#without regret

Denethor was a flawed man and a flawed father in lots of ways, but never tell me this guy didn't love his son furiously, or regret the hurt he caused him.

'I sent my son forth, unthanked, unblessed, out into needless peril, and here he lies with poison in his veins.'

Men came to the door crying for the Lord of the City. ‘Nay, I will not come down,’ he said. ‘I must stay beside my son. He might still speak before the end. '

Denethor started as one waking from a trance, and the flame died in his eyes, and he wept; and he said: ‘Do not take my son from me! He calls for me.’

Have some more worldbuilding on Galahd! This time about tea.

(I’m not projecting here. No, not at all. What are you thinking?)

The Hadnissian word for “tea” is “tseh”.

Now that that random tidbit is out of the way, on to the good stuff:

Every Clan on Galahd has a welcoming tea, and for every Clan the recepy is slightly different. It’s not like fumir (traditional alcoholic beverage made out of fermented milk) you can spice up with basically whatever as long as you keep to the Rules of the Spices. Because you don’t want to commit social suicide by culinary butchering.

Back on track: the welcoming tea has very stringent recipes for every Clan that aren’t exactly secret but not widely known either. If you’re caught serving this tea with a recipe that’s not your Clan’s, the offended party has the right to cut your pinky off.

The tea is called limeschti, and serving it grants a visitor guest rights (a bit like in Game of Thrones). If it is served the visitor is granted unhindered passage through the Clan’s land, a place to sleep and use of their hearth (which means food and safety). Harming someone under guest rights is a huge no no.

Wars have been fought and Clans annihilated over broken guest right.

There’s also a limeschti specific not to a Clan, but to each island. Which is more a “welcome to our island, we don’t want to kill you and you can use our community resting places” kind of deal. It’s normally served to visiting Galahkari from the other islands, but could also be given to outsiders as a “welcome to Galahd, we’re not secretly plotting to murder you” kind of way. Not that it ever has.

Serving your Clan’s limeschti outside of your Clan lands is a huge social faux pas. Because you don’t have the right to welcome someone into a place that doesn’t belong to you.

The only way something like that is ever acceptable, is when you stretch your feelers out to see, if the person you serve it to is open to court you. It sends a message that says “I want to court you, would you like to court me?” You don’t do that to strangers.