[X] A look behind the scenes. (More worldbuilding. Discover what it takes for your one of your nations greatest wonders to function. You may ask Damaris one question.)
-[X] Ask Damaris what he thinks about the work here
Feel like the MC is kinda disillusioned towards standard noble stuff given his circumstances plus he's naturally curious about magic.
Adhoc vote count started by WhoTheHeckity on Jan 25, 2023 at 1:02 AM, finished with 15 posts and 14 votes.
[X] A look behind the scenes. (More worldbuilding. Discover what it takes for your one of your nations greatest wonders to function. You may ask Damaris one question.)
-[X] Ask Damaris what he thinks about the work here
[X] The nobles tour. (More pleasant. More fluff. You may ask Damaris three questions.) -[x] Ask Damaris about where he comes from. -[x] Ask Damaris about why he works here -[x] Ask Damaris about his plans for the future
[X] A look behind the scenes. (More worldbuilding. Discover what it takes for your one of your nations greatest wonders to function. You may ask Damaris one question.) -[x] Ask Damaris about why he works here
[X] A look behind the scenes. (More worldbuilding. Discover what it takes for your one of your nations greatest wonders to function. You may ask Damaris one question.) -[x] Ask Damaris about his plans for the future
[X] A look behind the scenes. (More worldbuilding. Discover what it takes for your one of your nations greatest wonders to function. You may ask Damaris one question.)
-[X] Ask Damaris what he thinks about the work here
Chapter 9: What we leave behind
"Show me how things work." Felix waited for Damaris to respond as the usual flames washed over the other boy, ". . . Damaris?"
Damaris started before giving a low bow, "Sorry, Your highness. It will take me a moment to get used to that. It's a bit different from how they tested me."
"Oh, how did they do that?" They never had told the prince how they were choosing his potential companions.
"I had to read a letter while a wordsmith tried to trip me up," Felix found that answer to be a bit boring," It was difficult, but your wordsmithing is... different."
"I see." Could Damaris feel the difference between the flames? Felix wanted to ask, but he was more interested in learning about the garden at the moment.
Damaris hesitated as he waited for Felix to say more, "Ah, um... Well, this is the top level of the garden." He said after it became obvious Felix wasn't going to keep talking, "This level is open to anyone and is where we grow Fruits that do well in cold weather. Apple trees, grape bushes, and other fruits and the like. The queen allows people to pay to enter and walk the garden. Please follow me."
The boy led them through the garden at a leisurely place as Felix looked at the plants that surrounded him. The path was well-maintained and clean as they walked, and they passed by more than a few people. Those commoners seemed to hush and get out of the way as they eyed Felix's guards with caution. Valorie didn't acknowledge them. Felix didn't know the other guard who offered the civilians a polite nod, but Valorie was very nice usually. Though she did take her work seriously. Felix tried to put it out of his mind as he focused more on Damaris's words,
"Commoners are allowed to pick a basket's worth of fruit here and are free to wander as they please. Otherwise, we have security to catch the few people who do try to break in from time to time, and the gardeners who maintain this area. I sometimes help by picking up fallen fruit and the like, but the master tends to let the older employees work on this level. It's a lot of easy work, both physically and mentally."
The party approached a large stone building in the center of the garden and the security standing in front of the excessively big double door gave them a deep bow as they approached. Felix acknowledged them with a nod and a smile like his mom taught him. The inside of the building wasn't much to look at, as far as Felix was concerned, but it did have a fairly large lift in the center that was currently being unloaded. Felix could see dozens of large crates being rapidly taken off the platform by strong-looking men and women as some sort of supervisor guided their efforts. Felix wasn't sure he had ever seen anyone with a six-pack and such defined muscles before, and he kind of thought that it was a waste. People that strong should be sailing the seas like the heroes from fathers' stories, not moving boxes.
"This is where stuff is brought in and out of the gardens. The lift runs constantly every day without stopping. Unloading and loading it is the most physical job in the entire compound, though not the most dangerous. Off to the left side are the rooms used for storage and preparation of goods that are scheduled to be shipped out within a week. To the right, is the offices where most of the paperwork and management is done. That's where I spend most of my time."
Felix tore his eyes from the working civilians as Damaris led the party toward the offices. He quietly swore to himself that he would get strong like that too. Though such premature oaths quickly slipped from his mind as Damaris led them into an office that looked more like a storeroom than an office. Felix felt revulsion and dread rise up as the stacks of parchment and ink all over the room reminded him of his own lessons.
Damaris pointed at the smallest desk of the three desks in the room, which also had the least amount of paper, "This is where I work. In the morning master or his wife teach me all sorts of things like math, logistics, and handwriting. After about noon they get busy and I go help in different areas of the garden or give minor nobles the usual tour. I'm not allowed to give the important nobles a tour yet."
"What is he training you for?"
Damaris smiled and you caught a twinkle in his eyes behind his curtain of dark hair, "Master is training me so that I can help him with his work so that he can spend more time on more important things. If I do that, and a few other things, then he will get me into the dead seas!"
Felix wasn't sure how to take that so he just nodded as Damaris led them out of the room and into the various offices to explain their functions. It was supposed to be a noble obligation for Felix to have to serve his time on the dead Sea. He knew that commoners did attend and that nobles also brought retainers with them, but he hadn't realized that those commoners and retainers might view it as a privilege like Damaris seemed to. Felix didn't know too much about the dead Sea yet, but he did know that they were far from safe.
Felix couldn't help but sigh in relief as Damaris's escort of the offices finally ended and they took some stairs deeper into the "Gardens", A name that was seeming stranger and stranger the more of it Felix saw. Felix started to notice runes upon the walls as they neared the second level and Felix's interest was piqued," What are these for?" he asked.
Damaris glanced up to where he was pointing, "I don't know, your highness. Rune-writing isn't a part of my studies yet."
"aww..."
"They are runes to make sure that this whole place doesn't collapse on our heads," Valorie answered. That seemed important, yeah. Though it did make Felix start to wonder how scribbles on the walls and ceilings could do that. He didn't wonder long though. He would learn it eventually if he needed to know it. He had enough to study already.
The second floor was a large and brightly light cavern filled with rows upon rows of crops. Felix blanked out a bit as Damaris bombarded him with a seemingly endless barrage of trivia and facts about the crops and how they took care of them. Though there were some bits that Felix found interesting, like the fact that Damaris had only been studying under Edgar for about a year now and that the majority of his studies were apparently about the crops. Since that was the part of logistics that Edgar wanted Damaris to help with the most.
Felix thought that most of the information was pretty dry and boring, but he appreciated how excited Damaris was as he talked about the things he had learned. It was nerdy but kinda cute.
It was a little less cute a couple of hours later since the third level was also apparently dedicated to crops, but Felix was just barely able to hang in there as Valories would occasionally redirect Damaris's endless rants into more interesting topics, like funny stories of the people who worked on the farm. Damaris wasn't a good storyteller, but it was endlessly better than hearing about all the different bugs that snuck in to try and eat the crops.
Felix didn't miss the little wink she gave him after one of her interruptions.
Damaris started to get Felix's attention again as they were going down to the fourth floor,
"The fourth floor is as far as I'm currently allowed to go without my master right now, so that's where our tour will have to end."
"Maybe they'll let you down with me?" Felix was a prince after all.
"Master said that you might say that, but no thanks. If we go past the fourth floor then I'll get fired and have to go back to taking care of my siblings at the orphanage."
Felix missed a step on the stairs, though a rough hand caught him as Valorie caught him, "Edgar, isn't your dad?"
"Who calls their dad master?" Damaris suppressed a laugh as Felix was placed back on the stops like a stray kitten.
"I thought he might have adopted you?"
"Nope. He's nice to me cus of our deal and all, but he's just my employer. My dad was friends with him. This is his way of honoring him."
"But what about your mo-OW!" He yelped as Valorie pinched his side, "What was that for?"
"Don't pout at me, little prince. You are forgetting your manners." she scolded him.
Damaris watched them go back and forth. He smiled at the young prince's puffed-out cheeks and the scary-looking guards scolding that reminded him of his caretakers. The sheer ridiculousness of a prince getting scolded in front of him. He couldn't help it. He laughed.
"What's so funny?" Felix demanded.
"Nothing. You're just more fun than I thought you would be."
_
The fourth floor was smaller than the floors before it, but it was far more interesting and colorful. The plants were a bit more spaced out than the crops were, but unlike the crops, a few were penned off, a few were in glass cages and some were even submerged underwater. Some plants looked pretty normal, but others were colored in ways the young prince had only seen in books, art, and clothing. It surprised the young prince that there were living things that could be so colorful. There were far fewer workers on this floor than there had been on the other floors, but they were all dressed in white and Felix didn't think any of them would ever be mistaken for the common folk.
"This is the fourth floor! Where we turn from farms to the garden proper. Please do not touch any of the plants here, your highness! This is as far as most guests are allowed to go, but that's not just to protect state secrets. Some of these plants are harmless spices, but others will leave you with a nasty rash if you touch their leaves or a cough that may plague you for weeks. A precious few may even bite!" Damaris seemed to be enjoying his little speech.
Felix, however, got a bit worried, "I-is it safe?"
"If you don't touch anything then yeah, "Damaris shrugged, "I like that part of the normal tour. Only minor nobles at least ever go this far and it's fun to scare them. Ah, don't get mad. I'm not just trying to scare you. It is true. I just find that unless I make it sound scary guests don't listen." He scratched the side of his cheek, "Sorry."
Felix tried to not pout, "It's fine. If this floor is so dangerous how bad are the others?"
"Well I haven't been to the other floors, but from what master has said the worst that can happen on this floor is you might lose a finger. You can die from the floors after this one if you don't listen."
"Die? From plants?"
"Yeah, Poisonous plants are pretty common. Did you know that two out of every ten sailors that die, die from hostile flora? There's a lot of dangerous plants in the ocean and the islands have their fair share too." Felix frowned at that. Father had never talked about any of his sailors dying from plants of all things.
"It's not just poison either. Some plants emit electric shocks or can even eat you."
"No way."
"No, really. I was going to save it for last, but come look."
Damaris led the party to the line of displays that were filled with water. The water inside was filled with strange pink dots and at the very bottom of the tank were bright, sky-blue growths that had thin, almost hairlike protrusions that wrapped around the little pink lumps in the tank. The little tentacles were difficult to make out in the water. It was easy to pretend that the little lumps were just drifting into the little hole in the center of the growth. It was less disturbing too.
"These little things are one of the Gardens' most important plants. There are a whole bunch more of them on the next floor down. They only brought them up here because they wanted to expand production of the potions that can be made from these things, and they aren't dangerous unless you stick a hand in the tank for them, but that's why we got lids, for this floor at least. Dunno bout the other floor."
"What are they?"
"The Sea Father's Bargain. If someone is drowning they can grab onto one of these. The tentacles wrap around them and that center mass opens up and digs into their back. It breaths for them, like a set of gills, but it eats them alive in exchange. From what I've been told only an extremely well-trained alchemist can survive using one and the records of those who have said that in hindsight they would have rather drowned." Damaris explained it as though it were just another piece of trivia.
"W-why are we growing it here?" Felix said.
"Because they are the key ingredient of one of Girokhans most prized potions, borrowed breath. One sip of it allows a sailor to breathe underwater for up to four hours! A full bottle lasts a whole week. Of course, they are quite expensive to produce, but they sell for at least one hundred gold a bottle!" He seemed to think that was an impressive amount. Though Felix wasn't so sure.
Damaris however, seemed to be launching into another rant. He talked all about how their potential them were barely tapped and the extreme care that needed to go into making sure they grew as well as possible. Felix just nodded along as he had been before when Damaris's explanation took a turn Felix hadn't been expecting,
"Another issue with growing them for alchemical purposes is that the effects of the potion change drastically depending on its diet while it was living. The more it eats of a particular species, the greater the potion's effect is on that species. So to make the most effective potion, it needs to be fed the species that the potion is intended to be for."
Felix was revulsed, "You feed it human meat?!"
Damaris blinked, "Well... yeah? A lot of the plants and even the crops upstairs are grown using compost and all sorts of things get thrown in there. Human bodies are hardly a rare component in growing our plants. Why?"
Felix was disgusted at the idea and Damaris's blasé attitude about it, He felt his lip begin to curl "Because its-"
A heavy gauntleted hand fell on Felix's shoulder, "My apologies for the interruption young prince. I'm afraid we need to be heading up. Your mother wants to make it home before sundown."
The tension of the party was very different going up the levels than it had been going down. Damaris seemed confused and a little shaken. The young boy seemed to collapse in on himself, seeming smaller than he had been before. Felix meanwhile, was angry. He wanted to ask Damaris why he was okay with this. He wanted to demand that Valorie take her hand off his shoulder. Even getting to ride the lift upwards did little to better his mood.
In the end, he found himself with his mother as she asked him to say goodbye and thank Edgar and Damaris. Felix looked up at Damaris for the first time since they had left the fourth floor. His eyes were hidden.
Damaris smiled, "Thank you for today. It was fun." He sounded sad.
"What do you think about the work here Damaris?" Felix asked.
Damaris's feet shuffled, "I-uh. I like it... because it's important."
Felix felt his mother take his hand,
"Thank you for your time, Edgar. Damaris. May the Skymother bless you."
Edgar bowed, "Think nothing of it, your highness. We look forward to seeing you two again."
Then they were gone.
Felix's mother was quiet as they went home, though she never let go of Felix's hand. Once they entered their rooms, they found dinner ready for them as the maids welcomed them home, before leaving them to their privacy.
Katalina loaded her son's plate with food, "You two were getting along pretty well. What happened?"
Felix, "It wasn't him."
"What was it then?"
". . ."
_
Katalina took Felix's silence in stride and filled her plate. She ate in silence as she watched Felix sullenly push his food around his plate. She tried to cajole him into talking, but not even news of John could stir the boy out of his funk. She had an idea of what was bothering Felix of course, Valorie gave her the full report. But she wanted him to tell her himself when he was ready. So she didn't push him to eat.
She wordlessly guided him to the washroom and helped him brush his teeth and wash his face. As she got ready for bed with him. It had been a long time since she had done this with little Felix, the maids had taken over such things for her so that she could work. She had work to do, but she always did. Katalina knew she wasn't the smartest person in the world, but she liked to think she had a knack for knowing what people wanted, and right now that knack was telling her that her son wanted her to be with him, not the maids.
So she fussed over the knots in his hair and helped him pick his clothes for the next day. She tucked him in bed and had him pick out a story to read. It was a sad one. A story of a hero who raced against a storm day and night to bring warning to his people to take shelter. He made it in the end, but even though he saved the village, he died from exhaustion.
"What a morbid story. Honestly, would a happy ending have been so bad."
"Mom?"
"Yes, Felix?"
"What happened to him next?"
Oh dear, "Well, I suppose he must have Joined Mother sky or Father sea."
"What about his body?"
"Well, they must have returned it to the earth."
"I don't want you to go back to the earth."
She reached out to him but he turned around to face away.
"Felix, We will all return to the earth or the sea one day. Our souls will go elsewhere, but our bodies remain to nurture those we leave behind."
"No."
"It's okay Felix."
"But if your soul goes to mother sky or father sea and your body returns to the earth, How will people remember you?"
How does she respond?
[] They will remember me by my stories
[] They will remember me by what I have done
[] They will remember me by those I have saved
[] They will remember me by what I have built
[] Write-in
Bleh this was hard to write. Rewrote it a few times and i'm still not super happy with it. Its hard to write a conversation between children and have it be meaningful without also making them sound older than they are. Definitely don't think i succeeded, but hey. I gave it a shot. Hope you enjoyed it!
