Written Wonderland

Xavier was up bright and early to start organizing the charm making, although he wasn't entirely sure where to start. The commander said she would get Xavier everything he needed, but how and how soon?

Deciding that was the first thing to figure out, he went to her tent right away, and she organized a number of the messengers to spread the word and also ordered Captain Nicolaides' retinue, who had done much of the hunting for the camp, to bring bones that the soldiers had picked clean and dried, and they rounded up some of the leather and armor that had been torn or damaged beyond repair in the next few battles. The lieutenant was grateful that they had thought to keep so many of their materials--difficult as they had been on the move for a while--but it certainly came in handy now, and without the king's financial support, they didn't have the luxury of buying new supplies.

After giving their horses a bit of a haircut--fairly well if Xavier said so himself--the lieutenant got to work setting up workstations along the edge of camp nearest to the forest. They were going to need a lot of space. Soldiers trickled in, and Xavier put them to work after asking them a series of questions about their skills and interest. There were a few people cutting and sewing bits of repurposed leather together, others tying horse hair and bone to the charm, and yet others engraving the symbol with a hot poker from the fire. Xavier instructed everyone to a task and then sat down himself to work on what he could.

It wasn't long before he was striking up a friendly conversation with one of his helpers, a black-haired female soldier he swore he had seen around before, but he couldn't remember which captain she was under.

"Thanks for your help with this. It would have been difficult to make so many of these by myself."

((OOC: So, I'm thinking it makes sense that Chloe is maybe doing the engraving, and we figure once there are a pile of charms, Xavier will teach someone to do the "muttering." We are hoping she will ask questions and Xavier will answer.

I'm most interested in having a situation where the country has, like, three main belief systems, and Xavier is familiar with all of them but sort of picks and chooses things from each/focuses more on the magic/potions involved. Maybe Chloe and Philip subscribe to one and Joseph subscribes to the other? And then the third one is whatever Dehaljadrun is a part of. I suppose it would be most interesting if there were some overall in truth between the three. And, hell, maybe Calendra is a split-off of Dehaljadrun in another religious canon. Maybe she has two other parts of herself to discover.

Anyway, my hope is that we can use this scene to fluidly come up with some of the religious canon and then reference it later. And, I think I might throw my character Jason in at some point to help ask questions?))

((OOC: Chloe seems to be most interested in sewing on the bone and horse hair so we went ahead with that~))

Chloe nodded enthusiastically to Lieutenant Allegre as she carefully stitched the horse hair and bone into place for the charm she worked on. She found that she rather enjoyed this process; she liked the focus and the detail work, especially knowing that she was creating something magical.

"I'm really glad that we're making something like this," she said after a brief pause, once her focus was ready to relax a bit in her process. "I've been praying, but it feels good to be gathering together and doing something."

Her expression melted a little, melancholy tugging at her chest as she remembered back to praying with Lieutenant Pemberley just the other day. She wiggled her nose and mouth a little bit, wondering if now was as good a time as any to ask a slightly selfish question.

"Do you think these might be able to help the men who've already...?"

She hadn't intended to trail off, but she found that she still didn't know how she wanted to refer to those soldiers in the infirmary tent. Some called them 'fallen' or 'attacked' or 'mad', but none of those seemed to sit right with Chloe. 'Lost' was the most accurate, she thought, but as in 'gotten lost', rather than 'been'. Or at least, she supposed, that was her hope. Surely their bodies wouldn't still show signs of life, however odd, if their spirits had no hope of finding their ways home.

Xavier looked up suddenly at the woman after she asked her question--he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before now. Granted, he had been so focused on getting everything together, it was understandable that it hadn't crossed his mind.

But... the mechanics... would it work? According to his grandfather, it was a warding charm, and such charms were typically only useful before something occurred. After something happened, healing was in order, but that didn't stop Xavier's grandmother from hanging charms and woven wreaths on the doors of those who were sick. Illness makes people even more vulnerable, she would say. But, Xavier wasn't sure that even his grandmother would have known what to do with the muttering men. Surely she would have at least made them a potion and sang over their feet.

"I... don't know. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try it. I don't want to say that it definitely won't, but that isn't what they're for." After thinking about it for a moment, Xavier asked, "were you close with one of the people who was attacked?"

Chloe nodded thoughtfully to Lieutenant Allegre's reply--that, whether or not it would work, it wasn't what the charms were for. She figured that probably made sense; preventing something was a little bit different from remedying it. It was nice to hear that it probably wouldn't hurt to try, though.

Then Allegre surprised her with a follow-up question. After blinking through the unexpectedness of it, Chloe allowed some sadness to show on her face, and she nodded carefully.

"I don't know the soldier from last night, but... the first--Cadet Finch--and I both serve under Lieutenant Pemberley."

That felt like maybe a heavy thing to drop on Allegre, and Chloe serenely continued her sewing, content with a potential silence as the lieutenant next to her decided how he wanted to approach that information. He didn't seem the type to tag their squadron as 'cursed', which she appreciated. She'd felt a little bit guilty for being relieved that a soldier outside of Bronwen's command had been afflicted last night, if another soldier must be, but frankly, some part of her was glad for the ways it was forcing the rest of camp to take this more seriously. Maybe they'd be making charms at this point either way, but she doubted as many other soldiers would have turned up to help.

Catching the resentment in her chest, Chloe set the charm she was working on down in her lap and closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out to settle herself. It wouldn't do to thread that sort of magic into the things they were making.

Xavier didn't have to look up from his work to hear that the cadet's voice had fallen the second she spoke. A stone dropped into his belly at the knowledge, but it dissipated quickly as Xavier sought to look for the bright side in all this.

Well, the two of them wouldn't be having this conversation if everything hadn't happened, right? Yeah, that was a good place to start, something actionable.

But the lieutenant's voice still caught in his throat a bit.

"I... I hope they'll come out of it soon. It's a shame to survive that they survived last battle only to... well, you know." Xavier was quiet for a moment, letting the grief of what had happened with the demons take up a little space. The shadows had been everywhere at once it seemed, swallowing up one person here, another person there, and swords hadn't done much of anything to them. No one knew where they would strike next, and so few of the king's men had fallen in the fight. Not that any death was a good thing. Xavier shivered.

"What do you... if you don't mind me asking... what is it that you pray to?" Xavier asked, seeking gentle eye contact with the cadet.

"I... I hope they'll come out of it soon. It's a shame to survive what they survived last battle only to... well, you know."

Chloe nodded solemnly and returned to her stitching. It was a shame, of course; war was a shame, all around. The kingdom would have a lot of healing to do, even if their cause was successful.

"What do you..." Lieutenant Allegre continued, "if you don't mind me asking... what is it that you pray to?"

Chloe felt the lieutenant's gaze searching gently for her eyes, and she obliged him with her attention, humming softly in contemplation

"It depends," she said with a small shrug. "I try to keep all the gods in my thoughts, and consider who my prayers are truly for." She returned her attention to her charm, then, not wanting to pause her work entirely while she continued.

"But, I admit, I certainly understand some gods better than others," she smiled with a calm hint of playfulness at the confession. "I've prayed often to Horu throughout the war, beseeching her for wisdom and resolve. I try to honor Veil in all the places we visit, recognizing what we disturb and thanking her for our refuges." She trailed off a little there, hesitant to elaborate too much further. But, there was another aspect that felt important to acknowledge, and it seemed like Lieutenant Allegre would be more open to the idea than most.

"Truthfully, sometimes I also pray to spirits I don't know... whatever feels right. I've tried not to make assumptions about who is truly with us in these woods... I hope these charms can maybe help us--hmm--harmonize, perhaps."

"It depends," the cadet said. "I try to keep all the gods in my thoughts, and consider who my prayers are truly for." Xavier watched her return to her work with the charm and was incredibly grateful to have her help.

"But, I admit, I certainly understand some gods better than others," she added, and Xavier nodded enthusiastically. "I've prayed often to Horu throughout the war, beseeching her for wisdom and resolve. I try to honor Veil in all the places we visit, recognizing what we disturb and thanking her for our refuges." She paused then, and Xavier was working up to speak when she said something else conspiratorially.

"Truthfully, sometimes I also pray to spirits I don't know... whatever feels right. I've tried not to make assumptions about who is truly with us in these woods... I hope these charms can maybe help us--hmm--harmonize, perhaps."

Xavier looked down at his own work thoughtfully, appreciating that the soldier trusted him with this information. While there were many styles of worship, worshipping anything less than the gods was generally looked down upon as far as Xavier understood. And, in some ways, he could understand why. The demons they had faced were terrifying. But, maybe there were other friendlier spirits to counteract the ones that really probably did want to kill people in their sleep.

And, even more so, Xavier understood the humility in admitting what was unknown.

"My grandma would have liked you," Xavier said with a smile on his face, "she told me the first step to working with magic is admitting what you don't know." Xavier paused for another moment, looking at what he was working on with some scrutiny. "I'm really happy you wanted to help. You're exactly the type of person I was hoping for."