Tea for Two

May 16th, 2019, 4:28
Lily read over Elle’s letter of response again, turning the paper over to admire the wax seal -- an actual wax seal! -- before checking that the set up was perfect. For the fourth time. She’d brought a small round table and two chairs up to the garden from inside the base, decorating them to the best of her ability: one of mom’s old scarves for a tablecloth, a woven sort of doily made of twigs and vines draped over the back of each chair, and a vase in the middle of the table full of gladiolus flowers. She checked the time on her phone: 4:28. Just enough time to run back to the kitchen and get the kettle of water she’d put on to boil before Elle arrived. Lily hadn’t checked if punctuality was a chivalrous virtue, but Elle seemed like the kind of person who would be right on time. She ran back inside to fetch some water.

Elle walked up the stairs to the garden in thought, preferring it to the unnatural movement of the elevators. They made them feel like an evening meal being brought up to a ravenous family by dumbwaiter, and it was not a sensation they enjoyed.

They had been excited to receive the invitation, and pleased to have a reason to write a letter that - for once - could actually be delivered. And Lily had been very pleasant in their interactions thus far, so they were excited to spend more time with her as well.

They were wearing a loose, billowing white blouse, half unbuttoned to show a round medallion on a golden chain on their chest, tucked into a pair of high-waisted black pants - a modern re-imagining, you could say, of a classic nobleman’s outfit, breeches and all. Their hair was in a loose ponytail at the back, tied together with a red ribbon at the base of her neck. A basket was draped over their right arm, covered in a checkered cloth.

They paused at the entrance to the gardens and knocked on the door frame to announce their presence.

Lily nearly bumped into Elle as she ran back up the stairs, almost spilling scalding hot water on both of them. “Woah! Elle! You’re here! I was just getting the water, but go on in, it’s not locked or anything. I set up a table and all!” Lily gestured Elle ahead with her free hand, holding the spout of the kettle away from the two of them; she didn’t want the steam to make her leaves wilt. “I’m glad you could make it, I’ve been practicing since the weekend and wanted an expert to try it out.”

Elle bowed at her before continuing. “It is my pleasure, miss Lily. I do so enjoy these gardens, and your request was the most polite one I’ve received since I moved to Halcyon.”

They walked to the table, and put the basket on one of the chairs. “I wish I could take credit for these, but I am afraid I was denied access to the kitchens at Shady Glen manor, and Carol insisted on making all of it herself. As such I can only claim to have brought them to you.” They say, unwrapping packages of cookies, cake and even sandwiches from their wrappings and putting them on the table. “Still, I hope they provide adequate repayment.”

Their cargo unloaded they sit down, and smile at Lily before leaning in to smell the gladiolus.

Lily set the kettle on the mat on the table, careful not to squish any of the treats Elle had brought, and sat down across from them. “Of course! This is so cool, I haven’t made tea for anyone before, I didn’t even think about snacks until you said it in your letter.” She thought about the letter, folded up in the pocket of her oversized pants, and smiled to herself. “They look so good,” she drew out the word ‘good’, “I just hope I can do Carol’s work justice.”

Lily set the teacups on the table right-side-up, then held out her left palm and stared at it with determined focus. Slowly but surely, a few small leaves of different sizes and colours began to sprout from the vines that made up her hand. She kept concentrating until the leaves began to shrivel and dry out; perfect for steeping. She plucked them from her palm and dropped half into Elle’s cup and half into her own, then poured water over them. Taking out her phone and starting the timer, she informed Elle that her best try so far had needed one minute and thirty-eight seconds to steep, apologizing for the wait. “So, how was your day? Have a good day at school?” she asked before taking a bite of cake. It tasted as good as it looked.

Elle made a face. “School is difficult for me, honestly. I don’t know most things we are expected to know. But I do enjoy being around so many other people my age.” They nibble on the corner of a sandwich. “I spent the last few years before my arrival here as a squire to the Knight-Commander of Camelot’s forces, so I was mostly around sweaty men and women in armour. Among which myself, I suppose.”
They smile mischievously. “It is a very nice change to be around other young people again.”

“How is it for you? I don’t believe I have seen you there, do you attend a different institution, or are you working on an apprenticeship?”

“Oh,” Lily started to talk with her mouth full but swallowed before continuing, covering her mouth with one hand, “I used to go to Big High too, but stopped after, uh… after I changed.” She smiles awkwardly, worried that she’d ruined the conversation already. “My brother still goes there though. He’s a senior.”

A song started playing on Lily’s phone -- ‘Here Comes The Sun’ by The Beatles -- and her face lit up. “The tea’s ready! Ok, try it out.” She lifted her cup to her mouth, pausing to blow on it to cool it off, but mostly to watch for Elle’s reaction. She’d tried to copy the tea Acacio had made for them a few days earlier, but Lily’s attempts tasted more strongly of berries and honey, and the mint was weaker. It wasn’t bad though; different dryad, different tea.

Elle looks thoughtful. “Michael Grayden? Michel? I haven’t spoken to him, but I’ve seen him a couple times.” She happily accepts the cup. “Are you worried about people’s reactions to your situation?”
Rather than wait for a response, she takes a long sip of the tea, taking the time to savor it. She puts the cup back down, eyes closed, and breathes out before smiling.

“It’s really good.” She opens her eyes and peers into the cup, trying to make out the leaves. “Did you base it on Acacio’s?”

A huge smile breaks out on Lily’s face at the compliment. “Yeah! Phew, I’m so glad you like it,” she sighed with relief, “I tried to make it just like Acacio’s, but it always turned out a bit different. So I just kinda let it be different. This is awesome.” She smiled very proudly and took another bite of cake before taking her first sip to wash it down. She mused over how to answer Elle’s question about school while chewing, unsure how much she should say. “It’s not that I’m scared of how people will react. Well, it’s not just that, anyway. Part of the reason I don’t go anymore is because Mitchell’s there. Remember when you were talking about how Sir Galahad started you treating you differently kinda out of nowhere? Mitchell’s the same with me, only I guess it’s not really out of nowhere; one day he had a normal little sister, the next day there was me. I guess I just don’t wanna make him more upset, so I can wait until next year to go back. Maybe.” Lily shrugs and returns to her tea and cake.

“I’ve had Acacio’s on a few occasions, and I once had the opportunity to try a pine dryad’s. Compared to that one, yours is much more like Acacio’s, but feels… younger? Like the first shoots of spring, or the first fruit harvest.”

“I don’t know that that isn’t out of nowhere. You changed, but not in essence. You weren’t a different person from one day to the next because your heart is vines and sap rather than flesh and blood. You probably are different now, after that experience,” Elle says, hands wrapped around the warm teacup, “But you would have changed in that time anyway, if probably in a different direction.”

She looks down at her own reflection in the tea, broken up by the tiny waves created by the slight tremor in her hands. “Gal, on the other hand, has had twenty-one years to change during which I - or this version of me, at least - have not been around. I understand why he’s different. It still hurts, though.”

“I hope your brother will come around.” They lean forward, trying their best to look reassuring. “I hope this isn’t rude of me to ask, but… would you go back to your former self if you could? You don’t seem like you greatly dislike your current situation. You evidently have a fondness for plants, and they for you.”

“I’d totally go back!” Lily almost shouts in response, adjusting her volume before continuing. “I didn’t even really know that much about plants before this happened. I have this friend- well, she’s really more of a teacher, but she’s not actually a teacher, not officially anyway. Her name is Dr. Russell, I met her back when I used to go to school, she’s a botanist and she’s been teaching me all about plants since I kinda am one now. Y’know, stuff like soil types, and how to deal with fungus and pests and bugs, and to make sure I get enough sun. But if I could not be a plant tomorrow, I’d definitely choose that. In a heartbeat!” Lily catches her breath and studies Elle’s face, asking “Is that disappointing?”

Though a bit surprised by the exclamation, Lancelot shakes their head. “No, it isn’t. It feels awful when your body isn’t what you feel it should be. I know what that’s like. I’ve had to beg a witch to change me a couple times, and I’ve been very lucky to know her. In multiple ways.”

“There was a child in my etiquette classes with me when I was very young who left because he didn’t want to be a girl - that’s actually how I found out it was possible to use magic for that.” They take another sip of their tea, looking at the table in reminiscence. “I also know that despite the cure being available, some of the Transformed don’t want to be human again. It’s their choice to make, and it’s yours too.”

Lily blinks in surprise. She’d never thought of it that way; she’d been so focused on how different she was that she hadn’t stopped to think that the difference might be alright. Every time she’d gotten serious about changing back -- going to check out the lines of Transformed getting their cures, learning about the feywild -- she met more and more people who were fine with her the way she was. “But what if… the way my family acts around me now, the way Sir Galahad acts around you -- what if that never gets better? Are you gonna be alright even if he keeps being a jerk to you?” Lily lowered her eyes to her cup of tea, swirling the leaves in the remnants of her drink.

“Gal will come around. I believe that. I grew up with him, and though he’s always been grumpy and judgmental, he has a good heart. I don’t believe even twenty-one years of life can change that. But if he doesn’t…” Elle looks sad. “Then he isn’t the Galahad I know, and if he isn’t the Galahad I know, I don’t need to be sad that he doesn’t like me.”

“That’s what I tell myself. I will be sad regardless. I get attached quickly and strongly, and I often feel as if I form parts of myself into threads and weave them around the objects of my affection. When we separate, the threads break and I get hurt, so I do what I can to prevent that.”

Her expression turns from sad to determined as she continues. “But I will not let my relationships dictate who or what I want to be. I will not deny my gender, or my ideals, or my vocation because someone I care about prefers me a different way. I promised that to myself! And I take vows very seriously. It’s a knight thing.” She winks.

Lily feels herself blush at the wink, looking at Elle with awe. “You are so cool.” she states bluntly. It takes her a moment to recollect herself and figure out how to respond. In her search for the words to say, Lily’s eyes pause on the flowers in the center of the table and she smiles with deep satisfaction. “Y’know, I’ve been growing a bunch of plants in my plot there,” Lily points over her shoulder to the colourful and almost random seeming variety of plants behind her, “and I’ve been trying to pick ones for everyone I meet on the team. Some of them I was kind of simple about choosing: there’s poppies and roses all kinda bunched together for Poppy-Rose and there are lavenders for Adria. Hell, I even chose these for you because they look like your hair.”

She picks up the gladiolus spikes from the vase, the flowers yellow in the center of their petals bleeding to purple at the edges, and twirls them slowly in her hands. “But I was looking into these kinds of things more the more people I met, and I found out something about these. They’re gladiolus flowers, sometimes they’re called sword lilies which is also cool because you have a sword and all, but I was reading a book about flower meanings at the botanical gardens and y’know what gladioluses mean? They represent strength of character, faithfulness, and integrity, and I just realized that they’re even more perfect for you than I thought.” She extends her arm to Elle, placing the flowers on the table in front of them. “Sorry if that was just rambling and you already knew all of that though.”

Elle looks at the flowers quietly, one hand brushing the petals while the other reached for her hair, where the gold fades to deep purple. They had been self conscious about it since it happened - a physical change, a representation of the terrifying existential corruption that had nearly taken hold of them in the first months after their arrival in Halcyon. They’d even gone as far as to purchase hair dye at a salon once, agonizing over whether to use it for a week only to find that it washed right off, and the purple remained. Even their powers, the energy they used to reflect attacks and keep their footing and conjure up defenses, were marred.

Looking at it in the flowers though, it just looked beautiful. The flowers didn’t look impure, or marred, or dying… the colours flowed into each other like it was natural, and though different, both the yellow and the purple were rich and healthy. They could almost see the aspects ascribed to it in them.

Gladius is Latin for sword,” they finally say, as their pensive look breaks into a wide, genuine smile, with a hint of tears at the corner of their eyes. “And no, I didn’t know any of it. This flower doesn’t grow anywhere in Avalon that I’ve been. I would have remembered it.”

She breathes in deeply, stands up straight, and turns to Lily, wiping the corner of her eyes on a handkerchief.

They take Lily’s hand in theirs, and bow down to kiss the back of it. “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. You’ve done me a great service.”

Lily isn’t sure what to do; she had no idea if there was some kind of protocol to follow, when a thought occurred to her: if Elle lived with Rhiannon, they would probably be pretty used to hugs. This seemed like time for a hug. She stood up to meet Elle and gave them a hug, adding “Anytime.” in as assuring a tone as she could. “You’re helping me too, and I really need it, so thanks for talking to me. And trying the tea. Oh,” Lily perks up, “y’know, Rhiannon said I should go visit her- your house some time -- we should have a tea party with everyone! I can make more tea, and everyone can sit in the garden, and we can make more cake and stuff-” Lily cuts herself off, realizing that she shouldn’t volunteer someone else’s house for a party like that. “I mean, if that’s something you think you all in that house would enjoy?” She asks with a nervous smile.

“She would love that. And I am certain Carol will take the opportunity to do a rematch of today,” Elle says, gesturing at the still-enormous pile of sandwiches and cookies with a smile. “I have been thinking of it as my house, I must admit with some guilt. I know I am just a temporary guest, and I can never truly repay Lady Rhiannon for all she’s done for me, but she’s so wonderful to be around and so welcoming that it is hard to resist.”

“Speaking of, could I propose a trade? The rest of these for one of these flowers? If I bring them back uneaten, Carol will simply admonish me for not finishing them.”

“Yup, yup, I totally get that. I only met Rhiannon the once and here I am planning a party at her house! She’s just so nice!” Lily nods in agreement at Elle’s assessment of Rhiannon, her face tightening into a slight grimace at the mention of taking the sandwiches.

“Honestly, I’m super full. I’ve kinda eaten a lot today,” she points up at the sun, “but I just had to try some cake; I love cake. I bet if we took them to the kitchen they’ll get eaten by other people though. That way you won’t have to take them back home either. Win-win!” Lily picks up the plate with both hands and extends a few extra vines out of the too-wide sleeve of her shirt -- technically her dad’s that she’d borrowed -- to grab the kettle. “Can you bring the dishes? I should wash them before I take them home.”

Lancelot blinks when Lily points up, before her eyes widen in understanding. “Ohh.. phobosynthese? I learned about this in school recently. That makes sense!”

They pick up the various plates, piling them into the basket they brought and covering it up with the cloth, balancing the flowers on top. She’d ask Rhiannon for a vase back home, and maybe put them in the windowsill so they could catch a lot of sunlight. The splash of colour would do a lot to cheer up the room, she thought.

“It’s ‘photosynthesis’, means making stuff out of light,” Lily starts to explain as the two leave the garden, “so you didn’t have, like, any school in Camelot? No math or science class? None?...” The voices trail off as the door closes behind them, leaving just the table in the garden.