Willow Bark III

[Lani Stranger]

14th of Winter, 518AV

Anticipation drove Lani’s feet as she made her way to the Enclave. Her mind was set on the herbalist’s journal that she had been working on the past few days. She had a mere couple bells of work before her and then she could bring it to the Avora. Usually Kavisan had a Dek or a Yasi deliver the completed items, but Lani was positive she would be able to request to do it herself. Her pocket was heavy with more of the glass pinions than she normally would have carried, even to market day. She had a plan for this journal, and she wanted to make it work.

The Avora who had requested the copying had did so in the hopes that a scribe would make his work more legible and neat, and he intended to keep the copy. Surely Lani could request to copy another piece for the Enclave, but she had a different request. She was hoping he would give her his rough draft. She had not been able to properly research and learn from the journal while copying it, because her work ethic did not allow her to slow her duties too far in the pursuit of knowledge. Not that she would have been able to memorize the information anyway. But if she had more time to properly learn the Nari words she hadn’t recognize and spent time with the book, she was hopeful she would be able to glean more useful information. Even more if she could request clarification from Narth, who had far more medical knowledge than even this Avora, although Lani was unsure if her bedmate would help her.

Still, Lani blew past Kavisan as she headed towards the back room, anticipating the dry bound book waiting for her on the work table, the rough draft of the piece resting beside it.

”Hello—Lani!” Kavisan’s usual monotone greeting, which he only ever gave when prompted by herself, sounded just behind her. The greeting was interrupted by a surprised exclamation of her name, which brought her up short. ”What is the rush today?” He asked incredulously, with more emotion than she had ever seen on the Avora’s face. Lani paused, stumbling on her words as she tried to process him having an actual reaction to her, an emotion other than boredom on his face was a surprise. The Chiet had not even seen anger on his face, although she suspected he had gotten annoyed with her a few times in the past season she has worked underneath the Librarian.

”I, uh, I am to work.” She tried to explain herself in breathless Nari, unsure of what she was supposed to be answering for.

”I’ve never seen you so excited before.” He said, resting his hand on his desk which held the scroll he was sealing. ”It is suspicious.’ He peered at her, his face returning to the usual bored expression she was used to, it relaxed the foreigner more.

”No ‘suspicious’,” She repeated his word, not entirely sure what it meant exactly, but understanding the gist of it. ”Just excite.” She gave him her usual bright and fake grin, supplying him with the usual fake cheer she reserved for such encounters. The Avora raised a single eyebrow and then hrumphed at her, turning back to his scroll and ignoring her again.

”Thank you Kavisan,” She called over her shoulder, trying to be more polite to the man, and heading straight for the work rooms in the back. Sure enough, her precious journal and copy were waiting for her, patiently resting on the table where she had left them the day before.

Word Count: 607

[Lani Stranger]

The first thing Lani did was pull the book out of the jig and test the leather. If the leather had not bound correctly, then she would have to postpone her delivery, and ultimately her negotiation, to another day. She was sure that three days to completely copy and bind a book were not an issue, but the mixed blood was impatient and the idea of having to wait longer to talk to the mysterious Avora who had written the book did not sound appealing to the scribe. Luckily as Lani smoothed her hand across the binding of the book and twitched the ends with her thumb lightly to see if it would give, she found no fault in the resin. She was not the best book binder, but she was not surprised this part had gone well at least. The hardest parts for her were the sewing and the carpentry, the simple cutting and laying of leather was a breeze in comparison.

Lani flipped the book open, letting the parchment breathe and releasing the waxed paper from where it lay between the resin that attached the leather and the pages. She had to peel the waxed paper slightly from where a small amount of resin in the binding had leaked out, but it was easy to scratch the bits that stuck off. All Lani had left to do was attach the leafs, title the book, and wrap it in a leather strap so it stayed together. She could then ask Kavisan to deliver it to the Avora, and hopefully buy his rough draft. Settling into her concentrated work mindset, Lani swept around the table, consulting the massive open air shelves that held all the supplies and plucked two pieces of parchment from the prepared stack. Lani then picked up an inkwell and her favorite glass quill. Again her mind pinged to remind her that she had to commission one for herself, since this quill belonged to the Enclave. She always admired it anytime she used it, but she knew she could not take it home with her, and so had recently been procrastinating her studies in Nari because she hadn’t wanted to use the old feather quills after being so pampered with the smooth glass one.

Sighing Lani snagged a ruler and a razor as well as some of the resin, and then plucked two fresh pieces of parchment. She carefully measured out the proper dimensions, checking it against the book to make sure it was perfect. Only once it was measured correctly did she begin mixing the powdered resin, and as quickly as she could, lathering it onto the front page and inside of the bind. Then she fitted the paper over it and pressed it down with the bone knife, feeling the quick drying resin already binding it together. To make sure it did not stick to anything else, she slipped a waxed paper between the binding and the first page, and then between the first page and the second page. Only then did she flip the book and repeat the same process on the back binding.

[Lani Stranger]

Now that the leafs were in, she moved to grab the detailed leather working tools so that she could title the thing. Using the chalk, Lani traced the outline of the words she wanted to put on the front first, eyeballing them and checking them against her ruler to make sure they were straight and that the margins were acceptable. Only once she was sure, she took the leather knife from the small toolkit. Using the sharpening stone she made sure the blade was a sharp as it could be, and then carefully began to press it into the leather and drag it in the shapes of the letters. It made unsightly cuts in the leather that didn’t go all the way through, but didn’t look as professional as they should.

However once she had finished the carving of the leather, she took a small finger-nail sized press and begun pressing on the edges created by the cutting, rounding out the leathers and forming a smooth impression out of the title. It was a simple leather work, hard to mess up, and easy to ready. It was not the most spectacular or amazing looking book, but it was bound well enough which would be more than acceptable. Of course the resin she had use to attach the leafs had dried by now and so she removed the waxed paper. Uncorking the ink well, she carefully dipped her favorite glass quill into it and then penned the title, author, and year into the inside leaf so that the book could be identified. She let the book remain open to dry, setting the binding rig over the pages so they did not flip onto the freshly drying ink.

While she waited for it to dry, Lani cleaned her quill, corked the ink, and returned them to their places in the work room. Once she had done that she placed the leatherworking tools back into their kit carefully and put them up along with the ruler and the razor. She disposed of the parchment scraps so that they could be ground down to pulp and reused later, and then returned to her book. She eyed the ink on the paper, finding it was no longer glistening with freshness. The scribe was far used to the drying times of ink by now and so she confidently removed the jig that weighed down the paper and put that up as well. All that was left was the leather straps to bind the book, the freshly copied and bound journal, as well as the tattered draft the Avora had provided her with.

Carefully pulling out a length of leather straps, she wrapped the book securely so that the springy fresh parchment would not force it open and then tied off the leather straps. Lani admired her work for an extra tick, proud of the simple but sturdy design, and then set the freshly bound book beside the rough copy to admire her work. The new book was a stark difference to the well-used journal that had originally been written in. She could see her careful neat Nari penmanship was better than the fluent writer who had originally wrote the journal, although she had not honestly understood half of what she was writing, she was adept at copying the letters at least. The binding itself was not spectacular or extravagant, but it had a base standard of quality and it was sturdy, and so she was proud of that.

[Lani Stranger]

Tucking the old journal under her arm, and picking up the new one with her two hands, she walked out of the work room to go talk with Kavisan. When she reached the information desk in the front of the Enclave, Kavisan was not there. Lani paused, loitering in front of the desk for some time to wait for him. She would have just gone and delivered the journal herself, but she didn’t know where to bring it to. So when she saw sign of an Avora librarian, she tagged the redheaded woman over.

”Hey Lani,” The Avora spoke with nonchalance, far used to the studious foreigner’s questions by now. Lani grinned, and held out the completed book with both hands.

”I can bring this where?”

”Ummm, let me see that real quick.” The Avora took the book from her, flipping to the first page and eyeing the name of the writer. ”Oh yeah, he is is the apothecary inside the Infirmary. I’m sure he will be there now, otherwise you can probably just leave it for him.” The Avora handed the book back to Lani, and she took it, already ducking into a shallow lhavitian bow before turning to leave the Enclave. The tattered book remained in her armpit until she left, only then did she place it underneath the new bound book and hold both in her arm as she walked.

By the time that Lani reached the Infirmary, her excitement was building. The possibility that the Avora would not want to part with his original tattered copy of his field journal no longer seemed plausible in her mind as she was planning out how exactly she would persuade him to let her have it. Surely the coin in her pocket would help, but she was putting too much faith in her persuasion and negotiation skills. When she reached the heavy wood door, it was open, so Lani tentatively stepped inside, black eyes peering around for signs of life. ”Hello?” She focused on her auristics to do so, feeling the movements of the room’s aura with her speckled fingertips. She felt someone moving in the backroom, so she began walking towards it confidently. Just as she was about to raise a hand to knock on the second door, it swung open, and she was faced with an older freckled red headed man.

”Hello,”The man who spoke to her was gruff and seemed to have little tolerance for conversation although they had not even begun speaking. Lani tried to keep from frowning at him, she didn’t like automatically abrasive people.

”Hello,” She said again in the perfectly pleasant Nari voice she had adopted, stepping back and to the side so he could pass. She was growing weary of always having to act more happy and willing than she was, but survival was just that in a place like this, so Lani swallowed her pride for just one more day. ”I bring you book.” She informed him, handing out the fresh copy she had made of his work. He paused and looked at it for merely a tick before motioning towards the clerk desk in front of the wall of bottles in the apothecary, but he didn’t say anything.

[Lani Stranger]

Lani understood him well enough and so she set the book she had put so much work into carefully down on his desk. It was then that the Avora swept the book up in his freckled pale palms, examining her binding work before he even begun to look at her copying work. He paid attention to every detail, and Lani was suddenly finding herself nervous. The book she had previously been proud of for its simply composure was now under scrutiny and she worried that it did not meet his standards. Lani watched his aura carefully because his face showed dissatisfaction. However the pulsing movements that echoed in her fingertips told her he was actually satisfied. How confusing.

After being reassured by the mood in his aura, Lani let her hands loosen and relax while he unbound the leather strap that held the springy parchment together, and examined her words. This time his face could not fake dissatisfaction so much. His eyebrows raised ever so slightly, and the motion of content in his aura did not falter. Lani began to relax more, not too concerned by the assessment of her work. She waited for him to say something, although by the conflicting expression in his face and aura, she doubted it would be overly kind.

”This’ll do.” He grunted, wrapping the book with care and then setting it down on the counter. When his brown human eyes reached Lani, they skipped quickly to the other book in her hand, the original copy. Nonchalantly he held out a hand for it, and Lani took a deep breathe. She moved her hands around the book so that it was more open in her posture, so that she was not hiding it from him, but still not giving it to him.

”I have request.” She asked, petting the old tattered cover of the book. The Avora did not answer, but raised one eyebrow at her. She took the curiosity in his aura as a reason to continue. ”I want to buy from you.” She said simply, her Nari coming out accented but strong. She didn’t think playing coy would work. The Avora snorted, and held out his hand again, not speaking.

”I will pay,” She offered, but that wasn’t enough to sway him.

”No,” He said out loud now, waving his open palm for her to hand him the book. Reluctantly she pressed the journal in his hand, but softened her voice so that it did not come out accusatory. ”Why?” She asked in Nari, leaving her hand on top of the book after placing it in his. He paused, curiosity seeping back into his aura and looked at Lani carefully.

”What will you do with it? You can hardly speak Nari.” The accusatory tone came from him, and Lani held in her frown. She wanted to snap at the man that she didn’t have to prove her ability to buy anything in a city without a caste system, but Lani was smarter than to let her thoughts fall out of her mouth.

”Learn it.” She answered, trying to keep her Nari short and quick so that he would not think too hard about how bad she grasped the language.

[Lani Stranger]

”A Chiet? What use do you have for it? You’re a scribe, you don’t need it.” He countered her, glasping his other hand around the book and taking it from beneath her outstretched hand. She let her hand fall to the table, but did not turn to leave or thank him for his time. Her brain was spinning as she realized this might be a bit harder than she anticipated. Automatically her mind told her to invade his space, to flatter him and act subservient and do the things that men liked of women to do in order to force him to think with his dick instead of his head. But the only problem with that tactic was that she would have to follow through, and she didn’t want to. So she would have to attempt a different route, persuasion by false agreement.

”Exactly,”She said the new word she had learned, almost certain of its meaning. It seemed to do the trick though and the Avora stopped, pausing at the word and looking at her, the tattered original copy of his journal still out. It had not yet been put away, good. But he was pausing for an explanation, so Lani tried to give him one. Lani prepared her words with hypnotism, lacing them with a suggestion of passion and determination. She knew that it was a trait that the Inarta strove for and admired, and hoped it would help him understand her side of things.”I only knew few thing, I want learn more.”

”If you wanted to learn herbalism, you should have been assigned to the infirmary.” He said, although the motions of his conviction were loose and twirling in his aura, making room for doubt and curiosity.

”I know herbalism,” She countered, invalidating his point. ”But I am told to scribe.” She spoke carefully, watching his aura. She did not want to insult the caste system to someone who so clearly benefited from it, but perhaps she could make him see reason. He did not seem to be one who immediately dismissed her or was overly cruel to her because of her caste, so there was a chance. ”My mother was teach me as child.” Not true. She said, as it hadn’t been her mother but the sweet old Kita in Lhavit.

”Why did you not pursue it?” They were veering too far off track now, but at least he was following her, it was working. Although the strength of her persuasion was likely thin, so she knew not to press it.

”What is ‘pursue’?” She asked about the foreign word, and he stumbled, setting the drafted journal on the counter.

”Uh, like follow through.” He explained, and she nodded.

”I move.” She answered him honestly, for that was true. ”I go to north city, I go here.” She said, placing both hands on the counter and leaning back. She was trying to keep her body language open to encourage honesty while also not pressing into him. She let her glances flit to his shoulder, betting on her lack of human eyes making it difficult for him to tell what she was looking at exactly. He seemed not to be turning away from her anymore, good.

[Lani Stranger]

”So then why did you not request to work in the Infirmary?” He continued to drill her and let her face soften into the expression of shock and uncertainty.

”Can I?” She spoke lower in Nari, dragging out her last syllable as if her brain was spinning with the thought of her having missed a chance to do something. Her acting was getting much better, and if she read his aura with any accuracy, he was already softened to her subterfuge. ”I did not know.” Lani frowned, letting the false disappointment seep into her words as she surrendered her shoulder into a light form of sadness over the news she had just learned.

”Well,” His aura stiffened and she could feel that any notion of emotion would make the man largely uncomfortable, and so she tried to relax the act slightly while he spoke. ”You can talk to the Valintar if you really want to.” He said dismissively, turning around to push the fresh copy of the book into a small bookshelf that held merely six other books, all likely focused on Herbalism and medicine. Lani could not help her shoulders but droop again as she digested the Nari. He seemed to be dismissing her, his aura moving in a rhythm that suggested he had set to his decision already. She had lost her chance ”But, I’ll let you buy it from me, this time.”

Before the Inarta turned completely around again, Lani wiped the disappointment from her face. She was not quick enough to decide what she was going to replace it with, or what body motions and expressions she needed to wear in order to emulate whatever mood it was, so the Avora looked at her quizzically, obviously not expecting no expression. His words faded slightly, which made Lani worry for a moment that he would change his mind. She let an airy innocent smile paint her face, it was an expression she was far used to wearing in the presence of the judgemental Inarta. ”Really?” She asked, and then rushed the next words, not really wanting to give him a chance to back out. ”Thank you!”

He half-tossed the book on the table and it fell open, sliding slightly towards her. Lani was quick to pull her coin purse from her pocket, emptying the pinions on the table. As the glass twinkled on one another as they spilled across the table, Lani carefully picked up the old book, smoothing the soft pages back in place and then folding it shut. She waited while the Avora counted out his money, the book tucked tightly in the crevice of her arm. He seemed to only hrumph at the count of the coins, not bothering to count again. She wondered if that mean she had overpayed him, but she didn’t think it wise to ask. She had guessed the hefty price of fifty, and he must have counted correctly but he did not correct her nor did he ask for more.

”Thank you,” She said again, when it looked like he was not going to say anything more. Out of habit she ducked into a very light Lhavitian bow and then turned to leave. He did not call after her for anything, and she did not bother to turn and look. In her hand was the precious written knowledge that she sought, and she did not want to give it up for anything.

Receipt :

-50 gm for Herbalism Journal

[Ssezzkero]

Planning +1, Socialization +3, Bookbinding +2, Drawing +1, Leatherworking: +1, Writing +1, Auristics +3, Persuasion +3, Hypnotism +1, Storytelling +1, Acting +1, Kavisan: Does not often start conversation, Bookbinding: Attaching leafs, Leatherworking: Cutting and pressing letters, Usually Dek carry out deliveries, Logic: It is easier to negotiate for a rough draft than to create another copy, Observation: People do not always say what their aura shows, Persuasion: How do to it without seduction, Using hypnotism to boost persuasion, Socialization: Do not insult the caste system to someone who benefits from it, Storytelling as a means of persuasion, Observation: Reading open body language, Persuasion: Using body language to create a mood

+Herbalism Journal
-50 Pinions