29: I won’t repeat what’s getting said about plumage
Bread, fresh baked, and steaks from a recently butchered pig were served at breakfast along with sliced apples and small beer. It wasn't her mother's cooking, but it was fresh and hot, and Cerise thanked the innkeeper for the generous portions.
There was a Ma'deron factor in town, and they went to settle accounts there, receipt from the Hundred Year Stew in hand. Heral surprised them by purchasing riding horses and tack from the factor. During the conversation, it was mentioned that Arlcyr Cadlan was away in Va'Velton on the Hirsel's business, which seemed to relieve Heral for some reason.
They departed from Sa'Cadlan back the way they came, Daisy pulling her cart with a happy prance while Cerise's family learned to ride.
Cerise's mother, as their family's Speaker, had protested the expense, but Heral insisted that it was for the best. "Speed is needful diplomacy. And it will make catching back up with the caravan easier when our business is done."
Heral had asked for saddle horses that were good for Beginner-Low riders on the road. They got sweet gaited older horses that had managed to avoid mana rich fodder. Cerise listened to them and the dire horses, and realized she much preferred Daisy's sassy attitude to the timidity of the saddle beasts.
«Uh-oh! Bigger herd!» had been signaled by the gelding her mother was riding, Socks by name, for his white markings on his hind legs against an otherwise brown body.
Cerise was riding a bay mare with a whitish blaze from her nose to her ears named Fox Lily after the flower. She didn't have the awareness to say anything more complicated than stringing simple concepts together, like «you big» and «we herd?»
Her father's spotted gelding mount was the same, but Mykhal's gelding, a dappled gray, could speak a bit more intelligibly. He mostly chose not to, being a rather placid sort.
Daisy and the Honorables' dire horse mounts had a more frolicsome attitude, as well as a bit more of a rivalry. The saddle dire horses kept teasing Daisy for pulling the car, saying things like, «Weak back has to pull!» and «Not going to run fast like that!» to which Daisy laughed and said, «You couldn't pull my cart! You're so clumsy your people have to sit on your back to keep you with the herd!»
The background chatter, along with the occasional woodland chittering of «Food here!», «Sex here!», and «Danger!» distracted Cerise from the Etiquette lessons Heral tried to impart. It reached a point where Heral said, "You seem to be having problems listening."
"Yeah," Cerise agreed. "There are so many speakers around us that even though they aren't talking to me, I'm having a hard time ignoring them to hear you."
Heral frowned, but Cerise was starting to think that he was just too serious, and not necessarily a mean spirited person. "What other speakers?"
"Oh, I thought you heard all of our talk with Mahayan. The Guardian gave me Beast Speech so there are the dire horses goofing around, the almiraj nattering at the Honorable Misses, and, well, a lot of calls from the woods. Those are the most, um, disturbing ones. About half are danger calls, but the speakers sound small, maybe birds or squirrels?"
Mykhal looked at Cerise and slowly started chuckling. "That's not what has you distracted, is it?"
"Ah, a little on edge, but, no. That's not disturbing," she admitted, blushing. "And, no, I won't repeat what's getting said about plumage and tails, but 'smell my funk'? I am so glad I'm not whatever kind is saying that!"
The humans all ended up laughing, which earned prances from Daisy and confusion from the other horses until Daisy explained, «My people playing!»
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They camped to the side of the road that evening, and made it to Va'Velton in the early afternoon of the next day. Cerise's mother insisted Cerise Cleanse them all before riding into the city. "If we are being presented to the Hirsel of these lands, we will be clean and respectable!"
Cerise just opened the spigot on the small water collecting barrel mounted to the side of their cart and sent the water over her family first, before offering the magical bath to the Honorables.
Mahayan and Izrai eagerly accepted while Heral looked conflicted before consenting. Izrai was the first to emit a startled squeak when the water swirled around her body.
"Is everything okay?" Cerise asked. She had long since learned to ignore where the water went when she Cleansed a living body. It wasn't as if the water provided her with any sensation, which made that a lot easier.
"Ah, fine," Izrai said with an embarrassed trill to her voice. "It just tickles is all-ahh-ha-ha-ha!"
Cerise looked on, baffled. It was just water. Maybe the older Honorable Miss was just sensitive?
The other Honorables soon had similar straining-to-be-composed expression, so Cerise wrote it off as them being maybe sensitive to the mana in her Cleanse skill, or maybe them having more delicate skin than Freeman?
From the Honorables she moved on to Cleansing the horses. Hairs that were already shed came out of their coats, though the merely loose hairs a brush would have picked up remained. Cerise warned each of the horses as she began, «Bath time! The water is safe and will clean you. Tell me if there's an itchy spot.»
«Bath time?!» Daisy perked up. «Ears cleaned?!» She lifted one foreleg. «Shiny hooves!»
Cerise laughed. «Shiny hooves,» she agreed.
During the baths, the horses whinnied and sighed, and they all pranced happily after the Cleansing.
The trio of almiraj, witnessing this, demanded their bonded masters learn how to do this magical bathing, and in the meantime permitted -- in a demanding fashion -- Cerise to bathe them, too.
The critters' delight buoyed Cerise's spirits all the way into the city. Then they turned toward the Hirsel Velton estate and nerves began to stomp dance in her belly. Mykhal and Heral were the only members of their group that seemed perfectly at ease as they rode up to the guards blocking the gate to the hirsel's estate grounds. A man in a fancy jacket stood by the guards and watched them approach.
Heral announced to this man, "Heral el-Treborant escorts the new Miss ban Silverwood to be introduced to Hirsel Jedais Velton."
"You are expected, Honorable Misters and Misses," the man in the fancy jacket said. "My name is Perth, and I am an Aide to the hirsel. Please come to the house with me and we will see to your beasts."
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"It is a pleasure to see you again, Aide Perth," Heral said, but they fell into silence after a few polite exchanges as they followed to the house.
Heral was down from his horse and helping Cerise before she got farther than trying to recall which side she was supposed to dismount. Izrai went to help Cerise's mother while stable hands from the Velton estate arrived to help Mahayan, Mykhal, and her father.
Daisy did not like the stable girl that reached for her head harness. Cerise nickered a stern, «No biting!» followed by, «What is the problem?»
«Not herd!» Daisy griped.
Cerise when over and tapped Daisy on the muzzle. «Be nice. No biting. Do that and I will be back by sunset to give you an apple.»
«A whole apple?» Daisy asked, ears perking forward.
«Not the core, but all the rest of it, yes,» Cerise agreed.
A chorus of «Apples!?» came from the rest of the horses.
«Only for good horses who go nicely with these fellows and do not bite or kick them!» Cerise said, staring down the beasts.
Then she turned to the stable girl. "This lot love apples, but if any bite or kick, they are not to have any sweets."
The stable girl ducked her head in acknowledgment, a touch of awe in her gaze as she looked at Cerise.
Daisy pranced off with the girl, and the wind blew the words of one of the younger stable hands their way. "How much easier our jobs'd be if we could talk to the beasties like that!"
She grinned, if only briefly, before swallowing back her anxiety and following Aide Perth into the very big stone building. Everything inside the castle-mansion -- it did not quite sprawl enough to be a palace -- was exquisitely beautiful, if not artistically interesting. They went down a few hallways before arriving at a door guarded by two knightly looking people. The exaggerated breast plate on one indicated a lady Sir, and the codpiece on the other knight's armor was no less exaggerated in indicating a lord Sir.
The lady Sir stomped her polearm's butt onto a bronze clapper, then opened the door. "Aide Perth with guests, seven," she announced into the room. She left the door open as she stepped back into position.
"Enter," an older man's voice called, and Aide Perth smiled and nodded his thanks to the lady Sir guard.
The room was large enough to contain two of the houses Cerise had grown up in, and had a wall lined in shelves filled entirely with bound books. A desk faced into the room before the wall, a massive furnishing with three seats, one in the middle facing the room and one at each end. The seat closest to the door was unoccupied while the seat by the windowed wall was filled by a woman only a bit older than Cerise's mother. Aide Perth silently stepped back, taking the unoccupied end seat at the desk and began going over ledger books.
In the opposite side of the room, several couches were arranged around an unlit fireplace along with a matched pair of arm chairs. An older man rose from one of the chairs, a posh man of an age to be Cerise's grandfather. "Heral, boy, good to see you again, though I confess I had not expected the opportunity to come so soon."
"Lord Jedais, you honor me. I, too, did not expect such a pleasant opportunity to come so swiftly, and I hope the introduction I have the honor to make leads to greater prosperity in your lands."
The hirsel inclined his head and Heral continued. "Miss Cerise ban Silverwood is a [Healer] that was recently called upon by the Guardian of the Silverwood Grove to render assistance. In return for her efforts, she has been granted the ban Silverwood name and the Authority of the Silverwood Grove."
Hirsel Velton inclined his upper body in a stiff bow. Cerise bit her lip to keep from stopping the elderly hirsel and urging him to sit. Older people, and nobles, could be very prideful, but even with her Triage Aura shut down because of being in the city she could practically feel the ache in the elder's bones with her own body. Instead, she returned his bow with her own, as Heral had instructed them on the road.
Heral introduced her parents and Mykhal, and reminded the Hirsel of the prior introduction of his cousins. Astrid, Glatadia, and Tomas all poked their heads out of the carry harnesses Cerise's mother made for the almiraj during Cerise's time healing the Guardian wolf, and Cerise handled their introduction. Heral barely contained his pained look, but Hirsel Velton laughed and bid them be seated.
Cerise's new Arcane Senses felt the hirsel's skills reaching out to them, putting them at ease. He drew the story of their departure from Trall from them. The full story, including the finding of Drakeblood ore that sparked the rebellion in the village. Cerise still wasn't sure what the import of that was, but it was significant enough that the Hirsel sucked in his breath through his teeth.
Once the tale was told, Hirsel Velton addressed her parents first. "Well, with that in your past, I shall have to ensure I do not provoke the arlthanes before I may extend covenantuer over you, but I can grant you residency within my lands. That grant will authorize you to purchase without levy twenty fields each. You will still be subject to the material liens, but only at the rate applied to the Freeman bound by covenant.
"Miss ban Silverwood and Mister Mykhal, you present me with different circumstances. As youths, you cannot be held to any sort of group accountability. As Free Lancers, you cannot be bound to a Druerjan liege. You can be granted Writs of Residency, as I am doing for Miss Bergin and Mister Rhene, and I will happily do this for Mister Mykhal.
"Miss ban Silverwood, however, as an authority bearer, you are a diplomat for the Silverwood Grove. The Grove Lady of the Silverwoods has not established any diplomatic embassy in Druerjan yet, and thus I am required to provide you with a contiguous plot of land, that has no other claimants, of as much as forty fields in area, in a location of your preference within my domain upon your request. This applies to every noble in Druerjan up to His Majecty, King Ahrahm, and especially the arlcyrs, cyrs, and landed knights under vassalage to me. There can be no leins or levy laided against the land so claimed.
"There are restrictions upon the use of such land, however. For instance, you may not lease or sell the land to anyone, nor operate a shop or foundry or noxious craft hall thereon. If you farm the land, surplus must be offered to the noble most directly responsible for the surround lands at the local market value first before you may attempt to sell to anyone else. You are responsible for protecting the lands from monstrous invasions. The land rights are not inheritable, and I am required to revoke the land grant if you lose your diplomatic status.
"And only the king may grant a diplomat residency. That does not prevent you from following the example of the Honorables, and leasing lands subject to liens, though you personally would still be exempt from levy counts.
"I will write you letters of introduction to Lady Solange. To be honest, had this matter with your villages happened in my domain, I would have held you blameless and applied to our arlthane to strip such a cyr of title and land, and I shall so say to Solange. She is a prickly woman with a compassionate heart. Allow young Heral to guide in the introductions and all should go well.
"Now, I insist you stay with me while you conduct whatever business you need in Va'Velton. I won't trouble you with a formal dinner. I realize they can be stressful to those still in the Beginner rank of Etiquette."
With that, they were dismissed, but Cerise wasn't quite ready to go. "May I speak a moment with you in confidence, Hirsel Velton?" she asked, and received his interested appraisal.
"Of course, Miss ban Silverwood. Perth, Ronala, please escort our guests to our House Master." The two aides glanced up from the papers at their desks and bowed even as they rose, complying.
Cerise barely waited for the door to close before she bent her head and said, "I apologize if this is too intrusive. I am a [Healer] and I cannot help but notice your pain. I would need to use some invasive skills to determine what I could do for the cause of that pain, but I'm pretty sure I can do a thing or two to ease the pain itself. If you choose to accept my assistence, I would prefer that you only have people you trust with sensitive matters present, and a contract for my silence at the ready."
"You are showing quite the care for my privacy." He spoke in a way that made Cerise think he was stalling.
"Lord Jedais, I don't know a lot about nobility, but I do know it's better to be on good terms with a good landlord than in the right with a bad on. I don't want to give you a reason to doubt the compassion you've shown my family. During our travels, I've seen how rumors of a lord's being in ill health can unsettle their people. If such a rumor starts about you, I want you to know it didn't begin with me."
The hirsel nodded. "True enough reasons. When you say intrusive skills, what do you mean?"
"The first skill is called Diagnose and it will tell me of specific physical ailments. The second skill is called Arcane Senses and wil synergize with Diagnose to show me any problem points in the mana cycles of your body."
Forty minutes later, with a contract of confidentiality signed between them, Cerise put away her silverwood surgical needles while the hirsel stretch with a vigor and joy he hadn't felt in at least a decade.
"The prognosis is that if you respect the limits of your body, you should have at last two years before the pain returns."
"Two years, understood," he agreed, laughing.