A Hand-Woven Universe 23 23. Trisha

"Tommy, would you mind getting bowls down for us? I need to wash my hands of all this dye." A beautiful woman had just come in from work, and immediately set about to get cleaned up for dinner.

Tommy blatantly ignored the woman's request and instead followed her, making a point to stare unwavering at her gorgeous figure.

When she saw him following along, she merely chuckled at his antics.

Her name was Trisha, and since the day she had completed her coming of age, she had been the center of attention for every young male within 100 years of her age. Trisha was just a few decades older than Tommy and Porose.

Tommy truly did not know how he had managed to get so lucky. In the beginning - many hundreds of years ago - he and Porose had merely attempted to court her out of an obligation of manhood.

What man could possibly look at a beautiful flower without wanting it for himself? How could they let such a wonderous young woman suffer the cruel fate of loneliness, they had joked.

Her hair was pure white, and her eyes were flirtatious and charming, but also incredibly sharp with wit. Instead of having an elemental affinity, she was born with a special affinity. Much like Liter.

She was born with an attunement for understanding the soul. Something that only one individual per generation would inherit. A unique individual in all of Tapestry.

However, there was no place for her the way there was for Liter. What could she contribute to the commune? Liter with his attunement towards knowledge made for a natural librarian. But Trisha could merely do jobs with the others and had no special role to fill. However, she did not mind it much.

It was part of her nature to not mind anything much.

In some ways it may be a good thing her nature is so carefree. She was also plagued with an attunement that was impossible to gain enlightenment of. There had never been a soul-attuned individual to gain enlightenment of their affinity beyond that which they are born with. Thus, she would always be at the same level.

But that does not mean her gift had no usage at all.

Having an enlightenment of people's inherent soul allowed her to truly see into how people felt and what people thought. Not to any great depth, but certainly to a degree more than anyone else.
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While young, the soul-attuned do not have much they can do. However, when they become old enough to be elders, they are frighteningly powerful figures. Every elder who was attuned as such, never had a fear of death.

They always seemed to know things that everyone else did not.

Trisha had finished scrubbing her hands and arms with a sea stone, washing all of the dye into the drain. All that remained was a slight brownish hue to her otherwise pale skin that would not be washed off as easily.

She turned on her heel and glared at Tommy who flashed her his best smile and scampered into the kitchen to retrieve some bowls.

"So, he told you to stay home for a week?"

"Yes, and he told me you should stay all week with me, and under no circumstance should you leave me alone, lest I cough up a lung and don't have a beautiful woman to take care of me." He said with complete seriousness.

Trisha lost her composure and laughed with a voice like the heavens themselves. Tommy smiled foolishly. For Trisha he would do anything.

"Well if that is what he said, I suppose I have no choice in the matter." Her smile touched her eyes. They looked at each other with nothing but warmth, knowing full well Porose had not said any of the things Tommy mentioned.

"So how did the rest of the city look? Was Porose busy?"

"Mm, it seems many people have come down with the cough. You should have seen the main kitchen! It was stocked to the top with Soup - enough to feed Tapestry a week over!" Tommy still looked upon the matter incredulously. However, like Porose, he had no say to question the wisdom of the elders.

"Hmm. You had said earlier that Liter had caught it?"

"Yes, so said Porose."

"And he is already better?"

"So said Porose."

"Hmm." Trisha simply nodded her head in understanding. "Well if that weakling could get through it, then there is nothing to worry about!"

Trisha had always enjoyed teasing Liter, specifically about his weak disposition.

To have an attunement that was unique from the elements of the universe, was a rare and great thing. But it also led to having weak bodies countering their strong minds.

Despite this, when Trisha turned 18, she still chose to participate in her own coming of age ceremony. Something that Liter had in fact tried talking her down from.

When she returned safe and sound the entire conclave was in uproar. The father of Porose, Borose, actually threw a city-wide festival in celebration.

Later on - when giving her accounting to Liter for the records - he had nearly interrogated her to figure out how she did it.

"It was quite easy really." Trisha purposely played it off nonchalantly. She had avoided answering any of Liters questions directly, which annoyed him to no end. To her it was as though she were talking about the weather, or breakfast.

When Liter finally did manage to get an answer out of her he was shocked.

"You asked... the birds?"

"Yes."

"For a ride?"

"Yes."

Liter looked at her. He continued to look at her. And then looked at her some more.

"And they just let you ride on their back all the way to Tapestry."

"Yes." She was grinning ear to ear, taking immeasurable enjoyment out of the suffering of her compatriot.

Ever since she was young, she was told that she could avoid taking the coming of age like Liter if she wanted. This was something that the young Trisha took supreme offense to. She never believed that her affinity was any less than anyone else's. At most it might just be a bit different. This caused her to look down on Liter for using his attunement as a handicap.

But this had been the habit built up over an eternity of librarians, so she did not hold it against him too much.

Instead of listening to Trisha further heckle him, Liter had left his notes on the table and stormed off in a huff. He had refused to talk to her for the weeks following.

The truth of the matter was as Trisha had told him. She had discovered that with her enlightenment of the soul - meager as her attunement was - she was able to sway the feelings of creatures much weaker than herself. Creatures like birds for example.

To her it felt rather simple. At times she wondered if she even needed to bother with her attunement at all to do it. You just had to convince them it was something they already wanted to do, what was so hard about that?

Trisha and Tahmel finished off a bowl of soup each, and then prepared to end their night. Trisha had a long day and Tommy was already feeling unwell from earlier. Thus, they retired.

Chapter end