Arri- January 26, 2005

January 26, 2005
Dear Keish,

Lunch with Lady Clara and Duke Tulson was lovely.  We had to eat a little late because of my writing class getting out at one, but it was worth it. The new Duke and Duchess of Lake Lowell will be maintaining what is now called the Lowell mansion. It is in Old Rousha on the northeast side of the castle. Clara says it’s ridiculous for two people without children to live in such a large house, but Tulson says they will fill it soon enough. Clara blushed deeply at that and changed the subject, but I could see that she wasn’t in a condition.
Tulson and Clara do not know anything yet about the person you are looking for in the Elcaran castle. They were very disturbed by the idea that there might be a traitor with such easy access to the royal family. Everything that anyone can think of to do to identify the person is being done, but there’s so little information to go on. Nothing useful was learned from questioning Sir Waldbauer.
We spent the majority of the afternoon talking about Iconei and Aegolius’s family. Aegolius is from the city of Byuing, which is the second largest city in Iconei and possibly the most prominent for science and innovation. They have a university there, called the Byuing State University, that makes Rousha University look like an academy. In Iconei magic is considered inferior to science and Aegolius is unusual in that his parents, when they found out he was magical, hired a tutor to train him. Most Iconeians with magic learn only the most basic of spells. Aegolius comes from an upper-middle class family, the Tekielas who are also one of the oldest magical lines in Byuing. Sadly, their magic is dying. Aegolius has tried to interest his children and grandchildren but with little success. Clara and Tulson met many of Aegolius’s relatives who were as interested in learning about Elcaro as Clara and Tulson were about Iconei. They are all, men and women, very well educated, considering it extremely important. They were shocked to learn that Tulson, as a prince and duke, had only a bachelor’s degree in business and some specialized tutoring in politics. The government of Iconei requires all of its leaders to first obtain a master’s degree in governance, which course of study includes accounting, business, political history, and sociology. I got the idea it’s one of the most difficult degrees to obtain. Many of their leaders have doctorates.
We looked at literally hundreds of reflections taken on the trip. Many of them were pictures of inventions that Clara and Tulson saw during their tour of the university. One daguerreotype was a mess of metal disks and wet cardboard called a “battery” which is supposed to be some sort of power source, although they aren’t sure yet what to do with the power. There were numerous daguerreotypes of experimental unfinished mechanical parts for a machine that sews. If they ever get that machine working, I definitely want one. A simpler invention was a metal thing called a wrench, which is used for tightening things called bolts. I think Master Soloway would be interested in that for his carpentry classes. They also brought back several boxes of toothpick-like pieces of wood called “matches” that can light a fire by scraping them against a rock. I’m not sure they’re really all that better than a good piece of flint, but Clara likes them.
Clara gave me a very stylish Iconese hat as a souvenir. It’s straw-colored and has a wide woven brim with three tiny, red silk flowers sewn on. It doesn’t look quite like anything I’ve seen in Rousha. I must send a sketch of it to Treany.
Eventually, we found ourselves talking about the news in Rousha. When Lady Clara heard that Imato was in one of the army divisions the king called up, she grew very still. After a few minutes she excused herself and left the room. Tulson cast a quizzical glance in her direction then followed her out. They came back several minutes later with a passenger pigeon in a small cage.
“Please give it to Gretel, so she can exchange letters with Imato more quickly,” said Lady Clara, “I can’t imagine what it must be like for her right now.”
I swallowed hard and accepted the bird gratefully.

January 28th
When I gave her the passenger pigeon, Gretel burst into tears, saying it was the kindest present she had ever received. She named her Express, and she is already living up to her name, delivering a letter to Imato.
Gretel was true to her word about the shopping. We yesterday morning and arrived at the market just as it was opening. What Gretel didn’t account for was her upset stomach. We had to completely avoid the food stands because even the scent of them made her stomach turn. She said all the stress from the gossip columns and Imato’s deployment was impacting her stomach. I didn’t say anything. I knew she’d give me a better explanation when she was ready.
Other than food stands, we went in every festival booth and considered buying just about every type of item from clothing to cookware to hammers and saws. We spent rather a long time looking a booth that sold arbalests which fascinated Gretel for some reason. I thought they looked scary.
We spent the entire day, despite the light snowfall, and didn’t get home until after dark. Then we both collapsed in our rooms and were instantly asleep.

Today I left long before dawn so that I could visit Father and still be back in time to have breakfast with Gretel. Dr. Rascada was up to meet me. He has an uncanny was of predicting what days I will come and arranges his schedule so that he can see me at least every other week. It’s very nice of him, since I know he doesn’t normally start work so early. Father was asleep and didn’t wake up. I watched, disappointed for a while and then decided to go into the little chapel to sit and think before returning to Gretel’s house. I was trying to decide if there was a way I could encourage Gretel to tell me about her condition without her knowing that I already knew.
I was interrupted by the sound of violent coughing. I turned around and was surprised to see an older couple had entered from the back of the room. I recognized them from other visits to the home, although I had never spoken with them. The husband was the one coughing and I suddenly remembered that I had heard him coughing the last time I saw them, and every other time I could remember. The cough was chronic and I began to wonder what caused it.
“Excuse us,” said the wife reddening, “we didn’t mean to disturb you.”
I reddened too, realizing that I had been staring at her husband.
“You’re not disturbing…” I trailed off, “I was just… I was wondering why your husband coughs so much?”
“Well,” said the woman slowly, “he used to be a smoker, for quite a few years. He stopped a couple of years ago, but it seems to be too late. We thought the smoke would eventually work its way out of his lungs, but there’s been no change. You should take a lesson from that, child.” She put a hand lovingly on her husband’s shoulder and smiled kindly.
Smoke in the lungs. I hadn’t ever thought about smoking cigars in that way before: contamination. Memories of the boy fairy and the smoke in Liop’s and Glory’s lungs came immediately to my mind. A kind of excitement gripped me.
“Maybe,” I said, thinking out loud, “Excuse me, but maybe I could help?”
“Oh?” asked the women, smiling with bewilderment.
I explained about the fire and the natron and the smoke. Soon I had her husband’s attention too. His eyes widened.
“You think you could pull smoke particles from my lungs?” he asked.
“They’d be similar to wood smoke, wouldn’t they?” I asked.
“Seems like it,” he said.
We were so excited that we immediately went in search of Dr. Rascada. He was fascinated by the idea and offered us a room to use. The husband, a blacksmith named Master Karford, lay down on the bed and I put a hand on his shoulder. I sent the magic in and looked at his lungs.
It wasn’t the same as healing Liop or even the boy fairy. Years of continual smoke exposure had built up in his lungs until nearly half of the air sacs were clogged and unusable. I was startled to realize that this time I actually knew names, from my anatomy class, for what I was looking at. The bronchioles, branches of the lungs were dark with soot. I tugged at a bit of it and it came loose but hardly made a significant change in the damage to his lungs. It took me all morning to clean out the particles. Dr. Rascada sent a boy to let Gretel know I would be late so that she wouldn’t worry. When I was finished, Master Karford took several deep, steady breaths.
“Amazing,” he said, “I feel thirty years younger.”
The couple thanked me so much that I felt embarrassed. I was excited about what I’d accomplished. I wanted to tell Master Ujifil about it. I wanted to write you a letter. I healed someone!
The rest of the day passed by me in a blur. I kept thinking about the morning, wondering if Mother had ever healed someone’s lungs. I also wanted to go to Odsreq and tell Dr. Stoddart exactly what that pipe is doing to his lungs and he really should stop smoking it immediately. It doesn’t just smell bad and make your breath short for a little while: they’re completely dangerous.

January 30th

Yesterday was crazy. You already know that.
I’m going to start with my side of the story, since I don’t have your side yet anyway.
“Arri, I’m not feeling well at all,” said Gretel yesterday morning as she stared at a half-eaten slice of toast, “You might want to stay away from me today.”
“You’re not contagious,” I said carelessly, wanting her to finish getting ready so we could go to the Princes’ Joust, “Moving around might help.”
“But I think all the stress may have turned into the flu,” she said.
I looked up at her, worried. She looked about the same as the day before.
Gretel put her head in her hands.
“Stress doesn’t normally make me this sick,” she continued, “I was fine when we were planning the wedding.”
Mother taught me a long time ago to never be the first to say anything about a woman’s condition, no matter how obvious. I didn’t say anything. I just waited.
“Of course, the wedding was mainly positive stress,” Gretel was mostly talking to herself, “and this is mainly negative stress. But then when Liop was abducted, that was very negative stress and I felt a little queasy sometimes, but not nearly as sick as this. I hope I’m not developing Mother’s nerves…”
“Um, Gretel,” I interrupted uncertainly, “maybe you’re worrying too much… I mean you’re delicate and…”
“I am not delicate!” Gretel said sharply, “I’ve never been delicate in my life. I’m built like my father, not—”
It was too much. I giggled. I couldn’t help it. Then I reddened and went still.
“I’m not!” repeated Gretel, her temper rising, “I’m no more delicate that you are. Arri?”
I had put my hands over my face.
“Did your mother ever tell you what it was like… um… before you were born?”
The room became very still. I peeked at Gretel through my fingers. She was as red as I felt.
“No,” she said slowly, “Arri, are you… am I…? How can you tell?”
“I can tell,” I said simply, “but I thought you knew. I mean, most women do, because there are symptoms.”
“What are the symptoms?” Gretel asked, “I’ve never known anyone, at least not very well, who was… like this. I’ve been meaning to ask someone, maybe Lady Pren, but it didn’t seem urgent. Are you sure, Arri?” She frowned doubtfully at me. “I’m not any bigger than I was when I got married. Can everyone tell?” The pitch of her voice rose nervously.
“It’s too early for most other people to tell,” I assured her, “I have a gift with this sort of thing. My mother had it too. I can tell pretty early, sometimes before the woman knows herself. But I never say anything. Most women like to keep it a secret as long as possible and saying something would be violating that right. I thought you were doing that…”
Gretel put her head back in her hands.
“I thought it was stress,” she moaned. Then she looked up sharply, “Can Imato tell? Does he have this gift?”
“I don’t think so,” I said, “He’s never said anything.”
“He wouldn’t,” she grumbled, “He’d think it was inappropriate.”
I thought she was being awfully unfair to Imato. After all, they’re married. I said so.
Gretel sighed.
“We’ve all been so obsessed with the gossip rags and the border skirmishes, I haven’t given anything else much thought. Okay, Arri,” she looked at me curiously, “tell me everything you know about my condition. What are the symptoms?”
We talked for a long time. The fact is that I know quite a bit about this condition. Mother was expecting twice within my memory, although the first time didn’t last. It was from this that I learned how important it is not to say anything. Then when Liop was coming, I was old enough to ask a lot of questions and Mother answered as many as she could, although some, she said, would have to wait till I was ready to marry.
Gretel has never learned anything. It’s not something her mother talks about and with very few relatives and no married friends… well, she just doesn’t know anything except that a woman gets bigger. As we talked, Gretel’s excitement mounted. She was even able to eat a bit. Suddenly she burst out laughing.
“What?” I asked.
“I said I wasn’t delicate,” Gretel giggled, “I said I was built like my father!”
We laughed for a long time over that. Then Gretel started to cry.
“Imato doesn’t know,” she sobbed, “How am I going to write this in a letter? He’s going to think I’m a complete idiot.”
“He won’t think that,” I said, “I bet you’re not the only new wife this has happened to.”
“And Arri, what if it’s like… like with your mother…”
“It won’t be,” I interrupted quickly, “Mother was resistant to magical healing, but you aren’t, and I’m a healer. I won’t let anything happen like that.”
We decided not to go to the Princes’ Joust. Instead we stayed home and traded our comedy novels to read. Gretel still had trouble eating, but I think it’s better that she wasn’t at the joust, considering what happened there.

It was late afternoon when Emily announced the unexpected arrival of both Master Corey Gray and Mendel. Gretel and I looked at each other in surprise. Reluctantly, I set my novel aside.
“We’ll meet them in a few minutes in the parlor,” said Gretel. Then we both rushed to our rooms to change into more suitable dresses for company.
“But Mendel and Corey hardly know each other,” I said, meeting Gretel in the hallway and heading downstairs to the parlor.
“It must be something about the man Keish is looking for at the castle,” Gretel responded. We hurried.
As we entered the parlor both Corey and Mendel stood and bowed to us.
“Good afternoon Lady Etautca, Lady Arri,” said Mendel with so much solemnity that I knew immediately he’d been up to some mischief and was struggling to hold it in.
Corey echoed the sentiment and Gretel invited them to sit down.
They both started to talk at once, but Corey check himself and let Mendel lead.
“To be short,” he said, “the queen’s life is spared and Master Beagan is to be knighted.”
“What?” we all asked, including Corey.
“And I would appreciate it if your cousin would find some more subtle way of interrupting my social engagements,” concluded Mendel, “I entirely missed the end of the joust and haven’t the slightest idea who won.”
He folded his arms and waited for our response. I could see he was enjoying himself immensely. Corey looked confused. Gretel looked at me. I refused to rise to the bait.
“Thank you for the information,” I said as calmly as I could, “I am most relieved.”
Mendel’s brows arched and he blinked.
“There’s more to it than that,” said Corey finally, “and I don’t think Beagan is going to be knighted. He only threw one punch.”
“It was a good one,” said Mendel.
“Would you please begin at the beginning?” asked Gretel finally.
Corey started again, but he was confused about how exactly you spoke to him, so Mendel jumped in with explanations. I don’t need to tell you about most of it.
“We came here,” concluded Corey, “because you can get a letter to Keish faster than anyone. She’ll want to know that Beagan is at the hospital, but they should release him tonight. His arm needed some stitching, nothing serious.”
“Bradford is in custody,” continued Mendel, “I’ll let you know what they do with him, but Keish will probably have letters from the king and queen with that information. She is, after all, the hero of the day. She would probably be made a Countess or something if she were in Elcaro. As it is, they’ll think of something. Maybe King Menion will do the honors.”
Gretel smiled with amusement, “Countess Lakeisha. She hates being called ‘Lady’ so much, I wonder what she’ll say to this.”
“I’ll suggest that a better reward would be de-honoring her,” volunteered Mendel, “The King can strip her title so she never has to use it again.”
Gretel laughed. Corey clearly doesn’t know Mendel very well. He looked shocked.
By then it was time for dinner, so Gretel invited Corey and Mendel to dine with us. The cook and Emily were rather flustered by the number of guests, but they managed to come up with enough for all of us. After dinner, Corey excused himself to help bring Beagan home from the hospital. They’ve been friends all their lives.
Mendel stayed to ask what our plans were for the next day and invite us to join him and Gordo. After that Gretel had to run upstairs suddenly because dinner didn’t agree with her stomach. Emily went to help and that left me and Mendel alone. I wanted to ask him if he was mad at me for not saying much about the gossip columns, but he didn’t seem mad and I didn’t like to bring it up if he wasn’t. But then I worried started to worry about it, so finally I said: “I’m sorry for not saying anything about the gossip columns and trying to find out about the political comments.”
Mendel looked surprised.
“You hate the gossip columns,” he said, “why would you want to talk to me about them? I almost never read them either.”
“Well, you’re connected to the royal family, and they were involved, and…” I trailed off uncertainly.
“Tulson filled me in on everything,” Mendel responded, shaking his head, “and none of us knew it was going to come to an assassination attempt on my aunt.” He shook his head, looking as confused by that part as I felt. “I don’t always tell you my business. Why should you have to tell me all of yours?”
He smiled and I felt better.
“However,” Mendel continued brightly, “I demand that you inform me the next time you plan to disappear with a magical creature on some distant quest. It will save me a lot of time and trouble trying to catch up. May I suggest a dragon next time? I’ve always wanted to ride a dragon.”
And that ended the evening.

February 1st

Your letter came last night, but I was too tired from the Winter Ball to do more than read it. I think I’ve already responded to most of it. Everyone is very impressed that you were able to break through the castle wards.
It was hard telling Gretel that her father’s division has been called to the Grestian border, but she took comfort from the idea that he and Imato will be able to protect each other. I think if it weren’t for her condition, I would have a hard time not convincing her to follow them.
Liop will be thrilled to hear that Caden and Keaton are sending him another alchemy kit. We all had dinner tonight with the Prens. After dinner Gretel and Lady Pren disappeared into a room together to talk, and Uncle W., Nysa, Liop, Taty, Sir Pren, and I all sat around the parlor talking. Liop was scheming about how to come and visit you and Keaton. He gets a spring break the second week in March. I suggested that might be a good time to go. Liop was thrilled, but then we came to the problem of how to accomplish it. Because of the Gazette articles, Uncle W. feels that he should stay in Rousha for a while. Nysa wants to come, but she isn’t comfortable traveling with just Liop. I can’t come because my break is only a couple of days long. Then Taty piped up that she would like to come. Sir Pren gave his permission and Nysa said that having Taty along would be perfect.
So all that remains is to ask you. Can Liop, Nysa, and Taty come visit for a week? Now I’ve asked and they are eagerly awaiting your response.

Master Emil Grant is a young man in his middle twenties. His mother is from Nèahm and he has her olive skin and black hair, rather like the Aoweirs. His eyes, however, are incongruously green. His is very tall and thin, and when he talks you have to pay close attention because he keeps his voice at the level of a whisper. He wears glasses with thin black frames around large round lenses which magnify his eyes out of proportion.
“I’m very pleased to meet you, Miss Etautca,” he said when I entered the lab. He motioned to an empty chair, “I’m so sorry to hear that Sir Etautca cannot join you.”
I repeated the sentiment and sat down. In my hands I held a piece of paper, folded in on itself many times and in my nervousness I had to be careful not to shred it.
“I have a hypothesis,” I began awkwardly.
“That’s very good,” said Master Grant.
He waited while I unfolded my piece of paper and looked at it. I had reread the chapter in my Beginning Biology book on how to create a hypothesis very carefully.
“My question is,” I told him, “What happens when you place a ward around an individual cell?”
Master Grant nodded, smiling slightly. Encouraged, I continued.
“I gathered information. My resources are the article called Wards to Prevent Bacteria from Passing in the May 2004 issue of Troilubus Iconetha; also we want to use spells from the book Advanced Warding Techniques; and a microscope and some samples of cells.”
Master Grant nodded. I took a deep breath, hoping that I was following the scientific method correctly.
“So for our hypothsis, we propose, well I propose—because I haven’t had a letter back from Imato, but I think he’ll agree with me on this—I/we propose that a ward around an individual cell will increase our ability to control how that cell is affected by outside forces like water, air, other cells outside the ward, and maybe other spells.”
I looked hopefully up at Master Grant. He was still smiling a little, his hands behind his back.
“That’s a very well thought out proposal,” he said finally.
“Thank you,” I said. I looked down at my much-creased piece of paper, suddenly wondering if I should have kept it nice so that I could give it to him, like I would hand in an assignment to a professor.
Master Grant looked around at the equipment in the lab.
“I’ve been trying to replicate the experiment in Troilubus Iconetha,” he informed me, “I hear that you are apprenticed to a healer. I have no magical talent. I was wondering if you would be willing to perform spells for me and we can look at the results together. When Sir Etautca returns from the war, he can join us.”
“Yes, I would like that,” I said.
“Eventually,” continued Master Grant, “we can try out your hypothesis as well.”
It was as much as I had hoped for.
“When do you want to start?” I asked.
“I should have some time in my schedule next week. What is your class schedule?”
I told him my schedule and together we settled on February 10th before my biology class. Midterms will be over by then, so I should have a little time to work on the new project. I’m so excited I can hardly wait. I like Master Grant very much.

I really should send this letter now so that you can read it. Beagan is doing very well. His family has invited Gretel and I to dine with them so that they can hear our side of the story. Although I think most of the excitement is on their side and your side.
You saved the life of the Queen of Elcaro, Keish! How does that feel?

Love,
Arri

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