Mellia — Giving Thanks
????, Earth Season, Movement Week
Context
1626 Earth Season, Movement Week, Freezeday morning after Spear Fishing, in Mellia’s rooms. [[[s02:session-16|Session 16]]]
Events
Morning comes, and Venlar is solicitous and kind and a little bit Orlanthi in his sighing over Mellia, and it is only after he has invited her to break fast with his family and then walked her back to his room that he asks, casually, “Is it bad that my fingers are really sensitive right now? What might that mean?”
Mellia appears a bit startled by the question. “How are your fingers really sensitive, sweetheart? Do they tingle or burn?”
“No. Well, they… yes, they’ve had weird feelings some mornings. You know how I wake up and sometimes have to take a long time to stretch, unless I end up…” Playful. Sometimes he wakes feeling very fertile. Sometimes, he takes several minutes just to be able to sit up. “Those days, they’ve started to feel like someone’s pricking me with pins. Normally I feel nothing, so it’s strange.”
Mellia says, “I think I’d better look at you, my love. That sounds as if the nerves in your fingers are doing something.”
“I’ve heard of nerves,” he says quietly. “They can go wrong.”
Mellia nods in agreement, expression solemn. “Do you have the same kind of feelings in your feet?”
“When I wake up, yes. Mostly my big muscles. But when I do this I feel all the texture.” He runs his fingers over the decorated wood of the door frame. “My fingertips feel everything! It’s odd. All the paint bumps and where the grain is raised.”
“That is odd,” says Mellia. She concentrates, using the gift of Chalana Arroy to all Her initiates to determine if a disease is present.
Nothing seems diseased, or off, or strange. Venlar patiently waits.
Mellia asks, “Have you been asking the gods to make you healthier?”
“I often do,” he says, with a slight smile. “No more than I have been since I met you.” His eyes soften and he looks down lovingly. “Perhaps?”
“You may owe the gods a thank-offering, sweetheart. I can’t find anything wrong with you,, so your nerves may be growing, or regrowing. I think we should see a specialist to make sure. Has your balance been better lately?”
“It’s hard to tell. I have not… have not had any days of cold fever, this season. They used to be frequent.” He touches the painted crest of the family. “Can you really feel this? I never have before. My fingers are touching so much I never knew.”
“Either the warmth here has done you good, my love, or you owe the gods whatever you promised them,” says Mellia.
Venlar looks at Mellia in wonder. “It’s you. You’ve done me good since I first met you. And the gods, of course. Maybe they’ll see fit to fill out my spirit.”
Mellia nods, with happy tears in her eyes. “We should go thank Orlanth, Ernalda and Chalana Arroy. I’ll go with you. Where did I put a good robe?”
“I sent yours to be washed,” Venlar admits. “But you look good in anything.”
Mellia laughs. “I love you.” She rummages through her wardrobe, picking out an embroidered white dress. It’s the sort of thing a healer would wear for worship and important ceremonies.
“Not meat if the Goddess of Mercy is involved.” Venlar thinks. “But Orlanth could take wheat, or emmer, which is really expensive here, so he’d like that.” He comes over to help her dress rather than going for his own best clothes, as if he thinks she needs it.
Mellia happily accepts help getting dressed. “Wheat sounds like a good sacrifice today.”
“Maybe I’ll have …” he breaks off and smiles. “The Paps are still probably going to have experts in strengthening my spirit,” he says. “But… I can feel the embroidery. I never get that. I thought everything was suddenly all much rougher.”
“It’s a miracle,” Mellia says. “Your nerves are growing!”
Venlar mostly just looks stunned.
Mellia hugs the stunned Venlar. “Do you want to dress a little better? I’ll help you.”
“I do. But I want to hold you and never let you go as well.” He makes a start on that crazy plan, wrapping his arms around Mellia.
Mellia snuggles close and kisses him.
After a few minutes he says, “This is wonderful but we should let the gods know too.”
