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[lumberlady]

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"Ah, am I doing this right... ? Hello! This is Konoha! Please 'leave a message'!"

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[lumberlady]

is alright
i have much good kitchen
even stove!
just is not SUMARLOK style
maybe could put inside here?
if hire someone…

both ALINA and LIEM think is good?
then can be no doubt i think
i will love to try

and share.

what is SANKT NIKOLAI’S DAY?
day for celebrating king?
like holiday for emperor?

[reznikolai]

As it happens, I could help you with that. It shouldn't be hard, as long as you have electricity in your home.

All I ask in payment is your honest opinion of my cooking. 😄

Hardly anyone would mistake me for a Saint. The holiday and I do share a namesake, however. Sankt Nikolai, patron saint of sailors and lost causes. Rather apt, wouldn't you say?

[lumberlady]

truly?
is easy price!
i has GENERATOR outside rear
is enough?

gasp sound!
i understand
NIKOLAI is receiving name of sacred person
like blessing?
is almost like destiny for sailor…
or inspired?

but how to celebrate cause that is lost???
sounding like sad holiday…

[reznikolai]

I believe the idea is that he lends HELP to lost causes. Or causes that are presumed to be lost.

The story goes that Sankt Nikolai was a young sailor whose ship was trapped in the ice. When he was sent to find food, a reindeer led him to a clearing where he found a table set with a feast. He stuffed his face and curled up to sleep beside the fire.

In the morning, he packed up the leftovers and rode the reindeer back to the ship. Unfortunately, the rest of the crew wasn't too pleased when he opened his pack and found that the food had turned to stone and ash. They pummeled him accordingly.

This sequence of events repeats itself a few more times, until the Saints get tired of it and finally free the ship from the ice. They curse the crew to taste only stone and ash whenever they eat, then bless Sankt Nikolai's bag to always be full of food and sweets. He spends the rest of his life travelling and handing out food wherever he goes.

In short, it's a day devoted to feasting and giving gifts.

[lumberlady]

NIKOLAI
please help i understand
i was thinking SAINT is kind?
but sounding just fickle like gods in i’s world?
they trap ship and play with man so many times making he bring not food back to crew
then be mad at crew for anger?

i would also be angered if scout brings back stones and swears is food…

[reznikolai]

[He's laughing on the other end.]

A valid point! The stories portray it as a test that Sankt Nikolai must endure. Although he keeps getting beat, he also keeps his faith in the path the Saints lead him on. And with each beating, he grows stronger, while the crew only grows weaker with hunger.

But you may be right. I never thought to pity the crew before. The whole time, the poor bastards are starving and this little skiv keeps bringing them rocks like it's all a joke.

[lumberlady]

SAINTS can sense other NIKOLAI is special?
this is why wanting to test?
is good not losing faith but

i no think is fair
people is starving and hungry belly is not good for making decision or being fair…

or not slapping behind head of man you send to town for food for lumber yard crew but come back drunk and smelling like wet penis claiming he is robbed by bandit

[… so she might be biased]

[reznikolai]

That's a suspiciously specific example. 🤔

[Smelling like wet penis...that's a turn of phrase that will stick with him. Thanks, Konoha.]

[lumberlady]

NIKOLAI
i is foreman on lumberyardd
work there since thirteen summers

i have many specifics example

[reznikolai]

Ah, then maybe you should be eligible for sainthood, Konoha. For the trials you've endured. 😉

In any case, the most important part of the story is Sankt Nikolai's legacy of generosity. Which I mean to emulate later in the month. 🎁🎁🎁

[lumberlady]

i no know about this
no SAINT in i 's world

but
i is glad that this SANKT NIKOLAI 's day is coming in winter
in i 's world we gift new clothing for new year
is auspicious

so will be able to trade 🎁

can i ask question though?
about ALINA 's tastes.

[reznikolai]

[Auspicious...a word that calls to mind the memory of bodies tangled in the dark, her panting breath filling the thread of space between them... Ahem.]

A lucky coincidence indeed!

I'm happy to help. I do know something about her tastes, being that she deems me to hers. 😏

[To her taste, that is. Haha.]

[lumberlady]

[Did she do that on purpose, or is "auspicious" just an important thing in her culture enough to say repeatedly... ? Considering she's also asking about his main squeeze in the same message... Who knew.]

is, yes!

does ALINA like pelt?
wear pelt?
maybe not like clothing but
bag? scarf? hat?
thing like this?

[reznikolai]

Maybe a hat. It might remind her of Ravka.

[These days, he isn't sure if that's a good thing or not. Ravka, he writes. Not home. It's still their home, and it always will be, but they've made another home here too.]

[lumberlady]

i have never make hat but
would be fun for trying...
i will give try!

please keep secret
alright?

[reznikolai]

My lips are sealed.

[A pause follows. He'd contacted her for a specific purpose, but he wasn't entirely sure how to lead into it. Now, however, seems to present the right opportunity for a shift in the conversation.]

May I ask for some advice in return? I seem to recall you offering your counsel in matters of love.

[Saints, that word again.]

[lumberlady]

NIKOLAI needs advice?
of course
you can ask anything

what is needing counsel?

[did he need help with his gift? maybe she'd done really good recommending things back in Primavera...]

[reznikolai]

Let's say that when you met Gonta, he was engaged to another woman. You already know that he'll marry her. His heart is set on her, and he's stubborn.

Would you have still confessed your feelings to him? Even knowing that you can't change the end result?

[Uncomfortably vulnerable questions, but he can leave them in Konoha's care.]

[lumberlady]

[Oh… No, it’s not about gifts. It takes a little while before Konoha’s response comes, and not just because it’s difficult for her to type fast.]

this is difficult question

if it is gonta
no i do not tell him

because i know that
to know i am wishing gonta loves i
wishing gonta is marrying i
would cause great guilt and sadness to gonta
possible even stain marriage to other woman with regret
if i love gonta
perhaps better to regret just by self
only one will be sad
not two

is not quite same
but almost i do before
if other woman is instead mountain
i stay silent long time about loving gonta
because if gonta knows i love
perhaps would pressure gonta to remain in human village with i to try and make i happy
and gonta would not be happy in human village
only when parents tell i to go
i can go
that i ask gonta to take i to mountains instead
lucky i that it work well

but
this is gonta
all decision is because of thinking of gonta ‘s mind and heart

if was someone else…
it would be depending

do they suspect already think i love?
then perhaps i tell just for being honest
is truly loving other woman?
does other woman know of i?
then perhaps i do not tell
because is not fair to her if is truly love

can i hold head high
even if i is sad?
for i
this is important thing.

[reznikolai]

[He spends some time sifting through her thoughtful response. It's all very...her. In the best way possible.]

In other words, you would prioritize his feelings, and the other woman's feelings, over your own. So I suppose if Gonta were already married to this hypothetical woman, you would give a wide berth.

I'm afraid I'm far more reckless than you. I may have already made a spectacular mess of things.

["May have"...]

[lumberlady]

[Konoha might try to clarify, to explain that she didn’t really think of it as “prioritizing” so much as loving someone enough to put aside selfishness and let them be happy with someone else, but that’s her…

And honestly, this isn’t about her. From the very beginning this might have always been about asking-]

NIKOLAI
what did you do?

[reznikolai]

[Although there's no point in cloaking the truth of the matter in hypothetical scenarios, a prolonged pause precedes his answer as he tries to decide where to begin.]

An excellent question, Konoha.

You might remember that I once proposed to Alina and she turned me down because she preferred another man. Well, she married him. This was all a few years ago.

Except, from Alina's perspective, none of it has happened yet. She's from my past, and I'm from her future.

[So in other words...while from a romantic angle he may be seen as seizing a lost opportunity, a less generous eye could cast it as bedding another man's wife.]

[lumberlady]

[She had promised Alina, once, drunk on handfasting liquor on a beach in Marilla... not to mention to Nikolai a man named Mal and a fantasy of a simple married life on a farm. She'd kept that promise, she had, even at times when she was tempted to ask if things were alright, even when she sometimes heard something that didn't quite make sense, but now...

No. She would keep that secret. She'd promised. But knowing it... and reading this now...

Something settles deep and uncomfortable in both of her stomachs.]

did you tell ALINA?
is ALINA knowing her future?

[reznikolai]

I reassured her that she succeeds in the task set before her. The civil war is won. I couldn't leave her in the dark for however long we were going to be here.

[Which has turned out to be quite a lot longer than he anticipated all those months ago...]

But all I told her about Mal is that he's alive and well.

[lumberlady]

so you tell her job is done well
that war is over
that man she love enough to marry is safe

but not that she marry him?
not that she marry anyone?