Terribly Unladylike

Writers: Eimi, Estelle
Date Posted: 10th December 2018

Characters: Merlish, Tasni
Description: Merlish almost gets caught in the act by new Journeywoman Harper Tasni
Location: Emerald Falls Hold, Harper Hall
Date: month 6, day 11 of Turn 9

At the first opportunity, Tasni had gone in search of the Archives. It
was supposed to be the reason she was here, and she wasn't quite sure
what to expect. When she found the right place and saw the rows of
shelves of neatly rolled hides, books and stacks of papers, the wide
desks where a harper could spread out their work, and the cupboards well
stocked with supplies, she was greatly relieved, having been half afraid
she'd find nothing but a few boxes of burned scraps. The Southern
harpers had clearly been busy in the Turns since the fire.

She wondered what secrets this room held in its depths. If she wasn't
allowed to journey yet, there would be plenty of time to find out, and
it seemed a pleasant enough place to work.

"Hello?" she called softly. "Is anyone here?"

"Oh, um, yes, sorry..." Merlish stepped out from behind a stack, her
face flushed as if she had been caught being somewhere she shouldn't.
Really she probably shouldn't be searching the archives for more
information on runners, but it had been so exciting to watch the races
at Amber Hills! Next time she put down marks on a runner race, she
wanted to know what she was doing. Was that really so bad? **Yes!**
her mind screamed. It was terribly unladylike! And so she lied.
"Sorry, I must have... I was looking for the recipes and I guess I got
turned around... I didn't meant to..."

"Oh, that's all right! I'm new here, so I can hardly criticise other
people for getting lost when I don't have the first idea of where
anything is myself." The journeywoman smiled and held out a hand in
greeting. "I'm Tasni. Do you want me to help you look?"

"I'm Merlish, Choir Master Eilomar's wife. Well met," Merlish said
giving a slight curtsy to the journeywoman as she took her hand. Being
merely the wife of a Master, and a young one at that, she never really
knew where she stood in relation to other women in the Hall. Especially
not one who held a true rank of their own. "I'm sure recipes are not
anything that would be of interest to you."

"Not in themselves, I'll admit, but when you go looking for something in
the Archives you often find things you didn't expect." She wandered over
to the nearest shelf, looking for labels. The Master Archivist would be
able to explain the filing system to her, of course, but she didn't know
yet if he'd approve of female harpers enough to be keen to help and
besides, it would be fun to try and work some of it out on her own.
"That's what I love about my craft. With recipes, you might find notes
that people had written in the margins that you wouldn't find with more
formal Records, that tell you much more about what their lives were
really like than lists of births and marriages and accounts. Or you
might start out looking for one thing and discover something else
entirely...but you probably already know all this, being married to a
Master."

"Oh, well, he's a Choir Master. He doesn't spend much time in the
Records. Except to find music, perhaps." Merlish didn't really know if
her husband every came himself or sent his journeymen to do his
research. She had a feeling he would probably not go out of his way
unless he had to. "But it sounds like you spend a lot of time around
Records."

"It's my speciality. Keeping Records, copying, researching - though what
I like best is going out journeying and sending back word to the Hall of
what I've found, so we can keep our archives up-to-date. That's why I'm
here. I'm from the Northern Hall, and we all but lost contact with you
after the plagues, so there's a lot to catch up on." She pulled out a
leather-bound folder from a shelf and flicked through it. "Looks like
this section is mostly musical scores. Makes sense to have them near the
entrance, since that'll be what most people are looking for. Maybe the
recipes are further back."

"Oh no, they're two rows back next to the farming section." Merlish
realized she had just revealed that she had known exactly were the
recipes were, so she quickly tried to cover it, "I think... Maybe? Now
that you mentioned the music, it triggered a memory. So, you're from
the North?"

"Yes. This is the first time I've been to Emerald Falls." Tasni had
already decided that she'd didn't need to add being weyrbred to the list
of possible reasons people might have to disapprove of her. Safer to let
people assume she was Northern-born, at least until she knew them
better. She wandered over towards the section Merlish had indicated, but
made a note of the place the other woman had been looking at when she'd
arrived. Now she really wanted to know what was there! "You have a
lovely Hall here. Everything's so new and spacious and comfortable...
like these Archives. Not like some of the cramped, dusty corners I've
seen in Holds."

"Everything was improved when the Hall was rebuilt," Merlish said as she
followed the harper. "I never saw the Hall before the fire, so I can't
speak to the former Record Room."

"Oh - how long have you been here?" She ran her fingers lightly along a
shelf of volumes. They were getting closer. These Records were about
domestic matters: lists of stores, schedules for drudges and the like.

"Since my marriage to Master Eilomar three Turns ago. We were among the
first families to come to this new Hall." Her husband had lived at the
Dolphin Cove Hall prior to that, but Merlish had only visited while they
had been courting. Their little cot at the Harper Hall was the only one
she had known as the woman of the household.

"That must have been exciting - coming to a completely new Hall." And
possibly a little scary, too, given the fate of the last Hall, but it
might not be polite to mention that. "Are you from a crafter family?"

"My father is not a crafter, but there are some in the family who are.
Master Tantral is my father's uncle. He composed several works that are
still played today." Merlish had merely intended to explain who her
great-uncle was, not to brag about his accomplishments. She worried
that it had sounded boastful, though. "But he is the only one anyone
might have heard of."

Tasni hadn't heard of that Master herself, being from a different Hall
and not a specialist in composition, so she simply nodded. Perhaps she'd
better start by learning the names of the most well-known Southern
Masters, before she offended someone.

"These look like recipes." She pulled out a sheaf of papers and her eyes
lit up. "Mmm - bubbly pies. Was there anything in particular you were
looking for?"

"Oh. Um. Diet food. My husband and I are on a diet." Of course she
had scoured every record for diet recipes her husband might eat long
ago, but she couldn't tell the journeywoman that!

"I see. No bubbly pies for you, then!" Tasni put the dessert recipes
back. She couldn't see why the other young woman would need to go on a
diet, but perhaps she was doing it in solidarity with her husband. Some
Masters did start to put on weight once they no longer had to travel so
much as part of their duties. "These ones look like they're about
salads. How does that sound?"

"Oh, yes, salads would be perfect," Merlish said, though truth be told
she had read that book already twice, but saying so would let on that
she had other motivations to be in the Record Room. What would Tasni
think of her? "Thank you so much for your help, journeywoman. This
will be extremely helpful."

"You're welcome. It's my job to find Records for people, or it will be
once I've learned my way around." She smiled. "Come back any time. There
are all sorts of interesting texts to be found in a Harper Hall's
archives besides recipes."

"Oh, yes, thank you," Merlish smiled, taking the book. "And welcome to
the Harper Hall, journeywoman." She really hoped that Tasni would love
her home as much as she had come to.

Tasni waited until she'd left before hurrying over to the spot where the
Choir Master's wife had been standing when she'd first come in to the
archives. She wasn't sure what she'd expected to find - maybe healer
texts on some embarrassing illness, or volumes of romantic poetry - but
too her surprise, she found it was nothing but lists of runner
bloodlines and notes on their care and breeding. Why would anyone feel
ashamed to be found looking at those? Perhaps she'd got the wrong place
- or she'd imagined the whole thing and Merlish really had been looking
for diet recipes.

She was sure she'd find out in time...

Last updated on the January 21st 2019

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Terribly Unladylike