[The Pthumerian Sea takes away, and the Pthumerian Sea gives.
It isn't quite correct to say Illarion's been tirelessly combing the beach since a certain black godling disappeared from the Imperial household. He has other commitments, as Disciple and Hunter and sometimes-adoptive-parent, that keep him busy in Trench. But he has made a point of spending an hour or two every day down on the sand, keeping idle watch for the unmistakeable Presence of a Monarch and gathering the prosthetics washing ashore. (Waste not, want not, when it came to Mariana's capricious bounties--though he hasn't been turning them in himself. There's other Sleepers who need the reminder of home more than he does; he gives them away to those who don't have the time to spend on the beach.)
Today, there are two Presences, one familiar and one not, that bend the world strangely around them and draw the wandering shrike rapidly down the beach into their gravity well.
He does not recognize the ??woman?? sitting beside John, but he has a guess.]
Is this she, then?
[His expression's one of faint awe; all his golden eyes are wide, and he bats not a one at the crunch of teeth on metal.]
1, beach-flavored, INTRODUCE ME TO YOUR WIFE, JOHN
It isn't quite correct to say Illarion's been tirelessly combing the beach since a certain black godling disappeared from the Imperial household. He has other commitments, as Disciple and Hunter and sometimes-adoptive-parent, that keep him busy in Trench. But he has made a point of spending an hour or two every day down on the sand, keeping idle watch for the unmistakeable Presence of a Monarch and gathering the prosthetics washing ashore. (Waste not, want not, when it came to Mariana's capricious bounties--though he hasn't been turning them in himself. There's other Sleepers who need the reminder of home more than he does; he gives them away to those who don't have the time to spend on the beach.)
Today, there are two Presences, one familiar and one not, that bend the world strangely around them and draw the wandering shrike rapidly down the beach into their gravity well.
He does not recognize the ??woman?? sitting beside John, but he has a guess.]
Is this she, then?
[His expression's one of faint awe; all his golden eyes are wide, and he bats not a one at the crunch of teeth on metal.]