Post by Liessel on Apr 2, 2024 13:31:09 GMT -5
"Which Dark Mother of the Wood?" Missus White asked easily.
"Blackthorn, who came to us after the Lost Day," Amrilaine told her.
"I do know Mother Blackthorn, aye. We entangle through and beneath."
Entangle through and beneath.
That fit the details that Aurelia had given her.
Liessel breathed in, measuring herself in inches and seconds as she listened. She had to focus because her stomach was starting to churn.
Fully at ease, Missus White asked, "What is this about, my friend?"
"We've been in some confusion about what, exactly, happened there with her. She was gone before we could question further, and we in turmoil, as I told you."
"And your Aurelia followed me down? Amrilaine, you know as well as anyone that there's no telling who you'll meet and twist up with down there at any time. It is not a place for rendezvous, not for you and not for me. What is the heart of this?"
"I do know it," the Dame said, sounding thoughtful. There was a note of apology as well. "There is no accusation, Nelell. Only confusion."
"I am not surprised. Eavesdropping rarely results in true understanding," Missus White told her warmly.
Liessel kept her head down, listening still. She had words to say, but this was not the place. It was not the time. She had only just met Missus White in person for herself, but she did know that Aurelia did not trust her. She knew there was some sense of caution from Adam as well.
Amrilaine knew White the best, out of all of them so she would let Amrilaine speak, and she would listen.
After a moment more of that, and after having gotten a handle on her expression, Liessel lifted her chin so that she might watch as well.
"Perhaps your protegee might come to me with her questions, if what she heard puzzles her so," Missus White mused. "Perhaps it was the entanglement that frightened her. But she need not send others in her stead."
Tread carefully, Aurelia had warned, There is more going on than what we know.
Be very careful with Missus White.
The words of Aurelia and Adam were the things that caused her to bite her tongue and keep her mouth closed.
Don't say too much.
When so much had already been said, and her tongue was just itching to come out with words that she knew were better left silent for now.
It was like trying to hold onto an electrified rod of metal. The longer she held on to it, the harder it was to do so. But the warnings of her friends gave her protection enough from feeling her control over it slip. Her own understanding of what, where, when, and why words like hers might be shared helped to shore up that burning desire to open her mouth.
Liessel held onto it, that silence she kept to, her mental fingers wrapped around that shocking piece of metal.
She stayed quiet, her stomach still churning.
"Liessel brought this to me," the Dame was saying bluntly. "From what she said, it was not Aurelia who heard anything, but one we here have known as Falnir, as Castilan, and now--apparently--as Cyrus. He was barred from this Tor when it was Avalon and an isle still. He slew Ruforn, and was humbled by Gwydda."
"Ah, the one that came with the ship that used the sky for a sea." What could Missus White know of such things, if she could not go above? But stories had a way of filtering down. Understandings, too. "I remember that story. Well, I don't much respect spies. Sticky-footed lizards."
As her name was brought up, Liessel's eyes focused on Missus White. It was difficult to read the white woman's facial expressions. They did not form the same way that Adam's did, or her own, or Amrilaine's, or any number of other humans that Liessel could read. It was harder to pick up on, but not impossible. She watched the pink eyes of the white-barked lady in the water.
The words that she wanted to say were shoved aside, ground down under years of practice made at keeping herself reamed in. It was a lot harder to do now than it had been just a few weeks ago, even just a few days, but impudence would get her nothing.
"Then, gracious Lady, you would not mind clearing the matter up for us? So that the matter can be put to rest with Aurelia?"
"What matter is that, my dear?" Missus White asked gently.
"The matter of this overheard business," Liessel answered, her quiet voice feeling muted even further in that place of stone and water, "The conversation with Mother Blackthorn. I -- understand that it is rude of me to ask, considering the short time that I have come into your acquaintance, but I feel that I must. Did you speak with Mother Blackthorn recently?"
"I did," Missus White told her.
A glance flicked to her side where Lady Ashbroom stood, with Adam just beside her. Her next question she did not need to carefully consider, so the glance was a gauging. What were they getting from Missus White that she might not be?
Amrilaine had not stepped in to silence Liessel, and Missus White still seemed even tempered with her, unlike the gruffness she had taken on when speaking with Adam. Good signs, she hoped. Good signs, she prayed.
"What was it that you spoke of with her?"
"Whatever I wished, my child," said the woman in the pool. "What precisely lies behind this inquiry?"
The young former-priestess tried to get the measure of the woman of white again, but refused to let her eyes narrow as a sign of that assessment.
"The Wardens, Warriors, and Witnesses. It was told that, through that overheard conversation, you might know something about the pact of which we understand so little."
"It was told? By this creature of many names?" Missus White's gaze went up to meet the Dame's. "Amrilaine, you and I have spoken previously on this topic. Do you bring this matter to me because a creature barred from this place, and a woman of whom you dreamed who has nevertheless shown grave disinterest in the wisdom of her elders, have chosen to spin a tale?"
"Of course not, Nelell," Dame Ashbroom said. "No accusation is here made. Yet, perhaps you might ask the Dark Mother to aid us in our understanding."
Adam glanced at the Dame, and then Missus White, frowning, and his hand itched upward toward his eyepatch.
"Wise Lady, there is no disrespect intended by us bringing this to you. Our entreaty here has been made so that we may be given the means to understand what has, so far, eluded us," Liessel said, adding her voice to Amrilaine's after a soft breath.
"As is your duty, of course, and mine." The woman smiled. "I take no offense, never fear. I do warn that ill-feeling breeds ill-feeling, and I, who remain here, will not permit it to spread about me and about my charges. Long have I served here; long have my sisters served here. Newcomers and vagabonds spreading discontent will never have my time, and you should thus guard your own, as well. Now--Amrilaine and I have business. I am pleased to have seen you young ones, and hope to see you both again."
That, she thought, was clearly a dismissal. And Adam had not gotten what he came for -- those poor people. Their granddaughter lost to Faerie. And at such a time as this. She made the resolve to speak with him about it anyway. That was decided as she brought her hand up to her forehead, then laid it against her heart while giving a tip of her head toward the lady in the water, "I will guard myself well, wise one, thank you for your help. I will return again in three days' time, if the invitation is still open."
Missus White's gaze followed Liessel's gesture, and she nodded.
Adam fingered the eyepatch, but lowered his hand again.
"Adam," the Dame prompted.
He glanced at her, but then bowed stiffly to the woman in the pool. "You didn't seem so pleased," he said, "but maybe that's a human confusion."
Amrilaine shook her head sharply, frowning at him, and he saw it, but Liessel was right: they'd been dismissed.