Tersa's Cottage, Halaway, Dhemlan, Kaeleer, Wednesday Afternoon, Fandom Time

[glacial_queen]

This was...well, this was weird.

When Karla had received a letter from Uncle Saetan summoning her home, she'd assumed that she'd been summoned home to talk to him. Which, considering her currently mixed up feelings in regards to Jaenelle, had caused no little trepidation on its own. Arriving at the Hall to find out that it wasn't the Hall Lord that had required her presence but someone else entirely had been, well, weird.

She'd heard of Jaenelle's Black Widow friend who lived in a snug cottage in the village of course. Jaenelle had wandered into the Twisted Kingdom to help lead Tersa out, as far as the broken Black Widow was willing to come, at least. Wise, by what Jaenelle had said, and trustworthy, but that still didn't answer the question as why she'd want to talk to Karla.

But with both Saetan and Jaenelle adamant she go talk to Tersa--though Jaenelle's insistence had kind of raised Karla's hackles a bit and she might have gotten just the tiiiiiiniest bit snippy--she was pushing aside her confusion and knocking on the cottage door.

[NFB, please]

Comments

[kaeleerans.livejournal.com]

A journeymaid Black Widow opened the door, her pale skin and medium hair immediately signaling that she was neither Hayllian, like Tersa, not a native of Dhemlan, either.

"Lady," she greeted politely, bringing her hands up. They both wore hourglass pendants with the sand evenly split between the bottom and the top, but Karla's Sapphire outranked the girl's own light Opal. "May I help you?"

[glacial_queen]

"Sister," Karla replied, laying her palms on top of the journeymaid's. "I'm looking for Lady Tersa?" She hadn't meant to make it a question, but she still felt slightly uneven.

That this was the home of a Black Widow, that couldn't be denied. Glancing at the herb garden that took the place of the flowerbeds decorating the front of the other cottages nearby, Karla could spot several plants that she recognized from her own time training with the coven--including one that could be brewed into a virulent poison. There were wards on the grounds, meant to spook or warn or ensnare trespassers. There was even a trap, woven into the wood around the windows of the first floor; a complex and lovely bit of Craft with three layers.

The first layer divined intention--little children intent on mischief or adults with more curiosity than sense could peer about the windows in peace. But someone lurking about with darker, more dangerous intentions would be noted and the second layer would activate. A lure, a tiny, simple thing. Here, it would breathe, tangling up in someone's thoughts. Come here. I am the best way for you to enter the cottage and enact your plan. And should the poor fool heed that lure, instead of running away as quickly as possible, the third layer would engage, trapping their minds in a maze of dreams and illusions. The body would be found, of course, probably halfway through the window, but the mind? Only if the weaver chose to free it.

Karla had spent several minutes standing on the stoop while she examined the spell, marveling over the subtle Craft that made it all work. Jaenelle's work, she'd originally thought, or Saetan's, but it didn't feel like either of them. They had contributed to some of the wards and spells that lay over the cottage, but this delicate bit of work belonged to someone else. Someone formidable in her Craft and very well-trained.

But Tersa was supposed to be broken. Mad, and broken. Perhaps Lucivar's mother, Luthvian...?

Either way, this cottage was not what she'd been expecting when she'd been sent to Halaway and it made her awkward. "I'm Karla--the High Lord told me that I was wanted...?"

[kaeleerans.livejournal.com]

The journeymaid's eyes widened a bit and she immediately went to curtsy; a maneuver quickly checked when she remembered that Black Widows curtsied to no one, save sitting Queens. While Karla's psychic scent marked her as a Queen, her youth also made it clear she had not yet formed a Court nor claimed territory.

Still. Proximity to the High Lord was power in its own right.

"I'm Maisie," she said, the half-aborted curtsy becoming something of a strange little hop. "I'm staying with Lady Tersa for a few weeks as part of my education. I believe you're expected? Lady Tersa was most particular about the tea today."

[glacial_queen]

"Am I?" Not even here ten minutes and already Karla was filled with questions.

Had Saetan sent a message along psychic threads when she'd arrived? Karla had booked a portal home as soon as she'd gotten his missive, but with the time difference between Kaeleer and Fandom, it made it almost impossible to gage when she would have arrived. Certainly not accurately enough to prepare for tea.

And what could a journeymaid Black Widow learn from a broken witch? Perhaps Tersa taught the females some brews and tinctures that didn't require Craft? Or showed them how to navigate through the outer reaches of the Twisted Kingdom? Or was she simply an object lesson?

[kaeleerans.livejournal.com]

Maisie also looked confused for a minute. "I think so. It's hard to tell, of course, Lady Tersa being how she is--"

And then some of her confusion cleared. "Ahhh. I see. You've never met her before, have you?"

At Karla's headshake, Maisie stood aside and gestured her in. "You'll understand a bit better when you meet her, I think."

That was enough of an explanation for now, Maisie judged. Black Widows could never be too cryptic. And as another journeymaid of the Hourglass, Karla was expected to be able to figure things out on her own.

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

Tersa was humming about the kitchen, arranging a pile of sticks in a basket next to the door. There was a large pile of them on the table, neatly outlining two places where tea things had been set out. "Oh, good, you're here," she said happily as Karla walked into the kitchen. "You can help me sort the sticks." Dropping her voice a little, she added, "The bridge is very fragile. I will keep sending the sticks, of course, but I don't know how much longer it will hold. The word-sharks are gaining."

[glacial_queen]

Sticks? Bridge?

Karla darted a look over to Maisie who simply looked resigned. "Sure, I can help sort," she said, heading to the table to begin picking up the sticks. "Is this something you do often, Lady Tersa?"

[kaeleerans.livejournal.com]

"She keeps sticks she's collected from every yard in the village," Maisie said in an undertone, lifting up the tea service to rinse. Most of the cups and saucers were covered with stick debris. "But she can't--or won't--tell me or anyone else why the sticks are so important and panics if anyone goes near the basket."

Maisie glanced over to where Tersa was studiously placing more sticks in the basket and shook her head.

"Lady Sylvia's had every bridge around Halaway checked right down to the smallest footbridge and they're all sound." She shrugged. "Maybe she'll tell you."

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"Maybe I'm right here and can still hear you perfectly well," Tersa said tartly. Maisie look abashed and went back to rinsing.

The sticks in the basket arranged to her contentment, Tersa dusted her hands and stood up. Karla offered her another bundle, but the older Black Widow reached out and cupped her face with a hand that was strong and rough with callouses.

"This is something else you must not tell Jaenelle," she said, her eyes clouded and farseeing. "You must not tell her about the boy. My boy. She's not ready yet; the threads are not in place. He must abide awhile yet on his island, though the word-sharks circle." Her voice was immeasurably sad when she said that. "But the sticks will hold the bridge. If she remembers in time."

Tersa's fingers tightened to the point where they became painful. "But you must not tell her. You mustn't. Even should the bridge fail and my boy be lost, you must not say. The threads could snap if they are plucked too sharply. Do you understand?!"

[glacial_queen]

No. Karla didn't understand at all. She didn't understand what Tersa meant, and she doubly didn't understand what her senses were informing her in no uncertain terms.

But she didn't need to understand, did she? "I won't tell Jaenelle," she promised, leaving off the part where she had no idea what she'd be telling Jaenelle about anyway. Word-sharks? And island?

...Or the part where she wasn't talking to Jaenelle much right now as it was.

"No thread-snapping on my watch, check."

Tersa let her go as soon as she had promised and Karla rubbed her cheek. That had been...interesting.

But not as interesting as the fact that Tersa was broken and yet still using Craft.

That would be the part that had Karla's mind stuttering, yes.

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"Good girl," Tersa said, eyes focusing on Karla's face for the first time since she arrived. She tilted her head and studied the young female before her. "Is that why you're here? To help me with the sticks? You can't be here to replace Maisie. She just arrived. Didn't she?"

Tersa looked at Maisie for confirmation. Maisie nodded.

"And all my students come on fifth-day. Is today fifth-day?" Tersa began wandering around the kitchen, opening cabinets and peering under the table. "Where did I put fourth-day? Did I lose it? I try not to be careless!"

[kaeleerans.livejournal.com]

Maisie saw how agitated Tersa was getting and left the sink to direct her to a chair at the table. "It's all right, Lady Tersa," she soothed. "You didn't lose fourth-day. Today is only second-day; Lady Karla is not a student. She's here to talk to you. I can make some tea and leave you to talk?"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

Some of the confusion left Tersa's golden eyes as Karla took a seat at the heavy pine table directly across from her.

"Oh, you are Karla," Tersa said, sounding delighted. "I wanted to speak to you! You are on the edge of the abyss and are about to ruin everything. Would you like some tea?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla was...just going to gape at Tersa for a moment. "Yes, please. Tea might be very nice," she said a little weakly.

She'd been invited for tea before. She'd even been accused of ruining everything before. Never both at the same time.

Maisie gave her a sympathetic smile as she brought over a tea tray, loaded with tea and nutcakes and several other snacks, apparently used to the effect her mistress had on the uninitiated. "How am I going to ruin everything?" she asked as Maisie poured for them both. "Is this about the, uhh, boy on the island? Who is he?"

Fandom Island? Warren? Ben? Ender? Who?!

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

Tersa patted Karla's hand. "Nutcake?" she offered. "Eat a nutcake, my dear. It will make you feel better."

She waited until Karla had taken a bit from the proffered nutcake before continuing. "You know my boy," she said. "Don't you?"

Then she shook her head, answering her own question. "No, of course you don't. Not yet. How can you? He is still on the island--the island of maybe. The boy is my boy. Mine, but not mine. Never mine, taken from me and then I was taken from him. And even now that he can remember, he is not my boy. He is her boy. Which is how it should be; he's dreamed of her so long."

Tersa was quiet for a few moments, sipping her tea and collecting her scattered thoughts. "My boy. My broken boy; lost for now. He is the third side of the four-sided triangle. If you keep on as you will, he will be lost forever. Now, he is trapped on the island of maybe. You interfere, he will be destroyed."

[glacial_queen]

Karla still had no idea who 'he' was, and the nutcake wasn't actually helping her to feel any better.

"If I interfere?" she asked. "If I keep on? What do you mean, Lady Tersa? What will I do?"

There were a limited number of people she wanted to destroy and, so far, she didn't think Tersa's boy was on it.

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"The lover is the father's mirror," Tersa said quietly, as much to herself as to Karla. "The brother stands between. The mirror spins, spins, spins. Blood. So much blood. It rises up and washes over him, sometimes. The bridge will have to rise from the sea. The threads are not yet in place."

She had grabbed another nutcake and was now shredding it into tiny pieces on her saucer. "The girl is watching over him now. When she can. As much as she can. Yet someone else she saves. If she weren't there, the bridge would never have time to rise and the mirror would be lost under all that blood. You want to take her away."

[glacial_queen]

Karla was trying to follow along, but it was difficult. Most people talked in straight lines. Other people talked in circles. Both were fairly easy to follow. Tersa? Tersa spoke in squiggles and zig-zags, answering your questions with so many words that you got lost before you ever even heard the answer.

Assuming she had answered, which was up for debate.

But this time, she had been given something slightly more concrete, once Tersa had stopped talking about blood and mirrors and bridges. Not that it really answered anything; it simply gave rise to more questions. The best Karla could hope for was that they were useful questions.

"I do?" Tersa seemed to know a lot about what Karla was about to do or wanted to do. Much more than Karla knew herself. "Who do I want to take away?"

And she prepared herself for a torrent of words to sift through.

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"Surreal," Tersa said simply, playing with her hourglass necklace. There was no Jewel pendant above it.

[glacial_queen]

"Surreal?" Karla asked, surprised all over again. "You mean the female who calls herself a SaDiablo? The witch at my school?!"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"The male who sired her carries that name," Tersa said, and in her mouth those words became a rebuke. "She has just as much right to it as he does. Or you do."

[glacial_queen]

"But I don't try to--"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

Tersa continued on, speaking right over Karla. "Little Surreal. Sweet child. Strong and sharp. Not my daughter, but ever a friend. But you can't take her away, little Queen. You cannot be the sword and shield she does not need. She is her own knife. Or she has been. Or she will be, I misremember which. But she remembers Witch and that is what is important."

[glacial_queen]

Karla managed to pick up the subtle emphasis Tersa had placed on 'Witch'. "Surreal knows Jaenelle?"

Had they been friends when Jaenelle was a child in Terreille? Jaenelle hadn't wandered the Realm of Light the way she had the Realm of Shadow, having promised Lucivar she wouldn't on their very first meeting. As such, Jaenelle hadn't had many friends from home outside of her sister Wilhelmina--and the girls that had died in Briarwood.

Rose. Marjane. Dannie. So many more. Ghosts and shades that still sometimes called to Karla from the darkness of her mind.

She shivered. "Was Surreal in Briarwood?"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"Yes." Tersa replied immediately. "No."

This was actually a good day for Tersa; she was lucid and mostly aware of the world around her. But Karla's questions kept picking at her, dancing around, prying away at her grip on the current reality. They were all about the past or the future, which tripped her up. Remembering what was past and what was future was hard enough when one was focused on the now. Trying to keep them steady while questing for information about both made all the time knot and twist like a tangled skein of spidersilk.

[glacial_queen]

Yes and no. Well, that was helpful.

"Was she..." Karla groped to find something that could explain why Surreal had been both there and not there. "..."

Yeah. Karla had nothing.

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

Tersa groped for a reply, for words that would make sense to Karla's straightforward thinking, for answers that didn't fly away on bright wings only to burst into spatters of blood.

Tried and failed and tried again.

In the end, she looked for something else to explain, abruptly leaving the table and stalking out towards the kitchen door. "Stay," she said, pointing at Karla.

Karla stayed.

A few minutes later, Tersa returned, proudly holding a rock that she'd found in her garden. She placed it in front of Karla and grinned, proud of herself. "That is Surreal's life," she explained.

[glacial_queen]

Karla looked at the rock. Back to Tersa. Down to the rock. Back. Down. Back.

Seeing that Tersa wasn't going to elaborate further, Karla probed the rock with Craft, seeing if Tersa had wrapped some kind of spell within it or had incorporated some kind of message or had done something to it to explain why she thought handing Karla a rock would answer all of her questions.

The rock was simply a rock. Inert, lifeless, Craftless. There was no message, no answers, nothing.

"I'm not--" she began apologetically.

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

Tersa's eyes welled, more from frustration than sadness. "Look!" she said desperately. "You must look."

The female was smart, Tersa knew that. She was friends with Witch, was a Black Widow, had the skill and the training and the power to look beyond and see. So why was she being so blind right now? Why couldn't she remove the scales and realize the danger she was presenting to Jaenelle and the boy and the timelines that snaked across the broken landscape of Tersa's mind?

"Look!" she insisted again. "Please, girl, snowy-girl, ice-girl, fire-bright and twisty girl. Look!"

[glacial_queen]

It was Tersa's evident distress that made Karla look down at the rock again. This time, however, she stopped trying to find the secret and hidden answers and simply looked to see what was there.

A rock. An ugly, dun-brown thing, scattering dirt on the table when she touched it. Rough against her skin; an unexpected sharp edge opened a small cut on her thumb. Here and there were flecks of mica, but for the most part it was a common, ordinary rock.

And then, Karla understood.

"Hard," she said, rolling it over in her hand. "Rough and painful. Ugly, dirty, unrelenting but with a few bright spots. Common enough for where it's found. And those same words can sum up Surreal's life, can't they?"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

Tersa smiled at her like a student who had recited her lessons correctly.

"Yes." She sat back in her chair and sipped her tea, relieved her message had been understood. "And you plan to take her away from all that."

[glacial_queen]

"No, I--"

Okay, Karla wouldn't exactly call it a plan. She hadn't really given the option much thought. But saying that Tersa's words weren't true because she hadn't done as much yet would also be a lie.

She and Surreal hadn't exactly hit it off on their one and only meeting. But she was from Terreille, a Realm not hospitable to the dual-bloodlined, as Lucivar had discovered. Nor witches, especially those that wore darker Jewels. The things Shira and Ranon had told her still chilled her blood, and would even if she didn't have some of Jaenelle's worst memories to back up their stories.

And she claimed to be a SaDiablo, while wearing Gabrielle's clan crest around her neck. Why should she have more of a dirty, hard, and miserable life in Terreille when she could come to Kaeleer instead?

"So what if I am?" she asked, swallowing her earlier denial. "What's so awful about that?"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

This time, Tersa did not have to go outside to find something to make a point. Especially since she'd have to dig up a mole or a worm or something to do so. "It's only awful when you do it blindly and with no care for the consequences," she said calmly. "You are the wind, little Queen. You flit across the land at whimsy with no thought with what the effect may be on others who are caught up in it. A rock dropped in a pond with constantly-spreading ripples."

[glacial_queen]

"I am not!" Karla protested, stung. "I've been working really hard to be more mindful about that!"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"And how far have you come?" Tersa asked, staring hard at Karla--and through her. Her eyes turned a bright gold as they filled with momentary lucidity. "How much have you given thought to what you're doing, beyond the closest goal?"

Karla's silence was damning; her face twisted as she thought about Rook and older-Warren's anger.

"There are consequences for every action, child. And consequences for inaction, too. You can no longer afford to look only at the ripples that lie closest to your goal and the shortest route to get there."

[glacial_queen]

Untrue! Karla wanted to yell. Unfair!

But Tersa's accusations weren't either. There were too many dark shapes on her conscience for Karla to truly believe her own wounded pride.

She bowed her head and accepted the rebuke. "You are right, Sister," she said quietly. "What am I not seeing about Surreal?"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"Tell me what you are seeing, instead," Tersa commanded. "I am a Black Widow. I see fortunes in dreams and tea leaves, in frost across the windowpanes and in the spaces between words."

She reached over the table and poked Karla in the breast, hard, directly under the hourglass pendant. "You are a journeymaid Black Widow. You must learn to do the same."

Granted, the fortunes she divined were cracked and warped as a shattered mirror--shattered as she was shattered--but that did not make them any less real.

[glacial_queen]

Karla rubbed her chest, trying not to frown. That had...not hurt, exactly, but it hadn't been gentle, either. Her fair skin turned red, but would not bruise.

On the other hand, what did Lucivar always say? Every bruise is a lesson learned.

She went over the few facts in her head what little she knew about Surreal. And really, it was very little. She knew a bit about the witch's ancestry and some about the Realm she came from, but nothing about her parents or her Territory or even how and why she got from Fandom.

"Who is--wait, no." 'Who' was the wrong question. 'Who' was the obvious question. Karla needed to look behind the obvious. "I don't need to know who she is. I need to know when. When is she from, Lady Tersa?"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

Tersa smiled. The witch had skipped over the telling and had gotten right to the seeing. It was good she had; Tersa could feel the madness creeping in, the fragments of real slipping out from beneath her fingers.

She let them go. She had learned over the past seven hundred years that the harder she fought to stay, the quicker she lost ground. It was like trying to catch shadows and chase sunbeams.

"Now you are thinking right." She couldn't give Karla a year, a number. But that didn't really matter did it? Surreal existed in the time BEFORE. What did dates (or plums or figs or even honey-pears) matter, so long as Karla knew it was BEFORE. "She will meet you on this path, but it will not be for awhile. She has not even arrived to where your prints linger in the dust."

[glacial_queen]

Surreal was further behind her in the timeline, then. Back before she was born, if Karla was understanding correctly.

"So by taking Surreal away to Kaeleer, I can destabilize the entire timeline," Karla said quietly.

Thank the Darkness for the object lesson that was the Skywalkers in Fandom.

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"When Surreal comes to Kaeleer, her life becomes honey-pears and pickleberries," Tersa said in a singsong. "Joy and love and laughter. Sorrow, yes, like summer raindrops and fear like a puddle and not like a river. You can save her, fire-bright-and-ice girl. You can collect her and make her happy and love you and save one witch instead of the hundreds that cry out to you unceasing in the long winter night."

Tersa's voice dropped low. "And if you don't, she will sob and weep and tear and rend. She will be speared more times than you can imagine, hot and hungry, thrusting deep and painful. She will drive away her only friend and know year after year of pain and hurt and death. Bodies will come to her feet like waves in an ocean of blood. But you can save her."

[glacial_queen]

Karla flinched away, Tersa's words a verbal slap.

You can collect her and make her happy and love you and save one witch instead of the hundreds that cry out to you unceasing in the long winter night.

That had hit home, it really had. Tersa had put her finger on it exactly. Yes, she wanted to bring Surreal to Kaeleer because Terreille was a horrible place to live. But how much of that desire also came from wanting to play hero? Wanting to be a savior?

The life she outlined for Surreal was worse than bleak and it should have made Karla's choice clear.

Except for that conversation they'd just had. Except that Tersa was a Black Widow and they never made things clear. This was doubly-true when it was serving as a lesson.

"Everything has a price," Karla said quietly, looking up into Tersa's eyes. "What is the price if I saved Surreal?"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"If Surreal is not in Terreille, was not in Chaillot, will not be at Cassandra's Altar seven years ago," Tersa said, her tenses slipping and sliding like pigs in mud, "then we would have lost the greatest Queen the Blood has ever known."

[glacial_queen]

Chaillot.

Cassandra's Altar.

Those names were cold and stark; bringing up memories Karla longed to forget.

Was Surreal in Briarwood? Yes. No.

She was not in the hospital; a patient as the others had been. But she'd been there that night, helped rescue Jaenelle.

And something else clicked.

"Tersa? Who is Daemon?"

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

"Why, the boy, of course." Tersa said with a warm and happy smile, as if they had not just been talking about Briarwood, the pretty poison. "My boy. Would you like more tea?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla couldn't even say she was surprised to hear that. Somehow, she'd known.

So she just held out her mug and allowed Tersa to pour a bit more in.

After that, talk turned to other things. Tersa had delivered her message and with that delivery, much of her lucidity fled. So they talked about Tersa's garden and she drew a picture of it for Karla to bring back and asked questions that she shouldn't know, like about the 'male with steel hidden beneath soft feathers' and 'the female who pretends to be a songbird but calls like a hawk.'

And finally, as the sun began to sink lower in the sky and they ran out of tea and Tersa began demanding Karla drink milk to get a nutcake, Karla excused herself from the table and stood. "I must be going," she said and the smile she gave Tersa was both fond and genuine. "I have my own brand of madness to get back to."

She didn't think Tersa would mind. After all, the other witch never denied her insanity.

[twisted-weaver.livejournal.com]

And Tersa didn't mind; in fact, she laughed.

But as Karla was heading for the door, her laughter changed. "No," she said and the way her voice hung in the air made Karla turn.

"You cannot return home to Fandom yet," Tersa declared, eyes distant and misty once again. "There is a message coming. No, you must stay. Stay and wait for the message. You will be needed."

[glacial_queen]

Karla shivered, recognizing that power that Tersa commanded.

Power that she shouldn't have commanded, broken and Jewelless as she was; but commanded anyway.

"Yes, Lady," she said, inclining her head in submission. "I will wait."