Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 6)

Ky grinned, glad to hear that. It'd been terribly hard for her to resist the urge to pick at them herself. It'd be nice to have that temptation removed. Not to mention it would feel like she was healed once they were finally gone.


Pratik heard something about stitches, and felt eyes on him, so he glanced down the table. He met eyes with Rickard and offered the slightest hint of a nod of acknowledgment. He wasn't particularly surprised that Ky had stitches. From the sounds of it, Nyler had come close. And he never pulled his blows. So she probably managed to block a pass at his neck, and it'd probably lodged the blade deep within her arm. Poor girl.

"As far as sword training goes, you may have to wait just a bit longer. I'll see how your arm has healed."

(Does Ky speak Rhaebaki?)

(Uhhh let's say yes? xD)

"Yes, ma'am." Ky nodded. "It'll be nice to have the stitches out, at the very least."

"I'm quite sure," Sera said with a nod. "Hopefully we can put all that behind us, then. What did you look into at the library?"

"Astronomy!" Ky said with a smile. "I'm learning a bit more about orbits and such."

'A bit more' -- as if she'd known anything at all about it before now. Still. Ky was a quick study and had the most rudimentary of foundations now. She still didn't understand the full concept of the orrery, but vaguely understood planet rotations now. Even though she still couldn't comprehend how people knew all this.

(Me, in chemistry, not comprehending protons and electrons lol)

Sera wrinkled her nose. "That's a hefty subject," she said in surprise. "Not my cup of tea, I'm afraid, but it seems interesting. What got you interested in that?"
Rickard glanced between them, intrigued. He knew nothing of astronomy or planets; the words meant nothing to him, but he was fascinated nonetheless.

"Um, Gaius showed me the model upstairs," Ky said, lowering her voice ever so slightly. It was still a normal volume for talking, not secretive, but also not loud, since she didn't want to draw his attention, even though she'd just said his name. "It's very interesting. I want to learn more about it."

Gaius heard her anyway; he'd dialed into their conversation a few seconds ago. He was doing a good job of acting like his attention was elsewhere, but Sera could see the minuscule tilt of his head in their direction.
"You mean the orrery?" she asked. "Gods, I nearly forgot we had that thing."

How could everyone else say it so easily? She glanced at Gaius but he wasn't looking, so she looked back at Sera, fully aware he might hear her at any moment and was, therefore, trying to be careful with her words.

"It's impressive," Ky said. "I, um, think I will appreciate it more once I've read up on it more."

"I think that's the case with most things one doesn't know about," she mused. "They can be appreciated with more knowledge."

(I suddenly feel very bad for Aashi, all alone over there except for her husband and child and two people who speak no Upper Tongue. What have I done??)

(haha! as if Gaius would care xD)

Ky nodded in agreement. "I've found that the more I learn the dumber I feel... but it's a worthy tradeoff most of the time, I think."

(I like her, it's not her fault she said the wrong things!)

"Shouldn't you feel smarter? The more you know, the smarter you are, right?"

"Where are you coming from?" Lyra asked Pratik as the food was brought out.

(haha yep, she's well-meaning, but runs her mouth too much... and now she's in time out corner xD)

"If you don't know something exists, though, you can't know you know nothing about it," Ky said thoughtfully. Briefly forgetting that she'd not been planning to admit that she knew nothing. Hopefully, Gaius wasn't listening still. "There are so many things to know, and it's annoying that it's not possible to learn it all."


"The East," Pratik said, watching the platters of food approaching the table. "I move around quite a bit so I don't really claim a specific town. But grew up in the East."

(Maybe Gaius will see the error of his ways if he stops being an antisocial humperdinck)

"That's quite a long way to travel," Lyra mused. "Especially with the war, it must have been hard for you."

"I stopped worrying about that ages ago," Sera said with a shrug. "So long as I'm living my life and doing my best to be happy, I count myself successful."

(haha, tomorrow, grudgingly swaps Tadaaki and Aashi, though keeps her on the far side of the table lol)

"It was exciting, no doubt," Pratik said with a smirk. "I'm here now, though, so that's what counts... do you come up here often?"


Ky nodded in agreement, even though she couldn't honestly say that she agreed. How was she supposed to be happy when she didn't even know a fraction of the languages there were to be learned? Didn't know how to fight. Didn't know proper decorum now that she was a noble. The only thing she was half-decent at was working with horses, and she doubted being a stable boy was an appropriate career choice for a noble girl.