Arri and Keish

Showing posts with label June 2003. Show all posts

Keish- June 26, 2003

June 26, 2003

Dear Arri,

I was so pleased to get your letter! Sorry, it’s taken me a bit to respond, but I find myself rather busy these days.

Lessons continue and Brynn is wonderful. We’ve moved past palms and tea leaves for the most part as I’ve read nearly everything written on those aspects and they are almost 90% theatrics, which Brynn does not think I need help with. But, she does think I should practice and that has given me access to people and information I’d never dared hope to have access to, but I’ll return to that later.

I don’t think you should ask Liop about the cave. I believe he could, but I don’t think he realizes it and I wouldn’t want to put ideas into his head. I also think you’re quite right about that not being something you should have lying around. There are too many dangerous people in this world. As for my interest, I’m not entirely sure either, but it calls to me, like something beckoning out of a memory.

The deepest desire of one’s heart is difficult to see. One thing I’m learning is that we are somewhat different people when all the distractions are stripped away. Liop was able to have his deepest wish granted because he was too young and pure to have things go horribly wrong. I have been looking into the reversal of wishes, however, and trying to reverse a wish like Liop’s would cause far more trouble than it would be worth. As it’s not really causing problems, we’d best leave it alone, though we must continue to teach him to use it with caution.

Prince Euan is a problem. I like your ideas, but I’m not sure how much effect they would have. I think the king knows that he is being awful but isn’t quite sure what to do about it. After all, he is the youngest son and the queen is terribly attached to him, so the king can’t just send him off on some quest. I think the king is hoping that encouraging my studies will prove a means of distracting the prince from me as an object of marriage. After all, a proper princess simply does not read palms and tea leaves! Perhaps I shall start arranging for him to run into some of the silly girls that are always mooning over him but are too dull to realize they might do something to meet him. Honestly I can think of one or two with whom an alliance would be looked on as favorable… and the girls are such that I firmly believe they would deserve each other. I'll have to talk to Gretel; surely we can think of something.

As for Imato, I credited him with more sense! Doesn't he realize you're smarter than that?! I mean, really, it's not as though you're going to make a habit of taking in strange men.

Aegolius has a picture of your father?! You must find out when it was taken, Arri! After all, as I recall the story of his death was filled with many unanswered questions. Perhaps this old man will be able to answer some of them.

You killed a monster? I’m very proud of you! I’m not surprised something went wrong when they tried to create an oracle, that’s a very complex spell. Honestly, what surprises me is that things didn’t go wrong more horribly. There are a great number of dreadful things that could have happened. Let us be grateful that nothing more did, though you may want to watch for signs of poison mushrooms springing out of the wood around the house. They aren’t harmful unless eaten, but if I’m guessing correctly at what spell they were attempting, I’ve read mushrooms are a common side effect. I’ve been reading about oracles since I got your letter and I can see many things that could have gone wrong, though I can’t be sure without talking to Liop. Of course, I’m not an expert by any means, and, to be perfectly open with you, I’d never dare attempt something so complex! I would never tell Imato! It’s not my secret to tell, and frankly I wouldn’t tell him even if it were. I don’t think Imato would take the news well.

Back to the subject of Gretel, I was with her on the day Imato told you about. I suppose I must have forgotten to write you about it, I had intended to. Oh well, not important. It was quite funny. It seems though, that your dear brother is not being entirely forthcoming with you, for he has seen much more of Gretel than that! In fact, I think it may be a hopeless cause to try to keep them separated for long, not that I would want to try, I’ve no objection to them being together. Speaking of which, Gretel was hoping to come to visit while Imato is home, but would like to surprise him. Of course, she wouldn’t want to come if you wouldn’t want her there, so I told her I’d mention it to you. What do you think?

Also speaking of the two of them being together, I mentioned earlier that practicing palm reading has definite advantages, right? Well, I suddenly have access to all sorts of people and I have a perfectly plausible reason for asking them odd questions…. So…… I took advantage of this and asked to read Gretel’s father’s palm. As I told you, he is an influential knight, but he allowed me to. As I was doing so, I mentioned his daughter and a possible “blossoming romance” (90% theatrics, remember-- the other 10 is half skill and half what you already know about the person). At this he laughed and admitted it was true and that he had absolutely no objections to the match. He seems to be actually hoping that they will marry. Thought I’d pass that along in case it came up and Imato was worried about her father’s reaction.

My magic is progressing. I’m picking things up very quickly actually, though I’ve decided that I’d best not dabble in curses until I’ve gotten a bit better at controlling my temper. I’m sure that if I were to learn any I’d do something positively horrible to the next person who referred to me as a “young lady of nobility”-- it’s ridiculous. I nearly bit the head off one of the king’s advisors the other day for saying it. Caught my tongue just in time, though, which is good because he didn’t even realize I was listening.

The king has been very helpful in furthering my lessons with Brynn, and I finally realize why. He is obsessed with omens. It seems he wants me to learn as much as I can so that I can prophesy the meaning of omens my father sees in the stars. I’m a bit apprehensive about this. After all, omens are wrong enough that one shouldn’t rely too heavily on them. I wonder what has gotten the king so interested in them.

Oh, I learned the most useful spell! It allows you to see what spells have been cast on something (or someone) in the past. I used it on Aron and can see where Liop went wrong with his growth spell and how to fix it. Granted I don’t plan to, I like Aron just the size he is, but I thought you could tell Liop that I will teach him the proper spell if he agrees to use it only under the guidelines I give him.

I have some new kittens! I’ve changed them all so they look like flames, but different enough that I can tell them apart easily enough. I have three, and I am planning to send one to you. I would have sent it with Imato, but they aren’t quite old enough yet. If we can arrange for Gretel to visit maybe I can come along!

It’s morning again. I had to put this down last night, it was terribly late, but I shall finish it and send it off this morning. I wasn’t planning to tell you about this, not yet at least, but I’m so unsettled this morning that I can’t possibly not tell you.

I keep having this dream, and it’s really disturbing me. It’s awful too, since I’m learning to interpret dreams and so I’m analyzing to no end. Okay, yeah, I realize the irony of that statement; if I weren’t learning dream interpretation I’d be digging up all of the information on dreams in the city and simply driving myself insane.

Well, here it is. I’ve dreamt the same thing five nights in a row now, and I dreamt it three nights last week as well. Recurring dreams are nerve-racking, don’t you think? Anyway, I dreamt about my mother, about the morning she died. She’s talking to someone, but I can’t quite make out what’s being said. I’m hiding outside her door, anxious to see her, but knowing that the healers will shoo me away if they see me. I was only eight and they tended to either think I was in the way or I shouldn't see how sick Mother was. Every night I dream it, I come closer to seeing her and closer to hearing what is said, but it’s still just outside the range of my senses. I keep waking up crying. Half of me wants to push further in the dream, get closer, but there’s something holding me back, like it’s something I don’t want to discover. From what I can tell, the dreams bear all the marks of suppressed memories, which just makes me more confused and more anxious to figure it out. I’ve requested to be allowed to read the palace records from the time when Mother became sick and the king, hoping I’m looking at omens, has allowed it, but it’s slow reading. I haven’t told Father; he’s very busy right now as he has to prepare for the meteor storm in a month or so. Frankly, I’m not sure how well he’d take it if I told him. Especially if I told him my theories…

Arri, you mustn’t tell anyone this, but I’m beginning to think that my mother’s death was not simply an illness. I fear it was very deliberate. Mother interpreted omens, like the king wants me to do, and I am starting to think her death may have stemmed from some prophecy made. What this means for me, I do not know. The king’s advisors have been here since before her death, so if my suspicions are correct and it was one of them, the murderer is still here. If I begin interpreting omens, will I become a target? I’m more frightened than I care to admit, but I also know that I can’t give this up. I will read these records until I find something. Don’t worry about me, as of yet, I have learned nothing and there is really very little to fear.

Oh, one more thing before I close (which I must, for I’m to begin learning the meanings behind different positions of Jupiter). Father discovered that I have been practicing magic again. I hadn’t told anyone, not even Brynn, though I’m sure she knows, but Father came into the room suddenly while I was changing a teacup into a frog and back again. He left the room again and we haven’t spoken since really. Don’t be alarmed, that’s actually a very good sign. With how busy he is, I rarely see him and if he were upset he’d have made a point of talking to me about it. The fact that he hasn’t said anything is comforting.

I must close. All my love to Liop and Imato (and you may as well include Gretel’s to him as she has appeared over my shoulder and is stuttering about telling Imato hello for her).

May the stars burn clearly and light away troubled nights.

Love Always,

Go to the NEXT Letter.

Arri- June 13 2003

June 13, 2003

Dear Keish,

Your teacher Brynn sounds very nice. I can’t wait to visit you again so that I can have my palm read, or see how you read tea leaves. I’ve heard it’s really tricky to learn. It sounds exciting!

I’ve been thinking about my dream, but I’m afraid to ask Liop to draw a map to the Cave of Wishes. Don’t you think if he could, he’d have already told me? I’m also scared about people trying to steal it – valuable things are magnets for burglars, as Father used to say. I really don’t understand why you’re so drawn to the cave. Wouldn’t it be better off just staying lost? Some people think it’s powerful dark magic, but Uncle Winthrop thinks it depends on the desires of the wisher. I don’t know, but the whole idea makes me nervous. I mean, is there anyone who really understands what the deepest desire of their heart is? Maybe it changes over time. When I was little, I thought my deepest desire was to own a horse, but that seems insignificant now. Maybe one’s deepest desire is too abstract to ever really be granted. I don’t know, but I think I’ve rambled about it enough now.

You’re right about Liop’s vocabulary. He once told me fifty different words to describe a mouse. He doesn’t know what things are called until someone tells him, but the minute he learns one word for something, he immediately knows all the words for that thing. I asked him if he ever gets confused, and he looked startled and said "No." It’s one of those things I really don’t understand.

That prince sounds like a real problem. Have you had any luck getting rid of him yet? I got another idea. Maybe you could pretend to have a secret admirer, someone you like much better than him. Then the prince would think that you’re already taken, and give up. Maybe you could also try to get the prince interested in one of those other girls who are infatuated with him – arrange for them to bump into each other several times. The prince sounds like a very inconsiderate person. Imato told me that if our king knew one of his sons was acting that way, he’d put a stop to it. Of course, I don’t know how you’d go about complaining to a king about something like that without offending him. Maybe you could get a third person to do it. Someone whose opinion the king trusts. It is an awkward situation, isn’t it?

Imato wasn’t very happy with me for inviting Aegolius to stay with us. In fact, I think I scared him, because a few days after I mailed the letter to him, he showed up at the cottage in the evening with his mare looking very tired. He put her in the stable with Spriggs and marched into the house.

"What were you thinking, Arri!?!" he shouted, pulling me into the library with him and pushing me down into Uncle Winthrop’s big leather chair by the fireplace – the interrogation chair, I call it, because I always have to sit there when Imato or Uncle W. lecture me. I think it's because the chair is deep, and I don’t have many escape routes.

"He’s just a nice old man," I defended angrily, "He has grandkids!"

Liop’s argument had no impact on Imato – I don’t know why I thought it would. Secretly, I was delighted that Imato came home from training early, and thought the trouble with Aegolius entirely worth the consequences.

"Arri," Imato flung his hands hopelessly into the air, "I thought you had a little more sense than most girls. This man could be any kind of debauched criminal!"

"He isn’t," I said.

Imato was still yelling when a knock at the door interrupted him. The door opened to reveal Liop and a very humble looking Aegolius with his hands clasped together guiltily. I studied him, trying to imagine a debauched criminal in his place. The idea was ludicrous. Imato stopped yelling. For a few seconds complete silence reigned in the room.

"Aegolius is sorry for causing problems," said Liop softly, "He says he’s going to leave now, but he wants to pay us for boarding him." Liop’s face was very red, like he’d been crying.

Liop held out two gold pieces. Imato took them.

"Where will you go?" Imato asked.

"Home," Liop translated.

"That’s good," said Imato.

"He’s going to leave right now," said Liop sadly.

Now it was Imato’s turn to look guilty. He was silent for a couple of minutes. "It’s too late to leave today," he said finally, "Better stay the night and leave in the morning. Does Cook have dinner ready, Arri?"

"There’s soup in the kitchen," I said.

Imato stepped past all three of us and started for the kitchen. We all hesitated. Then Liop grinned at me, and we followed Imato.

While we ate soup and rolls, Imato interrogated Aegolius. I think he asked more questions about Aegolius’s past than even Liop could think of, and Aegolius answered, using Liop as interpreter. Aegolius comes from the country of Iconei where he worked as a blacksmith and amateur inventor until he invented the reflection maker and decided to try marketing it. He has three grown children and four grandchildren. If you ask him about them, he talks very rapidly for a very long time and Liop has trouble keeping up with the translation. Finally Imato said it was a shame that Aegolius came all this way without selling a single copper reflection, and that he ought to stay a few more days. I laughed at him and he looked embarrassed, but he still lectured me again that night about not letting strange men into the house. He said I was very lucky once and shouldn’t expect to be lucky all the time. He needn’t worry; I’m much too disaster-prone to harbor ideas of being lucky.

The next morning Imato gave Cook three days vacation and thanked her family for staying with us. Then he rode off to explain to the King why he left training early. I hope he isn’t in too much trouble. When I asked him, he said not to worry about it.

Not being a school day, Liop and Aegolius shut themselves in the basement and ignored my pleas to be admitted, so I wandered upstairs. The door to the guest room was open. I looked in and noticed Aegolius’s pile of daguerreotypes sitting on the bed. Since he had already showed me so many, I didn’t think he’d mind if I looked at more of them, so I gathered a pile up into my arms and took them to the window seat of my bedroom where I could study them in the sunlight with birds singing in the oak tree. They really are amazing – I hope you can see one sometime. I flipped through images of mountains and rivers, members of Aegolius’s family (clearly recognizable from their long, pointed noses), and finally I came to a picture of three men sitting around a campfire. I glanced at this picture and started to set it aside when suddenly something – I’m not sure what – struck me and I looked at the scene more closely. Chills ran up my spine as I focused on the right-most man. His head was turned slightly, so I couldn’t see his face entirely, but there was no mistaking the eyes and chin. Keish, it’s my father! Aegolius has a picture of my father! I’m not mistaken. I’ve looked at the reflection from every angle. He’s wearing the old chain-mail shirt that Mother made him. I can see the place where she bent a piece of thin copper into a bird-shaped talisman woven into the chain mail over his heart, and he’s wearing my wood beads around his neck. I made those beads six months before he was killed in battle. I said a spell over them to protect him from danger. The other men in the picture I’ve never seen before, but they don’t look like soldiers. They’re wearing traveler’s clothes. In the background there’s a mountain and a rock formation that looks a lot like a swan with a long curved neck.

For a long time I just sat in the window with the picture. I cried a little, but it felt wonderful to see him again, even if it was just a little piece of silver coated copper. I determined to ask Aegolius where he made the picture and when. Just as I stood up, however, a loud explosion in the basement rocked the entire house. Dropping the reflection, I dashed downstairs into the basement. Plumes of yellow smoke billowed out from under the lab door. I pulled on the handle, but it was still locked. Inside, I heard Liop scream. I screamed for help, but no one answered. After pulling on the door with all my might, and to no avail, my head cleared enough to realize there was an ax in the garden shed. I tore back up the stairs and outside to the shed. Finding the ax, I rushed back downstairs where I flung it heavily into the door. After several whacks, the door finally broke open. Yellow smoke filled my lungs, making me cough. I saw Aegolius flat on his back at one side of the room and Liop huddled up in the far corner flailing a short dagger wildly into the face of a large creature made entirely of yellow smoke. Every time the blade moved through the smoke, the monster became a little disoriented, but then it drew closer to him. I shouted, trying attract its attention, but it ignored me. Liop, pale and shaking, coughed more yellow smoke. He was choking to death. I threw an empty beaker at it, and it passed through the monster’s belly, slowing the creature down briefly while the displaced smoke reformed itself, but not stopping it. Panicked, I looked for a better weapon, but what could I do against smoke? My lungs filled with the smoke and I started coughing. I backed into the chemical shelves. Randomly, I grabbed a bottle of red liquid and threw it at the creature. The bottle shattered against the back wall spraying the room with drops. The creature hardly noticed, so I threw a jar of white powder at it. The jar burst against the ground, filling the room with a substance like flour. I couldn’t see anything. I reached for something else to throw, but stopped when I felt Liop’s arms around me. I grabbed him and pulled him out of the room.

"Aegolius," shouted Liop, still coughing. I went back in, grabbed the old man by the arm and dragged him out of the room. Then I slammed the broken door shut. I don’t know why I thought that would help. It fell down in pieces a minute later. Liop helped me carry Aegolius outside. For several minutes Liop and I sat on the bottom step of the back porch holding onto each other, shaking, coughing, and watching the house for signs of the monster, but except for a little smoke, we didn’t see anything.

"The flour killed it, probably," said Liop, quivering, "It got all contaminated. Flour’s good for expunging things; that’s why Uncle W. keeps it down there, but I couldn’t get to it. I couldn’t breath!" He shuddered.

"I killed a monster with ordinary flour?" I demanded.

"Yes," said Liop. I don’t know why, but I felt disappointed.

Aegolius was unconscious from hitting his head so hard when the explosion happened. I thought we should put him in bed, but I was too scared to go inside.

"What were you trying to do?" I asked Liop.

"We were trying to make an oracle – to find out where Uncle W. is. I started it a long time ago, but I didn’t know how to finish. Then Aegolius had this book, and he said he’d help me, but something went wrong. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. It was a surprise, and I thought maybe you wouldn’t let me."

He’s right. I wouldn’t have let him.

We spent the next couple of hours debating whether it was safe to go back into the house. When I finally ventured back in, it was horrible – yellow dust coated everything on all three floors. The basement was the worst. There was nearly half an inch in some places. The upstairs floor only had a slight dusting. Fortunately Uncle W.’s and Imato’s rooms had their heavy doors shut. We carried Aegolius into the guest room, shook the yellow dust from the bed, and then put him in it. He moaned a little, and I sent Liop for a doctor. In the meanwhile I started cleaning up all the dust, and trying to decide what to tell Imato when he came home. It didn’t seem right, after all the effort we went through the night before getting Imato to let Aegolius stay, to tell Imato that he and Liop almost blew up the house.

Liop joined me cleaning as soon as he could, while the doctor tended to Aegolius. We were terrified that Imato would come home and catch us, so we worked pretty fast, getting the most obvious places first. We concocted a plan about Aegolius being allergic to turnips and accidentally eating some (not knowing he was allergic, because there aren’t any in his country). The doctor said a few days of bed rest should be good, and gave us a jelly-like substance to rub under his nose twice a day, so that he can breath in the fumes. Next we pushed all of the pieces of the lab door inside the lab and took all the candles from the staircase to keep it dark, so you couldn’t see that the door was missing. Fortunately Imato never goes into the basement anyway. Please don’t tell Imato what really happened – I don’t want him to worry anymore.

When Imato came home in the evening, we told him briefly about Aegolius’ illness and then we pestered him with questions about Gretel until his face became very red and he forgot to question us very closely about the illness. Have you ever seen Imato embarrassed? It’s really hard to do, but well worth the effort. He gets all tongue-tied and says things backwards.

Imato told us that two days after he met Gretel, he ran into her on the street. She was wearing one of the peasant disguises that you told me about, and he didn’t recognize her at first. When he did though, he thought he’d play a joke. He took a couple of coins out of his pocket and approached her. She wouldn’t look at him directly, because she didn’t want to be recognized. Imato held out the coins and offered them to her like she was a beggar woman. She refused. Then Imato accused her in a loud voice of being too arrogant to accept handout from a well-meaning knight-in-training. Her partially concealed face went very red and she looked confused. Imato asked her if he could purchase one of her handkerchiefs to wear during his next jousting tournament. Then she knew he recognized her. Imato says she was really mad at first and then she laughed and sold him the handkerchief for the coins. Then she gave the coins to a peasant girl selling flowers on the street corner. I think Imato was really impressed.

I’m glad that letting the hart eat the clover blossoms off my head was a good omen. Sometimes I watch for him at night, but so far I’ve only seen the rabbits.

I need to end this letter now. Liop wants me to read him a story. Good luck with choosing a new kitten to enchant. Red and orange flaming cats sound beautiful!

Sending love to you and your father,