#necklace. my aunt and I are planning matching μάτι tattoos on our left wrists in traditional blue. the red version is Italian which is also

[godblooded]

gale has a blue μάτι (evil eye) embroidered by his mother on the left sleeve of his robe. when he was a baby, he was gifted a gold bracelet with a simple μάτι in white enamel by his godfather. it’s traditional for the godparents to buy a μάτι baby bracelet for their godchild and it must always be worn on your left wrist. it’s not to be taken off, and if it breaks it means it protected you from ill intent and must be replaced. the μάτι wards off all evil and must be a gift bought by someone else. the reasoning for this is the μάτι is imbued with the good energy and love of the giver (this goes for all jewelry too) and therefore cannot be acquired by you, as is also tradition for any μάτι one purchases or acquires. his baby bracelet no longer fits him, and he’s never acquired an ‘adult’ μάτι, as he hasn’t yet found the perfect one that’s caught his eye.

all the trouble and crisis and mystra took him away from the possibility of such a mundanity, the simple promise of an imperative touch of memory, self. he wants his mother to buy him his adult μάτι, the one he will always wear on his left wrist. she embroidered the one in his robe. when he can, when it’s right, he wants to find her one fitting of one so spectacular as herself to craft for her. by his own hands or the meticulous hands of another, any mastery will do, but the beauty must be immaculate. perhaps an enchantment.

he still has his baby bracelet, which he cherishes as it has never broken. gale often makes sure to keep it tucked away on his person (always in the left pocket of a rucksack, always in the left inseam of his robe). he keeps it close, as its enchantment is all its own. he thinks of it as a talisman, a shield, as a boon to his courage; the strength of his family and all that came before them remembered in a trinket.