# Lethra Cerin: Beyond the Garden Wall

*A gardener's daughter considers work in Asterfall*

Lethra wants to work with plants in conditions the palace gardens carefully prevent. A paid junior post in the highlands offers less comfort than the place Aveline could find for her, and a prospect she cannot leave alone.

## What she wanted to grow

Lethra Cerin grew up near the service gardens of the royal residence in Velisar. Her father worked among plants ordered for particular heights, colours and weeks of flowering. During school recesses, she helped catalogue bulbs and learnt to recognise the softened spot that could spoil a whole tray in storage. She liked the smell of opened crates and the first clean leaves after repotting. The gardens were beautiful. Wanting to leave them did not require her to pretend otherwise.

Her friendship with Aveline had begun in laughter at a ceremonial song and continued through exchanged books. It became less easy when Lethra started applying for work elsewhere. The princess offered a palace post. Lethra knew it would be secure, close to home and better paid than several of the openings she had found. She wanted to work at Asterfall's municipal glasshouses, where young plants were raised and trialled for exposed highland gardens. Photographs showed low, wind-shaped planting along streets she had never walked. She kept returning to them.

## The book returned

Lethra found Aveline at the window desk and put the borrowed novel beside her elbow. She had marked three passages with scraps of paper. Two were arguments they had not finished. The third described a garden so badly that she wanted Aveline to see it before she forgot the details.

'They've invited me to Asterfall,' Lethra said. 'For an interview and a practical morning.'

Aveline moved the book aside. 'Does that mean you have the place?'

'No. It means they want to see what I can do.'

The princess read the invitation. Lethra watched her reach the terms: travel at the applicant's expense, a paid practical assessment, and the possibility of a probationary appointment. 'You would have to rent a room,' Aveline said. 'You already have one here.'

'I know.' Lethra rubbed a thumb across the edge of her nail. She had calculated the room, the train and the money she would need before her first pay. She had not found a calculation that would explain wanting to stand somewhere unfamiliar.

Aveline put the invitation down. 'I could speak to the head gardener about the trial beds. You needn't be sorting bulbs for ever.'

It was a better offer than the first one. That made refusing harder. 'I want to go and see it,' Lethra said. 'Even if they don't take me.' She retrieved the invitation. Her hand was unsteady, and she resented it.

Aveline looked towards the borrowed book. 'The ending is still dreadful.'

'It is,' Lethra agreed. She sat on the other side of the desk, and for a few minutes they argued about something they both understood.

## A practical morning

At Asterfall, Lethra's coat proved too light for the walk from the station. She arrived with cold ears and a careful speech about her experience. The glasshouse supervisor gave her an apron, showed her the handwashing station and asked her to inspect a tray of young shrubs.

Some had yellowed leaves. Lethra checked the labels before touching a plant, then lifted one pot to examine its drainage. She explained what she could observe and asked for the watering record. The supervisor supplied it without praise or objection. Working beside a stranger, with nobody listening because she knew the princess, felt disconcertingly ordinary.

After the assessment, she walked through the outdoor trial plots. Small white flowers stood above cushions of close leaves. Beyond the fence, a municipal crew was planting the same variety beside steps worn down in the middle. She crouched to look. There were gardens here that people passed through on their way to other things.

The offer arrived four days after she returned to Velisar: a paid junior appointment, subject to a six-week probation. She read it with her father at the kitchen table. He checked the pay and asked about lodging. When she showed him the room she had enquired about, he said she would need a thicker coat.

Lethra accepted the appointment that evening. Her travel and the lodging deposit took most of the money she had set aside. She cancelled a planned outing with friends and went to the second-hand market for a coat. It had a repaired lining and enough room in the pockets for both hands.

## Before leaving Velisar

Lethra sent Aveline the starting date and a sketch of the white-flowered plants. She added the page number of the garden passage they had not yet discussed. There was no answer by the time she packed; the silence hurt without telling her what it meant. She put their next shared book in her bag. The appointment was real, the probation still ahead of her, and the coat hung ready beside the door.

## The room above the market

Lethra reached her Asterfall lodging with the thick coat folded over one arm and the strap of her case cutting the other hand. Loom Hill Rooms smelt of cooked cabbage and damp wool. The woman who kept the keys showed her the window, the shared kitchen and the place in the cupboard that belonged to her.

The room was smaller than the photograph had suggested. Its view was accurate. Across the roofs she could see a section of the terrace leading towards the glasshouses, and a wall darkened by rain.

'Heat is included up to the allowance,' the woman said. 'Extra use is divided between these rooms.'

Lethra found the line in the terms she had already read. She had understood every word without imagining the window frame admitting a thin, continuous draught. Her deposit and fare were gone. The return ticket was not something she could purchase because she disliked a room.

After the woman left, she put Aveline's book on the narrow shelf. No reply had arrived. She checked once, felt foolish and turned the device face down.

A knock came while she was testing the latch. A tenant from across the landing held out a strip of folded cloth.

'For the bottom of the door. Keep it clear when you go out. The corridor has to work as a corridor.'

'Is it always this cold?'

'No. Sometimes the kitchen's too hot.' The tenant smiled, tiredly rather than cheerfully, and went back to her room.

Lethra wrote the damaged latch on the lodging condition sheet before unpacking. Then she carried the empty case downstairs to ask where it could be stored. Keeping it by the door would obstruct the only clear route through the room.

Her first shift was still ahead. She walked to Glasshouse Walk to learn the way in daylight, bought bread at Lower Covered Market and resisted the pastry beside it. Back upstairs, she ate sitting on the bed with the coat around her shoulders.

She had wanted work beyond the palace. She still did. The room did not become warmer when she reminded herself.

## Explore the Atlas

- [Asterfall · streets and landmarks](../atlas.html#map=asterfall-plan)

## Related entries

- [Aveline before the voyage](aveline-before-the-voyage.md)
- [Asterfall](asterfall.md)
- [Caelune](caelune.md)
- [Velisar](velisar.md)
- [The Orinthian Empire](orinthian-empire.md)
- [A civilisation at household scale](everyday-life.md)