ᴅᴇꜰɪᴀɴᴄᴇ - ɴᴀɴᴏᴡʀɪᴍᴏ 2019

07

I must have fallen asleep at some point, since I woke up some time, lying on the floor and covered by an extra blanket that Feredir gave me some time ago. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, immediately needing to stop, because of my sore stitches. They seemingly didn't want to heal and the constant stinging made me terribly nervous.

I stretched myself and stood up, feeling slightly dizzy and needing the support of the wall next to me. When I was finally fine again, I left the lower deck, leaving all my thingy just lying around. Now, that it wasn't necessary for me to be tidy, I liked being messy. It felt like an act of rebellion against the priests, even though they couldn't see me.

"Hey, check this out. Over there."

Feredir greeted me, pointing over to a white stripe at the horizon.

"That's actual light. We will be leaving the continent soon."

He explained, when I gave him a quizzing look. My eyes widened. We will be leaving the continent within this day. Tomorrow I will be completely free. No pressure, not even the presence of the same environment. I smiled. Nothing has happened over the last few... probably days, and now there finally was the progress of our journey in sight.

"Cool, right? I never actually saw real water in sunlight. Well... I mean, sea water. In an ocean. In real life. I always imagine, that pictures can never capture the beauty of places."

He went on rambling. I decided to sit on the railing again and listened to his background noise, accompanied by the soft waves. I can't imagine, that I used to despise his existence so much not too long ago. To be fair, I quite enjoyed his company by now. It was nice, getting so much attention.

"So yeah. If you could've been born, somewhere other than the east, where would that be?"

He then asked right at the end, after explaining to me the glory of the southern clans. I laughed a bit.

"I wasn't born in the east. I was born in the north... probably Ch'entend-mal and my Family decided to move to the east after some prophet talked about me being a mouthpiece and all that. I would've loved to just have grown up there."

"Oh, that's so cool! So you are theoretically a Norther-Mountain-Harath?"

I nodded with a grin. He stared into the sea for a second.

"Weird. I like how our species is just defined by your birth place. It's kinda weird, yet kinda cool. But, in like, imagine, if I had a child with a southern person from the Water clan, and then that would be born in the southern magic clan. Then I would be me, my spouse would have gills and we had a black child with glowing bones. That must suck if your child doesn't look like you."

"But you could just birth your child where you were born, and then move somewhere else."

I explained with a sigh. He thought for a while.

"Yeah. That does seem kind of plausible. Why do you actually think, that our appearance adapts like that? I have, in like, this theory, that there are all the genes of different appearances in everyone and depending on the climate, specific genes start to show."

I shrugged.

"I think, that there are natural and magical genetics. The natural ones are the ones you get from your parents. The magical ones though, are interwoven within the magical streams in the atmosphere. Since those are proven to be different in every magically defined area, the genes should differ as well, overlaying the natural ones at birth and thus, causing the appearance of the child to change."

"Your theory sounds kinda cooler... yet I like mine kinda more, because... well it's mine."

I shrugged yet again. To be fair, I didn't really have my own theory. That was just what I kind of presumed to have read in a biology book ages ago, when I still had time to do such things. But I did indeed believe, that biology and genetics are, or at least can be, modified by magic. Otherwise, the gods wouldn't be able to exist or people couldn't control it.