This? No. There are other things we share with the ocean, but this has its own purpose.
What? But I thought you said you were going to drop it in the water.
We will, eventually.
Um... Is it something I shouldn't ask about?
No, there's nothing particularly secret about it. You can describe it for the record if you like.
All right. The focus is a piece of metal like thick, flattened wire. It looks like two legs meeting each other in a loop, except one of the legs got broken off halfway down.
You don't recognize it?
Sorry, I don't.
It's a damaged locking pin. One of our rules is that a focus can't be a useful object. For one thing, it would be a waste to use something that still has a function. But the main point is that it must be incomplete in some way.
Well, why's that?
It represents the kind of flawed thinking that I described to you earlier.
You mean, worshipping the ocean out of fear of it?
That, and blaming him for misfortunes suffered at sea. Nowadays it also includes the indifference of those who think of the ocean as a mechanism or a tool, treating him like a steam machine.
Huh. That seems a little weird to me. If it represents such bad things, why is it so important for you to keep it?
It's because it represents such bad things that the Rays are trying to find it.
I'm sorry, the what? Rays? Are you talking about people?
Others of the Ocean's Friends. I hold the focus, and they are the Rays of light that will meet here.
I'm sorry, I feel like I'm missing something. Do you mean you're going to have a gathering here?
Not here, specifically. Wherever I happen to be with the focus when the Rays find it. It's a sort of a game, though there's a serious aspect to it as well. The Rays converge to take the focus and give it to the ocean.
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