The current text I have is composed of two earlier first drafts, and maybe a few hundred words to connect them. The first part was one of the first scenes I wrote, before I even had the idea to turn it into a book, and the second scene is way newer in comparison.
For important context, at this point, Sesolam has experienced Sesolam's rage and killing of a few people at the University, feeling her hand drive a dagger into a fellow human, and she can't forget about it. It has driven a wedge between her and Oesala, the crack isn't that large yet, but it is noticable. Sesolam isn't as perfectly happily obedient as she had once been
Oesala and Sesolam were traveling northwards. The winter was slowly catching up with them, even though it was less bad as they were traveling to warmer lands.
It had been a month orso since they were at the University.. since Sesolam had first felt blood on her hands.. She had calmed down from them. She patted her eqquā, smiling at the good ((still nameless)) animal, and looked backwards. Following her, attached by a rope, another eqquā was carrying most of their possessions, it was one they had received from a temple when they arrived back to the mainland, and they would drop it off at another temple later.
They were traveling through hills, and it somewhat reminded her of her home. They hills weren’t quite as high, and there wasn’t a dense forest, but still, it was a relief from the rocky mountains and the endless plains of the ocean to find somewhere similar to home. Her went up to the summit of the next hill, and there Oesala was, flying leasurely through the sky. She’d waken up earlier than she normally did, and Oesala felt.. a sense of excitement coming from Oesala.
When Sesolam looked at Oesala, she suddenly turned around and flew up to Sesolam again. A few flaps of the wings, some wind around her face, and Oesala landed on top of her head. “We’re here. He’s beyond this hill.”
“Who is there?”
“Oh, you’ll see.. Just keep on riding, I’ll be right back.”
And with that, Oesala took off again, flying over the hill, out of sight. Sesolam felt the contact between vessel and spirit weaken. It didn’t fully disappear by any means, but there was certainly less direct connection for a moment. It felt somewhat free, but also cold and slightly lonely. It felt like how she felt going out on a winter morning to tend to the shrine, back in Çuopān.
She streched out a bit, and directed her animals to ride more quickly. As she reached the summit of the hill, she stood up in her saddle, holding on to the animal’s neck, and looked down. A garden on a small round hill, in the middle of the wilderness, with a small building in the center. Oesala was flying around in that garden, and after a bit, she flew back to Sesolam.
“What is-” Oesala took control of Sesolam’s lips before she could finish the sentence.
“Silent, wait, and look.” Oesala landed back on Sesolam’s head.
Sesolam obeyed, slightly annoyed, and took another good look at the hill. The building in the center was a shrine on another look, and most of the plants were from more mountainous areas, or from the far south. They were quite out of place here, it was clear someone regularily tended to this shrine garden. As far as she knew, there weren’t any settlements nearby, though, but there could of course be a smaller one that wasn’t marked on any maps.
Her thoughts were interupted by a thunderous sound coming from the garden, and it started shifting.
“A.. Shieldfish?? oh..”
Immediately as she said that, she knew she was only half-right. This hill was way too large to be a shieldfish, even for the largests of them. It was Ñiettaquoua, one of the four spirits of the major pantheon, alongside Oesala herself.
She grabbed onto the neck of her eqquā, and stared with her mouth open as the hill turned around.
“Ñiettaquoua..”
“Took you a while, for a priestress~”
“Well, in all the imagery, he’s never seen on the ground.. Are.. are we going to meet him?”
“We’re going to travel with him, darling..”
Sesolam kept staring, kicked her eqquā, and started speeding towards the spirit. When reaching the start of the hill, of the garden, of Ñiettaquoua, Oesala kicked the eqquā with Sesolam’s leg to make it stop, and made Sesolam step off. After a minute, a middle-aged man of posture walked out of the shrine and walked towards the two of them. Ñiettaquoua’s vessel, and as for what she had learned about him, it was probably himself directing the body. He looked to be on the heavier side, and walked slowly. When he reached the two of them, he started speaking:
“Good to see you again, Oesala.” He made a quick bow, and Oesala seemed to be slightly amused. “So, this is your new vessel?” He eyed Sesolam up and down. “She seems like a good one, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Sesolam bowed. “It’s a pleasure to meet you too.”
A sense of irritation came washing in from Oesala, and Sesolam was confused. What did she do now??
The man extended his hand. “Please, let me care for your eqquās, and take a stroll through my garden.” The man had a large smile as he said this, a genuine one of happiness.
Sesolam was a bit put off, blushed and shook her head. “No, I can’t let a spirit as yourself do that work.. I’ll do it myself.”
A stronger sense of irritation from Oesala. Oesala seemed to feel something like ‘will this vessel ever learn?’
“h-huh..”
“Vessel, you are my body. Do as I want, or I’ll surpress you for the entire journey. Ñiettaquoua is historically my subordinate. Let him do the coutesies, and behave as who you are: the vessel of the Great Spirit Oesala.”
Sesolam gave the animals to the man. He laughed. “Yes, clearly a new vessel, isn’t she, Oesala? But just your type, isn’t she?”
Sesolam felt embarrassed. “I’m sorry..”
“Should we maybe pick up another girl for you two to have some fun with? I know how much you love that, especially with new vessels, and I.. I won’t pay any attention to what’s happening in my corridors~” He winked at Oesala.
Oesala mentally rolled her eyes, because her bird body didn’t let her, and flew over to the man just to peck him between the eyes. He laughed, and Sesolam was still blushing, standing there frozen.
Then, Oesala flew up to fly around the garden again. Ñiettaquoua, in the form of his vessel, leans towards Sesolam and whispers to her: “Don’t worry, we won’t have to pick them up. I already have two, all naked, waiting for you to pick one of them on the other side of the garden.”
Oesala spoke: “You know whispering doesn’t work, right?? I can hear everything you say to the girl. But it’s fun to see her so flustered, so keep making the poor girl blush until her face is so hot it catches flame.
Again, Ñiettaquoua laughed, a sound thunderous on its own, like the moving of the hill just now. A few seconds passed, and then Oesala started to talk again.
“Oh my.. they are gorgeous, laying on beds of moss like this.. Sesolam, come take a look! I’ll let you pick.. or we could play with the both of them at once, if you prefer??”
Sesolam would blush even harder if that were possible at all, completely frozen, and Ñiettaquoua just kept on laughing.
“We’re missing with you, dear.. There isn’t anyone here.. though, if you wanted too..”
“N-no, lady Oesala. Parhaps another time..”
“Of course, Seso, dear. Come inside, I think we’re almost leaving.”
Oesala takes control of the body since Sesolam clearly didn’t, and walked up the hill.
“Sir, you’re it talking through your vessel, right??”
Oesala felt like she was annoyed. ‘Why can’t this vessel just use names?’
“I-I mean, Ñiettaquoua.. Your actual body is the entire giant shellfish, like Oesala’s bird, but I’ve been talking to you?”
“Correct. Though, my vessel is more of an extension of myself and less a compagnion than you are to your lady. After all, with my form being so large, it’s.. more difficult to get someone to talk to me, and I often don’t fit through doors.. hahaha! So whenever I am present, I have full control, and he’s only there when I’m not. But he should get up soon, as I start flying, since that takes my full attention.”
“I see.”
Ñiettaquoua’s vessel leaves off with the animals, and Sesolam and Oesala to the shrine. They entered, and suddenly, the ground started descending. Sesolam was slightly scared, but from Oesala’s reaction, it seemed like it was fine. After a little bit, not even a minute, they arrived in a living room and stopped descending. The room was clearly heated compared to the outside, and there’s magical light, as well as paintings and little statues in ancient styles. There’s some objects Sesolam didn’t recognise, but directed by Oesala, she sat down and didn’t look around too much.
“I never knew there was just.. a room inside him..”
“Oh, there’s an entire complex in here. We’ll be traveling in him to the Southern Temple.”
“Right, I see..”
“I’m tired though of waking up early.. I’ll let you walk around on your own for a bit, maybe talk with Ñiettaquoua’s vessel.”
“Ah, alright.”
They sat in silence for a bit, Oesala disinterested, and Sesolam the polar opposite, in complete wonder, and her blush slowly decreasing.
Ñiettaquoua’s vessel came in as well, though the descending ground, carrying part of the baggage that was on the second eqquā, and Oesala spoke.
“I’m tired, I’ll go to sleep for a while, and talk to you once I wake up again, Ñiettaquoua.”
“Of course, I need to pilot the takeoff anyway.” He winked in an overly obvious way ((AND THIS WINK IS ACTUALLY WHATEVER FUNCTIONALLY SIMILAR GUESTURE THESE PEOPLE HAVE)). I’d love to catch up to you later.”
Then, the look on Ñiettaquoua’s face turned a different way. She wasn’t quite sure what changed, but Sesolam knew instinctally that she was now standing in from of the vessel himself, rather than the spirit.
“Sesolam, get my nest from the bags, I’d like to rest on it”
Sesolam got up and looked through the bag which Ñiettaquoua had brought in. She quickly found the nest, and held it up in her hands. Oesala flew into it. “Where should I put it?”
“Vessel, I assume we have the guest room as usual?”
“Yes, Lady Oesala, you do.” He bowed as he said this.
“Good.”
Oesala took control of the body, and led Sesolam through some corridors, knowing exactly where to go, until she entered a certain room. She put her nest with her bird inside it on the table there.
“Alright, thank you~ Go explore with his vessel now.”
“Rest well, Oesala.”
Sesolam left the room, and the vessel had followed them, so he was waiting outside of the door.
“It’s nice to meet you, Sesolam.”
“Good to meet you too.. what’s your name?”
“Ah, I don’t have names. You know, the old practice, a vessel is a spirit’s body, not their own person.. I’ve given up my name when I became Ñiettaquoua’s vessel. You can call me Ñiettaquoua when he’s not there, or just vessel..”
“I’m sorry..”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m happy as is. Come, I’ll show you the window the the ground so we can see the world getting smaller beneath us as we rise. What’s the highest you’ve been?? On top of your lady’s temple’s spire??”
She thought for a bit. “Either that, or in the University. I haven’t been to that many places.”
She felt a bit bashful for some reason.
“Well, I’ll show you the world above the clouds.”
He leads her again through the building which seemed to be inside of the spirit’s form. It wasn’t a maze at all, basically everything was connected to the central corridors on multiple levels, which almost acted as a sort of spine. The levels were all connected by the same place, the living room where they started. The circle on the gound there, the ground on which they descended, could descend and ascend to every level. They descended as low as they could, and there was a smaller room with a window which just showed the grass they were on right now, crushed under Ñiettaquoua’s weight where it was hit, and in the small depressions of the ground, seeming perfectly fine.
Then, everything started shaking slightly, and looking down, they were lifted up from the ground, the grass freed. It took a few minutes to move a few meters up, but then suddenly, the speed increased and they were going up a meter per second, then even faster. The hills were revealed and became small as she looked, and they started moving horizontally as well.
As this happened, the vessel’s ring started glowing, similar to the egg in Sesolam’s pendant when she exercised heavy magic.
Sesolam looked down at the world, the individual hills slowly blending into an unending mazaic, the small forests that litter the area became their own tiles, and they were slowly drifting over them.
After a while, the two vessels started talking, and as they did, the forests slowly turned from brown ones of fallen leaves, to evergreen ones, until those evergreen ones were covered in snow and nothing could be seen but an endless white.
“So, Sesolam, how long have you been a vessel for again?? About half a year?”
“That’s right, about that long, yes.”
“How does sharing the body between you and Lady Oesala go? I know she shares it way more than Lord Ñiettaquoua does with me, I learned from her previous vessel when I met her. Lord Ñiettaquoua and I fully swap control.”
“It’s been good, for the most part.”
“For the most part?”
She remembered the murder she had commited at the University. She didn’t want to remember, she didn’t want to talk about it.
“Right, it’s been great.”
The vessel looked at her, knowing it had not been great, compassion in his eyes.
“Alright, I just feel like it must be very difficult to feel your body moving against your will like that.”
“Hmmm, somewhat, yes..” She didn’t want to talk about this, and then recognised a town she had travelled through. Trying to change the subject. As she wanted to, she noticed a few wooden shapes far down, surrounded by what seemed to be farmlands.
“Is that what a town looks like from above?”
“Hmmm.. yes, it is.”
The two of them were silent for a while, and then Ñiettaquoua’s vessel seemed to drop the subject.
“So, is there anything you’re curious about regarding Ñiettaquoua?”
Sesolam thought for a bit. Well, she was curious how this thing could fly. Was it just purely spirit magic? Because if so, it seemed exhausting.. But, knowing what Oesala thought about looking into ancient magical technology, she decided not to ask. Something else, something about now..
“Well, are there any other people on board?”
“No, it’s just us. Very often Lord Ñiettaquoua and I are alone, and very occasionally we transport people. Often officials when there’s a political matter we’re involved in. And of course, every ten years, we travel to the Southern Temple with Oesala and her vessel for the winter solstice, but you know that.”
Sesolam didn’t, in fact, know that.
“I see..”
She felt like she wanted to ask something, anything that would help her deal with Oesala. To be able to accept Oesala. Accept the killing. Something that would help her accept her purpose as a vessel, help her be a proper one, she couldn’t be one as long as she condemned Oesala’s actions. And if she wasn’t a good vessel, all of her life until now would have been for nothing. She fidgeted with her fingers a bit.
“Is something the matter?”
“Ah.. hmm.. Does.. Does Ñiettaquoua ever do anything.. that you don’t approve of?”
He stared at her, into her eyes.
“But of course not. Being there for our spirits is the only thing we have to worry about, isn’t it? There is no need to question them, they’re much older and wiser than we are, after all.”
She looked down, the green having turned into a cold and blinding white now. But she couldn’t forget the sight of blood, the screams of pain.. and even the way she killed Áecchien, without a second thought..
“You’re right. I’d be ungrateful to question Lady Oesala.”
“Are you alright, Sesolam?” He sounded concerned and sympathetic.
“Hmm, yes, I am. I just need to think some things out.”
“Ah.. would you like to be alone for a bit? We have a heated bath on board, would you like to take one?”
“A heated bath??” She was slightly excited. There was a heated bath in Çuopān, but it had broken down ages ago, and she hadn’t seen any anywhere else.
“That would be very nice.”
The two of them left the window, and the vessel led her to the large heated bath. When he left, she undressed and sank into it, trying to put all the bad thoughts out of her head and focus on serving Oesala, and if she just only worried about that, everything would work out.