The tea
Amongst the herb gatherers in Crith, second names are neither patrilineal nor matrilineal. Instead, a child earns their second name when they identify their first herb or plant. It does tend to work out that families share a second name, as that is how knowledge is passed along. So it is with the Bhilean family of Onora (nicknamed Ma), Anndra (nicknamed Pa), Cheò, and Tamhas (pronounced Ta-vahs, nicknamed Beag, pronounced bee-ugh).
Onora and Anndra (sound how they look) were wise, worldly, and stubborn herb-gatherers. Like other Usigans, they had a distaste for magic, preferring what they could see and know through working with plants. However, that distaste turned to hate not long after their first child, Cheò, was born. A good friend of theirs had recently acquired a Control Plants spellbook. While trying to alter the book, a magical accident turned the friend into a plant before the young couple’s very eyes. Fearing what else could go wrong, they raised Cheò to be completely averse to magic. And Cheò, a good and dutiful child, listened to every lesson his parents taught him.
The same could not be said of Tamhas, a willful, clever, and curious boy. Were there ever a child to ask “why” too damn much, it was Tamhas. To be sure, he still did his chores, learned about herbs, and learned to read. But conflicts emerged, and the conflicts between him and his parents were often mediated by Cheò. That is, until, Cheò became of age at seventeen and left for the mainland. Without big brother there, fights between Tamhas, now a teen, and his parents exploded. Moving out at fourteen, Tamhas stayed on the island, making his own way with what he knew and what he could learn.
The space was good for them, and family visits, while infrequent, were enjoyable. They read letters from Cheò, and Tamhas found a knack for mundane alchemy. His tinctures, salves, and teas were highly sought after in Còmhlataigh, and he began to save up for bigger dreams. It was around the time that he reached his goal that Cheò returned from the mainland, a shell of his former self and worried immensely about their parents’ wellbeing. Like ships passing in the night, Tamhas left for aurifex school mere days after Cheò’s return. If big brother was back to worry on their parents, then little Beag could finally pursue his dreams. Within a month, Ma and Pa caught muckfoot, a debilitating disease.
Cheò spent years caring for their parents, who both had to get at least one foot amputated to prevent the muckfoot from spreading. Resentment grew upon learning where Tamhas went: Starfall Academy. While Cheò had learned people-magic was not quite the absolute evil his parents painted it to be, he still felt like it was the ultimate slap in the face to their upbringing. It didn’t help that, while a strange magical girl was in his troupe, he had frequent dreams of his parents getting sick and dying. Everything swirled and grew until their last conversation: at Ma and Pa’s funeral.
Cheò had been intermediary to many a conflict involving Tamhas, but was never the one to start it. So when, after the service, Cheò began to berate his grieving brother for not being there, a lifetime of unaired grievances burst to life. Tamhas angry that Cheò would leave when things at home were so tumultuous, that Cheò would always take their parents’ side, that Cheò didn’t bother to try to understand why he found magic so interesting and helpful. Cheò shouting about how Tamhas wasn’t there to say goodbye, and that Tamhas’ leaving for magic school is probably what made their parents sick in the first place…
Each stormed out of the scene, full of fury and regret. They have not spoken since.
Tamhas left the next day by hot air balloon to return to his world of magical workshops and limitless questions. By the end of the month, Cheò would also depart from Uisgetaigh, home shuttered and heart broken. He went back to Coratón, back to the last place he felt happy and hopeful.