Of course the world was not only made up of darkness and light. But he often found it easier to explain things by using these terms. And Thurenza was dark, he thought. Intelligent, mysterious and dark, darker than he was, and many considered him to be of the darkness, because he didn’t care so much about God as the rest of them. Their eyes had met though, and after that, they all too a seat by a now prepared table. Thurenza explained why they’d sit here and share food together. She shortly mentioned that the gods remained to be seen.

Charles smiled, “Perhaps they are present right now.” Because in his opinion, God might as well be an ordinary man or an ordinary woman and not some guy walking on water so many centuries ago. Perhaps Thurenza and Aatami and Charles and even that woman, whom they had not introduced to him, she might be a goddess too. Who knew? Thurenza began talking though, she spoke of learning things you didn’t believe in, so you’d know if they were false. And how you also sometimes had to learn things you didn’t want to know, not really.

“Often I find that it is the people who do not believe, who are more aware of the belief, than those who believe in it. Those who question it are often more curious and have a desire to know what it is that they question. Those who believe… just want to believe. And feel safe.” Charles replied to her; perhaps their conversation was already a bit strange, but he did not think it odd at all. It was obvious that Thurenza thought differently than most, just like Charles.

Then he had mentioned what he saw for Aatami and Thurenza nodded and looked at Aatami and called him a great man, who had saved her. After that, she mentioned it was not just Thurenza and Aatami who had come from darkness and Charles met her dark eyes.

“Darkness is all over.” Charles said, “It is difficult to not come from darkness. But there are different kinds. There is darkness in Venice too, but it is more… hidden, than it is in Paris. In Paris, the darkness is not kept behind bars. In Venice, people don’t want to admit that the darkness is constantly lurking, and because they don’t let it out, it is perhaps even more dangerous. That is what I deem so far anyway.” He met her eyes, “What do you think? You don’t flash it in the open either. But it’s there.”

@Elena @Crymson

They shared tea and words. They watched one another and saw more then what was strictly in the room. Aatami following but wisely leaving the conversation between the gifted. Not that he were not gifted just that his gift was over other. Thurenza watch Charles and nod at his assessment of the gods.

“Perhaps they are.”

Quiet. She listen to things that no one else can hear. She see things that no one else can see. And she still herself to better understand them. But Charles continue to speak and she blink to look at him. Nodding again at his understandings. Yes. He is learned. Skilled. But how deep does his well extend?

“Yes non-believers are usually the more educated on a topic. If they are lucky enough not to be accused of heresy. “

She smile and laugh at the warnings. Lucky for Thurenza she had made friends in higher stations that did not question her own wayward conversations. But she had to be careful even with some of them that they not suspect her train of thoughts. She look at Aatami and know she does not have to openly fret over his own mind. He were ever careful but in new lands with different dangers she’d have to make sure he were aware of them. Then the darkness brings her back to Charles.

“Well if one thinks on the birth of humans and the birth of the soul—we are all produced from darkness and we all return to it. But if you speak of the deeds… well everything needs a balance. Too much of one or the other—.”

She shrug. It were the cosmic equilibrium. Or so she truly believed. If there is no pain there could be no pleasure. If one does not experience sorrow how do they revel in happiness?

“All my herbs are small deaths. I tear them from their earth when they are most ripe and kill them. Pluck their dead leaves, their dried seeds, their flowers, grind their stems and from those parts I make beauty or cure ill’s. It is a darkness, a dark thing to some. But what happens to the herb if I leave it. Does it not die and rot. Who benefits from the decay? Only the new plant in the spring. Here we seed that and more. So its death is not wasted. But I do not hide it… look about you. Do you not see it in everyday things? “

@Atrice @Elena

Aatami was at the table with them, trying his best to understand what the discussion was about. Of course, it wasn’t up to him to intervene. He wasn’t of the learned kind. He could sip his tea quietly and draw his own conclusions from observing each of them and from filling in his mind the blanks of unknown words used in the conversation. Sometimes it worked well, other times his assumptions might be far from the real meaning, such as in the case of the word heresy, he couldn’t place anywhere.

Darkness and light, this was a subject he understood. And the presence of spirits everywhere. They were always close to the people, for good or for worse, because it was easy for people to offend spirits too, through their reckless behaviour and words. Thurenza had been right that one had to learn things one didn’t actually want to know. He knew it, and it happened, most often, for his own protection. Some ignorant people could be happier in their ignorance. Others, like him, felt it like a curtain to be peeked from behind it, then maybe opened partially or totally. It seemed this was a thing Charles understood and agreed with.

It was true that everyone was born in darkness, and that there were different kinds of darkness. Some of it was mere fear, without anything concrete. Some of it was dark, dried blood, witness of endless violences, like the one in France, the one on the American plantations, on the slave ships and many other places. So there was such a thing in Venice too. He was too new here to realize it, but he didn’t doubt Charles’ assessment.

He also knew Thurenza’s theory of balance, and the one about giving plants a healing new life. He had heard them before, and he considered them correct. When the world balance was off, awful things happened to restore balance. Things the legends were full of, but also anyone’s real life. Especially the life they were having there across the ocean.

Looking at the two people belonging to the world of spirits and healing, how they discussed and how they understood each other like no outsider could, a satisfied smile could be seen on Aatami's quiet face. His purpose, of getting them face to face, had been met.

@Atrice, @Crymson

Aatami remained silent for now, while he spoke with Thurenza and he couldn’t help but enjoy this meeting. That he met someone who agreed with some of his points of view and even seemed to understand. About how the gods might be present now. About how non-believers were often educated on certain topics. But his smile faded when she spoke of being accused of heresy.

“Few who dare voice their opinion are so lucky. I was not.” Charles easily said, he felt he had no reason to keep it a secret to her, “But as you see, I still live. They called me a heretic, but still they needed me. Right until they didn’t.” He added then; there was a reason why he was in Venice, after all, and it wasn’t just because he felt like being here. It was because he couldn’t be in France and he had to be here.

Then the conversation turned towards darkness and not light and he noticed her smile and laugh at his words, before she said that the soul came from darkness and there had to be balance. Charles nodded, he didn’t need to speak, but he agreed about the balance and how there could be too much of one or the other and then things would get out of hand. She explained herself by speaking of herbs though, how she basically took their lives when they were most ripe and she used them to create things. Then she moved on and said if she did not use the herb, it would just decay.

“I’d not say that no one benefits from decay. As you just said, there needs to be balance. There needs to be something new, but in order for something new to appear, something old must die. And if you don’t leave any seeds, nothing new will appear.” Charles said, “I love nature. I find it very peaceful. There’s not a lot of it in Venice…” He trailed off, remembering she’d asked about something else, and he looked up at her again. She spoke of death not being wasted and that she did not hide it, “You don’t hide it, but you don’t advertise it either.” He tilted his head, “I am wondering if it is just flowers and herbs or… I saw blood. On your hands. Why?” He could see it but he could not see the full reason of it. And it didn’t seem to frighten him. He was just curious. And he didn’t see anything wrong with asking such a question in front of her husband and her assistant… Charles didn’t have that filter.

@Elena @Crymson

“Few who dare voice their opinion are so lucky. I was not.” Charles easily said, he felt he had no reason to keep it a secret to her, “But as you see, I still live. They called me a heretic, but still they needed me. Right until they didn’t.”

“That is the way with many people. All over the world. They need, need and need until they no longer need. But you are fortunate to still have your head, yes? Yes. And so is Thurenza for still having her life. When others would vanquish it if they could.”

She laughs and sets her saucer and cup of tea on the table. All that remains are leaves and tiny amount of tea. And she hopes that Charles leaves the same when he is finished. And she watches him, watching them. Wondering what force brought him to Venezia and if he was in any way a part of her future. But nothing came now. Perhaps the timing were off. Perhaps there was nothing more to learn from one another. The latter Thurenza did not believe, the former she did. Timing were everything.

“You don’t hide it, but you don’t advertise it either.” He tilted his head, “I am wondering if it is just flowers and herbs or… I saw blood. On your hands. Why?”

She were silent and she look at him. It appeared she look through him. And no words came until her eyes shifted and she see him again. He not lie to her about his own past. But she not know him. And so she could answer him truthfully and not admit to anything illegal.

“I am a certified mid-wife. I can help in labours, birthing and the care of women and infants. I also have trained with local Medico’s and some of them have shown me dissection and anatomy. My hands have seen much blood.”

Her dark eye turn to Aatami and she smile tightly at him. He would know exactly how much blood her hands have seen and know that most of it were for the good of the many over the spilled claret. It were never easy to take a life, and when it were… it were time to stop. Life should mean something. Even in the taking of it.


@Atrice

Aatami wished to ask what was that heretic people kept mentioning, but he would do it, if he remembered the word, when he’d be alone with Thurenza. He understood, however, the part with ”They needed me, right until they didn’t.” This was a discussion he had before with the pale man. He knew what was happening in France, and that Frenchmen were either hunters, or hunted. And his guest had already admitted that. He was alive because he was in Venice. Just like Aatami, in a way… because he couldn’t predict about the outcomes of the Little Turtle war either. Thurenza said the same thing – all of them were lucky for still having their heads on, scalps on their place, when others would have wanted the opposite. He nodded and smiled. He was lucky to be able to arrive here too and find her so easily.

Aatami understood the idea of balance. Thurenza was often speaking about it. Miathe sometimes too. He agreed with the medicine people.

He raised a brow when the man stated that there wasn’t enough nature in Venice. He was newer than Charles, but he knew it was – just that it was a different kind of nature than anyone accustomed to live on firm land would have expected. There were flowers in small gardens and pots. There was water everywhere, and it was a part of nature too. There were trees in Rialto here and on some other places – not like in a forest, of course, more like a rarity, but there were some among buildings.

His face kept the same neutral expression when the man asked about the blood on Thurenza’s hands. He knew it was her first husband’s blood, but of course he couldn’t say this and neither could she.

”You are seeing my blood on her hands,” he said, looking serenely at the man, as he wasn’t lying. ”She had wiped it with her own hands and she had nursed me back to health too many times in the past. But she couldn’t save some people who were being claimed by Death.”

This was true as well, speaking about slaves beaten to death and, later, Shawnee warriors having suffered hunting accidents, as she had been lucky not to witness the new war. She had replied with another explanation, and even if he didn’t understand dissection and anatomy, he knew midwifery and that children were born in their mother’s blood. Some being also bound not to survive, mothers or children alike.

He returned her smile, leaving the empty cup on its saucer.

”I think all three of us here had seen more blood than they would have wanted to,” he stated. ”The times are so.”

The two gifted people, similar but not identical, having different gifts and ways of having studied the unseen, kept talking around the cups of fragrant tea, but their words were beyond Aatami's power of understanding, because he wasn't sharing their gifts. His bear totem had something for him too, however not this. And in accepting that people were different, he was glad that he had offered Thurenza the opportunity to meet another man of her kind.
@Crymson, @Atrice