"Rather than show you want we have down here I will collect a few pieces and we can go upstairs in view of them."
Mol was impressed at the way the Bard went straight to certain areas of the Armory to pick up what she wanted. It didn't take her long and they preceded her and waited while she locked the Armory door.
They walked to the end of the corridor and up a flight of stairs. It got lighter as they go to the top with natural daylight. This was a small room with some very comfy looking chairs, they all sat down and Jaynne gave Mol the throwing daggers with their quick release sheaths.
There were five in all, some worked in ornate gold and silver, they didn't seem quite right to Mol though, one looked a bit cheap and shabby, but there was something about it or rather them.
The balance felt right, she put the more expensive daggers aside and strapped one of the cheap looking ones to her forearm.
Somehow she knew by the twitch of a muscle in her forearm the dagger would spring into her hand for easy throwing, a rush of pleasure suffused her being these throwing daggers like her Kironi daggers went with her like bacon and eggs.
Now she wouldn't feel so vulnerable in combat this wasn't over confidence it was sound tactical thinking on her part.
After having something to eat the four Bards went to a study where an open fire was blazing merrily.
The atmosphere was a lot more relaxed than it had been earlier. Jaynne and the other Bard who had introduced herself as Hersha had been laughing and joking while they ate the. Mol felt very comfortable with them she hadn't felt so comfortable ages actually she realised she'd been under quite a bit of strain in her undercover role.
That pulled her up short, if anyone were watching it may look suspicious for a servant to be so familiar with Bards.
Standing up she made hurried excuses and left.
She walked back through the bustling streets, when suddenly something hit her from behind and sent her crashing to the ground, looking up she saw someone she thought she recognised running up the street at high-speed.
She sat up and heard the sound the running from behind her. She turned and looked and then threw herself sideways to avoid being trampled by the small squad of soldiers who were obviously in pursuit of the person who knocked her down.
"Are you alright dear?" An old woman that was stood nearby inquired, Mol stood up and brushed herself off.
"Yes thank you," patting herself down, "I seem to be intact." She carried on in the direction she'd been walking that she couldn't shake the feeling that she knew the person who knocked her down.
Once back in her room she decided on a course of action.
A moment later she burst out laughing, a course of action?. She already knew what she had to do find Xeexa's killer, and quite frankly she had no idea what to do next.
A few days later events took care of themselves. Mol had gone out shopping again when she spotted the person who knocked her down. She followed at a distance, careful not to let herself be seen.
Her target seemed very wary and nervous, which, if it was who she suspected it was then it was understandable. What Mol didn't know was why she was here, after all this wasn't her city. Mol followed her through winding streets and alleys only losing sight briefly all her.
The chase seemed to go on forever, until, her target went into an old building, Mol cautiously followed her in.
It was obviously long abandoned, she couldn't see any activity downstairs as a lot of the internal walls on the ground floor had long since decayed and fallen through.
A noise upstairs caught her attention, the sound of someone moving about. She saw an old staircase and climbed up it wincing as it creaked under her, the noise upstairs stopped.
As stealthily as she could she climbed to the top of the stairs, the walls up here weren't in such a bad condition.
She carefully made her way from room to room checking for signs of occupancy. It happened so quickly she'd barely had time to evade the person who jumped out at her, ducking and turning, her dagger was in her hand before she had time to think.
The person who have tried to jump her had caught herself on an old table as she'd fallen uncontrollably and was now unconscious on the floor, Mol stood over her, it was who she thought, Angeless.
Mol checked the next to room, from the looks of things, this was where Angeless was living now. Her possessions were scattered all around the room, which to Mol's surprise was in a remarkably tidy condition. She knew she couldn't carry Angeless to the improvised bed, but somehow she managed to drag her onto it. There was a jug of water nearby and she poured a little into her hand which she sprinkled over Angeless's face.
Angeless came around very quickly and started suddenly before she got her bearings, Mol was crouching beside her and smiling. Angeless focused on moll's face, "aren't you Angee's friend?", an uncertain tone colouring her voice.
"Yes I am, what are you doing here?". Angeless looked slightly angry.
"It was all very well for you to rescue your friend, but no one thought about the consequences to me. I'd been seen one to many times with Angee and a few people put two and two together and came looking for me to exact a measure of revenge."
Mol privately conceded that they'd never thought of anything like that. "So that's why you moved here?".
"No, I always wanted to live in a dump like this."
Mol was surprised at the sarcasm in Angeless's voice and her raised eyebrows showed it. She wondered what Angee would suggest.
This thought made her realise she hadn't thought of Angee in quite a while and she was suddenly struck with a strong feeling of missing her friend.
Twenty Eight
Angee's talk with Suse hadn't really be that helpful, she'd offered no real solutions to Stephanie's problem. Angee bumped into Stephanie as she was going for something to eat. "Hi, how's it going?". Stephanie looked pleased," fine, fine, I just completed some pieces to take to town, I think they'll be a few raised eyebrows at such unusual work."
Angee nodded and walked on. Although Stephanie was feeling homesick, she did like the friendly nature of these people.
In fact the whole world, or at least what she had seen of it seemed more open than the Earth she knew.
Maybe because people's lives were harder here, she didn't really know that she chuckled to herself as she thought she could make some damned good guesses.
She went to the stable and collected her horse, the weather was a lot kinder than it was the last time she'd made this journey. This time the she was stopped at the city Gates by the city guard.
"Your purpose for coming here?". Stephanie privately wondered if they stopped everyone or just those they did not recognise. "I'm here to conduct some business." The guard didn't seem particularly interested and just waved her on. It must be a very boring job she thought.
Riding along the streets she pulled her cloak around her she'd been having hot flashes and shivering, she might be coming down with a cold or maybe it's was hormonal.
She tied her horse up where she had before and dismounted in one fluid motion, something that she was finding a lot easier to do these days probably because she was getting used to it.
Entering the shop she saw the old man stood in exactly the same place as he had been before.
"Ah, you're back." A delighted look on his face.
Stephanie walked over, "well I said I would be when I had completed some pieces."
She took a small velvet wrapped bundle out of her bag and placed it on the counter. Unwrapping it carefully she heard him gasp as he viewed the contents.
"Magnificent!, simply magnificent!. I will have no problem selling these". His features became closed for a moment.
"Now, I supplied the silver and the tools we should sets a price for these."
Stephanie had been thinking about this, "what I suggest is we'll deduct the cost of the tools from what you'll be paying me and we split the cost of the silver between us."
He thought about it for a
moment, "that's unusual but for pieces like this worth it, call me Nate."
"Well Nate, I don't know current prices so I will have to trust you."
He looked at her appraisingly almost as if she were a piece of jewellery herself, "aye, you do, but you can ask anyone up and down the street they'll all tell you, there's no one more honest than Nate."
He looked at the silver again, the five pieces seemed to captivate him, "I will give you six golds as your share less one gold for the tools and one gold for the price of the silver." Stephanie had a feeling she could trust and, she had to after all she hadn't really had any experience of the cost of living here.
"Fine, I'll have some more pieces ready for you next week if you give me some more silver."
Nate popped into the back of the shop and came out with two small silver ingot's.
He handed her the silver and took four golds out of his cash box, he pressed them into her palm, "I'll see you next week."
Stephanie was sweating now, and shivering at the same time, she hoped she hadn't caught a bug or got the flu.
She was going to go shopping but didn't feel like that now, all she wanted to do was to get back to her nice warm bed and curl up and go to sleep.
For all the cloak was a heavy one she felt freezing and now she had a slight ringing in her ears. She urged her horse into a trot and sat hunched forward in the saddle.
She must have dozed off for before she knew it the horse had stopped in front of the temple. She was no longer shivering now, she was burning up.
Stumbling through the door of the temple the corridor spun and the next thing she saw was Bria and Allia kneeling beside her with some bards she did not recognise stood behind them.
"Don't try to move" Bria told her,"we'll carry you to the infirmary."
Stephanie felt herself being lifted and carried down the corridor. She realised she must be dozing off, for she was in a bed in no time and someone was pressing a cup of liquid to her lips and urging her to drink.
For Stephanie time seemed to move strangely over the next few days. When last she was awake properly, Bria was sat next to her. "Feel better?", Stephanie shivered, "not a lot."
The shivering became intense and she was surprised to see Bria almost fall of a chair stumbling backwards.
Bria's attention wasn't focused on Stephanie she realised but on the wall behind Stephanie.
Turning her head Stephanie was amazed to see ice slowly creeping up the wall. She was shivering as hard and the ice continued to move.
Pulling the blankets tightly around her she began to think of what it was like being warm. The ice stopped. What was happening to her?, she was confused now, but at least she felt warm, very warm in fact.
Now she saw Bria dart out of the door, and dash back in with a pitcher of water. To Stephanie's amazement she threw it at her.
"your bedclothes were beginning to smoke" she offered as way of explanation. "Something very strange is going on here."
Stephanie felt she could not have agreed more at that very moment.
Bria reported to Angee the unusual turn of events concerning Stephanie. Angee turned and gestured to Bria to follow, they went into the chapel.
Angee sat down, she patted the bench next to her and Bria sat down. "Why is it nothing in my life is simple?. We've taken on supernatural creatures, servants of evil. Not to mention my own transformation."
Bria could see that Angee was getting worked up. She really felt for her friend, with all she had been through Bria knew if it had been her she wouldn't of being able to cope.
Bria though had been through quite a few changes of her own and if she could cope and then she knew Angee would too.
But that wasn't the problem at hand, something was happening with Stephanie and as the healer Bard, she felt an instinctive need to help her.
"I think we have to monitor Stephanie over the next few days, to see if she has anymore episodes. This may be permanent or it may be just a side effect of the illness, time will tell."
Stephanie had noticed she was being left alone a lot, there used to be quite a few people who would pop their heads in to see how she was doing, no longer.
She hadn't told anyone yet but this unusual, power I suppose you could call it was coming more under her conscious control. Maybe she should tell someone?, maybe not. Like a child with a new Toy she felt a need to explore it on her own.
But first she needed to focus on getting better.
Over the next few days her strength began to return, Angee had taken a message to Nate to explain what happened and that there would be a slight delay in her next delivery of jewellery.
Feeling stronger she'd started to make some new pieces.
At the moment she was busy working on a Celtic necklace, Celtic design had always been one of her favourites and the design being unknown here was guaranteed to popular.
She held up the necklace in her hand a thick scrolling Celtic filigree was just about finished just one or two touches here and there and it will be done.
She planned when she'd completed one more piece, a curb bracelet, to take them to Nate and also gets a bit of time to explore these mysterious powers.
The opportunity came the following day. Angee had tried to insist that someone should go with her, but she'd immediately put a halt to that idea. She didn't need an audience for what she was going to do.
The Stablemaster had her horse saddled and ready for her, which was not the norm. Angee had explained fairly early on that while the staff in the stable took care of the horses and Bards mounts they were usually expected to saddle and unsaddle them.
Maybe there were making allowances for her illness. She was grateful though. Her business with Nate swiftly concluded she set off towards the temple.
She'd been pleased to hear from Nate that the jewellery sold very quickly. And as the result of demand her share of the profits would increase.
When she came to the lane that led to the temple she didn't take it, instead she kept on riding towards the wood she could see in the distance. That would make a good place to test out her new powers.
No one was on the road, that was good, just a she didn't need anyone she knew seeing her, she didn't need any passersby seeing either. Dismounting, she led her horse into the trees and tied the reins of the horse to a small branch just out of sight of the road.
She moved away from the horse so as not to scare it.
Lying in bed had given her a lot of time to study her potential power in a very analytical way. Raising her left hand she pointed one finger towards the ground about six meters in front of her and thought of her hand getting very warm, even hot. Suddenly a tiny fireball shot from a finger and hit the ground with an explosive sizzle. A thrill of excitement coursed through her body, it had worked. Now try the other half of the experiment.
Lifting her right hand, she pointed a finger at the same spot and imagined her hand getting extremely cold. Suddenly a stream of ice bolts smashed into the ground at the same spot. Imagining everything was normal again she walked over to the spot and examined it. Some of the ice bolts hadn't disintegrated and she picked one up, touching the point she cut her finger the ice bolt was razor sharp. This could be an interesting weapon she thought.
She practised for the next hour or so, refining her control of her newfound powers, but it wasn't until she aimed a fireball at a tree that things took a surprising turn. She hit the tree Square on and heard a mental scream in her mind. It must have come from the tree, that was obvious, but how could a tree scream?. She walked towards the tree carefully and placed a hand on the tree trunk. The blast of pain she felt brought her to her knees.
What had she done?. She'd pulled her hand quickly away from the tree trunk when the blast of pain hit her. Carefully she placed her hand on the tree trunk again bracing herself just in case.
This time it wasn't such an ordeal. Through her newfound senses she could sense the trees pain, but also its anger.
In fact, she only had to t
hink and she could sense all the trees, they were alive and had a consciousness. This was like something out of Celtic folklore.
How this would help her she didn't know, but now she had some control over her powers she wondered how the hell and she got them?. Her hormone medication had run out a few days before the fever started.
She'd expected some of withdrawal symptoms but not to be ill. She remounted and decided to ride back to the temple to tell the others about it.
I wonder?, she mused to herself. The laws of physics work differently here, the laws of magic seeing stronger. There wasn't any magic in her world, at least she didn't think there was. For if there was it was obviously a lot weaker. Maybe the magical powers that she has, dormant in her own world have access to magical energy here. She was after all going through puberty again, and she knew that puberty caused a lot of changes.
There wasn't any sign of her body reverting to its former state, that was odd too. Oh well, if she thought about it much more she'd get headache. Now to go find Angee and the others.
She handed the reins of her horse to the Stablemaster and started walking to the temple doors when she heard the sound of swordplay from the far side of the temple.
She knew Angee and her friends practised regularly and it may be them, she was right.
All three of them were involved in what looked like serious combat, although none of them were trying to take advantage of any openings that could have given them victory, also they were all wearing some sort of padded armour.
Stephanie stood and watched them. They seemed oblivious to her presence and she enjoyed watching their intricate swordplay. After a few more minutes they stopped, laughing and joking as they did.
Bria saw Stephanie and shouted a greeting. All three of them turned towards her.
A Change For the Light Page 21