Zinnia

Literature Unit 3 exam 1: 75% C

1- In "The Master and her Emissary" what is the relationship between Thalia and Verdin.

Verdin is a servant of Thalia and her messenger because she is unable to leave her city.

1 ✅

2- why is Thalia unable to leave her city?

Because she cannot travel too far from her hoard.

.5 and because forcing her choir to move frivolously could cause panic.

3- what areis Verdin's primary responsibilities as Thalia's messenger.

To visit cities in the name of Thalia to bring back news and new members of the choir.

1 ✅

4- why does Verdin fail in her duties.

Because she lied to Thalia

0- because she chose to believe Drei and doubt her master

5- was what Drei told Verdin true? Why/why not?

No. Because he was a spy who wanted to hurt Thalia.

.5 what he said about Thalia was not true because Thalia had no part in stealing fortunes from the western highlands.

6- what happened because Verdin lied to Thalia about the trade deal with the western highlands.

The western highlands took offense and called for war

1- correct.

7- what did Thalia do when she learned she was betrayed?

She got really sad and locked herself in a tower.

8- what effect did Thalia's reaction to betrayal have on Verdin

She felt guilty and left to fix what she messed up

1- correct

9- what did Verdin forget to consider when they ran?

That she needs her choir to be safe.

.5 specifically that a single member of a chior cannot perform miracles and is as powerful as a normal mortal.

10- what happened to Verdin after she ran?

She was captured by western highlands and taken as a prisoner.

I look at my exam paper and feel sad. I could have done better. It was just the first half of a book. But it's really old! And boring! And uses words I need to ask the teacher about. Like eme ema emissary. That's going to be a word on our vocabulary test I just know it. Mr. Foetal likes to do that.

I put my test into my bag and hurry out of the class. If I stay too long he might try to make me take that test now. The day is over and I have a week to read more of that book, I'll do it later.

"Fae!" I call out to my friend.

"Zinna" the syl calls back. Fae's got pretty flower petals for hair and smells great all the time. "Come to my place, I hate doing homework by myself"

"Do we gotta do homework? We can play stacks instead."

"Caretakers aren't letting me play until I've done my homework, and I get bored easy and want a friend to talk to"

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"Fine, the dorm mom wants me to do my math work tonight any" Im not happy and I feel sour.

Fal them starts pushing me even though I don't wanna do homework. Fae has weird skin it's a green and smooth in spots and rough and like bark in others. I'm not supposed to touch those parts though. Syl says it hurts when her bark is pulled on and got really angry when I broke a piece off.

Fal's home was in a big building where a lot of other syl lived. Their parents were a bunch of humans which was really weird I thought only humans made humans? And same for other species. Im gonna ask them.

"Sister scenia?"

"Yes child?" Sister scenia is a tall lady with dark skin and bright yellow eyes.

"How did a human give birth to so many syl?"

She tilts her head at me and widens her eyes in that way adults do when they're surprised at something. She coughs and smiles.

"Well, firstly I didn't give birth to them. This is a nursery. We take care of young syl here."

"Why don't their parents do that?"

"Well… hmm. You mentioned once that your family did not live in the city?"

I nod

"Well Zinna, the way the dorm mother at your academy takes care of you is how we take care of these syl. They mostly only need a place to stay and the occasional guidance."

"What about when they're babies?"

"Syl spend most of their time as a baby in the ground. So they don't really need protecting like you did when you were a baby"

"Why are you taking care of them if your not their mother?"

"They help out with crops by being nearby to them. We take care of them in turn. It's a simple exchange. A roof and education is little price for that."

"What do I give my parents for them to want to send me here?"

"Well… your parents have a far more personal connection to you. As their blood they want to care for you on basis of being family."

"Why don't syl parents care like that?"

Sister scenia gives a half shrug after taking a deep breath in "it's hard to say. They're a different species. There will always be things we won't understand."

I look down at the floor. Trying to put together my thoughts for a question. Adults make asking questions frustrating.

"What about Yenn?"

"Who?"

"Yenn is a classmate, a human. They don't have parents. Why did their parents put them into an orphanage?"

Sister scenia took another deep breath in and raised her head up. Why do adults do that? The tall lady looks away and thinks for another minute before looking back at me with a smile and says "didn't you have some homework you needed to do?"

“I have a quiz on syl I need to study for” I lie

She scrunched her nose and flicked my forehead. “Dont lie”

I rub my forehead why do they always see through lies like that. I was practicing my lies too for this. I’ll lie to a sister one of these days.

“Just tell me!”

She spins me around and gives me a light shove “go do your homework. Else I’ll need to spank you”

I groan but hurry back to catch up with Fal.

“Sister scenia gets mean fast”

“Why do you keep bothering her? She keeps getting angry at you”

“I just wanna get away with one lie”

“She can sense them. No one ever gets a lie past her, or any of the others in her hoard I think.”

“There has to be a way. Never being able to lie to an adult is dumb.”

Fal nods to this one. “It’s stupid. They made me write lines because I lied about doing all my homework AND they made me do all my homework before I could get my minerals.”

“You eat rocks?” I had never seen syl eat anything before I was thinking maybe they stuck their feet in the ground like a plant while they slept.

“Plants need special tasty rocks and stuff in dirt to live. Air mana and and earth mana feed us. Tasty rocks have good earth mana and are really yummy.” Fal might drool if they had spit. I know they dont spit because fal told us they cant during a spitting contest we had. I won, of course. Then a teacher found us and yelled about not spitting off the roof. How was I supposed to know people would be upset if we spit on them from so high up. Its not like they could see us from there.

“How do you eat air mana?”

She shakes her head and the leaves for her hair shake with her. My leaves! The air gets power from the sun and it becomes really yummy. I love the pond for summer. I get to soak in water mana too and thats so great.

“Fal, Zinnia, your homework” Sister scenia yells across the commons area.

Sister Scenica doesnt let us talk at all for like an HOUR until she decides we did enough homework. The sun is already starting to redden the sky when we’re done. But now its time for stacks!

Fal puts down a fire card in response to my electricity. Faer only power card? Not a great match up. I have a shield water and smash card in my hand. I play water and shield up together and take my fire out of play back to the bottom of my element deck. Fae plays a hammer. Fire hammer vs water shield would be my loss due to the negation of elemental bonus. Draw a shape and an effect card. Arrow, draining and also my smashing card to make my current hand. Switch out shield with arrow and put down draining to make my final stack "water arrow of draining" to which fae pulled out the fire card and played an electricity of her own and an explosion card to make an "electricity hammer of explosion"

"Noooo" I cry as fal laughs.

"Hehe, I win" fae then put faer cards back into the proper sub decks. Little wooden squares with the words written on them little designs as well.

I do the same then shuffling out my decks.

"What's it like, having a family?" Fal asks as she does the same.

I shrug a little. "they're like… family. People who I've always been with. My mom works with the hunters guild back home. Grandma too"

"And you have siblings? What are they like?" Fal flips a coin. Tails, Ill be going first.

"They're like classmates I have to come home to."

I finish reshuffling my suits and flip my first element card over. Light. Then draw one of each. A power source, a form, and an affect. Fire, spear, piercing. I think I already had a good attack at the ready depending on how fal plays.

"That sounds nice" fae says fae flips over her first source card. A water. Fal then draws her cards.

I put down piercing and draw a form card. Fist.

Fal put down a shield.

Bleh, that would work against both my spear and piercing. Fist isn't good either. Light and water don't affect each other well so I discard my spear and fist card to see if I can get anything better.

Orb, growing. With fire in hand and light piercing down.

I pull away light and piercing to put down orb of fire growing. Type advantage taken away by water. I don't break against the wall but i don't push it. Wall wins by default.

Fal plays a dark hammer of cutting with a giggle fae can't keep under control.

I let out a whine.

"I can't believe you just gave me that win"

I probably wouldn't have done too well either way and sighed. Stacks doesn't do well to the first player.

I get back to shuffling my decks.

"I guess it's kinda nice but also annoying cuz I can't tell them to go away. Living in my own room is nice. Also there's lots more here then there are in pleasant plains."

"Do you miss them at all?"

I humm as we start another round.

"Yeah I miss them a little bit. It can be a little lonely sometimes." Having fal as a friend though makes things less lonely. Didn't talk to a lot of people.

We play round after round talking

before I need to go home as it's too late. The dorm mother getting upset at me for coming home after dark but still giving me a dinner before I'm forced to go to sleep. I wanna play more stacks with fal.