This Saga Is Not One of Heirdom

[YseultNott]

"Jacob is dead," Colin says, and it takes a few seconds for the words to register, but then the onslaught of relief is so strong Theo has to sit down.

Dead. Jacob is dead.

Theo isn't going to die.

It was always there, in the back of his head. No matter what he was doing, a part of him would know, would remember that all he has was a sursis on life.

Would remind him that he was living on a countdown, and that if he couldn't stop things from crashing down, he wouldn't be the only one to fall.

Except Jacob is dead.

Jacob is dead.

The countdown is broken. It will never reach zero.

"You're safe, Theo," Theresa says.

Yes.

He is.

It's over. He's safe.

What is he going to do now?

 

[YseultNott]

Theo and Taylor kept in contact after their ill-advised journey to murder Theresa in her sleep.

(God, that is an awkward thought now that he's gotten to know her. Theresa is incredibly nice.)

The connected books Colin made are nice. He's even modified them so that they can save old conversations to consult them later, or erase them to save space. It's great.

(Colin is more distant than his wife, isn't quite as kind, but he opened his home to Theo despite the risks and the awkwardness of their first meeting, went out of his way to fight for him, and Theo is thankful for it.)

Taylor is doing fine. She's spending more time with her father, and mending their relationship. Her father loves her. He's, unlike Theo's, a good man.

Theo is happy for her.

She didn't let him down, though. Colin and Theresa convinced her to let them deal with Jacob, but she told them she'd go after him herself if it wasn't done by the time the countdown ran out. In the meantime, she got sailors and travelers stopping by her town to teach her how to use her sword.

Maybe Theo will stop by her house while he figures out what to do now.

 

[YseultNott]

"We need to talk about what you're going to do now," Colin says, and Theo freezes.

That's it. It's over. He's going to ask him to leave.

(They took him in when his very presence was a risk, and killed the man who would have killed him. That's more than his own family did.)

(They don't owe him anything.)

Theo will have to leave, and he doesn't know where to go.

"As I see it," Colin continues after Theo fails to answer, "you have several options. You could try to go back to your family, or attempt to live with more distant relatives or friends."

Theo can't go back to his family. He was disowned. They aren't his family anymore.

(He doesn't want to go back to them. To their lies and twisted beliefs and manipulations.)

Theo doesn't have any extended family who would take him in, and his only friend is Taylor, and he can't just… Show up on her doorstep and ask her if he can stay. It wouldn't be fair to her, or her father, not when she's so happy that they're starting to be a family again.

"You could also stay here, of course."

Theo tears himself out of his thought as Colin keeps speaking.

"It's your choice, of course, but we have the room, and we could redecorate it to suit your tastes if you decide to stay more permanently."

"What Colin means," Theresa says, "is that it's up to you, but we would be happy to have you here."

Theo doesn't have anywhere to go.

"I'd like to stay," he says.

 

[Functionality]

I'm disappointed that I am the first commenter, but oh well.

 

[YseultNott]

Cawthorn isn't a town, isn't quite a village yet, but Theo thinks it's going to be a nice place to live in when it's done.

There are, mostly, two kinds of people who come to live in Cawthorn: the desesperate, and those who want to learn.

(Theo has heard the tales of Sea Monsters attacking the coasts of Far East countries, drowning entire towns under gigantic waves and dragging whole ships down to devour their crews. He knows that even the inlands aren't safe, the monsters swimming up rivers to destroy villages there. He has heard of the people fleeing their homes to safer lands, and of the way Ahane Kenta took advantage of the chaos to build himself a moving kingdom from the stolen and the desesperate.)

There are more and more people from the Far East, coming to the kingdom with the intention to live there, and they are oft assumed to serve Ahane Kenta and distrusted for it, rejected, persecuted sometimes, and the knowledge that Cawthorn not only would accept them, but was also home to a dragon who would protect them without asking for anything in return, has led to a quickly expanding community to form around the Tower.

(Theo has seen the rejection turn to violence, has seen the way his Father's people reacted to them merely passing by, and he doesn't blame them.)

(Most of the people in Cawthorn come from the Empire of Ippon, and had to brave the sea monsters before they could leave it behind and start over in a foreign land. They are more brave than they are scared.)

Desesperate people come to Cawthorn, looking for safety and a taste of home, and there they meet people looking for a way to learn.

(The University is a place of learning, yes, but only for the great, only for the rich, only for the powerful, only for those looking for a knowledge it wishes to share.)

There are people who wished to learn, but can't, because they aren't great, or rich, or powerful, because what they want to know the University doesn't wish to share, and they hear about the Wallises' Books, and they come to Cawthorn.

(Theo doesn't blame them either.)

Cawthorn isn't a town yet, isn't quite a village, is a place made by outcasts, by the desesperate and those who want to learn, but, as much as his father would hate it, Theo thinks it's a good place to live in.

 

[YseultNott]

Cawthorn isn't the University, with its set schedule, and grand amphitheaters where a teacher lectures on a subject or other. Cawthorn is, as a school, chaotic.

Here is how things go : everyone has access to the Tower library and the Books. If someone has a question, they ask a more advanced 'student'. If no one can answer the question, they ask Colin or Theresa.

If Colin and Theresa don't know, they add a new research project to their ever-growing list, and occasionally drag the poor student to help them.

(Colin seems to have conflicted feelings about this state of affairs, appearing to genuinely enjoy the research to an almost scary degree, but bemoaning the fact that some books, kept out of the public eye by the University, might already contain the answers.)

The only real, hard rule is when it comes to practical alchemy.

Students are allowed, encouraged even, to come up with new ideas and things, but they must check practical applications with Colin and Theresa before attempting them. For safety.

There's a book recording alchemic backfires by unexperienced or uncautious praticants. Colin showed it to everyone.

The illustrations are very graphic.

Cawthorn is chaotic, in a way that suits the place, and works.

(It's very different from the order of Theo's former home, and he knows it will take him some time to get used to it.)

 

[PoisonedWit]

Love it. I really enjoy this universe and am glad you still have ideas for it.

 

[YseultNott]

"Hey, I have a problem with the insertion of living things in areas where time passes differently, can you help with that ?"

Theo startles, and pulls himself out of a book of poetry Taylor recommended.

The person talking to him is a boy a year or two older than he is, with blue eyes and red hair. Theo thinks he might have seen him talking to other students once or twice.

"Err, I'm sorry, I… I don't know anything about alchemy."

"Oh, I'm sorry," the boy says. "I kept seeing you in the Tower, so I thought you were one of the more advanced students."

Theo represses the desire to sink in the armchair and hide behind his book, because he probably should try to learn alchemy. Colin and Theresa love it, and besides the University, it is most likely the best place in the kingdom to learn it. It is unfair to those who don't have this opportunity not to take advantage of it.

"I live here. The Wallises took me in."

"Oh."

There's an awkward silence, and then the boy extends a hand toward Theo.

"I'm Dennis."

"I'm Theo," he says as he shakes the offered hand.

 

[YseultNott]

Taylor comes to Cawthorn to visit Theo, and her father accompanies her.

Seeing Taylor is fun, although it's a bit awkward because every time she's in the same room as Colin, Theo is keenly aware that at their first meeting, she threatened him with a sword.

(Upon being told how Theo came to live in the Tower, Dennis thought the idea that Theo broke in in the middle of the night on a misunderstanding hilarious. Theo thinks it's mortifying.)

At one point, a few students take Taylor aside to ask her about the comparative usefulness of pipes and swords as pertaining to Bug-Catching, and Theo is left alone with her father.

He thanks her for being there for her, when she ran away to kill a dragon.

(Theo was desesperate when she found him. Lost, and alone, with a death sentence hanging over his head, and helping her on her way, helping her take down a dragon was a goal, a direction he could take instead of wandering aimlessly. It was a start.)

(Colin and Theresa took Jacob down, saved his life, took him in, but Taylor is the first one to hear his story and say I want to help.)

"She was there for me," Theo says.

Taylor told him she was going to use spiders to produce silk and sell it, and occasionally make some money by killing termites or bed bugs.

She's found her place.

(Theo hasn't yet.)

 

[YseultNott]

Alchemy can do wonderful things.

At Cawthorn alone, there are the Books Colin and Theresa made, the ones that are like libraries and the ones like the one Theo uses to talk to Taylor, there are the strange, impossible things Colin can do with his halberds and spears, there is Dennis' project to make a box where time is stopped so fresh fruits can be eaten on a winter morning.

Alchemy can do wonderful things.

Colin wouldn't walk without it, wouldn't run, wouldn't danse.

(Theo overheard Theresa asking him for one, and it was awkward, but the both of them laughed, and it was almost magical.)

Alchemy is a wonderful thing, a bottomless well of possibilities.

Alchemy is the life of Cawthorn, its blood, its breath, its very soul, and so Theo sets out to learn it.

He finds that he has neither taste nor talent for it.

 

[YseultNott]

"Theo, is everything all right?" Theresa asks.

Theo raises his head from where he was picking at his food. He has little appetite today.

(It's not that the food is bad. Colin is quite the good cook, and he made sure to make lunch for Theresa and Theo before going to do something Theo didn't catch in town. Theo just doesn't feel like eating.)

"I'm fine," Theo says, because really, there is no need to bother Theresa with his difficulties with alchemy.

She doesn't look like she believes him.

"Are you sure? You know you can tell me if anything is wrong, right?"

Theresa looks earnest, and concerned, and Theo feels his stomach twist uncomfortably.

"I just… I have difficulties with Gramme's book on isolated system," he says, and hope it will either stay at that or lead to an explanation he can understand.

Theresa hums thoughtfully.

"You're trying to learn alchemy?" she asks.

"Err, yes. I mean, this is a golden opportunity, right?"

Theresa smiles softly, fangs carefully covered.

"I like to think so. But not everyone has the same strengths, or interests. Just because you can learn it doesn't mean you should."

Theo isn't sure what to say.

"You should think about what you like to do," Theresa says.

 

[YseultNott]

Spoiler: Important author note

I accidentally posted the wrong chapter yesterday. This chapter takes place before yesterday's chapter

There is a lot of work behind alchemy.

It's not just a matter of writing strange signs on a sheet of paper, or mixing strange substances over a fire.

If Theo wants to make it work, he needs to understand the meanings of the signs, their second meanings, their connotations, how their order affects their effects.

(There are several languages of signs, and all are useful for some things and useless for others, and Theo keeps mixing them up.)

Alchemy is hard.

The same things is true for the substances, for the strange powders and stones and liquid metals. Theo needs to know them, know how they interact with each other, how hot the fire must be and what precautions to take when working with them.

(Some could condemn Theo to a long and painful death by merely touching his bare skin.)

Alchemy is dangerous.

And then, once the signs and the fires are known, there are pages and pages of long, complicated calculs to make before anything can go beyond the theory.

Alchemy is hard, and dangerous.

(Theo's stomach twists with guilt at the thought, but alchemy is incredibly boring.)

 

[YseultNott]

You should think about what you like to do , Theresa said.

What does Theo like to do?

What does he like?

He likes… Milk. Warm milk, with honey, and more honey on a slice of bread.

He likes the quiet, away from the crowd and the shouting and the hatred.

He likes knowing he's safe, going to bed without fear or worry knotting his guts.

He likes Taylor and Dennis, knowing he has friends and spending time with them, not being alone against the world.

He likes Theresa and Colin, for saving his life.

He likes a good book in an armchair near the fire.

He likes the little figures he used to make, as a child, with mud or wax.

Theo likes a lot of things.

The problem is that none of the things he likes to do are useful.

 

[YseultNott]

It's late.

A metallic fixture Theresa made hangs from the ceiling and lights the sitting room with a warm, golden glow, much more comfortable for reading than a candle or fireplace.

Theo was planning on re-reading Gramme's book in the hope of gaining a better understanding of its subject, but watching Colin and Theresa is proving far more interesting.

Colin has slid out of his armchair, and his sitting on Theresa's forelimbs, and she's wrapped a wing around him, and is reading over his shoulder the book opened on his lap.

The both of them look happy, relaxed, and sometimes, one will say something that will make the other laugh.

There's an intimacy to it, a vulnerability, and Colin has removed his prostheses and let them lean against the wall.

Colin motions to Theo to come closer and it hits him, suddenly, that maybe he's not a guest. Maybe they didn't let him stay out of pity and a sense of duty.

Maybe they actually want him there.

 

[YseultNott]

Theo doesn't completely abandon alchemy, but he starts using his afternoons to make little wax figures with the remains of used candles.

He makes a dragon for Colin, and a knight for Theresa. A clock for Dennis and a grasshopper for Taylor. He will give it to her the next time he sees her.

(He makes a tower for himself, and a dragon and a knight, and a great bell tower, and he hangs a string from a window like a rope.)

Colin shows him how to use a knife to carve through fallen branches, and he makes wooden dolls for the nursery, for the children to play with when their parents leave them there for the day.

He goes to the potter, and learn how to work with clay, and replaces a plate Theresa broke.

He looks at the masons building new houses, and thinks he might ask them to show him how to use their tools, and make statues of stone.

Theo doesn't really like alchemy, doesn't think he'll ever understand its most complex principles, but he doesn't completely stop learning it. He wants to make the toy in the nursery speak and move.

That would be enough for him.

 

[YseultNott]

Sometimes, Michael thinks about something like it's perfectly normal, and then stops and wonders when it stopped being strange.

Theresa, for example, or the fact that Colin married her.

(Not that Michael has anything against her. She's very kind and charming. He just thinks it ought to be weird that his best friend married a dragon.)

Michael is visiting Cawthorn with Hannah. It's an interesting place. He's curious to see how it will develop.

"Do you want to meet Theo?" Colin asks.

"Your ward? Yes, of course."

Colin wrote him about the child him and Theresa took to fostering, and Michael really wants to meet him.

Theo is somewhat shy, but friendly enough, and there's the beginning of assurance in his voice and posture when Michael gets him talking about his work on wax and wood, and his various future projects.

Colin looks proud, and genuinely happy, in a way he never was at the University.

Theo leaves, and Colin leans against the wall next to Michael.

"I think the University is plotting my untimely death," he says, and Michael suppresses a groan.

Why couldn't the first time be enough for him?