Undercurrent Bouquets are a collection of flowers tied together by dark blue twine and serves as a symbol for safe stops along the tide for escaping slaves to stay.
Location
Undercurrent captains use the flower bouquet to understand the safety of the area (or lack thereof) and the availability of safe houses. The location of the flowers communicates the availability of the house while specific flowers used communicate information about the area. If the flowers are left in a wooden vase on the window ledge, the safe house is available. If the flowers are tied upside down in the window the flowers signify that the house is in use but the area is still safe.
Flower Composition
Safe houses communicate how many juweles they can hide by the number of pansies present. Most safe houses can hide between 1-3 juweles. Honeysuckles in the bouquet indicate resupplies for undercurrent captains. The presence of poppies communicates danger. When one poppy is in the bouquet, catchers may have recently been in the area, and captains know to use caution when moving around the area. Two poppies, and a captain know to move in town with caution. When possible, a captain will usually choose to move to the next stop in the undercurrent than stay in a two-poppy area. Three poppies and a captain will move out of the area as quickly as possible, even if it means braving inclimate weather.
Arrival
Captains use an undercurrent sending stone to communicate their arrival to safe house owners. To avoid suspicion or association, captains stay in the safe house with the juweles when possible but will stay in a nearby tavern when space is limited, or to get information about news in the surrounding area.
Cultural Influence
The different flower combinations have gained popularity in many towns with undercurrent stops. Many unrelated homes and businesses have started using poppies and pansies in decorative flower bouquets. To help undercurrent captains identify authentic safe symbols, the flowers are a tied together by dark blue twine.
History
Early in the undercurrent history, Salia Aradia's general store was the first safe house stop in the undercurrent. She had a large flower garden and would give a yellow pansy to each juweles as a symbol of their strength, and tenacity. These pansy's came to signify hope and gradually spread to other stops in the undercurrent.
Comments