milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

meg ford,
sameth

(no subject)

It's been a quietly strange last-year-at-this-time sort of week in Montreal, almost but not quite hold-your-breath-and-wait-to-see-what-happens, overlaid on all the end-of-term, approaching-holidays busyness.

Meg's not exactly sorry when the bar decides to turn up in her apartment on what is for her a Friday night. She has plans for later, but they'll keep, after all.

She picks a chair by the fireplace, asks a waitrat for apple cider, and pulls out her knitting.

Botherable.

Well, if you don't mind waiting till she gets to the end of a row.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sam has worked a long day in the forge and yawns as he sits down in a chair across from Meg.

Once he realizes it's her, he smiles and says, "Meg, it's been a while."

"Hello, Sameth. Yes, it has.

"How've you been?"

"Not too bad. Have we talked since I returned from the Old Kingdom?"

He doesn't always remember who he's told what's changed for him.

Meg thinks, finishing the row of stitching, before she answers.

"I don't think so.

"You were working on a toy shaped like a penguin, I think."

"Then it's been a while. I got a door back and had some adventures there but I'm now Bound again. Though things there are making more sense. I know what I have to do and I'm in a better role as Wallmaker,"

He finds a rat and orders some food as his lunch was a while ago.

Meg weighs this information, and then says, "And, um, what's a Wallmaker."

She'll assume it does not mean he's decided to pursue a career in simple masonry.

"It's one of the bloodlines in the Old Kingdom. We build and repair the walls and magic of the Old Kingdom, I think. That's what Mogget's told me and it feels right. The name comes because they helped to build the Wall between the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre. I'm the first one in many centuries,"

It feels right to him but he wishes he knew more of what he was meant to do.

"So . . . "

Meg trails off, thinking for a moment.

"Who's been repairing the walls since the last one?"

"No really has, they've been finding work-arounds. My mother created flutes that stop the Dead on top of the Wall and my father has done some work to mend the Great Charter Stones. We had two hundred years with no royal family or Abhorsen and a time before that with no Wallmakers, there's a lot to do. Though first I have to help keep the Old Kingdom from being destroyed,"

Nothing ever seems to be simple for his family and he takes a long drink of his spiced wine when it's delivered.

" . . . I'm sorry, I don't think I completely followed that explanation."

It was kind of a lot to take in all at once.

"Sorry, I've been thinking about this but not talking about it. The Wall not only separates the Old Kingdom from Ancelstierre but it has protections against the Dead in it. They're not as strong as they used to be. My mother created flutes that stop some of the Dead. Does that make sense?"

"Flutes like . . . musical instrument flutes?" Meg asks.

Presumably not like champagne flutes.

She thinks.

"Yes, the wind blows through them and they play a note that's similar to the bells she wears and it keeps the Dead at rest. There's not always time for bodies to be burned on the Perimeter,"

Sam hopes to be able to look at what his mother made to see how they work, he only knows what she's told him.

Meg nods, though she still feels like she's missing certain pieces of the puzzle.

"So is wall-making something you just know how to do, or will you have to learn?"

"I think I'll have to learn how to do specific things but mostly it's adding on what I do already. Since I currently make things with the Charter, this is making them for the Old Kingdom. It feels better than being Abhorsen-in-Waiting,"

Sadly Sam still isn't very good at explaining the Old Kingdom with all its strangeness.

"That's good, then. If it feels like more of a fit."

"It does and I feel like I can do things right as Wallmaker. How are you doing?"

"I'm all right," Meg says.

"Busy.

"It's a time of the year when a lot happens."

"Yes, at home we'd be having the Winter Festival and my birthday. Christmas is the main winter holiday here, I think?"

He's not sure if he has the name right.

"A fair number of people here do seem to celebrate Christmas, yes," Meg says. "It's a religious holiday from my world.

"Though, really, some people who celebrate don't practice the religion it comes from. It's taken on a fairly strong . . . secular presence."

"How does that change it?"

Neither the Old Kingdom or Ancelstierre has much of a religious culture.

"Um," Meg says, thinking.

"Well, the religious purpose of the holiday is to remember the birth of the savior figure in one of Earth's major religions. Christianity. And over the years, and as the religion spread and encountered new cultures, certain traditions grew up around it. And because Christianity was, in some places, the religion practiced by most of the population, everyone was observing the same traditions. So there was a social aspect to it as well as the religious one.

"And the traditions don't all inherently reflect the religious function of the holiday. We decorate trees with lights and ornaments, make special food, plan family gatherings, exchange gifts with people we are about. And those traditions, often, have continued to be observed in a cultural way, even when the people observing them don't still subscribe to the religion the holiday comes from."

"Oh, it sounds quite nice. The Winter Festival's mainly for the season without any other things around it. Do you celebrate it?"

Meg nods.

"I celebrate Christmas, yes. Both as a religious holiday and a cultural one."

And in that order.

"Do you have a favorite part of it? If you don't mind telling me. I've seen how people celebrate here but never understood that much."

"I like the church service on Christmas Eve."

"What happens then? We don't have church in the Old Kingdom, but I've seen them in England with Posner."

"Well, there's a telling of the story of the savior's birth, and prayers, and songs.

"It's . . . peace and joy. All at once."

"It sounds wonderful and like a nice way to fill up the cold nights."

"It is wonderful."

Meg likes Christmas.

"Do you know if any services ever happen here?"

It would be nice to get a chance to see what this holiday means for so many people here.

"I don't know," Meg says.

"I've never looked. I've never been here for Christmas Day.

"But I know there are services that they broadcast on television. For people who can't make it out, I guess. Maybe Bar could get you one of those."

"I'll look for them. What are you knitting?"

"A hat," Meg says.

"It's a birthday present for my fiance's mother."

"It's a pretty color. Have you knit her things before?"

"Thank you.

"And, no, I don't think I have."

"I'm sure she'll like it,"

He yawns and starts on his dinner, "People always enjoy it when you make them something."

"I hope so.

"It's very like one she had and liked and lost recently, so it seemed a good thing to make for her."

"That makes it even nicer. I always enjoy being able to make something useful and beautiful."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only