nautical

[aetheling]

Cymbeline doesn't really like boats, but they're the only way to get anywhere in a reasonable period of time, especially when "anywhere" isn't on the mainland. Today he is sailing to Vectis, to oversee the change of governorship; his father the king is needed for courtly matters back home and his mother the queen, despite being the source of his royal blood, declines to involve herself in affairs of state when she can avoid it. Zoyah takes more after Ranae than after Charles in this department. So, it falls to Cymbeline.

Walking on a boat is even more difficult than walking on land, and Cymbeline is no great shakes at the latter to begin with. Unfortunately, neither he nor Kerem, the court magician and Cymbeline's confidante, have been able to figure out how to apply the principles of practicable magic to alleviating princely clumsiness. So Cymbeline is clinging to the railing of the boat, watching the waves, trying to avoid having to walk anywhere.

Comments

[agnatic]

Zoyah obeys. "HEY!"

[treasuresuntold]

She flails and yelps. No sound emerges from her mouth.

[aetheling]

"Not deaf," concludes Cymbeline, propping her up again from where she fell on him. "...Possibly mute. Probably mute." He sighs and starts leading her to the study, where he tries her on some pen and paper.

[treasuresuntold]

Ooh, pen and paper. She figures those out in short order, and starts drawing.

She draws:

- a recognizable silhouette of a ship, with a simple figure, just two arms and a blank head, peering over the side

- a big wobbly up-and-down scribble overtaking the ship

- a figure with arms and a head and a dolphin's tail

- an arms-and-legs human falling over the side of the boat...

[aetheling]

"Is that..." No, she can't understand him. He points at the human figures, and then at himself.

[treasuresuntold]

She nods repeatedly.

She points at the person with the tail.

She points at herself.

[aetheling]

Cymbeline blinks, then nudges one of her feet with his boot.

[treasuresuntold]

She nods.

She draws something that looks sort of like a jagged cave entrance, and a figure peeping out of it with arms and a head and eight wiggly tentacles.

She draws a dolphin-person approaching the cave. She draws the dolphin-person a mouth, with wavy lines straggling out of it. She draws an arms-and-legs person on the other side of the cave, and puts both her hands over her own mouth, and points at her legs.

[aetheling]

Cymbeline blinks slowly.

The study has a few repositories of transferred things in it. He picks up one of them; it holds something not readily identifiable, moving around inside. "You gave your voice -" He touches the corner of her mouth, then the quartz chunk - "and got legs?" He touches the chunk again, then her knee.

[treasuresuntold]

She nods again, and smiles.

[aetheling]

He puts the quartz down.

"Okay..."

There's another test. He remembers the words very clearly. If he pays attention to what he's saying, he thinks he can reproduce the sound of them and not just the sense. "C'mon, I didn't drag you all this way to have you die on me," he begins, and he waits for a glimmer of recognition.

[treasuresuntold]

She beams and nods several times.

"Pretty boy," she says, although there is no sound to the words.

[aetheling]

Cymbeline matches remembered sound to the way her mouth moves, and he smiles. "Well then."

[agnatic]

"Cymbeline's got a cru-u-ush," coos Zoyah.

[treasuresuntold]

The green lady giggles silently.

[aetheling]

"Kerem, if you'll go tell my parents what's going on? I'd like to see about teaching her to write Loegrian," says Cymbeline.

[pleasantsurprise]

"Of course," agrees Kerem, and off he goes.

[treasuresuntold]

The green lady gazes adoringly at Cymbeline.

[aetheling]

"In the meantime I need to call you something," says Cymbeline. He considers, then says, "As long as it's going to be temporary I suppose I needn't be terribly creative. Jade? Jade," he says decisively, pointing at her. "Okay?"

[treasuresuntold]

She shrugs.

[aetheling]

"All right." And he sets about drawing little pictures and writing words next to them, which he speaks aloud so she'll recognize the terms when people say them to her. (Since she is after all not deaf.)

[treasuresuntold]

The green lady - 'Jade', if you must - pays attention.

[aetheling]

After he's made enough little pictures to incorporate all of the letters of the alphabet, he teaches her the alphabet with these examples. And then he hands her the pen again.

[treasuresuntold]

She shrugs.

[aetheling]

"Nothing to say?" he asks. And he shrugs and goes back to teaching her words; Zoyah has long gotten bored and left.