Coal Hands, Warm Heart?

[Faith Augustin]

9th Zi'da 716
Early evening

"By the time Cylus comes, you're going to regret this walking me home thing, you know." As they hurried into the house, Faith looked at Padraig and smiled, reaching out to wipe some snow from his arm. Or at least, it looked she was smiling. Underneath the scarf and hood it was hard to tell. She was well wrapped up. "You get the fire going, I'll get the kettle on and the food started", it took a while for everything to get up and going, and until it did, it was cold. Less so than it had been before she'd made draught excluders to put on the floor by doors and around window frames and ledges, but all they did was stop any draughts making their way through the small house they shared. So, Faith stepped out of her shoes, into her slippers, shrugged off her coat and scarf, hung them up then pulled her thick cardigan from the back of what had become 'her' chair and peeled off one of the pairs of gloves she wore, leaving the fingerless ones still on. She didn't like the cold, never had and was not looking forward to the colds of Cylus. Not one little bit.

However, they got on with their jobs and soon enough they were both holding hot mugs of tea and the fire was lit with the stove on, also adding heat as it warmed up. Their meal was more or less prepared, she just needed to heat some things through, so they had some time. Faith looked at him and thought about whether to say what she was thinking and then rolled her eyes in frustration at herself. "I'm glad they've finished the room. My room." He'd told her about it on the way home and she was deeply excited, it had to be said. "Can we leave moving the furniture till tomorrow? By the time we go to bed, if it's where it is then my bed will be warm. But if we move it into a cold room now, I may as well sleep in an ice bath. I may be exaggerating, but I do like getting into a warm bed it's quite wonderful. Is that alright?" Each step was small, there was no doubting it, but there was also not a doubt that she wouldn't have asked that just a few trials ago. She was, she considered, getting better at expressing her preferences. "You may have created a monster, you know." Give her another few trials and she'd be telling him what time he was getting up in the morning and what colour socks to wear.

"It's going to be cold on the campaign, too. It would be nice if we could make our tent warm when we got in it. Or the house, when we get home after being out all trial, come to that. You may not have noticed, but I don't like being cold." It was as dry a delivery as was his usual but it was followed quickly by a smile "I'm growing pampered and spoiled. I've endured a lot of cold, I'm just being a baby. I might still spend Cylus sitting here in my coat, though." Sipping the tea she considered and smiled pure mischief at him "And scarf, gloves and hat, too. Have you got any work to do this evening?", she wondered, with a curious look. His work was often interesting in the extreme and she liked being able to help where she could.

[Padraig]

He might come to regret a developing pattern of walking home in the cold night air. The biting wind, the snow, the ice and sleet. Padraig regretted that already. But letting her walk home alone after dark? He wouldn't regret it at all. Besides, it had been easy enough to schedule his tutoring sessions early, his work at the apothecary in the afternoon, and his studies at the university in early evening. It left him out and about already, by the time Faith was ready to return home.

But it also meant the house was cold when they finally got home. The fire that had been keeping it warm had burned out, and the coals had finally grown cold. "You're on," he said when she suggested he light the fire while she fixed them something to eat. He'd stacked some wood in the corner already, both to keep it from getting wet outdoors, and to stop him having to go out in the night to fetch more. He'd developed a hand for it now, getting one started quickly.

And when she suggested they wait until the next trial to move her furniture into the new room, it reminded him of something he'd thought about earlier. "You know, I'd been thinking that we might get a small stove for the corner in that room. To keep it warm, and when the door is open, to help keep the rest of the house warmer too." It was a thought. More room indoors meant more to keep warm in winter. The warmer months were no problem, he'd had a window installed in the new room that she could open to the fresh air when wanted.

"But yes, we can move the furniture tomorrow, or whenever you like," he said, finally getting up from his crouched position in front of the hearth. Work for him? "Not at the moment, no," Padraig added when she asked him about work. Of course it hadn't occurred to him yet that with the upcoming campaign, an early start on his final project might be advised. "You know, the coals stay warm for quite a while after the fire goes out. Retain the heat, keep the house relatively warm. But fire in our tent on the campaign, it's too small really to leave anything burning while we're away from it."

"Something I remembered earlier this trial," he added then with a curious smile. "I was headed to the apothecary and I passed by a small ornamental pond and noticed a frog in the bottom. But it was frozen solid or seemed to be. And I remembered, when I was young my grandfather had a trough for his mule, and there was a frog that lived in it. During the winter he would freeze solid, and in the spring, thaw out and come back to life."

"It was the strangest thing," he remembered with a grin. "There must be something about frogs. Their blood, something, that allows their hearts to keep beating, their other organs to keep working even when they seem frozen." Of course he'd been the kind of kid that wondered about those sorts of things, while others didn't, or his grandfather told him to get his head out of the books and make something sensible of himself.

[Faith Augustin]

"Oh, I've been thinking about something similar!" She smiled in delight when he said about a small stove in the corner of her room. She looked at him with an earnest gaze and explained "I've got some ideas for ways to make that room lovely, long term. I think that with a little bit of work it can become quite wonderful. What I have in mind to do in there will be a slow process, but that's alright, we have time." She had indeed been considering it and she had decided quite a few things. Unfortunately, in fairly typical Faith fashion, she didn't consider that suggesting that she had long term plans for a room which she had no intention of sleeping in soon might sound just a little contrary to what she was actually thinking.

Because, walking home, she'd made a decision. Wrapped up against the biting cold and walking arm in arm, Faith had recognised something which had made her smile. Padraig might have noticed the moment that she leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked and pulled herself against him in a hug, but she'd said nothing. Tomorrow, she determined, she was going to speak to him about it, having slept on it one more time. They were going on this campaign soon and tomorrow, after they had moved the furniture they needed to, she was going to talk to him about this one tent, one home, one intertwined existence that they had and she was going to suggest that whilst they moved this stuff in to that room, they moved her into his room, which would become theirs. Full of good intentions for clarity, Faith was aware what a big step this was but she was sure, more sure than she had ever been, that is was what she wanted. There was just that lingering doubt that it might not be anything at all that he did.

"Well, if we can't leave anything burning can we leave anything warm? Like.. " She considered, then explained the best she could "Like the stones from the campfire or the coals which are warm. I know the coals are warm because they are still smouldering, but is there anything chemical or alchemical or physicscal", maybe the word was physical she thought with a smile and gave an apologetic shrug "That would keep the house warm whilst we're out of it? I mean, it would be good for the tent, but the house?" Well, the simple fact was that the tent was in a situation where they were both going to be freezing and there would be campfires she could warm stones on. Plus, the quiet voice of concern whispered to her, she might be completely misconstrewing this and he might have changed his mind. They might still be acting like siblings in ten arcs time. "Well, it would be great for the house, wouldn't it? Especially with Cylus coming and your insistence on staying out all breaks to walk me home. I know I suggested it, but I worry. I'd much rather you came home to a warm house."

But the frog story that he told amazed her and it showed in her expression. "That's astonishing", her eyes searched his face and she smiled. "That must have driven you crazy wondering about it. When I go to the library tomorrow, I'll see if I can find a book on frogs." She considered the ramifications of it all for a moment and grinned "Can you imagine? If you could bottle that, well there'd be something I'd buy. We lose so much money from produce going off before we can use it, or just not being fresh enough. You can freeze things, sure, but the taste is never quite the same. You'd be a rich man, I know that." Something occurred to her, though, and so she asked. When she did, though, it was in a quiet and gentle tone. "Padraig, would you like to go visit your grandfather? He must be very proud of you. Is he still in Venora? We could go together, take him food and gifts. If you wanted." It must be a wonderous thing to have a family, she considered, and so she wanted to support Padraig the best way she could.

[Padraig]

"We have all the time in the world," Padraig told her, when she talked about making her new room nicer to live it, to look at. It was true, so far as he was concerned, and hoped she felt the same. But no matter how long they played this intimate game of tag, or maybe it was just him hoping again that the feeling was mutual, or would be. He'd like to think that at some point, so far as sleeping was concerned, they'd only need one room, one bed.

"Well, often the fire is still lit when we leave," he considered. "But without anyone here to maintain it, it eventually burns out and only the coals remain. If there was a way to extend the amount of time they retain heat?" He frowned, contemplating that for a time. "Coal, which is in effect wood, can act as a very good source for imbuing into other materials, or just as nicely for being imbued." Speaking of alchemy, that was. "Stone is usually on the receiving end, but can also serve as a very good reagent. Especially stone that has over time, stored magically sourced ether. It also stores heat very well." There'd need to be a proper accelerant, trigger and whatnot.

So could they come up with an enchantment using coal, wood or stone? He believed they could. But whatever it was that allowed the frog to survive the coldest of winters, frozen near to solid and thaw out again, alive in the spring, that was a mystery that he was sure there was an answer to. And that answer could be used as well for something useful.

As for his grandfather, well, he had to think about that a trill before responding. "Maybe?" he said. "I know that when I talk about him, he seems stern, judgmental. And he is those things. But he's more than that, and I should probably be more grateful than I've seemed," he added with a frown, while poking around in the fire to shift one of the logs there. "I believe he wanted a son, but got a daughter instead, and then my grandmother died. But he's a cobbler, and wanted a son to raise and teach, who would work at his side, take over his shop one trial and take care of of him in his old age."

"When my mother left me with him, I think he might have seen that second chance. He raised me all on his own while working in his shop, and he worked hard and tried to teach me. But I had no knack and no interest for it," he admitted and grinned a little at the memory. "But as stern as he was, as disappointed as he must have been, he still allowed me my books and to spend time with an old alchemist down the road. I didn't have enough for my tuition at Andaris university. I thought I'd have to wait another arc or two. But he gave me that money, and more to live on while I studied. And I haven't written him like I should. Or visited either."

Distance maybe, had made the difference in how he looked back on his upbringing. And he thought that he ought to have been a lot more grateful than he was to the man who'd reared him alone, in spite of his advancing age and the hardships that came with it.

[Faith Augustin]

"Coal is wood? I didn't know that. That's very clever of it." She considered this fact with a slight frown of concentration. His knowledge and understanding of alchemy far surpassed hers and she thought it always would, really. His mind was suited to it somehow. But still, they worked well together and bounced ideas one off the other, there was no doubt in her mind. "So, a combination of the essence of stone and coal? Or.. imbuing the stone with the coal essence and then using that as a.. reagent?" She wasn't entirely sure that she'd gotten all those words in the right way around or correct place so she paused briefly "Which you use to make something which retains heat longer than coal or stone, because it's combining the essence of both?" If that was what he was suggesting, that would be astonishing and she, for one, would be very positive about it. She might not have mentioned it, after all, but she really didn't like the cold.

"So, I'll get a book on frogs tomorrow. Maybe you can get a frog. Or go to the department in the university and ask there?" The university, she considered. She was going to have to think about that and whether she still wanted to go there. That she wanted to wasn't in doubt, but there were other considerations, now, which she simply hadn't foreseen when she had thought about it previously. When it had been a dream, and an impossible one at that, it was much easier than when considering the practicalities of their life now."Is there information there, about what people can study and how much it costs and things? Would you get me a copy, too, please? I just... just in case, I suppose."

But then, all thoughts of the university, frogs and coal fled and she listened to Padraig speak. By the time he had finished, she was kneeling on the floor next to him and she took his hands in hers, feeling the warmth of his much larger hands, which had just been working at the fire, wrapping around hers and she examined his face for a moment. She didn't say anything whilst he had spoken and now, once he had finished, she was still wondering if he would want her to, wondering if she even should. But, she'd asked and he'd answered; he could have not done ~ he could have refused to talk about it. He wasn't refusing to talk about it and so, she spoke. "Why don't you write to him, invite him to come stay with you here for Cylus? It's cold and if he's alone, he might appreciate the company. We can make any adjustments here for him to be comfortable, whatever you need. If he doesn't want that, then you or we, whichever is appropriate, can go visit him when we get back." She looked down at their hands together and spoke again. He'd said maybe, after all, in response to whether he wanted to visit. And her experience of Venora was that it was very much happy with the situations of slaves so an elderly, stern man might well be set in his ways and not appreciate his talented grandson living with one. That was fine as far as she was concerned, she would be as involved, or not, as was needed.

"When you talk about him, you have a look on your face that I never see at any other time. He doesn't sound stern or judgemental and nor do you. You sound like a young man who didn't fit where you were and who needed to do more. One trial, Padraig, you'll run that University if it's what you want." She firmly believed it, and more than that? "You can do anything you put your mind to. Anything at all. But it isn't just that, your mind insists that you have to learn, to grow, to understand. It isn't what you want, it's what you simply must do. He sounds like someone who recognised that, but didn't know what to do so just did his best. And if he was stern, well I imagine you were a handful." She smiled at the undoubted truth of that. "We can make whatever changes we need to here, and I can help and be here as much or as little as you and he would like. But that's what I think." She gave a rueful smile though, hopeful that she hadn't overstepped her boundaries "But we must keep in mind that I have no idea what having a family means so if I am completely wrong, I can only apologise."

[Padraig]

"Sort of, yes," Padraig said, once he was satisfied with the fire in the hearth. "Coal results from the incomplete burning of plant remains. It might have been wood burned by man, like in a forge. Or because of a wildfire. But both of them, long ago," he explained. "What happens then over time is that the wood not burned, decomposes and forms charcoal." A very long process indeed, in order to produce naturally occurring coal.

But both coal and stone ought to store heat. Off the top of his head, Padraig wasn't sure which might retain it longer. But combined through an alchemical process? He smiled when Faith suggested it. Clever. "I believe so. A compound of the two might be refined into a reagent. It might retain the heat longer on its own, or with amplification it certainly would. There'd need to be a trigger. Internal or external." Pondering that a moment, he glanced at the fire and shrugged. "An enchanted item might be exposed to a heat source, like the fire as an external one, and it might just trigger the enchantment."

Frogs ought to be easy to find. Not as accessible in winter, but settled at the bottom of shallow ponds or streams, if he was some sort of diviner he might locate them underground, but the university might have some spares as well. "It'll cost two hundred nels for two seasons of study, in order to earn your letter, for instance," he told her, regarding study at the university. "I can get the information for you if you like." He knew how much she had wanted to study, having been denied the opportunity as a slave. Now? There was nothing to stop her. "There's different schools of study. Humanities, languages, sciences, engineering. Whatever your pleasure," he told her.

But when she knelt in front of him and took his hands, suggested he reach out to his grandfather, he loved her all the more for it. But did he want to? And if he did, in what way, and when? "He wouldn't want to leave his shop that long," he said firstly, and that he knew to be true. "He's got an apprentice, but wouldn't trust anyone to keep things going while he was away." No matter his age, Padraig was fairly sure his grandfather would never retire unless all the fates at once conspired against him at once.

"Maybe I'll write to him, and if not here, then we might consider visiting him once the weather thaws in spring," he suggested. And what would his grandfather think of him sharing home and heart with a former slave. Padraig couldn't begin to guess. But what he would say without hesitation, was that it wouldn't matter to him a bit.

[Faith Augustin]

When he explained the process of wood becoming coal, Faith looked at him with a quirk of an eyebrow and nodded her head, her expression serious. "Will there be a worksheet later?" Her eyes told of her teasing of him. He reverted to tutor, but then, sometimes, she reverted to student with him or, more often, slave mentality kicked in. She looked at him and allowed the smile to show. Frankly, the sooner he started working at the university the better, she thought. They needed people like him, she was sure, but then she was biased.

"I understood that!" She beamed in delight and clapped her hands. "I really genuinely did. I think some of your alchemy know how is starting to rub off on me, you know. Now, if I can just get you to cook a half way decent meal which doesn't involve eggs, all will be well. However, lets think about this. Shouldn't the trigger be cold not heat? So that, it gets cold, externally to the piece of magic coal. Then, the piece of magic coal heats up and radiates heat until it stops being cold?" That made logistical sense to her, so she asked because it seemed to be a solution.

But kneeling there, in front of the fire with his hands wrapped around hers, she listened to what he wanted to do about his grandfather and Faith nodded. "Writing to him would be a really good thing to do, Padraig. I'm sure he worries about you." Even if, sometimes, he might appear like he didn't, Faith suspected. But then, she was well aware of her own limitations when it came to understanding family of any description. It was strange to her, blood was so important to Famula, to her religion and worship, and yet Faith knew nothing of her own. Some trial, she thought, maybe she'd go to Athart and try to find out. Some trial, maybe.

"So, write to him, then. It would be nice to visit in the Spring." She smiled, taking her hands out of his and she patted his knees, back to business like. "So, you start making some notes on how to make us come home to a warm house, and I'll fill us with a good hot meal, what say you?"

[Whisper]

Faith

Peer Review

Story: 4/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Awarded Knowledge

Coal: Historically Burnt Wood
Freedom: A Room of My Own
Food: Freezing Prolongs Life
Food: Freezing Ruins Taste
Frogs: Survival in Freezing and Thawing
Love: Entwined Existence

Extras

Loot & Losses	[/color]xxxxxx	Injuries
None	[/color]xxxxxx	None

Fame	[/color]xxxxxx	Devotion
None	[/color]xxxxxx	None

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Pedraig

Peer Review

Story: 4/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Awarded Knowledge

Food: Freezing Prolongs Life
Food: Freezing Ruins Taste
Frogs: Survival in Freezing and Thawing

Extras

Loot & Losses	[/color]xxxxxx	Injuries
None	[/color]xxxxxx	None

Fame	[/color]xxxxxx	Devotion
None	[/color]xxxxxx	None

Comments

I kinda want someone to run in on a moment between these two characters and yell at them to just kiss and marry each other! It's so funny how they are both skirting around it!

I ummed and ahhed for a long time over my decision to award 4/5 for points. The reason I gave 4 was because I genuinely received the impression from Faith's last post that she should have been answered by Pedraig, i.e. that her questions and statements weren't rhetorical. It was the first time reading your threads that I scrolled down and saw my own 'pending' post next and thought "oh, that's it, okay..." So I know this isn't either of your normal styles :/

As you can see, I have provided feedback and reasoning behind my review. If you have any questions, comments or criticism about your review, feel free to send me a PM and we can discuss it.
Thank ye.

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