effie.

The hot summer continues, and so does Gaheris' boat project, under Laertes' capable guidance. When he's not doing that, he's studying with Senior Wei: boring, awful sword forms, but other things too, making talismans in Norn, bird observation (Wei Wuxian insists this is very important, and Gaheris is fully willing to go along with it), choosing a spiritual instrument (Gaheris picks a thumb harp), and looking for dead forest animals in case Wei Wuxian can manipulate their ghosts. When he's not doing that, he works on Gu Xiang's poem. And when he's not doing that, there are books: glorious, glorious books.

It's enough to make a person feel like they could be happy.

He does, admittedly, have bad dreams, but he's always had bad dreams. So when he wakes up one morning before even the sun, and wanders out into the gardens, it's with no greater unease than usual. He keeps thinking he sees a flat black eye like a seal's looking out from the greenery, but it's always a stone, and of course it always will be a stone, up here, and down by the shore too, which is too warm for gray seals he's used to. It's a reminder that in spite of all the wonders here it isn't home. He's not where he's meant to be, and eventually it's going to catch up to him.

His mother doesn't like it when her things are taken without her permission.

He picks a quiet spot to sit in with his notebook of draft poems, and watches the sun come up over the mansion.