23 Ash, Year 122
[Closed - Æros]
Part I
The idea of playing around with the yields of the different plants was fascinating, and Hilana considered it. She knew enough from botany and ecology that she would surely want to supplement the plant itself in order to have the best success in that regard. It would need extra nurturing, surely, so either playing with the soil or more nutrients for it so that it could support the yield... still... she would have to play around with it, and hopefully not hurt anything while she was at it. But he was right - the possibilities were endless, she would just have to see what could be done and how.
But when Æros refused to meet her gaze, looking away, she was concerned that she had offended him, or upset him, though his words seemed to indicate otherwise. She didn’t push him, letting him take his time to take in what she had said. Hilana knew it had been a risk when she ran her mouth that way; sometimes people weren’t ready to hear it, or they didn’t necessarily want to hear it, and certainly not from someone like her. It wouldn’t have been the first time that she upset a friend that way; she’d done it mere weeks ago with Khyan. This was even riskier because where she had been in relative safety speaking to former Patrician, this Dominus had status and plenty to ruin her life for giving offense if he was so inclined.
As he spoke about what he had experienced barely just the other day, Hilana reached for one of his large hands again and held it in both of hers to provide silent support and reassurance for him. This was a lot to digest. From his recounting, Hilana had a feeling that the Faerie was traumatized, and she found the union pressure point in the webbing between thumb and forefinger of the hand that she was holding, and began to apply gentle pressure to it, massaging slowly with her own fingers to provide a relief point for the stress and anxiety that he was experiencing, all the while trying to encourage him without words.
Her mind worked through what he told her, and Hilana considered, picking it apart. No. That wasn’t going to be so. If they’d completely given up in him, then there was no reason that they wouldn’t have told him to just end his life there in the Templum. No. This was surely a test. A stark one, but a warning. “Some things can be broken beyond repair, yes. You are not one of them,” the girl told him. “No. I will not accept that, and neither will you,” the Vastiana shook her head, making her mishmash of earrings catch and reflect the light within the greenhouse. “No. You are not broken beyond repair. We are going to pick up the pieces, and put them together again. No matter what we have to use to put you back together. I did it, and you will do it. It is hard, and it will hurt. It will hurt a great deal, because you will have to face your feelings, and feel them. All of them. But you won’t do it alone. I will be here. And so will Khyan.” She released his hand, then, and her long arms went around him, pulling him into a hug to try to press as much comfort into him as she could.
Hilana knew that that was even more wildly inappropriate than the blasphemy that she had uttered earlier, but she had a feeling he might need it. That eerie calmness worried her, making her wonder if he had done something to rein himself in. She was no Mesmer nor Sembler to know, or understand just what Æros had done to calm himself, but she didn’t like it. “The wheel always turns,” she told him as she looked up at him from where she was doing her best to squish him. “Just because you feel that you are at the very bottom of it... the wheel will turn. It always does. It is always moving, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but the wheel of fortune and fate always moves. No. You are going to heal, and you are going to grow beyond this fascination everyone else has for your blood. I see you. You are stronger than you think you are. You do not feel it right now, and you do not see it right now, but they do not define you. If She of the Bonds and Binding felt you were useless, you would not be here, Dominus. She would have told you to cut your throat then and end it. And She didn’t. This means there’s still opportunities for redemption. The only thing bigger than a setback... is the comeback.” Her long arms tightened in a final squeeze before letting him go and finding his hands again. “No. You are going to come back from this. Prayers and sacrifices, and improvement of your self and skills. Magic is a divine gift. Your practicing and improving in it, and acquiring more Runes, is practicing our religion. No. I am certain that They feel you can do so much more than you have, but She was harsh because She felt She had to be. My guardians were always hard if they felt I was slacking and they were disappointed. The Domina surely feels the same way. You are getting back on your path, and it starts today. Lessons can be ruthless... but not learning and staying stagnant is even worse.”
She nodded as he said that blood was powerful. “Blood, life. Things that are lost... life is probably more permanent, but a good bloodshed is viable. But next time I go on a hunt, I will bring you along. I usually go at night, or once the sun sets, so you shouldn’t have any problems with the sun and the heat then,” Hilana added. “We just have to have no expectations of what is to come, and prove our usefulness and ourselves to Them and to our community... just as you can by getting involved in the Senate. You could help improve the lives of many, you know. That is vitally important. That is valuable. Don’t ever forget that. Sure, the Senate is a nest of vipers... but you’ve got a ready mind, I think, and with your Uncle to help you learn the ropes and guide and advise you, you will surely thrive there. You were able to talk me around, and do you know how long everyone else in my life has been trying?” Hilana smiled at him. “Over a decade. And you did that.”
She nodded as he spoke of Khyan, and at the same time... already started to downplay his abilities. “Five good things about yourself a day. Every morning. Because when we speak poorly to ourselves, the warrior within hears it and is lessened. Don’t,” she squeezed his hand again, still holding onto it. “It just takes time and the drive to do it. You have that. You can do it, Dominus. I know you can. Between the two of you, I think you will do very well. Especially if he’s with you full time soon.”
“That could very well be,” Hilana was thoughtful. He had no reason to be sheepish, it was certainly far more than she knew on the subject. But she would get whatever books were recommended to her, and she would study. And she would study hard. “I don’t think my mother’s tribe did, but on the other hand... when you’re part of a group like that, you can’t always go off like that to such places. Everyone in the tribe has responsibilities that they need to take care of, But we will have to ask your cousin when the time for such things comes. But we’ll find out... no matter what it takes. But however the bones fall, any and all are good. All of them are in a cycle, none above or below the next. Balanced, equal... necessary. ‘Air above us, earth below us, water surrounds us, fire within us, spirit becomes us,’” she echoed her maternal grandmother’s words from years ago.
“I can’t say I’ve really worried about love. I’ve fallen for people and others have fallen for me, but it was never meant to be anything permanent and we all knew it. It comes and goes as it will, but what’s meant to be will find its way to us. Just like the two of you,” she smiled up at him. Æros seemed to be truly devoted to Khyan, and that made Hilana feel warm and glowing inside. Because to hear him say it... her friend felt the same way. There wasn’t enough joy in such a harsh world. The more there was between two that desperately needed it, the better.
“The general one is more of a blood cleanser. It purifies toxins and venom in the bloodstream. It does work a bit slower but it’s been effective nonetheless. We’ve also used it for scorpion stings and spider bites, not just snake bites, so it’s been useful there. He’d probably do it at your behest, but in any event, when we’re done here, we’ll drop by the shop again and I will get you a bottle,” Hilana was cheerful, leading Æros away from the gooseberries, this time going on another turn and down another couple of aisles. He would likely recognize a rather massive snake plant sitting in a heavy clay pot. The unnaturally large Moonstone that she had mentioned early on. “This is the leviathan I overgrew,” she told him with a smile, touching one of the enormous, pale-green leaves. Her comments about its size didn’t do it justice, because the plant, grown off a fallen leaf of the plant that had been so small in the shop, was even bigger than the Vastiana was, and its fronds were substantial. Something had to be said for whatever it was that was in Ecithian soil, after all...
[Closed - Æros]
Part I
The idea of playing around with the yields of the different plants was fascinating, and Hilana considered it. She knew enough from botany and ecology that she would surely want to supplement the plant itself in order to have the best success in that regard. It would need extra nurturing, surely, so either playing with the soil or more nutrients for it so that it could support the yield... still... she would have to play around with it, and hopefully not hurt anything while she was at it. But he was right - the possibilities were endless, she would just have to see what could be done and how.
But when Æros refused to meet her gaze, looking away, she was concerned that she had offended him, or upset him, though his words seemed to indicate otherwise. She didn’t push him, letting him take his time to take in what she had said. Hilana knew it had been a risk when she ran her mouth that way; sometimes people weren’t ready to hear it, or they didn’t necessarily want to hear it, and certainly not from someone like her. It wouldn’t have been the first time that she upset a friend that way; she’d done it mere weeks ago with Khyan. This was even riskier because where she had been in relative safety speaking to former Patrician, this Dominus had status and plenty to ruin her life for giving offense if he was so inclined.
As he spoke about what he had experienced barely just the other day, Hilana reached for one of his large hands again and held it in both of hers to provide silent support and reassurance for him. This was a lot to digest. From his recounting, Hilana had a feeling that the Faerie was traumatized, and she found the union pressure point in the webbing between thumb and forefinger of the hand that she was holding, and began to apply gentle pressure to it, massaging slowly with her own fingers to provide a relief point for the stress and anxiety that he was experiencing, all the while trying to encourage him without words.
Her mind worked through what he told her, and Hilana considered, picking it apart. No. That wasn’t going to be so. If they’d completely given up in him, then there was no reason that they wouldn’t have told him to just end his life there in the Templum. No. This was surely a test. A stark one, but a warning. “Some things can be broken beyond repair, yes. You are not one of them,” the girl told him. “No. I will not accept that, and neither will you,” the Vastiana shook her head, making her mishmash of earrings catch and reflect the light within the greenhouse. “No. You are not broken beyond repair. We are going to pick up the pieces, and put them together again. No matter what we have to use to put you back together. I did it, and you will do it. It is hard, and it will hurt. It will hurt a great deal, because you will have to face your feelings, and feel them. All of them. But you won’t do it alone. I will be here. And so will Khyan.” She released his hand, then, and her long arms went around him, pulling him into a hug to try to press as much comfort into him as she could.
Hilana knew that that was even more wildly inappropriate than the blasphemy that she had uttered earlier, but she had a feeling he might need it. That eerie calmness worried her, making her wonder if he had done something to rein himself in. She was no Mesmer nor Sembler to know, or understand just what Æros had done to calm himself, but she didn’t like it. “The wheel always turns,” she told him as she looked up at him from where she was doing her best to squish him. “Just because you feel that you are at the very bottom of it... the wheel will turn. It always does. It is always moving, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but the wheel of fortune and fate always moves. No. You are going to heal, and you are going to grow beyond this fascination everyone else has for your blood. I see you. You are stronger than you think you are. You do not feel it right now, and you do not see it right now, but they do not define you. If She of the Bonds and Binding felt you were useless, you would not be here, Dominus. She would have told you to cut your throat then and end it. And She didn’t. This means there’s still opportunities for redemption. The only thing bigger than a setback... is the comeback.” Her long arms tightened in a final squeeze before letting him go and finding his hands again. “No. You are going to come back from this. Prayers and sacrifices, and improvement of your self and skills. Magic is a divine gift. Your practicing and improving in it, and acquiring more Runes, is practicing our religion. No. I am certain that They feel you can do so much more than you have, but She was harsh because She felt She had to be. My guardians were always hard if they felt I was slacking and they were disappointed. The Domina surely feels the same way. You are getting back on your path, and it starts today. Lessons can be ruthless... but not learning and staying stagnant is even worse.”
She nodded as he said that blood was powerful. “Blood, life. Things that are lost... life is probably more permanent, but a good bloodshed is viable. But next time I go on a hunt, I will bring you along. I usually go at night, or once the sun sets, so you shouldn’t have any problems with the sun and the heat then,” Hilana added. “We just have to have no expectations of what is to come, and prove our usefulness and ourselves to Them and to our community... just as you can by getting involved in the Senate. You could help improve the lives of many, you know. That is vitally important. That is valuable. Don’t ever forget that. Sure, the Senate is a nest of vipers... but you’ve got a ready mind, I think, and with your Uncle to help you learn the ropes and guide and advise you, you will surely thrive there. You were able to talk me around, and do you know how long everyone else in my life has been trying?” Hilana smiled at him. “Over a decade. And you did that.”
She nodded as he spoke of Khyan, and at the same time... already started to downplay his abilities. “Five good things about yourself a day. Every morning. Because when we speak poorly to ourselves, the warrior within hears it and is lessened. Don’t,” she squeezed his hand again, still holding onto it. “It just takes time and the drive to do it. You have that. You can do it, Dominus. I know you can. Between the two of you, I think you will do very well. Especially if he’s with you full time soon.”
“That could very well be,” Hilana was thoughtful. He had no reason to be sheepish, it was certainly far more than she knew on the subject. But she would get whatever books were recommended to her, and she would study. And she would study hard. “I don’t think my mother’s tribe did, but on the other hand... when you’re part of a group like that, you can’t always go off like that to such places. Everyone in the tribe has responsibilities that they need to take care of, But we will have to ask your cousin when the time for such things comes. But we’ll find out... no matter what it takes. But however the bones fall, any and all are good. All of them are in a cycle, none above or below the next. Balanced, equal... necessary. ‘Air above us, earth below us, water surrounds us, fire within us, spirit becomes us,’” she echoed her maternal grandmother’s words from years ago.
“I can’t say I’ve really worried about love. I’ve fallen for people and others have fallen for me, but it was never meant to be anything permanent and we all knew it. It comes and goes as it will, but what’s meant to be will find its way to us. Just like the two of you,” she smiled up at him. Æros seemed to be truly devoted to Khyan, and that made Hilana feel warm and glowing inside. Because to hear him say it... her friend felt the same way. There wasn’t enough joy in such a harsh world. The more there was between two that desperately needed it, the better.
“The general one is more of a blood cleanser. It purifies toxins and venom in the bloodstream. It does work a bit slower but it’s been effective nonetheless. We’ve also used it for scorpion stings and spider bites, not just snake bites, so it’s been useful there. He’d probably do it at your behest, but in any event, when we’re done here, we’ll drop by the shop again and I will get you a bottle,” Hilana was cheerful, leading Æros away from the gooseberries, this time going on another turn and down another couple of aisles. He would likely recognize a rather massive snake plant sitting in a heavy clay pot. The unnaturally large Moonstone that she had mentioned early on. “This is the leviathan I overgrew,” she told him with a smile, touching one of the enormous, pale-green leaves. Her comments about its size didn’t do it justice, because the plant, grown off a fallen leaf of the plant that had been so small in the shop, was even bigger than the Vastiana was, and its fronds were substantial. Something had to be said for whatever it was that was in Ecithian soil, after all...