“Next week, or perhaps next class, we will start a new weapon, so work hard today.”
Then he broke them into groups of three. This way, one person could experience fighting against two people, and the two people could work on attacking as a team. They switched off who was one and who was two every time someone was disarmed. It was fun, but Lucy was sweating and breathing heavily by the end of class. She arrived at lunch dirty, sore, and starving.
Lunch was the usual routine of Justin and Gavin stuffing down as much food in one sitting as most people eat in a day while Maya quizzed Lucy on the general geography of Kinowenn. After lunch, Lucy had a wonderful chat with Ash regarding grass preferences. Lucy took a hurried shower and ran down to the Apothecary to start work.
Lucy opened the door and looked around. The room was small and filled with any number of magical ingredients. Lucy felt overwhelmed knowing that she would be expected to know what all the jars contained and most likely their prices, qualities, and how to get more as soon as possible. She looked around the store for whoever might be in charge of her, but there was no one in sight.
“Hello?” she called.
“Hello?” someone responded from a doorway behind the counter.
Lucy followed the voice and found it belonged to a short older gentleman balding on top with tufts of uncombed white hair sticking out on the sides, wearing wire rimmed glasses slightly askew on his head, a large welcoming smile, and rubber gloves up to his elbows while he sorted through something decidedly nasty in a large wooden vat. Lucy wrinkled her nose at the smell.
“Good afternoon. Are you Lucy?” the man asked genially as he removed his gloves and held out a hand for her to shake.
“Yes,” she replied, shaking his hand.
“Wonderful, wonderful. I don’t often get help, you see. I’m very picky about the kinds of people I let touch my items who don’t intend to buy them. I’m told you have good attention to detail, and I hope that’s true. Follow me, and I’ll explain how things are set up. I like things orderly, very orderly.”
Lucy followed him back into the room she had first entered. She liked him immediately. He seemed very kind, and his pickiness derived from a love of his store so it was understandable, if slightly challenging.
“It’s quite simple really. If you divide the store in thirds things are arranged by animal, mineral, and vegetable. In each category items are then arranged alphabetically left to right and then from size smallest to largest. The item to be sold that is, not the size of the container. So, let me see, well, that means dia dust is under vegetable, in the d category, and set before the dia leaves as the dust is smaller. Do you follow?”
“Certainly,” replied Lucy, who arranged her books in a similar fashion.
“Really?” the old man blinked at her. “Some people think the system is silly, but it helps me find things so I like it. Quick test for you then. Where would you find mantic claws?”
“It should…”
“No, no, no,” he interrupted with a smile, “don’t tell me where it should be, point to it.
Lucy went to the animal section, found m, and located the claws in between the eyes, and the scales. She pointed to the jar.
The old man nodded and smiled.
“Quite right. At least you should be able to find things. Don’t worry about what everything is used for; you’ll pick that up in time. Right now you are also not to mix anything. If someone asks for a paste, come find me. For starters, I’ll have you dust everything, try to help any customers you can, and, yes, start on that, and I’ll find something for you to do after dusting. Any questions?” he finished in one breath.
“Yes, can I ask your name?”
“Name? My name? Oh, of course, how silly of me to forget in the first place. Like I said, I don’t get help too often. I didn’t mean to be rude of course. My name is Ted. Well actually it’s Thadorius Etherald Delterianus the third, but I prefer Ted if it’s all the same to you.”
Ted started to wander through the door still talking, and Lucy wasn’t sure if she was supposed to follow or start dusting. In fact, Lucy wasn’t even sure he was talking to her. She turned back to the store and thought for a minute. She could either find a cleaning rag and begin dusting, or she could do it with magic. She could ask Ted on his opinion on magic versus actually doing it by hand afterward. Lucy closed her eyes and concentrated on everything being clean. When she opened her eyes everything looked great. Ted came back holding a bunch of tangled metallic looking hair while still talking.
“Although I’m not sure it matters if it’s all the same to you or not since it’s all the same to me and that’s what matters. So, after you finish dusting...”
“I have,” said Lucy.
“You have what?”
“Finished dusting.”
“Have you really?” he asked blinking at her. He looked around the shop. “Indeed. Magic user I suppose. Could be good, could be bad. You’ll do as you like so I’ll only ask you to be careful of what you do. You did alright on this one, but you never know what could have happened. It was a test you see.” He blinked at her again, but also looked like he was asking for understanding. “The last magic user who dusted wished for all the dust to disappear. Unfortunately that included all the items we sell in dust form as well. That was his first and last day of course. That arrangement just wasn’t going to work, and he needed a haircut you see. I was set back weeks of work. I love my work but not back tracking and redoing.”
Lucy did her best to follow all this.
“I’m sure that must have been awful,” she said sympathetically. “I can do everything without magic if you would prefer.”
“I would prefer if you don’t mind, but you do need to practice too I suppose, so be careful. You can clean like you just did, but perhaps we should leave the magic use at that. This is Pegasus hair. It comes in many different colors of course. I go for walks and collect the hairs that fall out or get tangled in trees and such. I pick it up, and then when I get a bunch, I sort it. The different colors can do different things so I want you to sort it, by hand if you please. Using magic on magical objects could have undesired effects.”
Again, Ted walked out of the room still talking, and Lucy smiled. Working for Ted was certainly going to be interesting. She went to the counter and started to untangle the hair strand by strand. She decided to sort by shade as well as by color. She was sure that buttercup and dandelion each deserved their own separate categories. She had just finished adding to the category she had determined was periwinkle when Ted returned.
“Lovely, yes lovely, sorted very well. Each color is important. Time for you to eat dinner. Lovely. We’ll see you the day after tomorrow. You can come back. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” Lucy managed to say as he shooed her out the door. At least she’d managed to earn the right to come back. She had a feeling that not many people achieved that.
Chapter 23
At dinner everyone was impressed that she was going to be working with Ted a second day.
“We didn’t want to say anything earlier in case it frightened you, but no one has lasted more than a day with him since I’ve been here,” said Maya.
“He told me about the boy who vanished all his powdered items.”
“Yes, sadly, he’s no longer with us,” added Justin.
“That’s too bad,” said Lucy.
“Not really, after skewering himself accidentally in a weapons class with an arrow, he opted to forget he was ever here and now leads a boring, but safe life as a statistics analyst,” said Gavin.
“How did he manage to…?” Lucy started to ask.
“Don’t ask,” said Gavin. “Let’s just say there is someone less proficient with arrows than you are.”
After dinner, Darren joined them in a study room. He wanted help and practice making things grow and shrink. Lucy worked with him while Maya quizzed Gavin on Kinowenn vocabulary and pronunciation. Gavin tried (you had to give him credit for that
) but his pronunciation needed work. Maya couldn’t help but laugh at him. Justin sat in a chair by the fire reading a book.
Darren and Lucy put their matchboxes in front of them. Lucy motioned with her hand, and her matchbox doubled in size proportionately. She motioned again, and it shrunk to the size of a snail.
“You make it look so easy,” said Darren with frustration as his matchbox stubbornly refused to change at all.
“You just need to concentrate,” said Lucy sympathetically.
“Obviously, he’s having issues with that,” came Justin’s voice inside her head.
“Why?”
“Well, I’d guess he likes you.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“He thinks you’re pretty,” Justin teased in a singsong voice.
“Stop that.”
“Try again,” Lucy encouraged. “Do the hand motion this time. I’ll watch and try to figure out what’s not working.”
Darren motioned towards the matchbox, and it shot across the table and clattered onto the floor. He managed to bring the matchbox back well enough, but he was obviously having issues concentrating.
“Because you look ravishing.”
Lucy glared at Justin. Darren thought the glare was at him.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.
“No, I’m sorry; I was just trying to read the title of Justin’s book. I sometimes squint when things are far away.” Lucy tried that as a cover and smiled at Darren. “You were close, the twist of your hand wasn’t quite right. It’s more like this.” Lucy motioned with her hand and her matchbox grew and stopped at a size precisely three times its original size.
Darren took a deep breath and tried again. This time his matchbox shuddered and grew a barely discernible amount.
“Here,” said Lucy coming around the table, taking his hand, and adjusting his fingers, “Like this.”
“Bad idea.”
“Why?”
Lucy barely had time to ask as Darren’s matchbox quickly swelled to ten times its size and burst, showering the room with ashes.
Maya gasped in surprise and inhaled ash. Gavin laughed at her. Justin raised an eyebrow in Lucy’s direction, his brown eyes twinkling with amusement. Darren managed to clear the ash away, but now he lacked a matchbox. Lucy handed him hers and sat back down across the table from him.
“Here, I can practice on something else.”
“He fancies you.”
“Stop it, Justin.”
“Thanks,” muttered Darren turning slightly red.
“Part of attraction is smell. I suppose it could just be your perfume.”
“I don’t wear perfume.”
“No problem. You’re doing fine, you just need to concentrate.”
Darren nodded, “What are you going to practice on?”
“I’ll think of something,” she replied.
“Poor guy, let him down gently.”
There was a thud as Justin fell onto the floor. The pillow at the back of his chair was mysteriously five times larger than it had been.
“Justin’s pillow will do just fine,” said Lucy as everyone laughed.
“That wasn’t very gentle,” accused Justin.
Lucy smiled and shrugged. She returned his pillow to normal size. “I think I can manage to do it in class tomorrow so keep mine until then,” she told Darren. “Keep practicing. I think I’ll read for awhile.”
Without Lucy watching, Darren managed to do better. By the end of the night, he was able to perform well enough to pass in class tomorrow. They got up to leave. Gavin stretched and wished everyone goodnight. Darren was standing by Lucy.
“Goodnight,” said Maya as she put her arm in Lucy’s and started to walk her towards her room.
Darren looked like he was about to say something and then stopped and walked the other way. Justin quirked an eyebrow and followed Gavin up the stairs. Maya and Lucy walked for awhile in silence.
“I don’t need to be walked to my room,” said Lucy finally.
“I know,” responded Maya.
“So what’s up?”
“Well, Justin walks you to your room almost every night.”
“So?”
“It kind of looks like you guys are dating.”
“Oh. No, we’re friends, that’s all.”
“I know.”
“Ok, well, I’m confused.”
“Other people might think you are dating.”
“How is that a problem?”
“It isn’t, but I didn’t want there to be a showdown over who got to walk you to your room.”
“Good grief, Darren and I are just friends too.”
“I know, but I think he wants some of the same friend privileges that Justin has. How can he even know if he wants to be more than friends if he never gets a chance to talk to you? How can he get a chance to talk to you if you are with Justin almost every free minute of the day? Besides, it could be something as simple as he has a question about something and is tired of looking silly in front of the rest of us. We are a bit ahead of him.”
“True,” said Lucy.
They were quite for a few steps.
“Guys,” intoned Lucy with disgust.
“No kidding,” replied Maya.
They laughed and parted at the hallway.
Lucy was actually surprised when she got to her door and didn’t see Justin leaning against it with a sardonic smile. She was sure he wasn’t done teasing about Darren. With everything else she had to deal with, relationships weren’t something she wanted to add to the mix. Guys never really paid much attention to her. So far she had one guy try to beat down her door because of her potential power and another guy explode a matchbox because she touched him. Definitely something Lucy would rather not deal with at the moment. Right now Lucy liked her life and her friends. Did things have to get complicated?
Lucy brushed her teeth, washed her face, put on her pajamas, and sat on her bed to brush out her hair. Running a brush through her hair served two purposes. It made her hair feel softer, and it was soothing.
“Lucy?”
“Yes?” Lucy smiled and continued brushing.
“Goodnight.”
“Goodnight? That’s it?”
“Yup, you wanted more?”
“No, I was wondering why you bothered if that was all you had to say.”
“No bother, I realized you are often the last person I talk to before bed lately and I figured why mess with a good thing.”
“Justin?”
“Hmmm?”
“Goodnight.”
“Goodnight Lucy.”
Lucy rolled her eyes, but she smiled as she did so. She put down her brush and went to sleep.
Chapter 24
The next day, Darren gave Lucy her matchbox back. When she opened it, there was a piece of paper inside with a symbol of two blue swords crossed.
“What’s this?” she asked Maya at dinner before Justin and Gavin sat down. Somehow she was pretty sure Justin would tease her.
“I would guess the symbol on his room door. An invitation so to speak,” she replied with a half smile.
“Invitation?”
“To come and visit him anytime you want…” she raised an eyebrow in a suggestive way.
Lucy groaned, “What do I do about it?”
“Whatever you want. The ball is in your court. Cliché, but true.”
“What if I ignore it?”
“You could, but unless you want to deal with Justin’s advice, I suggest we discuss this later,” she finished as Justin set his tray on the table.
Lucy choose to pretend like nothing happened and Darren, following her lead acted the same. Whatever she did or did not feel for Darren, she did not want a distraction from her studies. Those came first right now.
Time flew by for Lucy. Besides the usual school load, she was reading and training with Justin, Maya, and Gavin. Some of her more amusing times happened in the Apothecary with Ted. So far, she had managed to last longer than
anyone could remember. His systems were odd, and he was odder, but she was able to work with that. Lucy managed to keep busy every minute of the day.
She appreciated weapons training simply for the fact that it gave her mind a break. They learned to fight with staffs, which went well. On a good day, she could at least make Justin work hard. There was a week of throwing daggers. This went much better than shooting arrows so she finally felt that she had a range weapon. The other thing Lucy liked about daggers was that they were easy to practice with. Whenever she needed a break for a moment, she simply threw a few at her bedroom door. The noise didn’t seem to bother anyone, and she could mend the holes she created with a wave of her hand. Orin introduced them to maces. This ended up being another weapon Lucy would never be proficient with, and Justin’s healing was required and appreciated more than once. Orin finally took her practice mace away from her and suggested she practice throwing daggers for the remainder of the lesson. The rest of the class all thought this was a good idea as well and breathed a collective sigh of relief. She did much better when they moved on to spears. Despite her multitude of bumps, bruises, and soreness, she like being physically exhausted.
Horsemanship lessons provided the same physical exertion. They learned to maneuver the horses around obstacles and do jumps. Lucy had an advantage in being able to communicate with her horse better than the average student, but she still took to riding naturally and would not have performed much worse without her advantage. Tannin started showing up at lessons as well, and they worked on fighting while on horseback. Luckily, they were allowed to choose which weapons to work with. They learned to shoot arrows or throw daggers while riding. They learned how to wield staffs without hitting their horses on the head and how to ride using mainly the knees so they could use both a sword and shield while still maintaining control. There were races on quickly saddling a horse and lessons on riding bareback. They had not yet progressed to fighting while bareback. The goal was to push the students without endangering the horses.
Lucy tried to keep her laughter to a minimum as the horses began to know the students well enough to have preferences on who rode them. A large, enthusiastic brown named Cree nipped at Philip when he walked his direction with a saddle. Philip had a tendency to become scared and jerk at the reins. Cree did not care for this; he thought it cowardly. He also did not appreciate being hit over the head with a practice sword. Accident though it was, that was the last time Cree ever let Philip anywhere near him. Philip eventually found a less enthusiastic horse, and they became friends.
The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 Page 16