There’s something different this time. Mister’s tasks are usually one-offs. Go do a silly thing that turns out to hold something important, think about it, get better at the Grenth stuff thanks to it, go home and tend shop. Sometimes I wonder if he’s just making it up as he goes along, and what the heck he gets up to in between upending me with a few sentences before he wanders off again. Still, can’t deny how much I’ve learned thanks to all this, plus he sure was there an awful lot when I was at the very beginnings of it all.
But drat it, I can’t quite figure what part of all this last field trip was the actual point. Thought at first, must be dealing with the jungle. Why send me into that steamy life soup if not to get a grip on spotting details in a blinding glare? Tease out just one heartbeat in a drum symphony of them?
Then it turned out the waypoint destination was in a cave. Not lifeless, not hardly, but not exactly the all-out assault on my senses I’d expected. A huge and beautiful cave, too, with buildings in it all gold and shining and sun pouring in from gaps way far up, and water around the bottom with just enough current to keep it from being rotten. Just a little bit off, there was a woman walking away like she’d gotten way’d in right before me. Tall and red headed and striding hard in her armor and burning weapons, but not seeming like she expected anything to jump her.
Mister didn’t say what to do except go to that waypoint so I followed on after. Got closer to a sort of outdoor – indoor? I mean, it was a cave – tavern sort of setup, with a group of folks standing around shooting the breeze like they all knew each other. Well that embarrassed me some, horning in on what seemed private. Only, a cave that size, with a waypoint in? Seemed like it wasn’t precisely anyone’s home
as such.
They acted curious about me and maybe a little grumpy I’d showed up but good natured with it. Mostly though they were fretting about a missing friend of theirs, a sylvari. Was this what Mister wanted me to do? Find a sylvari in the jungle? Didn’t click inside the way it usually does when I start to suss out the lesson. Plus they seemed to feel he’d done off in the desert, maybe. I’d love to go there, some day, still it’s
not something I’d be good at doing even if plants show up better in sand than in jungle. It’s so hard to get a mental grip on sap, the stuff doesn’t sing the same way as blood.
The woman I’d followed named herself Koryander. Turned out she had other things on her mind that were making her anxious in a general way so she was extra fussed about the missing guy. She’d followed Balthazar before His grand exit and was doing her best to switch to Dwayna ways. Struck me that before that moment I’d not thought what would happen if Grenth were the one who took a powder.
It’s not like I exactly worship Him. Worship’s a funny thing, it expects to get something back. You pray for strength or grace or power, for aid against danger or fear. For intercession, for attention, for awareness.
I have no illusion that Grenth has the slightest idea I exist or notices thing one about what I do with my tap into transitive energies. But I still know He’s there, He’s keeping the energies going and waiting to guide folks on after they tip over.
What happens if the guide is gone? My studies have been pretty much about the moment of transition, and a little bit about the remnants that cling after. If Grenth gave up on us, is the balance gone? Or do all us students of His energy have to step in? That’s a scary thing to think about. Maybe that was what Mister had in mind, getting me to think about the bigger framework of what I do. Except I purely cannot see even Mister knowing this woman would suddenly spout off about a crisis of faith.
Meanwhile in all the chatter it was pretty clear that one of the crowd was in a bad way. A guy they called “Cap,” a real short norn man, and you know I’m a sucker for those. Well, for one of those, but it still resonates. Something had carved and blasted into him and he was only standing thanks to medication.
Norn do get stubborn about these things. I asked a few times if he’d like my help with his hurts, though as a stranger I sure had no right to meddle and I tried to make it clear I’d take ‘no’ for an answer.
He said yes, though, so we sat down in the tavern and I did my usual ‘I know what I’m doing’ patter since that always does a hurt person a sight better than them knowing I’m feeling my way along from base principles sometimes. His carved parts had been pretty well treated by someone good at it already, all I needed there was to soothe the bruised and tender flesh. But something had seared right by his eye and knocked out his vision at least for the time being. No way was I going to touch the eye innards. I can see them right enough, and I can tell how they’re supposed to be especially with a good eye right next to the hurt one, but that’s delicate work that completely beats out the finest stitching on the gauziest silk.
At least I could do a touch up of the burns by the eye, stop the pressure from those, get the body thinking about healing instead of shrinking away from the pain. He did a great job of sitting still while I put a gigantic crawling itch into his skin, but I bet he ran for the salves first chance he got.
So was that it? Get a shot at fine detail healing? Couldn’t really be, wasn’t clicking, and truth be told since I didn’t mess with the eye itself I didn’t do anything terribly groundbreaking.
The group drifted off one by one. Seemed a more social thing than a planned gathering. They’d said they were a guild, though, which explained the family-like banter they had going on. I didn’t get a clear idea of what the guild’s reason to be was. Something about righting wrongs, which I can agree with on general principle, and doing it in a pretty physical combat way, which also I can agree with but I may not be best at.
Guess I’ll find out, though. Koryander caught me up as I headed to the waypoint. Could have knocked me over with a moa plume when she said she thought I’d fit in with them and offered me a spot. I never thought I’d join a guild, but that’s when the click happened. Mister didn’t send me to fix a problem or
practice anything. He sent me to meet these people.
I’ve been looking so much at transition and energy flows. Trying so hard to understand the separation
between life and death. Sometimes the lack of separation. But how can I really get to know the death side if I don’t pay enough attention to life? I’ve got plenty of friends, I love people and people-watching, but it’s been pretty much the same set of people, the same routine at the shop, with random moments of Mister lessons.
So this guild, this Dawn, they’re life. A whole network of it, that goes places, that changes things where it goes, that –lives-. They’re human and sylvari and norn, so far, maybe other sorts too. They’re going to shake me up. And I’m going to learn. This time the task wasn’t silly at all. I just hope they like beagles,
because sure as anything I’m not leaving Blotch to mope around once I’m off with the Dawn folk.
I don’t know what happens next. This is great!
(Earlier Jin journal entries can be found at https://jestersgw2.enjin.com/forum/m/4563424/viewthread/5459078-matters-life-death-jin-macklins-musings/page/1 — also some RP logs at https://jestersgw2.enjin.com/forum/m/4563424/viewthread/5945900-jin-drualt-i-see-up-your-skirt/post/33427454#p33427454 – https://jestersgw2.enjin.com/forum/m/4563424/viewthread/25717987-anjeka-snake/post/114817825#p114817825 – https://jestersgw2.enjin.com/forum/m/4563424/viewthread/30247676-jin-big-paull-freezing-lake/post/130171176#p130171176 – https://jestersgw2.enjin.com/forum/m/4563424/viewthread/31946436-jin-baines-valentine-proper-way-to-stop-thief/post/135325215#p135325215 – hopefully you guys can access and read those, but certainly no one is required to ???? )
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