Shadowydreamer’s Scribbles
A Place where a Dreamer throws up stories.
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From Another Dream Pt 2
Jono’s brother came in while she was cleaning the thief’s hands of gravel. He’d fallen from a gutter and caught himself with his hands, really a strange reaction for a boy who lived by their condition.
Massus peered over her shoulder, “Will he be alright?”
“Few days and he’ll be right as rain and staying out of my windows.” She said with a smile. Mr Baron High and Mighty would probably have her reporting every thief and pick pocket to his guard, but really, was he about to tax the rich to feed the poor? Was he going to go catch every wayward father who impregnanted a night lady? She didn’t think so.
“Which, of course, means, he’ll be on guard duty here.” she added while she could see Massus figuring out how much it was going to cost him to feed his younger brother. The deal Sora had with her street friends was they got free care, food and roof, in exchange for keeping her from thieves, gangs and bullies. They’d formed the watch all on their own. Her home, ward and yard were neutral ground and anyone treating it other wise would find themselves without a healer.
Massus gave her a smile while Jono practically bounced in spot. He much preferred cooking for her than his brother. Sora wasn’t quite sure why, cooking for her meant feeding every one of her patients and not all walked on two feet. The mute boy suddenly hugged her and scrambled down from the counter he’d been sitting on to skip off to her small cottage.
“Ever feel like his world is a much nicer place than your’s or I’s?” Sora asked absently.
Massus shook his head, “I know it is.” He looked down at Sora, “What did his highness want?”
“Treatment, same as everyone else.” Sora answered, busying herself with tidying and cleaning.
Massus made a noise of disgust, “No, he wants you as a prize and knows the only way the Pissini of the city won’t storm the castle is if you choose him. Though, Ma swears she senses love off him.”
“Love of power, maybe.” Sora grumbled and then sighed, “I do him a disservice. No, love of his people and his realm. If I were to marry him it would unite my father’s people and my mother’s people more symbollicly than their marriage. Father wasn’t heir when he married Mother, and by the time he would have been, Keros held the seat.”
Massus, a boy five years her junior gave her a look of sympathy, “Don’t you wish you could have just been born in an alley half-starving like the rest of us?”
sora barked laughter and smacked him upside the back of the head, “I happen to know Lorist delievered you in the kitchens, don’t try that alleyway line with me.” She tied up her healer’s sack, “Now, go help your bother clean roots and you can eat with us.”
Massus bounced up and down on his heels, “You’re the best, Sora!” and scrambled off the way his brother had gone.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re still doing dishes after too!” she called after him. Another reason not to marry would be she would lose her stipend from the Queen as part of the conquering. Or was she an empress these days?
Sora looked across her waist high border walls to where the larger twin of the suns was setting behind the castle. She did miss not having to do her own cleaning and animal care, but she certainly didn’t miss the restrictions on every part of her life. She suddenly grinned visciously, Baron Broom up the Butt was going to have a fit when he got her request for guards to do her sweep of the villages. He was the one who had insisted on them in the first place, she’d go with or without them, and with trouble brewing she wanted to make sure the villagers and farmers knew what to take into town in case of siege.
She wasn’t surprised when she stepped into her cottage to find Lorist studiously wittling something. She had a collection of strange carvings from the ex-Healer on her mantle. She just gave him a kiss on the cheek and went to make sure the boys weren’t about to burn down her cottage.
Coming back she found him with nib knife against the wood, but it wasn’t moving. “So, what was this afternoon about?”
He shook his head and looked down to the table.
Lorist hadn’t been the same since the Kacasi had captured him. Something in his mind had broken, his gifts had tripled in strength, but he was strange. Sora didn’t know where he spent most of his days and nights, but she was always happy to see the man who had trained her in her own gifts. “I wish I could make you two.” Lorist said finally.
She raised an eyebrow, “Two of what?”
“One a noble of the pissini line, one a farmer’s daughter of the drassen line who is a healer. One to marry the baron and unite our peoples in the darkness that comes and one to carry on your duties.” He sighed and dropped the wood onto the table and drew idle lines in the shavings.
“What do you see?” she asked, brows furrowed and concern causing her to lean forward.
“I see an army that covers the horizon, I see drakes ready for war, and I see a traitor from within that can be prevented by unification.” He picked up the wood again and went back to his carving. “And I see dinner being scorched if two brothers do not stop arguing.”
“That’s okay, I had Lissa drop off bread this morning, we won’t starve.” She reassured him, patting his form arm.
He smiled, “well, there’s that then.”