[Introduction: Zachry] Bronze be burnin'...

[no_kona_fodder]

[Spoiling the whole section of the novel]The bolt had entered the flesh just as they where entering Palalo track, and it'd been a wonder that Zachry hadn't fallen off the horse, another wonder yet that he'd caught on to Somni' auguring, and another again that the Kona had all fallen to their deaths in the river bed

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[weristdas_graal]

He may hear a young man's footsteps scurrying on the parquet floor and a slim, muscled young man with light hair will move into his range of sight, his face furrowed with concern. "My brother in God's love, what has happened to you?" he asks, worried for the newcomer.

[no_kona_fodder]

Zachry was just starting to open his eyes, and he stares at the man before he takes in his surroundings.

“This Maui, bro?” he asks, eyes wide. “Ain't noticed that ship stoppin', nay, or bein' carried. Where's Meronym?”

He can understand the gist of the questions, somewhat - he figures this is some sort of Maui or Prescient talk, though aren't they only a handful by now?

[weristdas_graal]

"Nay, brother, they call this house the Mansion," he says, his eye on the wound. "Alas, i know of no man named Meronym. But this is not the time for questions: your wound must needs be tended."

[no_kona_fodder]

The speech is odd but somehow, Zachry makes sense of it. He frowns, though, staring at the slightly older man.

He looks like a Valleysman, somewhat.

“Meronym's no man, nay,” he says, “she's the Prescient that went to Big I, to scout up Mauna Kea, bro. Duophysite sent her, yay'n'said I'd be goin' to Maui with the lot o'them.”

Pause.

“This Maui, bro? You a Maui-man?”

[weristdas_graal]

"She was your traveling companion? I know not of a kingdom by the name of Mow-wee," he says, baffled. "I am from Anjou, but my travels as knight-errant brought me to this place."

[no_kona_fodder]

"Yay, so she be," Zachry replies, nodding. And he shrugs, says, to explain, "Maui's all the way off o'Big I. There's Prescients there'n some civ'lize, they say."

[weristdas_graal]

"Prescients: are they like the monks of my world, tending the light of learning and keeping it lit in the wilderness?" he asks, curious.

[no_kona_fodder]

Zachry blinks, he takes a little while to process that, and says, "They's got the Smart, yay. All the Smart from b'fore the Fall, b'fore we split between the Kona'n the Civ'lize...."

And then, because Parsifal seems nice, but a bit clueless...

"Bro, you got smart? I got my leg hurtin' most diresome..."

Indeed, he's bleeding, and being manly about it, but the bandage probably needs to be changed.

[weristdas_graal]

He's the walking definition of clueless, and we loves him for it. "I have treated my own wounds and those of my brother knights in battle: lay still but a moment, and I shall fetch the necessaries to tend your wound," he says. Unless otherwise detained, he'll hurry away, heading for the kitchen and requesting a roll of linen bandages and a bunch of comfrey leaves to make a poultice.

He'll return with a basin of water and a sponge, as well as the bandages and the herbs. "I hope that was not too long a wait," he says, kneeling before the newcomer, and examining the bandages, checking to see that they haven't plastered themselves to the wound, since that will mean having to soak them with the sponge first.

[no_kona_fodder]

Sometimes, like now, Parsifal's courtly speech really confuses Zachry - and so if he's not moving, it's more because it hurts, because it's the reasonable thing to do, and because it looks like Parsifal means well, more than for any other reason.

He'll sniff curiously at the herbs, if he can catch a pinch.

"You like Abbess?" he asks, suddenly catching on to something.

[weristdas_graal]

"An Abbess? I am something like one: I am a Knight in the Brotherhood of the Holy Grail, a servant of the One God, entrusted with the care of His Sons and Daughters," he says, wringing water from the sponge over the bandages, then gently unwrapping them, carefully.

[no_kona_fodder]

Something like one is good enough to him, and so of course he has to ask...

"So you pray to Sonmi?"

That really confuses Zachry, all that he found out on Mauna Kau.

[weristdas_graal]

"I know not this name, but I do pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who died to save mankind from sin and rose to show that they might live again," he says, gently sponging Zachry's wounds.

[no_kona_fodder]

"Valleysmen pray to Sonmi," Zachry says. "She gave me three augurin's, they were all good and true."

Though she's not a goddess, nay, as he learned with Meronym.

[weristdas_graal]

He tilts his head, puzzled, but continuing to clean the injured man's wounds. "Is she a saint or a prophetess in your world?" he asks.

[no_kona_fodder]

"Yay, n'a goddess, t'believe Abbess," Zachry replies. "Sonmi kept us safe long nuff, though'n the end, them painted Konas found the end of all Civ'lize, yay."

He sighs.