After making her arrangements for various bouquets to be delivered, Adri donned her greatcoat and a dark hood, and took to the roof-tops for her journey back to Salma.

‘I keep calling this place “home”… but it isn’t. It hasn’t been for months.’ She ran along the clotheslines and climbed up the lattices, then hopped eave to eave as she thought. ‘I should just give up on this place. Billi and Dela aren’t coming back, and staying in a place with so many rooms by myself, drinking up the last of the booze supply… this isn’t good for me.’

She pondered a bit more as she fed the ravens she considered her friends, and distributed some shinies for them. After watching them squabble and play a little, she wrapped the shadows around herself and made her way down into the alley, entering the manse by the servants’ entrance, as she usually did. The echoes told her that the building was still otherwise uninhabited, and she stripped out of her clothing on the way toward the bar between the kitchen and the parlour.

‘Right, then.’ She poured herself a bit of whiskey. ‘Tomorrow I arrange to get this place properly set up for being unoccupied, and find myself some other place to rent. Hmmm. Orchid. She’s still been sleeping in the garden and eating my left-overs. Gotta do something about her, too… maybe Aly will take her in? She’s too flighty to hire, sad to say.’

She gathered up her scattered clothing again for laundering, taking her drink and her bundle up to her room, and curling up in her nest, hoping that the whiskey helped, and that she was doing the right thing.

Hurrying between her schooling and her shop once again, Adriwyn caught site of the springtime advertisements from the florists. She took in the various broadsheets as she dodged her way through the crowds, shaking her head.

‘I’ve tried sending flowers before… but look at those “codes” for what they mean! One says yellow carnations is for loving the friendship, and the next says they’re a deadly insult! And what in the Mists is “acacia”, anyway?’ She sighed heavily as she made her way up the high road to her shop, but she also made plans for some anonymous purchases and deliveries to be arranged.

Dear Lady Sterling,

I believe that the custodial problem in the library has been dealt with. The pranksters were suitably aghast when informed that the consequences were beyond what they had expected, and they swiftly worked to clean up. Just in case, I would advise having someone else check out the library for you for the next couple of days, but that’s only a precaution.

Yours,
Adriwyn

(( @laeliathelibrarian, @claratenevera, @krytauniversity, @elleofaquitaine, @gulmontjonty, @luxelen ))

The small faux redhead sighed heavily as she started another day of searching through the records of Ascalonian refugees and their histories from the early days of the Ascalonian Settlement. The handwriting was often quite poor, besides being faded and smudged with time. Still, she’d already found both the Jardin name and the Valdis name in the rolls of the last Ascalonian census, so it was worth the eyestrain. Of course, as she’d learned was often the case when dealing with such records, the spelling of the names frequently varied – apparently at the whim of the clerk.

She continued where she’d left off the day before, in the rolls of those who’d established any sort of property within the Settlement in the wake of the first arrival of the refugees. Neither family was in the first wave, but it seemed that many of the nobility had come a bit later. I wonder if’n that’s because they brought too much along in their carts – or maybe they were fighting rear-guard actions, really living up to the promise of what being nobles was originally about? She shook her head at herself, barely suppressing a snort. Both, y’ silly git! Or a mixture, or something even messier. You’re looking at records of a migration of a people, not some military expedition!

She rubbed her nose, fighting against the disturbance of the dust, as she traded one volume for another, now starting to look at the third wave. This tome was larger and thicker, on better quality of parchment, or with some pages, even of vellum. Now, this has promise! 

This volume had far more nobles in it, and some of the pages even had portraits – mostly accounting for the use of vellum. Someone had wanted to document these arrivals rather more carefully. The writing was better, as well. Maybe someone finally hired a real scribe for the job, instead of some soldier pressed into clerical work. The improvement in readability made her search go faster, until she came to a particular portrait that made her sit up so suddenly she nearly rocked her stool.

Grenth’s teeth! She barely kept the inner exclamation behind her own teeth, mindful of the presence of other researchers who wouldn’t care for her outburst. That’s… all right, that ain’t me, but bloody near to! Bleedin’ Mists! She looked intently at the accompanying text entry, finding the name of Adrielle Jardin, who apparently had been a countess in Ascalon. The entry went on, detailing retainers and other retinue, though apparently she arrived without other family in her train. Hrm. Battle accomplishments, both in Ascalon and… ah! Late arriving to the Settlement because of having been involved in fights against the Risen in Kryta, as well. Those retainers being cited for valour and bravery, with minor honours…. She tapped her cheek with her finger as she read and thought. Now, looking at that, I can even believe that’s my ancestor. Don’t think I really did, before now.

She shrugged with a quiet sigh, taking some notes and reading on. It’s a good find, but it still doesn’t tell me anything about House Valdis, or why anyone’s out to kill me over something now, two hundred years later….