We collected ten of the flowers, taking the roots and dirt surrounding them, placing them gently in the basket. The flames were warm but did not harm us at all and continued producing the flames. The flowers left in the grove center were still abundant I noticed as we left.
"So what is this flower used for?" I inquire as we exit the last ring of trees and enter the meadow once again. I wipe the sweat that's accumulating on my brow, noticing dirt on my handkerchief.
Marco looks towards me and bursts into laughter.
"Let me guess? I smeared it all over?" I blush, embarrassed at his laughter.
He nods, "You sure did! Here, I'll help you with that." Pulling a clean handkerchief out, he wipes my face quickly off.
"Thank you. Now, about my question regarding the flowers..."
Marco cuts me off with a finger in the air, "You've been asking the entire time we've been here how time seems to be going backwards for us, yes?"
"Yes.? Are you telling me that .."
"Yes, I am. We make a tea from the petals of the blooms and we use every single piece, even the soil to reap the benefits in their entirety. We do this slowly over time, each day, until we reach our desired age or physical peek, then to maintain it, once a week we will partake of it until we run out. The soil is the last thing ingested, and only wrapped up in small leaves and swallowed. It extends our lives by many years, but we only are allowed to partake if we are training a catalyst." Marco informs me.
"Why is that? You have a plant that could indefinitely make you live forever. What would happen if there was no Catalyst to train?" I can't believe what I am hearing.
Marco chuckles, "We would grow old and pass away like every one does, eventually. No one escapes death, it is inevitable. It takes hundreds of years for the flower to mature. A few people could go through what you saw in the grove before even one new flower may mature. That would be defeating the purpose of trying to maintain their youth, to only be effectively killing themselves anyways. Soot's as the caretaker of this place would instruct the new priests if none of us are around when the next Catalyst is brought here."
We are approaching the door and I let my curiosity get the better of me.
"How old are all of you?"
"I'm one hundred and seventy-three years old, and I'm the youngest of us here."
He leaves me, with my jaw flapping, the words not coming to me to respond to that.
Everyone has gathered to help make dinner, cleaning, chopping, cooking, seasoning. All except Soot's, who's presence was only seen at dinner time. Most meals he would not even speak, just sit there, ignoring us all and eating quickly, heading back upstairs as soon as he was done.
...
I was lost in my thoughts as we were eating, thinking about the mushrooms and the flame flower when I'm drawn abruptly from them.
"Rakara!" Everyone shouts at me.
"Pardon?" I lean back from all the eyes staring at me intently.
"Where did you learn that?"
I turn to look at Soot's who's staring harshly at me.
"Do what?" I look down and see the fire dancing on my finger tips from the candle in front of me. "Oh this?"
He gives me a condescending nod of the head, which irritates me.
"My mother. Why? Do you want me to teach you?" I say cattily, scoffing at the end.
Everyone at the table either gasps, or makes themselves smaller in their chairs, except for Bav. Bav places one hand on my other as to calm me, but I pull it away after a light reassuring squeeze.
Soot's looks at me, eyes narrowing before a chuckle breaks free, turning everyone's attention to him as he breaks into full on laughter.
Awkward laughter joins in from others, but I continue to look at him as if he's got a screw loose.
I'm pretty sure he has more than one loose at this point.
"I fail to see what is so humorous." I grit out through my teeth.
Through choked laughter and him wiping his mirthful tears, he gets out, "You...Teach...Me? That pathetic little trick?"
I narrow my eyes at him, my vision going red, my body heating up. The flame in my hand disappears and reappears on his plate, setting his food on fire, filling the plate with ash.
The sudden wash of heat, chokes his laughter into a cough with the smoke.
*Cough* *Cough*
He fans the smoke from his plate and clears his throat as he stands up, making everyone sit still, staring at us in apprehension. He stomps over to me, as I pick up my fork and continue to eat.
As he draws close, Bav stands up beside me, ready to defend me if needed
"You start training tomorrow at dawn. If you are not there by the first ray of light, don't bother becoming my pupil." He turns and stomps off, back upstairs, leaving everyone in silence.
"Shucks, guess that means I have to cancel our lesson tomorrow." Griven shakes his head, exasperated.
"Ha! Ha!" My own mouth erupts in laughter at Griven's words, causing the tension to finally break at the table.
Later, in our room, Bav and I were discussing today's events from this morning and onward.
"So they have some Eternity's Flame. I figured they were using something to gain those effects, the land we are in gives off a comforting presence but not one that affects ones age." Bav commented while changing into his night clothes.
"You know about Eternity's Flame?" I ask surprised, but given that he's been to so many worlds, it was not as shocking as I thought originally.
Bav buttons his sleep shirt as he nonchalantly informs me, "Yes, it's from a planet called Dragosvellier (Dray-gos-vell-leer). The planet is an amazing place, but the inhabitants will only trade a limited amount of knowledge with others, they do not import or export commodities. They are a peaceful, respectful and highly intelligent race, capable of things we can still only dream of accomplishing. It does make me curious how they have some plants here." He mumbles the last sentence, letting me know he was thinking out loud, but stopped as soon as I loosen the ties of my corset.
"Oh, that feels better!" I sigh, "I think I tied those a little tighter than I should have today." I place the corset on the rack for laundry, pulling a clean chemise out and stepping into the bathroom to clean up.
"So at dinner, how long were they calling my name before my attention was caught?" I ask, quickly cleaning my skin of the dirt and sweat.
"We had called your name four or five times before everyone shouted. What were you thinking about?" Bav leans against the door frame as I rinse my body quickly.
"Honestly, the flower and mushrooms we had collected. It baffles me that they don't use more of the flower more often. There are people who would pay an entire cities worth of gold, for one of those flowers. At the same time, I comprehend why they guard it so well. It would cause bloodshed if people did know about it. However, something does make me curious. If Marco and I just harvested those plants today, why were they already becoming younger?" I pat myself dry and slip on my chemise. "I'll ask Marco next time he's teaching me. So why do you think that pompous hermit decided to start training me tomorrow?" I give Bav a quick kiss as I take his hand to the bed.
"From my understanding of his personality so far... I have no clue. When he stomped over to you, I was ready to blast him into oblivion." Bav pulls the covers over us and cradles me next to him in his arms. "Although I am tempted to watch him 'training' you tomorrow. I shall stick to my desk in the library, but feel free to call for me if you so desire. I will make sure he never forgets you or I if need be."
"Good to know." I said falling asleep in his arms.
"Rakara... Rakara... Wake up my love, or you'll be late."
I groaned at Bav who was gently shaking me awake, "But I just closed my eyes..." I pushed myself up from the bed and stumbled to the bathroom, throwing water on my face to wake me.
In just a few minutes, I was dressed and giving Bav a kiss on the cheek before heading downstairs. He had not been specific about where I was supposed to be waiting for him. So I figured if he was not down in the hall, to go to his room. If he accused me of being lazy later and try to deny my training, at least I could say he needs to be more specific in his instructions, as I am not able to read minds.
Alas, when I make it to the landing, I see him there, stretching and yawning.
Great... I inwardly roll my eyes and make my descent to the floor.
"Follow me." He grumbles, making his way to the kitchen. He stumbles around, filling the kettle and putting it on the coals from last nights fire. He adds some smaller pieces of woods to to the coals, slowly bringing the fire back to life. He grumbles inaudibly under his breath and goes about grabbing sugar, cream, bread, butter, and cuts some ham off of leg hanging by the fire to dry out.
He set about making fried ham and toast, cracking an egg into the pan while the kettle got hot. He just pulled the toast off, when the kettle started whistling. He grabbed a towel, took the kettle from the fire and plated the eggs and ham with the toast, buttering each slice. He placed a plate in front of me and poured himself a cup of hot coffee, then filled a cup and placed it by my plate.
"Eat, drink." He sounded hungover, with red droopy eyes, like he had the worst headache and just wanted to go back to sleep. I mixed in some sugar with the coffee, took a sip and added a splash of cream to take the bite. I placed my coffee down and began to eat what was given to me, without a word. I sniffed after my first bite of toast and could smell alcohol oozing from Soot's pores.
He WAS hungover!