Wealdenmynd - Chapter 5 part 1 - Fine!

The fallout from a life changing decision

- Chapter Five -

 

Fine!

 

The silence around the table was palpable. Only the Master and his wife seemed not to notice. Kaytee, breaking free of her mothers bone-thin grip, disappeared into the thronging crowd around the bar leaving her empty chair to say exactly how she felt about her parents decision. Reacca and her mother were staring at each other in disbelief whilst her father looked like he was trying to join in the toast but couldn’t remember how to pick up his glass. Searah and Reaccas spirits found each other across the table at the same time as Eevan finally found a voice to break the silence.

 

‘That’s…that’s fantastic. When, erm….when,’ he faltered and looked at Searah but her mother finished the sentence for him.

 

‘When does she leave?’

 

‘In a few weeks, at the end of the summer, a week or so before the start of the new school year.’

 

‘She must be very happy.’ Said Reaccas father, a slight note of sarcasm in his voice that, once again, the Master failed to notice.

 

‘Oh we are, we are,’ replied the Master, ‘she seems a bit shocked though, sure she’ll get over it once she’s worked out what an opportunity it will be.’

 

‘Which Collegium will she be attending?’ asked Cara. ‘Holy Chase? That’s one of the best Collegium for women there is isn’t it?’

‘That it is,’ answered the Master, spilling more ale, ‘but that’s not where we’ll be sending her.’

 

‘It isn’t?’ piped up Reacca, scowling slightly. ‘That’s a bit out of character isn’t it? I thought you’d want only the best no matter what it cost you.’

 

‘That’s right.’ Replied the Masters wife, reacting to the tone in Reaccas voice with only the smallest of frowns.

 

‘Or her.’ Reacca added under her breath.

 

‘That’s exactly why we’re not sending her to Holy Chase.’ Said the Master who hadn’t heard her. ‘She’ll be going to St. Greys, the best Collegium there is. It’s the higher school I attended.’ He said, puffing out his chest knocking several of his wife’s spirits out of the way.

 

‘I thought St Greys only accepted men? Asked Eeven, finding his voice once more.

 

‘And had this been a year ago I would have agreed with you good man. However, that is no longer the case. I had the pleasure of meeting with the Dean a few months ago. He likes to meet up with the more important of his old pupils, thinks it a good way of sourcing out new students. Anyway, he informed me that as of this year they will be opening a new, female only, house. It’s a big thing, I can assure you, many people were not happy about it.’

 

‘House?’ Searah asked.

 

‘What?’ said the Master looking round. ‘Oh, St. Greys is made up of five ‘houses’ and the central Collegium itself. New pupils are put into any one of the five houses where they’ll sleep, eat, play for sporting teams that sort of thing. The best and brightest are taken out of the houses and are put in the Collegium in their second year; get special treatment, extra duties around the campus, that sort of thing. This new all-girl house will be the sixth. Oh yes, fine school St. Greys, she’ll be very lucky to be in the first year of women allowed to enter its halls. I remember when….’

 

The Master continued to talk on the subject despite the looks of shock and bemusement from his audience, long after both Searah and Reacca had left the table to find their friend. They found her slumped over two empty glasses, trying to attract the attention of the bar keeper.

 

‘Are you alright?’ asked Searah pulling over a stool and sitting down next to Kaytee, her spirits drifting over to play with Kaytee’s hair.

 

‘I’m fine,’ Said Kaytee dully, swatting the spirits away, ‘did you not hear him? This is a fantastic opportunity for me.’

 

‘I heard him,’ said Searah, waving the burly looking bar keeper away before Kaytee spotted him, ‘I just couldn’t believe him.’

 

‘Well, believe it.’ she said with venum. ‘I’m going and I’m happy about it. Where is my bar keeper?’

 

‘Come on Kaytee, don’t lie to us, you know you can never hide your emotions from me.’

 

‘Yes, you always were a bit of a freak like that. Where is he?’

 

‘That’s a bit uncalled for Katt, we’re not the ones sending you off.’ Said Reacca.

 

‘I want a drink!’ Called Kaytee, ignoring her. ‘Where is he, I’ve been waiting for an age.’

 

‘I sent him away,’ said Searah, slightly harder than she meant to, ‘you’ve had enough.’

 

‘Fine!’ exclaimed Kaytee, standing up violently sending her stool and the empty glasses flying. ‘I’m going home. I guess I should start packing. No no,’ she said, throwing off Searah’s and Reaccas hands as they tried to sit her back down, ‘I’m going. I’ll send you a letter or something before I leave.’ She stormed out, stopping only long enough to shoot her parents a dirty look.

 

*

 

The atmosphere round the breakfast table the next morning was uncomfortable. The doors and windows in the kitchen were open, letting in the first cool breeze for weeks, sending tiny goose-pimples up the parts of Searah's arms that weren’t covered by her baby-pink pyjamas. She sat opposite her parents, nibbling on her toast desperately trying to think of something to say to start the conversation. The problem was the only thing she could think about was Kaytee. Both she and Reacca had left the inn after Kaytee giving only a brief explanation to their parents. Despite searching every one of the shortcuts they knew Kaytee liked to take to get home, they couldn’t find her. When they got to her house, the large family home set inside the school grounds, they could see no signs of life and no one answered their calls and repeated knockings on the door. Searah had explained all this to her parents when they got home, having endured a further two hours of stories from his time at St. Greys Collegium. She now wished she hadn’t, as it would have given her something to talk about now.

 

Both her parents looked bleary eyed and slightly vacant, both of which lead Searah to believe that they had drank copious amounts of mead and ale to get them through the Masters stories.

 

‘So…’offered Searah, hoping that the very fact of speaking would force her brain to come up with something to follow. ‘What do you think to Kaytee's big news.’

 

‘The Masters big news more like,’ muttered her father into his drink, ‘she didn’t seem very impressed did she?’

 

‘Eevan! Don’t be so down about things,’ said her mother with a half glance in Searah's direction, ‘as he said, it will be a fantastic opportunity for her.’

 

‘Oh he said that, he defiantly put that point across very well. Must have been oh, ten, twenty times?’

 

‘Well I agree with him on that bit,’ said Searah hugging herself against the breeze, ‘it would be great to go away, study at a collegium, I just think he could have given her some say in the matter. I mean, she is an adult now, what if she just refused?’

 

Her father put down his drink and sighed. ‘I think if she refused he would throw her out of the house. Disown her, that sort of thing. At least this way she gets a bed and an opportunity.’

‘And away from him. I wonder what it takes to get in somewhere like that.’ Searah mused, more to herself than her parents.

 

‘Oh you missed that one didn’t you,’ groaned her father, ‘you’d disappeared off on your wild Kaytee chase by that point in the conversation. The Master was droning on, sorry, talking,’ he corrected after a look from her mother, ‘about what it took. Apparently, anyone wanting to enter, especially at this late stage, needs really good grades and a recommendation from a member of staff at the collegium, or something special to offer ‘the history and grandeur of such an esteemed society of academics’ to use his exact term.’

 

‘Well that’s me out then. Poor Kaytee, off on her own to a distant part of the Territories. Between that and that stuff at the carvinal with Reacca its not been a good time for my friends really.’ She only realised what she had said after she said it, a number of her spirits rushing to her mouth as if to hide her words.

 

‘What do you mean?’ asked her mother. ‘What thing with Reacca?’

 

‘Oh, its nothing.’ Searah mumbled.

 

‘No, come on, you can’t say something that grandiose and not follow through, what was it?’ said her father.

 

Searah grimaced, cursing herself inside. ‘Like I said its nothing really.’ She sighed. ‘You know when I was thrown off the Gladiators back and across the ring?’

 

‘Vividly.’ Scalded her mother.

 

‘Well, while I was trying to shake off the landing I thought…I thought I saw the gladiator…hurt her.’

 

‘He did hurt her.’ Said her father through a piece of toast.

 

‘No, I mean really hurt her. I thought she was…she was dead.’ She rushed on at the look of shock on her parents faces as they looked at each other. ‘But then I cleared my head and he was stood up and she was fine and I threw myself at him and, well, you know the rest.’ There was a stunned silence in the room. All three were looking at each other. Finally her father spoke.

 

‘You never said anything to us about that before.’

 

‘I never told anyone before. I’d just hit my head and everything was all misty. But like I said, I cleared my head and everything was ok again. I did scare me though.’ She admitted.

 

‘I can imagine.’ Breathed her mother. ‘Actually, no, I don’t think I can.’ Both of her parents were now look at her in a way that was making her feel very awkward.

 

‘Look,’ she said standing up her spirits floating over to the door, ‘I should be getting to work. Are you coming mother?’

 

Over the next few weeks her parents seemed to be acting very strangely. Although, as part of her graduating and now wearing her Condant, her mother had allowed her into the back room of the shop more often she also seemed to be keeping a very close eye on her. Apart from a few days while Searah was left to look after the shop alone whilst her mother travelled to see a wealthy client, mother and daughter had been together a lot more than usual. It was mostly whilst they were at home. Time that would usually be spent alone in her room was now being punctuated by regular visits from her mother. These visits never seemed to be about anything specific. Sometimes they were to offer her food or drink, sometimes to talk about shop business or occasionally to ask if she had spoken to Kaytee.

 

The answer to this question was always no. Searah had tried every day for the first week to contact her, she even tried throwing notes through Kaytee's open bedroom window, but with no luck. It was almost as if she had already gone. If it wasn’t for the Master walking about town loudly making plans for their imminent journey Searah would have started to believe she had actually gone. She saw Reacca once, but she didn’t seem very happy and the two girls spoke only briefly, stood below Kaytee's window one night whilst they were both trying to get her attention. She seemed to be having an argument with her parents about something, but she wouldn’t say what.

 

On a couple of occasions Searah had walked into the kitchen to find her parents hunched over the table writing what looked like a letter, only to put it in a draw as she approached. It was usual for them to write letters together as they had many friends who lived all over the territories with whom they liked to keep in touch. Usually on those occasions, however Searah would be involved in the writing. She had done a bit of snooping one night to see if she could find out to whom those letters were being sent. The only things she found in any of her parents draws, however, were some letters from her fathers work marked confidential, which she knew better than to read.

 

Much to her mothers surprise Searah had agreed to work full time at the second hand bookstall. Business had picked up ever since she had started working there, due partly to her near celebrity status in the town as well as to the fact that it allowed her mother the time to travel to clients further a field, bringing in a lot of money from the more expensive tomes. In her more spiteful moods, usually when her mother had interrupted her reading for the tenth time in an evening she considered starting her own bookshop and taking all the new clients away with her. In truth, however, Searah felt like she didn’t really know what she would want to do with her life now that it stretched before her like a long, slightly barren looking road. She knew it wouldn’t have Kaytee in it anymore and if Reaccas bad mood continued then she couldn’t see that relationship holding much for the future either.

 

So she kept herself busy around the shop. When things were quiet, she would enjoy going through the books on the shelves in the back room. These dusty volumes were all in some way special, either to expensive to be out the front, or else reserved for a client. There was something about the feel and the smell of these books that Searah couldn’t seem to get enough of. They smelt faintly damp, the pages having absorbed years of moisture and grime from the knowledge hungry fingers that played their way across the edges. Each one seemed to tell a story. Be it from a written dedication on the inside cover or the fact that one section of a book seemed more well thumbed than the rest, each had a life of its own. To Searah at least, being on the shelves in the back room of a bookshop in Dounaton was only one small part of an insignificant chapter of their lives.

 

She ran her finger along a line of books just above head height, leaving a dust free trail in its wake. She read titles such as ‘From Spirit Structure to Language Lore, a Guide to the Territories of Ardiea’ and ‘Frogs; The almost silent killers’ stopping at a book half hidden behind some religious texts. She took it out and read the cover.

 

 

 

 

Fact and Theory of Magic:

 

 

A Discussion into the natural mechanics behind the archaic art of the manipulation of magical energy and its potential shortfalls

 

 

By

 

 

 

Professor J. P. L. Granohan

 

 

Introduction

Many from both academic and non-academic circles have preconceptions both of the nature and the form that magic can take in the world around us. It is a commonly held belief that magic, when operated correctly, can be the saviour of many an impossible or long necrotic charge. By waving ones hands and producing a set, pre-produced series of commandments even the most lay of laypersons can control a force that has, for many more centuries than history has recorded, defied conventional description. This is, of course, nonsense.

 

Although it is true that for many centuries it was impossible to define magic using the natural mechanical laws of the day, this is no longer the case. It is unfortunate however that the preconceptions built into the national and indeed international psychological subconscious still pertains to these simpler times. Using a set of simple, experimental, written mechanical structures this writing aims to allow the reader the opportunity to discover the true essence of the magical forces vicariously through those who have indeed been blessed with the opportunity to explore them first hand.

 

This piece will take you through some of the basics of magical lore and will be organised thusly:-

 

1. Forces, the basic interaction and interchanges that take place between inert magical energy and other forms of energy to create force and how they affect the world around them.
2. The interactions between magical energy and the theoretical existence of attention energy.
3. The differences between the innate and obtained magical predispositions.
4. A discussion on the historical processes of learning and controlling attention energy with the aim of better understanding the intended control and manipulation of other energy sources.

Searah blinked and tried to clear the haze that had descended over her mind. She read the first page a few more times, trying to fathom exactly what Professor J.P.L. Granohan was talking about. About the only sense she could make from it was that people seemed to have the wrong idea about magic, that it was some sort of natural energy. She supposed that the rest would make more sense if she read the rest of the book but the idea of reading any more filled her with dread. She was glad she didn’t know Professor J.P.L. Granohan, if he spoke in the same way as he had written the book she imagined him to be the most boring person alive.

 

Just as she put the book back on its shelf her mother came bustling in through the door looking very excited. She had dumped her myriad of books and bags and taken off her coat before she even realised that Searah was watching her.

 

‘Oh, Searah my dear, how long have you been in here?’

 

‘Since you came in.’

 

‘You shouldn’t hide in the corners like that, almost gave me a fright.’

 

‘I wasn’t hiding in the…’

 

‘Never mind about that now, there’s a customer standing outside looking to be served.’

 

‘Sorry, I’ll go see what he wants.’

 

‘That’s ok dear, you weren’t to know.’ This response started Searah who remembered only a few weeks ago when she had been in trouble for leaving the shop front when there were no customers in sight.

‘Are you alright?’

 

‘What?’ asked her mother, distracted and looking through some papers in her bag. ‘Oh, oh yes, perfectly fine thank you.’

 

‘You seem…distracted.’ Said Searah to her mothers bottom as she bent down to pick up an envelope that had just dropped out of the bag of papers.

 

‘No, no. I’ve just had some very good news.’

 

‘What news?’

 

‘The customer dear, he’s still waiting.’

 

By the time she had finished finding a book on fishing for a tall man with grey hair despite his youth, her mother had packed up all her bags and had left.

 

‘I suppose,’ she muttered to herself, settling back down into the chair behind the counter and picking up a book she had been reading, ‘that I will find out more tonight.’

 

She tried once more to get a response from Kaytee on her way back home that evening. The night air was warm and her spirits played with small flies and other insects as she wandered along the road that followed the river towards the schoolhouse. She watched a gang of young children playing on the Green the other side of the river. They seemed to be playing a complicated game that involved throwing a ball to someone who then had to run as fast as they could until they were caught, at which time they would throw the ball to someone else and the whole thing would start all over again. A gently painted sky of red and orange played across the horizon, bathing the world in its warming glow.

 

She wasn’t at all surprised when she got no response from Kaytees window again and she didn’t want to try talking to the Master for fear of never getting away again so she turned tail and went home.

 

As she closed her front door and started to take off her shoes she heard her fathers voice calling her from the kitchen. She walked in to see her parents sat side by side at the far end of the table, both persons spirits hovering excitedly over the same envelope that had fallen out of her mothers bag earlier.

 

‘What’s going on?’ Searah asked. There was a short pause but then her mother spoke.

 

‘Sit down Searah; we have some news for you.’

 

*

 

 

‘I mean can you believe that man,’ said Reacca aiming her glass at her parents, spilling some of the contents over the shop counter, ‘she clearly can’t stand the idea of going yet he parades her like a prize horse.’

 

‘Now I think that’s a bit of an over reaction Reacca, don’t you?’ asked Reaccas mother, hanging up some of the clothes that had been left in a changing room the day before. ‘Like the man said last night, give her some time and she’ll come around to the idea.’

 

‘Look mother, I’ve known Kaytee for a long time and she is as stubborn has her father. If she doesn’t like the idea of being banished to some all-boys school now then I doubt she will be overly happy with the idea tomorrow or the day after or, well, or ever.’

 

‘Well I will give you that, she can be stubborn but I have the feeling she might not have much of a choice and its going to have to be something she gets used to. Its part of being an adult, learning that you’re not as free as you thought you were going to be when you were a child.’

 

‘Still,’ said Reacca grudgingly, ‘it is a bit of a horrible way of teaching her that lesson. Where is father by the way?’

 

‘Oh he’s feeling a bit under the weather after last night, it seems that he thought the only way to drown out the Masters insipid voice was to drown himself in ale. Now I think he may be regretting that.’

 

Reacca and her mother were sat in the families tailor shop on the river Broadway. It wasn’t a large shop but as one of the better women’s clothes shops in the town, it did a fair trade. Decorated in rich dark purples and full almost to bursting with racks of dresses, skirts and headscarves, about the only place that was light and clear from clothes was the counter at the back of the shop or the changing room just behind it. Reacca and her parents lived in the house over the top of the shop because, as her father put it, it saved money and meant that whatever the weather they would never be late for work. Her older brother Terril had moved out a few years previously and had taken a flat in the town on the opposite side of the small valley in which Dounaton was sat. The family wasn’t short for money, however their father always liked to keep a close eye on what went in and out.

‘Well if she has to go and there is no way out of it then I think there is only one thing we can do.’

 

‘What’s that?’ replied her mother rearranging the hats. ‘Try and cheer her up, enjoy your remaining time together, that sort of thing?’

 

‘Well there is that strategy but it wasn’t what I was thinking about.’

 

‘Which is?’ Reacca didn’t say anything but simply looked at her mother intensely. ‘Reacca?’ said her mother, stopping what she was doing to look at her daughter. ‘Which is?’

 

‘To go with her.’ She said it quickly, as if by saying to faster her mother might not take it in properly. Her mother returned quickly to rearranging the hats.

 

‘Not a chance.’

 

‘Why not!’ exclaimed Reacca, standing up and facing her mother.

 

‘Because,’ she said without looking at her daughter, ‘I think your father plans for you to take over the business. Your brother isn’t interested and someone has to keep the business going after we’re to old to carry it on ourselves.’

 

‘I can do that after I’ve finished with the courses. There are many years left between now and when you don’t want to work any more.’ Her mother grinned slightly, freeing a spirit from under a hat she had just placed on the shelf.

 

‘There is a lot to learn between now and then. Dress making takes a lot of skill, skill that isn’t learnt overnight or at some fancy Collegium many days travel from here.’

 

‘Mother…’

 

‘Besides,’ said her mother loudly talking over her, ‘I don’t think going to keep a friend company is a very good reason to spend that sort of money.’

 

‘Maybe that says something about the differences between us.’ Spat Reacca, walking towards the door. ‘Personally I can think of no better way of spending the precious money than on my friends.’

 

‘Where are you going?’ said her mother, grabbing Reacca by the wrist and pulling her round. ‘You’re supposed to be working today.’

 

‘Well maybe I’m not interested in taking over the business either. You remember that I have the freedom of the land I assume. There is nothing stopping me going that way despite you, taking a job over there.’

 

‘Do you even know where ‘there’ is?’ barked her mother.

 

‘No, I do not know where it is, but I imagine it is unlikely to take that much time and effort to find out.’ And with that she pulled herself loose of her mothers grip, pulled the door open and stormed off into the morning mist rising off from the river.