Last Celta Thursday Posting: Heart Search cut opening bit

Celta Thursday, Heart Search bit with Camellia and notes:

This place wasn't at all the very upscale, very expensive Darjeeling's Teahouse, modeled after an ancient Earthan place. But the Darjeelings were not the well known Tea Family, that Family which was of GrandLord status and rich and snobby. No, they were not named after a plant like most of the Families of Celta. In the rankings of Families they were merely a GraceHouse, of the third noble rank.

But the Darjeeling Family was old, founded before the Tea Family even. Founded in the first decade of the colonization of Celta, when even those who'd funded the starships and journey through space, were choosing their names. Those now called the FirstFamilies.

And Camellia had secret papyrus, journals that dated from the same era. Papyrus that told of tea. Recipes that she didn't think even the Tea Family, despite all their great claims, knew of.
Camellia's Flair – psi power – was a gift of blending teas. Some were popular only with tea afficiandos, a couple had become very popular with the Druidan city folk, targeted to their tastes. A good selling point for her her teahouse – teahouses.

Only her most trusted friends who had secrets of their own and knew how to keep them knew of these papyrus – Glyssa Licorice who was the PublicLibrary Heir, and Tiana Mugwort. Glyssa had more secrets than Camellia, and Tiana had one big secret she was bound by a Vow of Honor not to tell. So they were comfortable with each other.

Two more beings knew of the papyrus, the starship, Nuada's Sword , and the Captain of that ship, Ruis Elder.

While the Tea Family owned whole plantations in the south of the continent, near the great Plano Straight, Camellia had a couple of greenhouses, one bio-liquid and one soil, and actually got some of her tea from the great greensward in Nuada's Sword . That made her tea special, limited in quantity, another selling point.

She and her friends were of the few who knew Panglish, the ancient Earthan tongue of the colonists.

Today she went to Darjeeling's Teahouse, the beginning of her empire. Camellia planned on at least five teahouses, after several different ancient Earthan traditions. Darjeeling's Teahouse, the first, was of the Indian tradition, bright and bold with tiles of colorful patterns and rafters tinted primary colors.

She even had three different kinds of Darjeeling tea, two that she and Nuada's Sword had developed from ancient genetic strains.



**Note: Traditions: Japanese, Chinese (Asian?), English/British, Russian, Indian*DONE
Laev convinces her to do one for the FirstFamilies (think tearoom/restaurant in the V&A), half-papered with William Morris green leafy paper, tiled scenes of each of the Ogham trees around the room. Stained glass?

Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again.
Robin