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ladyphlogiston · 10 months

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I finally finished my entry for @inklings-challenge! Just a month and a half late, but what's six weeks between friends? 😆

Tagging @lady-merian and @kanerallels because I think you were kind enough to comment on the first part

Anyway:

Greenroot Growing

Posted on Ao3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/51990529 or read below

"Where should we be next, Zillah?" Vesta asked.

Zillah straightened up, shook her long brown braid back, and surveyed the ruins of the village of Cubrickton. The survivors of the fire had been relocated to the remaining homes, and wounded were being treated in the Home's infirmary. Hestia was helping to rebuild some of the houses, but high summer meant there would be plenty of time and available hands to rebuild before the harvest. They could probably move on.

"How is Eden doing?" she asked.

Vesta shrugged. "She's okay. Getting tired, but everyone has been treated so the heavy triage is over."

Zillah nodded. She closed her eyes and pressed her palms together, focusing inwards on her Gift. She opened her eyes again. "We're still supposed to be here," she said, frowning.

Vesta looked around. "Why? Did we miss someone?"

Zillah shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe there's something else coming and they need our help building?"

"Might as well." Vesta moved towards the nearest burned-out shell. She picked up a half-burned board, tucked it under her arm, and began sifting through the rubble for others.

Zillah worked her way along the side of the ruined wall, collecting china plates that must have fallen from an interior shelf. Some of them were intact.

A purple light formed in the air between them, rippling oddly in the air. Both the sisters turned to look at it, then look at each other in consternation.

"Or maybe we're here for that?" Zillah suggested.

"Any idea what it is?" Vesta asked, backing away carefully.

"My Gift just says it's a portal, which is less helpful than you'd think," Zillah replied.

"Is it dangerous?"

"Don't know."

The sisters watched it grow larger and brighter. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it vanished, leaving a young man in strange clothing behind. He dropped hard against the stone and rolled over to slam against the foundation of the house, as if he'd fallen from a height.

"Well." Zillah looked at him, then bent over to check his pulse. "Still alive. Better make a stretcher for him, in case that fall rattled something."

"What's his name?" Vesta asked. She laid one of her boards on the street, then pulled a length of twine from her pocket and began tying shorter sticks to the top and bottom. Under her hands, the air shimmered as her Gift turned the boards into a full stretcher.

"Paul," Zillah replied. "I can't see his home. It's very far away. For now he belongs with us, I think."

They carefully loaded him onto the stretcher and carried him towards Home. The big egg-shaped structure, apparently woven from willow branches, was on the edge of the town, and they passed through a hole in the side into the clay-lined infirmary inside.

Eden looked up as they entered. She helped Zillah transfer the young man to an empty bed, then unwrapped the orange band that wrapped over her curls and covered her ears. "What's his name?" she asked.

"Paul," Zillah answered. "He was unconscious when he....appeared."

Eden looked Paul over, focusing intently while her hands hovered over his body. "Just bruised, I think," she said. Briskly she refastened her headband and grabbed a pot of salve from the workbench, then rolled him over and began peeling his short tunic away from his back so he could apply the salve to his back and shoulders.

Vesta allowed the stretcher to fall back into pieces of wood and twine, and put the twine back into her pocket. She headed back towards the entrance to throw the pieces of wood away, and met her twin sister coming in.

"Another?" Hestia asked, seeing Paul on the bed.

"He's not a villager. He just appeared. Like a Major Gift, but there wasn't anyone there to use it," Vesta explained.

Hestia raised her eyebrows. "A True Miracle, then?"

Zillah joined them. "I think so. He's from far away."

"Well, there's not much to do until he wakes up," Hestia decided. "Does he need to stay here or can we get moving?"

"He belongs with us, so probably we can go. Did you say our goodbyes?" Zillah asked

Hestia nodded.

"Good."

They made their way through the clay-lined rooms of Home to the driving bench at the front, where a woven window opened into the streaming sunlight. A map of Gasardia was pinned to the wall, covered with careful annotations in colored ink.

Hestia found Cubrickton, on the road between Thire and Philomel. She added a purple X and the date to the map, tracking their journey so far. Zillah would update the logbook with details of their work while they traveled.

Zillah sat on the bench, facing the map, and pressed her palms together. She allowed her eyes to unfocus, looking at what her Gift was saying rather than at the map itself.

Finally she looked up, puzzled. "We're supposed to be in Acoda Keep."

"We can't get to Acoda Keep!" Hestia objected.

"I know that and you know that," Zillah replied. "But apparently my Gift thinks we can."

Hestia sighed, and traced the road south. "Acoda Point is at least a three day journey," she said. "I guess we could start in that direction. If we end up having to stop, we'll figure it out from there."

Zillah nodded. "Thanks. We'll pass through Lorton tomorrow, so I'll check our stores. We can stop at the market."

Paul woke up. His last memory was of hiking in the woods near his home, so waking up in a bed was concerning. It didn't sound like a hospital, but he couldn't decide whether that was better or worse than the alternative. Also, his head hurt. And he was thirsty.

"Here's some water, and then I have a Head Healing Potion for you," said a nearby voice. A hand touched his shoulder and then helped him sit up to drink from a cup.

Paul opened his eyes. The person helping him was a young woman about his own age, with wide blue eyes and softly curling brown hair. She put the cup down on a table next to his bed.

"I'm Eden. Do you know your own name?" she asked.

"Paul," he said.

She nodded. "Good, then the fall can't have exploded your head too badly." She handed him a smaller cup, this one filled with a thick liquid that tasted of rosemary.

Paul drank it, and reached for more water. "Where am I?" he asked.

Eden twisted her fingers together. "I'm not sure how to explain, exactly. You're in our Home, in Gasardia. My sisters say you came through a portal, and you came from very far away. Maybe even a different world."

"Gasardia is....?" Paul asked.

"Gasardia is all the land from the Northern White Mountains to the Besstwing Sea. We're currently on the road between Thire and Philomel, though we plan to turn south soon, but I don't think that helps you."

Paul shook his head, then stopped when it made the pain worse. "No. I think you're right about this being a different world. Unless you just have different names for places I know, but I doubt it."

Eden nodded. "That's what Zillah thought. She said your home was farther away than anyone she's seen before."

Paul nodded, then thought about what Eden had said and frowned. "Wait, how does she know that?"

"That's her Gifting," Eden said, taking the empty cup from Paul's fingers and turning to put it away. "Zillah knows what a person's name is and where they belong. She says that your home is far away but you belong with us for now."

Paul's shoulders stiffened. "So you're—"

"Of course not!" Eden whirled around, wide-eyed. "We don't make anyone go anywhere. Zillah's job is to tell the truth, not make people do things. We can't return you to your home, but if you wish to go somewhere else in Gasardia we'll give you what help we can." She paused, and then added, "I'm sorry, I didn't let you finish your question, did I? I try not to do that. That's my Gifting: I hear intentions and emotions."

Paul blinked. "These....Giftings. Are they magic?"

"They're gifts, Paul. I don't know how else to explain them. I don't think anyone does."

"Oh."

Eden shifted back and forth on her feet, then said, "Do you want dinner? I can bring you food here, or you can come join us at the table."

Paul followed Eden through the interconnected clay-lined rooms of the Home, feeling the floor sway slightly below his feet.

"Is the floor moving, or is that dizziness or something?" he finally asked.

"That's real," Eden told him, "We're moving, and Home always rocks when we do that. It's the legs moving."

"Legs?" Paul asked, ducking through one last doorway and entering a wide room.

The room had several tables. At one end, a round table was set near a fireplace, covered in brightly woven cloth. At the other end, four long workbenches were covered in books, tools, fabric, and all sorts of creative detritus.

In the middle of the room, a young woman was standing on a platform that was set below the floor of the room, so that her head was level with the tables. Her clear similarity to Eden marked her as another of her sisters, though this one's hair was pulled back into a long braid. She appeared to be walking on the unseen platform.

She turned to smile up at Paul. "Legs!" she confirmed. "It's the simplest way to move Home. We keep the legs partially assembled when we're not using them."

Paul looked at her, puzzled. When he listened, he could hear thumps and creaks from below. "So...you're controlling legs on the house?"

She nodded. "I'm Hestia. Vesta and I have the Crafting Gift, so we manage the legs."

"So Eden has empathy or something, and she said Zillah knows where people should be, and now you and Vesta have a crafting gift. What does that do?" Paul asked. He crossed to one of the chairs at the round table, so he wouldn't tower about Hestia so much. Eden served him a slice of bread and some roasted vegetables, and then went to sit over by the benches.

"We make things - assemble them out of rocks and sticks and whatever else is on hand - and they become real," Hestia explained. "They only last as long as we're paying attention, but that's long enough. We have six legs for the Home, like an ant, and we make them work by walking or swinging when we need to move."

A few minutes later, two more women entered. One was a mirror image of Hestia, and Paul realized she must be Vesta. She came over to the table and set down a sizzling pan, which promptly turned into a piece of flat slate rock with hot sausages on it. The other woman looked a little older, and her brown hair streamed straight down her back, well past her waist. She sat down and began slicing the rest of the loaf of bread.

"Any progress?" Hestia asked, looking up at them.

Vesta sighed. "We have the list for Lorton, of course, but no. Zillah still says Acoda Keep, and I don't see anything that will get us in." She turned to Paul. "I'm Vesta, by the way, and this is Zillah. Your name is Paul?"

Paul nodded. "What's Acoda Keep?"

Zillah sighed. "Acoda Keep is a fortress controlled by Brusha, the harbor city to the south. There's an herb, greenroot, that can be used for powerful healing. Brusha's army torched most of it, about a decade ago, and now the only greenroot is in Acoda Keep."

"I assume it's heavily defended?" Paul asked.

Vesta nodded. "We've dreamed of getting some for years, so it can be grown again, but there's no way we can get in."

"So why try?" Paul asked.

"Because that's what my gift says, and Giftings only work if you listen to them. And maybe we'll find something unexpected - you never know - but the point is obedience. If you aren't careful to listen to your gift, it'll seem to be working just fine, but it'll be less and less effective." Zillah stabbed her sausage and took a bite.

"Do you want to swing in a bit?" Hestia asked.

Zillah sighed. "I should. It'll help me sort out my thoughts. Unless you need a turn, Eden?" she called across.

Eden flapped a hand but didn't turn around.

"Okay," Zillah replied, and continued her meal.

"So you have the Crafting gift too, right?" Paul asked Vesta. "What sort of things do you make? I mean, what do you like making?"

Vesta's eyes lit up. "I don't get much use out of them, but I love making weapons. Swords and spears in cool shapes, and especially powerful bows and arrows, and I like making armor too. Though temporary armor is ridiculous. Once in a while there's a use for the ranged weapons, but armor that falls apart if you're knocked unconscious is just dangerous."

"Do you see much fighting?" Paul asked, worried. He didn't have any background in weapons training!

"We mostly see the aftermath," Vesta explained. "The cities are all fighting each other, and there's bandits as well, but Zillah's gift keeps us where we can be useful, which means avoiding a lot of the fighting. Even if we were better at fighting, Eden's gift means she can be overwhelmed easily, so we have to be careful."

"Oh, okay."

Zillah had finished, so Hestia brought the house to a halt and climbed out of the hole in the floor. She lay on her stomach and stuck her head and arms into the hole, apparently rearranging the legs. Paul felt the house settle onto the ground, and then pick itself up again. Hestia got up and served herself at the table, and Zillah descended into the hole and disappeared from sight.

"Zillah likes to swing instead of walking," Vesta explained.

"How high are the legs?" Paul asked. The movements up and down had surprised him.

"The Home is usually around ten feet off the ground, but it varies a little," said Vesta, passing her sister the vegetables. "We need the legs to be long so they can take long steps."

Some time later, Vesta knelt by the hole in the floor and helped Zillah out, and Eden took her place walking Home. Hestia and Vesta set up a loom and set up fabric they were weaving, and Zillah moved to one of the work benches and pulled out a box of dried herbs and a mortar and pestle.

"Can I help?" asked Paul.

"You could read to us," suggested Eden.

"Uh, sure," Paul said, looking around to see if he could spot any books.

"Before you read, we should discuss Lorton tomorrow," said Zillah, smoothly working the herbs into powder. "We need more flour and cheese, but Cubrickton gave us enough vegetables to keep us for a while. Eden? How are your stores?"

Eden cocked her head to the side, thinking. "I have plenty of bandages, but I'm shorter on burn paste than I'd like to be, especially going into the dry season. We should get more."

"We have quite a few lengths of fabric to sell," Hestia piped up. The loom click-clacked steadily under their hands.

Zillah nodded. "Paul? Anything you need? Lorton is a market town."

Paul shrugged. "I'm okay, I think. I guess I might need different clothes, if we want me to fit in." He hesitated, then added, "What about for Acoda Keep? Will you need anything for that?"

The sisters looked at each other. The room was quiet with nervous energy for a moment.

"It's hard to say, since we don't know what we're going to do," Hestia said slowly.

"That's fair," Paul replied. He pursed his lips, thinking over what they'd said. "Do we know anything about the keep?"

Zillah shrugged, then began transferring powdered herbs to a new container. "Not much. We've been near there, even to Brusha, and it's all cliffs and rocky islands down there. I've seen the keep from a distance, but I don't know anything about the inside."

"We could visit the bookseller in Lorton," Vesta suggested. "They might have maps."

Hestia nodded. "I'll ask around. Someone is bound to know something."

"We need pots for the plants," Eden spoke up. "And jars, for cuttings. Aunt Comfort told me once that greenroot propagates easily."

"What about seeds?" asked Paul.

"It wouldn't hurt to bring papers for seeds," said Vesta, "but I don't expect we'll find any. They're keeping it restricted, and leaving seeds out just makes them easy to steal. Any seeds they have are probably in a vault somewhere."

"Okay," Paul said. "So maps and information, and pots and jars and...I guess shovels? For digging up plants?"

"We have trowels," Eden assured him.

"Right. Okay. And...." Paul searched his memory for adventure stories and the supplies needed. "Rope? Just in case it's useful?"

Zillah nodded. "It wouldn't hurt, especially with all the cliffs."

"Right. And then....I guess we don't know," Paul ended.

"Do you have a gifting?" Hestia asked.

"I....don't know. People where I'm from don't have gifts," Paul explained. "Is there something I can do to get one? Some trick to get it going?"

"The only 'trick' is obedience," said Zillah. "You get quiet and listen, and do what comes to mind, as long as it isn't dangerous or anything of course. It takes practice to know what to listen for."

Paul blinked at her, but she didn't seem to have anything more to say. "Okay then. I guess I'll try that."

"And we'll fit it together," Vesta added. "Now can Paul read?"

Since the topic seemed to be over, Paul turned to the shelf Zillah indicated and looked over the books available.

They left Home and split up when they reached Lorton. Eden and Paul went with Hestia: Eden would use her gifting to help Hestia haggle and ask for information about Acona Keep for as long as she could, and then Paul would accompany her back to Home if she got overwhelmed. Zillah and Vesta would go to the book sellers, to look for maps, and then stock up on necessities.

Vesta had found a tunic for Paul. It was worn and a little threadbare, but it would attract less attention. She'd also given him a few coins. "We don't have much spending money, but you can have a share in case you see something useful. It's only fair."

Paul thanked her and slipped them into his pocket.

Lorton wasn't a large town, and the market reminded Paul of a large flea market from home. He hefted the bundle Hestia had given him and followed her to a row of stalls selling fabrics. As they approached, Hestia looked over at Eden, whose fingers flickered as she indicated who was in a good mood and who should be avoided.

"Can they hear us from here?" Paul asked, surprised that she used hand signals instead of speaking.

"No, probably not. But sometimes speaking is difficult," Hestia replied.

Hestia approached the seller Eden had picked, and Paul followed Eden as she drifted towards the back of the stall, running her hands over the colored fabrics. Hestia called them back a few minutes later.

"All set," Hestia announced, looking pleased. She turned to look across the market, pursing her lips as she considered where to go next for information. "We'll try the brewery, I think," she decided. "There's usually a few older soldiers and sailors there."

An hour later, Eden was safely back at Home, the other women were still in the market, and Paul had some time to himself. Remembering Zillah's words, he thought he might as well start listening for a gifting.

He sat down on a fallen log and tried to listen. Nothing happened.

Paul sighed, rearranged his legs, and listened again. This was stupid. There was nothing there. They had no reason to believe he had a gifting in the first place, so that was to be expected.

He tried once more, and the only thing that popped into his head was that the inside of the huge clock tower, with all its gears and springs, would be interesting to see. That obviously had nothing to do with a gifting, so his mind must be wandering.

Still, Zillah had said to do what came to mind, so he went and looked. The clock tower's narrow stairs were a long climb, but the workings at the top were pretty interesting to watch. Still, nothing magical happened.

The next morning, they headed south again, into Brusha territory. Zillah's gifting still said Acoda Keep.

"We did find a map," Zillah announced, spreading it out on the table. They all crowded around to examine it.

The Keep was a five-sided fortress, with thick walls and reinforced towers. It took up practically all of the island it was on. The center was open, so that greenroot could be cultivated, and storage rooms were marked along the perimeter.

The oceans and cliffs nearby were marked, and it was obvious that there was no easy way in or out. The rocks were steep along this part of the coast, and the water was too deep to easily cross.

"We don't know how many soldiers are there," Vesta explained, "but we're not exactly fighters anyway. If there's a back door or a secret entrance, nobody we spoke to knows about it."

Hestia nodded. "Same here. There is a loading dock," she pointed it out on the map, "but that's guarded as well. Though that door can't be locked from the outside, so if we do manage to get in, we could use that as our way out."

"Can Home go in the ocean?" Paul asked.

Vesta frowned. "Like a boat, you mean? We've never done it, but probably. We don't know much about sails, though."

"I suppose we could make very, very long legs," Hestia said.

Vesta thought it over, then nodded. "It would be tricky, though, with the waves and the rocks."

"You don't feel very certain," Eden commented.

Vesta shrugged. "I'm not."

"So we'll keep it as a possibility, but not a strong one," Zillah decided.

They headed south. Paul told Zillah about how he'd listened and nothing had happened, and she'd shrugged and said that was how it was sometimes, and to keep trying. So he did. It was still pointless.

He read to the women in the evenings, or helped with the simpler parts of medicine-making. He tried to help with the weaving as well, but Hestia and Vesta could settle into a rhythm so fast and smooth that his efforts were obviously slowing them down. Eden taught him to spin yarn, and kindly told him he was doing well for a beginner before re-spinning his attempts.

During the days they often came across people who needed help: broken bones to set, fevers to heal, houses to build. They were away from the contested territories, so military attacks were rare, but accidents still happened.

When Paul was on his own and was tired of listening to nothing, he started drawing. Paper was expensive, but a slate and chalk were easy to find. He drew Home in its various configurations, and his bedroom and bicycle from his real home, and animals they passed, and odd bits of half-remembered machinery. It passed the time.

Finally they stopped, at the top of the cliffs on the shore near Acoda Keep. The cliffs were high above the waves, and the salt air blew fresh against their faces.

"That's Acoda," Zillah said, pointing. "And there on the shore is Brusha Harbor. The big island in the distance is Pofash; it's controlled by Brusha also."

Paul peered down over the cliff. The waves broke on a narrow shore of rocks and sand. "Are there ways to the bottom?" he asked.

Hestia leaned over too. "Not easy ones."

"We could make one," Vesta suggested. "It wouldn't be any harder than our tree-climbing rig. Just longer."

"That sounds fun," said Eden, sitting at the edge of the cliff to run her fingers through the sandy soil.

"Well, let's have lunch," Zillah said, always practical. "Maybe something will come to us."

Paul finished his bread and leaned back on the stiff grass, letting the sun warm his skin. An insect buzzed above him, its wings flitting in the sunlight.

Suddenly Paul got the urge to draw. His fingers felt almost itchy with it. He sat up, frowning around.

"What is it?" Zillah asked.

"I want to draw," Paul said. "It's...weird."

Zillah smiled slightly. "It always is."

Eden crouched next to them and handed Paul his drawing slate. He hadn't noticed her get up in the first place. He thanked her and set to work.

He drew the bug first, with its slim body and flitting wings. Then he rubbed it away and began to draw again: something that was like the bug and like a helicopter and like an old da Vinci drawing, but not exactly like any of those.

Finally he passed it to Zillah. "I can't think of anything else to draw."

"Then it is done," she replied. "What is it?"

Paul shook his head. "It looks rather like some of the flying machines from my home universe, but not exactly. And it needs someone who knows way more than I do to build and construct it."

Zillah smiled and passed it to Vesta. "Can you and Hestia make it?"

"It - it won't work!" Paul objected. "I have no idea how these things really work!"

Vesta grinned at him. "Hestia and I don't need it to actually work, Paul. Just mostly."

Paul couldn't believe he was doing this. Hestia and Vesta had assembled a coalition of rocks and sticks and ropes and a bedsheet, and now he was inside it and flying over the edge of a very high cliff. It took both of them to focus enough to make the linkages work, but somehow they were off the ground. Zillah was in the front, calling out directions to the island she could barely see in the moonlight. Eden sat next to her, straining her ears for attention or aggression from the guards ahead.

Paul sat in the center of the ship, helping to pedal the wings of the flying ship. Pots and jars were strapped into a net behind him, and Hestia and Vesta sat on either side of him, their focus entirely on the ship.

They flew out to sea and approached the keep from the rear, trusting the darkness to hide them. Eden reported that the guards were sleepy and bored and unlikely to wake up. Paul held his breath as they crossed into the keep, the tension of the moment thrumming through him, but no one shouted out their presence.

They landed with a thump in the center of the keep. Eden immediately pointed in two different directions; someone had heard them. Paul and Zillah scrambled out, hoping it was gardeners and not guards they had to deal with.

Their luck held; the two men who came to investigate had no weapons and seemed stunned by the sight of their flying contraption. Paul didn't blame them for that. He and Zillah were able to use the confusion to their advantage and soon had the men tied up.

Eden came out next, carrying pots and jars and a trowel. Paul and Zillah took the pots and began digging up greenroot plants and packing them to be transported. Eden drew a sharp knife from her belt, and added cuttings to the propagation jars.

Paul was just finishing his second plant when Eden hissed. All three of them turned and sprinted for the flying ship. They made it inside just as a pair of guards entered the courtyard and saw the ship.

"Fly!" Eden whispered to her sisters. She secured the jars as Paul ran to his set of pedals.

They heard shouts outside, and a few spears or arrows clunked off the side of the ship, but they were already airborne.

Paul laughed with relief as they flew into the clear sky. They could go back to Home and disassemble the flying ship, and no one would be able to figure out what had happened. They had done it.

They were still breathing in their success when the air in the middle of the ship began to glimmer purple. "Zillah!" Vesta called, "is that another of those portal things?"

Zillah turned away from her navigation to look at it. "It is," she said. She got up and came back to hug Paul. "I think you're going home."

Paul nodded. It felt right. "I'm glad I could help after all."

"Come back if you can," Hestia said, as she and Vesta came to give him their hugs. Eden didn't say anything, but she squeezed his hand and smiled gently at him.

"I will," Paul promised, and went home.

The end

#Inklings Challenge #inklings 2023 #Team lewis #genre: portal fantasy #theme: visit the sick #Spiritual gifts as fantasy magic #Salt and light

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