Back at Discipline, chapters 1-3
Back At Discipline
Chapter One-Briar’s Back
Lark was at her loom, weaving as usual when a knock came on the front door. She went to open it and guess who was standing there? “Rosie!!! I wasn’t expecting you for at least another day or two!! However did you get here so fast?”
Rosethorn, or ‘Rosie’, just grinned and plopped down on a chair. “Even I don’t know for sure! Anyway, Lark, there’s someone I want you to meet. Wait a minute, where is she?”
Rosethorn glanced around. Just then, a smiling and panting girl of about ten ran in with a fourteen-year-old boy right behind her. (I'm not sure of his real age. Do you know? Hint, hint.) She skidded to a halt right in front of Lark and narrowly avoided crashing into the dedicate. The girl, Evumeimei Dingzai of Yanjing, had mid-length black hair, almond-shaped brown eyes, and was still rather skinny, even though she ate a whole lot. Briar Moss was the boy’s name. He was a former thief, street rat, and convict. Now, a few years in Discipline cottage had turned him into a “respectable (snort)” mage, or practitioner of magic. His golden brown skin pointed to an eastern ancestor, though his gray-green eyes stated that someone in his family was of western descent. He was also, now, Evumeimei’s teacher of magic, although she had magic with stones and his was with plants. Now Briar was smirking. “Evvy, I told you not to go rushing off. Now look what you’ve done!! This is Lark. She’ll probably hang you in the well or something because you nearly crashed into her!! She’s a whole lot more short tempered than Rosethorn and me!”
Missing the mischievous expression on her teachers face, Evvy squeaked and ran behind Briar. Rosethorn and Briar had mile-wide grins on their faces, but Lark had a (playful) frown on hers. “Now see here,” she said mock-scolding, “Why are you telling such awful lies about me to this lovely girl Briar? Mila knows that I’m certainly much more patient than you or Rosie.”
Lark smiled at Evvy, who came cautiously creeping out from behind her teacher. She shyly dipped a curtsy. “Hello Lark. I’m Evumeimei of Yanjing. The pahans Briar and Rosethorn told me not to go running because I might run into someone and they might not even be as nice as they were. I guess they were wrong.”
Lark chuckled. “Rosethorn, is this who you wanted me to meet? Why is she here?” Rosethorn answered, “She has stone magic and she couldn’t, or rather, wouldn’t, find a teacher. So, as the discoverer of Evvy’s magic, Briar gets to teach her.”
Lark smiled knowingly. “Ah. I know how it went. Sandry discovered a new mage too. His name’s Pasco Ascalon. He has dance magic, can you believe it? Comes from a harrier family. Believe it or not, he also helped catch some murderers. Hard to catch ones they were, led them on a chase and nearly exhausted the living daylights out of poor Sandry. They had a mage who specialized in unmagic. He was dependent on dragonsalt too. Sandry and Pasco should be here any time now. She sent a runner saying that she’d be over for afternoon tea.”
At that moment, a light knock sounded at the door and a young boy and older girl walked in and started. Briar pretended to be insulted. “What, you sniffer skirt, don’t you remember me?”
At this, Lady Sandrilene fa Toren turned to her student, Pasco Ascalon, and wryly smiled. “Pasco, meet one of the other, not so illustrious members of the four ‘miracle mages’. This is my foster-brother: Briar Moss. He came from Sotat and was a normal person like you, except he was a thief and a street rat. You two ought to get along quite well, no? A thief and a harrier.”
Pasco’s eyes grew wide. “YOU were a thief?” he sputtered incredulously. Briar grinned widely and nodded. “I even have the double Xs. Used to be right there,” he said, indicating the web of skin between his forefinger and thumb. Pasco blinked. He was too numb to do anything else. All over the older boy’s hands was a riot of green, leafy vines, which were twisting on the backs of his hands all the way up to under his fingernails. Briar smirked. He had known, to some extent, that his hands would induce such a reaction. They always did. It wasn’t every day that you saw someone with gaily-decorated hands walk by. In fact, now that he thought of it, people with hands like him probably didn’t just walk by at all. They probably pocketed a few things from the people they passed too. Mila knows that he did. When he felt like it. Hey, he was on the straight and narrow now...or was he? evil cackle and suspicious pocketing of goods
About ten minutes later...
Lark, Evvy, Rosethorn, Sandry, Briar, and their pupils were sitting inside the cottage, sipping tea and politely chatting. They were also sparingly munching on some goodies from the cold box. At least, Lark, Rosethorn and Sandry were sparingly munching on some goodies and making small talk. Evvy, Briar, and Pasco were glaring at each other, stuffing their mouths, hoarding their food, and shooting covetous glances at the remaining food in turns. Talk about multi-tasking. Well, in all fairness to Briar, it was more the two younger ones doing the aforementioned activities. The more “mature” females tried their best to ignore them, but their quest was in vain. It was impossible to be no fewer than twelve feet away and not hear, see, or ‘feel’ the squabbles of the three young mages.
After the teatime had passed, all of the mages, pupils included, retired into the garden (Briar and Rosethorn), the loom houses (Lark and Sandrilene), or just to wander around the Hub, as in the case of the two young apprentice mages, Evumeimei and Pasco. For all, it was a while of content and rest before they had to do their respective duties.
Back at Discipline
Chapter Two- First Quarter (To be revised, hopefully)
After the noontime rest, all of the mages returned to the cottage to practice their respective duties, or, at least, in Evvy’s case, to watch the others do their duties until Lark and Rosethorn dragged her off to get her own chores to do, Evvy protesting all the while. Briar and Sandry looked at her rapidly disappearing, yelling, and kicking figure. “Just like when we came to Discipline too, eh Sandry?” “Yeah. Good times, good times Briar.” (A/N: Yeah, I know that how they got their assigned chores wasn’t like that, but, my story, my rules. Deal with it. And if any of you flame me, let’s just say that Ilei will be very upset, and when Ilei is upset, she generally starts hacking at the person who got her ticked off with an axe. ;; )
……………After all chores are done………………
“Lark, do I have to?” Evvy whined. “Yes. Now, get moving.” Lark and Rosethorn pushed Evvy out the door of her room, where she had taken refuge against the two mages who seemed determined to force her into Lark's workshop. “I don’t wanna die! I have so much I need to do! Like, like...umm...well, I can't think of anything yet, but I know there's a lot I have to do!"
One might wonder what horrific things were to be unleashed upon poor Evumeimei of Yanjing. Was she to be stretched on the rack? Hung by her fingernails? Well, actually, no. What was going to happen to Evvy is so terrifying, so unspeakably evil that Briar had prayed to the gods for Evvy's sanity when he learned of their errand. To put it in layman's terms, Evvy was getting a makeover.
Now, we interrupt to bring you ominous music. Hum your favorite dirge for the next minute or so.
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Done? Good. Back to the plot (A/N: -gasp- There's a plot?)
Sometime between finishing lunch and washing the dishes, the two teachers had decided to get Evvy some real clothes and a haircut. After all, like Rosethorn said, "You're a mage-in-training now, m'girl. I didn't have enough time to make you look like one in Chammur and on the road, but you may rest assured that I will now promptly remedy it." Lark said nothing, but smiled in a very kind, gentle, mildly sadistic way as she saw Briar's young protégée shoot her a pleading glance. This did not bode well for the student...not well at all.
Let's take some time to clarify. Firstly, about the entire makeover thing. To be truthful, Evvy had no problem at all with buying more things. True, she didn't need to have them, and certainly could do very well without them, but the stone-mage did not object to pretty things. However, she had gotten a distinct feeling when Lark and Rosethorn had first informed her briskly that they would be buying her more things that it was going to be excruciatingly painful. She was right. Secondly, Evvy was used to moving around in loose breeches or pants with a tunic top, not walking about in those ridiculous, long dresses that the two insisted she needed. Frankly, Evvy could not see how they could manage to not trip over the trailing yards of fabric. Thirdly and lastly, she liked her hair the way it was, thank you very much, and intended to leave it that way for a while. Her hair was long and black, as well as the one thing about her that wasn't defective in some way. There was no way in the world, under it, or above it that anyone would convince her to mutilate her prized possession so that she might 'look like a real mage'. Mage or no, the hair was staying and that was final...or so she thought. Unfortunately, Evumeimei had never tried to defy the two mages before, and thus had no idea just how forceful they could be.
And so, kicking, screaming, and fighting tooth-and-nail all the way, Evvy was brought into Lark's workshop for a fitting and a haircut. Who knows if she'll escape unscathed...or even alive...
-End Chapter Two-
Chapter Three-Waxing Gibbous
When we last joined the mages, poor, unfortunate Evvy was about to get horribly mutilate- oh, wait, I mean fixed up like a proper mage. Apparently, though, Lark and Rosethorn had quite different ideas of what constituted "proper mage-wear". Therefore, theduo wasstuck inside, fruitlessly trying to compromise on what Evumeimei should wear. Of course, no one paid any heed to Evvy's own opinion, so their conversation went something like this:
"I'm not sure about that dress. That shade of yellow just doesn't suit her very well, does it Rosie?"
"A dress is a dress is a dress, Lark. We should get to trimming her hair, it's a bit too long."
(Evvy tries to cut in) "Actually, I'd much rather keep my hair like this, please. And could I maybe just get-"
"Hmm...yes. We should cut off an inch or two, shouldn't we?"
"Of course! I think this nice green should suit her well, and maybe a bit of embroidery on the sleeves?"
"-a nice set of breeches or something and maybe one skirt or two...I really don't want to be a bother and-"
"Oh, that is a lovely color. It compliments her hair nicely, and yes, I'll embroider the sleeves. What about the collar?"
"Sure! Not a lot, though, just a touch. We don't want her looking overdone, now, do we?"
"-can I please go now because my feet are starting to hurt and Pasco said he'dteach me this new dance he made up and-"
"Where shall we put her things, though? Certainly not in Briar's room. Maybe Sandry...?"
In other words, much was being said, little was being done, and Evvy wanted to go outside before they did any drastic things to her hair and clothes that they would regret later. Not fun at all.
Meanwhile, Sandry, Briar, and Pasco had finished their chores and were lazily trading off interesting tidbits of information that they had picked up while sipping juice and tea they had gotten from the coldbox. Briar regaled them with tales of Chammur's gangs (Sandry gasped at the appropriate points; Pasco just tried to look uminpressed.) as well as detailed descriptions of the gardens and nobles. Sandry shared her happiness at her uncle's interest in Yazmin and the letter she had gotten from Tris that said she'd be returning soon (Pasco had no idea who she was, but was later enlightened -and scared- by Briar with stories of her accomplishments and fierce temper.) Pasco gave out snippets of gossip that he had heard from the other dancers at the school and threw in a few half-hearted complaints about Yazmin's lack of mercy (He did admit, however, that she was a very good teacher.) The three lounged and drank and laughed and waited for Evvy to come out for about fifteen minuts before she finally emerged...looking exactly the same as she had when she went in. Sandry was the first to ask what happened. Apparently Evvy, tired of waiting for the two to decide her cosmetic fate, had taken the opportunity to leave quietly while Lark and Rosethorn were busy deciding on things. After explaining, she happily plunked herself down on the ground with the other three and joined them in their tea time, sipping at her juice with relish. Tea and juice were soon finished, though, and they went to go reminisce about the "old days" (in the case of Briar and Sandry) and to dance (in the case of Evvy and Pasco). All signs pointed towards a long, idyllic afternoon, with plenty of laughter, frolicking, and (for the two dedicates) headaches over various problems. Discipline hadn't seen this much activity in months, but soon, very, very soon, there would no longer be any quiet moments. Because Tris and Niko were coming home, and, as everyone must by now have guessed, Daja and Frostpine weren't far behind them.