Thirteenth in a series of character-building vignettes following a bunch of characters through their time at Addergoole & beyond.

“Abatu. Abatu… Eperu.”

A tiny puff of dirt vanished.

“Again, and use the whole working.”

“Abatu Eperu gamma χώμα.” Braken leaned into the Working, pushing all of her energy into it. A pile of dirt the size of her fist disappeared.

“Better. And now we’ll try something a little easier.” DJ had its implacable, patient, never-getting-tired voice on. One of them needed to. “Create water in that hole.”

“Meentik.” Bracken coughed. “Meentik Yaku beta λακκούβα με νερό.” As demanded, a little puddle of water appeared in the hole she’d created.

“Very good. But I still can’t believe this is as far as you got in all of last year.”

“Last year was a bit distracting.”

“Your Workings classes aren’t supposed to be subject to that.”

“Tell that to my former Keeper.” Bracken shrugged. “He wasn’t all that bad or anything, but he was still distracting.”

“I remember. Still, you’re barely beyond basic Workings on anything…”

“Not on anything!” Bracken surprised herself with how vehement that made her. “Come on, there’s a couple things I can do really well!”

Her Mentor paused in its diatribe. “Indeed? Show me.”

Bracken found herself sighing in relief. She grabbed the hem of her shirt and yanked a big tear in it.

“Bracken, what are you…”

“Jasfe Unutu πουκάμισο.” Fix my shirt. She stared at the shirt, and let her smile break out as the shirt mended itself perfectly.

She pointed at a chipped mug on DJ’s desk. “May I?”

“Mm? Oh, yes.”

“Jasfe Unutu κούπα.” The mug looked as good as new, with almost no energy expended. “Jasfe Unutu καρέκλα.” Her chair became much more comfortable. “Jasfe…”

“That’s enough, that’s enough.” DJ looked as if it was trying to smile and frown at the same time. “Very interesting, very interesting. Appears you are… mmm… very specialized.”

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After Goodbye Tradition.
Beckett also has an appearance in Don’t Cry, Baby; Leithe also shows up in A New year, a New… Who?.

http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/407350.html

Beckett spent a week trying to pretend he wasn’t sulking, and another week trying hard to ignore the questions. None of them were polite. Some of them were just insulting.

“So, Mirella cut you free?”

So, so, so. No, no, no. Beckett didn’t feel free. He didn’t feel like he’d failed. He felt, more than anything… angry.

“I wish…” But life didn’t work that way.

“What do you wish? Maybe I can make it come true.”

He knew Leithe. He shared a couple classes with her; more importantly, Mirella had declared her utterly and completely off-limits. She was petite, lovely, and looked nothing at all like Mirella.

“I’m not sure.” Beckett shrugged. Pretty girls didn’t generally talk to him – part of why he’d been such a sucker for Mirella. “I wish she’d either never Kept me or never released me, I guess.”

“It hurts, doesn’t it?” She tilted her head and frowned at him. “When it breaks, the bond? It makes you feel like everything is going sideways.”

It did. Beckett nodded cautiously.

“And it makes you feel empty.”

“You’ve been Kept?” It was a stupid question, but he was good at those. Everyone was Kept eventually.

“I did my time. You got off easy, some people would say.”

“Being hers… it wasn’t bad.” He’d felt like he’d been worth something. “Not being anyone’s kind of sucks.”

“Well, there’s always the alternative.”

Beckett swallowed. Even HE could pick up what she was offering. But was that somewhere he wanted to be?

“Think about it?” Leithe tilted her head again. She was smiling; she had a pretty smile. “And if not that… well, come talk anyway. Having friends around here is helpful.”

“Friends.” Beckett swallowed. Friends, he could do. “Okay. Uh. Friends.”

Mirella had cut him free. For the first time, free didn’t feel like falling.

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My Giraffe Call is Open here! Stop in and leave a prompt!

Addergoole has a landing page here

“All right, that’s enough.” Mirella stood up suddenly, causing Beckett to scramble backwards.

“Ma’am?” He looked up at her with those big puppy-dog eyes.

“You’re free. I release you. Get your clothes and your stuff and go back to your own room.” She closed her robe around her and tied the belt shut with a tight square knot. “Well, get on, go.”

The habit of obedience sent him crawling to the closet; he’d gotten half his stuff packed before it really hit him. “Wait. Wait, what? Mirella, why? I did everything you asked me to.”

“It’s just too much, Beckett. You’re just too much.” Besides, a quiet Working had told her she’d gotten what she needed. “You’re a lovely boy, you really are, honey, but I just can’t do this.”

“What did I do?” He paused, clothes in one hand and bag in the other, to look up at her. The expression was pitiful, more so for his big, lanky frame. “I can do better.”

“No, Beckett.” She emptied the one drawer she’d given him into a box, and added his books and papers on top of his socks and underwear. “You’ll do much better on your own.”

“So, just like that?” He frowned at her, which would have been a relief, except big lunk of a boy and he was still within her threshold. “You’re kicking me out?”

“I’m freeing you, Beckett. I’ve freed you.”

“What am I supposed to do now?”

“Go meet a nice girl, or a nice boy, or a nice horse. I’ve taught you everything I can about Addergoole. You know what words not to say. You know how to avoid being Kept, and how to trick someone else into the collar. Speaking of which…” She unbuckled her collar from around his neck and stepped back with it before he thought to stop her. She might need that for a couple weeks next year.

“You said a year.”

“I said a year at most. I said a year was tradition.” She handed him his clothes, and, still half on autopilot, he folded them and packed them away. “But not one I want to follow. Look, you’re a nice guy, Beckett.” Too nice. Clingy, affectionate. No fight at all, after the first couple days. “I’m sure you’ll find someone nice.”

“Just not you.”

“Well.” She cleared the last of his things out of her closet and, hopefully, out of her life. “I’d have thought you’d have noticed I’m not very nice.”

Hello tradition

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