I wake up, my head throbbing, with a way too bright ray of sun shining directly in my eyes definitely not helping the pain. I try to blink but can't open my eyes even that much. Instead I groan, lift my arm to shade my eyes and groan again when I remember why I was in the remedy shop in the first place.
I hear someone saying something next to me. I lower my arm, and slowly trying to open my eyes. The light makes my head hurt even worse. I blink a few times, trying to adjust to the light. I see a round face looking down at me. A round face that looks somehow familiar.
"Can you hear me?" the face asks. I let out a sound that I hope they'll understand as a yes.
"Good. I'm chief Wismuth, down from Lonchester. I'm here to help the local police figure out what happened here," the man tells me. That explains why he looks so familiar. Lonchester isn't all that big, and everyone there and at the Academy knows more or less who Wismuth is. I can finally almost see, though the light is still too bright. I'm in a small room, with a window that apparently is into the perfect direction to let in the day's last rays of light to shine into my sore eyes. There isn't much in the room. I'm laying on a bed, and there are some closets on the opposite wall. That's about it.
"Do you know where you are?" Wismuth sounds tired. Like he didn't want to be here and all this is just a huge inconvenience, but he's settled to go with it, because there is nothing else he can do.
"Uh..." I let out a small sound. I have to think about that for a moment. It was some small village, a half a day's ride north from the Academia. "Adhill?"
Wismuth nods. I'm not sure if it's meant for me or for himself.
"Can you first tell me who you are," he says, "The caravan you were travelling with said your name is Knute?"
"Yes," I say, very quietly, to test my voice and my head, "Knute Ferrel. I study at the Academia. I'm taking a term off, travelling a bit. I'm on my way back now."
It's not exactly true, but it's not far off enough to be an actual lie. I can hear Wismuth writing something down somewhere.
"Do you remember what happened?" he asks me.
"I..." I begin, and a spear of shooting pain runs through my head. I close my eyes for a moment to wait for it to go away and continue speaking softer, and lower. "I hit my head."
"Yes. The village doctor says you have a concussion. You shouldn't try to sit up too fast," Wismuth tells me. This is all just so perfect. "Why did you hit your head?"
"Because..." suddenly I don't know what to say. Because Arren was there, and he used magic on me because I tried to hit him because he poisoned my best friend and tried to get me to join his anti-anti-magic crusade? No. Trying to figure out what and how much to tell them made my head hurt worse. However I don't have to say more, because Wismuth talks first. Apparently he thinks my hesitation was because I don't remember.
"There was a man. He used magic on you, and you fell. You hit your head on a corner of the counter back in the shop," he explains to me, "Do you remember the man?"
I nod quietly, my eyes closed.
"The shopkeeper said you knew the man."
I can hear the unspoken question. Suddenly I don't want to tell this man anything. He is a baker. There is nothing someone like him would be able to do to someone like Arren. I think about it for a moment.
"Not really," I say quietly, "I've met him once before. There are some... personal issues between us. That's why I snapped when I saw him. And tried to punch him. And that's when he..."
"He used the magic," Wismuth says after a few seconds on silence. I nod. "But you don't know anything more about him? Anything helpful? You don't know where he could be now, none of his friends or family?"
They didn't catch him. He got away. I'm an idiot, for getting knocked out.
"No," I say, "I don't know anything useful about him."
"Can you think of anything else that might be helpful?" he doesn't sound to hopeful I'll give him anything. And he doesn't sound like he cares. I can tell he's only here because he has to. He wants to do well, but even he himself knows he's too deep in something he doesn't understand or have any power over. I shake my head a little. "Is your head hurting?"
"Yes," I say, and lift my arm back onto my eyes to shield them from the sun.
"I'll send in the doctor on my way out to check up on you," I listen to him get up and leave, closing the door gently behind him.
The doctor comes in a few minutes later, checks my head, my reflexes. The sun is properly set now, so it doesn't shine straight into my eyes any more. The doctor gives me some pain killers and tells me to sleep. I've begun to feel the urgency rushing me towards the Academia again, but I don't argue. Right now I need sleep. I wouldn't get far in a condition like this.
~x~
I wake up early, with the sun barely up. My head isn't hurting so bad any more, though I can tell it's still sore. So I get up slowly, pull on my clothes someone has left on a chair by the bed and make my way out of the room. The door opens to a small hallway. There are a few more doors along it, and stairs down from the end on my right. I don't know where exactly I am, but since the hallway is quiet, I decide to head down the stairs to see where I am and if there is someone else there. I go down the stairs slowly, being reminded of my earlier pains with every step. I come down to a back room of a shop. The herb and spice shop, from the looks of it. Apparently they didn't want to move me with the head injury. There is a young woman sitting at the table, probably around the same age I am. She looks up at me as I walk in.
"Hi," she says, "You sleep well?"
"Uh, yes," I say, rubbing my eyes and temples, "It still hurts, but I'm a lot better now."
"Good. I'm Rayanne," she says, "Just call me Ray. I'm up because, well, I wake up early. But also because the owner told me to go down to Lonchester to get some stacks filled. I would've left a couple of hours ago, but since you're going the same way, I figured we could ride together. And because no one here likes the thought of you heading out there alone."
"I'm travelling with a caravan..." I begin, but Ray cuts me off.
"You're not any more," she says, "They left yesterday, after your police had talked to them. They would've wanted to make sure you're ok, but they had somewhere they needed to be, and we promised to take very good care of you, so... You're travelling with me now," she grins at me. "But first, would you like breakfast?"
Hearing the question makes me realise I haven't eaten anything since yesterday lunch, and that I'm starving. I lift my hands on top of my rumbling stomach.
"Yes, please," I say, surprising myself by smiling to Ray. She gets up and starts toward the door.
"Wait here, and sit down. I'll bring you something to eat," she says and disappears out of the room. I sit to wait.
While she's gone I look around in the room. Practically all the walls are covered by shelves. One whole wall is filled with books, but the rest of the shelves are full of everything you might think to find in a shop like this. And some things you wouldn't. My eye hits some weird looking objects, and there's a jar of something I don't even begin to guess. Suddenly something catches my eye among the books. I'm sure it said magic somewhere. But I already lost the spot, and begin eyeing through the bookshelf, trying to find a book that's title would have the word in it. After several minutes I begin to lose hope. I can't find the title, and it's not actually likely at all that there would be a book in the shelf that would have anything to do with magic.
But then my eye catches it again. The Use of Herbs in Magical Potions. The book isn't hidden. It just sits there, on the shelf. And yet, somehow, it is almost impossible to see. It's a small and thin book, so the writing is small too, but it was still more difficult to find that you'd think, even when I was looking for it. There must be some kind of magic protecting it, so only people who know it's there. Or maybe only people with magic. Or.... I don't know. I don't even know if that's possible. I still know embarrassingly little of magic, and especially my own. What what can I do. I sigh.
Then the thought hits me and I turn to look around the room, to all the weird bottles, jars and objects. Maybe this is a place where they have things that have magical properties. That you can use in magic. It's just all tucked neatly away, hidden in the back room, where no one can see, and even if someone would come here for some reason, everything illegal is clearly protected with some sort of a spell, so they can't be seen. Unless you're me, apparently. Maybe they sell this stuff to people, if they just know to ask for it. Maybe that's why Arren...
"Here you go!" Ray's happy voice interrupts my train of thought as she walks in and she sets a steaming plate of eggs and toasted bread in front of me. For a moment I forget about the magic, about all of it. I just eat, and it is one of the best meals of my life.
~x~
The route to Lonchester isn't long any more. Since I don't have anything to travel but my feet, and Ray can't bring an extra horse back with her, we share one. It means we're moving a little slower, since the horse has to carry both of us. Despite that we arrive in the town not long after noon. Even though I am in a hurry and it feels great to be back to where I might actually be able to help someone, a part of me wouldn't want the journey to end. It's partly because I've become increasingly scared of what I'll find here, the dreams that made me turn back weren't too encouraging, but also because Ray has been amazing company. I wouldn't have thought, but I've enjoyed the half a day's ride with her very much.
"Well," Ray says, "It's been fun."
I nod and throw my bag onto my shoulders.
"I think I'll be off then," I say, "I need to go find my friends and make sure they're ok."
She nods, serious.
"Well, I'll be in town until Sunday, it'll take time to gather up all the things I need to take back. It's a long list," Ray says, smiling, "So if you need something or... something. Come find me. I'll be here."
"Ok," I say, and wave, and turn towards the Academia.
The walk back to the campus is a lot less enjoyable as the ride with Ray had been. Now that I'm alone grim thoughts begin to swirl in my head, and by the time I'm almost there I'm sure the whole place has burned down and the still smoking ruins are filled with ill-willing sorcerers. I tell myself to stop being ridiculous. If something like that had happened here, I would've heard about it. And the police wouldn't have left to sort out a fight in another town, even if it had involved magic.
And like the rational part of me told the rest of me, nothing seems to have changed as I walk to the campus area. Only then I realise I was only gone for a week. No more than that. The thought is so weird I stop walking and simply stare at the place. A week. Only a week.
"Knute!" I hear a voice behind me. I turn to look and see Laelia run towards me. "How are you back already? Did you find the scales?"
She stops in front of me, breathing less heavily than I would've thought.
"No," I say a little grimly and continue before she has the time to ask, "A few nights back I had a dream. A bad dream. I don't remember anything about it, but after I knew I had to come back. I knew there was something bad happening here, and I was needed here. So I turned around," Laelia's face has gone from confused to worried, "But now that I'm here I feel like an idiot. There's nothing new here."
"Oh, yes there is," Laelia says, her voice tense, "Come, I'll fill you in, but not here. A lot more had happened in the week you've been gone that one would think possible."
__________________________________________________________
So getting him back there took a while. But now he's back. And I feel like I might finally get to be a part of the story again. So that's good, since we only have 7 parts left. So we need to start wrapping this up right about now.
And yes, my last bit was short, but 1) my lack-of-tooth was hurting because they had just pulled off the last of my wisdom teeth (It still hurts, even though it's been a week. I hate this.) and 2) I didn't know if Oz was coming, so I didn't know if I'd have to write him in the bit or not.
Your topic for what-ever-day-it-is Friday? is Tension.
~matu
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