November 19
Word Count: 2222
“Really, Vyna, you should give it a little bit of time, but if you still want to leave in the morning, then we’ll go.”
Lynah had heard enough of her whining. She had other plans. Lynah left them and walked outside. The party was in full swing. Someone had cracked open a few barrels of ale and everyone was helping themselves to big scoopfuls as fast as they could drink them. Someone had gone to the calca tree and rounded up the little white pellets that lay like snow around its base. Villagers were grabbing handfuls out of the bucket that sat next to one of the ale barrels.
Lynah approached the one Vyna had identified as her grandfather, and therefore the town elder. It seemed he also had already consumed quite a bit of ale and calca. His cheeks were rosy, and the grey streaks in his hair were growing darker even as he smiled at her.
“Have some ale, please. Enjoy our hospitality. I doubt anyone shall be able to move tomorrow.”
“I am glad that they are having a good time,” she stated, staring at the impromptu peasant party, “I will stay until we discuss the method of payment.”
The smile faded from his lips. “Payment?”
“Yes. A great mage created the pendant that saved your village, and I, a great mage took the pendant off, releasing you. Surely that deserves payment.”
“Well, yes I suppose but…”
“Really, in the course of saving one hundred lives, the payment is rather small. A bucket, oh about that size,” Lynah pointed to the bucket next to the ale barrel, “of calca each day. That’s only 30 buckets a month.”
“But that’s nearly half of the calca we will be able to get!”
“Is it not enough for your village to live on? Am I asking for you to starve and die?”
“No, that will be plenty for now, but if our village grows, we won’t be able to support it”.
“Then you should see that your village remains the exact same size.”
“but… I didn’t think the great mages charged payments.”
“Perhaps calca is the one thing that we cannot manufacture or make for ourselves. If you think the price is too high then it will be an easy for me to take and put you all back into the amulet until you change your mind.
“No!” he shouted. “We won’t have a problem providing you with calca.”
“Good. I’ll even delay the first payment for a few days until the villagers settle in. There’s only one other thing I need,” Lynah stated. She knew she had him in a position to accept anything she wanted. It was a simple matter to explain the rest of her demands and pop back to Tamarin.
Brother Ilden was waiting. “How did things go?” he asked.
“Perfectly,” Lynah answered as she took an apple from the bowl of fruit on the table.
“There have been developments here. Brother Saratin was asking for you. I think you’ve finally been missed.”
“Really? That certainly took long enough. I could have been dragged off by dragons for all he cared.
“He didn’t seemed to concerned. He seemed more concerned over the fact that Malek has met with an accident… a magical accident”
“Saratin hasn’t a clue how to fix him, does he?”
“He’s made the promise but has no plan of how to deliver it.” Lynah smiled. Perhaps later she would decide whether she wanted to fix Malek as well. It would probably be simple… if she tried. Of course Malek was one of those in between mages. He didn’t trust Saratin, but he didn’t trust anyone else much either. If Malek was on Lynah’s side, then Mitty would be too. Iber was silly enough to swing in her direction as well, if she batted a few eyelashes. That would be four against three. From there it would be easy to show Saratin what kind of a fool he was.
“One of these days this is going to get difficult,” Lynah stated as she closed her eyes and changed her clothing with a passing whim.
When Mitty awoke, she was using Malek’s chest for a pillow. It was reassuringly raising and lowering beneath her head. For a moment, she thought they were home, in their tiny little cottage, and that if she pretended to sleep long enough, Malek would get up and make breakfast. Then she remembered.
“Malek?” She asked, in case he’d gone from unconsciousness to sleep during the night. She poked him in the ribs, but still there was no reaction. He still wouldn’t wake up. “You are the most stubborn man I have ever met,” she said raising her head to look at him. His brief moment of lucidity had cheered her last night, and she kept hoping he would show more signs of being one step with death. The one thing that Mitty had learned about magic, especially unintended magic, was that it was completely unpredictable.
Mitty kissed her husband, then stood and stretched. Brother Ettu had left with her blessing right before she fell asleep. There was little more that he could do for Malek or for her. Brother Axio took his new duties very seriously and had been constantly underfoot, looking for ways to serve Mitty. She’d finally given him the false errand of going to report the sewing progress of the brothers to keep him busy. Mitty could understand why he’d chosen the field of service to other brothers. He loved to make people comfortable, and was miserable as Mitty held vigil over her prone husband.
The door peeked open, then swung widely to accommodate Axio and a huge serving tray.
“I see you’re up! I’ve brought breakfast. It’s a bit of everything, because I didn’t know what you liked, so there’s plenty.”
“How many times have you opened the door and peeked to see if I was up yet?”
“No more than five,” he said, putting the tray on the table. He stopped and counted silently on his fingers. “Well, maybe six. But no more than seven.”
“This all looks wonderful. Thank you. Please sit and eat with me.”
“No, no thank you. I already… snacked.” Axio looked guilty and rather sheepish.
“That’s all right. How is everything this morning?” That was a question that he quite well knew the answer too.
“Well, Brother Pogle says that the flow of people has begun to slow down. Brother Ettu has put many of the creams to use that you made yesterday. Brother Chau is helping Master Saratin complete the research on blue exploding balls. Brother Basely, he’s been appointed to fill head of staff for Master Malek until he chooses one of his own, he has all the brothers in the mysterious objects department looking for similar mysterious objects, and Brother Ilden is… well… he’s busy… I think. We had a staff meeting this morning… there were only five of us, of course, because Masters Lasser and Iber have not chosen their chiefs yet.”
“And what are you doing?”
“I am making sure everyone is as happy as they can be under the circumstances… and keeping an eye on the sewing and delivering of new robes. Master Lasser surprised us by popping in and asking for a white robe. There was quite a fuss made.”
“I can imagine. He isn’t one that I really see in a cassock. Lynah still is missing?”
“Unfortunately yes.”
Mitty sighed. She turned back to Malek. He hadn’t moved an inch since she’d left the bed. It was going to be a long day. It suddenly occurred to Mitty that she was wearing the same dress she’s worn for all of yesterday and it was a mess of wrinkles. She hadn’t brushed her hair either. It had fallen out of its combs and was most likely sticking out at all ends.
“Well, I think you have quite a handle on things. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll get dressed and be ready to face the day.”
“Of course,” Brother Axio gave a little bow and left, closing the door behind her. Mitty was rummaging through the closet at home before she realized she’d gotten there by magic. She paused for a moment, internally assessing herself. Apparently the power within her had sort of charged itself while she slept. It was good news that she wasn’t permanently out of magic after exhausting it for one day.
It meant that maybe now she could fix Malek. Mitty immediately took herself back to Malek’s bedside. She put her hand on his chest and closed her eyes. She focused, taking the image of Malek awake and grumpy as ever, pulling it into her mind to make it reality.
Mitty only felt the rising and falling of his chest under her hand. “Wake up,” she said softly. “Wake up so I can ring your neck for being so stupid.” Malek’s breathing remained constant. Mitty let out a groan of frustration. Well, if she could fix him, at least she could fix her hair.
She popped back to the cottage and collected a few necessities before returning to what could possibly be her new living quarters for a while. She fussed a bit, trying to remove the combs from her hair, and run brush through it. Her hair never cooperated when she was in a hurry or had better things to do.
A knock sounded at the door, and Trevelyn popped her head, just as Mitty got her brush caught in a particularly nasty tangle.
“Please, let me,” Trevelyn said taking the brush out of Mitty’s hand.
“You don’t have to,” Mitty began trying to take back the brush.
“No, I used to do it for Lynah all the time. It can be a bear when you have to untangle the mess by yourself. You slept in your haircombs last night, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. I just fell asleep.”
“How is he, by the way?”
“No change. I want to thank you for all your help. I know he’ll be fine in the end.”
“I just wish I could help him wake up.”
“I can’t manage it either. I thought that I was just empty of power yesterday. But today, it’s all come back, and I still can’t wake him.”
“So what do you plan to do today?”
“I haven’t gotten than far yet. I could go back to the infirmary and make more cures.”
“I wish I could do that. Technically that’s what I’m supposed to be in charge of.”
“Well, then, maybe I should try to teach you first.”
“You think you can do that?”
“Well, Saratin plans to have me teach Malek, because there needs to be some trust involved, and Malek is a little short on trusting others. If I could teach him, I should be able to teach you.”
“Okay,” Trevelyn said, handing her the brush. Mitty put it down on the table and held out her hand. Trevelyn’s hand was warm in hers.
“Right. Malek, don’t go anywhere,” Mitty said, just before she blinked Trevelyn into the small room in the infirmary. This morning, the shelves were full, and the list that the brother’s had made was now complete.
“You’ve been watching the people as they come in to Tamarin, so you should have a pretty good picture in your head of what they look like.”
“Yes.” Mitty scanned down the list and then handed it to Trevelyn. She picked up two jars of cream and gave one to Trevelyn.
“So, what you need to do is close your eyes, and picture one of the people you want to cure, then imagine them putting the cure on and getting better. Then put the power into the cream.”
Trevelyn laughed. “You make it sounds so easy.”
“It actually is,” Mitty replied smiling. She watched Trevelyn as she held a jar in her hands and closed her eyes. It was so nice to have someone to talk to, a girl in particular. Mitty tried to think back to her former life taking care of her brother and father. She didn’t have any female friends. Perhaps if she had, Mitty would have found that life more bearable. She was definitely glad that Trevelyn, who’d grown up as a member of the royal court, didn’t look down on her because she was simply a tailor’s daughter.
“Okay,” Trevelyn said, as she opened her eyes. “Did it work?”
“We have to give it to a brother so he can give it to the right person.”
“I’m a little nervous,” Trevelyn replied. “What if it’s just cream?”
“Then they will be in less pain… that’s the worst thing that can happen, right? C’mon,” Mitty said as she took the jar of cream from Trevelyn. She startled a brother when she opened the door. He apparently wasn’t used to people popping into rooms without using the door. The two waited together as the brother delivered the cream to the correct ward. Trevelyn began to fiddle nervously with her dress.
A cheer arose from the ward. Trevelyn bounced happily up and down, then ran back into the room to the list. Mitty followed. Together they worked side by side, pausing only to label the jars they were creating.