Arri- March 18, 2005

March 18, 2005
Dear Keish,

Today I took my notes to Uncle W. to get his opinions on the subject. We spent a couple of hours going through the chemicals in his laboratory and discussing their potential in healing. In Odsreq, Uncle W. sometimes acted as an apothecary, mixing compounds for the local doctors. Rousha has plenty of fulltime apothecaries, so he doesn’t do much of that anymore, but he still has a lot of the chemicals on hand. He isn’t a doctor, but he could tell me what the different medicines are prescribed for. It was interesting and I added more notes to my collection, all the time wondering if I was really making the best use of my time. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading the notes. Reading, reading, reading. I think I have them memorized.
I went to the university campus to get my schedule for next term. Here it is:
College Algebra, course 2: 9am, daily
Basic Biology, course 2: 10am, daily
Introduction to Geology: 1-3pm, four days a week

I think the advisors have forgotten what my major is. There isn’t a single medical course in this list. I’m happy to take the biology, and with Basic Biology 1, it will count the same as if I had taken Medical Biology. I wouldn’t mind the other classes, except that I need to heal Father and how will studying math and rocks help with that? It’s very frustrating. Uncle W. says it will get better. These other classes count towards my generals and once I have all of my generals done, the advisors will have to put me in the medical classes. I haven’t shown my schedule to Master Ujifil yet, but he will only sigh and mutter something about distractions. I rather agree with him.
I haven’t seen Mendel and Gordo’s schedules yet. I don’t think we’ll have any classes together.

March 20th
I received your letter. Your dresses are all beautiful! I’m going to copy out your sketches and send them to Treany. I’m sure she will decide that Adya is the new center of fashion. Gretel also loves the look and hopes it is still in style next year when she will be able to wear it.
It sounds like Liop and Keaton had the time of their lives with Caden. It’s too bad they don’t live closer together. I can’t wait for them to get home tomorrow so that I can hear their versions of what happened.
Without Taty around I don’t get nearly as many invitations to social events as I normally would. It’s something of a relief since I turn down most of them anyway. But I do miss Taty. That was the great thing about living with the Prens: I saw a lot more of her. Since the incident with Master Calibri, Taty has taken to telling gentlemen exactly what she thinks of them the moment they start paying attention to her. That way they can’t be confused about her feelings. At the advice of Lady Pren, she also put a limit on the number of times she allows a gentlemen to take her out or call on her. Master Corey gets around it by inviting other young people and keeping all their activities in a group without pairings. Although, really, it’s not much different from the way he and Master Beagan planned social events before.
Liop and fireworks is a scary combination. I’m glad Thor is going to be okay. Uncle W. keeps a strict eye on him here. I’m sure he will get quite a lecture on what he and Keaton did in the drawing room. Liop should have known better.
That’s funny that Imato cast a calling spell in his sleep. Gretel, however, is wondering if it explains why she’s woken up several times in the middle of the night convinced that Imato was in the room with her, only to find out he wasn’t at all.
“If that’s true, then maybe you’ve finally found a type of magic you can sense,” I commented.
Gretel’s eyes widened. “You’re right!” she declared enthusiastically. As I write this, Gretel is taking pen and paper to write Imato on the subject. We’re expecting Express to return any day now with Imato’s latest letter.
It’s amazing that Father’s talisman, made only of wire, survived the war. With it being so close to Imato, I’m sure he will be able to retrieve it quickly.  We might even receive word of it in his next letter.
I wish I could have gone to Spring Market with you. It sounds lovely. The weather has been wonderful. It sounds like Liop and Keaton had a lot of fun hunting dragons in the woods. Elcaro’s castle doesn’t have any woods, just well-tended young parks. You have to leave the city to find anything resembling a forest.
The party sounds like it was very nice. I’m sure Nysa and Taty will show me their dresses when they get home. Nysa needed a new dress. She so rarely wants anything for herself. It sounds like you all had a wonderful time.
I should mention that the King and Queen did acknowledge Master Corey and Captain Wood. Master Beagan, however, is the one who risked his life, even though we all know the others would have done so too.
I did not get to see the floor plan Mendel and Gordo made before they sent it, but I am told it was very impressive. Gordo is very proud of it. He is taking Introduction to Architecture this term. It is probably the only subject about which Mendel knows more than he does, with the possible exception of fishing.
I have not tried to take Mendel’s test and I’m not going to. I will let Mendel know that Caden liked it.

March 21st
Liop, Nysa, and Taty returned home yesterday, exhausted and ready for bed. Today, we all had dinner at the Prens’ so that we could hear about their adventures. I’ve heard so much about the science museum that I’m beginning to feel that I really was there. Uncle W. says he owes Caden a big favor for entertaining Liop so completely. I think I’m going to be hearing about Spring Break for months. Nysa and Taty also had a wonderful time. Nysa says we must do this every year and that I must find a way to come too.

March 24th
I was first to the laboratory on the 22nd, glad to be back working with Master Grant. I had to wait for him to arrive a few minutes later and unlock the lab door. I asked him how his break was and he said he enjoyed it very much. I told him that I’d been going over my notes and studying. He smiled and nodded.
“I have someone coming at the end of our meeting today that I’d like you to meet,” he said.
I spent most of the next two hours wondering who Master Grant could possibly want me to meet. I didn’t know of anyone else at the university who might be interested in our work. We picked up right where we left off with searching for a spell that could impact a bacterium. The spell I had chosen to try next was a spell to freeze water. I prepared a fresh slide and invited Master Grant to check my work, which he did. Then I cast the spell. The bacteria on the slide froze instantly with the water. Pleased, I showed Master Grant.
“This is very interesting,” he said, “but can we say that the magic worked on the bacteria or on the water? Water frozen in an ordinary way will also freeze bacteria.”
My excitement deflated.
“Still,” Master Grant continued without looking at me, “this does imply that magic can be used to impact individual cells indirectly. We should document these results.”
This meant Master Grant thought the results important enough to replicate a few hundred times. I felt a little better.
We were just starting to clean up when someone knocked sharply on the door of the lab. Master Grant smiled widely at me and went to open it.
Standing in the doorway was a young woman unlike any I have seen before. She looked almost Iconese, but not quite. Her skin was reddish though not nearly as dark as Aegolius. Her eyes, though gold, were also paler. Her features were a mixture of Iconese and Arellan/Elcaran features. She stood taller than me with a sturdier figure. Beautiful and dramatic, I could easily imagine her in the theatre. I stared without saying anything.
“Miss Arri Etautca,” said Master Grant with obvious enthusiasm, “I’d like you to meet Miss Sagiteria Curtiz. Sagi, this is Miss Etautca.”
“Miss Etautca,” she came forward to shake my hand warmly, “Emil has told me so much about your work. I do hope you’ll be able to heal your father soon.”
“Sagi and I just became engaged,” Master Grant explained.
I had not anticipated that. I reddened and said nothing, feeling increasingly like an idiot.
“Pleased to meet you,” I stammered, wanting to run.
“Will you show me your laboratory?” asked Miss Curtiz, “My mother comes from Iconei and she taught me to love science. I very much admire your courage in coming to college. I was raised here in Elcaro, but my mother attended college in Iconei before she immigrated. She tells me she was no great talent…”
It was a relief to discover that Miss Curtiz loves to talk. She told me all about her father’s adventurous spirit which took him to Iconei where he met her mother, married her, and brought her back to Elcaro, much to the astonishment and consternation of his family. She was clearly proud of her heritage, proud of Master Grant for his decision to study biology, and eager see the discoveries he would make.
“They believe in Iconei that Elcaro is very backward, but you and Emil will soon prove them wrong,” she concluded.
I liked her, but it was a relief to excuse myself after fifteen minutes so I could run to Algebra. I almost bumped into Lorenzo walking Lexie on my way out, which made me run even faster. I wanted to bury myself in algebraic equations and not think about anything for a while.
Fortunately, I do not have Dr. Kondamuri again this term. Neither my algebra nor my geology professor has commented on my gender. I’ve decided school is easiest when no one seems to notice me. After algebra I had biology with Dr. Ecrue again and by the end of that class I was feeling much calmer, although still very much like an idiot. I hardly said two words to Miss Curtiz and she was so nice. What must she think of me?

March 25th
My test scores were posted today. I didn’t make the honor role, but Mendel says I shouldn’t feel badly. He says that I probably have the craziest schedule of any student on campus and that I should be proud that my grades are good. He and Gordo are vying for top of the honor roll of course, with Mendel just behind Gordo in his marks. I think Gordo takes it for granted that he will always be on top. Mendel, however, is determined to beat him. To hear Mendel talk about the other high honor students, you’d think they were all competitors in a joust.

Gretel had begun pacing the floors, torn between anger and worry over the fact that no letter had yet come from Imato. However, this evening Express finally arrived and Gretel snatched the letter away from her and left me to offer her food and water. I can’t really blame Gretel. The letter was definitely late.
Imato has been to the cave and retrieved Father’s talisman. He is happy to report that the enchantment on it is still intact. He’s been studying it and believes the spell is specific to Father and his descendants, that it won’t work for anyone else. It’s not a really strong spell; wards were not a talent of Mother’s, but it is full of her love. This makes it very unlikely that the talisman is what the Grestians are looking for. Imato offered to send the talisman to us (or you) if we want to do further testing. Gretel says that she would rather he kept it since it is still working and will work for him. I like that idea. I’m not sure what I would do with it.

March 26th
I had an idea today. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. I decided to ask the Chronicle what it knew about the seven names. The first name I asked about was Y’low. The book opened to a blank page. Disappointed, but not discouraged, I tried A’Ter. The response was better this time: pages and pages of ancient battles between Greste and Elcaro, and also Greste and Yuglicov during the time that Elcaro and Arella were subject to that empire. It is odd to think of Yuglicov as an empire when it’s now such a small, unassuming little country on Elcaro’s southwestern corner. Three hundred years has changed a lot. I skimmed through the pages, but I didn’t see anything that struck me as important. Maybe later when I have more time I will read them more carefully.
The next name I asked the Chronicle about was P’Le. The book found a brief mention of him as the captain of the army in a battle Father fought in. I read the entry carefully, but didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know. I think Mother wrote that entry. Next I tried K’lei. The Chronicle opened to a blank page.
“That makes sense,” said Gretel, who was watching my spell-casting with interest, “If your mother was the last person to write in the Chronicle and no one knew anything about K’lei yet.”
“True,” I said, “Mother would only have written things she thought were important to the Brio Clan.”
I hesitated and then decided to move on to the names that most interested me. I started with Sen’a. The Chronicle immediately opened to the same entry that contained the name of Captain Pelei. It didn’t say so directly, but I think this is good evidence that Sen’a is actually Father and not Captain Stoddart. If it were Captain Stoddart, I think the Chronicle would have been blank or would have mentioned him when he was Father’s chief Lieutenant.
The next name I tried was Mic’o, but the Chronicle knew nothing about this name.
Last, I tried Ta’y, which is the name the experts think might be an object. The Chronicle opened to a spell. Surprised, I studied it. It was a spell for stripping an object of magic, one layer at a time. The name “Ta’y” did not appear anywhere on the nearly three pages of instructions for performing the spell.
“So is Ta’y another name for this spell?” asked Gretel, leaning over my shoulder, “Or is it another name for one of the ingredients in the spell?”
“Or is this the last spell that was performed on the object?” I asked.
Gretel nodded, frowning.
“But if this was the last spell performed on the object,” she said slowly, “wouldn’t that mean that the Grestians are, in effect, searching for an object that is worthless?”
We were silent for a minute, considering this possibility.
“They may not know the object is useless,” I said, “What if it’s a weapon that was captured in battle? It would have been sent to Marobury. First they would have stripped its magic, and then they would have melted it down.”
“Assuming it was made out of metal,” commented Gretel.
“They would have done whatever was necessary to destroy it whatever it was made out of,” I responded.
“If they got it,” said Gretel. She had a point.
I took what information I had to Captain Stoddart this evening. He listened gravely to Gretel and my hypotheses about T’ay. It all felt less important and more speculative the longer I talked.
“I think a trip to Marobury is in order,” said Captain Stoddart, “We should make inquiries among the workers who may have been present when the 2000 Spring Battle occurred. Lady Arri, would you be willing to lead the party? I think your connections to the events and your work with the Chronicle make you a good choice of leaders.”
I took a step back, stunned. He wanted me to lead an inquiry? I didn’t know how to respond.
“I can have a party ready at the end of next week,” the captain continued, “How long do you think you will need to make a thorough investigation?”
Next week. That brought me back to reality. I would have to miss school. Confusion gripped me. This was related to helping Father, but so were my studies. Which was more important?
“Lady Arri?” asked Captain Stoddart.
“I’m honored,” I began hesitantly, “that you would trust me with this…” I trailed off, thinking hard. The words of my last conversation with Trena circled among my thoughts.
“I can’t go,” I said, finally, “I’m sorry. I have to stay here and work on healing Father. I don’t think going to Marobury will help me with that.”
Captain Stoddart folded his arms, frowning. A feeling of panic gripped me.
“You see,” I rushed on, “Trena said Father could answer all my questions. She said I had to heal him first, so if I go off on this inquiry, I’ll be trying to get the answers myself, which isn’t what Trena said. More information is just more information. I’m sorry.”
Captain Stoddart continued to frown, but he nodded.
“I’m sorry too,” he said, “but I will respect your judgment. Feel free to change your mind. I still want to send an inquiry.”
Keish, did I do right? I turned down the Captain of the Elcaran Army. I don’t think he was pleased. What if there is something in Marobury that will help me cure Father? What if I chose wrong?

I’m glad finals went so smoothly for you and that you had such a wonderful spring break. Give my love to everyone.

Love,
Arri

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