Spin Offs, Geth B
Geth thought she might throttle either one of the men sitting on the porch with her. For the past twenty-seven hours they had been talking about the warp and weft of the universe, Tanfardi as the curious initiate, the Watcher as the aged master. She had lost interest in the conversation around the third hour, since then, as best as she could tell, they had been repeating the same thing in more and more convoluted ways.
She had the disciplines that she could have stayed, through her craft she had learned how to mitigate and delay her physical needs, essentially sustain herself with magic. She already knew she could not out-endure an elf and doubted she would be able to outlast Tanfardi. Certainly she was done with the conversation. She had heard more interesting ideas from first year students at the university.
This Watcher was notably different than the one in GreensBridge. He wore clothing for one thing, though not much considering the season. He had a home for a second thing, she was curious what kind of home an elf kept. She jogged up the walkway, momentarily forgetting she was seventy paces above the ground until she caught a glimpse of rooftops below.
The elf’s cottage was built on a small platform about fifteen paces from the top of the tree. She lifted the latch on the door and walked in, it was more art studio than home, there were dozens of paintings; up on walls, stacked in corners and on cunningly built shelves.
Wild elf as painter, interesting. Third difference.
She took a look at the art on display, though display might have been a generous term, there was more art than wall. A piece was presently on an easel, it was covered with a cloth, she took a peek underneath. Then she checked a stack of art in one corner. All of it was very similar. Mostly depictions of the local view, most of them having been painted from the porch below her. Different seasons, sometimes different mediums, but all pretty similar. Unsurprisingly he was quite good.
She investigated the cottage further, there was a short hall, two very small rooms to either side, both with narrow beds, a few pegs to hang clothing from and more art. Same artist, but all of these were small portraits, perhaps of local people judging by the clothing. Neither room looked like they were used, the blankets for the beds were neatly folded and stacked at one end.
The hallway lead to the second larger room. There were tall windows with a view to the southeast, she saw parts of the city in various neighbouring trees, beyond was the swamp. There was more art, the walls to either side of the door were covered and there were neatly stacked rows of finished paintings along the other two walls. There was not much for furniture, just a few floor pillows, well made, stuffed with down. She sat on one and watched the day slowly fade to night, from outside she heard the elf singing.
Various parts of the city were lit with light orbs, or something similar. Some of the platforms were very large and it almost appeared as though a number of ships had somehow found their way into the trees. Aside from the multi story platforms there were dozens of lesser decks; some as small as the one she was presently on, others large enough to accommodate a dozen such cottages. Bridges and spiralling ramps lead from one platform to another. There were a few chimneys venting smoke, far too few, most of the buildings did not have a chimney. This lead her to conclude that they must use magic to heat and cook.
She considered what she was looking at, the city in general, the trees and the buildings. It seemed safe to conclude that there were enchantments keeping away the biting insects. Magic would have to be used to mitigate the winds and likely to deal with snow. If not, then the entire place would come crashing down. This far north there was a lot of snow. Certainly plant magic was at play. How did they deal with water? As far as she could tell the Watcher had no water access or waste facilities up here and yet the city did not stink. She came to the conclusion that Swampdon used as much magic, perhaps more, than GreensBridge did.
She had never been in Swampdon before, despite having passed by the area a number of times over the decades. There was a long standing rivalry between the Swampdon Council and the GreensBridge Mages Guild. As far as she understood the issue, the council was jealous of the guilds reputation, resources and vastly more numerous membership. She suspected the council would not make the same claims, though they often gave mages from GreensBridge a hard time when they showed up here. Or so she had been told.
Geth had not previously considered what living in trees would be like or the limitations of doing so. Certainly these people had some skilled mages to make it all work. She would have to reconsider her assumption that the Swampdon Council consisted of nothing more than a few eccentric hedge witches.
As she pondered these revelations the night deepened, the lights that illuminated the city slowly dimmed and many of them eventually went dark. Some areas did seem to have lanterns or maybe orbs that gave the same flickering orange light and a few of them continued to brightly illuminate areas around bridges and ramps.
She decided to go to bed, Tanfardi could be talking to the elf for many days, possibly longer. She went to one of the small rooms and unfolded the blankets before unfastening the delicate silver clasp of her dress. She gathered up the long silver chain and wound it around her wrist, naked she crawled under the blankets. It was more comfortable than she had expected. She slept.
When she woke, with distant dreams of vast continental woodlands fading, she realized the fourth thing that was different about this Watcher. He did not live in a heart tree, nor had she seen anything in Swampdon that resembled one of the world trees. Curious.
She slid out of bed and clasped her dress around her neck, deciding to go with both vest and jacket today. She wanted to take a walk around and see what Swampdon was all about. If she went about in a low cut, sleeveless blouse she would draw undue attention. It was mid autumn after all. Geth unbound her hair, straightened and cleaned it, then with another wave of her hand she changed it from blonde to a dark brown. Using one of the portraits as a guide, she braided it in one of the local styles. The entire process took less than a minute.
She went out to the porch, the elf was talking and neither of them acknowledged her presence. That was fine, she wanted to take a closer look at the city. Geth found her way down through the branches. She heard people talking and someone with a pleasant tenor singing, but there had not been anyone else out and about.
She could smell bread baking and wood smoke. She headed down a ramp and noticed an attached trough or gutter along one side. Great attention had been given to the construction and decoration of all the structures, there was some truly spectacular woodworking. There were plenty of benches to sit on and a few swings. Two common areas, one at either end of the platform were both kitchens, recreation and work areas. Each of the common spaces had a twin set of ovens, not too dissimilar to such contrivances that could be found across the freeholds.
Here she found a couple dozen elderly people, a few middle aged women and a fair number of children making bread and other food, large amounts of food, perhaps for the troops. A few of them spared her a glance, a couple of them smiled at her and one old chap gave a friendly wave but they were intent on their tasks. Even the children conducted themselves with a serious demeanour. She did not disturb them.
There was a lift with a winch and pulley system that went down to one of the lower levels, it was presently being loaded with wooden boxes full of the food stuffs.
She continued her exploration, heading down a long ramp that spiralled around the main trunk of the tree. There were plenty of little bridges, she saw a number of other living areas and could hear more humanity from below. The buzz of conversation, the occasional exclamation and sounds appropriate to various daily tasks. Coming off the ramp, she entered the upper level of one of the multi-story platforms, it spanned the gap between two trees. There were a number of people around, including plenty of children, a few youth and young adults. Most were elderly. She saw a small market area and made her way towards it.
People were taking notice of her, most were friendly, but others were guarded and at least a couple were clearly suspicious. She saw a dog for the first time. She had noticed a few cats on some of the upper platforms, there had been chicken coops and most of the cottages kept doves. She thought that most of their livestock had to be at ground level. The market was small, perhaps twenty vendors, there were only a few people perusing the wares. Many of the sellers brightened as she approached, a few called out to her and some sent children with samples of the food stuffs they were selling.
Geth bought a bit of food from each of the vendors that sold such, it was overpriced, but considering the ongoing war this was not a surprise. She looked over the other wares, bought a small wooden figurine of a dancer, a hundred leaves of fine paper and a couple of spools of thread. Given her unusual travelling situation she really could not justify getting more.
One vendor asked her, “Where are you from, my lady? I’ve not seen a dress like that before, ’tis beautiful.”
She smiled and waved a dismissive hand, “This old thing? I picked up while travelling some years ago. Thank you.”
“It looks new to me. Meaning no disrespect, my lady.”
“Well, it is enchanted.”
“I thought so.” She smiled at her shyly, “You sound like you’re from south of here, Brisken? GreensBridge?”
She was about to reply when Tanfardi came swooping down through the trees, his black cloak billowing. People were startled by his sudden appearance, some fearful. The lady she had been talking to made a warding sign and called out, “Goddess preserve us. The Tannicans have made it to the city!” She ducked behind her wares.
Tanfardi looked around, bemused by the reaction of the locals, most of whom were trying to get as far away from him as possible, he held out her broom, “The Watcher has been very helpful. We should be going.”
She took the broom, “That was quickly done, I had thought we would be here for at least a few days. Do you mind carrying this for me?” She passed him her sack of goods.
He took the sack, “Ready?”
“Where are we going?”
“High Fort.”
“Maldorn? Why?”
“The Watcher informed me that the Maldorn have explored more of the ellodran enclaves than any others, that they have revived dozens of my kind and that there is a functional gate in High Fort. Shall we?”
“Certainly.” She hopped onto her broom and the two of them flew away. She would have liked to stay here longer. She would return at some future point, there were many things about the city she would like to have had a better understanding of.
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