Caisleán Caladh, End of Summer…
The most recent crop of Othánas maids that came for the Spring Equinox festivities had brought along a new tradition. The Language of Flowers.
According to Mom, this wasn't really a new tradition, at least not Above. Hundreds of years ago, courting couples would exchange flowers, the blooms conveying messages to the recipient. Someone Below got hold of a tome on this language, and it swept through Caladh like wildfire. The florists at the market certainly did a brisk business. It was a good thing that there were only four weeks of Equinox festivities, otherwise the entire countryside would have been stripped of flowers. As it was, Mom had to impose strict penalties on anyone caught picking the flowers in any of the castle gardens.
On a lark, she'd looked up this 'language' in the library. Fascinating stuff. A whole conversation could be had, just with plants. She'd gone to the flower market herself and had a bouquet of 'Hearts Afire' put together. She got an Ughlánas to deliver it to Randel. She didn't put a card or note with it, figuring he would know who it was from.
No response.
Well, at least he didn't refuse them. That would have been humiliating. But he didn't acknowledge them, either.
Flowers had been delivered to Karina's chambers regularly. Bouquets of various shades and sizes, all conveying mildly flirtatious messages. Unfortunately, none were from Randel. Not that she expected it.
Every time a new bunch arrived; she felt a stab of guilt. Maybe not guilt, but empathy for her lady-in-waiting, Erynne. While not ravishingly beautiful, she was quite pretty, and one of the kindest, gentlest people Karina had ever known, but she had the misfortune of being friends with the Goblin King's daughter. Even if Karina had the looks of a rock troll, she suspected she'd be receiving the same influx of flowers from prospective suitors.
And Erynne was a bit shy. She wasn't the type to throw herself forward for attention. With all the beauties that came to Caladh, she sort of faded into the background. She'd only danced two or three times at the ball, and that was with friends of Karina's, and only after she'd put them up to it. She'd practically had to twist Anduin's arm to get him to ask her. Erynne despaired of ever catching a man's notice and looked at the other girls fussing over the flowers they received with poorly concealed sadness.
At least until the morning after the Ball.
A bouquet had arrived at Karina's chambers, for Erynne. They were lovely little blooms, a rich, pale pink with a deep pink center. The message they conveyed, though…
"What are those called?" she'd asked, her eyes sparkling with hope. She really was lovely when she smiled.
Karina gave her an uncomfortable look. "Um… well… they're called 'Ladies in the Nude'."
Erynne's mouth dropped open. Then her face fell. At that point, Karina really felt bad. She had to admit, when she first saw the bouquet, she thought they were for her from Randel. It was the cheeky sort of thing he'd do. But no, they were for Erynne. Whoever this was that gave her the flowers either didn't know the name of them or was sending her a rather racy message. She tried to tell Erynne that her mystery suitor likely didn't know the name. She wasn't sure if Erynne believed her. She remembered mentioning it to Helena, who guffawed, then got the same look on her face that Dad got when he was plotting mischief.
Two days later, another flower came for Erynne. This one was in a pot, not a bouquet. The petals were thick… almost like a succulent and attached to stalks that had streaks of purple and orange along with green. There were fronds from each petal, white in the center and magenta at the tips, topped with what looked like a tiny glass bead. When the sun hit them, they sparkled as if they were covered with dew. They were quite pretty. No one seemed to recognize the flower.
Karina and Erynne went to the library on a mission, Erynne holding the pot with a smile. After about an hour, Erynne found a botany tome which had an illustration of the plant. "Look, Karina. Here it is. It's called 'Morning Dew'." Her smile had grown brighter.
Until a fly landed on a petal and the flower snapped shut.
That night, she had gone back to Helena's room in quite a bit of rage.
"A carnivorous plant! Who the hell sends a lady a carnivorous plant?" she'd yelled as she paced the room.
Helena had looked at her with an odd expression, almost like she was about to burst into laughter, but quickly wiped it from her face. Karina's eyes had narrowed on her.
"You know something. I know that you do." Karina then stood right in front of her, frowning. "Tell me."
Helena had shrugged, her lips smirking a bit.
"Helena… tell me, please. I don't know who's doing this but it's really hurting Erynne's feelings. If you know who's doing this and don't want to tell me, at least tell this asshat to stop."
At this, Helena had completely lost control and started giggling, falling back on her bed. Karina stared at her, open mouthed. "Okay… I'll tell you." She got control of herself. "It's Anduin."
Karina had looked at her in bewilderment. "Anduin? Why would he be so mean to my friend? He danced with her at the ball… she hasn't offended him in some way, has she?"
Helena burst into maniacal giggles again. "No… that's what's so funny. He likes her." At Karina's doubtful look, she continued. "He does, I swear. He's liked her ever since she came here, but he's just like Uncle Garthan was, back in the day. Kind of shy around girls. Then you made him dance with her at the ball. He's been trying to figure out how to get her attention without getting himself embarrassed. When this flower thing started getting popular, he thought it would be a good way to begin."
"How do you know for sure that it's Anduin?"
Helena gave her a droll look. "Because Tremane told me." She then shook her head. "I think he picked the 'Ladies in the Nude' because they were pretty. He doesn't know anything about flowers, so…"
Karina gave Helena a knowing look, "And you told Tremane what they really were after I told you about them."
"Sure did. He thought it was hilarious. I told him he'd better tell Anduin to send something a little less… smutty." She laughed again. "Well, you could say he followed my advice… sort of. Instead of telling her he wanted to get her naked, he told her he wanted to eat her." She dissolved in a fit of giggles.
At that point, Karina was giggling helplessly too. "Only a son of Garthan could muck up a flower exchange this badly." They giggled some more together before Helena gestured to the table beside her bed.
"Not necessarily," she'd said, coyly. On the table was a vase with some blossoms that had heart shaped petals in various shades of cream and gold. 'Forevermore' they were called.
"Well, at least one of them has a brain in his head," quipped Karina, which sent them both into a storm of giggles again.
When their merriment had subsided, Karina rubbed her chin absently in a gesture reminiscent of their father. "Well… I want him to know that it didn't exactly work, but I don't want to hurt his feelings or scare him off."
Helena patted her arm, "Don't worry. I'll handle it." At Karina's doubtful look, she smiled. "I'm not going to tell him what a disaster this is. I'm just going to suggest a particular flower to Tremane to pass along to Anduin. Something a little more appropriate."
And so, she did. Within two days, another bunch of flowers arrived for Erynne. This one had small, star-shaped blooms; a deep purple that faded to white at the center. These, Karina recognized as Bashful Maidens.
Erynne looked at them glumly. "There's some message in this one too, I'm sure." Karina realized that her friend was now convinced that whoever was sending her the flowers was doing it as a jest.
Karina's patience, never one of her strong points, was now completely gone. She dragged Erynne (who was still holding the flowers) through the castle, until she came upon Anduin walking down the hall from her father's study.
"Anduin. I think you need to explain yourself."
He'd looked from her to Erynne, the tips of his ears turning pink. "Karina… I'm not sure what you…"
"You gave my friend 'Ladies in the Nude'. That was the first set of flowers. Were you suggesting that she should get naked?" said Karina with a smirk.
His ears turned red along with his cheeks, "No! That's not… I…" then he seemed to realize the game was up. "I just thought they were pretty. I didn't know what they were called until my brother told me afterwards."
Erynne looked at him in shock, having realized that he was the one sending her the flowers.
"You didn't?"
Anduin looked down at the floor. "No. They looked like the dress you were wearing to the Spring Ball, so I… thought you'd like the colors."
Erynne's eyes went soft. It seemed to thrill her that Anduin had found a detail like the color of her dress memorable.
Karina shook her head. "And your second one? The carnivorous plant?"
Anduin looked back up at her in shock, "Carnivorous? It was carnivorous?"
Karina snorted, "It sure as hell was. Ate a fly right in front of us."
Anduin put his hand over his face and groaned. "After I found out the name of the… first flowers, I wanted to try something pretty, something exotic, with a nicer name. To make up for the first bunch. The flower merchant said it was called 'Morning Dew'."
Karina smirked, "Then I take it you weren't suggesting that you go in for cannibalism?"
Anduin just choked. He couldn't look at either one of them.
Erynne held up the latest bunch of flowers. "And these?" she said, softly. "What was the meaning behind these?"
He still wouldn't look at her, but he murmured, "Because the name made me think of you when my little brother suggested them. Bashful Maiden."
Karina nodded. "Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way," she turned to Erynne. "I'll see you later."
And with that, she'd walked away, leaving them in the hall together.
By the beginning of summer, Erynne was wearing Anduin's courting token. In a burst of humor that she wouldn't have credited him with, he'd had the pendant made of crystals shaped to look like a Morning Dew flower.
When she'd told her father about the flower fiasco, he'd laughed until tears ran down his face.
"I'm not surprised. Did I ever tell you what happened when Garthan presented Lily with his token?" She shook her head. "You've noticed it's a boar tooth? Well, somehow… and I don't know how… he managed to stab her in the back with it when he was presenting it."
Her sides had hurt from laughing so hard.
Her own courtship was going… not so well. Randel actively avoided her, and when he couldn't avoid her, he spoke in one-word sentences. She realized that he wasn't going to talk to her privately or be alone with her, at least not of his own free will, so she tried to create situations where he didn't have a choice.
To say that was a failure was an understatement. If she entered a room, he exited. When they were around the other members of her family, she would try to draw him out with innocuous conversation, only to have him smile thinly at her and start speaking to someone else in the room. It was demoralizing.
The only thing that kept her from weeping in despair was the fact that his eyes followed her when he thought she wasn't looking. More than once, she'd looked into a reflective surface, like a mirror or a window, only to see him staring at her, a heated look in his eyes. This was wiped away the moment she'd turn to face him. Only once did she actually catch him at it, a look of longing in his eyes that he was a second too slow to suppress. He stayed away from her for a week after that. For her part, she sent him a myriad of messages with her eyes, love, flirtation, entreaty… but he'd look away.
She'd also see him lurking about, watching her. She could be moving about the castle, sitting in the garden, or playing at the sports park and she would feel his gaze. Without letting on, she'd surreptitiously sweep the area and more times than not would see him observing her from a covert vantage point before fading away. It just about drove her mad.
What he didn't realize was that she could see his aura now. If picking up his emotional scent wasn't enough confirmation to her that they were indeed heart-bonded, his aura certainly was. And what a chaotic aura it turned out to be. Swirling with red and purple, studded with thick black spikes (fear, maybe?). It was so confusing, and because he wouldn't come anywhere near her, she had no hope of sorting through what the aura was trying to tell her.
He also didn't realize that he'd given himself away in another respect. He hadn't taken a woman to his bed since their encounter at the volleyball court. He endured some good-natured ribbing from Dad and Garthan about it and laughed it off as him being too addicted to Elven girls, but Karina knew that wasn't the case. He didn't bed another because the heart-bond wouldn't let him… and either he didn't know it, or he refused to acknowledge it.
Things were rapidly coming to a head. They just couldn't go on this way, not much longer. She did, however, have a plan.
Samhain was coming up. Randel was going to Ardalon with her parents, Garthan and Lily. This year, she pestered her father until he agreed to take her along. This time, they were going to stay for the week before the Ball, there being some negotiations that Dad wanted to shore up while he was there. Knowing how much he disliked going to Ardalon, Karina figured they must be pretty important. Jacen was going to run the Kingdom while they were gone, which might have influenced her father's decision. It was time for Jacen to see what ruling was really like, not for an hour or a day, but a longer period of time. She wished him luck.
She wished Randel luck, too. This Samhain, he was definitely going to need it.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
A lot of Labyrinth fanfics have a 'flower language' woven into them. I wanted to include one that went hilariously wrong and thought that while I had tortured poor Garthan enough in his own story, his son would probably inherit some of his… finesse.
While the flower fiasco as written here is mostly my own invention, it was definitely inspired by something I had read years ago in a Game of Thrones fanfic, where Sandor Clegane sent flowers anonymously to Sansa Stark to try and cheer her up and they were inadvertently inappropriate. I can't remember the name of it, but that's definitely where I got the idea from.
Randel is definitely in denial here. In the back of his mind… he knows what's going on but just won't face it.
Goblin auras are unique to the individual. The emotion that one color signifies in a person might not signify the same emotion in another. This means that the partners need to be able to see the emotions play out in order to learn to read the aura. This is why Karina can't figure out what his aura is telling her… he won't let her close enough.
