Heartsease

Chapter Five

'Would I help him? Help him with what? Who asks for help and doesn't specify what they need help with?' Thoughts race through my head as Osrik pulls me down the hallways and out of the palace doors. When we stop I see he has taken us outside, underneath his mother's favorite willow. Osrik drops my hand and turns to me, even though it's dark I can still see his smile. "I would like to build a bench for my Mother to read on. But I want her flowers around it, would you help me?" I turn to the tree trying to see anything, "It's too dark tonight to work, Orsik." He laughs and walks around the tree, "Tomorrow then! I have no studies, and I will talk to Mother and see if you can have the day off. Get to bed, Rosie, I will come to get you in the morning!" Orsik takes my hand and leads me inside, departing with a smile once we reach my room. 

As I close my door I can't help but think about what Pricilla said, I am an orphan. I guess it just hadn't sunk in until she said those words. I walk over to my window and stare up at the sky, wondering if Mother is okay. I know my Father is dead, and that mother running towards our house. Father wouldn't have survived an attack from a Blessed Blade. Mother could have. The blade could have harmed her, but a human cannot be killed by a blade meant for Sprite. Mother was smart, if she was attacked she would've played dead. Long enough for whoever was attacking to leave. Would she come for me? She didn't know where I went, or even which direction I went in. 

My Father met my mother just outside of our woods, he often said she cast a spell on him, enchanting him with her beauty. She would laugh, waving her fingers at him every time he said it. I'll never know why my Father was in debt, or how much he owed. I helped as much as I could. When I was younger mother taught me the ways to use the Earth and its plants for medicine. The first thing she taught me was a salve that would seal wounds using Heartsease. They grew around our yard year-round, probably by my Mothers doing. She learned from her Mother how to manipulate energies from the planet to her benefit, making medicine, teas, and incense. People often called her a witch, but she never let it get to her. When she moved in with my father everyone there welcomed her. Taught her new ways to use the plants. A few neighbors showed her how to enchant the ground to grow certain plants whenever she wished. Heartsease was her favorite, we always had a yard full. Mother said Father gifted her handfuls every time he returned home, "He always needed healing and I think that was his way of asking." She told me once. 

When my talent awoke she helped the best she could. Father's talent was the ability to understand any language; Human, Sprite, Elf, Orc. Even animals. He would tell me that a talent was never hereditary. That it based itself on the interest of the holder. My interest was our gardens, I was always out there. Helping Mother gather ingredients for her concoctions, pulling weeds when I was stressed, or just sitting among the flowers. Father had no idea how to help me, so Mother stepped in. Showing me how to manipulate plants the way she did, and eventually, I found out ways to do so without her showing me. It started with small flowers popping up around me whenever I got excited. One day, Father gifted me a bracelet, charmed with the ability to hide my form from humans. I was so excited the house filled with Camellias. I sold the flowers I made and saved the money back, hoping to get my parents a gift, but when I heard my Father tell my Mother that he had borrowed money I knew I wouldn't use it on anything else. 

I hid my money, buying a few things for myself when I needed them. Father talked about how he couldn't pay the rest of what he owed, and that night I slipped two hundred gold pieces into his satchel. Everything was fine for a while after that. He was happy, and Mother was happy. I learned how to grow trees and use their vines to navigate through the forest. One day, I was walking through the forest, towards the creek to collect Giant Trailing flowers for Mother, and I saw my Father talking to a man. I couldn't hear them, but I knew the man was angry. Father took his satchel and poured it onto the forest floor. The man grabbed a handful of gold, shoved my Father back, and left. I met my Father's eyes and I knew. We never spoke of it, but I would slip gold into his bag weekly. Mother never knew.

I hadn't realized I was crying until blue petals lined the windowsill. Wiping my face, I collected the petals. Laying them on the desk to dry out. Hyacinth petals make a wonderful tea. I head to the bathroom to wash up and then lay in bed.