[Some have already left when the twenty-second dawns bright and early with the promise of heat as Araceli rises with the sun in Dairsmuid, slipping out of bed and down to the shore. She'll miss Rivain when it's time to go; if she could go between here and Antiva, she might be less homesick. Content to browse the markets, to be amidst the cultures that seem happier to work together barring what called the Inquisition here in the first place.
And she's here on her birthday. She didn't think she would be, only a few small boats out on the water as she sets down a small basket with a towel to set about undressing, wiping away a grateful tear.
A birthday for a Castilean isn't about gifts the way it is with other cultures even here; it's a celebration of life where you buy rum for that person later in the day and stop them buying their own drinks, since rum is life out on the open water, but gifts are for early in life, and she has all the things she needs. This is going back to the sea, even if it isn't her sea, and she strips off her belongings apart from the dragon's tooth Korrin gave her, setting them in the basket on the sands since there's no one to take them.
The water is cold but that doesn't bother her, tiny silver fish darting around her ankles as she begins to wade out deeper and deeper. She's missed this, a hiccuping stuttering sob in her throat as she reaches the point where she pushes off and starts swimming out, avoiding a small group of pale jellyfish lazily puffing along with the current.
Eventually if anyone follows her down to the shore there's a moment where she stops and takes a deep breath, diving under until all there she can hear is the sound of her heart. The tide pulls and pushes her, the salt-water stings at her eyes, kelp tickles the soles of her feet as curious fish nibble her toes and dart around her as she drifts motionless. She's down there a long time before she surfaces when her lungs are finally burning for air, throwing her head back as she does with a smile, blinking the salt from her eyes as she paddles back to somewhere she can wade a little more comfortably.]
When uneasy thoughts come, I go to the sea | birthday | ota;
And she's here on her birthday. She didn't think she would be, only a few small boats out on the water as she sets down a small basket with a towel to set about undressing, wiping away a grateful tear.
A birthday for a Castilean isn't about gifts the way it is with other cultures even here; it's a celebration of life where you buy rum for that person later in the day and stop them buying their own drinks, since rum is life out on the open water, but gifts are for early in life, and she has all the things she needs. This is going back to the sea, even if it isn't her sea, and she strips off her belongings apart from the dragon's tooth Korrin gave her, setting them in the basket on the sands since there's no one to take them.
The water is cold but that doesn't bother her, tiny silver fish darting around her ankles as she begins to wade out deeper and deeper. She's missed this, a hiccuping stuttering sob in her throat as she reaches the point where she pushes off and starts swimming out, avoiding a small group of pale jellyfish lazily puffing along with the current.
Eventually if anyone follows her down to the shore there's a moment where she stops and takes a deep breath, diving under until all there she can hear is the sound of her heart. The tide pulls and pushes her, the salt-water stings at her eyes, kelp tickles the soles of her feet as curious fish nibble her toes and dart around her as she drifts motionless. She's down there a long time before she surfaces when her lungs are finally burning for air, throwing her head back as she does with a smile, blinking the salt from her eyes as she paddles back to somewhere she can wade a little more comfortably.]