Lavender

The warm summer breeze rustled the leaves in the tall chestnut tree above. Talathion took a break from tending to his garden to stretch his back out. It wasn’t that he was done, quite the opposite in fact. He still had a lot of work to do until his garden was back to its former glory. 

Dirt was scattered across where wildflowers had been just a few weeks before. The planters he’d made were splintered and cracked from the harsh storm battering the island. It was one thing he’d noticed about moving to Ashenport, or even just outside of Ashenport. Although Fairhollow got its fair share of storms like the rest of Aedria, it was far enough inland that they didn’t have to worry about it causing too much damage. The forests around would normally look disastrous for a few weeks, but the town itself was fine. Ashenport was a different story. Just this one storm was enough to set him back weeks of gardening. Luckily nothing was damaged beyond repair. Plants could be moved to a slightly more sheltered area for the time being, but he’d have to think about investing in a proper shelter next storm season. 

Other places hadn’t gotten off so lightly. 

It wasn’t until he’d seen Zane looking for a carpenter at the market that he’d realised how bad the Clocktower was hit. It should’ve been obvious. The Clocktower was on the top of the hill, just a short walk from the steep cliffs along the coast. Few houses were actually closer to the storm front than The Clocktower, and those that were had been built with the sea in mind. The few houses down by the docks were reinforced to be able to survive harsh tides and strong winds. The lighthouse was purely stone with no glass or wood in sight. It would’ve taken a real storm to destroy that. The Clocktower though… The Clocktower was made to withstand wind and rain, but not to the magnitude that the storm had brought with it. From where they had stood in the market, Tal could see the damage already, the most notable being the shattered clock face. 

Zane hadn’t been worried about the clock face. Apparently Merrin was already fixing it with the help of a woman named Camille. According to Zane she’d helped their mother out before. It was hard to find someone to fix clocktowers, considering how rare they were. If Tal remembered correctly, Ashenport was the only town on Aedria that had an actual clocktower. Nagovia had one built into the main workhouse, but it was purely bronze and turned by large gears that clunked and echoed through the town. Here, The Clocktower only chimed every two hours, gradually getting worse as each second passed. Tal had only asked about it once, and Zane’s reply was a meek smile and a shrug of his shoulders.

‘No one knows how to fix it,’ he’d said. 

‘Then how is it here in the first place?’ Tal had asked, just wanting to know why such a building had been left to fall into its gradual despair.

‘My mother.’ Zane answered in a dejected tone.

Tal had changed the topic of conversation quite quickly after that. 

As much as he liked learning more about Zane, he knew how bad the topic of his parents was, even if he’d never said so himself. Merrin was usually far less hushed about such things, letting anyone and everyone who entered The Clocktower know how much he hated them. Well, maybe not hate. He held a strong grudge that time wasn’t going to shift. In Orlia’s words: “only a brick and quiet place would be enough to make him think twice about his father”. So, Tal didn’t exactly feel like prying open that crate.

But Zane hadn’t been worried about the clock face, instead, he was more concerned with the garden. That was something that piqued Tal’s interest. If there was one thing he knew how to do, it was gardens. It didn’t matter the size, it didn’t matter the place. Flora, fauna, vegetables, orchards, anything that could be planted was his for the taking. It’d been a useful skill on more than one occasion. His garden was a little less diverse than it had been not too long ago, but he would make it back. The Clocktower’s garden was a little different. It didn’t have the sorts of things Tal’s garden did. There weren’t any other-worldly flowers that bloomed a luminescent blue at night, or fruit trees that were able to produce fruit no matter the season. No, The Clocktower was a lot simpler. 

Zane had his own part of the garden next to the temple. It was a small thing with a few pots of flowers, some beds of medicinal herbs, and a random array of plants that were purely used for alchemy. Two trees cordoned the whole thing off from the rest of the garden. Tal hadn’t gotten close enough to see which trees they were — that was a lie, but the only times he had gotten close enough he had been distracted by other things. Other than that, there was the odd bush around the garden and a bed of withered plants beneath the kitchen window. It had once contained lavender bushes, at least according to Orlia. She was Tal’s main point of information for anything the twins didn’t tell him. It’s not like he was prying, but he was curious. 

That’s what led Tal to his small plan. He had lavender, in fact he had so much he didn’t know what to do with it. He’d used it for aromatics, for burning, he’d even made syrup. But that didn’t make a dent in his ever-spreading bushes. He’d tried giving some to Orlia, but there was only so much she could do with it. Clovara used some for making cakes and pastries, but again, he still had an abundance. So, what better way to make a dent than to give half of it to Zane. And Merrin, technically. It was mostly for Zane though, as much as Tal liked Merrin, he didn’t exactly care how he felt about Tal giving them several bushes of lavender.

Tal loaded the buckets with the lavender bushes and dirt into the wheel-barrow. At times like this he cursed himself for the complete lack of available carriages. He could only dream of how much easier getting a horse or mule — or even hiring one of the bigger guys from the town — to pull the carriage for him instead of having to push a barrow full of dirt and wooden buckets from his place to The Clocktower. It’d be a decent investment. At the moment he was trawling back and forth bringing stuff to and from his house to the market in Ashenport. He could be saving so much time and energy if he just took it all in one go. Alas, he was unlikely to ever afford a horse, let alone look after it. No one in Ashenport even made supplies for horses anyhow, so it was really a bad decision. 

Lifting the barrow, Tal began to push it towards the main road to Ashenport. If he was lucky, he could avoid all the other travellers. Though that luck was partially tainted by the amount of traps that Tal knew were laid along the road by a certain dark-haired maniac. Despite knowing where they all were, he felt a growing sense of unease as he stepped onto the stone-paved road.

The walk to The Clocktower was made even harder than it should’ve been by the storm. The paths were littered with branches and fallen trees, and Tal spent the majority of his time moving things off the path than he did actually walking. It would’ve been fine if that was the only issue, but considering his luck, it was nowhere near the only thing that was going wrong.

As he got closer to Ashenport, the sky above began to grow darker as storm clouds brewed on the horizon. It wouldn’t have been an issue if Tal had remembered to bring his leather cloak, but he hadn’t expected it would begin to rain quite so soon. He just hoped that Zane had a spare change of clothes he could wear and some hot food.

It didn’t seem like a big ask, but Zane had nothing to him and at least twenty centimetres on Tal height wise. Tal didn’t exactly want to wear Merrin’s clothes either, although he was fairly certain that the twins shared their clothes just like they shared practically everything else they own.

Hot food was more likely to happen, especially at this time of year. Zane always had  something warm cooking on the fire. In his last letter he’d mentioned a rabbit stew he’d made with a rabbit that Merrin had caught in one of the traps.

It was something that had intrigued Tal, but not for the reason that most would think. He knew that Zane would cook with whatever Merrin brought home. But what had Tal intrigued was the fact that Zane’s letter had implied that Merrin also had traps for rabbits, not just people.

By the time Tal got to The Clocktower, the rain was lashing down and every piece of clothing had been wearing was soaked through. He entered through the back gate, narrowly avoiding the bear trap that had been conveniently placed just off the beaten track. As he pushed the wooden gate open through the thick mud, the back door to The Clocktower swung open.

Zane appeared from the house with a leather cloak wrapped around his body.

‘Tal!’ Zane yelled over the rain.

‘Hey,’ Tal replied and pushed the barrow full of damp lavender bushes into the garden. 

‘You brought us lavender.’ Zane noted as he got closer.

‘Yeah, you wanted to expand your garden, right?’ Tal asked.

‘I didn’t expect you to bring me some though,’ Zane said with a laugh. 

‘Well, you need to start somewhere,’ Tal responded as he struggled to hold the gate open.

Zane moved around to hold the gate open before helping Tal move the barrow out of the deep pool of mud that had formed by the gate. It took the two of them a significant amount of effort, and more strength than Tal thought Zane was capable of, before they gave up on trying to simply push the barrow through the mud. Instead, Tal moved around to the front of the barrow, and lifted the front up until he and Zane were able to place the barrow on the grass, and together the two of them pushed the barrow towards the broken planters beneath the kitchen window.

‘That can wait,’ Zane said as Tal moved to unload the lavender. ‘Come inside and warm up.”

‘Just so I can come back out to get soaked?’ Tal asked with a smile. ‘I may as well just stay wet and finish up.’

‘The rain should clear up by the evening,’ Zane explained and pushed the back door open. ‘Come on, I’ve got some mint tea brewing and I got a jar of mint honey I’ve been saving for a rainy day.’

Tal smiled and sighed. Zane knew just the thing to say to get what he wanted.

As soon as Tal was through the back door, he slipped his soaked boots off of his feet and took the drenched fur cloak from his shoulders. It was only when he went to hang his cloak up beside Zane’s that he noticed the muddy footprints that had been tracked from the backdoor to where Zane stood at the fire. But what was more peculiar was the fact that Zane’s boots were very much by the door, and Tal had never seen the other wear anything that wasn’t those blue leather boots. 

He looked at the tracks closely, until he realised that what he found strange wasn’t the tracks themselves, but the person at the end.

‘Why didn’t you put your boots on when you came outside?’ Tal asked as he walked over towards Zane.

‘Because you were struggling,’ Zane explained poorly.

‘And?’ Tal pushed.

‘And I didn’t want you to struggle.’

‘And I don’t want you to lose your toes because you were too impatient to put your boots on.’ Tal crossed his arms over his soaked leather cuirass.

‘Merrin does it all the time.’ Zane shrugged and used the ladle to pour two cups of mint tea.

‘I wasn’t aware that you and Merrin were the same person,’ Tal said in a mock question.

‘We’re not.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Then your point is null.’ Zane frowned at Tal.

‘For someone so smart, I can’t believe how dense you can be.’

‘That was rude,’ Zane said with a pout. 

‘I’m sorry,’ Tal said and wrapped an arm around Zane’s waist. ‘You know I don’t mean it.’

Zane laced his fingers in between Tal’s and leant back into Tal’s chest.

‘I know,’ Zane said softly. ‘Now come on, you’re still cold.’

Zane pushed himself away from Tal and grabbed the two cups from the side before leading Tal up the spiral stairs and towards his room.

* * *

As it turned out, it was two days before the storm cleared up. Two days that Tal was more than happy to spend with Zane as they waited for the rain to finally clear up. Two days that were spent in the warmth of Zane’s bed surrounded by piles of books about all the different types of flora that Zane wanted to put in the garden once they’d finished with the lavender.

Tal made a whole double page of notes of the different things Zane wanted, including just where he was supposed to find them. Was it far-fetched? Absolutely. And they both knew that. But by the time they’d reached the second day straight of nothing but rain, their ideas only continued to get more and more crazy. The worst of them was easily the fabled flower that was said to be made of pure stardust and would grant whoever ate its petals would be granted the ability to travel through the stars.

Not that either of them believed such a tale.

‘Isn’t it still too wet to plant things?’ Zane asked as they got dressed.

‘You’d be surprised how resilient lavender is,’ Tal laughed and slipped on his leather chest piece.

‘And this is why you’re the one in charge of my garden,’ Zane whispered as he tightened the straps of Tal’s cuirass.

‘Oh?’

‘Mhmm.’ Zane hummed and wrapped his hands around Tal’s waist.

‘Are you going to help me plant the lavender or is that too much for your delicate hands?’ Tal asked.

‘I’ll have you know that I’m perfectly capable of gardening.’

‘Do you know how I know that you’re lying?’

‘Oh pray tell,’ Zane said and turned Tal around to face him.

‘Because I have proof that somehow you managed to kill an asplenium adiantum-nigrum. And I seriously have no idea how.’

Zane stared at him blankly.

‘Even I don’t know what those words mean,’ he said after a few moments.

‘Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum, better known as the black spleenwort. A species of fern that grows in the Ashenport forests.’ Tal explained.

‘How the fuck do you remember that?’

‘What ingredients are in a potion of fire resistance?’ Tal asked in return.

‘Ademine powder, white milk cap, dried imp leather with a base of calcium ingium blood. All combined over an intensely high heat for at least two moons.’ Zane replied without missing a beat.

Tal just stared at Zane with raised eyebrows until Zane’s face twisted into one of realisation.

‘Oh,’ Zane said softly.

‘Exactly.’ Tal said with a smile. ‘Now will you be joining me in the garden or are you just going to watch?’

‘How about I make you a cup of spiced liqueur and watch you?’

‘Deal.’

Tal walked down the stairs and slipped on his boots before he stepped into the garden. The rain had soaked the ground, but the land around Ashenport was used to the harsh weather, and the mossy grass drew in as much water as it possibly could. Unfortunately, that didn’t do a whole lot to help with the fact that the flowerbeds Tal was supposed to use were all waterlogged.

It was bad enough that Tal honestly thought that he would have the same luck at planting the lavender if he chose to just throw it into the pond by the garden wall. But that wouldn’t help either him or Zane, and he certainly didn’t want to trudge all the way back to his place just to dig up more lavender to then trudge all the way back to The Clocktower. 

Not only would it take an extra two days out of the month that he would need to work twice as hard to catch up on, but he was almost certain that it was going to start to rain before the day was even up.

As the dark clouds began to appear once more over the horizon, Tal got to work on planting the lavender. They’d decided to leave the barrow under the only bit of shelter that was in the garden so the lavender didn’t get drowned before it was even planted into the ground. Because of this, Tal actually had some dirt that wasn’t completely waterlogged. It wasn’t the ideal situation, but then again neither was having to deal with the significant amount of rain.

But he considered himself an expert in all things plant related, and he knew that the lavender would be able to put up with whatever he threw at them. It wasn’t as though the soil was barren, it was just wet. The ground around The Clocktower was seemingly rich with minerals, far more than the rest of Ashenport combined. The trees held onto their leaves for even longer than anywhere else, and the flowers along the edge of the walls bloomed in a variety of bright colours that Tal didn’t even know was possible. 

The mixture of the rich soil and the remnants of fertiliser that Tal used for all his plants was surely a sign that the lavender would thrive, even if the soil was a bit waterlogged. Well, waterlogged was definitely an understatement.

Tal pushed the barrow across the drenched earth and began to unload the bushes into the wooden flower beds. Before he could plant them, he needed a rough idea as to how far apart they needed to be planted for optimal growth. The flower beds were quite wide, but not so much so that there weren’t enough lavender bushes to fill them up. 

The five bushes he brought filled up the entire length beneath the kitchen window, and they still had some room to grow further. In an ideal world Tal would have just removed the flower beds completely and planted the lavender directly into the ground, but he knew that it wouldn’t be possible. 

He’d been told by Orlia that the flower beds were hiding something beneath them, not that she actually knew what that something was. Tal had his suspicions that were purely based on Merrin’s little hobbies in the basement, but he didn’t plan on bringing them up in front of Merrin any time soon. 

Tal considered himself lucky enough that he was still alive, and he didn’t feel like testing the boundaries of Merrin’s kindness just yet. He’d have to give it at least another few months before he felt safe enough to know that Zane would put a complete stop to anything Merrin would try and do to Tal, no matter what the consequences were. Maybe then Tal would consider suggesting the removal of the flower beds, even if he didn’t even want to think about what might have been hidden underneath.

Churning the soil in the flower beds, Tal tried to make the dirt less of a muddy puddle and more into something he could actually work with. It took him a few minutes of actual mixing before he even started to see a change in the soil. He stuck his arm in deep enough that he could feel sections of dryer dirt deep in the beds. He pulled it up to the surface and began to curse himself for the fact that he hadn’t brought his full gardening kit with him.

A trowel should have been the best tool for planting the lavender, but at this rate Tal started to believe that not even a shovel would have been good enough to churn up the earth. 

He only regretted it more when his hand hit something hard in the dirt.

It took him a few seconds to realise that what he’d found wasn’t just a rock. It was far too round on the top, and the two holes felt an awful lot like…

‘What the fuck,’ Tal hissed as he yanked his arm out.

He pushed himself away from the flower beds and wiped his hand off on the mossy ground. His heart pounded against his chest as he took rapid breaths in a failed attempt to regain his composure. As he did, the backdoor was slammed open.

‘Are you okay?’ Zane asked in a panic stricken tone.

Tal swallowed the lump in his throat and looked up at Zane. He opened his mouth in an attempt to explain, but not a single word came out.

Zane looked between Tal and the flower beds, and his eyes widened in realisation. He then stepped out into the garden and crouched down beside Tal. He cupped his hands on Tal’s face and stroked a thumb across his cheek.

‘You’re alright,’ Zane assured him, and Tal wanted nothing more than for him to be right. ‘Just forget about it.’

It was something that was definitely easier said than done, and Tal opened his mouth to say just that, but all that came out was a trembling breath. Zane pulled him closer and placed a gentle kiss to his forehead before pulling back again.

‘I’ll sort this out, don’t worry,’ Zane whispered and stood back up. ‘I’ll get you a drink.’ He smiled and disappeared back inside.

When he re-emerged, Zane was carrying a steaming jug of spiced liquor along with two cups. 

Tal couldn’t remember how many cups he had before he even thought about approaching the flower beds again, but once the jug had been emptied, he got straight back to work. Was it a healthy thing to do? No. Was it the smart thing to do? Also no. But something about the warmth the liquor left behind and Zane’s presence in the garden made the job feel a lot easier than it had ever been before.

Forgetting about the definitely-not-a-rock was somewhat easy when he could barely remember why he was churning dirt in the first place. It didn’t really help with the waterlogged dirt, but it would just have to be something that got fixed later.

By the time the sun had begun to set over the horizon, Tal was busy patting the last bush into place. He’d managed to avoid finding any more ‘rocks’ in the soil, and had made the firm decision that he was never going to piss Merrin off regardless of how tempting it was. He honestly didn’t know how Orlia dealt with him without either of them ending up six feet under, but that was a question he’d have to ask whenever the two of them were next alone. 

As he pushed the last of the dirt around the lavender to secure it, he heard the gentle buzz of a lone bumble bee. It nestled itself into the flowers, and Tal watched as it flew from stem to stem to gather its much wanted pollen. 

Tal smiled to himself as he watched.

‘Looks like someone appreciates your hard work,’ Zane giggled as he sat down beside Tal. His cheeks were flushed from the liquor, and there was an easy smile on his face as he swayed.

Tal could only imagine how much of a mess he must’ve looked himself. He knew that standing up was going to be an almost impossible task, but at least the liquor coursing through his veins was doing a good job at keeping him warm despite the cold chill in the air.

‘Good,’ Tal mumbled in response and watched as a few more bumblebees buzzed around the lavender.

‘You know,’ Zane said and reached a cold hand out to thread his fingers through the mess of Tal’s hair. ‘They’re not the only ones.’

‘Really?’ Tal asked and leant closer to Zane.

‘Yeah,’ Zane whispered before trailing a hand down to Tal’s chest. ‘Why don’t I show you?’

The smile on Tal’s face was bright enough to light the whole garden, and the kiss Zane placed against his skin was enough to make him forget about the way the cold, soaked ground felt against his back.

Rain began to drizzle from the sky, but Tal was more than content to stay right where he was.