FALL TERM - October 2nd - Weekend
Aisling met up with me yesterday to show me around the greenhouses.
The mark of Orendell on my arm burned hot to the touch through the night. The wolf in my head was baying, begging for something I didn't know how to give. I had the half-page ticket stub from Kelyn with the recipe for a poultice meant to soothe it and the question from Aries still ringing in my ear. Zeph, are you a werewolf?
The answer was a horror I wasn't fully willing to consider right then. In every folktale magic came at a cost to the mage. I could use magic now, a reality only months ago I'd never have imagined. This meant I was already running a tab. So what exactly had I agreed to pay?
Aisling didn't mention the bags under my eyes when she saw me. She only asked if she might be able to read through the recipe for Kelyn's poultice herself. Kelyn's handwriting was a heavy dark scrawl, and over the ticket illustration of a winged pixie in flight for some kind of theatre performance. I probably would have struggled to decipher the ingredients had I not heard her name the ingredients as she wrote them down. Aloe and wolfsbane.
"Something to help you sleep?" she asked. At least werewolves weren't on her mind.
"That's definitely part of it," I said.
Aisling led the way. It wasn't so much that I had trouble finding the greenhouses, but navigating through them. The Court's greenhouses were a series of connected glass conservatories, with branching sunrooms, nurseries, and gardening sheds. It was a maze of lush plant life. "The largest collection of herbs and rare plants in all of Mesym, according to Professor Fen," Aisling explained. "And probably the world, unless Caburh is hiding some kind of treasure trove of gardening."
"Not likely," I said. "Not many sunny days, remember?"
"Ah right…" Aisling talked on, pointing me around. While she had only been here as long as I had, her coven leader, Professor Thistle Fen was a renowned botanist, and head of the Court's alchemy program, and Aisling's own dormitories were accessible only by a winding stairwell behind the vegetable patch. "You'd think it would be kind of fun for midnight snacks, but unless you're really craving a whole pumpkin, it's not much to write home about. The flowers are nice though. Some of the zucchini plants are still in bloom."
It didn't take us long to find aloe. Aisling checked the quantity and decided that a single large leaf should be enough per use.
"Is it for nightly use?" she asked.
I nearly said no, but a quick count off of the days until the full moon made me change my answer. "Not quite nightly, but best keep enough for five? Six days in a row?"
Aisling narrowed her eyes on me. "Are you sure this is the kind of thing that's safe to take that frequently?"
I cocked my head. "Why wouldn't it be?"
"Aloe's harmless enough, but the other one here, wolfsbane- or blue monkshood - that's in the poison gardens. It makes sense if it's for sleep, and you can say all that about it's the dose that makes the poison, but well, all the stuff in there even in the littler doses is still called poison for a reason."
"Oh," I mumbled. I hadn't actually expected that. "I don't think Kelyn would have given me something dangerous."
Aisling shrugged. "Yeah, probably not. Whatever. It's one of my favorite sections anyway. It's got foxglove, and deadly nightshade, and hemlock. And angel's trumpets, columbine, henbane, mandrake, and ragwort."
"You know poisons?" I asked.
Aisling shrugged. "It's a hobby. Most plant poisons don't affect the fae. For me though, I'd say it's 50/50. Call it a pet project. Testing them out. Besides, how else am I going to knock Brian out to swipe the keys for the kennel?"
I shot her a look.
"I'm kidding! I wouldn't." Aisling raised her hands defensively. "Professor Fen might have also mentioned they keep the ingredients for love potions over there too. And before you say a word, no, I haven't made one. I just like knowing my options! Nothing wrong with that."
She'd said it so flippantly, I had to wonder if she wasn't serious. Love potions weren't especially common in Caburh - not many mages there to make them. But, on the rare occasion you did hear about someone using one, it was because they were infatuated with someone who would never love them in return or so particularly heinous it was hard to imagine anyone loving them for looks or personality. That wasn't Aisling though. She was strange, sure, but charming. And not to mention, gorgeous, and for plenty of people that alone would be more than enough. "Why would you even think you'd need a love potion?"
Aisling grumbled. "Not all of us just have cursed nation royalty lusting over us, now do we?"
As though anything to do with Aries was in any way enviable. "Apparently Brian and I have that in common. But, you're not serious, are you?"
I was following close behind. Aisling was silent for a long moment before pausing just before the iron gates of the poison section. Her eyes were a little too wide and expressive to pretend as though I hadn't just prodded something tender.
"It doesn't bother me that you don't like me that way. No one does. But I guess you don't really like anyone that way, do you?" Her hands curled up around the iron bars of the gate.
"Oh." The question had caught me off guard. This wasn't meant to be about me. "I wouldn't say that exactly." I didn't know how to talk about any of this with her or anyone else for that matter. Her eyes were welling up and I could already see myself stumbling through this conversation and ruining everything. There was an answer she was angling for and I couldn't give her that either. This was all suddenly going so poorly.
That's the only way I can explain what I said next.
"I recently got out of a kind of messy relationship."
Aisling didn't react. I realize now it probably sounded like an excuse. "Figures you'd have someone back home."
"No, definitely not," I said. "Ianthe -" I didn't know how to talk about her, the grasp she'd had on me for so many years, and whatever hold it was she still had. "She's a vampire."
"Of course she is," Aisling said coldly.
"We're not… Do you know how hard it is to break up with a vampire? I learned the hard way that you just don't. I've seen her driven to murder just because someone was annoying. Or she got a little peckish. It didn't really occur to me when we first got together that she didn't really have exes that were around. I just… I was young and stupid. But that's just my shitty love life." It wasn't a helpful answer, but it was more than I'd ever told anyone about Ianthe, probably ever.
"I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong idea, but I'm not trying to start something with anyone right now. I'd like us to be friends. With that said, I think you're beautiful and have to assume plenty of others would think the same."
"Sure, I'm so beautiful you had to have me as a friend…" Aisling said.
Was it really so strange to think I could only want friendship? "You're the only person I've met in a long time that I actually enjoy spending time with. Please don't ruin it for me."
That actually got a laugh out of her. "You really mean that, don't you?"
She glanced my way with a smirk. We are friends.
"So, why Brian?" I asked. Aisling didn't actually want me that way, or I had to hope. She had gotten over tearing up and had moved on to poking through the rows of poisonous plants. She lifted a drooping stock of lily of the valley onto her palm to sniff its flowers.
"Why not? Isn't it nice to have a crush? Even just a silly one. It's not like I expect it to go anywhere. Do you think it would be weird if I asked him to come with me to the Masquerade?"
"Probably, yeah. He's still twice your age," I said.
"And married," Aisling said.
"Yeah, that too."
The first half of the weekend was lost to making a poultice for the mark of Orendell. Aisling had been right about wolfsbane being a poison. I didn't overdo it exactly, but late into the evening, when the searing brand on my bicep finally went numb, it had to have been the wolfsbane taking effect. Aisling had still been wary of the quantity. The warning posted under the little blue flowers in the poison garden suggested there was good reason to be. The poultice called for what looked like far beyond an advisable dose. But it worked, and that was all that really mattered at the moment.
I should have spent the following day in the Sanctum, but that would have meant missing out on a clear and perfect day. I'd been carrying around my Divination text for weeks without so much as cracking it open, so if I wasn't going to bother learning new spells, I might as well try to be somewhat productive and force myself to get through at least a few pages of it.
Not that I did.
I fell asleep on a stone bench in the sun about ten minutes in. For the first time in a while, I had no nightmares, no burning mark of Orendell to keep me up. I was content to lie back and feel the sun on my face.
Until Aries found me.
"You were snoring, Zeph."
Aries's head hovered just above my own, temporarily blocking the sun from my eyes.
"Then let me snore, I was napping," I groaned. I couldn't be sure when exactly Aries had gotten here, but I didn't really care either. I still had my Divination book sitting open across my chest, cracked to the page I'd left off reading, somewhere still within the first chapter.
"No, I want to duel with you. Come on."
I shut my eyes again. It was a ridiculous ask to begin with. Even more absurd to think I'd humor him. "Come back later, Aries." Or better yet, not at all.
"Zeph," Aries said.
"Fine, stay or whatever. Just let me sleep." The stone bench was still sunwarm. My eyelids still heavy. I rolled onto my side, turning my back to him. And I'd thought for a second he was actually about to listen- he took a few steps back. Gravel crunched beneath the heels of his loafers.
I felt a sudden electric sting hit me in the ass.
Aries… I scrambled to my feet. I rubbed at my tailbone with the back of my hand. It'd hurt.
Aries stood a few paces away, his blond hair gleaming like a halo in the low afternoon sun. His face was cast in shadows, though I didn't need to see it to know he was laughing. "So, you wanna fight me?"
The mark of Orendell on my arm seared hot again. The wolf in my head growled. "I really don't."
"I don't buy it," he said, casting another bolt. This one hit me in the gut. I lurched at the shock, clutching my abdomen. I hadn't expected it. When I lifted my head next, I heard the wolf growling through my own teeth.
"There you are."
I wanted to say something- tell him he didn't know what he was talking about- but the wolf in my head was howling at the door. I was afraid of what might come out if I said anything at all. Aries wanted a fight; I could give him a fight.
I cast winter tempest his way. The spell was a mix of cloud, ice, wind, a half gesture difference from conjured frost that sounded more impressive than it was. Until just then I hadn't had the chance to see it in action. Aries didn't manage to block it and was swept off his feet with a blast of cold air. He tore the knee of his slacks when he stumbled, but was already gearing up to cast another fast electric shock the first moment he could.
This time I cast shield and avoided the hit. The wolf was clawing at my insides, the mark of Orendell singeing up my arm.
"You need to stop, Aries." My voice was little more than a breathy pant.
Aries was winded too. "Make me." He was already casting.
His spell zapped me across the chest this time. I saw it happen, but could hardly feel it. The pain was everywhere all at once. My consciousness was clouding. It wasn't exactly me holding the reins right then.
There was no more casting. If I knew any spells at all, they wouldn't come. My hands were useless. Aries's expression changed, in a flash he went from cocky asshole to in way over his head. A look of shock and awe. His lips parted.
I rushed him headlong. On impact, I caught him with my shoulder and grappled him down into the gravel. Aries rolled against me, trying to manhandle me as best he could. He caught one of my horns and shoved me face first into the gravel.
I elbowed him in the ribs with enough force to make him gasp. My horn caught against his dress shirt and tore as I wriggled to free it. The duel was devolving quickly, though at least after the first few scrapes, I'd begun to feel more like myself again. The wolf in my head had gone silent again. The mark of Orendell was no longer burning, only a fading ember. I couldn't tell you what had changed, only that the moment Aries stopped trying to shove me, I no longer felt the need to hit him back.
We were on the stone path in the middle of the courtyard, sprawled and breathless. I noticed my hands first, bleeding where my knuckles scraped over the gravel. Aries had a split lip and a bloody smear over one side of his face. I didn't feel particularly hurt and Aries was grinning like a madman.
One of my horns had torn the pocket of his shirt and left a square of soft exposed skin, his chest, a smattering of light brown hair. He saw me staring.
I felt a flutter of something not worth pressing into right then. I had blood on my hands, a hole in the knee of my trousers. My shirt was scuffed and a superficial scrape on my cheek had started to burn.
Aries didn't look significantly better. He rose to his feet first, still too smug. He was a little shaky but still extended a hand to help me up.
My gut told me to swat him away, but sometimes it was easier not to resist. I let him help me to my feet. I don't remember the last time I'd been in a fist fight. Maybe I never had.
"Hey, I didn't even have to resort to using my teeth," he teased. I had nothing to say to him for the rest of the walk back to our dormitories.