Rescue of Rydos

This series deals primarily with the healing of Sydor through his relationship with Irralee. The major plotpoints are:

* The reintroduction of the displaced Children of Recognition into the colony. How do they handle love, affection and positive recognition when it has been denied them for a lifetime?

* Illora and Shardon must also learn to accept their deformity in the midst of the able-bodied WaveDancers, and choices need to be made on whether they are to be flesh-changed to their original genetic blue-print or not. Illora makes the choice to be physically healed by Raenafel, but Shardon decides to keep the face and body that he has grown up with (the one that Sydor imposed on him) as he perceives that form as his true identity no matter how hideous it is to the outsider, and he is comfortable with it.

* With the return of Shardon, Raenafel no longer holds the status of Crown (the Crowning has been contentious since Winnowill went through the ceremony). Shardon is the first-born heir to the rank (son of Neama), and is even less equipped to deal with the position than Raenafel. The education of the Children of Recognition gives Tentus a purpose, and he takes them both under his wing and begins to emerge from his hermetic life in the Chamber of Remembrance.

* Illora is embraced into the colony by Hyfus, but is rejected by Tilaweed who does not believe that she is her daughter. After many obstacles she is reunited emotionally to the child that she has mourned for many generations after accidentally hearing Illora sing a lullaby that Tilaweed sang to her when Illora was a baby. This the only proof she needs. Tilaweed celebrates her personal joy by finding her song and by playing her conch shell again. Hyfus realises the pain and suffering that she has gone through, and how wrong he has been to judge her by her withdrawal, and they are reunited once more.

* Sydor had previously been put in limbo in wrap-stuff, and kept in the grotto where he couldn't hurt any of the WaveDancers. But Irralee who carries his child disobeys instructions and actually releases him from the cocoon. He makes a decision to go inland, and takes her with him. She goes willingly because she is naive and trusting, and has glimpsed an element of goodness in him (the Rydos part). During the journey Sydor treats her cruelly and emotionally abuses her, and yet cracks appear in his facade when at times Rydos struggles to get out and take command and, who in these brief moments, shows Irralee some tenderness. She is confused by this swing in temperament, but nevertheless faithful to his plans and ambitions. Meanwhile Sleia and Jormak have set out to sea together on a physically arduous search for the missing two, and have a series of confrontations about Jormak's treatment of the children especially Shoresprout who has been provoking him to anger of late. Also Paffa and Maron set out inland to find Irralee and bring her home thinking that Sydor has kidnapped her. When they finally find her after many hardships and try to convince her to return with them, she says no, and they are forced to go back. However, when the Child of Recognition is born, and Sydor attempts to control and possess the baby girl in the same way he does her mother, Irralee puts a stop to it. Her fierce maternal instinct comes to the forefront, and she protects the baby in a major confrontation. She tells him that he is twisted, and needs to be healed. She cannot help him even though she has tried, it needs to be his choice. She has made her decision, and it is to leave. She escapes from him and heads back to the grotto with her baby where she is welcomed by the colony.

Shortly after, Sydor comes back: crestfallen and stripped of his arrogance and his need to control. It is the Rydos part of him who now calls for help for it is he that has felt the loss of goodness and unconditional love and it is he that has stared into the face of his own Child of Recognition and finally understood the profound grief that he has caused others. He goes to Raenafel and asks for her help. Unlike Winnowill who refuses to allow Leetah to heal her, Sydor finally accepts responsibility for his problems and ceases to lay the blame on the past. Raenafel recruits Irralee to help in the healing process: Irralee must be prepared to go on a psychic journey to the source of Sydor's problem. Raenafel guides her through Sydor's memories till she finds the critical situations that set up the personality splinter. The following is Sydor's backstory:

When the palace of the High Ones landed on the World of Two Moons many years ago and was set upon by hostile humans, a gifted Conehead called Rydos along with two companions and a Preserver become running mates in the quest for survival - their magic in disarray, their hope of a new beginning shattered and their minds filled with the horrific cries of those left behind to die.

The land proves to be as savage as the humans in pursuit, and as they stumble past lashing branches and through treacherous bogs, one of the Coneheads becomes trapped and cries out to the others for help. But Rydos keeps running, he cannot stop - fear is his driver. His other companion goes back to help, and is killed for her efforts. The little Preserver in its desperation to protect them spews wrap stuff in the face of the attacker who swings haphazardly with his club and sweeps the Preserver into the branches of a tree. As it swings from side to side, its wings skewered by thorns, the force of gravity drags it down and its wings shred. It falls into mud and remains there until it is discovered the next day by another group of five High Ones (Ausra, Desh, Livian, Sima, and an unnamed other) who take it with them on their journey to the Vast Deep Water (they later pull away the wing remnants and that is how No-Wing gets its name).

Rydos stumbles on endlessly, the screams of his slain friends haunting his mind until in his exhaustion one night he plunges into a valley. Thinking that he is safe he rests for the first time in days. But things have not settled around him. The Two Moons are merging as one and the land is beginning to grumble - mystic omens - for a tribe of wandering humans. They surround and pounce on this stranger with the intention of killing him. As they are about to club him, the land shudders with pain and in the distance a mountain erupts in flame. Their savagery is quelled for an instant as they misinterpret the natural phenomenon as a sign of this strange one's supernatural powers. Rydos seizes a chance and scuttles into a hole in the hillside. The humans are too large to fit in the hole, so they seal him inside by rolling a boulder across the entrance. It is too dangerous to kill him lest he unleashes some sort of uncontrollable power that smites the tribe, and it is too dangerous to let him go lest he enslaves them. And so in their primitive way, they decide to keep him a prisoner in the hole. And through the generations Rydos takes on the focus of myth and legend as the story of his capture and imprisonment is told to frightened children and his persona is woven into an image of fear and worship.

And there he stays for many hundreds of years being fed intermittently, not seeing the light, feeling nothing but the touch of damp earth, hearing only the grinding of the rock and the muffled grunts of the human's language outside. But it is the feeling of complete and utter powerlessness that overwhelms him. For the magic and the special abilities he had as a Conehead in the palace so long ago did not transcend to this new world. They couldn't be mustered, they couldn't be harnessed, he couldn't coax or cajole them out of hiding. The elfin body has betrayed him for now he doesn't even have the strength to move the rock. And the more he torments himself with his own helplessness, the more he withdraws inside where nothing can harm him and where he no longer has to face his reflection.

But the magic is only dormant. Deep inside where he cannot reach is a seed of energy fed on suppressed fear, anger and guilt that smoulders and flames and courses through his being until it takes on a consciousness all of its own. It is the fear that his undoing and also his saviour.

For the shadow part of himself that calls itself Sydor cannot stand to see Rydos deteriorating in both mind and limb, and it makes the decision one day to put him to sleep until it is safe to come out again. And so Sydor, the Strong One, breaks free of Rydos' living death. Having spent years augmenting the magic within, he summons all his resources one night shattering the boulder with thought and escaping into the night. Sydor has the power to reconstitute the frail limbs and flee to a distant land until he can rescue the sleeping Rydos from his internal tomb. His only thoughts are to find the palace and return to his original Conehead form which offers all-prevailing safety and security and a well of magic that was virtually unlimited.

But it is not to be. Sydor wanders the wilderness for countless turns of the season searching for his old home and evidence that his own kind (in their impure elfin shapes) have survived, but he has not taken into account that the land has changed as he has. And as time passes so too do memories of the sleeping Rydos. All Sydor knows is that he must keep searching, and soon Rydos becomes forgotten within.

Then one day he stumbles upon the Bay of Solitude in his wanderings. He has searched for many seasons for a sight of his own kind. As he looks down into the water and see the young elfin families frolicking with the dolphins, he is struck with revulsion at the sight of their physical imperfection.

He cannot reveal himself because the wingless Preserver No-Wing is part of their community and will recognise him, and it is likely that the other High Ones know of his role in the death of his companions. But he also surmises that they would know the location of the Palace, so he decides to stay close and find out what he can. The young child, Tentus, a talented coral shaper begins to ail for he senses the presence of a diseased mind.

Sydor settles on the edge of the colony on an island living like a hermit watching and waiting for clues to the location of the Palace and a chance to steal the Preserver who possesses that special homing instinct. But he sees something else he covets: the fresh, vibrant magic belonging to the Children of Recognition. Of all the fold these show the most promise: if he can change these children back into Coneheads then eventually he will be able to effectively change himself back without misdirecting the magic. And it is in the second generation he begins to steal these special children.

First he takes Shardon, then Illora and then eventually four more. The colony is plunged into grief and mourning for their young. Their search is hopeless for his power to camouflage by way of the bubble is quite extraordinary. He takes the babies to his island and rears them as his own instructing them, fashioning their thoughts, and eventually working his magic. But things go wrong: as Coneheads they are weak and fragile. Each time he thinks he has conquered the flesh, they are left sick and frail and incapable of doing anything but the menial of tasks. He has lost sight of the fact that in their sea-elf form they were strong for they had evolved with the environment.

And so the Curse of Recognition is set up, and as the generations pass the colony takes on a different dynamic. Where once they were joyous and carefree, they are now melancholy and clouded with suspicion. Where once couples recognised each other with an excitement and exuberance about the product of their union, there is now a sense of impending doom. The colony as a whole is genetically undermined and morally weakened, and soon the special gifts begin to die with the kidnapped children.

This continues to Brom's time. Ausra in her despair gives the Crown to Neama her daughter, and disappears with the narwhale without warning taking with her the unique flesh-changing magic. Tentus, her son, is left with the scars of an abandoning mother, and retreats to his self-sculptured Chamber of Remembrance. With Ausra's disappearance the seafolk are no longer given the luxury of choosing a tail, and a special status is endowed (rather like that of a near-extinct animal) on Tentus, Tilaweed, Hyfus and Kirith. When Neama dies, Brom becomes the third Crown. He takes the burden of the community and the rearing of his fourth generation Child of Recognition, Raenafel, on his shoulders when his lifemate Ailsa dies at birth. Brom enlists the help of Kirith and together they hide Raenafel away (with No-Wing as a companion) in a secret place. In protecting her in this way, Raenafel becomes a prisoner by virtue of her birth and the strong elemental powers that she displays from a very early age.

In the ensuing years Sydor searches for the Seventh Child without success growing more frustrated and unhedged with each passing day. He can swim and camouflage himself, but he will not give himself a tail for this will genetically remove himself even further from the Conehead form. He knows that this special child Raenafel will be his crowning glory: full of promise and potent magic that could undeniably be utilised to making her perfect: for the only perfect form is the Conehead form and his entire quest hinges on his search for perfection.

After Barmek stumbles on Raenafel and she is sent away, Brom begins to tell the story of how his daughter did not die at birth but had survived all this time and would return once more with the wisdom of the High Ones to become the next Crown. And so a legend begins to spread through the colony offering a new hope, a new expectation and a feeling or promise.

But Brom does not live to see this happen. During his relentless and obsessive pursuit of the shadow that stalks the innocent, Brom is branded with a warning sign of the Cursemaker's powers (ie. facial hair) when he gets too close to the truth. Many years later, shortly after Raenafel has been sent away, Brom uncovers the truth and is killed accidentally in a confrontation with Sydor in the very cave where his daughter has been brought up. The secret dies with Brom, and so the Crown is unfilled. Sydor is enraged that Raenafel has escaped him, but later finds an excellent playmate in Winnowill after she is brought to his island by Tyldak. By controlling her internal pain, he realises that he has a powerful shape-changer on his hands, and that Raenafel is no longer needed to fulfil his master plan of returning to the Palace with his followers and to find their true Conehead form.

The source of Sydor's internal split is the guilt of not having helped his companions. During the healing process Irralee shows the Rydos part of the personality an alternative scenario if he had gone to help the trapped elves. He sees that he would have been killed by the human club, and finally realises that the only way he could have survived the situation was to act in the way he did in those circumstances. Irralee also helps him release the terror from his experience at the hands of the tribe of humans. Finally, Raenafel convinces the Sydor personality that he won't be banished (for he is afraid that he will disappear), and then integrates both sides of the personality so that the dysfunctional parts fade away and the strength and resources from both alter-egos remain in a healed and whole Rydos.