2.2

While they had been out looking for herbs, Emri found that the more Rinna had talked to her, the more uncomfortable Emri had gotten with the way that Rinna appeared to be going out of her way to make a show of acting friendly, while continually prying for personal information in a way that made Emri feel like Rinna might actually be distrustful and unfriendly under the surface. In some ways, it was more irritating than that Remal Haelson fellow who had at least been wearing his distrust openly.

Not only did it not seem to her like the time and place for it, but Emri did not want to talk about herself anyway - so she kept changing the subject back to the plants they were looking for, checking to see what Hin had remembered from earlier that day, and pointing out to Rinna when there happened to be plants with notable similarities. Emri also made a point of asking them which of the plants that grew in the area had so far been identified by their camp as edible, and brought up discussion of other plants she could point out that could be used for food as well. She also asked what they had been doing for water since determining that the insects around the marshy lake could be causing the illness. Hin described to her how some other scouts had already checked to see how far downriver the marsh went, both so they could send people to fetch water away from the marsh, and to find a place where they could best cross the river.

They were partway up the hillside at the time, with the camp at some little distance below them and slightly southward, and the lake spread out below and to the north. The river could be seen pulling away from the marsh heading northwest, at first marshy-edged like the lake, but then after some rapids and small falls it went winding through some low grassy hills that must have a different sort of ground under them. Some much farther distance away beyond the grassy hills, the river passed through what looked like flat plains used for farmland, with a walled town in their midst.

Hin pointed these all out to Emri and described how they would need to be careful not to camp long by the river, nor to take long in crossing it, since the town beyond probably claimed all that area for grazeland. That town had not been hospitable when advance scouts from the camp had first entered the area; it was not a place they could trade at nor seek shelter. While he was talking about that, Rinna declared that she could see Aron headed up the hill towards them from the camp.

"I think I should go meet him," Rinna said, "and I think dinner will probably be served soon, so I'll take him to go see about delivering the food for us all to the Healer's work tent. After you two find some more of those herbs we need, you can go straight back there to eat, alright?"

Emri nodded, and Hin (looking at her) voiced agreement and then waved Rinna off. He took Emri's arm to help her on the rocky uneven ground of the hillside (as he had already done many times before) and they started to go a little higher up where there seemed to be some likely places for the plants to grow up among some tufts of grasses by a group of boulders. Emri directed Hin towards where she thought some of the herbs were, and while grateful for his help, she was frustrated with how easy it seemed for her to stumble here. Meanwhile, in the distance, she thought she could just hear Rinna greet Aron down the hillside. It was barely audible for Emri to hear Rinna asking if something were amiss, and Aron's reply was lost to her because it was somewhat quieter and more subdued in tone. She guessed that Hin wouldn't have heard either of them, but didn't mention it. She did, however, decide to suggest they head back as soon as they finished searching the nearby patches of grass, even if they didn't find very many more of what they sought.

Emri had been certain they would find at least a couple of the herbs there, and as it turned out they found several. She couldn't expect Hin to see the plants as well as she could find them, and he did have to get closer and look carefully before he could identify them with certainty, but he was reasonably good at it nonetheless. Congratulating him on how well he had learned to recognize the herbs, Emri suggested to Hin they head back before the first ones they'd gathered had much time to get wilted. Having them be as fresh as possible might not make a very great difference in their effectiveness in the medicine, but it was as good a reason as any to turn back sooner rather than later, and she hesitated to say how tired she was getting. Nevertheless, it seemed Hin could tell by how much more she stumbled on the way back down the hill, kindly asking more than once if she were alright. Emri insisted that she was, though she still tripped and stumbled along the way even after obtaining the flat ground.

Even before entering the camp, as they approached near, it seemed that everyone who saw Hin had to come running to tell him that his children had returned from fetching water, but were all taken ill and at the Healing tents. Emri tried her best to hurry along, but found her pace frustratingly slow and marveled that Hin still helped her along. Still, she insisted they go straight to where his family was instead of him escorting her back to Faver's main work tent. He readily agreed, though she believed that he would have seen her to her destination first if she hadn't suggested otherwise.

Perhaps halfway through the camp, they passed a place where food was being served out, and a girl taking what looked like two bowls of broth saw Hin and stepped over to walk by them. Emri recognized her as being one of those who had been among Faver's helpers who had greeted her when she first arrived at the Healing tents earlier. Nathley, she was, and she reassured Hin that his daughter wasn't ill but needed rest, and his sons weren't too badly off - the broth was for them.

"Why don't you go on ahead, Hin?" Emri suggested. "I'll walk the rest of the way with Nathley."

Hin hesitated, but then Nathley suggested he might be able to carry the broth back faster than her while spilling less of it than she would, so he agreed and took the two bowls from her. Seeing him hurry ahead, Emri was surprised that he could go as fast as he did and not appear to be spilling any of the broth - so far, anyway.

"He's good at that sort of thing." Nathley commented, then linked arms with Emri and resumed walking, setting her pace to match Emri's.

Emri started to apologize for walking slowly, but Nathley interrupted with saying: "You must be tired from walking up and down the hills all day." Emri supposed Nathley had noticed how much she'd been leaning on Hin's arm before, or else had a similar sense of such things once she started walking with Emri. Perhaps she might be related to Hin; Emri really had no idea yet of who was related to whom around here.

"You traveled a long way to get here, too, didn't you?" Nathley continued, though she seemed merely conversational and not intentionally prying like Rinna had been acting.

Emri nodded, though that was hardly the cause of her awkward slowness. She felt no need to elaborate, though.

"There, see?" Nathley commented, seeming perfectly content to walk slowly along with Emri and not at all frustrated by the pace like Emri herself was. "If I had traveled as far, I'm sure I wouldn't be up to walking quickly either! We'll find you a place to sit down and rest a bit."

"Thank you." Emri replied, though she didn't feel like she could just sit and rest awhile under the circumstances. "Are Hin's children really alright?" she asked, not only for a change of subject but also out of genuine concern. She hoped it wouldn't be considered impolite to ask, since she barely knew any of these people, but it did concern her work in helping Faver, after all.

Nathley didn't seem the least bit concerned by such things, and frankly launched into a more detailed account of everything that had happened since Hin's children returned to camp, how Faver had assessed their condition and how she herself had been helping Acker tend them since Faver had dragged Remal off to see to some other matter. Acker was someone Emri hadn't met yet, but she gathered he was an official apprentice of Faver's (unlike Nathley, who was one of the temporary helpers) …and that there was another apprentice, older than Acker, and a friend of Nathley's, but who was currently sick and couldn't tend to anyone. Emri was also surprised to hear Nathley's description of how well Remal had been helping; he hadn't seemed to Emri like someone who would take to such work, but according to Nathley, he had done admirably well - better than Nathley claimed she herself would have done with the same tasks - and Nathley wished he'd been allowed to stay instead of Faver assigning him to some other task (she knew not what) in some other place.

Directing the conversation back to Nathley's friend who was sick, Emri asked how many other apprentices Faver had, or if all of his regular helpers were sick and if possibly everyone currently helping was only temporarily in that line of work? To which Nathley responded with a complete account of how everyone currently helping (except for Acker) were only temporary helpers to Faver, that he had only the two apprentices, currently. He had previously had one other, but who had died when they were crossing a desert some way back on their journey. Nathley also provided the information that Faver's wife was the daughter of the previous Healer (now retired from that work) who had learned much of Healer's work alongside him when he was an apprentice, and was also qualified to help when needed, though she often was busy with other important work in the camp. Nathley seemed to think it a great love story, and spoke as though they were the ideal couple, a perfect match. Emri thought Nathley's description sounded a bit idealistic, but perhaps it was so; Emri herself didn't know, she only thought such a thing as an absolutely perfect match was unlikely anywhere.

Arriving by where Hin now sat with his family, Emri cut off Nathley before she could get into describing more about Faver's family (which she was now certain Nathley was capable of going on about at length) and not wishing to be disruptive, Emri asked Nathley to show her to where Faver's sick apprentice was, and also if she'd take her to have a look at all those who were the most ill. Nathley readily agreed, commenting that she wished Emri could meet her friend under better circumstances, but hopefully everyone would get better soon.

"I hope so, too." Emri stated, nodding back at Hin when he saw she was going with Nathley to see to some of the other sick people. She'd seen him give a nod of approval - Emri wasn't quite sure if it was because it would take the talkative Nathley away from where Hin's family was resting, or just Hin agreeing it would be good for Emri to get a look at the others who were sick.

She did her best to encourage Nathley to speak quietly, but found some of the girl's chatter useful, as it included details such as which of the patients were Leaders or had other important positions in the camp, which of those ill had gotten sick first, and whose illness had progressed faster than average, etc. However, Nathley seemed keenly interested in also telling Emri all about each patient they came to, in excessive detail that they did not have time for right now. More than that, Emri found it harder to concentrate while Nathley was prattling. Some of it was clearly no more than gossip or idle chatter, but some was useful introductory information that Emri couldn't simply tune out because she did have an interest in who these people all were, making it difficult to ignore what Nathley was saying. They really didn't have time for it now, though, and Emri did need to focus, so she shushed Nathley a bit, asking her to only provide the information asked for, and leave the rest for later. Nathley clearly found the request difficult, but did her best to comply, and in any case, spoke even quieter than she already had been.

Emri didn't think she could reasonably spend time examining every single one of the many sick people, but she did make a point of assessing each one of those who were worst off. The camp had indeed been fortunate that only a few had died from this illness so far, but more of them would soon, if the new medicine did not help them fast enough. She honestly wasn't sure how quickly the medicine would help the people recover, though upon examining them she was more certain than ever about what sickness they had, and that the medicine would help… eventually. Hence the reason she needed to focus, and do whatever else she could. The problem was that although she had studied with a mentor who she believed to be literally the best herbalist and healer in the world, she had not actually studied healing magic. Her mentor's skill in magic – particularly with life magics, including all those used for healing – was such that it was difficult for a beginner to understand, and she had not studied about healing magics back home before her mentor had taken her on as a student. She had only learned a few basic principles from him, most of it about how life energy and magic energy related to herbalism, and not so much about using magic for healing in a direct manner.

That sort of thing could really help these people, but the best Emri herself could do was to pass a little of her own magic energy to them, willing it to support the life energy they already had, in fighting the sickness within them. She had very solemnly promised not to use magic in sight of anyone who did not know about it or how to use it, but Emri feared that some of these unfortunate people would soon die otherwise, so she imparted magic to them when she put her hand on their foreheads, checking also to see how severe their fevers were. Nathley did not appear to be a very observant or questioning type of person – unlike some others, Emri thought – and Emri was emboldened further by suspecting that Nathley could not sense magic anyway. Magic wasn't something that could just be seen, heard, or felt in the same way as non-magical things. If magic wasn't being used to cause some effect that would clearly be seen, heard, or otherwise sensed, then a person needed to have at least some rudimentary ability to sense magic, in order to know magic was even being used. She had been told that these people (and all the people from the lands in this quadrant of the world) did not have any ability to sense magic, that it had been ages since any had been known to do so, but… there was still the possibility that some of them might be able to develop it.

When the sixth or seventh person that Emri passed magic to stirred and muttered something unintelligible, she resolved to definitely only do this for those who were unconscious or sleeping and were likely to die without it. Those most severely ill might be delirious anyway, but she couldn't risk that some might start to notice something if she weren't careful enough, or that it might create suspicion if done around someone more observant than Nathley was right now. The girl continued attempting to not talk constantly, but still was making comments here and there about things like which people were related to which others, or who worked with whom; not as useful as when she informed Emri about who had gotten sick first and whose illness had progressed fastest, though Nathley did continue to provide that information as well.

Emri also began thinking about a treatment for the fevers as she went around checking more people. Certainly, the medicine she had suggested and taught to Faver is what would actually help the people get well again, but if they could alleviate the severity of the fever for those who had it worst, it would make them more comfortable and lessen the risks of lasting detrimental effects from being sick.

"Miss Emri?" Though Aron's voice called out in a mild and friendly way, Emri was startled by how near it sounded. She had been so preoccupied with thinking through which formula for a treatment for fevers could be made from the supplies available in this country, and also observing the patient she was currently checking on, all while trying to ignore the distraction posed by Nathley, that she had failed to notice that Aron and Rinna had quietly entered this tent and were walking over.

Losing her balance, Emri almost fell over onto the patient, but Aron rushed to grab her arm in time, putting an arm around her shoulder to steady her. Nathley yelped in surprise and then immediately covered her mouth at how loud she'd been, and Rinna over on the other side stood looking at Emri in what seemed to be a disapproving manner.

"Are you alright?" Aron asked. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." He sounded perfectly sincere, and maintained a friendly look on his face – though perhaps a little concerned as well.

"Yes, I'm alright." Emri insisted quickly, stepping to one side and shrugging off Aron's arm to prove she could stand up just fine by herself.

He looked possibly more concerned at the way she responded, so on second thought she took a step back towards him, saying: "Thank you."

Emri wasn't sure if Aron looked dismayed in some way, or maybe only concerned still, but then he smiled and nodded, so she figured it must be alright now.

Rinna cleared her throat and spoke up, though not too loud. "So, you've seen our sick people more closely now for yourself. I take it you've been checking their symptoms?"

Was that just a simple deduction on her part, or was Rinna suggesting that Emri might have been doing something else? Had she sensed anything unusual? Emri found it difficult to deal with people who might say one thing but mean another, like Rinna appeared to sometimes, just like she sometimes appeared to be more friendly than she really seemed to be. Why couldn't everyone just always say what they meant directly?

"Yes she has." Nathley spoke up on Emri's behalf, seeming at ease again – or, almost so? Something about her manner made her appear… maybe not intimidated by Rinna, but perhaps… as if she was impressed by her, or by her status. Nathley sounded respectful towards her, at least.

Rinna waved dismissively at the girl, saying, "I asked her." She then pointedly looked to Emri (with a fake-seeming smile) and asked, "What do you think?"

Emri made a point of standing still and straight, and replied as calm and levelly as she could. "I think it is exactly what I thought it was, and that the medicine will help. I also think we should add a treatment for fever; there's one that can be made from things Faver probably already has at his work table."

Rinna's manner had made Emri think of having to answer questions during school examinations, where the teachers would be judging not only the correctness of the answers, but also the students' posture and level of confidence. She hoped she had given her answer well enough to avoid being questioned further on the matter.

Rinna seemed to appraise her for a moment, then said: "Well, if you think you've seen enough for now, let's get you back there so you can start on that. Can't really do anything more for them without making more medicine anyway, can you?"

"Of course." Emri replied with a nod. She thought she'd already seen everyone who was worst off, but hopefully sometime later she could contrive to walk back through by herself, and avoid having anyone watch her.

2.1

Brylin took the gathering and management of information very seriously. She always liked to personally confirm or disprove rumors when possible, correct misinformation or negative gossip before such things did too much damage to morale or interpersonal relations in the camp, and to promote the sharing of good news or information that might be considered beneficial for the education or positive influencing of people in the camp. She thought of this as being a really important function on par with her roles as mother, wife, sister, daughter, and friend to those in her direct sphere of influence. Secondary to her were the jobs she did in coordinating preparation of meals and monitoring the camp's food supplies, planning ration amounts with the Leaders, and organizing those who collected supplies anytime anyone had a chance to hunt, gather, or trade for anything to use in preparing meals. Working with everyone concerned in the food preparation additionally involved dealing with anyone who supplied items needed for preparing food: people who gathered wood for fires, collected water or milked animals, butchers and anyone who made or mended pots, utensils, baskets, barrels, carts, or other sundry items needed.

Brylin happened to be good at organizing all those sorts of things and coordinating with everyone, though it was fair to say she took every advantage from it to gather and manage information. As important as the non-information-gathering tasks were, she wasn't the only person who helped with them, and though many people might think they were among the most important jobs in the camp, Brylin sincerely believed that nothing could be more vital than promoting harmony and cooperation, and that information management in the way she approached it was the best thing she could do towards that goal. That was more or less how she thought of it, even if she didn't actually call it 'information management' and generally didn't go around putting it into words and describing it as being her job in that way when she spoke to people. Some people did put it into words, and they called it 'being a busybody' or other similar terms, and generally saw it as a hobby of hers and not a vocation like she did. A few of the Leaders might have understood what she was about, though they didn't say so. Especially the older ones, who tended to watch quietly and nod knowingly.

Rinna being one of the somewhat younger Leaders (being more middle-aged, not so much older than Brylin herself was) was one who appeared to do a lot of the same kind of information gathering and management as Brylin, though she often seemed far less inclined to share the information she gathered than Brylin was. Brylin often wished Rinna were a bit freer with what she learned, and Rinna was known to regard Brylin as deserving of a reputation as a gossip; still, they more or less each credited the other with having deserved the reputations they'd earned for 'finding out everything' that went on in camp, and there was often something of a feeling of kinship between them on the subject of fact-finding.

Today, however, was a fine example of the difference between their ways rather than their similarities. The whole camp was mostly chattering about two main topics by dinner time: that there was a visitor in camp, and that Hin's children had just returned from fetching water. The bad news was that those youngsters were sick, but the good news was that the visitor in camp had told the Leaders she knew a medicine that could help with the sickness, or might help, or would help, depending on how hopeful the person passing on the gossip sounded. When Brylin saw Rinna, Brylin was with those who were serving dinner and Rinna had just walked back into camp with Aron. Brylin gathered that Aron had been at Faver's work tent and then gone to find Rinna, who had been out gathering herbs with Hin and the visitor. Evidently, Rinna (having heard about Hin's children on her way back with Aron) had discouraged others from going to fetch Hin, assuring everyone that he would be going straight back to the healing tents soon anyway. Most of what Brylin hadn't already heard previously she got from Aron this time, while Rinna was arranging for how many dinners to take back to Faver's work tent with them. Rinna was being irritatingly closed-mouthed about everything else, and surprisingly, even Aron was less chatty than Brylin would have expected him to normally be. He was generally a nice young man, one she had baby sat when he'd been only a little thing like her younger brother, but all she could get him to say about the visitor was her name and that she was 'polite' - as for other matters, Aron did confirm the rumor that Remal was over at Faver's work tent, but wouldn't offer anything more about that except that Remal was 'helping' Faver. There had to be something else to that, because Brylin knew full well that Remal hated helping with that sort of work, but neither Aron nor Rinna seemed at all willing to explain just how Remal was supposed to be 'helping' Faver.

More determined than ever that she needed to make it a priority to meet this visitor for herself sooner rather than later, Brylin added her own dinner to the number of meals to be taken to Faver's work tent, and herself helped Rinna and Aron deliver them. She wasn't sure what the looks were about that Rinna and Aron seemed to exchange over it, but this was one thing that even though they were Leaders, they'd need a really good reason if they wanted to oppose her coming along. Since Faver was her husband, no one ever denied Brylin the right to take dinner to him herself when she saw fit to do so, nor for her to sit and eat her own meals where she might have a chance to see him even if some emergency happened to require him to be working at the time and unable to calmly sit and eat with her. Aside from that, although she hadn't taken up her mother's work and had never officially apprenticed to it, having been raised by the Healer who taught Faver everything he knew (and having learned enough to assist her mother at times) Brylin was not only one of the most qualified midwives in camp but also a capable Healer's assistant for any number of other situations and had been known to help Faver in his work from time to time, especially if he or his apprentices were ever ill or injured. No one had any illusions, however, as to the fact that Brylin frequently took advantage of the fact that next to food preparation and the Leaders' Circle, the Healer's work was central and well-connected to just about everything else that went on in camp and a very good place for her to exercise her fact-finding. She didn't only often bring meals and check whether her help might be needed, but generally would also check whether anything else might be needed that she could arrange for, and thus usually visit regularly and check in on her husband almost any time she saw fit to do so.

While taking the food over, they heard that someone had seen what looked like Remal and Faver fighting just out past the edge of the camp on the other side of the healing tents a short while ago. Not merely having an argument like Brylin might normally expect from such a report, but supposedly it had been an actual fight. For some reason, Aron did not seem surprised, and Rinna shrugged at her. Brylin walked faster - not at a run, since she was carrying a wooden bowl of soup in each hand, but somewhat faster than she had already been at her customarily brisk and businesslike pace. Rinna and Aron fell behind slightly, but kept up well enough that she didn't have much time to survey what she saw upon entering Faver's work tent before the two Leaders came in behind her, set everything they were carrying down on the work table, and muttered something about going to check on their fellow Leaders who were sick. In a moment, they were out again through the other side of the tent.

If Brylin didn't have her hands full, she'd cross her arms, but as it was she tapped her foot on the rush mat and made a loud 'tsk' in a way that she hoped sounded extremely disapproving.

Remal certainly looked like he'd been in a fight. He had a big bruise on one side of his face by his jaw, a split lip, and a bit of a black eye, aside from some other bruises clearly visible since he had his shirt off, sitting on Faver's cot with his legs up on it and covered with a blanket like Faver was going to have him lie down for a rest. As for Faver, at first glance he didn't immediately look to her like he'd been fighting, but then Brylin saw that on his forearms below his rolled-up shirtsleeves it appeared he might have the sort of bruises one might get from blocking a number of punches with them. He looked to be checking a reasonably large bandage (though not so large as to suggest something grave) Faver had probably just put on the backside of Remal's shoulder, wrapped around to hold it in place. A small folding table and a stool nearby were cluttered with various things a Healer would use for stitching and bandaging, and also something that looked like a type of poultice maybe for cuts or small wounds and bruises. On second thought, maybe it was for insect bites, since all the places she could see it had been applied to Remal looked like spots small enough to cover the little bites people had been getting from the marsh flies, and as though it had nothing to do with the bruises he had, nor were any of the poultice applications not-round, as one might expect if applied to a cut or scrape that would cover an area longer than it was wide.

Brylin did not get a satisfactory response to her clear disapproval. Faver had nodded like he normally might when simply acknowledging someone's presence while engrossed in his work and especially if he had nothing to say. Remal on the other hand looked askance at her, avoiding direct eye contact as if he could pretend that he wasn't there by doing so.

With a huff, Brylin set the food she had brought onto the work table by the other dishes, then walked up to stand by Faver - with her arms crossed this time.

"Did you do this?" she asked curtly, with a nod towards Remal.

"Did I stitch this up and bandage it? Yes." Faver replied, punctuating the last word with an abrupt pat to the bandage he'd just finished checking. Remal groaned and shrugged his shoulder. Brylin frowned.

Unintimidated, Faver said "Thank you for bringing dinner, Dear." and kissed Brylin on the cheek, while Remal rolled his eyes and made a show of looking the other way. Faver made a move to hug her, but Brylin instead grabbed one of his arms and held it up like she was showing it to him. He winced like maybe that pulled a sore muscle somewhere, or perhaps he had a worse bruise under his shirt sleeve that she'd put pressure on by grabbing his arm.

She didn't bother to ask now if they'd been fighting like she'd heard, nor even to state that she believed they'd been fighting. She merely looked over Faver's bruised arm and into his eyes, until she saw his expression looking back turn sober - accepting she was serious and wasn't going to laugh this one off.

"So who won?" she asked.

Faver pulled his arm down and started to put away the things he'd had all over the stool and small table, clearing the stool first and inviting Brylin to use it with a simple nod. Remal continued to pretend not to be there. Brylin relocated the stool closer to the work table.

"It doesn't matter either way, does it?" Faver asked. "Aren't you already mad at both of us for fighting? Besides, regardless of who won, you're sure to be disappointed in the loser."

Remal spoke up then, though he still wouldn't look directly at her and instead was examining the back of his arm where he'd had some poultice applied to a few insect bites. From where she now sat, Brylin could see it looked like had plenty more of the same on his back. Just this morning, he'd been talking as though he'd hardly gotten any so far.

"Faver won." Remal said, sounding a little sullen and grudging.

Having some idea of their individual strengths and abilities, Brylin raised an eyebrow at that, but couldn't deny that Remal did look more beat up.

"Remal gave up too easily." Faver said, putting the things for stitching and bandaging into a little cabinet drawer, and rummaging around for something else. Brylin found that difficult to believe, though she knew Faver to be dependably truthful - even if he was occasionally selective about how much he would say about some things.

"It wasn't a fair or serious fight anyway." Faver added. "Remal needs rest and I prescribed him to get some exercise first." He walked the short way across the tent back to Remal, carrying a jar he'd dug out of the drawer.

"Felt serious." Remal muttered, rubbing at the bruised area over his jaw. Brylin didn't think she was meant to have heard it.

"Put this on that." Faver instructed, nudging Remal's arm and passing him the jar. Brylin recognized it as one that was used for a salve that was supposed to help with bruises, among other things.

Faver's explanation of events was not very convincing to Brylin, even without Remal undermining it. It might be factually truthful or at least partially accurate in a way, but Brylin had a feeling this version was only a fraction of the truth. If it was really more than just a form of exercise, if they hadn't simply been sparring but actually fighting about something, that was the main reason for her to disapprove. Of all people, she expected her husband - a Healer - to set an example for peace and cooperation in the camp. Honestly, what were conditions coming to if stress in the camp could make Faver susceptible to being goaded into fighting, even if it was Remal doing the goading? Or, especially then.

Brylin stood back up and folded her arms again, stepping to where she could stare Remal in the face until he actually looked back.

"Anyone would think," she said levelly, "that you were Faver's little brother, instead of mine."

"Near enough." Faver commented from over by his work table. It sounded like he was eating. "Brothers by marriage, anyway."

"Pfft." Remal shrugged, glancing at Faver and back to Brylin, who kept staring at him. "You're not my sister anyway because you act like you think you're a second mother instead."

They might think they were being funny, Brylin did not.

Faver started to say something more, but Brylin held up a hand like she did when she meant that she wasn't finished. Remal always had a bad habit of interrupting and talking back. Seemed he was a bad influence on Faver, though Brylin had always hoped things would run the other way and that Faver (especially being a bit older than Remal) would be the greater influence. Well, Faver was still the better man, and Brylin was used to it by now anyway.

She stalked over to the work table, declaring, "I would make you both go without dinner-" (she stared at Faver pointedly, but he continued eating, unperturbed) then Brylin picked up another bowl with its wooden spoon and walked back to Remal while she finished: "-except you need to eat and keep up your strength."

"But not for fighting!" she added with a pointed glare at Remal before shoving the bowl at him to take. "There's an awful lot of work to be done."

Brylin looked back at Faver, who nodded and agreed with, "Yes, there is."

"You started it anyway." Remal said.

"Oh, you know you were picking fights first." Faver retorted.

How like brothers, to be sticking together one minute and then be against each other the next. If it kept up, Brylin thought that in a few minutes she might be able to get Faver to tell her what it really was all about. Remal surely wouldn't ever, but Faver might. She hadn't finished what she had to say about the fighting anyway.

"You're setting a terrible example for the children, you know. I've seen a number of them fighting over the past few days, and just yesterday I even caught Nina fighting with some of the others her age!"

Remal pointed his wooden spoon at Brylin. "Nina doesn't fight with the other kids. They're just practicing."

"As long as it's not in anger with harmful intent," Faver said, "it's not unreasonable if they spar to learn self-defense skills, now is it?"

Back to sticking together. Brylin glared at Faver. "Will you still say that when your own daughter is in here with broken bones that you have to set?"

"There are worse things that could happen." Remal commented. For a moment, Brylin was surprised that it almost sounded like he had switched sides to back her up, but the next thing he said made it clear that he intended nothing of the sort. "These are dangerous times. The earlier the kids start learning to protect themselves, the better."

Brylin huffed, exasperated, and crossed her arms again. "The whole point of us packing up and traveling through one cursed place after another is so we can find a peaceful new home where the children will be safe! Where they won't have to fight for their lives or to keep their food, where they can grow up without starving or living in constant fear of attack!"

She'd been glaring at Remal while she spoke, not noticing that Faver had walked over until he put his arms around her. "I know, Dear." He hugged her tight and kissed her cheek. "We'll find it… but we aren't there yet."

"No one can say how long it might take to find such a place." Remal insisted stubbornly.

"Well, then…" Brylin said, just as stubbornly, "none of the children should be encouraged to spar unsupervised. I think we should talk to Hin and the Leaders about having some of our best fighters teach classes. Not you. Someone who really would teach more about defense than attacking."

"Wouldn't wanna teach a bunch of kids anyway." Remal muttered into his food.

Faver nodded at what Brylin said, but couldn't help chuckling at Remal.

"You shouldn't encourage him." Brylin scolded.

Faver kissed her on the cheek again. "I really don't, you know."

"Do I know that?" Brylin asked dubiously, then addressed herself to Remal again. "Why are you here, anyway? You surely didn't come to get your shoulder treated unless it was something worse than it would appear by the size of the bandage." Not expecting any reasonable answer from him, she immediately turned to interrogate Faver. "Was that something that was left untreated long enough to get badly infected? Has it made him sick, or is he catching-"

"Let someone else get a word in if you want an answer." Remal interrupted, rudely.

"He's alright." Faver said evenly. "He's not sick and the shoulder's hardly more than a scratch, but he does need rest, like I said. He's been working hard, and not sleeping much at all. Since I'm making him stay here where I can make sure he rests, I'm testing a new poultice on him so I can see how well it works on a… relatively healthy, active sort of person who is neither old nor a child, and has not yet gotten sick. I wouldn't want to ask anyone to skip out on their work for it, and the Leaders prefer I don't test it first on anyone doing Healing work."

Brylin pursed her lips, and gave her husband a light slap on the arm, almost like how she might smack a naughty puppy on the nose. He really did encourage Remal sometimes. Her younger brother had such an infuriatingly uncommunicative way of handling things - or, rather, of not handling them, and instead avoiding dealing with the kinds of things that worried their Mother most. He didn't take care of himself like he should, and even when he actually did go to Faver for any sort of treatment, he would get Faver to keep quiet about it instead of telling his family. Brylin's inclusion of fact-finding about her little brother's state of health in her frequent visits to the Healer's work tent was a deliberately calculated countermeasure against Remal's childishly stubborn insistence on never telling her nor their Mother anything important. She had a duty to keep Mother informed as best she could, no matter how much Remal might try to prevent it - especially seeing as he wasn't doing his own duty as a son because he wasn't keeping Mother informed himself.

"So you both thought it was fine to go ahead without bothering to tell me or Mother? Especially Mother, you know she worries."

Remal started to sputter and protest, but Faver stepped up to him immediately and put a hand over his mouth. "Don't you start again!" Faver ordered sternly. Remal glared.

A little surprised at the sudden fierceness Faver directed at Remal instead of giving her some kind of lighthearted and unconvincing excuse, Brylin folded her arms again and waited as Faver next held up a hand to indicate to her that he had something to say he considered important. She wanted to hear it, especially if he was going to give some answers and prevent Remal from interrupting. She'd rather have Faver's version of things anyway.

Faver folded his arms as well, taking up a stubborn stance and a businesslike tone.

"Remal is fine. He's not sick, and if I thought there was even any chance of real harm to him, I would have said so first, but as things are I thought it best to not delay. It's important that I test this right away. The Leaders agree. Now, this is where I work! I can't have people arguing here all day and night, interfering with my work and my patients' rest. It makes everyone more anxious and people literally lose sleep over it when they hear a bunch of shouting, so I can't have you two start anything like that here. Remal thinks you're too bossy, you think he doesn't listen, but if you two want to fight about it, do it on another day when I don't need him here and when you can take it out away from everyone else.  I've already asked Remal to stop griping at others over the same old things, and I'm asking you to also avoid involving other people in your complaints with each other. Most of all, though, I'm not having it in here, alright? Also, as I said before, Remal needs to rest, so I'd appreciate you leaving him be for a while."

Faver put an arm around Brylin and steered her back towards the stool to sit on. She didn't like for anyone to tell her what to do, even him… but it wasn't unreasonable for Faver to take control of his work space, and she respected him for having enough backbone to do so.

"Besides," Faver added, "none of us have finished eating, and as you said before, we all need our strength. You too." He passed her a bowl and took up his own, clearly intending she eat instead of talking any more.

Brylin saw Remal watching, and knew that if she tried to say much of anything at this point, her brother would insist on having his say also. Well, at the moment, nothing was more important than Faver's work, so for now she'd do as he wished. Anyway, she had already gotten answers to a couple of the important questions she'd had. The rest could wait until she actually met this visitor called Emri who was supposedly helping out here today.

"All right, we'll discuss it later." Meaning not only that she'd talk to Remal some other time like Faver suggested, but also that she intended to have a talk with Faver about these things later as well. She hoped her husband understood that from the look she gave him.

They hadn't been eating for long when Nina showed up. Brylin and Faver's only child - the only one to have survived past infancy, though Brylin didn't like thinking about that - Nina was much doted on, being also now the only grandchild of Brylin's mother, and a favorite of her only surviving uncle. She was an energetic child of nine years, and though both her parents were on the taller side of average height, she didn't appear to be following them in that. Not so far, anyway. Her mother worried that maybe the plain unvaried diet and careful rations they all had been keeping to for the past several months might be holding back her growth, but Faver insisted that since Nina wasn't really shorter than the average height for children her age, there was no need to worry. He thought she would have significant growth spurts later on.

Brylin suspected that Nina had come for some of the same reasons that she herself had, more or less; curiosity about there being a visitor in camp helping Faver, and one rumor or another about Remal being there.

"Nina, how's my favorite short person?" Remal greeted her as if everything were completely normal.

"Good…" Nina replied, obviously not convinced by his nonchalant tone. She walked up and poked at a large, obvious bruise on his arm. "Uncle Rem, are you alright?"

"Sure. I'm just here helping your dad out." He elbowed her lightly in the ribs. "What are you doing?"

"Didn't I send you to eat dinner with Grandma?" Brylin questioned.

"I already finished eating, and Grandma said for me not to wait for her to finish, but come back later for the dinner things."

"How is Grandma?" Faver said, and patted Brylin on the arm. She decided to let it be for now. Nina could stay as long as she herself was there… as long as the men didn't start condoning violence. She did sometimes worry that Remal might be a bad influence on Nina in that respect, but lately she and Faver had considered that Nina tended to be more of a good influence on Remal. There seemed to be so few people anymore that he actually got along with and would treat like friends, that they were glad for his sake that he was still friends with his niece.

"She's alright." Nina answered Faver. "Eating well, but slow like always." She turned abruptly back to Remal, poking him in the arm again despite his protests. Brylin figured he deserved it anyway.

"You look like you got in a fight." Nina said. Brylin didn't know if Nina had actually heard about it yet or not. She shot Remal a warning glance.

"Yeah." Remal said, then coughed dryly when he noticed Brylin glaring. "With a mean old bear."

"A bear?" Nina said doubtfully. "Did you get hurt much?" She poked at the bandaging on his shoulder.

"Not really." Remal said, leaning away from Nina and using his spoon to fend off further poking.

Brylin heard a cough from Faver, and looked to see he was clearly trying not to laugh.

"Did you teach him a lesson?" Nina asked, stealing the spoon out of Remal's hand when he looked over at Faver.

Remal, acting more surprised than Brylin expected, made a show of trying to get the spoon back - but she suspected he wasn't trying very hard, letting Nina wave it at him and pull it out of reach over and again.

"You know," he said, grabbing at where the spoon had been an instant after it was pulled away, "this time it was the bear doing the teaching, but I'll get him back later."

"Can I watch?" Nina asked, now poking him with the spoon.

"Probably not." Remal held up his bowl as if it were a shield to fend off the spoon, and Brylin sincerely hoped he'd finished eating so there wouldn't be anything left to spill on the blanket.