Alicja
"No magick at the table dear," Victor says with a smirk, and I clap my hand shut on the swirling chaos I created in my palm.
"Sorry," I said, and pouted.
He grins. I like his grin. I like his smirk. Heck, I like him. The way he walks, the way he moves. That nostril flare he does when he's thinking. Wow!
Looking around I spot Jeffery coming with my plate of breakfast food. I think it is egg and meat day. Meat isn't steak or sausage, it's hamburger trying to be sausage, and not quite making it â but apparently it is the preferred breakfast meat for the natives.
Jeffery sets mine down and I wrinkle my nose. It's meat.
I don't know, maybe if the spices were different, but I'm a little cautious about asking what's inside. I might not want to know.
I've been so random in my reading lately. I feel like I've been just binging, with no goal or need in mind except to keep at bay the enormity of what is happening to me. Maybe that enormity was over? I could do magick. I could summon Mana.
"Does this mean the change has happened?" I asked him.
He sets his fork down, leans back and pulls the cuff of his sleeve up, to examine his wrist. I look at mine as well.
"I don't see a change, you?" I asked.
I shook my head, "No. Is that important?"
"I don't know," he said, a touch of concern in his voice. "I thought that there was supposed to be a change in the mark. Others, with the mark, like my father, he no longer had his, though he swore that he was bonded to my mother."
"Was she a human?" I asked, certain he said she was a dragon.
"No, she was from this city," he said quickly, sensing my fear. "She was a dragon, born." Then he offered, "I've never heard of the changeling becoming a dragon... Jeffery? Anything?"
"No, sir, nothing in my memory. Though, it is difficult to prove a negative..."
I gave him a wan smile, "Impossible some might say."
"Bah, I do the impossible all the time, five times before breakfast." Victor playfully scoffed, and took a bite of his eggs.
His teasing caused me joy, and that shooed the dark thoughts away again. I didn't want to be changed.
You are both the question and it's resolve.
I heard that from someone, but ... couldn't remember who that someone was. The source. That bothered me.
My training, all my life, was to keep in memory that very thing â the source of the information. It was often more important than the information itself. Because if you couldn't rely or even remember where information came from, you often couldn't use that information safely. The implications were manifest.
And on top of that, I wasn't sure what the memory meant, or in what context it was said. Somehow that phrase dissipated my fear of the change. My emotions responded to it instantly, accepting it as a reasonable answer... Why?
"Alicja?"
"Yes?" I said, sitting up straight, knowing I had missed something.
"I asked, if you are going to a debate today?" he repeated.
"Ah, no. Isn't Uncle Max's council decision happening today?" I asked.
"Yes, but I didn't know if you wanted to attend," he said, looking back at his plate and then pushing it forward. "It's just a council thing. Probably boring."
"If it's alright, I would like to attend. To give him support," I said, poking the meat with my fork. "That's why you're dressed up so handsome, isn't it? Can't have you walking around like that alone."
He looked down at himself. He wore what looked like a military uniform. It had the same lines and metals and pockets as I've seen before on military men. The collar was tight, without flares or cravat. He pulled at it with his finger.
"I haven't worn this willingly â ever," he mused.
"So that's a yes then?" I pushed.
"I'm not sure... Jeffery, what is the status of a bonded-mate without marriage?"
"In this case, it is the same as marriage, sir," he said.
"So, we are married?" Victor asked, his voice restraining his surprise.
"No sir."
"Ah, so there is a difference then."
"Yes sir."
"What's the difference?"
"The spelling, sir."
"Huh," he grunted.
I laughed into my napkin. So much yes.
We walked together, I held his arm and leaned my head against him. "Jeffery is much better than my Alexa, even when he doesn't know something."
"Yes, I've been meaning to talk to him about that," he said.
"You're not jealous, are you?" I asked, leaning back to look up to him.
"No, why would that come up?" he scoffed.
"Good, because I like Jeffrey. He's a good man, and a caring father of three. So no roughing him up."
"Of three? Well, that explains his wide knowledge then. Three children asking you, why this and why that and what is that over there? Gods, the man must be a saint."
"What do you think of children?" I asked.
"I think they're short," he said, his tone and appearance serious.
"Huh," I grunted.
People watched and people followed, and some people smiled and waved. I often waved back, especially to the children. One little girl gave me a flower. A daisy looking thing with lavender petals.
It was a bit wondrous how similar objects and plants were here as compared to my side. The things, not so much. I mean, we are, our people, both shaped the same with the same physical and mechanical needs.
How many ways can you make something to carry water? And how many are you going to try after you make a bucket? The braid of rope, the weave of linen, all comes from the shape of the body, really. The body shapes things to itself. Handles are made because of hands and arms. Doors and chairs are because of legs and height.
But the differences were wonderful as well.
There was something about the air though that was different. Breathing was different. I couldn't describe it yet but I was working on it.
I twirled the flower between my fingers and gave her mother a wave of my hand as the little girl ran back to her. Looking up at Victor I found him glancing down at me. He nodded his head and began looking over the crowd again.
Why didn't he have an escort? Other men of wealth and power had them when they went out walking. Did he trust the crowd? Or was it just a habit for him, since he wasn't on the throne. Was there danger? I wondered.
We were going to the North side of the hill, a part I had not visited yet. Everything was on the South and West sides for me. I went to a debate on the East side yesterday. With the walls of buildings always so close and sheer to the street, all you could see of the country, on any of the hill sides was the view straight before you.
When we turned on to the North side street however, above the forum building, which compared to the other forums, was huge, the vista before us was wide and encompassing. This was the Woodstone Forum. The government met here.
I was told there were other uses for it too, but this was as close to a government seat as they had in this country. The university used the building sometimes. But they had much smaller classes. Twenty was considered a large group for a lecture.
"What would be the chances of going to some of the university classes, do you think?" I asked him.
He cocked his head to one side, "Well, you pay by the lecture," he said.
"Yes?" I asked.
"After each lecture, you pay the instructor what you feel the lecture was worth. There are guidelines of expected rates, which are posted before so that you don't unwittingly insult the instructor, which could be bad, depending on what and who. But anything close to the suggested cost is normally alright. How much do you have?"
I had five of the big coins and three of the middle size, with one of the small ones. I told him this.
"Might get a lecture for that, I think," he said.
"Huh," I grunted. "I guess I'll have to make a fortune of my own."
"Would be wise, we're always broke," he said. "Some brat keeps buying large expensive things on the other side."
Like full floor condos with twenty-something rooms?
He gave me a wink, "We can look into it if you like. Find out what you wish to take and bring a list. Jeffery can help."