paradoxcase (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
paradoxcase) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rainbowfic2025-03-16 02:26 pm
paradoxcase) wrote in rainbowfic2025-03-16 02:26 pm
Dogwood Rose #7 [The Fulcrum]
Name: Eavesdropping
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Dogwood Rose #7: peach: Closing the deal
Styles and Supplies: Life Drawing
Word Count: 1718
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali, Cyaru
In-Universe Date: 1911.7?8?.?.?
Summary: Setsiana listens in on a private conversation.
Notes: Life Drawing because this conversation references some queer experiences, although it won't become clear how until much later.
Setsiana had refused to look at any further papers after that. She wandered the room, browsing the bookshelves, trying to think of a way to get out. Qhoroali must sleep somewhere in this house, behind one of the two locked doors. Maybe their locks would be easier to pick and she could steal the key while Qhoroali slept?
The bookshelves had contained a mix of hand-bound books of temple scholarship, professionally-bound books of lay scholarship, and novels. In addition to the temple books on the nature of Sapfita, many of which contained papers she had already read, the nonfiction also ranged into spring-clock engineering, seafaring (with mentions of long voyages that would have been impossible in Setsiana’s time), gardening, and books of clothing patterns. She had been afraid that the lay books and novels would be written in the awful Vrelian that Liselye had spoken the day before, but to her relief, they appeared to be mostly normal, with just a few strangely spelled words, slightly odd phrasings, and one diacritic she didn’t recognize. She found one particular book of patterns titled Modern Fashions and Styles of Vrel which exclusively contained patterns for outfits that Setsiana recognized as popular styles of her own time. She checked the publication date and saw that it had been printed in 1644, but the book seemed quite new. She surreptitiously snatched a glance at Qhoroali as she sat engrossed in some paper, taking her notes in pencil this time, and thought about the stitching on the outfits she’d been given. Why make them from scratch? They were of popular styles and colors, if Qhoroali was going to go back to 1647 to buy this book, she could have saved herself the effort and just bought the outfits ready-made.
Most of the novels were adventure stories, a few were romances. Many of the classic priesthood-related romance tropes were represented: a secret romance between a priestess and a man, or a heretic; a junior priestess who secretly had the soul of a man (a common sort of soulwright prank for which remedies had been brought back from the future), who fell in love with a fellow junior priestess, but lived in fear of the secret being discovered; a woman who became a priestess prior to 389 specifically in order to marry another woman, who then had to pretend to actually be a capable researcher; a secret government spy who disguised himself to learn the priesthood’s secrets, but found love instead. She had selected the story about the two women in the 4th century and spent the rest of the day reading it.
The night passed with no dream of Sapfita. In the morning, after Liselye had brought breakfast but before Qhoroali rose, she had experimentally hidden Qhoroali’s sewing scissors under one of the piles of papers on the desk, and then attempted and failed to pick the lock on the other door opening off of the short hallway. She had then discovered that this was in fact where Qhoroali slept when the door had opened; Qhoroali had been amused, but not angry. The scissors were quickly identified as missing, although Qhoroali didn’t seem to find it suspicious when she discovered them hidden under the papers, which put that plan out of commission. The rest of the day had been uneventful until there came a knock on the door. Qhoroali gave her a very intense look before getting up to open it, and this time Setsiana stayed where she was. Qhoroali let Cyaru into the room and locked the door behind him.
Cyaru looked at Setsiana with some irritation and said in QuCheanya, “I have things to say to you, but not with this audience.”
Qhoroali came over to Setsiana’s chair and motioned for her to stand. “Back in your room,” she said. “Don’t worry, you’ve been good, so it’s just for a few minutes.” Setsiana allowed herself to be lead back into the bedroom.
The door was shut, but she did not hear the lock click. She put her ear to the door and heard a strange wooden sliding sound, and then nothing for several minutes. Cautiously, she tried the handle and found that it opened.
She was momentarily disoriented as it seemed like the short hallway had changed - opposite her door was now a wooden wall, blocking the exit to the living room. As she approached it, she saw what it was: a thin wooden sliding door that had been hidden inside the door jamb and had been pulled out along a track on the floor to block the doorway. She put her ear to it, and heard speaking from the other side.
Cyaru was speaking in Naychren again. Qhoroali interrupted him to say, in QuCheanya: “No. No, please. I haven’t been back there in a while, I’m rusty, I’m going to say something wrong and you won’t understand me, I mean, even more so than usual. Look, I locked her in her room, there’s two doors between us, she can’t hear what you’re saying.”
Setsiana, who had not in fact been locked in her room, stood absolutely still.
There was a moment of silence, and then Cyaru switched to QuCheanya and said, “All right.”
“Ok,” said Qhoroali, with some relief. “Here’s why I did it — I want you to understand. I wasn’t going to kidnap her. But I’ve been stuck for the past year, I’ve exhausted most leads, except for a few more papers and a few more compounds I intend to get from Cusäfä, but most of those seem unlikely to further things. I feel like I’m getting off-track. I need new information. I know I succeed eventually, because I met a version of myself who told me I did, a very long time ago… you believe me, right?”
“You know I always did,” said Cyaru. Then he added, “I’m sorry about what happened the night before last, too, by the way, it was my fault. I was out of sorts.”
“It’s ok - it worked out alright. I’m glad you understand. I think Li never really believed me when I said things like that. But, I needed inspiration from that future me, the one who knows the answer, and she always seems to have Setsiana around - this junior priestess. And then Setsiana came to me herself and told me where I would get her from. This is the logical next step, it’s the next place I have to go to make progress. You understand, right? You know why I’m doing this. It’s a goal we share. And Setsiana — she’s someone whose papers I’ve already read. She’s already been a big help, back in the early stages, and now she’s here in person. Think of what more I could learn from her now! And look — I know you don’t know how the priesthood works, but she’s still only a junior priestess. She hasn’t been invested yet. She doesn’t know what’s going on, and can’t possibly be involved in it yet.”
“She’s benefited from it, though,” said Cyaru.
“We’ve all benefited - all of us here in this place and this timeline that grew up with the priesthood. What benefits them benefits all of us because they are the ones who provide medicine and food and clothing and shelter and money to us when we are in need… we are all of us complicit. But she is no more complicit than I am, or than Li is.”
There was a longer silence now, and then Cyaru said, slowly: “I always trusted you, when you said something was necessary, and that it was the next step. When we had to go somewhere, get something, locate some research. When you woke me up in the middle of the night and we went and blew something else up.”
“That only happened once,” said Qhoroali.
“Of course, you are correct. We definitely blew things up multiple times, and you definitely woke me up in the middle of the night multiple times, but I guess there was only one time that both of those things happened together. But I’m not saying— I’m not saying I shouldn’t have trusted you. You did make progress, I saw it happen. Lise wasn’t that close to your work then — she didn’t see what you were doing like I did, I understand her skepticism. I believe you when you say you will succeed — and I trust you when you say you need this woman to continue. I do believe you and trust you.” He paused a minute. “But I don’t want to have anything to do with her. I don’t want to be around her. You understand that, right?”
“Yes, of course,” said Qhoroali. “I won’t make you spend time here if you don’t want to. Send Li to come bring me over to your place when you have reports, it’s fine. Or if you want to— well. It’s not like it used to be between us anymore, anyway.”
“I hope you’re not still dwelling on all that,” said Cyaru. “For my part, I’m glad it ended. Being with you was a wild adventure, but too wild in a lot of respects. I got whisked off to a whole new world, we were studying secrets of the universe — extra dimensions — blowing things up — it was hard to keep up. With Lise, it’s more… comfortable.” He paused for a moment. “I know you had your own stresses, too, I know what you were going through back then.”
“No you don’t,” said Qhoroali. “But thank you for saying so anyway.”
There was an awkward-sounding silence, and then Cyaru changed the subject. “How long will she be here for?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how long it will take to get what I need from her. Will you two come by for dinner tonight anyway, one last time, before you disappear for however long it’s going to be?”
“Alright. If Lise’s free, we’ll be here.”
“Thanks,” said Qhoroali, and Setsiana could hear the scrape of her chair’s legs on the floor. She didn’t wait around to be discovered, but quietly snuck back to the bedroom and shut the door, and when Qhoroali came to retrieve her, she was sitting on the bed reading the romance novel as if she had been doing that the whole time.
Story: The Fulcrum
Colors: Dogwood Rose #7: peach: Closing the deal
Styles and Supplies: Life Drawing
Word Count: 1718
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Characters: Setsiana, Qhoroali, Cyaru
In-Universe Date: 1911.7?8?.?.?
Summary: Setsiana listens in on a private conversation.
Notes: Life Drawing because this conversation references some queer experiences, although it won't become clear how until much later.
Setsiana had refused to look at any further papers after that. She wandered the room, browsing the bookshelves, trying to think of a way to get out. Qhoroali must sleep somewhere in this house, behind one of the two locked doors. Maybe their locks would be easier to pick and she could steal the key while Qhoroali slept?
The bookshelves had contained a mix of hand-bound books of temple scholarship, professionally-bound books of lay scholarship, and novels. In addition to the temple books on the nature of Sapfita, many of which contained papers she had already read, the nonfiction also ranged into spring-clock engineering, seafaring (with mentions of long voyages that would have been impossible in Setsiana’s time), gardening, and books of clothing patterns. She had been afraid that the lay books and novels would be written in the awful Vrelian that Liselye had spoken the day before, but to her relief, they appeared to be mostly normal, with just a few strangely spelled words, slightly odd phrasings, and one diacritic she didn’t recognize. She found one particular book of patterns titled Modern Fashions and Styles of Vrel which exclusively contained patterns for outfits that Setsiana recognized as popular styles of her own time. She checked the publication date and saw that it had been printed in 1644, but the book seemed quite new. She surreptitiously snatched a glance at Qhoroali as she sat engrossed in some paper, taking her notes in pencil this time, and thought about the stitching on the outfits she’d been given. Why make them from scratch? They were of popular styles and colors, if Qhoroali was going to go back to 1647 to buy this book, she could have saved herself the effort and just bought the outfits ready-made.
Most of the novels were adventure stories, a few were romances. Many of the classic priesthood-related romance tropes were represented: a secret romance between a priestess and a man, or a heretic; a junior priestess who secretly had the soul of a man (a common sort of soulwright prank for which remedies had been brought back from the future), who fell in love with a fellow junior priestess, but lived in fear of the secret being discovered; a woman who became a priestess prior to 389 specifically in order to marry another woman, who then had to pretend to actually be a capable researcher; a secret government spy who disguised himself to learn the priesthood’s secrets, but found love instead. She had selected the story about the two women in the 4th century and spent the rest of the day reading it.
The night passed with no dream of Sapfita. In the morning, after Liselye had brought breakfast but before Qhoroali rose, she had experimentally hidden Qhoroali’s sewing scissors under one of the piles of papers on the desk, and then attempted and failed to pick the lock on the other door opening off of the short hallway. She had then discovered that this was in fact where Qhoroali slept when the door had opened; Qhoroali had been amused, but not angry. The scissors were quickly identified as missing, although Qhoroali didn’t seem to find it suspicious when she discovered them hidden under the papers, which put that plan out of commission. The rest of the day had been uneventful until there came a knock on the door. Qhoroali gave her a very intense look before getting up to open it, and this time Setsiana stayed where she was. Qhoroali let Cyaru into the room and locked the door behind him.
Cyaru looked at Setsiana with some irritation and said in QuCheanya, “I have things to say to you, but not with this audience.”
Qhoroali came over to Setsiana’s chair and motioned for her to stand. “Back in your room,” she said. “Don’t worry, you’ve been good, so it’s just for a few minutes.” Setsiana allowed herself to be lead back into the bedroom.
The door was shut, but she did not hear the lock click. She put her ear to the door and heard a strange wooden sliding sound, and then nothing for several minutes. Cautiously, she tried the handle and found that it opened.
She was momentarily disoriented as it seemed like the short hallway had changed - opposite her door was now a wooden wall, blocking the exit to the living room. As she approached it, she saw what it was: a thin wooden sliding door that had been hidden inside the door jamb and had been pulled out along a track on the floor to block the doorway. She put her ear to it, and heard speaking from the other side.
Cyaru was speaking in Naychren again. Qhoroali interrupted him to say, in QuCheanya: “No. No, please. I haven’t been back there in a while, I’m rusty, I’m going to say something wrong and you won’t understand me, I mean, even more so than usual. Look, I locked her in her room, there’s two doors between us, she can’t hear what you’re saying.”
Setsiana, who had not in fact been locked in her room, stood absolutely still.
There was a moment of silence, and then Cyaru switched to QuCheanya and said, “All right.”
“Ok,” said Qhoroali, with some relief. “Here’s why I did it — I want you to understand. I wasn’t going to kidnap her. But I’ve been stuck for the past year, I’ve exhausted most leads, except for a few more papers and a few more compounds I intend to get from Cusäfä, but most of those seem unlikely to further things. I feel like I’m getting off-track. I need new information. I know I succeed eventually, because I met a version of myself who told me I did, a very long time ago… you believe me, right?”
“You know I always did,” said Cyaru. Then he added, “I’m sorry about what happened the night before last, too, by the way, it was my fault. I was out of sorts.”
“It’s ok - it worked out alright. I’m glad you understand. I think Li never really believed me when I said things like that. But, I needed inspiration from that future me, the one who knows the answer, and she always seems to have Setsiana around - this junior priestess. And then Setsiana came to me herself and told me where I would get her from. This is the logical next step, it’s the next place I have to go to make progress. You understand, right? You know why I’m doing this. It’s a goal we share. And Setsiana — she’s someone whose papers I’ve already read. She’s already been a big help, back in the early stages, and now she’s here in person. Think of what more I could learn from her now! And look — I know you don’t know how the priesthood works, but she’s still only a junior priestess. She hasn’t been invested yet. She doesn’t know what’s going on, and can’t possibly be involved in it yet.”
“She’s benefited from it, though,” said Cyaru.
“We’ve all benefited - all of us here in this place and this timeline that grew up with the priesthood. What benefits them benefits all of us because they are the ones who provide medicine and food and clothing and shelter and money to us when we are in need… we are all of us complicit. But she is no more complicit than I am, or than Li is.”
There was a longer silence now, and then Cyaru said, slowly: “I always trusted you, when you said something was necessary, and that it was the next step. When we had to go somewhere, get something, locate some research. When you woke me up in the middle of the night and we went and blew something else up.”
“That only happened once,” said Qhoroali.
“Of course, you are correct. We definitely blew things up multiple times, and you definitely woke me up in the middle of the night multiple times, but I guess there was only one time that both of those things happened together. But I’m not saying— I’m not saying I shouldn’t have trusted you. You did make progress, I saw it happen. Lise wasn’t that close to your work then — she didn’t see what you were doing like I did, I understand her skepticism. I believe you when you say you will succeed — and I trust you when you say you need this woman to continue. I do believe you and trust you.” He paused a minute. “But I don’t want to have anything to do with her. I don’t want to be around her. You understand that, right?”
“Yes, of course,” said Qhoroali. “I won’t make you spend time here if you don’t want to. Send Li to come bring me over to your place when you have reports, it’s fine. Or if you want to— well. It’s not like it used to be between us anymore, anyway.”
“I hope you’re not still dwelling on all that,” said Cyaru. “For my part, I’m glad it ended. Being with you was a wild adventure, but too wild in a lot of respects. I got whisked off to a whole new world, we were studying secrets of the universe — extra dimensions — blowing things up — it was hard to keep up. With Lise, it’s more… comfortable.” He paused for a moment. “I know you had your own stresses, too, I know what you were going through back then.”
“No you don’t,” said Qhoroali. “But thank you for saying so anyway.”
There was an awkward-sounding silence, and then Cyaru changed the subject. “How long will she be here for?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how long it will take to get what I need from her. Will you two come by for dinner tonight anyway, one last time, before you disappear for however long it’s going to be?”
“Alright. If Lise’s free, we’ll be here.”
“Thanks,” said Qhoroali, and Setsiana could hear the scrape of her chair’s legs on the floor. She didn’t wait around to be discovered, but quietly snuck back to the bedroom and shut the door, and when Qhoroali came to retrieve her, she was sitting on the bed reading the romance novel as if she had been doing that the whole time.
no subject
no subject
Thanks! Not all romances are priesthood-related, that's just what Setsiana focuses on because it's a topic of interest, haha. (And maybe it's a topic of interest for Qhoroali, too, since they are her books.) But there are a number of romance tropes associated with them, mainly because of the 389 thing, and because they are forbidden from marrying men but chastity is not a virtue of the religion, the setting attracts a lot of "forbidden romance" type stories.
no subject
It was really cool to read about the books in this universe!
no subject
Thanks! At least in NoraCheanya, publishing has a very long history due to the first printing press arriving due to time travel in -36.
no subject
no subject
Thank you! Unlikely that this was on purpose here, though.