#earthrunes

"Not sure she's allowed...." Coradel sighs and looks to Delores. "I think I need to speak to Bachdion about her. She's...not quite getting the point."

"She thinks because her parents want her to stay here, she's exiled here?" Delores says stunned THen looks at Oswald, "Oswald, what did she tell you about her folks ah.. having her stay here?"

Oswald looks reluctant "Trolls don't normally talk about other trolls embarrasments, Steward. I mean if you or the baroness insist, but I'd ask you not to make it casual conversation"

"I'm insisting." Coradel sounds annoyed now.

But not at him.

"Well, she said she thought she had juggled things okay, maybe missing some sleep, but she 'really screwed up' they took her duties away since she couldn't handle them . I told her I didn't think she really screwed up, but I imagine any troll might be alarmed at finding they failed at their duties period. I think it took the wind out of her sails, to to speak. It's one thing to be here to chase her dreams, it's another to be here because shes' screwign up back home." Oswald says "Trolls don't like failing. We're guardians, when we fail, we let others get hurt."

Delores mouths one word, silently, but Coradel knows her friend well enough to read the lips easily, just one exasperated word 'Trolls'

Oswald salutes "Anything else, Baroness? "

Coradel gives a sigh. "No, not right now. But Oswald, do let me know if she seems to be punishing herself in any way. This is not how I thought her training would go." She shakes her head with frustration. "Yes, I need to speak with Bachdion. Excuse me." She passes the empty glass back to Delores and heads off."

Both Steward and Thane Bow as the Baroness goes off. No doubt wondering how much OXYGEN Siv is getting to her brain up there to misunderstand the whole... argh

(End Scene)

************

At some point, a sealed letter is delivered to Siv's room.

************

Siv comes in, frustrated and vexed. What a fight that was. Jonas and she... well, they made some progress.

She has to report to the Baroness and then she sees the letter

A closer look, and she'll recognize her mother's handwriting: "To Captain Siv Waveborn"

And despite her concerns, a smile breaks out on her face, "She wrote back? Ah .." And she is cheered, troulbes rise and fall, but while she'd not make a fuss too much to her mom, family cheers her. She starts to read

Written entirely in Norwegian, in her own somewhat-blocky handwriting:
"Dear Siv,"
"We are very happy to get your letter, and I thought you would like a letter that would help you practice translation. I do not know how good this will be. I have not spoken nor written in the tongue regularly since I was very young, long before my chrysalis. But I will offer what I can.
"Your work with the pen is very good. Mine, as you see, will always only serve a purpose, not please the eye. Your father is very impressed with how well you craft your letters, as well. That sounds like praise one would give a child, but that is not how it is meant. I understand that you are working hard to learn that skill and many others, and I see the improvement.
"To hear that you have gone to Norway... I must tell you that I do not have words for how that pleases me. Not only that you have gone, but that you wanted to go. Since your childhood was in the Dreaming, I never thought you would care for your Concordian heritage beyond Rivervale itself. To know that this has grown to matter to you... Siv, this touches my heart, and I am pleased.
"You are learning idioms. I think I may have used some when you were a baby, but I do not know if you remember. One I think you will like is this: Når katten er borte, danser musene på bordet. Also: Det fins ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlige klær. I have not said those in some time. Perhaps I will start using them again -- they will be appropriate with some of the childlings here.
"I am glad you enjoyed Carnivale. I think Carnivale at a Fiona hold must be very confusing and... I do not have the word. Wild is not the right word. But I think you understand what I mean. We again went to Carnivale at Caer Falken, and Count (Jester) Hemlock wished you and Jessica health and happiness. The Count played his role well.
"Siv, I know you are working hard. I hope giving you more time to focus on your lessons there has helped. Seeking your path is important. Jessica sought hers a different way. Both ways have challenges, and both are important.
"I hope you can understand this. It is long, so I expect it will take you time to translate. Let me know if you need me to help.
"I love you, my daughter.
"Love,
"Your Mother"

She blinks as it is entirely Norwegian "Oh you're killing me, mom"

Some of the simpliest words she translates fast, but others are going to take.. oh quite awhile. "Why would she write it all in Norweigan?"

She'll learn, of course, and she bites her lip. Well, darn it, Siv. She doesn't do anything without a reason, and I DO want to learn it. So I should get started. Oh but I have to talk to the baroness too, and let her know how it's going a breath. She picks up the paper and kisses it, and instead of translating, she makes a copy by hand, writing every word... less chance of losing the valued message. She can take the copy to the library and look up how to translate there if need be. It takes a bit despite the message being brief. She wants to get every spelling right on words she does not understand.

Then she takes the copy and seeks out the Baroness.

----------

Of course, Bachdion is in his own study. What the study's purpose was before is discussed, but it's become pretty much his. Not as many books as the library, not as much liquor as the cellar, and yet, it is the frequent stop over for those in need of the legendary wisdom of an graybeard Satyr.

If anyone was heading towards his door besides the Baroness, they shift when they see her path. No doubt, the sidhe lady of the hold radiates a 'get out of the way I have purpose' vibe.

And Coradel does the courtesy of knocking on the study door before bursting in. "Teacher Mine? I need to speak with you!"

His hooves are on his desk, a pair of delicate bifocals perched on his nose most academically as he is looking over a book, but when his favorite student and liege comes in, he rises to those hooves and puts the book down so he may bow, galllantly "Then I am happy to lend you my ears and all that's between them"

Normally, she'd go to him and there'd likely be some fun flirtation or more before she got around to addressing the matter at hand. But she's clearly irritated, and so instead she paces. "Captain Waveborn is...annoying," she declares.

"Oh dear, what has our wayward waveborn done now?"

A harrumph. "One moment I think she'll be a fine Fiona, full of passion and wonderfully reckless...and then she'll turn around and be all worried about hurting the feelings of a lover or her parents or...or who knows who else! Bachdion, you must see this, too?"

"Oh dear, she's ignored what her parents hoped for her entirely then? Still stretching herself thin even though they tried to free her for focus?" He tries to translate and discern

"Not quite. It seems now she thinks that her parents didn't so much free her from duties as they were sending her away as a punishment! And somehow she got the idea that she's not allowed to venture off on the trods. Bachdion, before I was sained, I don't recall ever worrying much about what I was or was not allowed to do. I just did it!"

"Ah, yes. But I think as a Fiona you were encouraged to indulge in impulse. Think of the houses of her parents, and what you have experienced with Gwydions and Liams you know?"

"Well, yes....duty and shame...lovely combination." More pacing. "So how does one work through that to make a Fiona happen? And if it doesn't come to her naturally, is Fiona the right house for her?"

"SHe's your student, not mine, but I think you are frustrated in part because, as a mentor, you see how CLOSE she is to greatness only to see her let it slip from her fingers. That was not my trial with you, but it is not unheard of. Is it so? That you..can visualize her as a Silver Lioness and then she shatters that vision ?"

"I... I think so. Yes. So much potential, and then suddenly she's hiding from things. I just..." A sigh. "Yes, that's it."

"I can tell you every teacher has felt the exact level of frustration you're feeling. In one way or another. You lay down the breadcrumbs and they go off eating grass or ignore the open gate they've come to entirely....as if they don't see it. They often don't ,to be fair. " Bachdion says "Have you asked others what her problem is? and herself, of course? If so, what was said?"

"I have. And some, I've been asked not to share. But part of it..." She rolls her eyes. "During Carnivale, she had sex with a partner who was not her regular lover. A case of mistaken identity, after the flowers. But then, instead of talking with her lover to resolve the issue, she's been hiding from the matter for a week."

"I see... you think him abusive this lover? would he hurt her? I met Jonas only once"

"No, no...she didn't give me that impression. And as we spoke, she realized that perhaps he had slept with another, as well, and that they are both assuming the other is avoiding... but honestly, to go a week without pressing the issue?!"

"If he is too embarrassed, and she waited until he was ready it could have been a dance around things most farcical. Some Fiona are rather aestic in their romances, trying to keep it on the plane of the ideal only, but the rest of the house often thinks them boring. And she didn't strike me as that type. Still you fear this disqualifies her?"

"Oh, she wasn't merely giving him space. She was preoccupied with the matter, fretting about it." A slow breath. "I think...that a Fiona worries less and does more. That a Fiona resolves questions through action, not through avoidance. And I think that when she doesn't do that, when she avoids confronting problems, she become more miserable."

"And was Siv miserable about it? "

"I think so." A pause. "Troubled, distracted, anxious....isn't that the same?"

"Then, maybe what you see as her being a Fiona actually fits more than you know. She has been with Gwydions and Liams who are honorable, but restrain their expressions of joy. Their way is fine for them, but it was not for her so she went seeking. Now, she does the same- and she is not happy, not her best self. Maybe she is meant to be a Fiona or at least much like one, or she will never truly be happy. She has dimmed her light out of love for others rather than shining for them. And she is anxious, troubled... when she lights up again, as a Fiona might and does so making her love FOR family, paramour and high ideals a part of that light... she'll be excitedly dizzingly at peace... in the sense a galloping race horse with the wind in her mane is at peace" A smile "I think she has come to the part of things where even if she does not become a Fiona, she must face the fact she must let that light shine or she will be miserable with or without house. I think that's why you're frustrated with her. You see how wrong she's going about this when she DOES have much to gain fro mthe House's ideals, and perhaps the house might gain from her."

"YES!" Coradel says with a tone and gesture of deep frustration. "But how do I get her to go there? How do I get her to... to let go of that obligation of expectation, and push through to passion and joy?"

"Mmm" He ponders "WHat is she motivated by?"

"Her honest motivations? Or the motivations she thinks she is supposed to have?" A wry look as she goes back to pacing.

"Probably the former if she's to have happiness" He says