Family History

Writers: Yvonne
Date Posted: 14th January 2020

Characters: Elana, Panna
Description: Elana learns something surprising about her Great Aunt
Location: Emerald Falls Hold
Date: month 2, day 3 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: Lord Corowol (indirectly)

It was amazing how mending clothes and other fabrics for the Hold - and Lord Holder's children - had sapped Elana's interest in sewing for herself. It had always been a task that brought her a great deal of satisfaction since her work had a direct impact on how beautiful she looked, but now... she sighed and stared at the embroidery pattern book in her hands. They were all gorgeous, but she couldn't summon up the willpower to make a decision. Thinking about embroidering any of the patterns made her hands hurt.

"Any luck?" Great Aunt Panna asked from her seat by the fire. She had been the one to lend Elana the book in the first place.

Elana shook her head. "They all look so complex, Great Aunt. I'm not sure if I want to commit to an entire bodice. That will take so much time."

"But it will display your skill much better than sleeves or a hem."

"Perhaps. But so many of them also require beading of some sort. And…" here Elana hesitated. Coming to the Hold had made her realize how poor her family truly was. But Panna was also family. "And I don't have the marks for it."

Panna's face crinkled in the firelight as she smiled. "Yet. You don't have the marks yet. You're skilled, and skill with a needle doesn't go unrewarded. Honestly, you're almost as good as me when I was your age, even without…"

**Almost?!** Elana's pride was stung. "Do you have any samples?" Perhaps she could compare their work and soothe her ego.

The old woman nodded at the chest of drawers near the door. "Bottom drawer. Help yourself."

Elana set the book aside and went to investigate. When she pulled open the drawer, she found-- treasure. Folds of cloth, each intricately embroidered with jewel-toned patterns. Flowers and leaves, faces and hands, knotwork and lettering and dragons… Elana pulled them out one by one and gasped at the nearly invisible stitching and fine thread. "Aunt Panna… this is all so beautiful!" She turned and cast an accusatory look at Panna. "You never told me you could embroider like this!"

"You never asked." Panna shrugged a shoulder. "And it was a long, long time ago. I've thought of taking it up again but my hands aren't what they used to be."

"How did you learn to sew like this?" Elana held up a particularly intricate sampler with knotwork that glimmered with touches of gold thread. Idly she wondered if Panna would notice if she picked it out and reused it on a dress.

There was a small pause. "Didn't you know? I apprenticed at the Weaver Hall. I was about to walk the tables when the Plague hit."

Elana froze, stunned. Panna had _apprenticed_!? She remembered hearing about women in Crafts from the travelling Harpers when they taught at Nadol Cothold, but it was so far removed from her reality that it seemed impossible for a woman she knew to wear knots. Even now, with female Harpers at the Harper Hall, it seemed… strange. "But women don't Craft…"

"You're wrong about that. Women do Craft. Did, anyway." Panna sighed. "Then the Plague hit and we were all sent home. I wanted to go to the North but they were restricting travel between the Continents then, to help keep the Plague from spreading. Not that getting sent home did me any good. I never married. I always wanted to return to the Crafthall but… well." She sighed again, eyeing up her great niece. "It's a shame that they're starting to open the Crafthalls to women too late for you. You'd have done well at the Weaverhall."

Elana laughed. It sounded a bit brittle. "Me, Crafting? Surely not."

"Why not? You're talented, but more than that, you're smart and ambitious." Panna snorted as Elana shot her a wounded look. "Oh please, you're more like me than you realize. I know ambition when I see it."

"I'm not ambitious," Elana protested. It sounded weak even to her own ears. "I want ordinary things. A good life, a good marriage…"

"You'd never be happy with an ordinary marriage. We might not even have known each other for half a Turn and even I can see that with my old, bad eyes." Panna leaned back in her chair and folded her hands comfortably over her belly. "This is why I think it's a shame you're too old to apprentice. You have the skill to do well, but also the ambition to move up in the Hall."

"That's not really a woman's place…" But Elana wanted power. She knew she'd do well as a leader, if only there was somewhere she could lead from. That was was why she had to marry someone with prospects, someone who she could influence.

Panna raised an eyebrow. "And yet nobody says that to goldriders."

"Well, they're… different."

"Are they?" Panna shook her head ruefully. "A woman's education isn't what it used to be, and that's a shame. To deprive a Hold of half it's smart people is utter foolishness if you ask me... but what's done is done, and I am a foolish old woman. What do I know. Perhaps you're right. Times have changed."

Elana didn't know what to say to that, so she continued admiring Panna's embroidery samples from her days at the Weaver Hall. For a moment she ached to go to the Weaver Hall. It wasn't that far from Emerald Falls Hold, and the things she could learn…! And if she wore knots on her shoulder, she wouldn't need to find a good husband. She could provide for herself.

But it was just a fantasy. Panna was right-- times had changed. Elana narrowed her eyes at the sampler in front of her, barely seeing the pattern. But if they hadn't… she knew with all her heart that Pern would have knelt at her feet.

Last updated on the January 18th 2020

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