shadows dance around the room

If Hadama was disappointed that Sunjata did not have personal experience with the pools that gave the island its name, he gave no sign of it. He only inclined his head in calm acceptance of the Flood's due caution. "Indeed." Temptation may have dangled just out of reach like a worm on a hook, but the mermanta was not foolish enough to risk his life or his world on something so untested. Nor was he the type to ask Sunjata to risk himself in an endeavor the Tidebreaker would not undertake himself, even had the other man been willing.

But there were other ways to test the pools then to dive headfirst into the icy waters, if only he knew where one was - and if it was in range of the river. "Have you ever met Vi?" he asked as he gathered together a sphere of water in the palm of his hand and turned it to ice as they spoke.

SUNJATA

clipped wings and you're the one holding the bone saw
now things are getting so out of control

It isn’t something Sunjata’s inclined to do himself either, so when the agreement is met Sunjata’s attention returns back to the Tidebreaker, watching as he morphs that sphere of water, head tilting slightly as he watches it and wonders if perhaps one day he might be able to get his own magic to have different temperatures. For now, though, his focus is healing – a task he’s working on planning out to attain it sooner rather than later.

“I have not.” He answers honestly, rolling a shoulder slightly. “I haven’t even met Ludo.” He admits with a soft laugh at the surprise for himself. He’s seen the deity of course, but he’s never sought out a shrine. Not like he had with Frey and Safrin. Perhaps it’s because he was afraid of what he would find if delving there. Perhaps it was a rare and wise choice of his. “Have you? Met Vi, that is.”

the spiraling starts and we can't pull up, our hands are tied together so,
on the way down, we make every moment count

The mermanta might not have smiled, but there was a faint crinkling at the corners of his eyes as he inclined his head in agreement. "Neither have I," he admitted in regards to Ludo. "Except at a distance." In those large gatherings that happened occasionally, with their challenges and trials. The god of dreams and memories, mischief and mayhem, herald of death Himself, held little appeal to the stoic Tidebreaker. His memories were precious, and his mien far too solemn for prayers to the masked god to end well.

More importantly, he had no desire to spurn Safrin for the god which, rumors held, she was not on particularly good terms with.

"Mm. I have not," he admitted. "I have only prayed to Safrin." A man of simple but strong loyalties, was Hadama. That, and curiosity. He gave the ice ball a small toss in his hand and then caught it again before lobbing it over the crest of the shore and into the nearest pool where it plopped down, sending ripples in all directions as it bobbed back to the surface and floated there, disturbing the visions within. Not that Hadama could see that, of course.

"Has it disappeared?" he asked Sunjata instead, relying on the other man's height and ability to travel more easily on dry land to spot the frozen sphere.

SUNJATA

clipped wings and you're the one holding the bone saw
now things are getting so out of control

A low rumble of a chuckle leaves Sunjata in agreement over Ludo at a distance, reminiscent of the time an event was hosted on the beaches of Torchline, reminded of spotting it bounding around pretending to be random festival goer’s in a different version of what was essentially ‘pick out the imposter’. “That I have,” he rumbles with a slight quirk to his lips before he’s glancing back over his shoulder toward the pools in regards to the next conversation.

Realistically, Sunjata hadn’t been that different before everything changed. He’d gone to Frey initially, then to Safrin when he hadn’t realized he needed to say who he was seeking. And since then? He was a Safrin boy, dealing with only her until a simple question had him guided back toward Frey that changed his life completely. But the past is the past and Sunjata nods his agreement before he moves to stand, shifting his legs back into that of his human form, towering over to scout the pool that Hadama had tossed the ice ball into. “It hasn’t, it's just floating on top.” He murmurs, turning his attention from the pool of visions back toward the Tidebreaker.

the spiraling starts and we can't pull up, our hands are tied together so,
on the way down, we make every moment count

Torchline had also been where Hadama had come across the masked god of memories, pulled into a game of hide and seek amongst the Kuali Isles. That time around it had been Ludo who had searched for the hiding mortals, its eerie laugh seeking out each participant and whittling down their numbers. The nightmares that had followed had been... unpleasant, to say the least. It had not added any particular desire to approach the god again, then or at any time thereafter.

"Hmm..." The mermanta hummed a thoughtful acknowledgement of Sunjata's report on the ice ball, crossing his arms over his broad chest as he stared intently at the shore that hid the pools beyond from his own sight. "I admit, I am tempted," he rumbled at last before giving a single shake of his head as if to rid himself of the lure. "But I will not." Too much rested on his shoulders as a leader of his people to risk himself for something as selfish as curiosity.

"Thank you for checking," he added, appreciative that the Flood had been willing to leave the water to indulge the Tidebreaker in his moment of whimsy. "What place does it show now?" Perhaps the ice ball's ripples had changed it? Or perhaps they had not, and the images were more resilient than that.

SUNJATA

clipped wings and you're the one holding the bone saw
now things are getting so out of control

Sunjata hadn’t been opposed to the idea of meeting Ludo – but it was more so what it represented that Sunjata had stayed wary of the god. So some semblance of common ground could be met between the two of them in regards to that particular herald.

Regardless, the Flood stands and peers over to the pool that Hadama had tossed the ice ball into, casting a glance back toward the Tidebreaker to hear his comment over temptation. And that’s certainly something Sunjata can understand as well, nodding his head in agreement before he steps away from the water’s edge to peer further into it, still watching the ice ball float around the top of it. “Still the same for me.” He admits, voice a touch curious over it. “A different part of the world, but still back home for me.” Instead of the skyscraper buildings he sees, he spies the bridges that span over the large, swollen rivers, the dreariness of the rain.

A thought occurs to him then and he turns to look back to Hadama with a raised brow. “I could try and lift the water and you could tell me what you see?” He can control quite an amount of it, and if it were still connected to the source Hadama was in right now, perhaps it would work well enough to give him some insight.

the spiraling starts and we can't pull up, our hands are tied together so,
on the way down, we make every moment count

Strange, perhaps, to find so much in common with a man whose reputation he had once shied away from. Strange, but not unwelcome. The encounter had been a calm and peaceful one - barring the Will o' Wisp - and their shared curiosity about what lay within the island's pools was another tenuous but pleasant connection.

He took the Flood's words with a phlegmatic nod, unsure of what it all meant but slotting the information into place like a rivet tapped home in a pattern he had yet to grasp.

The suggestion was something else again, and the mermanta tilted his head to the side as he considered it. There was no obvious danger nor downsides for either of them, and he was indeed curious...

"Yes, please," he agreed, lifting the river's water beneath him and raising himself up to a more comfortable level to see what Sunjata could show him.

SUNJATA

clipped wings and you're the one holding the bone saw
now things are getting so out of control

Turning his attention back to Hadama at the answer of the question he poses, Sunjata waits for the Tidebreaker to give his answer before he does anything. And it would certainly be a good chance to use far more of his water magic than he’d ever done before. So he prepares himself, pushing up the sleeves of his sweater, revealing more scars and tattoos in the process.

“Alright, hang on,” he pauses, turning to face Hadama more head on, hands moving to gather the water that the mermanta swam within, before it starts to lift slowly at first before it rises higher to where he would be able to use the pedestal where Sunjata’s lifted the water to be able to see into the pool that harbors the ice ball he’d tossed over into it. "Higher?"

the spiraling starts and we can't pull up, our hands are tied together so,
on the way down, we make every moment count

There had been a misunderstanding, Hadama realized too late. He went still, not even his chest moving as his breath ceased to move in his lungs as he realized too late what Sunjata intended.

"Hrm." He felt the water he had already lifted now rising further, and the whip-like tip of his tail sliced into air outside the column before he pulled it back in. It was... unsettling, allowing someone else to manipulate the water around him. It was a trick he had used himself many times to gain height; a technique he had trained and honed with Hotaru in an Academy lesson, but even Hotaru had only attacked his water column with air, not with water of her own.

This was no attack; it was well-meant, but it required trust. Trust that was, as yet, tenuous at best with this man he knew not at all, and at the question that came the mermanta shook his head firmly. "Down. Please. I thought you meant to lift the water of the pool into view. Not the water beneath me."

SUNJATA

clipped wings and you're the one holding the bone saw
now things are getting so out of control

Sunjata had made an assumption that the Tidebreaker knew which water he’d be lifting – so when he waits to see just how high Hadama wishes to go and receives the correction, he does gently set the water back to where it was, reaching up to brush his fingers through his hair as he glances back at the pool. “Lifting the water in the pool makes the view into it disappear.” He offers the information with a casual shrug, steel gaze still focused on it.

“My apologies, though. I had thought you knew which water I would be lifting.” His head tilts back toward Hadama with a rather indifferent look – waiting to see what the Tidebreaker wished to do instead to see the pools. And if it meant nothing, well, that was fine too.

the spiraling starts and we can't pull up, our hands are tied together so,
on the way down, we make every moment count

Hadama mastered his instincts and held himself still as the water rejoined the flow of the Symphony, and only then did he begin to swim again, enough to hold himself in place against the natural current. Sunjata's revelation about the water of the Tears and how their magic was broken if tampered with drew a slow nod of acknowledgment from the mermanta, and a second nod followed the apology and explanation.

"Thank you," he said, accepting it for the honest miscommunication it had been with his expression as stoic and calm as ever. "There was no harm done." Physically, that was true. What the Tidebreaker felt behind that regal facade was, perhaps, another matter, but his pride would recover in time.

He allowed himself a brief submergence, ducking under the water to draw it deep into his gills before rising again and pushing his hair back as he resurfaced. "I will visit again when I have legs," he decided, and perhaps there was a flicker of wry humor in his eyes. "They are strange. But occasionally convenient."

SUNJATA

clipped wings and you're the one holding the bone saw
now things are getting so out of control

At least nothing had been irreparably damaged by the miscommunication – perhaps a first for Sunjata, though he doesn’t let it show on his face. In fact, everything was relatively exactly how it was before he tried to lift the manta out of the water. So when Hadama mentions there was no harm done, he hums a sound of agreement – attention flickering back toward the pools as he starts to push his sleeves back down, trying to retain what warmth in the snow that he can.

Hadama’s movement catches his attention as he disappears under the surface of the water before returning, nodding before realizing he barely knows anything about the merfolk. “That they can be.” He can spot the brief flicker of wry humor, enough that he snorts an agreement before he shakes his head. “Well, I should probably head back now before my fingertips freeze off.” Sure, he was warm blooded, but he was born and raised in a place that never saw natural ice or snow, and despite being here he still wasn’t quite used to it.

the spiraling starts and we can't pull up, our hands are tied together so,
on the way down, we make every moment count

Unnerved though the mermanta might have been, he appreciated that Sunjata had asked permission first, even if what exactly the permission was being asked for had been unclear between them. No harm had been meant and none had been given, even accidentally, though the Tidebreaker's curiosity had been momentarily quenched for the time being.

Though he was usually happy to answer questions about his people to those who asked, he could give no explanations until those questions were offered. Until then, he could only nod at Sunjata's understanding of the strange human mode of locomotion, appreciating that the other man could see the humor in it. "Understandable. Without the Academy's protection, I would not be here at all today," the mermanta agreed, child of tropical waters that he was. "Travel safe. And please give my regards to Phoebe."

SUNJATA

clipped wings and you're the one holding the bone saw
now things are getting so out of control

It’s questions that perhaps if it were a Longheat evening where the world around them were warm, he might indulge in his own curiosities. As it stands, however, it’s cold and the snow is starting to take its effect, making his fingers a deep hue alongside his nose and cheeks. Something that Hadama thankfully understands, given an explanation of the Academy’s protection.

“You as well.” He says to respond to the traveling safe. He only has a couple more days here before he starts to head back home, but he plans to take as much advantage of it here in the Greatwood as possible. As for Phoebe? A softer edged smile finds its way to his face. “I will.” He accompanies it with a nod, as if cementing the fact that he would share his regards. “It was good to meet you officially, Hadama.” He adds, before he shoves his hands into his pockets, trying to warm them up, stepping lightly over the snow to head back toward the path he’d taken to get here.

the spiraling starts and we can't pull up, our hands are tied together so,
on the way down, we make every moment count