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rix_scaeduThis piece runs to 2,982 words and I hope that you enjoy it.
Ghairniksday, 9 Deichen, 1893 C.E.
Jimool, 27 Sajibu, 2157 T.M.L.
7 Ueuekayomatilistli, 14 Coatl, 6.11.2.1.8.3.15
Dear Journal,
Thankfully today is not another day of rest. When Nais brought me up my warm water this morning she told me that there is some friction between the servants from "traditional" Confederation households and "Imperialised" households below stairs over how things should be organised and handled - specifically rest day also known as the day after tomorrow. There is, it seems, a school of thought which says that the family should go down to the scullery to fetch their own warm water for washing in first thing in the morning. The prevailing school of thought, led by the housekeeper and Cook, says that the family should not be trailing through the kitchen and into the scullery in their night attire in order to wash their faces. Cook had added that she did not need a mob of hungry schoolboys loose in her kitchen among her supplies first thing in the morning, particularly when she has the leftovers from a large, important dinner on hand. The mob of hungry schoolboys seems to include all my unmarried male cousins, and possibly Tekatl Umetlalliyaotl - Cook has been with the family since shortly after Cousin Ghrus and Cousin Poktlilui married.
When I came to the bottom of the stairs, Miztli and Tekatl Umetlalliyaotl were preparing to leave the house with a third, older Jaguar Knight. Tekatl Redfeathered Night Crow (another complicated name where I know what it means but I am not quite sure how to write it, like Crimson Blossom of the Ninth) is a tall, older man with a scared face and forearms, greying hair, a prominent nose, and cheekbones that could still cut glass. I am sure that my mother and her friends at home would describe him as a fine figure of a man in the prime of life, and I cannot say that they would be wrong. When we were introduced, I curtsied to him as I would a senior military officer. Before they left he was kind enough to say, with the same heavy lidded expression I have seen on Miztli and Tekatl Umetlalliyaotl, that Confederation fashions suit me.
I went into the breakfast room to find almost all my male cousins present. Matlal had saved me a seat with space for both a teapot and a newspaper, and he urged me to try several regional favourites prepared for my visiting cousins that he thought I would enjoy. He was right, I did. As my cousins were engaged in what seemed like five interlocking conversations in Coac-htl among the thirteen of them, I confined myself to replying to what was said to me and reading what I could of the newspaper. I did apologise to Cousin Nochehualt in case I seemed standoffish and explained that my language skills were not good enough to keep up with the general conversation this morning. He agreed that this morning was challenging, and passed me the salt, which was what I had asked him for.
After breakfast Cousin Nhaida invited me to come shopping with her on foot. The group weas her, Yeitlaulli, and myself together with our ladies' maids and two footmen. We went on foot, I changed out of my house dress into the red visiting dress, because the carriages were required for Cousin Ghraimh and her family. Cousin Nhaida's first destination was a fabric warehouse I have not been to before and she announced her intention of visiting two more before we returned home. I quite understand her desire to take the opportunity to update her and her daughter's wardrobes while they are in a place with a wider choice of fabrics than they have at home. [My mother is often quietly envious, i.e. she only expresses her envy to me when we have no visitors, when one of her friends or closeish acquaintances has been able to go fabric shopping in the provincial capital.] I took the opportunity to look out dress lengths of fabric as gifts for my mother and sisters. My thinking was that they would most appreciate lengths of dress weight p-akeri and local cotton in local colours. Tallaig would probably like pieces suitable for waistcoats. I found a brightly striped cotton in the first warehouse that seemed to me to suitable for Sura to wear as a summer walking dress. Cousin Nhaida made several purchases for herself and Yeitlaulli.
The route to the next warehouse took us past Mhifhaikh's. They had some very nice pieces in the window, and some very nice prices on display inside. Also some very intimidating gentleman floorwalkers. I rapidly came to the conclusion that the display centrepiece pieces were more than I can afford at the moment, but they were also larger than I had been thinking of. It turns out that they also had smaller, less ostentatious pieces that were more in line with what I had been thinking of and closer to what I can afford. The second fabric warehouse was the one I have already been to with my cousins. Because I already had some familiarity with their stock and layout, it took me a relatively short time to find the type of p-akeri cloth I had in mind and to buy lengths in suitable colours for each of my mother and sisters. Frankly, cloth of this type and quality is not available in Umbrial. It was almost an afterthought when I bought my brother and brother-in-law suit lengths in undyed p-akeri cloth, one in a dark grey and one in a chocolate brown.
The walk to the third warehouse took us down the street where Cousin Nhaida had lived with her first husband and where Ghilhaidha was born. Their house is no longer there and the space it occupied is now shared by two buildings. I asked if she knew what had happened to her old home, and Cousin Nhaida replied blandly that it had been sacked and burnt to the ground. Yeitlaulli asked her mother who had done it, to which Cousin Nhaida replied, still blandly, that parts of the fighting in Tlemutsiko during the War of Secession had been confused and the fate of that house could best be described as a joint effort.
I found cottons in colours suitable for my mother and sister in the third warehouse while Cousin Nhaida and Yeitlaulli discussed lace and silks. The other customers appeared to be generally younger and less Imperialised in their dress that those I'd seen at the warehouse I had patronised for my own clothes. The senior staff treated Cousin Nhaida like an old friend and I surmised that she had been a customer here before she moved away from Tlemutsiko.
I was glad that we turned for home when we did because I was beginning to become worried that the footmen were not able to carry more than they had already been laden with and that the rest of us would not have the ability to carry the rest of our shopping ourselves. Our route took us past The Lasting Remains, and in through its door. I was interested in the difference in prices between this establishment and Mhifhaikh's for similar goods. The staff behind the counter recognised my ring, and I had to assure them that I was very happy with it. I did look to see if they had anything in stock that appealed as my gift to Lord Elnaith, but although they had some very interesting pieces, particularly in obsidian, there was nothing I could imagine Lord Elnaith wearing.
We returned home in time for lunch, where I sat between Miztli and Tekatlm Umetlalliyaotl who both assured me they had been tasked with ensuring that Lord Elnaith left the Jaguar Knights' headquarters in the city in plenty of time to get back to the consulate and get ready for our dinner tomorrow night. I gathered that he is acting as a liaison between the Jaguar Knights and various Imperial authorities, advising the Confederation and Jaguar Knights' translator on the Imperial names of various locations mentioned in the interrogations of certain criminals of Southern Ice tribe origin (where those place names have an Imperial version), and looming semi-menacingly in the corner of the room during some of these interrogations as required. I gained the impression that they knew more about the black worm cult then they had ever expected to. I was told that they have a chaplain (of the Jaguar Knights' patron god, but I don't think he is a jaguar god) who has said that he wants to be slapped up the side of his head if he ever starts spouting off the way this lot do. [Miztli's words. Tekatl Umetlalliyaotl told me that their local chaplain was not born into a noble or genteel family and is regarded as being a little rough around the edges, so to speak.]
This afternoon being the household's formal At Home afternoon, all the visiting and resident ladies, myself included, assembled in the parlor to receive visitors. I took my embroidery and sat beside Cousin Ghraimh's married daughter, Xiloxoch. Cousin Ghrainh's family had arrived just before lunch and I had not had an opportunity to meet them before we sat down to eat. Xiloxoch is married to Cipac Chan, who comes from another ethnic group within the Confederation rather than the one dominant in Tlemutsiko, and they have twins, a bot and a girl, Cotistl and Ceittalistli. The children are little less than a year old, and were napping with their cousins in the nursery.
We had a steady stream of visitors for the afternoon. More mamas with hopeful daughters, I believe, than the last At Home, but we also have more suitable young men and their mothers in residence at the moment. Friends of all the visiting ladies who grew up in Tlemutsiko called, some with escorting sons in attendance. I did have the impression that various unwed ladies (and their mothers) thought I had done the right thing by getting myself engaged to an Imperial gentleman and taking myself out of consideration for any local swains. Crimson Blossom of the Ninthe called, and we somehow wound up in a discussion of poetry from the Empire that is not written in Imperial. My knowledge on the subject is broadest in Ghaistonyc but I was able to bring up several poets currently publishing in other regional Imperial languages. She was also the person who remarked, when someone commented on the overall greater desirability of Confederation gentlemen over Imperial gentlemen as husbands, that the speaker had probably not seen Lord Elnaith - her hand gestures and expression, while perfectly proper, added so much to her comment. I may have allowed myself a slightly smug smirk at that.
After our guests left and no more were expected, the nursery party came downstairs to spend some time with the rest of the family. I found them individually and collectively adorable, and everyone was at pains to assure me that twins are uncommon and do not run in the Zhaithaign family (Great-aunt and Grandmother's maiden name). They don't think that they run in the Forbaigns either, or the Suchitls, which leaves the Chans. However, Cipac Chan (the twins' father) says that the only twins in his family until now have been identical, so his children not being of the same gender was a relief to his extended family. [Apparently there used to be some religious significance attached to identical twins in the region his family originally came from.] Spending this relatively short period of time with my youngest cousins (so arduous - we were only in the same room with many other people that the children were more interested in) did not put me off the idea of having children, if anything I am more favourably inclined to the notion. I think it would be best if any children Lord Elnaith and I have were to inherit his profile rather than mine.
At dinner I sat between Chicyouali and Yeixi. With Chicyouali I discussed a news item about a change in the administration of a populous althepetl adjoining his home althepetl. The article I read in today's paper was written in such a way that even I, with my relatively poor Coac-htl skills could tell that there was more to the story than was contained in the article. From Chicyouali's telling, there is a history of long term illness that may have been deliberately induced, several incidents of adultery, an 'elopement' between members of politically sparring families, a purported long lost relative reappearing after more than a decade, and an alleged attempted murder. I remarked that it sounded like the plot of a particularly convoluted novel, and he replied that an aspiring writer of his acquaintance had complained that fiction, unlike real life, was required to be plausible.
Yeixi steered our conversation to general topics, the weather, the scandal notes in today's paper, and what else I hoped to do before I left Tlemutsiko. I mentioned my investigations into getting a betrothal token for Lord Elnaith, and asked his recommendations for any sights I have not yet seen. He mentioned the althepetl library and a small museum specialising in the development of the local maritime traditions and trades.
Over our kasoohlt we ladies discussed what I might need in the way of additional wedding clothes and trousseau. We all agreed that as it appears I will have several residences, or possible residences, it is difficult to know what I will need without knowing whether the original furnishings from my great-great-uncle's time are still in place. Nantli Yahari added darkly that the quality of the original furnishings also matters - when she first married the two families provided them with a household's worth of furnishings which almost all proved to be so old that they were falling apart. Nantli Yahari laid the blame for this at the feet of her mother-in-law and step grandmother, both of whom did not like her and denigrated her household skills. Apparently her step grandmother was thwarted by the refurbishment of a centrepiece table that had never looked so well in her house, and the mother-in-law ended her days in Nantli Yahari's household with her daughter-in-law overseeing her care after the older lady's more favoured relatives had refused to continue housing her. We also discussed the symptoms of the early stages of pregnancy - unmarried Confederation ladies, it seems, are permitted to know much more about this entire subject than unmarried Imperial ladies, and I learned a lot from my extended family tonight.
My mother would probably be appalled. I still feel like I was being very naughty, listening in on things I am not supposed to hear about yet. Even if this information may prove very useful in the future.
The gentlemen joined us, and we ladies completely dropped our previous topics of conversation. Cousin Ghrus took the opportunity to thank me in front of everyone for coming all this way to help with his father's journals. I replied that it was a pleasure and an adventure, even without the completely unexpected development that is my engagement. I was then encouraged to expand upon the tale of my journey - the people I had met and travelled with, the Empress Mhaihild incident (which many of them had heard of but hadn't realised that I was so closely involved in), my various city tours, and my stay in the Kerajaa.
Cousin Nhaida suggested that we could, perhaps, put together a theatre or concert party one evening before I left, assuming that something suitable was playing and was not yet fully subscribed. I suggested that a concert might be best as I don't believe my language skills are robust enough to understand a play, particularly if it is fast paced of has witty dialogue. Yeiteshatl, Eloxochitl's husband) volunteered to make enquiries about suitable events tomorrow. (I feel I should draw myself up a family tree so that I will have a reminder of who is married to whom and who their parents are when I get home.)
Cousin Ghraimh and her husband, Cousin Huitzitl, retired to bed early after their travels to get here. Eloxochitl, Xiloxoch, and Ghilhaidha left to check on the nursery before seeking their own beds. (More than one of my cousins may be in expectation of a happy event, or they may be expecting to be summoned to the nursery during the night.
Most of the rest of the company spent the rest of the evening in general conversation about family and general current events, while Miztli, Tekatl Umetlalliyaotl, Yeitauli, and I played tocol. (I suspect they were being kind because my language skills would not have been up to keeping up with the conversation.) The Tekatl was not gentle with us this evening and if we had not been playing for feather painted tokens retrieved from the games cupboard, he would have won a fortune from us even in copper bits. I believe Yeitlaulli is seriously smitten, and even if it is in no way reciprocates (and it might be) I think she could have found a much worse man to have her affections. I decided not to attempt to play a Jaguar Knight at cards for serious stakes - killer instinct indeed. We played eight hands in total, and although we trailed well behind Tekatl Umetlalliyaotl, Miztli and I were about even, and Yeitlaulli was not that far behind us. When I came up to bed, the wind was blowing in through the window and tossing the curtains around, so I had to close the window further before changing and otherwise preparing for bed. As I finish writing this I fancy that I can hear seabirds calling out - quite different to the bird sounds at home.
Anadrasata Nearabhigan