Chương 36: The First Path

The estate had never been silent. Even now, Spark shifted restlessly across the back of a dining chair, his tiny yellow body glowing whenever sunlight reached him through the window. Outside, Clover worked through another delivery from Bellhaven, wet sounds and contented chirps drifting across the grounds. Somewhere near the front gate, a wagon creaked beneath the weight of barrels sent from one of Dorian's workshops. There were people on the road, workers in the yard, and a drake in the room with her.

There was no solitude… but it still felt empty. Talia sat at the dining table with a quill in one hand and her first letter to Aurelia resting beside her practice sheets. She had started it shortly after the wagon disappeared down the southern road. The first line read: Everything is fine so far. That was where she had stopped. Relevant Detail had not declared the sentence false, but the sentence had begun to feel oddly separate from the page. The words were clean enough.

Her lettering had improved over the last two weeks, though the final word leaned farther to the right than the others. Nothing about the grammar was wrong. But every time Talia glanced at it, her attention returned to the word fine. Fine meant Bellhaven had not surrounded them again. Fine meant Clover had enough material, Spark remained close, and no emergency required a message to the cottage. All of that was true, but the room was still too quiet. Talia turned back to her practice page.

She copied one of Roy's shipping instructions for the fourth time. Send no barrel until the receiving area is confirmed clear. The sentence emerged more smoothly than it had yesterday. Relevant Detail tugged her attention toward the word receiving, reminding her that the middle letters carried the sense of accepting something rather than sending it away. Talia finished the line and checked it against Roy's original. One letter was too small, but the rest was correct.

Spark crawled along the chair and leaned toward the inkpot.

"No." He stretched farther. Talia moved the ink as Spark chirped sharply.

"You can complain to Roy." The Light Drake floated from the chair and landed on the table. His tail curled around one of the unused quills.

"If you transport that to Shimmer, I am telling Aurelia that it was your fault." Spark stared at her, then he released the quill. Talia suspected he understood more than he pretended. The front door opened. She straightened before Garrick entered carrying two wooden plates.

"I brought lunch." Talia looked at the plates. Bread, cheese, and cold slices of roast from the previous evening.

"You made that?"

"I assembled it." Garrick placed one plate in front of her and took the seat across the table. For several moments, neither spoke. They had eaten alone before meeting the siblings. They had eaten separately often enough while surviving around Bellhaven, taking whatever work or food they could secure. But they had not eaten like this since joining the household. No Roy asking whether the portions were properly divided. No Orion eating quickly enough to make everyone else feel slow.

No Aurelia reminding them that bread did not count as the only necessary part of a meal. The absence of those things filled the room more completely than noise had. Garrick tore off a piece of bread.

"They should be close to halfway by now. Unless Shale stopped."

"Why would he?"

"He may have found a tree." Talia smiled despite herself.

"He was harnessed."

"That has not stopped him from eating the wagon before." They fell quiet again. Spark moved between their plates, inspecting both before deciding Garrick's cheese looked more interesting. Garrick pushed him gently away.

"You have your own food." Spark chirped.

"That argument does not work on him," Talia said.

"It should."

"He is a dragon."

"So?"

"So none of them believe rules apply unless someone explains the rule, the reason, and the consequences several times." Garrick looked toward the window.

"That sounds like Aegis."

"Aegis understands the rules."

"He disagrees with them."

"That is worse." Garrick laughed once. Talia watched him pick at the edge of the bread. Relevant Detail nudged her attention toward the untouched meat on his plate, the way he kept looking toward the front door, and the training shirt folded over the back of his chair. He was waiting for something - or avoiding saying it.

"You regret staying," she said. Garrick looked up.

"No."

"You hesitated."

"I was surprised."

"That is not a denial." He frowned. Talia waited as Garrick set the bread down.

"I do not regret it."

"But?" He leaned back in the chair and looked toward the ceiling.

"I am not sure what I am supposed to do."

"You are training with Edric."

"I could have done that without joining this family."

"You are helping here."

"I could have stayed in Bellhaven and helped here once the estate opened." Talia said nothing. Garrick continued before the silence could become uncomfortable.

"I joined because I wanted to contribute more. I wanted to stop being someone Orion had to protect while everyone else did the important work." His hand moved toward his status without opening it.

"Now I am back in Bellhaven. Training with the same captain I would have trained under anyway. Sleeping in a building near the same town. I stayed behind while the people who actually know how to build the settlement went home."

"You are here because I am."

"That is part of it." Talia raised an eyebrow. Garrick's face reddened slightly.

"I meant because someone needed to remain at the embassy."

"Of course."

"And you should not be here alone."

"I have Clover and Spark."

"Clover cannot enter most rooms without knocking something over."

"He is still company."

"And Spark steals writing tools." Spark chirped from beside Garrick's plate. Garrick pointed at him.

"Exactly." Talia looked down at her letter. Everything is fine so far. She understood Garrick's discomfort. They had chosen the family. Then, almost immediately, they had volunteered to remain apart from it.

"You would feel worse if you had gone," she said.

"If you returned to the cottage, you would spend the entire trip wondering whether you abandoned Edric's training. You would worry that I was here alone. You would ask whether staying in Bellhaven could have made you more useful." He considered that as Talia continued.

"You are conflicted because both choices mattered. That probably means you chose the correct one."

"That makes no sense."

"Correct choices are not always the ones that remove every doubt."

"Did Relevant Detail tell you that?"

"No," she picked up a piece of cheese.

"It reminded me that you have complained about leaving Edric's training nearly as often as you have complained about staying." Garrick frowned.

"I did not complain that often."

"Yesterday. The day before. During breakfast. While carrying the bed upstairs."

"That was one extended complaint."

"It happened across two days."

"It was still connected." Talia smiled. Garrick tried not to, but he failed eventually. He finished the bread and finally began eating the meat.

"My training starts soon."

"Are you going to ask him about your first skill again?"

"No…' Garrick sighed.

"Maybe."

"Orion told you not to rush it."

"Orion received his while fighting bandits."

"That was not an invitation to find bandits." Garrick gathered the empty plates.

"I am going to training. Not searching the woods for criminals." Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"That sounds suspiciously specific."

"Because you were about to suggest it." He carried the plates toward the kitchen. Before leaving the room, he paused beside her chair.

"You will be fine?" Relevant Detail drew her attention back to the letter. Talia folded one practice sheet over it.

"Yes." The answer did not feel as wrong as the written sentence. Garrick was asking whether she could manage the afternoon, not whether she missed everyone.

"I will be here before supper," he said.

"I know." Garrick nodded. He collected his training shirt and left through the front door. The estate became quieter. Talia waited until his footsteps vanished down the road, then she opened her status. The private quest appeared where she had left it. [Details of this quest are not to be shared with other community members.] [Quest Objective: Create Three Paths Toward Home.] No description followed. No marker explained what qualified as a "path".

Talia had spent most of the morning considering literal possibilities. The route between the cottage and Bellhaven was long, not maintained, and almost useless in winter. Improving it would create one path toward home. Shimmer and Spark formed another. Perhaps establishing a trade route to another town would count as the third. The theories made sense, but they also felt too obvious. Talia dismissed the message and returned to her writing. She crossed out " Everything is fine so far."

After several moments, she replaced it. The estate feels different without everyone here. That sentence remained part of the page. Talia continued. Spark tried to steal my quill. Clover has already received two deliveries. Garrick brought lunch and pretended putting food on plates counted as cooking. She stopped, then added: I miss you. Relevant Detail remained quiet. A knock sounded from the front of the estate. Talia covered the letter instinctively as Spark lifted his head. Another knock followed.

Talia crossed the dining room and opened the door. Kaelu Veyani stood on the front step with a broad case beneath one arm and several rolled schematics strapped across his back. The timberwright looked exactly as Roy had described him. Warm bronze-brown skin. Long black hair tied at the nape. Sharp features that made his neutral expression appear mildly irritated.

"You are Talia?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Roy said someone would be here."

"He departed this morning."

"I know," Kaelu held out the case.

"These are the copies he purchased." Talia accepted it with both hands; the weight nearly dragged her arms downward. Spark floated into the entryway and circled Kaelu's head. The timberwright watched him without alarm.

"One of the drakes?"

"Spark."

"Appropriate." Spark chirped and landed on Talia's shoulder. She stepped aside.

"You may come in while I check the plans."

"I do not need tea."

"I did not offer." Kaelu looked at her; Roy had described him well. She brought the case to the dining room table and opened it. Carefully rolled blueprints filled the interior, each tied and labeled in Kaelu's neat handwriting. Talia recognized enough of the words to identify roofs, walls, storage buildings, and something involving elevated foundations.

"There should be twenty-three," Kaelu said. Talia counted twice.

"All here."

"Good." A heavy cart creaked through the rear gate. Kaelu turned toward the window, seeing that another delivery had arrived for Clover. Workers began unloading covered bins near the processing yard. Kaelu watched longer than a person merely curious about the noise would have.

"That's another drake, correct?"

"Yes."

"Clover." Talia nodded. Kaelu's gaze remained outside.

"Roy said he produced the soil."

"Blackloam."

"May I see it?" The request made Talia hesitate. Dorian had brought merchants to inspect Greenbind. Roy had spoken with farmers and craftsmen about other products. No one had arrived specifically asking for a one-on-one explanation. Talia became aware that she was fifteen, alone in an embassy, and responsible for explaining a product Roy treated as potentially valuable. She straightened.

"Of course." Talia tried to imagine the expression Roy used when he understood half of a negotiation but refused to let the other person discover which half. Kaelu followed her outside. Clover lifted his head as they approached. His leaflike frills rose, and he trotted toward Talia with enough enthusiasm that the green membranes along his sides rippled. She placed one hand against his broad forehead.

"This is Kaelu." Clover sniffed the timberwright's coat. Kaelu did not retreat.

"He understands?"

"Simple speech. Tone. More than people expect." Kaelu inclined his head toward Clover. The Rotbloom Drake chirped and returned to the processing pile. Talia showed Kaelu the covered Blackloam bins first. The material inside was dark and rich, softer than ordinary soil and carrying a faint scent of rain rather than decay. Kaelu reached toward it; he rubbed a small amount between his fingers. His expression changed. Not surprise exactly, but recognition mixed with hope.

It was then buried so quickly Talia might have missed it without Relevant Detail.

"This is produced from waste?"

"Organic material. Food scraps, plant matter, medicinal remnants. Clover can process other things, but Roy is still determining what affects the result." Kaelu crouched beside the bin.

"How much?"

"This is two days of production." His fingers stopped moving.

"All of this?"

"Yes." Talia led him toward the demonstration plants. Roy had arranged several pots beneath a simple awning. Each contained a crop that struggled in Bellhaven's cool, damp soil. The plants rooted in Blackloam stood taller and greener than the control samples beside them. Kaelu inspected each one. He checked the leaves, pressed the soil, and examined the depth of one root through a narrow glass-sided container Roy had commissioned.

"This crop should not thrive here," he said.

"That was the point."

"How long?"

"Less than two weeks." Kaelu looked toward the processing yard. Talia felt Relevant Detail pull her attention toward his hands. They had tightened, but not with the greed she had seen from other merchants. Kaelu looked at the plants like someone staring through an open doorway.

"We have some Blackloam available for sale," Talia said. He stood.

"I have no land where it could be used properly." The words carried more than their surface meaning. Talia considered them.

"I could grow enough in pots to prove what it does," Kaelu continued.

"That is not the same as using it."

"You know how?" Kaelu's eyes narrowed.

"How to farm?"

"How to use land that other people might not." Silence stretched between them. Talia worried she had pushed too far, then Kaelu looked back at the unusual crops.

"My wife and I came from another land." Talia waited. He seemed to dislike explaining himself without being asked, but Relevant Detail suggested that another question too quickly would close the opening.

"Our people build differently. Farm differently. We learned methods suited to places where land must be used carefully. My wife, Kiana, and I believed those methods would be valuable here. Bellhaven has timber, water, and trade. We saved for years to make the journey."

"One way?"

"Yes," Kaelu wiped the Blackloam from his fingers.

"We could not afford passage home. That was acceptable. We had not intended to return." The final sentence sounded practiced. Talia looked toward the plants.

"What went wrong?"

"The soil," He said it with quiet bitterness.

"Bellhaven's surrounding land holds too much stone, too much damp, and too little of what our crops require. Local plants survive. Some thrive. The methods Kiana knows were designed around crops that will not."

"So you became a timberwright."

"I was always a timberwright," he retorted, his tone corrected her immediately. Talia raised both hands.

"Roy warned me about that." Kaelu looked almost offended that Roy had discussed him.

"My designs were unusual enough to attract work," he said.

"Enough to survive."

"But not enough to do what you came here to do." Kaelu did not answer. Relevant Detail did not provide the conclusion by itself. It only drew Talia's attention to the care with which he had said survive, and the way he avoided looking toward Bellhaven when speaking about home. She thought of her quest. Create Three Paths Toward Home. A road, a transport route… Or perhaps something else. Talia looked toward Clover.

"What do you think of him?" Kaelu followed her gaze.

"He is a drake."

"That is not an opinion."

"He appears content."

"You are not concerned?"

"Should I be?"

"Most people in Bellhaven were." Kaelu shrugged.

"My people teach respect for animals, spirits, and any creature intelligent enough to make its will understood. Whether Clover is called animal or dragon matters less than whether he thinks, feels, and chooses." Clover plunged his face into the newest delivery. Kaelu watched him.

"He appears to choose waste."

"He likes being useful."

"That is common among people too."

"And Spark?" Kaelu glanced at the Light Drake on Talia's shoulder. Spark chirped indignantly.

"He has done me no harm." Talia's heart began beating faster. She could send Kaelu away with his payment confirmed and the plans received. That would be safest. She did not know what land they could promise, how settlement membership worked, or whether Orion would approve inviting people they barely knew. Kaelu was older, experienced, and clearly aware that she was a teenager pretending confidence. But her quest did not say to wait for Roy.

Relevant Detail drew her attention to the repeated direction of Kaelu's gaze. Blackloam, the demonstration plants, and Clover.

"Our settlement has land," Talia said.

"A large amount." Kaelu looked at her.

"I assumed a cottage outside Bellhaven would."

"It is not only a cottage anymore."

"Declaring something a settlement does not create houses."

"No. People create houses." The words sounded like Roy. Talia recognized that and leaned into it.

"People create farms too." Kaelu's expression became guarded.

"You do not know what you are offering."

"I am not offering land."

"You implied it."

"I am offering a visit." He crossed his arms.

"To inspect the Blackloam?"

"To inspect everything." The silence sharpened; Talia forced herself not to fill it. Kaelu looked toward the road.

"You are fifteen. You cannot promise settlement rights."

"No."

"Or that your family will accept strangers."

"They accepted Garrick and me."

"That is different."

"Why?" He started to answer, then stopped. Talia continued.

"I cannot promise you a farm. I cannot promise Kiana's crops will work. I cannot promise Roy will agree with everything I have said." Kaelu's eyebrows rose.

"This is an unusual recruitment attempt."

"It is not recruitment."

"It is." Talia took a breath.

"Then it is an honest one." That earned his full attention.

"Our community needs people who know things we do not," she said.

"Roy bought every plan you had because he understands that. We have land, Blackloam, and dragons capable of doing work Bellhaven cannot." She gestured toward the demonstration plants.

"You have knowledge that has not had the correct place to grow." Kaelu's guarded expression weakened. Only slightly, but Talia saw it.

"You and Kiana could visit," she said.

"Look at the land. Test the soil. Meet everyone. If it is useless, you return to Bellhaven."

"And if it is not?"

"Then you talk to Roy." Kaelu almost smiled.

"You truly do not understand the size of the offer."

"Probably not. But I understand enough to know that no one should decide for you whether it is worth investigating." Kaelu looked at Clover again. The Rotbloom Drake had settled beside one of the bins, frills spread in the afternoon sun.

"I will speak with Kiana," Kaelu said.

"I will not agree to anything without her."

"You should not."

"If she is willing, we will visit. Nothing more. We investigate the land, the Blackloam…And your settlement." Talia nodded. Kaelu retrieved the empty schematic case.

"This may be foolish."

"Roy's ideas often are."

"I was referring to yours."

"I learned from him." That earned the faint smile she had been trying to find. Kaelu turned toward the estate gate.

"I will send word after speaking with Kiana."

"I will wait." He paused.

"You should avoid offering land to every merchant who asks about fertilizer."

"I did not offer land."

"You came close." Then he left. Talia remained beside the demonstration plants until he disappeared down the road. The moment the gate closed, her status opened. [Private Quest Progress Updated.] [Create Three Paths Toward Home: 1/3.] Talia stared. She had not secured a resident - Kaelu had not even agreed to visit until he spoke with Kiana. But the path existed; that was enough. Talia ran back into the estate.

Spark clung to her shoulder as she hurried through the dining room and pulled a clean sheet of parchment toward herself. Her first letter to Aurelia remained unfinished. The note to Roy would come first. She dipped the pen into ink. Kaelu delivered the schematics. He and his wife may visit the settlement to inspect the land and Blackloam. Talia paused, then added: I did not promise them anything. After considering Roy's likely reaction, she underlined the sentence.

Her private quest remained open at the edge of her vision. [Create Three Paths Toward Home: 1/3.]