Sixteen Feet of Steel Chapter 7

Chapter 7

*Before…

“Then Chrissy please.”
“Alright then but a shame.”
“A Shame?”
“I like Christiana; it’s not a name I have heard before.”
He’s smiling and I’m blushing…I’ve never had this kind of close attention like this before…never like this…ever.
I swallow hard and get the book from our wheelbarrow.
“Here are my notes.”
My blush fades as he takes the book suddenly serious and starts reading while pacing and walking the saddle off.
He finishes and looks at me. “This is very good; it’ll save us a lot of time since you’ve organized things so well.”
I blush again but it’s that…It’s that getting recognition blush when you’ve never been getting it…as the youngest son; a lot of my tasks were things needed doing. Nothing this big, not often.
And that Sir Alaan looks serious and that he’s not being charming or flattering means a lot.
But Scarlet Fever….I look at the village.
He says it before me. “We’re just getting started with this.”

*And Now…

The words do leave me feeling…ill but not sick just that stomach dropping feeling.

I was thinking influenza, hoping it was something that could be fought but Scarlet Fever…I’m no healer by far but a lot of people have heard of such a thing and it is a killer and it’s a maimer.

People that get better from this if they don’t die don’t come out the same unless there’s something else involved…I heard that there was outbreaks in Valhalla.

That’s “The” Capital city of all cities here, well in the Middle Kingdoms and The Eastlands. It means heaven or something in some archaic language or something but it is home to High King Boen and the home to the might of the Middle kingdoms.

They’ve faced such things and have come through well from stories. But they have a lot that other places do not, including magisters and sorceresses.

We so do not have the luxury of those things here.

I walk with him as he’s reading and re-reading my notes and suddenly I feel like I’m being schooled again and we get to where we are camped and he looks around and he nods to Megan.

“Here will do, let’s keep all hands in easy reach.”

“Aye sir, what’s the first order?”

“Set up the alchemy tent first and the Wisdom and I will take a look at the patients in the flesh.”

Megan nods and she unharnesses the mules from the wagon that they have and Nicole takes them and leads them off to get stabled along with Sir Alaan’s horse it’s strange to see and not.

Both are Squires and I’d not have expected any less but both are women and that’s totally still new to me.

We head inside the main hall and he’s looking around and smelling.

He goes over and sticks his head over some of the pots and smells and reaches for a spoon from no one like old Tedric would when he needed something and I quickly place a spoon in his hand and he’s tasting everything including my fir-potion.

I shudder as he actually is swishing in in his mouth like he’s tasting a wine.

“Very decent, you’re first attempt?”

“Yes Sir Alaan, before all my other times was helping and mostly just stirring.”

“If there was one potion that I’d insist on someone learning it’s be this one.”

“And the second?”

“Infusion of poppy, but your willow bark tea is a very close third.”

“I wouldn’t dare the poppy even if I have it. Too strong and it can kill.”

“So can most medicines but I’ll show you what to do.”

“You will?”

“We may be here awhile Wisdom, and there will be times that it would be wise for you to know these things as well. Plus it’s not likely that you’d ever forget what was taught.”

“You know?”

He nods. “Your moth…your predecessor had an infallible memory as well as other gifts.”

“We will have to talk about them Sir, I and very keen to know more of things that she could do.”

“She didn’t raise you?”

“Nowhere near as much as she’d have liked Sir Alaan, she was a very busy and travelled woman.”

He actually has this bit of a pause and an emotional swallow?

“That she was…”

“But what she has taught me I paid close attention to.”

I’m saying that because there’s others nearby that can hear me and it might not go down too well that if they had thought that I’m as green as I am in all of this.

Sir Alaan nods and there’s a look there between us that he knows what I was saying without saying it.

We go from there into the main part of the hall and we go around and he’s doing things like checking on them like I was but looking at their tongue? No…

“Wisdom, see here the glands on the inside of the throat…the swelling and the color, not very good is it?”

“No, no it’s not.”

He’s showing me by asking my opinion on things, colors and smells and what some of those smells mean and other things. I’m actually paying close attention and he’s being very good about all of this too.

I’m well aware that he could make himself look grander by shaming me and that he could shame me for being a woman as well.

The gods know that home, well maybe not home per-say but back in The Middle Kingdoms that would be common enough.

We’re at that awhile and we even do some washing and some more dosing of a few that he thinks could use some more potion for now or willow bark tea.

Then we’re into the laundry room that we’ve set up and he’s checking things there and he looks at me with an approving smile.

“You’re washing everything and keeping things as clean as they can get with what we have.”

“It was just common sense Sir Alaan.”

“I’ve told you before just Alaan.”

“Sorry, I’m still in the habit.”

“You were a nun?”

“……………….” Oh…oh okay now I got that…. “No sir, and you owe me a copper.”

“A copper?” He looks surprised and slightly amused. There’s a smile that’s different than the other ones and it’s.

Lords of Light I have no idea…actually I do and that though is mind-spinning.

Nevertheless. “Yes, I charge a tax on bad puns sir and that was a bad pun.”

He actually blushes which is…

I’m not used to having someone at my advantage.

And this advantage would not have even happened if I was male.

So very scary and odd.

“I best watch my words or you’ll have me in the poor house.”

“You can earn those coppers back with foot rubs.”

“Done!”

I…

Oh my…what did I just get myself into?

And he’s pointing at one of the benches. “Please sit.”

I tuck my skirt and sit and then suddenly he’s kneeling and he takes my foot.

I’m covering my face with my hand and he’s slipping off my boot and then my sock.

The women there washing are watching intently…very intently.

Gods I’ll…we’ll be gossip for months.

Alaan actually dusts off my foot. “Sand?”

“I went swimming this morning.”

“Swimming, that’s a middling rare skill.”

“We had a reservoir.”

“Ah well that explains a lot.”

He takes my foot in both of his hands and he’s rubbing them but he’s massaging and pushing between bones and joints with his fingers and into the muscles and it feels so good. I mean he’s getting rid of pain and soreness that I just sort of didn’t know was there.

It’s like he’s taking out the last while on foot and all the stuff that I’ve done out and away from me and I’m leaning back.

“Oh…”

“Oh?”

“Oh blessed light this is nice.”

The women giggle and I’m blushing. “Sorry it’s my first foot rub thingy Alaan.”

“So I gather, there’s a lot of things that I’ve been learning about feet actually.”

“Oh…uhm…Dear gods why?”

“Healing is an art and a science and I’ve been trying to decipher an ancient text about this thing called reflexology.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s ancient Chaikanese.”

I’m sort of sitting up now. “The Silk Islanders?”

He nods. “I’ve never met any but Lady Tatiana has and she has the most amazing library.”

“So how do you read it?”

“With several codex books to decipher it and great difficulty.”

“Well…this is amazing…” And I’m blushing again.

“It’s fascinating actually talks about nerves but how they relate to things.”

“More for me to learn?”

He looks at me. “You could likely master it with your majik.”

“I could?”

“With your memory skills if you’re able to remember all the characters and what they mean you could master any language.” The way that he said it though…he was going to mention my “Mother.”

And he’s not the only one that’s seen the semblance between the two of us.

We look at each other for a moment and there’s kindness there.

I’m feeling it too.

I’m…well.

I’ve always been able to admit…at least to myself, before this that some men are handsome. It’s sort of something you need to know in noble circles. There’s a lot of vain people out there.

So handsome like this…in this body, kneeling and rubbing my feet and being nice…

I’m starting to feel my body…like it’s been doing when I’ve been seeing other women.

I slowly take a breath and pull my feet from his hands. “Thank you Alaan, that was…interesting.”

“For both of us Chrissy.”

I blush some then cough. “We have patients.”

He nods. “That we do. Come and I’ll introduce you to my Alchemy tent.”

He says that but he puts my socks back on and my boots making me blush and use my hand to cover my blushing face again while the women washing clothes are laughing at me.

“You’re a bad man Alaan. You’re doing this on purpose.”

He offers his hand. “Maybe.” He’s smiling.

Just what was my mother to him?

We head outside to where Nicole and Megan are setting things up and there’s this strange looking frame. It’s like a house with four walls and a peaked roof even with the heavy canvas being run though the metal pipe frame like curtains on a rod and there’s snaps for the rest.

“This is interesting, Dwarven?”

“No, we learned this from some of the Southlanders.”

I nod. “Their traders do have elaborate tents but I’ve never seen one being constructed.”

“Well they’re tents are more than tents they’re like homes down there sometimes and they denote class and rank and wealth and many things.”

“You’ve seen a lot of them?”

“I was in the Southern realm of Laifa for a year studying.”

“Studying?”

“Consumption…there is a temple hospice there that does amazing work and taking advantage of the dry desert air. Plus there were swords and horses to learn about.”

“Studying southern sword?”

“Best way to fight something is to learn about it.”

“In war and sickness.”

He nods. “I’m still fighting for lives.”

We actually help them and there’s more metal bars that have built in clamps that we clamp in place and tighten and at first I’m a little lost until I see it comes with shelves that have half circle bits that fit to the bars and then we hold them in place with more pipes to the sides and front and tension keeping them in place.

Then there’s the floor and then there’s put together tables and these really stunning machines…spinning things called centrifuges and a magnifier with these glass boxes of lenses to insert in with things he calls slides and there’s a veritable fortune in glasswares that take my breath away and that’s not all just the hard stuff then there’s chests and chests of things in vials and jars all snuggly secured in custom cut for each container layers of cork.

I take a breath and sit in the folding chair as Megan’s getting tea on for us all and I stare at everything.

“This is all amazing; there’s so much it must have cost a fortune.”

He nods. “It did, thankfully the order is well funded.”

“Order which one?”

“I’m a member of the Order of the Dove.”

“Dove? I’ve never heard of it.” No one home would make such an order with such a poetically unmanly animal.

He nods. “It’s local, well Westlands based and we’re small but we have good banking.”

“If there’s money to be made I’m surprised more knights haven’t joined.”

“You have to really want this.”

I look at this…there’s no silks or fancy things this is all for medicine, for healing and the only way that you’d be part of this wouldn’t be for the money.

The tea smells amazing it’s that rare black and orange tea that mother coveted and that we had at every breakfast together on Godsday before temple.

Megan sets out the tea service and it’s lovely things.

“These are dwarven.” Alaan says.

“They’re enchanting.” I take my cup and add some milk and a lump of sugar and stir in everything really evenly.

We all do the same and sip…and there’s that collective sigh. It’s a very good thing this tea. “The cup’s heavier than I thought.”

“It’s metal, enamel ware with a fired glass finish. It’s really durable for travel and fine enough for company.”

“Company’s important?”

Alaan nods looking surprised. “I’ve done as much good with a tea set as with my sword.”

Nicole nods. “In the Southlands if you don’t offer hospitality it’s considered offensive.”

Alaan nods again. “It’s the same with a lot of cultures, though there’s a complete thing with coffee and tea and things you serve for what down in the Southlands.”

“I’m not that well-traveled yet I’m afraid.”

“Well I wasn’t either but that changed.”

“Changed?”

“Plague, The green plague came to my town. Those that lived watched everything we had burn when the Lord Dempsey put the town to the torch.”

I nod, I can see that, fire was and often is the weapon of choice for that back then…still likely in many places.

“Dempsey… Byron Dempsey?” I’ve heard the name before.

He nods.

“Father said that he caused the plague.”

Alaan tilts his head.

I accept another cuppa from Megan as I continue. “We heard, most have heard of Dempsey’s folly.”

“Folly?”

“Bad plumbing, bad lordship of things that should have made sense, the water was fouled and he rode the people till things broke.”

Alaan looks at me. “My family came here with Lady Tatiana when her caravan was returning from the south. I never heard much of the court gossip back there.”

“It wasn’t so much even gossip as my father and some of his friends talking about what went wrong.”

“Do you know what happened there since?”

“Lord Dempsey sold all his lands to who I don’t know but he’s a city lord now in Valhalla.”

There’s a look of frustration on Alaan’s face.

I try and remember and conversations come back between my father and some of his circle of nobles and lords and such he’d go hunting with. The lodge was a small old keep actually from way back a big square thing four stories high with a windmill for the water and a barracks and a few other things.

I remember the nights we’d be there eating what was hunted and there was lots of drinking even me so young had many cups there. My first spirits there poured by those men, my first horrible bout with ale. I don’t mind ale but I had my first sick lesson there…that comes flooding back too in my searching through my memories.

Ah…Yes Lord Dempsey…They were talking about him not making proper septics…on not paying the coppers to the masons to build it proper and then there was the way he was with his folk…taxes on taxes on taxes with him in the western foothills he had mines and mines and those that needed work…got the mines, those that couldn’t pay taxes went to his mines.

Skimped on everything but himself… Married and remarried…hung a wife for “infidelity” my father was a fair man so something was amiss when he’d refer to someone as that stupid bastard with consistency.

I look at Alaan. “Was your family in mining?”

He nods. “We were nobles…well father a knight and we had a small claim to a seam of coal in our lands. Not that I was there much. We lived in Greylocke Township like most people until things got worse and worse. Then we like the other survivors had nowhere else to live and were forced from the lands because we were plague tainted.”

He finishes his tea. “Diseases, plagues, the causes of them and injury see far too many homeless and worse it’s why I became a surgeon.”

“Not a knight?” There’s just a way he said that.

“That came later, turns out a healer needs to defend himself and others.”

Megan nods. “True that, it’s what appened wit my family.”

I finish my tea and help her with the things until waved off. “What happened?” I ask.

“We had a bout of influenza an w’were too ill t’do much defendin so we lost most of our livelihood and stuff from raiders.”

“Raiders, not afraid of the sickness?”

“Y’don’t get too exposed stealing sheep an cattle and such or cutting grain by night or stealing crops.”

I shake my head. “I’m sorry.”

“Doan be, we lived, it t’was hard going until Sir Alaan showed up with some others and they made us hale ‘n whole and stayed t’help with thing we didn’ta have.”

I look at Nicole who nods. “Exactly why we do what we’ve been doing too. All that goodwill we’ve been doing it means a lot when it comes to those in need when we come asking for help or donations.”

I smile and nod again. “I am getting that more and more, and I really want to meet this Lady Tatiana.”

There’s smiles al around and they’re that sort of cheerful that reminds me that I should be careful of what I wish for.

We take a few minutes to get organized and then we’re back to doing rounds and it’s actually been hours since and we’re doing more things like taking slides from the sputum, blood, the rashes. I’ve never done slides before and it’s an experience doing that and using the tools and the glass and all of that while washing and dosing them with my potion and getting soup into them.

Two of the children get sick on me…so bathe fast twice and change clothes and then back to it. One of the men was having fever dreams and we had to hold him down while he was screaming about flames and damned goblins and it was really hard work to hold down a sweaty slippery man that was in a battle with ghosts.

Nicole was there pretty fast but it was quite a ride trying to keep him from acting out and hurting himself or others. I was tossed around and so was Megan and Alaan was struck in the face when an arm got loose. We learned too to get the restraints out, broad leather belts too wide to dig in.

I never knew just how exhausted you can get doing this sort of thing and then there was the poppy we doused him with and making sure he was going to be down for the night.

And then we’re heating water…or I am, more laundry…Nicole goddesses bless her with all that battleknighter squire muscle did so much laundry that she was wet half the day.

I think I boiled twenty two or twenty tree tubs of water today.

It’s nearly dark by the time we stop and Megan and the ladies had done cooking.

Scalloped potatoes, scalloped turnips both a sliced root vet thing baked in milk and butter. More fried fish, and the ever present wild greens. We’re using milk that’s not being used because people are sick and the cows need milking still. Megan’s skilled enough to make butter which I know little about but Alaan and her are talking of making Yogre?

“Yogre?”

Alaan covers his mouth and choke laughs. “No yogurt….with a t.”

“Oh…well what is yogurt?”

“It’s a sort of liquidy milk cheese food that is eaten a lot in the south.”

Nicole. “It’s a lot like the milk version or soured cream. It’s good.”

“I’ll take your word on that.”

They laugh but I’m a little iffy but it quickly becomes a thing once Alaan breaks out his own and we all have a taste. It’s like milk or cream but not and he served it with honey and it was good.

Apparently it’s a potent food made very cheaply.

And for a starter, the stuff needed to make it here he has some he keeps from the south apparently and it’s a child of a batch said to be fifty years old brought north from traders?

That I get; there are some very old dough starters that I learned of doing counts for the kitchens back home.

The rest of the evening is using the milk for yogurt and setting the right area up for them and the women here are doing their own cheese making with them showing off their cottage cheeses and Nicole even makes another cheese called Rykota that is like cheese if cheese was butter and is sweet even and my favorite.

It’s time to go to sleep again and Alaan and Megan are taking shifts with seeing to the patients and Nicole is staying up with Megan to catch up with things and really talk since they’ve known each other as pages.

Me…I do go to the tent after a fourth bath of the day to keep clean from the fever’s essence and I’m more than grateful for the softness and the sleep.

……………….. I dream but it’s more like a nightmare…Home but sickness is there and The Gorgon comes to put us down again and not just the keep was struck but like in Alaan’s tale everything is burning…villages, the township, the fields.

I see it all on fire as I’m in the sphere heading away from it all.

Then flashing back to seeing father…and the huge blade coming down…the explosion of blood.

So much power and force there was an explosion of blood.

I wake panting and hurting inside and I can’t hold it in and I curl around my pillow and cry myself to sleep.

……………….. The rest of my sleeping is quiet yet I still end up dreaming of that sky and the huge sphere of lightning. The part of her power of my power inside of me. I think I just sort of stared into it, into myself?

It really feels bad waking up feeling unsatisfied, with no more answers than what you had.

Nicole’s sleeping or was until I moved and she woke with her had close to her blade again. She looks at me. “You’re awake again.”

I nod fingering hair from my face. “Yes…sleep’s not coming that easy.”

She nods and opens her blanket. “My armor’s not too comfortable but you’re welcome for a snuggle.”

I look at her oddly.

She blushes. “Sorry Chris I forgot, you just sort of blend.”

I nod but then pull my legs up and wrap my arms around them which just makes me feel the changes even more. “I haven’t…I’m so not the same.”

“Well that’s obvious.”

I look over. “I still like women.”

She rolls more onto her side. “So? Jessa’s a sapphire there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Nothing the thought of it, of women is as enticing s ever but it makes me feel other things than I’ve ever known.” I look at her. “It’s also I think this body likes men.”

“Your body?”

“Well I’ve never had these thoughts before this and then there’s Alaan.”

“He is rather yummy.”

I look at her. “I’m not sure…”

“Well for my tastes he certainly is, though he seems to like you.”

“Me?”

“I’d daresay your mother…uhm…the sorceress bedded him.”

“Oh…well…uhm.. she did have a reputation.”

Nicole nods. “She had many lovers from what I know.”

“Do you think I inherited that?”

“Maybe…but your body is a young woman’s and usually that responds to certain things but you’ve your own mind Chris so you’ve been attracted to women all of your life too.”

“What do I do?”

“I have no idea, but you want to be careful with men until you can get moon silvered.”

“Moon Silvered?”

“It’s a potion, from the dwarves and it keeps a woman from getting with child.”

“Oh…I could not handle being a mother.”

“Nor I which is why I’ve had mine.”

“You’re not a virgin?”

“Heavens no, I like sex, and I like being free.”

“Free?”

“Children tie one down, I’m not ready for that, I’m not even a knight yet.”

I’m nodding and for once I’m really paying attention. I mean women talk of children and it’s different than when men do and for me it’s a lot…it’s exactly like Nicole.

Children are a possible consequence of being female, having them is something that irrevocably changes you. There’s so much to having them even to being pregnant that hinders women compared to men.

And as far as I know and can tell that is the state that I’m in.

I look at Nicole. “So…”

“So…?”

“What’s sex like?”

She actually moves and sits up and she looks at me. “Sex…well it’s actually been a mixed thing for me…there are some men that will be inside you and they’ll just rut with you…or more like rut you it’s all about them getting off. They’re the worst ones and I really try to not land one of them.”

“Eeew…sounds…it sounds like just being used for a hole.”

“It’s all some men want, you can usually tell though most of the men like that tend to see women as not too much anyways or think far, far too much of themselves.”

I’m nodding and there’s a smile. “I know some of those, there’s this list now compliling in my head of people that I know.”

She tilts her head. “Now you see have an advantage.”

“Advantage?”

“You were a man, you know how they think.”

“And…that’s an advantage?”

“Well yes, I mean guys are so alien to us you know.”

I nod. “Well to be honest women are a complete mystery to us as well or they sort of were.”

“Were?”

“Let’s just say that I’m getting to see a bit more of the perspective.”

“And that is?”

“Well people are people but I’m seeing a whole other side of strengths and vulnerabilities. Though to be honest the whole rest of it is a mystery still.”

“The rest of it?”

“The effeminate things the being pretty and all that side of things I am scared of it all.”

“Good, welcome to being a girl.”

“How…? What?”

“We’re just as mystified by it sometimes too. Some of us strive for it in a way to be and some of us cling to those things as our only means of empowerment but others like me…I’d look like a clown if I tried to put on face.”

I look at her. “I never really thought about that.”

“Men don’t but there’s a lot of women that don’t fit the idea of women or of their stations as women.”

I nod. “It’s the same for men I think too I mean I sort of never thought a lot about it other than knowing I was the third son and that I would not be like my brothers.”

She nods and she looks at me a little.

“It’s not all bad.”

“What?”

“Sex with men.”

“Oh…” I’m blushing again.

“There’s something to be said when it’s right, when he’s strong and he’s considerate and he can keep going past when you have your bliss moment.”

“What’s that like?”

“Honestly it’s amazing but at the same time it’s different for most people…for me it’s like there’s this build up inside until it feels so good that it almost hurts like this powerful sweet tension and then when I find my bliss it breaks like a dam giving way and the rush of feelings goes from my core to my brain in moments and then comes rushing out well you know from whence.”

Gods and goddesses the way she’s talking about that and the ways that her eyes shine I’m still with no idea what exactly she’s talking about but I’m getting aroused…that warm sort of ache and that feeling in my nethers and the powerful little good ache starting in my breasts.

“Wow…it’s sort of the same for men but it’s…kind of explosive…fast…leaves you breathless for a few seconds.”

She raises an eyebrow.

I hold up and hand and move it suggestively.

We both end up laughing.

I giggle a little and my laugh is really sort of higher pitched than I thought…?

My face must have had this expression on it because Nicole bursts out laughing again and then she does thing hand gesture with her two middle fingers and it takes me a few moments before I get what she’s doing and I…I never… “Women do that!?”

Which makes her howl with laughter and I’m laughing and I’m blushing and then…well of course I’m looking at my own hand and I’m trying to do the same gesture to figure it out which makes her fall over on her side and she’s laughing so hard she has tears. And then I get firsthand knowledge excusing the pun with about hands but…I’m getting why women so often excuse themselves while being merry.

Which hits us both but we’re chuckling about it at the jakes and when we come back Alaan is looking at us his head peering out of his tent which makes us laugh.

I mean there’s no real reason to laugh but he was sort of the topic that led to this current topic and he gets this look on his face while watching us that I know really well.

It looks a lot different and much stranger on this side of that.

It’s the ‘Are they talking about me?’ look.

We actually head back to the tent and Nicole looks at me. “You’ll figure this all out Chrissy.”

I sigh. “I really hope so, it’s…there’s just so much that I don’t know and I think that I need to every time that I turn this around and around in my head.”

She hugs me and I lean into it and it’s not like sexual, it’s two friends only in my old world men didn’t’t do that, not unless you were like brothers or as close as it comes. It’s nice to have it be okay to hugs and just be able to lean on someone.

Nicer than I thought it could be.

Nicole looks at me after it. “Why don’t you come down and like I said snuggle with me, maybe the company will help you get some sleep.”

I’m not really tired like last time and feel good body wise but honestly I want the comfort. I’m not sure if it’s a womanhood thing catching up my mind or my feeling to my body but I want this.

I nod. “Okay that sounds good.”

We settle into the bed rolls and the blankets and Nicole actually has my back up against her and she’s definitely pretty solid with her things on and her muscles and everything and she slips an arm around me and I close my eyes and try to sleep.

I’ll be honest it does help…it doesn’t’t really make me sleep but I do close my eyes and just lay there feeling her weight against me and her breathing.

It’s very restful and I do sort of drift out of it for an hour or so.

I slowly and carefully get up trying again not to wake Nicole but it’s no good, she’s looking at me but not saying anything and I kiss her cheek and slip out into the morning.

This time I take a towel with me and fresh clothes then I get a large basket from the dock and again I strip down to my underpants. I head out again to the watch post raft that’s still unmanned because there’s just no one to watch it and I set the basket up on the raft and I start to do my morning swimming.

It’s cold out and it’s got that misty fog coming off the water again and it’s just me and the odd bird or two waking up to the day and I do my laps back and forth. I think that I’ll do this for as long as we’re here.

Goddesses and gods it really helps so much.

Honestly it’s just this really nice mixture of the cold and the exercise and once my arms are tired I retire to the raft and I rest for a while. I stay in the water since it’s right now water than the air is and I’m joined by my two sleek and cute companions.

One moment I’m alone and the next minute they’re a few feet away bobbing in the water and they’re looking at me.

Actually they’re looking at me expectantly.

I smile. “Very well then Mistress and Master Otter shall I go and fetch your breakfasts then?”

One of them sneezes and the other one is doing that whisker smile.

I make my way down again the same way as before and they follow me and there’s a bit of that playfulness as the zoom through the water around me and then they zip off again.

I do my light trick and I wait until it attracts the attention of the fish.

I take some time to let them get close and there’s a lot of fish here, some are very large and I watch some of them sort of circling me and it could be sort of scary but it’s oddly not.

Okay…I find some good sized fish rainbow trout I think and I unleash another bolt of lightning.

Oh…

Okay…the fact that it blooms out like an energy version of a dandelion puff is sort of amazing.

And it’s kind of sort of worth it.

I mean having this….power.

But there’s this something here…something that stirs when I take it all in that sort of makes a strange sort of sense, sort of wonder.

I break the surface gasping for air and blowing water out of my face and tread water over to the raft before hanging onto it and then getting the basket.

I’m glad that I got the bigger one and I fill it with fish and I burst out laughing when the otters are coming to me playing fetch the fish. They bring them right to my hand just like a dog and I think that they’re just as smart I think.

They follow me all the way to the shore as well.

I stop and look at them. “Very well thank you for your help Master and Mistress and might I suggest the trout or maybe the bass.” I offer each to them like a wine bottle that the table master would do home.

They take both. I laugh. “Lushes the pair of you.”

I get the basket and I head to my clothes and again there’s the very early few risers looking my way and I smile at them and blush and then get to my towel and my clothes.

And Alaan’s awake too and though he’s further off he’s staring and watching me.

I set down the fish basket and turn my back and start getting dried off then dressed and I look over my shoulder a few times…and I’m still getting dressed and there’s still eyes on me.

Still his.

And I’m not sure how to feel about this?

I’m not aroused, but I’m very, very aware of being a woman now…the differences…being seen but so blatantly seen.

I don’t know what this is…but…

I am so being watched as I swap out my panties once I have my skirt back on.

Yes, oh yes I’m blushing pretty hard but I…I have to own this right? I’m the daughter of the sorceress right?

She was…I mean there were rumors right?

Father and her…and Alaan and her?

I pick up the basket and I head over to the hall and there’s some talking and whispers from the people that were watching and I hear.

“Talks t’the animals.”

“Charmed the fish.”

“Magic swimming in that cold.”

“Heard her laugh comin over the water this mornin.”

“See her offer up the fish…that’s respect for the animals I tell ye.”

It all sort of drifts off as I get further away and I see Alaan looking at me.

He’s closer now and he’s doing that head tilt thing and I bite my lips and then smile.

“Good morning.” I say and I’m aiming for pleasant.

“I…uhm…yes…you look chilled.” He looks…he looks like he’s aroused and uncomfortably so. And he’s standing behind the door to his tent partway…but like Nicole said I know the distractedness he’s having.

“Pleasantly so actually it makes the kitchens enjoyable.”

“I…I bow to your experience. Would you like some tea?”

“I would like some tea and so would the other ladies too I think.”

Yes I’m getting him to brew some of that good tea for me and all of the ladies.

He blushes. “Of course I should have offered it before this.”

“Likely so but if you maybe bring it along as well as some other things that may do us all well in the kitchen we can have a nice and maybe moral lifting breakfast togethers.”

He smiles. “I will morale is important. Thank you for your foresight Chrissy it seems like another of your gifts.”

“You’re welcome and if you’d excuse me I have some fish to clean and get ready.”

He does a little bow sort of nod and I head inside a bit of a smile going. It’s so strange the way that things just have been going between him and me. Before it would have been me a lot quieter and self-conscious because of his rank but this strange thing with me being like this?

Maybe it’s me or maybe it’s him reacting to me or both or the three things when you add in my powers but he seems sort of charmingly off balance and that’s sort of a lot easier to take.

Admittedly I’m curious too…I’m young, this body is young I’m a young woman of marriable age and that is making itself know sometimes to myself.

And then there’s the fact that he’s from here and people from here seem a lot less…bound by the same rules of men and women home so that I think is helping things too with me.

I don’t know what I’d do if I was like this and still back home.

Well I’d likely be hunted down and killed by now but there’s also the way that women get treated too. We might not be the southlands like Jessa has told me of but there are plenty of places that are not Lyonnes.

The ladies are glad to see me and there’s some fussing over my catch and soon we’re scaling and cleaning and doing things with the fish and some of the fish parts and I take time to make more Willow bark tea and more of my fir/sap and balsam potion and Jessa has made another delivery of essentials for us and hunting and there’s other things too.

Megan’s there doing her nursing duties and keeping records and she’s been their ward all night I think and we help each other with the heavy lifting and such and washing down some of the fevered ones and getting them dosed with the medicines and some with liqueur of poppy and it’s a good hours work non-stop before we’re done and then we’re washing up in hot as we can stand soap and water after a vinegar cloth wipe down.

I take a few minutes to get all the water that the men have brought us to the boil and get the washing tubs for the cloths and clothes literally boiling so they can stew clean while we are eating.

Alaan is there freshly cleaned up himself and I can smell his tea being brewed and such and other things being made and cooked and I help out as much as I can without being in the way at this point.

We make room at the tables and we take time to make good with our hairs and we invite people that are up sending word as things are cooking and we set up the spaces we do have with a nice blanket that passes for a table linen and we start to feed people.

It’s still sort of rationed but not… there are preserves out and there is bread with flours from our store that Nicole and I had on our wagons and some of what they had here and some of what was in Alaan’s stores and the ladies make loaves and they’re fresh and good…then there’s the fish…I filled the larder again so to speak with those and some are fried and some are set aside to be baked later in the day and there’s pork fat for frying and buttering the breads and then some real butter too and lots of farmer’s cheese and cottage cheese and greens…this time of year there are always greens I’m finding but we have a few other things too but we have it all with the fine tea and the sugar that Alaan brought and we feed all that come to our tables and I send runners for some of the homestuck to see if we can bring them something.

I’m having my tea and building a basket for those that are getting things delivered and Alaan looks at me as he’s reading the notes from last night and we eat as we’re doing other things.

I’m getting more partial to bread with white farmers cheese only and a dollop of greens with some vinegar….or a slice of sour apple as Alaan has it. I eat a fried fish steak or two as I’m doing it and then I’m ready and Alaan gets his healers kit and… “I’ll come with you; I need to see them too.”

I nod. “I’m still getting to know some of them but it’s a good idea to make the rounds.”

……………….. It’s a good set of rounds. The people are happy to see me and they’re very much the same way as they were yesterday with Nicole but with Sir Alaan as well and he’s doctoring to them as we’re there checking on their fever and checking with the family members too.

There is still that thing with the men and I talk to the women folk about the breakfast and the food and I make tea myself for them and set out little plates of the food that I brought and serve and such to them.

A few cases Alaan is treating more than a few maladies at each visit and such and he’s even mixed a few medicines and unguents right there for them to use and even applied a few things…if it hurts and he can get them to tell him of them then he’s doing what he can or taking note of what he needs to make and bring to them tomorrow.

I’m helping too…taking notes or measuring out what he needs as he’s mixing with like the next ingredient since I can read the markings on the glasswares and I’m learning, I’m smelling and watching and tasting when he offers.

Breakfast took us close to two bells before lunch to do with the visits and I head to the ladders and watch things outside for a while with the people that came to help camped nearby but not too nearby and I can see the fields getting tended to and the gardens and the bairns.

Taylor comes over washing his hands with a cloth getting blood off of them and I can see that there’s some smoking and drying things set up in the camp.

“Morning Chrissy how’s things inside.”

“Still fairly bad, right now I think we just got here enough that people are fighting a holding action with this.”

He shakes his head. “Sir Alaan hasn’t fixed things up yet?”

“It’s not as easy as that.”

“Never is, but he has a good reputation.”

“He’s a good man, kind, generous.”

He tilts his head and looks at me. “Christiana are you telling me that you’re feeling something for this fella?”

“Yes, I might be but it’s not going to go anywhere like that Taylor but I’ve never had my Moon Silver yet so that’s not something that I’m going to be chancing.”

“I could fetch you some it’s fair likely that Jessa has some in her bags.”

“No!...I’m not ready for that either!”

“Just funning, just funning be careful Chrissy you and Nicole both.” He looks very serious too and he looks concerned.

“Are you concerned for us?” I’m sort of teasing.

“Aye! Damned straight I am you two behind those walls with that scarlet fever running amok and me here just playing cook’s monkey while everyone else is doing things that are dangerous.”

“Hey! You’re riding herd over all of the people out here and making sure things are organized and everything and you’re the advanced guard too don’t you forget…don’t be frustrated Taylor what we’re doing we couldn’t be doing without you and Jessa and the others helping out.”

He smiles but he blushes too and he’s doing the foot rubbing the dirt back and forth stuff.

He looks up at me and he walks a bit closer to me and he looks at me. “Lyonnes was a kingdom wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was we’re nowhere near the largest….”

“You talk like real royal blood Chrissy…” he give me this sort of bow and nod. “Thank you princess.”

Oh…

Oh my…I’m seriously blushing and so is he and he’s heading away and I look around to see if we were overheard but while we were getting watched by a few at the wall I don’t think they caught the last part which is why he came closer…”

I’m still sort of hiding out who I am as per my title until we get to this Lady Tatiana’s place and since I’m not likely to be able to hide the magic or my look I’m sort of using being Aurora’s daughter as hiding in plain sight.

But what he just said…it says a lot. It’s like he just said that I’m a lot like my parents, like the father and mother that raised me.

I head down the ladder and then I walk and make my way back to our area and I end up boiling more water and even more water and then I go looking for Alaan in his Alchemy tent where they say he’s been holed up since he’s gotten back.

He’s looking through the enhancing device of his and there’s so much stuff going in vials and beakers and some things are brewing and filtering and there are some books out and recipes?

He’s looking at the blood we took and making notes and I watch as he takes a dropper of something and he adds it to it and he looks and watches.

“Antibiotic serum sixty one, one drop and results are….negative…”

I cough and he looks up. “Morning.”

I smile. “Closer to mid-day now at this point.”

“Really…dammit.”

“Need some help?”

“Frankly yes, Megan usually does this but she’s sleeping after her nursing shift.”

“I think I saw Nicole with Cedric and they were getting ready to do some training and such.”

He nods. “We’re short on manpower and in case something happens it’s always something of a good idea to have some training down and a place for a specific place too.”

“Well since they’re working on that I can help you.”

“Would you mind clerking?”

I smile. “No not at all it’s something that I actually know what I’m doing with for once.”

“Well I’m glad for the help; here I’ll show you what I’m doing.”

Alaan shows me what he’s doing with the samples of blood and the other things and that he’s trying different type of cures to fight the things that are called cells that invade and make you sick and he shows me then through the magnifier…it’s really…

It’s as much on another world to me as magic seems to be. And then he’s showing me the notes that he’s made so far and the measures and the different formulas he’s trying and the ingredients which range from herbs and fungi to minerals and all these other things that he’s made distillations of and how they work on the cells that we’re trying to defeat or if they don’t work.

We have another pot of tea made with him making it while I go through his notes and I make up pages with boxes and the items that we’re using long the side and then the amounts or measures along the other side so I have to just mark the item and then the quantity that we use and with a list of the items it’s just a matter of looking at the sheet for the permutations that we do.

Alaan’s looking at it. “Where did you learn that?”

“I’ve seen it before in books and father used something like this in his ledgers to keep track of things.”

“Things?”

“Expenses but prices too for varying goods in the markets.”

“Sounds odd, not that I’m a merchant.”

I just nod…. I’m not really venturing too much right now about my other family, my real family because I’m sure that he’s trustworthy I’m not sure if I want things overheard. Right now he thinks that I’m Lady Blackhand’s daughter and right now I’m not sure if that’s really not true.

Father can be a merchant for now.

……………….. It’s amazing how fast time moves when you’re working and especially when you’re learning and I am learning Alaan shows me what he’s doing so much of the time it’s becoming easier and easier to get it.

The machines use little cranks and wheels to work or in the magnifier a tiny little illumination pot with something called a battery…that requires minerals and chemicals and such inside on it and metals to hold power in place…we wire it to these two points on the outside of the light pot and the slides go over that with two pinning metal bits so it can be viewed.

He has three of these batteries and I’ve been feeling the dead one out as I’ve been marking things down.

I’m not really clear on how it works but I am able to charge it up just by holding it and thinking about it. Alaan looks at me when I pass it to him. “Fully charged.”

“Thank you.”

“No thank you I’ve never seen one before.”

“Well they’re hard to make and fairly hard to come by wind makers are more effective or water makers but you’ll see them here and there in some places especially the bigger cities with guilds in it like The Illuminators.”

“I thought that The Emps killed all such things when they attacked?”

He’s chuckling and starts the kettle going again. “There was no attack by The Emps.”

“Yes there was it’s what destroyed so much of the old ways.”

“Well sort of, it’s ancient history but The Emps were a kind accident.”

“Accident?”

“Yes do you know about The Great Fall?”

“Some it’s when the ancients fell.”

“But do you know why?”

“The great War of the Fall.”

“But do you know what happened with that?”

“No, not really…I mean it was when magic started.”

Alaan nods and he makes us some more tea and we take a break and we go outside and take seats to get some air and I take a few sips as he continues.

“In the far ancient past mankind had left Mother earth after becoming very great and powerful and all of the earth was covered in kingdoms and nations and there was far too little left so they marshalled their powers and they journeyed out to the stars.”

“This was still a vastly hard thing even for them and it took much time and only the very biggest of engines could make them go fast enough that man did not die of old age for the distances were vast.”

“So they built these great ships and in these ships they had smaller ships that were to make and bring people to places to create colonies. This went on for ages on ages until the way of doing these trips changed…the greatest empires of Mother Earth owned the great ships and all were beholden to them and with that came dissent and the desire to be free and rebellions.”

“Now along with this rebellion came innovation…some of the greatest minds and mages of the ancient banded together and they created The Gates.”

I nod this is more detail than I’ve ever heard about it but it sounds still all familiar.

“The Gates allowed ships that could not before travel to other stars that had gates without the huge ships of the old empires and this led to a huge war. The colonies being colonies fought but they lost so much of the time and them it happened.”

I look at him. “What happened?”

“The old empires seized the gates and they stole the workings of them and they used them more and more and instead of being beholden to the old empires we were subjugated to them again and the war ended.”

“But what they had was not enough and soon the use of gates became common…common enough that gates were place on worlds themselves in smaller forms and that’s when it happened.”

I’m exasperated now. “What happened?”

“The Great Fall…from what the great scholars has made guesses at and what the other races have shared is the use of so many gates wore thing the fabric between our universe and that of the other races…”

“Another universe…?” I’m a little awed.

“Yes and we discovered them and they discovered us and they had gates too…ones made with their magic’s and both sets of gates locked up and they would not shut off.”

I take a gulp of tea. “Then what?”

“All-out war…we feared their magic’s that were so much more powerful than ours and they feared out technologies and this war raged and raged for who knows how long in between our universes until untold numbers were killed on both sides and that’s when it all ended.”

“All ended?”

“There were villains or heroes depending on what you believe that gathered an army and one from both sides and the destroyed the gates…when each gate was destroyed it released huge amounts of power and magic and it created a wave of energy called what we call The Emps…it was your mother that explained to me it means electromagnetic pulse…or E, Em, Pee…”

“So…that’s why everything came to a stop…that there were gates on ships and on the planets and it all went off and killed all the devices that used energy?”

He nods. “That’s why we lost so much, everything was stored on those things and everything the ancients knew used power to do things even the most basic things to us or the miraculous but without power none worked and the fleets here used up all their reserves or hard fuel just to find places to land or die.”

“Oh…so you learned all of this how?”

“Books and libraries and such but also talking to the other races and some of their scholars that I’ve met.”

“Sounds fascinating actually.”

He finishes his tea and he looks at me. “It is and scary to know just how much we’ve lost and how huge the world really is.”

I nod and take our cups. “Trust me I know the feeling of the world and all you know seeming so small Alaan. I’m still getting over the shock of it.”

I head back inside the alchemy tent to get back to work.

And I’m wiping tears from my face with the back of my hand.