Cool Weirdos Helping Out

The tide is coming in.
 
And in and in and in and I am the bulwark that stops it from flooding the world that I live in.
 
Hush, I whisper.
 
Through carefully arranged chunks of sea floor magma and ocean rock, through sea salt crystals, through the song that sings from the place inside of me that will forever be water, I whisper and the ocean listens. Out, beyond, farther than I have ever been from the place of my birth, the waves continue to crash and rage, but here. Here, at home, they quiet. They whisper back.
 
Hush, they say. And hush they do.
 
And in and in and in.
 
And in comes Pilia.
 
Pilia! My friend, my father-figure even if he insists I shouldn't keep calling him daddy (he thinks I don't why ahaha), my fellow priest at arms even if he isn't a cleric like me, not that anyone still breathing is a cleric like me, only I am like me and isn't that a lonely thought, but can I ever be lonely with Her in my spine, not really I guess, but even though Her embrace is the warmth of the sun-warmed sea, She can't really hang out on my couch and talk about the latest play, now can She, but can She? Hey Wavekeeper, can you-
 
"Konane," Pilia says, and I hear it, I hear the tone in his voice that says I didn't hear it however many times he said it before.
 
"Yes, yes, Pilia! My friend, my father-figure-not-my-daddy, what can I do for you?" My voice is high and I used to hate that but now it simply is and I think that rock is out of place I should move that.
 
"I'm really not gonna touch that." That rock is definitely out of place let me just adjust that real quick. "Some people are here to see you about the Well. Can you take a minute to talk to them? They sound kind of desperate."
 
A minute, sixty seconds, 600 miliseconds (is that how that conversion works? I'm never sure) doesn't seem like enough time for a desperate somebody, but if Pilia says a minute I'll make a minute work I guess, I can talk very fast but can these somebodies?
 
"I didn't mean literally a minute, Konane. Just however long you can spare without the ritual falling apart," Pilia says. I glance up at him and am on the verge of asking if he really can't read my mind yet gain, but I hear it, I hear the smile on his face that must be the way a father smiles when indulging his wayward daughter. Not that I would really know.
 
"I think I can do a whole thirty if they're really desperate," I say, and I remember somebody along the way trying to train me into looking at people when they talk, but I prefer to remember the rest of them being pleased when I call the waves well so the first somebody can suck seawater, and the rock is in the right place now, but do I need to add more salt before I begin the next chant? Probably, salt is pretty finicky. But there can never be too much. Unless you're a snail. Which I am not.
 
Pilia is gone. Huh. Well, he'll either be back or he won't, now where did I put that salt I extracted the other day? I'm like 67% sure it's under this altar somewhere.
 
Oh, somebody is back that was fast, but I guess that makes sense if it's somebody desperate. Is that the salt? No, dammit, that's the Well water I took like three visits ago, oo that should be useful if they need to know something about the Well, and-
 
"Konane," Iska says, and their voice is so very deep. They are still so new here and I wonder if they miss their little temple down in the Gaidarans, are they feeling more at ease here, do they wish they'd been able to stay in their familiar waters instead of being washed ashore somewhere strange, but how do you keep growing if you don't keep swimming and-
 
Oh. I should probably respond.
 
I pop up and for a moment by brain protests at the movement (when did I last eat? Eh, who knows oh well (oh Well ahaha)) but it adjusts quickly, used to the rough treatment by now. The desperate somebodies in front of me are sure a colorful bunch. They are red and purple and bright, coral blue and human and not human and wow I like them already. Some of them smile when I say hello and I like that too.
 
Of course, I always like talking about the Well.
 
Oh shit, that rock is definitely in the wrong place...