everything in its right order

Life is a grand adventure.

"Then mom gave us our quest!" she finishes with a hop onto a stone in the middle of the estuary. Ash and smoke frame her but Nova shines just as bright as usual, her excitement from the story manifesting in the shimmer of magic around her. The yellow bumble bees on her skirt look like they're flying up towards her blue tank top, like they're reaching for the skies above, towards the stars across her grinning cheeks. 

She's practically humming with the joy of seeing Vesper, having rambled on for the last hour about the different items she'd made and the people she'd met and the new plans for staying in contact with Caly. It's taken so long that she's lost track of where they've been going, her head suddenly tilting up to take in the canopy of trees shading the odd watery structure, the subtle sounds of rustling leaves and chattering birds filling the space between the water's melody. 

"What is this place?"

Nova

Go out and explore!

VESPER

The smoke clinging to the estuary air does nothing to dim his sister; if anything, it gives Nova something to outshine, and Vesper watches her from the bank with that faint, knowing curve to his mouth that never quite commits to a full smile. He lets her finish in a rush of colour and triumph, lets the story tumble out in bright fragments about Safrin’s quest and Caly’s cleverness, and he inclines his head as though receiving a formal report rather than the effervescent sprawl of his sister’s enthusiasm. "I reckon you two’ll have it sorted out quick then," he says, the amusement in his voice low and easy, warmed by something steadier beneath it. "Mom won't even have time to miss you."

He does not need to reach for her thoughts to know how fiercely she means to prove worthy of that expectation, but they brush against him all the same; bright as struck glass, quicksilver with possibility, little sparks of invention and mischief tumbling over one another in delighted disorder. It is a lot, Nova’s mind, always has been: bees and blue skies and half-finished plans and bold declarations layered atop a core of startling clarity. Ordinarily, he keeps a careful distance from such noise, trims the edges of the world down to something navigable. Today, though, the chaos is a relief. It crowds out the harsher static he has been skirting for days, fills the chambers of his skull with sunlight and the hum of life rather than the colder, needling things he would rather not catalogue.

A silver coin appears between his fingers, and he rolls it across his knuckles in an idle cascade of light, the metal catching the fractured shimmer of water and sky. His gaze drifts outward as hers lifts, taking in the place she has only just noticed. "It’s called the Saltkiss Estuary," he says, tipping his chin toward the mingling waters. "Stone Symphony runs down into the ocean here. Fresh and salt don’t quite cancel each other out, so everything that lives in it learns to be a little strange."

Will I ever quit playing with matches?
Why am I making angels in the ashes?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Life is a grand adventure.

Vesper's never-ending confidence in her and Caly is exactly what she's looking for, water rippling around the bounce of energy. She practically floats with unrestrained excitement. "Exactly!" But the overbright cascade of her smile attempts to hide the unease that comes with missing people, the chiming giggle hiding how she feels torn between siblings and parents and places. Her brother won't miss it, he never does, and yet Nova turns her attention to the surrounding habitat that practically hums with a chaotic melting pot of nature. 

Her eyes dart from colorful leaf to flickering tail, up and down and all around the various signs of life. She spins on her rock, not caring that her feet drift close to the edge or that the smoke clogs obscures some of the beauty. There's simply a whimsical expression on her face, a buzzing indulgence of the input flooding into her memories. 

"I like it," she states, flashing Vesper a cheeky grin as she clasps her hands behind her back. "Maybe I'll hang out here while I'm staying with you." Nova rocks on her heels, waiting expectantly for her brother to show his obvious excitement for her eventual long-term stay. She knows she's excited, ready to be close so he doesn't get lonely in this big, empty forest.

Nova

Go out and explore!

VESPER

Vesper feels the way her brightness comes a shade too sharp, the smile stretched just far enough to cast a glare, and beneath it the weather turns restless. Her thoughts gust and tumble like a summer storm rolling in off warm water; flashes of Calypso’s laugh, their mother’s impossible radiance, the hollow spaces left when not everyone occupies the same sky. It is never only joy with Nova; it is joy braided tight around longing, spun so quickly the threads blur together. The sigh that leaves him is quiet, almost lost to the reeds shifting in the brackish tide. He lets it dissolve before it can sound like worry.

"'Course you do," he murmurs, watching her spin on that stone as if the world might rearrange itself to keep her balanced. His gaze tracks the edge of her footing without making a show of it. The estuary is forgiving until it isn’t.

When she throws him that grin—hands tucked behind her back, expectation shining bright as noon—something in his chest tightens with an affection he will never articulate plainly. Her excitement spills toward him, hopeful and certain, already picturing shared dinners and long stretches of conversation, as though proximity alone might stitch the family map back together. He drags a hand through the air as if brushing away smoke, buying himself a heartbeat. "I ain’t exactly found a place of my own yet," he says at last, tone easy, almost offhand. It is not untrue. The Greatwood has offered him canopy and shadow, but he's been moving through it like mist—present, then not—refusing to let roots catch.

His shoulders lift in a small shrug, the motion more elegant than dismissive, not wanting to linger on what might be thought of as a lie. "Been stayin’ with a friend this whole time." The word settles somewhere between confession and deflection, though he doesn't examine it too closely. He rolls his eyes, letting a low, sardonic chuckle thread through his next breath. "All the fae houses have ceilings that're too fuckin’ short," he drawls, glancing up through the canopy as if measuring it on instinct, as if that's the reason he hasn't left his friend and now because of a clawing loneliness and bitterness he can't accurately name.

Will I ever quit playing with matches?
Why am I making angels in the ashes?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

The water darkens as several shapes glide just beneath the surface, fins slicing smooth paths through the current. A pack of Echo Sharks circles slowly, never fully revealing themselves.

Voices rise from the water in warped fragments. “Come closer,” one murmurs, followed by a distorted laugh. Another repeats a familiar phrase, coaxing and unsettling all at once.

The pack keeps its distance for now, continuing to circle as the voices drift outward, testing for a response and waiting to see who listens.

---

Echo Sharks Areas Found: Hollowed Grounds, King's End, Torchline, Maria Mundi, Greatwood — Common A dwarf species of shark known for hunting in packs, the Echo Shark can live in both freshwater and saltwater. They are able to mimic any sound they've heard and band together to increase their range of vocals. The sharks use the words and sounds they've learned to lure unsuspecting prey into the water, where the sharks will then leap up and drag them into the waves. Challenge Rating: Easy HP: 161 | To Hit: +26 | Dmg: 13 Movement: Swim 50 ft.; Surge 70 ft. (short burst); Leap 10 ft. from water SPECIAL SKILLS Coordinated Chorus: when several echo sharks band together, their combined calls carry much farther, drawing targets from great distances; Shoreline Snatch: times leaps with incoming waves to seize prey on docks, rocks, or shallows and drag them seaward; Call-and-Answer Trap: mimics familiar voices or distress signals to coax victims closer to the water’s edge

TRAITS Dual-Water Adaptation: thrives in both freshwater and saltwater; Pack Hunter: coordinated schooling tactics for surround-and-seize strikes; Vocal Mimicry: can reproduce any sound they've heard with startling accuracy; Surf Concealment: uses foam and breaking waves to mask approach; Lateral-Line Sense: detects movement and vibration even in murky water ACTIONS Mimic Call: emits a perfect copy of voices, whistles, or alarms to lure targets; Riptide Rush: a high-speed burst that rams or slashes past, knocking prey off balance; Leap and Drag: erupts from the water to clamp on and haul a victim beneath the waves; Frenzy Swarm: the pack converges, worrying and pulling until the target is subdued

Life is a grand adventure.

The lack of enthusiasm doesn't go unnoticed, but Nova has plenty to share. Proximity often helps with the transfer of her emotions, and she bounces across the muddy bank to land closer to Vesper, shining brightly up at him. "Then we make our own place!" She's had plenty of practice with renovating the Hanged Man and building up the Sunbean that Nova can't imagine building something from the ground up would be that difficult. 

Taking his complaints and twisting them into an objective to be claimed, she throws up her hands. "We can make something big with lots of windows to see the forest!" Nova's eyes follow her hands up to the canopy too, stubbornly fantasizing about a large house with skylights and so much light that nothing dark can make it inside.

She's admiring the various shades of green on the leaves when a sound echoes from the waters. It's dissonant, a distortion of distant voices that call playfully to them, summoning them closer. But Nova recognizes the gray tip of a fin from the deeper section of water, remembers what it was like to hunt the echo sharks with her sister. 

Shaking her head, she looks back to Vesper, a giggle on her lips when she adds, "Although maybe not here. Those are creepy."

Nova

Go out and explore!

VESPER

Vesper barely has time to brace before she’s there—mud-splashed and incandescent, all momentum and conviction—as if proximity alone might drag him into whatever blueprint she’s already drafting behind her eyes. The brightness of her intention surges forward again, full of timber beams and glass panes and the stubborn belief that space can be carved wide enough to keep everyone inside it. His brows lift slowly at the word big, amusement cutting through the lingering smoke in the air. "It doesn’t have to be big," he says, a low snicker threading the edges of his voice. "I just don’t want to keep bendin’ in half every time I walk through a doorframe."

The image of some sprawling, window-laced cathedral in the middle of the Greatwood flickers through him—sunlight spearing down in great golden shafts, Nova insisting on skylights wide enough to swallow the stars—and he lets it hover there without committing. Her thoughts bloom around it in luminous sketches: open beams, polished floors, rooms meant for gathering rather than hiding. It is not lost on him that what she is really building is permanence. He does not dismantle that; instead, his gaze drifts toward the water when the sound shifts.

It is subtle at first, the estuary’s rhythm thrown half a note off-key. Then come the voices—warped and hollowed, drifting across the brackish surface like echoes that forgot their origin. They ripple outward in coaxing fragments, laughter bent at unnatural angles. It is an odd sensation for him to hear words that carry no mental imprint, no scattered current of emotion to triangulate their source. The absence is louder than the sound itself, and for a fleeting second he feels the faintest prickle at the back of his neck.

Vesper huffs softly toward the water, unimpressed, as though dismissing a particularly theatrical stage whisper. He tilts his head, watching the surface with idle calculation rather than alarm. "Hey," he says conversationally, glancing back to his sister, "you happen to have a measurin’ tape on you?"

Will I ever quit playing with matches?
Why am I making angels in the ashes?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Life is a grand adventure.

Latching onto the fact that Vesper doesn't disagree with her plans, Nova reaches her hands even higher, her tank top riding up to expose skin like the break of golden sunlight across the sky. "Then we make the doorframes extra tall!" She tilts her head up at him, eyes shining bright when she taps the top of his head. "Or we shrink you down." Giggling at her own joke - and the hilarious image of a tiny Vespy - she gives another excited bounce, feeling like plans are starting to take form. "But we'll still have lots of windows!" That's a non-negotiable if they're going to enjoy such a pretty place. 

Ignoring the echo sharks and their weirdness, her thoughts twist to the odd question, eyes falling back on her brother, curious and glittering. "Hm? No, but I can make one." She's partial to eyeballing and guesstimation, but not everyone can be as perfect as she is - otherwise she might have pulled one from the shimmering bag rocking against her hip. Instead, Nova opens the gates of her magic, holding a hand up between them to reveal the threads of light that coil together to take form. 

It wouldn't be a Nova creation without some pizazz. The outside is lined with glitter, and the tape is a rainbow, studded with tiny gems along each marker. A one-of-a-kind tape measure that she offers to her brother with the brightest of grins and a tilt of her blonde head. "What's it for?"

Nova

Go out and explore!

VESPER

Vesper squints at his sister when Nova suggests shrinking him, the look exaggerated enough to be theatrical rather than offended, his mouth pulling into a crooked line that says he is pretending to take the insult far more seriously than he actually does. "Shrink me down?" he echoes dryly, brows knitting in mock offence.

The moment she insists on windows, though, he relents with an easy nod, the corner of his mouth softening despite himself. The image of sunlight spilling through tall panes into some improbable woodland house lingers faintly in the back of his mind, buoyed by the steady brightness of Nova’s conviction even if he isn’t quite ready to believe in it yet. 

When she lifts her hand and lets her magic unwind into existence, he cannot help the quiet laugh that escapes him under his breath. Of course it would look like that. He had not expected anything else, and yet the sheer enthusiasm of the result—rainbow ribbon gleaming, glitter scattered along the casing like a tiny carnival—still manages to catch him off guard. He takes the tape from her with a raised brow, turning it over once in his fingers as if examining a rare artifact rather than a conjured measuring tool.

"Mm," he hums lightly, as though considering a question of great complexity. Then, without warning, he steps on the end of the tape on the muddy bank beside her and lifts the strip upward, measuring the line of her height with careful, exaggerated attention. The rainbow ribbon glides upward past her shoulder, past her curls, until he pinches it neatly above her head. "It’s," he declares with quiet gravity. The tape retracts a little as he steps closer, looping it around her waist with the ease of someone guiding a partner through the opening step of a dance. The motion draws her nearer without quite trapping her there, the glittering ribbon brushing across the bright fabric of her skirt. "For," he adds. His hands move again, measuring across her shoulders this time, the tape stretching lightly from one side to the other as though Nova herself has become the blueprint. "A." He lets the strip fall slack at last, leaning forward just enough to give her nose a gentle, precise boop with his fingertip before handing the dazzling contraption back into her waiting hands.

"Surprise."

Will I ever quit playing with matches?
Why am I making angels in the ashes?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Life is a grand adventure.

Her smile is too bright at his playful indignation, her eyes flashing with too much mischief to contain. She raises her hand to pinch her fingers together, tilting her head with an endearing innocence that flows into her words. "Just a little." But she can't hold the ruse, her giggles sparkling the air between them. 

Satisfied that Vesper has no more objections to her construction plans, Nova turns her attention to whatever schemes he's forming now. There's a flicker of delight when he's holding the tape, pride swelling around the secret hope that some of the glitter will fall onto his clothes as he manipulates the tape. Height, waist, shoulders. She fidgets beneath his measuring, trying not to interrupt him before he can give her the answer, but obviously struggling to do so. Whirling impatience builds in her vibrant thoughts, the pressure building until it bursts forth the moment his finger bops her playfully on the nose. 

She gasps and jumps nearly as high as he is. "OOOOH!!! I love surprises!!" In truth, Nova loves surprising other people, but her own curiosity can't be contained, bright and buzzing like a neon sign screaming 'TELL ME.' She bounces up and down, waiting impatiently for him to reveal it, and when he takes too long (a whole second), she switches to interrogation mode, firing off questions like a meteor shower. "What is it? What is it? What is it? Will I like it? Can I have it now? Why did you need to measure me? Does that mean I can wear it? What color is it? Is it magic? Come on, Vespy! Tell me!" This is one of the only moments Nova has every wished to steal her brother's telepathy, practically ready to explode with the anticipation of what it might be.

Nova

Go out and explore!

VESPER

The explosion in Nova's mind is immediate. Not gradual, not building, just a sudden, glittering detonation of curiosity and delight that bursts through him in a cascade of questions before she’s even finished asking them aloud. It crackles bright and relentless, every possibility unfolding at once: colours, fabrics, magic, surprise, ownership, immediacy, all of it stacking and tangling and demanding resolution now now now, but Vesper doesn’t so much as blink.

He watches her bounce in place, eyes alight, practically vibrating out of her own skin, and the contrast between her internal storm and his outward stillness settles into something almost deliberate. His brow lifts slowly, the faintest smirk ghosting at the corner of his mouth as though he’s observing a particularly energetic weather pattern rather than being caught in its centre.

He lets her finish. Lets the last question hang. Then he says nothing, just looks at her, entirely composed, the silence stretching with quiet, unhurried patience that borders on cruel. A second passes. Maybe two. His shoulder lifts in a loose, roguish shrug. "Maybe it isn’t even for you," he offers lightly, as if the thought has only just occurred to him. "Maybe I just figured your measurements might be close enough."

The widening of his eyes is pure theatre, the grin that follows just shy of wicked. Before she can properly detonate again, he loops an arm around her shoulders and tugs her in against his side, steering her away from the edge of the estuary with easy, unspoken intent. "C’mon," he says, already turning them back toward firmer ground, the murmur of the water and its borrowed voices fading behind them. "Let’s go get some lunch." His grip is light but certain, guiding rather than dragging, and though his attention shifts forward, there’s a flicker of quiet satisfaction in the way her energy spills against him; bright enough to fill the space, loud enough to keep everything else at bay, if only for a while.

~FIN

Will I ever quit playing with matches?
Why am I making angels in the ashes?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!