Saying Too Much

Writers: Chelle, Eimi
Date Posted: 30th April 2010

Characters: Parale, Ioven
Description: Parale and Ioven have a chat while the girls sleep.
Location: Garnet Valley Hold
Date: month 8, day 23 of Turn 5

Ioven looked one more moment at his daughters' sleeping faces before he
turned down the glow and tiptoed out of the room. He closed the door
and turned to face the foster mother. "They're right to sleep. You
shouldn't hear a peep from them the rest of the night. I really
appreciate your agreeing to watch them."

"It's no problem. Not like I had anything to do anyway." She shrugged.
Usually those rooms would have children in them anyhow. Parale grabbed a
piece of bread and chewed on it as she considered working on some
embroidery.

"Well, I should be relieved just after dawn. If you don't mind, I might
get a couple candlemarks of sleep before I pick up the girls." It was
going to be a very long night, followed by an even longer day if he
couldn't get at least some rest.

"We'll be here." Bringing her head up, she opened and closed her eyes
a few times. "What do you do..while you're there?" She understood he was
studying the heat, but that was it.

"I watch the fire to make sure it stays at a constant temperature so the
clay will bake evenly and thoroughly." He smiled slightly, thinking he
made the whole job sound a bit more romantic than it really was. "Which
means, I sit all night and try to stay awake so I can keep feeding wood
in. It's probably the worst thing about making ceramics."

She frowned, thinking how onerous a task. "Too bad you couldn't harness
dragonfire. Do you ever get hungry?" She could imagine how lonely it
might be to sit there all night with no one to talk to.

"Sometimes," he nodded. "Around the third candlemark in the morning, I
suppose I do."

She got up and walked over to the cupboard. Opening it, she fished
something out and offered it to him. It was a well wrapped package
containing some meat, cheese, and crackers. "Here."

Ioven looked at it with a slightly amused, and impressed smile. She
certainly seemed prepared. "Do you have a pitcher of klah hidden away
somewhere as well?"

"Klah no, but I do have a waterskin I can fill with juice. I don't know
how good it would be if not kept cool though." She frowned, pondering.

"I was just kidding," he assured her. "There's plenty of fire to make
klah with at a kiln, after all."

"Do you like Garnet Valley, Ioven?" For some reason it was important to
Parale that he approve of her home, especially after the insult she had
perceived at first.

He was a little surprised by the question that seemed to have come out
of nowhere. "I do," he answered honestly. "It's a little like coming
home. I spent many happy turns at the Smith Hall."

"Good. What is your place like?" Curious as to where Syren and Venrys
would be going back to, she found herself leaning against the cupboards.

Ioven followed her lead and leaned his hip against the table as he
crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, it's not like anywhere I ever
lived before. It's warm most the turn, but there are a couple months
when it's really hot and really humid. But it feels so good when the
breeze comes off the ocean, or when you jump into the river for a swim.
It's in a valley, but not in the mountains. It's right down on the
water, by a harbor with water as green as emeralds in places. There are
mountains there too, but they're not peaks like here. I guess I'd call
them big hills most of them. But they're covered in trees. It's
beautiful, really."

"Is it safe?" She hoped the little ones would be all right. Without a
mother to look after them, he'd probably have to find a fostermother
there. Would she be nice?

"There are hurricanes, but they aren't so bad. And I've heard they've
had earthquakes in the past. Big ones even. But they built the Hold
and cots with that in mind." He assumed that was what she had meant by
'safe'.

"And the people?" Parale wasn't a fool. She knew that there was such a
thing as a bad holder.

"Everyone's been really kind to us. Very welcoming. Most of the people
there have come from other parts of the South. They know what it's like
to settle in a new place, to know no one. To start over." He looked
down at the floor tiles thoughtfully. At first, he had not been sure he
had made the right decision, picking up his children and moving to a
place that was so different from everything they had known. But he had
needed the change. He couldn't stay in the home, in the life he and
Narys had shared. "I think I needed Sun Stones even more than it needed
me."

"Well it sounds nice. I don't know about being so hot though. I hate
being hot." That was one of her complaints against the Weyr. It was also
likely why people walked around half naked all the time there. "Tell me,
do people walk around there without covering themselves?"

"Sun Stone people are modest, but practical. In the hottest season, we
wear sleeveless tunics, or dresses more for women. But I've never seen
anything on a woman that I would be ashamed to see one of my own
daughters in." He wondered if she was naturally curious, or if she had
a reason to be asking so many questions. Well, he had a few questions
of his own. "May I ask, why have you never married?"

She shrugged. "Never met the right fellow. Most of the boys I grew up
with left for crafthalls or they set their cap for someone else. I was
mostly taken up with working though. Then I turned around and it was too
late." Parale started to finger the sleeve of her tunic, imagining it
gone.

Too late? Was she settled on a single life then? Strange... "Don't
you want children of your own? Or is it enough to take care of other
peoples?"

"Of course I'd love to have my own little ones running around willy
nilly but when you don't have a husband you can't exactly do that." She
raised a brow, knowing full well that he knew that. "So I do what I can
and they take my mind off of things."

"I didn't mean offense." The last thing he wanted was a fight. "I was
just wondering, is all."

"Be glad, if even it was for a moment, you were able to experience that
joy." She looked down at her feet, reminded again of her failings.

"At least you've never had anything to lose," he said softly. Now even
the happiest memories were clouded over with the knowledge that it was
gone forever.

"I came after the plague so no, I can't really imagine that. Still,
though, it would be easier to be alone knowing I'd once been wanted."
She pushed off from the cupboards, busying herself with putting things
away, realizing she might have spoken too much.

Ioven didn't know what to say to that. Things were turning
uncomfortable quickly. "I had better go. Thank you for watching my
girls. And for the snack."

"You're welcome. Have a good night." She didn't know why she had said
that. Now she wondered what he thought of her.

Last updated on the May 3rd 2010

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Saying Too Much