((neatly penned in Lumi-kieli))
It is too much to be hoping for, but we will know soon. Nalleni knows an Elf who will be able to check the necklaces to be sure that Frimsi is not, one last time, lying to us or playing some trick on us for his profit. Perhaps the legendary skill of Dwarven craftsmanship is enough to make a false gemstone that looks like the Elf-stones I was given, close enough for my eyes to be fooled. And when you consider all that has brought us to this point, the theft, his reputation, and how outlandish is his story, the idea that these are false is somehow the most logical explanation -- save only one question: if they were false, why would he so confidently suggest we have the stones checked by an Elf? Does he think his trickery enough to fool even Elven eyes?
But now I wear my necklace, and Beri wears hers, and when I asked if she would be my wife -- a foolish thing to ask, as she has already asked me and I have already accepted, but it felt like the right gesture to make at the moment -- she agreed. This also helped calm her so she did not attack Frimsi before he could tell his tale, of paying six gold pennies (if I worked every single day and spent not one penny on anything else, it would take me more than three years, thirteen seasons, thirty-seven moons, to earn that much working as Butterbur's serving-girl) to outbid a rauta-väki to buy back what was stolen.
He also says the rauta-väki, clad in scarlet and black and metal, spoke of laying a curse, though it was uncertain if it was on the thief (if so, good fortune, for the man now stands to make three years of salary for a theft and face no other justice), on Frimsi, or on the necklaces (though if he desires the stones so, what value in cursing them, if he hopes to get them himself one day?). I suppose all the rauta-väki, or at least all the ones that are chieftains and warriors, look much the same in their suits of metal armor, but what little Frimsi gave of a description put me much in mind of the one to whom I was to be sold for ransoming, from whom I escaped just barely that day in the land of the risen lake. I promised to draw what I remember to show Frimsi when next I see him, so I had best do that while I am thinking of it.
The only reason I wondered if it might be the same man is if he still has interest in the people of my land, but there is nothing about these necklaces that has anything to do with Lumi-mâ, save an incidental resemblance to ice, and all Frimsi spoke of was the value of ancient Elf-stones to him. It is not as if the gems came from Lumi-mâ, though. And I do not think the man even still remembers me; he barely got a glimpse of me, the family that was to sell me to him could tell him little after Suojelija and I escaped, and no doubt he had made many other attempts to get someone to ransom. (Now I am fearing, what if, having not taken me, he then took someone else?) Even if he did, how could he know the necklaces were made for me?
I wonder if the Elf that Beri knows will be able to sense a curse. If there is one, how can such things be cleansed? It is not like the curse that hangs on ill-gotten treasures, after all, that can be cleansed by giving them away selflessly. This would be a different kind of curse, placed willfully, and I know nothing of how such things are reversed, if they even can be.
Reminders:
- • Give what is left of the clam chowder to the Pierson farm; maybe their pigs will eat it (no one but Falena would have any, and though she had two bowls, there is so much left)
- • When I deliver the next batch of soaps to Fritzie in the middle of the month, that will leave me with just enough to pay Frimsi the one gold penny I still owe him
- • I need to be more assertive about selling soaps and candles, and finding lanolin, because once I pay that gold penny my pouch will be nearly empty
