Interlude: Lisa – Part 01
Lisa had been waiting for the right moment.
Two months ago, Luke, as a blacksmith, was invited to the Militant Nation for a technical exchange, and Lisa, as his apprentice, naturally went along. The journey had been rough for her. The low Aetherial concentration left her feeling exhausted, and the constant motion of the carriage made her sick. On top of that, they were ambushed along the way by assassins, including Hilda Cavendish. Once in the foreign land, she’d spent her time buried in forging without a moment to relax or catch up with Charlotte and the girls. She’d even gotten caught up in a large-scale battle. Once it was over, they hurriedly left the Militant Nation, returning to the city utterly drained.
The whole time, Atelier Liza had been left unattended. Even after returning to the city, Lisa threw herself straight into blacksmithing without taking a proper rest. Things had been so hectic, the work showing no signs of stopping, until just yesterday, when they finally finished forging a katana.
Now the moment she’d been waiting for was finally here, and she wasn’t about to let it slip away.
“I’m going to clean up!” she declared first thing in the morning, shaking her master Luke awake. “Listen, Luke. We’ve left the workshop, both the main house and the forge, unattended for almost two months! Do you know what happens when you do that? Can you imagine?”
“…”
“Exactly!” Lisa said, taking his silence as an acknowledgment. “It starts smelling horribly dusty!”
Her master was a terrible riser, especially just after waking, when he was too sluggish to speak at all. Which meant the only way forward was to push the conversation along without stopping.
“And it’s worse than just dust! Rainwater’s gotten into the cracks of the doors and shutters, leaving stains. There’s ash from the forest all over the roof, and the floors haven’t even been swept properly. It’s a total mess!”
Lisa herself had been using the forge, not the main house, to sleep. Fine dust and charcoal fragments were everywhere. Tools lay scattered, and every night, she had to clear a space just to lie down. With the colder weather setting in, the draft was unbearable.
“So, it’s time for a major cleaning!” she declared, pumping her fist. Being a neat freak, she couldn’t stand the state of the place any longer. “We’re going to clean every nook and cranny, thoroughly and perfectly!”
“Breakfast,” Luke groaned.
“After we’re done!”
Luke sighed groggily, clearly not thrilled by the prospect of cleaning.
First, Lisa sent him to clean the ash off the roof of the forge. With a broom in hand, he climbed the ladder sluggishly and started sweeping the ash, which the wind would carry off through the Seventh District.
Meanwhile, Lisa went inside the main house, hauling furniture outside piece by piece until the rooms were mostly bare. Kicking off her shoes, she stood on a chair and began beating the ceiling with a duster. Even ceilings gathered a light film of dust. Motes drifted down onto the empty floor, where she swept them out the door in one pass.
Once the sweeping was done, she moved on to wiping down surfaces. Rinsing and wringing the cloth again and again, she worked in order—walls, windows, floors—cleaning from the top down, just like sweeping.
After Luke finished cleaning the roof, he polished the furniture Lisa had moved outside and brought it back in. In the meantime, Lisa prepared a simple meal, chopping up the fresh produce gifted by local farmers and brewing tea from leaves she’d collected in the Ashen Woods.
She set everything on the table. “Let’s eat while we rest.”
“Dried sweet potatoes?”
“They look really tasty!”
“Dried sweet potatoes, huh.”
They ate slowly, Lisa happily savoring them while Luke, picky eater that he was, mostly washed them down with tea.
Once their stomachs were filled, Lisa moved on to washing the clothes, while Luke went to the forge to tidy up and maintain his tools. They split up their tasks and worked through the chores one by one.
By a little past noon, they finally reached a good stopping point.
“Luke, I’m heading out for a bit.”
Lisa peeked into the forge to find Luke carving a piece of magnolia wood for a scabbard, likely for the katana they’d finished just last night.
Without stopping his work, her master said, “We’ve got enough scrap metal for now.”
“No, that’s not it.” Lisa shook her head. “I thought we should let our neighbors know we’re back. We’ve just been forging nonstop since we got back, and we haven’t actually greeted anyone.”
“Got it. Go ahead.”
“Make sure you keep cleaning while I’m gone. No slacking off!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Luke responded as he continued carving.
“All right, then. I’m off.”
I’m not lying, she told herself quietly before leaving the forge.
Carrying an empty bucket and two dry cloths, Lisa set off.
The Seventh District was a patch of farmland managed by the city. People were hired as farmers through a public recruitment process, given work, and allowed to live there. It was a system started by the first Housman when he founded the city, and it had stuck around ever since.
Lisa wove along the footpaths between vast fields, visiting house after house to report their return. The Seventh District was the largest area in the Independent Trade City, so making the rounds wasn’t a quick task. Some houses were quiet, with residents taking their afternoon naps, so those would have to be visited another time.
Along the way, she ran into a familiar woman.
She was carrying a bouquet of colorful flowers, so full they were spilling over her arms. When she spotted Lisa through the gaps in the flowers, her face lit up.
“Lisa, perfect timing! Would you like to take some of these?”
“Why are you carrying so many flowers?”
“The florist was about to throw out the damaged ones, so I took them. I couldn’t help grabbing too many. Don’t you want any?”
“I do! I’d love to!”
Since the woman offered her a choice, Lisa picked some white flowers without hesitation. They were supposed to be damaged, but to her, the petals looked perfectly beautiful.
The flowers were just what Lisa needed, and she was quietly pleased, as crass as it might sound, not to have to stretch her tight budget to buy them.
With the small bouquet, bucket, and cloths in hand, Lisa left the Seventh District.
She made her way through the residential area, passing stone houses, and quickly moved through a back alley, avoiding the crowded shopping street. The delicious aroma of bread from the bakery teased her senses, but she kept walking. She paused briefly at a monastery that practiced Prayer Pacts and the nearby school, listening to the children singing, and once satisfied, continued on.
As she ventured deeper into the city, Lisa eventually reached her destination.
She had left the tightly packed buildings behind and found herself on a hill with a gentle slope that offered a panoramic view of the area.
At the foot of the hill, countless gravestones marked the grassy ground. This was the communal cemetery of the Sixth District.
“All right.”
Lisa drew water from the well at the corner of the cemetery, struggling to carry the heavy bucket down the hill. She searched for the gravestones she had come for. There were so many, and as expected, more were being added all the time. It was easy to miss the ones she was searching for each time she visited.
“Ah.”
Soon, she found them.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
Two gravestones stood side by side before her.
Basil Ainsworth.
Liza Oakwood.
“Hello, Basil, Liza.”
This would mark the conclusion of today’s cleaning.
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