The gardens (on her own)

"What do you mean exploring?" Winlay asked, afraid of the answer that Mika was sure to give.

"You remember all those places that we were told were off limits to the new initiates?" Winlay nodded her head slowly "Those are the best areas to explore. Don't you think?" Mika asked with a smile on her face. "What do you say?"

"I say - don't get caught!" Winlay shook her head at Mika as they walked from the hall. "Imagine how embarrassed your father and mother would be if you were sent home in disgrace the first day in Telnon." Mika smiled back at her, and her golden curls shimmered as she answered.

"I never get caught." With that Mika followed a group of convent residents up the stairs blending in with the other women as if she belonged with them.

Winlay followed several of the other new initiates back towards the dormitories but as they passed an open archway the young novice saw a hint of the gardens in the courtyards beyond and moved through the archway to get a better look. The gardens were spectacular, all sorts of vegetables flowers and herbs grew in neat rows and Winlay marveled at how productive the plants were this early in the season.

Soon out of habit, she was pulling out weeds and retying runners where the plants had outgrown the old fasteners.

"You are doing a nice job, but aren't you supposed to be somewhere else." The woman speaking was in her late fifties, her grey hair pulled back neatly in a bun in the back. Her face was wrinkled in all the right places and her smile was friendly and inquisitive. Her robes were tucked up into her belt and she had dark brown marks on her knees from kneeling in the fresh loam.

"Not really I guess ma'am" Winlay started but was interrupted almost immediately

"You must be one of the new initiates, if you are still calling me ma'am instead of Sister." Winlay nodded eagerly, embarrassed that she hadn't called this nice woman Sister, but glad that she understood. "You should be enjoying this afternoon sister, it will the last free time you have for a while."

"Oh but I am enjoying myself!" Bubbled Winlay, "I'm Winlay Grace, and this is the most wonderful garden I've ever seen. How do you get the tomatoes to bear fruit so early and are those peppers?"

"Easy Sister Winlay, I'm Sister Margaret" and she bowed to Winlay crossing her hands at the wrists just below her chin in the'X' of Xelta. Winlay quickly bowed back and when she stood Margaret continued. "One question at a time, no, that won't work either." Pointing at a wheelbarrow loaded with seedlings Margaret said "Grab that barrow dear, and follow me. It's easier to show you than explain."

Winlay spent the next two hours working with Sister Margaret, she helped plant seedlings in one of the lower gardens and then returned to tour the greenhouse where the plants were started in the winter months. As she worked, Margaret explained how the plants were selected and cross bred to produce better harvests and showed Winlay how the waste from the convent was mixed with the garden wastes to turn into the nutrient rich soil that they used to refresh the gardens.

"Would you like to work here when you are assigned your duties?" Asked Margaret near the end of the second hour when Winlay was happily thinning radishes that had been planted too closely together by one of her other inept assistants.

"Oh yes Sister! It would be like a holiday every day!" Winlay nodded happily suddenly distracted by the sight of a slender figure climbing over the garden wall from outside and dropping into the convent gardens and disappearing behind a row of raspberries. The climber was blond and wore the grey robes of an initiate with a burlap satchel slung on their back. Whoever it was climbed down the wall with the grace of an acrobat leaping down the last six feet before moving quickly out of sight.

"Is something wrong Sister Winlay?" Asked Margaret turning to follow Winlay's gaze "What did you see?"