One of the most awkward things about being the leader of the host is that Isabella has to issue assignments to people who are or have been in positions of authority over her. Delilah knows enough about what needs doing to keep herself occupied with useful errands when she isn't explicitly enjoying her retirement, but Rinnah is another story; she doesn't quite grasp that sometimes her daughter wants to talk to her for non-social reasons, might really just mean to talk to her to send her a hundred miles west and pray for rain.

This is how Rinnah winds up with the privilege of taking her eldest granddaughter on her first weather intercession.

(Rinnah was told about magic and worlds and Jovah a month prior, and absorbed all this information with admirable calmness, and proceeded to behave as though none of it makes a whit of difference - which Isabella has not prodded at, since of course this is optimal for secrecy.)

Rinnah knocks on Damaris's door, in her flying leathers, grinning from ear to ear.

Author: jovahs_heiress	One of the most awkward things about being the leader of the host is that Isabella has to issue assignments to people who are or have been in positions of authority over her. Delilah knows enough about what needs doing to keep herself occupied with useful errands when she isn't explicitly enjoying her retirement, but Rinnah is another story; she doesn't quite grasp that sometimes her daughter wants to talk to her for non-social reasons, might really just mean to talk to her to send her a hundred miles west and pray for rain. This is how Rinnah winds up with the privilege of taking her eldest granddaughter on her first weather intercession. (Rinnah was told about magic and worlds and Jovah a month prior, and absorbed all this information with admirable calmness, and proceeded to behave as though none of it makes a whit of difference - which Isabella has not prodded at, since of course this is optimal for secrecy.) Rinnah knocks on Damaris's door, in her flying leathers, grinning from ear to ear.
Author: carillons	Damaris peers suspiciously at her.
Author: alicornucopia	"Hello, Damaris! We're going to go to the coast and bring down some rain."
Author: carillons	"Okay!" says Damaris.
Author: alicornucopia	"Get in your leathers, and we will go pack little snacks and go," beams Rinnah.
Author: carillons	"Little snacks!" giggles Damaris. She goes and gets in her leathers.
Author: alicornucopia	Rinnah takes her to the kitchens, and they get little bags of dried fruit and nuts, and then off they go! Rinnah keeps to Damaris's flight pace and leads the way. "I remember my first intercession! I had to calm wind near Semorrah," says Rinnah nostalgically.
Author: carillons	"That must've been a while ago," says Damaris.
Author: alicornucopia	"It was!" agrees Rinnah. "A little more than forty years ago. I was your age, maybe a little older, and I went with my father."
Author: carillons	"You were never twelve," Damaris accuses.
Author: alicornucopia	"I was twelve!" returns Rinnah. "I was even younger than that, before I was twelve!"
Author: carillons	"You were noooot, you're older than Mom and Mom is older than me and I'm twelve," says Damaris, "you were twelve so long ago it barely even happened!"
Author: alicornucopia	"Things that happened a long time ago still happened, dear one," laughs Rinnah.
Author: carillons	Damaris giggles.
Author: alicornucopia	"One day you will be my age and you will tell your grandchild about this day, and he or she will not believe that you were ever twelve," Rinnah declares.
Author: carillons	"What if I stay twelve forever instead," says Damaris, "what then?"
Author: alicornucopia	"Do you want to be twelve forever?" inquires Rinnah.
Author: carillons	"No-o. But I'm not sure I want to be forty and have grandchildren either," she says consideringly. "How old is Mom? Maybe I'll get to be that age and then stop."
Author: alicornucopia	"She's thirty-two. Although she doesn't look it; she looks at least five years younger than that."
Author: carillons	"Then I will grow up until I am five years less than thirty-two and be that old forever," Damaris says firmly.
Author: alicornucopia	"You might look that old forever, but that is not how time works," says Rinnah lightly.
Author: carillons	"Says who?"
Author: alicornucopia	"To be really twenty-seven forever, you would have to not have any experiences after you would turn twenty-eight," says Rinnah.
Author: carillons	"Well, I'm gonna still be twenty-seven when I'm a hundred," says Damaris.
Author: alicornucopia	"That is not how numbers work, little one," laughs Rinnah.
Author: carillons	Damaris giggles.
Author: alicornucopia	"Who has been teaching you your sums? Should I have a word with them?" asks Rinnah playfully.
Author: carillons	"Noooooooooo," she laughs.
Author: alicornucopia	"Because I wouldn't want my granddaughter to be getting a substandard education," says Rinnah lightly.
Author: carillons	"I know the rules, I just don't let them stop me," giggles Damaris.
Author: alicornucopia	"Is that so? Just math rules, I hope."
Author: carillons	Damaris giggles some more.
Author: alicornucopia	"Numbers will not get angry at you if you misuse them."
Author: carillons	"They're nice that way!" says Damaris.
Author: alicornucopia	"It's convenient!" agrees Rinnah. "But if you want to do any things with your nice cooperative numbers you need to know how. If we can fly forty miles in an hour, and we are going to intercede at a settlement that is one hundred miles away, how long will we have to fly?"
Author: carillons	"Two hours and some," says Damaris.
Author: alicornucopia	"How much is some?" prods Rinnah.
Author: carillons	"Half an hour?"
Author: alicornucopia	"That's right! Very good," approves Rinnah.
Author: carillons	"How far away is it where we're going?"
Author: alicornucopia	"A little less than a hundred miles. We are going west, except that when we reach the river, we'll follow it south, and there we'll find a little town that needs rain."
Author: carillons	"Okay!" says Damaris.
Author: alicornucopia	"We can rest there for a little if your wings are tired after we fly all that way and pray for the rain."
Author: carillons	"Okay," giggles Damaris.
Author: alicornucopia	They reach the river, and turn south, and find the town, and they land for Rinnah to ask about the details of their needs, and then they go aloft and she starts the correct rain-inducing prayer for Damaris to harmonize with.
Author: carillons	Damaris sings cheerfully. And loudly. There is no doubt at all that Jovah will hear them.
Author: alicornucopia	Presently, it begins to rain. "Are you ready to fly home, or do you want to rest for a little while first?" Rinnah asks.
Author: carillons	Although she laughed at the suggestion originally, Damaris shakes her head and says, "I want to rest a little."
Author: alicornucopia	So they land in the village, and are plied with pastries and juice, and thanked for the weather, and are encouraged to sing non-prayers. Rinnah obliges with a long ballad of easily improvisable verses.
Author: carillons	And Damaris eats pastries and drinks juice and is generally pleased with herself.
Author: alicornucopia	When it is a couple of hours before dark, Rinnah says, "It will be easiest to find the Eyrie again if we go now, so we don't have to look after sundown."
Author: carillons	"Okay!" says Damaris. She thanks the villagers for their pastries and juice, and follows her grandmother into the sky.
Author: alicornucopia	"What do you think of doing weather intercessions?" Rinnah wants to know.
Author: carillons	"I like the part where they feed you nice things afterward!"
Author: alicornucopia	Rinnah laughs.
Author: carillons	So does Damaris.
Author: alicornucopia	Eventually they reach the Eyrie again, and Rinnah scoops up Damaris and carries her back to her grandparents' quarters. "Guess who's brought rain!" she calls cheerfully to Charles. "I'm going to guess," says Charles, looking up from his book, "that it was Damaris!"
Author: carillons	"It was meeeee," she laughs. "And the villagers gave me juice and pastries!"
Author: alicornucopia	"That's because you helped them, so they were kindly disposed," says Charles.
Author: carillons	"I want to help everyone," Damaris declares. "So they will all give me food."
Author: alicornucopia	"If everyone gave you food, and you ate it all, you would burst," laughs Rinnah.
Author: carillons	"I would not!" she objects. "Mom wouldn't let me."
Author: alicornucopia	"Maybe not, but probably best not to live like she'll rescue you from every silly thing you could do," says Charles.
Author: carillons	"Why not? She will."
Author: alicornucopia	"So you want to live a life of doing silly things and having your mom fix it?" asks Charles.
Author: carillons	"When I really want to do the silly things? Yeah," she laughs.
Author: alicornucopia	Charles shakes his head but makes no further comment. "In a way, everyone in Samaria already gives you food," Rinnah says. "Taxes go to support the Eyrie, and everyone pays them."
Author: carillons	"It's more fun when they give me pastries, though," says Damaris.
Author: alicornucopia	"Pastries are pretty yummy," Rinnah says conspiratorially. "What do you think, is he maybe just jealous because he's never gotten pastries from doing intercessions?" Charles snorts.
Author: carillons	"Maybe so!" says Damaris. "It's okay, Grandpa! I'll give you pastries for being a good grandpa."
Author: alicornucopia	"He is a very good grandpa, and deserves pastries!" agrees Rinnah. Charles laughs, and hugs his granddaughter.
Author: carillons	She hugs him back. The next time pastries are available, she finds her grandpa and gives him one.
Author: alicornucopia	He takes a moment to remember the significance, but then he takes it, and laughs, and hugs her again.
Author: carillons	Hugs.