Nothing is said of the essay for two weeks. It could even be assumed that Ellis had mislaid it, or gotten distracted with the business of escorting a trio of squabbling merchants (triplets, each with a stake in their mother's goat farm) and their flock from Kirkwall to Ostwick.
The essay itself is not challenging. It's the request accompanying it that gives him pause, and a week chasing goats and hauling carts along muddy roads is a good excuse to think. When he returns it's with a bottle of decent wine, as if his return from this minor excursion should be celebrated. They put out one minor chemical fire that night, and before he leaves Ellis takes a sheaf of parchment from the inner pocket of his coat and puts it on the table.
Each page is covered in Ellis' cramped scribbles, headed with carefully printed block letters and underlined in a thick slash. Ten titles in all, ranging from The Bann of Balmachie's Wife to The Page-Boy and the Silver Goblet to The Tale of the Crow. Folded and set at the front of the papers:
Wysteria,
Most of the stories I knew from childhood are better recited aloud around the fire. I've written down for you the ones I know best, in addition to the Fisherman and the Merman and the Doomed Rider. I'll try to think on the others.
no subject
The essay itself is not challenging. It's the request accompanying it that gives him pause, and a week chasing goats and hauling carts along muddy roads is a good excuse to think. When he returns it's with a bottle of decent wine, as if his return from this minor excursion should be celebrated. They put out one minor chemical fire that night, and before he leaves Ellis takes a sheaf of parchment from the inner pocket of his coat and puts it on the table.
Each page is covered in Ellis' cramped scribbles, headed with carefully printed block letters and underlined in a thick slash. Ten titles in all, ranging from The Bann of Balmachie's Wife to The Page-Boy and the Silver Goblet to The Tale of the Crow. Folded and set at the front of the papers: