#frithik

[catsuspenders]

clam fishing

[autumnslance]

FFXIV Write 2020 #4: Clinch

Frithik watched and tried not to chuckle as Aeryn attempted to figure out the knot he had shown her. “You’re making a common error,” he said after the third time she lost a hook.

She sighed. “I’m usually quick to learn things,” she apologized.

“For a proper clinch knot, you need to hold the hook and main line when pulling taunt after wetting it,” he said. “Holding the tag end won’t do it.”

Aeryn tried again, pleased at the knot that resulted. Frithik nodded in approval, and watched her cast her line.

“You’ve got it this time,” he said, setting his own bait and casting his line. They waited in companionable silence, water lapping at the base of the dock while insects buzzed. The day was warm if overcast; with luck there would be rain, bringing more fish near the surface.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Frithik eventually said after a few moments, slowly letting out his reel. “I don’t mind teaching the Warrior of Darkness herself how to fish, but what brought on the sudden interest?”

She didn’t answer for a time, looking out over the expanse of water so ironically named the Source. Bismarck dozed in the distance, the trees on his back blotches of shifting color.

How to explain that she had spent the last couple moons talking with a ghost, who had spoken with her not only about her worries of Lightwardens and Ascians, but about...everything else? About friendships, about choboos and amaro, about daring risks and missed opportunities? About hopes, and fears? About the hobbies that filled what precious little free time they had and kept them sane when the world seemed determined to tear its heroes apart body and soul--literally?

Ardbert had grown up on an island, large enough for a village, farming, and some trade. Fishing had been one of his fondest hobbies.

“I used to look out over the water and dream of what lay beyond the horizon line. One day I’d go beyond it, see the world that existed across the waves.” He chuckled in that ironic, self-deprecating way of his. “I did that and more, with my friends. Even got to visit your world for a bit. Should have taken time to cast a few lines while I was there; woulda been something.”

“If I’m going to sit for so long, I feel I ought to be reading, or writing, or painting, or...just..anything.”

“Well you aren’t just sitting still,” he countered. “After picking the right bait, and setting the line, you’re minding it, watching and waiting, and when you feel that tug on the line, it becomes a bit of a contest; not just who’s strongest, but who can be more wily.”

Aeryn gave him a skeptical look. Ardbert grinned back. “You’d be surprised. Fish can be smarter than you think. Besides, sometimes you just gotta...clear your mind. Be still. Let your eyes and thoughts wander while your hands do the work, until you get that tug. Even a smarty-pants mage like you has to let the brain rest.”

“So how well did Nyelbert take to fishing?”

An exaggerated, unnecessary sigh. “Oh he didn’t, the pompous arse.”

They laughed, his tinged with the old grief he could never seem to shake.

Ever since returning from the depths of the Tempest--ever since Ardbert had given himself to save her, his presence a constant, comforting warmth suffusing her head to toe--she had found herself drawn to the water, staring at the distant horizon line, mind wishing to relax from the myriad spinning ideas she normally fostered, hands twitching.

On her latest trip to the Crystalline Mean to deliver some medicines for Bethric she had lingered afterwards at the Facet of Fishing, until Frithik had noticed her hovering. When he asked if she needed anything, her hastily blurted request to learn how to fish had come out of nowhere, a surprise to them both.

Or had it come out of nowhere? Was it a surprise?

Her line jerked, and Aeryn began to turn the reel.

“Easy!” Frithik encouraged. “Easy now...almost...let it out a little bit...there you go...now back in...careful…careful...Aha!”

A flopping mackerel slapped at her arm as Aeryn grabbed it, and with Frithik’s help the fish was removed from the hook and tossed in the ice box. “Good work!” He practically purred. “You’re a natural.”

Aeryn shrugged sheepishly. “I have a good teacher.”

And a little help besides, always.

[autumnslance]

For Every Child a Star

“...But they'd want us to enjoy it for ourselves, too─as would all our other loved ones who couldn't be with us here today. Remember: the best way to honor the dead is to live.”

In the capstone quest for the Facets, the Artisans of the Crystalline Mean come together to comfort the children of the Crystarium who are uncertain about the return of the night and the unexpected scariness of the dark. Each of the Facets brings their own talents forward, educating and inspiring the children.

And then the Warrior of Darkness hears a familiar whistle and the sky lights up in a way not seen on the First in over a hundred years...

“A little surprise I cooked up for the children with the Exarch's help─fireworks. And a taste of home for you, I'm told?”