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Post by devilinthedetails on Aug 1, 2020 15:09:44 GMT 10
Series: Dead Winter
Title: Stitching Scars
Rating: PG
Event: Hazy Shade of Winter-Open Flame
Words: 200
Summary: Kally teaches Lianne how to stitch scars.
Stitching Scars
Lianne felt like a lost sheep following a shepherd trailing her older sister around the palace infirmary. Wide-eyed, she watched Kally bend over beds, stitching skin together with needle and thread more often than magic. Wishing she could have such power, she burst out, “Teach me to stitch people up like you do.”
“First you need an open flame.” Kally placed a candle on a bedside table and ignited it with a flick of her wrist, her blue Gift sparking yellow-orange flames. Slipping a thin thread through the silver eye of a needle as their governess had taught them, she continued, “Then you thread a needle just as you would for embroidery. You clean the needle and thread to prevent infection by passing it through the open flame that burns away any impurity. Then you sew together the wound with neat, careful, and straight stitches.”
“Just as if it were embroidery,” Lianne murmured, gaze fixed on her sister sewing together the gashed forehead of a soldier who had gotten on the wrong side of a rogue centaur.
“Exactly.” Kally nodded. “Think of it as beautiful embroidery, not stitching scars, because you must try to make the scars beautiful.”
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Post by mistrali on Aug 1, 2020 22:24:34 GMT 10
This is such an understated glimpse into Kally’s role as a healer. It’s a role we don’t often see her in after her move to Carthak. Making the scars beautiful is such a powerful line to me, and I can’t explain why. It’s not that I mean to glamourise scarring, but... well, it’s interesting to see it from that perspective because it’s something we can’t control as patients in the real world. Scars are a consequence of surgery or trauma (in a medical context) IRL.
But in Tortall they have so much more power to heal, but it acknowledges that even if you can’t fix something, you have to respect it as best you can rather than papering over it.
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Post by devilinthedetails on Aug 3, 2020 2:00:32 GMT 10
mistrali, thank you so much for commenting! I really wanted this story to be a glimpse into Kally's role as a healer. I feel like Kally's healing power doesn't get that much attention, but in Wild Magic, she was described as being a talented healer (stronger than her older brother Roald, and we do know that Roald ended up using his healing powers during the Scanran War from Lady Knight, so I'd like to imagine that Kally could continue to use her healing powers throughout her life to help others as well). The making the scars beautiful line came to me in the shower and I knew I just had to weave it into the story somehow, so I'm so glad that line was so powerful to you. I'm like you in that I don't want to glamorize scarring, but I suppose I just wanted to explore the idea of turning something that is evidence of pain, trauma, or violence and turning into something that could be beautiful in its own way. Healing in Tortall perpetually interests me, because it means medical care in Tortall is much more advanced than what we'd see in our own world during the medieval era, and even in some ways the magic makes things possible that we couldn't achieve in our own world today due to lacking magic. Yet there still seem to be scars on people like Wyldon that the healers can't heal so this story sort of ended up being an exploration of that, and I'm glad that you found it so interesting.
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Post by Rosie on Aug 3, 2020 19:42:38 GMT 10
I really like the interaction between the sisters here; it shows the practical side of the Contes, and how they want to be of use. Lianne must be quite young here, but Kalasin doesn't baby her.
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Post by devilinthedetails on Aug 4, 2020 1:21:32 GMT 10
Rosie, thank you so much for commenting! I'm so glad that you liked the interaction between Kally and Lianne here. I do think there is a great strain of practicality running through the Conte family where they really want to be of use so that's why I had Kally volunteering in the infirmary and Lianne following her around trying to learn stuff. I really liked the idea of Kally being someone who taught Lianne without babying her or trying to protect her since to me it felt true to Kally's character so I'm so happy you liked that detail and interpretation of Kally.
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Post by Kypriotha on Aug 9, 2020 11:28:22 GMT 10
This is a really sweet interaction between the two sisters. I agree with Rosie - Contes always want to be doing and it's nice that Kally doesn't baby Lianne or brush her off for asking.
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Post by devilinthedetails on Aug 10, 2020 1:18:10 GMT 10
Kypriotha, thank you so much for commenting! I'm so happy you found this to be a sweet interaction between these two Conte sisters. Contes definitely always have a desire to do, and I really thought it would be nice to show Kally as the nice big sister who doesn't baby Lianne or brush her off but teaches her what she wants to know. This was a short piece but I really enjoyed writing it and giving a glimpse into Lianne's relationship with Kally.
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