A Different Kind of Harvest

by **Devi** on November 30th, 2015, 9:40 pm

Fall 16th, 515AV - Syliras Harvest Festival

“I don’t care, we come to the Harvest Festival every year. It’s where we met!”

Marianne’s shrill tones reached Devi even where she was skipping ahead with her little niece, Flo. She started giggling with the little girl even before her brother Ronan sounded his exasperated response to his very heavily pregnant wife.

“Mari you can barely walk at the moment let alone dance…”

“I didn’t say we had to dance! I just said I wanted us to all go together. I mean, Devi’s here – what’s going to happen to me that she can’t handle?” She asked him.

Devi stopped skipping a moment and turned back to her sister-in-law in abrupt surprise. She and Marianne had had their little moments over the last year certainly but compliments were still practically unheard of.

“She’s wearing a dress for Sylir’s sake! If this is the one time she actually speaks to a member of the opposite sex without asking him what his symptoms are then I want to be here to see it!”

Aaaand there it is.

Devi rolled her eyes and went back to skipping with Flo. It was a lot less complicated than explaining to Marianne why she wasn’t married and pregnant yet. They passed through the great stone archway and into the main courtyard, where a variety of stalls, tables and booths were already set up, filled with a variety of different foods and trinkets. Flo of course, immediately began pulling Devi by the hand towards the stalls set up with games to play.

“Auntie D Auntie D mooove faaaasstteerrr!”

Devi feigned a heaviness in her limbs, moving slower and slower and putting an expression on her face of someone likely to faint.

“It’s… ugh… it’s just so hard to move… Everything is so… heavy.”

Flo devolved from the use of words into plain frustrated yelling, pulling and tugging ceaselessly at her until she relented, scooping her up and moving towards the games as she did so.

“Fine you little monster. What do you want to try first?”

They decided on one in which you needed to throw little red balls into buckets set up at the back of the stall. Devi was distinctly terrible at it, much to the amusement of both Flo and the owner of the game. She actually jumped a little when a deep, gravelly voice sounded from behind her.

“Your throwing technique is terrible you know.”

by **Devi** on March 27th, 2016, 9:57 pm

Devi spun around, almost dropping the little ball in response to the proximity of the speaker. When she recovered she found her eyes drawn upwards, across a tall and muscled form that she recognised from recent visits to Ronan’s forge. Her mind took a moment to recall his name and whilst she thought she dragged out what little she knew about him from the depths of her memory.

“Nate.” She remembered after a moment, hearing Ronan’s voice sounding the name in her memory. He acknowledged it by flicking the focus of his gaze from the game before them directly to her. The deep chocolate brown of his eyes pinned her and she felt an unaccustomed heat rising in her cheeks. The logical part of her brain finally twinged and she took a small step backwards in response, leaving a rush of cool air between them. Nate didn’t say anything further, watching her as if absorbing the detail in her face. It reminded her of something else about him.

“Don’t often see you outside of the smithy, I was starting to think that Ronan had you chained there.”

The edge of sarcasm twitched her lips into a small smile and Nate responded in kind, though his had a depth to it that she couldn’t quite grasp. What she had said was half-true in any case – any time Devi had spotted Nate when she visited Ronan at work he was always focused intensely on his current task. He was a Weaponsmith, Ronan told her, more specialised than him and always working on blades of various shapes and sizes. Her brother, never one to latch onto idle gossip, had been unable to furnish her with more detail than that. He keeps himself to himself and he makes good swords. He had said to her. Devi didn’t think she’d even exchanged a greeting with the man before. Lips still twitching a little, Nate finally broke his silence.

“I broke out when I heard your call for help. It’s surprisingly easy to break chains in a blacksmith’s you know.”

“My call for help?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

Exaggerated pity was etched across his features before he responded.

“I wasn’t talking about you.” His eyes dropped to the little six year old peering around her leg suspiciously before speaking again. “She hasn’t won you anything, has she?”

Flo, never one to be shy around anyone, shook her head furiously. She stepped around Devi’s leg to address Nate properly, actually sighing as she responded.

“We’ve been at this game for aaaages…”

Devi raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her niece, folding her arms across her chest. Before she could open her mouth to retort however, Nate spoke again. He quirked his head a little, focusing his attention on Devi once more.

“Maybe it’s trickier than it looks…” She looked him in the eyes again and saw the barest hint of humour in them. As before there was more in his intense expression than she understood how to read. Devi found her curiosity sparking and it gave her mind enough of an edge to think past the unexpected flutter in her chest. She held up one of the little red balls between them and looked over it at him, the smile on her face widening into a cheeky smirk.

“You had better show me how it’s done then, hmm?”

by **Devi** on April 16th, 2016, 11:12 pm

Nate was annoyingly good at this game. Each successful throw won him an increasingly enthusiastic cheer from Flo, who had quickly forgotten her allegiance to her favourite Auntie in favour of the man now winning her bundles of prizes. She found herself watching Nate’s arms as he threw, enjoying the slight shift of the muscles showing underneath his tanned skin. Her eyes danced across scattered burns and small scars on his arms and hands and the doctor in her mind began detailing the injuries.

“Are you paying attention Deviana?”

Nate’s gritty voice startled her and she realised she had been caught staring. She turned her attention back to the game before clearing her throat a little and responding.

“Have I been paying attention to your using your superhuman throwing abilities to pilfer the loyalty of my niece? Yes. Yes I have.”

He actually chuckled a little at that, abandoning his most recent throw at the distraction. Intent as she was on not staring she actually missed Nate moving to stand behind her. The sudden wave of heat was all the warning she got before his arm appeared at the side of her vision. One of the little red balls was clutched between his fingers and she turned a little into his voice.

“Perhaps you should try and win it back then. I’ll use my superhuman abilities to help this time, promise.”

She took the ball from him gently, arms turning to jelly a little as she remembered just how terrible she was at this game. It shouldn’t matter that she was terrible. Her arms should have been just as solid as they usually were. There definitely shouldn’t be a hammering vibration in her chest and she should have been focusing a lot more on finding out more about Nate whilst she had the opportunity rather than letting her brain slowly decompose into useless ooze.

Finally she reached back to throw, biting her lip in concentration. Nate’s warm hands repositioned her slightly. She was sure the action was supposed to help her throw the ball properly but instead of landing in the bucket, the traitorous red sphere landed somewhere behind the stall owner. The vendor had even needed to duck to avoid being hit by it.

“Okay.” Nate sounded behind her. “I’m not sure I can help you.”

She burst into quiet laughter, hearing the noise echoed behind her. Even Flo joined in, chiming in that she wanted to see it again. The little creature was a lot more amenable now she was clutching the various toys she had won. Devi picked up another ball and drew back her arm again, definitely not placing it wrong on purpose.

The light mood was interrupted however when they each heard Devi’s name called. She knew the voice that had called it intimately, knew every inflection and what it would tell her about her brother’s mood or intentions. There wasn’t a soul in the square that could mistake the panic in that voice though. Awareness flooded her like icewater and she turned towards the sound, searching past Nate for its source. After a moment she spotted Ronan, one hand clinging desperately onto his squirming son and the other reaching to support Marianne. She was hunched over her stomach, an all too familiar expression of pain on her face.

Devi swore loudly, in Tukant.

“Gods alive but she would have to make it today. Flo!” She opened her arms to her niece, scooping her up as soon as she was in reach. Her finely honed mind focused only on the task at hand, planning what she would need and how she would get it as she hurried across to help Ronan.

by **Devi** on April 17th, 2016, 2:45 pm

As Devi reached her family she set Flo down, trusting in the little girl not to run off, and relieved Ronan of his squirming son. Ronan gratefully switched his attention fully to his wife and led her to the side of the street where she could sink down onto a stone bench. Her face was contorted in pain, more so than Devi would have expected. Now that she wasn’t at risk of falling over Devi pressed Marcus back into Ronan’s hands so that she could get a closer look at Marianne. She kept her tone light as she lay her hands on her sister-in-law’s swollen belly.

“Come now Marianne, you’re going to tell me that after spawning two of these monsters you can’t handle a third?”

Usually goading her was the way to get Marianne’s fiery personality sparked up and there was nothing she enjoyed more than proving Devi wrong. This time however her reaction was not what the doctor expected. She struggled to speak, letting out bursts of words between pained pants of breath.

“It’s… different this time…. Devi… Sharper… some- wrong…”

Devi used her fingers to probe at Marianne’s belly, feeling for the baby. This late in the pregnancy she found the form easily, noting that it was still in a good position to give birth and feeling it shift a little under her fingers. Marianne cried out as Devi probed and the doctor frowned slightly. Knowing that she would hate Devi doing this somewhere so public, the doctor carefully lifted Marianne’s skirts. When she reached the thin under-layers she immediately saw blood. There was more than there should be. Together with such a sudden onset of intense pain it was possible that the placenta had separated. How much it had come apart was difficult to tell but either way, she needed to get this birth moving, quick.

This is not the place. The logical part of her brain chimed in. Devi stood for a moment, abruptly annoyed at the rapidly gathering crowd of gawkers. She looked around at the faces, eyes scanning for any likely helpers. Knights were usually a safe bet, if they didn’t bristle at her ordering them around, but with the hordes of people milling around for the festival they were spread more thinly than usual. Before she could find someone likely to help her eyes fell on Nate as he used his considerable shoulders to edge through the crowd. His dark eyes took in the scene as he did so, before falling on Devi. She seized the opportunity, locked his eyes in her own and poured the calm urgency of her request into her tone of voice.

“Carry her.”

She pointed at Marianne and to her relief, Nate simply nodded, wasting little time in carrying out her request. As Devi ushered Flo closer to her father she saw recognition flutter across Ronan’s face. Ronan, ever practical, was grateful for Nate’s help in getting his wife to safety and Devi touched her brother on the shoulder, gathering his attention back to her. She pinned him with the same calm tone as she’d used a moment ago.

“Get her back to your apartment. I’ll meet you there – I need my kit. I’ll need towels and clean water.”

For a moment he just stared blankly at her and she could almost sense the frantic thoughts that had taken hold of his mind, paralysing it. This was the third time that Marianne had given birth but even Ronan could sense that something was not right. He had also seen the blood on Devi’s hand. She forced herself not to snap and lowered her voice, making it as soothing as she could manage.

“Ronan your family needs you. Take the kids and lead everyone back to the apartment. I’ll meet you there and then together we’ll meet the new addition to your family. Okay?”

Ronan nodded, gulping visibly and turned his attention to his children. Devi wasted no time, whirling around parting the gawking crowd with a glare and a yell.

“MOVE!”

She ran back to her apartment to pick up her kit, unable to completely quench the fear that still ran like ice through her veins. Memories still too raw to completely temper snaked to the front of her mind. All Devi could think of was Sayana's face, her usual joy torn to bloody shreds in the face of her agony.

by **Devi** on April 17th, 2016, 9:14 pm

It would seem they were all fortunate that with so many people enjoying the festival, the corridors of the Maiden District were virtually empty. However not even the Harvest Festival could prevent a few neighbours from hanging around outside Ronan’s open front door, peering in to try and work out what was happening. Devi had absolutely no patience for them. Whether they were random strangers or people who actually knew and cared for the family, they were in the way.

“If you want to see a show then go to the theatre.” She snapped at them, barging past and then slamming the door in their faces. She heard Marianne screaming from the bedroom and strode into the room. Ronan turned his face upon her with an expression nothing short of utter relief and desperation in his eyes. Devi set down her kit and began unpacking instruments at once.

“Ronan I need clean towels and some cool water.” She instructed him. He didn’t move. Devi turned to look at him. He was just staring at Marianne, torn between wanting to help and not wanting to leave her in such obvious distress. Devi pleaded with her voice.

“Ronan. I need you – please. Towels and water, they won’t take you long to get.”

He nodded silently and finally moved away to get the things she had requested. Devi turned back to Marianne and started off by helping her shift to her left side. There was a major vein running from the lower back all the way back to the heart, Devi knew, and she wanted to make sure blood-flow to the foetus wasn’t obstructed. She pulled out the instrument she used for measuring the baby’s heartrate and fitted it in place on Marianne’s skin.

After a moment of shifting Devi found the flutter she was looking for. Her own heart sank when the rate was much slower than it should have been. She put the instrument aside and felt the baby again, probing it with her fingers before turning her attention to Marianne.

“Has the baby been moving around much today?”

Marianne was still taking panting breaths between the pain. In response to Devi’s question her eyes filled with tears and she shook her head. She opened her mouth to speak but a new spark of pain caught the words in her throat and she cried out again, clutching at her stomach. Devi swore again, colourfully, as she saw fresh blood oozing from between Marianne’s legs.

“Ronan!”

by **Devi** on April 17th, 2016, 9:55 pm

Devi heard a crash from the main room before Ronan burst back through the door. His eyes shot to the blood now staining the bed and, if it was even possible, he turned an even paler shade than he had been before.

“Ronan you need to help me carry her.” Devi started. Not trusting in her brother’s ability to function fully at the moment she held back the question on her lips, walking to the door herself instead to answer it. With blood still on her hands Devi marched across to the dining table and cleared it quickly of what few items had adorned it, replacing one portion of the table with some of the towels that Ronan had begun gathering. They were fortunate that it was a particularly large, family-sized table and Devi cursed herself again for her lack of assistants or an actual, equipped infirmary. As she marched back into the bedroom she actually started to miss the nosy neighbours, finding herself in sudden and desperate need of extra pairs of hands.

“Onto the dining room table, quickly and carefully.”

Devi actually had to usher Ronan into position beside his wife, reminding him where to place his shaking hands. Abruptly he shook his head and secured his grip on Marianne, his expression more determined. She counted them down and then together they lifted and carried her into the main room and onto the waiting table. Ronan had filled three bowls with water. One was lying in pieces on the floor, the other two were next to the hearth. She dipped her hands into one, frantically washing the red liquid from them and tinting the liquid a deep pink. Devi retrieved her kit from the other room and then returned to the table, laying out gleaming silver tools to one side.

“Devi, no.”

Ronan’s voice uttered the two words like a death sentence. She couldn’t entirely blame him. Performing surgery was a last, desperate and mostly unsuccessful last resort in Syliras. Her brother suffered to lose not only his wife but also one of his children. In those two simple words he had already assumed the worst out of the situation and was begging her to prove him wrong. She eyed him firmly, sounding her next instructions carefully.

“Find someone, anyone, and send them for a healer. In the meantime I will do everything that I can to keep them both safe.”

Before Ronan could even turn to leave them however, an increasingly familiar voice sounded at her side.

“There’s already someone on the way. The children are next door. I hope that’s ok.” He addressed the last to Ronan and he nodded, thanking Nate profusely.

Devi looked at him, assessing for a moment. He was avoiding looking at Marianne and any of the blood on the table but his hands were steady and, she figured, he had been calm enough to think about something logical to do in the situation. She came to a decision just as she laid out the last of the tools she would need.

“Nate, build up the fire – we need it as bright as possible in here. Then light the candle in the lantern over there, the big one, and bring it back here.”

He nodded at her and moved quickly away. Devi then addressed Ronan and Marianne.

“Mari, hold onto Ronan and don’t stop looking at him. Use him to anchor you. Ronan – hold her down, don’t let go.”

Internally she wished she had more time to numb Marianne to the pain which was about to follow but she daren’t delay more than they already had. Nate returned to her side and set the tall lantern down next to them. Devi breathed deeply and then pointed to the first tool she would need – a fine blade. Nate handed it to her wordlessly and she began.

Carefully she felt along Marianne’s flesh until she found the section she was looking for. She set her scalpel in place and depressed it past the layers of skin and what she knew were the thinnest layers of muscle around the uterus. Marianne screamed and arched her torso in pain. Devi concentrated only on keeping her slight fingers steady as she drew the sharp knife sideways, creating an incision through which she could safely retrieve the baby. Marianne’s movements made that especially difficult and even Nate moved to help hold her still.

Finally she achieved the width of opening she thought she would need and she pulled the scalpel smoothly from Marianne’s flesh, just as the shock of the ordeal sent her sister-in-law's body rolling into unconsciousness.

by **Devi** on April 17th, 2016, 10:23 pm

Devi pointed to the next instrument she would need, an odd set of flat silver hooks intended to hold the incision she had just made open wide enough for her to reach inside. Nate passed it to her and she glanced at him as she fitted the tool in place. He was still avoiding looking at the blood on the table, his tanned face pale and a sheen of sweat showing on his forehead. He’s still here though… that’s the important thing.

“Hey” She said, seeking his attention. Dark eyes found hers instantly and she continued, still working with her hands. “You’re doing great.” He nodded curtly at her and in a slightly hysterical moment it suddenly occurred to Devi how close she had been to actually fulfilling Marianne’s wish for the day, to see her getting along with a man without her work getting in the way. From the expression on his face she somehow doubted she would get a second chance to flirt with him. Watching her slicing people up to play with their insides was the kind of image that would linger with you.

She reached for his hand and replaced it on the metal handles she had just placed in order to free her hands. He held them steady and she then reached inside of the opening to find the baby. She, as it turned out, was reassuringly easy to find and Devi searched with her hands to find the right places to pull from. With both hands secure she gently pulled, careful not to tear the flesh beyond the incision she had made.

The little girl was quiet upon greeting the warm common room and Devi pulled her straight out onto a waiting towel, immediately wrapping her up and taking a moment to sever the cord that connected her to her mother. She lay the little girl on her side, praying that any excess fluid would begin draining whilst Devi stitched Marianne up. She extracted the rest of the birth debris from the opening. As she had suspected the placenta which linked mother and baby had detached from the uterine wall, causing a significant bleed as it did so.

Getting the baby out was one thing, now she needed to keep both of her patients alive.

by **Devi** on April 17th, 2016, 11:00 pm

Devi’s fingers were frantic, every relevant lesson from Versin and every experience of her own flickering through her mind in quick succession. She removed the clamps and set them aside, setting herself now to stitching Marianne’s flesh closed. The baby’s silence echoed throughout the room, enough even to rouse Ronan from his catatonic worry to pick her up.

“Hold her sideways, head slightly down.” She coached him as she stitched. Talk about multi-tasking.

“There’s going to be a little fluid in her airways which we need to clear before she’ll let out her first cry.”

Ronan did as she asked and she saw him dabbing at the baby’s face. Devi’s attention returned to Marianne, sealing the wound as neatly as she could and stemming the steady flow of blood as she did so. Marianne was still unconscious and Devi was more than a little worried. Between the abruption and the surgery her sister-in-law had lost a lot of blood. She finished securing her stitches just as a sharp knock sounded at the door. Nate immediately jumped to answer it and let in a pale young woman, the elegant marks of Rak’keli clearly showing on her skin.

“Her first – she’s lost a lot of blood.” Devi ordered, dropping her tools and moving to Ronan’s side. As she moved she picked up a bulb syringe. It was a circular shaped, rubbery sphere with a small funnel leading out of it. She squeezed it to build up a pressure inside and then held it inside of the baby’s mouth. Releasing her grip caused the syringe to suck and she heard fluid being drawn into it. She repeated the motion a couple of times on the mouth then the nose and then dabbed the towel over the baby’s skin, clearing more of the various liquids covering its skin to encourage it into reacting.

After what seemed like an eternity the baby gasped and let out an almighty wail. Together she and Ronan burst into a unbelieving laugh, relieved being an utterly insufficient word to describe them. Devi turned, the triage priorities in her mind shifting abruptly but what she saw calmed her almost instantly. The Healer had her eyes closed, hands resting on Marianne’s abdomen. Already her colour was returning and the sharp red line of the incision she had made was lessening.

Devi moved to Marianne’s side and felt her pulse, for her own reassurance. It was strong and steady and as she watched Devi could see her chest compressing with easy breaths. With nothing further left to do she stepped back from the table, suddenly dizzy. Her back hit a solid, warm wall and strong arms caught her sides before she could stagger. Devi realised after a moment that she was actually shaking. She hadn’t realised until that moment just how scared she had been that her experience with Sayana was about to be repeated. Nate formed the words in her thoughts before her brain even had time to decipher them.

“You did it.”

---

A while later and Devi had cleaned all she could from her hands. She had pulled off her stained Ramie tunic but the aroma of blood and all manner of other things clung to her like a rash. She wanted nothing more than to soak herself in a private bath and let loose the flood of emotions that swirled within her, exhausting her mind and body both. She couldn’t quite bring herself to leave just yet though.

A very suddenly out-of-his-depth Nate was now holding the little baby Serina, his expression terrified as though he was going to drop her at any moment. Ronan laughed openly and even Marianne stirred herself for a little chuckle through her sleepy haze. Watching them both she knew at that moment that Ronan would always be grateful to the man who helped them that day. She sighed. It was a shame then that he would also be unable to look at her without gory images of the surgery he had assisted with flooding his mind. Still, it wasn’t exactly an uncommon problem for Devi.

Marianne’s husky voice called her attention away from the scene and she ghosted to the resting mother’s side.

“Go wash. You look terrible.”

Devi laughed a little at that and finally replied.

“Says the pot to the kettle.”

Marianne stuck her tongue out at her but Devi needed no further encouragement. She stood, ready to make her way to the bathhouses to pay for a private, luxurious soak to wash away every scrap of blood and distress from her body. before curling up in bed to sleep for a week.

by **Dove Brown** on September 3rd, 2016, 3:42 pm

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