Michael Manning - The Archmage unbound

Not until I was done and my story ground into an awkward silence did she finally speak again, “Thank you, Mordecai. That was well done.” She stood slowly and nodded in my direction. “This is still fresh news for me, if you don’t mind I think I’d like to be alone for a while.” She had hidden her hands in the folds of her dress but my magesight could still see them trembling.

I took a step in her direction, “Rose…”

“No Mordecai, please,” she interrupted. “You may call upon me tomorrow. I need some time to collect myself.” The trembling in her hands had moved on to become a more generalized tremor throughout her body.

Her conviction gave me pause and I considered leaving. It seemed a lot easier than facing the storm she held tightly shuttered behind her eyes. Then I remembered my own night, alone in my room, after I had nearly committed murder to quench my thirst for revenge, rather than face my own sorrow. I took several more steps toward her. You won’t face this alone.

“Please go, Mordecai. You don’t understand, that’s not how my family deals with things like this,” she spoke in a tone of command, but it was undermined by a sudden gut wrenching sob as her voice broke in mid-sentence. Her balance wavered and I caught her before she could fall.

“No Mordecai!” she screamed into my shirt. “That’s not how we do things!” She was crying as she yelled at me. “I’m a Hightower, we don’t mourn in front of others…,” she was sobbing and beating my chest at the same time.

I held onto her firmly, until her violence had lapsed into a more subdued weeping. “Then your family needs to find a better way,” I told her softly. She cried for an unknown span of time, and the afternoon shadows grew long and vanished into dusk before she had finished. Eventually she lapsed into silence and I simply held her and stroked her hair. Outside the sun had dropped below the roofline and the city seemed to be holding its breath in expectation of the night.

“I’d better return home,” I told her.

She nodded and I noticed her eyes were swollen and puffy. With her hair askew and her red face I couldn’t help but think it was the first time I had ever seen her so disheveled. Another day I might have laughed. She walked me to the door herself, while Angela watched disapprovingly. I couldn’t imagine what her maid-servant might be thinking.

As I stepped out she grabbed my hand, “Don’t go too far. I’ll be looking for you tomorrow. Make sure I can find you.”

“I need to find Marc still. He hasn’t heard the news.”

She released my hand. “I can help with that.”

I smiled weakly, “Tomorrow then.” I turned away and began walking back toward my own city home. The door closed behind me briefly before opening again.

“Mordecai,” she called.

I looked over my shoulder at the unkempt Lady Rose, peering from her door, “Yes?”

“Thank you,” she said and then she shut the door again.

I walked on, into the deepening dusk.

The next morning found me still abed when Rose showed up at my door. Actually that statement isn’t quite true. The more accurate statement would be that Rose found me still abed when morning showed up at my door. At least morning had the decency to knock first, for she had not.

I stared blearily at the red-clad woman who stood at the foot of my bed, “Damnitt will you stop shaking the bed!”

“Fine I’ll be back in a moment,” she replied unconcernedly.

That woke me up further as my suspicious instincts kicked in, “Where are you going?”

She smiled wickedly, “To get some water.”

I sat up, “Fine, I’m up. Get out so I can put some damned clothes on!” She left promptly and I did indeed rise, though I wasn’t about to ‘shine’ so early in the day. I had stayed up late the night before trying to understand the ‘stasis field’ enchanting schemata. It was either that or go burn down the royal palace, but Penny’s note had been very explicit that I should save the king for later. That was alright, I knew where his majesty lived and it wasn’t as if he’d be moving soon.

The enchantment still frustrated me, which was a large part of the reason I hadn’t gone to bed early. I had trouble letting go of a problem once I had started on it. In this case I had figured out how to construct the rune structure without problem, it was intricate but the pattern was repetitive enough that I had no trouble memorizing it. I just didn’t understand what it actually ‘did’.

In the end I had constructed a working model using the stylus and small wooden box. The field was supposed to permeate the interior of the box when it was activated, that much was clear. Still, nothing seemed to happen to anything I put into the box… either before, after, or during the time it was activated. I had gone to bed puzzled and frustrated.

I found Lady Rose downstairs in the kitchen. She had brought a basket with her and was laying items out on the small breakfast table. “You look awfully domestic,” I mumbled.

She looked at me sharply, “You look thin. How many meals have you eaten since you found out?”

“None of your damned business,” I told her self-righteously as I sat down and began eating the scones she had brought. I couldn’t remember when I had eaten last.

“Those taste better if you put some of the jam on them,” she suggested.

I was in no mood, “I prefer them plain,” I said around a mouthful of scone. I doubt any of the words were intelligible. Then I picked up the tea and promptly burned my tongue.

“Take your time, the food won’t escape,” Rose said with a slight smile.

I swallowed and took another sip of the tea, this time without burning myself. “I didn’t expect you to bring breakfast.”

“Penny wouldn’t like it if you starved to death and… well you can think of it as a thank you,” she answered.

I snorted, “A thank you? For what?”

“Yesterday,” she said simply.

“That’s what family does.”

“Family?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

I raised my own eyebrow, just to show her she wasn’t the only one with witty brows. “I’ve never had a large family, so I’ve been adding my friends to it since I was very young. Congratulations, you’ve been adopted. Would you like to be my little sister, cousin, or aunt?”

“Aunt? I think sister would suit better,” she said crinkling her nose.

“Little sister it is then,” I said in a final tone.

“I am a bit older than you though,” she reminded me.

“Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone.”

She laughed a little at that. It was clear neither of us would recover our brighter spirits anytime soon, but I was determined not to give in to despair. “Do you know what else family does?” I asked.

She had just filled her mouth with tea so she merely shook her head in negation.

I narrowed my eyes, “Family gets even.”

She raised that lone eyebrow again, “Why do you think I wore red today?”

Half an hour later we were walking through the city, heading toward the temple of Doron the Iron God, if Rose was to be believed.

“Can you explain to me exactly why he thought he should be staying with the Iron Brothers?” I asked her again.

“He thought they would be easier to fool,” she replied.

That didn’t go far toward explaining the entire scheme to me, “But you said he was planning to examine the archives of Karenth the Just. Why is he here?” By here I was referring to the large brooding structure looming over the street on the right hand side. While most of Albamarl was constructed of local rose granite that hadn’t been good enough for the Iron Brothers, they had felt the need to import a lot of drab grey granite to face the walls with. It probably hadn’t been cheap to achieve the depressing look they had wanted. I was also willing to bet that underneath the surface most of the bulk of the building was built with rose granite.