35th Autumn 514AV
Early Evening
Lantern Square
Early Evening
Lantern Square
The sun had not yet set, the sky still warm with its glow, but already the lanterns were casting their light in the shade. It was a warm Autumn evening, the air heavy but the heat not unpleasant to her, cooler than it had been during the day but not enough to make it necessary to wear a coat or cloak over her pastel blue silk shirt and blue culottes of the same colour as her birdcage veil (which she'd bought so that no-one could claim that she had entirely ignored that season's fashion trends. Indeed, she knew better than most what the fashions were - in the past, she had always done her best to completely avoid them while already other people were having trouble in working them out)
After a slightly strained meeting on the subject of his slave, Tim, Jed had proposed that they meet under more pleasant circumstances and Lantern Square had been elected, not unusually, as their meeting place. After a day spent at the plantation, breaking in a new maid, helping her grandmother with her finances, getting on with plans to renovate an upper floor of the house and thinking about colour schemes, it was nice to get out and into the city of Kenash. On the way to Lantern Square, she noticed she still had an ink stick in her pocket and had, quite impulsively, purchased a new blank book with a marbled red cover from a stall at the Midnight Market. As such, she was currently occupied with sitting cross-legged (having taken off her shoes and tucked them neatly under the table) on a divan under a magnolia tree, the book nestled in her lap as she started out a character list for the play she was working on, "The Gentleman". Only none of the names sounded right. They were either too abnormal to seem well-thought out or too dull to be memorable. Maybe names weren't actually needed, though? The characters could be known by their job or by their position - the lawyer, the father, the mother etc. Successful playwrights, after all, had done as much.
She looked up to see if Jed was anywhere around, if he had arrived yet or if he had not located her, cross-legged by the magnolia tree, then went back to her writing. There was no point in keeping lookout especially as she had arrived a little early to lantern square, having found less things to do once in Kenash than she had expected. If he came, he came and if he didn't then she had plenty of things to be getting on with.
"Now, what name sound like that of a Lucy?" she wondered aloud, biting her lip, "Maybe something beginning with H..."
Try as she might, she couldn't focus very well and, turning to the back of the book, started doodling. Shortly a crude picture of a cat started taking form, her ink stick tracing two triangular ears and a gently curling tail. After a tick, realising what she was doing, her hands crimped up slightly in shock and she found herself unable to continue. With a little start, she ripped out the page and screwed it up with a slightly trembling left hand into a ball, which she dropped swiftly on the floor, where it rolled underneath her seat. Her head fell back to look up through the branches of the magnolia tree. In between the soft blossom, like little blots of pastel paint or oil, the rays of the dying sun were making their last appearance.
In a chime, she would turn back to her book and try and write something. Perhaps she could catch the eye of one of the slaves working at the square so that they could find her a drink of some sort.
After a slightly strained meeting on the subject of his slave, Tim, Jed had proposed that they meet under more pleasant circumstances and Lantern Square had been elected, not unusually, as their meeting place. After a day spent at the plantation, breaking in a new maid, helping her grandmother with her finances, getting on with plans to renovate an upper floor of the house and thinking about colour schemes, it was nice to get out and into the city of Kenash. On the way to Lantern Square, she noticed she still had an ink stick in her pocket and had, quite impulsively, purchased a new blank book with a marbled red cover from a stall at the Midnight Market. As such, she was currently occupied with sitting cross-legged (having taken off her shoes and tucked them neatly under the table) on a divan under a magnolia tree, the book nestled in her lap as she started out a character list for the play she was working on, "The Gentleman". Only none of the names sounded right. They were either too abnormal to seem well-thought out or too dull to be memorable. Maybe names weren't actually needed, though? The characters could be known by their job or by their position - the lawyer, the father, the mother etc. Successful playwrights, after all, had done as much.
She looked up to see if Jed was anywhere around, if he had arrived yet or if he had not located her, cross-legged by the magnolia tree, then went back to her writing. There was no point in keeping lookout especially as she had arrived a little early to lantern square, having found less things to do once in Kenash than she had expected. If he came, he came and if he didn't then she had plenty of things to be getting on with.
"Now, what name sound like that of a Lucy?" she wondered aloud, biting her lip, "Maybe something beginning with H..."
Try as she might, she couldn't focus very well and, turning to the back of the book, started doodling. Shortly a crude picture of a cat started taking form, her ink stick tracing two triangular ears and a gently curling tail. After a tick, realising what she was doing, her hands crimped up slightly in shock and she found herself unable to continue. With a little start, she ripped out the page and screwed it up with a slightly trembling left hand into a ball, which she dropped swiftly on the floor, where it rolled underneath her seat. Her head fell back to look up through the branches of the magnolia tree. In between the soft blossom, like little blots of pastel paint or oil, the rays of the dying sun were making their last appearance.
In a chime, she would turn back to her book and try and write something. Perhaps she could catch the eye of one of the slaves working at the square so that they could find her a drink of some sort.
