Sunrise by ford_of_bruinen

Sunrise

He heard the murmurs before he saw it. A strange glow on the horizon, not dissimilar to the pale silver disk that had risen seven times by now. Rubbing at eyes already tired from the strangely bright light he looked at this new phenomonen taking place. It was a different light than he had seen before, rosy and reminding him of the fires lit in shoreline homes to keep the chill out.

Pressing a hand against his aching back he stood letting the tools of sanding lie on the unfinished deck for now. They would be there later when he needed them. He winced as the distant light grew stronger, sending a stabbing pain through his head. The rosy pink changed into orange and gold before fading, leaving a globe of flames to thread its way carefully across an unnaturally blue sky. It made him worry about the stars, who had not only grown fainter in the recent past but also shifted slowly to make room for the crystal light of the great lords and ladies. He winced as the distant light grew stronger, sending a stabbing pain through his head. Was this another gift of the Western shores or a weapon of the north? He could not make his mind up, watching in stunned disbelief as the stars grew even fainter until the gradually disappeared from the skies. Whoever had sent this thing of fire into the skies was not a friend he decided.

Shaking his head he went down below deck, taking out the diagrams of the ship he was building, studying them. There would be no point finishing this queen of the ocean until he could study the changes happening to the seas. Where water had once ran deep and true it now waxed and waned, pulled towards the skies and pushed towards the deep. With the loss of stars navigation would be even harder to predict and new maps, relying only on new and ancient currants and reefs would have to be made. Then, when he knew the seas as well as he once had he would finish his beloved. She was to be his masterpiece, his own flagship where others had taken over his smaller earlier ships, a fish in the sea and a bird on the wing all at once. Caressing the wood on the walls of the cabin he stood and crossed to the window, watching as the light grew stronger and then, many turns of the glass later started to fade, once again leaving room for the true children of the skies and their strange new master.

The world was changing and changing fast. He had seen many things since his birth at the shores of Cuivienen, some crueller and harsher but few, since leaving the lake, had disturbed him as much as the lights. It was, he reflected, a loss of a home one had grown to love and cherish, a world pulled away from under his feet on the whim of the mighty. It was not the first time he doubted their benevolence and it would, he suspected, not be the last.