☼ RUTH OF HOUSE IESHAN ☼רות
"EVEN THOUGH THE OVERLOOKING SKY / so solemnly vermillion / sub-divides/the / seething stripes as soft / as sweet as the opening / of your mouth."
"EVEN THOUGH THE OVERLOOKING SKY / so solemnly vermillion / sub-divides/the / seething stripes as soft / as sweet as the opening / of your mouth."
It is business that brings me to Terrastella again.
I am to meet with the Champion of Community, who was a doctor before her promotion; I think that she saw to my brother, once. (That doesn’t necessarily bolster my confidence in her, but my feelings on Adonai’s health are beside the point.) I leave early in the day with Ishak at my side, and I arrive at Terrastella before nightfall. We spend the night in a fancy inn, and Ishak, predictably, complains about it, though not nearly enough to make us leave. (I’m used to his complaining by now – and, besides, I know how he actually feels about sleeping on silken sheets.) The last time I was here, it was to hunt herbs. This time, it is for something more official.
I assume that they send me because I am an Ieshan and a doctor. I’ve never been much good at being the former, but I do have some sense of official duties, and I’m not entirely unaccustomed to meeting with particularly influential people. (You could argue that I brush shoulders with them daily, though I don’t know if I see my siblings so often anymore.) I am only influential in the medical sense, and I spend as little of my time socializing as possible, but I am here regardless.
(And I try not to think that it is too much of a bother, or of how many patients I could be seeing in the meantime; I tell myself that this will be useful, that it is always to our benefit to share knowledge with each other, to assist in keeping the peace. I’m not sure that I believe it. There are certainly better people to have chosen for the task.)
I have breakfast with Ishak, and I split off from him to find the Champion, though I know him well enough to know that he hasn’t really left my side; more likely than not, he’ll be within earshot for the entirety of our conversation. I know him too well to be bothered by it.
(He is the one person whose invasions of privacy I don’t mind.)
The Champion reminds me of a sunbeam, or maybe of Adonai. She is pale gold and blue-eyed in the bright way that he used to be, before he fell ill. She is probably lovely, from the heart-shaped mark on her forehead to her elegantly-crafted form, but I barely notice, even when she greets me with a smile that is twice as bright and warm as the early spring morning. You must be Ruth. I’m Elena. I already know that any of my gestures will pale in comparison to hers, that the effort is completely futile because I am wrong, but I force myself to press a polite, businesslike smile across my face regardless, because I know that I should. I know that it is the right thing to do here, the thing that I normal person would do, and, above all else, I need to be normal at times like these.
“I am. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I say, and I suppose that it is pleasant enough. (At least it is an opportunity to escape the Ieshan manor for a while.) I’m not precisely sure what to say, or what to expect, but I’ll admit to having some (scientific) curiosity about Terrastella; hopefully this meeting will be productive, if nothing else.
(And – perhaps I can probe her about her thoughts on my brother’s condition, which is more interesting to me than anything the land of salt and sea might be able to offer.)
@Elena || <3 || june jordan, "the morning on the mountains"
I am to meet with the Champion of Community, who was a doctor before her promotion; I think that she saw to my brother, once. (That doesn’t necessarily bolster my confidence in her, but my feelings on Adonai’s health are beside the point.) I leave early in the day with Ishak at my side, and I arrive at Terrastella before nightfall. We spend the night in a fancy inn, and Ishak, predictably, complains about it, though not nearly enough to make us leave. (I’m used to his complaining by now – and, besides, I know how he actually feels about sleeping on silken sheets.) The last time I was here, it was to hunt herbs. This time, it is for something more official.
I assume that they send me because I am an Ieshan and a doctor. I’ve never been much good at being the former, but I do have some sense of official duties, and I’m not entirely unaccustomed to meeting with particularly influential people. (You could argue that I brush shoulders with them daily, though I don’t know if I see my siblings so often anymore.) I am only influential in the medical sense, and I spend as little of my time socializing as possible, but I am here regardless.
(And I try not to think that it is too much of a bother, or of how many patients I could be seeing in the meantime; I tell myself that this will be useful, that it is always to our benefit to share knowledge with each other, to assist in keeping the peace. I’m not sure that I believe it. There are certainly better people to have chosen for the task.)
I have breakfast with Ishak, and I split off from him to find the Champion, though I know him well enough to know that he hasn’t really left my side; more likely than not, he’ll be within earshot for the entirety of our conversation. I know him too well to be bothered by it.
(He is the one person whose invasions of privacy I don’t mind.)
The Champion reminds me of a sunbeam, or maybe of Adonai. She is pale gold and blue-eyed in the bright way that he used to be, before he fell ill. She is probably lovely, from the heart-shaped mark on her forehead to her elegantly-crafted form, but I barely notice, even when she greets me with a smile that is twice as bright and warm as the early spring morning. You must be Ruth. I’m Elena. I already know that any of my gestures will pale in comparison to hers, that the effort is completely futile because I am wrong, but I force myself to press a polite, businesslike smile across my face regardless, because I know that I should. I know that it is the right thing to do here, the thing that I normal person would do, and, above all else, I need to be normal at times like these.
“I am. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I say, and I suppose that it is pleasant enough. (At least it is an opportunity to escape the Ieshan manor for a while.) I’m not precisely sure what to say, or what to expect, but I’ll admit to having some (scientific) curiosity about Terrastella; hopefully this meeting will be productive, if nothing else.
(And – perhaps I can probe her about her thoughts on my brother’s condition, which is more interesting to me than anything the land of salt and sea might be able to offer.)
@
HE FEEDS ME RED MEAT / HE WATCHES THE BLOOD POOL IN MY MOUTHlaughs at my red teeth❂please tag Ruth! contact is encouraged, short of violence
