((neatly penned in Lumi-kieli))
In Sûri-kylä I would only write in my journal perhaps monthly or less, because there was not much that happened to write about, but at least in these last few days there has been so much that I feel as if I will use up all the pages in this diary quickly if I write every time there is something to record.
First of course I must write about how Mister Baraque has said he wishes to woo me. We have not had a lot of time together yet and it is hard to tell if we will prove to be kindred souls. That is what the time of wooing is for, to find that out. He is a merchant who owns many wagons and must often go to tend to his business, often just around the same time that things are getting busy in the inn of the dancing horse. But we got to do some talking, and he kissed me once, and I introduced him to Koira. She (I finally checked) is suspicious of him still. And he told me of his family, and it is a very sad thing to think about, since they are what he calls 'corrupt' and he thinks his brother and his mother conspired to kill his father. I cannot imagine what it might be like to not be able to love and trust your own family. It is part of why he stays so far away from them.
We now joke with one another with names. He was calling me Tina, which I do not like much. It does not sound like a name to me, or maybe it sounds like a name for someone else, some etelä-väki name perhaps. I did not even realize at first he means it as being the other half of my full name, because it does not sound to me the same as the part of my name that comes after the short name. But it is not totally unlike it, and I can see how he chose it. Perhaps in the southern lands it is a custom that, instead of using the name another person gives, you give them one yourself, as a gift. I tried to reciprocate by taking the second half of his name, changing it slightly, and calling him Rock, but it does not work the same way because in Westron, Rock is a word, kivi. He does not object to being called Rock. It is hard to break the habit of calling him sir, both because I am so often spending my time as a serving-girl, and because he is, like most people, older and richer and wiser and more important than me. (But still some people call me lady which is like calling me päällikka which seems odd for a serving-girl.)
He also gave me a harp, and it is a very fine harp made by the vahna-väki in a place I have never heard of. It is of all dark wood with silver inset and is probably worth far more pennies than I have, or ever will. I feel anxious to carry and use it for fear of breaking it, just as I did when my father let me use his. This harp is very beautiful, though I do not think any harp can be as beautiful to my eyes as those made in Lumi-mâ, with colorful bead-work in a traditional pattern of great beauty and storied history. I think Mister Baraque was saddened when I said as much. I should not have compared. It is not fair to him to hold his gift to such a standard.
The harp he gave me is very similar to the one I had left on the sled in the blizzard, but there are some small differences in the placement and tones of the strings, and I am still adjusting to it. I played the song Winter Coming On, but did not sing, and then later I played and sang my own song Scarf of Gold, though I used our words for it, not the etelä-kieli. I must be sure not to play the harp too much during working time or Mister Butterbur may forbid me to play it. I am not there to be a harper but to be a serving-girl. But the inn is sometimes quiet and there is nothing more for me to do.
Reminder: Now that I have a harp I must try singing and playing to the crystal that Vulphe gave me. And I need to practice with the harp during the morning, every morning.
My working goes well, mostly. I am trying different kinds of cooking, hoping that some of the dishes I make will make more people come to the inn, or buy more when they are there. So far I have had only little success, and Mister Butterbur's patience with me using up his food stocks on these tests is running short. I am not a good cook and these dishes are very simple, but the Bree-väki like simple, but they do not come to the inn for food very often. Last night I only sold three plates of venison fritters (but the rest of the meat will not go to waste, it will be in pies today and stew after that). The people of Bree do not use as much salt as we do (because they have much less of it to use, and it is costly) and mostly use it for preserving rather than flavor, so trying to use it to make foods taste more strongly, and make people more thirsty so they drink more beer and ale, does not work very well on them.
But I have learned where all the drinks are and what they cost, and I work hard at things like washing that others do not like to do, and people are coming to expect me and to seek me out for serving them, at least some of the time, and they tip me well. Miss Rose brought a basket of bread and cakes to me, not to Mister Butterbur, to see about an arrangement to sell such things to the inn. I think it is a good idea. There is always bread in the market, but some days it is fresh and some days stale, and some days it costs more and some days less. It would be good to have a bakery that brings bread to us every day so that patrons can count on that the bread will be fresh and good and consistent. I hope Mister Butterbur agrees.
Reminder: I still have not gotten to speak to anyone in the Watch about how I can obtain permission for Koira to visit town and the inn. She is more and more insistent and tries to come into the inn every time I do now. I have spent almost no nights in Bright-Eye's room anymore, for she misses me too much, and I miss her also, and the weather is so mild I can sleep outside with her. Now that I do not need to save for a harp, perhaps I should look for a small room to live in, where she would also be allowed.
I have also started to learn the names of more of the patrons, and maybe I have started to become friends with more than just Ruizir and Demlemoth. I hope I get more time to talk to and learn about Miss Aellwenn and her precious and clever son Freawine. We talked much about many things including the lands where she is from (which I have never heard of, but she gave me a map I must learn how to read). I also mean to try to make more of a friendship with the young girl Syllea who Mister Dem thinks I would get along well with, but have had no opportunities. So far, it seems that my working as a serving-girl helps me to be yourself, just not as much; I can be cheerful without going too far with it, be eager to meet people without them feeling put off by my excess of zeal. Perhaps if I had worked for Jâna instead of making soaps I would have made friends even in Sûri-kylä.
Reminder: If a gold penny is worth as much as Mister Baraque says, I must find a safer place to hide the one I have. I wonder why a murderer would have given me so great a treasure for just playing a prank on her friend, though. Hiding it is also wise in case she comes back for it, or something else nefarious comes of it. I want to make enough pennies to buy the things I want, but I do not want to be so wealthy I need to fear theft or murder.
Mister Egfor was telling a story by the fire in the common room last night and when it was done other people there asked for more story-telling. I thought that my father would have wanted me to offer a tale, so I told the story of Niekija and Náinnas, but I did not tell it half as well as father would. I stumbled over my words (finding the right words in Westron is hard) and rushed ahead and did not pause to evoke the story, to work the sensations and sights into the words. And none of the people who listened has ever seen the sky-ribbons dancing and do not know how majestic and awe-inspiring they are, nor have they felt the cold wind over the Ice Bay, or the relief to come into a warm ghoati after being in that wind. They liked the story but I am sure my father would be disappointed by my telling.
Reminder: I must start writing the letter to my parents. It seems that Mister Thorbeck is not going to Lumi-mâ after all, but so far as I know, Mister Dem and Egfor do still mean to, and if they do not, Ruizir still thinks that her ravens could go so far (I fear that the hunters would kill them though; meat on the wing is not to be wasted and they would not know that ravens might carry messages, so I will not use that method unless no other is possible).
Perhaps I should just start writing now. I will change it and then copy the final form into another page to tear out and deliver.
To Raimo and Nôra of Sûri-kylä:
This letter is to tell you that your daughter Ristiinnä is alive and well, now dwelling in a far-away green land in etelä-mâ called Bree. I am sorry that you must have thought for the last year that I had died in a blizzard. (I hope the other travelers made it safely.) I came very near to dying, perhaps twice, but I was saved by some good fortune, and by one of the sled dogs, who is still with me. But in doing so I was carried away against my will to far outside Lumi-mâ and am now far by more leagues than I can count.
The people here are kind to me and I am doing better at making friends than I was able to in the Great Lodge. I am working not at making soap but at serving food and drinks in a place where people come for such things, both travelers and even the people who live here. Many things are done differently here, and there are not clans or tribes, but only families, and nearly all trade is with pennies of silver and copper. I am sending this letter with some friends who mean to visit Lumi-mâ in the coming summer. There is even a man from an even farther away land who means to woo me, though we have only known each other a little time so I do not know how it will go.
I also do not know when I will come back to Lumi-mâ. At first when I started to find work and a place to keep myself here I thought only to do so until I could find a way to return. I do miss you, and Lumi-mâ, but also if I came back to stay, I would miss the places and people I know here. Even if I do not choose to return and make Lumi-mâ my home again, I am sure I will definitely visit, when I have guides to find the way and keep me safe, and enough pennies for supplies. Guides will be harder to find than you might think. You know how foolish the etelä-väki can be about travel. I have tried to advise a few people about how hard it will be to survive and travel within Lumi-mâ but they do not believe me, and think that just one or two, with nothing more than can be carried by a horse or goat, will be safe to travel. I do not doubt they can reach Kauppu-kohta and leave this letter, but if they try to go beyond, if they even survived as far as Sûri-kylä, it would only be by traveling so slowly, spending almost the whole day finding food and warmth that they covered very little distance, that they would be caught there over the winter. Perhaps if I can get a guide as far as Kauppu-kohta, I could stay there until Lumi-väki were traveling north and then go with them.
If you are able to, please send a letter to Kauppu-kohta and ask for it to be sent with any etelä-vieras that visit, so I can hear of how you and Juvven fair. I am sending along two silver pennies with this letter. If you send them along with your reply, the etelä-vieras will be more willing to carry it back to me.
This is a poor first attempt but I will think more about it and try to make it better.
