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[princess_of_ida]

Three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile.



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[seaboard]

No wonder. Having that against her skin must have been lovely. But I suppose as Princesses it would not be so hard for you to change those garments as many times as you need.

[ Trips and falls over in the iron age nonsense. ]

I am still learning to make lace, here. It is not a skill we have at home, but I know the tailor does have very fine cotton. So fine as to be sheer, and it is threaded with silk. I could try and fetch some for you, and make up something like it?

[princess_of_ida]

[Ianthe's eyes lit up.]

In your size. For you to wear for me. [Only for Ianthe.] I'd love that.

[seaboard]

[ There is a huff. ]

You are spoiling me again, I am trying to make you something nice, that you can have that is like from your home.

[princess_of_ida]

[But gift giving is one of Ianthe's love languages!]

Maybe both?

[seaboard]

[ She relents. ]

Well, I suppose that is a little better then. I can make something matching.

[ She perches again in thought. ]

One of the lace makers will have some spare cuts from the larger pieces they make, I think.

[princess_of_ida]

If you need to use my standing to get better deals, go ahead. I have no idea how lingerie is made; I leave that to you.

[Ianthe always just ordered it and it was delivered.]

[seaboard]

[ That will always be the difference, won't it? It never stopped startling her to hear. ]

... Do you... want to learn? I suspect with your cleverness, and your understanding of the life of things, you might be very quick at sewing.

[ Clears her throat. ]

Only so you do not have to rely on anyone for these things, should you be in a position to not have help.

[princess_of_ida]

Babs was the one that could sew. I wish I'd gotten his needlework as well as his sword, but...

[Her words trailed off, her thoughts going elsewhere for long enough to worry something might be wrong. And then she blinked.]

...maybe some day I will. Probably will.

[seaboard]

[ There was that name again, Babs, that she brought up so rarely... ]

I do wonder if you could not use your 'flesh' magic to do so. Linen and cotton is the 'flesh' of a flower, after all.

[princess_of_ida]

[A shake of the head.]

Plant material doesn't hold thanergy like animal does. There's nothing for us to use.

[seaboard]

[ She cocks her head in interest to that. ]

Truly? How strange. We regard the souls of both to be much the same, that way. Trees can have souls in them as much as the stag or the bear does.

[princess_of_ida]

You misunderstand what I mean. Plants do contain thalergy - life energy - but when they die and it converts to thanergy, it dissipates so quickly necromancers can't catch it. That's because dead plant material doesn't store thanergy like animal flesh and bone does.

[Ianthe assumed plant souls - if they had them - disappeared just as quickly.]

[seaboard]

[Her brows lift, then keeps thinking. ]

What about earth? Stone or dirt or field?

[princess_of_ida]

They don't contain thalergy. They're not alive.

[Sorry babe. Rocks were just rocks.]

[seaboard]

[ That definitely isn't the same. ]

For us they are, but that is neither here nor there, I suppose.

...

I wonder how coral should feel to you? It is like stone, but it grows like plants or animals do.

[princess_of_ida]

Three things are necessary for life: body, soul, and thalergy. If one is missing, then life can't exist.

[Planets, as a whole, were alive because of all the microbial life in it, but she thought that might be beyond Gilia.]

Coral is alive. It grows like bone.

[seaboard]

[ She nods again, more silence in her thoughtfullness. ]

That's how we compare it, yes. [ She presses her lips together. ] Could you take the - the thalergy so to speak, of one being, and put it into another?

[princess_of_ida]

Not in a pleasant way. [She paused before sighing.] The only theorem I know to do that with only benefits myself.

[seaboard]

[ So not any time soon then.]

... the hills and the trees and the fields and the rocks are alive, the ore stones and the cliffs, too. You've talked to them, even.

[princess_of_ida]

[She's a necromancer! She deals with dead things.]

I'm not following.

[seaboard]

[ She smiles a little. The explanation simple, but happy: ]

Sweeney.

[princess_of_ida]

He is an extension of a planet's soul, like a herald before its corruption in death. He is not the same as a rock I pick up or a handful of dirt.

Planets are alive.

[She knew because she's killed plenty of them.]

[seaboard]

[ More frowning, more thinking with all of her little braincells. Ianthe has more knowledge then her and her younger sibling's whole education put together, and if she is going to work out how to help Sweeney, Ianthe would no doubt have wisdom in it.

Though for right now, she is stumped in trying to explain it, so she goes quiet as ever. ]

Perhaps that is the difference, then, where much we have the same in understanding. Those two things are the same, for me. The handful of dirt the farmer takes is as sacred and alive as my Holy Father.

[princess_of_ida]

[The Sea-Father was also a herald-like extension of a planet's soul, but Ianthe knew to keep that to herself.]

Hm. When a person sweats, do you take that to be tiny parts of their soul or is it just sweat?

[There was no chiding in her tone. Ianthe was trying to work out how to explain in a way Gilia might understand.]

[seaboard]

No, but also... well, yes? I think that is why I do not grasp what you mean.

[ The tricky part, really. ] All beings, in all parts, are made of the Land-Mother. Sometimes yes, one drop is not much of anything, but that does not not make it part of that, if that makes sense? That is why we have the terms of them, Lesser, Middling and Greater Spirits.