Vitae Memorandum

39-Interconnected Performance

Qheria would still be expected to rest for the remainder of the day, so everything otherwise continued with regular routines of work and rest. The plan that day was to take everything easy, and that's exactly how it all panned out.

By the next day, the four of them had reason to be excited. The smith was finally putting finishing touches on the three instruments. Mhyl had shown up early, to put some artistic finesse on the results. It mostly involved decorative paints, putting some of the same color patterns for each instrument as she had for each outfit originally. Qheria wasn't sure about this idea, at this point she had a full wardrobe of clothes in a color that was basically picked for her. It was a great choice of color, but the lack of variation was getting tiring. If not for it being clean and maintained every day, Qheria could have swore she'd been wearing the same outfit each day since the day they had left.

Qheria had been slow to get up this morning, having returned to her wardrobe to replace a top that had gotten wood varnish on it. She had replaced it with.. one that looked exactly like it. Lwyn meanwhile had arrived with clean laundry for all of them, and had replaced the top she had taken for herself with another exactly like it, then had taken the dirty top Qheria had dismissed and gone to clean it as well. The whole situation left Qheria feeling a little awkward.

By lunch, the instruments were mostly ready, just needing time to dry. Over lunch, Rhyde had approached Qheria while she was still enjoying her salad. "Feeling better hopefully. Oh, is that all you'll be having today?" "Of course I'll have more, Mhyl wouldn't let me hear the end of it if I didn't do enough to recover my energy. But I've been enjoying my soup cold, so I'll just have some later." Rhyde looked at his own soup, the soft thick brown broth still bubbling. Qheria just picked up another yellow piece of lettuce and nibbled on it. The simple colors of their food were starting to get boring too.

"But yes, I am feeling much better now. I heard you had gotten personally involved in everything, even though everything was practically the specialty of the Seekers and the Wardens." Qheria wasn't sure that anyone was particularly skilled with gas explosions around here, but that wasn't the point. "Hey, I would have you know that my leadership had been vital to ensure that everyone coordinated in a vital and precise manner." Rhyde was already arguing, they had only sat down. Qheria however instead just giggled.

"Yeah, leadership really is a very difficult and underappreciated task, isn't it. Somehow, I've got three very capable women looking up to me, and I'm not even sure when I had signed up for this. We're a team, we all seem to suffer at the loss of any of us. I just hadn't accounted myself as one of those who could cause such same suffering. Though, in such a hard moment, I really don't regret my decision in the end. Saving Lwyn was still the right move. I hear we even had safety really well accounted for, there weren't really any mistakes. There was that whole gift business that happened, but.. it's hard to blame anyone for it." Qheria went to her bowl for more salad, having found she had at that point finished it.

Rhyde had come to help console Qheria through any of her hardships, but.. had instead found Qheria really was doing very well. It was highly unexpected, and left him at a total loss for words. He was still feeling a bit out of place for her having dashed so fervently into danger as she had, learning and improving in ways he himself hasn't yet. He ate some of the soup, which instantly scalded his tongue. Maybe Qheria had the right of it after all.

"Oh, but one of the biggest parts of things like this, always moving forward. Thanrie keeps bringing that up now, it's almost a mantra for her. We're going to try and play some music sometime this afternoon, once our instruments are ready. We still need to find some other way to spend the afternoon before then, though." "Ah, so more of that sparring you and Thanrie keep doing? I could still offer you another rematch, if you feel you are up to it." Qheria paused in a moment of thought, Rhyde's words provoking a memory for Qheria.