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[goingtobeunwell]

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[goingtobeunwell]

Oh?

[He raises his brow and turns slightly. He can see that for him; he's got the patience for it, after all.]

What changed your mind?

[riseunparalleled]

This was after my second banishment, though not so long after.

After a... series of events, I ended up staying a time with an older woman who'd lost her husband in the war. She helped me when I was injured, though I hope I would've helped her with the garden, even if she hadn't. It wasn't something I'd done much of before, but I found there was a deal of contentment that could be found in the successes and failures of the work.

I could've stayed... [He does think the background's important to try to answer the question.]

[goingtobeunwell]

[He nods, waiting for him to go on. There is contentment in a small life, but that's not the path for a man like Xie Lian.]

But...?

[riseunparalleled]

Cultivating a garden is about shaping the world.

It's not solely in your hands, of course, but there's a specific rhythm to it. A different way of interacting with life and death. More natural, in many ways, than shifting through junk to see what can be fixed up or repurposed or taken apart for sale...

Or perhaps it was just because I found I had a better talent for haggling than growing flowers.

[goingtobeunwell]

[Life and death. Well, that's certainly a way of looking at it. Not that it hasn't occurred to him that there's a certain kind of oneness with nature that occurs when caring for plants.]

Your natural talent lies in your people skills. [He smiles softly.]

[riseunparalleled]

[A statement that more than one person might disagree with, but Xie Lian doesn't let that sort of thing stop him from appreciating a compliment.]

Besides, it's a much more rooted existence. I wasn't ready for that, then.

But we all have paths not taken.

[goingtobeunwell]

Mn. Too tempted by the open road and the unknown outside your door.

[That they certainly do.]

When I was a boy I wanted to be a priest.

[riseunparalleled]

[More 'running away', but Crozier's wording is both better and much more poetic.]

A priest? Why?

[He doesn't laugh, though much some of his own paths not followed, it's a little funny from here. He does lean against him a bit more.]

[goingtobeunwell]

Ah, it was for silly reasons. I was...seven? No, eight, and I'd spend my summers and holidays away from school sneaking off to visit my father's mother. She was a Papist -- a sect of the major faith of ours that had become rather looked down upon in my region of the world.

[Lord, how long has it been since he'd thought of Memo Moira!]

It was pleasing to me, her church. It was dark and mysterious, the incense made my head spin, the priests chanted in Latin -- I was transfixed.

[riseunparalleled]

There are sillier reasons than an impressive temple. Otherwise, why would they be important? [Maybe just a little teasing.]

And then you went to sea?

[goingtobeunwell]

[Arse. Crozier rolls his eyes and slides his arm around Xie Lian's waist.]

I told my grandmother that I wanted to be a priest, and she laughed at me. Said I was destined for something far greater. [A beat.] She was an eccentric old crone.

But yes, then at thirteen I went to sea.

[riseunparalleled]

It's a reasonable assumption. [Xie Lian doesn't have anything against priests, but he can think of a long list of greater destinies. Though he can admit he might be a little unfair on the profession.]

Was it an apprenticeship? Following some family member?

[goingtobeunwell]

[He laughs softly.]

Oh, no, not at all. My father had many, many sons. I was the eleventh child, therefore expendable. He'd dreamed of having a son in the Navy -- there was power there, the potential for some glory for the family name if I had a distinguished naval career.

He took me out of school, sent me to London with a stranger as a chaperone. I was...I was terrified. I couldn't understand why he sent me away.

[riseunparalleled]

[He nods. It doesn't strike him as particularly strange that Crozier's father would use him that way, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be terrifying for the child.]

I can imagine it would be. I chose to leave home earlier than I might have, to cultivate. Being sent away... It can be difficult to handle at any age, let alone when you're a child.

[goingtobeunwell]

Some boys are sent off earlier. I was relatively lucky.

[And he is grateful for every opportunity he'd been given, and for the chance to build a life at sea.]

Just interesting to think back on, how far we've come in our lives. Where we've started out. What age did you leave home?

[riseunparalleled]

Hmm. Fourteen or so?

I wasn't far from home. I simply was living in the Royal Holy Temple instead. [After a moment, he admits,] Which I preferred. It would've been easy to visit far more often than I did.

[goingtobeunwell]

Mn.

[He tilts his head in thought.]

What did you parents think of all this? This path you chose.

[riseunparalleled]

They were very proud of me.

Though my mom would've liked me to come home to visit more often.

[goingtobeunwell]

[Crozier smiles.]

Mothers are the same everywhere, aren't they?

[riseunparalleled]

Especially when they're right.

But I enjoyed training, and I used to get into arguments with my dad so it was easier...

[goingtobeunwell]

Petulance of youth.

[He laughs and pulls back just a little to lean back on his remaining hand.]

Were you spoiled?

[riseunparalleled]

Oh, extensively.

[He grins.] It's why I felt a need to offer warning, once I learned that people here are occasionally turned into children.

[goingtobeunwell]

[Why is he not surprised!]

I used to think I loathed being around children, my short fuse and general curmudgeonly nature and all. But the longer I'm away from my family, the more I find that I miss the chaos of my nieces and nephews and their babes.

[riseunparalleled]

I was my parents only child.

[A lot of concentrated effort went into that spoiling.]

My little cousin came to live with us too, but we never had that sort of chaos.

[goingtobeunwell]

[Their upbringings we’re very different, not that it’s a bad thing.]

Must have been a nice change of pace, to have someone else living with you in what I can only assume was a massive palace. Did you ever find yourself feeling lonely?