older sister. Travel safely, Saya Mdang.”
Vinyë makes her way back down the path and gives Kip one last hug. He hugs her back tightly, trying to communicate all the things he cannot say, all the appreciation for the worry and care he had not realized he was receiving from her over the years.
“Give my best to Navalia,” he says, and she smiles.
“Of course."
Then she steps off the path, and follows the Kookuburra into the trees. “She has gone,” his Radiancy says after a moment, and Cliopher lets out a deep breath.
“My lord,” he begins, but finds he has nothing else to say.
His Radiancy smiles. “I do like these islands of yours, Cliopher. So many interesting experiences to be had."
With a sense of almost-flattered resignation, Cliopher bows his head. “Of course, my lord.”
—
“Saya Vawen,” his Radiancy says brightly, upon being introduced to Cliopher’s older sister at the concert in her honor, just before elevating Cliopher to his Lord Chancellor. “I feel as though I know you already.”
She frowns, as though trying to place a familiar voice... but then his Radiancy turns to address Gaudy, and the moment passes.