Afterwards, a few things stood out to Bren when he thought back to the weeks leading up to his departure. The first was Magda's complete indifference to him. It might have been her occupation with her new role as clothier, but he wasn't sure. Something seemed odd about it all--he saw her often enough, but she never looked directly at him, and she hardly spoke. Instead, she rushed away. He thought back again to the Gathering. It seemed that he had seen her after the announcements--perhaps they had danced? But he couldn't remember. When he tried, his head started to pound again.
Overall, he was glad that she seemed not to pine over his impending departure. Perhaps she had moved on from what had always been an unlikely crush--after all, he he was four years older, and had been in love with Alina since Magda was toddling around at her sister's heels.
Another thing that stood out was a dramatic shift in his work pattern. Rather than staying busy gathering plants and mushrooms for various villagers--notably the healers--he was left idle much of the time. There was always a change in work when the thirteens were confirmed in their occupations, but there was only one Gatherer in this season's apprentices--only one, to replace Bren. Only select individuals or tradespeople solicited his services, though these seemed to pay quadruple the price that a mushroom generally fetched--even for the rarest ones; the tokens he received were those that would be most useful for a journey. He would be able to buy dried meat and fruit, and have an entire wardrobe ordered before he left. This, he did not do. He bought food for the journey, but he had clothes to bring, and did not need more, since the reason for his departure was to seek labor away from the limits of his home, and inevitably to return as something other than what he was. When he returned, he would need a new wardrobe, perhaps.
Beyond a sac that he would require for carrying his supplies, he would need no cloth items. So as he collected the coins that were of use to him, he used them to purchase, along with foods, medicines, bandages, and goods that were said to have value in the world--like wool, and small pieces of the rarer woods. The rest of the clothier tokens, he would give to Alina. She could use them to purchase her family’s
supplies without having to do the labor that could be demanded in exchange for
the tokens. He would easily save her a
week’s work—she could be selective in taking in work when she had a surplus of
tokens.
When he was not gathering, he collected things for himself, as well, which no one would begrudge him since he was leaving. He collected pieces of the ancient trees that had, over the years, turned to rock--those also were reputed to have value, although in the village they were worthless.
No comments:
Post a Comment