i held my first class on magecraft this afternoon – 14 learners showed up!
i started by asking everyone to introduce themselves and to be honest about their skills and goals so we'd all know what we could learn from each other
apparently this is an unusual approach here so some of them were hesitant at first but by the end of the introductions everyone seemed more comfortable and less nervous
including myself
after all it's my first time in this role
over the course of 6 crownsdays i'll help them learn the basics well enough to make renew tokens
a couple of them might need extra help but i think most can manage it – 4 almost certainly will
one of them is cora greenleaf! but she's worried that the renew spell will shake house jorasco apart – they'll lose their monopoly on healing magic that doesn't come from a cleric
but they'll still have a network of established clinics and they can learn the spell ... right?
the day went well but the evening was the rough part
i talked with dad briefly and he was happy to hear about the class and our progress through the jewelry songs
then i asked him to pass the sending stone to mom
i asked her if she ever learned more about those long work trips prim rose and signal flare and winter rose went on
i was expecting her to finally tell me more of the truth
i ... was not expecting her to know less than i do
she kept asking why they would come out here
i was able to say for certain that signal flare felt she was protecting our home but i don't more than that yet
mom still feels that prim was horrible for not telling her anything about how her dam died
i tried to explain that she may have had good reasons for keeping silent ... and that i will try to find out why
she's not even sure she wants to know more
but i do
then i shared what i thought would be good news – that it looked like winter rose was still alive but living some distance from here and growing amazing glitterreed
that only added to her anger at prim for not explaining
looks like i went looking to mom for clarification and instead reopened old wounds
she's not upset with me and she assured me i'd done nothing wrong and i know that but i still feel like i did
should i have waited longer?
that wasn't all we talked about but the rest wasn't nearly so weighty
she just wants to know that medya and i are healthy and doing well and that medya's getting enough nuts and legumes for her protein needs and that i'm eating enough greens
yes mom we're eating right and in fact the food is one of the most positive aspects of being out here (also the reedpaste but i didn't say that part)
we'll return home even better than when we left