A leave of absence

A leave of absence

Postby Dulcie » Wed Aug 13, 2014 1:12 pm

Things were different in the Rememdium. Very different than they had been. At one point there had been years where Janessa had been on her own, muddling through more serious illnesses and doing her best in the interim time periods between doctors. Those days were gone however, and changes were being made.

She had been spending less and less time working inside the Rememdium itself, instead giving herself over to attending those who were bound to their homes ill, or to tending the herb garden. She didn't like what she had been hearing. Rumors about unnatural things and people that wouldn't be served by the healers.

She had been avoiding leaving. Myrken Wood had become home for her, depsite the fact that she rarely ventured outside of the Rememdium or her own little cottage. But the time had come. More healers were finding the little town, and she was confident that she could be replaced.

With these thoughts she found herself at the administrator's door, tapping lightly to gain his attention.
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Re: A leave of absence

Postby Rance » Wed Aug 13, 2014 4:42 pm

"Sera Janessa."

The thin product of a robust family, Jule Mitchell had always cast a long shadow. When he was a child, he would accompany his wagoner father along North Passage Down and see the world -- or what he thought was the world. A vibrant youth had chiseled off the lazy fat of long Myrken winters: running, as boys were wont to do; wrestling, as boys were wont to do; sweating, cavorting, a Myrkener child of Myrkener stock who eventually started measuring his age not in ascending numbers, but in descending numbers of friends.

A good boy like all the others. He stood there with the opened door clutched in his hand. A long gaze wore its twenty-some winters in black cups under his eyes. A tangleweed of chestnut hair dangled in ropes and vines across his forehead. The Rememdium's white robes were soiled upholstery draped on his lanky arms.

He turned, motioned to his meager office with its single shelf of tinctures and books, its plate of infirm candles on the edge of his desk.

"Sit, please. I expected others," he admitted, "but hardly did I expect it would be your face I'd see."
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Re: A leave of absence

Postby Dulcie » Thu Aug 14, 2014 1:10 pm

He was correct in his assumption that Janessa would be an unlikely visitor. She was quiet, and humble. The sort of person who did her work silently, with little need for supervision, correction or appreciation. She was dedicated to her task and held little interest in spending anytime socializing with the other healers or employees.

She inclined her head gently and made her way inside to the chair that he offered.

"It's been awhile since we talked." She acknowledged quietly. "I heard that there was another herbalist who was perhaps coming to work here?" It was well known that Janessa's talents as a healer were mainly in herbs as well, and perhaps that had something to do with her desire to meet with him. She waited quietly on an answer, not one to speak much without purpose or the need to. She took her time smoothing out her white skirt before folding her hands neatly on her lap, barely lifting her green eyes to watch his expression.
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Re: A leave of absence

Postby Rance » Thu Aug 14, 2014 1:58 pm

"Two, actually," he corrected, not unkindly. "One who spent time in Aldford under my old tutor, and another who doesn't seem to quit smiling. Mercy Tirel and Rosalyn Lovine. Do you know them?"

He sat, his own chair one borrowed from the anteroom of the Rememdium Edificium. He lifted a leg to cross over his knee and let his hands fall against the ridge of his ankle. His desk was a habitat for scattered papers and unlit tapers. A few small stacks of pennies and shillings were ordered like squat towers beside the candles. It was no great sum, the little city of coins. They are stacked not by color or denomination, but by purpose. Each bore a tarnished Trae Kelsan seal. He motioned to them.

"This," Jule Mitchell told Janessa, "is how I spend my day. Few opportunities for practice, but instead my the time passed distributing wages, measuring possible expenses, and -- so we do not see the poorer side of his round backside -- calculating exactly how much we owe to the Councilman Treadwell for necessary taxes." One of his shoulders jutted up, a careless dismissal of the importance of this task. "But money spent to keep blood from flowing is still blood money, some would say."

Finally, he looked squarely at her. His face did not shift or alter.

"I remember another young woman who used to smile much more, too."
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Re: A leave of absence

Postby Dulcie » Sat Aug 16, 2014 3:38 am

"I'm afraid I don't know either, but I'm sure they're quite competent if you've hired them."

She watched the money he motioned to, her fingertips brushing lightly at her skirt. She never liked touching the stuff, something that perhaps others might have observed about her. Taking payments only when absolutely necessary, preferring to work in trade. In fact, her little home and her humble little meals were all she took in payment for her work as a healer.

"I suppose you do." She said gently towards his comment about smiling, her green eyes lifting ever so slightly to regard him. "It hasn't been a secret that I'm no longer content here. I came to Myrken Wood years ago seeking peace. I realize this likely sounds strange to the natives here, but I came from somewhere far worse." She paused, however only long enough to take a breath, not long enough for inquiry. "But in recent years there's been much turmoil here. Children murdered, dark magicks at work, and I fear that it's been wearing on me. I came today to ask if you'd accept my taking a leave of absence. I'm not saying that I wish to leave forever, but I think I would like to take some time away, perhaps see a little more of the world. Somewhere else, somewhere calmer."

Her gaze dropped again as she smoothed her skirts once more.

"I hope you don't think less of me for it."
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Re: A leave of absence

Postby Rance » Sat Aug 16, 2014 7:12 am

"Why would I think less of you for it?" was his simple response.

His face revealed no change in emotion. Its surface is chiseled and stoic. Unmoving. He surrenders his gaze to the desktop, though, where wrists and palms have worn runnels into the oak over months. Jule's voice is as measured and cool as it has always been. He continues on, carefully picking his words out from between the impenetrable grains of wood. "We all deserve an opportunity to rediscover ourselves, Janessa. I cannot say I am pleased, but my displeasure is for the circumstances that drive you away and not for your choice to follow their advice.

"Your time at the Rememdium has changed it, has changed lives," he said. "The volunteer work you perform outside of these walls will continue to shine. Whether or not you apply yourself here, or in other more peaceful venues, your impact will be the same."

So said a young man who'd never truly gotten to know her; so said a Myrkener who has watched from a distance.

"When you return, Janessa, it is my hope that Myrken Wood -- and the Rememdium Edificium -- are the places you desire them to be."
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Re: A leave of absence

Postby Dulcie » Sun Aug 17, 2014 6:17 am

His question didn't gain an answer, just a slight smile and a hint of eye contact from the young woman. She nodded her head slightly at the compliments, though her cheeks reddened, ever so slightly. Perhaps that was why she worked alone so often.

"I hope that it is as well. I'll stay through the end of the week, to help with the transition. When I arrive at my next location I shall write with a forwarding address, so I might be reached if there is ever a crucial need. I do wish you a world of success."

She rose from her seat then and bowed her head slightly, a sign of respect to the administrator. "I do not envy you, your job in the months to come. Be Well." She moved for the door then, ready to leave unless he had intentions of stopping her.
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Re: A leave of absence

Postby Rance » Fri Aug 22, 2014 9:06 am

"Please do. Write," he clarified. "I'd be remiss to know you were gone for good."

He never stood up to intercept her. That was fate, wasn't it? That Myrken, at its heart, either captured or freed its denizens. He watched her leave not as the Rememdium's new administrator, not as a peer, but as a Myrkener witnessing the final glimpse of a foreign entity that had come, that had been tested, and -- like a gust of wind or a peal of cold snow shot from the clouds at winter's very end -- had vanished.

"Be well, Janessa," Jule Mitchell said to the door as it closed behind her.

He dipped a sharpened sliver of bone into a vessel full of dark ink and scrawled a mark through her name on the pages in front of him.

He did not like drawing that line.
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