The gate was ten feet away when she said it.
Darion didn’t respond imdiately. They walked the remaining distance and through the gate, past the two guard knights, back into the courtyard, and he let the silence sit for a mont before he spoke.
"Not a good one?" he repeated.
Seren looked at the courtyard ground.
"It ans she used what she had when it suited her and didn’t much care what it cost other people. She was never powerful enough to be dangerous at any real scale. Just powerful enough to make things difficult for the people near her."
They had slowed without deciding to, walking in a loose circle around the courtyard rather than going back inside.
"My father died when I was six," she said. "From hunting, actually. Nothing significant. He just didn’t co back one day." There was a pause. "There were three of us. and two sisters."
"Older or younger?" Darion asked.
"One of each." She looked at the wall. "Both awakened sothing useful. My older sister could read the weather, not control it, just read it, days ahead and accurately. In a farming region that’s worth real money. My younger sister had a healing ability." She said it without bitterness. "They did well. Found places to be useful that people were willing to pay for."
Those were really useful abilities, Darion noted. The reading of weather might look ordinary and not a great ability in battle, but it was sothing that could fetch the user lots of money.
Imagine going to a kingdom and predicting the weather accurately for them. They could use it to know when to farm, when not to, when to organize outdoor occasions, and when not to.
The sa applied to the healing ability. Being able to heal made one a magical doctor.
"And you?" Darion asked.
"I didn’t awaken anything for years. My mother thought I might be ordinary. She wasn’t cruel about it, just kind of worried. If I wasn’t going to have an ability, I needed to be useful so other way, so she taught what she knew. She taught about soil treatnt." She glanced at him.
Darion said nothing. He understood that as daughters of a sorceress, they were supposed to have abilities relating to magic.
Though perhaps the reason she didn’t have an ability like her siblings was because she was more like her father—ordinary and without magic?
"How did the ability actually show up?" he asked.
"Well, I touched soil. I was maybe twelve, in a patch of ground behind the house that my mother had been trying to grow sothing in for years without success. I put my hands in the dirt and sothing... shifted. I can’t describe it better than that. The soil responded to sothing in and I responded to it." She looked at her hands briefly. "It grew from there. Small things first. A dead patch coming back. A struggling plant finding its feet. I didn’t understand what it was for a long ti, until my mother did and taught how to actually do it."
"I left ho eventually, like my sisters did to a faraway kingdom to stay alone. There I tried to take up my abilities as a profession, but..." she sighed. "I haven’t been exactly successful. Most people just wanted to exploit , which I’ve refused, and that has led to incidents like what happened with Gonnb."
"Gonnb’s n took in the middle of a road. Four of them. I was traveling between two towns and they just took . Apparently their fields had been failing for two seasons and soone had heard about a Soilsinger operating in the region."
"Even if I might not seem happy that you took , I owe you my gratitude. I eat well here, and sleep sowhere soft, unlike Gonnb, where I barely ate and slept on the ground."
Darion absorbed that, looking at her, not knowing what to say.
They walked in silence for a mont.
"The dusts," Darion said, changing the subject slightly. "You said your mother taught you. She made them?"
"She developed the formulas," Seren replied. "The combinations, the ratios, and which minerals do what to which soil conditions. That part she was good at. Whatever else she was, she understood the theory completely. The dusts were her contribution. She couldn’t use them herself, her ability didn’t work with soil, but she understood enough to prepare them." Seren looked at the bundle under her arm. "These are the last batch she made before I left. I’ve been careful with them."
"Do they run out?" Darion asked.
"Eventually." She considered how to explain it. "They refill, but slowly. The ability that lets use them is connected to the supply sohow. When I use a lot in one session, the dusts take longer to restore. A small session and they’re back faster." She shifted the bundle slightly. "If I pushed too hard every day, I’d eventually be working with nothing."
Darion scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to say but trying to say sothing.
"I see," he paused, then said: "I just want to let you know you’re not a prisoner here. It might seem like it, but it’s not. If you’re done with the farmlands and you’re paid, you’re free to go. I can assure you you’ll be paid well."
Seren was silent for a few seconds.
"Alright," she said. "I hope you stick to your word."
She glanced at him. "And thanks for the walk. It’s been a long ti since I spoke to anyone like this."
Darion nodded slightly. "Sa."
They kept walking.
The courtyard was quiet, the morning going about its business around them. From the stable ca the sound of Wulfric feeding the horses.
Then boots on stone, fast.
A knight ca around the corner of the gate at a pace that wasn’t running but was close to it, saw Darion, and ca directly toward him.
"M’lord."
Darion turned fully. "What?"
"A ssenger has arrived."
"From where?"
The knight looked at him steadily.
"Valdenmoor."
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