Story name: Immersion
Author: Oren the Otter
Publication date: March 6, 2000 (VFW-Times)
Date: late December, 706 CR
Location: Metamor Valley (Metamor River, Oren's lighthouse)
Overview
Vitra is baptized, and married to Oren. Some Lutin trickery takes place.
Summary
Hough is flattered when Oren and Vitra ask for him to marry them, but he has a few concerns. First, whether Oren is ready for a new relationship after Ana's death: Oren says he has grieved for her, and though she was a good friend, it is Vitra whom he loves now. Second, if they are ready for the public reaction of a human marrying a lutin: they are. Third, if they are of the same faith. Although Vitra has become a Follower, Oren has different customs than the Ecclesia have. Hough knows that immersion is important to Oren's faith, and asks if Vitra has been immersed. They have no reply.
Oren asks his father Nerr to give Vitra an immersion. He accepts, but on the condition that that the other Followers attend so that Hough can explain its importance as the first step in Vitra's public admission of faith. Afterwards, she is quickly taken away by the women, and Oren to a private room in the lighthouse, to prepare for the next ceremony of the day: their wedding. Desuka officiates the wedding, with a traditional Os-Var-Khai bowl of wine to symbolize their commitment of life together. Oren and Vitra share their vows, and kiss, husband and wife.
That night, Oren is worried that, because of his mix of curses, he cannot perform his husbandly duty. He remembers the potion he got on the way back from Devil's Strand, which can turn him into a man if used under a full moon while splashed with water. He decides to try it, and is astonished to find that it works; he is a human man again. Vitra is sad that she can't change too; Oren tells her that she is already beautiful, and they make love.
Meanwhile, hidden in Metamor Valley, Kayrok smiles with satisfaction at an otter morph among his tribe, actually Norebo, who moments before was wearing a human-appearance spell. Sytet had been watching Oren for when he would use his potion, which is actually a seemings-exchange potion. On Sytet's signal, Norebo splashed a potion of his own on himself, exchanging his human-appearance spell with Oren's three spells of young/female/otter appearance. As a result, Norebo now has access to all three of Metamor's appearance spells, able to take on any animal, age, or gender. The human-appearance spell will wear off for Oren in the morning, changing him to be the otter he is inside, and he will never know the power he has given to Norebo.
Characters
Main Characters:
- Oren: An otter morph, a Hipoccian soldier and storyteller. He spent the last several months mourning the death of his close friend Sawana. He now wishes to marry Vitra. To do so, he asks his father Nerr to "immerse" (baptize) Vitra.
- He marries Vitra in full Hipocci uniform, with a long red cape.
- He mentions that his ability to perform as a man has been affected by the curses (as mentioned in Growth and Forgiveness.
- Vitra: A zorilla morph, a half-lutin defector to the Keep, who has fallen in love with Vitra. Though she was already a Follower, she becomes "immersed" to join Oren's particular denomination, so that she can marry him in his faith.
- For her immersion, she wears a simple white gown. For the wedding, she wears an elegant spring-green dress.
Minor Characters:
- Hough: A child morph, the Keep's Ecclesian priest. He introduces the immersion ceremony and explains the Hipocci's church traditions to the witnessing Keepers.
- Nerr: A river dolphin morph, Oren's father, an Immerser priest. He immerses Vitra for the ceremony.
- He is the only dolphin morph living in Metamor River.
- His ability to shift is limited. He is able to stand on the end of his tail, and lengthened the length of his flippers so that he can reach out.
- Wasoko Desuka: A red panda morph, a diplomat to Metamor from Os-Var-Khai, and a Follower priest. He officiates the marriage between Oren and Vitra.
- He spent the majority of his life in Khumar on Os-Var-Khai.
- Kayrok: A Lutin warlord. In Penance and Retribution, he tricked Oren into receiving a seemings-exchange potion. Here, his plan pays off, as he successfully uses it to give Norebo the ultimate ability in disguise.
- Norebo: A Lutin master of disguise. By splashing a seemings-exchange potion on himself at the same time as Oren, he acquires all of Oren's appearance curses.
Cameo:
- Charles Matthias: A rat morph, a friend of Oren's and Hough's. He is a devout Ecclesian.
- Gornul: A blue dragonette, one of Oren's closest friends.
Important Mention:
- Sawana: A childhood friend of Oren's. She loved him, though he did not reciprocate as strongly. She died a few months ago, and Oren had been grieving for her.
- Sytet: A Lutin werebat. He was spying on Oren in his lighthouse, and signaled Kayrok to let him know if and when Oren would use his potion.
Referenced:
- Yaweh: The one Follower God.
- Yahshua: The son of Eli, the Messiah.
- The Comforter. Presumably the Immerser name for the Spirit Most Holy.
- Norchk: A Lutin, Vitra's father.
- Ushka: A Lutin, Vitra's former husband.
Society
- Immersers are named for the great importance they place on the ordinance of immersion, where a priest asks them the basic tenets of their faith, and are then immersed in the river.
- They believe that the acceptance of Yahshua is the only way to be redeemed and saved. Immersion serves as the first step of their obedience to Eli, by publicly professing their faith. Ecclesians seem to disagree on some of these points.
- Another religious faction is mentioned, the Returners (possibly referring to Rebuilders).
- Traditionally, a woman wears white to a wedding.
- In Os-Var-Khai, a tradition before marriage is to share a bowl of rice wine, to symbolize the sharing of life together.
Oren's Magic
- It is important to note that the curse itself is not lifted on Oren as a result of the exchange potion; only his outward appearance has changed. What has changed (as will be evident in Easing Tensions) is that the gender curse and age curse no longer influence him, and he has become simply an otter morph, with a temporary human appearance spell on him.
- At the point he used the potion, there were 8 differing spells at play:
- His Hipocci anti-magic nature, which slows down the effects of most magic;
- The Hipocci lake water, which caused his initial transformation into an otter-man;
- The Keep's magic, which in most Keepers acts as a counter-curse on Nasoj's curse to allow them to shift. Oren's ability to shift must have come from the Keep's magic, but might have countered the lake water magic;
- Nasoj's animal curse, in Oren's case the otter form…
- … Nasoj's gender curse, and…
- … Nasoj's age curse. All 3 of these curses affect Oren at once in Convergence. However, as established in Growth and Forgiveness, he is able to suppress the gender and age curses, which he attributes to his anti-magic nature. He has never, however, suppressed his otter form, indicating that Nasoj's animal curse is ultimately his permanent curse. This DOES differ from other Hipocci, who tend to get a blend of animal curses as seen in Penance and Retribution;
- Norebo's human-appearance potion, a temporary appearance spell;
- The seemings-exchange potion. This transfers all disguises and appearance spells upon use, regardless of their strength, from one subject to another. This effectively transfers the weakened forms of Nasoj's animal, gender, and age curses onto Norebo, and Norebo's human-appearance spell onto Oren. Nasoj's animal curse remains in effect, however, and will not only turn him back into an otter morph, but will allow him to shift again like a normal Keeper.
- Therefore, what this story seems to propose is that there are at least two aspects of Nasoj's spells: an outward appearance, and an inward identity. The appearance can be exchanged with another appearance, but his inward identity, more tightly bound to him, remains an otter. This inward identity powers the outward appearance, taking over once the human-appearance spell has worn off.
- This would mean that Oren did not technically become thrice-cursed: he received both aspects of the otter curse, but received only the appearance aspects of the gender and age curse.
- It would seem that the unique interaction of his Hipocci nature and the lake water are responsible for getting all three aspects of Nasoj's curses.
- Norebo, meanwhile, plans to use the fact that the curses are not anchored to his soul in order to activate the three appearance spells at will. Granted, this might require some knowledge of the original spells in order to manipulate and power.
- Note that there is at least one other aspect of the curse, mentioned in other stories, though not Oren's: loss of mental faculty (see Keeping the Lamp Lit or Hunt). This also seems to stem from the inward identity aspect.
- It is also suggested that animal curse's appearance spell can take the form of any species, and is not a mix of different animal spells.
- This fluidity can perhaps also explain why the taur form is possible — although the inward species is being reinforced, the actual manifestation of the outward appearance is not limited to a single species, or even a feral or bipedal form.
Chronology / Story Connections
- Oren mentions Vitra has been learning about the man with nail scars in his hands, likely referring to the story she heard from Ushka in Last Rights.
- This story takes place a few days before Christmas, as stated in Penance and Retribution.
- Metamor River is not yet frozen over; Nerr plans to travel to the sea before it does.
- The weather by the river is sunny and comfortable, thanks to Metamor's weather mages.
- The full moon of December 706 is on the 26th. Because Oren and Vitra, and the rest of the guests, will be preoccupied on December 24th (see The Winter Assault), the wedding likely takes place while the moon is gibbous, on the 22nd or earlier.
Points of Interest
- Oren keeps a "time candle" in his room.