To Fly the Soaring Tides

“Believe it or not,” Cira said, “decomposition is one of life’s greatest feats.”

“So, it’s life…? How was I close? I gave the exact opposite answer.”

“Consider a tree whose roots are rotting. One doesn’t aways need to die in order to decompose, but it’s by and far the most common way to begin.” There was a fleshy grinding noise that made me shiver from head to toe without even seeing its source. When I looked up, all the fish’s skeletons had escaped while their empty flesh fell into the field. It was like watching one of those rare jelly storms they get at low altitudes, and the floppy squelch they made en masse in the gold soil was pretty spot on.

“Okay, I’ll bite… How does life make things rot?” As I asked, the fields started to glow a pristine white while fish corpses were gnashed into the soil. It was pretty brutal and not in any way how I expected farming to work. A pile of fish skeletons grew beside us.

“Well… Have you ever wondered why bodies rot? Why a plum left on the table will turn brown and mushy?”

“No…” I replied honestly, “The fact that it happens is enough for me.”

“Was enough for you,” she held up a finger to correct me, “But you’re a sorcerer now, aren’t you? Well, I could give you the tiny demon speech, but you are my student, so… There are microfauna which exist everywhere—that is, creatures so tiny you can’t see them without tools built specifically to do so. These ‘microbes’, if you will, spend days, weeks, or even longer consuming organic waste. Have you ever heard of ruin eaters?”

“Those things that appear on dead islands… right? I’ve heard to avoid landing in places like that. Don’t they eat the whole island?”

This got a laugh out of the weathered sorcerer, “No, no… Not the whole island. Consider a dead rat on a stone. The island is the stone, while the homes of people and cultures long forgotten by time are like a littering of rat corpses upon it. Microbes similarly break down a real dead rat, consuming bits and pieces at a time of that which makes up the flesh, gradually breaking it down. There may be scars or stains in the earth from its former presence, but the ruin eaters will remove it all from an island in the end. In the same way, you too will be consumed by as many invisible creatures as there are islands in the sky, it’s just a matter of how long it takes.”

I was stunned silent, eyes wide as I nervously looked around in horror, “What do you mean they’re everywhere?!”

“Don’t worry, you can’t see them, and many of them live inside your belly and beneath your skin.” Is she making an elaborate joke, right now? She seems really serious. “I hope you’re taking notes, because we’re moving on. We have a great many skeletons, which is a huge boon. Can you tell me why?”

“Wha—uh… huh?” I was lost.

She clicked her tongue, “Maybe I should have waited on the tiny demon talk… Forget about them for now.” Are these things secretly demons and she’s trying to ease me in? What is going on? The bones rose into the air, and I heard them grind together inside a violent twister before spreading out across the field. “Not only are they valuable nutrients which will treat the soil over time, but it will help further break up our substrate. This is important because……..?”

She wants an answer?

“I don’t know!” I cried, “I’m sorry!”

I was still hung up on the tiny demons.

“Relax,” Cira gave me a pat on the shoulder, “I’m throwing things at you faster than my father ever did me, but this is a unique situation. What do you think, I’m gonna conjure a stick to beat you with if you give me the wrong answer?” I pouted until she continued, counting on her fingers, “Aeration. Drainage. Root expansion.”

Oh… She really was giving me the easy questions.

“Bones do that all that…?”

Counting on her hands again, “More sizes, weirder shapes. They break down slowly and can help maintain nutrient levels even after a heavy rain. I don’t see you writing. If my soil were already a proper consistency and cultivated to a healthy equilibrium, I would simply spread the bones across the top after planting and save some for later.”

“Uhhh, right!” I went to school once, and it felt like this. I was a little embarrassed at first by my studious response, but she didn’t make note of it as I desperately scribbled.

The field of golden soil continuously churned as Cira looked on. I watched her nod… to the dirt, then turn to me.

“Now get ready.” My quill hand went stiff. “There is no life on this island, and I don’t think I’ve seen a single bird. Make sure to note that we should bring some later, but furthermore, that means the only life in this realm exists in the sea. Aside from the fish meat and bone I’m dumping in, we don’t have a whole lot of tiny demons to work with. They’re hungry, but they can only eat so much so fast. I’m no expert, but that may even mean decomposition might never occur here as thoroughly as it would on Acher, for example.

“Unless you’ve got dirt from your hometown in your pockets, there isn’t a whole lot we can do about that, but we’re in luck.” I did not know where she was going with this, and it showed, “Our dear creator didn’t deem to rid the fish of natural parasites and the like. Whether this was intentional or not, the sea is thriving to an extraordinary degree. So…”

The ball of seawater above our heads glowed as a white powder was pulled from it.

“So… you’re pullin’ ‘em all out?” I was baffled at this point, and returned to my drink while she manipulated demonic parasites.

“No, this is salt. I don’t want it in the soil.” It blew away on the wind forming a wispy cloud that trailed out past the shore. “This water is riddled with tiny demons. Even the ones I don’t want will break down in the soil as do the fish. Are you following? Tell me what you wrote down.”

“Uh…” I felt like I was about to cry, looking down at my own notes in disappointment, “‘salt’ circled with a frowny face next to the word plants. Er, ‘tiny demons eat fish—also nutrients.’”

She stewed on it for a second, “You get the idea at least, sort of. I’ll just find you a few more books when we get back.” I wasn’t excited about that, but knowledge was power, right? She said a great sorcerer once said that.

Cira polished off another glass—her twelfth since we woke up. I had a tally going in my notes, and depending on the subject matter, she kept healing herself before talking to sound more coherent. Her heal tally was broken up into three intensities with one being the weakest at thirteen casts, then four, and one major soberfication about midway through.

We both stood there drinking in silence as the soil churned. It was much darker than the pure gold sand we fell asleep in, which was also still falling out of my hair and itching me inside my pants. After a few minutes I realized I still didn’t understand why I was wrong.

“Hold on, Cira… What does life have to do with any of this?” The ivory light had grown like flames across the roiling dirt, and it still made no sense to me. My notes stopped at ‘decay = life, not death’. “If demons just eat it all, how does that help us? You’re just make more to eat it faster?

“Ahh. How do I best explain this…? Imagine a forest full of wolves, and… rabbits that multiplied by the day. What do you think would happen if I encased the island in a shroud of life mana? If those creatures had limitless vitality?”

“I… guess they would eat more… and reproduce more?” That sounded like a safe answer.

“Exactly.” Yes! “But this couldn’t just go on forever, could it? Even with plentiful rabbits, the wolves would run out of room. There would hardly be space to rear their young, and many wouldn’t be able to get to the rabbits among their competition or otherwise sustain their health. Maybe some would even be pushed off the edge if it got bad enough. Predation always reaches a limit, but it doesn’t just level out, no. It collapses.”

“…why though?” More sorcerous nonsense.

“Let me ask you, what would happen if only the wolves received the blessing of life?”

I pursed my lips. How the hell am I supposed to know?!

She must have seen me turn pale and continued, “Okay… there’s an island that lives off the elusive coconut tree. Too high to fish, and low winds dissuade birds from entering this region of the dead skies. The island is never getting any bigger. Rather, not within ten lifetimes. These people survive on nothing but the coconut. Like Moonberry plums, it contains everything one needs to live, but is significantly rarer. Some call it the ancient water nut, as palms have widely evolved not to bear fruit. I digress. These people may be happy and healthy for generations, but their population will grow, will it not?”

“I… suppose…”

“And assuming their land never gets larger, and they’ve already consolidated homes to allow for more farmland, what happens once the number of people who live on Coconut Island doubles? Or triples?” My eyes went wide. She dumbed it down so much that it seemed obvious.

“There would be so many people… but not enough coconuts to go around.”

“Right.” She gave me a thumbs up, then took a drink. “This is called critical mass. You don’t often think about it in humans, but certain bugs and even rats go through it all the time. Population thrives to a point at which they can no longer sustain, then die off in great numbers as the supply of resources has dwindled. In the same way, tiny demons will go through this in cycles as they feast on dead fish. The meat slowly become more sparse as their waste accumulates in its place within my substrate. Moreover, many of them feast on each other in stages, compounding this myriad cycle exponentially.

“Not only base materials they leave behind, but the waste resulting from their feast as well is what comprises the nutrients we require. Naturally, this process could take months or years. Instead, I flood the field with life to keep them in a constant state of critical mass, maximizing both outputs. In fact, I can exceed that which is possible in nature. Still, this will take at least a few hours.”

“About that…” I was drunk, but something was definitely wrong. “How long have we been here? Did we just sleep through the night clear into the next day?”

“You haven’t figure it out, yet?” She gave me a smirk like I just failed a test. “The sun is perpetually rising. It just moves around a little to trick the mind.”

I stared at her, not the least bit amused at this new lesson, “So… how long have we been here?”

She shrugged, taking another sip, “Beats me. But it feels like I got a good night’s sleep earlier.”

My stomach dropped. Since we reached the shores of Paradise everything had felt like a daze. I took another sip as I pondered it all.

“Don’t worry,” Cira muttered, “As soon as I have an apple in my hand, we’ll plunder this island’s secrets and return to Green Pit.”