Definitely a metaphor then, Niall thinks, unaware of the significance of the comment. Others have - in the past - identified us as the animals we keep, saying that someone "lived with a fox"; another "lived with a hawk", but it always meant that that was a euphemism for the shape a warrior wears when he doesn't wear his own.
"Only the warriors. At one time, the lir served all Cheysuli, and all Cheysuli could assume whatever lir-shape they wished. Both men and women knew the shapechange. And they all could speak with the lir. But over time this was lost - first in the men; who could only shapechange once bonded with a lir, and then only into a like shape - and then the women, who, not needing a specific lir to shapechange, lost all their gifts: both lir-shape and the ability to converse with all lir."
He fingers his left earlobe in thought.
"But already these gifts are starting to return. My rujholla - my sister - and my cheysula - wife - can both shapechange and both can talk to the lir.
And one day all will be able to do this, when the prophecy of the Firstborn is filfilled."
no subject
"Only the warriors. At one time, the lir served all Cheysuli, and all Cheysuli could assume whatever lir-shape they wished. Both men and women knew the shapechange. And they all could speak with the lir. But over time this was lost - first in the men; who could only shapechange once bonded with a lir, and then only into a like shape - and then the women, who, not needing a specific lir to shapechange, lost all their gifts: both lir-shape and the ability to converse with all lir."
He fingers his left earlobe in thought.
"But already these gifts are starting to return. My rujholla - my sister - and my cheysula - wife - can both shapechange and both can talk to the lir.
And one day all will be able to do this, when the prophecy of the Firstborn is filfilled."