The state Leonard used to live in was called Macomica. It was very urbanized. It had a lot of manufacturing, textiles, stuff like that. Coralivia was much more rural. They grew, sugar, tea, spices, flavourings, herbs, fancy fruits, cotton, silk, fabric dye, stuff like that. They also had ranching and some mining.

RIver stole that helmet she was wearing in that one scene from her father the King. She wore it when meeting Leonard because she couldn't communicate too well at that time, probably because she was too weak, and she thought that wearing the helmet would help Leonard figure out that she was the daughter that he helped save.

Thomas's mother, who liked to wear large dresses made of colourful, textured velvet, particularly red, was the one who pushed him to conform most, and who put the most pressure on him.

In case it wasn't clear, Leonard was a human with a good spirit or some kind of thing (think of it was a mixture between a good spirit and a good force) "living" inside of him. This spirit was kind of similar to the River Maiden in that they were both benevolent and magical but very different in many ways as well.

A corrupted, dark, heavy, and terrifying ambiance could be felt all over Coralivia, which was tied with the Roaring King and his hold over the place. The only places this wasn't present in were as follows: the blue canvas tent by the forest and later the part of town the escapees lived in, the fields in the estates where there were lots of slaves and mostly just them, and parts of nature humans hadn't really built over. As the Roaring King's power slowly faded this ambiance faded too.

Leonard and Thomas both developed short-lived crushes on the River Maiden at one point in their lives, after the main conflict with the Roaring King got resolved. But she, being a benevolent spirit or whatever and all, is asexual and aromantic. Like super asexual and aromantic. She's not going fall in love any more than the river itself is going to fall in love. She's not going to want to kiss someone any more than the river is goign to want to kiss someone. But Leo and Thomas both understood that once she explained and weren't creeps about it. Also Leonard is straight and Thomas is either bi or pan, though I don't know which. Which means that while they're best friends and partners in abolition and they stay best friends throughout their life, no romantic stuff happens between them. I don't know if either character gets married in the future of their lives but I'm thinking they probably do. So, yeah.

Don't ever press pause. Don't press rewind. Don't let old white men who were born rich tell you what to think. Don't let ANYONE tell you what to think. Listen to your heart. Have empathy for people, care about their feelings. Care about everyone. No story's ever gonna be perfect so don't look for perfection in fiction. No person or group has ever been perfect so don't follow your role models too obsessively. Try to make your own perfection in reality.

River spent the next years wildly, ragingly, fighting the Roaring King in confrontational magical battles, aiding escapees and giving them tailsmans for protection, and doing whatever she could to progress the cause.

Leonard and Thomas also freed and helped free person after person, giving them protective stones and helping them be happy in their new lives. Thomas's plays also helped bring a couple of people from the new generation of overpriviledged snobs onto the good side.

Escapees in turn helped other people escape.

It was like emptying the ocean with a cup but at least it was something.

They were a very tight-knit community together and always helped each other out. Yes, there were a lot of things in their lives and their relationships they could improve upon, but they were willing to find and work towards progress.

Change, in Coralivia, was moving slow. But people beleived in it. And everyone was doing everything they could. And Leonard could feel the gentle summer breeze of change slowly picking up speed.

He could feel the threads of corruption laced through Coralivia weaken and fray. The King's power was weakening.

Coralivia, in all it's beautiful natural glory, had hope. The whole country had hope.

They put sprigs of cedar in their hair, behind their ears, to bring a bit of nature with them, even though that wouldn't help much. They wrapped their arms around each others' waists so they'd be closer to each other, and they walked all in a line, in sync. Leo brought his stone of protection, clutching it tightly in his hand. THe spirit inside him, Golden Dawn, was much more tied into the world now, on account of being better shared and understood, and therefore stronger. There's fear, hope, and confusion as they press forwards in the soft post-sunrise light.

When the Roaring King saw them coming at him he ran. Leonard thought this was incredible as this time the Roaring King feared them as they had feared him before.

They chased it back to that first tent where it had first taken Leo. When it w inside the tent they used their collective power to knock him down. They were scared, determined, and they felt the corruption getting stripped off and vanishing as the Roaring King's form diniminshed. Try as they might though they they couldn't make it vanish entirely.

They realized that they weren't strong enough to take away all it's power, and the Roaring King was strong enough to persist still, probably for years more.

Realizing that they did all they could, they scattered and ran back to the river.

They realized that though they could not defeat him yet, they had weakened him and could use this opportunity to free as many slaves as possible. The The River Maiden burst into a rush of waves and Leo clutched his stone tight.

They realized, though they hadn't noticed it before, that every time they freed a person corrupted, invisible stings were gathering around that person and pulling them back. Leonard instantly recognized what this was, this was the work of the same evil force that had gone after him.

Leonard's spirit and the River Maiden's spirit and Leonard and Thomas all felt pulled to each other, and in a small while the three ... whatever's ... found themselves face to face, with the Maiden's head bobbing out of the water and Thomas and Leonard on the bank.

The River Maiden was frustrated, enraged, despondent, and overall going crazy that her father was still too strong for the brotherhood of change. She had been fighting against his dark magic with her own passionate energy. But he was too strong and it was unbearable for her that nothing was still happening. She called him the Roaring King, said that was his title, and that his reach as vast and powerful in Coralivia.

Thomas said that maybe they should all go together and confront the Roaring King, head-on, and perhaps they could weaken him. Leonard remembered how weak the River Maiden had become the last  time he'd seen her and the Roaring King face-to-face. He wondered if it wasn't a good idea but thought about how they had another person no their team now and he himself had gotten much more connected with the spirit inside of him so she thought it worth a try. Especially if it could help free other slaves.

The RIver Maiden said she was intrinsically tied to nature and would get weaker the longer she was away from it so the faster they got the mission done the safer it would be for them and the likelier they were to succeed.

But whatever happened, they agreed, they had to give it their best go.

Leonard and Thomas became great friends. Thomas had been living on his own in his small, sparse tent for a while. He had finally gotten the courage to leave his parents and was content, he explained to Leonard in one of their many talks. While Thomas definitely would like to have enough food, everything else was okay. The tent was small but it had all the space he needed. He had no furniture and just a few tools, a mattress, and some bedding, but he had everything he needed to write his plays and be happy. He didn't go to grand places anymore and that was okay as he had a lot of peace being here and hanging out with the less affluent denizens of the town.

Leonard told Thomas of his own history too. Of his adventures in town trying to build a life, of his adventures galloping away from his old master, across the country. And of course he told him about all the terror and misery of his time in slavery, and the dark horror of the River Maiden's dad. And he told him of all the fantastical things he experienced with the River Maiden and his glorious journey through the river.

Thomas said he knew the River Maiden, that she helped him leave behind the corrupt side and be who he was and find purity.

Leonard liked how Thomas talked to him. With a quiet, constant, unquestioning respect that was as strong as stone. Leonard was just another person to him, just another human being, just another pocket of love. He was not something to be used, he was not a pathway to some end, he was not valued for what he did. He was simply valued because he was a human trying his very best to help people. He was simply a friend, to be respected and helped. He was simply seen.

Hacombe was the happiest out of the three of them. He was able to wander though the meadow and the grass, running and grazing to his hear's content. He was the only one with quite enough food, as Thomas's theatre hadn't taken off yet and Leonard had yet to find work.

They had the magical bag, but even though they were hungry they knew it wasn't infinite and they didn't want to take too much from it. But even though they were hungry they were respected and that was much better than being a slave. Also, the work they did was uplifting and not degrading, which was a major difference from Leonard's old life.

Leonard asked Thomas one day, while they were sitting on the untreated wooden floorboards of their dark blue canvas tent, how he got the courage to leave home. Thomas said that at first he was iffy about slavery and materialism but he didn't wanna leave his parents becasue he didn't wanna be who knows how hungry for who knows how long. He got to his parents estate and saw how big it was. How big and towering and ornate their harsh stone mansion was. He'd seen it before but this was the first time he saw it with his eyes open. It was so distant from nature, so far removed from it. It was a wound on nature.

He felt a heavy, suffocating poisonous force around that place. And he couldn't get used to all the wealth he was around either, it was so far removed from nature. And what he coudln't get used to most of all was having slaves around. It was such an abomination. It was so corrupt and unkind and disturbing. He realized he couldn't live like this anymore. He was alright if he starved. He was alright if he died. Dieing was preferable to this scheisse. He could feel the threads of corruption in the air. So he packed a couple of things, some money, and left. He'd been living in his tent and trying to start his theatre career ever since.

Leonard agreed that the wealth of the estates was really far removed from nature and of course slavery was an abomination. They talked about how in contrast their hut seemed so in tune with nature, how it seemed huddled up against nature like a child on it's mother's lap. It didn't seem to be hurting nature. It seemed to be in harmony with it. Small and humble and nestled by the forest.

They worked in their respective fields for the next few months. Leonard got an apprenticeship as a carpenter. His place of work wasn't extravagant. Just a few tools and some wood. He enjoyed it, it was peaceful, he felt respected. He did his best. More people eventually came to see Thomas's shows too, and he started earning a steady income from that.

Most of his stories were subtly anti-slavery, and he made them especially for the young children of slaveowners, who often came by to see his shows. His theatre was pretty simple and in his tent, but children preferred love over a bunch of stuff, like kids do if you let them be free and without pressure.

The two youths also spent much of their time scouting estates and trying to free any slaves they could. They made instant and warm bonds with all the wonderful slaves they tried to free. The rescue missions were terrifying and exhilarating and filled them with with such a lovely, perfect, sense for purpose.

But they never went well. Even if they did succeed at freeing someone, and they often didn't, that person would often be found again and returned to their places of torment. Leonard and Thomas knew that something was wrong. This wasn't the mission they were brought together for. They had to know what was going on.

One day, on a cloudy day in August, he found himself by the river again though. How he got there is not shown. Hacombe was there though, and Leonard was overjoyed to see him again and embraced him. He saw the River Maiden with her head out of the water, looking deeply, longingly at him, smiling a bit sadly.

She let him know, without speaking, that one of the things she is a spirit of is desiring for positive change. Desiring for it with all of her being, incredibly, intensely, needing it, longing for it, supporting it wholeheartedly. She tried her best to make change happen. But she wasn't the spirit of making change happen directly, she wasn't directly the spirit of change happening. So she couldn't always make change happen. Change happening was made even more impossible by her father, the spirit of keeping things the same, and his cronies. But Leonard was what could perhaps change that.

Leonard had the spirit of change happening, of situations improving, inside of him. That might  be why he was the first escaped slave ever. Wanting change, panging for change and hoping for change is what powers change and drives change into happening. But it's not all-powerful. Sometimes, only sometimes, there's a lot if can't do.

Leonard's spirit though was the actual phenomenon of change occurring, which of course, needs her spritit, the spritit of wanting change. Together they could be incredibly powerful.

She gave Leonard a bag of supplies and money. She said that food was magical and was extra nourishing and healthy. There was an extent to which the food and money in the bag could replace itself once take out, but this couldn't happen an infinite amount of times. It was she best she could do. She told Leonard to meet Thomas, who had been changing his own life a lot lately, in a tent near the town by the river and evergreen forest. She gave him a pale stone from the river and told him to hold onto it, as it would prevent her father or his cronies or even the estate owners form finding him or recognizing him.

Then the group would work on freeing as many slaves as they could together.

Leonard took Hacombe and the magic supply bag and walked into the river. The currents were soft and cool and deep as the River Maiden transported them to Thomas's tent.

Leonard didn't want to leave though because he felt that if he left he'd have have failed at becoming a normal citizen. Now this wasn't true, he was a normal citizen no matter what. But while he knew very well how to be kind to other people he hadn't quite mastered how to be kind to himself yet. So he went back into town, bumped into Thomas again briefly, job hunted for a while, and also spent his time spying on the esttunities for him to free any of the slaves.

HIs folly caught up with him though as soon some of the slaveowners captured him for being an escaped slave.

He found himself again sleeping on the bare ground, working long and strenuous hours in sometimes extreme weather, and generally suffering. He was put to work picking crops, so he had the company of the other slaves at least. That was a fact that we was grateful for.

Sometimes the sun was searing down on him and he was incredibly overheating, making his head throw horribly. Sometimes the evening chilll bit into him. He had to work fast, incredibly fast, inhumanly fast, and it strained his mind and his arms and his focus so much that by the end of the day he felt like a bundle of frayed string. The constant fear of being punished weighed on him, terrifying him. And each day seemed more painful that the last. They didn't give him enough food, didn't give any of them anough food. Leonard quickly lost a lot of weight, became as thin as he used to be before he escaped for the first time. The hunger made the work so much more painful. He cut himself on the more thorny branches at times.

He knew that whatever he was experiancing wasn't any worse than what the other slaves were experiancing. He knew they all suffered together. There was a sense of oneness, of camaraderie and brotherhood amongst the slaves. He loved that feeling. He wouldn't trade it for the world.

But that didn't mean he wan't in a lot of pain. The experiance was harsh, unforgiving, terrifying oppressive, grating, ad melancholy. The worst part was when he was seeing one of his comrades die.

He didn't give up hope though. He knew that there was some power working within him stronger than he himself, that no-one else had. It was that flickering light he'd noticed before. Separate from but tied with the River Maiden's power. It was the act of crossing lines, of emerging into a better situation, of creating a better situation. He knew he had to use his power to help his friends. He knew he had to use it to help them emerge into a better situation, to free them. After all, that's what the power was for. He couldn't selfishly keep it that would be treacherous. He'd learned by this point to by kind to himself too, by the way. He didn't know how but he would go about freeing people.

Leonard thought for sure that he was going to drown. But as the cool embrace of water led him down, he felt ... not dead. He felt himself navigation through the water like a bird through the air. He felt himself not needing to breathe. He glided to the river.

The river was beautiful. Heavenly sunlight came flooding in though the top layer of water. THe water was cool and fresh. Flowing constantly forwards as humanity flowed constantly forewards as one generation made way for the next. Some fo the water bent, swirled, and beat against the edges. The cool ribbons of liquid caressed him.

There was a girl in front of him. No, a mermaid. No, it was the very same girl as before. Her pale skin was blue in the light underwater, and her dark hair and lips looked navy-blue. She had a long tail that also liked navy-blue tipped by translucent fins. She had a simple dark strip of cotton around her chest. She looked so healthy. She looked so at home. She looke so one with the river around her, like she understood it perfectly, like it was a part of her, like they were intrinsically tied.

She seemed full of spiritual energy.

The river teemed with life. Beautiful, magical full of energy and spirit and harmony and nature, shining in the sunlight as it constantly moved and shifted.

She beckoned him to follow her. So he did. She was so wild, so lively. Wild and free and untamed like the water that constantly rushed to sea or the fish that followed their instincts and their nature or the rocks that jutted in and of put of the river bank. She showed him through the nature of Coralivia. The intrinsic energy that flowed within it was the intrinsic energy that flowed within us all, that flowed through us all.

She was constantly moving, constantly wanting to improve, constantly wanting the world to improve. Progress. Improvement, Positive change. It's what she ached for. What she burned for. What she wanted intensely with the whole of her entirety. He longed for it too. He longed for positive change, panged for it. So maybe, very likely, his powers and her being were tied. Yes, she agreed.

They communicated not by words but by feelings. By overwhelming, joyous, hopeful feelings. She beckoned him to her, trying to show him the way to freedom. She really really wanted his freedom, he could tell, it meant a lot to her, to them both.

The river danced with the dance of life, with the dance to nature too. And he felt it all go into him and strengthen him and heal him and he felt that magical flame inside him grow stronger and healthier. The nature, the nature was so wild and free and harmonious. Everything inside it followed it's nature, followed it's instincts, did what it inherently felt was right. It flowed into him reminded him to always follow his instincts and be kind and generous, let his life and his love flow undisturbed by things like things and objects and money.

The river maiden flowed in it and with it and as it and by it like the river's - like nature's - daughter and sister and mother and baby all at the same time. Her love pressed onto him. She wanted him to be free. She wanted him to be respected, healthy, treated fairly, not exploited or seen as a source of gain but seen as human. She ached for it. For all the slaves. This was a positive change that needed to happen.

She was so in tune with the river, everything in the river was so intune with each other, worked in perfect harmony and understanding. It was inspired/reminded him to always respect and try to understand people.

To understand that they were pockets of love and life and beautiful spiritual energy.  He had to respect and understand and value them all as pieces of spiritual energy and glory. Just as every life form and environmental aspect was part of each other people were all part of each other. Just like ever twist and bend of the river brought with it new question on the nature of life, Leo knew that life itself and love itself and humans and relationships between humans and the inhuman were infinite and there were infininities of question you could ask about them.

The River Maiden, she was intrinsically tied to youth itself, to the very concept of youth and to youthful rebellion. So she questioned everything. Every action, every idea, every aspect of life and the world and existence, she questioned it. If she found that an idea was good she accepted it, dedicated herself to trying to protect it. If she felt an idea to be good, if it resounded within her spirit as natural and right then she railed for it. It was almost dangerous, how much she questioned everything. Almost dangerous, but not quite.

Leonard felt thrilled to be travelling down the river with her. Thrilled and energized and inspired.

The ecosystem was always breathing, always intermingling. Every beautiful aspect was sharing it's energy and being with every other beautiful aspect. It reminded him to be as kind and generous as he could and always try his very best to help people. To share as much as his own sacred energy with other people as much as he could, to share his love and his care. Light pooled over the river. The maiden was smiling. The river was so kind, so caring, so wanting all people to be well, physically emotionally, and spiritually. Leonard reflected that it was good for him to do the same.

The river gave him hope that the greedy, excessive, proud, dehumanizing face of Coralivia wasn't the real one. Hope that the natural state could be returned to. That a kinder, simpler, more generous time could be reached where people saw each other as people and that view wasn't marred by desire for illicit gain.

The River Maiden eventually dropped him off at shore, where Hacombe and a bag of supplies were waiting, at the edge of Coralivia. She told him to get out of here, that it wasn't safe with her father around.