Zahro Reads Things

I imagine I missed some stuff, elaborate in tags or replies if you want

Mapping...

You put your excitement aside for the moment. 'I'll help out mapping too, if you want.' It doesn't matter that you don't know the first thing about map making.

Roz correctly guesses this and assigns you to the role of pushing grass aside so she can follow the paths more easily.

While squatting on your heels and waiting for Roz to complete her sketch of this patch of ground Dessa, who is also trying to find some kind of pattern, bumps into you.

'It's strange,' she says, 'because there are some incomplete sigils. Sol and I haven't found a completed one yet.'

'Huh.' You hope you're not giving anything away.

She nods at Roz and looks at you with her head tilted.

'She's a road witch,' you explain. 'We're taking turns investigating.'

Dessa hums and turns a pebble over.

It turns out you're not completely useless; your experience with sigils lets Roz fill in the blanks that the little roads leave.

'Do you think they'll take the roads out? To stop the weird weather?' she asks sadly.

It makes sense - if this is a 'problem area' then at least the sigils will be removed.

'Maybe? But if they do, you can just put them back in - they won't do anything because you're not a weather witch. And it might be fun?' you say uncertainly.

She can't keep the grin off her face.

--

When the map is done you and Roz share your discovery with Myrna. Roz points out all of the lines on her map that end suddenly, adding that you said they were incomplete sigils. Upon request you bring her around the circle, explaining your theory that at certain times of year the sun will cast a shadow to complete a sigil.

Myrna rubs her chin, deep in thought. 'I'm going to run this by the others. I'll be honest with you, I don't think any of us were expecting someone would crack this.' She looks up at the midday sun. 'And we can't hold a lantern up to test it out yet.'

You and Roz high five after she turns her back.

Checking...

The buzz of a puzzle solved feels so great you know you won't be able to keep it to yourself for much longer. But before telling Myrna, you want to make sure your theory is right.

'I think what's happening,' you say to Roz, again kneeling in the grass, 'is the little roads that aren't road witch ones are partial sigils.'

Roz frowns. 'You'd think sigils wouldn't work if they're partial.'

'Yeah, that's the other thing. I'm pretty sure those rocks cast shadows that complete them sometimes. I want to know if all the places the grooves point to are...' Does this even have a term? 'Dead spots for you.'

'Well, let's find out.'

Roz gamely works inside the circle to find dead spots. All of them are incomplete sigils, and all correspond to a groove.

'I think that settles it. I'm gonna take this to Myrna - hey, you okay?'

Maybe it's just that you're too wrapped up in a success, but Roz doesn't look cheerful at all.

She sighs. 'Just thought this would be more exciting.'

You pat her shoulder awkwardly - providing comfort still isn't a strength of yours - and say, 'Maybe it'll be fun to map out all of the roads?'

'No paper.'

'You can -' You open your notebook up to a blank page after deciding against ripping the pages out. 'You can use this.'

She takes it gladly. 'Can you hold off on telling them about it while I do this? I don't want to have to leave before it's done.'

Solving a puzzle...

When Roz slides her globe down the groove in the rock an idea occurs to you.

You bend down to peer down the groove like it's a tube you're looking through. The rock blocks off what you can see of the grass, except for the small patch of yellow-green the arc allows for.

You squint at the grass. You were expecting a sigil but can't see anything there.

You sigh. 'Roz, your turn.'

'The little roads,' she says promptly. 'The ground here is covered with them - all through and under the grass.'

You join Roz (and a few other witches) in kneeling and crawling around. You suspected that the 'roads' might make sigils but it's starting to look unlikelier. Any sigil not put down by a weather witch won't activate, and you can't see any complete circles.

They really do look like roads for ants, though.

'Bucket list item ticked?'

'Bit disappointing, but yeah, I guess. The work's beautiful,' Roz admits grudgingly. 'Even though it makes no sense sometimes. Look here.'

She points to an arc in the little road that stops abruptly. 'A road witch didnt put this down.'

'Oh.' Oh.

You remember what Myrna said about the sudden changes in weather. If they only happened sometimes it must mean the sigils aren't there all the time.

And this looks like part of a sigil.

'Stay right there, please,' you say.

You back up to the closest rock and look down the gouge again. It's too bright to test your theory with her tools so you try the next best thing.

'Roz, can you put your finger on the end of that road again?'

She does so, eyebrows raised. You check again and - yes, the arc in the stone completes the circle.

That would explain how the odd weather only happens sometimes - the sigils would only be complete at certain times of year in early mornings, when the sun casts the rock's shadow, and you assume it would happen on the other side in the evenings as well.

The rocks...

You tune out Roz's complaints and conjectures while you examine the rock from outside the circle. It looks like someone scraped a groove along it, from about shoulder height on the side closest to you to wrist height on the side facing inwards.

You peer down the gouge and run your fingers over it. No sigils here, as far as you can tell, and it's smoother than you expected.

The next rock down has a similar groove carved out on a shallower angle, but also has a stump poking out of the middle.

'Roz? Can you lend a hand?'

She's moved from complaining to silently fuming. You can respect the temper that comes with being stumped by a puzzle.

'I take it a road witch did this?'

'Obviously, but who does that?'

You shrug. 'Let's just assume whoever did this really wanted to confuse us. All that aside though, do you make anything out of this?'

'Just that a road witch did it on only some rocks here and made a city for ants on the ground. But that doesn't tell me anything useful.'

A city for ants? 'What does that -'

She cuts you off. 'Why would you break up a rock by carving its side out oh so smoothly? It's making your job way harder than it needs to be. Like, look how round this is.'

To demonstrate, she walks back to the first rock, takes her now dim globe, and slides it down the groove. The curve hugs its side almost perfectly. 'Waste of time,' she declares.

Doing this in the same way we did getting Hakim for our day trip, so either way we'll have a positive outcome. 50% would be the worst success, 100% the best.

Digging around... 2!

You half expect to find some sigils carved into the stone given what you saw at the tidepools, but you're left disappointed looking at what is, as far as you can tell, a regular rock.

You move on to the rock to your right and, with help from Roz's globe, peer at its base. It's similarly normal looking.

'There's some bugs,' you say.

Roz kneels down to squint at them. 'Cuties.'

'I was hoping to find something like... marks in the rocks.'

'The rock's full of marks,' Roz says with frustration. 'They've been gouged out in places and someone dumped everything on the ground.'

Clearly unable to hold herself in any longer, she continues, 'It's like someone made a bunch of little roads all over this place, made a circle around it, and let grass grow over it! Who does that?!'

You run your fingers over the stone. 'Maybe it's an art installation?'

'Why would someone put an installation out here?'

You shrug.

'It sucks.'

You withhold comment.

'And even if it didn't suck,' Roz continues, 'it's been grown over for decades. And it's still making this area act weird!'

Digging around...

The stones make a ring around the area and - yeah it's weird. The grass where you stand rustles less than the grass outside of the ring, but you're hit by a gust of wind when you take a few steps to your right to let others past you.

You intercept Roz before she walks off. You don't know how roads will help you here but you also don't want to be alone or third wheel.

'Need a buddy?'

'As long as you can put up with road talk,' she chirps.

You've never had to but you'll gladly rise to the occasion.

'There aren't a lot of road witches around,' she says, somewhat wistfully. 'I'm the only one who came up here.'

You follow her to a particularly large stone. 'Aren't you... overstepping someone else's territory by being here?'

She shakes her head. 'We don't have territories the same way the rest of you do. The head witch has control over all roads, she allocates some busy roads to other experienced witches, and they allocate smaller roads to us. This area's nowhere near a road so I'm not in anyone's way.'

She kneels in the grass and digs her fingers into the dirt surrounding the stone. 'But there's something about this place. Like someone messed around here before.'

The thought that Deema might not be to blame after all enters your mind but you immediately shake it off. A road witch can't influence the weather, surely.

Unless Deema worked with one?

'It's weird that this place is strange for both of us,' you begin carefully. 'Did it start at the same time? Do weather and road witches work together often?'

Roz laughs until she realises you're being serious.

'No, we don't.'

You put that theory aside.

She pulls a globe out of a pouch. It's similar to the glowing ones Zulfiya had, but much larger. She shakes it to light it up and positions it just above where she was digging.

'Hold it here.'

You dutifully hold the orb and wonder what to do next. Some witches are looking at the rocks, some at grass. A few enterprising ones have stepped outside of the circle.

Roz sits back on her heels. 'Nothing. I guess it's your turn to look somewhere.'

On the way... 2!

Sol and Dessa are the people you've gotten closest to (you're not counting how close your fist got to anyone's face) so it makes sense to make a beeline for them.

Dessa is holding her jacket over her head against the light rain. Sol lets it fall on him. They're talking about the weather in the most mundane way weather witches can, which is to say they're debating the merits of different methods of dealing with rain.

You wiggle your fingers to get their attention. 'Morning.'

Dessa wiggles her fingers back. Sol starts to direct his argument at you, then stops himself. 'Hi.'

'So, I'll be honest, I forgot to check what's happening today. Do you two...?'

They glance at each other uncertainly. 'We don't know,' Sol says finally, 'We're heading north east, we're supposed to look at some kind of puzzle, and we'll likely be gone for most of the day.'

Dessa shrugs. 'Surely they'll tell us something on the way. The others who don't do weather... are here for a day out or something, I don't know. Maybe they know more than us.'

You don't want to ask strangers about it.

'Oh, and I was talking to my mentor last night. About whether she has any geography notes. She used to travel around a lot, at least according to her old friend. I could see if there's anything new for you, Dessa.'

She grins. 'I'm leaving tomorrow but I would love to see if there's anything new! Beats experimenting on my own.'

As you load up in the wagon you make a mental list of all of the information Dessa's after, then pull out your notebook to have her write in it after it becomes too technical.

When she returns it she turns to talk to Sol about the rain again, and you begin to suspect... no, it's definitely happening... you've made the fatal error of making yourself a third wheel. You occupy yourself by pretending to read your notes.

You're saved when Myrna claps her hands to get everyone's attention. A hush falls over your little group.

'For those who weren't paying attention! There's a... problem area not far from here,' she says. 'It's been acting strange for the past few decades. Sudden changes in weather that don't occur anywhere else, very local wild winds, unpredictable rain, and the like. There's no evidence of anyone doing work there. We've been puzzling this out for years and would appreciate fresh eyes on the situation. If you're not a weather witch... I hope you enjoy your day out.' She shrugs.

You assume you'll need to have a talk to Deema about this.

Roz, who you recognise as the nomadic road witch, claps.

She leans over to you, apparently unable to hold in her excitement, and whispers, 'This place is weird for road witches too. It's on everyone's bucket list.'

'How so?' you whisper back.

'I don't know! That's why it's so exciting.'

The rest of the ride has you jostled on the rough roads. Dessa and Sol occasionally pull you into their conversation but mostly keep to themselves. Reginald is uncharacteristically calm. Roz taps a tune on her knee, but can't keep a tune to save her life.

'Everybody out,' Myrna says unceremoniously when the wagon stops. The sun's almost reached its zenith.

You step on land that's dotted with oddly shaped stones and sparse grass. It looks weird, but you're not sure if it actually *is weird or if you were expecting it to be.

On the way...

You'll go under the driftwood arch - you dimly recall there was some kind of day trip involved. And you don't care that you're not packed for a day out - you only have Reginald and your notebook - you've been to the beach way more times, and are not feeling up for the stairs today.

The only time you've been to Isla's apartment was when you had dinner there weeks ago. It takes a few dead ends but you find yourself standing in front of their door before too long.

Isla opens the door. They brighten when they see you and say, 'The jacket's coming along! Come in!'

'I can't wait to see it!' You keep your questions to yourself to not be annoying about this but must fail because Isla shows you a mockup. There's no question Reginald will look better than you.

Before Isla can show you anything else you say, 'Deema asked you to visit today.'

Isla's face falls. 'Is she feeling poorly?'

It suddenly dawns on you that Isla's guess is right. Deema's temper has been shorter and she spent the morning holding her back and shuffling slower than usual. 'Yeah, I think so.'

Isla throws some things in a work basket. 'I'll be right off, then.'

You follow them out. It's time to go to the arch.

A group is gathered to the side of the arch. Most are weather witches but you see a few others. Wagons wait for you to alight.

Oops...

Your hands are about the same size - what a wild coincidence - and you don't know why Deema would be staring at your mittens so intensely if she didn't want them. It's been a long time, you remember her saying, since she was able to knit.

'Do you want them?'

You obviously misread the situation. Deema swears and storms off into the kitchen as fast as her aching legs can carry her.

It takes you a moment to gather yourself and follow her. 'Hey? Um, I didn't mean... whatever I did. I can - I can keep the mittens?' That sounds better than I didn't want you to have them anyway.

Deema makes a sound of disgust that you recognise as her 'it's too early to talk about feelings' snort.

'Let's let this one sit?'

She jerks her head down. 'If I wanted them, I'd say something.'

'Or take them.'

'Or take them,' she agrees. 'Tell Isla to come here.'

It's apparently too early for pleases too. 'And I assume I'm kicked out as well.'

'Yes,' she says matter-of-factly.

--

You're half way to Isla's apartment when you realise you don't remember the details on your agenda. It's too late to run back and read it but you remember the places you took note of. You'll go directly there after visiting.

The morning...

You'd much rather work on your mittens than go over the notes that you just wrote, but also know that you should at least organise them before going to bed.

You compromise with yourself by alternating tasks - a few rows on the mittens, a few dot points in your notebook. But, as you knew would happen, you complete neither task before sleepiness hits you. About half of the second mitten remains and you've only organised a third of your notes before you give up on the idea of continuing.

With a yawn, you toss the mittens on the nearest table and tuck your notebook away. You make sure Reginald is sitting on his rock. He's been quiet most of the day.

'Good night, little buddy,' you whisper.

He wobbles. He isn't cut out to give a response.

--

The next morning Deema nods at you in way of greeting.

'Good morning to you too,' you say.

Silence.

'I was teaching myself geography last night.'

She nods, utterly disinterested. You push on.

'You don't have any books on geography and weather, do you? One of the girls said she had to basically write her own.' It's a long shot but maybe you'll get lucky.

'No books,' she says. Then, with much grumbling and a hand on her lower back, she leads you to a shelf under the table you left your mittens on.

It's not a shelf you've paid attention to except for dusting it off, what with the number of loose papers. Deema tells you to shift them around until you find a bundle tied together with twine.

'There's some notes,' she says gruffly. She waves at the mittens. 'You weren't doing geography last night.'

'Yeah... I was doing both. Didn't finish either, obviously.'

Her stare stays fixed on the mittens. You don't know how to read it.

Study session...

In the end there's no point in staying - the only prize for winning this competition was clout. You both take up Sol on his offer, Dessa more enthusiastically than you.

It's easy enough to lead the way to the library but you fumble when it's time to find books on weather - you've only used Deema's before.

Sol pats you on the shoulder sympathetically and goes to speak with a librarian while you and Dessa find a table.

'You have a real talent for poking holes in solutions, Dessa,' he says when he returns, a small stack of books in his arms. He doesn't sound the least bit annoyed.

'I have to! Almost everything's written for you coastal folk. I make so many notes in my books I basically wrote them. You coastal folks have it easy.' She giggles behind her hand at Sol's surprise. 'It's true! I don't have the sea to moderate temperature.'

That hadn't occurred to you; you've lived by the sea all your life. You jot that down in your notebook.

'And altitude,' Sol says. 'Air gets thinner and colder the higher you go.'

'And if there's, say, valleys where cold air pools,' Dessa continues.

Sol nods along as he flips through a book. 'Rain shadow, valleys, basins... all things you look out for where you are?'

She nods confirmation.

They carry on while you flip through the book in front of you. It has more detail than you think you'll ever need, but you diligently take notes regardless. Who knows what you might need to know when finding Deema's samples?

An hour passes and the library closes. Your notebook is full of notes to go over... but you think you can also get your mittens finished tonight.

The debate...

The answer is very hard, apparently.

An older witch lays out a scenario and turns over an hourglass. You're given until the sand runs out to come up with a solution, after which you'll debate with the other groups.

You, Sol, and Dessa are all based in different areas. It's not until Dessa stops you mid-sentence to ask about elevation that you realise you've never paid enough attention to geography. It's not a variable that you've considered before, given that you'll only be working in one area.

Sol, oblivious to your annoyance, slows Dessa down enough to have her break down her thoughts.

You reach a solution just before time runs out, and just scrape by in the debate.

This happens five times.

At the end of the fifth scenario you're frazzled and your ego is bruised but at least the three of you barely, just barely, come out on top. Dessa looks equally frustrated. A glance over the other two teams shows you the two of you aren't alone.

Sol, in contrast, looks untouched. 'It's not that deep,' he tells you when you ask.

'But I think we don't think about geography enough. Which was probably the point they wanted to make. I'm going to the library, you two can come.'

AITA for lashing out at a childhood friend?

I was on a day out in the forest with some friends H (F), D (M), L (M) (we're all in our early/mid 20s). H and I are childhood friends. L and I have this will they/won't they thing going on (it's complicated) and H knows this.

We got a little lost and separated and long story short I got into an argument with D, left to find L, then came back to find L confessing his feelings for H! H and I then started yelling at each other, she was making fun of my height and saying I'm always ready to pick fights.

Here's where I might be TA:

I admit I saw red and kind of lost myself in yelling - apparently at one point I threatened to rip out her eyes - and she freaked and ran off. Was my reaction too overboard?

Out again...

Deema's comment ruffles your feathers but not enough to change your plans. She's already seen the agenda; it's too petty to say you're suddenly free.

'I'm leaving but not because you told me to,' you say.

You ignore her snort of amusement and take some time to work on your mittens and snack before leaving again. Your notes say the town hall's hosting some kind of quiz, but you know nothing other than that.

The hall is filled with more people than you were expecting, and you're able to recognise more people than you thought you would.

Hakim's deep in a conversation you don't want to interrupt - Lex was very, very correct when they said meets were like being at the kids' table - so you look around until you find Sol.

He's also in conversation, but you at least know him better than anyone else here and you don't want to stand around alone.

Sol briefly interrupts himself mid-sentence to say, 'She's Dessa,' then continues to speak to Dessa about humidity along the coast.

Dessa, to her credit, takes time to make Sol pause and acknowledge you. 'You threw a punch at Phoebus?' she asks.

'That's my reputation now, yeah,' you reply. You don't think you'll ever put this one behind you.

Sol says, 'Yeah, but the quiz is more important right now.'

'Team up with us?' Dessa asks. 'I think everyone else has already grouped up.'

'Sure,' you say. 'But I don't really know what the quiz is about.'

'It's a... cross between a lesson and a debate, as far as I can tell,' says Sol. 'They give us a scenario, we argue the best way to deal with it.'

You've done similar things with Deema. How hard can it be?

At home...

Once Hakim's satisfied everyone's picked up enough he claps his hands together and tells you to start wrapping up. Phoebus tips the water from his bowl onto the ground and you follow suit.

You volunteer to scuff over the lines drawn so are the last to leave. You dust your jacket off, tuck your bowl under your arm, and retreat home.

You knock and push the door open. Deema is, as usual, by the fire and looking annoyed.

'Was the time well spent?' She sounds more annoyed than usual.

'It sure was.' You clean your bowl before returning it to the cabinet. 'Joined some bowls together - it's supposed to let you create rain clouds over a larger area. Not that we even made clouds,' you add.

'Don't get into the habit of using it here,' Deema says. 'It rains plenty as is. The best use will be making light rains to stop heavier clouds forming.'

'Yeah, we covered that too.'

She rubs her forehead. 'Did you really need to play with air pressure like that?'

You thought everyone had kept it quiet enough to be contained to where you were. You certainly didn't feel anything. 'You felt that?'

She only scowls and says, 'I wish I didn't.'

'Oh. Uh. Sorry.' You don't think that's feedback you can pass on. 'The dude I punched was there. Don't think he's interested in being friends.'

'Well, you punched him. You can't expect everyone to let that go.'

That makes sense. Letting Zulfiya punch you didn't endear her to you - it just made your gut hurt a lot. 'Yeah, true.'

'No-one said anything about your bowl?'

'Not a word.'

'Well.' She pulls a blanket over her lap. 'I expect that you have something else to keep you busy today. Off you go.'

Continuing...

You try to nudge the conversation forward by giving your name.

The guy replies, 'I'm Phoebus,' but his voice is still cold and he still avoids eye contact.

Suddenly he stands and walks away - you think for a moment he's going to straight up leave, but then he crouches down next to another pair of witches. You can't hear what he says, but you see them nod. He draws lines connecting your four bowls together.

'Makes sense to play with different distances,' he says, then draws a sigil.

You both watch how the sigils affect the bowls further away. They bubble less than yours does, but at Hakim's prompting the witches draw their own sigils to make up for it. The water in your bowl bubbles up more and a light mist begins to form above it.

'No clouds,' Hakim reminds you. You remove your bowl from its circle and swish the water around until it stops bubbling. The others do the same, no doubt following the same line of thought, and only put them back down when the mist dissipates and the bubbling dies down.

Hakim and Myrna watch in delight as your now expanded group experiment with shifting distances, sigil sizes, and movements.

'It was a good idea for you to suggest joining the bowls, Phoebus,' he says.

You have a sneaking suspicion it was so he would have less one-on-one time with you.

But you can't expect to win everyone over.