“Flowers, ye say, well of course. Just be careful o’ the Sukebind there.” Ford says, indicating a bushy flower growing in abundance nearby that gives off a pungent aroma. “It’s got something of a reputation for giving folks certain powerful urges, especially if you keep it in a confined space. Might be it’s not the best for your patients, if you take my meanin’.” He gives Esther and the others a knowing look.
“So I’ve heard. Some of the locals seem… Quite concerned about its effects. Some farmer was in the Taverna talking about how we should burn the lot of it. All right then, no sukebind in the infirmary. Unless things settle down and need some livening up.” Esther grins as she produces a pair of scissors from her bag and maneuvers Harriet in her sling so that she can cut wildflowers. When she’s satisfied with what she’s collected, she says; “If Sergeant Dorchester doesn’t mind accompanying me back to the camp, I’ll leave you two to talk, Ford and Dray. Thank you for the flowers. I’m sorry for being so careless with Harriet’s jam.”
“I don’t mind at all Ma’am, just nice to get an opportunity to meet the locals as it were since i’m gonna be around for a while.” turning to Ford, “pleasure meetin’ you sir”
On their way back to the Taverna, Esther apologises to Dorchester: “Sorry, I didn’t mean to co-opt you as my personal body guard for this walk- I do appreciate the company, mind. It’s just, Dray seemed to want to talk to Ford. He’s upset about something, it seemed best to just leave him. I don’t know what it’s about- You might have gathered that we’ve had rather a lot going on here, lately.”
“i had sort of noticed that, everyone seems all wrapped up in their own thoughts.” he replies, “still from what little i’ve picked up you lot 'ave 'ad it pretty rough, so its gonna take a while for me to get established as it were.”
Esther frowns, momentarily lost in thought, then looks sympathetically at the soldier walking beside her.
“Things will settle down- It always seems like everything happens at once, then it’s quiet for ages. We seem to be in a quiet period, thank God. If it helps, I had no one when I came to stay here.” She places a hand on Harriet, suspended in her sling. “Actually, that’s not quite true. I’d just realised I was having this one.” She brushes a finger across the baby’s cheek. “But it’s probably the best place she and I could have ended up. It’s a good place. Really, it is. We’re not closed off to newcomers. I’m sorry if you’ve gotten that impression.”
he shrugs as they walk “I’m a soldier Ma’am, i’m used to gettin’ cols shoulders from civilians. sort of the way of things really, especially these days, people know what it is we do, no hidin’ that, it just don’t make ‘em any more comfortable for them to be around us. guess we’re a sort of livin’ reminder of just 'ow rough things 'ave gotten”
[quote=“BlackDahlia”]“No, can’t be that. That would be silly. They’re just stories. The ones that look like them here are different” she muttered as she shook her head
“All that happens is that around well… some strange presence, usually magical of some kind, it just… feels differently. Usually with all the… methods that I had been taking to not feel it, I could ignore it. Now it seems to have moments where it feels everything again. I suspect there must be traces of some form of energy in there…”[/quote]
“Hmmm,” Daniel pondered her words for a moment. “What would be silly? Most stories come from some grain of truth.”
[quote=“Bryn”]
“Hmmm,” Daniel pondered her words for a moment. “What would be silly? Most stories come from some grain of truth.”[/quote]
Dahlia sighed. “I thought I saw something that I only thought existed in stories that my father told me. It can’t have been what I saw”
#74 had stood around awkwardly for a while. Conversations continued around her. Since they were neither interesting, pertaining to herself nor to East India Interests, she went outside to have a smoke. The paperwork could wait. She was considering a trip to the Resurrection station on Raasay, just to see how things were going. Things had calmed down a little, and soon Commander and Mrs. Blake would be back and she’d be out of the chain of command. But that was just how things were.
At this, Esther raises her eyebrows.
“I’d say we’re long past the point where the sight of a soldier is a living reminder of how rough things have gotten. If anyone’s a living reminder of how rough things are, it’s Zek, who’s unable to speak because a demon cut out his tongue. Or Ivy, who regresses to the state of a child in the midst of conversation. Or Harriet, whose father died protecting me from demons before he even got the chance to find out that she existed. But the sight of a uniform? It tells us that the person wearing it has chosen a very direct method of combating the demons, and it’s one most of us have a great respect for, yes. But it doesn’t tell us anything that we’re not constantly aware of already.”
As they were approaching the bounds of the camp, Zek suddenly realised he’d left his flask somewhere behind. Probably in the taverna, he thought. He wasn’t going to go anywhere potentially dangerous without it - his incantation for warding demons was unlikely to be of much use to him, so the water would be of tremendous value. He turned to look back at the camp, then tapped Lewy on the shoulder and traced out the message ‘Left flask behind’ on the Ouija board.
Lewy and Jane went to return with him, but Zek stopped them and shook his head. ‘I’ll go. If I find it quickly I’ll catch you up.’ He looked at Lewy, a meaningful glance that said I’ll explain later.
Zek tucked the board under his arm and turned to head back towards the camp. As he approached the central building, he saw #74 leaning against the hitching post outside the taverna, smoking a rather hasty-looking cigarette. He waved at her and went to enter the taverna.
“From what I’ve learnt some Hellspawn can change forms, to disguise themselves in ways to forward their scheme, or just to show themselves as your nightmares.”
He gently nodded his head, “Sometimes appearing as something familiar to you has more power than their true form. What is it you saw?”
[quote=“Bryn”]
“From what I’ve learnt some Hellspawn can change forms, to disguise themselves in ways to forward their scheme, or just to show themselves as your nightmares.”
He gently nodded his head, “Sometimes appearing as something familiar to you has more power than their true form. What is it you saw?”[/quote]
Dahlia glanced at her father quickly, before mumbling “How familiar with Norse mythology are you?”
Jane feels a mild twinge of discomfort about letting Zek wander anywhere. She had been witness to several VERY forceful conversations about how Zek should not be allowed to go anywhere alone, and to be fair he seemed to get injured an awful lot. On the other hand he was a grown up and had been all over Europe, which she could prove from several letter deliveries. She’d even caught up with him in Japan once, and he had been fine… so clearly he was capable of going places alone without getting hurt. Jane shrugs and waits to see where Lewy will lead.
Lewy nods at Zek as he leaves, and then seeing the question in Jane’s eyes, shakes his head gently.
“He’ll be fine,” he says to her. “He did manage to out-talk a demon prince, after all.”
He hobbles onwards, towards the lake.
“Ooooh, is that what he did?” Jane slows her pace slightly down to match Lewy’s. Her smile widens, It was great to be outdoors and walking. She of course could do it at any time, but always felt far more comfortable walking when someone else was there. She nodded her head slightly and felt the flowers on her hat bobbing. There were quite a few now, kept for remembrance of funerals, friends, mistakes… She probably should label them, ever since Hell her memory had had a few small holes in it. It was very uncomfortable, and she didn’t want to forget the people the flowers were for. “What do you do to remember things?” she asked Lewy curiously.
Lewy thought about the odd question a bit.
“I don’t usually do anything special,” he says carefully. “I might write it down if I think I’ll forget it, but other than that, stuff’s usually pretty good at sticking around in here.” He taps his head.
“Sometimes wish it wasn’t. Don’t suppose you’d understand wanting to forget.” He gave Jane an appraising look.
"Then again, maybe you understand that better than any of us. "
Ford waved at the departing Esther and Sergeant Dorchester, he liked meeting new people and Esther was nice, although he really wasn’t sure about Harriet as a name for the baby. Something beginning with F would have been better. He turned to Dray.
"So now, friend, what was it you wanted to talk about?"
Judging by Dray’s serious expression Ford suspected it wasn’t going to be about cake after all.
Jane frowns “I don’t know… All I really wanted for a while, was to be able remember things from before a couple of years ago. Now that I do I kind of wish I didn’t, but I don’t want to forget now that I know, because I’ve learned a lot of things that are good warnings of problems that are going to catch up to me eventually. I don’t even want to forget Hell really, since I have to go back I’d rather know what I’m about to face.”
“There are some memories” she continued “which make me feel very sad, like the London Post office burning down. I liked the people there, and I only know of two other people who got out. I just don’t think about it, rather than try to forget. Forgetting that would seem…” she pauses, trying to find the right word “disrespectful?”