Mayra watched as the final boats left shore to take the last of the people and supplies to the ships that would carry them, hopefully, to another world.
She couldn't deny being a little jealous.
Apart from being ripped apart and eaten by gargoyles for the mere reason of being born female, the pink-sky world sounded beautiful and adventurous.
She thought when she came to the sea that it would be a sort of final adventure. She'd been to the mountains, the forests, Faeland, and had no desire to go to the horrible-sounding Darkness. Surely she had seen all there was for her to see.
But no, the Cetoans had to have access to multiple other worlds in desperate need of exploration. She wanted to see them all, but it was not her lot.
Instead, Roland was going. He, who had no desire to be anywhere other than his comfortable home, was being pulled further and further from it by the necessities of keeping the world safe.
She ached a little for him, but more so for Finn. Poor Finn, alone at home with her babies, and so many of her friends come here, or even further.
It was almost enough for her to rush home to comfort her closest friend… but she had yet to complete her work here. The influx of Rhone brides had begun to slow, but there were still so many that needed a home, and a husband.
It was exhausting, and even though she had volunteered for a job that no one else had even thought to make, she felt the responsibility to see it through.
She thought of it as bringing the Rhone ladies' final adventure to a happy close. A home, a family, a life, and hopefully, a husband who would love them.
It was a high calling.
With the impending loss of Dierdre back to Klain, she would have only Ashley to rely on as primary support on the feminine side of settling these brides. Cora would go back to leading now that Haf was gone, and have less time for their daily updates and advice.
Thankfully, Mayra had already learned a lot about life in Ceto, and was able to educate the brides in a rudimentary way to prepare them for marriage. In a way, it was cyclical.
At this point, every new batch of brides that arrived needed the new lessons afresh, while the brides who had been present longer and were yet unmarried became more desperate for advanced training, so that they might catch a better husband before all the available men were taken.
Though there were still plenty of eligible men ready for a wife, the desperation of the few who had been in Ceto longest was palpable. Mayra's heart hurt for them, watching the newest, youngest, prettiest, most flirtatious girls quickly garner the interest of the men.
She thought poorly of those men pulled in by shallow reasons.
Surely they were blind if they could not look past these surface considerations to see the true value of a woman. On the other hand, each of the girls deserved a man who would want her, so it would be counterproductive to try and force a match without any sort of spark between the couple if she could avoid it.
So she focused her efforts on equipping the women as best she could, and looking for men to match them with.
Now that Jimmy was gone, and she had no more need to attend Haf's strategy meetings or try to discern herbs with Jimmy, or all the other numerous tasks she'd taken on, she could turn back to her primary reason for coming here: the Rhone girls.
Another swimming lesson was on the schedule for tomorrow. Everyone present had already had at least one so far and could manage to stay afloat without drowning for at least short periods of time in still water.
Cora had mentioned diving for abalone, oysters, and clams as one of the hobbies of Cetoan women. They were not terrible to eat and apparently occasionally held pearls inside. Mayra had seen the smooth, white orbs and thought them particularly pretty.
They didn't sparkle like the gemstones that were brought out of the mountain mines near Klain, but they were beautiful in a shimmery, understated way. Pure and lustrous rather than attention-grabbing and sharp-edged.
Mayra had not had much practice diving, and thought she must try to get at least some experience at it before giving advice and pointers to the Rhone. She was a fair swimmer by now, but not advanced enough to claim any sort of expertise, especially in the deeper waters Cora had indicated.
She'd pointed out a large rowboat one day full of about a dozen Cetoan women. Mayra was startled to see women in a boat at all, but now that she knew the actual reason why women didn't sail on the ships, it didn't seem quite so odd.
As she had watched, the boat went out a short way, just past a sand bar, and one woman dropped an anchor while the others began diving off. Their hair was tied tightly out of the way, and each, Mayra could see, had a rope that attached back to the boat, with the other end tied to woven baskets.
Though she'd moved on to other tasks, for the rest of that day she had watched their progress, little heads popping up above the water to empty their baskets and dive down again. What endurance the women had! Mayra would have been drowning long before then, but with only short rests, the women swam and dove for hours.
Now, she aspired to such physical ability, but doubted it was within her capability.
"Penny for your thoughts," Peter commented from behind her. Mayra jolted, having been so deep in her distractions that she forgot he was there.
"I was just contemplating diving practice," She replied.
"Diving practice?" His eyebrows rose. Caspian and Naomi were standing nearby, and turned when they overheard Peter's question.
"Yes," Mayra responded defensively, "Cora talked about the Cetoan women diving for oysters and such," she honestly couldn't remember the names of the other shelled creatures at the moment, "but I can't teach the Rhone girls anything that I don't know how to do. So, I should learn diving, shouldn't I?"
"It seems a bit dangerous, Mayra," Naomi's face held a bit of worry, "but I am not a strong swimmer yet… despite having the best of teachers."
She added the last part with a slight blush and glance at Caspian. He smiled warmly at her in response, but spoke to Mayra.
"It is not a necessary pastime for the Rhone women to have knowledge of. Their husbands are likely to be more pleased with talented cooking and dancing, perhaps even lobster and crab trapping from the shore. Diving is dangerous for the inexperienced. There are currents, riptides, even sharks in some of the areas." Caspian said firmly.
"What's a shark?" Mayra asked blankly.
"It's a type of fish, with very sharp teeth. The smaller ones won't bother people, but they can get quite large. People have been eaten before, though it is uncommon." Caspian explained.
"As large as whales?" Naomi asked with wide eyes.
"Very nearly, some of them. The length of three men, or even more. I'll point one out if I see one before our departure for Klain. You can sometimes see a triangular fin above the surface of the water, indicating their presence, or if you look out onto the water on clear days, they look like a great gray shadow, as if a small, fast cloud was blocking the sun out."
"I'm glad you didn't tell me any of this before teaching me to swim, I wouldn't have wanted to try." His wife blinked at him, but he smiled in amusement before turning back to Mayra.
"Keep the Rhone girls in the sheltered coves where you can see well, or close to shore. It wouldn't do for them to be needlessly endangered." His eyes slid back over to Naomi before he added, "try to always have a lookout, or someone experienced nearby, just in case."
Naomi smiled at Caspian and took his hand, her eyes displaying her absolute trust in him.
Good, Mayra thought. They're still getting along well. That provides a lot of hope for the Rhone girls to find good Cetoan men. If even surly Caspian turned into a decent husband, the others should do very well for themselves.
"Thank you for the advice," Mayra said politely. Part of her wanted to tell him off a little for butting in with his unsolicited advice, but for one thing, he knew far more than she did, and for the other, he was leaving soon and she didn't have to take his advice if she didn't want to.
He wouldn't be around to know whether she did or not.
Caspian squinted at her slightly as if suspecting her thoughts, but she smiled brightly and changed the subject.
"Do you need any advice for visiting Klain? You'll need shoes, of course, and longer pants…"